do, seeing very clearly the sense in his argument. Then we
struck the highroad and trotted back at our best pace to
Kirkcaple, fear of our families gradually ousting fear of pursuit.
In our excitement Archie and I forgot about our Sabbath
hats, reposing quietly below a whin bush on the links.

We were not destined to escape without detection. As ill
luck would have it, Mr Murdoch had been taken ill with the
stomach-ache after the second psalm, and the congregation
had been abruptly dispersed. My mother had waited for me at
the church door, and, seeing no signs of her son, had searched
the gallery. Then the truth came out, and, had I been only for
a mild walk on the links, retribution would have overtaken my
truantry. But to add to this I arrived home with a scratched
face, no hat, and several rents in my best trousers. I was well
cuffed and sent to bed, with the promise of full-dress chastisement
when my father should come home in the morning.

My father arrived before breakfast next day, and I was duly
and soundly whipped. I set out for school with aching bones
to add to the usual depression of Monday morning. At the
corner of the Nethergate I fell in with Archie, who was staring
at a trap carrying two men which was coming down the street.
It was the Free Church minister - he had married a rich wife
and kept a horse - driving the preacher of yesterday to the
railway station. Archie and I were in behind a doorpost in a
twinkling, so that we could see in safety the last of our enemy.
He was dressed in minister's clothes, with a heavy fur-coat and
a brand new yellow-leather Gladstone bag. He was talking
loudly as he passed, and the Free Church minister seemed to