The Gaul had address enough. Whiggans rushed up stairs, searched the upper rooms and garret, but could not find Lerwick; came down, and Lerwick was not found below; and Villejuive, though he stood in dreadful suspense, now triumphed excessively, and threatened Whiggans with the vengeance of his host for such rudeness; but to St. Clyde he paid more attention. However, Colin was too deeply penetrated by the irresistible conduct of Whiggans, to be allured by his uncle's finesse. And out of the house they came, but it was now evening, and the town's people were sauntering about their doors; and as Whiggans, St. Clyde, and Watson, entered the town, the colly dogs set up a hideous barking; for these men came into the town as if impelled by the furies, and the people literally thought them madmen: but when Whiggans approached a group

of the people, and demanded whether they had seen a man coming from Villejaive's, there was instantaneouly produced a hue and cry after somebody, though nobody knew who was the man to be apprehended.

The road through the town was the high road to Oban, and a smith's shop was the first or the last house as you entered or left the town, and there were several neighbouring farmers at the smithy getting their horses shod for the next fair. Some of the people at the smithy door had seen a man pass in great haste, and from the description they were able to give of him, for the depth of the gloamin did not allow them to mark the precise colour of his clothes, nor the features of his face, nor the exact symmetry of his, make; the description was such, however, as to warrant a belief that it was

none other than Lerwick. And now

W

Whiggans recollected, that whilst the house was being searched, some one ought to have stood sentinel at the door, or watched the road leading from it; for Lerwick had dropped from a window, and, running to the main road with all his speed, was now out of their reach. "There is no time to lose," said Whiggans; "horses cannot be procured, but we all have legs, and it is strange if we cannot pursue with as much speed as the villain fled."

The pursuit commenced, for neither Whiggans nor St. Clyde thought of returning to the inn; but on they went, this one with his pistols in his hands, and that one with his unsheathed dirk, and the valet followed.

When the pursuers got to the ferry, they learned that a man answering to the description of Lerwick had gone over to Mull. This island Whiggans knew well, and over they went without

halting an hour. Still they were on the right scent. Lerwick, or a man answering to him, they learned had fled like a post-boy to the west side of the island; and in that direction St. Clyde, Whiggans, and Watson travelled, but they could get no tidings of the fugitive.

CHAPTER XVII.

'Tis very strange!

SHAKSPEARE

HOWEVER, from the friendship of St. Clyde with Dunmorven, a great part of the people of Mull were raised in the course of the next day, and the suspected person was then ascertained to have recrossed to Oban; but Whiggans suspecting Lerwick would go to Fort William, St. Clyde, he, and Watson went thither, and continued their pursuit by the King's House, on the road from Fort William to Tyndrum, where some further information of Lerwick was obtained; and a party of Highlanders offered to assist St. Clyde