Chapter 29 - Page 2

Stroke was appended, with a map of the coast, and a stern warning to all
loyal subjects not to delay as one Ailie was in the villain's hands and
he might kill her any day. Victoria Regina would give five hundred
pounds for his head. The letter ended in manly style with the writer's
sending an affecting farewell message to his wife and little children.

"And so while we are playing ourselves," said Mr. McLean to Miss Ailie,
"your favorite is seeking my blood."

"Our favorite," interposed the school-mistress, and he accepted the
correction, for neither of them could forget that their present
relations might have been very different had it not been for Tommy's
faith in the pass-book. The boy had shown a knowledge of the human
heart, in Miss Ailie's opinion, that was simply wonderful; inspiration
she called it, and though Ivie thought it a happy accident, he did not
call it so to her. Tommy's father had been the instrument in bringing
these two together originally, and now Tommy had brought them together
again; there was fate in it, and if the boy was of the right stuff
McLean meant to reward him.

"I see now," he said to Miss Ailie, "a way of getting rid of our
fearsome secret and making my peace with Sandys at one fell blow." He
declined to tell her more, but presently he sought Gavinia, who dreaded
him nowadays because of his disconcerting way of looking at her
inquiringly and saying "I do!"

"You don't happen to know, Gavinia," he asked, "whether the good ship
Ailie weathered the gale of the 15th instant? If it did," he went on,
"Commander Sandys will learn something to his advantage from a bottle
that is to be cast into the ocean this evening."

Gavinia thought she heard the chink of another five shillings, and her
mouth opened so wide that a chaffinch could have built therein. "Is he
to look for a bottle in the pond?" she asked, eagerly.

"I do," replied McLean with such solemnity that she again retired to the
coal-cellar.

That evening Mr. McLean cast a bottle into the Silent Pool, and
subsequently called on Mr. Cathro, to whom he introduced himself as one
interested in Master Thomas Sandys. He was heartily received, but at the
name of Tommy, Cathro heaved a sigh that could not pass unnoticed. "I
see you don't find him an angel," said Mr. McLean, politely.

"'Deed, sir, there are times when I wish he was an angel," the dominie
replied so viciously that McLean laughed. "And I grudge you that laugh,"
continued Cathro, "for your Tommy Sandys has taken from me the most
precious possession a teacher can have--my sense of humor."