Chapter 27

FIRST JOURNEY OF THE DOMINIE TO THRUMS DURING THE TWENTY-FOUR
HOURS.

"How did it happen?" I asked more than once, but the Egyptian was
only with me in the body, and she did not hear. I might have been
talking to some one a mile away whom a telescope had drawn near my
eyes.

When I put on my bonnet, however, she knew that I was going to
Thrums, and she rose and walked to the door, looking behind to see
that I followed.

"You must not come," I said harshly, but her hand started to her
heart as if I had shot her, and I added quickly, "Come." We were
already some distance on our way before I repeated my question.

"What matter how it happened?" she answered piteously, and they
were words of which I felt the force. But when she said a little
later, "I thought you would say it is not true," I took courage,
and forced her to tell me all she knew. She sobbed while she
spoke, if one may sob without tears.

"I heard of it at the Spittal," she said. "The news broke out
suddenly there that the piper had quarrelled with some one in
Thrums, and that in trying to separate them Mr. Dishart was
stabbed. There is no doubt of its truth."

"We should have heard of it here," I said hopefully, "before the
news reached the Spittal. It cannot be true."

"It was brought to the Spittal," she answered, "by the hill road."

Then my spirits sank again, for I knew that this was possible.
There is a path, steep but short, across the hills between Thrums
and the top of the glen, which Mr. Glendinning took frequently
when he had to preach at both places on the same Sabbath. It is
still called the Minister's Road.

"Yet if the earl had believed it he would have sent some one into
Thrums for particulars," I said, grasping at such comfort as I
could make.

"He does believe it," she answered. "He told me of it himself."

You see the Egyptian was careless of her secret now; but what was
that secret to me? An hour ago it would have been much, and
already it was not worth listening to. If she had begun to tell me
why Lord Rintoul took a gypsy girl into his confidence I should
not have heard her.

"I ran quickly," she said. "Even if a messenger was sent he might
be behind me."

Was it her words or the tramp of a horse that made us turn our
heads at that moment? I know not. But far back in a twist of the
road we saw a horseman approaching at such a reckless pace that I
thought he was on a runaway. We stopped instinctively, and waited
for him, and twice he disappeared in hollows of the road, and then
was suddenly