Chapter 34 - Page 2

can hardly hold my pen--if
men should see me in this way!--Willie," (calling aloud to the boy,)
"a cup of distilled waters--Soh!--now I could face the devil."

He spoke the last words aloud, and close by the door of the apartment,
which was suddenly opened by Richie Moniplies, followed by two
gentlemen, and attended by two porters bearing money-bags. "If ye can
face the devil, Maister Skurliewhitter," said Richie, "ye will be the
less likely to turn your back on a sack or twa o' siller, which I have
ta'en the freedom to bring you. Sathanas and Mammon are near akin."
The porters, at the same time, ranged their load on the floor.

"I--I,"--stammered the surprised scrivener--"I cannot guess what you
mean, sir."

"Only that I have brought you the redemption-money on the part of Lord
Glenvarloch, in discharge of a certain mortgage over his family
inheritance. And here, in good time, comes Master Reginald Lowestoffe,
and another honourable gentleman of the Temple, to be witnesses to the
transaction."

"I--I incline to think," said the scrivener, "that the term is
expired."

"You will pardon us, Master Scrivener," said Lowestoffe. "You will not
baffle us--it wants three-quarters of noon by every clock in the
city."

"I must have time, gentlemen," said Andrew, "to examine the gold by
tale and weight."

"Do so at your leisure, Master Scrivener," replied Lowestoffe again.
"We have already seen the contents of each sack told and weighed, and
we have put our seals on them. There they stand in a row, twenty in
number, each containing three hundred yellow-hammers--we are witnesses
to the lawful tender."

"Gentlemen," said the scrivener, "this security now belongs to a
mighty lord. I pray you, abate your haste, and let me send for Lord
Dalgarno,--or rather I will run for him myself."

So saying, he took up his hat; but Lowestoffe called out,--"Friend
Moniplies, keep the door fast, an thou be'st a man! he seeks but to
put off the time.--In plain terms, Andrew, you may send for the devil,
if you will, who is the mightiest lord of my acquaintance, but from
hence you stir not till you have answered our proposition, by
rejecting or accepting the redemption-money fairly tendered--there it
lies--take it, or leave it, as you will. I have skill enough to know
that the law is mightier than any lord in Britain--I have learned so
much at the Temple, if I have learned nothing else. And see that you
trifle not with it, lest it make your long ears an inch shorter,
Master Skurliewhitter."

"Nay, gentlemen,