"
"Ma'colm 'at's sic a fine laad noo, they tell me wasna muckle bigger
nor a gey haddie (tolerable haddock)."
"But the auld man was an auld man than, though nae doobt he's unco'
failed sin syne."
"A dochter's bairn, they say, the laad."
"Ay, they say, but wha kens? Duncan could never be gotten to open
his mou' as to the father or mither o' 'im, an' sae it weel may be
as they say. It's nigh twenty year noo, I'm thinkin' sin he made's
appearance. Ye wasna come frae Scaurnose er' than."
"Some fowk says the auld man's name's no MacPhail, an' he maun
hae come here in hidin' for some rouch job or ither 'at he's been
mixed up wi'.
"I s' believe nae ill o' sic a puir, hairmless body. Fowk 'at maks
their ain livin', wantin' the een to guide them, canna be that far
aff the straucht. Guid guide 's! we hae eneuch to answer for, oor
ainsels, ohn passed (without passing) jeedgment upo ane anither."
"I was but tellin' ye what fowk telled me," returned the younger
woman.
"Ay, ay, lass; I ken that, for I ken there was fowk to tell ye."
CHAPTER VII: ALEXANDER GRAHAM
As soon as his grandfather left the house, Malcolm went out also,
closing the door behind him, and turning the key, but leaving it
in the lock. He ascended to the upper town, only, however, to pass
through its main street, at the top of which he turned and looked
back for a few moments, apparently in contemplation. The descent to
the shore was so sudden that he could see nothing of the harbour
or of the village he had left--nothing but the blue bay and
the filmy mountains of Sutherlandshire, molten by distance into
cloudy questions, and looking, betwixt blue sea and blue sky, less
substantial than either.
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