I budena come ower them till a young laad like
yersel'. They war never said straucht oot, min' ye, but jist mintit
at, like, wi' a doon draw o' the broos, an' a wee side shak o' the
heid, as gien the body wad say, 'I cud tell ye gien I daur.' But
I doobt mysel' gien onything was kent, though muckle was mair nor
suspeckit. An' whaur there 's reik, there maun be fire."
As she spoke she was doing her best, with many expressions of pity,
for his hand. When she had bathed and bound it up, and laid it in
a sling, he wished her goodnight.
Arrived at home he found, to his dismay, that things had not been
going well. Indeed, while yet several houses off he had heard the
voices of the Partan's wife and his grandfather in fierce dispute.
The old man was beside himself with anxiety about Malcolm; and the
woman, instead of soothing him, was opposing everything he said,
and irritating him frightfully. The moment he entered, each opened
a torrent of accusations against the other, and it was with difficulty
that Malcolm prevailed on the woman to go home. The presence of his
boy soon calmed the old man, however, and he fell into a troubled
sleep--in which Malcolm, who sat by his bed all night, heard
him, at intervals, now lamenting over the murdered of Glenco, now
exulting in a stab that had reached the heart of Glenlyon, and now
bewailing his ruined bagpipes. At length towards morning he grew
quieter, and Malcolm fell asleep in his chair.
CHAPTER XX: ADVANCES
When he woke, Duncan still slept, and Malcolm having got ready some
tea for his grandfather's, and a little brose for his own breakfast,
sat down again by the bedside, and awaited the old man's waking.
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