"Have you got a letter for me?" said Flemington, as Wattie began to draw up his sliding-board.
"Ay, there's ane. But just wait you, ma lad, till a tell ye what a was sayin' to auld Davie----"
"Never mind what you said to Lord Balnillo," broke in Flemington; "I want my letter."
He slipped from the saddle and looped the rein over his arm.
"Dinna bring yon brute near me!" cried Wattie, as horse and man began to crush through the alders. "A'm fell feared o' they unchancy cattle."
Archie made an impatient sound and threw the rein over a stump. He approached the cart, and the yellow dog, who was for once lying down, opened his wary golden eyes, watching each movement that brought the intruder nearer to his master without raising his head.
"You are not often on this side of Brechin," said Archie, as the beggar handed him the packet.
"Fegs, na!" returned Wattie, "but auld Davie an' his tolbooth's on the ither side o't an' it's no safe yonder. It's yersel' I hae to thank for that, Mr. Flemington. A didna ken whaur ye was, sae a gae'd up to the muckle hoose to speer for ye. The auld stock came doon himsel'. Dod! the doag gar'd him loup an' the pipes gar'd him skelloch. But he tell't me whaur ye was."
"Plague take you! did you go there asking for me?" cried Archie.
"What was a to dae? A tell't Davie ye was needin' me to lairn ye a sang! 'The painter-lad was seekin' me,' says I, 'an' he tell't me to come in-by.'"
Flemington's annoyance deepened. He did not know what the zeal of this insufferable rascal had led him to say or do in his name, and he had the rueful sense that the tangle he had paid such a heavy price to escape from was complicating round him. The officious familiarity of the piper exasperated him, and he resented Government's choice of such a tool. He put the letter in his pocket, and began to back out of the thicket. He would read his instructions by himself.
"I have no time to waste," said Flemington, his foot in the stirrup.
"But ye've no tell't me whaur ye're gaein'!"
Archie called the word over his shoulder, and started off at a trot, which he kept up until he had left the alder-bushes some way behind him.
Then he broke the seal of his letter, and found that he was to convey the substance of each report that he sent in, not only to His Majesty's intelligence officer at Perth, but to Captain Hall, of the English ship _Venture_, that was lying under Ferryden. He was to proceed at once to the vessel, to which further instructions for him would be sent in a couple of days' time.