A Warlike Chapter 59

you a’ ken. You’re wondering how the sojers
has come to a stop at the tap o’ the brae instead
o’ marching on the town. MHere’s the reason.
They agreed to march straucht to the square if
the alarm wasna given, but if it was they were to
break into small bodies and surround the town so
that you couldna get out. That’s what they’re
doing now.”

At this the screams were redoubled, and many
men lifted the weapons they had dropped.

“ Believe her not,” cried Gavin. ‘“ How could
a wandering gypsy know all this?”

“* Ay, how can you ken?” some demanded.

“It’s enough that I do ken,” the Egyptian an-
swered. “ And this mair I ken, that the captain
of the soldiers is confident he’ll nab every one 0’
you that’s wanted unless you do one thing.”

“ What is ’t?”’

“Tf you a’ run different ways you’re lost, but
if you keep thegither you'll be able to force a
road into the country whaur you can scatter.
That’s what he’s fleid you'll do.”

“Then it’s what we will do.”

“It is what you will not do,” Gavin said, pas-
sionately. “The truth is not in this wicked
woman.”

But scarcely had he spoken when he knew that
startling news had reached the square. A mur-
mur arose on the skirts of the mob, and swept
with the roar of the sea towards the town-house.
A detachment of the soldiers were marching down
the Roods from the north.

“'There’s some coming frae the east-town end,”
was the next intelligence; “and they’ve gripped