"Juist as I was aboot to leave the close-mooth, a dragoon clapped me on the shoother and said: "’You’re Hector the packman, are ye no?’
"’Weel,’ says he, ’ye maun come wi’ me. Ye’re wanted.’
"’Sir Robert Grier o’ Lag. I’ve nae doot ye’ve heard tell o’ him.’
"’Ay,’ I answered, ’I ken Sir Robert weel. What does he want wi’ me?’
"’Come and fin’ oot for yoursel’,’ said he. ’An’ ye’d better mak’ haste, for if we keep him waitin’ there’ll be hell to pey. Haste ye!’
"As we hurried doon tae Lag’s hoose in the Plain Stanes, I began to wonder if his summons could ha’e onything to dae wi’ the little affair you mind in the woods near New Abbey. I’m sayin’ nae mair; even the darkness may ha’e ears.
"Weel, by and by we cam’ to the hoose at the end o’ the Turnpike Wynd, and I went up the stair wi’ the trooper. He led me into a room, and we waited there thegither. As we waited I heard Lag’s voice comin’ frae the next room. He was swearin’ in a wey the very deil himsel’ couldna’ ha’e bettered. He was yellin’ like ane possessed for cauld water, and as I stood in the room a wee bit drummer boy cam’ rinnin’ up the stairs wi’ a pail o’ water that he had brocht frae the Nith. As he passed through the room where I was standin’, it went jaup, jaup, jauppin’ on the floor. He knocked at Lag’s door and syne went in, and I heard the water being poured into a basin. Then I heard Lag shoutin’, ’It’s no cauld ava. It’s boilin’, ye wee deevil! Get awa doon to the water for anither pailfu’,’ and wi’ fear on his face the wee laddie raced through the room as shairp as a hare and clattered doon into the street.
"Weel, I waited wi’ the trooper in the antechamber while the oaths frae the other side o’ the door cam’ thick and fast. I may say I listened wi’ a kind o’ admiration. Wi’ some folk swearin’ is naething mair than a bad habit, but wi’ Lag it seems to be a fine art. But that’s by the way. By and by the sodger that had brocht me took courage and knocked at the door. It was opened by another trooper. The first trooper gave him a message for Lag, and he shut the door and delivered it, for the next thing I heard was Lag shoutin’: ’Well, the packman maun juist bide my time. I’m far ower bad to see him the noo!’ so his body-servant cam’ oot again and tellt the trooper that had me in haun’. He took me awa’ doon the stairs to the kitchen where there was a lot mair sodgers. Weel, ye ken, at this I was gey perplexed. Here was I, haeing promised to ca’ on the widda in the mornin’, held a prisoner. And I had you on my mind as weel, for frae what I heard in the Inn, you were in danger. So I said to my guard: