30                                     KIDNAPPED.
a stool into the chimney corner, and sat a while smoking,
with his back to me.
"Davie," he said, at length, "I've been thinking;"
then he paused, and said it again. "There's a wee bit
siller that I half promised ye before ye were born," he
continued;" promised it to your father. Oh, naething
legal, ye understand; just gentlemen daffing at their
wine. Well, I keepit that bit money separate-it was
a great expense, but a promise is a promise-and it has
grown by now to be a maitter of just precisely-just
exactly"-and here he paused and stumbled-"of just
exactly forty pounds ! " This last he rapped out with a
sidelong glance over his shoulder; and the next moment
added, almost with a scream, "Scots!"
The pound Scots being the same thing as an English
shilling, the difference made by this second thought was
considerable; I could see, besides, that the whole story
was a lie, invented with some end which it puzzled me to
guess; and I made no attempt to conceal the tone of
raillery in which I answered-
"Oh, think again, sir!   Pounds sterling, I believe!"
"That's what I said," returned my uncle : "pounds
sterling! And if you'll step out-by to the door a
minute, just to see what kind of a night it is, I'll get it
out to ye and call ye in again."
I did his will, smiling to myself in my contempt that
he should think I was so easily to be deceived. It was
a dark night, with a few stars low down; and as I stood
just outside the door, I heard a hollow moaning of wind