The Grey Man

THE GREY MAN
S. R. Crockett
POPULAR EDITION
LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN ADELPHI TERRACE MCMX
To W. R. NICOLL are affectionately inscribed these Chronicles of a Stormy Time— in memory of unforgotten Days of Peace and Quietness spent with him and his.
CONTENTS
THE GREY MAN
CHAPTER I
THE OATH OF SWORDS
Well do I mind the first time that ever I was in the heartsome town of Ballantrae. My father seldom went thither, because it was a hold of the Bargany folk, and it argued therefore sounder sense to give it the go-by. But it came to pass upon a time that it was necessary for my father to adventure from Kirrieoch on the border of Galloway, where we dwelt high on the moors, to the seaside of Ayr.
My father's sister had married a man named Hew Grier, an indweller in Maybole, who for gear's sake had settled down to his trade of tanner in Ballantrae. It was to his burying that we went. We had seen him snugly happed up, and the burial supper was over. We were already in a mind to set about returning, when we heard the sound of a great rushing of people hither and thither. I went aloft and looked through a gable window upon the street. Arms were hastily being brought from beneath the thatch, to which the laws of the King had committed them under the late ordinance anent weapons of war. Leathern jackets were being donned, and many folk cried 'Bargany!' in the streets without knowing why.
My Aunt Grisel went out to ask what the stir might be, and came in again with her face as white as a clout.