"I don't think I've met you before," he remarked. "Maybe, but there's mair knows Tom Fool, nor Tom Fool knows, ye ken."
Kyles shrugged his shoulders and was passing on to the parlour, when the next remark of Gowrie arrested his steps.
"Aye, ye'll be a freend o' Miss Tedder,--Maud they ca' her, like the bonny wench in Tennyson's poem, th' which canna compare wi' Robbie Burns."
The Captain wheeled round sharply, and brought his heels together with a click. Plainly he was startled by this speech, and not pleased, as was evident from the flaming glance he sent in Gowrie's direction.
"I _have_ seen you before," he said abruptly.
"Aye," said Gowrie placidly, but making a shot in the dark, "at mirk midnicht, when the fiends o' gory bluid were abroad in this very inn nae sae lang ago."
"What the devil do you mean? I never stopped at this inn before."
"Then where did ye see me, sir?"
"In the Court during the trial of young Herries."
"Eh, then ye were there?"