"I will do your bidding, fair sir; but my neighbour is away to the fishing-ground, whilk o' ye can handle an oar?"
"I," said Borthwick.
"And I," added Gray of Kyneff; "so let us be off, for I have not a moment to spare."
"Gudewife, thou wilt pardon us taking Jamie away for an hour or so; and bethink thee, dame, how many braw gauds and new kirtles these golden lions will buy." And with these words Gray placed in Margo's hand six of those large gold coins of James II., which bore on one side a lion rampant, and on the reverse, the St. Andrew's cross. Jamie put on one of those broad blue bonnets for the manufacture of which Dundee was even then celebrated, and after kissing the sleeping baby, said,—
"Now, Mary, let me kiss thee, lass, frae lug to lug."
"To spare time, I shall be glad to save thee that trouble, Gair," said Sir Patrick Gray.
"Mony thanks, my braw gentleman," retorted Jamie, twirling the boat-stretcher in his brawny hand; "but there are some things I like to do for myself, and this is ane o' them. Keep a cog fu' o' het yill on the hearth for me, Mary, gin the time I return; and now, sirs, let's awa."
As they stumbled along the beach to the rude stone pier, where Jamie's clinker-built boat was moored to an iron ring,
"Dost see anything of those ships?" asked Sir Patrick Gray whom Jamie was careful not to recognise.
"The headmost craft wasna a mile frae the Buddon-ness when the gloaming fell," replied the fisherman, looking keenly to the eastward; "the wind was off the land then, but it veered round a point to the north. Wow but the moon bodes a grand haul o' herrin' off St. Monan's the morn! I wish I had gane to the fishing-ground——"