Mr Kyd looked up quickly. "I heard tell of none. What was he like?"
"I saw only a face in the mist—a high collar and a very sharp nose."
The other shook his head. "It beats me, unless it was some forwandered traveller that speired the road from Edom. I've seen no kenned face for a week, except"—and he broke into a loud guffaw—"except yon daft dominie we met at Cornbury—the man that wanted us all to mount and chase a runaway lassie. I passed him on the road yestereen mounted like a cadger and groaning like an auld wife."
Mr Kyd's scornful reference to the tutor of Chastlecote slightly weakened in Alastair the friendliness which his geniality had inspired.
"It will be well for us if we are as eager in our duties as that poor creature," he said dryly. "I must be off early to-morrow and not spare horseflesh till I see the Standard."
"Ay, you maun lose no time. See, and I'll make you a list of post-houses, where you can command decent cattle. It is the fruit of an uncommon ripe experience. Keep well to the east, for there's poor roads and worse beasts this side of the Peak."
"That was the road I came, but now I must take a different airt. I had news to-day—disquieting news. The Prince is over the Border."
Mr Kyd was on his feet, his chair scraping hard on the stone floor, and the glasses rattling on the shaken table.
"I've heard nothing of it. Man, what kind of news reaches you and not me?"
"It is true all the same. I had it from one who came long ago to Morvern and knows my clan. This day His Highness crossed Liddel."