“But,” said Dan, “did ye ever ken wha put the brandy an’ things there?”
“No,” said Bell, “not me; how could I? It never was ken’d, an’ likely never will be ken’d.”
“Bell,” said Dan, looking steadily in her face, “I ken, I ken a’ about it, but there’s no anither livin’ man that I ken o’ kens that bit o’t but mysel’; an’ Bell, for your life dinna tell onybody that I tell’d ye. Never let on to leevin’ about it.”
Dumbarton Castle. (Page 197).
There was a long pause. Bell was thinking the matter over, and had more than once been asked by Dan to promise never to “breathe the thing.” At length she said solemnly, “I’ll never mention your name unless I’m sure it’s to benefit Mrs. Barrie; but she said something about a brother that this Cornel Gordon had, that had been a wild man in his young days, and that he had written to the Cornel that if ever he had it in his power he was to mind Mr. Gordon o’ the Grainaries, for this brither hadna dune fair someway wi’ him. I think I understand it a’ noo. This brither’s been are o’ them that hid the smuggled goods in Mr. Gordon’s cellar,—ane o’ them that the excisemen just missed by their boat ‘whummlin’ [i.e. capsizing] at the milkin’ stane, an’ the smugglers got a’ safe away; an’ although the judges kent fine that worthy Mr. Gordon wasna to blame, and didna pit him in the jail, the excise office wadna forgi’e a farden o’ the fine, and puir Mr. Gordon was a harried, ruined man wi’ it an’ the law expenses, an’ the trial, an’ the scandal o’ the thing. The folk said that it was a cousin o’ his, that they used to ca’ ‘the Duke o’ Gordon’ for a nickname, that put the brandy an’ stuff in the grainaries, for he kent the place fine, but he never could be laid hands on after. I see’t a’ noo.”
Dan remained silent for some time, then said, “Ye may say that, Bell; ye ken’d a’ noo,—a’ but one thing, an’ that is (but for your life dinna come ower’t), I helpit to row the boat that the ‘Duke’ escapit in.”
WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS.
Bell’s mind was still considering the matter. “I wonder,” said she, speaking to herself, “if this Cornel Gordon is a brother o’ the ‘duke’s,’ as they ca’d him? an’ if he’s no marriet an’ rich? an’ if he means to mak’ up for his brither’s ill usage o’ the auld folk by giein’ a’ his siller to Mrs. Barrie? If I thocht that, I would gi’e Mr. Kirkwood something that wad astonish him mair than the tattie-soup. D’ye ken, Dan, that I’m upliftit, fair upliftit—it looks that like the thing?”
Bell’s glee communicated itself to Dan. “If that was to be the way o’t,” said Dan, “noo that the thing is lang past an’ gane, an’ they surely canna meddle me for only rowin’ a boat” (Dan, Dan, only? well, let it pass), “I micht tell the ‘duke’s’ brither what I kent; but he’s a cornel, an’ thae sodgers are terrible ill at the smugglers.”