The other gentlemen agreed in that opinion, and the ladies were sufficiently reassured to be able to pass a comfortable night.
But though they were ignorant of the fact, McAlpine was in no condition to injure any of them or even to return to their dwelling.
In the darkness and the confusion of his mind, he had wandered from the path and fallen down a hill, landing on a bed of stones, striking his head on one of them so that he was insensible for some hours, breaking a rib and receiving internal injuries that proved fatal in a very short time. In the morning some one passing heard his groans, went for assistance, and he was carried into a house and a surgeon sent for, who after making an examination told him he had but a few hours to live, and if he had any affairs to settle he would do well to attend to them immediately.
McAlpine was thrown into great distress of mind by the announcement, and begged to have word sent to the house where he had been the night before, with an earnest request that Mr. Lilburn would come to him, for at least a few moments, as he had something he wished to say.
Shocked at the news of the man’s condition, Mr. Lilburn at once hastened to his bedside.
“They tell me I’m a dying mon, Ronald Lilburn, and I maun ease my mind afore I die, wi’ a word for my daughter Marian. Tell her for me that I own I’ve been a hard father to her, and was—O God, forgive me—a cruel, unfaithful husband to her mither after I turned Mormon. It’s a lustful, wicked pretence o’ a religion, is Mormonism, and I dinna want Sandy brought up to believe in it.”
He paused from exhaustion, and Mr. Lilburn told of his plans for Sandy and the offers he had made the lad to educate and start him in life.
“God bless you for it,” returned the dying man. “I find now my death is near that I care more for those two o’ my bairns than I thought. And now I maun think o’ my soul! O Ronald Lilburn, what must I do to be saved? Is there ony hope for such a sinner as I?”
“Yes, William. ‘The blood o’ Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin,’ and while there is life there is hope. Flee to Jesus, the sinner’s friend, remembering his own words, ‘Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.’”