I heard Macfarlane speaking with some one.
"Ye'll find him in here, captain; but dinna stay ower long wi' him; for, ye ken, I'm breakin' the rule in letting ye see the lad."
"All right, Jimmy!" said a voice that I at once recognized as that of Captain Flett.
"Well, Ericson, my lad," he said, entering the cell and offering me his hand. "They've not put the hangman's rope round your neck yet, I see."
Then he added in a more serious tone, "Come, I canna stay with you long. Let us talk the affair over, and see what's to be done."
"First of all then," I said, "I want to know what it's all about. Why have they put me in here?"
"What! have they not told you the particulars?"
"No; I know nothing but that old Colin Lothian has been murdered."
"And ye dinna ken who it was that murdered him? Tell me the truth now."
"I know nothing at all about it," I said.