Then the boy told how they had gripped him, set a naked dagger to his throat, and afterwards made him swear to take the letter back to them that sent him, saying that he had gone to Auchendrayne, but had returned without seeing the Laird.
'Say,' said Mure, 'that the servant bade you take back the letter unopened, because that his master was afield and he knew not when he would be home. So,' concluded the boy, 'even thus I did! And this is all the truth, or may God strike me dead!'
The Dominie and I looked each at the other in our turns.
'The Grey Man himself,' said I.
'The Black Deil himsel'!' said he.
'We will exorcise him, black or grey!' cried the Dominie. 'I am going direct to the bailies and elders to tell them that this school has vacation till it pleases me to take it up again.'
So he went out and I waited alone with the boy William Dalrymple, whose rosy and innocent face was all beblubbered with weeping.
I slapped him on the shoulder and bade him take heart because he had found friends. Then I also told him that on the morrow he must come with me to the Earl of Cassillis, and by-and-by it might be to the King himself.
'Will the Dominie come too?' the boy asked very anxiously.
So when I told him that he would, he seemed more satisfied, and asked leave to go home to his mother.