"Do you know that the minister who disregards that custom stands liable to suspension at the hands of his Bishop?"
Ewan looked about with a stare of bewilderment, but he answered again, and as quietly, "I know it."
There was silence for a moment, and then the Deemster, clearing his throat noisily, turned to where Dan was pawing up a rug that lay under a column and bust of Bunyan.
"And do you know, sir," said the Deemster, in his shrill tones, "what the punishment of forgery may be?"
Dan's face had undergone some changes during the last few minutes, but when he lifted it to the Deemster's, it was as firm as a rock.
"Hanging, perhaps," he answered, sullenly; "transportation, perhaps. What of it? Out with it—be quick."
Dan's eyes flashed; the Deemster tittered audibly; the Bishop looked up at his son from under the rims of his spectacles and drew a long breath. Mona had covered her face in her hands where she sat in silence by the ingle, and Ewan, still fumbling the book in his nervous fingers, was glancing from Dan to the Deemster, and from the Bishop to Dan, with a look of blank amazement.
The Deemster motioned to the stranger, who thereupon advanced from where he had stood by the door, and stepped up to Ewan.
"May I ask if this document was drawn by your authority?" and saying this the stranger held out a paper, and Ewan took it in his listless fingers.
There was a moment's silence. Ewan glanced down at the document. It showed that fifty pounds had been lent to Daniel Mylrea, by Benas Brothers, of the Goree Piazza, Liverpool, and it was signed by Ewan's own name as that of surety.