The old gentleman spoke with great assurance and kindliness, but still Elsie could not cast off the spell of fear Mrs. Donaldson still held over her. She had an almost superstitious belief that the "fairy mother" would find a way to work out her threats. For all she knew, she might even now have sent that message to Edinburgh which was to seal Duncan's fate.
After the very mysterious incident that had happened in the train, for her to know that Elsie had disobeyed without hearing the words she had spoken seemed not only quite possible, but very likely indeed.
The gentleman saw Elsie's hesitation, and spoke sharply again. "If you are obstinate, we shall have to use other methods to make you speak. Have you ever been in prison?"
Elsie's eyes dilated with horror. "Oh, no!" she replied.
"But you are very likely to find yourself there, unless you answer my questions better. Tell me at once where you met this lady?"
"She was in a carriage; we were on the road to Killochrie."
"Stop; how did you come there?"
"We ran away from Sandy Ferguson's cottage."
"Why did you do that? Now, tell me why."
"He was very bad to us, and robbed us of our money and our clothes. Duncan thought he wanted to kill us, so we ran away."