"True for ye, sir," said Spiggot with a kindling eye; "but if these puir viands can induce ye to partake of the hospitality of my puir hostel, that like our gude burrowtoun is no just what it has been—"
"Gudeman, 'tis impossible, for I must ride so soon as I have imbibed thy posset."
"As ye please, sir—your honor's will be done. Our guests are now, even as the visits of angels, unco few and far between; and thus, when one comes, we are loath to part with him. There is a deep pitfall, and an ugly gullyhole where the burn crosses the road at the town-head, and if ye miss the path, the rocks by the beach are steep, and in a night like this—"
"Host of mine," laughed the traveller, "I know right well every rood of the way, and by keeping to the left near the Auldlees may avoid both the blackpit and the sea-beach."
"Your honor kens the country hereawa then," said Spiggot with surprise.
"Of old, perhaps, I knew it as well as thee."
The gudeman of the Thane scrutinized the traveller's face keenly, but failed to recognize him, and until this moment he thought that no man in the East Neuk was unknown to him; but here his inspection was at fault.
"And hast thou no visitors with thee now, friend host?" he asked of Spiggot.
"One only, gude sir, who came here on a brown horse about nightfall. He is an unco foreign-looking man, but has been asking the way to the castle o' Balcomie."
"Ha! and thou didst tell of this plaguy pitfall, I warrant."