‘Ay, but when, Captain? when and how? that’s the question, or rather the twa questions,’ said the jailor.
‘When I am delivered, and get my remittances from England,’ answered the prisoner.
Mac-Guffog shook his head incredulously.
‘Why, friend, you do not pretend to believe that I am really a malefactor?’ said Bertram.
‘Why, I no ken,’ said the fellow; ‘but if you ARE on the account, ye’re nae sharp ane, that’s the daylight o’t.’
‘And why do you say I am no sharp one?’
‘Why, wha but a crack-brained greenhorn wad hae let them keep up the siller that ye left at the Gordon Arms?’ said the constable. ‘Deil fetch me, but I wad have had it out o’ their wames! Ye had nae right to be strippit o’ your money and sent to jail without a mark to pay your fees; they might have keepit the rest o’ the articles for evidence. But why, for a blind bottle-head, did not ye ask the guineas? and I kept winking and nodding a’ the time, and the donnert deevil wad never ance look my way!’
‘Well, sir,’ replied Bertram, ‘if I have a title to have that property delivered up to me, I shall apply for it; and there is a good deal more than enough to pay any demand you can set up.’
‘I dinna ken a bit about that,’ said Mac-Guffog; ‘ye may be here lang eneugh. And then the gieing credit maun be considered in the fees. But, however, as ye DO seem to be a chap by common, though my wife says I lose by my good-nature, if ye gie me an order for my fees upon that money I daresay Glossin will make it forthcoming; I ken something about an escape from Ellangowan. Ay, ay, he’ll be glad to carry me through, and be neighbour-like.’
‘Well, sir,’ replied Bertram, ‘if I am not furnished in a day or two otherwise, you shall have such an order.’