“Be off with you, now, Macallum. We are wanting no tramps at the farm here, and perhaps you had better not be trying to get work this side Iona; for it is known as the Sin-Eater you will be, and that won’t be for the helping, I am thinking! There: there are the two half-crowns for you … and may they bring you no harm, you that are Scapegoat now!”
The Sin-Eater turned at that, and stared like a hill-bull. Scapegoat! Ay, that’s what he was. Sin-Eater, Scapegoat! Was he not, too, another Judas, to have sold for silver that which was not for the selling? No, no, for sure Maisie Macdonald could tell him the rune that would serve for the easing of this burden. He would soon be quit of it.
Slowly he took the money, turned it over, and put it in his pocket.
“I am going, Andrew Blair,” he said quietly, “I am going now. I will not say to him that is there in the silence, A chuid do Pharas da!—nor will I say to you, Gu’n gleidheadh Dia thu,—nor will I say to this dwelling that is the home of thee and thine, Gu’n beannaicheadh Dia an tigh!”[7]
Here there was a pause. All listened. Andrew Blair shifted uneasily, the furtive eyes of him going this way and that, like a ferret in the grass.
“But, Andrew Blair, I will say this: when you fare abroad, Droch caoidh ort! and when you go upon the water, Gaoth gun direadh ort! Ay, ay, Anndra-mhic-Adam, Dia ad aghaidh ’s ad aodann … agus bas dunach ort! Dhonas ’s dholas ort, agus leat-sa!”[8]
The bitterness of these words was like snow in June upon all there. They stood amazed. None spoke. No one moved.
Neil Ross turned upon his heel, and, with a bright light in his eyes, walked away from the dead and the living. He went by the byres, whence he had come. Andrew Blair remained where he was, now glooming at the corpse, now biting his nails and staring at the damp sods at his feet.
When Neil reached the end of the milk-shed he saw Maisie Macdonald there, waiting.
“These were ill sayings of yours, Neil Ross,” she said in a low voice, so that she might not be overheard from the house.