If we lack that boat , we have but three shillings left in this wide world ; and where to go , and how to do , and what other place there is for us except the chains of a gibbet -- I give you my naked word , I kenna ! Shall we go wanting , lassie ? Are ye to lie in your warm bed and think upon us , when the wind gowls in the chimney and the rain tirls on the roof ? Are ye to eat your meat by the cheeks of a red fire , and think upon this poor sick lad of mine , biting his finger ends on a blae muir for cauld and hunger ? Sick or sound , he must aye be moving ; with the death grapple at his throat he must aye be trailing in the rain on the lang roads ; and when he gants his last on a rickle of cauld stanes , there will be nae friends near him but only me and God . '' At this appeal , I could see the lass was in great trouble of mind , being tempted to help us , and yet in some fear she might be helping malefactors ; and so now I determined to step in myself and to allay her scruples with a portion of the truth . `` Did ever you hear , '' said I , `` of Mr. Rankeillor of the Ferry ? '' `` Rankeillor the writer ? '' said she . `` I daur say that ! '' `` Well , '' said I , `` it 's to his door that I am bound , so you may judge by that if I am an ill-doer ; and I will tell you more , that though I am indeed , by a dreadful error , in some peril of my life , King George has no truer friend in all Scotland than myself . '' Her face cleared up mightily at this , although Alan 's darkened . `` That 's more than I would ask , '' said she . `` Mr. Rankeillor is a kennt man . '' And she bade us finish our meat , get clear of the clachan as soon as might be , and lie close in the bit wood on the sea-beach . `` And ye can trust me , '' says she , `` I 'll find some means to put you over . '' At this we waited for no more , but shook hands with her upon the bargain , made short work of the puddings , and set forth again from Limekilns as far as to the wood . It was a small piece of perhaps a score of elders and hawthorns and a few young ashes , not thick enough to veil us from passersby upon the road or beach . Here we must lie , however , making the best of the brave warm weather and the good hopes we now had of a deliverance , and planing more particularly what remained for us to do . We had but one trouble all day ; when a strolling piper came and sat in the same wood with us ; a red-nosed , bleareyed , drunken dog , with a great bottle of whisky in his pocket , and a long story of wrongs that had been done him by all sorts of persons , from the Lord President of the Court of Session , who had denied him justice , down to the Bailies of Inverkeithing who had given him more of it than he desired .
It was impossible but he should conceive some suspicion of two men lying all XXXXX concealed in a thicket and having no business to allege .
Alan President Rankeillor Scotland day gowls hawthorns lassie scruples tirls