Page:Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith (2).pdf/24

 and if I need ye, or grow frightened, I'll beat leather-ty-patch wi' my knuckles on the back door. But we had better see first what he is about, for he may be howking a hole through aneath the foundations; thae fiefs can work like moudiewards.'—' I'll slip forrit,' said Benjie, 'and gie a peep,'—'Keep to a side,' cried Tammy Bodkin, 'for, dog on it, Moosey'll maybe hae a pistol;—and, if his birse be up, he would think nae mair o' shooting ye as dead as a mawkin than I would do of taking my breakfast.

'I'll rin past, and gie a knock, at the door wi' the poker to rouse him up?' askit Benjie.

'Come away then,' answered Tammie, 'and ye'll hear him gie a yowl, and commence gabbling like a goose.'

As all this was going on, I rose and took a vizzy between the chinks of the window-shutters; so, just as I got my neb to the hole, I saw Benjie, as he flew past, give the door a drive, His consternation, on finding it flee half open, may be easier imagined than described, for, expecting the Frenchman to bounce out like a roaring lion, they hurried like mad into the house, couping the creels ower ane anither, Tammie spraining his thumb against the back door, and Benjie's foot, going into Tammie's coat pocket, which it carried away with it, like a cloth sandal; what became o' the French vagrant is a matter o' surmise,—nae mortal kens.