Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 1 - 1819.djvu/89

Rh out his purse, he gave the ranger a dollar for his encouragement. The fellow received it as the waiter of a fashionable hotel receives double his proper fee from the hands of a country gentleman,—that is, with a smile, in which pleasure at the gift is mingled with contempt for the ignorance of the donor. "Your honour is the bad paymaster," he said, "who pays before it is done. What would you do were I to miss the buck after you have paid me my wood-fee!"

"I suppose," said the Keeper, smiling, "you would hardly guess what I mean were I to tell you of a condictio indebiti?"

"Not I, on my saul—I guess it is some law phrase—but sue a beggar, and—your honour knows what follows.—Well, but I will be just with you, and if bow and brach fail not, you shall have a piece of game two fingers fat on the brisket."

As he was about to go off, his master again called him, and asked, as if by