Sae aff I set, and Wasp wi' me, for ye wad really bae thought he kenn'd where I was, gaun, puir beast,—and here I am after a trot o' sixty mile or near bye.'"
In this strange story Bertram obviously saw, supposing the warning to be true, some intimation of danger more violent and imminent than could be likely to arise from a few days' imprisonment. At the same time it was equally evident that some unknown friend was working in his behalf. "Did you not say," he asked Dinmont, "that this man Gabriel was of gypsey blood?"
"It was e'en judged sae," said Dinmont, "and I think this maks it likely; for they aye ken where the gangs o' ilk ither are to be found, and they can gar news flee like a foot-ba' through the country an' they like. An' I forgot to tell ye, there's been an unco enquiry after the auld wife that we saw in Bewcastle; the sheriff's had folk ower the Limestane Edge after her, and down the Hermitage and Liddle, and
