Having thus secured the premises in front, he proceeded to fortify the rear, and, when this was accomplished to his satisfaction, he returned to the kitchen, sat down opposite the widow, and wiped his shining pate.

“Why, uncle, are we going to stand out a siege that you take so much pains to lock up?”

Ruby sat down on the floor at his mother’s feet as he spoke, and Minnie sat down on a low stool beside him.

“Maybe we are, lad,” replied the captain; “anyhow, it’s always well to be ready—­

          ’Ready, boys, ready,
          We’ll fight and we’ll conquer again and again’.”

“Come uncle, explain yourself.”

“Explain myself, nephy?  I can neither explain myself nor anybody else.  D’ye know, Ruby, that you’re a burglar?”

“Am I, uncle?  Well, I confess that that’s news.”

“Ay, but it’s true though, at least the law in Arbroath says so, and if it catches you, it’ll hang you as sure as a gun.”

Here Captain Ogilvy explained to his nephew the nature of the crime that was committed on the night of his departure, the evidence of his guilt in the finding part of the plate in the garden, coupled with his sudden disappearance, and wound up by saying that he regarded him, Ruby, as being in a “reg’lar fix”.

“But surely,” said Ruby, whose face became gradually graver as the case was unfolded to him, “surely it must be easy to prove to the satisfaction of everyone that I had nothing whatever to do with this affair?”

“Easy to prove it!” said the captain in an excited tone; “wasn’t you seen, just about the hour of the robbery, going stealthily down the street, by Big Swankie and Davy Spink, both of whom will swear to it.”

“Yes, but you were with me, uncle.”

“Ay, so I was, and hard enough work I had to convince them that I had nothin’ to do with it myself, but they saw that I couldn’t jump a stone wall eight foot high to save my life, much less break into a house, and they got no further evidence to convict me, so they let me off; but it’ll go hard with you, nephy, for Major Stewart described the men, and one o’ them was a big strong feller, the description bein’ as like you as two peas, only their faces was blackened, and the lantern threw the light all one way, so he didn’t see them well.  Then, the things found in our garden,—­and the villains will haul me up as a witness against you, for, didn’t I find them myself?”

“Very perplexing; what shall I do?” said Ruby.

“Clear out,” cried the captain emphatically.

“What! fly like a real criminal, just as I have returned home?  Never.  What say you, Minnie?”

“Stand your trial, Ruby.  They cannot—­they dare not—­condemn the innocent.”

“And you, mother?”

“I’m sure I don’t know what to say,” replied Mrs. Brand, with a look of deep anxiety, as she passed her fingers through her son’s hair, and kissed his brow.  “I have seen the innocent condemned and the guilty go free more than once in my life.”