That forenoon Gavin left the manse unostentatiously carrying a brown-paper parcel.  He proceeded to the hill, and having dropped the parcel there, retired hurriedly.  On his way home, nevertheless, he was overtaken by D. Fittis, who had been cutting down whins.  Fittis had seen the parcel fall, and running after Gavin, returned it to him.  Gavin thanked D. Fittis, and then sat down gloomily on the cemetery dyke.  Half an hour afterwards he flung the parcel into a Tillyloss garden.

In the evening Margaret had news for him, got from Jean.

“Do you remember, Gavin, that the Egyptian every one is still speaking of, wore a long cloak?  Well, would you believe it, the cloak was Captain Halliwell’s, and she took it from the town-house when she escaped.  She is supposed to have worn it inside out.  He did not discover that it was gone until he was leaving Thrums.”

“Mother, is this possible?” Gavin said.

“The policeman, Wearyworld, has told it.  He was ordered, it seems, to look for the cloak quietly, and to take any one into custody in whose possession it was found.”

“Has it been found?”

“No.”

The minister walked out of the parlour, for he could not trust his face.  What was to be done now?  The cloak was lying in mason Baxter’s garden, and Baxter was therefore, in all probability, within four-and-twenty hours of the Tilliedrum gaol.

“Does Mr. Dishart ever wear a cap at nichts?” Femie Wilkie asked Sam’l Fairweather three hours later.

“Na, na, he has ower muckle respect for his lum hat,” answered Sam’l; “and richtly, for it’s the crowning stone o’ the edifice.”

“Then it couldna hae been him I met at the back o’ Tillyloss the now,” said Femie, “though like him it was.  He joukit back when he saw me.”

While Femie was telling her story in the Tenements, mason Baxter, standing at the window which looked into his garden, was shouting, “Wha’s that in my yard?” There was no answer, and Baxter closed his window, under the impression that he had been speaking to a cat.  The man in the cap then emerged from the corner where he had been crouching, and stealthily felt for something among the cabbages and pea sticks.  It was no longer there, however, and by-and-by he retired empty-handed.

“The Egyptian’s cloak has been found,” Margaret was able to tell Gavin next day.  “Mason Baxter found it yesterday afternoon.”

“In his garden?” Gavin asked hurriedly.

“No; in the quarry, he says, but according to Jean he is known not to have been at the quarry to-day.  Some seem to think that the gypsy gave him the cloak for helping her to escape, and that he has delivered it up lest he should get into difficulties.”

“Whom has he given it to, mother?” Gavin asked.

“To the policeman.”

“And has Wearyworld sent it back to Halliwell?”

“Yes.  He told Jean he sent it off at once, with the information that the masons had found it in the quarry.”