"Mr. Duke will send you home i' the
morning; but it's as well you should stay here until the evidence
is complete. Bailie Thomson will not agree to your being set at
liberty before the inquiry."
"And when is the inquiry to be?" I asked.
"At ten o'clock tomorrow morning," said Mr. Drever. "You see,
Halcro, they're not to put you on your trial in any formal way.
That could only take place at Kirkwall, or before the procurator
fiscal. But the roads are all blocked wi' snow, and there's no
getting to Kirkwall just now. Even the St. Magnus smugglers, and
another gang that Mr. Fox arrested yestreen up at Sandwick, have to
be imprisoned here until the roads are opened up. But it will be
easy to prove your innocence. Thora will make that perfectly clear,
as ye will see."
"Thora!" I exclaimed. "Then Thora has been found?"
"Found! certainly. She never was lost. However, ye'll hear all
about that matter again. Just leave it all to me, Halcro, and dinna
be downcast about biding here another night. But I must away now.
Good e'en to ye!"
"Good e'en, sir!"
The good man was leaving me abruptly, when at the door he turned
back.
"Oh, Halcro!" said he, as though suddenly remembering something,
"they tell me that your viking's stone has been amissing. Have ye
heard anything of it yet?"
"Why, yes, Mr.
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