"
We walked along silently after this, and parted at the gate of Crua
Breck farm.
A few days after Bailie Duke's preliminary examination of
witnesses, the procurator fiscal--the official by whom such
inquiries are conducted in Scotland on behalf of the Crown--arrived
from Kirkwall. The case had already been made clear in preparation
for him, and he had little else to do than take the evidence
formally and arrange it in legal order.
The matter became somewhat involved with the action against the
smugglers, for it transpired that Tom Kinlay had, after telling his
father of the affair at the inn, been sent by Carver to spy on
Colin Lothian, and to watch the cliffs and give an alarm in case
the revenue authorities had determined to institute a plan of
attack from the land. The evidence against him was too strong to
admit of a doubt as to the ultimate issue of the examination, and a
single day's inquiry was sufficient to establish the case against
him. He was accordingly carried off to Kirkwall, and there
committed to prison on the charge of having "wilfully, wickedly,
and with malice aforethought, murdered Colin Lothian by shooting
him with a gun."
The trial was awaited with much interest by the people of the
Mainland. No one doubted that the prisoner would be found guilty of
a capital offence.
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