His pouch and pipe had strange company jostling them in his pocket as he followed the others down the ladder into the night.
Dougal insisted that they must return by the road of the morning.

"We daren't go by the Laver, for that would bring us by the public-house.
If the worst comes to the worst, and we fall in wi' any of the deevils, they must think ye've changed your mind and come back from Auchenlochan." The night smelt fresh and moist as if a break in the weather were imminent.

As they scrambled along the Garple Dean a pinprick of light below showed where the tinklers were busy by their fire.

Dickson's spirits suffered a sharp fall and he began to marvel at his temerity.
What in Heaven's name had he undertaken?
To carry very precious things, to which certainly he had no right, through the enemy to distant Glasgow.

How could he escape the notice of the watchers?
He was already suspect, and the sight of him back again in Dalquharter would double that suspicion.