But we had not been set out half an hour, and were only just where we could see the town's lights before us in the night, when two folk came riding bicycles through the mist that lay thick in a dip of the road, and, calling to me, let me know that they were Maisie Dunlop and her brother Tom that she had made to come with her, and in another minute Maisie and I were whispering together.
"It's all right now that I know you're safe, Hugh," she said breathlessly.

"But you must get back with me quickly.

Yon lodger of yours is dead, and your mother in a fine way, wondering where you are!".