THE WITHERED GARLAND Meanwhile Sholto fared onwards down the side of the sullen water of Dee.

The dwellers along the bank were all on the alert, and cried many questions to him about the death of the Earl, most thinking him a merchant travelling from Edinburgh to take ship at Kirkcudbright.
Sholto answered shortly but civilly, for the inquirers were mostly decent folk well on in years, whose lads had gone to the levy, and who naturally desired to know wherefore their sons had been summoned.
In return he asked everywhere for news of any cavalcade which might have passed that way, but neither from the country folk, nor yet from hoof-marks upon the grassy banks, could he glean the least information pertinent to the purpose of his quest.
Not till he came within a few miles of the town did he meet with man or woman who could give him any material assistance.

It was by the Fords of Tongland that he first met with one Tib MacLellan, who with much volubility and some sagacity retailed fresh fish to the burghers of Kirkcudbright and the whole countryside, giving a day to each district so long as the supply of her staple did not fail.
"Fair good day to ye, mistress!" said Sholto, taking off his bonnet to the sonsy upstanding fishwife.
"And to you, bonny lad," replied the complimented dame, dropping a courtesy, "may the corbie never cry at ye nor ill-faured pie juik at your left elbow.

May candle creesh never fa' on ye, red fire burn ye, nor water scald ye." Tib was reeling off her catalogue of blessings when Sholto cut her short.
"Can you tell me, good lady," he asked, in his most insinuating tones, "if there has been any vessel cleared from the port during these last weeks ?" "'Deed, sir, that I should ken, for is no my ain sister marriet on Jock Wabster, wha's cousin by marriage twice removed is the bailie officer o' the port?
So I can advise ye that there was a boat frae the Isle o' Man wi' herrin's for the great houses, though never a fin o' them like the halesome fish I carry here in my creel.

Wad ye like to see them, to buy a dozen for the bonny lass that's waiting for ye?
That were a present to recommend ye, indeed--far mair than your gaudy flowers, fule ballads, and sic like trash!" "You cannot remember any other ship of larger size than the Manx fishing-boat ?" continued Sholto.
"Weel, no to ca' cleared frae the port," Tib went on, "but there was a pair o' uncanny-looking foreign ships that lay oot there by the Manxman's Lake for eight days, and the nicht afore yestreen they gaed oot with the tide.