"
In carrying out these instructions Ailie gave the policeman as
wide leeway as possible and kept a wary eye upon him. The
officer's duties were chiefly up on High Street. He seldom
crossed the bridge, and it happened that he had never seen Bobby
before. Just by way of making conversation he remarked, "I didna
ken ye had a dog, John."
Ailie stopped stock still, the cups on the tray she was taking
out tinkling from her agitation. It was thus policemen spoke at
private doors in the dark tenements: "I didna ken ye had the
smallpox." But Mr. Traill seemed in no way alarmed. He answered
with easy indulgence "That's no' surprising. There's mony a thing
you dinna ken, Davie."
The landlord forgot the matter at once, but Ailie did not, for
she saw the officer flush darkly and, having no answer ready, go
out in silence. In truth, the good-humored sarcasm rankled in the
policeman's breast. An hour later he suddenly came to a
standstill below the clock tower of the Tron kirk on High Street,
and he chuckled.
"Eh, John Traill. Ye're unco' weel furnished i' the heid, but
there's ane or twa things ye dinna ken yer ainsel'."
Entirely taken up with his brilliant idea, he lost no time in
putting it to work. He dodged among the standing cabs and around
the buttresses of St. Giles that projected into the thoroughfare.
In the mid-century there was a police office in the middle of the
front of the historic old cathedral that had then fallen to its
lowest ebb of fortune.
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