It was no' canny. In the smother of the fog some of the little boys
were lost, and cried out. Mr. Traill got them up to the gate and
sent them home in bands, under the escort of the students. Mistress
Jeanie was out by the wicket. Mr. Brown was asleep, and she
"couldna thole it to sit there snug." When a fog-horn moaned from
the Firth she broke into sobbing. Mr. Traill comforted her as best
he could by telling her a dozen plans for the morning. By feeling
along the wall he got her to the lodge, and himself up to his cozy
dining-rooms.
For the first time since Queen Mary the gate of the historic garden
of the Greyfriars was left on the latch. And it was so that a
little dog, coming home in the night might not be shut out.
XI.
It was more than two hours after he left Bobby in Queen Margaret's
Chapel that the sergeant turned into the officers' mess-room and
tried to get an orderly to take a message to the captain who had
noticed the little dog in the barracks. He wished to report that
Bobby could not be found, and to be excused to continue the search.
He had to wait by the door while the toast to her Majesty was
proposed and the band in the screened gallery broke into "God Save
the Queen"; and when the music stopped the bandmaster came in for
the usual compliments.
The evening was so warm and still, although it was only mid-April,
that a glass-paneled door, opening on the terrace, was set ajar for
air.
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