so thronged in these tall houses, he might very well seek a day

before he chanced on the right door. The ordinary course was to

hire a lad they called a caddie, who was like a guide or pilot, led

you where you had occasion, and (your errands being done) brought

you again where you were lodging. But these caddies, being always

employed in the same sort of services, and having it for obligation

to be well informed of every house and person in the city, had

grown to form a brotherhood of spies; and I knew from tales of Mr.

Campbell's how they communicated one with another, what a rage of

curiosity they conceived as to their employer's business, and how

they were like eyes and fingers to the police. It would be a piece

of little wisdom, the way I was now placed, to take such a ferret

to my tails. I had three visits to make, all immediately needful:

to my kinsman Mr. Balfour of Pilrig, to Stewart the Writer that was

Appin's agent, and to William Grant Esquire of Prestongrange, Lord

Advocate of Scotland. Mr. Balfour's was a non-committal visit; and

besides (Pilrig being in the country) I made bold to find the way

to it myself, with the help of my two legs and a Scots tongue. But

the rest were in a different case. Not only was the visit to

Appin's agent, in the midst of the cry about the Appin murder,

dangerous in itself, but it was highly inconsistent with the other.

I was like to have a bad enough time of it with my Lord Advocate

Grant, the best of ways; but to go to him hot-foot from Appin's

agent, was little likely to mend my own affairs, and might prove

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