To Lord Durie's regret, his return was too late to enable him to preside
in the famous case which was about to come on shortly after the date of
his disappearance. That had already been decided in a manner of which he
could not have failed to disapprove, and Lord Traquair had secured a
verdict.
For long the judge held to the warlock theory, and he was not averse,
after dinner, over a bottle, from telling at great length the story of
his terrible experiences during those mysterious three months of
captivity. Younger men, indeed, began to find the tale somewhat boring,
and in private some had been known to wish that the devil had flown away
permanently with Lord Durie. But those scoffers were chiefly a few
rising young advocates; the judge's family and his friends accepted the
tale in its entirety. Nor ever did any man, to the end of his days,
actually hear Lord Durie express doubt as to the supernatural nature of
his adventure.
Yet something did happen, later, which at least seemed in some measure
to have shaken his faith, and it was noticed that, towards the end of
his life, he was not fond of dwelling on the subject--had even been
known, in fact, to become irritable when pressed to tell his story. It
fell out, a year or two after the events which he had loved to narrate,
that Lord Durie had occasion to visit Dumfries.
Pages:
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143