In the middle of my meal he spoke suddenly to me in German, but I turned on him a face as blank as a stone wall.
Then I told him my story--how I had come off an Archangel ship at Leith a week ago, and was making my way overland to my brother at Wigtown.

I had run short of cash--I hinted vaguely at a spree--and I was pretty well on my uppers when I had come on a hole in a hedge, and, looking through, had seen a big motor-car lying in the burn.

I had poked about to see what had happened, and had found three sovereigns lying on the seat and one on the floor.

There was nobody there or any sign of an owner, so I had pocketed the cash.

But somehow the law had got after me.