He endeavoured to fish out from the lad that acted as a guide, something of this man's situation and profession; but the general expressions of 'a very decent man'-- 'a very honest body'-- 'weel to pass in the world,' and such like, were all that could be extracted from him; and while Fairford was following up the investigation with closer interrogatories, the lad put an end to them by knocking at the door of Mr.Trumbull, whose decent dwelling was a little distance from the town, and considerably nearer to the sea.

It was one of a little row of houses running down to the waterside, and having gardens and other accommodations behind.

There was heard within the uplifting of a Scottish psalm; and the boy saying, 'They are at exercise, sir,' gave intimation they might not be admitted till prayers were over.
When, however, Fairford repeated the summons with the end of his whip, the singing ceased, and Mr.Trumbull himself, with his psalm-book in his hand, kept open by the insertion of his forefinger between the leaves, came to demand the meaning of this unseasonable interruption.
Nothing could be more different than his whole appearance seemed to be from the confidant of a desperate man, and the associate of outlaws in their unlawful enterprises.

He was a tall, thin, bony figure, with white hair combed straight down on each side of his face, and an iron-grey hue of complexion; where the lines, or rather, as Quin said of Macklin, the cordage, of his countenance were so sternly adapted to a devotional and even ascetic expression, that they left no room for any indication of reckless daring or sly dissimulation.

In short, Trumbull appeared a perfect specimen of the rigid old Covenanter, who said only what he thought right, acted on no other principle but that of duty, and, if he committed errors, did so under the full impression that he was serving God rather than man.
'Do you want me, sir ?' he said to Fairford, whose guide had slunk to the rear, as if to escape the rebuke of the severe old man,--'We were engaged, and it is the Saturday night.' Alan Fairford's preconceptions were so much deranged by this man's appearance and manner, that he stood for a moment bewildered, and would as soon have thought of giving a cant password to a clergyman descending from the pulpit, as to the respectable father of a family just interrupted in his prayers for and with the objects of his care.