CHAPTER IV. 



LETTERS TO MISS FRASER, FINLAY, AND DR WALDIE. 



ON returning from Linlithgow to Cromarty, Miller 

 addressed himself with assiduity to his duties as a 

 bank accountant. In the course of the bank's operations 

 a sum of money, amounting to some hundreds of pounds, 

 was transmitted weekly from Cromarty to Tain, and he 

 thought it necessary to act as messenger. He walked 

 the whole way from the northern shore of Cromarty ferry 

 to Tain and back ; and as part of the road lay through a 

 deep wood, he provided himself with a brace of pistols, 

 and travelled with them loaded. This was the first oc- 

 casion of his carrying fire-arms ; and he seems to have 

 never subsequently, except, perhaps, for brief periods, 

 abandoned the practice. The resolute intensity of appli- 

 cation with which he mastered the details of banking, 

 and the conscientious caution with which he took the 

 road in order to obviate mishaps in the transmission of 

 the money, may be noted as characteristic of our man. 



The change in his circumstances, when he thus passed 

 out of what is termed the working-class, was naturally 

 pleasing to his friends. Mr Stewart declared with hearty 

 satisfaction that he was ' at length fairly caught.' For 

 his own part, he took the matter with conspicuous quiet- 



