Crime & punishment > Whinny Park murder

10
suspected but too truly how matters stood, asked him
what he had done with the yarn. “ Oh! bless me, I
forgot,” said he; “I grew wearied carrying it, and left
it at the Red craig’s Toll.” They asked him if he would
go there and recover it. “ To be sure”—he had no
objections, and set out with them directly. When they
were passing through a field near the place he had men¬
tioned, he stopped short on a sudden, and said, “To
tell the truth, I sold the yarn for 18s. at Saline.” His
brother, shocked at this disclosure, asked why he had
committed such an action ? but he walked off deliber¬
ately without saying a word.
It would be idle to repeat here all the anecdotes that
have come to light concerning him in Dunfermline, since
the late shocking occurrence. They would form only
a list of robberies and cheatings, in which our readers
could take no interest; and they were at the time con¬
cealed by his friends, who often chose to pay the damages,
rather than see him endure the mortification of exposure.
His character, however, has now formed for some time the
chief topic of conversation among the young men of his
own rank in that place, who feel shocked and disgraced
at the discoveries that daily come to light concerning
him.
At one time he was apprehended for retaining and
selling some yarn belonging to Mr Kinness ot Dunferm¬
line : he was in this case sentenced to three months’
imprisonment.
Shortly after this occurrence, his turn for watching
the burying-ground, in the fear of resurrection men (a
duty performed in rotation by the parishioners), came
round : his companion was a lad of the name of Huggin,
of a very different character from himself. Their con¬
versation on this occasion is sufficiently strange, and
may throw some light on Henderson’^ character. They
were walking'at midnight round the old church, and
looking on the ruins which gave that place an appearance
so peculiarly dreary at such an hour : the dilapidated
towers and arches of a Gothic Abbey are venerable and
impressive during the day, but to those who are sent
there to watch their dead friends from violation during