nd
then the two comrades might as well resign from their present position
and retire over the fence if possible. It would seem as if he were
looking for someone to come from the direction of the road. Then to the
relief of Jim and the engineer the hound hulked heavily towards the
gate.

When he reached it he placed his fore feet high upon a cross bar and
gazed through, evidently on the lookout in a friendly, not an inimical
way. Then he turned and loping near to the house disappeared in the
direction of the stable, and this gave Jim and the engineer their chance
to reach the coveted clump of bushes.

"He is surely looking for someone," said the engineer, as they
straightened up in their shelter of overhanging leaves.

"Lucky he wasn't hunting for us," remarked Jim. "It would have been all
off if he had."

"Or we would be off," put in the engineer frankly.

"Come on, John; let's crawl through this clump and see what is on the
other side," ordered Jim.

"Lead on, MacDuff," assented Berwick.

"My name is plain Duff, I'll have ye to know," replied Jim, catching his
friend playfully by the throat.

For some reason they both felt a thrill of high spirits go through them
and it showed in their speech and actions. If Jim had stopped to
consider he would have remembered that high spirits at a time like this
always indicated some unusual peril ahead. It had been so on many
previous occasions and this peculiar thrill of every fiber was the
distillation of the very wine of danger. They had reached the middle of
the clump of bushes; Jim leading, when our friend received the shock of
his young life, and it startled him through and through.

CHAPTER XIX

THE CASTLE

Jim's hand as he had crawled forward, clutched the foot of a man who was
in hiding in this selfsame clump of bushes. James acted instantly,
realizing instinctively the danger, the extreme danger of the situation.
He leaped forward for the man's throat and to his utter surprise the
body lay perfectly limp.

"Great Heavens!" he exclaimed, "this man is dead."

"It's the poor fellow from the gully, below," said the engineer, after
an examination; "there's no mistaking him."

"But how did he get here?" questioned Jim, with suppressed excitement
and alarm.

"That's simple," replied his friend. "These bandits who live here,
brought the body up at the first convenient chance and left it here for
the time being, but they may come for it any time so we h