y, but with a
confidence born of the knowledge of his whereabouts.

The house was large, and I might have wandered long without guessing where
lay the room I wanted had it not been for a slight sound that came to
me--the low, soft sobbing of a woman. I groped my way along the dark
passage, turned to the left, and presently came to the door from behind
which issued the sound. The door was locked on the outside, and the key
was in the lock. I knocked, and at once silence fell. To my second knock I
got no answer. Then I turned the key and entered.

A girl was sitting at a table with her back to me, her averted head
leaning wearily on her hand. Dejection spoke in every line of her figure.
She did not even turn at my entrance, thinking me no doubt to be her
guard. I stood waiting awkwardly, scarce knowing what to say.

"Madam," I began, "may I-- Is there----?" So far I got, then I came to an
embarrassed pause, for I might as well have talked to the dead for all the
answer I got. She did not honour me with the faintest sign of attention. I
hemmed and hawed and bowed to her back with a growing confusion.

At last she asked over her shoulder in a strained, even voice,

"What is it you're wanting now? You said I was to be left by my lane
to-night."

I murmured like a gawk that I was at her service, and presently as I
shifted from one foot to the other she turned slowly. Her face was a dumb
cry for help, though it was a proud face too--one not lacking in fire and
courage. I have seen fairer faces, but never one more to my liking. It was
her eyes that held me. The blue of her own Highland lochs, with all their
changing and indescribably pathetic beauty, lurked deeply in them.
Unconsciously they appealed to me, and the world was not wide enough to
keep me from her when they called. Faith, my secret is out already, and I
had resolved that it should keep till near the end of my story!

I had dropped my muddy cloak before I entered, and as she looked at me a
change came over her. Despair gave way to a startled surprise. Her eyes
dilated.

"Who are you, sir? And--what are you doing here?" she demanded.

I think some fear or presage of evil was knocking at her heart, for though
she fronted me very steadily her eyes were full of alarm. What should a
man of rank be doing in her room on the night she had been abducted from
her lodgings unless his purpose were evil? She wore a long cloak
stretching to the ground, and from under it