hundred feet.

We came to a stand and listened, staring our hardest with all our eyes.
The house was in blackness; the line of the roof ran in a clear sweep
of ink against the stars, and not the faintest sound came from it or
its grounds, save the delicate tinkling murmur of a fountain playing
somewhere amongst the shrubbery in front.

"Where'll be the dawg?" exclaimed Caudel in a hoarse whisper.

"Behind the wall there," I answered, "yonder, where the great square
door is. Hark! Did not that sound like the rattle of a chain?"

We listened; then said I:

"Let us make for the hole in the hedge. I have its bearings. It
directly fronts the third angle of that convent wall."

We crept soundlessly past the house, treading the verdure that lay in
dark streaks upon the glimmering ground of this little-frequented lane.
The clock of the convent opposite struck half-past twelve.

"One bell, sir," said Caudel; "it's about time we tarned to, and no
mistake. Lord, how I'm a-perspiring! Yet it ben't so hot neither.
Which side of the house do the lady descend from?"

"From this side," I answered.

"Well clear of the dawg anyhow," said he, "and _that's_ a good job."

"Here's the hole," I cried, with my voice shrill beyond recognition of
my own hearing through the nervous excitement I laboured under.

The hole was a neglected gap in the hedge, a rent originally made
probably by donkey-boys, several of whose cattle I had remarked that
afternoon browsing along the ditch and bank-side. We squeezed through,
and found ourselves in a sort of kitchen garden, as I might imagine
from the aspect of the shadowy vegetation; it seemed to run clear to
the very wall of the house on this side in dwarf bushes and low-ridged
growths.

"There'll be a path I hope," growled Caudel. "What am I atreading on?
Cabbages? They crackle worse nor gravel, Mr. Barclay."

"Clear yourself of the rope-ladder, and then I'll smother you in your
big pea-coat whilst you light the lamp," said I. "Let us keep well in
the shadow of the hedge. Who knows what eyes may be star-gazing
yonder?"

The hedge flung a useful dye upon the blackness of the night; and our
figures against it, even though they should have been viewed close to,
must have been indistinguishable. With a seaman's alacrity Caudel
slipped off his immense coat, and in a few moments had unwound the
length of ladder from his body. He wore a coloured flannel shirt--I
had dreaded to find