main thing was to get to
Hathercleugh, acting on the hint I had just got from Scott, and to take
a look round the old part of the big house, as far as I could. There was
no difficulty about getting there--although I had small acquaintance with
the house and grounds, never having been in them till the night of my
visit to Sir Gilbert Carstairs. I knew the surroundings well enough to
know how to get in amongst the shrubberies and coppices--I could have got
in there unobserved in the daytime, and it was now black night. I had
taken care to extinguish my lamp as soon as I got clear of the Border
Bridge, and now, riding along in the darkness, I was secure from the
observation of any possible enemy. And before I got to the actual
boundaries of Hathercleugh, I was off the bicycle, and had hidden it in
the undergrowth at the roadside; and instead of going into the grounds by
the right-of-way which I was convinced Maisie must have taken, I climbed
a fence and went forward through a spinny of young pine in the direction
of the house. Presently I had a fine bit of chance guidance to it--as I
parted the last of the feathery branches through which I had quietly made
my way, and came out on the edge of the open park, a vivid flash of
lightning showed me the great building standing on its plateau right
before me, a quarter of a mile off, its turrets and gables vividly
illuminated in the glare. And when that glare passed, as quickly as it
had come, and the heavy blackness fell again, there was a gleam of light,
coming from some window or other, and I made for that, going swiftly and
silently over the intervening space, not without a fear that if anybody
should chance to be on the watch another lightning flash might reveal my
advancing figure.

But there had been no more lightning by the time I reached the plateau on
which Hathercleugh was built; then, however, came a flash that was more
blinding than the last, followed by an immediate crash of thunder right
overhead. In that flash I saw that I was now close to the exact spot I
wanted--the ancient part of the house. I saw, too, that between where I
stood and the actual walls there was no cover of shrubbery or coppice or
spinny--there was nothing but a closely cropped lawn to cross. And in the
darkness I crossed it, there and then, hastening forward with
outstretched hands which presently came against the masonry. In the same
moment came the rain in torrents. In the same moment, too, came