e been used as a lumber-room.

The boys turned to go, passing near the front of the empty house, where
they shivered and stopped, mastered by a feeling they could not have
explained. The helpless door, like the staring eyes of a dead person,
seemed to be calling to them to shut it, and Tommy was about to steal
forward for this purpose when Corp gripped him and whispered that the
light had gone out. It was true, though Tommy disbelieved until they had
returned to the east window to make sure.

"There maun be folk in the hoose, Tommy!"

"You saw it was toom. The lamp had gone out itself, or else--what's
that?"

It was the unmistakable closing of a door, softly but firmly. "The wind
has blown it to," they tried to persuade themselves, though aware that
there was not sufficient wind for this. After a long period of stillness
they gathered courage to go to the door and shake it. It was not only
shut, but locked.

On their way back through the Double Dykes they were silent, listening
painfully but hearing nothing. But when they reached the Coffin Brig
Tommy said, "Dinna say nothing about this to Elspeth, it would terrify
her;" he was always so thoughtful for Elspeth.

"But what do you think o't a'?" Corp said, imploringly.

"I winna tell you yet," replied Tommy, cautiously.

When they boarded the _Ailie_, where the two girls were very glad to see
them again, the eight-o'clock bell had begun to ring, and thus Tommy had
a reasonable excuse for hurrying his crew to the Cuttle Well without
saying anything of his expedition to Double Dykes, save that he had not
seen Grizel. At the Well they had not long to wait before Mr. McLean
suddenly appeared out of the mist, and to their astonishment Miss Ailie
was leaning on his arm. She was blushing and smiling too, in a way
pretty to see, though it spoilt the effect of Stroke's statement.

The first thing Stroke did was to give up his sword to Tommy and to
apologize for its being an umbrella on account of the unsettled state of
the weather, and then Corp led three cheers, the captain alone declining
to join in, for he had an uneasy feeling that he was being ridiculed.

"But I thought there were five of you," Mr. McLean said; "where is the
fifth?"

"You ken best," replied Tommy, sulkily, and sulky he remained throughout
the scene, because he knew he was not the chief figure in it. Having
this knowledge to depress him, it is to his credit that he bore himself
with dignity throug