lock when we returned to the Abbey and met
Farrow riding out through the gates on Chocolate Maid. We stopped and
spoke to him. He was then going over to the shoer's with the mare."

"How long would it take him to make the journey?"

"Oh, about five-and-twenty minutes--maybe half an hour: certainly
not more."

"So then it would be about quarter-past eleven when he arrived at
the farrier's? I see. Any idea at what time he got back?"

"Not the ghost of one. In fact, we should never have known that he
ever did get back--for nobody heard a sound of his return the whole
night long--were it not that when Captain MacTavish crossed the
stable-yard at five o'clock in the morning and, seeing the door ajar,
looked in, he found Chocolate Maid standing in her stall, the dog
dead, and Highland Lassie gone. Of course, Chocolate Maid being
there after we had passed Farrow on the road with her was proof
that he did return at some hour of the night, you know: though when
it was, or why he should have gone out again, heaven alone knows.
Personally, you know, I am of the opinion that Highland Lassie
was stolen while he was absent; that, on returning he discovered the
robbery and, following the trail, went out after the robbers, and,
coming up with them, got his terrible injuries that way."

"H'm! Yes! I don't think! What 'trail' was he to find, please, when
you just now told me that there wasn't so much as a hoofprint to
tell the tale? Or was that an error?"

"No, it wasn't. The entire stable-yard is paved with red tiles, and
we've had such an uncommon spell of dry weather lately that the
earth of the surrounding country is baked as hard as a brickbat.
An elephant couldn't make a footmark upon it, much less a horse.
But, gravy, man! instead of making the thing clearer, I'm blest if
you're not adding gloom to darkness, and rendering it more mysterious
than ever. What under the four corners of heaven could Farrow have
followed, then, if the 'trail' is to be eliminated entirely?"

"Maybe his own inclination, Major--maybe nothing at all," said Cleek,
enigmatically. "If your little theory of his returning and finding
Highland Lassie stolen were a thing that would hold water I am
inclined to think that Mr. Tom Farrow would have raised an alarm
that you could hear for half a mile, and that if he had started out
after the robbers he would have done so with a goodly force of
followers at his heels and with all the lanterns and torches that