s again a fair and sunny day, when the
freshness of spring was feeling the first touch of summer, as Dundee
and his men rode up the pass through the hills from Strathmore to
Dundee. There were times when Graham would have breathed his horse at
the highest point, from which you are able to look down upon the sea,
and drunk in the pure, invigorating air, and gazed at the distant
stretches of the ocean. But he had no time to lose that day; he had
work to do without delay. With all his delirium--and Graham's brain
was hot, and every nerve tingling--he retained the instincts of a
soldier, and just because he was so suspicious of his reception he
took the more elaborate precautions. Before he entered the pass his
scouts made sure that he would not be ambuscaded, for it might be that
his approach was known, and that Livingstone, taking him at a
disadvantage in the narrow way, by one happy stroke would complete his
triumph. As he came near Dundee, he sent out a party to reconnoitre,
while he remained with his troop to watch events. When the sound of
firing was heard he knew that the garrison was on the alert, and that
the town could only be taken by assault. The soldiers came galloping
back with several wounded men, having left one dead. Livingstone was
for the moment safe in his fastness, and it was evident that the
dragoons were not in a mind to desert their colors. By this time it
would be known at Dudhope that he was near, and the sooner he arrived
the more chance of finding his wife. It was possible that Livingstone
had garrisoned Dudhope, and that if he rode forward alone he might be
snared. But this risk he would take in the heat of his mind, and
summoning Grimond with a stern gesture to his side, and ordering the
soldiers to follow at a slight interval and to surround the castle, he
galloped forward to the door. The place appeared to be deserted, but
at last, in answer to his knocking, as he beat on the door with the
hilt of his sword, it was opened by an old woman who seemed the only
servant left, and who was driven speechless by her master's unexpected
appearance and his wild expression. For, although John Graham had been
a stern as well as just and kind master, and although he had often
been angry, and was never to be trifled with, no one had ever seen him
before other than cool and calm, smooth-spoken and master of himself.

"What means it, Janet, or whatever be your name, that the door was
barred and I kept standin