es, I'll find what I'm looking for, Mr. Narkom; I'm certain of that,"
said Cleek quietly, the queer little one-sided smile travelling up his
cheek once more. "I don't wish to sound egotistical, but there are few
things can beat your humble when his mind's made up. Else how would I
have travelled back from the underworld into such a position of trust
and uniqueness as this? Only that a woman's eyes lit the way for me, and
a man's great heart opened the door--and the crook determined to become
the gentleman, and pitched into it forthwith all he was worth.
Cussed--that's me!"

"And _clean_! And with those two attributes Hercules was enabled to
clean out the Augean Stables and prove himself ready for anything that
came," supplemented Mr. Narkom, with a noisy sigh. "Cussed and clean!
That's your motto. I'll back it every time.... Now, then, to business.
We've thrown enough bouquets at each other to last for a lifetime!
There's a dickens of a cipher case which is tying me into knots at
present, so I need all my faculties to untie myself again! Here are the
facts, Cleek. Nothing much, but you will make more than I can of them;
so here goes."

And so it came about that when Cleek left the offices in Scotland Yard
that afternoon, and strolled leisurely down toward his diggings in
Clarges Street, he was in possession of the full story, just as Maud
Duggan had told it to Mr. Narkom, and had gleaned therewith one or two
incidental conclusions upon his own account.

The journey to Scotland was likely to prove a fruitful one. And he was
to see the gaunt crags of that most majestic and rugged country under
more interesting conditions than he had at first bargained for.

But _how_ interesting and how tragically enthralling, even Cleek himself
was not able to foresee.

CHAPTER III

THE CASTLE O' DREAMS

To say that Cragnorth--that little unknown village of the Highlands
which lies like an eagle's aerie upon the crest of the hills, scattering
its few dwelling-places like seed over the hillside and down into the
valley below--stood half-an-hour's distance from the station was to
underestimate the fact. For it took Cleek and Dollops and Miss Duggan
two mortal hours of driving in the station hack before they came in
sight of it.

And it was just as they reached a bend in the hill-road and came out
upon a deep ravine, moss-covered and still wreathed with the mists of
the morning, that Cleek saw Aygon Castle for the first ti