towards him, and
would befriend him. Did he tell you anything about me before I came?"

"Not a word," I replied.

"Oh," said the general carelessly, but with an evident expression of
relief, "I thought perhaps he might have said something of old times.
Well, I must go and look after him, or the servants will be frightened,
for he isn't a beauty to look at. Good-bye!"

With a wave of the hand the old man turned away from me and hurried
up the drive after this unexpected addition to his household, while I
strolled on round the high, black paling, peering through every chink
between the planks, but without seeing a trace either of Mordaunt or of
his sister.

I have now brought this statement down to the coming of Corporal Rufus
Smith, which will prove to be the beginning of the end.

I have set down soberly and in order the events which brought us to
Wigtownshire, the arrival of the Heatherstones at Cloomber, the many
strange incidents which excited first our curiosity and finally our
intense interest in that family, and I have briefly touched upon the
circumstances which brought my sister and myself into a closer and more
personal relationship with them. I think that there cannot be a better
moment than this to hand the narrative over to those who had means of
knowing something of what was going on inside Cloomber during the months
that I was observing it from without.

Israel Stakes, the coachman, proved to be unable to read or write, but
Mr. Mathew Clark, the Presbyterian Minister of Stoneykirk, has copied
down his deposition, duly attested by the cross set opposite to his
name. The good clergyman has, I fancy, put some slight polish upon the
narrator's story, which I rather regret, as it might have been more
interesting, if less intelligible, when reported verbatim. It still
preserves, however, considerable traces of Israel's individuality,
and may be regarded as an exact record of what he saw and did while in
General Heatherstone's service.

CHAPTER VIII. STATEMENT OF ISRAEL STAKES

(Copied and authenticated by the Reverend Mathew Clark, Presbyterian
Minister of Stoneykirk, in Wigtownshire)

Maister Fothergill West and the meenister say that I maun tell all I can
aboot General Heatherstone and his hoose, but that I maunna say muckle
aboot mysel' because the readers wouldna care to hear aboot me or my
affairs. I am na sae sure o' that, for the Stakes is a family weel
kenned and respecked on baith sides