l interrupted. "It will
entangle me.'

"Not a bit of it," said Dickson cheerfully. "You see, Mem, they've
clean lost track of the jools, and nobody knows where they are but me.
I'm a truthful man, but I'll lie like a packman if I'm asked questions.
For the rest, it's a question of kidnapping, I understand, and that's a
thing that's not to be allowed. My advice is to go to our beds and get
a little sleep while there's a chance of it. The Gorbals Die-Hards are
grand watch-dogs."

This view sounded so reasonable that it was at once acted upon. The
ladies' chamber was next door to the smoking-room--what had been the
old schoolroom. Heritage arranged with Saskia that the lamp was to be
kept burning low, and that on no account were they to move unless
summoned by him. Then he and Dickson made their way to the hall, where
there was a faint glimmer from the moon in the upper unshuttered
windows--enough to reveal the figure of Wee Jaikie on duty at the foot
of the staircase. They ascended to the second floor, where, in a large
room above the hall, Heritage had bestowed his pack. He had managed to
open a fold of the shutters, and there was sufficient light to see two
big mahogany bedsteads without mattresses or bedclothes, and wardrobes
and chests of drawers sheeted in holland. Outside the wind was rising
again, but the rain had stopped. Angry watery clouds scurried across
the heavens.

Dickson made a pillow of his waterproof, stretched himself on one of
the bedsteads, and, so quiet was his conscience and so weary his body
from the buffetings of the past days, was almost instantly asleep. It
seemed to him that he had scarcely closed his eyes when he was awakened
by Dougal's hand pinching his shoulder. He gathered that the moon was
setting, for the room was pitchy dark.

"The three o' them is approachin' the kitchen door," whispered the
Chieftain. "I seen them from a spy-hole I made out o' a ventilator."

"Is it barricaded?" asked Heritage, who had apparently not been asleep.

"Aye, but I've thought o' a far better plan. Why should we keep them
out? They'll be safer inside. Listen! We might manage to get them in
one at a time. If they can't get in at the kitchen door, they'll send
one o' them round to get in by another door and open to them. That
gives us a chance to get them separated, and lock them up. There's
walth o' closets and hidy-holes all over the place, each with good
doors and good keys to them. Su