o knowledge, for the body was not discovered.

Time after time I searched the wood alone, on the pretense of shooting
pigeon, but discovered nothing. When not having sport on my uncle's
property, I joined various parties in the neighborhood, not because
Scotland at that time attracted me, but because I desired to watch
events.

Chater, as soon as he recovered, left the hospital and went south--to
London, I ascertained--leaving the police utterly in the dark and filled
with suspicion of the fugitives from Rannoch.

I longed to know the whereabouts of Muriel, hoping to gain from her some
information regarding their visitor who had so nearly escaped with his
life. That she was aware of the object of his visit was plain from the
statements of the servants, all of whom had been left without either
money or orders.

One day I called at the castle, the front entrance of which I found
closed. Gilrae, the owner, had come up from London, met his factor
there, and discharged all the late tenant's servants, keeping on only
three of his own who had been in service there for a number of years.
Ann Cameron, a housemaid, was one of these, and it was she whom I met
when entering by the servants' hall.

On questioning her, I found her most willing to describe how she was in
the corridor outside the young mistress's room when Mr. Leithcourt
dashed along in breathless haste with the telegram in his hand. She
heard him cry: "Look at this! Read it, Muriel. We must go. Put on your
things at once, my dear. Never mind about luggage. Every minute lost is
of consequence. What!" he cried a moment later. "You won't go? You'll
stay here--stay here and face them? Good Heavens! girl, are you mad?
Don't you know what this means? It means that the secret is out--the
secret is out, you hear! We must fly!"

The woman told me that she distinctly heard Miss Muriel sobbing, while
her father walked up and down the room speaking rapidly in a low tone.
Then he came out again and returned to his dressing-room, while Miss
Muriel presumably changed from her evening-gown into a dark
traveling-dress.

"Did she say anything to you?" I inquired.

"Only that they were called away suddenly, sir. But," the domestic
added, "the young lady was very pale and agitated, and we all knew that
something terrible had happened. Mrs. Leithcourt gave orders that
nothing was to be told to the guests, who dined alone, believing that
their host and hostess had gone down to th