l the eccentricities of his host mustered before
him--his narrow state here with but one servant apparent, a mysterious
room tenanted by an invisible woman, and his coldness--surely far
from the Highland temper--to the Count's scheme of revenge upon the
fictitious Drimdarroch.

There was an awkward pause even the diplomacy of the Frenchman could not
render less uncomfortable, and the Baron fumbled with the weapon ere he
laid it down again on the table.

"By the way," said Count Victor, now with his mind made up, "I see no
prospect of pushing my discoveries from here, and it is also unfair that
I should involve you in my adventure, that had much better be conducted
from the plain base of an inn, if such there happens to be in the town
down there."

A look of unmistakable relief, quelled as soon as it breathed across his
face, came to the Baron. "Your will is my pleasure," he said quickly;
"but there is at this moment no man in the world who could be more
welcome to share my humble domicile.".

"Yet I think I could work with more certainty of a quick success from
a common lodging in the town than from here. I have heard that now and
then French fish dealers and merchants sometimes come for barter to this
coast and----"

The ghost of a smile came over Doom's face. "They could scarcely take
you for a fish merchant, M. le Count," said he.

"At all events common fairness demands that I should adopt any means
that will obviate getting your name into the thing, and I think I shall
try the inn. Is there one?"

"There is the best in all the West Country there," said Doom, "kept by
a gentleman of family and attainments. But it will not do for you to
go down there without some introduction. I shall have to speak of your
coming to some folk and see if it is a good time."

"_Eh bien!_ Remember at all events that I am in affairs," said
Montaiglon, and the thing was settled.

CHAPTER IX -- TRAPPED

It was only at the dawn, or the gloaming, or in night itself--and above
all in the night--that the castle of Doom had its tragic aspect. In
the sun of midday, as Count Victor convinced himself on the morrow of a
night with no alarms, it could be almost cheerful, and from the garden
there was sometimes something to be seen with interest of a human kind
upon the highway on the shore.

A solitary land, but in the happy hours people were passing to and fro
between the entrances to the ducal seat and the north. Now and then
b