ess altogether of this mortal world of
strife and terrors; the sea had a golden roadway. A lantern light bobbed
on the outer edge of the rock, shining through Olivia's bower like a
will-o'-the-wisp, and he could hear in low tones the voices of Doom and
his servant. Out at sea, but invisible, for beyond the moon's influence,
a boat was being rowed fast: the beat of the oars on the thole-pins came
distinctly. And in the wood behind, now cut off from them by the riding
waves, owls called incessantly.

It was like a night in a dream, like some vast wheeling chimera of
fever--that plangent sea before, those terrors fleeing, and behind, a
maiden left with her duenna in a castle demoniac.

Doom and Mungo came back from the rock edge, silently almost, brooding
over a mystery, and the three looked at each other.

"Well, they are gone," said the Baron at last, showing the way to his
guest.

"What, gone!" said Montaiglon, incapable of restraining his irony. "Not
all of them?"

"O Lord! but this is the nicht!" cried the little servant who carried
the lantern. "I micht hae bided a' my days in Fife and never kent what
war was. The only thing that daunts me is that I should hae missed my
chance o' a whup at them, for they had me trussed like a cock before I
put my feet below me when they pu'd me oot."

He drew the bars with nervous fingers, and seemed to dread his master
as much as he had done the enemy. Olivia had come down to the corridor;
aloft Annapla had renewed her lamentations; the four of them stood
clustered in the narrow passage at the stair-foot.

"What for did ye open the door, Mungo?" asked Doom,--not the Doom of
doleful days, of melancholy evenings of study and of sour memories, not
the done man, but one alert and eager, a soldier, in the poise of his
body, the set of his limbs, the spirit of his eye.

"Here's a new man!" thought Montaiglon, silently regarding him. "Devilry
appears to have a marvellous power of stimulation."

"I opened the door," said Mungo, much perturbed.

"For what?" said Doom shortly.

"There was a knock."

"I heard it. The knock was obvious; it dirled the very roof of the
house. But it was not necessary to open at a knock at this time
of morning; ye must have had a reason. Hospitality like that to
half-a-dozen rogues from Arroquhar, who had already made a warm night
for ye, was surely stretched a little too far. What did ye open for?"

Mungo seemed to range his mind for a reply. He l