ooked to Montaiglon,
but got no answer in the Frenchman's face; he looked over Montaiglon's
shoulder at Olivia, standing yet in the tremour of her fears, and his
eye lingered. It was no wonder, thought Count Victor, that it lingered
there.

"Come, come, I'm waiting my answer!" cried Doom, in a voice that might
have stirred a corps in the battlefield.

"I thought there wasna mair than ane," said Mungo.

"But even one! At this time of morning! And is it your custom to open to
a summons of that kind without finding out who calls?"

"I thought I kent the voice," said Mungo, furtively looking again at
Olivia.

"And whose was it, this voice that could command so ready and foolish an
acquiescence on the part of my honest sentinel Mungo Boyd?" asked Doom
incredulously.

"Ye can ask that!" replied the servant desperately; "it's mair than I
can tell. All I ken is that I thought the voice fair-spoken, and I alloo
it was a daft-like thing to do, but I pu'ed the bar, I had nae sooner
dune't nor I was gripped by the thrapple and kep' doon by a couple o'
the blackguards that held me a' the time the ither three or four were--"

Doom caught him by the collar and shook him angrily.

"Ye lie, ye Fife cat; I see't in your face!"

"I can speak as to the single voice and its humility, and to the sudden
plucking forth of this gentleman," said Count Victor quietly, at sea
over this examination. But for the presence of the woman he would have
cried out at the mockery of the thing.

"You must hear my explanation, Montaiglon," said Doom. "If you will come
to the hall, I will give it. Olivia, you will come too. I should have
taken your hints of yesterday morning, and the explanation of this might
have been unnecessary."

Doom and his guest went to the _salle_; Olivia lingered a moment behind.

"Who was it, Mungo?" said she, whisperingly to the servant. "I know by
the face of you that you are keeping something from my father."

"Am I?" said he. "Humph! It's Fife very soon for Mungo Boyd, I'm tellin'
ye."

"But who was it?" she persisted.

"The Arroquhar men," said he curtly; "and that's all I ken aboot it,"
and he turned to leave her.

"And that is not the truth, Mungo," said Olivia, with great dignity. "I
think with my father that you are telling what is not the true word,"
and she said no more, but followed to the _salle_.

On the stairway Count Victor had trod upon the button he had drawn from
the skirts of his assailant; h