and bars, and a wooden bench, for the temporary housing of such
desperate criminals as might be brought to the judgment of Rupert
Landale, Esquire, J.P. There he now disposed of the young offender who
snivelled piteously once more; and having locked the door and
pocketed the key, returned to his capacious arm-chair, where, as the
twilight waned over the land, he fell to co-ordinating his scheme and
gloating upon this unexpected turn of Fortune's wheel.

* * * * *

At that hour Madeleine, alone in her chamber, knelt before her little
altar, wrestling with the rebellion of her soul and besieging the
heavens with a cry for peace.

* * * * *

Sir Adrian having failed to hear aught of the _Peregrine_ at St. Malo,
filled with harassing doubt about its fate but clutching still at
hope--as men will, even such pessimists as he--stood on the deck of
his homeward bound ship, straining his eyes in the dusk for the coast
line.

* * * * *

In the peel, the beacon had just been lighted by Rene, in whose
company, up in his secluded turret, sat Captain Jack, smoking a pipe,
but so unusually silent as to have reduced even the loquacious
Frenchman to silence too. Below them Lady Landale, torn between the
dread of a final separation from the loadstar of her existence and the
gnawing anxiety roused in her bosom by Moggie's account of Mr.
Landale's watchfulness, was pacing the long book-lined room with the
restlessness of a caged panther.

* * * * *

On the road from Lancaster to Pulwick a posse of riding officers and a
carriage full of hastily gathered preventive men were trotting on
their way to the Priory.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE LIGHT GOES OUT

The light of Scarthey had not been shining for quite an hour over the
wilderness, when Lady Landale, suddenly breaking the chain of her
restless tramp, ran to the door and called for Moggie.

There was so shrill a tone of anguish in the summons that the young
woman rushed into the room in trembling expectancy: yet it was to find
her mistress alone and the place undisturbed.

"Moggie," said Lady Landale, panting and pressing her hands upon her
side as if in the endeavour to control the beating of her heart,
"something is going to happen; I know it, I feel it! Tell Captain
Smith that I must speak to him, here, at once."

Infected by the terror upon her mis