rebels of
whom he was a leader, was eating my heart out for love of her who called
by the sacred name of father the murdered man who lay here, to whom we
owed all our troubles. Was the day never to dawn? Was there never to
be peace between Tim and me? And was Kit, like some will-o'-the-wisp,
always to be snatched from my reach whenever I seemed to have found her
for my own?

I lingered beside his honour's grave till the daylight failed and the
waters of the lough merged into the stormy night, and the black gables
of Kilgorman behind me lost themselves against the blacker sky. The
weather suited my mood, and my spirits rose as the hard sleet struck my
cheek and the buffet of the wind sweeping the cliff-top sent me
staggering for support against the graveyard wall. It made me feel at
home again to meet nature thus, and I know not how long I drank in
courage for my sick heart that night.

At length I turned to go, before even it occurred to me that I had
nowhere to go. The _Gnat_ lay in the roadstead off Rathmullan, beyond
reach that night. The cottage on Fanad was separated from me by a waste
of boiling water. In Knockowen the bloodstains were not yet dry.
Kilgorman--yes, there was no place else. I would shelter there till
daylight summoned me to my post of duty on the _Gnat_. Looking back
now, I can see that destiny led my footsteps thither.

As I turned towards the house, I thought I perceived in that direction a
tiny spark of light, which vanished almost as soon as it appeared.
Still more remarkable, a faint glimmer of light appeared in a small
gable-window high up, where assuredly I had never before seen a light.
It may have been on this account or from old association that, instead
of approaching the place by the upper path, I descended the cliff and
made my way round to the cave by which so many of my former visits had
been paid. Fortunately the gale was an easterly one, so that the water
in the cave was fairly still, and I was able in the dark to grope my way
to the ledge on which the secret passage opened.

All was quiet when at last I reached the recess of the great hearth and
peered out into the dark kitchen. By all appearance no one had looked
into the place since I was there last a year ago and left my note for
Tim, and found the mysterious message which warned me of the plot to
carry off Miss Kit. I wondered if the former paper was still where I
left it, and was about to step out of my hidin