he door of the weaving-room.

"He went ben there a while syne to work a stent at your wedding quilt,
my bonnie lamb!

"Oh, I shall be the bridegroom.
And ye shall be the bride!"

With a sudden lift of hope, Elsie listened for the well-known "caa" of
her grandfather's shuttle. What if only he were there! What if all
the evil were quite untrue--the message that the hateful woman had
brought on her way to school--was he not her own blood, the father of
her mother? Surely he would save her! She moved toward the door with
the instinct to call for help strong within her.

But instantly Mad Jeremy, who had been reclining carelessly on the
sofa, motioned her away.

"Come nearer me," he commanded--"there, on the carpet by the fire,
where Jeremy can see ye. Ah, it's a grand thing to bring hame a bonnie
lass to her ain hoose--her hoose and mine!--

"I'se be the laird o't,
And she'll be the leddy;
She'll be the minnie o't,
And I'se be the daddy!"

Elsie made a dash for the windows, as if to leap out upon the lawn, but
the movements of the maniac were far faster. In the wink of an eyelid
he had laid aside his melodeon and caught her again by the wrist.

"Na, na," he said, "the like o' that will never, never do! There's nae
sense in that ava'! See!"

And leading her to the window he showed her the bars which her
grandfather had caused to be put up to guard his treasures. It was as
difficult to get out of Deep Moat Grange as to get in. That was what
it amounted to, and Elsie recognized it clearly and immediately.

"My grandfather!" she moaned, half crying with pain and disappointment.
"Where is he--I want to speak to my grandfather!"

Jeremy made a mysterious sign to command silence, pointed again over
his shoulder at the door of the weaving-room, and answered--

"He ben there. But Hobby was in nae guid temper the last time I spak'
wi' him. It is better to let him come to a while. He aye does that at
the weavin', when he is nettled at onything!"

"But I do not hear the shuttle," objected Elsie. "How am I to know he
is there--that you are speaking the truth?"

"Oh, he will hae broken a thread--maybe the silver cord--ye ken he was
rinnin' ane through and through, to gar the 'Elsie Stennis' stand oot
bonnie on the web! Ech, ay, the silver cord, the gowden bowl, the
almond blossom--Hobby could weave them a'--terrible grand at the
weavin' is Hobby. But he's an auld man! Maybe he will