idnight--when, as the clocks were striking twelve, and an early
chanticleer was crowing for the morn, Edie was awakened by some
mysterious sounds--sounds as of something bumping against the walls of
the house outside.

CHAPTER VI.

AN UNWELCOME VISITOR.

She listened. Yes, it was so. Distinctly she heard something knock
against the wall outside and underneath her window.

Her first thought was to arouse her brother. "But he must be so
tired," she said; so she decided to awaken Mansy instead.

The good woman was sleeping in the room next to Edie's, so that it
would not be very difficult for the little maiden to go to her.

Edie sprang from her bed, her heart beating fast, and was creeping
along to Mansy's room, when, noticing the moon shining brightly, she
thought she would look out and see if she could discover what had
bumped against the wall. Just now everything was very quiet.

Cautiously, therefore, she peeped out of her window. No one was to be
seen, and the water in the moonlight looked very peaceful and still.
But just underneath was a boat--the very boat, as it seemed to her,
that Alfy had used that evening.

"Oh, I expect that boy from Mr. Daw's brought it back," she said; "that
is all. How foolish of me to be frightened. I expect he got another
boat and rowed this one back, and has now returned. I hear no sound
down below. He must have gone. It was very kind of him to bring the
boat. I don't think I need wake Mansy now. Everything seems very
quiet."

So the little maiden crept back to bed, and secure in the idea that she
had solved what had seemed to her something of a mystery, she was soon
sound asleep again.

But in the early morning, when the busy-minded Mansy, anxious to get
forward with the work of the day, descended to the kitchen, what was
her amazement and horror, to discover a man lying at full length, and
fast asleep, on the table.

Her first impulse was to seize the handy broom, and either sweep him
away in some mysterious manner into the water, or else challenge him to
mortal combat; but wiser counsels prevailed. Mansy thought of a little
plan; and her worthy face looked quite knowing as, chuckling to
herself, she hastily removed all the food from the room, and then
carefully locked the door from the outside.

"Now, there is my gentleman safe and sound," she said. "If he gets out
of the window he falls into the water and is drownded; while o' course
we must see t