g! Find 'im,
sir?"

"Not yet. Oh! yes, I see! H'm. An _Italian_ all right. But what the
dickens is an Italian doing in these outlandish parts? And what
attraction can this perishing climate have for people of their ilk?
First the Lady of the Castle--and now this one. Unless.... Gad! there
might be some connection between 'em. Did you find any trace of Captain
Macdonald's handwriting, Dollops, to show me?"

"Yessir. Got a letter from 'is groom. Pinched it while we was a-talkin'.
'E showed it ter me, an' it's in me pocket. Summink wrong _there_,
Gov'nor?"

"So wrong that it will take more than a little explaining upon the
gentleman's part to put it right, my lad," responded Cleek in a whisper.
"I want to see that letter--badly. But it will have to wait until we are
back again at the house. And we'll be back in a jiffy. I'm satisfied
with the result of this night's work, in this direction, at any rate,
Dollops. You've done well--better than I could have done in similar
circumstances, and I'm downright pleased with you!"

"Lor', sir!" Dollops's voice was choking with joyful emotion. "If yer
goes and frows any more buckets at me, me chest will expand that big wiv
pride as they'll be spottin' us in a trick--strite they will! But I'm
glad I've made up for that footlin' mistyke over the lydy.... Gawd!
Look, Guv'nor--look! 'Oo's this a-comin' now? A woman--strike me pink,
if it ain't! And a lydy, too, from the cut of 'er. Now, 'oo in 'eavin's
nyme is _she_?"

His pointing finger brought Cleek's eyes instantly into the line of it,
and Cleek's face in the moonlight went suddenly pale. Dollops's eyes
rested on the grim mask of his face, palely visible from the moon's
rays. Then, at a sign from Cleek, he ducked his own head into the grass
and lay motionless, as his master had already done.

And by the sound of the soft footsteps, coming from somewhere behind
them, Cleek and his companion knew that the woman had reached the spot
where they were lying hidden under the great clump of gorse. Then a hand
reached down and touched Cleek softly upon the shoulder, and a woman's
voice spoke into the darkness with a tender inflection; and at sound of
it every nerve in his body tightened like wire for the tensity of the
situation.

"Ross," said the woman's voice tenderly, "Ross dear, get up--get up! I
followed you here to-night, because I--I wanted to talk with you-- I
_had_ to talk with you, to tell you something! I simply had to. But