mistake! Good morning to
you, fair Palace of the Mists. What secrets are locked away in your
breast this morning, I wonder? Well, the night has passed tranquilly
enough to be sure, and that poor girl's terrors are stilled for the
present twelve hours, at any rate. I'll call there after breakfast and
scrape acquaintance with the lot of 'em, and judge if Mr. Robert
Fairnish is as good an observer as he is a talker."

And directly after breakfast that was exactly what he did do. Dollops,
armed with fishing-tackle and rods, received his marching orders in full
sight and sound of the inn's proprietor, knowing full well that within
five minutes of that time all that he had said and done would be ablaze
over the village, if he knew aught of that garrulous tongue of his.

"Be off with you, Dollops, and have a look at the river," said Cleek
from the shelter of the open doorway, as Dollops wended his way slowly
down the path to the wicket-gate which led out on to the road. "And see
what fish be in those waters. And if you don't come home with a
twenty-pounder, you're no angler, my lad!"

Dollops nodded and winked.

"Right you are, sir. As Mr. Asquith says, better 'wait and see.' And if
I don't bring 'ome a twenty-pounder, I'll bring 'ome a twenty-yarder, at
any rate. Fer I'm a fair dabster for eels every time."

"Sounds more like boa constrictors and the jungle than Highland rivers
and modest eels," retorted Cleek, laughing heartily. "And I'm paying a
call at the Castle and making my respects to Miss Duggan. So if I'm not
back for lunch, Dollops, don't fancy dreadful things and imagine I've
been consumed by the ghost-lady who haunts those lovely turrets and
towers, but come home and wait for me."

Dollops stopped in his tracks and sucked in his breath hard, and the
freckled brown of his Cockney countenance took on a queer drabbish
shade. He came back again along the path and stopped in front of his
master, mouth hanging open, eyes wide.

"Ghosts, sir! Did I 'ear you use the word _ghosts_?" he ejaculated with
a perceptible shiver. "Br-r-rh. I doesn't mind dealin' wiv any kind of
_'uman_--but wiv them in'uman species I'm a reg'lar goner! You ain't
arskin' me ter meet the lidy, are yer, sir?"

"Not yet, my boy," returned Cleek, with a laugh and a shake of the head.
"So you needn't worry yourself about that. And if I do ask, you may be
sure I'll be asking nothing that I would not--and will not--partake of
myself. Get along