per.

"Get me some supper then. I will take a look at my mare."

He went and saw that she was attended to--then set off for the castle
as fast as his legs would carry him. There was foul play beyond a
doubt!--of what sort he could not tell! If the man's report was
correct, he would go straight to the police! Then first he remembered,
in addition to the other reported absences, that before he left with
Davie, the factor and his sister had gone together for a holiday: had
this been contrived?

He mounted the hill and drew near the castle. A terrible gloom fell
upon him: there was not a light in the sullen pile! It was darksome
even to terror! He went to the main entrance, and rang the great bell
as loud as he could ring it, but there was no answer to the summons,
which echoed and yelled horribly, as if the house were actually empty.
He rang again, and again came the horrible yelling echo, but no more
answer than if it had been a mausoleum. He had been told what to
expect, yet his heart sank within him. Once more he rang and waited;
but there was no sound of hearing. The place grew terrible to him. But
his mother had sent him there, and into it he must go! He must at least
learn whether it was indeed abandoned! There was false play! he kept
repeating to himself; but what was it? where and how was it to be met?

As to getting into the house there was no difficulty. He had but to
climb two walls to get to the door of Baliol's tower, and the key of
that he always carried. If he had not had it, he would yet soon have
got in; he knew the place better than any one else about it. Happily he
had left the door locked when he went away, else probably they would
have secured it otherwise. He entered softly, and, with a strange
feeling of dread, went winding up the stair to his room--slowly,
because he did not yet know at all what he was to do. If there were no
false play, surely at least Mrs. Brookes would have written to tell him
they were going! If only he could learn where she was! Before he
reached the top he found himself very weary. He staggered in, and fell
on his bed in the dark.

But he could not rest. The air seemed stifling. The storm had lulled,
but the atmosphere was full of thunder. He got up and opened the
window. A little breath came in and revived him; then came a little
wind, and in the wind the moan of its harp. It woke many memories.
There again was the lightning! The thunder broke with a great bellowing
roa