to use force, and when the door
flew inward I almost landed in the lap of Marget Forbes. There she
was, bound to a rough seat, in the middle of the room, with a cravat
tied round the lower part of her face, to keep her silent. Gently but
swiftly I undid the gag, and after that cut the rough tow which bound
her to the seat. Being thus freed, she told me, with an agitation
which I tried to still, what had happened just before we came and on
the previous night.

Red Murdo, she said, when she could speak, had told her, with awkward
apologies, that he did not want to be unchivalrous but that he and his
men were called away for a little and that he must make siccar about
her custody, and no alarm giving, against his return. She had ceased
asking him why she had been forcibly abducted and what was intended for
her, because on that he would say nothing except, "You are quite safe,
my young lady, quite safe. We may be plain fellows, but we are
Highland men towards a woman, especially towards Mistress Marget Forbes
of Corgarff." "But how," I asked, for she had now somewhat recovered
her nerve and composure, and the agreeable surprise our arrival had
caused her, "how did you fall into their hands at the Dower House?"

"Oh," said she, "that was simple. You went out to reconnoitre, and,
hearing in the stillness, words and a noise like a passage of swords, I
became anxious about you. Under this impulse I opened the front door
and stepped out a few yards when a Highland plaid fell round my head,
silencing me effectually before I could shout an alarm, and I was borne
swiftly away by two men. My astonishment was so great that I am not
sure if I attempted to resist until I was some distance from the Dower
House. Then two other men relieved my captors in carrying me, and by
stages, for I absolutely declined to walk a step, I was brought here
and placed in this room."

"Where you have been unable to give any alarm?"

"That you can see, and all I knew was that Red Murdo was the leader of
my captivity, because he grumbled about having been stabbed in the leg
and about losing his sword. 'What,' I asked, 'could he and his master,
the Black Colonel, want by spiriting me away?' But Red Murdo wouldn't
answer the question, and I haven't been able to answer it myself.
Somehow I have felt that no personal harm was intended me because my
captors, if not exactly friends, were not strangers, but men in some
relationship to our own peopl