the spoiler coming after my little ewe lamb."

But Sandy's spirits rose as he cautiously crept up, to find that Jane's
window was closed; he could just distinguish that from the faint
glimmering of the glass. The robbers would gain no entrance, then,
there; upon that point he could feel happy, and, with a weight removed
from his mind, he stood thinking of what he should do.

He did not for a moment entertain a doubt but that it was Gurdon and his
friends come back at last, perhaps ready to force an entrance, and open
to murder as well as to rob. But Sandy's heart was glad within him--his
lassie was free of all complicity; and if they got at her now, it should
only be over his strong body. But he felt that there was no fear of
Jane being again deceived; the last occasion had been too plain an
unveiling of John Gurdon's character; so, hastily making up his mind as
to his proceedings, he crept from amongst the bushes on his hands and
knees, and set himself to try and discover where the nocturnal visitors
now were, previously to taking further steps to baffle their plot.

The gardener had not long to seek, for before he had advanced far, a
faint whispering told him where the enemy lay, while at the same moment
the snap of a fastening and the gliding up of a window told him that an
entrance had been effected.

Book 1, Chapter XXVII.

THE BURGLARY.

"The de'ils ha been quick about it," muttered Sandy; "and they've gone
through the libr'y window, while, if that door I broke open has been
mended again, it's a strange thing to me. What shall I do?--ring them
all up? No," he said, after a pause; "then perhaps we shouldn't catch
them, for before I could get round again from the bell, they'd have
slipped out of the window. No, we must catch them, for it strikes me
verra strongly that if this is Mr Jock Gurdon, I should like to see him
transported to the other side of the watter."

For a few moments Sandy McCray stood thoughtful and puzzling what to do.
He could easily have alarmed the burglars, for such they evidently
were; but then that was not sufficient--there must be a capture made.
But suddenly a bright thought struck him--he would run round to the
butler's pantry, and try and rouse whoever slept there. But did any one
sleep there? Gurdon's place had never been filled up, and it was most
likely that the footman and under-butler still kept their places in the
hall.

"I have it," muttered Sandy, at last; and set