n, still tightly locked together, were dragged.

"We can't take you this time very well," said one of the grooms, who was
in the boat.

"Yes--yes," said another, "we must manage him somehow."

"I can wait till you return," said Norton quietly, for, relieved of his
burden, he was able to stretch first one, and then another, cramped
limb, and besides, now that he had a little time for thought, the
peculiarity of his position struck him. From the scattered words let
fall by the servants, he had learned that an attempt had been made to
rob the Castle, and that one, if not both the men he had rescued must be
connected with the attempt. But, while setting aside as absurd the idea
that he could in any way be connected with the matter, he was troubled
about the light in which Sir Murray's distempered mind would view his
presence in the park at such an hour, and he watched, with no little
anxiety, the putting off of the boat.

The man with the lanthorn still kept to the bank, and the bridge
remained deserted; so, after a few moments' thought, Philip Norton took
a firm hold of one of the cross-pieces of wood, drew himself safely up
from the water, and then, all dripping as he was, he climbed the pier
till he could reach the railings, and step over. Then, after a little
search, he found his hat, but his coat and vest, which he had left
hanging upon the rail, were, as we have seen, floating below, upon the
surface of the lake.

Meanwhile, his suspicious nature charged, as it were, with so much
inflammable matter, ready to blaze up at the contact of the slightest
spark, Sir Murray Gernon stood on the bank, waiting the return of the
boat. He had heard plainly enough the voice calling for help, and felt
sure that he recognised it. Hence, then, he watched eagerly the return
of the little skiff, from out of which were lifted the apparently
lifeless bodies of McCray and Gurdon.

"The villain! I half suspected him," exclaimed Sir Murray, as he had
the lanthorn held down, and recognised in the first the lineaments of
his late butler. "But quick--back, and bring off the other. Who was
it, do you know?"

"Couldn't tell, Sir Murray," said the groom in the boat. "Seemed to
know the voice, too."

"Back at once, then," said the baronet, his brow knitting as he tried to
solve this new riddle; for if it were, as he so strongly suspected,
Captain Norton, what was he doing in the park at that time of night?
Lady Gernon had made he