ay in manacles.

"All this took little time in the acting. From the first summons which
disturbed my sleep to the last shadowy glimpse which I had of them
between the tree trunks could hardly have occupied more than five
minutes of actual time. So sudden was it, and so strange, that when the
drama was over and they were gone I could have believed that it was
all some terrible nightmare, some delusion, had I not felt that the
impression was too real, too vivid, to be imputed to fancy.

"I threw my whole weight against my bedroom door in the hope of forcing
the lock. It stood firm for a while, but I flung myself upon it again
and again, until something snapped and I found myself in the passage.

"My first thought was for my mother, I rushed to her room and turned
the key in her door. The moment that I did so she stepped out into the
corridor in her dressing-gown, and held up a warning finger.

"'No noise, she said,' Gabriel is asleep. They have been called away?'

"'They have,' I answered.

"'God's will be done!' she cried. 'Your poor father will be happier in
the next world than he has ever been in this. Thank Heaven that Gabriel
is asleep. I gave her chloral in her cocoa.'

"'What am I to do?' I said distractedly.

"'Where have they gone? How can I help him? We cannot let him go from
us like this, or leave these men to do what they will with him. Shall I
ride into Wigtown and arouse the police?'

"'Anything rather than that', my mother said earnestly. 'He has begged
me again and again to avoid it. My son, we shall never set eyes upon
your father again. You may marvel at my dry eyes, but it you knew as
I know the peace which death would bring him, you could not find it in
your heart to mourn for him. All pursuit is, I feel, vain, and yet some
pursuit there must be. Let it be as private as possible. We cannot serve
him better than by consulting his wishes.'

"'But every minute is precious,' I cried. 'Even now he may be calling
upon us to rescue him from the clutches of those dark-skinned fiends.'

"The thought so maddened me that I rushed out of the house and down to
the high road, but once there I had no indication in which direction to
turn. The whole wide moor lay before me, without a sign of movement
upon its broad expanse. I listened, but not a sound broke the perfect
stillness of the night.

"It was then, my dear friends, as I stood, not knowing in which
direction to turn, that the horror and responsibi