a soft bed on one side and some straw
on the boards of a loft on the other, one falls into temptation."

Clump went a heavy boot on the thick rug, and then another.

"Yes. Goodnight. Don't talk any more," came from the inner room.

"Not I," said Scarlett's neighbour; and there was the sound of a
sword-belt being unbuckled, and the weapon laid across a table.

Then, as Scarlett stood there, hot and indignant, he heard the soft
sound of stockinged feet crossing the room, and directly after a faint
rattle at the door, followed by an angry exclamation, and then by a loud
rumbling noise.

"What are you doing?" came from Lil's chamber.

"Pushing something against the door--big table. There's no key."

"Oh!"

The table seemed to be followed by something else heavy, and directly
after the occupant of the room crossed to the bed, and it seemed to
Scarlett that he threw himself upon his knees for a few minutes.

Then he rose, sighed, and yawned.

"Oh, for dear old home again, and peace," he muttered, and threw
himself, all dressed as he was, upon the bed.

"By your leave, Dame Markham," he muttered again, with a sigh of
satisfaction. "If you knew how dog-tired this poor soldier is, you
would forgive me. Hah!"

There was a long deep sigh, and as Scarlett stood there so closely that
he could have laid his hand upon his enemy's head, he felt that he was
completely trapped, and that perhaps even to move was to ensure capture.

"What shall I do?" he asked himself. "It will be getting toward morning
soon;" and now the necessity for escaping at once seemed ten thousand
times more clear.

"He will come in search of me, for he will never think that the enemy
can be at the Hall, or if he does, he will come to try and save me,
thinking I am a prisoner, and there will be a battle here."

As he listened, trying hard to stifle his breathing and the throbbings
of his heart, which sounded so loud that he felt sure he would be heard,
the Parliamentary officer turned uneasily upon his bed, muttered
something about home, and then his breathing became regular and deep.

When Scarlett had started upon his expedition to see if the enemy were
near, and finding that they had taken possession of the Hall, determined
to make use of the secret passage and see how his mother fared, he knew
that everything depended upon quickness of movement, and that fighting
would be of no avail. So he had stripped off buff jerkin and gorget,
and