over hand,
swift as an ape, he scaled the tottering stairway. Strong arms received,
embraced, and helped him; he was lifted and set once more upon the
earth; and with the spasm of his alarm yet unsubsided, found himself, in
the company of two rough-looking men, in the paved back-yard of one of
the tall houses that crowned the summit of the hill. Meanwhile, from
below, the note of the bell had been succeeded by the sound of vigorous
and redoubling blows.

"Are you all out?" asked one of his companions; and as soon as he had
babbled an answer in the affirmative, the rope was cut from the top
round, and the ladder thrust roughly back into the garden, where it fell
and broke with clattering reverberations. Its fall was hailed with many
broken cries; for the whole of Richard Street was now in high emotion,
the people crowding to the windows or clambering on the garden walls.
The same man who had already addressed Challoner seized him by the arm;
whisked him through the basement of the house and across the street upon
the other side; and before the unfortunate adventurer had time to
realise his situation, a door was opened, and he was thrust into a low
and dark compartment.

"Bedad," observed his guide, "there was no time to lose. Is M'Guire
gone, or was it you that whistled?"

"M'Guire is gone," said Challoner.

The guide now struck a light. "Ah," said he, "this will never do. You
dare not go upon the streets in such a figure. Wait quietly here and I
will bring you something decent."

With that the man was gone, and Challoner, his attention thus rudely
awakened, began ruefully to consider the havoc that had been worked in
his attire. His hat was gone; his trousers were cruelly ripped; and the
best part of one tail of his very elegant frock-coat had been left
hanging from the iron crockets of the window. He had scarce had time to
measure these disasters when his host re-entered the apartment and
proceeded, without a word, to envelop the refined and urbane Challoner
in a long ulster of the cheapest material and of a pattern so gross and
vulgar that his spirit sickened at the sight. This calumnious disguise
was crowned and completed by a soft felt hat of the Tyrolese design and
several sizes too small. At another moment Challoner would simply have
refused to issue forth upon the world thus travestied; but the desire to
escape from Glasgow was now too strongly and too exclusively impressed
upon his mind. With one haggard g