'Jist bide till we're roon' the neuk and on to the stair,' said
Robert, now leading the way.

Betty watched them safe round the corner before she made for the
parlour, little thinking to what she had become an unwilling
accomplice, for she never imagined that more than an evening's visit
was intended by Shargar, which in itself seemed to her strange and
improper enough even for such an eccentric boy as Robert to
encourage.

Shargar followed in mortal terror, for, like Christian in The
Pilgrim's Progress, he had no armour to his back. Once round the
corner, two strides of three steps each took them to the top of the
first stair, Shargar knocking his head in the darkness against the
never-opened door. Again three strides brought them to the top of
the second flight; and turning once more, still to the right, Robert
led Shargar up the few steps into the higher of the two garrets.

Here there was just glimmer enough from the sky to discover the
hollow of a close bedstead, built in under the sloping roof, which
served it for a tester, while the two ends and most of the front
were boarded up to the roof. This bedstead fortunately was not so
bare as the one in the other room, although it had not been used for
many years, for an old mattress covered the boards with which it was
bottomed.

'Gang in there, Shargar. Ye'll be warmer there than upo' the
door-step ony gait. Pit aff yer shune.'