"It will entangle me.'

"Not a bit of it," said Dickson cheerfully. "You see, Mem,
they've clean lost track of the jools, and nobody knows where
they are but me. I'm a truthful man, but I'll lie like a packman
if I'm asked questions. For the rest, it's a question of kidnapping,
I understand, and that's a thing that's not to be allowed. My advice
is to go to our beds and get a little sleep while there's a chance of it.
The Gorbals Die-Hards are grand watch-dogs."

This view sounded so reasonable that it was at once acted upon.
The ladies' chamber was next door to the smoking-room--what had been
the old schoolroom. Heritage arranged with Saskia that the lamp was
to be kept burning low, and that on no account were they to move
unless summoned by him. Then he and Dickson made their way to the
hall, where there was a faint glimmer from the moon in the upper
unshuttered windows--enough to reveal the figure of Wee Jaikie on
duty at the foot of the staircase. They ascended to the second floor,
where, in a large room above the hall, Heritage had bestowed his pack.
He had managed to open a fold of the shutters, and there was sufficient
light to see two big mahogany bedsteads without mattresses or
bedclothes, and wardrobes and chests of drawers sheeted in holland.
Outside the wind was rising again, but the rain had stopped.
Angry watery clouds scurried across the heavens.

Dickson made a pillow of his waterproof, stretched himself on one of
the bedsteads, and, so quiet was his conscience and so weary his body
from the buffetings of the past days, was almost instantly asleep.
It seemed to him that he had scarcely closed his eyes when he was
awakened by Dougal's hand pinching his shoulder. He gathered that