will have a lantern. Just you keep quiet unless I give ye a cry.
I've planned it a' out, and we're ready for them."

Dougal disappeared, and Dickson and Heritage, with their boots tied
round their necks by their laces, crept out to the upper landing.
The hall was impenetrably dark, but full of voices, for the wind was
talking in the ceiling beams, and murmuring through the long passages.
The walls creaked and muttered and little bits of plaster fluttered down.
The noise was an advantage for the game of hide-and-seek they
proposed to play, but it made it hard to detect the enemy's approach.
Dickson, in order to get properly wakened, adventured as far
as the smoking-room. It was black with night, but below the door of
the adjacent room a faint line of light showed where the Princess's
lamp was burning. He advanced to the window, and heard distinctly a
foot on the grovel path that led to the verandah. This sent him back
to the hall in search of Dougal, whom he encountered in the passage.
That boy could certainly see in the dark, for he caught Dickson's
wrist without hesitation.

"We've got Spittal in the wine-cellar," he whispered triumphantly.
"The kitchen door was barricaded, and when they tried it, it wouldn't open.
'Bide here,' says Dobson to Spittal, 'and we'll go round by another door
and come back and open to ye.' So off they went, and by that time
Peter Paterson and me had the barricade down. As we expected,
Spittal tries the key again and it opens quite easy. He comes in
and locks it behind him, and, Dobson having took away the lantern,
he gropes his way very carefu' towards the kitchen. There's a point
where the wine-cellar door and the scullery door are aside each other.
He should have taken the second, but I had it shut so he takes the first.
Peter Paterson gave him a wee shove and he fell down the two-three