’P.  S.—­The genuine Gianesi will probably arrive at Lairg to-morrow.  My unfortunate associate (whom I cannot sufficiently pity), relieved him of his ingenious machine en route, and left him, heavily drugged, in a train bound for Fort William.  Or perhaps Gianesi may come by sea to Loch Inver.  G.B.’

When Merton had read this elegant epistle aloud, Benson entered, bearing electrical apparatus which had been found in the book boxes abandoned by Blake.  What he had done was obvious enough.  He had merely smuggled in, in his book boxes, a machine which corresponded with that of the kidnappers, and had substituted its mechanism for that supplied to Mr. Macrae by Gianesi and Giambresi.  This he must have arranged on the Saturday night, when Merton saw the kilted appearance of Eachain of the Hairy Arm.  A few metallic atoms from the coherer on the floor of the smoking-room had caught Merton’s eye before breakfast on Sunday morning.  Now it was Friday morning!  And still no means of detecting and capturing the kidnappers had been discovered.

Out of the captive nothing could be extracted.  The room had been cleared, save for Mr. Macrae, Logan, and Bude, and the man had been interrogated.  He refused to answer any questions, and demanded to be taken before a magistrate.  Now, where was there a magistrate?

Logan lighted the smoking-room fire, thrust the poker into it, and began tying hard knots in a length of cord, all this silently.  His brows were knit, his lips were set, in his eye shone the wild light of the blood of Restalrig.  Bude and Mr. Macrae looked on aghast.

‘What are you about?’ asked Merton.

‘There are methods of extracting information from reluctant witnesses,’ snarled Logan.

‘Oh, bosh!’ said Merton.  ’Mr. Macrae cannot permit you to revive your ancestral proceedings.’

Logan threw down his knotted cord.  ‘I beg your pardon, Mr. Macrae,’ he said, ‘but if I had that dog in my house of Kirkburn—­’ he then went out.

‘Lord Fastcastle is a little moved,’ said Merton.  ’He comes of a wild stock, but I never saw him like this.’

Mr. Macrae allowed that the circumstances were unusual.

A horrible thought occurred to Merton.  ‘Mr. Macrae,’ he exclaimed, ’may I speak to you privately?  Bude, I dare say, will be kind enough to remain with that person.’

Mr. Macrae followed Merton into the billiard-room.

‘My dear sir,’ said the pallid Merton, ’Logan and I have made a terrible blunder!  We never doubted that, if we caught any one, our captive would be Blake.  I do not deny that this man is his accomplice, but we have literally no proof.  He may persist, if taken before a magistrate, that he is Gianesi.  He may say that, being in your employment as an electrician, he naturally entered the smoking-room when the electric bell rang.  He can easily account for his possession of a revolver,