beneath him.  Beyond that again was the shining confluence of the sluggish river about the isle, and the dark line of the woods of Balmaghie opposite.  He had begun to meditate on the rapid changes of circumstance which had overtaken him, when suddenly a shrill and piercing shriek rang out, coming up through the castle beneath, again and again repeated.  It was like the cry of a child in the grip of instant and deadly terror.

Sholto’s heart gave a great bound.  That something untoward should happen on this the first night of his charge was too disastrous.  He drew his sword and set in his lips the silver call which depended from the chain of office the Earl had thrown about his neck when he made him captain of his guard.

His feet hardly touched the stone stairs as he flew downwards, and wings were added to his haste by the sounds of fear which continued to increase.  In another moment he was upon the last step of the turnpike and at the entrance of the corridor which led to the rooms of the little Lady Margaret and Maud Lindesay.

As Sholto came rushing down the steep descent from the roof he caught sight of a dark and shaggy beast running on all fours just turning out of the corridor, and taking the first step of the descent towards the floor beneath.  Without pausing to consider, Sholto lunged forward with all his might, and his sword struck the fugitive quadruped behind the shoulder.  He had time to see in the pale bluish flicker of the cruisie lamp that the beast he had wounded was of a dark colour, and that its head seemed immensely too large for its body.

Nevertheless, the thing did not fall, but ran on and vanished out of Sholto’s sight.  The young man again set the silver call to his lips and blew.  The next moment he could hear the soldiers of the guard clattering upward from their hall, and he himself ran along the corridor towards the place whence the screams of terror seemed to proceed.

CHAPTER XVI

SHOLTO CAPTURES A PRISONER OF DISTINCTION

He found that the noise came from the chamber occupied by the little Lady Margaret.  When he arrived at the door it stood open to the wall.  The child was sitting up on her bed, clothed in the white garmentry of the night.  Bending over her, with her arms round the heaving shoulders of the little girl, Sholto saw Maud Lindesay, clad in a dark, hooded mantle thrown with the appearance of haste about her.  The door of the next chamber also stood wide, and from the coverlets cast on the floor it was obvious that its occupant had left it hastily in order to fly to her friend’s assistance.

At the sound of hasty footsteps Maud Lindesay turned about, and was instantly stricken pale and astonished by the sight of the young man with his sword bare.  She cried aloud with a stern and defiant countenance, “Sholto MacKim, what do you here?”