At sight of her emotion Sholto resolved that if his fears should prove to be well founded, he would resign his honourable office.  For to abide continually in the castle, and hourly observe Maud Lindesay’s love for another, was more than his philosophy could stand.

In the meantime there was only his duty to be done.  So he saluted the Earl, and in a few words told him that which he had seen.  But the soul of William Douglas was utterly devoid of suspicion, both because he held himself so great that none could touch him, and also because, being high of spirit and open as the sky, he read into the acts of others his own straightforwardness and unsuspicion.

The Earl rose smilingly, declaring to Margaret that to-morrow he would hang every dog and puppy in Galloway on the dule tree of Thrieve, whereupon the child began to plead for the life of this cur and that other of her personal acquaintances with a tearful earnestness which told of a sorely jangled mind.

“Well, at least,” cried Earl Douglas, “I will not have such brutes prowling about my castle of Thrieve even in my sister’s dreams.  Captain Sholto, do you station a man of your guard in the angle of the staircase where it looks along each corridor.  Pick out your prettiest cross-bowmen, for it were not seemly that my guests should be disturbed by the rude shots and villanous reek of the fusil.”

Sholto bowed stiffly and waited the further pleasure of his master.  Then the two young men went out without Maud Lindesay having uttered a word, or manifested the least surprise at the advancement which had befallen the heir of the master armourer of Carlinwark.

As soon as the door had closed upon the two maidens, the Earl turned a face suddenly grave and earnest on his young captain of the guard.

“What think you,” he said, “was this appearance real?”

“Real enough to leave these upon the floor,” answered Sholto, pointing to sundry gouts and drops of blood upon the turret stairs.

The Earl took the lamp from his hand and earnestly scrutinised each step in a downward direction.  The spots ran irregularly as if the wounded beast had shaken his head from side to side as he ran.  They turned along towards the corridor where at the first alarm Sholto had found the Earl, and in the very midst of it abruptly stopped.  While Sholto and William Douglas were examining the floor, they both looked over their shoulders, uneasily conscious of a regard upon them, as if some one, unseen himself, had been looking down from behind.

“Do you place your men as I told you,” said the Earl, abruptly, “and bring me a truckle bed out of the guardroom.  I shall remain in this closet till morning.  But do you keep a special lookout on the floor above, that the repose of my sister and her friend be not again disturbed.”