grazing, as it did so, the back of my hand. I remember, I put the
wound to my mouth, and stood for perhaps half a minute licking it

like a dog, and mechanically gazing behind me over the waste links
and the sea; and, in that space of time, my eye made note of a

large schooner yacht some miles to the north-east. Then I threw up
the window and climbed in.

I went over the house, and nothing can express my mystification.
There was no sign of disorder, but, on the contrary, the rooms were

unusually clean and pleasant. I found fires laid, ready for
lighting; three bedrooms prepared with a luxury quite foreign to

Northmour's habits, and with water in the ewers and the beds turned
down; a table set for three in the dining-room; and an ample supply

of cold meats, game, and vegetables on the pantryshelves. There
were guests expected, that was plain; but why guests, when

Northmour hated society? And, above all, why was the house thus
stealthily prepared at dead of night? and why were the shutters

closed and the doors padlocked?
I effaced all traces of my visit, and came forth from the window

feeling sobered and concerned.
The schooner yacht was still in the same place; and it flashed for

a moment through my mind that this might be the RED EARL bringing
the owner of the pavilion and his guests. But the vessel's head

was set the other way.
CHAPTER II - TELLS OF THE NOCTURNAL LANDING FROM THE YACHT

I returned to the den to cook myself a meal, of which I stood in
great need, as well as to care for my horse, whom I had somewhat

neglected in the morning. From time to time I went down to the
edge of the wood; but there was no change in the pavilion, and not

a human creature was seen all day upon the links. The schooner in
the offing was the one touch of life within my range of vision.

She, apparently with no set object, stood off and on or lay to,
hour after hour; but as the evening deepened, she drew steadily

nearer. I became more convinced that she carried Northmour and his
friends, and that they would probably come ashore after dark; not

only because that was of a piece with the secrecy of the
preparations, but because the tide would not have flowed

sufficiently before eleven to cover Graden Floe and the other sea
quags that fortified the shore against invaders.

All day the wind had been going down, and the sea along with it;
but there was a return towards sunset of the heavy weather of the

day before. The night set in pitch dark. The wind came off the
sea in squalls, like the firing of a battery of cannon; now and

then there was a flaw of rain, and the surf rolled heavier with the
rising tide. I was down at my observatory among the elders, when a

light was run up to the masthead of the schooner, and showed she
was closer in than when I had last seen her by the dying daylight.

I concluded that this must be a signal to Northmour's associates on
shore; and, stepping forth into the links, looked around me for

something in response.
A small footpath ran along the margin of the wood, and formed the

most direct communication between the pavilion and the mansion-
house; and, as I cast my eyes to that side, I saw a spark of light,

not a quarter of a mile away, and rapidly approaching. From its
uneven course it appeared to be the light of a lantern carried by a

person who followed the windings of the path, and was often
staggered and taken aback by the more violent squalls. I concealed

myself once more among the elders, and waited eagerly for the
newcomer's advance. It proved to be a woman; and, as she passed

within half a rod of my ambush, I was able to recognise the
features. The deaf and silent old dame, who had nursed Northmour

in his childhood, was his associate in this underhand affair.
I followed her at a little distance, takingadvantage of the

innumerable heights and hollows, concealed by the darkness, and
favoured not only by the nurse's deafness, but by the uproar of the

wind and surf. She entered the pavilion, and, going at once to the
upper storey, opened and set a light in one of the windows that

looked towards the sea. Immediately afterwards the light at the
schooner's masthead was run down and extinguished. Its purpose had

been attained, and those on board were sure that they were
expected. The old woman resumed her preparations; although the

other shutters remained closed, I could see a glimmer going to and
fro about the house; and a gush of sparks from one chimney after

another soon told me that the fires were being kindled.
Northmour and his guests, I was now persuaded, would come ashore as

soon as there was water on the floe. It was a wild night for boat
service; and I felt some alarm mingle with my curiosity as I

reflected on the danger of the landing. My old acquaintance, it
was true, was the most eccentric of men; but the present

eccentricity was both disquieting and lugubrious to consider. A
variety of feelings thus led me towards the beach, where I lay flat

on my face in a hollow within six feet of the track that led to the
pavilion. Thence, I should have the satisfaction of recognising

the arrivals, and, if they should prove to be acquaintances,
greeting them as soon as they had landed.

Some time before eleven, while the tide was still dangerously low,
a boat's lantern appeared close in shore; and, my attention being

thus awakened, I could perceive another still far to seaward,
violently tossed, and sometimes hidden by the billows. The

weather, which was getting dirtier as the night went on, and the
perilous situation of the yacht upon a lee shore, had probably

driven them to attempt a landing at the earliest possible moment.
A little afterwards, four yachtsmen carrying a very heavy chest,

and guided by a fifth with a lantern, passed close in front of me
as I lay, and were admitted to the pavilion by the nurse. They

returned to the beach, and passed me a second time with another
chest, larger but apparently not so heavy as the first. A third

time they made the transit; and on this occasion one of the
yachtsmen carried a leather portmanteau, and the others a lady's

trunk and carriage bag. My curiosity was sharply excited. If a
woman were among the guests of Northmour, it would show a change in

his habits and an apostasy from his pet theories of life, well
calculated to fill me with surprise. When he and I dwelt there

together, the pavilion had been a temple of misogyny. And now, one
of the detested sex was to be installed under its roof. I

remembered one or two particulars, a few notes of daintiness and
almost of coquetry which had struck me the day before as I surveyed

the preparations in the house; their purpose was now clear, and I
thought myself dull not to have perceived it from the first.

While I was thus reflecting, a second lantern drew near me from the
beach. It was carried by a yachtsman whom I had not yet seen, and

who was conducting two other persons to the pavilion. These two
persons were unquestionably the guests for whom the house was made

ready; and, straining eye and ear, I set myself to watch them as
they passed. One was an unusually tall man, in a travelling hat

slouched over his eyes, and a highland cape closely buttoned and
turned up so as to conceal his face. You could make out no more of

him than that he was, as I have said, unusually tall, and walked
feebly with a heavy stoop. By his side, and either clinging to him

or giving him support - I could not make out which - was a young,
tall, and slender figure of a woman. She was extremely pale; but

in the light of the lantern her face was so marred by strong and
changing shadows, that she might equally well have been as ugly as

sin or as beautiful as I afterwards found her to be.
When they were just abreast of me, the girl made some remark which

was drowned by the noise of the wind.
"Hush!" said her companion; and there was something in the tone

with which the word was uttered that thrilled and rather shook my
spirits. It seemed to breathe from a bosom labouring under the

deadliest terror; I have never heard another syllable so
expressive; and I still hear it again when I am feverish at night,

and my mind runs upon old times. The man turned towards the girl