and would take prompt steps to find and rescue me. Else, I must be held a prisoner in the Stone House, till the seaman Blunt made port. I was then to be put aboard his ship and taken overseas. My uncle’s assumption was—unless he purposed more particularly to instruct Blunt regarding the disposal of me—that I could not possibly return during his father’s lifetime; though by entail I might be master of Rogues’ Haven, I took it that the gentleman by then would be in complete enjoyment of his father’s private fortunes, and would set me at defiance, if ever I returned; but I believed that Charles Craike would so plan it that I should never return. Lying on the miserable bed, hearing the winds blow drearily about the house, I writhed at the thought that the man who had done my parents bitter hurt should have me in his toils. Was there hope from Roger Galt, gentleman of the road, hating Charles Craike? Though Galt might fret under the yoke, Craike was surely his master.

p. 90

Awhile I heard the folk of the house stirring below me; once I heard the stairs creak, and believed that Martin or the woman crept up to my door. Indeed, I fancied that I caught the p. 91sound of breathing by the door; I lay still, wondering whether they would come upon me secretly in the dark, and make an end of me. But it seemed that the man or the woman came only to be assured that I was not endeavouring to break gaol; as satisfied, the watcher crept presently down the stairs.

p. 91

But would they yet come upon me in the dark? At the thought I rose and set the stool, with pitcher and platter, against the door; the crash, if the door were opened, would surely rouse me. I could not lie awake all night; I could not for the weariness clouding my brain. I fell at last asleep; yet, such was the influence of my fears upon me that I woke repeatedly, believing that my enemies were in the room. At first I woke only to see moonlight leap white and spectral through the window, as the sack flapped in the wind; then to lie quaking in the darkness, hearing the gale, which was violent the night through; always when I woke I heard it hammering on the house; I heard the rats scurry, and bounce, and squeak beside my bed.

No one came in the night. I was awake by daybreak, and rose to stare out on drear grey fog; the gale had abated. All about the house the dank fog lay in the hollow; I could not see as far as the stone wall from my window. Looking p. 92about the mouldering room, I set my thought upon the trap-door through the ceiling; it was clouded with dust-weighted 

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