"I must not lose another hour."

She rang the bell, and began to dress herself as hurriedly as weakness would admit of.

"Are you up, Miss Margaret, dear?" said the housekeeper, anxiously, from the hall.

She unlocked the door, held it opened fearfully, and beckoned her to come in.

The old lady's first look was at the girl's face, at which she gasped.

Her next was at the window, from which a blinding ray and a cold current of air a.s.sailed her; at which she shrieked:

"Lord ha' mercy! How came that there?"

"Ask me nothing," shuddered Margaret. "I am going to have the affair sifted to the bottom."

"But why didn't you raise the house? Wasn't it a burglar?"

"No. I can tell you nothing about it until I have put myself under the protection of Mr. Davenport and the doctor."

She spoke quite evenly, but there was a suspicious wildness about her eyes which struck a new vein in the prolific brain of the housekeeper.

"Miss Margaret, deary! you didn't surely make that hole yourself?"

Margaret burst into vehement laughter. Her brain was so tried and over-strained that a touch might turn it. To ask her if she had done it!

And then, on the other hand, to think that Mrs. Chetwode should seem to be distrusting her sanity, like the others!

Down came the tears in a rushing torrent!

"My! She's in hysterics!" shrieked Mrs. Chetwode, catching the poor girl in her arms. "Don't, dear, don't!" shaking her vigorously. "Be quiet now, deary, love! Whisht! whisht!"

Wilder grew Margaret's sobs, shriller her laughter. She writhed herself out of Mrs. Chetwode's arms, and pointed to the door.

"You have left it open!" she gasped, "and the colonel will shoot me!

Shut it, for heaven's sake!"

Mrs. Chetwode locked the door, with a glance at her mistress, which said, as plain as eyes could say it:

"Poor thing! She is crazy!"

"Miss Margaret, dear, go back to your bed. You're not fit to be up at all to-day. When you feel better, we'll find out about this shutter business. Or may be you'd better come into my room. There's a dreadful draught here."

"I must go down to Dr. Gay," said Margaret, still hysterically. "Tell Symonds to have the carriage ready."

"Miss Margaret, lovey! I don't know that the colonel will like you to go out. I--I'm not sure that he'll let you.

"Is he in this house?"

"He's waited from ten o'clock, until now, nigh on four o'clock to see you when you should get up. He told me you weren't well."

"Mrs. Chetwode--oh, dear Mrs. Chetwode save me from that man! I must escape from Castle Brand without his knowledge."

"Let me send for Dr. Gay to come to you," she answered, uneasily.

"No, no!" moaned the over-tried girl. "My life is not safe here another night. I insist upon leaving Castle Brand."

Mrs. Chetwode walked to the window and employed herself in opening the shutter.

What she saw when the shutter was opened struck her dumb with surprise for some minutes.

A complete pane of gla.s.s had been removed, and set against the balcony railing. A glazier's diamond lay beside it; a chisel was dropped upon the farther end of the balcony; deep foot-prints were in the snow, and a blackened place before the window showed where the midnight watch had been kept.

"Good Lor'!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the old woman, "must have been a bold thief."

"It was Colonel Brand!"

Mrs. Chetwode gasped, eyed her suspiciously, backed a few steps, and took hold of the door handle.

"Poor thing!" she whispered to herself.

"Mrs. Chetwode, I told you last night to see that all the doors were locked. Did you?"

"Yes, Miss Margaret, dear! Yes."

"The library gla.s.s door?"

The housekeeper looked disconcerted.

"It went clean out of my mind, sure enough."

"Ha! That is how the watch was placed at my door."

"Good gracious! A watch at your door?"

"The colonel's sleuth-hound."

The housekeeper unlocked the door, rushed out, and went straight to Colonel Brand.

"Well, my good woman, you look disturbed," said that amiable thug, taking his cigar out of his mouth to blow a spiral curl of smoke at her; "have you been with Miss Walsingham, and is she as wild in her manner as she was last evening when I had the honor of escorting you both home from your walk?"

"Worse, sir, far worse; she's out of her mind complete as you may say.

And she's had a dreadful fright through the night."

"Ah! What is that?"

"Some rank rascal has tried to break in. It's an attempt at burglary, which didn't succeed, but it have made her wild like."

"An attempt at burglary? How very extraordinary!"