"Very well," Slyne concluded. "You've got to stand by me, for your own sake. I'm going to clinch matters with Sallie now. I'll announce our engagement at dinner. And immediately after dinner, she and I will go through the simple formality of a Scotch marriage—the worthy Mrs. M'Kissock has told me exactly how that can be done. The duchess will serve as one witness and I'll find another trust-worthy one. So that, all going well, the future Countess of Jura will be my lawful wife before any harm can come to her even from the 'white lady.' How does that strike you, eh?"
Captain Dove once more nodded polite agreement, and then looked very slowly round over one shoulder behind him. Slyne darted an involuntary glance in the same direction, and the fag-end of his cigarette fell from between nerveless fingers. A sudden pallor had overspread his tanned features, and something very like fear looked out of his eyes at the dim white form standing motionless just beyond the range of the lamplight.
Something very like fear looked out of his eyes.
CHAPTER XXII
THE PARTY OF THE FIRST PART
The shadow which had followed Captain Dove throughout his headlong flight from the hut on the cliffs had halted behind a bush at the edge of the wood while he lingered on the drawbridge to look back. As soon as he disappeared through the postern it flitted in the dusk across the gravel sweep in front of the castle, down into the dry moat and up again on the other side to a dark window: through which it gained easy ingress. And from that point, moving stealthily and with extreme precaution along the servants' passageways, it finally reached the housekeeper's quarters: where it stood listening intently for a few seconds before stepping in on Mrs. M'Kissock.