[CHAPTER VII
THE LOOKING-GLASS]
GILBERT hurried forward as he saw Lady Eliza.
‘The pigeons are safe,’ he said. ‘I have locked up two of these rascals in the dovecot. The third, I fear, has got away.’
‘Indeed, sir, I am vastly obliged to you,’ exclaimed she. ‘You seem considerably hurt.’
‘He has had a stiff fight, ma’am,’ said Captain Somerville.
‘You are very good to have protected my property,’ she continued, looking at the two gentlemen. ‘All I can do now is to send for the police from Kaims, unless the dovecot is a safe place for them until morning.’
‘Young Stirk has gone to Kaims with my carriage,’ said Somerville, ‘for the door is not very strong, and I fancy your men have no wish to watch it all night.’
‘It seems,’ said Lady Eliza, turning to Speid, ‘that I have only to be in a difficulty for you to appear.’
Her voice was civil, and even pleasant, but something in it rang false. Gilbert felt the undercurrent instinctively, for, though he had no idea of her real sentiments towards himself, he recognised her as a person in whose doings the unexpected was the natural.