"My name is plain Duff, I'll have ye to know," replied Jim, catching his friend playfully by the throat.
For some reason they both felt a thrill of high spirits go through them and it showed in their speech and actions. If Jim had stopped to consider he would have remembered that high spirits at a time like this always indicated some unusual peril ahead. It had been so on many previous occasions and this peculiar thrill of every fiber was the distillation of the very wine of danger. They had reached the middle of the clump of bushes; Jim leading, when our friend received the shock of his young life, and it startled him through and through.
CHAPTER XIX
THE CASTLE
Jim's hand as he had crawled forward, clutched the foot of a man who was in hiding in this selfsame clump of bushes. James acted instantly, realizing instinctively the danger, the extreme danger of the situation. He leaped forward for the man's throat and to his utter surprise the body lay perfectly limp.
"Great Heavens!" he exclaimed, "this man is dead."
"It's the poor fellow from the gully, below," said the engineer, after an examination; "there's no mistaking him."
"But how did he get here?" questioned Jim, with suppressed excitement and alarm.