A dead silence followed the close of this story, and all eyes, by a sort of common instinct, were turned towards the head of the table. At that moment, apparently from the terrace outside, came a sound of footsteps; and as they listened, every cheek grew suddenly pale, and a shudder crept round the assembly. The silence, however, was broken by a laugh from the young laird himself, who had been the only unmoved hearer of this last mysterious sound. "Why, there is my poor dog, Jupiter, out there! I had quite forgotten him. Let him in, some one!" No one stirred. The young chief looked round perplexed, and then rose himself and went to the window and opened it. As he did so, a huge shaggy mastiff bounded into the apartment, barking and capering for glee at seeing once again his master and hearing his voice. "Lie down, sir, quiet. Now, my men, what think you of this for a ghost? Thanks, Geordie, for your story. I remember now, I heard it when a child. Well, let's hope it will be a long while yet before Sir David's ghost is put to the trouble of a midnight walk." "Hist, my young master," said Tam; "it's ill jesting with the spirits." "What, Tam! one would think, now, by the way you speak, you would not dare to keep a solitary watch on the east terrace yourself." "I'd dare anything," replied Tam, "but--" "But you would rather not," replied Singleton, laughing. That laugh roused the spirit of Tam, who, though superstitious, was hardly a coward. "I never said that," he cried; "and if needs be I would do it, even to- night." "_Even_ to-night!" repeated Singleton. "What does the man mean? _Even_ to-night! I've a good mind to order you to the watch to-night for talking in riddles, sirrah!" "The watch here has always been a double one since I can remember," put in auld Geordie. "To my mind, one man ought to be able to watch as well as two, for the matter of that. And so, Tam, you mean you would be more comfortable with a comrade on the east terrace to-night. Perhaps Sir David would oblige you," he added, with a laugh. The soldier flushed angrily. "Ay, you may say that," he muttered, in an undertone; "it's more than likely Sir David _will_ be walking to-night." The boy caught these last words, and glanced quickly at the speaker. The meaning of these mysterious utterances suddenly flashed upon him. These men, then mistook him, their chief, their captain, for a coward! A crimson flush suffused his face, a flush of shame and anger, as he sprang to his feet. At that instant, and before he could utter a word, a bugle sounded at the gate, and there entered the hall a soldier whose appearance bore every mark of desperate haste. "Singleton," he cried, as he entered, "the king's friends are up! Glencairn musters his men at daybreak at Scotsboro', and expects the thirty men of the Singletons promised him, there and then!"