In a very few words, the trusty henchman explains what is the reason of his coming, and urges his master to hold himself in readiness to escape, should it be necessary. Sir Carnaby looks at him while he speaks as if he does not quite understand his hurried explanation; but when the attendant has finished, he looks around the room with an anxious air, and then says: ‘If it be so, Derrick, we must get off somehow as quickly as we can. This window, I think, looks towards the back of the house. Can you not manage to descend into the courtyard and get out our horses? Lead them down the bank of the stream towards that tall beacon by the dike. You must remember the place; we remarked it as we passed the mill on our journey here.’ ‘I remember the place, Sir Carnaby; but I am not going to make off there, and leave you alone here.’ ‘I shall be safe enough, I tell you, Derrick,’ said the baronet as he hastily motioned to the attendant to go. ‘I cannot come yet; I cannot; it is impossible.’ ‘I will wait below, then,’ is the stubborn reply of his servant, who is already half out of the window. ‘Derrick,’ says Sir Carnaby, laying his hand upon the attendant’s shoulder, ‘do what I tell you. I cannot come now; and if you wait below for me, as you say, we shall both be discovered. More lives than our own depend upon your obeying me at this moment. Go, as I tell you, and wait for me by the beacon; and I will join you as soon as I possibly can.’ The man clasps his master’s hand, and, with something like tears in his eyes, makes his way to the ground. The fugitive baronet has no emotion expressed on his countenance, for he fears not for himself; his thoughts are centred upon that black box which has now so strangely disappeared. With the broad-bladed knife still in his hand, he goes towards a corner of the room, kneels down, and appears to busy himself with the planking of the floor. * * * * *