"You will observe," he said, "that I do not for the present make you free of the passwords of the fortress. That in time will doubtless come; but in the meantime you will consider me as the governor of the castle, with discipline to maintain and my own secrets to keep. "Your nerves are strong, I trust?" he added, as they passed along gloomy passages through which the winds blew gustily as in some cave of the winds. "I'm no feared, gin that's what ye mean. I dinna ken aught aboot nerves," said Cleg. The General led him sideways down a flight of steps like one that goes stealthily into a cellar. They stopped before a door of massive iron painted red as a ship is before she is launched, and with the boltheads neatly picked out in white. "You observe," said the General, "this door is entirely of my own construction—aided, that is, by the most skilled smiths and mechanicians. You notice that the rock upon which the house is built is above our heads, and also that the door is really excavated in the stone itself. The iron frame upon which the door closes is mortised so deeply and completely into the solid rock all round, that to all intents and purposes it is practically one piece with it." The General pointed upwards to where a pale yellow gleam on the wall showed through a range of open and glassless but triply barred windows. "That," he said, "is _Cheiranthus Cheiri_, the common, yellow, or wild wallflower—of a different species from that of the garden and, in my opinion, a much finer plant. It is growing up there on the natural rock. So that I sleep, as sayeth the Scripture, 'within the living stone'!" Cleg looked at the General. His eyes seemed to grow darker, his figure became more erect. He continued every few minutes to refer to his watch. "This lock," he said, patting the keyhole, "is a highly ingenious union of a time-lock and the commoner letter combination lock. This morning I set the wards to open at two in the afternoon. So that it is now almost the time when we shall be able by the application of the key-word to open the door." He waited till the hands of the watch were opposite the hour. "Now!" he said, and stepped forward with some show of eagerness. The son of the burglar looked on with an interest which was almost painful. The General twirled the lock till he had brought five letters into line upon the dial. Then he inserted a little key which hung at his watch-chain. The massive red iron door, with its white-studded nails, swung back softly of its own accord. "A simple application of the principle of the water balance," he said, "thus—I open the lock, the water runs out and the door opens. In another five minutes the small cistern will fill of its own accord, and its weight will automatically close the door." Cleg hung back. He was not afraid, as he had said. But it seemed an uncanny place to be shut up in with only a madman for company. For Cleg had no doubt whatever that the General was out of his mind.