With eager hands she tore the sheet from the bed, and, wrapping him in it, she lifted him in her arms and staggered into the night. Gavin came after her, speechless with fear, clutching tightly the skirts of her dress. So, fainting and staggering, Vara bore Cleg across the marsh and up to the little house of Sandyknowes. She was just able to put Cleg Kelly into the arms of Mirren Douglas and sink fainting on the floor. When she came to herself Tam Fraser and the doctor from Netherby were bending over her. "What was the maitter—wha hurt the laddie?" asked Tam Fraser. "The House! The terrible House!" was all that Vara could say. Cleg Kelly was not dead. The doctor reported him to be suffering from a severe concussion of the brain, which might probably prevent a return to consciousness for some days. A band of men hastily equipped themselves and set out for the house of Barnbogle. They stole up to the door of the kitchen. It stood open, as Vara had left it. The light streamed out upon the green foliage and the trampled grass. But inside there was only silence, and all around a wild scene of confusion. The skillet which Cleg had been burnishing lay upon the hearthstone. There was blood upon the stones of the floor where he had been thrown down, and again on the bed from which Vara had lifted him. But about all the house there was only silence. The blacksmith of the nearest village brought a forehammer, and with great difficulty he and his apprentice broke a way into the house itself through one of the barred upper windows. But the whole mansion within was entirely in order. The iron fronts of the safes in the hall had not been tampered with. The red iron door of the strong-room in the rock underground was close and firm—far beyond the art of Netherby smiths to burst open. It was considered, therefore, that the General must be from home, on one of his ever-recurring journeys, and that his servant Cleg had been attacked by the ruffians who had run off at the sound of the alarm raised by Vara. Yet it was thought somewhat strange that, as the men came back through the empty house, they should find an iron crowbar, stained with blood, lying at the top of the steps which led to the strong-room. ADVENTURE LVIII. WITHIN THE RED DOOR. Cleg hovered long between life and death. The Netherby doctor made his rounds twice a day in the direction of Sandyknowes in order to watch the case. Vara and Mirren Douglas waited unweariedly upon him. It seemed so strange a thing to them to see their lightsome, alert Cleg thus lie senseless, speechless, turning his head only a little from side to side occasionally, and keeping his eyes fixed steadfastly upon the ceiling. After the first night of stupor Cleg slept heavily and constantly for nearly ten days, without being able either to speak or so much as tell his own name.