When he reached it he placed his fore feet high upon a cross bar and gazed through, evidently on the lookout in a friendly, not an inimical way. Then he turned and loping near to the house disappeared in the direction of the stable, and this gave Jim and the engineer their chance to reach the coveted clump of bushes. "He is surely looking for someone," said the engineer, as they straightened up in their shelter of overhanging leaves. "Lucky he wasn't hunting for us," remarked Jim. "It would have been all off if he had." "Or we would be off," put in the engineer frankly. "Come on, John; let's crawl through this clump and see what is on the other side," ordered Jim. "Lead on, MacDuff," assented Berwick. "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. "That's simple," replied his friend. "These bandits who live here, brought the body up at the first convenient chance and left it here for the time being, but they may come for it any time so we had better be on the lookout for trouble. "We don't have to; it is always on the lookout for us," replied Jim briefly and with truth. "There's someone directly ahead," remarked the engineer, "or I miss my guess." "Just wait a minute, Chief," said Jim; "I want to size up this castle before making the next move." "You don't observe any anxiety on my part to go anywhere do you, Captain?" questioned Berwick. "Quiet as a kitten," replied Jim with a grin, and then without any further remarks, he crawled past the form of the unfortunate man, until he reached the edge of the copse, and gathering a low bush around his shoulders so that he appeared to be a part of the natural scenery himself, he observed the castle closely with the eye of a trained scout.