The fog was rifted by the wind so that he could see with sufficient clearness the outlines and details of the high brick castle. As has been said, they were on the north side, where there was the large stained glass window that lit the grand staircase, and now shone with a faint radiance. There was also a line of broad mullioned windows, their round, thick glass in circles of lead, gleaming like opals when the full light was within, but now cold and ghostly in the dimness of the fog-laden night. These windows were some twenty feet from the ground, and Jim's keen eyes regarded them with special interest. Further along and somewhat lower were the smaller windows, evidently of the kitchen, and near the ground several more heavily barred. After a few minutes of observation, Jim returned to his companion, his mind fully made up. "Well, James, what do you make of it?" queried his friend. "I'll make more of it a little later," replied Jim; "I'm going to move on the enemy, right away." "Very well, I'm ready," remarked the engineer. "When you can't go back with safety or stand still it is a good scheme to go forward." "But I want you to wait here, John," explained Jim; "there's much less chance with two than one. In case I need you I'll yell." "If you don't happen to be gagged," replied his friend cheerfully. "Never you fear about that," returned Jim confidently; "there's none of that gang that is going to get me so quick but that there will be something doing on my part first." "Nothing surer than that," replied the engineer heartily. "Luck to you, Jim," gripping his hand, "and I'll be in reserve here when you want me." "Good old Chief," said Jim, returning his friend's grip; "now I'm off." Without any further words Jim crawled to the edge of the thicket, leaving John Berwick in the grewsome company of the dead man, but Berwick took up a position where he could see the tall, shadowy figure of James Darlington as he advanced straight toward the stronghold of this gang of unmerciful pirates. "That boy has them all beaten when it comes to unqualified nerve," muttered the engineer to himself; "the best fellow in an emergency I ever saw, and that's something." James would have felt proud to have heard his friend's eulogy, but his mind was fully taken up with the problem he was facing. He must get into that house without delay; to stand long where he was meant sure detection in a short time. If he had only possessed his revolver, he would have felt more comfortable. "Have to get or borrow a gun from one of those chaps inside there," he mused with shrewd humor. He was now directly below the long mullioned window, but as he was not a little birdie with wings, he could not fly, and had to climb. "Here's luck," he said; "this vine is bigger than I thought it could be. Takes California to grow a vine like a tree and that's a fact."