There was but one way: I should have to take it from him by force. I, a woman, to all intents a slender stripling, would have to overmaster this veteran soldier! Well, I swore that I would do it. I would stop him in the highway, be the risk what it might. A long time I made plans, only to dismiss one after another until, at last, I hit upon something that seemed to give at least faint promise of success. I would stake all upon that. I could do nothing else. Slipping off my boots and coat and loosening my clothes slightly, I threw myself down upon the bed, having left directions that I should be called by four of the clock, and fell into a troubled sleep, full of anxious dreams born of my strange plight. I was up betimes, hastily dressed myself, and descended to the taproom. It was still dark. I knew that Sir Hugh would not be called until daybreak, that he would order breakfast ere he started, and that I should have probably an hour for my purposes. Bidding the sleepy maid to get me some kind of a meal, I went out to the stables to look to my horse. There were only two strange horses in the stalls, mine and this soldier's. Our saddles hung side by side on pegs. Awakening the ill-tempered hostler, I despatched him to the taproom to bring my saddle-bags and to draw a bucket of water for my horse. The instant he left the stable, I ran to Sir Hugh's saddle and drew the pistols from the holsters. They were a pair of heavy, serviceable, soldier-like weapons. I had a fit of trembling at the idea that they might be pointed at me. To unscrew the ramrods and draw the charges was the work of a few moments. I was in a desperate hurry and, fortunately, got the pistols, still primed, back in the holsters before the stable-boy came in. I tossed him a crown to relieve his spleen, and bade him get my horse ready quietly and bring him to the door of the inn within ten minutes. Then I went back, hastily partook of such breakfast as was set before me and paid my reckoning to the landlord, who had by this time come sleepily down the stairs. I left a message for Sir Hugh Richmond that, being nervous and having passed a sleepless night, I had risen early, breakfasted and had ridden on ahead, and would progress slowly that he might overtake me on the road at his convenience. Then I clambered to the saddle and rode away in a rare state of perturbation indeed. Coming to Cockenzie the day before, I had marked a place where the road bent sharply away from the shore, on account of the broken nature of the cliffs, and plunged for the space of a mile through a stretch of woodland. Such a place, if fortune gave me the least favour, would be most advantageous for my purposes. There I had determined to play the part of highwayman.