"He cannot be here," said one of the men. "I told you that he could not be here. Don't you see plainly that he could not have come in here without awaking Inverawe. We lose time here. We had better on after our friends." "Depend on't he has run up Loch Etive side," said another of them. "What are all these wet foot-steps on the floor?" said the first of them that spoke. "He might have been here without Inverawe's knowledge." "Don't you see that Inverawe has had a feast, and that wine, and water, and whisky too, have been flowing in gallons in all directions?" said the second man. "See there is a large pool of lost liquor. I verily believe that some of these footsteps are my own, made this moment, by walking accidentally through it. I tell you he never could have come here." "It is true that I have had a feast," said Inverawe, carelessly, "as you may see from the wrecks of it that still remain on the table." "I told you so," said the second man. "We only lose time here. If you had only been guided by my counsel we might have been hard at his heels by this time, as well as the rest." "Haste, then, let us go!" said the first man. "Away! away!" cried his companions, and, without waiting for farther parley, they rushed out of the hall, and Inverawe heard with some satisfaction, their footsteps hurrying down stairs, and the shouts which they yelled forth after their companions, growing fainter and fainter, until they were altogether lost in the direction of Loch Etive. Inverawe was no sooner certain that they were fairly gone, without all risk of returning, than he proceeded, in the first place, to secure the outer door of the castle, and then returning to the hall, he went to the trap-door, and calling softly to the man concealed below it, he desired him to aid him in raising it, by applying his strength to force it upwards, and thus their united strength enabled them speedily to open it, and to lift it up. "Come forth now, unfortunate man," said Inverawe; "your pursuers are gone." "I come," said the stranger, in his husky hoarse voice, and as he raised himself from the trap-door, his haggard countenance, and his blood-shot eyes, that glared with the horror of his situation, half seen as they were through his long moist locks, chilled Inverawe's very heart as he looked upon him. "Now, sir," said Inverawe, "you are safe for the present, your pursuers have passed on." "Thanks! thanks!" replied the man; "I know not how sufficiently to thank you."