‘My own eyes, which saw him clamber from the barges to the garden-wall, saw the gleam of a candle as a door was opened to admit him, saw a light burning in one of the upper windows—evidently a signal.’ ‘_You_ saw?’ cried Lucille with widely-opened eyes. ‘How could you see? What could have taken you to the back of this house in the middle of the night?’ ‘Accident,’ answered Lucius, ‘or say rather Providence. I was out of spirits when I left you last night—your own manner, so unlike its usual kindness, disturbed me, and I had other agitating thoughts. I walked a long way down the Shadrack-road, and then returned by a back way, which brought me to the spelter-wharf opposite the garden. There the light in the upper story attracted my attention. I had heard from you that those upper rooms were never occupied. I waited, watched, and saw what I have just described.’ ‘I would sooner believe it a delusion of your senses than the Winchers could be capable of treachery,’ said Lucille. ‘Do not talk any more about my senses deceiving me,’ replied Lucius decisively. ‘You told me I was the fool of my own senses when I saw some one open the door of one of the upper rooms, and then hurriedly shut it. Now I am certain that I was not deceived—there was some one hidden in that room. Remember, Lucille, I say again there is no cause for fear. But there is foul play of some kind, and it is our business to fathom it. We are not children, to leave ourselves at the mercy of any scoundrel who chooses to plunder or assail us. I shall bring a policeman to watch in this house to-night, and set another to watch the outside.’ The slender figure which his arm had until now sustained slipped suddenly from his hold, and Lucille sank unconscious to the ground. CHAPTER VI. THE PLUNDER OF THE MUNIMENT CHEST. The sight of the girl he fondly loved lying senseless at his feet, with a white face and closed eyelids, filled Lucius Davoren with unspeakable agony and remorse. How little had he calculated the effect of his words upon this too-sensitive nature! To him the danger involved in the plot which he suspected was but a small thing—a difficulty to be met and grappled with. That was all. But to this inexperienced girl the thought of a midnight intruder, of a stranger’s secret entrance into the house, with the connivance of its treacherous inmates, was doubtless appalling.