When he reached the kitchen he was not a little disturbed to find Mistress Annan, the two maid-servants, Angus and Neil, and two others of the household, all sitting in partial darkness and silence, evidently each too apprehensive of further trouble to be willing to go to sleep. "Nay, to your beds, all of you!" he ordered quickly. "I hope that the night will pass without new disquiet. You can do no good by watchfulness here--rather harm. Stay! Neil and Angus, you two had best sit awhile until I speak with you again. The rest of you go cautiously hence at once." Gilbert passed swiftly on and listened at the outer kitchen. He could hear Saville humming a tune and Tracey talking. "Do you lack anything, gentlemen?" he inquired, pushing against the barrier on its inner side and opening the door, "or are you disposed to seek your rest?" "No," growled Tracey; "we'll go to bed when we please, and not before. Shut the door!" Boyd obeyed; but the glance he had cast within the place showed that the prisoner lay wide awake in his corner, and that his two guards seemed further advanced in drunkenness than their superiors at the other end of the house. For once the upright master of Windlestrae thanked God that beings made in his own image could so readily turn themselves into beasts. He hastened to the attic. Andrew was there also, as he had fancied. "Ah, you are come!" exclaimed Lord Armitage, as he entered; "you are just in time, for I was about bidding Andrew go down to you and tell you what I have decided must be done as to this prisoner and his message to you or me. First of all, are Tracey and Saville yet enough off their guard to allow you speech with him? No? Very well, then, my chance is desperate. I shall speak with him myself." "You?" ejaculated Boyd, in consternation. "Yes, I! Listen. I more safely than anyone else. These villains propose to shut the poor man into the Nest, do they not?" "Not so, my lord. They have given that over." "Why?" "The panel cannot be fastened on the outside. It was never intended to be made a bridewell. There is no lock, and besides that the mechanism of the door is rusted and uncertain; you found that out to your cost." "Where, then, will they stow the unfortunate fellow?" "In the East Wing. There is a strong room there which I have offered them." "Has it a window?" "Yes, but a window useless to you if you attempt parley from without the house. It is the oldest part of the Manor; a dead-wall has been built up flat in front of the window-bars." "Is the cell upon a passage, then?" "No; it opens from a larger chamber, my lord--the East Room we call it--and that East Room is the only access to it; and the captain has already said that one or two of his party must sleep in the East Room, if only for the sake of form----"