The sudden disappearance of the tenants of Rannoch was, I found, on
everyone's tongue in Dumfries. In the smoke-room of the railway hotel
three men were discussing it with many grimaces and sinister hints, and
the talkative young woman behind the bar asked me my opinion of the
strange goings-on up at the Castle.
As I walked on alone, with the dark line of woods crowning the hill-top
before me, the scene of that double tragedy, I again calmly reviewed the
situation. I longed to go to the hospital and see Hylton Chater, yet
when I recollected the part he had played with Hornby on board the
_Lola_, I naturally hesitated. He was allied with Hornby, apparently
against Leithcourt, although the latter was Hornby's friend.
What, I wondered, had transpired in the library of that gray old castle
which stood out boldly before me, dark and grim, as I plodded on through
the rain? How had Leithcourt succeeded in rendering his enemy insensible
and hiding him in that cupboard? Did he believe that he had killed him?
If I went boldly to Chater, then it would only be the betrayal of
myself.
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