When they returned through the Den, there still seemed (to the unpiercing eye) to be but two of them; nevertheless, Stroke re-entered the Lair to announce to Agnes and the others that he had left Gavinia below in charge of Sir Joseph.  She was to walk the plank anon, but first she must be stripped that Agnes might don her garments.  Stroke was every inch a prince, so he kept Agnes by his side, and sent down the Lady Griselda and Widow Elspeth to strip the prisoner, Sir Joseph having orders to stand back fifty paces. (It is a pleasure to have to record this.)

The signal having been given that this delicate task was accomplished, Stroke whistled shrilly, and next moment was heard from far below a thud, as of a body falling in water, then an agonizing shriek, and then again all was still, save for the heavy breathing of Agnes of Kingoldrum.

Sir Joseph (very wet) returned to the Lair, and Agnes was commanded to take off her clothes in a retired spot and put on those of the deceased, which she should find behind a fallen tree.

“I winna be called the deceased,” cried Agnes hotly, but she had to do as she was bid, and when she emerged, from behind the tree she was the very image of the ill-fated Gavinia.  Stroke showed her a plan of Miss Ailie’s backdoor, and also gave her a kitchen key (when he produced this, she felt in her pockets and then snatched it from him), after which she set out for the Dovecot in a scare about her own identity.

“And now, what doest thou think about it a’?” inquired Sir Joseph eagerly, to which Stroke made answer, looking at him fixedly.

“The wind is in the west!”

Sir Joseph should have kept this a secret, but soon Stroke heard Inverquharity prating of it, and he called his lieutenant before him.  Sir Joseph acknowledged humbly that he had been unable to hide it from Inverquharity, but he promised not to tell Muckle Kenny, of whose loyalty there were doubts.  Henceforth, when the faithful fellow was Muckle Kenny, he would say doggedly to himself, “Dinna question me, Kenny.  I ken nocht about it.”

Dark indeed were now the fortunes of the Pretender, but they had one bright spot.  Miss Ailie had been taken in completely by the trick played on her, and thus Stroke now got full information of the enemy’s doings.  Cathro having failed to dislodge the Jacobites, the seat of war had been changed by Victoria to the Dovecot, whither her despatches were now forwarded.  That this last one, of which Agnes of Kingoldrum tried in vain to obtain possession, doubled the price on the Pretender’s head, there could be no doubt; but as Miss Ailie was a notorious Hanoverian, only the hunted prince himself knew why this should make her cry.

He hinted with a snigger something about an affair he had once had with the lady.

The Widow and Sir Joseph accepted this explanation, but it made Lady Griselda rock her arms in irritation.

The reports about Miss Ailie’s behavior became more and more alarming.  She walked up and down her bedroom now in the middle of the night.  Every time the knocker clanked she held herself together with both hands.  Agnes had orders not to answer the door until her mistress had keeked through the window.