Since the spy or messenger or whatever he iss hass got away, it iss best that we do not tell all we know." The watchman was returning at speed, his staff pounding quick and hard on the stones, his lantern swinging wildly.

The houses there were detached and nobody else seemed to have heard the shots, save Hendrik Martinus and his family.

Martinus, fully dressed, was coming out of his house, his manner showing great indignation, and the heads of women in nightcaps appeared at the windows.
"What is this intrusion, Mynheer Huysman?
Why are you in my grounds?
And who fired those two pistol shots I heard ?" "Patience, Hendrik! Patience!" replied Mynheer Jacobus, in a smooth suave manner that surprised Robert.

"My young friend, Master Lennox, here, saw a man running across your grounds, after having slipped surreptitiously out of your house.

Suspecting that he had taken und carried from you that which he ought not to haf, Master Lennox called to him to stop.