"There is some one there; I almost ran against a pair of blazing eyes." "But there's nobody; there can be nobody there," answered Tommy, in a bewilderment that was obviously unfeigned, "unless--unless--" He looked at Corp, and the eyes of both finished the sentence.

The desolate scene at Double Dykes, which the meeting with McLean and Miss Ailie had driven from their minds, again confronted them, and they seemed once more to hear the whimpering of the Painted Lady's door.
"Unless what ?" asked the man, impatiently, but still the two boys only stared at each other.

"The Den's no mous the night," said Corp at last, in a low voice, and his unspoken fears spread to the womankind, so that Miss Ailie shuddered and Elspeth gripped Tommy with both hands and Gavinia whispered, "Let's away hame, we can come back in the daylight." But McLean chafed and pressed upward, and next moment a girl's voice was heard, crying: "It is no business of yours; I won't let you touch her." "Grizel!" exclaimed Tommy and his crew, simultaneously, and they had no more fear until they were inside the Lair.

What they saw had best be described very briefly.

A fire was burning in a corner of the Lair, and in front of it, partly covered with a sheet, lay the Painted Lady, dead.
Grizel stood beside the body guarding it, her hands clenched, her eyes very strange.