They turned along towards the corridor where at the first alarm Sholto had found the Earl, and in the very midst of it abruptly stopped.

While Sholto and William Douglas were examining the floor, they both looked over their shoulders, uneasily conscious of a regard upon them, as if some one, unseen himself, had been looking down from behind.
"Do you place your men as I told you," said the Earl, abruptly, "and bring me a truckle bed out of the guardroom.

I shall remain in this closet till morning.

But do you keep a special lookout on the floor above, that the repose of my sister and her friend be not again disturbed." Sholto bowed without speech, and hastening down to the guardroom he commanded two of his best bowmen to follow him with their apparatus, while he himself snatched up the low truckle couch which custom assigned to the captain of the guard should he desire to rest himself during the night, and on which Landless Jock had always passed the majority of his hours of duty.

This he carried to the Earl, and placing it in the angle he saw his youthful master stretch himself upon it, wrapped in his cloak and with a naked sword ready to his hand.
"A good and undisturbed slumber to you, my lord," said Sholto, curtly, as he went out.
He saw that his two men were duly posted upon the lower landing of the stair, and then betook himself to the upper floor where slept the little Maid of Galloway.
He walked slowly to the end of the passage scrutinising every recess and closet door, every garde-robe and wall press from which it was possible that the beast he had seen might have emerged.