CHAPTER 2: Across The Border.
A most vigilant watch was kept up, for the next week, at Yardhope Hold.
At night, three or four of the troopers were posted four or five miles from the hold, on the roads by which an enemy was likely to come; having under them the fleetest horses on the moor.

When a week passed there was some slight relaxation in the watch, for it was evident that the Bairds intended to bide their time for a stroke, knowing well that they would not be likely to be able to effect a surprise, at present.
The outlying posts were, therefore, no longer maintained; but the dogs of the hold, fully a dozen in number, were chained nightly in a circle three or four hundred yards outside it; and their barking would, at once, apprise the watchers in the turrets on the walls of the approach of any body of armed men.
Two days later, Oswald started for his promised visit to the Armstrongs.

It was not considered necessary that he should be accompanied by any of the troopers, for Hiniltie lay but a few miles across the frontier.

In high spirits he galloped away and, riding through Yardhope, was soon at Alwinton; and thence took the track through Kidland Lee, passed round the head of the Usmay brook, along the foot of Maiden Cross Hill, and crossed the frontier at Windy Guile.
Here he stood on the crest of the Cheviots and, descending, passed along at the foot of Windburgh Hill; and by noon entered the tiny hamlet of Hiniltie, above which, perched on one of the spurs of the hill, stood the Armstrongs' hold.

It was smaller than that of Yardhope, and had no surrounding wall; but, like it, was built for defence against a sudden attack.
Adam Armstrong was on good terms with his neighbours across the border.
Although other members of his family were frequently engaged in forays, it was seldom, indeed, that he buckled on armour, and only when there was a general call to arms.