They wanted to make sure of her, but they wouldn't have thought o' dope unless the men they expectit were due to arrive at any moment.

As I see it, we've to face a siege not by the three but by a dozen or more, and it'll no' be long till it starts.

Now, isn't it a mercy we're safe in here ?" Dickson returned to the others with a grave face.
"Where d'you think the new folk are coming from ?" he asked.
Heritage answered, "From Auchenlochan, I suppose?
Or perhaps down from the hills ?" "You're wrong." And he told of Leon's mistaken confidences to him in the darkness.

"They are coming from the sea, just like the old pirates." "The sea," Heritage repeated in a dazed voice.
"Ay, the sea.

Think what that means.