door."

"I only knew myself of my coming yesterday," I said. "And whatever is
the house fortified for?"

My cousin was putting up the bolts again as I spoke; (the two men were
gone away into the back of the house);--and, as soon as he had done, he
said:

"Why, there are dangerous folks about, Cousin Roger. And it is a
Catholic house, you see."

I smiled at that; but said no more; for at that moment my Cousin Dolly
came through from the back of the house where she had been sent by her
father for safety; and at that sight I thought no more of the door.

I saluted her as a cousin should; and she me. She looked mighty pretty
to me, in her dark dress, with her lace on, for supper was just on the
table; and I cannot but think she was pleased to see me, for she was all
smiling and flushed.

"So it is you, Cousin Roger," she said. "I thought it might very well
be. We looked for you before Christmas."

* * * * *

At supper, and afterwards, I learned in what a panic poor Cousin Tom had
lived since the news of the plot, and, above all, of Sir Edmund Berry
Godfrey's death; and what he said to me made me determine to speak to
him of my own small peril, for he had the right to know, and to forbid