said to the horse, "but it never looked blacker for the cause,
and I've had my long ride for nothing. Perhaps, though,
there may be pay day coming. She knows that I'm to be
at Van Meter's barn to-night. What say you, Joggles? Think
you will she be there?"


XXX
SOME DOINGS BY STEALTH

The sound of shots outside put a sudden termination
to the supper in both the dining-room and kitchen
of Greenwood, and served to bring inmates and
candles to the front and back doors. Beyond the
moment's rush of a body of horsemen past the house, no light
on the interruption was obtained, until some of the escort of
Clowes were despatched to the stable to learn if all was well with
their horses. There they found the wounded man stretched on
the snow, and just within the doorway lay Janice in a swoon,
with Clarion licking her face. Both were carried to the house,
and while Mrs. Meredith and the sergeant endeavoured to save
the officer by a rude tourniquet, the squire held Janice's head
over some feathers which Peg burned in a bed-warmer.

"Did they kill him?" was the first question the girl asked,
when the combined stench and suffocation had revived consciousness.

"He 's just expiring," her father replied. "His arm was
struck off above the elbow, and he bleeds like a stuck pig."