"Does he still look like a lunatic at large?"
"More or less. His eyes are less like infuriated shoe buttons, but on the whole he seems to have quieted a lot."
"You don't suppose," said Dick, "you've put the fear of God into him?"
"Not much. If anybody has, it was you when he saw you topple over and knew he'd got the wrong man."
"He was laying for you, then," said Dick.
"Why, yes," said Raven. "Tira was there, telling me he'd set up a gun, and she'd got to the point of letting Nan take her away, when he fired. What the dickens were you up there for, anyhow?" he ended, not quite able to deny himself reassurance.
"I'd heard he was out with a gun," said Dick briefly. "Charlotte told me. And I gathered from your leaving word for Nan that the Tenney woman was there—at the hut, you know."
"Don't say 'the Tenney woman,'" Raven suggested. "I can't say I feel much like calling her by his name myself, but 'the Tenney woman' isn't quite——"
"No," said Dick temperately. "All right, old man, I won't."
"Awfully sorry you got it instead of me," said Raven, apparently without feeling. He had wanted to say this for a long time. "Wish it had been the other way round."