"They will find quite enough without that," said the practical girl, but her voice quavered.
"Yet if they had seen—Ah, how selfish to think of that now! Hush— that was a groan! He is alive still."
She moved towards the window, but Polly dragged her back by main force.
"Listen, Miss!"
Below they heard the sudden unbarring of doors, and Endymion's voice calling for Mudge, the butler. A bell pealed in the servants' hall, stopped, and began ringing again in short and violent jerks.
"Let me go," commanded Dorothea. "They will never find him, under the slope there. He may be bleeding to death. I must tell—"
But Polly clung to her. "They'll find him safe enough, Miss Dorothea.
There's Sam, now—hark!—at the backdoor bell: he'll tell them."
"Sam!"
"Sam Zeally, Miss."
"But I don't understand," Dorothea stammered; with a sharp suspicion of treachery, she pushed the girl from her. "Was Zeally mounting guard tonight? If I thought—don't tell me it was a trap! Oh, you wicked girl!"