There was no direct answer to her questions. Mr. Osborne put Anne in a big chair and knelt down before her, grasping her cold, trembling hands. “Tell me what happened. Quick!� he commanded.
“I feel as if they are peeping in,� Anne said with a shuddering glance at the windows.
Mrs. Osborne drew the curtains close, and she and her husband listened with exclamations and quick questions to the girl’s story. As Mr. Osborne listened and questioned he was moving about—taking firearms out of a closet, loading a gun with buckshot, oiling and loading a revolver, getting out boxes of shells and cartridges.
“They didn’t see you,� he said; “they don’t know where you are—or you wouldn’t be here. Polly, you and Anne and Dick go into the chimney room——� He nodded toward a small room opening out of the sitting room, and called “the chimney room� because it was only the width of the big old chimney. “Fasten the shutters; nail down the window and put a blanket over it, so that not a ray of light can get out. Leave the door ajar and a dim light in the sitting room, so you can see both doors. Don’t answer any call unless it’s my voice.�
“Your voice? You are going——�
“To The Village. To warn Will and help there. If any one enters the house, keep still till they open the sitting-room door, and then aim straight and shoot to kill, Polly, as you do at the chicken hawks.�
“Yes, Mayo; I will.� Her voice was as calm as if she were answering a request to sew on a button. With an unfaltering hand she took the gun she was accustomed to use with deadly execution on birds of prey.
“God bless you, dear!� Her husband took her in his arms and kissed her still, colorless face again and again. “Dick,� he said, “keep the gun and pistol loaded for your Cousin Polly. She’s better than the best man I know, in time of need.�
He turned to go.
“But, Mayo,� said his wife. “You must have firearms. Take a gun, the pistol.�