Frank, now, was badly frightened. "Is there some one in there with Queen Bess?" he asked.
"A young pusson to see you, suh," Neb admitted.
"And you let that person have the key?"
"No, suh; it were taken from me."
Layson was in panic. "Heaven knows," he exclaimed, "what can have happened here!" He rushed to the stable door and pounded on it with his fists. "Open at once, or I'll break in the door," he cried.
Neb, now, had gone up to the window and looked through it with desperate glance. What he saw was reassuring. He turned back toward his master smiling. "Hol' on, Marse Frank, de young pusson am a-comin' out," he said.
"Well," said Layson, threateningly, "I'm ready for him." He braced himself to spring upon some malefactor.
The door opened and Madge appeared before their astonished eyes, garbed in a gown which she had fashioned after that which Barbara had worn up in the hills.
"Madge!" cried Frank, amazed.
The Colonel, laughing, approached the girl with outstretched hand; Neb, relieved, dived through the stable door; Miss Alathea, who had been under a great strain while the dramatic little scene had been in progress, dropped limply on Neb's bench.