“Don’t shoot me! Don’t shoot!”
“Who’s there?” he demanded, but this question was not answered.
The discharging of the gun aroused the others of the party, and all came rushing out to the fireside.
“What did you fire at?” asked Joe.
“Well, I thought I fired after a fox,” came dryly from old Runnell. “But I kind of reckon he was a two-legged one.”
“Do you mean some person was around here?”
“Exactly.”
“But I heard a fox bark,” came from Harry.
“So did I, lad, and after I fired I heard somebody yell, ‘Don’t shoot me!’ ’Pears to me it was Dan Marcy’s voice, too.”
“What could have brought him over this time of night?” asked Fred.