"He's living, and that's all I can tell you yet," she replied, shaking her head sadly. "He has been badly shot in the right thigh, and has lost a lot of blood. How it happened I have not heard, and Lionel is perfectly unconscious still. Your Uncle Theophilus has extracted some of the shots, and has dressed the wounds—I am thankful he was at home to see to the poor boy at once! Oh dear, this is a bad business, I fear!"
"Oh, what will Aunt Arabella say!" Dick cried distressfully. "Oh, poor, poor Lionel!"
"We have sent a message to the Manor House to let them know there what has happened," Miss Warren said, her bright eyes full of tears. "I expect Mrs. Compton will be here directly! Poor woman! It will be a terrible shock for her!"
When Mrs. Compton arrived a little later, in company with her father, she insisted upon at once going upstairs to see Lionel. Sir Richard joined Dick in the sitting-room, and listened in silence to the rather incoherent story the little boy told him.
"I'm afraid he is dreadfully hurt," Dick said in conclusion. "Oh, I do hope he won't die! It would be so awful, especially after Aunt Arabella telling us—"
He paused abruptly, mindful that his grandfather knew nothing of Lionel's intentions with regard to the blunderbuss.
"What did she tell you?" Sir Richard asked sternly, noticing the uneasy look on Dick's telltale countenance. "Come, speak out!"
"She-she said we were not to fire off the blunderbuss," Dick replied, coming to the conclusion that everything would be discovered, and therefore he could not help his cousin by keeping silence. "That was what we quarrelled about this afternoon. I had promised to help Lionel, but when Aunt Arabella said that, I told him I wouldn't go to the woods with him to fire off the blunderbuss without her knowing, and he was angry with me, and so—and so—"
"And so he went by himself, I conclude!" Sir Richard exclaimed, frowning.
"I don't know, but I expect he did!" Dick responded in a low tone, looking deeply distressed.