"I'm afraid I was making a dreadful noise, grandfather," she said apologetically. "Did you hear me screaming downstairs? I hope I did not disturb you!"
"No, no!" he replied with unusual good-humour. "Your mother and I thought we should like to see what you children were doing! What have you there, Dick? Why it's my grandfather's old blunderbuss!"
Dick passed the weapon to Sir Richard, who examined it carefully, saying that he had not seen it for years.
"We found it under a heap of rubbish," Ruth explained. "Lionel polished the barrel and made it look nice and bright!"
"What a clumsy gun it is," Mrs. Compton remarked. "I suppose the children can do no harm with it, father?" she asked anxiously, with a woman's nervousness of fire-arms.
"Oh, no!" he replied reassuringly. "There can be no mistake as to whether it's loaded or not. It is a muzzle-loader—there were no such things as breech-loaders when this gun was made." And he proceeded to point out to the boys—Lionel having drawn near too, full of interest—how the weapon worked, explaining how it ought to be loaded, and the powder and shot rammed down with the ramrod, and fired by means of a flint-lock—the spark of fire being produced by the flint striking on the steel pan.
"What a time it must take to load it!" Dick exclaimed. "In father's guns you have only to put in the cartridges!"
"Ah, this old blunderbuss is very different to modern guns," Sir Richard said, "but it served the purpose for which it was required; it was used by my grandfather as a protection against highwaymen when he went a journey by coach, and even if he paid a friendly visit to a neighbour in his own carriage, the blunderbuss went too! Those good old days, as people call them, had their disadvantages! It's all very well to play being captured by a highwayman, Ruth, but how would you like it in reality?"
"Not at all," she responded frankly. "Lionel is rough enough, but I expect a highwayman would be rougher. I believe my arms are quite bruised; still, I don't mind. It was a splendid game!"
"How hot you are, my dear!" Mrs. Compton exclaimed; "your cheeks are perfectly crimson! No wonder you are so warm, with that heavy satin gown over all your other clothing. Where did you get it?"