Captain Pendleton remembered it. He first looked around to take note of who was in the room. There were Mr. and Mrs. Berners, himself, Joe, and the colored woman Margy—only one new witness, if there were no others outside who might have seen the entrance of Sybil.
He went and locked the door, that no one else should enter the chamber. And then he called Joe apart to the distant window.
"You very reckless fellow! tell me who besides ourselves have seen Mrs. Berners enter this house."
"Not a singly soul, marster, outen dis room. We walk all de way from de Haunted Chapel, and didn't meet nobody we knowed. Miss Sybil she keep de shawl over her head. Dem as did meet us couldn't a told who she was or even if she was white or brack. When we got home here, I jes opens de door like I always do, and Miss Sybil she follow me in, likewise Nelly. Nobody seed us, likewise we seed nobody, 'cept it was Jerome, as was jest a passin' outen de back door wid a breakfast tray in his hands; but he didn't see us, acause his back was to us, which that fellow is always too lazy to look over his own shoulder, no matter what may be behind him," said Joe, contemptuously.
"That is true; but lucky on this occasion. Then you are certain that no one out of this room knows of Mrs. Berner's presence in the house?"
"Sartain sure, marster!" answered Joe, in the most emphatic manner.
"Then I must warn you not to hint—mind, Joe—not so much as to hint the fact to any living soul," said the captain, solemnly.
"Hi, Marse Capping! who you think is a 'fernal fool? Not dis Joe," answered the negro, indignantly.
"Mind, then, that's all," repeated the captain, who then dismissed Joe, and beckoned the motherly looking colored woman to come to him.
"Margy," he whispered, "do you understand the horrible danger in which Mrs. Berners stands?"