"Inside with chattering teeth for fear of the men hid between the walls."
"How, when, what!" exclaimed the bewildered man.
"Stop talking, man, and come to your scared wife."
"I'm not scared now that I know who's there," piped a weak voice. "Come in right away out of the cold."
"And is it by the door or by the window ye'll have me enter, Missis Myer?" asked Jerry. And with that he took out the two tenpenny nails with his fingers just as easy as if they had been put in by women.
"Wait till I unlock," said Mrs. Outcast, as she climbed back, and presently the key turned, and Jerry was allowed to enter.
"And now, perhaps," said he, after he had kissed his wife, "ye'll be kind enough to tell me what it all means, for I'll be switched if I understand a word of it!"
Mrs. Outcast explained: "When Mimy came home with her story I felt in my bones that something was wrong, so I came as fast as I could to help. I found this little body scared to death, and you gone for no knowing how long. When she told her story I felt real uneasy myself, and wanted to take her home with me where she'd be safe. But she was faint-like, and besides she said she did not want you to come back and find her gone. Heaven knows where."