He came out and we started toward the house, going pretty fast. Almost to the back gate we met Shelley.
"Does mother know?" I asked.
"I just told her," she said.
"Father," I cried, going in the back dining-room door. "Mr. Pryor was down in the meadow on Ranger. Thomas did see Robert, and his father is hunting him with a gun. We saw him coming, so I hid Robert in the Station and sent Mr. Pryor back home—I guess I told him a lie, father, or at least part of one, I said he went 'that way,' and he did, but not so far as I made his father think; so he started back home, but when he gets there and doesn't find Robert he'll come here again, madder than ever. Oh father, he'll come again, and he's crazy, father! Clear, raving crazy! I know he'll come again!"
"Yes," said father calmly. "I think it very probable that he will come again."
Then he started around shutting and latching windows, closing and locking the doors, and he carefully loaded his gun, and leaned it against the front casing. Then he put on his glasses, and began examining the papers they had brought out again. Robert stood beside him, and explained and showed him.
"You see with me out of the way, the English law would give everything to my cousin," he said, and he explained it all over again.
"And to think how he always posed for a perfect saint!" cried the Princess. "Oh I hope the devil knows how to make him pay for what all of us have suffered!"
"Child! Child!" cried mother.
"I can't help it!" said the Princess. "Let me tell you, Mr. Stanton."