Hickathrift looked confused.
“Poont o’ him as hed the light, I meant,” he said hurriedly.
“Nay, not a sign of it,” said Farmer Tallington; “and at last I turned back and poled gently home, keeping a sharp look-out and listening all the way, but I niver see nowt nor heered nowt. But if I’d kept out on the waiter I should p’raps have seen and saved my poor owd neighbour.”
“You might, mebbe,” said the wheelwright thoughtfully; while, after gazing in the faces of the two men and trying to read the truth, Dick turned away with his suspicions somewhat blunted, to go to his mother’s side, and watch with her till the sound of hoofs on the rough track told that the messenger had returned.
Chapter Twenty.
The Doctor’s Dictum.
Dick leaped up and came to the window as soon as he heard the beating of the horse’s hoofs; and to his great joy, as the mounted man turned the corner he saw that it was the doctor, whom he ran down to meet.
“Hah, my lad! here is a bad business!” exclaimed the doctor as he dismounted. “Well, come, they cannot say this was your doing. You wouldn’t shoot your own father, eh?”