She shivered the next moment, and clung to her father’s arm.
“I mean it,” he said fiercely. “I am a peaceful, quiet man, but I can be roused to action, and then—”
He looked at Martha with his eyes flashing, and a fierce glow in his face that transformed him at once into the old man of war.
“Master!” whispered the old servant, with a low sob, and there was an appeal in her tones which seemed to calm him.
“Yes,” he said, as he gazed straight away into the darkness. “Whoever did this deed is mistaken in his man.”
A sigh escaped from Dinah’s lips, and she drew herself up as she clung more tightly to her father. Two of her protectors gone that night, but there was still a third, and a feeling of confidence strengthened her heart as she gripped her father’s arm.
“Sooner or later I shall square accounts with this man,” said the Major, as he walked slowly toward the door. “Oh, if I only knew!”
“If I only knew. If I only knew!” The words kept on repeating themselves in Dinah’s brain as she sought her room that night, till she found herself repeating them—“If he only knew—if he only knew!”
She had not commenced undressing, and in her agitated, nervous state every sound about the house attracted her attention, so that she listened eagerly as she suddenly heard a light tapping sound, followed by—“Yes, sir, what is it?”
“I didn’t want to disturb you, Martha; but have you moved my gun?”