“Somebody has come in straight from the bluff,” said one of the men. “You can see where he has been, but I’m blamed if I can figure where he went to unless it was up the post into the verandah, and he couldn’t have done that without Miss Torrance hearing him. I’ll stop right here, any way, and I wish my two hours were up.”
“I’m that stiff I can scarcely move,” said the man relieved, and there was silence in the room, until Hetty turned to the others in dismay.
“He is going to stay there two hours, and he would see us the moment we opened the window,” she said.
Grant quickly put on his big fur coat, and unnoticed, he fancied, slipped one hand down on something that was girded on the belt beneath it.
“I must get away at once—through the house,” he said.
Hetty had, however, seen the swift motion of his hand.
“There’s a man with a rifle in the hall,” she said, shudderingly. “Flo, can’t you think of something?”
Flora Schuyler looked at them quietly. “I fancy it would not be very difficult for Mr. Grant to get away, but the trouble is that nobody must know he has been near the place. That is the one thing your father could not forgive, Hetty.”
Hetty turned her head a little, but Grant nodded. “Had it been otherwise I should have gone an hour ago,” he said.
“Well,” said Flora Schuyler, with a curious look in her face, “while I fancy we can get you away unnoticed, if anybody did see you, it needn’t appear quite certain that it was any affair with Hetty that brought you.”