Reuben had hurriedly come to his brother’s assistance. The two men placed the fainting girl in the rocking-chair, and the lawyer began with anxious fumbling to loosen the neck of her cloak and draw off her gloves. Her fingers were like ice, and her brow, though it felt now almost equally cold, was covered with perspiration. Reuben rubbed her hands between his broad palms in a crudely informed belief that it was the right thing to do, while Ezra rummaged in the adjoining pantry for the household bottle of brandy.
Jessica came out of her swoon with the first touch of the pungent spirit upon her whitened lips. She looked with weak blankness at the unfamiliar scene about her, until her gaze fell upon the face of the lawyer. Then she smiled faintly and closed her eyes again.
“She is an old friend of mine,” whispered Reuben to his brother, as he pressed the brandy once more upon her. “She’ll come to in a minute. It must be something serious that brought her out here.”
The girl languidly opened her eyes. “‘Cal’ Ged-ney’s asleep in the sleigh,” she murmured. “You’d better bring him in. He’ll tell you.”
It was with an obvious effort that she said this much; and now, while Ezra hastily pulled on his boots, her eyes closed again, and her head sank with utter weariness sideways upon the high back of the old-fashioned chair.
Reuben stood looking at her in pained anxiety—once or twice holding the lamp close to her pale face, in dread of he knew not what—until his brother returned. Ezra had brought the horses up into the yard, and remained outside now to blanket them, while the old ’squire, benumbed and drowsy, found his way into the house. It was evident enough to the young lawyer’s first glance that Gedney had been drinking heavily.
“Well, what does this all mean?” he demanded, with vexed asperity.
“You’ve got to get on your things and race back with us, helly-to-hoot!” said the ’squire. “Quick—there ain’t a minute to lose!” The old man almost gasped in his eagerness.
“In Heaven’s name, what’s up? Have you been to Cadmus?”
“Yes, and got my pocket full of affidavits. We can send all three of them to prison fast enough. But that’ll do to-morrow; for to-night there’s a mob up at the Minster place. Look there!”