"Well—yes. That is the report."
"If one part of the report is true, why not the other?" said the girl, her keenness of wit thus displayed.
"But the wound may not be bad. We don't know that it is. Oh! hang that old woman, anyway! Why did she tell you?"
"Because she was angry with me," sighed Janice.
"And you must all think father very badly hurt or you would not have hid it from me—for how long?"
He told her. "But we don't really know anything about it. Nelson is raising heaven and earth for news. There is a good deal of excitement along the Border, they say——"
"Yes. I read that. Oh! how have you all managed to hide it from me for so long? I felt—Oh, you had no right!"
"We did what we hoped was for the best," Frank said gently.
"Oh, I suppose you did. But daddy wounded! I must go to him, Frank."