“And the knife?” asked Bab.
“There were two knives which belonged to the Martinez family. The Gypsy took one away with her when she left her husband.”
“Will Antonio stay here to-night, Major?” said Mollie, timidly, remembering the masked robber and his murderous weapon.
“He is too ill, now, to do any harm, little one,” replied the major, taking her hand. “Besides, his grandmother and sister will watch over him I feel certain, and who knows but the boy may have some good in him after all?” he added, always trying to see the best in everybody.
“Nevertheless, we’ll lock our doors,” exclaimed Ruth. “It’s not so easy to forget that our highwayman is sleeping across the hall.”
CHAPTER XXIII—AN OLD ROMANCE
Bab had hardly reached her room before she was summoned to the door by Stephen, looking so serious and unhappy that she felt at once something had happened.
“Bab,” he said, “I am afraid you are not done with your day’s work yet for the Ten Eyck family. I am about to ask you a favor, and I must confide something to you that has been a secret with us now for three generations. First, are you afraid to go with me over to the right wing? John and Mary will go, too, and you need really have nothing to fear, but the dread——” he paused and bit his lip.
“Why, no, Stephen, I am not afraid,” replied Bab, “and I promise to guard faithfully any secret you want to tell me,” she added, giving him her hand in token of her pledge. She suspected they were going to visit the old man she had seen wandering about the house and forest.
“I will tell you the secret as we go along,” Stephen said, leading the way to the end of the hall, where they found Mary and John waiting. The four started down a long passage opening into the right wing of the building. “We are going, now,” continued Stephen, “to visit a very old man who lives in the right wing. He is my great-uncle, Stephen Ten Eyck. When he was quite a young man he met with a sorrow that unhinged his mind and he—well, he committed a crime. It was never proved that he had done it, but the Ten Eyck family knew he had. However, his most intimate friend took the blame upon his shoulders.”