Whir-r-r! Something Whizzed Past His Head.
“Major,” Miss Sallie was saying, “this country is full of assassins and robbers. I believe we shall all be murdered in our beds. I am really terribly frightened. We have had nothing but attacks since we left New York. And, now, this poor young man is in danger. Who could it have been, do you suppose, and what good did it do to hurl a knife into the midst of a perfectly harmless company like that!”
“The country is a little wild, Sallie,” replied the major apologetically, “but I have never heard of anything like this happening before. Of course, there are highwaymen everywhere. There are those Gypsies in the forest. Perhaps it was one of them.”
Just then the boys returned, and the attention of the others was distracted from José, who still sat quietly, his lips pressed together.
Barbara, who had been standing a little way off, turned to him quickly.
“The knife?” she asked, but stopped without finishing, for José had fixed her glance with a look of such appeal that she could say no more.
“By the way,” observed Jimmie Butler, “where is the knife?”