CHAPTER VII.
MR. MARTIN SHANKS: GUARDIAN.
“Did you run against something?” asked Dido, as she felt Richard start.
“It’s only me,” said a deep bass voice, which had such an honest and harmless ring, that Richard’s fear and nervousness dropped from him like a cloak.
“It’s all right,” Dido responded cheerfully, as she stopped and knocked on a door.
Dick knew it was a door from the sound, but he was unable to distinguish door from wall in the darkness.
It was opened by some one inside. Dick saw the outlines of a girlish figure between himself and the light, and heard a surprised exclamation: “Why, Dido!”
They stepped in, and the girl closed the door and hastened to set chairs for her visitors.
“Mr. Treadwell, this is Margaret Williams,” said Dido; then turning to Maggie she added, simply, “Mr. Treadwell has been kind to me.”
“We were frightened about you,” Maggie said, her eyes beaming warmly on Dido. “I heard you got in trouble ’round at the shop. I went out to look you up, but I couldn’t find out anything about you either at the station-house or at your house.”
“I s’pose you know,” she added, “that the girls went in? Yes, the strike is off. They wouldn’t take me back, so I’m doing what I can for Blind Gilbert, and he pays rent and buys what we eat.”