"Ah! Listening, were you?"
"No, sir. Miss Denny has told me. Do you see those wires? They will entangle you yet and trip you up."
"Come away, Elmer. Come away."
"For the present I will retire, sir; but, mark me, your game is nearly up."
"By, by, children. Good night. Remember your promise, Miss Denny. The carriage will be all ready."
Without heeding this last remark, Elmer, with his cousin on his arm, withdrew. As they closed the door the telegraph wires caught in the carpet and broke. The man saw them, and picking one up, he examined it closely.
Suddenly he dropped it and turned ashen pale. With all his bravado, he quailed before those slender wires upon the carpet. He did not understand them. He guessed they might be some kind of telegraph, but beyond this everything was vague and mysterious, and they filled him with guilty alarm and terror.
Charles Barnard.