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XXX
SOME DOINGS BY STEALTH

The sound of shots outside put a sudden termination
to the supper in both the dining-room and kitchen
of Greenwood, and served to bring inmates and
candles to the front and back doors. Beyond the
moment's rush of a body of horsemen past the house, no light
on the interruption was obtained, until some of the escort of
Clowes were despatched to the stable to learn if all was well with
their horses. There they found the wounded man stretched on
the snow, and just within the doorway lay Janice in a swoon,
with Clarion licking her face. Both were carried to the house,
and while Mrs. Meredith and the sergeant endeavoured to save
the officer by a rude tourniquet, the squire held Janice's head
over some feathers which Peg burned in a bed-warmer.

"Did they kill him?" was the first question the girl asked,
when the combined stench and suffocation had revived consciousness.

"He 's just expiring," her father replied. "His arm was
struck off above the elbow, and he bleeds like a stuck pig."

Janice staggered up, though somewhat languidly. "May--
"Did he ask to see me?"

"Not he," she was told. "Come, lass, sit quiet for a bit
till thy head is steady, and tell us what 't was all about."

Janice sank into the chair her father set beside the fire.
"He was on some mission for his Excellency," she gasped, "and
stopped here to get a fresh horse--that was how I came to
know it--and while we were talking we heard the dragoons coming,
so he mounted, to escape. Then I heard a cry--oh! such
a cry--and the pistols--and--and--that 's all I remember."

"Why went he to the stable rather than to the house in the
first case?" demanded her father.

Janice looked surprised. "He knew the troopers were
here," she explained.

The squire was about to speak, when Clowes' hand on his
shoulder checked him. "There's more here than we understand,"
the latter whispered. "Let me ask the questions."
He came to the fire and said:--

"Why did he take this route, if he was bearing despatches?"

The first sign of colour came creeping back into the pale
cheeks of the girl, as she recalled the double motive the aide
had given. "Colonel Brereton said he did not know the
westerly roads, and so--"

"Colonel Brereton!" rapped out her father. "And what
was he doing hereabout? Plague take the scamp that he must
be forever returning to worry us!"

"How much of a force had he with him?" asked the commissary.

"He was alone," replied Janice.

"Alone!" exclaimed the baron, incredulously; then his
face lost its look of surprise. "He came by stealth to see you,

There was enough truth in the supposition to destroy the
last visible signs of the girl's swoon, and she responded over-eagerly:
"I told you he was on a mission for his Excellency,
and but stopped here to get a fresh horse."

"Ay," growled the squire, "he steals himself, then steals my
crop, and now turns horse thief."

"He was not stealing, dadda," denied Janice. "His own
horse was tired, so he left her and said he'd return Joggles some
time to-morrow evening."

Clowes whistled softly, as he and the squire exchanged
glances. Just as the former was about to resume his questioning,
the sound of the front door being violently thrown open
gave him pause, and the next instant Phil hurriedly entered
the room.

"The troopers at the stable say ye found Captain Boyde.
Is he bad hurt?" he demanded.

"To the death," spoke up the squire, for once missing the
commissary's attempt to keep him silent. "Hast caught
Brereton?"

[Illustration: "Stay and take his place, Colonel!"]

Janice had sprung to her feet and now stood listening, with
a half-eager, half-frightened look.

"Brereton!" cried Philemon. "Did he head the party?"

The growing complexity was too much for the patience of
the simple-minded owner of Greenwood. "May Belza have us
all," he fumed, "if I can see the bottom or even the sides of
this criss-cross business. Just tell us a straight tale, lad, if we
are not to have the jingle brains."

"'T is a swingeing bad business," groaned Phil. "Our troop
rode over from Princeton ter-day, an' the houses at Brunswick
bein' full of soldiers, I tells 'em that we could find quarters
here. We was gropin' our way when the enemy set upon us,
an' in the surprise cuts down the captain, an' captures three of
our men."

"Dost mean to say ye let one man kill your captain and
take three of ye prisoners?" scoffed the squire.

"One man!" protested the dragoon. "Think you one man
could do that?"

"Janice insists that there was but Brereton--but Charles
Fownes, now a rebel colonel."

"You may lay ter it there was mor'n--" Then Philemon
wavered, for the sight of the flushed, guilty look on the
girl's face gave a new bent to his thoughts. "What was
he here for?" he vociferated, growing angrily red as he
spoke and striding to the fire. "So he's doin' the
Jerry Sneak about you yet, is he? I tell you, squire, I won't
have it."

"Keep thy blustering and bullying for the mess-room and
the tavern, sir," rebuked Clowes, sharply, also showing temper.
"What camp manners are these to bring into gentlemen's
houses and exhibit in the presence of ladies?"

"'S death, sir," retorted Phil, hotly, "I take my manners
from no man, nor--"

"Hoighty, toighty!" chided Mrs. Meredith, entering. "Is
there not wind enough outside but ye must bellow like mad
bulls within?"

"Ay," assented the squire, "no quarrelling, gentlemen, for
we've other things to set to. Phil, there is no occasion to go
off like touchwood; 't is not as thee thinks. What is true,
however, is that we've a chance to catch this same rogue of a
Brereton, if we but lay heads together."

"Oh, dadda!" expostulated Janice. "You'll not--for I
promised him to tell nothing--and never would have spoken
had I not been dazed--and thinking him dead. I should
die of--"

"Fudge, child!" retorted Mr. Meredith. "We'll have no
heroics over a runaway redemptioner who is fighting against
our good king. Furthermore, we must know all else he told
ye."

"I passed him my promise to keep secret--"

"And of that I am to be judge," admonished the parent.
"Dost think thyself of an age to act for thyself? Come: out
with it; every word he spake."

"I'll not break my faith," rejoined Janice, proudly, her eyes
meeting her father's bravely, though the little hands trembled
as she spoke, half in fright and half in excitement.

"Nay, Miss Janice, ye scruple foolishly," advised Lord
Clowes. "Remember the old adage, that 'A bad promise, like
a good cake, is better broken than kept.'"

"'Children, obey thy parents in the Lord, for this is right,'"
quoted Mrs. Meredith, sternly.

"God never meant for me to lie--and that 's what you
would have me do."

The squire stepped into the hail, and returned with his riding-whip.
"Thou 'rt a great girl to be whipped, Janice," he
announced; "but if thou 'rt not old enough to obey, thou 'rt
not too old for a trouncing. Quickly, now, which wilt thou
have?"

"You can kill me, but I'll keep my word," panted the
maiden, while shaking with fear at her resistance, at the threatened
punishment, and still more at the shame of its publicity.

Forgetful of everything in his anger, the squire strode toward
his daughter to carry out his threat. Ere he had crossed the room,
however, to where she stood, his way was barred by Philemon.

"Look a-here, squire," the officer remonstrated, "I ain't
a-goin' ter stand by and see Janice hit, no ways, so if there 's
any thrashin' ter be done, you've got ter begin on me."

"Out of my way!" roared Mr. Meredith.

Phil folded his arms. "I've said my say," he affirmed, shaking
his head obstinately; "and if that ain't enough, I'll quit
talkin' and do something."

"The boy 's right, Meredith," assented Clowes. "Nor do
we need more of her. Send the girl to bed, and then I'll
have something to say."

Reluctantly the squire yielded; and Janice, with glad tears in
her eyes, turned and thanked Philemon by a glance that meant
far more than any words. Then she went to her room, only
to lie for hours staringly awake, listening to the wild whirring
and whistling of the wind as she bemoaned her unintentional
treachery to the aide, and sought for some method of warning
him.

"I must steal away to-morrow to the Van Meters' barn at
nightfall," was her conclusion, "and wait his coming, to tell him
of my--of my mistake, for otherwise he may bring Joggles
back and be captured. If I can only do it without being discovered,
for dadda--" and the anxious, overwrought, tired
girl wept the rest of the sentence into her pillow.

Meantime, in the room below, Lord Clowes unfolded his plan
and explained why he had wished the maiden away.

"'T is obvious thy girl has an interest in this fellow," he surmised,
"and so 't is likely she will try to-morrow evening to see
him, or get word to him. Our scheme must therefore be to let
her go free, but to see to 't that we know what she's about,
and be prepared to advantage ourselves by whatever comes to
pass."

The storm ceased before the winter daylight, and with the
stir of morning came information concerning the missing dragoons:
the body of one was found close to the stable, with a
bullet in his back, presumably a chance shot from one of his
comrades; a second rode up and reported himself, having in
the storm lost his way, and wellnigh his life, which he owed
only to the lucky stumbling upon the house of one of the tenants;
and Clarion discovered the third, less fortunate than his
fellow, frozen stiff within a quarter of a mile of Greenwood.

"'T is most like that rebel colonel and horse-thief shared the
same fate, for 't was a wild night," remarked Clowes at the
breakfast table. "Howbeit, 't will be best to have some troops
hid in your stable against this evening, for he may have weathered
the storm."

The morning meal despatched, Philemon rode over to Brunswick
to report the death of his superior to the colonel, as well
as to unfold the trap they hoped to spring, and Harcourt considered
the news so material that he and Major Tarleton accompanied
Philemon on his return. After a plentiful justice to the
dinner and to the decanters, the men, as the early winter darkness
came on, settled down to cards, while Mrs. Meredith, in
mute protest against the use of the devil's pictures, left the
room, summoned Peg, and in the garret devoted herself to the
mysteries of setting up a quilting-frame. As for the dragoons,
they sprawled and lounged about the kitchen, playing cards or
toss, and grumbling at the quantity and quality of the Greenwood
brew of small beer, till Sukey was wellnigh desperate.

Had Janice been older and more experienced, the very unguardedness
would have aroused her suspicions. To her it
seemed, however, but the arrangement of a kind destiny, and
not daring to risk a delay till after tea, when conditions might not
again so favour her, she left the work she had sat down to in the
parlour after dinner, and tiptoeing through the hall, lest she
should disturb the card-players in the squire's office, she secured
her warmest wrap. Returning to the parlour, she softly raised
a window, and, slipping out, in another moment was within the
concealing hedge-row of box.

Speeding across the garden, the girl crept through a break in
the hedge, then, stooping low, she followed a stone wall till the
road was reached. No longer in sight of the house, she hurried
on boldly, till within sight of the Van Meter farm. She skirted
the house at a discreet distance and stole into the barn.
With a glance to assure herself that the mare was still there,
and a kindly pat as she passed, she mounted into the mow,
where for both prudence and warmth she buried herself deep in
the hay. Then it seemed to Janice that hours elapsed, the sole
sounds being the contented munching of horses and cattle,
varied by the occasional stamp of a hoof.

Suddenly the girl sat up, with a realising sense that she had
been asleep, and with no idea for how long. A sound below
explained her waking, and as she listened, she made out the noise
to be that of harnessing or unharnessing. Creeping as near the
edge of the mow as she dared, she peered over, but all was
blackness.

"Colonel Brereton?" she finally said.

A moment's silence ensued before she had an answer, though
it was eager enough when it came. "Is 't you, Miss Janice,
and where are you?"

The girl came down the ladder and moved blindly toward
the stalls. As she did so, somebody came in contact with her;
instantly she was enfolded by a pair of arms, and before she
could speak she felt a man's eager lips first on her cheek, and
next on her chin.

"Heaven bless you for coming, my darling," whispered
Brereton.

Janice struggled to free herself as Brereton tried to caress
her the third time. "Don't," she protested. "You--I--
How dare you?"

"A pretty question to ask an ardent lover and a desperate
man, whose beloved confesses her passion by coming to him!"

"I didn't!" expostulated the girl, as, desperate with mortification,
she broke away from the embrace by sheer strength
and fled to the other side of the barn. "How dare you think
such things of me?"

"Then for what came you?" inquired Jack.

"To warn you."

"Of what?"

"That you must not bring Joggles back, for they--the
soldiers--are watching the stable."

"You told them?"

The girl faltered, hating to acknowledge her mistake, now
that it was remedied. "If I had, why should I take the risk
and the shame of coming here?" she replied.

"Forgive me, Miss Janice, for doubting you, and for my
freedom just now. I did--for the moment I thought you
like other women. I wanted to think you came to me, even
though it cheapened you. And being desperate, I--"

"Why?" questioned the girl.

"I have failed in my mission, thanks to Lee's folly and
selfishness. Would to God the troopers who lie in wait for
me would go after him! A quick raid would do it, for he lies
eight miles from his army, and with no guard worth a thought.
There 'd be a fine prize, if the British did but know it."

"Thanks for the suggestion," spoke up a deep voice, and at
the first word blankets were tossed off two lanterns, followed
by a rush of men. For a moment there was a wild hurly-burly,
and then Brereton's voice cried, "I yield!"

As the confusion ended as suddenly as it had begun, he
added scornfully:--

"To treachery!"

XXXI
AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS

The prisoner's arms were hurriedly tied and he
was mounted behind one of the troopers. Janice,
meanwhile, who had been seized by Philemon
and drawn to one side out of the struggle, besought
permission of her special captor to speak to Brereton, her
fright over the surprise and her dread of what was to come
both forgotten in the horror and misery the last words of the
aide caused her. The jealousy of the lover, united to the
strictness of the soldier, made Philemon heedless of her
prayers and tears, and finally, when the cavalcade was ready
to start, she was forced to mount her namesake, and, with such
seat as she could keep in the man's saddle, ride between
Colonel Harcourt and Hennion.

No better fortune awaited her at Greenwood, the captive
being taken to the kitchen, while the culprit was escorted to
the parlour, to stand, shivering, frightened, and tearful, as her
father and mother berated her for most of the sins of the
Decalogue.

Fortunately for the maid, other hearts were not so sternly
disapproving; and Lord Clowes, after waiting till the girl's
distress was finding expression in breathless sobs, in order
that she might be the more properly grateful, at last interfered.

"Come, come, squire," he interjected, crossing to the
bowed form, and taking one of Janice's hands consolingly, "the
lass has been giddy, but 't is an ill wind, truly, for through it
we have one fine bird secured yonder, to say nothing of an
even bigger prize in prospect. Cry a truce, therefore, and
let the child go to bed."

"Ay, go to thy room, miss," commanded Mrs. Meredith,
who had in truth exhausted her vocabulary, if not her wrath.
"A pretty hour 't is for thee to be out of bed, indeed!"

Janice, conscious at the moment of but one partisan, turned
to the baron. "Oh, please," she besought, "may n't I say
just one word to Colonel Brereton--just to tell him that I
didn't--"

"Hast not shamed us enough for one night with thy stolen
interviews?" ejaculated her mother. "To thy room this
instant

Made fairly desperate, Janice was actually raising her head
to protest, when Harcourt and Philemon entered.

"One moment, madam," intervened the colonel. "I have
been plying our prisoner with questions, and have some to
ask of your daughter. Now, Miss Meredith, Lee's letter, that
we found on the prisoner, has told us all we need, but we
want to test the prisoner's statements by yours. Look to it
that you speak us truly, for if we find any false swearing or
quibbling, 't will fare ill with you." Then for three or four
minutes the officer examined the girl concerning her first
interview with the rebel officer, seeking to gain additional information
as to Lee's whereabout. Finding that Janice really
knew nothing more than had been overheard in the Van
Meter barn, he ended the examination by turning to Philemon
and saying:--

"Sound boots and saddles, Lieutenant Hennion. You can
guide us, I take it, to this tavern from which General Lee
writes?"

"That I kin," asserted Phil, "though 't will be a stiff
ride ter git there afore morning."

As the two officers went toward the door Janice made her
petition anew. "Colonel Harcourt, may I have word with
Colonel--with the prisoner, that he shall not think 't was my
treachery?" she pleaded.

"I advise agin it, Colonel Harcourt," interjected Philemon,
his face red with some emotion. "That prisoner's a sly,
sneaky tyke, and--"

"Get the troop mounted, Mr. Hennion," commanded his
superior. "Mr. Meredith, I leave our captive in charge of a
sergeant and two troopers, with orders that if I am not back
within twenty-four hours he be taken to Brunswick. Whether
we succeed or fail in our foray, Sir William shall hear of the
service you have been to us." Unheeding Janice's plea, the
colonel left the room, and a moment later the bugle sounded
in quick succession, "To horse," "The march," and "By
fours, forward."

Interest in the departing cavalry drew the elders to the
windows, and in this preoccupation Janice saw her opportunity
to gain by stealth what had been denied her. Slipping silently
from the parlour, she sped through hall and dining-room, pausing
only when the kitchen doorway was attained, her courage
wellnigh gone at the thought that the aide might refuse to
believe her protestations of innocence. Certainty that she
had but a moment in which to explain prevented hesitancy,
and she entered the kitchen.

The two troopers were already stretched at full length on
the floor, their feet to the fire, while the sergeant sat by the
table, with a pitcher of small beer and a pipe to solace his
particular hours of guard mount over the prisoner. The latter
was seated near the fire, his arms drawn behind him by a rope
which passed through the slats of the chair back. So far as
these fetters would permit, Brereton was slouched forward,
with his chin resting on his chest in a most break-neck attitude,
sound asleep. There could be no doubt about it, beyond
credence though it was to the girl! While she had been
miserably conceiving the officer as ablaze with wrath at her,
he, with the philosophy of the experienced soldier, had lost
not a moment in getting what rest he could after his forty-eight
hours of hard riding.

Such callousness was to Janice a source of indignation, and
as she debated whether she should wake the slumberer and
make her explanation, or punish his apathy by letting him
sleep, Mrs. Meredith's voice calling her name in a not-to-be-misunderstood
tone turned the balance, and, flying up the
servants' stairway, Janice was able to answer her mother's
third call from her own room. Worn out by excitement,
worry, and physical fatigue, the girl, like the soldier, soon
found oblivion from both past and future.

It was well toward morning when a finish was made to the
night's doings, and the early habits of the household were for
once neglected to such an extent that the dragoons at last lost
patience and roused Peg and Sukey with loudly shouted demands
for breakfast,--a racket which served to set all astir once more.

With the conclusion of the morning meal, Janice rose from
the table and went toward the kitchen,--an action which at
once caused Mrs. Meredith to demand: "Whither art thou
going, child?"

Facing about, the girl replied with some show of firmness:
"'T is but fair that Colonel Brereton should know I had no
hand in his captivation; and I have a right to tell him so."

"Thou shalt do nothing of the sort," denied Mrs. Meredith.
"Was not thy conduct last evening indelicate enough, but
thou must seek to repeat it?"

Janice, with her hand on the knob, began to sob. "'T is
dreadful," she moaned, "after his doing what he did for us
at York, and later, that he should think I had a hand in his
capture."

"Tush, Jan!" ejaculated the squire, fretfully, the more that
his conscience had already secretly blamed him. "No gratitude
I owe the rogue, if both sides of the ledger be balanced.
'T is he brought about the scrape that led to my arrest."

"Ay," went on Mrs. Meredith, delighted to be thus supported,
"I have small doubt thy indelicacy with him will land
us all in prison. Such folly is beyond belief, and came not
from my family, Mr. Meredith," she added, turning on her
husband.

"Well, well, wife; all the folly in the lass scarce comes
from my side, for 't is to be remembered that ye were foolish
enough to marry me," suggested the squire, placably, his anger
at his daughter already melted by the sight of her distress.
"Don't be too stern with the child; she is yet but a filly."

"Thee means but a silly," snapped Mrs. Meredith, made the
more angry by his defence of the girl. "Men are all of a
piece, and cannot hold anger if the eyes be bright, or the waist
be slim," she thought to herself wrathfully, quite forgetful of
the time when that very tendency in masculine kind had been
to her one of its merits. "Set to on the quilt, girl, and see to
it that there's no sneaking to the kitchen."

Scarcely had Janice, obedient to her mother's behest, seated
herself at the big quilting-frame, when Lord Clowes joined her.

"They treat ye harsh, Miss Janice," he remarked sympathetically;
"but 't is an unforgiving world, as I have good
cause to wot."

Janice, who had stooped lower over the patches when first
he spoke, flashed her eyes up for an instant, and then dropped
them again.

"And one is blamed and punished for much that deserves
it not. I' faith, I know one man who stands disgraced to the
woman he loves best, for no better cause than that the depth
of his passion was so boundless that he went to every length to
gain her."

The quilter fitted a red calimanco patch in place, and
studied the effect with intense interest.

"Wouldst like me to carry a message to the prisoner, Miss
Janice?"

"Oh, will you?" murmured the girl, gratefully and eagerly.
"Wilt tell him that I knew nothing of the plan to capture him,
and was only trying to aid his escape? That, after all his
kindness, I would never--"

Here the eager flow of words received a check by the re-entrance
of Mrs. Meredith. Dropping his hand upon the quilting-frame
so that it covered one of the girl's, the commissary
conveyed by a slight pressure a pledge of fulfilment of her wish,
and, after a few moments' passing chat, left the room. Before
a lapse of ten minutes he returned, and took a chair near the
girl.

Glancing at her mother, to see if her eyes wandered from
the sock she was resoling, Janice raised her eyebrows with
furtive inquiry. In answer the baron shook his head.

"'T is a curious commentary on man, "he observed thoughtfully,
"that he always looks on the black side of his fellow-creatures,
and will not believe that they can be honest and
truthful."

"Man is born in sin," responded Mrs. Meredith. "Janice,
that last patch is misplaced; pay heed to thy work."

"I lately had occasion to justify an action to a man," went
on Clowes, "but, no, the scurvy fellow would put no faith in
my words, insisting that the person I sought to clear was covinous
and tricky, and wholly unworthy of trust."

"The thoughts of a man who prefers to think such things,"
broke in Janice, hotly, "are of no moment."

"Ye are quite right, Miss Janice," assented the emissary,
"and I would I'd had the wit to tell him so. 'T is my intention
some day to call him to account for his words."

Further communion on this topic was interrupted by the
incoming of Mr. Meredith, and during the whole day the two
were never alone. His forgiveness partly won by his service,
the commissary ventured to take a seat beside the quilter, and
sought to increase his favour with her by all the arts of tongue
and manner he had at command. As these were manifold,
he saw no reason, as dusk set in, to be dissatisfied with the
day's results. Inexperienced as Janice was, she could not
know that the cooler and less ardent the man, the better he
plays the lover's part; and while she never quite forgot his
previous deceit, nor the trouble into which he had persuaded
her, yet she was thoroughly entertained by what he had to tell
her, the more that under all his words he managed to convey
an admiration and devotion which did not fail to flatter the
girl, even though it stirred in her no response. Entertained
as she might be, her thoughts were not so occupied by the
charm and honey of Lord Clowes's attentions as to pretermit
all dwelling on the aide's opinion of her, and this was shown
when finally an interruption set her free from observation.