oughout, slipped off his boots, drew the lasso out from the
bottom of the contents of his trunk, and, carrying that and his boots in
his hand, opened his door softly, locked it after him, and stole down the
back-stairs, so as to get out of the house unnoticed. He went straight
to the stable and saddled the mustang. He took a rope from the stable
with him, mounted his horse, and set forth in the direction of the
Institute.

Mr. Bernard, as we have seen, had not been very profoundly impressed by
the old Doctor's cautions,--enough, however, to follow out some of his
hints which were not troublesome to attend to. He laughed at the idea of
carrying a loaded pistol about with him; but still it seemed only fair,
as the old Doctor thought so much of the matter, to humor him about it.
As for not going about when and where he liked, for fear he might have
some lurking enemy, that was a thing not to be listened to nor thought
of. There was nothing to be ashamed of or troubled about in any of his
relations with the school-girls. Elsie, no doubt, showed a kind of
attraction towards him, as did perhaps some others; but he had been
perfectly discreet, and no father or brother or lover had any just cause
of quarrel with him. To be sure, that dark young man at the Dudley
mansion-house looked as if he were his enemy, when he had met him; but
certainly there was nothing in their relations to each other, or in his
own to Elsie, that would be like to stir such malice in his mind as would
lead him to play any of his wild Southern tricks at his, Mr. Bernard's,
expense. Yet he had a vague feeling that this young man was dangerous,
and he had been given to understand that one of the risks he ran was from
that quarter.

On this particular evening, he had a strange, unusual sense of some
impending peril. His recent interview with the Doctor, certain remarks
which had been dropped in his hearing, but above all an unaccountable
impression upon his spirits, all combined to fill his mind with a
foreboding conviction that he was very near some overshadowing danger.
It was as the chill of the ice-mountain toward which the ship is steering
under full sail. He felt a strong impulse to see Helen Darley and talk
with her. She was in the common parlor, and, fortunately, alone.

"Helen," he said,--for they were almost like brother and sister now,--"I
have been thinking what you would do, if I should have to leave the
school at short notice, or be