other of 'em!" And
there came the crack of a pistol that echoed loudly in the passage.

"It is time we were going," I said. "Out of the window, Mademoiselle!"

In my haste I almost pushed her from the sill to the lawn, and was
leaning towards her.

"Mademoiselle, listen! The stables are straight to the left. Can you
saddle a horse?"

She nodded.

"The first stall to the right. I shall be there in an instant!" For I
remembered my sword, and sprang back into the room to get it.

"Get that man!" someone was shouting. "In after him, you fools! Don't
shoot in the dark!"

I had a glimpse of Brutus darting through the passage and making a leap
for the stairs. Then there was a crash of glass.

"Begad!" came a hoarse voice. "He's jumped clean through the window!"
And another pistol exploded from the landing above me.

"Five hundred dollars for the man who gets him." I could swear I had
heard the voice before. "Damn it! Don't let him go! Out the door, all of
you! Out the door, men! Out the door!"

There was a rush of feet through the passage. I had a glimpse of men
running past, and then I was half out the window.

"Stop!" someone shouted. I took a hasty glance behind me to find that my
Uncle Jason had entered the morning room, his clothing torn and
disarranged, the good nature erased from his face, and a gash on his left
cheek that still was bleeding.

"Stop!" he shouted again, "or I fire!"

Then I was out on the lawn with the cool air from the river on my face,
and running for the stable. I wonder what would have happened if the
evening had been less far advanced, or the sky less overcast, or
Mademoiselle less adroit than providence had made her. She had bridled
the horse and was swinging the saddle on him when I had reached the
stable's shadow. I could hear my uncle shouting for assistance as I
tightened the girths, but Brutus must have led his men a pretty chase.

I mounted unmolested, as I somehow knew I should, and helped her up
behind me. Somehow with that first crash on our front door, I knew that
the game had turned. I knew that nothing would stop me. An odd sense of
exaltation came over me, and with it a strange desire to laugh. It would
be amusing enough when I met my father, but I wondered--I wondered as I
clapped my heels into my horse's flanks.

What had my uncle to do in this affair?

XIV

It was just that time in an autumn day when the light is fading out of
the sky. The thick, heavy