embling
girl a push. "Tell him what has happened."

Nesta needed no second bidding, but she had not reached the door
before it opened and Mr. Orban dashed in.

"Through there," said Miss Chase, pointing towards the window.
"Follow the blood track. He can't go fast. I winged him."

CHAPTER XV.

WHO IS IN THE BOAT?

"Really, Miss Chase," said Bob next morning, "I'm glad you didn't
burst all your accomplishments on us at once. We might have been
rather frightened of you."

Miss Chase smiled. She was looking very pale, and unlike her usual
bright self.

"I hope I didn't do an awfully wrong thing," she said nervously;
"but I had only two definite ideas--one was to save Nesta, the
other not to let the man get away."

"You were perfectly right, Dorothy," Mr. Orban said; "there would
never have been any end to the worry until he was caught. He may
thank his stars I didn't find him out. I should not have been so
merciful."

"So that is why you aimed at his ankle, Aunt Dorothy?" said
Eustace. "It was clever of you to think of laming him."

"She says she did," said Bob, the tease.--"But are you quite sure,
Miss Chase, that you really didn't aim at his head? For most women
his ankle would have been wonderfully near the mark."

"I shall treat the aspersion with silent contempt," laughed Miss
Chase.

"Where did you learn to shoot like that, Dorothy?" asked Mrs.
Orban.

"Oh, I've patronized every shooting gallery that has come to the
village for the last eighteen years, I should think," was the
answer. "But, do you know, I feel most awfully remorseful about
that poor fellow. He will be lame for a long time."

In the kitchen sat Manuel, the stable-boy, his leg bandaged and
resting on a chair; for the midnight visitor on both occasions had
been no other. He confessed to the first performance quite readily,
and declared that this second had been at the instigation of Sinkum
Fung, who promised always to get the reward for stolen goods, and
give him half. Mr. Orban was not sorry to get hold of some definite
reason for turning Sinkum Fung out of the place. He had long
suspected him to be a cheat, and he wanted an Englishman in the
store. But Manuel, when he was well, was to be allowed to retrieve
his character, as he protested vehemently he would.

"You needn't worry about Manuel," said Bob. "We shall all be coming
to you to shoot us, if you'll just bind us up as beautifully
afterwards. Did you learn that in t