Norton was able to remember that the three rushed on him,
that he was knocked down and kicked with merciless brutality, then
consciousness left him. He lay very still in the trampled dust of the
road. The bull-necked man regarded the limp figure in grim silence for a
moment.

"That'll do, he's had enough; we ain't to kill him this time," he said.
An instant later he, with his two companions, had vanished silently into
the woods.

Norton's horse trotted down the road. When it entered the yard at
Thicket Point half an hour later, Carrington was on the porch.

"Is that you, Norton?" he called, but there was no response, and he saw
the horse was riderless. "Jeff!" he cried, summoning Norton's servant
from the house.

"What's the matter, Mas'r?" asked the negro, as he appeared in the open
door.

"Why, here's Mr. Norton's horse come home without him. Do you know where
he went this afternoon?"

"I heard him say he reckoned he'd ride over to Belle Plain, Mas'r,"
answered Jeff, grinning. "I 'low the hoss done broke away and come home
by himself--he couldn't a-throwed Mas'r Charley!"

"We'll make sure of that. Get lanterns, and a couple of the boys!" said
Carrington.

It was mid-afternoon of the day following before Betty heard of the
attack on Charley Norton. Tom brought the news, and she at once ordered
her horse saddled and was soon out on the river road with a black groom
trailing along through the dust in her wake. Tom's version of the attack
was that Charley, had been robbed and all but murdered, and Betty never
drew rein until she reached Thicket Point. As she galloped into the yard
Bruce Carrington came from the house. At sight of the girl, with her
wind-blown halo of bright hair, he paused uncertainly. By a gesture
Betty called him to her side.

"How is Mr. Norton?" she asked, extending her hand.

"The doctor says he'll be up and about inside of a week, anyhow, Miss
Malroy," said Carrington.

Betty gave a great sigh of relief.

"Then his hurts are not serious?"

"No," said Carrington, "they are not in any sense serious."

"May I see him?"

"He's pretty well bandaged up, so he looks worse off than he is. If
you'll wait on the porch, I'll tell him you are here," for Betty had
dismounted.

"If you please."

Carrington passed on into the house. His face wore a look of somber
repression. Of course it was all right for her to come and see
Norton--they were old, old friends. He entered the room where No