I have not all
that faith in his invincibility."

Helen smiled her appreciation of that sentence, though she did not like
her stepmother's looks.

"I would rather trust Jim's teeth than our bolts and locks, and I told
him to take care of you."

"That was thoughtful of you!" Mildred said. She rolled her pastry, but
it did not please her, and she squeezed the dough into a ball as she
turned with unusual haste to Helen.

"You must not wander about at night alone."

"But on the moor--!" Helen protested.

"It's Miriam--Miriam--" the word came vaguely. "You must look after
her."

"I do try," Helen said, and hearing the strangeness of her own voice she
coughed and choked to cover it.

"What does that mean?"

"What?" Helen's hand was at her throat.

"You are trying to deceive me. Something has happened. Tell me at once!"

"I swallowed the wrong way," Helen said. "It's hurting still."

"I do not believe you."

"Oh, but, Notya, you must. You know I don't tell lies. Why should you
be so much afraid for Miriam?"

"Because--Did I say anything? My head aches a little. In fact, I don't
feel well." The rolling-pin fell noisily to the floor. "Tiresome!" she
said, and sank into a chair.

When Helen returned with the medicine which Zebedee had left for such
emergencies, she found her stepmother beside the rolling-pin. Her mouth
was open and a little twisted, and she was heavy and unwieldy when Helen
raised her body and made it lean against the wall.

"But she won't stay there," Helen murmured, looking at her. She was like
a great doll with a distorted face, and while Helen watched her she
slipped to the floor with the obstinacy of the inanimate.

Some one would have to go to Halkett's Farm. Helen stared at the
rolling-pin and she thought her whole life had passed in tending Mildred
Caniper and sending some one to Halkett's Farm. Yesterday she had done
it, and the day before; today and tomorrow and all the days to come she
would find her stepmother with this open, twisted mouth.

She forced her way out of this maze of thought and rushed out to see if
George, by chance, were already on the moor, but he was not in sight,
and she ran back again, through the kitchen, with a shirked glance for
Mildred Caniper, and up the stairs to Miriam.

"I can't go!" Miriam cried. "I'll go for John, but I daren't go to
Halkett's."

"John and Lily went with the milk this morning. You'll have to go for
George. Be quick! She's lying