or
father is dying!"

"Oh, no," said the doctor; "we must not let him die."

"But be quick, sir! You are so long!" cried Dick.

"Don't be impatient, my lad," said the doctor smiling. "We folks have
to be calm and quiet in all we do. Now show me the way."

Dick led him to the room, the doctor beckoning Hickathrift to follow;
and as soon as he reached the injured man's side he quietly sent Mrs
Winthorpe and Dick to wait in the next room, retaining the great
wheelwright to help him move his patient.

The time seemed interminable, and as mother and son sat waiting, every
word spoken in the next room sounded like a moan from the injured man.
Mrs Winthorpe's face appeared to be that of a woman ten years older,
and her agony was supreme; but like a true wife and tender mother--ah,
how little we think of what a mother's patience and self-denial are when
we are young!--she devoted her whole energies to administering comfort
to her sorely-tried son.

A dozen times over Dick felt that he could not keep the secret that
troubled him--that he must tell his mother his suspicions and ask her
advice; but so sure as he made up his mind to speak, the fear that he
might be wrong troubled him, and he forebore.

Then began the whole struggle again, and at last he was nearer than ever
to confiding his horrible belief in their neighbour's treachery, when
the doctor suddenly appeared.

Dick rose from where he had been kneeling by his mother's side, and she
started from her seat to grasp the doctor's hand.

She did not speak, but her eyes asked the one great question of her
heart, and then, as the doctor's hard sour face softened and he smiled,
Mrs Winthorpe uttered a piteous sigh and clasped her hands together in
thankfulness to Heaven.

"Then he is not very bad, doctor?" cried Dick joyfully.

"Yes, my boy, he is very bad indeed, and dangerously wounded," replied
the doctor; "but, please God, I think I can pull him through."

"Tell me--tell me!" faltered Mrs Winthorpe piteously.

"It is a painful thing to tell a lady," said the doctor kindly; "but I
will explain. Mrs Winthorpe, he has a terrible wound. The bullet has
passed obliquely through his chest; it was just within the skin at the
back, and I have successfully extracted it. As far as I can tell there
is no important organ injured, but at present I am not quite sure.
Still I think I may say he is in no immediate danger."

Mrs Winthorpe could not trust herself to spea