d silently toward the Owen home in Chestnut Street.

David Owen, his wife, Nurse Johnson, Robert and Fairfax were assembled
in the living-room of the dwelling. They rose with exclamations of
dismay at sight of Peggy's pale face, and Sally's red eyes.

"What hath happened, lass?" cried her father. "Thou art in trouble. Is
it of a serious nature?"

"Yes, father," answered the girl tremulously. "It may be grave trouble
for thee, though it should be for me alone, as I am solely to blame."
She paused for a moment to steady her voice, then continued: "Father,
the escaped prisoner whom the sheriff sought was Clifford. He came
here yesterday just after dinner asking for shelter. I could not turn
him away in such a storm. Indeed, he would not have sought us out at
all had it not been for the weather. And--and I hid him in the kitchen
chamber."

"Clifford!" ejaculated her father. "Thy Cousin Clifford? But where is
he now? The kitchen chamber was searched, but we found no one there.
Where is he?"

"The sheriff hath him," Peggy told him chokingly. "Sally took him home
with her last night, and I went there to see him this afternoon. I met
the sheriff in Fourth Street as I left here, and he must have followed
me; for I had scarce begun to talk to Clifford when he came and took
my cousin. He talks of an indictment."

Both girls were crying by this time, and with an exclamation of
concern Mrs. Owen hastened to them, and drew them into an embrace.

"There! There!" she said soothingly. "David will manage it somehow.
Don't sob so, Sally. After all thee is not so much to blame. Perchance
the Council will excuse what thee did, as 'twas to help Peggy."

"I don't care for the old Council," flashed Sally through her tears.
"'Tis that Peggy's cousin thinks that I betrayed him. I thought he was
up attic, and he wasn't. I told Peggy to tell him to go there, but she
did not hear me. Thee knows my fault, Mrs. Owen," she wailed in an
agony of self-reproach. "Thee knows just how froward and saucy I can
be, and I was just that way with the sheriff, and--and pert. He spoke
of the closet, showing that he knew of it, and I was so sure that
Clifford was up attic that I asked the sheriff if I should open the
door for him. I did, and there was Clifford," she ended with a fresh
burst of tears.

"I know just how you feel," interposed Nurse Johnson sympathetically.
"And so the prisoner was Clifford? Well, I am sorry that he was taken.
Tell us all ab