believing aught of this
could be anything but a fevered dream, uttered the one word:

"Petronella!"

Chapter 17: Brother And Sister.

"Petronella! thou here!"

"Brother--brother mine--art thou hurt?"

"Never a whit, though I looked to be a dead man ere this. Sister,
take my knife and cut my bonds; yon man may rise again, and I must
be free to defend myself and thee."

Petronella cast a scared and fearful glance at the long dark figure
lying face downwards upon the sward, showing signs of life only by
a spasmodic twitching of the limbs; and then drawing Cuthbert's
long hunting knife from his belt, she cut the cords that bound his
hands and feet, and in another moment he sprang up and shook
himself, keeping a wary eye all the while upon the prostrate foe.
But he did not go to his side at once; he was too keenly aroused
and interested by this sudden appearance of his sister.

"Petronella! I can scarce credit my senses. How comest thou here,
and at such an hour?"

"I am doing as thou biddest me," she answered in a low voice: "I am
flying from our home, even as thou wast forced to fly. I verily
believe that thou art right, and that our father is well-nigh mad.
I dared not remain. Even old Martha feared to linger longer under
that roof. She has found safe refuge, I trust, at Trevlyn Chase.
Thou didst go there, my brother, after parting from me?"

"Ay, verily I did, and stayed there a matter of some two weeks,
ever hoping to see thy face again, and to hear how it fared with
thee. But thou camest not."

"I could not," answered the girl, in the same low tone; "I was in
my bed, unable to move hand or foot, unable to know night from day.
Cuthbert, the night I went forth to thee in the chantry our father
missed me from the house. He thought I had gone to meet Philip in
the wood at night. He reviled me cruelly, and I feared to tell him
it was thou I had gone to see. Then, I know not how, but I fear he
struck me. A great blackness came before mine eyes; and when I
opened them again a week or more had passed, and I knew, as I began
to understand what had chanced, that I could no longer remain
beneath the roof of the Gate House."

Cuthbert ground his teeth in sudden fury.

"Struck thee, my gentle sister! Nay, I can scarce credit it; and
were he any other than my father--"

"But he is our father," answered the girl gently. "And truly
methinks, Cuthbert, that his lonely brooding has something unhinged
his mind. L