ng else it liked better, it made a
dart for the baronet's poultry-yard at no great distance, and was out of
sight in a minute. Seeing that his foe had vanished, the captain laid the
piece where he had found it, and, recovering his old train of ideas,
picked up his hat again.

"John," said Emily, as she approached him affectionately, "you were too
warm to drink."

"Stand off, sis," cried John, playfully, taking up the gun from against
the body of the tree, and dropping it towards her.

Jarvis had endeavored to make an appeal to the commiseration of Emily in
favor of the neglected beaver, and was within a few feet of them. At this
moment, recoiling from the muzzle of the gun, he exclaimed, "It is
loaded!" "Hold," cried Denbigh, in a voice of horror, as he sprang between
John and his sister. Both were too late; the piece was discharged.
Denbigh, turning to Emily, and smiling mournfully, gazed for a moment at
her with an expression of tenderness, of pleasure, of sorrow, so blended
that she retained the recollection of it for life, and fell at her feet.

The gun dropped from the nerveless grasp of young Moseley. Emily sank in
insensibility by the side of her preserver. Mrs. Wilson and Jane stood
speechless and aghast. The colonel alone retained the presence of mind
necessary to devise the steps to be immediately taken. He sprang to the
examination of Denbigh; the eyes of the wounded man were open, and his
recollection perfect: the first were fixed in intense observation on the
inanimate body which lay at his side.

"Leave me, Colonel Egerton," he said, speaking with difficulty, and
pointing in the direction of the little run of water, "assist Miss
Moseley--your hat--your hat will answer."

Accustomed to scenes of blood, and not ignorant that time and care were
the remedies to be applied to the wounded man, Egerton flew to the stream,
and returning immediately, by the help of her sister and Mrs. Wilson, soon
restored Emily to life. The ladies and John had now begun to act. The
tenderest assiduities of Jane were devoted to her sister; while Mrs.
Wilson observing her niece to be uninjured by anything but the shock,
assisted John in supporting the wounded man.

Denbigh spoke, requesting to be carried to the house; and Jarvis was
despatched for help. Within half an hour, Denbigh was placed on a couch in
the house of Sir Edward, and was quietly waiting for that professional aid
which could only decide on his probable fate.