tha fairly over into the ranks of
the enemy: had the second introduced Joe Harris, an electric wire full
charged with destruction, into the immediate vicinity of his domestic
magazine?

CHAPTER XXI.

ANOTHER SCENE AT THE CRAWFORDS'--JOE HARRIS PLAYING THE DETECTIVE, WITH
MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENTS--A STRANGE CONVERSATION, AND A STRANGE VISIT TO A
STRANGE DOCTOR.

Some chapters back in this narration, we saw Colonel Egbert Crawford
playing volunteer physician to his invalid cousin Richard, and applying
a certain bandage more or less suspicious in its character, while
Josephine Harris held a very ambiguous position behind the parlor-door
and drew certain deductions not complimentary to the character or
intentions of the gallant Colonel. To take up the dropped thread of
relation at that point--the Colonel left in a few moments afterwards,
and Joe, from her position in the room up-stairs, watched his departure.
By that time, the fearful agitation which had at first oppressed her,
had somewhat moderated, and she was much more capable than before of
thinking with clearness and acting with decision. "A perfect little
fool" in many of her first confidences (as some of her friends paid her
the doubtful compliment of calling her), Josephine Harris had yet a vein
of distrust in her character, not difficult to touch; and when that
vein was touched there was not "poppy or mandragora" enough in the world
to lull to sleep her suspicions, until they were either proved true or
fairly exploded.

Frank and generous natures will sometimes discern more clearly than
subtle and designing ones, just as the naked eye will sometimes take in
particulars in any scene more readily than when assisted by the glass.
The power of discernment may be aided, in some degree, by the fact that
they are not guarded against as some are because they bear the look or
reputation of being dangerous. Many a man has taken off the outer garb
of his soul and gone in his mental shirtsleeves (so to speak) from the
impression on his mind that he was in the company of the confiding and
the unobservant; and many a bad man has found detection and ruin in the
experiment.

Josephine Harris had seen something in the eyes of Colonel Egbert
Crawford, when directed towards his invalid cousin, which said: "I hate
you, and I would put you out of the way if I could!" She had remarked
the terrible agitation of Richard Crawford when she made her random
observation to that e