exertions.

"What have you done with my horse, you villain?" roared Tom.

"I'll tell you when you have cooled off," I answered. "I want you to
understand now that I am not to be trifled with."

"I'll bring you to your senses, yet," said Tom, with an awful scowl, as
he turned and rushed out of the room again, followed by my uncle.

It was plain that he had gone after another weapon, and perhaps this
time he would bring something more dangerous than a stick from the
wood-pile. Fighting was not at all to my taste, and I was not quite
willing to risk my prowess against such an insane assailant. I realized
that he would just as lief kill me as not, and I might not again be as
fortunate as I had been during the first onslaught. Discretion was
certainly the better part of valor in such an encounter, for there were
no laurels to be won in the battle; and I determined to make my escape
before the return of my savage foe. I did not mean to come back, for my
mission was in the great world until I had developed the mystery of my
own wrongs.

I approached the closet, after I had opened the window, for the purpose
of obtaining the will and the money I had concealed there. I was on the
point of opening the closet, when I heard a step on the stairs, and then
my uncle appeared at the door.

"Ernest, if you have any regard for me, or any gratitude for what I have
done for you, don't incense him any more," said he, in pleading tones.

"What shall I do?--let him kill me?" I replied.

"What have you done with the horse and chaise?"

"They are in Welch's Lane."

"Don't resist Thomas any more."

"I shall resist him to the death, if he don't let me alone," I answered,
firmly. "I didn't begin it."

"Yes, you did, Ernest. You carried the girl off, and he is acting for
her mother."

"The girl has been abused. If she hadn't been, she wouldn't have jumped
overboard."

"There! Thomas is coming!" exclaimed he, greatly alarmed at the prospect
of a renewal of hostilities. "Tell him where the girl is, for my sake,
if not for your own."

"I will not," I replied, as I heard Tom's step on the stairs.

The window was open, and while there was yet time, I leaped out upon the
roof of the library, with the bat still in my hand. Throwing the weapon
down, I stepped on the bay window, and from that dropped to the ground.
Picking up the bat, I retreated to the grove which bordered the lake
beyond the house. I had left the valuables in the clos