y, if he were not a walking ahsenal," said Robert.
"You have small chance to reason with a half-crazy man while he is
handling a pistol."

He meant revolver.

"But he'll shoot!" I cried. "The Princess said he'd shoot!"

"So he will!" said Robert. "Shoot first, then find out how things are,
and kill himself and every one else with remorse, afterward. He is
made that way."

"Then he doesn't dare see you until he finds out how mistaken he has
been," I said, for I was growing to like Robert better every minute
longer I knew him. Besides, there was the Princess, looking like him
as possible, and loving him of course, like I did Laddie, maybe. And
if anything could cure Mrs. Pryor's heart trouble, having her son back
would, because that was what made it in the first place, and even
before them, there was Shelley to be thought of, and cared for.

CHAPTER XVIII

The Pryor Mystery

"And now old Dodson, turning pale,
Yields to his fate--so ends my tale."

It didn't take me long to see why Shelley liked Robert Paget. He was
one of the very most likeable persons I ever had seen. We were sitting
under the apple tree, growing better friends every minute, when we
heard a smash, so we looked up, and it was the sound made by Ranger as
Mr. Pryor landed from taking our meadow fence. He had ridden through
the pasture, and was coming down the creek bank. He was a spectacle to
behold. A mile away you could see that Thomas had told him he had seen
Robert, and where he was. Father had been mistaken in thinking Mr.
Pryor would go to the house. He had lost his hat, his white hair was
flying, his horse was in a lather, and he seemed to be talking to
himself. Robert took one good look. "Ye Gods!" he cried. "There he
comes now, a chattering madman!"

"The Station," I panted. "Up that ravine! Roll back the stone and
pull the door shut after you. Quick!"

He never could have been inside, before Mr. Pryor's horse was raving
along the embankment beside the fence.

"Where is he?" he cried. "Thomas saw him here!"

I didn't think his horse could take the fence at the top of the hill,
but it looked as if he intended trying to make it, and I had to stop
him if I could.

"Saw who?" I asked with clicking teeth.

"A tall, slender man, with a handsome face, and the heart of a devil."

"Yes, there was a man here like that in the face. I didn't see his
heart," I said.

"Which way?" raved Mr. Pryor. "Which way