, father, if
they were intending to break into our house."

John Thorndyke made no reply, and in a few minutes drove up to the
house. Their return, a couple of days before they were expected,
caused great satisfaction to Mrs. Cunningham and Millicent. The former,
however, had wisely kept from the girl the matter on which she had
written to the Squire, and the suspicion she had herself entertained.

"It is very dull without you both," Millicent said. "I was telling Mrs.
Cunningham that I thought it would be a good thing, when you got back,
for us two to take a run up to town for a week, just to let you see
how dull the place is when two of us are away. You are looking quite
serious, uncle. Is anything the matter?"

"Happily nothing is the matter with us, dear, but we have had an
adventure, and not a very pleasant one."

"What was it?" the girl asked.

"If you examine my hat closely, Millicent, it will tell you."

The girl took up the hat from a chair on which he had put it, and
brought it to the light. "There are two holes in it," she said. "Oh,
Guardy, have you been shot at?"

"It looks like it, dear. Two gentlemen highwaymen--at least, that is
what I believe they call themselves--asked us pressingly to stop, and
as we would not comply with their request, one fired at me, and, as you
see, it was an uncommonly good shot. The other was about to fire when
Mark's pistol put a stop to him, and his second barrel stopped the
fellow who had fired first; he was hit, for we heard him give an
exclamation of pain, but before any more shooting could be done he
turned and rode off down a narrow lane where we could not follow."

"And what became of the first?" Millicent asked with open eyes.

"He was dead before we could get down to examine him; he will not
disturb the King's peace again. It happened about four miles from home,
so we brought him in and gave him and his horse into the charge of the
constable at Reigate."

"And you have really killed a man?" Millicent said, looking up with an
awestruck expression to Mark.

"Well, as the man would have killed us if I hadn't, I cannot say,
Millicent, that his death weighs in any way heavily on my mind. If he
were as good a shot as the other, my father's life would not have been
worth much, for as we were driving fast, he was not above half as far
away as the other had been when he fired. Just the same, I suppose, as
it would be in a battle; a man is going to shoot you, and yo