Colin could reach the boy, his hoarse cry
was echoed by a shrill shriek from behind Bert, and two stout arms
encircling him, bore him off through the door and up the stairs, pausing
not until Squire Stewart's bedroom was gained and the door locked fast.
Then depositing her burden upon the floor, brave, big Kitty threw
herself into a chair, exclaiming, breathlessly:

"Thank God, Master Bert, we're safe now. The creature darsen't come up
those stairs."

And Kitty was right; for although Crazy Colin raged and stormed up and
down the hall, striking the wall with the knife, and talking in his
wild, unintelligible way, he did not attempt to set foot upon the
stairs. Presently he became perfectly quiet.

"Has he gone away, Kitty?" asked Bert, eagerly, speaking for the first
time. "He's not making any noise now."

Kitty stepped softly to the door, and putting her ear to the crack,
listened intently for a minute.

"There's not a sound of him, Master Bert. Please God, he's gone, but we
hadn't better go out of the room until the folks come home. He may be
waiting in the kitchen."

And so they stayed, keeping one another company through the long hours
of the morning and afternoon until at last the welcome sound of wheels
crushing the gravel told that the carriage had returned, and they might
leave their refuge.

The indignation of Squire Stewart when he heard what had occurred was a
sight to behold. Sunday though it was, he burst forth into an
unrestrained display of his wrath, and had the cause of it ventured
along at the time, he certainly would have been in danger of bodily
injury.

"The miserable trash!" stormed the Squire. "Not one of them shall ever
darken my threshold again. Hech! that's what comes of being kind to such
objects. They take you to be as big fools as themselves, and act
accordingly. The constable shall lay his grip on that loon so sure as I
am a Stewart."

There were more reasons for the Squire's wrath, too, than the fright
Crazy Colin had given Bert and Kitty, for no dinner awaited the hungry
church-goers, and rejoiced as they all were at the happy escape of the
two who had been left at home, that was in itself an insufficient
substitute for a warm, well-cooked dinner. But Kitty, of course, could
not be blamed, and there was nothing to be done but to make the best of
the situation, and satisfy their hunger upon such odds and ends as the
larder afforded.

As for poor Crazy Colin, whether by some s