oved hastily out of the door.
Jim looked toward the orchard, and caught sight of another man
disappearing in the trees. He was wild with excitement. As he knew
that his father was the only person in the house, he was sure that
his father had fired the shot.

The tales that he had heard, his belief in his father's life of
adventure, made him conclude that here was some smuggler's quarrel.
So vividly did the notion take possession of his inflamed
imagination that nothing henceforth could shake it. He simply
_knew_ what had happened.

And his father had fled, leaving all the evidences of his shot
behind him! Jim's loyal heart bounded; here he could help. He
turned, raced across the loft, clattered down the steep, cobwebby
stairs, slipped through the shed passage, through the kitchen, and
on into his own room.

He knew what to do. Nothing must show that the gun had ever been
used! He set feverishly to work. He swabbed out the weapon, and hung
it on its rack over the mantel. He tossed the rags into the
fireplace and covered them with ashes. He put the shot-pouch and the
powder-flask into their proper drawer. Then he pulled a chair to the
table and set himself to a pretended study of Caesar. If any one
should come, it would look as if he had been quietly studying all
the morning.

All this had cost considerable self-denial; for of course he boiled
with curiosity about the man in the orchard. He did not dare to go
out there, but now, stealthily glancing out of the window, he saw
his father returning from the garden with long strides. Jim
understood. His father, going out at the front door, had slipped
round to the side of the house, so that it would look as if he had
come from the street.

He was not surprised that his father looked stern and angry. That
fellow must have done something mighty mean, he thought, to make his
father shoot; and he admired at once the magnanimity and the skill
which had merely winged the man, as he supposed, by way, presumably,
of teaching him a lesson. Then, struck by the boldness and openness
of his father's return to the house, Jim suddenly felt that he had
been foolish; that the cleaning of the gun had not been needed.
What man would dare, after such a lesson, to complain against his
father!

Mr. Edwards walked straight into Jim's room. Aroused from his nap by
the shot, he had leaped to the window and seen the man fall. He had
then turned and run downstairs so quickly that he had not s