s! Conny, what has happened to you?"

"I think I have a little hurt somewhere in me shoulder, sir," said
Conny, sliding from the horse; "it's nothing much, sir, if you'd have
the goodness to fix me a little at the barn."

But the doctor would not hear to such a thing, and took Conny to the
surgery, where he discovered that the bones of his arm were broken above
the elbow; and most unwillingly Conny told the story.

How he had recognized the cry of warning, and understood that the young
gentlemen were mistaken for revenue officers, and that mischief would
probably be done them unless he could succeed in preventing the attack.

"And so you invited them to empty their rifles on you," said the doctor,
gruffly; but as he spoke he wiped his eyes on a roll of bandages.

"It's good luck it was me, sir," said Conny. "Wouldn't it have spited us
if Master Joe had been spoiled with a broken arm, and all the fun we've
been planning gone for nothing?"

"But the rascals might have killed you."

"I don't think they're that bad, sir; they were meaning a bit of a
scare, and maybe a drubbing or the likes."

"I'll drub them," said the doctor; "I'll make this county too hot for
them," and then, having finished dressing the arm, he threw his own
dressing-gown over Conny. "My boy," he said, gently, "I understand
perfectly well what a brave thing you have done: you risked your own
life to save our Joe. I honor you and love you for it from my heart, but
you and I will keep it a secret between us for the present. I think it
would kill my wife to know her boy had been in such danger. She shall
not know it till that nest of murderers is cleared out."

Conny's part in Master Joe's vacation was not exactly what he had
planned, but he scarcely regretted the wound that brought him such
gentle and loving care from every member of the family, by whom it was
only understood that Conny had been accidentally shot by a careless
hunter, and had borne his pain in silence all the long ride home from
the Glen.

Months afterward, when the last moonshiner had disappeared, and the old
still in the forest had been dismantled, the doctor ventured to tell his
wife of Joe's escape.

"And I have never thanked him," she said, her eyes filling with tears,
as she went straight to the attic, where Conny was so deeply absorbed in
a bit of carving that he did not see or hear her until she put her arms
around him and kissed him again and again.

"I know all abou