The colonel brushed everybody aside and pulled Kate, half fainting, into
the room. Then he faced Mrs. Cheston.

"What has happened?" he asked sharply. "What is going on outside?"

"Just what I told you. Those fools are out there trying to murder each
other!"

Two shots in rapid succession rang clear on the night air.

The colonel stood perfectly still. No need to tell him now what had
happened, and worse yet, no need to tell him what WOULD happen if
he showed the slightest agitation. He was a cool man, accustomed to
critical situations, and one who never lost his head in an emergency.
Only a few years before he had stopped a runaway hunter, with a girl
clinging to a stirrup, by springing straight at the horse's head and
bringing them both to the ground unhurt. It only required the same
instantaneous concentration of all his forces, he said to himself, as
he gazed into old Alec's terror-stricken face framed by the open window.
Once let the truth be known and the house would be in a panic--women
fainting, men rushing out, taking sides with the combatants, with
perhaps other duels to follow--Mrs. Rutter frantic, the ball suddenly
broken up, and this, too, near midnight, with most of his guests ten
miles and more from home.

Murmurs of alarm were already reaching his ears: What was it?--who had
fainted?--did the scream come from inside or outside the room?--what was
the firing about?

He turned to allay Kate's anxiety, but she had cleared the open window
at a bound and was already speeding toward where she had seen the
light on the man's shirt. For an instant he peered after her into the
darkness, and then, his mind made up, closed the sash with a quick
movement, flung together the silk curtains and raised his hand to
command attention.

"Keep on with the dance, my friends; I'll go and find out what has
happened--but it's nothing that need worry anybody--only a little burnt
powder. Alec, go and tell Mr. Grant, the overseer, to keep better order
outside. In the meantime let everybody get ready for the Virginia reel;
supper will be served in a few minutes. Will you young gentlemen please
choose your partners, and will some one of you kindly ask the music to
start up?"

Slowly, and quite as if he had been called to the front door to welcome
some belated guest, he walked the length of the room preceded by Alec,
who, agonized at his master's measured delay, had forged ahead to open
the door. This closed and they out