or it, but he didn't like
it, and there was a scowl on his face as he waited for Jack, who came
at last with Eloise and the agent, whose lantern shed a dim light on the
handsomely-cushioned carriage when the door was open.

"I'm not fit to get in there, I am so wet," Eloise said, drawing back a
little.

"As fit as we are," Jack replied, almost lifting her in, and tilting his
umbrella till one of the sticks struck Howard in the eye, increasing his
discomposure, and making him wish both Eloise and Mrs. Biggs in a much
dryer place than he was.

"Now, Howard, in with you. There's a little lull in the rain. We'll take
advantage of it," Jack continued, as he followed Howard into the
carriage, where both sat down opposite Eloise, who crouched in her
corner, afraid she did not know of what. Certainly not of the man who
had been so kind to her, and who she wished was sitting in front of her,
instead of the one who did not speak at all, except to ask Sam how the
deuce they were to know when they reached the Widow Biggs's.

"Easy enough. It is a squat-roofed house with lalock and piney bushes in
the yard."

"Yes, but how are we to see a squat roof with lalocks and pineys on this
beastly night?" Howard rejoined, in a tone which told that he was not
anticipating his trip to the widder Biggs's. "Drive on, for heaven's
sake," he continued, "and don't upset us. It is darker than a pocket."

"No, sir, not if I can help it. I never knew the horses so 'fraid. Easy,
Cass--easy Brute," Sam answered, as in response to a flash of lightning
Brutus and Cassius both stood on their hind feet and pawed the air with
terror. "Easy, easy, boys. Lightnin' can't strike you but once," Sam
continued soothingly to the restless, nervous horses, who were at last
gotten safely from the station, and started down the road which lead
through the village to Crompton Place.

CHAPTER IV

THE ACCIDENT

For a short time the carriage went on smoothly and swiftly through the
town, where the street lamps of kerosene gave a little light to the
darkness. Once out of town in the country Sam became less sure of his
way, and as he could not see his hand before him, he finally left the
matter to the horses, trusting their instinct to keep in the road.

"I shall know when I reach the gate, and so will Brute and Cass; but
we've got to go farther to the Widder Biggs's, and darned if I b'lieve
they'll know the place," he thought, with a growing conviction of