of far and forever receding voices. So strong was the impression
that when the doctor and McKinstry's attending brother re-entered the
room, the master still lingered beside the bed with a dazed sensation
of abandonment that the doctor's practical reassuring smile could hardly
dispel.

"He's doing splendidly now," he said, listening to the sleeper's more
regular respiration: "and I'd advise you to go now, Mr. Ford, before
he wakes, lest he might be tempted to excite himself by talking to you
again. He's really quite out of danger now. Good-night! I'll drop in on
you at the hotel when I return."

The master, albeit still confused and bewildered, felt his way to
the door and out into the open night. The wind was still despairingly
wrestling with the tree-tops, but the far receding voices seemed to be
growing fainter in the distance, until, as he passed on, they too seemed
to pass away forever.

*****

Monday morning had come again, and the master was at his desk in the
school house early, with a still damp and inky copy of the Star fresh
from the press before him. The free breath of the pines was blowing in
the window, and bringing to his ears the distant voices of his slowly
gathering flock, as he read as follows:--

"The perpetrator of the dastardly outrage at the Indian Spring Academy
on Thursday last--which, through unfortunate misrepresentation of
the facts, led to a premature calling out of several of our most
public-spirited citizens, and culminated in a most regrettable encounter
between Mr. McKinstry and the accomplished and estimable principal of
the school--has, we regret to say, escaped condign punishment by leaving
the country with his relations. If, as is seriously whispered, he was
also guilty of an unparalleled offence against a chivalrous code which
will exclude him in the future from ever seeking redress at the Court
of Honor, our citizens will be only too glad to get rid of the
contamination of being obliged to arrest him. Those of our readers who
know the high character of the two gentlemen who were thus forced into
a hostile meeting, will not be surprised to know that the most ample
apologies were tendered on both sides, and that the entente cordiale has
been thoroughly restored. The bullet--which it is said played a highly
important part in the subsequent explanation, proving to have come
from a REVOLVER fired by some outsider--has been extracted from Mr.
McKinstry's thigh, and he is doing well