e frightened, and trembled so much that I scarcely knew how to
climb up the steep bits of the path.

I was still about a quarter of a mile from the house when I met Mr.
Glengelly, who was also on the search for Aleck. It was a wonderful
relief to have some one to speak to after the long silence of the past
hour, and to be cheered up by his assurance that a broken arm was no
very formidable accident after all, and that a little severe pain, and a
few weeks invalidism, sounded very alarming, but would in reality pass
quickly by.

"Then you think, perhaps Aleck won't die," I faltered, struggling to get
breath, for the haste in which I had come had made speaking difficult.

"Die!" echoed my tutor cheerily; "why, Willie, people don't die of a
broken arm! I broke my arm when I was a little boy of twelve, and you
see I'm alive still." I smiled faintly; it was so much better than
anything I had expected to hear. "It's true," added the tutor, "that
there may be more than the broken arm, but we must hope for the best. In
the meantime, Willie, you have had enough running, you are quite out of
breath, and had better come the rest of the way quietly; I will go on
and carry out your father's directions."

When I reached home every one seemed in a bustle, and too busy to take
any notice of me. My mother indeed spared time to tell me I had been a
good brave boy to come home so fast with the message, and that I had
better go and sit quietly to rest in the school-room; but she hurried
away immediately to finish her preparations, and I found she was getting
the spare room next to her own ready for Aleck, instead of the little
room next to mine.

I had a lingering hope that Mr. Glengelly might appear in the
school-room, but he had gone down with Bennet to the lodge to see if he
could be of use when the boat came in, so that I was quite alone, and
could only watch from the half-open door the doings of the servants as
they passed to and fro, all seeming in a flutter, and as if it lay upon
them as a duty to move about, and run hither and thither, without any
particular object that I could discover.

After about an hour, the sound of wheels on the drive announced the
approach of the carriage. I sprang to my post of observation, and saw
Aleck, still deathly pale, and unconscious, carried carefully in by my
father and Mr. Glengelly, and my mother on the first landing of the
stairs, looking terribly anxious but perfectly composed, beckoning