CHAPTER XII.
The girl stole quietly into the toll-house after her lover had riddenaway toward the misty hills. She found her mother still sleeping soundlyin her chair, quite oblivious of surroundings, and little dreaming thatthe secret the Squire had urged her to keep so securely had reached athird pair of ears already in its swift journeyings.
Catching up her sewing again, which she had quickly dropped on the floorin her eagerness to see the belated rider, Sally began to sew awayindustriously to make up for lost time, while her thoughts flew a gooddeal faster than her needle.
Her surcharged mind was now happily relieved of a portion of its burdenof fears. There was no longer any danger threatening her sweetheart, sofar as the present intended raid was concerned, and possibly this itselfwould fail of fruition.
Soon after ten o'clock the sheriff and a posse of armed men appeared.
"You keep late hours, Miss Sally," he said when she and her mother cameout to receive them. "I expected to find you both asleep."
"Not when we are expecting company," the girl answered with a laugh thatwas somewhat forced; "that wouldn't be good manners, you know."
"It's no use to go to bed," insisted Mrs. Brown. "I couldn't sleep awink, not if my life depended on it, that I couldn't." Sally smiledfaintly, thinking of the recent long nap her mother had taken, and ofthe warning that had been given, quite unknown to the sleeper, thanks tothis period of oblivion.
"I do hope none of you will get hurt!" cried the girl in deep concern."It seems dreadful to think that perhaps before morning a very battlemay be fought right around this quiet spot."
"Don't be alarmed," the sheriff insisted. "I look for little trouble orbloodshed either."
"No more do I," thought the pretty toll-taker, with a secretsatisfaction she admirably concealed.
"I expect to take the rascals so completely by surprise they will have achance to make but little resistance," the officer continuedreassuringly, for the girl's apparent fear appealed to him. "Perhaps wemay be able to capture the whole band without loss of a single man."
A feeling almost bordering on resignation had gradually supplanted thedisturbed condition of Mrs. Brown's mind since her daughter's reassuringconfession that the Squire had placed a shelter at their disposal, incase the raiders deprived them of the one they now had. She began tofeel that the threatened calamity might, after all, take on thecharacteristics of a disguised blessing, since it would help to bring toa climax a state of affairs she had long striven, though unsuccessfully,to mold to her purpose, and that through the raiders the Squire mightalso manage to get him a wife, which, up to the present moment at leasthad proven a most elusive quantity.
With the coming of the posse to guard the gate, Mrs. Brown's spiritstook on almost a jubilant turn, for though the raiders might fail intheir present venture, they would ultimately succeed in the destructionof the New Pike gate, and its doom would probably not be far distant,in spite of officers or guard, while the price of its downfall would bethe speedy realization of the mother's fondest dreams concerning herdaughter's future.
"We might just as well lay down on the outside of the bed, dressed as weare," said Mrs. Brown, as she led the way into the house, after the menhad been placed on guard. "It's no use stayin' up, though, of course, Idon't expect to close my eyes the entire night, for nobody can tell whatmay take place before mornin'."
"The raiders may not come, after all," ventured Sally, hoping to allayher mother's evident fears, "though, as you say, it's just as well tolook presentable, in case we should be turned out of the house and homein the middle of the night." She gave a covert glance in the smalllooking glass on the tall dresser as she spoke.
"There's at least one that will not be captured tonight, whether he is araider, or whether he isn't, and the Squire may find that his traps arenot as carefully set as he thinks," said the girl to herself as sheblew out the light, and lay down.
The incidents of the past few days came crowding confusedly through herbrain as she lay thinking over the many entanglements that seemedtightening their meshes closer and closer about her.
As the night grew on apace, a suggestive sound by her side proclaimedthat her mother had fallen asleep, despite all predictions of a watchfulvigil, and as the girl lay and listened to the droning monotone, itfinally lulled her into forgetfulness and slumber.
Darkness and silence hovered over the New Pike gate, and while itsinmates slept on through threatened danger, others were yet awake andwatchful along the opposite side of the road, their alert and crouchingfigures hidden in the gloom of the sheltering stone wall as the guardimpatiently awaited the coming of the raiders.