Helen was intimate enough with the old sisters to know just where they kept everything and in short order she had a tray ready for poor half-starved Miss Ella.

"It was not a stroke at all," Dr. Wright a.s.sured the anxious sister.

"Nothing but hunger."

"I told her to eat," and Miss Louise looked venomously at the invalid.

"I came to get my dinner and you had taken all the breast of the chicken. I wasn't going to eat your leavings," declared Miss Ella, color coming back into her wan cheeks and the fire of battle to her faded eyes. Helen laughed happily. The sisters were quarreling again and everything was a.s.suming a more normal aspect.

"Now both of you ladies must get to bed," insisted the doctor, after Miss Louise had been persuaded to eat some of Helen's good toast.

"I think you have had ball enough for tonight." He looked at his watch.

"I will take you back to Weston," he whispered to Helen.

Helen would not go until both of her old friends were tucked peacefully in their great bed and then, kissing them good-night, she stole quietly from the room. She was greatly relieved that things had turned out so well and delighted that she was to be taken back to the ball.

"It's pretty nice to do your duty and still have a good time," she said to herself.

Dr. Wright was waiting in the hall for her. He silently bundled her up in her cape and hood and together they stepped on the gallery.

The lazy moon was up now and outshining the faithful stars. The great box bushes and thick hedge cast deep shadows across the lawn. The two stood for a moment in silence, drinking in the beauty of the scene.

"We can't lock the front door," said Dr. Wright finally. "I see it has an old-fashioned great bra.s.s key and the only way to lock it is to fasten the old ladies in the house."

"Why, nothing will ever hurt those dear old folks," laughed Helen.

"There are as safe as can be. They tell me they often go to bed without locking doors. They usually have a quarrel about whether the front door has been locked or not, and get so excited they both forget to do it."

CHAPTER XIX

A LITTLE LEARNING

"Listen! What is that?"

A low rumble of voices was heard, coming from the rear of Grantly.

"Could it be the dancers coming home?" suggested Helen.

"No, not from that direction!"

The rumble increased to a roar, low but continuous. Evidently a great many persons were talking or muttering and they were getting closer and closer.

"Let's have a light, so we kin see!" said a voice louder and clearer than the rest, and then there was a guffaw from many throats.

"A lot of darkies!" gasped Helen. "What can they be doing here?"

"You go inside and I'll see," commanded the young man.

"I'll do no such thing! I'll go with you and see. If I go in the house again I'll wake Miss Ella and Miss Louise up, and you said yourself that it was most important for them to have a night of unbroken rest."

"Helen, I insist!"

"But I'm not going to be sent back in the house while you go get shot up or something, so there!"

"Shot up! The idea! It is nothing but some late revelers going home.

Perhaps the darkies have been having a ball somewhere, too."

"Perhaps, but they have no business coming through Grantly."

There was a hoa.r.s.e shout from the rear and suddenly a light shot up into the sky.

"The straw stack! They are burning the straw stack!" cried Helen.

George Wright quietly opened the great front door and picking Helen up in his arms, carried her into the hall. He put her down and hastily closed the door. Helen heard the great bra.s.s key turn in the lock.

It was very dark in the hall. She groped her way along the wall. It was all she could do to keep from screaming, but remembering her two old friends, now no doubt peacefully snoozing, she held herself in check.

Suddenly she b.u.mped square into the telephone.

"I'll give a hurry call for the whole neighborhood," she cried, and no sooner thought than done. It was said afterwards that no such ringing of a 'phone had ever been heard before in the county.

"_Grantly on fire and a great crowd of negro brutes in the yard!_" was the message that was sent abroad.

The two old ladies slept peacefully on. Helen could hear the deep stertorous snore, Miss Louise's specialty, and the high steam-whistle pipe that Miss Ella was given to.

"I can't stand this!" cried the girl. "They may be killing him this minute; and he expects me to stay shut up in this house while he gets shot to death!"

She felt her way back to the kitchen where she could see well enough, thanks to the fire that the desperadoes had kindled. She cautiously unlocked the door and stepped out on the back porch.

The negroes were dancing around the burning stack, led by a tall gangling man whom Helen recognized as Tempy's slue-footed admirer, James Hanks. Some of them seemed to be rather the worse for drink, and all of them were wild-eyed and excited-looking.

"Come on, gent'men!" cried the leader. "Let's git our loot while we's got light a-plenty. The ol' tabbies is safe at the count's ball, safe an' stuffin'."

There was a shout of laughter at this witticism. Helen was trembling with fright, but not fright for herself. The dear old ladies were uppermost in her mind, and the doctor! Her doctor! Where was he? Would he tackle all of those crazy, half-drunk brutes single-handed and not even armed?

A sudden thought came to her. She slipped back into the kitchen.

Remembering the box tacked to the wall, just over the kerosene stove where the matches were kept, she felt along the wall until her hand touched it. Then armed with these matches she crept back through the house to the great parlor where the trophies of the dead and gone great-uncle, the traveler in the Orient, were. She cautiously struck a match, thankful that the parlor was on the other side of the house from the fire, and seized at random what old arms she could lay her hands on: a great sword, that Richard the Lion-Hearted might have wielded, an Arabian scimiter and a light, curiously wrought shield. The sword was heavy but she managed to stagger along the hall with her load.

"Now remember, friends an' citizens!" James Hanks was saying as he harangued the crowd. "This here prop'ty by rights b'longs to us. Ain't we an' our fo'bars done worked this here lan' from time in memoriam?

Ain't we tilled the sile an' hoed the c.r.a.ps fur these ol' tabbies an'

what is we got to show fur it? Nothin'! Nothin', I say! All we is a-doin' on this sacred night is takin' what is ourn. 'Tain't meet nor right fur two ol' women to hab control of all these fair lands, livin'

in luxry, wallowin' in honey an' rollin' in b.u.t.ter, while we colored ladies an' gent'men is fo'ced to habit pig stys an' thankful to git sorghum an' drippin's. Don't none of you go into this here undertakin'

'thout you is satisfied you is actin' up to principles. All what considers it they bounden duty to git back what is by rights theirn, jes' step forward."

Helen counted fifteen men as they reeled forward.

Where was Dr. Wright? Was he hearing the speech that the perfidious James was making? And the old ladies--were they still sleeping? The back porch was littered up with various barrels and boxes, and behind these Helen crouched. Of course she realized that the darkies thought that Grantly was empty and that they intended to break in and take what treasures they could find. Would they be scared off when they found someone was in the house, or would they feel that they had gone too far to retreat in their infamous undertaking? Whatever was to be the outcome, she must find the doctor and help him, die by his side if necessary.