"Now, you young ladies and Master John, you are breaking that straw all to pieces, I'll be bound!" he shouted. "I'll be up and see what you are about directly I've done with this cow, that I will! Tossing the hay all over the floor, when it was only put tidy the other day!"

"Will he come up really?" whispered Lewis, white with terror. "Yes?

Oh, help me to get away! Help me!"

"I will try," said Madge, once more taking the lead; "but you must do as I tell you. Now if you had a rope to hold on to do you think you could get down to the ground?"

"Yes, I think I could. But where is the rope? Please be quick!"

"Of course we can't get a rope here!" answered Madge sharply. She was losing all patience with this coward, who only thought of his own comfort and safety. However, she had pledged herself to do her best for him, so she continued: "We will tie all our pocket-handkerchiefs together. They will reach a good way towards the ground."

This really seemed an excellent idea, although when it came to be worked out John could not make any contribution, having left his handkerchief in the pocket of another coat. The knots also took up a terrible amount of material, so that the completed rope was not a very long affair.

"Do you think it is strong?" asked Lewis nervously. "And that you can hold my weight?"

"No fear of that!" Madge squatted down by the door, Betty held her firmly by the waist, and John tugged at the back. "Now we are ready,"

they said.

There was really no excuse for any further delay. Lewis desperately seized the end of the knotted handkerchiefs and stood for a moment irresolute on the edge of the wall. Then suddenly, thinking he heard Barton coming behind him, he sprang forward with such a jerk that the handkerchiefs slipped through his fingers and he fell heavily to the ground.

"Well, that is his own fault, not ours!" exclaimed Madge. "We held the rope tight enough, and if he chose to jump in that silly way n.o.body could help it!" Her indignation, however, gave way to fear, as Lewis continued to lie motionless on the ground. "Is he hurt, or only shamming?" she said. "Lewis! Lewis! get up and run home before anyone sees you!" Even this appeal produced no effect on the prostrate figure, and the children became seriously alarmed.

"I don't think he can be pretending," observed Betty; "he would be afraid to lie there so near the yard. Besides, he is in such a funny position."

"I must go down and see what is the matter," said Madge decidedly.

"No, I sha'n't try the handkerchiefs, we have had enough of them, and I don't think you two really are strong enough to hold me up." Without waiting to discuss the matter any further she climbed down the ladder and ran through the yard.

"Hullo, Miss Madge, where are you off to?" cried old Barton from the corner of the cow-house. "Up to some mischief again, I can see by the pace you are running? Whatever have you been doing now, I wonder?"

Madge rushed on without answering, and disappeared round the end of the buildings. Lewis was still lying in a sort of crumpled-up heap when she reached him. He did not attempt to rise or even speak when she pulled him by the arm. "I am afraid he must be badly hurt!" she cried anxiously to Betty and John, who were staring with white frightened faces from the open door of the loft above.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LEWIS WAS STILL LYING IN A SORT OF CRUMPLED-UP HEAP]

"What shall you do?" they asked. "Will he get better? Can we help?"

"It's something too bad for us. I shall call Barton to look at him,"

replied Madge. There were exclamations of astonishment from the twins.

"Yes, it's no good trying to keep it a secret about Lewis any longer,"

she said gravely. "Of course we shall be scolded, but that can't be helped."

When Barton came he took a very grave view of the case. "Seems as if the young gentleman were mortal bad," he said. "Better run up to the house and call someone at once. It's a question if he ever walks home again, wherever he comes from!"

"Does Barton mean he will die?" asked John in an awestruck whisper as the three children ran off for help. n.o.body cared to be left behind with Barton by the side of that still figure on the ground.

"Oh no! Barton only said that to try and frighten us," answered Madge with a would-be hopeful air. But in her heart fear that Lewis was already dead so overcame all other considerations that she rushed into the house calling for help without a moment's thought of the blame she was about to incur.

Fortunately Captain West was at home that afternoon. He understood at once that somebody was hurt while doing something in the loft, and naturally concluded that it was old Barton, whose business it was to carry down the hay when wanted.

"Did he slip on the ladder?" inquired Captain West as he hurried back with the children.

"Oh no! getting out of that little square door at the back of the loft.

You see, he was sliding down our handkerchiefs and they slipped--"

"Barton sliding down your handkerchiefs?" repeated Captain West in a tone of great astonishment.

"No, of course not!" laughed Madge rather hysterically. "It was Lewis--that's to say, a boy who came over the wall--when we were in the Eagle's Nest, you know."

"I don't know in the least what you are talking about," said Captain West; "but I can see he is badly hurt," he added as they came in sight of Lewis lying just as he fell, for old Barton had been afraid of trying to move him alone.

"Look here," began Captain West after a short examination of the injured boy, "you, Betty, run back to the house and ask your mother to send for the doctor. Don't frighten her more than you can help. John, go and fetch the gardener as quickly as possible; we must get this poor boy carried home and properly attended to. Now, Madge," he added when the twins had started on their errands, "collect yourself, please, and speak the truth. Where does this boy come from?"

"From Mrs. Howard's, over the wall," answered Madge quietly, though she could not help trembling with excitement. "He lives with her and is very cruelly treated, so we began to talk one day when we were in the Eagle's Nest, and--"

"That will do for the present," interrupted Captain West. "Now I don't want any of you here any more. Go off to the schoolroom and stay there till bed-time, unless I send for you."

CHAPTER XXIV.

EXPLANATIONS.

After so much excitement it seemed intolerably dull to sit quietly hour after hour in the schoolroom without knowing what was going on. Even Miss Thompson could not attend to them, for she was sitting with their mother, who happened to be unwell in bed. The children had time to talk over and imagine every kind of terrible conclusion to the accident before their father was ready to come and see them.

"Will he get better?" Madge inquired in a trembling voice as soon as the door opened.

"Get better? Yes, I should hope so in every way," answered Captain West, sitting down and taking the twins gently on his knees, while Madge hung over the back of his chair. "It's a bad accident though,"

he continued. "A broken leg and some injury to the head. He only regained consciousness just before I left Mrs. Howard's."

"Oh, what were they doing with him? I hope they won't lock him into the cellar now he is ill!" cried Betty compa.s.sionately.

"My dear child! What are you thinking about? Do we usually lock people in cellars when they are ill?" laughed her father. "No, he was in a remarkably nice bedroom, with a hospital nurse and Dr. Brown in attendance on him when I left."

Betty felt greatly relieved. It seemed impossible to believe that much cruelty would take place in the presence of Dr. Brown, who always ordered her black-currant tea when she had a cough, and told Nurse to put as little mustard as possible in the poultices.

"But why should you expect that boy to be ill-treated at home?"

inquired Captain West. "From what I hear about him I should think it is much more likely he has been spoilt!"

"Ah! it isn't his real home," explained Betty, "and that Mrs. Howard is a terrible person."

She was going to add that the old lady had the reputation of being a witch, but the accusation seemed too absurd to be urged in broad daylight in the school-room. So she only mentioned a few of Lewis's tales about Mrs. Howard's cruelty to him.

Captain West listened for a minute and then fairly burst out laughing.

"Do you really mean that you believed all that?" he said. "You seriously thought boys were stolen, and shut up in dark cellars, and all the rest of it?"

The children hung their heads, suddenly feeling rather ashamed of the ease with which they had been imposed upon, for they could see that their father did not believe a word of the horrors.

"But other people beside Lewis Brand have told us that Mrs. Howard is very dreadful and mysterious," observed Madge, who did not at all like finding herself quite in the wrong. "When Mrs. Bunn is weeding the garden she sometimes tells us what people in the village say--"