The man stared at her.  He saw the open muzzles of the gun barrels; beyond them, he saw the bright tops of the two percussion caps; and still beyond them, he saw the bright and determined eye that was taking sight along the barrels.  All this he took in at a glance, and, without word or comment, he made a quick dodge of his head, jumped to one side, made a dash for his horse, and, untying the bridle with a jerk, he mounted and galloped out of the open gate, turning as he did so to find himself still covered by the muzzles of that gun.  When he had nearly reached the outer gate and felt himself out of range, he turned in his saddle, and looking back at Lawrence, who was still standing where he had left him, he violently shook his fist in the air.

“Which means,” said Lawrence to himself, “that he intends to make trouble with Keswick.”

“That settled him,” said the old lady, with a grim smile, as she lowered the muzzle of the gun, and gently let down the hammers.  “Madam,” said Lawrence, advancing toward her, “may I ask if that gun is loaded?”

“I should say so,” replied the old lady.  “In each barrel are two thimblefuls of powder, and half-a-box of Windfall’s Teaberry Tonic Pills, each one of them as big and as hard as a buckshot.  They were brought here by a travelling agent, who sold some of them to my people; and I tell you, sir, that those pills made them so sick that one man wasn’t able to work for two days, and another for three.  I vowed if that agent ever came back, I’d shoot his abominable pills into him, and I’ve kept the gun loaded for the purpose.  Was this a pill man?  I scarcely think he was a fertilizer, because it is rather late in the season for those bandits.”

“He is a man,” said Lawrence, coming up the steps, “who belongs to a class much worse than those you have mentioned.  He is what is called a blackmailer.”

“Is that so?” cried the old lady, her eyes flashing as she brought the butt of the gun heavily upon the porch floor.  “I’m very glad I did not know it; very glad, indeed; for I might have been tempted to give him what belonged to another, without waiting for him to disobey my order to go.  I am very much troubled, sir, that this annoyance should have happened to you in my house.  Pray do not allow it to interfere with the enjoyment of your visit here, which I hope may continue as long as you can make it convenient.”  The words and manner convinced Lawrence that that they did not merely indicate a conventional hospitality.  The old lady meant what she said.  She wanted him to stay.

That morning he had become convinced that he had been invited there because Mrs Keswick wished him to marry Miss March; and she had done this, not out of any kind feeling toward him, because that would be impossible, considering the shortness of their acquaintance, but because she was opposed to her nephew’s marriage with Miss March, and because he, Lawrence, was the only available person who could be brought forward to supplant him.  “But whatever her motive is,” thought Lawrence, “her invitation comes in admirably for me, and I hope I shall get the proper advantage from it.”