If the commander of the army, about whom Mr Croft had recently been reading, had beheld in the earlier stages of the battle a strong, friendly force advancing to his aid, he would not have been more delighted than Lawrence would have been had he known what a powerful ally to his cause stood beneath that purple sun-bonnet.

“Do you mean Junius Keswick?” said the old lady.

“Yes, madam,” answered Croft.

“He is here, and you will find him at the house.”

The gate was partly open, and Lawrence rode in.  The old lady stepped aside to let him pass.

“Do you want to see him on business?” she said.  “How did you know he was here?”

“I inquired at Howlett’s, madam.”

Mrs Keswick would have liked to ask some further questions, but there was something about Lawrence’s appearance that deterred her.

“You can tie your horse under that tree over there,” she said, pointing to a spot more trampled by hoofs than the old lady wished any other portion of her house-yard to be.

When Lawrence had tied his bridle to a hook suspended by a strap from one of the lower branches of the indicated tree, he advanced to the house; and a very much astonished man was he to see, sitting side by side on the porch, Junius Keswick and Mr Candy’s cashier.  They were seated in the shade of a mass of honeysuckle vines, and were so busily engaged in conversation that they had not perceived his approach.  Even now Lawrence had time to look at them for a few moments before they turned their eyes upon him.

Equally astonished were the two people on the porch, who now arose to their feet.  Junius Keswick naturally wondered very much why Mr Croft should come to see him here; and as for the young lady, she was almost as much terrified as surprised.  Had this man come down from New York to swoop upon her cousin?  Had it been possible that she could have given him any idea of the whereabouts of Junius?  In her last note to him she had been very careful to promise information, but not to give any, hoping thus to gain time to get an insight into the matter, and to keep her cousin out of danger, if, indeed, any danger threatened.  But here the pursuer had found Junius in less than a day after she had first met him herself.  But when she saw Junius advance and shake hands in a very friendly way with Mr Croft, her terror began to decrease, although her surprise continued at the same high-water mark, and Keswick found himself in a flood of the same emotion when Croft very politely saluted his cousin by name, which salutation was returned in a manner which indicated that the parties were acquainted.

At first Croft had been prompted to ignore all knowledge of the cashier, and meet her as a stranger, but his better sense prevented this, for how could he know what she had been saying about him.

“I was about to introduce you to my cousin,” said Keswick, “but I see that you already know each other.”