“I’ll have the dog yet!” he said; “only let me get at him with the knife!”

He had just succeeded in extricating his imprisoned leg, and was ready to spring to his feet, when he was caught firmly by the throat, and looking up, saw a hayfork within an inch of his breast.

“Hold on there!  What’n thunder ‘r’ y’ abaout, y’ darned Portagee?” said a sharp, resolute voice.

Dick looked from the weapon to the person who held it, and saw Abel Stebbins, the doctor’s man, standing over him.

“Let me up!  Let me up!” he cried in a low, hurried voice.  “I’ll give you a hundred dollars in gold to let me go.  The man a’n’t hurt—­don’t you see him stirring?  He’ll come to himself in two minutes.  Let me up!  I’ll give you a hundred and fifty dollars in gold, now, here on the spot, and the watch out of my pocket; take it yourself, with your own hands!”

“Ketch me lett’n go!” was Abel’s emphatic answer.

Mr. Bernard was now getting first his senses, and then some few of his scattered wits together.

“Who’s hurt?  What’s happened?” he asked, staring about him.

Then he felt something about his neck; and putting his hands up, found the loop of the lasso.  Abel quickly slipped the noose over Mr. Bernard’s head, and put it round the neck of the miserable Dick Venner, who, with his disabled arm, felt resistance was hopeless.

The party now took up the line of march for old Dr. Kettredge’s house, Abel carrying Langdon’s pistol, and leading Dick Venner, Bernard Langdon holding the hayfork.  He was still half-stunned, and felt it was all a dream, when they reached the house.

“My mind is confused,” he told the doctor.  “I’ve had a fall.”

“Sit down, sit down,” the doctor said.  “Abel will tell me about it.  Slight concussion of the brain.  Can’t remember very well for an hour or two—­will come right by to-morrow!”

Dick Venner’s shoulder was out of joint, the doctor found; he replaced it in a very few minutes.  That night the doctor drove Dick forty miles at a stretch, out of the limits of the state.

He had implored them to let him go, and Mr. Bernard was quite willing that no further proceedings should be taken.

IV.—­The Secret is Whispered

A week after Dick Venner’s departure Elsie went off at the accustomed hour to the school.  She had none of the hard, wicked light in her eyes that morning, and looked gentle, but dreamy.

At the end of the school hours, when the girls had all gone out, Elsie came up to Mr. Bernard, and said, in a very low voice, “Will you walk towards my home with me to-day?”

So they walked along together on their way towards the Dudley mansion.

“I have no friend,” Elsie said all at once.  “Nobody loves me but one old woman—­old Sophy!”

“I am your friend, Elsie.  Tell me what I can do to render your life happier.”

"Love me!" said Elsie Venner.