Mrs. Floyd put her hand round Harriet, but she sprang up and pulled down a heavy cloak from a hook on the wall.

“I did not come here to go to bed!” she cried.  She put the garment on and strode past her mother to the window.  Mrs. Floyd followed her movements with an anxious glance.  At the window Harriet turned and stamped her foot.  “Do you think I’m going to bed when I don’t know—­oh, my God, I can’t bear it!  I can’t bear it!” She suddenly approached her bewildered mother, put her hands on her shoulders, and turned her face to the light.  “You hear me, mother?  As God in Heaven is my witness, if a hair of that man’s head is harmed to-night, I’ll kill Toot Wambush on sight.  I’ll kill him, if I hang for it!  I swear it before God!  Do you hear?  I swear it—­no power on earth shall stop me!  I’ll do it!”

Her body swayed.  She made a step towards the door and sank down in a swoon.  Mrs. Floyd sprang for a pitcher of water and sprinkled her face.  The girl revived a little, and her mother raised her in her arms, put her on the bed, and drew the covers over her.  Harriet closed her eyes drowsily.  She did not seem wholly conscious.  Mrs. Floyd went down-stairs and lighted a fire in the kitchen stove, and put on some water to heat.  Then she went to the cook’s room off the back porch and shook the door.

“Get up quick, Em’, Harriet is sick!” she cried; then she ran up to her own room, opposite Harriet’s, and finished dressing herself.  As she was crossing the hall she saw a man on horseback in the street.  She went out on the veranda and called to him.  At first she did not recognize him, but when he came nearer she saw that it was Washburn.

“Are you going to help Mr. Westerfelt?” she asked, in a low tone, as she leaned over the railing.

“I’ve done all that kin be done,” he said.  “I’ve been round among the citizens.  They all say we’d be fools to try to do anything, Mrs. Floyd.  Some are skeerd to death, an’ others pretend they don’t think Mr. Westerfelt’s in danger.”

She did not answer, fearing her voice would rouse Harriet, and after he had ridden away, she went back to the girl’s room.  Harriet was asleep, so she left her.  A few hours later the barkeeper’s wife came into the kitchen and told Mrs. Floyd the latest news.  She dropped the pan she was cleaning and eagerly ran up to Harriet.

The noise of the opening door roused the girl.  She sat up, stared in a dazed way at her mother an instant, then threw off the coverings and sprang out of bed.

“I’ve been asleep; Mr. Westerfelt!  Oh, mother, why did you let me—­”

“He’s all right!” interrupted Mrs. Floyd.  “They didn’t touch a hair of his head.”  Harriet stared open-mouthed.

“He’s back safe and sound,” went on Mrs. Floyd; “he proved himself innocent and they let ’im go.”

“Oh, mother, mother!” Harriet put her arms round the old woman’s neck and clung to her.  “Thank God!  Oh, mother, thank God—­thank God!” Then she sat down in a chair and began hastily to put on her shoes.