“Kate,” she said, “how did Mr. Andrew get the message that brought him to the Red Hall last night?”

“I sent it,” Kate answered.  “I sent him word that there were things going on at the Red Hall which I could not understand.  I told him that I thought it would be well if he came.”

“You knew his address?” Jeanne asked, a little coldly.

“Yes!” Kate answered.

“You have written him before, perhaps?” Jeanne asked.

“Yes!” the girl answered absently.

There was a short silence.  Each of the two seemed occupied in her own thoughts.  When Jeanne spoke again her manner was changed.  The other girl noticed it, without being conscious of the reason.

“What has happened this morning, do you know?” Jeanne asked.

“They are all at the Red Hall still,” Kate answered.  “Major Forrest tried to leave this morning, but Mr. Andrew would not let him.  He will not let either of them go away until Lord Ronald is well enough to say what shall be done.”

“I wonder,” Jeanne said, “what would have happened if Mr. Andrew had not arrived last night.”

“God knows!” Kate answered.  “He is a wily brute, the man Forrest.  How was it that you,” she added, “found Mr. Andrew?”

“I waited on the mound in the plantation,” Jeanne said, “with my ear to the ground, and presently I heard a pistol shot and then a scuffle, and afterwards silence.  I was frightened, and I made my way to the road and hurried along toward the village.  Then I saw a cart and I stopped it, and inside was Mr. Andrew, on his way from Wells.  I told him something of what was happening, and he put me in the cart and sent me back.  Then he went on to the Red Hall.”

Kate nodded slowly.

“I am glad that I sent for him,” she said.  “I am afraid that last night there would have been bloodshed if he had not come.  When he was there there was not one who dared speak or move any more, except as he directed.  He is very strong, and he was made, I think, to command men.”

Jeanne’s lips quivered for a moment.  Her eyes were fixed upon the distant figure, motionless now, upon the raised sandbanks.  Kate had turned her head toward the Red Hall, and was looking at one of the windows there as though her eyes would pierce the distance.

“Tell me,” Jeanne asked.  “I have seen you once with Mr. De la Borne.  He is a great friend of yours?”

“He was,” the girl at her feet whispered.

Jeanne found herself shaking.  She stooped down.

“What do you mean?” she whispered.

Kate looked up from the ground.  She raised herself a little.  For a moment her eyes flashed.