The colonel brushed everybody aside and pulled Kate, half fainting, into the room.  Then he faced Mrs. Cheston.

“What has happened?” he asked sharply.  “What is going on outside?”

“Just what I told you.  Those fools are out there trying to murder each other!”

Two shots in rapid succession rang clear on the night air.

The colonel stood perfectly still.  No need to tell him now what had happened, and worse yet, no need to tell him what would happen if he showed the slightest agitation.  He was a cool man, accustomed to critical situations, and one who never lost his head in an emergency.  Only a few years before he had stopped a runaway hunter, with a girl clinging to a stirrup, by springing straight at the horse’s head and bringing them both to the ground unhurt.  It only required the same instantaneous concentration of all his forces, he said to himself, as he gazed into old Alec’s terror-stricken face framed by the open window.  Once let the truth be known and the house would be in a panic—­women fainting, men rushing out, taking sides with the combatants, with perhaps other duels to follow—­Mrs. Rutter frantic, the ball suddenly broken up, and this, too, near midnight, with most of his guests ten miles and more from home.

Murmurs of alarm were already reaching his ears:  What was it?—­who had fainted?—­did the scream come from inside or outside the room?—­what was the firing about?

He turned to allay Kate’s anxiety, but she had cleared the open window at a bound and was already speeding toward where she had seen the light on the man’s shirt.  For an instant he peered after her into the darkness, and then, his mind made up, closed the sash with a quick movement, flung together the silk curtains and raised his hand to command attention.

“Keep on with the dance, my friends; I’ll go and find out what has happened—­but it’s nothing that need worry anybody—­only a little burnt powder.  Alec, go and tell Mr. Grant, the overseer, to keep better order outside.  In the meantime let everybody get ready for the Virginia reel; supper will be served in a few minutes.  Will you young gentlemen please choose your partners, and will some one of you kindly ask the music to start up?”

Slowly, and quite as if he had been called to the front door to welcome some belated guest, he walked the length of the room preceded by Alec, who, agonized at his master’s measured delay, had forged ahead to open the door.  This closed and they out of sight, the two hurried down the path.

Willits lay flat on the ground, one arm stretched above his head.  He had measured his full length, the weight of his shoulder breaking some flower-pots as he fell.  Over his right eye gaped an ugly wound from which oozed a stream of blood that stained his cheek and throat.  Dr. Teackle, on one knee, was searching the patient’s heart, while Kate, her pretty frock soiled with mud, her hair dishevelled, sat crouched in the dirt rubbing his hands—­sobbing bitterly—­crying out whenever Harry, who was kneeling beside her, tried to soothe her:—­“No!—­No!—­My heart’s broken—­don’t speak to me—­go away!”