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Lilian, followed by the sheep-dog, stumbled . . .across the threshold.
"Oh, no, I'm not!" she replied. She was shaking like an aspen leaf now, and straining her ears, listening for the faintest sound out-of-doors. Wolf seated himself by her side, and rested his rough head on her knee. "I'm afraid mother will be anxious about me," she said, with a sigh, "but there only seemed one thing for me to do, to come here and warn you, Jeffry."
"And I am very grateful to you, Miss Lilian," said the old man fervently. "I wonder you weren't too timid to come through the pathfields in such a snowstorm alone. What's that?" he asked, lowering his voice to a whisper, as she lifted a warning hand.
"They're in the yard," Lilian whispered. "I heard them."
Wolf raised his head from her knee as she spoke, then, with a fierce growl, he sprang snarling towards the door. Presently his excitement died away, and he returned to his previous position beside the fire.
"They've made off, you may depend," said Old Jeffrey, drawing a deep sigh of relief, "they fancy they've made a mistake, and that there's something going on in the house. We shall have no robbers breaking in here to-night now. How I should like to know who the rogues are! You didn't recognise their voices, Miss Lilian?"
"No, I'm certain I never heard them in my life before."
The old man warmed some milk, which he insisted upon Lilian's drinking. She was troubled in mind at the thought of the anxiety which her absence from the schoolroom was doubtless causing her parents; but, at the same time, she was conscious she had done what was right under the circumstances. By-and-by, a feeling of intense lassitude crept over her, and, worn out with excitement and fatigue, she fell asleep.
CHRISTMAS DAY.
THE lights had been lowered in the schoolroom for the magic-lantern, so that no one had missed Lilian during that part of the entertainment. But when the lights were turned up again, and the screen was removed which had hidden the Christmas tree in one corner of the room, her mother noticed she had not returned. Rupert and Bob were obliged to admit, on being questioned, that as far as they knew, Lilian had gone to Nannie Davey's cottage alone.
It was then discovered that it was snowing fast; and Mr. Coker suggested that Lilian was probably waiting for some one to fetch her. Accordingly, he went in search of his little daughter, only to find that she had left the old woman more than an hour before. With a sensation of chill dismay at his heart, Mr. Coker returned to the schoolroom, and, beckoning to Mr. Wills and a couple of men to join him outside, he hastily explained the situation to them.
"She cannot be far away," he said, "and I don't wish my wife or anyone to be needlessly alarmed, so we must try to keep the fact that she is missing a secret. Perhaps she has fallen and hurt herself."
Five minutes later a lantern had been procured, and a careful search was made all over the village Green. The falling snow had obliterated the traces of Lilian's footsteps, and no clue to her whereabouts could be discovered. Mr. Coker was in despair, when a brilliant idea struck Farmer Wills, and he exclaimed:
"I'll fetch Wolf! Never was there such a dog as that for sharpness. Many a lost sheep has he found for me before now. He'll find Miss Lilian right enough, if she's anywhere near. If I go by the pathfields, I shall soon reach Westhill, and I shall be back with Wolf in no time."
Mr. Coker and the others continued their search during the farmer's absence. To the anxious father, the minutes dragged away slowly and seemed like hours, but it was actually only little over half-an-hour later when the footsteps of a horse were heard, and Mr. Wills flung himself from the back of his mount in front of the schoolroom door.
"She's safe!" he cried joyfully. "I found her asleep by the kitchen fire at Westhill."
"At Westhill!" echoed Mr. Coker, scarcely able to believe he had heard aright.
"Yes, I never knew such a plucky little soul," Mr. Wills proceeded admiringly, and he forthwith poured the story of Lilian's adventure into his listeners' ears. "She's pretty nigh tired out," he explained; "she said she'd stay with old Jeffry, and you must please call for her on your way home. I don't think I'd mention the thieves to any one to-night, sir, or folks will be nervous."
Mr. Coker agreed that it would be wiser not to do so. He re-entered the schoolroom, and assured his wife, who had been anxiously on the look-out for him, that Lilian was safe, at the same time telling her he would explain matters later on. So the entertainment was brought to a close, without anything having happened to mar the happiness of the evening as far as Mr. Coker's visitors were concerned; and it was not until the following day that it became generally known that, but for Lilian, Westhill would have been robbed, and poor old Jeffry perhaps murdered.
After a good night's rest, Lilian was quite herself again, and went to church on Christmas morning with the others of the family from Haldon Hall.
The snowstorm was over, and the sun was shining in a sky of cloudless blue. It was an ideal Christmas Day.
Many were the questions Lilian had to answer, concerning her adventure of the previous night, as she stood in the churchyard after the glad service was over. And she grew quite embarrassed, as she listened to the complimentary speeches made to her upon her bravery and presence of mind.
"I only wish the thieves could be found," said Bob Wills, who had run ahead of his aunt and uncle and caught up his young friends on their way home. "I hear two tramping sort of men were seen loafing about the village yesterday; you may depend those were the ones you overheard talking."
"Very likely," Lilian agreed, "for I'm sure they were strangers."
"I ought to have gone across the Green with you last night," Bob confessed.
"No, Bob, it was I who ought to have gone with her," Rupert was constrained to admit; "but I only thought of myself and missing the magic-lantern. And poor Lilian was done out of everything—even the Christmas tree—"
"Oh, never mind that!" Lilian interposed hastily. "You and Nellie have told me all about it, and how pleased the children were with their presents, so I shall be able to write and tell Miss Long all she wants to know just as though I had been there."
"And I shall write and tell her how brave you were last night," Nellie declared, for she felt exceedingly proud of her sister. "If I had been in your place, Lilian, I should have been frightened to death. And I wouldn't have gone through the pathfields by myself after dark in a snowstorm for anything, and I don't believe the boys would have either!"
"You see there is one advantage in being blind," said Lilian brightly, "one can get about by night as well as by day."
"You'll come up to our place this afternoon, won't you?" Rupert inquired of Bob ere they parted outside Westhill. "I heard father asking you. Be sure you come."
"Oh, yes, I will," Bob answered. "I don't know what I should have done this last two months without you three!" he cried in a sudden burst of confidence. "You can't imagine how unhappy I was when I first came to Westhill; and I am sure when I saw you, Nellie, and you, Rupert, staring at me that day I arrived, I never guessed we should be friends. Why, here's old Jeffry coming across the yard. How excited he looks! Well, Jeffry," he said, as the old man came up, "what has happened?"
"The thieves have been caught, Master Bob," was the unexpected response, "leastways two men have been arrested, who, it seems probable, are the ones that meant to rob Westhill last night. They were caught at Halwick by the police, in the small hours of the morning, breaking into a house. By this time, they're safe under lock and key."
Halwick was the nearest town. Jeffry hastened to explain that he had learnt the news from the village constable, who, as soon as he had heard of the attempted burglary, had concluded the captured thieves must be the men whose plans Lilian had frustrated, and had gone to the farm with the story of their arrest. Whilst the old man was telling all this, Mr. and Mrs. Coker and the farmer and his wife joined the little group, and Jeffry, swelling with importance, had to recount his story again.
"I am satisfied now the rogues are caught," the old man declared. "But to think of their breaking into a house—real burglars they must be! Ah, Miss Lilian, what would have become of me, but for you!"
"If Lilian had not been so concerned for another's happiness, she would not have been in the way of hearing the plans of those desperate men," Mrs. Coker said, with an affectionate glance at her elder daughter. "I think Providence guided her footsteps last night."
"I am sure of it," Mrs. Wills replied earnestly. "We shall be able to rest in our beds in peace, now we know the thieves have been caught. I confess I did not sleep for thinking of them last night, though we kept Wolf in the house, and my common sense told me there was nothing to fear."
Goad-byes were now exchanged between the two families; and the Cokers proceeded on their way homewards, Bob shouting after them that he would join them during the afternoon.
"You almost live at Haldon Hall," Mrs. Wills remarked to her nephew with a smile. "I'm very glad you're friendly with the Squire's young folk. I don't think you find Master Rupert such a prig as you fancied him at first, do you?"
"No, he's all right now we've got to know each other better," Bob responded with a laugh. "By the way, he's going to the Vicarage next term to be taught by the Vicar, and he wants me to go with him." He looked at his uncle as he spoke.
"Mr. Coker has been speaking to me about it, and I think it would be a very good plan, if the Vicar agrees to it, and I believe he will," put in the farmer; "but that's a matter to be discussed later on. It's fully dinner time now, and we mustn't let the turkey be spoilt."
THE NORMAN DAVY PRINTING CO., LTD., LONDON AND LOUTH.