A ragged little shadow flitted down the path behind him, and from a
solitary apple-tree, standing like a lonely ghost in the middle of the
field, came the woo of a screech owl--twice. It was answered--twice--
from a clump of elder-bushes that grew in a fence-corner fifty yards west
of the pasture bars. Then the barrel of a squirrel rifle issued, lifted
out of the white elder-blossoms, and lay along the fence. The music in the
house across the way ceased, and Harkless saw two white dresses come out
through the long parlor windows to the veranda.
"It will be cooler out here," came the voice of the singer clearly through
the quiet. "What a night!"
John vaulted the bars and started to cross the road. They saw him from the
veranda, and Miss Briscoe called to him in welcome. As his tall figure
stood out plainly in the bright light against the white dust, a streak of
fire leaped from the elder-blossoms and there rang out the sharp report of
a rifle. There were two screams from the veranda. One white figure ran
into the house. The other, a little one with a gauzy wrap streaming
behind, came flying out into the moonlight--straight to Harkless. There
was a second report; the rifle-shot was answered by a revolver. William
Todd had risen up, apparently from nowhere, and, kneeling by the pasture
bars, fired at the flash of the rifle.
"Jump fer the shadder, Mr. Harkless," he shouted; "he's in them elders,"
and then: "Fer God's sake, comeback!"
Empty-handed as he was, the editor dashed for the treacherous elder-bush
as fast as his long legs could carry him; but, before he had taken six
strides, a hand clutched his sleeve, and a girl's voice quavered from
close behind him: "Don't run like that, Mr. Harkless; I can't keep up!" He wheeled about,
and confronted a vision, a dainty little figure about five feet high, a
flushed and lovely face, hair and draperies disarranged and flying. He
stamped his foot with rage. "Get back in the house!" he cried.
"You mustn't go," she panted. "It's the only way to stop you."
"Go back to the house!" he shouted, savagely.
"Will you come?"
"Fer God's sake," cried William Todd, "come back! Keep out of the road."
He was emptying his revolver at the clump of elder, the uproar of his
firing blasting the night. Some one screamed from the house: "Helen! Helen!"
John seized the girl's wrists roughly; her gray eyes flashed into his
defiantly. "Will you go?" he roared.
"No!"
He dropped her wrists, caught her up in his arms as if she had been a
kitten, and leaped into the shadow of the trees that leaned over the road
from the yard. The rifle rang out again, and the little ball whistled
venomously overhead. Harkless ran along the fence and turned in at the
gate.