“After you went away, I went down the road on an errand, and when I came back Herbert was gone, and there was a notice saying that I could have him in exchange for the paper.” “What paper?” asked Colonel Thomas. “Some time ago I walked up into the woods and heard an old woman crying because her son was going to take her money to buy a gun and there wouldn’t be anything to bury her. Forty dollars was all she had. So I wrote a will, but I left it in the cabin, and she won’t give it to them. I think they’re afraid that she told other things.” “What other things?” asked one of the police. “I don’t know, but they’re afraid of something.” “I bet they are!” said Colonel Thomas. “This afternoon I was to bring the paper to the old woman’s cabin and they were to bring Herbert. I expect they are there now. Instead I came to get you.” The driver of the car touched a button and the car moved. Elizabeth indicated the turn into the wood road above the house. One of the police leaned forward. “Hadn’t you better get out, miss?” “Oh, no!” answered Elizabeth. “And you, sir?” said he to Colonel Thomas. “Of course not!” said Colonel Thomas. Each of the constabulary took something from his hip pocket. Elizabeth looked back at them smiling in a pale sort of way, and they smiled at her. “Never you mind, miss; they won’t give much trouble.” Herbert, sitting at the foot of a tree with his captors beside him, heard the car first. The mountaineers stood about, guns in hand, first one, then another going off toward the spot where Black Smith was supposed to have left Elizabeth. More than an hour had passed since he had left them and there had been no sign of his return. The crying of Mammy Sheldon was almost continuous; she seemed to believe that now they had come to fetch her will. There were moments when she screamed for fear that they would bury her as she was. It was no wonder that they did not hear the car. Black Smith had heard it, as he hunted frantically, and he came now running toward them, shouting. But his shouts were too late. The men stood mystified, and found themselves covered by the pistols of their dreaded enemies. One of the constabulary stepped down. “You are covered from the car!” said he quietly. “Put down your guns.” Elizabeth tried in vain to move. For an instant she did not see Herbert. If they had hurt him, if they had carried out their threats, then she hoped that the mountain-side would become a place of execution. But Herbert came forward, unrestrained by his captors. The mountaineers seemed stupefied. The uniforms, the heavy revolvers, the car--all declared a newer and swifter age of retribution. Jinny was right when she said that light was about to be let in. They obeyed meekly the command of the young officer.