Along one side of the house--planted without doubt to break the force of the northern gales--extended a grove of pines and firs, looking now, in the darkness, like the advance guard of a mighty host with banners slowly waving, and strange instruments giving forth weird, unearthly harmonies. As the man passed this spot he slackened his steps once or twice, and seemed to listen for some sound that had caught his ear, and again, when his foot was already on the lower step of the flight leading to the door, he stopped suddenly, his face turned toward the sombre wall of trees. The light of the lamp illumined their slender trunks and lower boughs, leaving their tops wrapped in utter darkness. It also threw into strong relief the powerful figure of the man, and projected his shadow, huge, wavering and grotesque, across the intervening space. For an instant another shadow seemed to start forward from the mysterious recesses of the pines as if to meet this one, only to fall back and be gathered into the blackness beyond. The man shrugged his broad shoulders, and, turning, entered the house. A fair, slender woman rose from her seat by the open fire, and went to him. "Oh! Jamie," she said, "here you are, at last! I'm so glad! I was so afraid something had happened?" The man threw off his heavy coat with a good-humored laugh. "Were you afraid I might blow away?" he asked, straightening his large figure. "Why are you always imagining vain things, like a foolish little wifie? I'm big enough to take care of myself, eh, lassie?" The little wife answered with a smile of loving admiration. "Come," she said, "supper has been ready a long time, and Bab asleep this half-hour." She took the lamp from the window and set it on the table, where it shone full on her husband's face. It was a fine, thoroughly English face, with high forehead, brilliant blue eyes, and thick curling hair and beard of a bright golden-brown. A handsome face, and a strong one, but for a womanish fulness of the ruddy lips, and a slight lack of firmness about the chin, which was concealed, however, by the luxuriant beard. It was a face which could, and habitually did, radiate amiability, good cheer, and intelligence, but which had a way of settling at times into stern and melancholy lines, curiously belying his assured carriage, and the sonorous ring of his ready laugh. Very good to look at was James Dixon, and, as his townsmen unanimously admitted, in spite of his English birth, a good citizen, a shrewd politician, a generous neighbor, and, though at times a little reticent and abstracted, a companionable fellow altogether. Even now, as he sat at his own table, one might have detected a kind of alertness in his eyes, as of a man ever on his guard, and what seemed almost a studied avoidance of his wife's soft, persistent gaze, as she sat opposite him. "Sh! What was that?" she suddenly exclaimed. There had been a faint sound outside the window. It had ceased now.