“I’d just as leave go,” said Laura, defiantly, “even if we were told not to, but listen, there comes somebody now.” They had just reached the gateway by this time and as they peered through it into the shadowy depths of the fir woods, they heard the quick hoof-beats of approaching horses, and in another moment a buggy drawn by two black horses, came down through the grounds at a swift pace and passed through the gateway into the road. The tall, bearded and scarred stranger held the reins and beside him sat Mr. Samuel Dexter. Laura held her breath with excitement, and an eager gleam came into Bruce’s eyes as he turned significantly toward her. Another link had been added to the chain in which he was trying to connect the past with the present. Mr. Dexter and the mysterious one were evidently friends, and he resolved that the very next day he would go to him, tell him his own history as far as he knew of it, and ask him to help him solve the remainder of it. “What are you going to do?” whispered Laura, excitedly. Bruce made no reply except to shake his head and place his fingers on his lips as if to command silence. CHAPTER XIV. “I’d like to know what’s come over that boy lately,” said Tom Brophy, one morning, as he pointed to Bruce, who was standing idly by the wall with his broom in his hand gazing vacantly into space instead of attending to his work. “I don’t know,” rejoined Weyman, “but my opinion is that he’s in love. When he first came here, he was as active and steady a lad as one would expect to see, but within a fortnight or so he has changed tremendously. You see he got acquainted with a young chap up town, and he’s been up there two or three times to visit him. This other boy’s father is well fixed, and the first time Bruce went up there he came back crazy over the big house and the servants and horses and all the rest of it. He’ll make a big mistake if he tries to fly too high.” “Well, all I’ve got to say is this,” observed Brophy, “that if he don’t mind his eye he’ll have the chief jumping on him some day with both feet, and when the chief jumps on a man he’s liable to know it.”