Norbert did not follow her; he remained for several moments looking earnestly at the palms;then he stepped through the window and beckoned to a youth who was lounging in the doorway across the room.
"There's somebody hiding behind those plants,"he whispered, when his friend reached him."Go and tell Judge Pike to send some of the niggers to watch outside the porch, so that he doesn't get away.Then tell him to get his revolver and come here."Meanwhile Ariel had found Mr.Arp waiting in the hall, talking in a low voice to Mrs.Pike.
"Your grandfather's all right," he told the frightened girl, quickly."He sent me for you, that's all.Just hurry and get your things."She was with him again in a moment, and seizing the old man's arm, hurried him down the steps and toward the street almost at a run.
"You're not telling me the truth," she said.
"You're not telling me the truth!"
"Nothing has happened to Roger," panted Mr.
Arp."Nothing to mind, I mean.Here! We're going this way, not that." They had come to the gate, and as she turned to the right he pulled her round sharply to the left."We're not going to your house.""Where are we going?""We're going to your uncle Jonas's."
"Why?" she cried, in supreme astonishment.
"What do you want to take me there for? Don't you know that he's stopped speaking to me?""Yes," said the old man, grimly, with something of the look he wore when delivering a clincher at the "National House,"--"he's stopped speaking to everybody."