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WILD MARGARET, ——s*65
bad news, boys! The colt’s come home—without him!”
The men sprung to their fect, and looked at the speaker
aghast. - : .
" Without the gentleman, farmer?’
Ay,” he said solemnly, wiping the perspiration from
his face. ““T met the colt tearing down the road to the
stable with the saddle empty. A lantern, missis, quick.
Who’lllend a hand, boys?”
One and all turned out and proceeded at something be-
tween a trot and a run into. the road.”
At a little distance the colt stood, wet and trembling,
held by a boy. ‘They paused a moment to stare at it and
then passed ‘on. . .
Austin Ambrose, uninvited by them, joined the group
and ran with them. :
They stopped a moment where the two roads joined, the
one Blair had taken in the morning, the other he was re-
turning by in the evening.
Let’s divide,” said a man; but the farmer stooped
down and examined ‘the road.
‘No occasion,” he said; ‘here’s the colt’s hoof-marks, —
This is the road she come!”’ .
Hurrying along, they climbed the narrow lane, and the
foremost, a young lad carrying the lantern, stopped with
a cry at the motionless form lyingin the road.
here was a hushas the men crowded round. The farmer
spelt down and examined it for a moment, then he looked
iim afeared he’s dead,” he said gravely.
. 4S—is it foul play, do’ee th
quired one of the men.
thao! play ” the words ran’ round.
rong man, a small, sharp-eyed old fellow, pointed to the
‘Looks as if there’d been a struggle,” he said.“ But
no matter now. Take that gate off its hinges, lads, and
lay 1 him on it. » We'll carry him down to the Holme.” .
he gate was torn off its hinges—how little they guessed
that it was not for the first time that night !—and some
Coats laid upon it; then they stooped to raise poor Blair.
As they did so, Austin Ambrose slid forward.
At the’sound of the words ‘foul play,’’ he had aroused.
All was lost; Margaret dead, Blair dead; all his toil and
- Ingenuity thrown away. But if these rustics were SuUSpl-
Clous it- was time to think of his own safety.
fri Let me see!” he said, in a low voice.
viend of mine. Who said ‘foul play?’ If 1 thought so
but, nol Look! and he pointed to t
¢
‘* Why do ’ee say
ink, Farmer James?” in-
‘‘He—he is a
he stirrup through