Here, Jacob, lad, don't stop to knock or ask questions, but go and tak' squire's cob, and ride him hard to town for doctor." "Tell my father as you go by, Jacob," cried Tom excitedly; and as the apprentice dashed off, Tom's eyes met those of Dick.
"Don't look so wild and strange, Dick, old chap," whispered the lad kindly; and he laid a hand upon Dick's shoulder, but the boy shrank from him with a shudder which the other could not comprehend.
Hickathrift shouted to his wife, who had risen and dressed in his absence, and in a short time the squire was lying upon a mattress with Hickathrift eagerly searching for the injury which had laid him low; but when he found it, the wound seemed so small and trifling that he looked wondering up at Dick.
"That couldn't have done it," he said in a whisper.
The wheelwright was wrong.

That tiny blue wound in the strong man's chest had been sufficient to lay him there helpless, and so near death that a feeling of awe fell upon those who watched and waited, and tried to revive the victim of this last outrage.
It was a terrible feeling of helplessness that which pervaded the place.
There was nothing to do save bathe the wounded man's brow and moisten his lips with a little of the smuggled spirit with which most of the coast cottages were provided in those distant days.

There was no blood to staunch, nothing to excite, nothing to do but wait, wait for the doctor's coming.
Before very long Farmer Tallington arrived, and as he encountered Dick's eyes fixed upon him he turned very pale, and directly after, when he bent over the squire's couch and took his hand, the lad saw that he trembled violently.
"It's straange and horrible--it's straange and horrible," he said: "only yesterday he was like I am: as strong and well as a man can be; while now--Hickathrift, my lad, do you think he'll die ?" The wheelwright shook his head--he could not trust himself to speak; and Dick stood with a sensation of rage gathering in his breast, which made him feel ready to spring at Farmer Tallington's throat, and accuse him of being his father's murderer.
"The hypocrite--the cowardly hypocrite!" he said to himself; "but we know now, and he shall be punished." The boy's anger was fast growing so ungovernable that he was about to fly out and denounce his school-fellow's father, but just then a hasty step was heard outside, and a familiar voice exclaimed: "Where is my husband ?" The next minute Mrs Winthorpe was in the room, wild-eyed and pale, but perfectly collected in her manner and acts.
"How long will it be before the doctor can get here ?" she said hoarsely, as she passed her arm under the injured man's neck, and pressed her lips to his white brow.
"Hickathrift's lad went off at a hard gallop," said Farmer Tallington in a voice full of sympathy.

"Please God, Mrs Winthorpe, we'll save him yet." Dick uttered a hoarse cry and staggered out of the room, for the man's hypocrisy maddened him, and he knew that if he stayed he should speak out and say all he knew.
As he reached the little garden there was a step behind him, a hand was laid upon his shoulder, another grasped his arm.
"I can't talk and say things, Dicky," said Tom in a low half-choking voice; "but I want to comfort you.

Don't break down, old fellow.