Now show me the way." Dick led him to the room, the doctor beckoning Hickathrift to follow; and as soon as he reached the injured man's side he quietly sent Mrs Winthorpe and Dick to wait in the next room, retaining the great wheelwright to help him move his patient.
The time seemed interminable, and as mother and son sat waiting, every word spoken in the next room sounded like a moan from the injured man.
Mrs Winthorpe's face appeared to be that of a woman ten years older, and her agony was supreme; but like a true wife and tender mother--ah, how little we think of what a mother's patience and self-denial are when we are young!--she devoted her whole energies to administering comfort to her sorely-tried son.
A dozen times over Dick felt that he could not keep the secret that troubled him--that he must tell his mother his suspicions and ask her advice; but so sure as he made up his mind to speak, the fear that he might be wrong troubled him, and he forebore.
Then began the whole struggle again, and at last he was nearer than ever to confiding his horrible belief in their neighbour's treachery, when the doctor suddenly appeared.
Dick rose from where he had been kneeling by his mother's side, and she started from her seat to grasp the doctor's hand.
She did not speak, but her eyes asked the one great question of her heart, and then, as the doctor's hard sour face softened and he smiled, Mrs Winthorpe uttered a piteous sigh and clasped her hands together in thankfulness to Heaven.
"Then he is not very bad, doctor ?" cried Dick joyfully.
"Yes, my boy, he is very bad indeed, and dangerously wounded," replied the doctor; "but, please God, I think I can pull him through." "Tell me--tell me!" faltered Mrs Winthorpe piteously.
"It is a painful thing to tell a lady," said the doctor kindly; "but I will explain.

Mrs Winthorpe, he has a terrible wound.

The bullet has passed obliquely through his chest; it was just within the skin at the back, and I have successfully extracted it.

As far as I can tell there is no important organ injured, but at present I am not quite sure.
Still I think I may say he is in no immediate danger." Mrs Winthorpe could not trust herself to speak, but she looked her thanks and glided toward the other room.
"Do not speak to him and do not let him speak," whispered the doctor.
"Everything depends upon keeping him perfectly still, so that nature may not be interrupted in doing her portion of the work." Mrs Winthorpe bowed her head in acquiescence, and with a promise that he would return later in the day the doctor departed.
Dick found, a short time after, that the news had been carried to the works at the drain, where Mr Marston was busy; and no sooner did that gentleman hear of the state of affairs than he hurried over to offer his sympathy to Mrs Winthorpe and Dick.
"I little thought that your father was to be a victim," he said to the latter as soon as they were alone.

"I have been trying my hand to fix the guilt upon somebody, but so far I have failed.