Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/306

 the post when they passed me. John Marley was saying, 'I got men all waitin' down by the cotton gin. They gwine take some Bunnit, or sumpin' like that and string him up. Sumpin's going on. They's up to mischief. They's mischief afoot. Shore's you born."

Lida was perplexed for a minute but at the name Bunnit she recalled the threat of John Marley and his confident tone of the afternoon. She blanched. "Oh, Father," she groaned. "They're planning to kill him. Oh, God! The Brutes!" For a moment or two her mind was in a whirl. Anger and fear raced one another across her brain. Anger at the dastardliness of the plan and fear that their plan would be consummated and her lover killed.

"He must be warned! He must be saved!" she thought, as she puzzled her brain for a plan. Finally she grabbed the girl by the arm with such force that Chloe was forced to bite her lips to prevent crying out. The maid tried to free the grip but could not. Lida's mind was tortured for but a few moments, then plan after plan suggested itself only to be rejected.

"I must do something! I must do something!" she kept repeating to herself. Finally she thought of the cave in which she had played as a child. She could not find her way there at night even if she were successful enough to beat them to Mrs. Gorton's and warn Bennet of his danger. Then a daring plan evolved itself. She would hide Bennet in her own house till he could be piloted to the cave in safety. They would never think of looking in her house for him. He could be hidden in the old unused attic.