Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/322

318 grateful for the privilege of sitting by her side! He had begged her to wait—not to give him a final answer and to let him go on loving her.

Philip whipped up the horses and they reached the yard gate just as Aunt Peachy gave her first blood-curdling scream. Then had followed Rolfe Bolling's call for help.

Philip and his mother sprang from the carriage, leaving Betsy and Jo to attend to the horses. They were in the house in a twinkling. All was silent. Rolfe Bolling they found with his head under the bed clothes and his huge bulk trembling with fear.

"What is the matter, Father?" asked Philip, but the old man could only sob like a frightened child.

"Where is Aunt Peachy?" asked his wife.

"It done got her," he finally sobbed out.

"What got her?" asked Philip, gently. "That thing in the attic! I heard her screaming when it got her."

Elizabeth soothed him, smoothed the covers over his heaving form, and even poured out a drink for him from a bottle on the table by his bedside.

As soon as Philip was assured that his father was merely frightened, he went in