Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/104

88 "What shall I do?" demanded Robert "They 'll be here in a minute!"

"Wait! Stay right where you are! Don't move! I 'll be back in a minute!"

As she spoke Hannah turned and darted into the house, leaving Robert standing alone outside. For a moment he was tempted to run again, and then he decided to follow her. Of his own fate, if he should once more be taken by the men, he had no question, but he was still minded to do all in his power to protect the two women who had befriended him. Before he could act, however, Hannah rushed from the building holding in her hands a huge wing of a goose, which was used by the household to brush away the ashes that accumulated about the fireplace in the room.

Quickly drawing two of the longest feathers from the wing, she cut the ends from both with a knife and blew through each to test its emptiness, and then thrust the end of one into the larger opening of the other and so joined the two parts.

"Put this end in your mouth," she demanded, holding them forth to Robert; and as soon as he had received them she seized a rude shovel that was leaning against the side of the house and began almost frantically to