Instead of undoing the fastenings of the postern as he had
intended, he deliberately drew its bolts again and paused to think.
"If it produce no other benefit than to quiet thy fears, good Ruth," he
said, after a moment of reflection, "a little caution will be well repaid.
Stay you, then, here, where the hillock may be watched, while I go wake a
couple of the people. With stout Eben Dudley and experienced Reuben Ring
to back me, my father's horse may surely be stabled."
Ruth contentedly assumed a task that she was quite equal to perform with
intelligence and zeal. "Hie thee to the laborers' chambers, for I see a
light still burning in the room of those you seek," was the answer she
gave to a proposal that at least quieted the intenseness of her fears for
him in whose behalf they had so lately been excited nearly to agony.
"It shall be quickly done; nay, stand not thus openly between the beams,
wife. Thou mayst place thyself, here, at the doublings of the wood,
beneath the loop, where harm would scarcely reach thee, though shot from
artillery were to crush the timber.
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