"
Relieved by this promise, and trying hard to be hopeful and not to
worry, Nan ran back to her room, while Mrs. Hunt called the boys.
Dick pretended to be very sound asleep, and it required more than one
call and shake to arouse him, but in reality, he too had passed a most
miserable night, and he had listened, with heart beating fast and
hard, to his mother's colloquy with Nan; and as he listened, ever
before his mind's eye was that dark, motionless heap on the ground. In
imagination, he saw Theo's dead body on a slab in the morgue, and
himself in a prison cell, condemned for murder. Dick's worst enemy
could not have wished him to be any more wretched than he was in that
hour, as he cowered in his bed, and strained his ears to catch every
word that was uttered. But when his mother shook him, he rubbed his
eyes, and pretended to be still half asleep, and flatly refused to go
to Mr. Scott's.
"Let Jim go, 'f anybody's got to," he growled, as he began to pull on
his clothes. "Here you, Jim, turn out lively now!" he added, yanking
the bedclothes off his brother to emphasise his words.
"He's always a-puttin' off on me--Dick is," snarled Jim, as he joined
his mother in the other room a few minutes later, but when he learned
why he was to go to Mr. Scott's he made no further objections, but
swallowed his breakfast hastily, and went off on the run.
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