"Why did you run away yesterday before any of us could see you?"
"One saw me, and I left a message with him. It was too early for either you or your father to be up. Did Peter not tell you that all went well?"
"Yes, he told us that, and I went down myself to look at The Prince. Come here a moment, Doctor Glenning."
She crossed the drive with a faint swish of drapery, and walked across the lawn to the base of a large maple, not many yards from the front door of the mansion. Beneath this tree, resting against it, was an iron settee of ornamental design. Lying upon the settee was a large revolver. Julia picked it up, cocked as it was, and held it out, muzzle earthward.
"I found this, too, inside under the window. It isn't yours, is it?"
John recognized immediately the weapon he had wrested from the hand of Travers, and which he had neglected to procure before leaving the smoke-house.
"No, it isn't mine," he replied, readily.
"Peter said that you told him to say to us that nothing had happened."
"He did not quote me correctly. I told him to say that nothing of _consequence_ had happened."
"Whose revolver is this, Doctor Glenning?"
"It belongs to the man who came to shoot The Prince."
Julia gave a little start, and uttered an involuntary exclamation.
"You--" she began, then stopped and looked at him, her breath coming faster.
"I didn't see any use in making a fuss about it, you see," explained John, smiling. "Travers came, as we all knew he would, and I just waited and let him walk into the trap which Uncle Peter set when he cut that window, and baited when he led the colt in. That's all there is to it."
Then, side by side upon the settee, the revolver still in her hand, she resumed:
"This is a fearful looking thing. Did he have this?"
"Yes, that's what he came hunting with near three o'clock in the morning. It would kill an elephant if properly handled."
"How did you happen to get possession of it?"
"I see you must have the whole story," said John, with his inimitable chuckle, and thereat he proceeded, very faithfully and very accurately, to recount the entire tale.
Julia drew back in wonder as she listened.
"And you _held_ him!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide and her brows contracted in surprise. Doubtless she did not know it, but her gaze went sweeping over the man, from top to toe, and her mind was wondering where all that power was stored, for he was very lean, though wonderfully broad of shoulder.