"I will give you another chance," he said.
Thrice that night, my dreams being troubled, I awoke and stretched
myself to see Billy pacing grimly in the moonlight between us and the
gateway, tholing his penance. I know not what aroused me the fourth
time; some sound, perhaps. The dawn was breaking, and, half-lifted
on my elbow, I saw Billy, his musket still at his shoulder, halt by
the gateway as if he, too, had been arrested by the sound. After a
moment he turned, quite casually, and stepped outside the gate to
look.
I saw him step outside. I was but half-awake, and drowsily my eyes
closed and opened again with a start, expecting to see him back at
his sentry-go. He had not returned.
I closed my eyes again, in no way alarmed as yet. I would give him
another minute, another sixty seconds. But before I had counted
thirty my ears caught a sound, and I leapt up, wide awake, and
touched my father's shoulder.
He sat up, cast a glance about him, and sprang to his feet.
Together we ran to the gateway.
The voice I had heard was the grunting of the hogs. They were
gathered about the gateway again, and, as before, they scampered from
us up the glade.
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