Chapter XI

The Old Rifle Gives Up Its Secret



Out of that game with forbidden playmates, grew events which changed the
lives of several people. It began by Richard's deciding that a real gun
was necessary for his equipment if he was to play the part of Leather-
Stocking properly. Also, he argued, it would be a valuable addition to
their stock of fire-arms. The broken old horse-pistols were good enough
to play at pirating with, but something which would really shoot was
needed when they started out in earnest on a sure-enough adventure.

Georgina suggested that he go to Fishburn Court and borrow a rifle that
she had seen up in Uncle Darcy's attic. She would go with him and do the
asking, she added, but Belle had promised to take her with her the next
time she went to see the net-mender, and the next time would be the
following afternoon, if Tippy was well enough to be up and around.
Georgina couldn't miss the chance to see inside the cottage that had been
the home of a hero and Belle's drowned lover. She wanted to see the
newspaper which Mr. Potter showed everybody who went to the house. It had
an account of the wreck and the rescue in it, with Emmett's picture on
the front page, and black headlines under it that said, "Died like a
hero."

Tippy was well enough to be up next day, so Richard went alone to
Fishburn Court, and Georgina trudged along the sandy road with Belle to
the weather-beaten cottage on the edge of the cranberry bog. Belle told
her more about the old man as they walked along.