Oft have I cursed the folly that led me to take my gun and go forth into the woods, leaving no protector for my wife but one weak woman.
"I returned earlier than I had thought to do, led mayhap by some angel that sought to have me back in time.

But I came too late.

At my gate I found two freshly ridden horses tethered, and it was with a dull foreboding in my heart that I sprang through the open door.

Within--O God, the anguish of it!--stretched on the floor I beheld my love, a gaping sword-wound in her side, and the ground all bloody about her.
For a moment I stood dumb in the spell of that horror, then a movement beyond, against the wall, aroused me, and I beheld her murderers cowering there, one with a naked sword in his hand.
"In that fell hour, Kenneth, my whole nature changed, and one who had ever been gentle was transformed into the violent, passionate man that you have known.

As my eye encountered then her cousins, my blood seemed on the instant curdled in my veins; my teeth were set hard; my nerves and sinews knotted; my hands instinctively shifted to the barrel of my fowling-piece and clutched it with the fierceness that was in me--the fierceness of the beast about to spring upon those that have brought it to bay.
"For a moment I stood swaying there, my eyes upon them, and holding their craven glances fascinated.