"Your mother saw nothing of two men ?" "Only one, and she knows he didn't carry a gun.

Except the man you took in, no stranger has been noticed around here lately ?" "No one.

We are quite careful.

Even the gun was not loaded as it stood; whoever took it carried the ammunition also, but he couldn't fire until he loaded." Father turned to the corner where the gun always stood and then he stooped and picked up two little white squares from the floor.
They were bits of unbleached muslin in which he wrapped the bullets he made.
"The rifle was loaded before starting, and in a hurry," he said, as he held up the squares of muslin.

Then he scratched a match, bent, and ran it back and forth over the floor, and at one place there was a flash, and the flame went around in funny little fizzes as it caught a grain of powder here and there.