AUGUST 9, 1861

Daniel, Serena and Meg were seated around the dining room table having lunch. They had just gotten the babies fed and settled down, and now they were trying to relax a little. Two days ago when Daniel had been over, he hadn't mentioned the encounter with the man and the lady who had stopped him along the road. He really hadn't seen any need to explain why he had been a little late, and Meg hadn't asked. He hadn't even told Serena about it, mainly because there hadn't been anything significant that had happened, and also because he thought they would tease him about it.

Meanwhile upstairs in the baby room, the man that Daniel had seen two days ago was looking at the children. "Don't worry, just because your folks are going to die today, doesn't mean you are. You are innocent. I won't let anything happen to you." He'd always had a soft spot for kids.

He glanced from one to the other, and seeing that none of them were going to wake up, he reached down and picked one of the babies up into his arms. The motion woke the child, and the baby got upset and let out a wail. This set off a horrible chain reaction.

Unnoticed by Serena or Meg, Daniel went into a hypnotic trance.

"Oh, one of the babies is awake." Meg started to go attend to the child, but Serena intervened.

"I'll see to the baby. You stay here and enjoy lunch with your father." Serena got up and hurried out of the room. Hopefully, she would get there before the child woke up the others. She wondered if it was her little boy making such a ruckus, or if it was one of Meg's darlings.

Right after Serena left, Meg heard another baby start wailing, so she stood up. "Serena might need my help, dad." Daniel nodded. Meg started out of the room. But as she went through the doorway, she felt something hit her head. Whatever it was, it was hard. She slumped to the floor unconscious. Thump!

Hearing the noise, Daniel came out of the dining room. As he did, the man instructed him to take Meg upstairs. Daniel swooped Meg up into his arms, and carried her to the master bedroom, where he laid her on the bed. Serena surprised to see them, stood gaping with her mouth open as Daniel laid Meg down. "What happened?"

"She hit her head." Daniel walked over to the water basin.

Serena put the baby in his crib, and walked over to the bed. "How?"

Daniel didn't reply as he continued to wring out the cloth.

Before Serena could inspect Meg, she heard a noise in the hallway. "What was that?"

Daniel shook his head and sat down on the bed. He put the wet cloth to Meg's forehead.

Seeing that Daniel wasn't going to check on what had made the noise, Serena decided to. She glanced around the doorway and looked down the hall. She didn't see anything. She walked out, and went down the hallway, back the way she had come just a few minutes ago. As she rounded the corner of the hallway to her left, she saw a man out of the corner of her right eye. As she turned to focus her full attention on him, he brought something down heavy on her head. She fell forward, trying to grasp at his shirt so that she wouldn't fall to the floor. He stepped back, and Serena collapsed unconscious on the hallway floor. He tossed the brass candlestick, which was sticky with blood, aside, and pulled her lifeless body into the master bedroom.

Daniel and the man went around the house collecting rags and putting them all around the house. Then they got some kerosene, and poured some in each room of the house. After that, they carried the cribs down and put the babies safely into Daniel's wagon. The man was about to send Daniel back into the house, when he had a better idea for him. He hypnotized Daniel again, and after Daniel handed over his suit jacket to the man, he got into the wagon and drove off.

The man returned to the house. He left Daniel's jacket in the master bedroom and began lighting all the rags. He then made his escape by riding off following Daniel's tracks. Before completely departing the scene, he turned back around in his saddle and smiled. His plan had worked. Soon the house would be burned to the ground, and no one would know what had happened. They would probably even think that Daniel and the babies had been burned to death, too.