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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14818 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14818-h.htm or 14818-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/1/14818/14818-h/14818-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/1/14818/14818-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW
+
+by
+
+GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON
+
+Author of _Beverly of Graustark_, _Jane Cable_, etc.
+
+With Illustrations by B. Martin Justice
+
+New York
+Dodd, Mead and Company
+
+1907
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Anderson Crow]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+     I.  ANDERSON CROW, DETECTIVE
+    II.  THE PURSUIT BEGINS
+   III.  THE CULPRITS
+    IV.  ANDERSON RECTIFIES AN ERROR
+     V.  THE BABE ON THE DOORSTEP
+    VI.  REFLECTION AND DEDUCTION
+   VII.  THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
+  VIII.  SOME YEARS GO BY
+    IX.  THE VILLAGE QUEEN
+     X.  ROSALIE HAS PLANS OF HER OWN
+    XI.  ELSIE BANKS
+   XII.  THE SPELLING-BEE
+  XIII.  A TINKLETOWN SENSATION
+   XIV.  A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
+    XV.  ROSALIE DISAPPEARS
+   XVI.  THE HAUNTED HOUSE
+  XVII.  WICKER BONNER, HARVARD
+ XVIII.  THE MEN IN THE SLEIGH
+   XIX.  WITH THE KIDNAPERS
+    XX.  IN THE CAVE
+   XXI.  THE TRAP-DOOR
+  XXII.  JACK, THE GIANT KILLER
+ XXIII.  TINKLETOWN'S CONVULSION
+  XXIV.  THE FLIGHT OF THE KIDNAPERS
+   XXV.  AS THE HEART GROWS OLDER
+  XXVI.  THE LEFT VENTRICLE
+ XXVII.  THE GRIN DERISIVE
+XXVIII.  THE BLIND MAN'S EYES
+  XXIX.  THE MYSTERIOUS QUESTIONER
+   XXX.  THE HEMISPHERE TRAIN ROBBERY
+  XXXI.  "AS YOU LIKE IT"
+ XXXII.  THE LUCK OF ANDERSON CROW
+XXXIII.  BILL BRIGGS TELLS A TALE
+ XXXIV.  ELSIE BANKS RETURNS
+  XXXV.  THE STORY IS TOLD
+ XXXVI.  ANDERSON CROW'S RESIGNATION
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+   Anderson Crow (Frontispiece)
+
+   "'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he whispered"
+
+   "A baby, alive and warm, lay packed in the blankets"
+
+   "September brought Elsie Banks"
+
+   "The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful night"
+
+   "'What is the meaning of all this?'"
+
+   The haunted house
+
+   Wicker Bonner
+
+   "Rosalie was no match for the huge woman"
+
+   "She shrank back from another blow which seemed impending"
+
+   "Left the young man to the care of an excellent nurse"
+
+   "'I think I understand, Rosalie'"
+
+   "'I beg your pardon,' he said humbly'"
+
+   "It was a wise, discreet old oak"
+
+   "The huge automobile had struck the washout"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Anderson Crow, Detective
+
+
+He was imposing, even in his pensiveness. There was no denying the fact
+that he was an important personage in Tinkletown, and to the residents
+of Tinkletown that meant a great deal, for was not their village a
+perpetual monument to the American Revolution? Even the most
+generalising of historians were compelled to devote at least a paragraph
+to the battle of Tinkletown, while some of the more enlightened gave a
+whole page and a picture of the conflict that brought glory to the
+sleepy inhabitants whose ancestors were enterprising enough to
+annihilate a whole company of British redcoats, once on a time.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, a particularly disagreeable visitor from the
+city once remarked, in the presence of half a dozen descendants (after
+waiting twenty minutes at the post-office for a dime's worth of stamps),
+that Tinkletown was indeed a monument, but he could not understand why
+the dead had been left unburied. There was excellent cause for
+resentment, but the young man and his stamps were far away before the
+full force of the slander penetrated the brains of the listeners.
+
+Anderson Crow was as imposing and as rugged as the tallest shaft of
+marble in the little cemetery on the edge of the town. No one questioned
+his power and authority, no one misjudged his altitude, and no one
+overlooked his dignity. For twenty-eight years he had served Tinkletown
+and himself in the triple capacity of town marshal, fire chief and
+street commissioner. He had a system of government peculiarly his own;
+and no one possessed the heart or temerity to upset it, no matter what
+may have been the political inducements. It would have been like trying
+to improve the laws of nature to put a new man in his place. He had
+become a fixture that only dissolution could remove. Be it said,
+however, that dissolution did not have its common and accepted meaning
+when applied to Anderson Crow. For instance, in discoursing upon the
+obnoxious habits of the town's most dissolute rake--Alf
+Reesling--Anderson had more than once ventured the opinion that "he was
+carrying his dissolution entirely too far."
+
+And had not Anderson Crow risen to more than local distinction? Had not
+his fame gone abroad throughout the land? Not only was he the Marshal of
+Tinkletown at a salary of $200 a year, but he was president of the
+County Horse-thief Detectives' Association and also a life-long delegate
+to the State Convention of the Sons of the Revolution. Along that line,
+let it be added, every parent in Tinkletown bemoaned the birth of a
+daughter, because that simple circumstance of origin robbed the
+society's roster of a new name.
+
+Anderson Crow, at the age of forty-nine, had a proud official record
+behind him and a guaranteed future ahead. Doubtless it was of this that
+he was thinking, as he leaned pensively against the town hitching-rack
+and gingerly chewed the blade of wire-grass which dangled even below the
+chin whiskers that had been with him for twenty years. The faraway
+expression in his watery-blue eyes gave evidence that he was as great
+reminiscently as he was personally. So successful had been his career as
+a law preserver, that of late years no evil-doer had had the courage to
+ply his nefarious games in the community. The town drunkard, Alf
+Reesling, seldom appeared on the streets in his habitual condition,
+because, as he dolefully remarked, he would deserve arrest and
+confinement for "criminal negligence," if for nothing else. The
+marshal's fame as a detective had long since escaped from the narrow
+confines of Tinkletown. He was well known at the county seat, and on no
+less than three occasions had his name mentioned in the "big city"
+papers in connection with the arrest of notorious horse-thieves.
+
+And now the whole town was trembling with a new excitement, due to the
+recognition accorded her triple official. On Monday morning he had
+ventured forth from his office in the long-deserted "calaboose,"
+resplendent in a brand-new nickel-plated star. By noon everybody in town
+knew that he was a genuine "detective," a member of the great
+organisation known as the New York Imperial Detective Association; and
+that fresh honour had come to Tinkletown through the agency of a
+post-revolution generation. The beauty of it all was that Anderson never
+lost a shred of his serenity in explaining how the association had
+implored him to join its forces, even going so far as to urge him to
+come to New York City, where he could assist and advise in all of its
+large operations. And, moreover, he had been obliged to pay but ten
+dollars membership fee, besides buying the blazing star for the paltry
+sum of three dollars and a quarter.
+
+Every passer-by on this bright spring morning offered a respectful
+"Howdy" to Anderson Crow, whose only recognition was a slow and
+imposing nod of the head. Once only was he driven to relinquish his
+pensive attitude, and that was when an impertinent blue-bottle fly
+undertook to rest for a brief spell upon the nickel-plated star. Never
+was blue-bottle more energetically put to flight.
+
+But even as the Tinkletown Pooh-Bah posed in restful supremacy there
+were rushing down upon him affairs of the epoch-making kind. Up in the
+clear, lazy sky a thunderbolt was preparing to hurl itself into the very
+heart of Tinkletown, and at the very head of Anderson Crow.
+
+Afterward it was recalled by observing citizens that just before
+noon--seven minutes to twelve, in fact--a small cloud no bigger than the
+proverbial hand crossed the sun hurriedly as if afraid to tarry. At that
+very instant a stranger drove up to the hitching-rack, bringing his
+sweat-covered horse to a standstill so abruptly in front of the
+marshal's nose that that dignitary's hat fell off backward.
+
+"Whoa!" came clearly and unmistakably from the lips of the stranger who
+held the reins. Half a dozen loafers on the post-office steps were
+positive that he said nothing more, a fact that was afterward worth
+remembering.
+
+"Here!" exclaimed Anderson Crow wrathfully. "Do you know what you're
+doin', consarn you?"
+
+"I beg pardon," everybody within hearing heard the young man say. "Is
+this the city of Tinkletown?" He said "city," they could swear, every
+man's son of them.
+
+"Yes, it is," answered the marshal severely. "What of it?"
+
+"That's all. I just wanted to know. Where's the store?"
+
+"Which store?" quite crossly. The stranger seemed nonplussed at this.
+
+"Have you more than--oh, to be sure. I should say, where is the
+_nearest_ store?" apologised the stranger.
+
+"Well, this is a good one, I reckon," said Mr. Crow laconically,
+indicating the post-office and general store.
+
+"Will you be good enough to hold my horse while I run in there for a
+minute?" calmly asked the new arrival in town, springing lightly from
+the mud-spattered buggy. Anderson Crow almost staggered beneath this
+indignity. The crowd gasped, and then waited breathlessly for the
+withering process.
+
+"Why--why, dod-gast you, sir, what do you think I am--a hitchin'-post?"
+exploded on the lips of the new detective. His face was flaming red.
+
+"You'll have to excuse me, my good man, but I thought I saw a
+hitching-rack as I drove up. Ah, here it is. How careless of me. But
+say, I won't be in the store more than a second, and it doesn't seem
+worth while to tie the old crow-bait. If you'll just watch him--or
+her--for a minute I'll be greatly obliged, and--"
+
+"Watch your own horse," roared the marshal thunderously.
+
+"Don't get huffy," cried the young man cheerily. "It will be worth a
+quarter to you."
+
+"Do you know who I am?" demanded Anderson Crow, purple to the roots of
+his goatee.
+
+"Yes, sir; I know perfectly well, but I refuse to give it away. Here,
+take the bit, old chap, and hold Dobbin for about a minute and half,"
+went on the stranger ruthlessly; and before Anderson Crow knew what had
+happened he was actually holding the panting nag by the bit. The young
+man went up the steps three at a time, almost upsetting Uncle Gideon
+Luce, who had not been so spry as the others in clearing the way for
+him. The crowd had ample time in which to study the face, apparel and
+manner of this energetic young man.
+
+That he was from the city, good-looking and well dressed, there was no
+doubt. He was tall and his face was beardless; that much could be seen
+at a glance. Somehow, he seemed to be laughing all the time--a fact that
+was afterward recalled with some surprise and no little horror. At the
+time, the loungers thought his smile was a merry one, but afterward they
+stoutly maintained there was downright villainy in the leer. His coat
+was very dusty, proving that he had driven far and swiftly. Three or
+four of the loungers followed him into the store. He was standing before
+the counter over which Mr. Lamson served his soda-water. In one hand he
+held an envelope and in the other his straw hat. George Ray, more
+observant than the rest, took note of the fact that it was with the hat
+that he was fanning himself vigorously.
+
+"A plain vanilla--please rush it along," commanded the stranger. Mr.
+Lamson, if possible slower than the town itself, actually showed
+unmistakable signs of acceleration. Tossing off the soda, the stranger
+dried his lips with a blue-hemmed white handkerchief. "Is this the
+post-office?" he asked.
+
+"Yep," said Mr. Lamson, who was too penurious to waste words.
+
+"Anything here for me?" demanded the newcomer.
+
+"I'll see," said the postmaster, and from force of habit began looking
+through the pile of letters without asking the man's name. Mr. Lamson
+knew everybody in the county.
+
+"Nothing here," taking off his spectacles conclusively.
+
+"I didn't think there was," said the other complacently. "Give me a
+bottle of witch hazel, a package of invisible hair-pins and a box of
+parlor matches. Quick; I'm in a hurry!"
+
+"Did you say hat-pins?"
+
+"No, sir; I said hair-pins."
+
+"We haven't any that ain't visible. How would safety-pins do?"
+
+"Never mind; give me the bottle and the matches," said the other,
+glancing at a very handsome gold watch. "Is the old man still holding my
+horse?" he called to a citizen near the door. Seven necks stretched
+simultaneously to accommodate him, and seven voices answered in the
+affirmative. The stranger calmly opened the box of matches, filled his
+silver match-safe, and then threw the box back on the counter, an
+unheard-of piece of profligacy in those parts. "Needn't mind wrapping
+up the bottle," he said.
+
+"Don't you care for these matches?" asked Mr. Lamson in mild surprise.
+
+"I'll donate them to the church," said the other, tossing a coin upon
+the counter and dashing from the store. The crowd ebbed along behind
+him. "Gentle as a lamb, isn't he?" he called to Anderson Crow, who still
+clutched the bit. "Much obliged, sir; I'll do as much for you some day.
+If you're ever in New York, hunt me up and I'll see that you have a good
+time. What road do I take to Crow's Cliff?"
+
+"Turn to your left here," said Anderson Crow before he thought. Then he
+called himself a fool for being so obliging to the fellow.
+
+"How far is it from here?"
+
+"Mile and a half," again answered Mr. Crow helplessly. This time he
+almost swore under his breath.
+
+"But he can't get there," volunteered one of the bystanders.
+
+"Why can't he?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"Bridge over Turnip Creek is washed out. Did you forget that?"
+
+"Of course not," promptly replied Mr. Crow, who _had_ forgotten it;
+"But, dang it, he c'n swim, can't he?"
+
+"You say the bridge is gone?" asked the stranger, visibly excited.
+
+"Yes, and the crick's too high to ford, too."
+
+"Well, how in thunder am I to get to Crow's Cliff?"
+
+"There's another bridge four miles upstream. It's still there," said
+George Ray. Anderson Crow had scornfully washed his hands of the affair.
+
+"Confound the luck! I haven't time to drive that far. I have to be there
+at half-past twelve. I'm late now! Is there no way to get across this
+miserable creek?" He was in the buggy now, whip in hand, and his eyes
+wore an anxious expression. Some of the men vowed later that he
+positively looked frightened.
+
+"There's a foot-log high and dry, and you can walk across, but you can't
+get the horse and buggy over," said one of the men.
+
+"Well, that's just what I'll have to do. Say, Mr. Officer, suppose you
+drive me down to the creek and then bring the horse back here to a
+livery stable. I'll pay you well for it. I must get to Crow's Cliff in
+fifteen minutes."
+
+"I'm no errant-boy!" cried Anderson Crow so wrathfully that two or three
+boys snickered.
+
+"You're a darned old crank, that's what you are!" exclaimed the stranger
+angrily. Everybody gasped, and Mr. Crow staggered back against the
+hitching-rail.
+
+"See here, young man, none o' that!" he sputtered. "You can't talk that
+way to an officer of the law. I'll--"
+
+"You won't do anything, do you hear that? But if you knew who I am you'd
+be doing something blamed quick." A dozen men heard him say it, and they
+remembered it word for word.
+
+"You go scratch yourself!" retorted Anderson Crow scornfully. That was
+supposed to be a terrible challenge, but the stranger took no notice of
+it.
+
+"What am I to do with this horse and buggy?" he growled, half to
+himself. "I bought the darned thing outright up in Boggs City, just
+because the liveryman didn't know me and wouldn't let me a rig. Now I
+suppose I'll have to take the old plug down to the creek and drown him
+in order to get rid of him."
+
+Nobody remonstrated. He looked a bit dangerous with his broad shoulders
+and square jaw.
+
+"What will you give me for the outfit, horse, buggy, harness and all?
+I'll sell cheap if some one makes a quick offer." The bystanders looked
+at one another blankly, and at last the concentrated gaze fell upon the
+Pooh-Bah of the town. The case seemed to be one that called for his
+attention; truly, it did not look like public property, this astounding
+proposition.
+
+"What you so derned anxious to sell for?" demanded Anderson Crow,
+listening from a distance to see if he could detect a blemish in the
+horse's breathing gear. At a glance, the buggy looked safe enough.
+
+"I'm anxious to sell for cash," replied the stranger; and Anderson was
+floored. The boy who snickered this time had cause to regret it, for Mr.
+Crow arrested him half an hour later for carrying a bean-shooter. "I
+paid a hundred dollars for the outfit in Boggs City," went on the
+stranger nervously. "Some one make an offer--and quick! I'm in a rush!"
+
+"I'll give five dollars!" said one of the onlookers with an apologetic
+laugh. This was the match that started fire in the thrifty noddles of
+Tinkletown's best citizens. Before they knew it they were bidding
+against each other with the true "horse-swapping" instinct, and the
+offers had reached $21.25 when the stranger unceremoniously closed the
+sale by crying out, "Sold!" There is no telling how high the bids might
+have gone if he could have waited half an hour or so. Uncle Gideon Luce
+afterward said that he could have had twenty-four dollars "just as well
+as not." They were bidding up a quarter at a time, and no one seemed
+willing to drop out. The successful bidder was Anderson Crow.
+
+"You can pay me as we drive along. Jump in!" cried the stranger, looking
+at his watch with considerable agitation. "All I ask is that you drive
+me to the foot-log that crosses the creek."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The Pursuit Begins
+
+
+Fifteen minutes later Anderson Crow was parading proudly about the town.
+He had taken the stranger to the creek and had seen him scurry across
+the log to the opposite side, supplied with directions that would lead
+him to the nearest route through the swamps and timberland to Crow's
+Cliff. The stranger had Anderson's money in his pocket; but Anderson had
+a very respectable sort of driving outfit to show for it. His wife kept
+dinner for him until two o'clock, and then sent the youngest Crow out to
+tell her father that he'd have to go hungry until supper-time.
+
+It is no wonder that Anderson failed to reach home in time for the
+midday meal. He started home properly enough, but what progress could he
+make when everybody in town stopped him to inquire about the remarkable
+deal and to have a look at the purchase. Without a single dissenting
+voice, Tinkletown said Anderson had very much the "best of the bargain."
+George Ray meant all right when he said, "A fool for luck," but he was
+obliged to explain thoroughly the witticism before the proud Mr. Crow
+could consider himself appeased.
+
+It was not until he pulled up in front of the _Weekly Banner_
+establishment to tell the reporter "the news" that his equanimity
+received its first jar. He was quite proud of the deal, and, moreover,
+he enjoyed seeing his name in the paper. In the meantime almost
+everybody in Tinkletown was discussing the awful profligacy of the
+stranger. It had not occurred to anybody to wonder why he had been in
+such a hurry to reach Crow's Cliff, a wild, desolate spot down the
+river.
+
+"The hoss alone is worth fifty dollars easy," volunteered Mr. Crow
+triumphantly. The detective's badge on his inflated chest seemed to
+sparkle with glee.
+
+"Say, Anderson, isn't it a little queer that he should sell out so
+cheap?" asked Harry Squires, the local reporter and pressfeeder.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Anderson Crow sharply.
+
+"Do you think it's really true that he bought the nag up at Boggs City?"
+asked the sceptic. Mr. Crow wallowed his quid of tobacco helplessly for
+a minute or two. He could feel himself turning pale.
+
+"He said so; ain't that enough?" he managed to bluster.
+
+"It seems to have been," replied Harry, who had gone to night school in
+Albany for two years.
+
+"Well, what in thunder are you talking about then?" exclaimed Anderson
+Crow, whipping up.
+
+"I'll bet three dollars it's a stolen outfit!"
+
+"You go to Halifax!" shouted Anderson, but his heart was cold. Something
+told him that Harry Squires was right. He drove home in a state of dire
+uncertainty and distress. Somehow, his enthusiasm was gone.
+
+"Dang it!" he said, without reason, as he was unhitching the horse in
+the barn lot.
+
+"Hey, Mr. Crow!" cried a shrill voice from the street. He looked up and
+saw a small boy coming on the run.
+
+"What's up, Toby?" asked Mr. Crow, all a-tremble. He knew!
+
+"They just got a telephone from Boggs City," panted the boy, "down to
+the _Banner_ office. Harry Squires says for you to hurry down--buggy and
+all. It's been stole."
+
+"Good Lord!" gasped Anderson. His badge danced before his eyes and then
+seemed to shrivel.
+
+Quite a crowd had collected at the _Banner_ office. There was a sudden
+hush when the marshal drove up. Even the horse felt the intensity of the
+moment. He shied at a dog and then kicked over the dashboard, upsetting
+Anderson Crow's meagre dignity and almost doing the same to the vehicle.
+
+"You're a fine detective!" jeered Harry Squires; and poor old Anderson
+hated him ever afterward.
+
+"What have you heerd?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"There's been a terrible murder at Boggs City, that's all. The chief of
+police just telephoned to us that a farmer named Grover was found dead
+in a ditch just outside of town--shot through the head, his pockets
+rifled. It is known that he started to town to deposit four hundred
+dollars hog-money in the bank. The money is missing, and so are his
+horse and buggy. A young fellow was seen in the neighbourhood early this
+morning--a stranger. The chief's description corresponds with the man
+who sold that rig to you. The murderer is known to have driven in this
+direction. People saw him going almost at a gallop."
+
+It is not necessary to say that Tinkletown thoroughly turned inside out
+with excitement. The whole population was soon at the post-office, and
+everybody was trying to supply Anderson Crow with wits. He had lost his
+own.
+
+"We've got to catch that fellow," finally resolved the marshal. There
+was a dead silence.
+
+"He's got a pistol," ventured some one.
+
+"How do you know?" demanded Mr. Crow keenly. "Did y' see it?"
+
+"He couldn't ha' killed that feller 'thout a gun."
+
+"That's a fact," agreed Anderson Crow. "Well, we've got to get him,
+anyhow. I call for volunteers! Who will join me in the search?" cried
+the marshal bravely.
+
+"I hate to go to Crow's Cliff after him," said George Ray. "It's a
+lonesome place, and as dark as night 'mong them trees and rocks."
+
+"It's our duty to catch him. He's a criminal, and besides, he's killed a
+man," said Crow severely.
+
+"And he has twenty-one dollars of your money," added Harry Squires.
+"I'll go with you, Anderson. I've got a revolver."
+
+"Look out there!" roared Anderson Crow. "The blamed thing might go off!"
+he added as the reporter drew a shiny six-shooter from his pocket.
+
+The example set by one brave man had its influence on the crowd. A
+score or more volunteered, despite the objections of their wives, and it
+was not long before Anderson Crow was leading his motley band of sleuths
+down the lane to the foot-log over which the desperado had gone an hour
+before.
+
+It was at the beginning of the man-hunt that various citizens recalled
+certain actions and certain characteristics of the stranger which had
+made them suspicious from the start. His prodigal disposition of the box
+of matches impressed most of them as reckless dare-devilism; his haste,
+anxiety, and a single instance of mild profanity told others of his
+viciousness. One man was sure he had seen the stranger's watch chain in
+farmer Grover's possession; and another saw something black on his
+thumb, which he now remembered was a powder stain.
+
+"I noticed all them things," averred Anderson Crow, supreme once more.
+
+"But what in thunder did he want with those hair-pins?" inquired George
+Ray.
+
+"Never mind," said Anderson mysteriously. "You'll find out soon enough."
+
+"Do you know Anderson?" some one asked.
+
+"Of course I do," responded the marshal loftily.
+
+"Well, what were they for, then?"
+
+"I'm not givin' any clews away. You just wait a while and see if I'm not
+right."
+
+And they were satisfied that the detective knew all about it. After
+crossing the foot-log the party was divided as to which direction it
+should take. The marshal said the man had run to the southeast, but for
+some inexplicable reason quite a number of the pursuers wanted to hunt
+for him in the northwest. Finally it was decided to separate into posses
+of ten, all to converge at Crow's Cliff as soon as possible. There were
+enough double-barrelled shotguns in the party to have conquered a pirate
+crew.
+
+At the end of an hour Anderson Crow and his delegation came to the
+narrow path which led to the summit of Crow's Cliff. They were very
+brave by this time. A small boy was telling them he had seen the
+fugitive about dinner-time "right where you fellers are standin' now."
+
+"Did he have any blood on him?" demanded Anderson Crow.
+
+"No, sir; not 'less it was under his clothes."
+
+"Did he say anythin' to you?"
+
+"He ast me where this path went to."
+
+"See that, gentlemen!" cried Anderson. "I knew I was right. He wanted--"
+
+"Well, where did he go?" demanded Harry Squires.
+
+"I said it went to the top of the clift. An' then he said, 'How do you
+git to the river?' I tole him to go down this side path here an' 'round
+the bottom of the hill."
+
+"Didn't he go up the cliff?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, what in thunder did he ask me where the cliff was if he--"
+
+"So he went to the river, eh?" interrupted Squires. "Come on, men; he
+went down through this brush and bottomland."
+
+"He got lost, I guess," volunteered the boy.
+
+"What!"
+
+"'Cause he yelled at me after he'd gone in a-ways an' ast--an' ast--"
+The boy paused irresolutely.
+
+"Asked what?"
+
+"He ast me where in h---- the path was."
+
+"By ginger, that's him, right out an' out!" exclaimed Mr. Crow
+excitedly.
+
+"'Nen he said he'd give me a quarter if I'd show him the way; so I--"
+
+"Did he give you the quarter?" questioned one of the men.
+
+"Yep. He'd a roll of bills as big as my leg." Everybody gasped and
+thought of Grover's hog-money.
+
+"You went to the river with him?" interrogated the reporter.
+
+"I went as fur as the clearin', an' then he tole me to stop. He said he
+could find the way from there. After that he run up the bank as if some
+one was after him. There was a boat waitin' fer him under the clift."
+
+"Did he get into it?" cried Squires.
+
+"He tole me not to look or he'd break my neck," said the boy. The posse
+nervously fingered its arsenal.
+
+"But you _did_ look?"
+
+"Yep. I seen 'em plain."
+
+"Them? Was there more than one?"
+
+"There was a woman in the skift."
+
+"You don't say so!" gasped Squires.
+
+"Dang it, ain't he tellin' you!" Anderson ejaculated scornfully.
+
+The boy was hurried off at the head of the posse, which by this time had
+been reinforced. He led the way through the dismal thickets, telling his
+story as he went.
+
+"She was mighty purty, too," he said. "The feller waved his hat when he
+seen her, an' she waved back. He run down an' jumped in the boat, an'
+'nen--'nen--"
+
+"Then what?" exploded Anderson Crow.
+
+"He kissed her!"
+
+"The d---- murderer!" roared Crow.
+
+"He grabbed up the oars and rowed 'cross an' downstream. An' he shuck
+his fist at me when he see I'd been watchin'," said the youngster, ready
+to whimper now that he realised what a desperate character he had been
+dealing with.
+
+"Where did he land on the other side?" pursued the eager reporter.
+
+"Down by them willer trees, 'bout half a mile down. There's the skift
+tied to a saplin'. Cain't you see it?"
+
+Sure enough, the stern of a small boat stuck out into the deep, broad
+river, the bow being hidden by the bushes.
+
+"Both of 'em hurried up the hill over yender, an' that's the last I seen
+of 'em," concluded the lad.
+
+Anderson Crow and his man-hunters stared helplessly at the broad, swift
+river, and then looked at each other in despair. There was no boat in
+sight except the murderer's, and there was no bridge within ten miles.
+
+While they were growling a belated detachment of hunters came up to the
+river bank greatly agitated.
+
+"A telephone message has just come to town sayin' there would be a
+thousand dollars reward," announced one of the late arrivals; and
+instantly there was an imperative demand for boats.
+
+"There's an old raft upstream a-ways," said the boy, "but I don't know
+how many it will kerry. They use it to pole corn over from Mr.
+Knoblock's farm to them big summer places in the hills up yender."
+
+"Is it sound?" demanded Anderson Crow.
+
+"Must be or they wouldn't use it," said Squires sarcastically. "Where is
+it, kid?"
+
+The boy led the way up the river bank, the whole company trailing
+behind.
+
+"Sh! Not too loud," cautioned Anderson Crow. Fifteen minutes later a
+wobbly craft put out to sea, manned by a picked crew of determined
+citizens of Tinkletown. When they were in midstream a loud cry came from
+the bank they had left behind. Looking back, Anderson Crow saw excited
+men dashing about, most of them pointing excitedly up into the hills
+across the river. After a diligent search the eyes of the men on the
+raft saw what it was that had created such a stir at the base of Crow's
+Cliff.
+
+"There he is!" cried Anderson Crow in awed tones. There was no mistaking
+the identity of the coatless man on the hillside. A dozen men recognised
+him as the man they were after. Putting his hands to his mouth, Anderson
+Crow bellowed in tones that savoured more of fright than command:
+
+"Say!"
+
+There was no response.
+
+"Will you surrender peaceably?" called the captain of the craft.
+
+There was a moment of indecision on the part of the fugitive. He looked
+at his companion, and she shook her head--they all saw her do it.
+
+Then he shouted back his reply.
+
+[Illustration: Then he shouted back his reply]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The Culprits
+
+
+"Ship ahoy!" shouted the coatless stranger between his palms.
+
+"Surrender or we'll fill you full of lead!" called Anderson Crow.
+
+"Who are you--pirates?" responded the fugitive with a laugh that chilled
+the marrow of the men on the raft.
+
+"I'll show you who we are!" bellowed Anderson Crow. "Send her ashore,
+boys, fast. The derned scamp sha'n't escape us. Dead er alive, we must
+have him."
+
+As they poled toward the bank the woman grasped the man by the arm,
+dragging him back among the trees. It was observed by all that she was
+greatly terrified. Moreover, she was exceedingly fair to look
+upon--young, beautiful, and a most incongruous companion for the bloody
+rascal who had her in his power. The raft bumped against the reedy bank,
+and Anderson Crow was the first man ashore.
+
+"Come on, boys; follow me! See that your guns are all right! Straight up
+the hill now, an' spread out a bit so's we can surround him!" commanded
+he in a high treble.
+
+"'But supposin' he surrounds us," panted a cautious pursuer, half way up
+the hill.
+
+"That's what we've got to guard against," retorted Anderson Crow. The
+posse bravely swept up to and across the greensward; but the fox was
+gone: There was no sight or sound of him to be had. It is but just to
+say that fatigue was responsible for the deep breath that came from each
+member of the pursuing party.
+
+"Into the woods after him!" shouted Anderson Crow. "Hunt him down like a
+rat!"
+
+In the meantime a coatless young man and a most enticing young woman
+were scampering off among the oaks and underbrush, consumed by
+excitement and no small degree of apprehension.
+
+"They really seem to be in earnest about it, Jack," urged the young
+woman insistently, to offset his somewhat sarcastic comments.
+
+"How the dickens do you suppose they got onto me?" he groaned. "I
+thought the tracks were beautifully covered. No one suspected, I'm
+sure."
+
+"I told you, dear, how it would turn out," she cried in a panic-stricken
+voice.
+
+"Good heavens, Marjory, don't turn against me! It all seemed so easy and
+so sure, dear. There wasn't a breath of suspicion. What are we to do?
+I'll stop and fight the whole bunch if you'll just let go my arm."
+
+"No, you won't, Jack Barnes!" she exclaimed resolutely, her pretty blue
+eyes wide with alarm. "Didn't you hear them say they'd fill you full of
+lead? They had guns and everything. Oh, dear! oh, dear! isn't it
+horrid?"
+
+"The worst of it is they've cut us off from the river," he said
+miserably. "If I could have reached the boat ahead of them they never
+could have caught us. I could distance that old raft in a mile."
+
+"I know you could, dear," she cried, looking with frantic admiration
+upon his broad shoulders and brawny bare arms. "But it is out of the
+question now."
+
+"Never mind, sweetheart; don't let it fuss you so. It will turn out all
+right, I know it will."
+
+"Oh, I can't run any farther," she gasped despairingly.
+
+"Poor little chap! Let me carry you?"
+
+"You big ninny!"
+
+"We are at least three miles from your house, dear, and surrounded by
+deadly perils. Can you climb a tree?"
+
+"I can--but I won't!" she refused flatly, her cheeks very red.
+
+"Then I fancy we'll have to keep on in this manner. It's a confounded
+shame--the whole business. Just as I thought everything was going so
+smoothly, too. It was all arranged to a queen's taste--nothing was left
+undone. Bracken was to meet us at his uncle's boathouse down there,
+and--good heavens, there was a shot!"
+
+The sharp crack of a rifle broke upon the still, balmy air, as they say
+in the "yellow-backs," and the fugitives looked at each other with
+suddenly awakened dread.
+
+"The fools!" grated the man.
+
+"What do they mean?" cried the breathless girl, very white in the face.
+
+"They are trying to frighten us, that's all. Hang it! If I only knew the
+lay of the land. I'm completely lost, Marjory. Do you know precisely
+where we are?"
+
+"Our home is off to the north about three miles. We are almost opposite
+Crow's Cliff--the wildest part of the country. There are no houses along
+this part of the river. All of the summer houses are farther up or on
+the other side. It is too hilly here. There is a railroad off there
+about six miles. There isn't a boathouse or fisherman's hut nearer than
+two miles. Mr. Bracken keeps his boat at the point--two miles south, at
+least."
+
+"Yes; that's where we were to have gone--by boat. Hang it all! Why did
+we ever leave the boat? You can never scramble through all this brush to
+Bracken's place; it's all I can do. Look at my arms! They are scratched
+to--"
+
+"Oh, dear! It's dreadful, Jack. You poor fellow, let me--"
+
+"We haven't time, dearest. By thunder, I wouldn't have those Rubes head
+us off now for the whole county. The jays! How could they have found us
+out?"
+
+"Some one must have told."
+
+"But no one knew except the Brackens, you and I."
+
+"I'll wager my head Bracken is saying hard things for fair down the river there."
+
+"He--he--doesn't swear, Jack," she panted.
+
+[Illustration: "'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he whispered"]
+
+"Why, you are ready to drop! Can't you go a step farther? Let's stop
+here and face 'em. I'll bluff 'em out and we'll get to Bracken's some
+way. But I _won't_ give up the game! Not for a million!"
+
+"Then we can't stop. You forget I go in for gymnasium work. I'm as
+strong as anything, only I'm--I'm a bit nervous. Oh, I knew something
+would go wrong!" she wailed. They were now standing like trapped deer in
+a little thicket, listening for sounds of the hounds.
+
+"Are you sorry, dear?"
+
+"No, no! I love you, Jack, and I'll go through everything with you and
+for you. Really," she cried with a fine show of enthusiasm, "this is
+jolly good fun, isn't it? Being chased like regular bandits--"
+
+"Sh! Drop down, dear! There's somebody passing above us--hear him?"
+
+They crawled into a maze of hazel bushes with much less dignity than
+haste. Two men sped by an instant later, panting and growling.
+
+"Safe for a minute or two at least," he whispered as the crunching
+footsteps were lost to the ear. "They won't come back this way, dear."
+
+"They had guns, Jack!" she whispered, terrified.
+
+"I don't understand it, hanged if I do," he said, pulling his brows into
+a mighty scowl. "They are after us like a pack of hounds. It must mean
+something. Lord, but we seem to have stirred up a hornet's nest!"
+
+"Oh, dear, I wish we were safely at--" she paused.
+
+"At home?" he asked quickly.
+
+"At Bracken's," she finished; and if any of the pursuers had been near
+enough he might have heard the unmistakable suggestion of a kiss.
+
+"I feel better," he said, squaring his shoulders. "Now, let me think. We
+must outwit these fellows, whoever they are. By George, I remember one
+of them! That old fellow who bought the horse is with them. That's it!
+The horse is mixed up in this, I'll bet my head." They sat upon the
+ground for several minutes, he thinking deeply, she listening with her
+pretty ears intent.
+
+"I wonder if they've left anybody to guard our boat?" he said suddenly.
+"Come on, Marjory; let's investigate! By George, it would be just like
+them to leave it unprotected!"
+
+Once more they were moving cautiously through the brush, headed for the
+river. Mr. Jack Barnes, whoever he was and whatever his crime, was a
+resourceful, clever young man. He had gauged the intelligence of the
+pursuers correctly. When he peered through the brush along the river
+bank he saw the skiff in the reeds below, just as they had left it.
+There was the lunch basket, the wee bit of a steamer trunk with all its
+labels, a parasol and a small handbag.
+
+"Goody, goody!" Marjory cried like a happy child.
+
+"Don't show yourself yet, dearie. I'll make sure. They may have an
+ambuscade. Wait here for me."
+
+He crept down the bank and back again before she could fully subdue the
+tremendous thumping his temerity had started in her left side.
+
+"It's safe and sound," he whispered joyously. "The idiots have forgotten
+the boat. Quick, dear; let's make a dash for it! Their raft is upstream
+a hundred yards, and it is also deserted. If we can once get well across
+the river we can give them the laugh."
+
+"But they may shoot us from the bank," she protested as they plunged
+through the weeds.
+
+"They surely wouldn't shoot a woman!" he cried gayly.
+
+"But you are not a woman!"
+
+"And I'm not afraid of mice or men. Jump in!"
+
+Off from the weeds shot the light skiff. The water splashed for a moment
+under the spasmodic strokes of the oarsman, and then the little boat
+streaked out into the river like a thing of life. Marjory sat in the
+stern and kept her eyes upon the bank they were leaving. Jack Barnes
+drove every vestige of his strength into the stroke; somehow he pulled
+like a man who had learned how on a college crew. They were half way
+across the broad river before they were seen from the hills. The half
+dozen men who lingered at the base of Crow's Cliff had shouted the alarm
+to their friends on the other side, and the fugitives were sighted once
+more. But it was too late. The boat was well out of gunshot range and
+making rapid progress downstream in the shelter of the high bluffs below
+Crow's Cliff. Jack Barnes was dripping with perspiration, but his stroke
+was none the feebler.
+
+"They see us!" she cried.
+
+"Don't wriggle so, Marjory--trim boat!" he panted. "They can't hit us,
+and we can go two miles to their one."
+
+"And we can get to Bracken's!" she cried triumphantly. A deep flush
+overspread her pretty face.
+
+"Hooray!" he shouted with a grin of pure delight. Far away on the
+opposite bank Anderson Crow and his sleuths were congregating, their
+baffled gaze upon the man who had slipped out of their grasp. The men
+of the posse were pointing at the boat and arguing frantically; there
+were decided signs of dispute among them. Finally two guns flew up, and
+then came the puffs of smoke, the reports and little splashes of water
+near the flying skiff.
+
+"Oh, they are shooting!" she cried in a panic.
+
+"And rifles, too," he grated, redoubling his pull on the oars. Other
+shots followed, all falling short. "Get down in the bottom of the boat,
+Marjory. Don't sit up there and be--"
+
+"I'll sit right where I am," she cried defiantly.
+
+Anderson Crow waved to the men under Crow's Cliff, and they began to
+make their arduous way along the bank in the trail of the skiff. Part of
+the armed posse hurried down and boarded the raft, while others followed
+the chase by land.
+
+"We'll beat them to Bracken's by a mile," cried Jack Barnes.
+
+"If they don't shoot us," she responded. "Why, oh, why are they so
+intent upon killing us?"
+
+"They don't want you to be a widow and--break a--lot of hearts," he
+said. "If they--hit me now you--won't be--dangerous as a--widow."
+
+"Oh, you heartless thing! How can you jest about it? I'd--I'd go into
+mourning, anyway, Jack," she concluded, on second thought. "We are just
+as good as married, you see."
+
+"It's nice--of you to say it, dear--but we're a long--way
+from--Bracken's. Gee! That was close!"
+
+A bullet splashed in the water not ten feet from the boat. "The cowards!
+They're actually trying to kill us!" For the first time his face took
+on a look of alarm and his eyes grew desperate. "I can't let them shoot
+at you, Marjory, dear! What the dickens they want I don't know, but I'm
+going to surrender." He had stopped rowing and was making ready to wave
+his white handkerchief on high.
+
+"Never!" she cried with blazing eyes. "Give me the oars!" She slid into
+the other rowing seat and tried to snatch the oars from the rowlocks.
+
+"Bravo! I could kiss you a thousand times for that. Come on, you
+Indians! You're a darling, Marjory." Again the oars caught the water,
+and Jack Barnes's white handkerchief lay in the bottom of the boat. He
+was rowing for dear life, and there was a smile on his face.
+
+The raft was left far behind and the marksmen were put out of range with
+surprising ease. Fifteen minutes later the skiff shot across the river
+and up to the landing of Bracken's boathouse, while a mile back in the
+brush Anderson Crow and his men were wrathfully scrambling in pursuit.
+
+"Hey, Bracken! Jimmy!" shouted Jack Barnes, jumping out upon the little
+wharf. Marjory gave him her hands and was whisked ashore and into his
+arms. "Run into the boathouse, dear. I'll yank this stuff ashore. Where
+the dickens is Bracken?"
+
+The boathouse door opened slowly and a sleepy young man looked forth.
+
+"I thought you'd never come," he yawned.
+
+"Wake up, you old loafer! We're here and we are pursued! Where are
+George and Amy?" cried Mr. Barnes, doing herculean duty as a baggage
+smasher.
+
+"Pursued?" cried the sleepy young man, suddenly awake.
+
+"Yes, and shot at!" cried Marjory, running past him and into the arms of
+a handsome young woman who was emerging from the house.
+
+"We've no time to lose, Jimmy! They are on to us, Heaven knows how. They
+are not more than ten minutes behind us. Get it over with, Jimmy, for
+Heaven's sake! Here, George, grab this trunk!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Anderson Rectifies an Error
+
+
+In a jiffy the fugitives and their property were transferred to the
+interior of the roomy boathouse, the doors bolted, and George Crosby
+stationed at a window to act as lookout.
+
+"Is it your father?" demanded the Rev. James Bracken, turning to
+Marjory. Young Mrs. Crosby was looking on eagerly.
+
+"Mr. Brewster is at home and totally oblivious to all this," cried Jack
+Barnes. "I don't know what it means. Here's the license, Jimmy. Are you
+ready, Marjory?"
+
+"This is rather a squeamish business, Jack--" began the young minister
+in the negligée shirt. He was pulling on his coat as he made the remark.
+
+"Oh, hurry, Jimmy; please hurry!" cried Marjory Brewster.
+
+"Don't wait a second, Jimmy Bracken!" cried Amy Crosby, dancing with
+excitement. "You can't go back on them now!"
+
+Three minutes later there was no Marjory Brewster, but there was a Mrs.
+John Ethelbert Barnes--and she was kissing her husband rapturously.
+
+"Now, tell us everything," cried Mrs. Crosby after the frantic
+congratulations. The Reverend "Jimmy" Bracken, of the Eleventh
+Presbyterian Church, was the only one who seemed uncertain as to his
+position. In the first place, old Judge Brewster was a man of influence
+in the metropolis, from which all had fled for a sojourn in the hills.
+He and his daughter were Episcopalians, but that made them none the less
+important in the eyes of "Jimmy" Bracken. In the second place, Jack
+Barnes was a struggling lawyer, in the Year of our Lord 1880, and
+possessed of objectionable poverty. The young men had been room-mates at
+college. Friendship had overcome discretion in this instance, at least.
+The deed being done, young Mr. Bracken was beginning to wonder if it had
+not been overdone, so to speak.
+
+"I wish somebody would tell me!" exclaimed Jack Barnes, with a perplexed
+frown. "The beastly jays shot at us and all that. You'd think I was an
+outlaw. And they blazed away at Marjory, too, hang them!"
+
+Marjory, too excited to act like a blushing bride, took up the story and
+told all that had happened. George Crosby became so interested that he
+forgot to keep guard.
+
+"This is a funny mess!" he exclaimed. "There's something wrong--"
+
+"Hey, you!" came a shout from the outside.
+
+"There they are!" cried Marjory, flying to her husband's side. "What are
+we to do?"
+
+"You mean, what are they to do? We're married, and they can't get around
+that, you know. Let 'em come!" cried the groom exultantly. "You don't
+regret it, do you, sweetheart?" quite anxiously. She smiled up into his
+eyes, and he felt very secure.
+
+"What do you fellows want?" demanded Crosby from the window. Anderson
+Crow was standing on the river bank like a true Napoleon, flanked by
+three trusty riflemen.
+
+"Who air you?" asked Anderson in return. He was panting heavily, and his
+legs trembled.
+
+"None of your business! Get off these grounds at once; they're private!"
+
+"None o' your sass, now, young man; I'm an officer of the law, an' a
+detective to boot! We sha'n't stand any nonsense. The place is
+surrounded and he can't escape! Where is he?"
+
+"That's for you to find out if you're such a good detective! This is
+David Bracken's place, and you can find him at his home on the hilltop
+yonder!"
+
+"Ask him what we've done, George," whispered Barnes.
+
+"We ain't after Mr. Bracken, young feller, but you know what we _do_
+want! He's in there--you're shielding him--we won't parley much longer!
+Send him out!" said Anderson Crow.
+
+"If you come a foot nearer you'll get shot into the middle of kingdom
+come!" shouted Crosby defiantly.
+
+The inmates gasped, for there was not a firearm on the place.
+
+"Be careful!" warned the Reverend "Jimmy" nervously.
+
+"Goin' to resist, eh? Well, we'll get him; don't you worry; an' that
+ornery female o' hisn', too!"
+
+"Did you hear that?" exclaimed Jack Barnes. "Let me get at the old rat."
+He was making for the door when the two women obstructed the way. Both
+were frantic with fear.
+
+"But he called you a female!" roared he.
+
+"Well, I _am_!" she wailed miserably.
+
+"Who is it you want?" asked Crosby from the window.
+
+"That's all right," roared Anderson Crow; "purduce him at once!"
+
+"Is this the fellow?" and Crosby dragged the Reverend "Jimmy" into view.
+There was a moment's inspection of the cadaverous face, and then the
+sleuths shook their heads.
+
+"Not on your life!" said Mr. Crow. "But he's in there--Ike Smalley seen
+him an' his paramount go up the steps from the landin'! 'Twon't do no
+good to hide him, young feller; he's--"
+
+"Well, let me tell you something. You are too late--they're married!"
+cried Crosby triumphantly.
+
+"I don't give a cuss if they're married and have sixteen children!"
+shouted the exasperated Crow, his badge fairly dancing. "He's got to
+surrender!"
+
+"Oh, he does, eh?"
+
+"Yes, sir-ee-o-bob; he's got to give up, dead or alive! Trot him out
+lively, now!"
+
+"I don't mind telling you that Mr. Barnes is here; but I'd like to know
+why you're hunting him down like a wild beast, shooting at him and
+Miss--I mean Mrs. Barnes. It's an outrage!"
+
+"Oh, we ain't the on'y people that can kill and slaughter! She's just
+as bad as he is, for that matter--an' so are you and that other
+lantern-jawed outlaw in there." The Reverend "Jimmy" gasped and turned a
+fiery red.
+
+"Did he call me a--say!" and he pushed Crosby aside. "I'd have you to
+understand that I'm a minister of the gospel--I am the Reverend James
+Bracken, of--"
+
+A roar of laughter greeted his attempt to explain; and there were a few
+remarks so uncomplimentary that the man of cloth sank back in sheer
+hopelessness.
+
+"Well, I'll give them reason to think that I'm something of a
+desperado," grated the Reverend "Jimmy," squaring his shoulders. "If
+they attempt to put foot inside my uncle's house I'll--I'll smash a few
+heads."
+
+"Bravo!" cried Mrs. Crosby. She was his cousin, and up to that time had
+had small regard for her mild-mannered relative.
+
+"He can preach the funeral!" shouted Ike Smalley. By this time there
+were a dozen men on the bank below.
+
+"I give you fair warning," cried Anderson Crow impressively. "We're
+goin' to surround the house, an' we'll take that rascal if we have to
+shoot the boards into sawdust!"
+
+"But what has he done, except to get married?" called Crosby as the
+posse began to spread out.
+
+"Do you s'pose I'm fool enough to tell you if you don't know?" said
+Anderson Crow. "Just as like as not you'd be claimin' the thousand
+dollars reward if you knowed it had been offered! Spread out, boys, an'
+we'll show 'em dern quick!"
+
+There was dead silence inside the house for a full minute. Every eye was
+wide and every mouth was open in surprise and consternation.
+
+"A thousand dollars reward!" gasped Jack Barnes. "Then, good Lord, I
+_must_ have done something!"
+
+"What _have_ you been doing, Jack Barnes?" cried his bride, aghast.
+
+"I must have robbed a train," said he dejectedly.
+
+"Well, this is serious, after all," said Crosby. "It's not an eloper
+they're after, but a desperado."
+
+"A kidnaper, perhaps," suggested his wife.
+
+"What are we to do?" demanded Jack Barnes.
+
+"First, old man, what have you actually done?" asked the Reverend
+"Jimmy."
+
+"Nothing that's worth a thousand dollars, I'm dead sure," said Barnes
+positively. "By George, Marjory, this is a nice mess I've led you into!"
+
+"It's all right, Jack; I'm happier than I ever was before in my life. We
+ran away to get married, and I'll go to jail with you if they'll take
+me."
+
+"This is no time for kissing," objected Crosby sourly. "We must find out
+what it all means. Leave it to me."
+
+It was getting dark in the room, and the shadows were heavy on the
+hills. While the remaining members of the besieged party sat silent and
+depressed upon the casks and boxes, Crosby stood at the window calling
+to the enemy.
+
+"Is he ready to surrender?" thundered Anderson Crow from the shadows.
+
+Then followed a brief and entirely unsatisfactory dialogue between the
+two spokesmen. Anderson Crow was firm in his decision that the fugitive
+did not have to be told what he had done; and George Crosby was equally
+insistent that he had to be told before he could decide whether he was
+guilty or innocent.
+
+"We'll starve him out!" said Anderson Crow.
+
+"But there are ladies here, my good man; you won't subject them to such
+treatment!"
+
+"You're all of a kind--we're going to take the whole bunch!"
+
+"What do you think will happen to you if you are mistaken in your man?"
+
+"We're not mistaken, dang ye!"
+
+"He could sue you for every dollar you possess. I know, for I'm a
+lawyer!"
+
+"Now, I'm sure you're in the job with him. I s'pose you'll try to work
+in the insanity dodge! It's a nest of thieves and robbers! Say, I'll
+give you five minutes to surrender; if you don't, we'll set fire to the
+derned shanty!"
+
+"Look here, boys," said Jack Barnes suddenly, "I've done nothing and am
+not afraid to be arrested. I'm going to give myself up." Of course there
+was a storm of protest and a flow of tears, but the culprit was firm.
+"Tell the old fossil that if he'll guarantee safety to me I'll give up!"
+
+Anderson was almost too quick in promising protection.
+
+"Ask him if he will surrender and make a confession to me--I am Anderson
+Crow, sir!" was the marshal's tactful suggestion.
+
+"He'll do both, Mr. Crow!" replied Crosby.
+
+"We've got to take the whole bunch of you, young man. You're all guilty
+of conspiracy, the whole caboodle!"
+
+"But the ladies, you darned old Rube--they can't--"
+
+"Looky here, young feller, you can't dictate to me. I'll have you to--"
+
+"We'll all go!" cried Mrs. Crosby warmly.
+
+"To the very end!" added the new Mrs. Barnes.
+
+"What will your father say?" demanded the groom.
+
+"He'll disown me anyway, dear, so what's the difference?"
+
+"It's rather annoying for a minister--" began the Reverend "Jimmy,"
+putting on his hat.
+
+"We'll beg off for you!" cried Mrs. Crosby ironically.
+
+"But I'm going to jail, too," finished he grimly.
+
+"All right," called Crosby from the window; "here we come!"
+
+And forth marched the desperate quintet, three strapping young men and
+two very pretty and nervous young women. They were met by Anderson Crow
+and a dozen armed men from Tinkletown, every one of them shaking in his
+boots. The irrepressible Mrs. Crosby said "Boo!" suddenly, and half the
+posse jumped as though some one had thrown a bomb at them.
+
+"Now, I demand an explanation of this outrage," said Jack Barnes
+savagely. "What do you mean by shooting at me and my--my wife and
+arresting us, and all that?"
+
+"You'll find out soon enough when you're strung up fer it," snarled
+Anderson Crow. "An' you'll please hand over that money I paid fer the
+hoss and buggy. I'll learn you how to sell stolen property to me."
+
+"Oh, I'm a horse-thief, am I? This is rich. And they'll string me up,
+eh? Next thing you'll be accusing me of killing that farmer up near
+Boggs City."
+
+"Well, by gosh! you're a cool one!" ejaculated Anderson Crow. "I s'pose
+you're goin' ter try the insanity dodge."
+
+"It's lucky for me that they caught him," said Barnes as the herd of
+prisoners moved off toward the string of boats tied to Mr. Bracken's
+wharf.
+
+"Come off!" exclaimed Squires, the reporter, scornfully. "We're onto
+you, all right, all right."
+
+"What! Do you think I'm the man who--well, holy mackerel! Say, you
+gravestones, don't you ever hear any news out here? Wake up! They caught
+the murderer at Billsport, not more than five miles from your jay burg.
+I was driving through the town when they brought him in. That's what
+made me late, dear," turning to Marjory.
+
+"Yes, and I'll bet my soul that here comes some one with the news,"
+cried George Crosby, who had heard nothing of the tragedy until this
+instant.
+
+A rowboat containing three men was making for the landing. Somehow,
+Anderson Crow and his posse felt the ground sinking beneath them. Not a
+man uttered a sound until one of the newcomers called out from the boat:
+
+"Is Anderson Crow there?"
+
+"Yes, sir; what is it?" demanded Crow in a wobbly voice.
+
+"Your wife wants to know when in thunder you're comin' home." By this
+time the skiff was bumping against the landing.
+
+"You tell her to go to Halifax!" retorted Anderson Crow. "Is that all
+you want?"
+
+"They nabbed that murderer up to Billsport long 'bout 'leven o'clock,"
+said Alf Reesling, the town drunkard. "We thought we'd row down and tell
+you so's you wouldn't be huntin' all night for the feller who--hello,
+you got him, eh?"
+
+"Are you fellers lyin'?" cried poor Anderson Crow.
+
+"Not on your life. We knowed about the captcher over in town just about
+half an hour after you started 'cross the river this afternoon."
+
+"You--four hours ago? You--you--" sputtered the marshal. "An' why didn't
+you let us know afore this?"
+
+"There was a game o' baseball in Hasty's lot, an'--" began one of the
+newcomers sheepishly.
+
+"Well, I'll be gosh-whizzled!" gasped Anderson Crow, sitting down
+suddenly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour and a half later Mr. and Mrs. John Ethelbert Barnes were driven
+up to Judge Brewster's country place in Mr. David Bracken's brake. They
+were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. George Crosby, and were carrying out
+the plans as outlined in the original programme.
+
+"Where's papa?" Marjory tremulously inquired of the footman in the
+hallway.
+
+"He's waitin' for you in the library, miss--I should say Mrs. Barnes,"
+replied the man, a trace of excitement in his face.
+
+"Mrs. Barnes!" exclaimed four voices at once.
+
+"Who told you, William?" cried Marjory, leaning upon Jack for support.
+
+"A Mr. Anderson Crow was here not half an hour ago, ma'am, to assure Mr.
+Brewster as to how his new son-in-law was in nowise connected with the
+murder up the way. He said as how he had personally investigated the
+case, miss--ma'am, and Mr. Brewster could rely on his word for it, Mr.
+Jack was not the man. He told him as how you was married at the
+boathouse."
+
+"Yes--and then?" cried Marjory eagerly.
+
+"Mr. Brewster said that Mr. Jack wasn't born to be hanged, and for me to
+have an extry plate laid at the table for him to-night," concluded
+William with an expressive grin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The Babe on the Doorstep
+
+
+It was midnight in Tinkletown, many months after the events mentioned in
+the foregoing chapters, and a blizzard was raging. The February wind
+rasped through the bare trees, shrieked around the corners of lightless
+houses and whipped its way through the scurrying snow with all the rage
+of a lion. The snow, on account of the bitter cold in the air, did not
+fly in big flakes, but whizzed like tiny bullets, cutting the flesh of
+men and beasts like the sting of wasps. It was a good night to be
+indoors over a roaring fire or in bed between extra blankets. No one,
+unless commanded by emergency, had the temerity to be abroad that night.
+
+The Crow family snoozed comfortably in spite of the calliope shrieks of
+the wind. The home of the town marshal was blanketed in peace and the
+wind had no terrors for its occupants. They slept the sleep of the
+toasted. The windows may have rattled a bit, perhaps, and the shutters
+may have banged a trifle too remorselessly, but the Crows were not to be
+disturbed.
+
+The big, old-fashioned clock in the hall downstairs was striking twelve
+when Anderson Crow awoke with a start. He was amazed, for to awake in
+the middle of the night was an unheard-of proceeding for him. He caught
+the clang of the last five strokes from the clock, however, and was
+comforting himself with the belief that it was five o'clock, after all,
+when his wife stirred nervously.
+
+"Are you awake, Anderson?" she asked softly.
+
+"Yes, Eva, and it's about time to get up. It jest struck five. Doggone,
+it's been blowin' cats and dogs outside, ain't it?" he yawned.
+
+"Five? It's twelve-now, don't tell me you counted the strokes, because I
+did myself. Ain't it queer we should both git awake at this unearthly
+hour?"
+
+"Well," murmured he sleepily now that it was not five o'clock, "it's a
+mighty good hour to go back to sleep ag'in, I reckon."
+
+"I thought I heard a noise outside," she persisted.
+
+"I don't blame you," he said, chuckling. "It's been out there all
+night."
+
+"I mean something besides the wind. Sounded like some one walkin' on the
+front porch."
+
+"Now, look here, Eva, you ain't goin' to git me out there in this
+blizzard--in my stockin' feet--lookin' fer robbers--"
+
+"Just the same, Anderson, I'm sure I heard some one. Mebby it's some
+poor creature freezin' an' in distress. If I was you, I'd go and look
+out there. Please do."
+
+"Doggone, Eva, if you was me you'd be asleep instid of huntin' up
+trouble on a night like this. They ain't nothin' down there an'
+you--but, by cracky! mebby you're right. Supposin' there is some poor
+cuss out there huntin' a place to sleep. I'll go and look;" and Mr.
+Crow, the most tender-hearted man in the world, crawled shiveringly but
+quickly from the warm bed. In his stocking feet--Anderson slept in his
+socks on those bitter nights--he made his way down the front stairs,
+grumbling but determined. Mrs. Crow followed close behind, anxious to
+verify the claim that routed him from his nest.
+
+"It may be a robber," she chattered, as he pulled aside a front window
+curtain. Anderson drew back hastily.
+
+"Well, why in thunder didn't you say so before?" he gasped. "Doggone,
+Eva, that's no way to do! He might 'a' fired through the winder at me."
+
+"But he's in the house by this time, if it was a robber," she
+whispered. "He wouldn't stand out on the porch all night."
+
+"That's right," he whispered in reply. "You're a good deducer, after
+all. I wish I had my dark lantern. Thunderation!" He stubbed his toe
+against the sewing machine. There is nothing that hurts more than
+unintentional contact with a sewing machine. "Why in sixty don't you
+light a light, Eva? How can I--"
+
+"Listen!" she whispered shrilly. "Hear that? Anderson, there's some one
+walkin' on the porch!"
+
+"'y gosh!" faltered he. "Sure as Christmas! You wait here, Eva, till I
+go upstairs an' put on my badge and I'll--"
+
+"I'll do nothing of the kind. You don't ketch me stayin' down here
+alone," and she grabbed the back of his nightshirt as he started for the
+stairs.
+
+"Sho! What air you afeerd of? I'll get my revolver, too. I never did see
+such a coward'y calf as--"
+
+Just then there was a tremendous pounding on the front door, followed by
+the creaking of footsteps on the frozen porch, a clatter down the steps,
+and then the same old howling of the wind. The Crows jumped almost out
+of their scanty garments, and then settled down as if frozen to the
+spot. It was a full minute before Anderson found his voice--in advance
+of Mrs. Crow at that, which was more than marvellous.
+
+"What was that?" he chattered.
+
+"A knock!" she gasped.
+
+"Some neighbour's sick."
+
+"Old Mrs. Luce. Oh, goodness, how my heart's going!"
+
+"Why don't you open the door, Eva?"
+
+"Why don't you? It's your place."
+
+"But, doggone it, cain't you see--I mean feel--that I ain't got hardly
+any clothes on? I'd ketch my death o' cold, an' besides--"
+
+"Well, I ain't got as much on as you have. You got socks on an'--"
+
+"But supposin' it's a woman," protested he. "You wouldn't want a woman
+to see me lookin' like this, would you? Go ahead an'--"
+
+"I suppose you'd like to have a man see me like this. I ain't used to
+receivin' men in--but, say, whoever it was, is gone. Didn't you hear the
+steps? Open the door, Anderson. See what it is."
+
+And so, after much urging, Anderson Crow unbolted his front door and
+turned the knob. The wind did the rest. It almost blew the door off its
+hinges, carrying Mr. and Mrs. Crow back against the wall. A gale of snow
+swept over them.
+
+"Gee!" gasped Anderson, crimping his toes. Mrs. Crow was peering under
+his arm.
+
+"Look there!" she cried. Close to the door a large bundle was lying.
+
+"A present from some one!" speculated Mr. Crow; but some seconds passed
+before he stooped to pick it up. "Funny time fer Santy to be callin'
+'round. Wonder if he thinks it's next Christmas."
+
+"Be careful, Anderson; mebby it's an infernal machine!" cried his wife.
+
+"Well, it's loaded, 'y ginger," he grunted as straightened up in the
+face of the gale. "Shut the door, Eva! Cain't you see it's snowin'?"
+
+"I'll bet it was Joe Ramsey leavin' a sack o' hickor' nuts fer us," she
+said eagerly, slamming the door.
+
+"You better bolt the door. He might change his mind an' come back fer
+'em," observed her husband. "It don't feel like hickor' nuts. Why, Eva,
+it's a baskit--a reg'lar clothes baskit. What in thunder do--"
+
+"Let's get a light out by the kitchen fire. It's too cold in here."
+
+Together they sped to the kitchen with the mysterious offering from the
+blizzard. There was a fire in the stove, which Anderson replenished,
+while Eva began to remove the blankets and packing from the basket,
+which she had placed on the hearth. Anderson looked on eagerly.
+
+"Lord!" fell from the lips of both as the contents of the basket were
+exposed to their gaze.
+
+A baby, alive and warm, lay packed in the blankets, sound asleep and
+happy. For an interminable length of time the Crows, _en dishabille_,
+stood and gazed open-mouthed and awed at the little stranger. Ten
+minutes later, after the ejaculations and surmises, after the tears and
+expletives, after the whole house had been aroused, Anderson Crow was
+plunging amiably but aimlessly through the snowstorm in search of the
+heartless wretch who had deposited the infant on his doorstep. His top
+boots scuttled up and down the street, through yards and barn lots for
+an hour, but despite the fact that he carried his dark lantern and
+trailed like an Indian bloodhound, he found no trace of the wanton
+visitor. In the meantime, Mrs. Crow, assisted by the entire family, had
+stowed the infant, a six-weeks-old girl, into a warm bed, ministering to
+the best of her ability to its meagre but vociferous wants. There was no
+more sleep in the Crow establishment that night. The head of the house
+roused a half dozen neighbours from their beds to tell them of the
+astounding occurrence, with the perfectly natural result that one and
+all hurried over to see the baby and to hear the particulars.
+
+Early next morning Tinkletown wagged with an excitement so violent that
+it threatened to end in a municipal convulsion. Anderson Crow's home was
+besieged. The snow in his front yard was packed to an icy consistency by
+the myriad of footprints that fell upon it; the interior of the house
+was "tracked" with mud and slush and three window panes were broken by
+the noses of curious but unwelcome spectators. Altogether, it was a
+sensation unequalled in the history of the village. Through it all the
+baby blinked and wept and cooed in perfect peace, guarded by Mrs. Crow
+and the faithful progeny who had been left by the stork, and not by a
+mysterious stranger.
+
+The missionary societies wanted to do something heroic, but Mrs. Crow
+headed them off; the sewing circle got ready to take charge of affairs,
+but Mrs. Crow punctured the project; figuratively, the churches ached
+for a chance to handle the infant, but Mrs. Crow stood between. And all
+Tinkletown called upon Anderson Crow to solve the mystery before it was
+a day older.
+
+"It's purty hard to solve a mystery that's got six weeks' start o' me,"
+said Anderson despairingly, "but I'll try, you bet. The doggone thing's
+got a parent or two somewhere in the universe, an' I'll locate 'em er
+explode somethin'. I've got a private opinion about it myself."
+
+Whatever this private opinion might have been, it was not divulged.
+Possibly something in connection with it might have accounted for the
+temporary annoyance felt by nearly every respectable woman in
+Tinkletown. The marshal eyed each and every one of them, irrespective of
+position, condition or age, with a gleam so accusing that the Godliest
+of them flushed and then turned cold. So knowing were these equitable
+looks that before night every woman in the village was constrained to
+believe the worst of her neighbour, and almost as ready to look with
+suspicion upon herself.
+
+One thing was certain--business was at a standstill in Tinkletown. The
+old men forgot their chess and checker games at the corner store; young
+men neglected their love affairs; women forgot to talk about each other;
+children froze their ears rather than miss any of the talk that went
+about the wintry streets; everybody was asking the question, "Whose baby
+is it?"
+
+But the greatest sensation of all came late in the day when Mrs. Crow,
+in going over the garments worn by the babe, found a note addressed to
+Anderson Crow. It was stitched to the baby's dress, and proved beyond
+question that the strange visitor of the night before had selected not
+only the house, but the individual. The note was to the point. It said:
+
+     "February 18, 1883.
+
+     "ANDERSON CROW: To your good and merciful care an unhappy creature
+     consigns this helpless though well-beloved babe. All the world
+     knows you to be a tender, loving, unselfish man and father. The
+     writer humbly, prayerfully implores you to care for this babe as
+     you would for one of your own. It is best that her origin be kept a
+     secret. Care for her, cherish her as your own, and at the end of
+     each year the sum of a thousand dollars will be paid to you as long
+     as she lives in your household as a member thereof. Do not seek to
+     find her parents. It would be a fool's errand. May God bless you
+     and yours, and may God care for and protect Rosalie--the name she
+     shall bear."
+
+Obviously, there was no signature and absolutely no clew to the identity
+of the writer. Two telegraph line repairers who had been working near
+Crow's house during the night, repairing damage done by the blizzard,
+gave out the news that they had seen a cloaked and mysterious-looking
+woman standing near the Methodist Church just before midnight, evidently
+disregarding the rage of the storm. The sight was so unusual that the
+men paused and gazed at her for several minutes. One of them was about
+to approach her when she turned and fled down the side street near by.
+
+"Was she carryin' a big bundle?" asked Anderson Crow.
+
+The men replied in the negative.
+
+"Then she couldn't have been the party wanted. The one we're after
+certainly had a big bundle."
+
+"But, Mr. Crow, isn't it possible that these men saw her after she left
+the basket at--" began the Presbyterian minister.
+
+"That ain't the way I deduce it," observed the town detective tartly.
+"In the first place, she wouldn't 'a' been standin' 'round like that if
+the job was over, would she? Wouldn't she 'a' been streakin' out fer
+home? 'Course she would."
+
+"She may have paused near the church to see whether you took the child
+in," persisted the divine.
+
+"But she couldn't have saw my porch from the back end of the church."
+
+"Nobody said she was standing back of the church," said the lineman.
+
+"What's that? You don't mean it?" cried Anderson, pulling out of a
+difficulty bravely. "That makes all the difference in the world. Why
+didn't you say she was in front of the church? Cain't you see we've
+wasted time here jest because you didn't have sense 'nough to--"
+
+"Anybody ought to know it 'thout being told, you old Rube," growled the
+lineman, who was from Boggs City.
+
+"Here, now, sir, that will do you! I won't 'low no man to--"
+
+"Anderson, be quiet!" cautioned Mrs. Crow. "You'll wake the baby!" This
+started a new train of thought in Anderson's perplexed mind.
+
+"Mebby she was waitin' there while some one--her husband, fer
+instance--was leavin' the baskit," volunteered Isaac Porter humbly.
+
+"Don't bother me, Ike; I'm thinkin' of somethin' else," muttered
+Anderson. "Husband nothin'! Do you s'pose she'd 'a' trusted that baby
+with a fool husband on a terrible night like that? Ladies and gentlemen,
+this here baby was left by a _female_ resident of this very town." His
+hearers gasped and looked at him wide-eyed. "If she has a husband, he
+don't know he's the father of this here baby. Don't you see that a woman
+couldn't 'a' carried a heavy baskit any great distance? She couldn't 'a'
+packed it from Boggs City er New York er Baltimore, could she? She
+wouldn't 'a' been strong enough. No, siree; she didn't have far to come,
+folks. An' she was a woman, 'cause ain't all typewritin' done by women?
+You don't hear of men typewriters, do you? People wouldn't have 'em.
+Now, the thing fer me to do first is to make a house-to-house search to
+see if I c'n locate a typewritin' machine anywheres. Get out of the way,
+Toby. Doggone you boys, anyhow, cain't you see I want ter get started on
+this job?"
+
+"Say, Anderson," said Harry Squires, the reporter, "I'd like to ask if
+there is any one in Tinkletown, male or female, who can afford to pay
+you a thousand dollars a year for taking care of that kid?"
+
+"What's that?" slowly oozed from Anderson's lips.
+
+"You heard what I said. Say, don't you know you can bring up a kid in
+this town for eleven or twelve dollars a year?"
+
+"You don't know what you're talkin' about," burst from Anderson's
+indignant lips, but he found instant excuse to retire from the circle of
+speculators. A few minutes later he and his wife were surreptitiously
+re-reading the note, both filled with the fear that it said $10.00
+instead of $1000.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Reflection and Deduction
+
+
+"By gum, it does say a thousand," cried Anderson, mightily relieved.
+"Harry Squires is a fool. He said jest now that it could be did fer
+eleven or twelve dollars. Don't you suppose, Eva, that the mother of
+this here child knows what it costs to bring 'em up? Of course she does.
+When I find her I'll prove it by her own lips that she knows. But don't
+bother me any more, Eva; I got to git out an' track her down. This is
+the greatest job I've had in years."
+
+"See here, Anderson," said his wife thoughtfully and somewhat
+stealthily, "let's go slow about this thing. What do you want to find
+her for?"
+
+"Why--why, doggone it, Eva, what air you talkin' about?" began he in
+amazement.
+
+"Well, it's just this way: I don't think we can earn a thousand dollars
+a year easier than takin' care of this child. Don't you see? Suppose we
+keep her fer twenty years. That means twenty thousand dollars, don't it?
+It beats a pension all to pieces."
+
+"Well, by ginger!" gasped Anderson, vaguely comprehending. "Fifty years
+would mean fifty thousand dollars, wouldn't it. Gee whiz, Eva!"
+
+"I don't imagine we can keep her that long."
+
+"No," reflectively; "the chances are she'd want ter git married inside
+of that time. They always--
+
+"'Tain't that, Anderson. You an' me'd have to live to be more'n a
+hundred years old."
+
+"That's so. We ain't spring chickens, are we, deary?"
+
+She put her hard, bony hand in his and there was a suspicion of moisture
+in the kindly old eyes.
+
+"I love to hear you call me 'deary,' Anderson. We never get too old for
+that."
+
+He coughed and then patted her hand rather confusedly. Anderson had long
+since forgotten the meaning of sentiment, but he was surprised to find
+that he had not forgotten how to love his wife.
+
+"Shucks!" he muttered bravely. "We'll be kissin' like a couple of young
+jay birds first thing we know. Doggone if it ain't funny how a baby,
+even if it is some one else's, kinder makes a feller foolisher'n he
+intends to be." Hand in hand they watched the sleeping innocent for
+several minutes. Finally the detective shook himself and spoke:
+
+"Well, Eva, I got to make a bluff at findin' out whose baby it is, ain't
+I? My reputation's at stake. I jest have to investigate."
+
+"I don't see that any harm can come from that, Anderson," she replied,
+and neither appreciated the sarcasm unintentionally involved.
+
+"I won't waste another minute," he announced promptly. "I will stick to
+my theory that the parents live in Tinkletown."
+
+"Fiddlesticks!" snorted Mrs. Crow disgustedly, and then left him to
+cultivate the choleric anger her exclamation had inspired.
+
+"Doggone, I wish I hadn't patted her hand," he lamented. "She didn't
+deserve it. Consarn it, a woman's always doin' something to spoil
+things."
+
+And so he fared forth with his badges and stars, bent on duty, but not
+accomplishment. All the town soon knew that he was following a clew, but
+all the town was at sea concerning its character, origin, and
+plausibility. A dozen persons saw him stop young Mrs. Perkins in front
+of Lamson's store, and the same spectators saw his feathers droop as she
+let loose her wrath upon his head and went away with her nose in the air
+and her cheeks far more scarlet than when Boreas kissed them, and all in
+response to a single remark volunteered by the faithful detective. He
+entered Lamson's store a moment later, singularly abashed and red in the
+face.
+
+"Doggone," he observed, seeing that an explanation was expected, "she
+might 'a' knowed I was only foolin'."
+
+A few minutes later he had Alf Reesling, the town sot, in a far corner
+of the store talking to him in a most peremptory fashion. It may be well
+to mention that Alf had so far forgotten himself as to laugh at the
+marshal's temporary discomfiture at the hands of Mrs. Perkins.
+
+"Alf, have you been havin' another baby up to your house without lettin'
+me know?" demanded Anderson firmly.
+
+"Anderson," replied Alf, maudlin tears starting in his eyes, "it's not
+kind of you to rake up my feelin's like this. You know I been a widower
+fer three years."
+
+"I want you to understand one thing, Alf Reesling. A detective never
+_knows_ anything till he proves it. Let me warn you, sir, you are under
+suspicion. An' now, let me tell you one thing more. Doggone your ornery
+hide, don't you ever laugh ag'in like you did jest now er I'll--"
+
+Just then the door flew open with a bang and Edna Crow, Anderson's
+eldest, almost flopped into the store, her cap in her hand, eyes
+starting from her head. She had run at top speed all the way from home.
+
+"Pop," she gasped. "Ma says fer you to hurry home! She says fer you to
+_run_!"
+
+Anderson covered the distance between Lamson's store and his own home in
+record time. Indeed, Edna, flying as fast as her slim legs could
+twinkle, barely beat her father to the front porch. It was quite clear
+to Mr. Crow that something unusual had happened or Mrs. Crow would not
+have summoned him so peremptorily.
+
+She was in the hallway downstairs awaiting his arrival, visibly
+agitated. Before uttering a word she dragged him into the little
+sitting-room and closed the door. They were alone.
+
+"Is it dead?" he panted.
+
+"No, but what do you think, Anderson?" she questioned excitedly.
+
+"I ain't had time to think. You don't mean to say it has begun to talk
+an' c'n tell who it is," he faltered.
+
+"Heavens no--an' it only six weeks old."
+
+"Well, then, what in thunder _has_ happened?"
+
+"A _detective_ has been here."
+
+"Good gosh!"
+
+"Yes, a _real_ detective. He's out there in the kitchen gettin' his feet
+warm by the bake-oven. He says he's lookin' for a six-weeks-old baby.
+Anderson, we're goin' to lose that twenty thousand."
+
+"Don't cry, Eva; mebby we c'n find another baby some day. Has he seen
+the--the--it?" Anderson was holding to the stair-post for support.
+
+"Not yet, but he says he understands we've got one here that ain't been
+_tagged_--that's what he said--'tagged.' What does he mean by that?"
+
+"Why--why, don't you see? Just as soon as he tags it, it's _it_.
+Doggone, I wonder if it would make any legal difference if I tagged it
+first."
+
+"He's a queer-lookin' feller, Anderson. Says he's in disguise, and he
+certainly looks like a regular scamp."
+
+"I'll take a look at him an' ast fer his badge." Marshal Crow paraded
+boldly into the kitchen, where the strange man was regaling the younger
+Crows with conversation the while he partook comfortably of pie and
+other things more substantial.
+
+"Are you Mr. Crow?" he asked nonchalantly, as Anderson appeared before
+him.
+
+"I am. Who are you?"
+
+"I am Hawkshaw, the detective," responded the man, his mouth full of
+blackberry pie.
+
+"Gee whiz!" gasped Anderson. "Eva, it's the celebrated Hawkshaw."
+
+"Right you are, sir. I'm after the kid."
+
+"You'll have to identify it," something inspired Anderson to say.
+
+"Sure. That's easy. It's the one that was left on your doorstep last
+night," said the man glibly.
+
+"Well, I guess you're right," began Anderson disconsolately.
+
+"Boy or girl?" demanded Mrs. Crow, shrewdly and very quickly. She had
+been inspecting the man more closely than before, and woman's intuition
+was telling her a truth that Anderson overlooked. Mr. Hawkshaw was not
+only very seedy, but very drunk.
+
+"Madam," he responded loftily, "it is nothing but a mere child."
+
+"I'll give you jest one minute to get out of this house," said Mrs. Crow
+sharply, to Anderson's consternation. "If you're not gone, I'll douse
+you with this kettle of scalding water. Open the back door, Edna. He
+sha'n't take his dirty self through my parlour again. _Open that door,
+Edna!_"
+
+Edna, half paralysed with astonishment, opened the kitchen door just in
+time. Mr. Hawkshaw was not so drunk but he could recognise disaster when
+it hovered near. As she lifted the steaming kettle from the stove he
+made a flying leap for the door. The rush of air that followed him as he
+shot through the aperture almost swept Edna from her feet. In ten
+seconds the tattered Hawkshaw was scrambling over the garden fence and
+making lively if inaccurate tracks through last year's cabbage patch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+The Mysterious Visitor
+
+
+The entire Crow family watched him in stupefaction until he disappeared
+down the lane that led to Hapgood's grove. It was then, and not until
+then, that Anderson Crow took a breath.
+
+"Good Lord, Eva, what do you mean?" he gasped.
+
+"Mean?" she almost shrieked. "Anderson Crow, didn't you recognise that
+feller? He ain't no more detective than you er me. He's the self-same
+tramp that you put in the calaboose last week, and the week before, too.
+I thought I'd seen his ugly face before. He's--"
+
+"Great jumpin' geeswax!" roared the town marshal. "I recollect him now.
+He's the one that said he'd been exposed to smallpox an' wanted to be
+kept where it was warm all winter. Well, I'll be--I'll be--"
+
+"Don't say it, pa. He said it fer you when he clumb over that barb-wire
+fence out there," cried Edna gleefully.
+
+Several days of anxiety and energy followed this interesting episode. In
+that time two tramps attempted to obtain food and shelter at Crow's
+home, one on the plea that he was the father of the unfortunate child,
+the other as an officer for the Foundlings' Home at Boggs City. Three
+babies were left on the doorstep--two in one night--their fond mothers
+confessing fessing by letters that they appreciated Anderson's
+well-known charitable inclinations and implored him to care for their
+offspring as if they were his own. The harassed marshal experienced some
+difficulty in forcing the mothers to take back their children.
+
+In each instance he was reviled by the estimable ladies, all of whom
+accused him of being utterly heartless. Mrs. Crow came to his rescue and
+told the disappointed mothers that the scalding water was ready for
+application if they did not take their baskets of babies away on short
+order. It may be well for the reputation of Tinkletown to mention that
+one of the donors was Mrs. Raspus, a negro washerwoman who did work for
+the "dagoes" engaged in building the railroad hard by; another was the
+wife of Antonio Galli, a member of the grading gang, and the third was
+Mrs. Pool, the widow of a fisherman who had recently drowned himself in
+drink.
+
+It is quite possible that Anderson might have had the three infants on
+his hands permanently had not the mothers been so eager to know their
+fate. They appeared in person early the next morning to see if the
+babies had frozen to death on the doorstep. Mrs. Pool even went so far
+as to fetch some extra baby clothes which she had neglected to drop with
+her male. Mrs. Raspus came for her basket, claiming it was the only one
+she had in which to "tote" the washing for the men.
+
+After these annoying but enlivening incidents Anderson was permitted to
+recover from his daze and to throw off symptoms of nervous prostration.
+Tinkletown resumed its tranquil attitude and the checker games began to
+thrive once more. Little Rosalie was a week older than when she came,
+but it was five weeks before anything happened to disturb the even tenor
+of the foster-father's way. He had worked diligently in the effort to
+discover the parents of the baby, but without result. Two or three
+exasperated husbands in Tinkletown had threatened to blow his brains out
+if he persisted in questioning their wives in his insinuating manner,
+and one of the kitchen girls at the village inn threw a dishpan at him
+on the occasion of his third visit of inquiry. A colored woman in the
+employ of the Baptist minister denied that Rosalie was her child, but
+when he insisted, agreed with fine sarcasm to "go over an' have a look
+at it," after his assurance that it was perfectly white.
+
+"Eva, I've investigated the case thoroughly," he said at last, "an'
+there is no solution to the mystery. The only thing I c'n deduce is that
+the child is here an' we'll have to take keer of her. Now, I wonder if
+that woman really meant it when she said we'd have a thousand dollars
+at the end of each year. Doggone, I wish the year was up, jest to see."
+
+"We'll have to wait, Anderson, that's all," said Mrs. Crow. "I love the
+baby so it can't matter much. I'm glad you're through investigatin'.
+It's been most tryin' to me. Half the women in town don't speak to me."
+
+It was at the end of Rosalie's fifth week as a member of the family that
+something happened. Late one night when Anderson opened the front door
+to put out the cat a heavily veiled woman mounted the steps and accosted
+him. In some trepidation he drew back and would have closed the door but
+for her eager remonstrance.
+
+"I must see you, Mr. Crow," she cried in a low, agitated voice.
+
+"Who are you?" he demanded. She was dressed entirely in black.
+
+"I came to see you about the baby."
+
+"That won't do, madam. There's been three tramps here to hornswoggle us
+an' I--"
+
+"I _must_ see her, Mr. Crow," pleaded the stranger, and he was struck by
+the richness of her voice.
+
+"Mighty queer, it seems to me," he muttered hesitatingly. "Are you any
+kin to it?"
+
+"I am very much interested."
+
+"By giminy, I believe you're the one who left her here," cried the
+detective. "Are you a typewriter?"
+
+"I'll answer your questions if you'll allow me to step inside. It is
+very cold out here."
+
+Anderson Crow stood aside and the tall, black figure entered the hall.
+He led her to the warm sitting-room and gave her a chair before the
+"base-burner."
+
+"Here, Mr. Crow, is an envelope containing two hundred and fifty
+dollars. That proves my good faith. I cannot tell you who I am nor what
+relation I bear to the baby. I am quite fully aware that you will not
+undertake to detain me, for it is not an easy matter to earn a thousand
+dollars a year in this part of the world. I am going abroad next week
+and do not expect to return for a long, long time. Try as I would, I
+could not go without seeing the child. I will not keep you out of bed
+ten minutes, and you and your wife may be present while I hold Rosalie
+in my arms. I know that she is in good hands, and I have no intention of
+taking her away. Please call Mrs. Crow."
+
+Anderson was too amazed to act at once. He began to flounder
+interrogatively, but the visitor abruptly checked him.
+
+"You are wasting time, Mr. Crow, in attempting to question my authority
+or identity. No one need know that I have made this visit. You are
+perfectly secure in the promise to have a thousand dollars a year; why
+should you hesitate? As long as she lives with you the money is yours. I
+am advancing the amount you now hold in order that her immediate wants
+may be provided for. You are not required to keep an account of the
+money paid to you. There are means of ascertaining at once whether she
+is being well cared for and educated by you, and if it becomes apparent
+that you are not doing your duty, she shall be removed from your
+custody. From time to time you may expect written instructions
+from--from one who loves her."
+
+"I jest want to ast if you live in Tinkletown?" Anderson managed to say.
+
+"I do not," she replied emphatically.
+
+"Well, then, lift your veil. If you don't live here I sha'n't know you."
+
+"I prefer to keep my face covered, Mr. Crow; believe me and trust me.
+Please let me see her." The plea was so earnest that Anderson's heart
+gave a great thump of understanding.
+
+"By ginger, you are her mother!" he gasped. Mrs. Crow came in at this
+juncture, and she was much quicker at grasping the situation than her
+husband. It was in her mind to openly denounce the woman for her
+heartlessness, but her natural thriftiness interposed. She would do
+nothing that might remove the golden spoon from the family mouth.
+
+The trio stole upstairs and into the warm bedchamber. There, with
+Anderson Crow and his wife looking on from a remote corner of the room,
+the tall woman in black knelt beside the crib that had housed a
+generation of Crows. The sleeping Rosalie did not know of the soft
+kisses that swept her little cheek. She did not feel the tears that fell
+when the visitor lifted her veil, nor did she hear the whisperings that
+rose to the woman's lips.
+
+"That is all," murmured the mysterious stranger at last, dropping her
+veil as she arose. She staggered as she started for the door, but
+recovered herself instantly. Without a word she left the room, the
+Crows following her down the stairs in silence. At the bottom she
+paused, and then extended her hands to the old couple. Her voice
+faltered as she spoke.
+
+"Let me clasp your hands and let me tell you that my love and my prayers
+are forever for you and for that little one up there. Thank you. I know
+you will be good to her. She is well born. Her blood is as good as the
+best. Above all things, Mrs. Crow, she is not illegitimate. You may
+easily suspect that her parents are wealthy or they could not pay so
+well for her care. Some day the mystery surrounding her will be cleared.
+It may not be for many years. I can safely say that she will be left in
+your care for twenty years at least. Some day you will know why it is
+that Rosalie is not supposed to exist. God bless you."
+
+She was gone before they could utter a word. They watched her walk
+swiftly into the darkness; a few minutes later the sound of carriage
+wheels suddenly broke upon the air. Anderson Crow and his wife stood
+over the "base-burner," and there were tears in their thoughtful eyes.
+
+"She said twenty years, Eva. Let's see, this is 1883. What would that
+make it?"
+
+"About 1903 or 1904, Anderson."
+
+"Well, I guess we c'n wait if other people can," mused he. Then they
+went slowly upstairs and to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Some Years Go By
+
+
+Tinkletown as a unit supported Anderson in his application for
+guardianship papers. They were filed immediately after the secret visit
+of the mysterious woman; the Circuit Court at Boggs City, after hearing
+the evidence, at once entered the appointment of Mr. Crow. When the
+court asked in mild surprise why he did not adopt the child, Anderson
+and Eva looked at each other sheepishly and were silent for a full
+minute. Then Anderson spoke up a bit huskily:
+
+"Well, you see, judge, her name would have to be Crow, an' while it's a
+good name an' an honoured one, it don't jest seem to fit the young 'un.
+She 'pears to be more of a canary than a crow, figuratively speakin',
+and Eva an' me jest decided we'd give her a different sort of a last
+name if we could find one. Seems to me that Rosie Canary would be a good
+one, but Eva an' the childern are ag'in me. They've decided to call her
+Rosalie Gray, an' I guess that about settles it. If you don't mind, I
+reckon that name c'n go in the records. Besides, you must recollect that
+she's liable to have a lot of property some time, an' it seems more fit
+fer me to be guardian than foster-father if that time ever comes. It'll
+be easier to say good-bye if she keers to leave us."
+
+That same day Anderson deposited two hundred and fifty dollars to his
+credit in the First National Bank, saying to his wife as he walked away
+from the teller's window, "I guess Rosalie cain't starve till the bank
+busts, an' maybe not then."
+
+Of course Tinkletown knew that a sum of money had been paid to Anderson,
+but no one knew that it had been handed to him in person by an
+interested party. Had Anderson and his wife even whispered that such a
+visit had occurred, the town would have gone into a convulsion of wrath;
+the marshal's pedestal would have been jerked out from under him without
+compunction or mercy. Eva cautioned him to be more than silent on the
+subject for the child's sake as well as for their own, and Anderson saw
+wisdom in her counselling. He even lagged in his avowed intention to
+unravel the mystery or die in the attempt. A sharp reminder in the shape
+of an item in the _Banner_ restored his energies, and he again took up
+the case with a vigour that startled even himself. Anything in the shape
+of vigour startled his wife.
+
+Harry Squires, the reporter, who poked more or less fun at Anderson from
+time to time because he had the "power of the press behind him," some
+weeks later wrote the following item about the "baby mystery," as he
+called it, in large type:
+
+     "There is no news in regard to the child found upon the doorstep of
+     our esteemed fellow-citizen Anderson Crow, last February. The item
+     concerning its discovery first appeared in the columns of the
+     _Banner_, as will be remembered by our many readers. Detective
+     Crow promised developments some time ago, but they have not showed
+     up. It is rumoured that he has a new clew, but it cannot be
+     substantiated. The general impression is that he does not know
+     whether it is a boy or girl. We advise Mr. Crow to go slow. He
+     should not forget the time when he arrested Mr. John Barnes, two
+     years ago, for the murder of Mr. Grover, and afterward found that
+     the young gent was merely eloping with Judge Brewster's daughter,
+     which was no crime. We saw the girl. Those of our readers who were
+     alive at the time doubtless recall the excitement of that man-hunt
+     two years ago. Mr. Barnes, as innocent as a child unborn, came to
+     our little city engaged in the innocent pastime of getting married.
+     At the same time it was reported that a murder had been committed
+     in this county. Mr. Crow had his suspicions aroused and pursued Mr.
+     Barnes down the river and arrested him. It was a fine piece of
+     detective work. But, unfortunately for Mr. Crow, the real murderer
+     had been caught in the meantime. Mr. Barnes was guilty only of
+     stealing judge Brewster's daughter and getting married to her. The
+     last heard of them they were happy in New York. They even forgave
+     Mr. Crow, it is reported. It is to be hoped that our clever
+     detective will soon jump down upon the heartless parents of this
+     innocent child, but it is also to be hoped that he think at least
+     four times before he leaps."
+
+To say that the foregoing editorial disturbed the evenness of Mr. Crow's
+temper would be saying nothing at all. In the privacy of his barn lot
+Anderson did a war dance that shamed Tecumseh. He threatened to
+annihilate Harry Squires "from head to foot," for publishing the base
+slander.
+
+"Doggone his hide," roared poor Anderson, "fer two cents I'd tell all I
+know about him bein' tight up at Boggs City three years ago. He couldn't
+walk half an inch that time without staggerin'. Anyhow, I wouldn't have
+chased Mr. Barnes that time if it hadn't been fer Harry Squires. He
+egged me on, doggone his hide. If he didn't have that big typesetter
+from Albany over at the _Banner_ office to back him up I'd go over an'
+bust his snoot fer him. After all the items I've give him, too. That's
+all the thanks you git fer gittin' up news fer them blamed reporters.
+But I'll show him! I wonder what he'd think if I traced that baby right
+up to his own--_What's_ that, Eva? Well, now, you don't know anything
+about it neither, so keep your mouth shet. Harry Squires is a purty sly
+cuss. Mebby it's his'n. You ain't supposed to know. You jest let me do
+my own deducin'. I don't want no blamed woman tellin' me who to shadder.
+An' you, too, Edner; get out of the way, consarn ye! The next thing
+_you'll_ be tellin' me what to do--an' me your father, too!"
+
+And that is why Anderson Crow resumed his search for the parents of
+Rosalie Gray. Not that he hoped or expected to find them, but to offset
+the pernicious influence of Harry's "item." For many days he followed
+the most highly impossible clews, some of them intractable, to supply a
+rather unusual word of description. In other words, they reacted with a
+vigour that often found him unprepared but serene. Consequences bothered
+Anderson but little in those days of despised activity.
+
+It is not necessary to dwell upon the incidents of the ensuing years,
+which saw Rosalie crawl from babyhood to childhood and then stride
+proudly through the teens with a springiness that boded ill for Father
+Time. Regularly each succeeding February there came to Anderson Crow a
+package of twenty dollar bills amounting to one thousand dollars, the
+mails being inscrutable. The Crow family prospered correspondingly, but
+there was a liberal frugality behind it all that meant well for Rosalie
+when the time came for an accounting. Anderson and Eva "laid by" a
+goodly portion of the money for the child, whom they loved as one of
+their own flesh and blood. The district school lessons were followed
+later on by a boarding-school education down State, and then came the
+finishing touches at Miss Brown's in New York.
+
+Rosalie grew into a rare flower, as dainty as the rose, as piquant as
+the daisy. The unmistakable mark of the high bred glowed in her face,
+the fine traces of blue blood graced her every movement, her every tone
+and look. At the time that she, as well as every one else in Tinkletown,
+for that matter, was twenty years older than when she first came to
+Anderson's home, we find her the queen of the village, its one rich
+human possession, its one truly sophisticated inhabitant. Anderson Crow
+and his wife were so proud of her that they forgot their duty to their
+own offspring; but if the Crow children resented this it was not
+exhibited in the expressions of love and admiration for their
+foster-sister. Edna Crow, the eldest of the girls--Anderson called her
+"Edner"--was Rosalie's most devoted slave, while Roscoe, the
+twelve-year-old boy, who comprised the rear rank of Anderson's little
+army, knelt so constantly at her shrine that he fell far behind in his
+studies, and stuck to the third reader for two years.
+
+Anderson had not been idle in all these years. He was fast approaching
+his seventieth anniversary, but he was not a day older in spirit than
+when we first made his acquaintance. True, his hair was thinner and
+whiter, and his whiskers straggled a little more carelessly than in
+other days, but he was as young and active as a youth of twenty. Hard
+times did not worry him, nor did domestic troubles. Mrs. Crow often
+admitted that she tried her best to worry him, but it was like "pouring
+water on a duck's back." He went blissfully on his way, earning
+encomiums for himself and honours for Tinkletown. There was no grave
+crime committed in the land that he did not have a well-defined scheme
+for apprehending the perpetrators. His "deductions" at Lamson's store
+never failed to draw out and hold large audiences, and no one disputed
+his theories in public. The fact that he was responsible for the arrest
+of various hog, horse, and chicken thieves from time to time, and for
+the continuous seizure of the two town drunkards, Tom Folly and Alf
+Reesling, kept his reputation untarnished, despite the numerous errors
+of commission and omission that crept in between.
+
+That Rosalie's mysterious friends--or enemies, it might have been--kept
+close and accurate watch over her was manifested from time to time.
+Once, when Anderson was very ill with typhoid fever, the package of
+bills was accompanied by an unsigned, typewritten letter. The writer
+announced that Mr. Crow's state of health was causing some anxiety on
+Rosalie's account--the child was then six years old--and it was hoped
+that nothing serious would result. Another time the strange writer, in a
+letter from Paris, instructed Mr. Crow to send Rosalie to a certain
+boarding school and to see that she had French, German, and music from
+competent instructors. Again, just before the girl went to New York for
+her two years' stay in Miss Brown's school, there came a package
+containing $2500 for her own personal use. Rosalie often spoke to
+Anderson of this mysterious sender as the "fairy godmother"; but the old
+marshal had a deeper and more significant opinion.
+
+Perhaps the most anxious period in the life of Anderson Crow came when
+Rosalie was about ten years old. A new sheriff had been elected in
+Bramble County, and he posed as a reformer. His sister taught school in
+Tinkletown, and Rosalie was her favourite. She took an interest in the
+child that was almost the undoing of Mr. Crow's prosperity. Imagining
+that she was befriending the girl, the teacher appealed to her brother,
+the sheriff, insisting that he do what he could to solve the mystery of
+her birth. The sheriff saw a chance to distinguish himself. He enlisted
+the help of an aggressive prosecuting attorney, also new, and set about
+to investigate the case.
+
+The two officers of the law descended upon Tinkletown one day and began
+to ask peremptory questions. They went about it in such a high-handed,
+lordly manner that Anderson took alarm and his heart sank like lead. He
+saw in his mind's eye the utter collapse of all his hopes, the dashing
+away of his cup of leisure and the upsetting of the "fairy godmother's"
+plans. Pulling his wits together, he set about to frustrate the attack
+of the meddlers. Whether it was his shrewdness in placing obstacles in
+their way or whether he coerced the denizens into blocking the sheriff's
+investigation does not matter. It is only necessary to say that the
+officious gentleman from Boggs City finally gave up the quest in disgust
+and retired into the oblivion usual to county officials who try to be
+progressive. It was many weeks, however, before Anderson slept soundly.
+He was once more happy in the consciousness that Rosalie had been saved
+from disaster and that he had done his duty by her.
+
+"I'd like to know how them doggone jays from Boggs City expected to find
+out anything about that child when I hain't been able to," growled Mr.
+Crow in Lamson's store one night. "If they'll jest keep their blamed
+noses out of this affair I'll find out who her parents are some day. It
+takes time to trace down things like this. I guess I know what I'm
+doin', don't I, boys?"
+
+"That's what you do, Anderson," said Mr. Lamson, as Anderson reached
+over and took a handful of licorice drops from the jar on the counter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The Village Queen
+
+
+The spring of 1903 brought Rosalie back to Tinkletown after her second
+and last year with Miss Brown in New York City. The sun seemed brighter,
+the birds sang more blithely, the flowers took on a new fragrance and
+the village spruced up as if Sunday was the only day in the week. The
+young men of the town trembled when she passed them by, and not a few of
+them grew thin and haggard for want of food and sleep, having lost both
+appetite and repose through a relapse in love. Her smile was the same as
+of yore, her cheery greetings the same, and yet the village swains stood
+in awe of this fine young aristocrat for days and days. Gradually it
+dawned upon them that she was human, after all, despite her New York
+training, and they slowly resumed the old-time manner of courting, which
+was with the eyes exclusively.
+
+A few of the more venturesome--but not the more ardent--asked her to go
+walking, driving, or to the church "sociables," and there was a rivalry
+in town which threatened to upset commerce. There was no theatre in
+Tinkletown, but they delighted in her descriptions of the gorgeous
+play-houses in New York. The town hall seemed smaller than ever to them.
+The younger merchants and their clerks neglected business with charming
+impartiality, and trade was going to "rack and ruin" until Rosalie
+declined to marry George Rawlins, the minister's son. He was looked upon
+as the favoured one; but she refused him in such a decisive manner that
+all others lost hope and courage. It is on record that the day after
+George's _congé_ Tinkletown indulged in a complete business somersault.
+Never before had there been such strict attention to customers;
+merchants and clerks alike settled down to the inevitable and tried to
+banish Rosalie's face from the cost tags and trading stamps of their
+dull, mercantile cloister. Even Tony Brink, the blacksmith's 'prentice,
+fell into the habits of industry, but with an absent-mindedness that got
+him kicked through a partition in the smithy when he attempted to shoe
+the fetlock of Mr. Martin's colt instead of its hoof.
+
+The Crow family took on a new dignity. Anderson gave fifty dollars to
+the Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church, claiming that
+a foreign education had done so much for his ward; and Mrs. Crow
+succeeded in holding two big afternoon teas before Rosalie could apply
+the check rein.
+
+One night Anderson sat up until nearly ten o'clock--an unheard-of
+proceeding for him. Rosalie, with the elder Crow girls, Edna and Susie,
+had gone to protracted meeting with a party of young men and women. The
+younger boys and girls were in bed, and Mrs. Crow was yawning
+prodigiously. She never retired until Anderson was ready to do likewise.
+Suddenly it dawned upon her that he was unusually quiet and
+preoccupied. They were sitting on the moonlit porch.
+
+"What's the matter, Anderson? Ain't you well?" she asked at last.
+
+"No; I'm just thinkin'," he responded, rather dismally. "Doggone, I
+cain't get it out of my head, Eva."
+
+"Can't get what out?"
+
+"About Rosalie."
+
+"Well, what about her?"
+
+"That's jest like a woman--always fergittin' the most important things
+in the world. Don't you know that the twenty years is up?"
+
+"Of course I know it, but 'tain't worryin' me any. She's still here,
+ain't she? Nobody has come to take her away. The thousand dollars came
+all right last February, didn't it? Well, what's the use worryin'?"
+
+"Mebbe you're right, but I'm skeered to death fer fear some one will
+turn up an' claim her, er that a big estate will be settled, er
+somethin' awful like that. I don't mind the money, Eva; I jest hate to
+think of losin' her, now that she's such a credit to us. Besides, I'm up
+a stump about next year."
+
+"Well, what happens then?"
+
+"Derned if I know. That's what's worryin' me."
+
+"I don't see why you--"
+
+"Certainly you don't. You never do. I've got to do all the thinkin' fer
+this fambly. Next year she's twenty-one years old an' her own boss,
+ain't she? I ain't her guardeen after that, am I? What happens then, I'd
+like to know."
+
+"You jest have to settle with the court, pay over to her what belongs to
+her and keep the thousand every spring jest the same. Her people,
+whoever they be, are payin' you fer keepin' her an' not her fer stayin'
+here. 'Tain't likely she'll want to leave a good home like this 'un, is
+it? Don't worry till the time comes, Anderson."
+
+"That's jest the point. She's lived in New York an' she's got used to
+it. She's got fine idees; even her clothes seem to fit different. Now,
+do you s'pose that fine-lookin' girl with all her New York trimmin's 's
+goin' to hang 'round a fool little town like this? Not much! She's goin'
+to dig out o' here as soon's she gits a chance; an' she's goin' to live
+right where her heart tells her she belongs--in the metropolees of New
+York. She don't belong in no jim-crow town like this. Doggone, Eva, I
+hate to see 'er go!"
+
+There was such a wail of bitterness in the old constable's remark that
+Mrs. Crow felt the tears start to her own eyes. It was the girl they
+both wanted, after all--not the money. Rosalie, coming home with her
+party some time afterward, found the old couple still seated on the
+porch. The young people could not conceal their surprise.
+
+"Counting the stars, pop?" asked Edna Crow.
+
+"He's waiting for the eclipse," bawled noisy Ed Higgins, the grocer's
+clerk. "It's due next winter. H'are you, Anderson?"
+
+"How's that?" was Anderson's rebuke.
+
+"I mean Mr. Crow," corrected Ed, with a nervous glance at Rosalie, who
+had been his companion for the evening.
+
+"Oh, I'm jest so-so," remarked Anderson, mollified. "How was the party?"
+
+"It wasn't a party, Daddy Crow," laughed Rosalie, seating herself in
+front of him on the porch rail. "It was an experience meeting. Alf
+Reesling has reformed again. He told us all about his last attack of
+delirium tremens."
+
+"You don't say so! Well, sir, I never thought Alf could find the time to
+reform ag'in. He's too busy gittin' tight," mused Anderson. "But I guess
+reformin' c'n git to be as much a habit as anythin' else."
+
+"I think he was a little woozy to-night," ventured 'Rast Little.
+
+"A little what?"
+
+"Drunk," explained 'Rast, without wasting words. 'Rast had acquired the
+synonym at the business men's carnival in Boggs City the preceding fall.
+Sometimes he substituted the words "pie-eyed," "skeed," "lit up," etc.,
+just to show his worldliness.
+
+After the young men had departed and the Crow girls had gone upstairs
+with their mother Rosalie slipped out on the porch and sat herself down
+upon the knee of her disconsolate guardian.
+
+"You are worried about something, Daddy Crow," she said gently. "Now,
+speak up, sir. What is it?"
+
+"It's time you were in bed," scolded Anderson, pulling his whiskers
+nervously.
+
+"Oh, I'm young, daddy. I don't need sleep. But you never have been up as
+late as this since I've known you."
+
+"I was up later'n this the time you had the whoopin'-cough, all right."
+
+"What's troubling you, daddy?"
+
+"Oh, nothin'--nothin' at all. Doggone, cain't a man set out on his own
+porch 'thout--"
+
+"Forgive me, daddy. Shall I go away and leave you?"
+
+"Gosh a'mighty, no!" he gasped. "That's what's worryin' me--oh, you
+didn't mean forever. You jest meant to-night? Geminy crickets, you did
+give me a skeer!" He sank back with a great sigh of relief.
+
+"Why, I never expect to leave you forever," she cried, caressing his
+scanty hair. "You couldn't drive me away. This is home, and you've been
+too good to me all these years. I may want to travel after a while, but
+I'll always come back to you, Daddy Crow."
+
+"I'm--I'm mighty glad to hear ye say that, Rosie. Ye see--ye see, me an'
+your ma kinder learned to love you, an'--an--"
+
+"Why, Daddy Crow, you silly old goose! You're almost crying!"
+
+"What's that? Now, don't talk like that to me, you little
+whipper-snapper, er you go to bed in a hurry. I never cried in my life,"
+growled Anderson in a great bluster.
+
+"Well, then, let's talk about something else--me, for instance. Do you
+know, Daddy Crow, that I'm too strong to live an idle life. There is no
+reason why I shouldn't have an occupation. I want to work--accomplish
+something."
+
+Anderson was silent a long time collecting his nerves. "You wouldn't
+keer to be a female detective, would you?" he asked drily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Rosalie Has Plans of Her Own
+
+
+"Do be serious, daddy. I want to do something worth while. I could teach
+school or--"
+
+"Not much! You ain't cut out fer that job. Don't you know that ever'body
+hates school-teachers when they're growed up? Jerusalem, how I still
+hate old Rachel Kidwell! An' yet she's bin dead nigh onto thirty years.
+She was my first teacher. You wasn't born to be hated by all the boys in
+the district. I don't see what put the idee of work inter your head You
+got 'bout eight thousand dollars in the bank an'--"
+
+"But I insist that the money is yours, daddy. My fairy godmother paid it
+to you for keeping, clothing, and educating me. It is not mine."
+
+"You talk like I was a boardin' school instead o' bein' your guardeen.
+No, siree; it's your money, an' that ends it. You git it when you're
+twenty-one."
+
+"We'll see, daddy," she replied, a stubborn light in her dark eyes. "But
+I want to learn to do something worth while. If I had a million it would
+be just the same."
+
+"You'll have something to do when you git married," observed he sharply.
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"I s'pose you're goin' to say you never expect to git married. They all
+say it--an' then take the first feller 'at comes along."
+
+"I didn't take the first, or the second, or the third, or the--"
+
+"Hold on! Gosh a'mighty, have you had that many? Well, why don't you go
+into the matrimonial agent's business? That's an occupation."
+
+"Oh, none of them was serious, daddy," she said naïvely.
+
+"You could have all of the men in the county!" he declared proudly.
+"Only," he added quickly, "it wouldn't seem jest right an' proper."
+
+"There was a girl at Miss Brown's a year ago who had loads of money, and
+yet she declared she was going to have an occupation. Nobody knew much
+about her or why she left school suddenly in the middle of a term. I
+liked her, for she was very nice to me when I first went there, a
+stranger. Mr. Reddon--you've heard me speak of him--was devoted to her,
+and I'm sure she liked him. It was only yesterday I heard from her. She
+is going to teach school in this township next winter."
+
+"An' she's got money?"
+
+"I am sure she had it in those days. It's the strangest thing in the
+world that she should be coming here to teach school in No. 5.
+Congressman Ritchey secured the appointment for her, she says. The
+township trustee--whatever his name is--for a long time insisted that he
+must appoint a teacher from Tinkletown and not an outsider. I am glad
+she is coming here because--well, daddy, because she is like the girls
+I knew in the city. She has asked me to look up a boarding place for
+next winter. Do you know of any one, daddy, who could let her have a
+nice room?"
+
+"I'll bet my ears you'd like to have your ma take her in right here. But
+I don't see how it c'n be done, Rosie-posie. There's so derned many of
+us now, an'--"
+
+"Oh, I didn't mean that, daddy. She couldn't come here. But don't you
+think Mrs. Jim Holabird would take her in for the winter?"
+
+"P'raps. She's a widder. She might let her have Jim's room now that
+there's a vacancy. You might go over an' ast her about it to-morrer.
+It's a good thing she's a friend of yourn, Rosalie, because if she
+wasn't I'd have to fight her app'intment."
+
+"Why, daddy!" reproachfully.
+
+"Well, she's a foreigner, an' I don't think it's right to give her a job
+when we've got so many home products that want the place an' who look
+unpopular enough to fill the bill. I'm fer home industry every time, an'
+'specially as this girl don't appear to need the place. I don't see what
+business Congressman Ritchey has foolin' with our school system anyhow.
+He'd better be reducin' the tariff er increasin' the pensions down to
+Washington."
+
+"I quite agree with you, Daddy Crow," said Rosalie with a diplomacy that
+always won for her. She knew precisely how to handle her guardian, and
+that was why she won where his own daughters failed. "And now,
+good-night, daddy. Go to bed and don't worry about me. You'll have me
+on your hands much longer than you think or want. What time is it?"
+
+Anderson patted her head reflectively as he solemnly drew his huge
+silver time-piece from an unlocated pocket. He held it out into the
+bright moonlight.
+
+"Geminy crickets!" he exclaimed. "It's forty-nine minutes to twelve!"
+Anderson Crow's policy was to always look at things through the small
+end of the telescope.
+
+The slow, hot summer wore away, and to Rosalie it was the longest that
+she ever had experienced. She was tired of the ceaseless twaddle of
+Tinkletown, its flow of "missions," "sociables," "buggy-horses," "George
+Rawlin's new dress-suit," "harvesting," and "politics"--for even the
+children talked politics. Nor did the assiduous attentions of the
+village young men possess the power to shorten the days for her--and
+they certainly lengthened the nights. She liked them because they were
+her friends from the beginning--and Rosalie was not a snob. Not for the
+world would she have hurt the feelings of one poor, humble, adoring soul
+in Tinkletown; and while her smile was none the less sweet, her laugh
+none the less joyous, in her heart there was the hidden longing that
+smiled only in dreams. She longed for the day that was to bring Elsie
+Banks to live with Mrs. Holabird, for with her would come a breath of
+the world she had known for two years, and which she had learned to love
+so well.
+
+In three months seven men had asked her to marry them. Of the seven, one
+only had the means or the prospect of means to support her. He was a
+grass-widower with five grown children. Anderson took occasion to warn
+her against widowers.
+
+"Why," he said, "they're jest like widders. You know Dave Smith that
+runs the tavern down street, don't you? Well, doggone ef he didn't turn
+in an' marry a widder with seven childern an' a husband, an' he's led a
+dog's life ever sence."
+
+"Seven children and a husband? Daddy Crow!"
+
+"Yep. Her derned husband wouldn't stay divorced when he found out Dave
+could support a fambly as big as that. He figgered it would be jest as
+easy to take keer of eight as seven, so he perlitely attached hisself to
+Dave's kitchen an' started in to eat hisself to death. Dave was goin' to
+have his wife apply fer another divorce an' leave the name blank, so's
+he could put in either husband ef it came to a pinch, but I coaxed him
+out of it. He finally got rid of the feller by askin' him one day to
+sweep out the office. He could eat all right, but it wasn't natural fer
+him to work, so he skipped out. Next I heerd of him he had married a
+widder who was gittin' a pension because her first husband fit fer his
+country. The Government shet off the pension jest as soon as she got
+married ag'in, and then that blamed cuss took in washin' fer her. He
+stayed away from home on wash-days, but as every day was wash-day with
+her, he didn't see her by daylight fer three years. She died, an' now
+he's back at Dave's ag'in. He calls Dave his husband-in-law."
+
+It required all of Anderson's social and official diplomacy to forestall
+an indignation meeting when it was announced that a stranger, Miss
+Banks, had been selected to teach school No. 5. There was some talk of
+mobbing the township trustee and Board of County Commissioners, but
+Anderson secured the names of the more virulent talkers and threatened
+to "jail" them for conspiracy.
+
+"Why, Anderson," almost wailed George Ray, "that girl's from the city.
+What does she know about grammar an' history an' all that? They don't
+teach anything but French an' Italian in the cities an' you know it."
+
+"Pshaw!" sniffed Anderson. "I hate grammar an' always did. I c'n talk
+better Italian than grammar right now, an' I hope Miss Banks will teach
+every child in the district how to talk French. You'd orter hear Rosalie
+talk it. Besides, Rosie says she's a nice girl an'--an' needs the
+job." Anderson lied bravely, but he swallowed twice in doing it.
+
+[Illustration: "September brought Elsie Banks"]
+
+September brought Elsie Banks to make life worth living for Rosalie. The
+two girls were constantly together, talking over the old days and what
+the new ones were to bring forth, especially for Miss Gray, who had
+resumed wood carving as a temporary occupation. Miss Banks was more than
+ever reluctant to discuss her own affairs, and Rosalie after a few
+trials was tactful enough to respect her mute appeal. It is doubtful if
+either of the girls mentioned the name of big, handsome Tom Reddon--Tom,
+who had rowed in his college crew; but it is safe to say that both of
+them thought of him more than once those long, soft, autumn
+nights--nights when Tinkletown's beaux were fairly tumbling over
+themselves in the effort to make New York life seem like a flimsy shadow
+in comparison.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Elsie Banks
+
+
+Aderson Crow stood afar off--among the bleak, leafless trees of Badger's
+Grove--and gazed thoughtfully, even earnestly, upon the little red
+schoolhouse with its high brick chimney and snow-clad roof. A biting
+January wind cut through his whiskers and warmed his nose to a
+half-broiled shade of red. On the lapel of his overcoat glistened his
+social and official badges, augmented by a new and particularly shiny
+emblem of respect bestowed by the citizens of Tinkletown.
+
+At first it had been the sense of the town to erect a monument in
+recognition of his part in the capture of the Bramble County horse-thief
+gang, but a thrifty and considerate committee of five substituted a
+fancy gold badge with suitable inscriptions on both sides, extolling him
+to the skies "long before he went there hisself" (to quote Uncle Gideon
+Luce, whose bump of perception was a stubborn prophet when it came to
+picking out the site of Mr. Crow's heaven). For a full half hour the
+marshal of Tinkletown had been standing among the trees surveying the
+schoolhouse at the foot of the slope. If his frosted cheeks and watery
+eyes ached for the warmth that urged the curls of smoke to soar away
+from the chimney-top, his attitude did not betray the fact. He was
+watching and thinking, and when Anderson thought of one thing he never
+thought of another at the same time.
+
+"It'll soon be recess time," he reflected. "Then I'll step down there
+an' let on to be makin' a social call on the schoolma'am. By gum, I
+believe she's the one! It'll take some tarnation good work to find out
+the truth about her, but I guess I c'n do it all right. The only thing I
+got to guard ag'inst is lettin' anybody else know of the mystery
+surroundin' her. Gosh! it'll surprise some of the folks 'round here,
+'specially Rosalie. An' mebby the township trustee won't be sorry he
+give the school this year to a strange girl instid o' to Jane Rankin er
+Effie Dickens! Congressman Ritchey hadn't no business puttin' his nose
+into our affairs anyhow, no matter if this here teacher is a friend of
+his fambly. He's got some kind a holt on these here trustees--'y gosh,
+I'd like to know what 'tis. He c'n jest wrap 'em round his finger an'
+make 'em app'int anybody he likes. Must be politics. There, it's recess!
+I'll jest light out an' pay the schoolhouse a little visit."
+
+Inside a capacious and official pocket of Mr. Crow's coat reposed a
+letter from a law firm in Chicago. It asked if within the last two years
+a young woman had applied for a position as teacher in the township
+schools at Tinkletown. A description accompanied the inquiry, but it was
+admitted she might have applied under a name not her own, which was
+Marion Lovering. In explanation, the letter said she had left her home
+in Chicago without the consent of her aunt, imbued with the idea that
+she would sooner support herself than depend upon the charity of that
+worthy though wealthy relative. The aunt had recently died, and counsel
+for the estate was trying to establish proof concerning the actions and
+whereabouts of Miss Lovering since her departure from Chicago.
+
+The young woman often had said she would become a teacher, a tutor, a
+governess, or a companion, and it was known that she had made her way to
+that section of the world presided over by Anderson Crow--although the
+distinguished lawyers did not put it in those words. A reward of five
+hundred dollars for positive information concerning the "life of the
+girl" while in "that or any other community" was promised.
+
+Miss Banks's appointment came through the agency of the district's
+congressman, in whose home she had acted as governess for a period.
+Moreover, she answered the description in that she was young, pretty,
+and refined. Anderson Crow felt that he was on the right track; he was
+now engaged in as pretty a piece of detective business as had ever
+fallen to his lot, and he was not going to spoil it by haste and
+overconfidence.
+
+Just why Anderson Crow should "shadow" the schoolhouse instead of the
+teacher's temporary place of abode no one could possibly have known but
+himself--and it is doubtful if _he_ knew. He resolved not to answer the
+Chicago letter until he was quite ready to produce the girl and the
+proof desired.
+
+"I'd be a gol-swiggled fool to put 'em onter my s'picions an' then have
+'em cheat me out of the reward," he reflected keenly. "You cain't trust
+them Chicago lawyers an inch an' a half. Doggone it, I'll never fergit
+that feller who got my pockit-book out to Central Park that time. He
+tole me positively he was a lawyer from Chicago, an' had an office in
+the Y.M.C.A. Building. An' the idee of him tellin' me he wanted to see
+if my pockit-book had better leather in it than hisn!"
+
+The fact that the school children, big and little, loved Miss Banks
+possessed no point of influence over their elders of the feminine
+persuasion. They turned up their Tinkletown noses and sniffed at her
+because she was a "vain creature," who thought more of "attractin' the
+men than she did of anything else on earth." And all this in spite of
+the fact that she was the intimate friend of the town goddess, Rosalie
+Gray.
+
+Everybody in school No. 5 over the age of seven was deeply, jealously in
+love with Miss Banks. Many a frozen snowball did its deadly work from
+ambush because of this impotent jealousy.
+
+But the merriest rivalry was that which developed between Ed Higgins,
+the Beau Brummel of Tinkletown, and 'Rast Little, whose father owned the
+biggest farm in Bramble County. If she was amused by the frantic efforts
+of each suitor to outwit the other she was too tactful to display her
+emotion. Perhaps she was more highly entertained by the manner in which
+Tinkletown femininity paired its venom with masculine admiration.
+
+"Mornin', Miss Banks," was Anderson's greeting as he stamped noisily
+into the room. He forgot that he had said good-morning to her when she
+stopped in to see Rosalie on her way to the schoolhouse. The children
+ceased their outdoor game and peered eagerly through the windows,
+conscious that the visit of this dignitary was of supreme importance.
+Miss Banks looked up from the papers she was correcting, the pucker
+vanishing from her pretty brow as if by magic.
+
+"Good-morning, Mr. Crow. What are you doing away out here in the
+country? Jimmy"--to a small boy--"please close the door." Anderson had
+left it open, and it was a raw January wind which followed him into the
+room.
+
+"'Scuse me," he murmured. "Seems I ain't got sense enough to shet a door
+even. My wife says--but you don't keer to hear about that, do you? Oh, I
+jest dropped in," finally answering her question. He took a bench near
+the big stove and spread his hands before the sheet-iron warmth.
+"Lookin' up a little affair, that's all. Powerful chilly, ain't it?"
+
+"Very." She stood on the opposite side of the stove, puzzled by this
+unexpected visit, looking at him with undisguised curiosity.
+
+"Ever been to Chicago?" asked Anderson suddenly, hoping to catch her
+unawares.
+
+"Oh, yes. I have lived there," she answered readily. He shifted his legs
+twice and took a hasty pull at his whiskers.
+
+"That's what I thought. Why don't you go back there?"
+
+"Because I'm teaching school here, Mr. Crow."
+
+"Well, I reckon that's a good excuse. I thought mebby you had a
+different one."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, I dunno. I jest asked."
+
+"You are a detective, are you not?" asked Miss Banks, smiling brightly
+and with understanding.
+
+"Oh, off an' on I do a little detectin'. See my badge?"
+
+"Am I suspected of a heinous crime?" she asked so abruptly that he
+gasped. "Won't you take off your cap, Mr. Crow?" He removed it
+sheepishly.
+
+"Lord, no!" he exclaimed in confusion. "I mean the crime--not the cap.
+Well, I guess I'll be goin'. School's goin' to take up, I reckon. See
+you later, Miss Banks." He restored his cap to its accustomed place and
+was starting toward the door, a trifle dazed and bewildered.
+
+"What is it that you wish to find out, Mr. Crow?" she suddenly called to
+him. He halted and faced about so quickly that his reply came like a
+shot out of a gun.
+
+"I'm on the lookout fer a girl--an' she'll be's rich's Crowses if I c'n
+only find 'er. I dassent tell 'er name jest now," he went on, slowly
+retracing his steps, "'cause I don't want people--er her either, fer
+that matter--to git onter my scheme. But you jest wait." He was standing
+very close to her now and looking her full in the face. "You're sure you
+don't know anythin' 'bout her?"
+
+"Why, how should I know? You've told me nothing."
+
+"You've got purty good clothes fer a common school-teacher," he flung at
+her in an aggressive, impertinent tone, but the warm colour that swiftly
+rose to her cheeks forced him to recall his words, for he quickly
+tempered them with, "Er, at least, that's what all the women folks say."
+
+"Oh, so some one has been talking about my affairs? Some of your
+excellent women want to know more about me than--"
+
+"Don't git excited, Miss Banks," he interrupted; "the women ain't got
+anythin' to do with it--I mean, it's nothin' to them. I--"
+
+"Mr. Crow," she broke in, "if there is anything you or anybody in
+Tinkletown wants to know about me you will have to deduce it for
+yourself. I believe that is what you call it--deduce? And now good-bye,
+Mr. Crow. Recess is over," she said pointedly; and Mr. Crow shuffled out
+as the children galloped in.
+
+That evening Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little came to call, but she excused
+herself because of her correspondence. In her little upstairs room she
+wrote letter after letter, one in particular being voluminous. Mrs.
+Holabird, as she passed her door, distinctly heard her laugh aloud. It
+was a point to be recalled afterward with no little consideration. Later
+she went downstairs, cloaked warmly, for a walk to the post-office. Ed
+Higgins was still in the parlour talking to the family. He hastily put
+in his petition to accompany her, and it was granted absently. Then he
+surreptitiously and triumphantly glanced through the window, the scene
+outside pleasing him audibly. 'Rast was standing at the front gate
+talking to Anderson Crow. Miss Banks noticed as they passed the confused
+twain at the gate that Anderson carried his dark lantern.
+
+"Any trace of the heiress, Mr. Crow?" she asked merrily.
+
+"Doggone it," muttered Anderson, "she'll give the whole snap away!"
+
+"What's that?" asked 'Rast.
+
+"Nothin' much," said Anderson, repairing the damage. "Ed's got your time
+beat to-night, 'Rast, that's all!"
+
+"I could 'a' took her out ridin' to-night if I'd wanted to," lied 'Rast
+promptly. "I'm goin' to take her to the spellin'-bee to-morrow night out
+to the schoolhouse."
+
+"Did she say she'd go with you?"
+
+"Not yet. I was jest goin' to ast her to-night."
+
+"Mebby Ed's askin' her now."
+
+"Gosh dern it, that's so! Maybe he is," almost wailed 'Rast; and
+Anderson felt sorry for him as he ambled away from the gate and its
+love-sick guardian.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+The Spelling-Bee
+
+
+Young Mr. Higgins found his companion bubbling over with vivacity. Her
+pretty chin was in the air and every word bore the promise of a laugh.
+He afterward recalled one little incident of their walk through the
+frosty night, and repeated it to Anderson Crow with more awe than seemed
+necessary. They were passing the town pump on their way to the
+post-office. The street was dark and deserted.
+
+"Gosh!" said Ed, "I bet the town pump's froze up!"
+
+"It doesn't seem very cold," she said brightly.
+
+"Gee! it's below zero! I bet 'Rast thinks it's pretty doggone cold up
+there by your gate."
+
+"Poor 'Rast! His mother should keep him indoors on nights like this." Ed
+laughed loud and long and a tingle of happiness shot through his
+erstwhile shivering frame. "I'm not a bit cold," she went on. "See--feel
+my hand. I'm not even wearing mittens."
+
+Ed Higgins gingerly clasped the little hand, but it was withdrawn at
+once. He found it as warm as toast. Words of love surged to his humble
+lips; his knees felt a tendency to lower themselves precipitously to the
+frozen sidewalk; he was ready to grovel at her feet--and he wondered if
+they were as warm as toast. But 'Rast Little came up at that instant and
+the chance was lost.
+
+"Doggone!" slipped unconsciously but bitterly from Ed's lips.
+
+"Can I be your company to the spellin'-bee to-morrow night, Miss Banks?"
+burst unceremoniously from the lips of the newcomer.
+
+"Thank you, 'Rast. I was just wondering how I should get out to the
+schoolhouse. You are very kind. We'll go in the bob-sled with the
+Holabirds."
+
+"Doggone!" came in almost a wail from poor Ed. He could have killed
+'Rast for the triumphant laugh that followed.
+
+In the meantime Anderson Crow was preparing to crawl in between the icy
+sheets at home. Mrs. Crow was "sitting up" with old Mrs. Luce, who was
+ill next door.
+
+"She's a girl with a past," reflected Anderson. "She's a mystery,
+that's what she is; but I'll unravel her. She had a mighty good reason
+fer sawin' me off out there to-day. I was gittin' too close home. She
+seen I was about to corner her. By gum, I hope she don't suspect
+nothin'! She's found out that Ed Higgins has a good job down to Lamson's
+store, an' she's settin' her cap fer him. It shows she'd ruther live in
+the city than in the country--so it's all up with 'Rast. That proves
+she's from Chicago er some other big place. Ed's gettin' eight dollars a
+week down there at Lamson's. By gum, that boy's doin' well! I used to
+think he wouldn't amount to nothin'. It shows that the best of us git
+fooled in a feller once in a while. To-morrow night I'll go out to the
+spellin'-match, an' when the chanct comes I'll sidle up to her an'
+whisper her real name in her ear. I bet four dollars an' a half that'll
+fetch her purty prompt. Doggone, these here sheets air cold! It's forty
+below zero right here in this bed."
+
+Anderson Crow soon slept, but he did not dream of the tragedy the next
+night was to bring upon Tinkletown, nor of the test his prowess was to
+endure.
+
+The next night and the "spellin'-bee" at school No. 5 came on apace
+together. It was bitterly cold and starlight. By eight o'clock the warm
+schoolhouse was comfortably filled with the "spellers" of the
+neighbourhood, their numbers increased by competitors from Tinkletown
+itself. In the crowd were men and women who time after time had "spelled
+down" whole companies, and who were eager for the conflict. They had
+"studied up" on their spelling for days in anticipation of a hard
+battle in the words. Mrs. Borum and Mrs. Cartwill, both famous for their
+victories and for the rivalry that existed between them, were selected
+as captains of the opposing sides, and Miss Banks herself was to "give
+out" the words. The captains selected their forces, choosing alternately
+from the anxious crowd of grown folks. There were no children there, for
+it was understood that big words would be given out--words children
+could not pronounce, much less spell.
+
+The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful night. She was dressed
+as no other woman in Bramble County, except Rosalie Gray, could have
+attired herself--simply, tastefully, daintily. Her face was flushed and
+eager and the joy of living glowed in every feature. Ed Higgins and
+'Rast Little were struck senseless, nerveless by this vision of health
+and loveliness. Anderson Crow stealthily admitted to himself that she
+was a stranger in a strange land; she was not of Tinkletown or any place
+like it.
+
+Just as the captains were completing their selections of spellers the
+door opened and three strangers entered the school-room, overcoated and
+furred to the tips of their noses--two men and a woman. As Miss Banks
+rushed forward to greet them--she had evidently been expecting them--the
+startled assemblage caught its breath and stared. To the further
+amazement of every one, Rosalie hastened to her side and joined in the
+effusive welcome. Every word of joyous greeting was heard by the amazed
+listeners and every word from the strangers was as distinct. Surely
+the newcomers were friends of long standing. When their heavy wraps
+were removed the trio stood forth before as curious an audience as ever
+sat spellbound. The men were young, well dressed and handsome; the woman
+a beauty of the most dashing type. Tinkletown's best spellers quivered
+with excitement.
+
+[Illustration: "The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful
+night"]
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," said Miss Banks, her voice trembling with
+eagerness, "let me introduce my friends, Mrs. Farnsworth, Mr.
+Farnsworth, and Mr. Reddon. They have driven over to attend the
+spelling-match." Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little observed with sinking
+hearts that it was Mr. Reddon whom she led forward by the hand, and they
+cursed him inwardly for the look he gave her--because she blushed
+beneath it.
+
+"You don't live in Boggs City," remarked Mr. Crow, appointing himself
+spokesman. "I c'n deduce that, 'cause you're carrying satchels an'
+valises."
+
+"Mr. Crow is a famous detective," explained Miss Banks. Anderson
+attempted to assume an unconscious pose, but in leaning back he missed
+the end of the bench, and sat sprawling upon the lap of Mrs. Harbaugh.
+As Mrs. Harbaugh had little or no lap to speak of, his downward course
+was diverted but not stayed. He landed on the floor with a grunt that
+broke simultaneously with the lady's squeak; a fraction of a second
+later a roar of laughter swept the room. It was many minutes before
+quiet was restored and the "match" could be opened. Mrs. Cartwill chose
+Mrs. Farnsworth and her rival selected the husband of the dashing young
+woman. Mr. Reddon firmly and significantly announced his determination
+to sit near the teacher "to preserve order," and not enter the contest
+of words.
+
+Possibly it was the presence of the strangers that rattled and unnerved
+the famed spellers of both sides, for it was not long until the lines
+had dwindled to almost nothing. Three or four arrogant competitors stood
+forth and valiantly spelled such words as "Popocatepetl,"
+"Tschaikowsky," "terpsichorean," "Yang-tse-Kiang," "Yseult," and scores
+of words that could scarcely be pronounced by the teacher herself. But
+at last, just as the sleepy watchers began to nod and yawn the hardest,
+Mrs. Cartwill stood alone and victorious, her single opponent having
+gone down on the word "sassafras." Anderson Crow had "gone down" early
+in the match by spelling "kerosene" "kerry-seen." Ed Higgins followed
+with "ceriseen," and 'Rast Little explosively had it "coal-oil."
+
+During the turmoil incident to the dispersing of the gathered hosts Miss
+Banks made her way to 'Rast Little's side and informed him that the
+Farnsworths were to take her to Mrs. Holabird's in their big sleigh.
+'Rast was floored. When he started to remonstrate, claiming to be her
+"company," big Tom Reddon interposed and drew Miss Banks away from her
+lover's wrath.
+
+"But I'm so sorry for him, Tom," she protested contritely. "He _did_
+bring me here--in a way."
+
+"Well, I'll take you home another way," said good-looking Mr. Reddon. It
+was also noticed that Rosalie Gray had much of a confidential nature to
+say to Miss Banks as they parted for the evening, she to go home in
+Blucher Peabody's new sleigh.
+
+'Rast and Ed Higgins almost came to blows out at the hitch-rack, where
+the latter began twitting his discomfited rival. Anderson Crow kept them
+apart.
+
+"I'll kill that big dude," growled 'Rast. "He's got no business comin'
+here an' rakin' up trouble between me an' her. You mark my words, I'll
+fix him before the night's over, doggone his hide!"
+
+At least a dozen men, including Alf Reesling, heard this threat, and not
+one of them was to forget it soon. Anderson Crow noticed that Mrs.
+Holabird's bob-sled drove away without either Miss Banks or 'Rast
+Little in its capacious depths. Miss Banks announced that her three
+friends from the city and she would stay behind and close the
+schoolhouse, putting everything in order. It was Friday night, and there
+would be no session until the following Monday. Mr. Crow was very sleepy
+for a detective. He snored all the way home.
+
+The next morning two farmers drove madly into Tinkletown with the
+astounding news that some one had been murdered at schoolhouse No. 5. In
+passing the place soon after daybreak they had noticed blood on the snow
+at the roadside. The school-room door was half open and they entered.
+Blood in great quantities smeared the floor near the stove, but there
+was no sign of humanity, alive or dead. Miss Banks's handkerchief was
+found on the floor saturated.
+
+Moreover, the school-teacher was missing. She had not returned to the
+home of Mrs. Holabird the night before. To make the horror all the more
+ghastly, Anderson Crow, hastening to the schoolhouse, positively
+identified the blood as that of Miss Banks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A Tinkletown Sensation
+
+
+Sensations came thick and fast in Tinkletown during the next few hours.
+Investigation proved that 'Rast Little was nowhere to be found. He had
+not returned to his home after the spelling-bee, nor had he been seen
+since. Mrs. Holabird passed him in the road on her way home in the
+"bob-sled." In response to her command to "climb in" he sullenly said he
+was going to walk home by a "short cut" through the woods. A farmer had
+seen the stylish Farnsworth sleigh driving north furiously at half-past
+eleven, the occupants huddled in a bunch as if to protect themselves
+from the biting air. The witness was not able to tell "which was which"
+in the sleigh, but he added interest to the situation by solemnly
+asserting that one of the persons in the rear seat was "bundled up" more
+than the rest, and evidently was unable to sit erect.
+
+According to his tale, the figure was lying over against the other
+occupant of the seat. He was also, positive that there were three
+figures in the front seat! Who was the extra person? was the question
+that flashed into the minds of the listeners. A small boy came to the
+schoolhouse at nine o'clock in the morning with 'Rast Little's new derby
+hat. He had picked it up at the roadside not far from the schoolhouse
+and in the direction taken by the Farnsworth party.
+
+Anderson gave orders that no word of the catastrophe be carried to
+Rosalie, who was reported to be ill of a fever the next morning after
+the spelling-bee. She had a cough, and the doctor had said that nothing
+should be said or done to excite her.
+
+The crowd at the schoolhouse grew larger as the morning passed Everybody
+talked in whispers; everybody was mystified beyond belief. All eyes were
+turned to Anderson Crow, who stood aloof, pondering as he had never
+pondered before. In one hand he held Miss Banks's bloody handkerchief
+and in the other a common school text-book on physiology. His badges
+and stars fairly revelled in their own importance.
+
+"Don't pester him with questions," warned Isaac Porter, addressing Alf
+Reesling, the town drunkard, who had just arrived.
+
+"But I got something I want to say to him," persisted Alf eagerly. Two
+or three strong men restrained him.
+
+"Thunderation, Alf," whispered Elon Jones, "cain't you see he's figurin'
+something out? You're liable to throw him clear off the track if you say
+a word to him."
+
+"Well, this is something he'd oughter know," almost whimpered Alf,
+rubbing his frozen ears.
+
+"Sh!" muttered the bystanders, and poor Alf subsided. He was
+unceremoniously hustled into the background as Mr. Crow moved from the
+window toward the group.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Anderson gravely, "there is somethin' wrong here." It
+is barely possible that this was not news to the crowd, but with one
+accord they collectively and severally exchanged looks of appreciation.
+"I've been readin' up a bit on the human body, an' I've proved one thing
+sure in my own mind."
+
+"You bet you have, Anderson," said Elon Jones. "It's all settled. Let's
+go home."
+
+"Settled nothin'!" said the marshal. "It's jest begun. Here's what I
+deduce: Miss Banks has been foully dealt with. Ain't this her blood, an'
+ain't she used her own individual handkerchief to stop it up? It's
+blood right square from her heart, gentlemen!"
+
+"I don't see how--" began Ed Higgins; but Anderson silenced him with a
+look.
+
+"Of course _you_ don't, but you would if you'd 'a' been a detective as
+long's I have. What in thunder do you s'pose I got these badges and
+these medals fer? Fer _not_ seein' how? No, siree! I got 'em fer _seein_'
+how; that's what!"
+
+"But, Andy--"
+
+"Don't call me 'Andy,'" commanded Mr. Crow.
+
+"Well, then, Anderson, I'd like to know how the dickens she could use
+her own handkerchief if she was stabbed to the heart," protested Ed. He
+had been crying half the time. Anderson was stunned for the moment.
+
+"Why--why--now, look here, Ed Higgins, I ain't got time to explain
+things to a derned idgit like you. Everybody else understands _how_,
+don't you?" and he turned to the crowd. Everybody said yes. "Well, that
+shows what a fool you are, Ed. Don't bother me any more. I've got work
+to do."
+
+"Say, Anderson," began Alf Reesling from the outer circle, "I got
+something important to tell--"
+
+"Who is that? Alf Reesling?" cried Anderson wrathfully.
+
+"Yes; I want to see you private, Anderson. Its important," begged Alf.
+
+"How many times have I got to set down on you, Alf Reesling?" exploded
+Anderson. "Doggone, I'd like to know how a man's to solve mysteries if
+he's got to stand around half the time an' listen to fambly quarrels.
+Tell yer wife I'll--"
+
+"This ain't no family quarrel. Besides, I ain't got no wife. It's about
+this here--"
+
+"That'll do, now, Alf! Not another word out of you!" commanded Anderson
+direfully.
+
+"But, dern you, Anderson," exploded Alf, "I've got to tell you--"
+
+But Anderson held up a hand.
+
+"Don't swear in the presence of the dead," he said solemnly. "You're
+drunk, Alf; go home!" And Alf, news and all was hustled from the
+schoolhouse by a self-appointed committee of ten.
+
+"Now, we'll search fer the body," announced Anderson. "Git out of the
+way, Bud!"
+
+"I ain't standin' on it," protested twelve-year-old Bud Long.
+
+"Well, you're standin' mighty near them blood-stains an'--"
+
+"Yes, 'n ain't blood a part of the body?" rasped Isaac Porter
+scornfully; whereupon Bud faded into the outer rim.
+
+"First we'll look down cellar," said Mr. Crow. "Where's the cellar at?"
+
+"There ain't none," replied Elon Jones.
+
+"What? No cellar? Well, where in thunder did they hide the body, then?"
+
+"There's an attic," ventured Joe Perkins.
+
+A searching party headed by Anderson Crow shinned up the ladder to the
+low garret. No trace of a body was to be found, and the searchers came
+down rather thankfully. Then, under Mr. Crow's direction, they searched
+the wood piles, the woods, and the fields for many rods in all
+directions. At noon they congregated at the schoolhouse. Alf Reesling
+was there.
+
+"Find it?" said he thickly, with a cunning leer. He had been drinking.
+Anderson was tempted to club him half to death, but instead he sent him
+home with Joe Perkins, refusing absolutely to hear what the town
+drunkard had to say.
+
+"Well, you'll wish you'd listened to me," ominously hiccoughed Alf; and
+then, as a parting shot, "I wouldn't tell you now fer eighteen dollars
+cash. You c'n go to thunder!" It was _lèse majesté_, but the crowd did
+nothing worse than stare at the offender.
+
+Before starting off on the trail of the big sleigh, Anderson sent this
+message by wire to the lawyers in Chicago:
+
+     "_I have found the girl you want, but the body is lost. Would you
+     just as soon have her dead as alive_?
+
+     "ANDERSON CROW."
+
+In a big bob-sled the marshal and a picked sextette of men set off at
+one o'clock on the road over which the sleigh had travelled many hours
+before. Anderson had failed to report the suspected crime to the sheriff
+at Boggs City and was working alone on the mystery. He said he did not
+want anybody from town interfering with his affairs.
+
+"Say, Andy--Anderson," said Harry Squires, now editor of the _Banner_,
+"maybe we're hunting the wrong body and the wrong people."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, ain't 'Rast Little missing? Maybe he's been killed, eh? And say,
+ain't there some chance that he did the killing? Didn't he say he was
+going to murder that city chap? Well, supposing he did. We're on the
+wrong track, ain't we?"
+
+"Doggone you, Harry, that don't fit in with my deductions," wailed
+Anderson. "I wish you'd let me alone. 'Rast may have done the killin',
+but it's our place to find the body, ain't it? Whoever has been slew was
+taken away last night in the sleigh. S'posin it was Mr. Reddon! Well,
+consarn it, ain't he got a body same as anybody else? We've just got to
+find somebody's body, that's all. We've got to prove the corpus
+deelicti. Drive up, Bill!"
+
+With a perseverance that spoke well for the detective's endurance, but
+ill for his intelligence, the "bob" sped along aimlessly. It was
+ridiculous to think of tracking a sleigh over a well-travelled road, and
+it was not until they reached the cross-roads that Harry Squires
+suggested that inquiries be made of the farmers in the neighbourhood.
+After diligent effort, a farmer was discovered who said he had heard the
+sleigh bells at midnight, and, peering from his window, had caught a
+glimpse of the party turning south at the cross-roads.
+
+"Jest as I thought!" exclaimed Anderson. "They went south so's to skip
+Boggs City. Boys, they've got her body er 'Rast's body er that other
+feller's body with 'em, an' they're skootin' down this pike so's to get
+to the big bridge. My idee is that they allowed to drop the body in the
+river, which ain't friz plum over."
+
+"Gee! We ain't expected to search all over the bottom of the river, are
+we, Anderson?" shivered Isaac Porter, the pump repairer.
+
+"_I_ ain't," said the leader, "but I can deputise anybody I want to."
+
+And so they hurried on to the six-span bridge that crossed the ice-laden
+river. As they stood silent, awed and shivering on the middle span,
+staring down into the black water with its navy of swirling ice-chunks,
+even the heart of Anderson Crow chilled and grew faint.
+
+"Boys," he said, "we've lost the track! Not even a bloodhound could
+track 'em in that water."
+
+"Bloodhound?" sniffed Harry Squires. "A hippopotamus, you mean."
+
+They were hungry and cold, and they were ready to turn homeward.
+Anderson said he "guessed" he'd turn the job over to the sheriff and his
+men. Plainly, he was much too hungry to do any more trailing. Besides,
+for more than an hour he had been thinking of the warm wood fire at
+home. Bill Rubley was putting the "gad" to the horses when a man on
+horseback rode up from the opposite end of the bridge. He had come far
+and in a hurry, and he recognised Anderson Crow.
+
+"Say, Anderson!" he called, "somebody broke into Colonel Randall's
+summer home last night an' they're there yet. Got fires goin' in all
+the stoves, an' havin' a high old time. They ain't got no business
+there, becuz the place is closed fer the winter. Aleck Burbank went over
+to order 'em out; one of the fellers said he'd bust his head if he
+didn't clear out. I think it's a gang!"
+
+A hurried interview brought out the facts. The invaders had come up in a
+big sleigh long before dawn, and--but that was sufficient. Anderson and
+his men returned to the hunt, eager and sure of their prey. Darkness was
+upon them when they came in sight of Colonel Randall's country place in
+the hills. There were lights in the windows and people were making merry
+indoors; while outside the pursuing Nemesis and his men were wondering
+how and where to assault the stronghold.
+
+"I'll jest walk up an' rap on the door," said Anderson Crow, "lettin' on
+to be a tramp. I'll ast fer somethin' to eat an' a place to sleep. While
+I'm out there in the kitchen eatin' you fellers c'n sneak up an'
+surround us. Then you c'n let on like you're lookin' fer me because I'd
+robbed a hen-roost er something, an' that'll get 'em off their guard.
+Once we all git inside the house with these shotguns we've got 'em where
+we want 'em. Then I'll make 'em purduce the body."
+
+"Don't we git anythin' to eat, too?" demanded Isaac Porter faintly.
+
+"The horses ain't had nothin' to eat, Ike," said Anderson. "Ain't you as
+good as a horse?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A Case of Mistaken Identity
+
+
+Detective Crow found little difficulty in gaining admittance to Colonel
+Randall's summer home. He had secreted his badge, and it was indeed a
+sorry-looking tramp who asked for a bite to eat at the kitchen door.
+
+Three or four young women were busy with chafing dishes in this
+department of the house, and some good-looking young men were looking on
+and bothering them with attentions. In the front part of the house a
+score of people were laughing and making merry.
+
+"Gosh!" said the new tramp, twisting his chin whiskers, "how many of you
+are there?"
+
+"Oh, there are many more at home like us," trilled out one of the young
+women gaily. "You're just in time, you poor old thing, to have some of
+the bride-to-be's cake."
+
+"I guess I'm in the wrong house," murmured Anderson blankly. "Is it a
+weddin'?"
+
+"No; but there will be one before many days. It's just a reunion. How I
+wish Rosalie Gray were here!" cried another girl.
+
+Just then there was a pounding on the door, and an instant later Isaac
+Porter stalked in at the head of the posse.
+
+"Throw up your hands!" called Anderson, addressing himself to the posse,
+the members of which stopped in blank amazement. Some of them obligingly
+stuck their hands on high. "What do you want here?"
+
+"We--we--we're lookin' fer a tramp who said he robbed a hen roost,"
+faltered Isaac Porter.
+
+"What is the meaning of all this?" called a strong voice from the
+dining-room, and the flabbergasted Tinkletownians turned to face Colonel
+Randall himself, the owner of the house.
+
+"Derned if I know!" muttered Anderson Crow; and he spoke the truth.
+
+"Why, it's Anderson Crow!" cried a gay young voice.
+
+"Jumpin' Jehosophat!" ejaculated the detective; "it's the body!"
+
+"The school-teacher!" exclaimed the surprised Tinkletownians, as with
+their eyes they proceeded to search the figure before them for blood
+stains. But no sooner had the chorused words escaped their lips than
+they realised how wretchedly commonplace was their blundering expression
+in comparison with the faultlessly professional phraseology of their
+leader; and, overwhelmed with mortification, the posse ached to recall
+them; for that the correct technical term had been applied by one for
+years trained to the vernacular of his calling was little consolation to
+these sensitive souls, now consumed with envy.
+
+In the meantime, the quarry, if we may be permitted so to designate her,
+stood before them as pretty as a picture. At her side was Tom Reddon,
+and a dozen guests of the house fell in behind them.
+
+"Did Rosalie tell you?" demanded Miss Banks. "The mean thing! She said
+she wouldn't."
+
+"Ro--Rosalie!" gasped Anderson; "tell me what?" nervously.
+
+"That I was--was coming over here with Tom. Didn't she tell you?"
+
+"I should say not. If she'd told me you don't suppose I'd'a' driv' clear
+over here in this kinder weather fer nothin', do you? Thunder! Did she
+know 'bout it?"
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Crow. She helped with the plans."
+
+"Well, good gosh a'mighty! An' we was a-keepin' from her the awful news
+fer fear 'twould give her a backset."
+
+"Awful news! What do you mean? Oh, you frighten me terribly!"
+
+"Doggone! I don't believe Rosalie was sick at all," continued Anderson,
+quite regardless of the impatience of his listeners; "she jest wanted to
+keep from answerin' questions. She jest regularly let everybody believe
+you had been slaughtered, an' never opened her mouth."
+
+"Slaughtered!" cried half a dozen people.
+
+"Sure! Hain't you heard 'bout the murder?"
+
+"Murder?" apprehensively from the excited New Yorkers.
+
+"Yes--the teacher of schoolhouse No. 5 was brutally butchered
+las--las--night--by--"
+
+[Illustration: "What is the meaning of all this?"]
+
+"Go slow, Anderson! Better hold your horses!" cautioned Harry
+Squires. "Don't forget the body's alive and kic--" and stopping short,
+in the hope that his break might escape the school-teacher's attention,
+he confusedly substituted, "and here."
+
+Anderson's jaw dropped, but the movement was barely perceptible, the
+discomfiture temporary, for to the analytical mind of the great
+detective the fact that a murder had been committed was fully
+established by the discovery of the blood. That a body was obviously
+necessary for the continuance of further investigations he frankly
+acknowledged to himself; and not for one instant would any supposition
+or explanation other than assassination be tolerated. And it was with
+unshaken conviction that he declared:
+
+"Well, somebody was slew, wasn't they? That's as plain's the nose on y'r
+face. Don't you contradict me, Harry Squires. I guess Anderson Crow
+knows blood when he sees it."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that you've been trailing us all day in the
+belief that some one of us had killed somebody?" demanded Tom Reddon.
+
+Harry Squires explained the situation, Anderson being too far gone to
+step into the breach. It may be of interest to say that the Tinkletown
+detective was the sensation of the hour. The crowd, merry once more,
+lauded him to the skies for the manner in which the supposed culprits
+had been trailed, and the marshal's pomposity grew almost to the
+bursting point.
+
+"But how about that blood?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes," said Harry Squires with a sly grin, "it was positively identified
+as yours, Miss Banks."
+
+"Well, it's the first time I was ever fooled," confessed Anderson
+glibly. "I'll have to admit it. The blood really belonged to 'Rast
+Little. Boys, the seegars are on me."
+
+"No, they're on me," exclaimed Tom Reddon, producing a box of Perfectos.
+
+"But, Miss Banks, you are wanted in Chicago," insisted Anderson. Reddon
+interrupted him.
+
+"Right you are, my dear Sherlock, and I'm going to take her there as
+soon as I can. It's what I came East for."
+
+"Ain't--I mean, wasn't you Miss Lovering?" muttered Anderson Crow.
+
+"Good heavens, no!" cried Miss Banks. "Who is she--a shoplifter?"
+
+"I'll tell you the story, Mr. Crow, if you'll come with me," said Mr.
+Farnsworth, stepping forward with a wink.
+
+In the library he told the Tinkletown posse that Tom Reddon had met Miss
+Banks while she was at school in New York. He was a Chicago
+millionaire's son and she was the daughter of wealthy New York people.
+Her mother was eager to have the young people marry, but the girl at
+that time imagined herself to be in love with another man. In a pique
+she left school and set forth to earn her own living. A year's hardship
+as governess in the family of Congressman Ritchey and subsequent
+disillusionment as a country school-teacher brought her to her senses
+and she realised that she cared for Tom Reddon after all. She and Miss
+Gray together prepared the letter which told Reddon where she could be
+found, and that eager young gentleman did the rest. He had been waiting
+for months for just such a message from her. The night of the
+spelling-match he induced her to come to Colonel Randall's, and now the
+whole house-party, including Miss Banks, was to leave on the following
+day for New York. The marriage would take place in a very few weeks.
+
+"I'll accept your explanation," said Mr. Crow composedly as he took a
+handful of cigars. "Well, I guess I'll be startin' back. It's gettin'
+kind o' late-like."
+
+There was a telegram at the livery stable for him when he reached that
+haven of warmth and rest in Tinkletown about dawn the next day. It was
+from Chicago and marked "Charges collect."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What girl and whose body," it said, "do you refer to? Miss Lovering has
+been dead two years, and we are settling the estate in behalf of the
+other heirs. We were trying to establish her place of residence. Never
+mind the body you have lost."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Doggone," said Anderson, chuckling aloud, "that was an awful good joke
+on 'Rast, wasn't it?"
+
+The stablemen stood around and looked at him with jaws that were
+drooping helplessly. The air seemed laden with a sombre uncertainty that
+had not yet succeeded in penetrating the nature of Marshal Crow.
+
+"Is it from her?" finally asked Ike Smith hoarsely, his lips trembling.
+
+"From what her?"
+
+"Rosalie."
+
+"Thunder, no! It's from my lawyers in Chicago."
+
+"Ain't you--ain't you heerd about it?" half groaned Ike, moving away as
+if he expected something calamitous.
+
+"What the dickens are you fellers drivin' at?" demanded Anderson. The
+remainder of his posse deserted the red-hot stove and drew near with the
+instinctive feeling that something dreadful had happened.
+
+"Ro--Rosalie has been missin' sence early last night. She was grabbed by
+some feller near Mrs. Luce's, chucked into a big wagon an' rushed out of
+town before Ros Crow could let out a yell. Clean stole her--look out!
+Ketch him, Joe!"
+
+Anderson dropped limply into a hostler's arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Rosalie Disappears
+
+
+Things had happened in Tinkletown that night. Alf Reesling finally found
+some one who would listen to his story. He told the minister and the
+minister alarmed the town. To be brief, Alf admitted that 'Rast Little
+was at his house in the outskirts of the village, laid up with a broken
+arm and a bad cut in the top of his head.
+
+"He came crawlin' up to my place about six o'clock in the mornin',"
+explained Alf, "an' I took the poor cuss in. That's what I wanted to
+tell Anderson, but the old rip wouldn't listen to me. Seems as though
+'Rast waited around the schoolhouse last night to git a crack at that
+feller from town. Miss Banks and her three friends set around the stove
+in the schoolhouse for about an hour after the crowd left, an' 'Rast got
+so cold he liked to died out there in the woodshed.
+
+"Purty soon they all come out, an' 'Rast cut acrost the lot to git
+inside the house by the fire. He was so derned cold that he didn't feel
+like crackin' anybody. When they wasn't lookin' he sneaked inside. Jest
+as he was gittin' ready to hug the stove he heard Miss Banks an' one of
+the men comin' back. He shinned up the ladder into the garret just in
+time. In they come an' the feller lit a lamp. 'Rast could hear 'em
+talkin'. She said good-bye to the schoolhouse forever, an' the feller
+kissed her a couple of times. 'Rast pretty nigh swore out loud at that.
+Then she said she'd leave a note in her desk fer the trustees, resignin'
+her job, er whatever she called it. He heard her read the note to the
+man, an' it said somethin' about goin' away unexpected to git married.
+'Rast says ef Anderson had looked in the desk he'd have found the note.
+
+"Then she packed up some books an' her an' the feller went out. 'Rast
+was paralysed. He heerd the sleigh-bells jingle an' then he come to. He
+started down the ladder so quick that he missed his hold and went
+kerslam clear to the bottom. Doggone ef he didn't light on his head,
+too. He don't know how long he laid there, but finally he was
+resurrected enough to crawl over by the stove. His arm was broke an' he
+was bleedin' like a stuck hog. Miss Banks had left her handkerchief on
+the desk, an' he says he tried to bind up his head with it, but it was
+too infernal small. Somehow he got outside an' wandered around half
+crazy fer a long time, finally pullin' up at my house, derned nigh froze
+to death an' so weak he couldn't walk no more. He'd lost his hat an' his
+ear muffs an' his way all at the same time. If Anderson had let me talk
+this mornin' he'd 'a' knowed there wasn't no murder. It was just a
+match."
+
+Hours passed before Anderson was himself again and able to comprehend
+the details of the story which involved the disappearance of his ward.
+It slowly filtered through his mind as he sat stark-eyed and numb before
+the kitchen fire that this was the means her mysterious people had taken
+to remove her from his custody. The twenty years had expired, and they
+had come to claim their own. There was gloom in the home of Anderson
+Crow--gloom so dense that death would have seemed bright in comparison.
+Mrs. Crow was prostrated, Anderson in a state of mental and physical
+collapse, the children hysterical.
+
+All Tinkletown stood close and ministered dumbly to the misery of the
+bereaved ones, but made no effort to follow or frustrate the abductors.
+The town seemed as helpless as the marshal, not willingly or wittingly,
+but because it had so long known him as leader that no one possessed the
+temerity to step into his place, even in an hour of emergency.
+
+A dull state of paralysis fell upon the citizens, big and little. It
+was as if universal palsy had been ordained to pinch the limbs and
+brains of Tinkletown until the hour came for the rehabilitation of
+Anderson Crow himself. No one suggested a move in any direction--in
+fact, no one felt like moving at all. Everything stood stockstill while
+Anderson slowly pulled himself together; everything waited dumbly for
+its own comatose condition to be dispelled by the man who had been hit
+the hardest.
+
+It was not until late in the afternoon that Blucher Peabody, the
+druggist, awoke from his lethargy and moved as though he intended to
+take the initiative. "Blootch" was Rosalie's most persistent admirer. He
+had fallen heir to his father's apothecary shop and notion store, and he
+was regarded as one of the best catches in town. He approached the
+half-frozen crowd that huddled near old Mrs. Luce's front gate. In this
+crowd were some of the prominent men of the town, young and old; they
+left their places of business every half hour or so and wandered
+aimlessly to the now historic spot, as if drawn by a magnet. Just why
+they congregated there no one could explain and no one attempted to do
+so. Presumably it was because the whole town centred its mind on one of
+two places--the spot where Rosalie was seized or the home of Anderson
+Crow. When they were not at Mrs. Luce's gate they were tramping through
+Anderson's front yard and into his house.
+
+"Say," said "Blootch" so loudly that the crowd felt like remonstrating
+with him, "what's the use of all this?"
+
+No one responded. No one was equal to it on such short notice.
+
+"We've got to do something besides stand around and whisper," he said.
+"We've got to find Rosalie Gray."
+
+"But good gosh!" ejaculated Isaac Porter, "they've got purty nigh a
+day's start of us."
+
+"Well, that don't matter. Anderson would do as much for us. Let's get a
+move on."
+
+"But where in thunder will we hunt?" murmured George Ray.
+
+"To the end of the earth," announced Blootch, inflating his chest and
+slapping it violently, a strangely personal proceeding, which went
+unnoticed. He had reached the conclusion that his chance to be a hero
+was at hand and not to be despised. Here was the opportunity to outstrip
+all of his competitors in the race for Rosalie's favour. It might be
+confessed that, with all his good intentions, his plans were hopelessly
+vague. The group braced up a little at the sound of his heroic words.
+
+"But the derned thing's round," was the only thing Ed Higgins could find
+to say. Ed, as fickle as the wind, was once more deeply in love with
+Rosalie, having switched from Miss Banks immediately after the visit to
+Colonel Randall's.
+
+"Aw, you go to Guinea!" was Blootch's insulting reply. Nothing could be
+more disparaging than that, but Ed failed to retaliate. "Let's appoint a
+committee to wait on Anderson and find out what he thinks we'd better
+do."
+
+"But Anderson ain't--" began some one. Blootch calmly waived him into
+silence.
+
+"What he wants is encouragement, and not a lot of soup and broth and
+lemonade. He ain't sick. He's as able-bodied as I am. Every woman in
+town took soup to him this noon. He needs a good stiff drink of whiskey
+and a committee to cheer him up. I took a bottle up to 'Rast Little last
+night and he acted like another man."
+
+At last it was decided that a committee should first wait on Anderson,
+ascertaining his wishes in the premises, and then proceed to get at the
+bottom of the mystery. In forming this committee the wise men of the
+town ignored Mr. Peabody, and he might have been left off completely had
+he not stepped in and appointed himself chairman.
+
+The five good men and true descended upon the marshal late in the
+afternoon, half fearful of the result, but resolute. They found him
+slowly emerging from his spell of lassitude. He greeted them with a
+solemn nod of the head. Since early morning he had been conscious of a
+long stream of sympathisers passing through the house, but it was not
+until now that he felt equal to the task of recognising any of them.
+
+His son Roscoe had just finished telling him the story of the abduction.
+Roscoe's awestruck tones and reddened eyes carried great weight with
+them, and for the tenth time that day he had his sisters in tears. With
+each succeeding repetition the details grew until at last there was but
+little of the original event remaining, a fact which his own family
+properly overlooked.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Anderson, as if suddenly coming from a trance, "this
+wasn't the work of Tinkletown desperadoes." Whereupon the committee felt
+mightily relieved. The marshal displayed signs of a returning energy
+that augured well for the enterprise. After the chairman had
+impressively announced that something must be done, and that he was
+willing to lead his little band to death's door--and beyond, if
+necessary--Mr. Crow pathetically upset all their hopes by saying that he
+had long been expecting such a calamity, and that nothing could be done.
+
+"They took the very night when I was not here to pertect her," he
+lamented. "It shows that they been a-watchin' me all along. The job was
+did by persons who was in the employ of her family, an' she has been
+carried off secretly to keep me from findin' out who and what her
+parents were. Don't ye see? Her mother--or father, fer that
+matter--couldn't afford to come right out plain an' say they wanted
+their child after all these years. The only way was to take her away
+without givin' themselves away. It's been the plan all along. There
+ain't no use huntin' fer her, gentlemen. She's in New York by this time,
+an' maybe she's ready fer a trip to Europe."
+
+"But I should think she'd telegraph to you," said Blootch.
+
+"Telegraph yer granny! Do you s'pose they'd 'a' stole her if they
+intended to let her telegraph to anybody? Not much. They're spiritin'
+her away until her estate's settled. After a while it will all come out,
+an' you'll see if I ain't right. But she's gone. They've got her away
+from me an'--an' we got to stand it, that's all. I--I--cain't bear to
+think about it. It's broke my heart mighty ne--near. Don't mind me
+if--I--cry, boys. You would, too, if you was me."
+
+As the committee departed soon after without any plan of action arising
+from the interview with the dejected marshal, it may be well to acquaint
+the reader with the history of the abduction, as told by Roscoe Crow and
+his bosom friend, Bud Long, thoroughly expurgated.
+
+According to instructions, no one in the Crow family mentioned the
+strange disappearance of Elsie Banks to Rosalie. Nor was she told of the
+pursuit by the marshal and his posse. The girl, far from being afflicted
+with a fever, really now kept in her room by grief over the departure of
+her friend and companion. She was in tears all that night and the next
+day, suffering intensely in her loss. Rosalie did not know that the
+teacher was to leave Tinkletown surreptitiously until after the
+spelling-bee. The sly, blushing announcement came as a shock, but she
+was loyal to her friend, and not a word in exposure escaped from her
+lips. Of course, she knew nothing of the sensational developments that
+followed the uncalled-for flight of Elsie Banks.
+
+Shortly after the supper dishes had been cleared away Rosalie came
+downstairs and announced that she was going over to read to old Mrs.
+Luce, who was bedridden. Her guardian's absence was not explained to
+her, and she did not in the least suspect that he had been away all day
+on a fool's errand. Roscoe and Bud accompanied her to Mrs. Luce's front
+door, heavily bound by promises to hold their tongues regarding Miss
+Banks.
+
+"We left her there at old Mis' Luce's," related Roscoe, "an' then went
+over to Robertson's Pond to skate. She tole us to stop in fer her about
+nine o'clock, didn't she, Bud? Er was it eight?" He saw the necessity
+for accuracy.
+
+"Ten," corrected Bud deliberately.
+
+"Well, pop, we stopped fer her, an'--an'--"
+
+"Stop yer blubberin', Roscoe," commanded Anderson as harshly as he
+could.
+
+"An' got her," concluded Roscoe. "She put on her shawl an' mittens an'
+said she'd run us a race all the way home. We all got ready to start
+right in front of old Mis' Luce's gate. Bud he stopped an' said, 'Here
+comes Tony Brink.' We all looked around, an' sure enough, a heavy-set
+feller was comin' to'rds us. It looked like Tony, but when he got up to
+us I see it wasn't him. He ast us if we could tell him where Mr. Crow
+lived--"
+
+"He must 'a' been a stranger," deduced Anderson mechanically.
+
+"--an' Bud said you lived right on ahead where the street lamps was.
+Jest then a big sleigh turned out of the lane back of Mis' Luce's an'
+drove up to where we was standin'. Bud was standin' jest like this--me
+here an' Rosalie a little off to one side. S'posin' this chair was her
+an'--"
+
+"Yes--yes, go on," from Anderson.
+
+"The sleigh stopped, and there was two fellers in it. There was two
+seats, too."
+
+"Front and back?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I understand. It was a double-seated one," again deduced the marshal.
+
+"An' nen, by gum, 'fore we could say Jack Robinson, one of the fellers
+jumped out an' grabbed Rosalie. The feller on the groun', he up an' hit
+me a clip in the ear. I fell down, an' so did Bud--"
+
+"He hit me on top of the head," corrected Bud sourly.
+
+"I heerd Rosalie start to scream, but the next minute they had a blanket
+over her head an' she was chucked into the back seat. It was all over in
+a second. I got up, but 'fore I could run a feller yelled, 'Ketch him!'
+An' another feller did. 'Don't let 'em get away,' said the driver in
+low, hissin' tones--"
+
+"Regular villains," vowed Anderson.
+
+"Yes, sir. 'Don't let 'em git away er they'll rouse the town.' 'What'll
+we do with 'em?' asked the feller who held both of us. 'Kill 'em?' Gosh,
+I was skeered. Neither one of us could yell, 'cause he had us by the
+neck, an' he was powerful strong. 'Chuck 'em in here an' I'll tend to
+'em,' said the driver. Next thing we knowed we was in the front of the
+sleigh, an' the whole outfit was off like a runaway. They said they'd
+kill us if we made a noise, an' we didn't. I wish I'd'a' had my rifle,
+doggone it! I'd'a' showed 'em."
+
+"They drove like thunder out to'rds Boggs City fer about two mile," said
+Bud, who had been silent as long as human nature would permit. "'Nen
+they stopped an' throwed us out in the road. 'Go home, you devils, an'
+don't you tell anybody about us er I'll come back here some day an' give
+you a kick in the slats.'
+
+"Slats?" murmured Anderson.
+
+"That's short fer ribs," explained Bud loftily.
+
+"Well, why couldn't he have said short ribs an' been done with it?"
+complained Anderson.
+
+"Then they whipped up an' turned off west in the pike," resumed Bud. "We
+run all the way home an' tole Mr. Lamson, an' he--"
+
+"Where was Rosalie all this time?" asked Anderson.
+
+"Layin' in the back seat covered with a blanket, jest the same as if she
+was dead. I heerd 'em say somethin' about chloroformin' her. What does
+chloroform smell like, Mr. Crow?"
+
+"Jest like any medicine. It has drugs in it. They use it to pull teeth.
+Well, what then?"
+
+"Well," interposed Roscoe, "Mr. Lamson gave the alarm, an' nearly
+ever'body in town got out o' bed. They telegraphed to Boggs City an' all
+around, but it didn't seem to do no good. Them horses went faster'n
+telegraphs."
+
+"Did you ever see them fellers before?"
+
+"No, sir; but I think I'd know 'em with their masks off."
+
+"Was they masked?"
+
+"Their faces were."
+
+"Oh, my poor little Rosalie!" sobbed old Anderson hopelessly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The Haunted House
+
+
+Days passed without word or sign from the missing girl. The marshal
+haunted the post-office and the railroad station, hoping with all his
+poor old heart that word would come from her; but the letter was not
+there, nor was there a telegram at the station when he strolled over to
+that place. The county officials at Boggs City came down and began a
+cursory investigation, but Anderson's emphatic though doleful opinions
+set them quite straight, and they gave up the quest. There was nothing
+to do but to sit back and wait.
+
+In those three days Anderson Crow turned greyer and older, although he
+maintained a splendid show of resignation. He had made a perfunctory
+offer of reward for Rosalie, dead or alive, but he knew all the time
+that it would be fruitless. Mark Riley, the bill-poster, stuck up the
+glaring reward notices as far away as the telegraph poles in Clay
+County. The world was given to understand that $1000 reward would be
+paid for Rosalie's return or for information leading to the apprehension
+and capture of her abductors.
+
+There was one very mysterious point in connection with the
+affair--something so strange that it bordered on the supernatural. No
+human being in Bramble County except the two boys had seen the
+double-seated sleigh. It had disappeared as if swallowed by the earth
+itself.
+
+"Well, it don't do any good to cry over spilt milk," said Anderson
+bravely. "She's gone, an' I only hope she ain't bein' mistreated. I
+don't see why they should harm her. She's never done nobody a wrong.
+Like as not she's been taken to a comfortable place in New York, an'
+we'll hear from her as soon as she recovers from the shock. There ain't
+no use huntin' fer her, I know, but I jest can't help nosin' around a
+little. Mebby I can git some track of her. I'd give all I got in this
+world to know that she's safe an' sound, no matter if I never see her
+ag'in."
+
+The hungry look in his eyes deepened, and no one bandied jests with him
+as was the custom in days gone by.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were not many tramps practising in that section of the State.
+Anderson Crow proudly announced that they gave Tinkletown a wide berth
+because of his prowess; but the vagabond gentry took an entirely
+different view of the question. They did not infest the upper part of
+the State for the simple but eloquent reason that it meant starvation to
+them. The farmers compelled the weary wayfarer to work all day like a
+borrowed horse for a single meal at the "second table." There was no
+such thing as a "hand-out," as it is known in the tramp's vocabulary. It
+is not extraordinary, therefore, that tramps found the community so
+unattractive that they cheerfully walked miles to avoid it. A
+peculiarly well-informed vagrant once characterised the up-state farmer
+as being so "close that he never shaved because it was a waste of hair."
+
+It is hardly necessary to state, in view of the attitude of both farmer
+and tramp, that the misguided vagrant who wandered that way was the
+object of distinct, if not distinguished, curiosity. In the country
+roads he was stared at with a malevolence that chilled his appetite, no
+matter how long he had been cultivating it on barren soil. In the
+streets of Tinkletown, and even at the county seat, he was an object of
+such amazing concern that he slunk away in pure distress. It was indeed
+an unsophisticated tramp who thought to thrive in Bramble County even
+for a day and a night. In front of the general store and post-office at
+Tinkletown there was a sign-post, on which Anderson Crow had painted
+these words:
+
+     "No tramps or Live Stock Allowed on these Streets.
+             By order of
+                     A. CROW, Marshal."
+
+The live stock disregarded the command, but the tramp took warning. On
+rare occasions he may have gone through some of the houses in
+Tinkletown, but if he went through the streets no one was the wiser.
+Anderson Crow solemnly but studiously headed him off in the outskirts,
+and he took another direction. Twice in his career he drove out tramps
+who had burglarised the houses of prominent citizens in broad daylight,
+but what did it matter so long as the "hoboes" were kept from
+desecrating the main street of the town? Mr. Crow's official star,
+together with his badge from the New York detective agency, his Sons of
+the Revolution pin, and his G.A.R. insignia, made him a person to be
+feared. If the weather became too hot for coat and vest the proud
+dignitary fastened the badges to his suspenders, and their presence
+glorified the otherwise humble "galluses."
+
+On the fourth day after the abduction Marshal Crow was suddenly aroused
+from his lethargy by the news that the peace and security of the
+neighbourhood was being imposed upon.
+
+"The dickens you say!" he observed, abandoning the perpetual grip upon
+his straggling chin whiskers.
+
+"Yes, sir," responded the excited small boy, who, with two companions,
+had run himself quite out of breath all over town before he found the
+officer at Harkin's blacksmith shop.
+
+"Well, dang 'em!" said Mr. Crow impressively.
+
+"We was skatin' in the marsh when we heerd 'em plain as day," said the
+other boy. "You bet I'm nuvver goin' nigh that house ag'in."
+
+"Sho! Bud, they ain't no sech thing as ghosts," said Mr. Crow; "it's
+tramps."
+
+"You know that house is ha'nted," protested Bud. "Wasn't ole Mrs. Rank
+slew there by her son-in-law? Wasn't she chopped to pieces and buried
+there right in her own cellar?"
+
+"Thunderation, boy, that was thirty year ago!"
+
+"Well, nobody's lived in the ha'nted house sence then, has they? Didn't
+Jim Smith try to sleep there oncet on a bet, an' didn't he hear sech
+awful noises 'at he liked to went crazy?" insisted Bud.
+
+[Illustration: The haunted house]
+
+"I _do_ recollect that Jim run two mile past his own house before he
+could stop, he was in sech a hurry to git away from the place. But Jim
+didn't _see_ anything. Besides, that was twenty year ago. Ghosts don't
+hang aroun' a place when there ain't nothin' to ha'nt. Her son-in-law
+was hung, an' she ain't got no one else to pester. I tell you it's
+tramps."
+
+"Well, we just thought we'd tell you, Mr. Crow," said the first boy.
+
+In a few minutes it was known throughout the business centre of
+Tinkletown that tramps were making their home in the haunted house down
+the river, and that Anderson Crow was to ride forth on his bicycle to
+rout them out. The haunted house was three miles from town and in the
+most desolate section of the bottomland. It was approachable only
+through the treacherous swamp on one side or by means of the river on
+the other. Not until after the murder of its owner and builder, old
+Johanna Rank, was there an explanation offered for the existence of a
+home in such an unwholesome locality.
+
+Federal authorities discovered that she and her son-in-law, Dave Wolfe,
+were at the head of a great counterfeiting gang, and that they had been
+working up there in security for years, turning out spurious coins by
+the hundred. One night Dave up and killed his mother-in-law, and was
+hanged for his good deed before he could be punished for his bad ones.
+For thirty years the weather-beaten, ramshackle old cabin in the swamp
+had been unoccupied except by birds, lizards, and other denizens of the
+solitude--always, of course, including the ghost of old Mrs. Rank.
+
+Inasmuch as Dave chopped her into small bits and buried them in the
+cellar, while her own daughter held the lantern, it was not beyond the
+range of possibility that certain atoms of the unlamented Johanna were
+never unearthed by the searchers. It was generally believed in the
+community that Mrs. Rank's spirit came back every little while to nose
+around in the dirt of the cellar in quest of such portions of her person
+as had not been respectably interred in the village graveyard.
+
+Mysterious noises had been heard about the place at the dead hour of
+night, and ghostly lights had flitted past the cellar windows. All
+Tinkletown agreed that the place was haunted and kept at a most
+respectful distance. The three small boys who startled Marshal Crow from
+his moping had gone down the river to skate instead of going to school.
+They swore that the sound of muffled voices came from the interior of
+the cabin, near which they had inadvertently wandered. Although Dave
+Wolfe had been dead thirty years, one of the youngest of the lads was
+positive that he recognised the voice of the desperado. And at once the
+trio fled the 'cursed spot and brought the horrifying news to Anderson
+Crow. The detective was immediately called upon to solve the ghostly
+mystery.
+
+Marshal Crow first went to his home and donned his blue coat,
+transferring the stars and badges to the greasy lapel of the garment. He
+also secured his dark lantern and the official cane of the village, but
+why he should carry a cane on a bicycle expedition was known only to
+himself. Followed by a horde of small boys and a few representative
+citizens of Tinkletown on antiquated wheels, Mr. Crow pedalled
+majestically off to the south. Skirting the swamp, the party approached
+the haunted house over the narrow path which ran along the river bank.
+Once in sight of the dilapidated cabin, which seemed to slink farther
+and farther back into the dense shadows of the late afternoon, with all
+the diffidence of the supernatural, the marshal called a halt and
+announced his plans.
+
+"You kids go up an' tell them fellers I want to see 'em," he commanded.
+The boys fell back and prepared to whimper.
+
+"I don't want to," protested Bud.
+
+"Why don't you go an' tell 'em yourself, Anderson?" demanded Isaac
+Porter, the pump repairer.
+
+"Thunderation, Ike, who's runnin' this thing?" retorted Anderson Crow.
+"I got a right to deputise anybody to do anything at any time. Don't you
+s'pose I know how to handle a job like this? I got my own idees how to
+waylay them raskils, an' I reckon I been in the detectin' business long
+enough to know how to manage a gol-derned tramp, ain't I? How's that?
+Who says I ain't?"
+
+"Nobody said a word, Anderson," meekly observed Jim Borum.
+
+"Well, I _thought_ somebody did. An' I don't want nobody interferin'
+with an officer, either. Bud, you an' them two Heffner boys go up an'
+tell them loafers to step down here right spry er I'll come up there an'
+see about it."
+
+"Gosh, Mr. Crow, I'm a-skeered to!" whimpered Bud. The Heffner boys
+started for home on a dead run.
+
+"Askeered to?" sniffed Anderson. "An' your great-grand-dad was in the
+Revolution, too. Geminy crickets, ef you was my boy I'd give you
+somethin' to be askeered of! Now, Bud, nothin' kin happen to you. Ain't
+I here?"
+
+"But suppose they won't come when I tell 'em?"
+
+"Yes, 'n' supposin' 'tain't tramps, but ghosts?" volunteered Mr. Porter,
+edging away with his bicycle. It was now quite dark and menacing in
+there where the cabin stood. As the outcome of half an hour's
+discussion, the whole party advanced slowly upon the house, Anderson
+Crow in the lead, his dark lantern in one hand, his cane in the other.
+Half way to the house he stopped short and turned to Bud.
+
+"Gosh dern you, Bud! I don't believe you heerd any noise in there at
+all! There ain't no use goin' any further with this, gentlemen. The dern
+boys was lyin'. We might jest as well go home." And he would have
+started for home had not Isaac Porter uttered a fearful groan and
+staggered back against a swamp reed for support, his horrified eyes
+glued upon a window in the log house. The reed was inadequate, and Isaac
+tumbled over backward.
+
+For a full minute the company stared dumbly at the indistinct little
+window, paralysis attacking every sense but that of sight. At the
+expiration of another minute the place was deserted, and Anderson Crow
+was the first to reach the bicycles far up the river bank. Every face
+was as white as chalk, and every voice trembled. Mr. Crow's dignity
+asserted itself just as the valiant posse prepared to "straddle" the
+wheels in mad flight.
+
+"Hold on!" he panted. "I lost my dark lantern down there. Go back an'
+git it, Bud."
+
+"Land o' mighty! Did y'ever see anythin' like it?" gasped Jim Borum,
+trying to mount a ten-year-old boy's wheel instead of his own.
+
+"I'd like to have anybody tell me there ain't no sech things as ghosts,"
+faltered Uncle Jimmy Borton, who had always said there wasn't. "Let go,
+there! Ouch!" The command and subsequent exclamation were the inevitable
+results of his unsuccessful attempt to mount with Elon Jones the same
+wheel.
+
+"What'd I tell you, Anderson?" exclaimed Isaac Porter. "Didn't I say it
+was ghosts? Tramps nothin'! A tramp wouldn't last a second up in that
+house. It's been ha'nted fer thirty years an' it gits worse all the
+time. What air we goin' to do next?"
+
+Even the valiant Mr. Crow approved of an immediate return to Tinkletown,
+and the posse was trying to disentangle its collection of bicycles when
+an interruption came from an unsuspected quarter--a deep, masculine
+voice arose from the ice-covered river hard by, almost directly below
+that section of the bank on which Anderson and his friends were herded.
+The result was startling. Every man leaped a foot in the air and every
+hair stood on end; bicycles rattled and clashed together, and Ed
+Higgins, hopelessly bewildered, started to run in the direction of the
+haunted house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+Wicker Bonner, Harvard
+
+
+"Hello, up there!" was what the deep, masculine voice shouted from the
+river. Anderson Crow was the first to distinguish the form of the
+speaker, and he was not long in deciding that it was far from
+ghost-like. With a word of command he brought his disorganised forces
+out of chaos and huddled them together as if to resist attack.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" he demanded, addressing his men in a loud
+tone. "Don't get rattled!"
+
+"Are you speaking to me?" called the fresh voice from below.
+
+"Who are you?" demanded Mr. Crow in return.
+
+"Nobody in particular. What's going on up there? What's the fuss?"
+
+"Come up an' find out." Then Mr. Crow, observing that the man below was
+preparing to comply, turned and addressed his squad in low, earnest
+tones. "This feller will bear watchin'. He's mixed up in this thing
+somehow. Else why is he wanderin' around here close to the house? I'll
+question him."
+
+"By gosh, he ain't no ghost!" murmured Ed Higgins, eyeing the newcomer
+as he crawled up the bank. "Say, did y' see me a minute ago? If you
+fellers had come on, I was goin' right up to search that house from top
+to bottom. Was you all askeered to come?"
+
+"Aw, you!" said Anderson Crow in deep scorn.
+
+The next instant a stalwart young fellow stood before the marshal, who
+was eyeing him keenly, even imperiously. The newcomer's good-looking,
+strong-featured face was lighted up by a smile of surpassing
+friendliness.
+
+"It's lonesome as thunder down here, isn't it? Glad to see you,
+gentlemen. What's up--a bicycle race?"
+
+"No, sir; we got a little business up here, that's all," responded
+Anderson Crow diplomatically. "What air you doin' here?"
+
+"Skating. My name is Wicker Bonner, and I'm visiting my uncle,
+Congressman Bonner, across the river. You know him, I dare say. I've
+been hanging around here for a week's hunting, and haven't had an ounce
+of luck in all that time. It's rotten! Aha, I see that you are an
+officer, sir--a detective, too. By George, can it be possible that you
+are searching for some one? If you are, let me in on it. I'm dying for
+excitement."
+
+The young man's face was eager and his voice rang true. Besides, he was
+a tall, athletic chap, with brawny arms and a broad back. Altogether, he
+would make a splendid recruit, thought Anderson Crow. He was dressed in
+rough corduroy knickerbockers, the thick coat buttoned up close to his
+muffled neck. A woollen cap came down over his ears and a pair of skates
+dangled from his arm.
+
+"Yes, sir; I'm a detective, and we are up here doin' a little
+investigatin'. You are from Chicago, I see."
+
+"What makes you think so?"
+
+"Can't fool me. I c'n always tell. You said, 'I've _bean_ hangin','
+instead of 'I've _ben_ hangin'.' See? They say _bean_ in Chicago. Ha!
+ha! You didn't think I could deduce that, did you?"
+
+"I'll confess that I didn't," said Mr. Bonner with a dry smile. "I'm
+from Boston, however."
+
+"Sure," interposed Isaac Porter; "that's where the beans come from,
+Anderson."
+
+"Well, that's neither here nor there," said Mr. Crow, hastily changing
+the subject. "We're wastin' time."
+
+"Stayin' here, you mean?" asked Ed Higgins, quite ready to start.
+Involuntarily the eyes of the posse turned toward the house among the
+willows. The stranger saw the concerted glance and made inquiry.
+Whereupon Mr. Crow, assisted by seven men and five small boys, told Mr.
+Wicker Bonner, late of Harvard, what had brought them from Tinkletown to
+the haunted house, and what they had seen upon their arrival. Young
+Bonner's face glowed with the joy of excitement.
+
+"Great!" he cried, fastening his happy eyes upon the hated thing among
+the trees. "Let's search the place. By George, this is glorious!"
+
+"Not on your life!" said Ed Higgins. "You can't get me inside that
+house. Like as not a feller'd never come out alive."
+
+"Well, better men than we have died," said Mr. Bonner tranquilly. "Come
+on; I'll go in first. It's all tommy-rot about the place being haunted.
+In any event, ghosts don't monkey around at this time of day. It's
+hardly dusk."
+
+"But, gosh dern it," exploded Anderson Crow, "we seen it!"
+
+"I seen it first," said Isaac Porter proudly.
+
+"But I heerd it first," peeped up Master Bud.
+
+"You've all been drinking hard cider or pop or something like that,"
+said the brawny scoffer.
+
+"Now, see here, you're gittin' fresh, an--" began the marshal, swelling
+up like a pigeon.
+
+"Look out behind!" sang out Mr. Bonner, and Anderson jumped almost out
+of his shoes, besides ripping his shirt in the back, he turned so
+suddenly.
+
+"Jeemses River!" he gasped.
+
+"Never turn your back on an unknown danger," cautioned the young man
+serenely. "Be ready to meet it."
+
+"If you're turned t'other way you c'n git a quicker start if you want to
+run," suggested Jim Borum, bracing himself with a fresh chew of tobacco.
+
+"What time is it?" asked Wicker Bonner.
+
+Anderson Crow squinted up through the leafless treetops toward the
+setting sun; then he looked at the shadow of a sapling down on the bank.
+
+"It's about seven minutes past five--in the evenin'," he said
+conclusively. Bonner was impolite enough to pull out his watch for
+verification.
+
+"You're a minute fast," he observed; but he looked at Anderson with a
+new and respectful admiration.
+
+"He c'n detect anything under the sun," said Porter with a feeble laugh
+at his own joke.
+
+"Well, let's go up and ransack that old cabin," announced Bonner,
+starting toward the willows. The crowd held back. "I'll go alone if
+you're afraid to come," he went on. "It's my firm belief that you didn't
+see anything and the noise you boys heard was the wind whistling through
+the trees. Now, tell the truth, how many of you saw it?"
+
+"I did," came from every throat so unanimously that Jim Borum's
+supplemental oath stood out alone and forceful as a climax.
+
+"Then it's worth investigating," announced the Boston man. "It is
+certainly a very mysterious affair, and you, at least, Mr. Town Marshal,
+should back me up in the effort to unravel it. Tell me again just what
+it was you saw and what it looked like."
+
+"I won't let no man tell me what my duties are," snorted Anderson, his
+stars trembling with injured pride. "Of course I'm going to solve the
+mystery. We've got to see what's inside that house. I thought it was
+tramps at first."
+
+"Well, lead on, then; I'll follow!" said Bonner with a grin.
+
+"I thought you was so anxious to go first!" exclaimed Anderson with fine
+tact. "Go ahead yourself, ef you're so derned brave. I dare you to."
+
+Bonner laughed loud enough to awaken every ghost in Bramble County and
+then strode rapidly toward the house. Anderson Crow followed slowly and
+the rest straggled after, all alert for the first sign of resistance.
+
+"I wish I could find that derned lantern," said Anderson, searching
+diligently in the deep grass as he walked along, in the meantime
+permitting Bonner to reach the grim old doorway far in advance of him.
+
+"Come on!" called back the intrepid leader, seeing that all save the
+marshal had halted. "You don't need the lantern. It's still daylight,
+old chap. We'll find out what it was you all saw in the window."
+
+"That's the last of him," muttered Isaac Porter, as the broad back
+disappeared through the low aperture that was called a doorway. There
+were no window sashes or panes in the house, and the door had long since
+rotted from the hinges.
+
+"He'll never come out. Let's go home," added Ed Higgins conclusively.
+
+"Are you coming?" sang out Bonner from the interior of the house. His
+voice sounded prophetically sepulchral.
+
+"Consarn it, cain't you wait a minute?" replied Anderson Crow, still
+bravely but consistently looking for the much-needed dark lantern.
+
+"It's all right in here. There hasn't been a human being in the house
+for years. Come on in; it's fine!"
+
+Anderson Crow finally ventured up to the doorway and peeped in. Bonner
+was standing near the tumbledown fireplace, placidly lighting a
+cigarette.
+
+"This is a fine job you've put up on me," he growled. "I thought there
+would be something doing. There isn't a soul here, and there hasn't
+been, either."
+
+"Thunderation, man, you cain't see ghosts when they don't want you to!"
+said Anderson Crow. "It was a ghost, that's settled. I knowed it all
+the time. Nothin' human ever looked like it, and nothin' alive ever
+moaned like it did."
+
+By this time the rest of the party had reached the cabin door. The less
+timorous ventured inside, while others contented themselves by looking
+through the small windows.
+
+"Well, if you're sure you really saw something, we'd better make a
+thorough search of the house and the grounds," said Bonner, and
+forthwith began nosing about the two rooms.
+
+The floors were shaky and the place had the odour of decayed wood. Mould
+clung to the half-plastered walls, cobwebs matted the ceilings, and
+rotted fungi covered the filth in the corners. Altogether it was a most
+uninviting hole, in which no self-respecting ghost would have made its
+home. When the time came to climb up to the little garret Bonner's
+followers rebelled. He was compelled to go alone, carrying the lantern,
+which one of the small boys had found. This part of the house was even
+more loathsome than below, and it would be impossible to describe its
+condition. He saw no sign of life, and retired in utter disgust. Then
+came the trip to the cellar. Again he had no followers, the Tinkletown
+men emphatically refusing to go down where old Mrs. Rank's body had been
+buried. Bonner laughed at them and went down alone. It was nauseous with
+age and the smell of damp earth, but it was cleaner there than above
+stairs. The cellar was smaller than either of the living rooms, and was
+to be reached only through the kitchen. There was no exit leading
+directly to the exterior of the house, but there was one small window at
+the south end. Bonner examined the room carefully and then rejoined the
+party. For some reason the posse had retired to the open air as soon as
+he left them to go below. No one knew exactly why, but when one started
+to go forth the others followed with more or less alacrity.
+
+"Did you see anything?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"What did old Mrs. Rank look like when she was alive?" asked Bonner with
+a beautifully mysterious air. No one answered; but there was a sudden
+shifting of feet backward, while an expression of alarmed inquiry came
+into every face. "Don't back into that open well," warned the amused
+young man in the doorway. Anderson Crow looked sharply behind, and
+flushed indignantly when he saw that the well was at least fifty feet
+away. "I saw something down there that looked like a woman's toe," went
+on Bonner very soberly.
+
+"Good Lord! What did I tell you?" cried the marshal, turning to his
+friends. To the best of their ability they could not remember that
+Anderson had told them anything, but with one accord the whole party
+nodded approval.
+
+"I fancy it was the ghost of a toe, however, for when I tried to pick it
+up it wriggled away, and I think it chuckled. It disappear--what's the
+matter? Where are you going?"
+
+It is only necessary to state that the marshal and his posse retreated
+in good order to a distant spot where it was not quite so dark, there
+to await the approach of Wicker Bonner, who leisurely but laughingly
+inspected the exterior of the house and the grounds adjoining. Finding
+nothing out of the ordinary, except as to dilapidation, he rejoined the
+party with palpable displeasure in his face.
+
+"Well, I think I'll go back to the ice," he said; "that place is as
+quiet as the grave. You are a fine lot of jokers, and I'll admit that
+the laugh is on me."
+
+But Bonner was mystified, uncertain. He had searched the house
+thoroughly from top to bottom, and he had seen nothing unusual, but
+these men and boys were so positive that he could not believe the eyes
+of all had been deceived.
+
+"This interests me," he said at last. "I'll tell you what we'll do, Mr.
+Crow. You and I will come down here to-night, rig up a tent of some sort
+and divide watch until morning. If there is anything to be seen we'll
+find out what it is. I'll get a couple of straw mattresses from our
+boathouse and--"
+
+"I've got rheumatiz, Mr. Bonner, an' it would be the death o' me to
+sleep in this swamp," objected Anderson hastily.
+
+"Well, I'll come alone, then. I'm not afraid. I don't mean to say I'll
+sleep in that old shack, but I'll bunk out here in the woods. No human
+being could sleep in that place. Will any one volunteer to keep me
+company?"
+
+Silence.
+
+"I don't blame you. It does take nerve, I'll confess. My only
+stipulation is that you shall come down here from the village early
+to-morrow morning. I may have something of importance to tell you, Mr.
+Crow."
+
+"We'll find his dead body," groaned old Mr. Borton.
+
+"Say, mister," piped up a shrill voice, "I'll stay with you." It was Bud
+who spoke, and all Tinkletown was afterward to resound with stories of
+his bravery. The boy had been silently admiring the bold sportsman from
+Boston town, and he was ready to cast his lot with him in this
+adventure. He thrilled with pleasure when the big hero slapped him on
+the back and called him the only man in the crowd.
+
+At eight o'clock that night Bonner and the determined but trembling Bud
+came up the bank from the river and pitched a tent among the trees near
+the haunted house. From the sledge on the river below they trundled up
+their bedding and their stores. Bud had an old single-barrel shotgun, a
+knife and a pipe, which he was just learning to smoke; Bonner brought a
+Navajo blanket, a revolver and a heavy walking stick. He also had a
+large flask of whiskey and the pipe that had graduated from Harvard with
+him.
+
+At nine o'clock he put to bed in one of the chilly nests a very sick
+boy, who hated to admit that the pipe was too strong for him, but who
+felt very much relieved when he found himself wrapped snugly in the
+blankets with his head tucked entirely out of sight. Bud had spent the
+hour in regaling Bonner with the story of Rosalie Gray's abduction and
+his own heroic conduct in connection with the case. He confessed that he
+had knocked one of the villains down, but they were too many for him.
+Bonner listened politely and then--put the hero to bed.
+
+Bonner dozed off at midnight. An hour or so later he suddenly sat bolt
+upright, wide awake and alert. He had the vague impression that he was
+deathly cold and that his hair was standing on end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+The Men in the Sleigh
+
+
+Let us go back to the night on which Rosalie was seized and carried away
+from Mrs. Luce's front gate, despite the valiant resistance of her
+youthful defenders.
+
+Rosalie had drooned Thackeray to the old lady until both of them were
+dozing, and it was indeed a welcome relief that came with Roscoe's
+resounding thumps on the front door. Mrs. Luce was too old to be
+frightened out of a year's growth, but it is perfectly safe to agree
+with her that the noise cost her at least three months.
+
+Desperately blue over the defection of Elsie Banks, Rosalie had found
+little to make her evening cheerful indoors, but the fresh, crisp air
+set her spirits bounding the instant she closed Mrs. Luce's door from
+the outside. We have only to refer to Roscoe's lively narrative for
+proof of what followed almost instantly. She was seized, her head
+tightly wrapped in a thick cloak or blanket; then she was thrown into a
+sleigh, and knew nothing more except a smothering sensation and the
+odour of chloroform.
+
+When she regained consciousness she was lying on the ground in the open
+air, dark night about her. Three men were standing nearby, but there was
+no vehicle in sight. She tried to rise, but on account of her bonds was
+powerless to do so. Speech was prevented by the cloth which closed her
+lips tightly. After a time she began to grasp the meaning of the
+muttered words that passed between the men.
+
+"You got the rig in all right, Bill--you're sure that no one heard or
+saw you?" were the first questions she could make out, evidently arising
+from a previous report or explanation.
+
+"Sure. Everybody in these parts goes to bed at sundown. They ain't got
+nothing to do but sleep up 'ere."
+
+"Nobody knows we had that feller's sleigh an' horses out--nobody ever
+will know," said the big man, evidently the leader. She noticed they
+called him Sam.
+
+"Next thing is to git her across the river without leavin' any tracks.
+We ain't on a travelled road now, pals; we got to be careful. I'll carry
+her down to the bank; but be sure to step squarely in my
+footprints--it'll look like they were made by one man. See?"
+
+"The river's froze over an' we can't be tracked on the ice. It's too
+dark, too, for any one to see us. Go ahead, Sammy; it's d---- cold
+here."
+
+The big man lifted her from the ground as if she were a feather, and she
+was conscious of being borne swiftly through a stretch of sloping
+woodland down to the river bank, a journey of two or three hundred
+yards, it seemed. Here the party paused for many minutes before
+venturing out upon the wide expanse of frozen river, evidently making
+sure that the way was clear. Rosalie, her senses quite fully restored by
+this time, began to analyse the situation with a clearness and calmness
+that afterward was the object of considerable surprise to her. Instead
+of being hysterical with fear, she was actually experiencing the thrill
+of a real emotion. She had no doubt but that her abductors were persons
+hired by those connected with her early history, and, strange as it may
+seem, she could not believe that bodily harm was to be her fate after
+all these years of secret attention on the part of those so deeply,
+though remotely, interested.
+
+Somehow there raced through her brain the exhilarating conviction that
+at last the mystery of her origin was to be cleared away, and with it
+all that had been as a closed book. No thought of death entered her mind
+at that time. Afterward she was to feel that death would be most
+welcome, no matter how it came.
+
+Her captors made the trip across the river in dead silence. There was no
+moon and the night was inky black. The exposed portions of her face
+tingled with cold, but she was so heavily wrapped in the blanket that
+her body did not feel the effects of the zero weather.
+
+At length the icy stretch was passed, and after resting a few minutes,
+Sam proceeded to ascend the steep bank with her in his arms. Why she was
+not permitted to walk she did not know then or afterward. It is
+possible, even likely, that the men thought their charge was
+unconscious. She did nothing to cause them to think otherwise. Again
+they passed among trees, Sam's companions following in his footprints as
+before. Another halt and a brief command for Davy to go ahead and see
+that the coast was clear came after a long and tortuous struggle through
+the underbrush. Twice they seemed to have lost their bearings in the
+darkness, but eventually they came into the open.
+
+"Here we are!" grunted Sam as they hurried across the clearing. "A hard
+night's work, pals, but I guess we're in Easy Street now. Go ahead,
+Davy, an' open the trap!"
+
+Davy swore a mighty but sibilant oath and urged his thick, ugly figure
+ahead of the others.
+
+A moment later the desperadoes and their victim passed through a door
+and into a darkness even blacker than that outside. Davy was pounding
+carefully upon the floor of the room in which they stood. Suddenly a
+faint light spread throughout the room and a hoarse, raucous voice
+whispered:
+
+"Have you got her?"
+
+"Get out of the way--we're near froze," responded Davy gruffly.
+
+"Get down there, Bill, and take her; I'm tired carryin' this hundred and
+twenty pounder," growled Sam.
+
+The next instant Rosalie was conscious of being lowered through a trap
+door in the floor, and then of being borne rapidly through a long,
+narrow passage, lighted fitfully by the rays of a lantern in the hands
+of a fourth and as yet unseen member of the band.
+
+"There!" said Bill, impolitely dropping his burden upon a pile of straw
+in the corner of the rather extensive cave at the end of the passage;
+"wonder if the little fool is dead. She ought to be coming to by this
+time."
+
+"She's got her eyes wide open," uttered the raucous voice on the
+opposite side; and Rosalie turned her eyes in that direction. She looked
+for a full minute as if spellbound with terror, her gaze centred at the
+most repulsive human face she ever had seen--the face of Davy's mother.
+
+The woman was a giantess, a huge, hideous creature with the face of a
+man, hairy and bloated. Her unkempt hair was grey almost to whiteness,
+her teeth were snags, and her eyes were almost hidden beneath the shaggy
+brow. There was a glare of brutal satisfaction in them that appalled the
+girl.
+
+For the first time since the adventure began her heart failed her, and
+she shuddered perceptibly as her lids fell.
+
+"What the h---- are you skeering her fer like that, ma," growled Davy.
+"Don't look at her like that, or--"
+
+"See here, my boy, don't talk like that to me if you don't want me to
+kick your head off right where you stand. I'm your mother, Davy, an'--"
+
+"That'll do. This ain't no time to chew the rag," muttered Sam. "We're
+done fer. Get us something to eat an' something to drink, old woman;
+give the girl a nifter, too. She's fainted, I reckon. Hurry up; I want
+to turn in."
+
+"Better untie her hands--see if she's froze," added Bill savagely.
+
+Roughly the old woman slashed the bonds from the girl's hands and feet
+and then looked askance at Sam, who stood warming his hands over a
+kerosene stove not far away. He nodded his head, and she instantly
+untied the cloth that covered Rosalie's mouth.
+
+"It won't do no good to scream, girl. Nobody'll hear ye but us--and
+we're your friends," snarled the old woman.
+
+"Let her yell if she wants to, Maude. It may relieve her a bit," said
+Sam, meaning to be kind. Instinctively Rosalie looked about for the
+person addressed as Maude. There was but one woman in the gang. Maude!
+That was the creature's name. Instead of crying or shrieking, Rosalie
+laughed outright.
+
+At the sound of the laugh the woman drew back hastily.
+
+"By gor!" she gasped; "the--she's gone daffy!"
+
+The men turned toward them with wonder in their faces. Bill was the
+first to comprehend. He saw the girl's face grow sober with an effort,
+and realised that she was checking her amusement because it was sure to
+offend.
+
+"Aw," he grinned, "I don't blame her fer laughin'! Say what ye will,
+Maude, your name don't fit you."
+
+"It's as good as any name--" began the old hag, glaring at him; but Sam
+interposed with a command to her to get them some hot coffee while he
+had a talk with the girl. "Set up!" he said roughly, addressing Rosalie.
+"We ain't goin' to hurt you."
+
+Rosalie struggled to a sitting posture, her limbs and back stiff from
+the cold and inaction. "Don't ask questions, because they won't be
+answered. I jest want to give you some advice as to how you must act
+while you are our guest. You must be like one of the family. Maybe we'll
+be here a day, maybe a week, but it won't be any longer than that."
+
+"Would you mind telling me where I am and what this all means? Why have
+you committed this outrage? What have I done--" she found voice to say.
+He held up his hand.
+
+"You forget what I said about askin' questions. There ain't nothin' to
+tell you, that's all. You're here and that's enough."
+
+"Well, who is it that has the power to answer questions, sir? I have
+some right to ask them. You have--"
+
+"That'll do, now!" he growled. "I'll put the gag back on you if you
+keep it up. So's you won't worry, I want to say this to you: Your
+friends don't know where you are, and they couldn't find you if they
+tried. You are to stay right here in this cave until we get orders to
+move you. When the time comes we'll take you to wherever we're ordered,
+and then we're through with you. Somebody else will have the say. You
+won't be hurt here unless you try to escape--it won't do you any good to
+yell. It ain't a palace, but it's better than the grave. So be wise. All
+we got to do is to turn you over to the proper parties at the proper
+time. That's all."
+
+"Is the person you speak of my--my mother or my father?" Rosalie asked
+with bated breath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+With the Kidnapers
+
+
+Sam stared at her, and there was something like real amazement in his
+eyes.
+
+"Yer mother or father?" he repeated interrogatively. "Wha--what the
+devil can they have to do with this affair? I guess they're askin' a lot
+of questions themselves about this time."
+
+"Mr. and Mrs. Crow are not my parents," she said; and then shrewdly
+added, "and you know it, sir."
+
+"I've heard that sayin' 'bout a child never knowin' its own father, but
+this business of both the father and mother is a new one on me. I guess
+it's the chloroform. Give us that booze, Bill. She's dippy yet."
+
+He tried to induce her to swallow some of the whiskey, but steadfastly
+she refused, until finally, with an evil snarl, Sam commanded the
+giantess to hold her while he forced the burning liquor down her throat.
+There was a brief struggle, but Rosalie was no match for the huge woman,
+whose enormous arms encircled her; and as the liquid trickled in upon
+her tongue she heard above the brutal laughter of the would-be doctors
+the hoarse voice of Bill crying:
+
+"Don't hurt her, Sam! Let 'er alone!"
+
+"Close yer face! Don't you monkey in this thing, Bill Briggs.
+I'll--well, you know. Drink this, damn you!"
+
+Sputtering and choking, her heart beating wildly with fear and rage,
+Rosalie was thrown back upon the straw by the woman. Her throat was
+burning from the effects of the whiskey and her eyes were blinded by the
+tears of anger and helplessness.
+
+"Don't come any of your highfalutin' airs with me, you little cat,"
+shrieked the old woman, rubbing a knee that Rosalie had kicked in her
+struggles.
+
+"Lay still there," added Sam. "We don't want to hurt you, but you got to
+do as I tell you. Understand? Not a word, now! Gimme that coffee-pot,
+Davy. Go an' see that everything's locked up an' we'll turn in fer the
+night. Maude, you set up an' keep watch. If she makes a crack, soak her
+one."
+
+"You bet I will. She'll find she ain't attendin' no Sunday-school
+picnic."
+
+"No boozin'!" was Sam's order as he told out small portions of whiskey.
+Then the gang ate ravenously of the bacon and beans and drank cup after
+cup of coffee. Later the men threw themselves upon the piles of straw
+and soon all were snoring. The big woman refilled the lantern and hung
+it on a peg in the wall of the cave; then she took up her post near the
+square door leading to the underground passage, her throne an upturned
+whiskey barrel, her back against the wall of the cave. She glared at
+Rosalie through the semi-darkness, frequently addressing her with the
+vilest invectives cautiously uttered--and all because her victim had
+beautiful eyes and was unable to close them in sleep.
+
+[Illustration: "Rosalie was no match for the huge woman"]
+
+Rosalie's heart sank as she surveyed the surroundings with her mind
+once more clear and composed. After her recovery from the shock of
+contact with the old woman and Sam she shrank into a state of mental
+lassitude that foretold the despair which was to come later on. She did
+not sleep that night. Her brain was full of whirling thoughts of escape,
+speculations as to what was to become of her, miserable fears that the
+end would not be what the first impressions had made it, and, over all,
+a most intense horror of the old woman, who dozed, but guarded her as no
+dragon ever watched in the days of long ago.
+
+The cave in which they were housed was thirty or forty feet from side to
+side, almost circular in shape, a low roof slanting to the rocky floor.
+Here and there were niches in the walls, and in the side opposite to the
+entrance to the passageway there was a small, black opening, leading
+without doubt to the outer world. The fact that it was not used at any
+time during her stay in the cave led her to believe it was not of
+practical use. Two or three coal-oil stoves were used to heat the cave
+and for cooking purposes. There were several lanterns, a number of
+implements (such as spades, axes, crowbars, sledges, and so forth),
+stool-kegs, a rough table, which was used for all purposes known to the
+dining-room, kitchen, scullery and even bedchamber. Sam slept on the
+table. Horse blankets were thrown about the floor in confusion. They
+served as bedclothes when the gang slept. At other times they might as
+well have been called doormats. One of the niches in the wall was used
+as the resting place for such bones or remnants as might strike it when
+hurled in that direction by the occupants. No one took the trouble to
+carefully bestow anything in the garbage hole, and no one pretended to
+clean up after the other. The place was foul smelling, hot and almost
+suffocating with the fumes from the stoves, for which there seemed no
+avenue of escape.
+
+Hours afterward, although they seemed drawn out into years, the men
+began to breathe naturally, and a weird silence reigned in the cave.
+They were awake. The venerable Maude emerged from her doze, looked
+apprehensively at Sam, prodded the corner to see that the prize had not
+faded away, and then began ponderously to make preparations for a meal,
+supposedly breakfast. Meagre ablutions, such as they were, were
+performed in the "living room," a bucket of water serving as a general
+wash-basin. No one had removed his clothing during the night, not even
+his shoes. It seemed to her that the gang was in an ever-ready condition
+to evacuate the place at a moment's notice.
+
+Rosalie would not eat, nor would she bathe her face in the water that
+had been used by the quartette before her. Bill Briggs, with some sense
+of delicacy in his nature, brought some fresh water from the far end of
+the passageway. For this act he was reviled by his companions.
+
+"It's no easy job to get water here, Briggs," roared Sam. "We got to be
+savin' with it."
+
+"Well, don't let it hurt you," retorted Bill. "I'll carry it up from the
+river to-night. You won't have to do it."
+
+"She ain't any better'n I am," snorted Maude, "and nobody goes out to
+bring me a private bath, I take notice. Get up here and eat something,
+you rat! Do you want us to force it down you--"
+
+"If she don't want to eat don't coax her," said Sam. "She'll soon get
+over that. We was only hired to get her here and get her away again, and
+not to make her eat or even wash. That's nothing to us."
+
+"Well, she's got to eat or she'll die, and you know, Sam Welch, that
+ain't to be," retorted the old woman.
+
+"She'll eat before she'll die, Maudie; don't worry."
+
+"I'll never eat a mouthful!" cried Rosalie, a brave, stubborn light in
+her eyes. She was standing in the far corner drying her face with her
+handkerchief.
+
+"Oho, you can talk again, eh? Hooray! Now we'll hear the story of her
+life," laughed big Sam, his mouth full of bacon and bread. Rosalie
+flushed and the tears welled to her eyes.
+
+All day long she suffered taunts and gibes from the gang. She grew to
+fear Davy's ugly leers more than the brutal words of the others. When
+he came near she shrank back against the wall; when he spoke she
+cringed; when he attempted to touch her person she screamed. It was this
+act that brought Sam's wrath upon Davy's head. He won something like
+gratitude from the girl by profanely commanding Davy to confine his love
+to looks and not to acts.
+
+"She ain't to be harmed," was Sam's edict. "That goes, too."
+
+"Aw, you go to--" began Davy belligerently.
+
+"What's that?" snarled Sam, whirling upon him with a glare. Davy slunk
+behind his mother and glared back. Bill moved over to Sam's side. For a
+moment the air was heavy with signs of an affray. Rosalie crouched in
+her corner, her hand over her ears, her eyes closed. There was murder in
+Davy's face. "I'll break every bone in your body!" added Sam; but Bill
+laconically stayed him with a word.
+
+"Rats!" It was brief, but it brought the irate Sam to his senses.
+Trouble was averted for the time being.
+
+"Davy ain't afraid of him," cried that worthy's mother shrilly.
+
+"You bet I ain't!" added Davy after a long string of oaths. Sam grinned
+viciously.
+
+"There ain't nothin' to fight about, I guess," he said, although he did
+not look it. "We'd be fools to scrap. Everything to lose and nothin' to
+gain. All I got to say, Davy, is that you ain't to touch that girl."
+
+"Who's goin' to touch her?" roared Davy, bristling bravely. "An' you
+ain't to touch her nuther," he added.
+
+The day wore away, although it was always night in the windowless cave,
+and again the trio of men slept, with Maude as guard. Exhausted and
+faint, Rosalie fell into a sound sleep. The next morning she ate
+sparingly of the bacon and bread and drank some steaming coffee, much to
+the derisive delight of the hag.
+
+"You had to come to it, eh?" she croaked. "Had to feed that purty face,
+after all. I guess we're all alike. We're all flesh and blood, my lady."
+
+The old woman never openly offered personal violence to the girl. She
+stood in some fear of the leader--not physical fear, but the strange
+homage that a brute pays to its master. Secretly she took savage delight
+in treading on the girl's toes or in pinching her arms and legs,
+twisting her hair, spilling hot coffee on her hands, cursing her softly
+and perpetrating all sorts of little indignities that could not be
+resented, for the simple reason that they could not be proved against
+her. Her word was as good as Rosalie's.
+
+Hourly the strain grew worse and worse. The girl became ill and feverish
+with fear, loathing and uncertainty. Her ears rang with the horrors of
+their lewdness, her eyes came to see but little, for she kept them
+closed for the very pain of what they were likely to witness. In her
+heart there grew a constant prayer for deliverance from their clutches.
+She was much too strong-minded and healthy to pray for death, but her
+mind fairly reeled with the thoughts of the vengeance she would exact.
+
+The third day found the gang morose and ugly. The confinement was as
+irksome to them as it was to her. They fretted and worried, swore and
+growled. At nightfall of each day Sam ventured forth through the passage
+and out into the night. Each time he was gone for two or three hours,
+and each succeeding return to the vile cave threw the gang into deeper
+wrath. The word they were expecting was not forthcoming, the command
+from the real master was not given. They played cards all day, and at
+last began to drink more deeply than was wise. Two desperate fights
+occurred between Davy and Sam on the third day. Bill and the old woman
+pulled them apart after both had been battered savagely.
+
+"She's sick, Sam," growled Bill, standing over the cowering, white-faced
+prisoner near the close of the fourth day. Sam had been away nearly all
+of the previous night, returning gloomily without news from
+headquarters. "She'll die in this d---- place and so will we if we don't
+get out soon. Look at her! Why, she's as white as a sheet. Let's give
+her some fresh air, Sammy. It's safe. Take her up in the cabin for a
+while. To-night we can take her outside the place. Good Lord, Sammy,
+I've got a bit of heart! I can't see her die in this hole. Look at her!
+Can't you see she's nearly done for?"
+
+After considerable argument, pro and con, it was decided that it would
+be safe and certainly wise to let the girl breathe the fresh air once in
+a while. That morning Sam took her into the cabin through the passage.
+The half hour in the cold, fresh air revived her, strengthened her
+perceptibly. Her spirits took an upward bound. She began to ask
+questions, and for some reason he began to take notice of them. It may
+have been the irksomeness of the situation, his own longing to be away,
+his anger toward the person who had failed to keep the promise made
+before the abduction, that led him to talk quite freely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+In the Cave
+
+
+"It's not my fault that we're still here," he growled in answer to her
+pathetic appeal. "I've heard you prayin' for Daddy Crow to come and take
+you away. Well, it's lucky for him that he don't know where you are.
+We'd make mincemeat of that old jay in three minutes. Don't do any more
+prayin'. Prayers are like dreams--you have 'em at night and wonder why
+the next day. Now, look 'ere, Miss Gray, we didn't do this rotten job
+for the love of excitement. We're just as anxious to get out of it as
+you are."
+
+"I only ask why I am held here and what is to become of me?" said
+Rosalie resignedly. She was standing across the table from where he sat
+smoking his great, black pipe. The other members of the gang were
+lounging about, surly and black-browed, chafing inwardly over the delay
+in getting away from the cave.
+
+"I don't know why you've been held here. I only know it's d---- slow.
+I'd chuck the job, if there wasn't so much dust in it for me."
+
+"But what is to become of me? I cannot endure this much longer. It is
+killing me. Look! I am black and blue from pinches. The old woman never
+misses an opportunity to hurt me."
+
+"She's jealous of you because you're purty, that's all. Women are all
+alike, hang 'em! I wouldn't be in this sort of work if it hadn't been
+for a jealous wife."
+
+He puffed at his pipe moodily for a long time, evidently turning some
+problem over and over in his mind. At last, heaving a deep sigh, and
+prefacing his remarks with an oath, he let light in upon the mystery.
+"I'll put you next to the job. Can't give any names; it wouldn't be
+square. You see, it's this way: you ain't wanted in this country. I
+don't know why, but you ain't."
+
+"Not wanted in this country?" she cried blankly. "I don't stand in any
+one's way. My life and my love are for the peaceful home that you have
+taken me from. I don't ask for anything else. Won't you tell your
+employer as much for me? If I am released, I shall never interfere with
+the plans of--"
+
+"'Tain't that, I reckon. You must be mighty important to somebody, or
+all this trouble wouldn't be gone through with. The funny part of it is
+that we ain't to hurt you. You ain't to be killed, you know. That's the
+queer part of it, ain't it?"
+
+"I'll admit it has an agreeable sound to me," said Rosalie, with a
+shadow of a smile on her trembling lips. "It seems ghastly, though."
+
+"Well, anyhow, it's part of somebody's scheme to get you out of this
+country altogether. You are to be taken away on a ship, across the
+ocean, I think. Paris or London, mebby, and you are never to come
+back to the United States. Never, that's what I'm told."
+
+[Illustration: "She shrank back from another blow which seemed
+impending"]
+
+Rosalie was speechless, stunned. Her eyes grew wide with the misery of
+doubt and horror, her lips moved as if forming the words which would not
+come. Before she could bring a sound from the contracted throat the
+raucous voice of old Maude broke in:
+
+"What are you tellin' her, Sam Welch? Can't you keep your face closed?"
+she called, advancing upon him with a menacing look.
+
+"Aw, it's nothin' to you," he retorted, but an uncomfortable expression
+suddenly crept into his face. A loud, angry discussion ensued, the whole
+gang engaging. Three to one was the way it stood against the leader, who
+was forced to admit, secretly if not publicly, that he had no right to
+talk freely of the matter to the girl. In vain she pleaded and promised.
+Her tears were of no avail, once Sam had concluded to hold his tongue.
+Angry with himself for having to submit to the demands of the others,
+furious because she saw his surrender, Sam, without a word of warning,
+suddenly struck her on the side of the head with the flat of his broad
+hand, sending her reeling into the corner. Dazed, hurt and half stunned,
+she dropped to her knees, unable to stand. With a piteous look in her
+eyes she shrank back from another blow which seemed impending. Bill
+Briggs grasped his leader's arm and drew him away, cursing and snarling.
+
+Late in the afternoon, Bill was permitted to conduct her into the cabin
+above, for a few minutes in the air, and for a glimpse of the failing
+sunlight. She had scarcely taken her stand before the little window when
+she was hastily jerked away, but not before she thought she had
+perceived a crowd of men, huddling among the trees not far away. A
+scream for help started to her lips; but Bill's heavy hand checked it
+effectually. His burly arm sent her scuttling toward the trap-door; and
+a second later she was below, bruised from the fall and half fainting
+with disappointment and despair.
+
+Brief as the glimpse had been, she was positive she recognised two faces
+in the crowd of men--Anderson Crow's and Ed Higgins's. It meant, if her
+eyes did not deceive her, that the searchers were near at hand, and that
+dear, old Daddy Crow was leading them. Her hopes flew upward and she
+could not subdue the triumphant glance that swept the startled crowd
+when Bill breathlessly broke the news.
+
+Absolute quiet reigned in the cave after that. Maude cowed the prisoner
+into silence with the threat to cut out her tongue if she uttered a cry.
+Later, the tramp of feet could be heard on the floor of the cabin.
+There was a sound of voices, loud peals of laughter, and then the noise
+made by some one in the cellar that served as a blind at one end of the
+cabin. After that, dead silence. At nightfall, Sam stealthily ventured
+forth to reconnoitre. He came back with the report that the woods and
+swamps were clear and that the searchers, if such they were, had gone
+away.
+
+"The house, since Davy's grandma's bones were stored away in that cellar
+for several moons, has always been thought to be haunted. The fools
+probably thought they saw a ghost--an' they're runnin' yet."
+
+Then for the first time Rosalie realised that she was in the haunted
+cabin in the swamp, the most fearsome of all places in the world to
+Tinkletown, large and small. Not more than three miles from her own
+fireside! Not more than half an hour's walk from Daddy Crow and others
+in the warmth of whose love she had lived so long!
+
+"It's gettin' too hot here for us," growled Sam at supper. "We've just
+got to do something. I'm going out to-night to see if there's any word
+from the--from the party. These guys ain't all fools. Somebody is liable
+to nose out the trap-door before long and there'll be hell to pay. They
+won't come back before to-morrow, I reckon. By thunder, there ought to
+be word from the--the boss by this time. Lay low, everybody; I'll be
+back before daybreak. This time I'm a-goin' to find out something sure
+or know the reason why. I'm gettin' tired of this business. Never know
+what minute the jig's up, nor when the balloon busts."
+
+Again he stole forth into the night, leaving his companions more or less
+uneasy as to the result, after the startling events of the afternoon.
+Hour after hour passed, and with every minute therein, Rosalie's ears
+strained themselves to catch the first sound of approaching rescuers.
+Her spirits fell, but her hopes were high. She felt sure that the men
+outside had seen her face and that at last they had discovered the place
+in which she was kept. It would only be a question of time until they
+learned the baffling secret of the trap-door. Her only fear lay in the
+possibility that she might be removed by her captors before the rescuers
+could accomplish her delivery. Her bright, feverish, eager eyes,
+gleaming from the sunken white cheeks, appealed to Bill Briggs more than
+he cared to admit. The ruffian, less hardened than his fellows, began to
+feel sorry for her.
+
+Eleven o'clock found the trio anxious and ugly in their restlessness.
+There was no sleep for them. Davy visited the trap over a hundred times
+that night. His mother, breaking over the traces of restraint, hugged
+the jug of whiskey, taking swig after swig as the vigil wore on. At last
+Davy, driven to it, insisted upon having his share. Bill drank but
+little, and it was not long before Rosalie observed the shifty, nervous
+look in his eyes. From time to time he slyly appropriated certain
+articles, dropping them into his coat pocket. His ear muffs, muffler,
+gloves, matches, tobacco and many chunks of bread and bacon were stowed
+stealthily in the pockets of his coat. At last it dawned upon her that
+Bill was preparing to desert. Hope lay with him, then. If he could only
+be induced to give her an equal chance to escape!
+
+Mother and son became maudlin in their--not cups, but jug; but Davy had
+the sense to imbibe more cautiously, a fact which seemed to annoy the
+nervous Bill.
+
+"I must have air--fresh air," suddenly moaned Rosalie from her corner,
+the strain proving too great for her nerves. Bill strode over and looked
+down upon the trembling form for a full minute. "Take me outside for
+just a minute--just a minute, please. I am dying in here."
+
+"Lemme take her out," cackled old Maude. "I'll give her all the air she
+wants. Want so--some air myself. Lemme give her air, Bill. Have some air
+on me, pardner. Lemme--"
+
+"Shut up, Maude!" growled Bill, glancing uneasily about the cave. "I'll
+take her up in the cabin fer a couple of minutes. There ain't no
+danger."
+
+Davy protested, but Bill carried his point, simply because he was sober
+and knew his power over the half-stupefied pair. Davy let them out
+through the trap, promising to wait below until they were ready to
+return.
+
+"Are you going away?" whispered Rosalie, as they passed out into the
+cold, black night.
+
+"Sh! Don't talk, damn you!" he hissed.
+
+"Let me go too. I know the way home and you need have no fear of me. I
+like you, but I hate the others. Please, please! For God's sake, let me
+go! They can't catch me if I have a little start."
+
+"I'd like to, but I--I dassent. Sam would hunt me down and kill me--he
+would sure. I am goin' myself--I can't stand it no longer."
+
+"Have pity! Don't leave me alone with them. Oh, God, if you--"
+
+Moaning piteously, she pleaded with him; but he was obdurate, chiefly
+through fear of the consequences. In his heart he might have been
+willing to give her the chance, but his head saw the danger to itself
+and it was firm.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do," he whispered in the end. "I'll take you
+back there and then I'll go and tell your friends where you are and how
+to help you. Honest! Honest, I will. I know it's as broad as it is
+long, but I'd rather do it that way. They'll be here in a couple of
+hours and you'll be free. Nobody will be the wiser. Curse your whining!
+Shut up! Damn you, get back in there! Don't give me away to Davy, and
+I'll swear to help you out of this."
+
+A minute or two later, he dragged her back into the cabin,
+moaning, pleading, and crying from the pain of a sudden blow. Ten
+minutes afterward he went forth again, this time ostensibly to meet Sam;
+but Rosalie knew that he was gone forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+The Trap-Door
+
+
+A sickly new moon threw vague ghostly beams across the willow-lined
+swamp, out beyond the little cabin that stood on its border. Through the
+dense undergrowth and high among the skeleton treetops ugly shadows
+played with each other, while a sepulchral orchestra of wind and bough
+shrieked a dirge that flattened in Bonner's ears; but it was not the
+weird music of the swamp that sent the shudder of actual terror through
+the frame of the big athlete.
+
+A series of muffled, heartbreaking moans, like those of a woman in dire
+pain, came to his ears. He felt the cold perspiration start over his
+body. His nerves grew tense with trepidation, his eyes wide with horror.
+Instinctively, his fingers clutched the revolver at his side and his
+gaze went toward the black, square thing which marked the presence of
+the haunted house. The orchestra of the night seemed to bring its dirge
+to a close; a chill interlude of silence ensued. The moans died away
+into choking sobs, and Bonner's ears could hear nothing else. A sudden
+thought striking him, he rolled out of his bed and made his way to Bud's
+pile of blankets. But the solution was not there. The lad was sound
+asleep and no sound issued from his lips. The moans came from another
+source, human or otherwise, out there in the crinkling night.
+
+Carefully making his way from the tent, his courage once more restored
+but his flesh still quivering, Bonner looked intently for manifestations
+in the black home of Johanna Rank. He half expected to see a ghostly
+light flit past a window. It was intensely dark in the thicket, but the
+shadowy marsh beyond silhouetted the house into a black relief. He was
+on all fours behind a thick pile of brush, nervously drawing his pipe
+from his pocket, conscious that he needed it to steady his nerves, when
+a fresh sound, rising above the faint sobs, reached his ears. Then the
+low voice of a man came from some place in the darkness, and these words
+rang out distinctly:
+
+"Damn you!"
+
+He drew back involuntarily, for the voice seemed to be at his elbow. The
+sobs ceased suddenly, as if choked by a mighty hand.
+
+The listener's inclination was to follow the example of Anderson Crow
+and run madly off into the night. But beneath this natural panic was the
+soul of chivalry. Something told him that a woman out there in the
+solitude needed the arms of a man; and his blood began to grow hot
+again. Presently the silence was broken by a sharp cry of despair:
+
+"Have pity! Oh, God--" moaned the voice that sent thrills through his
+body--the voice of a woman, tender, refined, crushed. His fingers
+gripped the revolver with fresh vigor, but almost instantly the rustling
+of dead leaves reached his ears: the man and his victim were making
+their way toward the house.
+
+Bonner crouched among the bushes as if paralysed. He began to comprehend
+the situation. In a vague sort of way he remembered hearing of
+Tinkletown's sensation over at his uncle's house, where he was living
+with a couple of servants for a month's shooting. The atmosphere had
+been full of the sensational abduction story for several days--the
+abduction of a beautiful young woman and the helpless attitude of the
+relatives and friends. Like a whirlwind the whole situation spread
+itself before him; it left him weak. He had come upon the gang and their
+victim in this out-of-the-way corner of the world, far from the city
+toward which they were supposed to have fled. He had the solution in his
+hands and he was filled with the fire of the ancients.
+
+A light appeared in the low doorway and the squat figure of a man held a
+lantern on high. An instant later, another man dragged the helpless girl
+across the threshold and into the house. Even as Bonner squared himself
+to rush down upon them the light disappeared and darkness fell over the
+cabin. There was a sound of footsteps on the floor, a creaking of hinges
+and the stealthy closing of a door. Then there was absolute quiet.
+
+Bonner was wise as well as brave. He saw that to rush down upon the
+house now might prove his own as well as her undoing. In the darkness,
+the bandits would have every advantage. For a moment he glared at the
+black shadow ahead, his brain working like lightning.
+
+"That poor girl!" he muttered vaguely. "Damn beasts! But I'll fix 'em,
+by heaven! It won't be long, my boys."
+
+His pondering brought quick results. Crawling to Bud's cot, he aroused
+him from a deep sleep. Inside of two minutes the lad was streaking off
+through the woods toward town, with instructions to bring Anderson Crow
+and a large force of men to the spot as quickly as possible.
+
+"I'll stand guard," said Wicker Bonner.
+
+As the minutes went by Bonner's thoughts dwelt more and more intently
+upon the poor, imprisoned girl in the cabin. His blood charged his
+reason and he could scarce control the impulse to dash in upon the
+wretches. Then he brought himself up with a jerk. Where was he to find
+them? Had he not searched the house that morning and was there a sign of
+life to be found? He was stunned by this memory. For many minutes he
+stood with his perplexed eyes upon the house before a solution came to
+him.
+
+He now knew that there was a secret apartment in the old house and a
+secret means of entrance and exit. With this explanation firmly
+impressed upon his mind, Wicker Bonner decided to begin his own campaign
+for the liberation of Rosalie Gray. It would be hours before the
+sluggish Anderson Crow appeared; and Bonner was not the sort to leave a
+woman in jeopardy if it was in his power to help her. Besides, the
+country people had filled him with stories of Miss Gray's beauty, and
+they found him at an impressionable and heart-free age. The thrill of
+romance seized him and he was ready to dare.
+
+He crept up to the doorway and listened. Reason told him that the coast
+was clear; the necessity for a sentinel did not exist, so cleverly were
+the desperadoes under cover. After a few moments, he crawled into the
+room, holding his breath, as he made his way toward the cellar
+staircase. He had gone but a few feet when the sound of voices came to
+him. Slinking into a corner, he awaited developments. The sounds came
+from below, but not from the cellar room, as he had located it. A moment
+later, a man crawled into the room, coming through a hole in the floor,
+just as he had suspected. A faint light from below revealed the sinister
+figure plainly, but Bonner felt himself to be quite thoroughly hidden.
+The man in the room spoke to some one below.
+
+"I'll be back in half an hour, Davy. I'll wait fer Sam out there on the
+Point. He ought to have some news from headquarters by this time. I
+don't see why we have to hang around this place forever. She ought to be
+half way to Paris by now."
+
+"They don't want to take chances, Bill, till the excitement blows over."
+
+"Well, you an' your mother just keep your hands off of her while I'm
+out, that's all," warned Bill Briggs.
+
+The trap-door was closed, and Bonner heard the other occupant of the
+room shuffle out into the night. He was not long in deciding what to do.
+Here was the chance to dispose of one of the bandits, and he was not
+slow to seize it. There was a meeting in the thicket a few minutes
+later, and Bill was "out of the way" for the time being. Wicker Bonner
+dropped him with a sledge-hammer blow, and when he returned to the cabin
+Bill was lying bound and gagged in the tent, a helpless captive.
+
+His conqueror, immensely satisfied, supplied himself with the surplus
+ends of "guy ropes" from the tent and calmly sat down to await the
+approach of the one called Sam, he who had doubtless gone to a
+rendezvous "for news." He could well afford to bide his time. With two
+of the desperadoes disposed of in ambuscade, he could have a fairly even
+chance with the man called Davy.
+
+It seemed hours before he heard the stealthy approach of some one moving
+through the bushes. He was stiff with cold, and chafing at the
+interminable delay, but the approach of real danger quickened his blood
+once more. There was another short, sharp, silent struggle near the
+doorway, and once more Wicker Bonner stood victorious over an
+unsuspecting and now unconscious bandit. Sam, a big, powerful man, was
+soon bound and gagged and his bulk dragged off to the tent among the
+bushes.
+
+"Now for Davy," muttered Bonner, stretching his great arms in the pure
+relish of power. "There will be something doing around your heart, Miss
+Babe-in-the-Woods, in a very few minutes."
+
+He chuckled as he crept into the cabin, first having listened intently
+for sounds. For some minutes he lay quietly with his ear to the floor.
+In that time he solved one of the problems confronting him. The man Davy
+was a son of old Mrs. Rank's murderer, and the "old woman" who kept
+watch with him was his mother, wife of the historic David. It was she
+who had held the lantern, no doubt, while David Wolfe chopped her own
+mother to mincemeat. This accounted for the presence of the gang in the
+haunted house and for their knowledge of the underground room.
+
+Bonner's inspiration began to wear off. Pure luck had aided him up to
+this stage, but the bearding of David in his lair was another
+proposition altogether. His only hope was that he might find the man
+asleep. He was not taking the old woman into consideration at all. Had
+he but known it, she was the most dangerous of all.
+
+His chance, he thought, lay in strategy. It was impossible to open the
+trap-door from above, he had found by investigation. There was but one
+way to get to Miss Gray, and that was by means of a daring ruse.
+Trusting to luck, he tapped gently on the floor at the spot where memory
+told him the trap-door was situated. His heart was thumping violently.
+
+There was a movement below him, and then the sound of some one handling
+the bolts in the door. Bonner drew back, hoping against hope that a
+light would not be shown. In one hand he held his revolver ready for
+use; in the other his heavy walking stick. His plans were fully
+developed. After a moment the trap was lifted partially and a draft of
+warm air came out upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Jack, the Giant Killer
+
+
+"That you, Sam?" half whispered a man's voice. There was no light.
+
+"Sh!" hissed Bonner, muffling his voice. "Is everybody in?"
+
+"Bill's waitin' fer you outside. Ma an' me are here. Come on down.
+What's up?"
+
+"How's the girl?"
+
+"Bellerin' like a baby. Ma's with her in the cave. Hurry up! This
+thing's heavy."
+
+For reply Bonner seized the edge of the door with his left hand, first
+pushing his revolver in his trousers' pocket. Then he silently swung the
+heavy cane through the air and downward, a very faint light from below
+revealing the shock head of Davy in the aperture. It was a mighty blow
+and true. Davy's body fell away from the trap, and a second later
+Bonner's dropped through the hole. He left the trap wide open in case
+retreat were necessary. Pausing long enough to assure himself that the
+man was unconscious and bleeding profusely, and to snatch the big
+revolver from Davy's person, Bonner turned his attention to the
+surroundings.
+
+Perhaps a hundred feet away, at the end of a long, low passage, he saw
+the glimmer of a light. Without a second's hesitation he started toward
+it, feeling that the worst of the adventure was past. A shadow coming
+between him and the light, he paused in his approach. This shadow
+resolved itself into the form of a woman, a gigantic creature, who
+peered intently up the passage.
+
+"What's the matter, Davy?" she called in raucous tones. "You damn fool,
+can't you do anything without breaking your neck? I reckon you fell down
+the steps? That you, Sam?"
+
+Receiving no answer, the woman clutched the lantern and advanced boldly
+upon Bonner, who stood far down the passage, amazed and irresolute. She
+looked more formidable to him than any of the men, so he prepared for a
+struggle.
+
+"Halt!" he cried, when she was within ten feet of him. "Don't resist;
+you are surrounded!"
+
+The woman stopped like one shot, glared ahead as if she saw him for the
+first time, and then uttered a frightful shriek of rage. Dashing the
+lantern to the ground, she raised her arm and fired a revolver point
+blank at Bonner, despite the fact that his pistol was covering her. He
+heard the bullet crash into the rotten timbers near his ear. Contrary to
+her design, the lantern was not extinguished. Instead, it lay sputtering
+but effective upon the floor.
+
+Before Bonner could make up his mind to shoot at the woman she was upon
+him, firing again as she came. He did not have time to retaliate. The
+huge frame crushed down upon him and his pistol flew from his hand. As
+luck would have it, his free hand clutched her revolver, and she was
+prevented from blowing his brains out with the succeeding shots, all of
+which went wild.
+
+Then came a desperate struggle. Bonner, a trained athlete, realised that
+she was even stronger than he, more desperate in her frenzy, and with
+murder in her heart. As they lunged to and fro, her curses and shrieks
+in his ear, he began to feel the despair of defeat. She was beating him
+down with one mighty arm, crushing blows, every one of them. Then came
+the sound which turned the tide of battle, for it filled him with a
+frenzy equal to her own. The scream of a woman came down through the
+passage, piteous, terror-stricken.
+
+He knew the fate of that poor girl if his adversary overcame him. The
+thought sent his blood hot and cold at once. Infuriatedly, he exerted
+his fine strength, and the tide turned. Panting and snarling, the big
+woman was battered down. He flung her heavily to the ground and then
+leaped back to pick up his revolver, expecting a renewal of the attack.
+For the first time he was conscious of intense pain in his left leg. The
+woman made a violent effort to rise, and then fell back, groaning and
+cursing.
+
+"You've done it! You've got me!" she yelled. "My leg's broke!" Then she
+shrieked for Davy and Bill and Sam, raining curses upon the law and upon
+the traitor who had been their undoing.
+
+Bonner, his own leg wobbling and covered with blood, tried to quiet her,
+but without success. He saw that she was utterly helpless, her leg
+twisted under her heavy body. Her screams of pain as he turned her over
+proved conclusively that she was not shamming. Her hip was dislocated.
+The young man had sense enough left to return to Davy before venturing
+into the cave where Miss Gray was doubtless in a dead faint. The man was
+breathing, but still unconscious from the blow on the head. Bonner
+quickly tied his hands and feet, guarding against emergencies in case
+of his own incapacitation as the result of the bullet wound in his leg;
+then he hobbled off with the lantern past the groaning Amazon in quest
+of Rosalie Gray. It did not occur to him until afterward that single
+handed he had overcome a most desperate band of criminals, so simply had
+it all worked out up to the time of the encounter with the woman.
+
+A few yards beyond where the old woman lay moaning he came upon the cave
+in which the bandits made their home. Holding the lantern above his
+head, Bonner peered eagerly into the cavern. In the farthest corner
+crouched a girl, her terror-struck eyes fastened upon the stranger.
+
+"How do you do, Miss Gray," came the cheery greeting from his lips. She
+gasped, swept her hand over her eyes, and tried piteously to speak. The
+words would not come. "The long-prayed-for rescue has come. You are
+free--that is, as soon as we find our way out of this place. Let me
+introduce myself as Jack, the Giant Killer--hello! Don't do that! Oh,
+the devil!" She had toppled over in a dead faint.
+
+How Wicker Bonner, with his wounded leg, weak from loss of blood, and
+faint from the reaction, carried her from the cave through the passage
+and the trap-door and into the tent can only be imagined, not described.
+He only knew that it was necessary to remove her from the place, and
+that his strength would soon be gone. The sun was tinting the east
+before she opened her eyes and shuddered. In the meantime he had
+stanched the flow of blood in the fleshy part of his leg, binding the
+limb tightly with a piece of rope. It was an ugly, glancing cut made by
+a bullet of large calibre, and it was sure to put him on crutches for
+some time to come. Even now he was scarcely able to move the member. For
+an hour he had been venting his wrath upon the sluggish Anderson Crow,
+who should have been on the scene long before this. Two of his captives,
+now fully conscious, were glaring at their companions in the tent with
+hate in their eyes.
+
+Rosalie Gray, wan, dishevelled, but more beautiful than the reports had
+foretold, could not at first believe herself to be free from the
+clutches of the bandits. It took him many minutes--many painful
+minutes--to convince her that it was not a dream, and that in truth he
+was Wicker Bonner, gentleman. Sitting with his back against a tent pole,
+facing the cabin through the flap, with a revolver in his trembling
+hand, he told her of the night's adventures, and was repaid tenfold by
+the gratitude which shone from her eyes and trembled in her voice. In
+return she told him of her capture, of the awful experiences in the
+cave, and of the threats which had driven her almost to the end of
+endurance.
+
+"Oh, oh, I could love you forever for this!" she cried in the fulness of
+her joy. A rapturous smile flew to Bonner's eyes.
+
+"Forever begins with this instant, Miss Gray," he said; and without any
+apparent reason the two shook hands. Afterward they were to think of
+this trivial act and vow that it was truly the beginning. They were
+young, heart-free, and full of the romance of life.
+
+"And those awful men are really captured--and the woman?" she cried,
+after another exciting recital from him. Sam and Bill fairly snarled.
+"Suppose they should get loose?" Her eyes grew wide with the thought of
+it.
+
+"They can't," he said laconically. "I wish the marshal and his bicycle
+army would hurry along. That woman and Davy need attention. I'd hate
+like the mischief to have either of them die. One doesn't want to kill
+people, you know, Miss Gray."
+
+"But they were killing me by inches," she protested.
+
+"Ouch!" he groaned, his leg giving him a mighty twinge.
+
+"What is it?" she cried in alarm. "Why should we wait for those men?
+Come, Mr. Bonner, take me to the village--please do. I am crazy,
+absolutely crazy, to see Daddy Crow and mother. I can walk there--how
+far is it?--please come." She was running on eagerly in this strain
+until she saw the look of pain in his face--the look he tried so hard to
+conceal. She was standing straight and strong and eager before him, and
+he was very pale under the tan.
+
+"I can't, Miss Gray. I'm sorry, you know. See! Where there's smoke
+there's fire--I mean, where there's blood there's a wound. I'm done for,
+in other words."
+
+"Done for? Oh, you're not--not going to die! Are you hurt? Why didn't
+you tell me?" Whereupon she dropped to her knees at his side, her dark
+eyes searching his intently, despair in them until the winning smile
+struggled back into his. The captives chuckled audibly. "What can
+I--what shall I do? Oh, why don't those men come! It must be noon or--"
+
+"It's barely six A.M., Miss Gray. Don't worry. I'm all right. A cut in
+my leg; the old woman plugged me. I can't walk, you know--but--"
+
+"And you carried me out here and did all that and never said a word
+about--oh, how good and brave and noble you are!"
+
+When Anderson Crow and half of Tinkletown, routed out _en masse_ by Bud,
+appeared on the scene an hour or two later, they found Wicker Bonner
+stretched out on a mattress, his head in Rosalie's lap. The young woman
+held his revolver in her hand, and there was a look in her face which
+said that she would shoot any one who came to molest her charge. Two
+helpless desperadoes lay cursing in the corner of the tent.
+
+Anderson Crow, after an hour of deliberation and explanation, fell upon
+the bound and helpless bandits and bravely carted the whole lot to the
+town "calaboose." Wicker Bonner and his nurse were taken into town, and
+the news of the rescue went flying over the county, and eventually to
+the four corners of the land, for Congressman Bonner's nephew was a
+person of prominence.
+
+Bonner, as he passed up the main street in Peabody's sleigh on the way
+to Anderson Crow's home, was the centre of attraction. He was the hero
+of the hour, for was not Rosalie Gray herself, pale and ill with
+torture, his most devoted slave? What else could Tinkletown do but pay
+homage when it saw Bonner's head against her shoulder and Anderson Crow
+shouting approval from the bob-sled that carried the kidnapers. The four
+bandits, two of them much the worse for the night's contact with Wicker
+Bonner, were bundled into the lock-up, a sadly morose gang of ghosts.
+
+"I owe you a thousand dollars," said Anderson to Bonner as they drew up
+in front of the marshal's home. All Tinkletown was there to see how Mrs.
+Crow and the family would act when Rosalie was restored to them. The
+yard was full of gaping villagers, and there was a diffident cheer when
+Mrs. Crow rushed forth and fairly dragged Rosalie from the sleigh.
+"Blootch" Peabody gallantly interposed and undertook to hand the girl
+forth with the grace of a Chesterfield. But Mrs. Crow had her way.
+
+"I'll take it out in board and lodging," grinned Wicker Bonner to
+Anderson as two strong men lifted him from the sleigh.
+
+"Where's Bud?" demanded Anderson after the others had entered the house.
+
+"He stayed down to the 'calaboose' to guard the prisoners," said
+"Blootch." "Nobody could find the key to the door and nobody else would
+stay. They ain't locked in, but Bud's got two revolvers, and he says
+they can only escape over his dead body."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+Tinkletown's Convulsion
+
+
+Anderson Crow was himself once more. He was twenty years younger than
+when he went to bed the night before. His joy and pride had reached the
+bursting point--dignity alone prevented the catastrophe.
+
+"What do you expect to do with the gang, Mr. Crow?" asked Bonner,
+reclining with amiable ease in the marshal's Morris chair. He was
+feeling very comfortable, despite "Doc" Smith's stitches; and he could
+not help acknowledging, with more or less of a glow in his heart, that
+it was nice to play hero to such a heroine.
+
+"Well, I'll protect 'em, of course. Nobody c'n lynch 'em while I'm
+marshal of this town," Anderson said, forgetful of the fact that he had
+not been near the jail, where Master Bud still had full charge of
+affairs, keyless but determined. "I'll have to turn them over to the
+county sheriff to-day er to-morrow, I reckon. This derned old calaboose
+of ourn ain't any too safe. That's a mighty desperit gang we've
+captured. I cain't remember havin' took sech a mob before."
+
+"Has it occurred to you, Mr. Crow, that we have captured only the
+hirelings? Their employer, whoever he or she may be, is at large and
+probably laughing at us. Isn't there some way in which we can follow
+the case up and land the leader?"
+
+"'y Gosh, you're right," said Anderson. "I thought of that this mornin',
+but it clean skipped my mind since then. There's where the mistake was
+made, Mr. Bonner. It's probably too late now. You'd oughter thought
+about the leader. Seems to me--"
+
+"Why, Daddy Crow," cried Rosalie, a warm flush in her cheeks once more,
+"hasn't Mr. Bonner done his part? Hasn't he taken them single-handed and
+hasn't he saved me from worse than death?"
+
+"I ain't castin' any insinyations at him, Rosalie," retorted Anderson,
+very sternly for him. "How _can_ you talk like that?"
+
+"I'm not offended, Miss Gray," laughed Bonner. "We all make mistakes. It
+has just occurred to me, however, that Mr. Crow may still be able to
+find out who the leader is. The prisoners can be pumped, I dare say."
+
+"You're right ag'in, Mr. Bonner. It's funny how you c'n read my
+thoughts. I was jest goin' down to the jail to put 'em through the sweat
+cell."
+
+"Sweat cell? You mean sweat box, Mr. Crow," said Bonner, laughing in
+spite of himself.
+
+"No, sir; it's a cell. We couldn't find a box big enough. I use the cell
+reserved fer women prisoners. Mebby some day the town board will put in
+a reg'lar box, but, so far, the cell has done all right. I'll be back
+'bout supper-time, Eva. You take keer o' Rosalie. Make her sleep a while
+an' I guess you'd better dose her up a bit with quinine an'--"
+
+"I guess I know what to give her, Anderson Crow," resented his wife. "Go
+'long with you. You'd oughter been lookin' after them kidnapers three
+hours ago. I bet Bud's purty nigh wore out guardin' them. He's been
+there ever sence nine o'clock, an' it's half-past two now."
+
+"Roscoe's helpin' him," muttered Anderson, abashed.
+
+At that instant there came a rush of footsteps across the front porch
+and in burst Ed Higgins and "Blootch" Peabody, fairly gasping with
+excitement.
+
+"Hurry up, Anderson--down to the jail," sputtered the former; and then
+he was gone like the wind. "Blootch," determined to miss nothing,
+whirled to follow, or pass him if possible. He had time to shout over
+his shoulder as he went forth without closing the door:
+
+"The old woman has lynched herself!"
+
+It would now be superfluous to remark, after all the convulsions
+Tinkletown had experienced inside of twenty-four hours, that the
+populace went completely to pieces in face of this last trying
+experiment of Fate. With one accord the village toppled over as if
+struck by a broadside and lay, figuratively speaking, writhing in its
+own gore. Stupefaction assailed the town. Then one by one the minds of
+the people scrambled up from the ashes, slowly but surely, only to
+wonder where lightning would strike next. Not since the days of the
+American Revolution had the town experienced such an incessant rush of
+incident. The Judgment Day itself, with Gabriel's clarion blasts, could
+not be expected to surpass this productive hour in thrills.
+
+It was true that old Maude had committed suicide in the calaboose. She
+had been placed on a cot in the office of the prison and Dr. Smith had
+been sent for, immediately after her arrival; but he was making a call
+in the country. Bud Long, supported by half a dozen boys armed with
+Revolutionary muskets, which would not go off unless carried, stood in
+front of the little jail with its wooden walls and iron bars, guarding
+the prisoners zealously. The calaboose was built to hold tramps and
+drunken men, but not for the purpose of housing desperadoes. Even as the
+heroic Bud watched with persevering faithfulness, his charges were
+planning to knock their prison to smithereens and at the proper moment
+escape to the woods and hills. They knew the grated door was unlocked,
+but they imagined the place to be completely surrounded by vengeful
+villagers, who would cut them down like rats if they ventured forth. Had
+they but known that Bud was alone, it is quite likely they would have
+sallied forth and relieved him of his guns, spanked him soundly and then
+ambled off unmolested to the country.
+
+All the morning old Maude had been groaning and swearing in the office,
+where she lay unattended. Bud was telling his friends how he had knocked
+her down twice in the cave, after she had shot six times and slashed at
+him with her dagger, when a sudden cessation of groans from the interior
+attracted the attention of all. "Doc" Smith arrived at that juncture
+and found the boys listening intently for a resumption of the
+picturesque profanity. It was some time before the crowd became large
+enough to inspire a visit to the interior of the calaboose. As became
+his dignity, Bud led the way.
+
+The old woman, unable to endure the pain any longer, and knowing full
+well that her days were bound to end in prison, had managed, in some
+way, to hang herself from a window bar beside her bed, using a twisted
+bed sheet. She was quite dead when "Doc" made the examination. A
+committee of the whole started at once to notify Anderson Crow. For a
+minute it looked as though the jail would be left entirely unguarded,
+but Bud loyally returned to his post, reinforced by Roscoe and the
+doctor.
+
+Upon Mr. Crow's arrival at the jail, affairs assumed some aspect of
+order. He first locked the grate doors, thereby keeping the fiery David
+from coming out to see his mother before they cut her down. A messenger
+was sent for the coroner at Boggs City, and then the big body was
+released from its last hanging place.
+
+"Doggone, but this is a busy day fer me!" said Anderson. "I won't have
+time to pump them fellers till this evenin'. But I guess they'll keep.
+'What's that, Blootch?"
+
+"I was just goin' to ask Bud if they're still in there," said Blootch.
+
+"Are they, Bud?" asked Anderson in quick alarm.
+
+"Sure," replied Bud with a mighty swelling of the chest. Even Blootch
+envied him.
+
+"She's been dead jest an hour an' seven minutes," observed Anderson,
+gingerly touching the dead woman's wrist. "Doggone, I'm glad o' one
+thing!"
+
+"What's that, Anderson?"
+
+"We won't have to set her hip. Saved expense."
+
+"But we'll have to bury her, like as not," said Isaac Porter.
+
+"Yes," said Anderson reflectively. "She'll have to be buried.
+But--but--" and here his face lightened up in relief--"not fer a day er
+two; so what's the use worryin'."
+
+When the coroner arrived, soon after six o'clock, a jury was empanelled
+and witnesses sworn. In ten minutes a verdict of suicide was returned
+and the coroner was on his way back to Boggs City. He did not even know
+that a hip had been dislocated. Anderson insisted upon a post-mortem
+examination, but was laughed out of countenance by the officious M.D.
+
+"I voted fer that fool last November," said Anderson wrathfully, as the
+coroner drove off, "but you c'n kick the daylights out of me if I ever
+do it ag'in. Look out there, Bud! What in thunder are you doin' with
+them pistols? Doggone, ain't you got no sense? Pointin' 'em around that
+way. Why, you're liable to shoot somebody--"
+
+"Aw, them ain't pistols," scoffed Bud, his mouth full of something.
+"They're bologny sausages. I ain't had nothin' to eat sence last night
+and I'm hungry."
+
+"Well, it's dark out here," explained Anderson, suddenly shuffling into
+the jail. "I guess I'll put them fellers through the sweat box."
+
+"The _what?_" demanded George Ray.
+
+"The sweat-box--b-o-x, box. Cain't you hear?"
+
+"I thought you used a cell."
+
+"Thunderation, no! Nobody but country jakes call it a cell," said
+Anderson in fine scorn.
+
+The three prisoners scowled at him so fiercely and snarled so
+vindictively when they asked him if they were to be starved to death,
+that poor Anderson hurried home and commanded his wife to pack "a baskit
+of bread and butter an' things fer the prisoners." It was nine o'clock
+before he could make up his mind to venture back to the calaboose with
+his basket. He spent the intervening hours in telling Rosalie and Bonner
+about the shocking incident at the jail and in absorbing advice from the
+clear-headed young man from Boston.
+
+"I'd like to go with you to see those fellows, Mr. Crow," was Bonner's
+rueful lament. "But the doctor says I must be quiet until this
+confounded thing heals a bit. Together, I think we could bluff the whole
+story out of those scoundrels."
+
+"Oh, never you fear," said the marshal; "I'll learn all there is to be
+learnt. You jest ask Alf Reesling what kind of a pumper I am."
+
+"Who is Alf Reesling?"
+
+"Ain't you heerd of him in Boston? Why, every temperance lecturer that
+comes here says he's the biggest drunkard in the world. I supposed his
+reputation had got to Boston by this time. He's been sober only once in
+twenty-five years."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"That was when his wife died. He said he felt so good it wasn't
+necessary to get drunk. Well, I'll tell you all about it when I come
+back. Don't worry no more, Rosalie. I'll find out who's back of this
+business an' then we'll know all about you. It's a long lane that has no
+turn."
+
+"Them prisoners must be mighty near starved to death by this time,
+Anderson," warned Mrs. Crow.
+
+"Doggone, that's so!" he cried, and hustled out into the night.
+
+The calaboose was almost totally dark--quite so, had it not been for the
+single lamp that burned in the office where the body of the old woman
+was lying. Two or three timid citizens stood afar off, in front of
+Thompson's feed yard, looking with awe upon the dungeon keep. Anderson's
+footsteps grew slower and more halting as they approached the entrance
+to the forbidding square of black. The snow creaked resoundingly under
+his heels and the chill wind nipped his muffless ears with a
+spitefulness that annoyed. In fact, he became so incensed, that he set
+his basket down and slapped his ears vigorously for some minutes before
+resuming his slow progress. He hated the thought of going in where the
+dead woman lay.
+
+Suddenly he made up his mind that a confession from the men would be
+worthless unless he had ear witnesses to substantiate it in court.
+Without further deliberation, he retraced his steps hurriedly to
+Lamson's store, where, after half an hour's conversation on the topics
+of the day, he deputised the entire crowd to accompany him to the jail.
+
+"Where's Bud?" he demanded sharply.
+
+"Home in bed, poor child," said old Mr. Borton.
+
+"Well, doggone his ornery hide, why ain't he here to--" began Anderson,
+but checked himself in time to prevent the crowd from seeing that he
+expected Bud to act as leader in the expedition. "I wanted him to jot
+down notes," he substituted. Editor Squires volunteered to act as
+secretary, prompter, interpreter, and everything else that his scoffing
+tongue could utter.
+
+"Well, go ahead, then," said Anderson, pushing him forward. Harry led
+the party down the dark street with more rapidity than seemed necessary;
+few in the crowd could keep pace with him. A majority fell hopelessly
+behind, in fact.
+
+Straight into the office walked Harry, closely followed by Blootch and
+the marshal. Maude, looking like a monument of sheets, still occupied
+the centre of the floor. Without a word, the party filed past the
+gruesome, silent thing and into the jail corridor. It was as dark as
+Erebus in the barred section of the prison; a cold draft of air flew
+into the faces of the visitors.
+
+"Come here, you fellers!" called Anderson bravely into the darkness; but
+there was no response from the prisoners.
+
+For the very good reason that some hours earlier they had calmly removed
+a window from its moorings and by this time were much too far away to
+answer questions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+The Flight of the Kidnapers
+
+
+Searching parties were organised and sent out to scour the country, late
+as it was. Swift riders gave the alarm along every roadway, and the
+station agent telegraphed the news into every section of the land. At
+Boggs City, the sheriff, berating Anderson Crow for a fool and
+Tinkletown for an open-air lunatic asylum, sent his deputies down to
+assist in the pursuit. The marshal himself undertook to lead each
+separate and distinct posse. He was so overwhelmed by the magnitude of
+his misfortune that it is no wonder his brain whirled widely enough to
+encompass the whole enterprise.
+
+Be it said to the credit of Tinkletown, her citizens made every
+reasonable effort to recapture the men. The few hundred able-bodied men
+of the town rallied to the support of their marshal and the law, and
+there was not one who refused to turn out in the cold night air for a
+sweeping search of the woods and fields.
+
+Rosalie, who had been awakened early in the evening by Mr. Crow's noisy
+preparations for the pursuit, came downstairs, and instantly lost all
+desire to sleep. Bonner was lying on a couch in the "sitting-room,"
+which now served as a temporary bedchamber.
+
+"If you'll just hand me those revolvers, Mr. Crow," said he, indicating
+the two big automatics he had taken from Davy and Bill, "I'll stand
+guard over the house as best I can while you're away."
+
+"Stand guard? What fer? Nobody's goin' to steal the house."
+
+"We should not forget that these same rascals may take it into their
+heads to double on their tracks and try to carry Miss Gray away again.
+With her in their possession they'll receive their pay; without her
+their work will have been for nothing. It is a desperate crowd, and they
+may think the plan at least worth trying."
+
+Rosalie's grateful, beaming glance sent a quiver that was not of pain
+through Bonner's frame.
+
+"Don't worry about that," said the marshal. "We'll have 'em shot to
+pieces inside of an hour an' a half."
+
+"Anderson, I want you to be very careful with that horse pistol," said
+his wife nervously. "It ain't been shot off sence the war, an' like as
+not it'll kill you from behind."
+
+"Gosh blast it, Eva!" roared Anderson, "don't you suppose I know which
+end to shoot with?" And away he rushed in great dudgeon.
+
+Edna Crow sat at the front window, keeping watch for hours. She reported
+to the other members of the household as each scurrying band of
+searchers passed the place. Bonner commanded Rosalie to keep away from
+the windows, fearing a shot from the outside. From time to time Roscoe
+replenished the big blaze in the fireplace. It was cosey in the
+old-fashioned sitting-room, even though the strain upon its occupants
+was trying in the extreme.
+
+Great excitement came to them when the figure of a man was seen to drop
+to the walk near the front gate. At first it was feared that one of the
+bandits, injured by pursuers, had fallen to die, but the mournful calls
+for help that soon came from the sidewalk were more or less reassuring.
+The prostrate figure had a queer habit from time to time of raising
+itself high enough to peer between the pickets of the fence, and each
+succeeding shout seemed more vigorous than the others. Finally they
+became impatient, and then full of wrath. It was evident that the
+stranger resented the inhospitality of the house.
+
+"Who are you?" called Edna, opening the window ever so slightly.
+Whereupon the man at the gate sank to the ground and groaned with
+splendid misery.
+
+"It's me," he replied.
+
+"Who's me?"
+
+"'Rast--'Rast Little. I think I'm dyin'."
+
+There was a hurried consultation indoors, and then Roscoe bravely
+ventured out to the sidewalk.
+
+"Are you shot, 'Rast?" he asked in trembling tones.
+
+"No; I'm just wounded. Is Rosalie in there?"
+
+"Yep. She's--"
+
+"I guess I'll go in, then. Dern it! It's a long walk from our house over
+here. I guess I'll stay all night. If I don't get better to-morrow I'll
+have to stay longer. I ought to be nursed, too."
+
+"Rosalie's playin' nurse fer Mr. Bonner," volunteered Roscoe, still
+blocking the gate through which 'Rast was trying to wedge himself.
+
+"Mr. who?"
+
+"Bonner."
+
+"Well," said 'Rast after a moment's consideration, "he ought to be moved
+to a hospital. Lemme lean on you, Roscoe. I can't hardly walk, my arm
+hurts so."
+
+Mr. Little, with his bandages and his hobble, had joined in the
+expedition, and was not to be deterred until faintness overcame him and
+he dropped by the wayside. He was taken in and given a warm chair before
+the fire. One long look at Bonner and the newcomer lapsed into a
+stubborn pout. He groaned occasionally and made much ado over his
+condition, but sourly resented any approach at sympathy. Finally he fell
+asleep in the chair, his last speech being to the effect that he was
+going home early in the morning if he had to drag himself every foot of
+the way. Plainly, 'Rast had forgotten Miss Banks in the sudden revival
+of affection for Rosalie Gray. The course of true love did not run
+smoothly in Tinkletown.
+
+The searchers straggled in empty handed. Early morning found most of
+them asleep at their homes, tucked away by thankful wives, and with the
+promises of late breakfasts. The next day business was slow in asserting
+its claim upon public attention. Masculine Tinkletown dozed while
+femininity chattered to its heart's content. There was much to talk
+about and more to anticipate. The officials in all counties contiguous
+had out their dragnets, and word was expected at any time that the
+fugitives had fallen into their hands.
+
+But not that day, nor the next, nor any day, in fact, did news come of
+their capture, so Tinkletown was obliged to settle back into a state of
+tranquility. Some little interest was aroused when the town board
+ordered the calaboose repaired, and there was a ripple of excitement
+attached to the funeral of the only kidnaper in captivity. It was
+necessary to postpone the oyster supper at the Methodist Church, but
+there was some consolation in the knowledge that it would soon be
+summer-time and the benighted Africans would not need the money for
+winter clothes. The reception at the minister's house was a fizzle. He
+was warned in time, however, and it was his own fault that he received
+no more than a jug of vinegar, two loaves of bread and a pound of honey
+as the result of his expectations. It was the first time that a "pound"
+party had proven a losing enterprise.
+
+Anderson Crow maintained a relentless search for the desperadoes. He
+refused to accept Wicker Bonner's theory that they were safe in the city
+of New York. It was his own opinion that they were still in the
+neighbourhood, waiting for a chance to exhume the body of Davy's mother
+and make off with it.
+
+"Don't try to tell me, Mr. Bonner, that even a raskil like him hasn't
+any love fer his mother," he contended. "Davy may not be much of a
+model, but he had a feelin' fer the woman who bore him, an' don't you
+fergit it."
+
+"Why, Daddy Crow, he was the most heartless brute in the world!" cried
+Rosalie. "I've seen him knock her down more than once--and kick her,
+too."
+
+"A slip of the memory, that's all. He was probably thinkin' of his wife,
+if he has one."
+
+At a public meeting the town board was condemned for its failure to
+strengthen the jail at the time Anderson made his demand three years
+before.
+
+"What's the use in me catchin' thieves, and so forth, if the jail won't
+hold 'em?" Anderson declared. "I cain't afford to waste time in runnin'
+desperite characters down if the town board ain't goin' to obstruct 'em
+from gittin' away as soon as the sun sits. What's the use, I'd like to
+know? Where's the justice? I don't want it to git noised aroun' that the
+on'y way we c'n hold a prisoner is to have him commit suicide as soon as
+he's arrested. Fer two cents I'd resign right now."
+
+Of course no one would hear to that. As a result, nearly five hundred
+dollars was voted from the corporation funds to strengthen and modernise
+the "calaboose." It was the sense of the meeting that a "sweat box"
+should be installed under Mr. Crow's supervision, and that the marshal's
+salary should be increased fifty dollars a year. After the adoption of
+this popular resolution Mr. Crow arose and solemnly informed the people
+that their faith in him was not misplaced. He threw the meeting into a
+state of great excitement by announcing that the kidnapers would soon be
+in the toils once more. In response to eager queries he merely stated
+that he had a valuable clew, which could not be divulged without
+detriment to the cause. Everybody went home that night with the
+assurance that the fugitives would soon be taken. Anderson promised the
+town board that he would not take them until the jail was repaired.
+
+It was almost a fortnight before Wicker Bonner was able to walk about
+with crutches. The wound in his leg was an ugly one and healed slowly.
+His uncle, the Congressman, sent up a surgeon from New York, but that
+worthy approved of "Doc" Smith's methods, and abruptly left the young
+man to the care of an excellent nurse, Rosalie Gray. Congressman
+Bonner's servants came over every day or two with books, newspapers,
+sweetmeats, and fresh supplies from the city, but it was impossible for
+them to get any satisfaction from the young man in reply to their
+inquiries as to when he expected to return to the big house across the
+river. Bonner was beginning to hate the thought of giving up Rosalie's
+readings, her ministrations, and the no uncertain development of his own
+opinions as to her personal attractiveness.
+
+"I don't know when I'll be able to walk, Watkins," he said to the
+caretaker. "I'm afraid my heart is affected."
+
+Bonner's enforced presence at Anderson Crow's home was the source of
+extreme annoyance to the young men of the town. "Blootch" Peabody
+created a frightful scandal by getting boiling drunk toward the end of
+the week, so great was his dejection. As it was his first real spree, he
+did not recover from the effect for three days. He then took the pledge,
+and talked about the evils of strong drink with so much feeling at
+prayer meeting that the women of the town inaugurated a movement to stop
+the sale of liquor in the town. As Peabody's drug store was the only
+place where whiskey could be obtained, "Blootch" soon saw the error of
+his ways and came down from his pedestal to mend them.
+
+Bonner was a friend in need to Anderson Crow. The two were in
+consultation half of the time, and the young man's opinions were not to
+be disregarded. He advanced a theory concerning the motives of the
+leader in the plot to send Rosalie into an exile from which she was not
+expected to return. It was his belief that the person who abandoned her
+as a babe was actuated by the desire to possess a fortune which should
+have been the child's. The conditions attending the final disposition of
+this fortune doubtless were such as to make it unwise to destroy the
+girl's life. The plotter, whatever his or her relation to the child may
+have been, must have felt that a time might come when the existence of
+the real heiress would be necessary. Either such a fear was the
+inspiration or the relationship was so dear that the heart of the
+arch-plotter was full of love for the innocent victim.
+
+"Who is to say, Miss Gray," said Bonner one night as they sat before the
+fire, "that the woman who left you with Mr. Crow was not your own
+mother? Suppose that a vast estate was to be yours in trust after the
+death of some rich relative, say grandparent. It would naturally mean
+that some one else resented this bequest, and probably with some
+justice. The property was to become your own when you attained a certain
+age, let us say. Don't you see that the day would rob the disinherited
+person of every hope to retain the fortune? Even a mother might be
+tempted, for ambitious reasons, to go to extreme measures to secure the
+fortune for herself. Or she might have been influenced by a will
+stronger than her own--the will of an unscrupulous man. There are many
+contingencies, all probable, as you choose to analyse them."
+
+"But why should this person wish to banish me from the country
+altogether? I am no more dangerous here than I would be anywhere in
+Europe. And then think of the means they would have employed to get me
+away from Tinkletown. Have I not been lost to the world for years?
+Why--"
+
+"True; but I am quite convinced, and I think Mr. Crow agrees with me,
+that the recent move was made necessary by the demands of one whose
+heart is not interested, but whose hand wields the sceptre of power
+over the love which tries to shield you. Any other would have cut off
+your life at the beginning."
+
+"That's my idee," agreed Anderson solemnly.
+
+"I don't want the fortune!" cried Rosalie. "I am happy here! Why can't
+they let me alone?"
+
+"I tell you, Miss Gray, unless something happens to prevent it, that
+woman will some day give you back your own--your fortune and your name."
+
+"I can't believe it, Mr. Bonner. It is too much like a dream to me."
+
+"Well, doggone it, Rosalie, dreams don't last forever!" broke in
+Anderson Crow. "You've got to wake up some time, don't you see?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+As the Heart Grows Older
+
+
+Bonner's eagerness to begin probing into the mystery grew as his
+strength came back to him. He volunteered to interest his uncle in the
+matter, and through him to begin a systematic effort to unravel the
+tangled ends of Rosalie's life. Money was not to be spared; time and
+intelligence were to be devoted to the cause. He knew that Rosalie was
+in reality a creature of good birth and worthy of the name that any man
+might seek to bestow upon her--a name given in love by a man to the
+woman who would share it with him forever.
+
+The days and nights were teaching him the sacredness of a growing
+attachment. He was not closing his eyes to the truth. It was quite as
+impossible for big, worldly Wick Bonner to be near her and not fall a
+victim, as it was for the crude, humble youth of Tinkletown. His heart
+was just as fragile as theirs when it bared itself to her attack. Her
+beauty attracted him, her natural refinement of character appealed to
+him; her pureness, her tenderness, her goodness, wrought havoc with his
+impressions. Fresh, bright, as clear-headed as the June sunshine, she
+was a revelation to him--to Bonner, who had known her sex in all its
+environments. His heart was full of her, day and night; for day and
+night he was wondering whether she could care for him as he knew he was
+coming to care for her.
+
+One day he received a telegram. It was from his mother and his sister,
+who had just reached Boston from Bermuda, and it carried the brief
+though emphatic information that they were starting to Tinkletown to
+nurse and care for him. Bonner was thrown into a panic. He realised in
+the instant that it would be impossible for them to come to Mr. Crow's
+home, and he knew they could not be deceived as to his real condition.
+His mother would naturally insist upon his going at once to Bonner
+Place, across the river, and on to Boston as soon as he was able; his
+clever sister would see through his motives like a flash of lightning.
+Young Mr. Bonner loved them, but he was distinctly bored by the prospect
+of their coming. In some haste and confusion, he sent for "Doc" Smith.
+
+"Doctor, how soon will I be able to navigate?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"Right now."
+
+"You don't say so! I don't feel strong, you know."
+
+"Well, your leg's doing well and all danger is past. Of course, you
+won't be as spry as usual for some time, and you can't walk without
+crutches, but I don't see any sense in your loafing around here on that
+account. You'd be safe to go at any time, Mr. Bonner."
+
+"Look here, doctor, I'm afraid to change doctors. You've handled this
+case mighty well, and if I went to some other chap, he might undo it
+all. I've made up my mind to have you look out for me until this wound
+is completely healed. That's all right, now. I know what I'm talking
+about. I'll take no chances. How long will it be until it is completely
+healed?"
+
+"A couple of weeks, I suppose."
+
+"Well, I'll stay right here and have you look at it every day. It's too
+serious a matter for me to trifle with. By the way, my mother is coming
+up, and I dare say she'll want me to go to Boston. Our family doctor is
+an old fossil and I don't like to trust him with this thing. You'll be
+doing me a favour, doctor, if you keep me here until I'm thoroughly
+well. I intend to tell my mother that it will not be wise to move me
+until all danger of blood poisoning is past."
+
+"Blood poisoning? There's no danger now, sir."
+
+"You never can tell," said Bonner sagely.
+
+"But I'd be a perfect fool, Mr. Bonner, if there were still danger of
+that," complained the doctor. "What sort of a doctor would they consider
+me?"
+
+"They'd certainly give you credit for being careful, and that's what
+appeals to a mother, you know," said Bonner still more sagely. "Besides,
+it's _my_ leg, doctor, and I'll have it treated my way. I think a couple
+of weeks more under your care will put me straight. Mother has to
+consider me, that's all. I wish you'd stop in to-morrow and change these
+bandages, doctor; if you don't mind--"
+
+"Doc" Smith was not slow. He saw more than Bonner thought, so he winked
+to himself as he crossed over to his office. At the corner he met
+Anderson Crow.
+
+"Say, Anderson," he said, half chuckling, "that young Bonner has had a
+relapse."
+
+"Thunderation!"
+
+"He can't be moved for a week or two."
+
+"Will you have to cut it off?"
+
+"The leg?"
+
+"Certainly. That's the only thing that pains him, ain't it?"
+
+"I think not. I'm going to put his heart in a sling," said Smith,
+laughing heartily at what he thought would be taken as a brilliant piece
+of jesting. But he erred. Anderson went home in a great flurry and
+privately cautioned every member of the household, including Rosalie, to
+treat Bonner with every consideration, as his heart was weak and liable
+to give him great trouble. Above all, he cautioned them to keep the
+distressing news from Bonner. It would discourage him mightily. For a
+full week Anderson watched Bonner with anxious eyes, writhing every
+time the big fellow exerted himself, groaning when he gave vent to his
+hearty laugh.
+
+"Have you heard anything?" asked Bonner with faithful regularity when
+Anderson came home each night. He referred to the chase for the
+fugitives.
+
+"Nothin' worth while," replied Anderson dismally. "Uncle Jimmy Borton
+had a letter from Albany to-day, an' his son-in-law said three strange
+men had been seen in the Albany depot the other day. I had Uncle Jimmy
+write an' ast him if he had seen anybody answerin' the description, you
+know. But the three men he spoke of took a train for New York, so I
+suppose they're lost by this time. It's the most bafflin' case I ever
+worked on."
+
+"Has it occurred to you that the real leader was in this neighbourhood
+at the time? In Boggs City, let us say. According to Rosa--Miss Gray's
+story, the man Sam went out nightly for instructions. Well, he either
+went to Boggs City or to a meeting place agreed upon between him and his
+superior. It is possible that he saw this person on the very night of my
+own adventure. Now, the thing for us to do is to find out if a stranger
+was seen in these parts on that night. The hotel registers in Boggs City
+may give us a clew. If you don't mind, Mr. Crow, I'll have this New York
+detective, who is coming up to-morrow, take a look into this phase of
+the case. It won't interfere with your plans, will it?" asked Bonner,
+always considerate of the feelings of the good-hearted, simple-minded
+old marshal.
+
+"Not at all, an' I'll help him all I can, sir," responded Anderson
+magnanimously. "Here, Eva, here's a letter fer Rosalie. It's the second
+she's had from New York in three days."
+
+"It's from Miss Banks. They correspond, Anderson," said Mrs. Crow.
+
+"And say, Eva, I've decided on one thing. We've got to calculate on
+gittin' along without that thousand dollars after this."
+
+"Why, An--der--son Crow!"
+
+"Yep. We're goin' to find her folks, no matter if we do have to give up
+the thousand. It's no more'n right. She'll be twenty-one in March, an'
+I'll have to settle the guardeenship business anyhow. But, doggone it,
+Mr. Bonner, she says she won't take the money we've saved fer her."
+
+"She has told me as much, Mr. Crow. I think she's partly right. If she
+takes my advice she will divide it with you. You are entitled to all of
+it, you know--it was to be your pay--and she will not listen to your
+plan to give all of it to her. Still, I feel that she should not be
+penniless at this time. She may never need it--she certainly will not as
+long as you are alive--but it seems a wise thing for her to be protected
+against emergencies. But I dare say you can arrange that between
+yourselves. I have no right to interfere. Was there any mail for me?"
+
+"Yep. I almost fergot to fork it over. Here's one from your mother, I
+figger. This is from your sister, an' here's one from your--your
+sweetheart, I reckon. I deduce all this by sizin' up the--" and he went
+on to tell how he reached his conclusions, all of which were wrong.
+They were invitations to social affairs in Boston. "But I got somethin'
+important to tell you, Mr. Bonner. I think a trap is bein' set fer me by
+the desperadoes we're after. I guess I'm gittin' too hot on their trail.
+I had an ananymous letter to-day."
+
+"A what?"
+
+"Ananymous letter. Didn't you ever hear of one? This one was writ fer
+the express purpose of lurin' me into a trap. They want to git me out of
+the way. But I'll fool 'em. I'll not pay any attention to it."
+
+"Goodness, Anderson, I bet you'll be assassinated yet!" cried his poor
+wife. "I wish you'd give up chasin' people down."
+
+"May I have a look at the letter, Mr. Crow?" asked Bonner. Anderson
+stealthily drew the square envelope from his inside pocket and passed it
+over.
+
+"They've got to git up purty early to ketch me asleep," he said proudly.
+Bonner drew the enclosure from the envelope. As he read, his eyes
+twinkled and the corners of his mouth twitched, but his face was
+politely sober as he handed the missive back to the marshal. "Looks like
+a trap, don't it?" said Anderson. "You see there ain't no signature.
+The raskils were afraid to sign a name."
+
+"I wouldn't say anything to Miss Gray about this if I were you, Mr.
+Crow. It might disturb her, you know," said Bonner.
+
+"That means you, too, Eva," commanded Anderson in turn. "Don't worry the
+girl. She mustn't know anything about this."
+
+"I don't think it's a trap," remarked Eva as she finished reading the
+missive. Bonner took this opportunity to laugh heartily. He had held it
+back as long as possible. What Anderson described as an "ananymous"
+letter was nothing more than a polite, formal invitation to attend a
+"house warming" at Colonel Randall's on the opposite side of the river.
+It read:
+
+     "Mr. and Mrs. D.F. Randall request the honour of your presence at a
+     house warming, Friday evening, January 30, 190--, at eight o'clock.
+     Rockden-of-the-Hills."
+
+"It is addressed to me, too, Anderson," said his wife, pointing to the
+envelope. "It's the new house they finished last fall. Anonymous letter!
+Fiddlesticks! I bet there's one at the post-office fer each one of the
+girls."
+
+"Roscoe got some of the mail," murmured the marshal sheepishly. "Where
+is that infernal boy? He'd oughter be strapped good and hard fer holdin'
+back letters like this," growled he, eager to run the subject into
+another channel. After pondering all evening, he screwed up the courage
+and asked Bonner not to tell any one of his error in regard to the
+invitation. Roscoe produced invitations for his sister and Rosalie. He
+furthermore announced that half the people in town had received them.
+
+"There's a telegram comin' up fer you after a while, Mr. Bonner," he
+said. "Bud's out delivering one to Mr. Grimes, and he's going to stop
+here on the way back. I was at the station when it come in. It's from
+your ma, and it says she'll be over from Boggs City early in the
+morning."
+
+"Thanks, Roscoe," said Bonner with an amused glance at Rosalie; "you've
+saved me the trouble of reading it."
+
+"They are coming to-morrow," said Rosalie long afterward, as the last of
+the Crows straggled off to bed. "You will have to go away with them,
+won't you?"
+
+"I'm an awful nuisance about here, I fancy, and you'll be glad to be rid
+of me," he said softly, his gaze on the blazing "back-log."
+
+"No more so than you will be to go," she said so coolly that his pride
+suffered a distinct shock. He stole a shy glance at the face of the girl
+opposite. It was as calm and serene as a May morning. Her eyes likewise
+were gazing into the blaze, and her fingers were idly toying with the
+fringe on the arm of the chair.
+
+"By George!" he thought, a weakness assailing his heart suddenly; "I
+don't believe she cares a rap!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+The Left Ventricle
+
+
+The next day Mrs. Bonner and Miss Bonner descended upon Tinkletown. They
+were driven over from Boggs City in an automobile, and their advent
+caused a new thrill of excitement in town. Half of the women in
+Tinkletown found excuse to walk past Mr. Crow's home some time during
+the day, and not a few of them called to pay their respects to Mrs.
+Crow, whether they owed them or not, much to that estimable lady's
+discomfiture.
+
+Wicker's mother was a handsome, aristocratic woman with a pedigree
+reaching back to Babylon or some other historic starting place. Her
+ancestors were Tories at the time of the American Revolution, and she
+was proud of it. Her husband's forefathers had shot a few British in
+those days, it is true, and had successfully chased some of her own
+ancestors over to Long Island, but that did not matter in these
+twentieth century days. Mr. Bonner long since had gone to the tomb; and
+his widow at fifty was quite the queen of all she surveyed, which was
+not inconsiderable. The Bonners were rich in worldly possessions, rich
+in social position, rich in traditions. The daughter, just out in
+society, was a pretty girl, several years younger than Wicker. She was
+the idol of his heart. This slip of a girl had been to him the
+brightest, wittiest and prettiest girl in all the world. Now, he was
+wondering how the other girl, who was not his sister, would compare with
+her when they stood together before him.
+
+Naturally, Mrs. Crow and her daughters sank into a nervous panic as soon
+as these fashionable women from Boston set foot inside the humble home.
+They lost what little self-possession they had managed to acquire and
+floundered miserably through the preliminaries.
+
+But calm, sweet and composed as the most fastidious would require,
+Rosalie greeted the visitors without a shadow of confusion or a sign of
+gaucherie. Bonner felt a thrill of joy and pride as he took note of the
+look of surprise that crept into his mother's face--a surprise that did
+not diminish as the girl went through her unconscious test.
+
+"By George!" he cried jubilantly to himself, "she's something to be
+proud of--she's a queen!"
+
+Later in the day, after the humble though imposing lunch (the paradox
+was permissible in Tinkletown), Mrs. Bonner found time and opportunity
+to express her surprise and her approval to him. With the insight of the
+real aristocrat, she was not blind to the charms of the girl, who
+blossomed like a rose in this out-of-the-way patch of nature. The tact
+which impelled Rosalie to withdraw herself and all of the Crows from the
+house, giving the Bonners an opportunity to be together undisturbed, did
+not escape the clever woman of the world.
+
+"She is remarkable, Wicker. Tell me about her. Why does she happen to
+be living in this wretched town and among such people?"
+
+Whereupon Bonner rushed into a detailed and somewhat lengthy history of
+the mysterious Miss Gray, repeating it as it had come to him from her
+own frank lips, but with embellishments of his own that would have
+brought the red to her cheeks, could she have heard them. His mother's
+interest was not assumed; his sister was fascinated by the recital.
+
+"Who knows," she cried, her dark eyes sparkling, "she may be an heiress
+to millions!"
+
+"Or a princess of the royal blood!" amended her mother with an
+enthusiasm that was uncommon. "Blood alone has made this girl what she
+is. Heaven knows that billions or trillions could not have overcome the
+influences of a lifetime spent in--in Winkletown--or is that the name?
+It doesn't matter, Wicker--any name will satisfy. Frankly, I am
+interested in the girl. It is a crime to permit her to vegetate and die
+in a place like this."
+
+"But, mother, she loves these people," protested Bonner lifelessly.
+"They have been kind to her all these years. They have been parents,
+protectors--"
+
+"And they have been well paid for it, my son. Please do not
+misunderstand me, I am not planning to take her off their hands. I am
+not going to reconstruct her sphere in life. Not by any means. I am
+merely saying that it is a crime for her to be penned up for life in
+this--this desert. I doubt very much whether her parentage will ever be
+known, and perhaps it is just as well that it isn't to be. Still, I am
+interested."
+
+"Mamma, I think it would be very nice to ask her to come to Boston for a
+week or two, don't you?" suggested Edith Bonner, warmly but doubtfully.
+
+"Bully!" exclaimed Wicker, forgetting in his excitement that he was a
+cripple. "Have her come on to stop a while with you, Ede. It will be a
+great treat for her and, by George, I'm inclined to think it maybe
+somewhat beneficial to us."
+
+"Your enthusiasm is beautiful, Wicker," said his mother, perfectly
+unruffled. "I have no doubt you think Boston would be benefited, too."
+
+"Now, you know, mother, it's not just like you to be snippish," said he
+easily. "Besides, after living a while in other parts of the world, I'm
+beginning to feel that population is not the only thing about Boston
+that can be enlarged. It's all very nice to pave our streets with
+intellect so that we can't stray from our own footsteps, but I rather
+like the idea of losing my way, once in a while, even if I have to look
+at the same common, old sky up there that the rest of the world looks
+at, don't you know. I've learned recently that the same sun that shines
+on Boston also radiates for the rest of the world."
+
+"Yes, it shines in Tinkletown," agreed his mother serenely. "But, my
+dear--" turning to her daughter--"I think you would better wait a while
+before extending the invitation. There is no excuse for rushing into the
+unknown. Let time have a chance."
+
+"By Jove, mother, you talk sometimes like Anderson Crow. He often says
+things like that," cried Wicker delightedly.
+
+"Dear me! How can you say such a thing, Wicker?"
+
+"Well, you'd like old Anderson. He's a jewel!"
+
+"I dare say--an emerald. No, no--that was not fair or kind, Wicker. I
+unsay it. Mr. Crow and all of them have been good to you. Forgive me the
+sarcasm. Mr. Crow is perfectly impossible, but I like him. He has a
+heart, and that is more than most of us can say. And now let us return
+to earth once more. When will you be ready to start for Boston?
+To-morrow?"
+
+"Heavens, no! I'm not to be moved for quite a long time--danger of
+gangrene or something of the sort. It's astonishing, mother, what
+capable men these country doctors are. Dr. Smith is something of a
+marvel. He--he--saved my leg."
+
+"My boy--you don't mean that--" his mother was saying, her voice
+trembling.
+
+"Yes; that's what I mean. I'm all right now, but, of course, I shall be
+very careful for a couple of weeks. One can't tell, you know. Blood
+poisoning and all that sort of thing. But let's not talk of it--it's
+gruesome."
+
+"Indeed it is. You must be extremely careful, Wicker. Promise me that
+you will do nothing foolish. Don't use your leg until the doctor--but I
+have something better. We will send for Dr. J----. He can run up from
+Boston two or three times--"
+
+"Nothing of the sort, mother! Nonsense! Smith knows more in a minute
+than J---- does in a month. He's handling the case exactly as I want him
+to. Let well enough alone, say I. You know J---- always wants to
+amputate everything that can be cut or sawed off. For heaven's sake,
+don't let him try it on me. I need my legs."
+
+It is not necessary to say that Mrs. Bonner was completely won over by
+this argument. She commanded him to stay where he was until it was
+perfectly safe to be moved across the river, where he could recuperate
+before venturing into the city of his birth. Moreover, she announced
+that Edith and she would remain in Boggs City until he was quite out of
+danger, driving over every day in their chartered automobile. It
+suddenly struck Bonner that it would be necessary to bribe "Doc" Smith
+and the entire Crow family, if he was to maintain his position as an
+invalid.
+
+"Doc" Smith when put to the test lied ably in behalf of his client (he
+refused to call him his patient), and Mrs. Bonner was convinced. Mr.
+Crow and Eva vigorously protested that the young man would not be a
+"mite of trouble," and that he could stay as long as he liked.
+
+"He's a gentleman, Mrs. Bonner," announced the marshal, as if the mother
+was being made aware of the fact for the first time. "Mrs. Crow an' me
+have talked it over, an' I know what I'm talkin' about. He's a perfect
+gentleman."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Crow. I am happy to hear you say that," said Mrs.
+Bonner, with fine tact. "You will not mind if he stops here a while
+longer then?"
+
+"I should say not. If he'll take the job, I'll app'int him deputy
+marshal."
+
+"I'd like a picture of you with the badge and uniform, Wick," said Edith
+with good-natured banter.
+
+Just before the two ladies left for Boggs City that evening Bonner
+managed to say something to Edith.
+
+"Say, Ede, I think it would be uncommonly decent of you to ask Miss Gray
+down to Boston this spring. You'll like her."
+
+"Wicker, if it were not so awfully common, I'd laugh in my sleeve," said
+she, surveying him with a calm scrutiny that disconcerted. "I wasn't
+born yesterday, you know. Mother was, perhaps, but not your dear little
+sister. Cheer up, brother. You'll get over it, just like all the rest.
+I'll ask her to come, but--Please don't frown like that. I'll suspect
+something."
+
+During the many little automobile excursions that the two girls enjoyed
+during those few days in Tinkletown, Miss Bonner found much to love in
+Rosalie, much to esteem and a great deal to anticipate. Purposely, she
+set about to learn by "deduction" just what Rosalie's feelings were for
+the big brother. She would not have been surprised to discover the
+telltale signs of a real but secret affection on Rosalie's part, but she
+was, on the contrary, amazed and not a little chagrined to have the
+young girl meet every advance with a joyous candour, that definitely set
+aside any possibility of love for the supposedly irresistible brother.
+Miss Edith's mind was quite at rest, but with the arrogant pride of a
+sister, she resented the fact that any one could know this cherished
+brother and not fall a victim. Perversely, she would have hated Rosalie
+had she caught her, in a single moment of unguardedness, revealing a
+feeling more tender than friendly interest for him.
+
+Sophisticated and world-wise, the gay, careless Miss Bonner read her
+pages quickly--she skimmed them--but she saw a great deal between the
+lines. If her mother had been equally discerning, that very estimable
+lady might have found herself immensely relieved along certain lines.
+
+Bonner was having a hard time of it these days. It was worse than misery
+to stay indoors, and it was utterly out of the question for him to
+venture out. His leg was healing with disgusting rashness, but his heart
+was going into an illness that was to scoff at the cures of man. And if
+his parting with his mother and the rosy-faced young woman savoured of
+relief, he must he forgiven. A sore breast is no respecter of persons.
+
+They were returning to the Hub by the early morning train from Boggs
+City, and it was understood that Rosalie was to come to them in June.
+Let it be said in good truth that both Mrs. Bonner and her daughter were
+delighted to have her promise. If they felt any uneasiness as to the
+possibility of unwholesome revelations in connection with her birth,
+they purposely blindfolded themselves and indulged in the game of
+consequences.
+
+Mrs. Bonner was waiting in the automobile, having said good-bye to
+Wicker.
+
+"I'll keep close watch on him, Mrs. Bonner," promised Anderson, "and
+telegraph you if his condition changes a mite. I ast 'Doc' Smith to-day
+to tell me the real truth 'bout him, an'--"
+
+"The real truth? What do you mean?" she cried, in fresh alarm.
+
+"Don't worry, ma'am. He's improvin' fine, 'doc' says. He told me he'd be
+out o' danger when he got back to Boston. His heart's worryin' 'doc' a
+little. I ast 'im to speak plain an' tell me jest how bad it's affected.
+He said: 'At present, only the left ventricle--whatever that be--only
+the left one is punctured, but the right one seems to need a change of
+air.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+The Grin Derisive
+
+
+"I like your ma," said Anderson to Wicker, later in the evening. "She's
+a perfect lady. Doggone, it's a relief to see a rich woman that knows
+how to be a lady. She ain't a bit stuck up an' yet she's a reg'lar
+aristocrat. Did I ever tell you about what happened to Judge
+Courtwright's wife? No? Well, it was a long time ago, right here in
+Tinkletown. The judge concluded this would be a good place fer a summer
+home--so him an' her put up a grand residence down there on the river
+bluff. It was the only summer place on this side of the river. Well, of
+course Mrs. Courtwright had to turn in an' be the leader of the women in
+this place. She lorded it over 'em an' she give 'em to understand that
+she was a queen er somethin' like that an' they was nothin' but
+peasants. An' the derned fool women 'lowed her to do it, too. Seems as
+though her great-grandfather was a 'squire over in England, an' she had
+a right to be swell. Well, she ruled the roost fer two summers an'
+nobody could get near her without a special dispensation from the
+Almighty. She wouldn't look at anybody with her eyes; her chin was so
+high in the air that she had to look through her nose.
+
+"Her husband was as old as Methoosalum--that is, he was as old as
+Methoosalum was when he was a boy, so to speak--an' she had him skeered
+of his life. But I fixed her. At the end of the second summer she was
+ready to git up an' git, duke er no duke. Lemme me give you a tip, Wick.
+If you want to fetch a queen down to your level, jest let her know
+you're laughin' at her. Well, sir, the judge's wife used to turn up her
+nose at me until I got to feelin' too small to be seen. My pride was
+wallerin' in the dust. Finally, I thought of a scheme to fix her. Every
+time I saw her, I'd grin at her--not sayin' a word, mind you, but jest
+lookin' at her as if she struck me as bein' funny. Well, sir, I kept it
+up good an' strong. First thing I knowed, she was beginnin' to look as
+though a bee had stung her an' she couldn't find the place. I'd ketch
+her stealin' sly glances at me an' she allus found me with a grin on my
+face--a good, healthy grin, too.
+
+"There wasn't anything to laugh at, mind you, but she didn't know that.
+She got to fixin' her back hair and lookin' worried about her clothes.
+'Nen she'd wipe her face to see if the powder was on straight, all the
+time wonderin' what in thunder I was laughin' at. If she passed in her
+kerridge she'd peep back to see if I was laughin'; and I allus was. I
+never failed. All this time I wasn't sayin' a word-jest grinnin' as
+though she tickled me half to death. Gradually I begin to be scientific
+about it. I got so that when she caught me laughin', I'd try my best to
+hide the grin. Course that made it all the worse. She fidgeted an'
+squirmed an' got red in the face till it looked like she was pickled.
+Doggone, ef she didn't begin to neglect her business as a
+great-granddaughter! She didn't have time to lord it over her peasants.
+She was too blame busy wonderin' what I was laughin' at.
+
+[Illustration: "It was a wise, discreet old oak"]
+
+"'Nen she begin to look peaked an' thin. She looked like she was seem'
+ghosts all the time. That blamed grin of mine pursued her every minute.
+Course, she couldn't kick about it. That wouldn't do at all. She jest
+had to bear it without grinnin'. There wasn't anything to say. Finally,
+she got to stayin' away from the meetin's an' almost quit drivin'
+through the town. Everybody noticed the change in her. People said she
+was goin' crazy about her back hair. She lost thirty pounds worryin'
+before August, and when September come, the judge had to take her to a
+rest cure. They never come back to Tinkletown, an' the judge had to sell
+the place fer half what it cost him. Fer two years she almost went into
+hysterics when anybody laughed. But it done her good. It changed her
+idees. She got over her high an' mighty ways, they say, an' I hear she's
+one of the nicest, sweetest old ladies in Boggs City nowadays. But
+Blootch Peabody says that to this day she looks flustered when anybody
+notices her back hair. The Lord knows I wa'n't laughin' at her hair. I
+don't see why she thought so, do you?"
+
+Bonner laughed long and heartily over the experiment; but Rosalie
+vigorously expressed her disapproval of the marshal's methods.
+
+"It's the only real mean thing I ever heard of you doing, daddy Crow!"
+she cried. "It was cruel!"
+
+"Course you'd take her part, bein' a woman," said he serenely. "Mrs.
+Crow did, too, when I told her about it twenty years ago. Women ain't
+got much sense of humour, have they, Wick?" He was calling him Wick
+nowadays; and the young man enjoyed the familiarity.
+
+The days came when Bonner could walk about with his cane, and he was not
+slow to avail himself of the privilege this afforded. It meant enjoyable
+strolls with Rosalie, and it meant the elevation of his spirits to such
+heights that the skies formed no bounds for them. The town was not slow
+to draw conclusions. Every one said it would be a "match." It was
+certain that the interesting Boston man had acquired a clear field.
+Tinkletown's beaux gave up in despair and dropped out of the contest
+with the hope that complete recovery from his injuries might not only
+banish Bonner from the village, but also from the thoughts of Rosalie
+Gray. Most of the young men took their medicine philosophically. They
+had known from the first that their chances were small. Blootch Peabody
+and Ed Higgins, because of the personal rivalry between themselves,
+hoped on and on and grew more bitter between themselves, instead of
+toward Bonner.
+
+[Illustration: "'I beg your pardon,' he said humbly"]
+
+Anderson Crow and Eva were delighted and the Misses Crow, after futile
+efforts to interest the young man in their own wares, fell in with the
+old folks and exuberantly whispered to the world that "it would be
+perfectly glorious." Roscoe was not so charitable. He was soundly
+disgusted with the thought of losing his friend Bonner in the hated
+bonds of matrimony. From his juvenile point of view, it was a fate
+that a good fellow like Bonner did not deserve. Even Rosalie was not
+good enough for him, so he told Bud Long; but Bud, who had worshipped
+Rosalie with a hopeless devotion through most of his short life, took
+strong though sheepish exceptions to the remark. It seemed quite settled
+in the minds of every one but Bonner and Rosalie themselves. They went
+along evenly, happily, perhaps dreamily, letting the present and the
+future take care of themselves as best they could, making mountains of
+the past--mountains so high and sheer that they could not be surmounted
+in retreat.
+
+Bonner was helplessly in love--so much so, indeed, that in the face of
+it, he lost the courage that had carried him through trivial affairs of
+the past, and left him floundering vaguely in seas that looked old and
+yet were new. Hourly, he sought for the first sign of love in her eyes,
+for the first touch of sentiment; but if there was a point of weakness
+in her defence, it was not revealed to the hungry perception of the
+would-be conqueror. And so they drifted on through the February chill,
+that seemed warm to them, through the light hours and the dark ones,
+quickly and surely to the day which was to call him cured of one ill and
+yet sorely afflicted by another.
+
+Through it all he was saying to himself that it did not matter what her
+birth may have been, so long as she lived at this hour in his life, and
+yet a still, cool voice was whispering procrastination with ding-dong
+persistency through every avenue of his brain. "Wait!" said the cool
+voice of prejudice. His heart did not hear, but his brain did. One look
+of submission from her tender eyes and his brain would have turned deaf
+to the small, cool voice--but her eyes stood their ground and the voice
+survived.
+
+The day was fast approaching when it would be necessary for him to leave
+the home of Mr. Crow. He could no longer encroach upon the hospitality
+and good nature of the marshal--especially as he had declined the
+proffered appointment to become deputy town marshal. Together they had
+discussed every possible side to the abduction mystery and had laid the
+groundwork for a systematic attempt at a solution. There was nothing
+more for them to do. True to his promise, Bonner had put the case in the
+hands of one of the greatest detectives in the land, together with every
+known point in the girl's history. Tinkletown was not to provide the
+solution, although it contained the mystery. On that point there could
+be no doubt; so, Mr. Bonner was reluctantly compelled to admit to
+himself that he had no plausible excuse for staying on. The great
+detective from New York had come to town, gathered all of the facts
+under cover of strictest secrecy, run down every possible shadow of a
+clew in Boggs City, and had returned to the metropolis, there to begin
+the search twenty-one years back.
+
+"Four weeks," Bonner was saying to her reflectively, as they came
+homeward from their last visit to the abandoned mill on Turnip Creek. It
+was a bright, warm February morning, suggestive of spring and fraught
+with the fragrance of something far sweeter. "Four weeks of idleness and
+joy to me--almost a lifetime in the waste of years. Does it seem long to
+you, Miss Gray--oh, I remember, I am to call you Rosalie."
+
+"It seems that I have known you always instead of for four weeks," she
+said gently. "They have been happy weeks, haven't they? My--our only
+fear is that you haven't been comfortable in our poor little home. It's
+not what you are accustomed--"
+
+"Home is what the home folks make it," he said, striving to quote a
+vague old saying. He was dimly conscious of a subdued smile on her part
+and he felt the fool. "At any rate, I was more than comfortable. I was
+happy--never so happy. All my life shall be built about this single
+month--my past ends with it, my future begins. You, Rosalie," he went on
+swiftly, his eyes gleaming with the love that would not be denied, "are
+the spirit of life as I shall know it from this day forth. It is you who
+have made Tinkletown a kingdom, one of its homes a palace. Don't turn
+your face away, Rosalie."
+
+But she turned her face toward him and her dark eyes did not flinch as
+they met his, out there in the bleak old wood.
+
+"Don't, please don't, Wicker," she said softly, firmly. Her hand touched
+his arm for an instant. "You will understand, won't you? Please don't!"
+There was a world of meaning in it.
+
+His heart turned cold as ice, the blood left his face. He understood.
+She did not love him.
+
+"Yes," he said, his voice dead and hoarse, "I think I understand,
+Rosalie. I have taken too much for granted, fool that I am. Bah! The
+egotism of a fool!"
+
+"You must not speak like that," she said, her face contracted by pain
+and pity. "You are the most wonderful man I've ever known--the best and
+the truest. But--" and she paused, with a wan, drear smile on her lips.
+
+"I understand," he interrupted. "Don't say it. I want to think that some
+day you will feel like saying something else, and I want to hope,
+Rosalie, that it won't always be like this. Let us talk about something
+else." But neither cared to speak for what seemed an hour. They were in
+sight of home before the stony silence was broken. "I may come over from
+Bonner Place to see you?" he asked at last. He was to cross the river
+the next day for a stay of a week or two at his uncle's place.
+
+"Yes--often, Wicker. I shall want to see you every day. Yes, every day;
+I'm sure of it," she said wistfully, a hungry look in her eyes that he
+did not see, for he was staring straight ahead. Had he seen that look or
+caught the true tone in her voice, the world might not have looked so
+dark to him. When he did look at her again, her face was calm almost to
+sereneness.
+
+"And you will come to Boston in June just the same?"
+
+"If your sister and--and your mother still want me to come."
+
+[Illustration: "'I think I understand, Rosalie'"]
+
+She was thinking of herself, the nameless one, in the house of his
+people; she was thinking of the doubts, the speculations--even the fears
+that would form the background of her welcome in that proud house. No
+longer was Rosalie Gray regarding herself as the happy, careless
+foster-child of Anderson Crow; she was seeing herself only as the
+castaway, the unwanted, and the world was growing bitter for her. But
+Bonner was blind to all this; he could not, should not know.
+
+"You know they want you to come. Why do you say that?" he asked quickly,
+a strange, dim perspective rising before him for an instant, only to
+fade away before it could be analysed.
+
+"One always says that," she replied with a smile. "It is the penalty of
+being invited. Your sister has written the dearest letter to me, and I
+have answered it. We love one another, she and I."
+
+"Rosalie, I am going to write to you," said he suddenly; "you will
+answer?"
+
+"Yes," she told him simply. His heart quickened, but faltered, and was
+lost. "I had a long letter from Elsie Banks to-day," she went on with an
+indifference that chilled.
+
+"Oh," he said; "she is your friend who was or is to marry Tom Reddon, I
+believe. I knew him at Harvard. Tell me, are they married?"
+
+"No. It was not to take place until March, but now she writes that her
+mother is ill and must go to California for several months. Mr. Reddon
+wants to be married at once, or before they go West, at least; but she
+says she cannot consent while her mother requires so much of her. I
+don't know how it will end, but I presume they will be married and all
+go to California. That seems the simple and just way, doesn't it?"
+
+"Any way seems just, I'd say," he said. "They love one another, so
+what's the odds? Do you know Reddon well?"
+
+"I have seen him many times," she replied with apparent evasiveness.
+
+"He is a--" but here he stopped as if paralysis had seized him suddenly.
+The truth shot into his brain like a deadly bolt. Everything was as
+plain as day to him now. She stooped to pick up a slim, broken reed that
+crossed her path, and her face was averted. "God!" was the cry that
+almost escaped his lips. "She loves Reddon, and he is going to marry her
+best friend!" Cold perspiration started from every pore in his body. He
+had met the doom of love--the end of hope.
+
+"He has always loved her," said Rosalie so calmly that he was shocked by
+her courage. "I hope she will not ask him to wait."
+
+Rosalie never understood why Bonner looked at her in amazement and said:
+
+"By Jove, you are a--a marvel, Rosalie!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+The Blind Man's Eyes
+
+
+Bonner went away without another word of love to her. He saw the
+futility of hoping, and he was noble enough to respect her plea for
+silence on the subject that seemed distasteful to her. He went as one
+conquered and subdued; he went with the iron in his heart for the first
+time--deeply imbedded and racking.
+
+Bonner came twice from the place across the river. Anderson observed
+that he looked "peaked," and Rosalie mistook the hungry, wan look in his
+face for the emaciation natural to confinement indoors. He was whiter
+than was his wont, and there was a dogged, stubborn look growing about
+his eyes and mouth that would have been understood by the sophisticated.
+It was the first indication of the battle his love was to wage in days
+to come. He saw no sign of weakening in Rosalie. She would not let him
+look into her brave little heart, and so he turned his back upon the
+field and fled to Boston, half beaten, but unconsciously collecting his
+forces for the strife of another day. He did not know it then, nor did
+she, but his love was not vanquished; it had met its first rebuff, that
+was all.
+
+Tinkletown was sorry to see him depart, but it thrived on his promise to
+return. Every one winked slyly behind his back, for, of course,
+Tinkletown understood it all. He would come back often and then not at
+all--for the magnet would go away with him in the end. The busybodies,
+good-natured but garrulous, did not have to rehearse the story to its
+end; it would have been superfluous. Be it said here, however, that
+Rosalie was not long in settling many of the speculators straight in
+their minds. It seemed improbable that it should not be as they had
+thought and hoped. The news soon reached Blootch Peabody and Ed Higgins,
+and, both eager to revive a blighted hope, in high spirits, called to
+see Rosalie on the same night. It is on record that neither of them
+uttered two dozen words between eight o'clock and ten, so bitterly was
+the presence of the other resented.
+
+March came, and with it, to the intense amazement of Anderson Crow, the
+ever-mysterious thousand dollars, a few weeks late. On a certain day the
+old marshal took Rosalie to Boggs City, and the guardianship proceedings
+were legally closed. Listlessly she accepted half of the money he had
+saved, having refused to take all of it. She was now her own mistress,
+much to her regret if not to his.
+
+"I may go on living with you, Daddy Crow, may I not?" she asked
+wistfully as they drove home through the March blizzard. "This doesn't
+mean that I cannot be your own little girl after to-day, does it?"
+
+"Don't talk like that, Rosalie Gray, er I'll put you to bed 'thout a
+speck o' supper," growled he in his most threatening tones, but the
+tears were rolling down his cheeks at the time.
+
+"Do you know, daddy, I honestly hope that the big city detective won't
+find out who I am," she said after a long period of reflection.
+
+"Cause why?"
+
+"Because, if he doesn't, you won't have any excuse for turning me out."
+
+"I'll not only send you to bed, but I'll give you a tarnation good
+lickin' besides if you talk like--"
+
+"But I'm twenty-one. You have no right," said she so brightly that he
+cracked his whip over the horse's back and blew his nose twice for full
+measure of gratitude.
+
+"Well, I ain't heerd anything from that fly detective lately, an' I'm
+beginnin' to think he ain't sech a long sight better'n I am," said he
+proudly.
+
+"He isn't half as good!" she cried.
+
+"I mean as a detective," he supplemented apologetically.
+
+"So do I," she agreed earnestly; but it was lost on him.
+
+There was a letter at home for her from Edith Bonner. It brought the
+news that Wicker was going South to recuperate. His system had "gone
+off" since the accident, and the March winds were driving him away
+temporarily. Rosalie's heart ached that night, and there was a still,
+cold dread in its depths that drove sleep away. He had not written to
+her, and she had begun to fear that their month had been a trifle to
+him, after all. Now she was troubled and grieved that she should have
+entertained the fear. Edith went on to say that her brother had seen the
+New York detective, who was still hopelessly in the dark, but struggling
+on in the belief that chance would open the way for him.
+
+Rosalie, strive as she would to prevent it, grew pale and the roundness
+left her cheek as the weeks went by. Her every thought was with the man
+who had gone to the Southland. She loved him as she loved life, but she
+could not confess to him then or thereafter unless Providence made clear
+the purity of her birth to her and to all the world. When finally there
+came to her a long, friendly, even dignified letter from the far South,
+the roses began to struggle back to her cheeks and the warmth to her
+heart. Her response brought a prompt answer from him, and the roses grew
+faster than the spring itself. Friendship, sweet and loyal, marked every
+word that passed between them, but there was a dear world in each
+epistle--for her, at least, a world of comfort and hope. She was
+praying, hungering, longing for June to come--sweet June and its tender
+touch--June with its bitter-sweet and sun clouds. Now she was forgetting
+the wish which had been expressed to Anderson Crow on the drive home
+from Boggs City. In its place grew the fierce hope that the once
+despised detective might clear away the mystery and give her the right
+to stand among others without shame and despair.
+
+"Hear from Wick purty reg'lar, don't you, Rosalie?" asked Anderson
+wickedly, one night while Blootch was there. The suitor moved uneasily,
+and Rosalie shot a reproachful glance at Anderson, a glance full of
+mischief as well.
+
+"He writes occasionally, daddy."
+
+"I didn't know you corresponded reg'larly," said Blootch.
+
+"I did not say regularly, Blucher."
+
+"He writes sweet things to beat the band, I bet," said Blootch with a
+disdain he did not feel.
+
+"What a good guesser you are!" she cried tormentingly.
+
+"Well, I guess I'll be goin'," exploded Blootch wrathfully; "it's
+gittin' late."
+
+"He won't sleep much to-night," said Anderson, with a twinkle in his
+eye, as the gate slammed viciously behind the caller. "Say, Rosalie,
+there's somethin' been fidgetin' me fer quite a while. I'll blurt it
+right out an' have it over with. Air you in love with Wick Bonner?"
+
+She started, and for an instant looked at him with wide open eyes; then
+they faltered and fell. Her breath came in a frightened, surprised gasp
+and her cheeks grew warm. When she looked up again, her eyes were soft
+and pleading, and her lips trembled ever so slightly.
+
+"Yes, Daddy Crow, I love him," she almost whispered.
+
+"An' him? How about him?"
+
+"I can't answer that, daddy. He has not told me."
+
+"Well, he ought to, doggone him!"
+
+"I could not permit him to do so if he tried."
+
+"What! You wouldn't permit? What in tarnation do you mean?"
+
+"You forget, daddy, I have no right to his love. It would be wrong--all
+wrong. Good-night, daddy," she cried, impulsively kissing him and
+dashing away before he could check her, but not before he caught the
+sound of a half sob. For a long time he sat and stared at the fire in
+the grate. Then he slapped his knee vigorously, squared his shoulders
+and set his jaw like a vise. Arising, he stalked upstairs and tapped on
+her door. She opened it an inch or two and peered forth at him--a
+pathetic figure in white.
+
+"Don't you worry, Rosalie," he gulped. "It will be all right and hunky
+dory. I've just took a solemn oath down stairs."
+
+"An oath, daddy?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I swore by all that's good and holy I'd find out who your
+parents are ef it took till doomsday. You shall be set right in the eyes
+of everybody. Now, if I was you, I'd go right to sleep. There ain't
+nothin' to worry about. I've got another clew."
+
+She smiled lovingly as he ambled away. Poor old Anderson's confidence in
+himself was only exceeded by his great love for her.
+
+At last June smiled upon Rosalie and she was off for Boston. Her gowns
+were from Albany and her happiness from heaven--according to a
+reverential Tinkletown impression. For two weeks after her departure,
+Anderson Crow talked himself hoarse into willing ears, always extolling
+the beauty of his erstwhile ward as she appeared before the family
+circle in each and every one of those wonderful gowns.
+
+This humble narrative has not to do with the glories and foibles of
+Boston social life. It has to deal with the adventures of Anderson Crow
+and Rosalie Gray in so far as they pertain to a place called Tinkletown.
+The joys and pleasures that Rosalie experienced during that month of
+June were not unusual in character. The loneliness of Anderson Crow was
+not a novelty, if one stops to consider how the world revolves for every
+one else. Suffice to say that the Bonners, _mère, fils_ and _fille_,
+exerted themselves to make the month an unforgetable one to the
+girl--and they succeeded. The usual gaiety, the same old whirl of
+experiences, came to her that come to any other mortal who is being
+entertained, fêted and admired. She was a success--a pleasure in every
+way--not only to her hosts but to herself. If there was a cloud hanging
+over her head through all these days and nights, the world was none the
+wiser; the silver lining was always visible.
+
+Once while she was driving with the Bonners she saw a man whom she knew,
+but did not expect to ever look upon again. She could not be mistaken in
+him. It was Sam Welch, chief of the kidnapers. He was gazing at her from
+a crowded street corner, but disappeared completely before Bonner could
+set the police on his trail.
+
+Commencement Day at Cambridge brought back hundreds of the old men--the
+men famous in every branch of study and athletics. Among them was
+handsome Tom Reddon. He came to see her at the Bonner home. Elsie Banks
+was to return in September from Honolulu, and they were to be married in
+the fall. Wicker Bonner eagerly looked for the confusion of love in her
+eyes, but none appeared. That night she told him, in reply to an
+impulsive demand, that she did not care for Reddon, that she never had
+known the slightest feeling of tenderness for him.
+
+"Have you ever been in love, Rosalie?" he asked ruthlessly.
+
+"Yes," she said after a moment, looking him bravely in the eyes.
+
+"And could you never learn to love any one else?"
+
+"I think not, Wicker," she said ever so softly.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said humbly, his face white and his lips drawn.
+"I should not have asked."
+
+And so he remained the blind man, with the light shining full into his
+eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+The Mysterious Questioner
+
+
+July brought Rosalie's visit to an end, and once more Tinkletown basked
+in her smiles and yet wondered why they were so sad and wistful. She and
+Bonner were much nearer, far dearer to one another than ever, and yet
+not one effort had been made to bridge the chasm of silence concerning
+the thing that lay uppermost in their minds. She only knew that Anderson
+Crow had not "run down" his clew, nor had the New York sleuth reported
+for weeks. Undoubtedly, the latter had given up the search, for the last
+heard of him was when he left for Europe with his wife for a pleasure
+trip of unknown duration. It looked so dark and hopeless to her, all of
+it. Had Bonner pressed his demands upon her at the end of the visit in
+Boston, it is possible--more than possible--that she would have faltered
+in her resolution. After all, why should she deprive herself of
+happiness if it was held out to her with the promise that it should
+never end?
+
+The summer turned steaming hot in the lowlands about Tinkletown, but in
+the great hills across the river the air was cool, bright, and
+invigorating. People began to hurry to their country homes from the
+distant cities. Before the month was old, a score or more of beautiful
+places were opened and filled with the sons and daughters of the rich.
+Lazily they drifted and drove and walked through the wonderful hills,
+famed throughout the world, and lazily they wondered why the rest of the
+world lived. In the hills now were the Randalls, the Farnsworths, the
+Brackens, the Brewsters, the Van Wagenens, the Rolfes and a host of
+others. Tinkletown saw them occasionally as they came jaunting by in
+their traps and brakes and automobiles--but it is extremely doubtful if
+they saw Tinkletown in passing.
+
+Anderson Crow swelled and blossomed in the radiance of his own
+importance. In his old age he was becoming fastidious. Only in the
+privacy of his own back yard did he go without the black alpaca coat; he
+was beginning to despise the other days, when he had gone coatless from
+dawn till dark, on the street or off. His badges were pinned neatly to
+his lapel and not to his suspenders, as in the days of yore. His dignity
+was the same, but the old sense of irritation was very much modified. In
+these new days he was considerate--and patronising. Was he not one of
+the wealthiest men in town--with his six thousand dollars laid by? Was
+he not its most honoured citizen, not excepting the mayor and selectmen?
+Was he not, above all, a close friend of the Bonners?
+
+The Bonners were to spend August in the Congressman's home across the
+big river. This fact alone was enough to stir the Crow establishment to
+its most infinitesimal roots. Rosalie was to be one of the guests at the
+house party, but her foster-sisters were not the kind to be envious.
+They revelled with her in the preparations for that new season of
+delight.
+
+With the coming of the Bonners, Anderson once more revived his
+resolution to unravel the mystery attending Rosalie's birth. For some
+months this ambition had lain dormant, but now, with the approach of the
+man she loved, the old marshal's devotion took fire and he swore daily
+that the mystery should be cleared "whether it wanted to be or not."
+
+He put poor old Alf Reesling through the "sweat box" time and again, and
+worthless Tom Folly had many an unhappy night, wondering why the marshal
+was shadowing him so persistently.
+
+"Alf," demanded Anderson during one of the sessions, "where were you on
+the night of February 18, 1883? Don't hesitate. Speak up. Where were
+you? Aha, you cain't answer. That looks suspicious."
+
+"You bet I c'n answer," said Alf bravely, blinking his blear eyes. "I
+was in Tinkletown."
+
+"What were you doin' that night?"
+
+"I was sleepin'."
+
+"At what time? Keerful now, don't lie."
+
+"What time o' night did they leave her on your porch?" demanded Alf in
+turn.
+
+"It was jest half past 'leven."
+
+"You're right, Anderson. That's jest the time I was asleep."
+
+"C'n you prove it? Got witnesses?"
+
+"Yes, but they don't remember the night."
+
+"Then it may go hard with you. Alf, I still believe you had somethin' to
+do with that case."
+
+"I didn't, Anderson, so help me."
+
+"Well, doggone it, somebody did," roared the marshal. "If it wasn't you,
+who was it? Answer that, sir."
+
+"Why, consarn you, Anderson Crow, I didn't have any spare children to
+leave around on doorsteps. I've allus had trouble to keep from leavin'
+myself there. Besides, it was a woman that left her, wasn't it? Well,
+consarn it, I'm not a woman, am I? Look at my whiskers, gee whiz! I--"
+
+"I didn't say you left the baskit, Alf; I only said you'd somethin' to
+do with it. I remember that there was a strong smell of liquor around
+the place that night." In an instant Anderson was sniffing the air.
+"Consarn ye, the same smell as now--yer drunk."
+
+"Tom Folly drinks, too," protested Alf. "He drinks Martini cocktails."
+
+"Don't you?"
+
+"Not any more. The last time I ordered one was in a Dutch eatin' house
+up to Boggs City. The waiter couldn't speak a word of English, an'
+that's the reason I got so full. Every time I ordered 'dry Martini' he
+brought me three. He didn't know how to spell it. No, sir, Anderson; I'm
+not the woman you want. I was at home asleep that night. I remember jest
+as well as anything, that I said before goin' to bed that it was a good
+night to sleep. I remember lookin' at the kitchen clock an' seein' it
+was jest eighteen minutes after eleven. 'Nen I said--"
+
+"That'll be all for to-day, Alf," interrupted the questioner, his gaze
+suddenly centering on something down the street. "You've told me that
+six hundred times in the last twenty years. Come on, I see the boys
+pitchin' horseshoes up by the blacksmith shop. I'll pitch you a game fer
+the seegars."
+
+"I cain't pay if I lose," protested Alf.
+
+"I know it," said Anderson; "I don't expect you to."
+
+The first day that Bonner drove over in the automobile, to transplant
+Rosalie in the place across the river, found Anderson full of a new and
+startling sensation. He stealthily drew the big sunburnt young man into
+the stable, far from the house. Somehow, in spite of his smiles, Bonner
+was looking older and more serious. There was a set, determined
+expression about his mouth and eyes that struck Anderson as new.
+
+"Say, Wick," began the marshal mysteriously, "I'm up a stump."
+
+"What? Another?"
+
+"No; jest the same one. I almost got track of somethin' to-day--not two
+hours ago. I met a man out yander near the cross-roads that I'm sure I
+seen aroun' here about the time Rosalie was left on the porch. An' the
+funny part of it was, he stopped me an' ast me about her. Doggone, I
+wish I'd ast him his name."
+
+"You don't mean it!" cried Bonner, all interest. "Asked about her? Was
+he a stranger?"
+
+"I think he was. Leastwise, he said he hadn't been aroun' here fer
+more'n twenty year. Y'see, it was this way. I was over to Lem Hudlow's
+to ask if he had any hogs stole last night--Lem lives nigh the
+poorhouse, you know. He said he hadn't missed any an' ast me if any hogs
+had been found. I tole him no, not that I knowed of, but I jest thought
+I'd ask; I thought mebby he'd had some stole. You never c'n tell, you
+know, an' it pays to be attendin' to business all the time. Well, I was
+drivin' back slow when up rode a feller on horseback. He was a
+fine-lookin' man 'bout fifty year old, I reckon, an' was dressed in all
+them new-fangled ridin' togs. 'Ain't this Mr. Crow, my old friend, the
+detective?' said he. 'Yes, sir,' said I. 'I guess you don't remember
+me,' says he. I told him I did, but I lied. It wouldn't do fer him to
+think I didn't know him an' me a detective, don't y'see?
+
+"We chatted about the weather an' the crops, him ridin' longside the
+buckboard. Doggone, his face was familiar, but I couldn't place it.
+Finally, he leaned over an' said, solemn-like: 'Have you still got the
+little girl that was left on your porch?' You bet I jumped when he said
+that. 'Yes,' says I, 'but she ain't a little girl now. She's growed
+up.' 'Is she purty?' he ast. 'Yes,' says I, 'purty as a speckled pup!'
+'I'd like to see her,' he said. 'I hear she was a beautiful baby. I hope
+she is very, very happy.' 'What's that to you?' says I, sharp-like. 'I
+am very much interested in her, Mr. Crow,' he answered. 'Poor child, I
+have had her in mind for a long time,' he went on very solemn. I begin
+to suspect right away that he had a lot to do with her affairs. Somehow,
+I couldn't help thinkin' I'd seen him in Tinkletown about the time she
+was dropped--left, I mean.
+
+"'You have given her a good eddication, I hope,' said he. 'Yes, she's
+got the best in town,' said I. 'The thousand dollars came all right
+every year?' 'Every February.' 'I should like to see her sometime, if I
+may, without her knowin' it, Mr. Crow.' 'An' why that way, sir?'
+demanded I. 'It would probably annoy her if she thought I was regardin'
+her as an object of curiosity,' said he. 'Tell her fer me,' he went on'
+gittin' ready to whip up, 'that she has an unknown friend who would give
+anything he has to help her.' Goshed, if he didn't put the gad to his
+horse an' gallop off 'fore I could say another word. I was goin' to ask
+him a lot of questions, too."
+
+"Can't you remember where and under what circumstances you saw him
+before?" cried Bonner, very much excited.
+
+"I'm goin' to try to think it up to-night. He was a rich-lookin' feller
+an' he had a heavy black band aroun' one of his coat sleeves. Wick, I
+bet he's the man we want. I've made up my mind 'at he's her father!"
+
+Bonner impatiently wormed all the information possible out of the
+marshal, especially as to the stranger's looks, voice, the direction
+taken when they parted company and then dismally concluded that an
+excellent opportunity had been hopelessly lost. Anderson said, in
+cross-examination, that the stranger had told him he "was leavin' at
+once fer New York and then going to Europe." His mother had died
+recently.
+
+"I'll try to head him off at Boggs City," said Bonner; and half an hour
+later he was off at full speed in the big machine for the county seat, a
+roundabout way to Bonner Place. The New York train had gone, but no one
+had seen a man answering the description of Anderson's interviewer.
+
+"I'm sorry, Rosalie," said Bonner some time later. He was taking her for
+a spin in the automobile. "It was a forlorn hope, and it is also quite
+probable that Mr. Crow's impressions are wrong. The man may have
+absolutely no connection with the matter. I'll admit it looks
+interesting, his manner and his questions, and there is a chance that he
+knows the true story. In any event, he did not go to New York to-day and
+he can't get another train until to-morrow. I'll pick up Mr. Crow in the
+morning and we'll run up here to have a look at him if he appears."
+
+"I think it is a wild goose chase, Wicker," Rosalie said despairingly.
+"Daddy Crow has done such things before."
+
+"But this seems different. The man's actions were curious. He must have
+had some reason for being interested in you. I am absolutely wild with
+eagerness to solve this mystery, Rosalie. It means life to me."
+
+"Oh, if you only could do it," she cried so fervently, that his heart
+leaped with pity for her.
+
+"I love you, Rosalie. I would give my whole life to make you happy.
+Listen, dearest--don't turn away from me! Are you afraid of me?" He was
+almost wailing it into her ear.
+
+"I--I was only thinking of the danger, Wicker. You are not watching the
+road," she said, flushing a deep red. He laughed gaily for the first
+time in months.
+
+"It is a wide road and clear," he said jubilantly. "We are alone and we
+are merely drifting. The machine is alive with happiness.
+Rosalie--Rosalie, I could shout for joy! You _do_ love me? You will be
+my wife?"
+
+She was white and silent and faint with the joy of it all and the pain
+of it all. Joy in the full knowledge that he loved her and had spoken in
+spite of the cloud that enveloped her, pain in the certainty that she
+could not accept the sacrifice. For a long time she sat staring straight
+down the broad road over which they were rolling.
+
+"Wicker, you must not ask me now," she said at last, bravely and
+earnestly. "It is sweet to know that you love me. It is life to me--yes,
+life, Wicker. But, don't you see? No, no! You must not expect it. You
+must not ask it. Don't, don't, dear!" she cried, drawing away as he
+leaned toward her, passion in his eyes, triumph in his face.
+
+"But we love each other!" he cried. "What matters the rest? I want
+you--_you!_"
+
+"Have you considered? Have you thought? I have, a thousand times, a
+thousand bitter thoughts. I cannot, I will not be your--your wife,
+Wicker, until--"
+
+In vain he argued, pleaded, commanded. She was firm and she felt she was
+right if not just. Underneath it all lurked the fear, the dreadful fear
+that she may have been a child of love, the illegitimate offspring of
+passion. It was the weight that crushed her almost to lifelessness; it
+was the bar sinister.
+
+"No, Wicker, I mean it," she said in the end resolutely. "Not until I
+can give you a name in exchange for your own."
+
+"Your name shall one day be Bonner if I have to wreck the social system
+of the whole universe to uncover another one for you."
+
+The automobile had been standing, by some extraordinary chance, in the
+cool shade of a great oak for ten minutes or more, but it was a wise,
+discreet old oak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+The Hemisphere Train Robbery
+
+
+Anderson Crow lived at the extreme south end of Tinkletown's principal
+thoroughfare. The "calaboose" was situated at the far end of Main
+Street, at least half a mile separating the home of the law and the home
+of the lawless. Marshal Crow's innate love for the spectacular alone
+explains the unneighbourliness of the two establishments. He felt an
+inward glory in riding or walking the full length of the street, and he
+certainly had no reason to suspect the populace of disregarding the
+outward glory he presented.
+
+The original plan of the merchantry comprehended the erection of the
+jail in close proximity to the home of its chief official, but Mr. Crow
+put his foot flatly and ponderously upon the scheme. With the dignity
+which made him noticeable, he said he'd "be doggoned ef he wanted to
+have people come to his own dooryard to be arrested." By which, it may
+be inferred, that he expected the evil-doer to choose his own arresting
+place.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Crow were becoming thrifty, in view of the prospect that
+confronted them, to wit: The possible marriage of Rosalie and the
+cutting off of the yearly payments. As she was to be absent for a full
+month or more, Anderson conceived the idea of advertising for a lodger
+and boarder. By turning Roscoe out of his bed, they obtained a spare
+room that looked down upon the peony beds beyond the side "portico."
+
+Mr. Crow was lazily twisting his meagre chin whiskers one morning soon
+after Rosalie's departure. He was leaning against the town pump in front
+of the post-office, the sun glancing impotently off the bright badge on
+the lapel of his alpaca coat. A stranger came forth from the post-office
+and approached the marshal.
+
+"Is this Mr. Crow?" he asked, with considerable deference.
+
+"It is, sir."
+
+"They tell me you take lodgers."
+
+"Depends."
+
+"My name is Gregory, Andrew Gregory, and I am here to canvass the
+neighbourhood in the interest of the Human Life Insurance Company of
+Penobscot. If you need references, I can procure them from New York or
+Boston."
+
+The stranger was a tall, lean-faced man of forty or forty-five, well
+dressed, with a brusque yet pleasant manner of speech. His moustache and
+beard were black and quite heavy. Mr. Crow eyed him quietly for a
+moment.
+
+"I don't reckon I'll ask fer references. Our rates are six dollars a
+week, board an' room. Childern bother you?"
+
+"Not at all. Have you any?"
+
+"Some, more or less. They're mostly grown."
+
+"I will take board and room for two weeks, at least," said Mr. Gregory,
+who seemed to be a man of action.
+
+For almost a week the insurance agent plied his vocation assiduously but
+fruitlessly. The farmers and the citizens of Tinkletown were slow to
+take up insurance. They would talk crops and politics with the obliging
+Mr. Gregory, but that was all. And yet, his suavity won for him many
+admirers. There were not a few who promised to give him their insurance
+if they concluded to "take any out." Only one man in town was willing to
+be insured, and he was too old to be comforting. Mr. Calligan was
+reputed to be one hundred and three years of age; and he wanted the
+twenty-year endowment plan. Gregory popularised himself at the Crow home
+by paying for his room in advance. Moreover, he was an affable chap with
+a fund of good stories straight from Broadway. At the post-office and
+in Lamson's store he was soon established as a mighty favourite. Even
+the women who came to make purchases in the evening,--a hitherto unknown
+custom,--lingered outside the circle on the porch, revelling in the
+second edition of the "Arabian Nights."
+
+"Our friend, the detective here," he said, one night at the close of the
+first week, "tells me that we are to have a show in town next week. I
+haven't seen any posters."
+
+"Mark Riley's been goin' to put up them bills sence day 'fore
+yesterday," said Anderson Crow, with exasperation in his voice, "an he
+ain't done it yet. The agent fer the troupe left 'em here an' hired
+Mark, but he's so thunderation slow that he won't paste 'em up 'til
+after the show's been an' gone. I'll give him a talkin' to to-morrer."
+
+"What-fer show is it?" asked Jim Borum.
+
+"Somethin' like a circus on'y 'tain't one," said Anderson. "They don't
+pertend to have animals."
+
+"Don't carry a menagerie, I see," remarked Gregory.
+
+"'Pears that way," said Anderson, slowly analysing the word.
+
+"I understand it is a stage performance under a tent," volunteered the
+postmaster.
+
+"That's what it is," said Harry Squires, the editor, with a superior
+air. "They play 'As You Like It,' by Shakespeare. It's a swell show. We
+got out the hand bills over at the office. They'll be distributed in
+town to-morrow, and a big batch of them will be sent over to the summer
+places across the river. The advance agent says it is a high-class
+performance and will appeal particularly to the rich city people up in
+the mountains. It's a sort of open-air affair, you know." And then Mr.
+Squires was obliged to explain to his fellow-townsmen all the known
+details in connection with the approaching performance of "As You Like
+It" by the Boothby Company, set for Tinkletown on the following Thursday
+night. Hapgood's Grove had been selected by the agent as the place in
+which the performance should be given.
+
+"Don't they give an afternoon show?" asked Mrs. Williams.
+
+"Sure not," said Harry curtly. "It isn't a museum."
+
+"Of course not," added Anderson Crow reflectively. "It's a troupe."
+
+The next morning, bright and early, Mark Riley fared forth with paste
+and brush. Before noon, the board fences, barns and blank walls of
+Tinkletown flamed with great red and blue letters, twining in and about
+the portraits of Shakespeare, Manager Boothby, Rosalind, Orlando, and an
+extra king or two in royal robes. A dozen small boys spread the hand
+bills from the _Banner_ presses, and Tinkletown was stirred by the
+excitement of a sensation that had not been experienced since
+Forepaugh's circus visited the county seat three years before. It went
+without saying that Manager Boothby would present "As You Like It" with
+an "unrivalled cast." He had "an all-star production," direct from "the
+leading theatres of the universe."
+
+When Mark Riley started out again in the afternoon for a second
+excursion with paste and brush, "slapping up" small posters with a
+celerity that bespoke extreme interest on his part, the astonished
+populace feared that he was announcing a postponement of the
+performance. Instead of that, however, he was heralding the fact that
+the Hemisphere Trunk Line and Express Company would gladly pay ten
+thousand dollars reward for the "apprehension and capture" of the men
+who robbed one of its richest trains a few nights before, seizing as
+booty over sixty thousand dollars in money, besides killing two
+messengers in cold blood. The great train robbery occurred in the
+western part of the State, hundreds of miles from Tinkletown, but nearly
+all of its citizens had read accounts of the deed in the weekly paper
+from Boggs City.
+
+"I seen the item about it in Mr. Gregory's New York paper," said
+Anderson Crow to the crowd at Lamson's.
+
+"Gee whiz, it must 'a' been a peach!" said Isaac Porter, open-mouthed
+and eager for details. Whereupon Marshal Crow related the story of the
+crime which stupefied the world on the morning of July 31st. The express
+had been held up in an isolated spot by a half-dozen masked men. A safe
+had been shattered and the contents confiscated, the perpetrators
+vanishing as completely as if aided by Satan himself. The authorities
+were baffled. A huge reward was offered in the hope that it might induce
+some discontented underling in the band to expose his comrades.
+
+"Are you goin' after 'em, Anderson?" asked old Mr. Borton, with
+unfailing faith in the town's chief officer.
+
+"Them fellers is in Asia by this time," vouchsafed Mr. Crow scornfully,
+forgetting that less than a week had elapsed since the robbery. He
+flecked a fly from his detective's badge and then struck viciously at
+the same insect when it straightway attacked his G.A.R. emblem.
+
+"I doubt it," said Mr. Lamson. "Like as not they're right here in this
+State, mebby in this county. You can't tell about them slick
+desperadoes. Hello, Harry! Has anything more been heard from the train
+robbers?" Harry Squires approached the group with something like news in
+his face.
+
+"I should say so," he said. "The darned cusses robbed the State Express
+last night at Vanderskoop and got away with thirteen hundred dollars.
+Say, they're wonders! The engineer says they're only five of them."
+
+"Why, gosh dern it, Vanderskoop's only the fourth station west of Boggs
+City!" exclaimed Anderson Crow, pricking up his official ear. "How in
+thunder do you reckon they got up here in such a short time?"
+
+"They probably stopped off on their way back from Asia," drily remarked
+Mr. Lamson; but it passed unnoticed.
+
+"Have you heard anything more about the show, Harry?" asked Jim Borum.
+"Is she sure to be here?" What did Tinkletown care about the train
+robbers when a "show" was headed that way?
+
+"Sure. The press comments are very favourable," said Harry. "They all
+say that Miss Marmaduke, who plays Rosalind, is great. We've got a cut
+of her and, say, she's a beauty. I can see myself sitting in the front
+row next Thursday night, good and proper."
+
+"Say, Anderson, I think it's a dern shame fer Mark Riley to go 'round
+pastin' them reward bills over the show pictures," growled Isaac Porter.
+"He ain't got a bit o' sense."
+
+With one accord the crowd turned to inspect two adjacent bill boards.
+Mark had either malignantly or insanely pasted the reward notices over
+the nether extremities of Rosalind as she was expected to appear in the
+Forest of Arden. There was a period of reflection on the part of an
+outraged constituency.
+
+"I don't see how he's goin' to remove off them reward bills without
+scraping off her legs at the same time," mused Anderson Crow in
+perplexity. Two housewives of Tinkletown suddenly deserted the group and
+entered the store. And so it was that the train robbers were forgotten
+for the time being.
+
+But Marshal Crow's reputation as a horse-thief taker and general
+suppressor of crime constantly upbraided him. It seemed to call upon him
+to take steps toward the capture of the train robbers. All that
+afternoon he reflected. Tinkletown, seeing his mood, refrained from
+breaking in upon it. He was allowed to stroke his whiskers in peace and
+to think to his heart's content. By nightfall his face had become an
+inscrutable mask, and then it was known that the President of Bramble
+County's Horse-Thief Detective Association was determined to fathom the
+great problem. Stealthily he went up to the great attic in his home and
+inspected his "disguises." In some far-off period of his official career
+he had purchased the most amazing collection of false beards, wigs and
+garments that any stranded comedian ever disposed of at a sacrifice. He
+tried each separate article, seeking for the best individual effect;
+then he tried them collectively. It would certainly have been
+impossible to recognise him as Anderson Crow. In truth, no one could
+safely have identified him as a human being.
+
+"I'm goin' after them raskils," he announced to Andrew Gregory and the
+whole family, as he came down late to take his place at the head of the
+supper table.
+
+"Ain't you goin' to let 'em show here, pop?" asked Roscoe in distress.
+
+"Show here? What air you talkin' about?"
+
+"He means the train robbers, Roscoe," explained the lad's mother. The
+boy breathed again.
+
+"They are a dangerous lot," volunteered Gregory, who had been in Albany
+for two days. "The papers are full of their deeds. Cutthroats of the
+worst character."
+
+"I'd let them alone, Anderson," pleaded his wife. "If you corner them,
+they'll shoot, and it would be jest like you to follow them right into
+their lair."
+
+"Consarn it, Eva, don't you s'pose that I c'n shoot, too?" snorted
+Anderson. "What you reckon I've been keepin' them loaded revolvers out
+in the barn all these years fer? Jest fer ornaments? Not much! They're
+to shoot with, ef anybody asks you. Thunderation, Mr. Gregory, you ain't
+no idee how a feller can be handicapped by a timid wife an' a lot o'
+fool childern. I'm almost afeard to turn 'round fer fear they'll be
+skeered to death fer my safety."
+
+"You cut yourself with a razor once when ma told you not to try to shave
+the back of your neck by yourself," said one of the girls. "She wanted
+you to let Mr. Beck shave it for you, but you wouldn't have it that
+way."
+
+"Do you suppose I want an undertaker shavin' my neck? I'm not that
+anxious to be shaved. Beck's the undertaker, Mr. Gregory."
+
+"Well, he runs the barber shop, too," insisted the girl.
+
+During the next three days Tinkletown saw but little of its marshal,
+fire chief and street commissioner. That triple personage was off on
+business of great import. Early, each morning, he mysteriously stole
+away to the woods, either up or down the river, carrying a queer bundle
+under the seat of his "buckboard." Two revolvers, neither of which had
+been discharged for ten years, reposed in a box fastened to the
+dashboard. Anderson solemnly but positively refused to allow any one to
+accompany him, nor would he permit any one to question him. Farmers
+coming to town spoke of seeing him in the lanes and in the woods, but he
+had winked genially when they had asked what he was trailing.
+
+"He's after the train robbers," explained all Tinkletown soberly.
+Whereupon the farmers and their wives did not begrudge Anderson Crow the
+chicken dinners he had eaten with them, nor did they blame him for
+bothering the men in the fields. It was sufficient that he found excuse
+to sleep in the shade of their trees during his still hunt.
+
+"Got any track of 'em?" asked George Ray one evening, stopping at
+Anderson's back gate to watch the marshal unhitch his thankful nag.
+Patience had ceased to be a virtue with George.
+
+"Any track of who?" asked Mr. Crow with a fine show of innocence.
+
+"The robbers."
+
+"I ain't been trackin' robbers, George."
+
+"What in thunder have you been trackin' all over the country every day,
+then?"
+
+"I'm breakin' this colt," calmly replied the marshal, with a mighty wink
+at old Betty, whom he had driven to the same buckboard for twenty years.
+As George departed with an insulted snort, Andrew Gregory came from the
+barn, where he had been awaiting the return of Mr. Crow."
+
+"I'm next to something big," he announced in a low tone, first looking
+in all directions to see that no one was listening.
+
+"Gosh! Did you land Mr. Farnsworth?"
+
+"It has nothing to do with insurance," hastily explained the agent.
+"I've heard something of vast importance to you."
+
+"You don't mean to say the troupe has busted?"
+
+"No--no; it is in connection with--with--" and here Mr. Gregory leaned
+forward and whispered something in Anderson's ear. Mr. Crow promptly
+stopped dead still in his tracks, his eyes bulging. Betty, who was being
+led to the water trough, being blind and having no command to halt,
+proceeded to bump forcibly against her master's frame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+"As You Like It"
+
+
+"You--don't--say--so! Whoa! dang ye! Cain't you see where you're goin',
+you old rip?" Betty was jerked to a standstill. "What have you heerd?"
+asked Anderson, his voice shaking with interest.
+
+"I can't tell you out here," said the other cautiously. "Put up the nag
+and then meet me in the pasture out there. We can sit down and talk and
+not be overheard."
+
+"I won't be a minute. Here, you Roscoe! Feed Betty and water her first.
+Step lively, now. Tell your ma we'll be in to supper when we git good
+an' ready."
+
+Anderson and Andrew Gregory strode through the pasture gate and far out
+into the green meadow. Once entirely out of hearing, Gregory stopped and
+both sat down upon a little hillock. The agent was evidently suppressing
+considerable excitement.
+
+"Those train robbers are in this neighbourhood," he said, breaking a
+long silence. Anderson looked behind involuntarily. "I don't mean that
+they are in this pasture, Mr. Crow. You've been a good friend to me, and
+I'm inclined to share the secret with you. If we go together, we may
+divide the ten-thousand-dollar reward, because I'm quite sure we can
+land those chaps."
+
+"What's your plan?" asked Anderson, turning a little pale at the
+thought. Before going any further into the matter, Gregory asked
+Anderson if he would sign a paper agreeing to divide the reward equally
+with him. This point was easily settled, and then the insurance man
+unfolded his secret.
+
+"I have a straight tip from a friend in New York and he wouldn't steer
+me wrong. The truth about him is this: He used to work for our company,
+but took some money that didn't belong to him. It got him a sentence in
+the pen. He's just out, and he knows a whole lot about these robbers.
+Some of them were in Sing Sing with him. The leader wanted him to join
+the gang and he half-way consented. His duty is to keep the gang posted
+on what the officers in New York are doing. See?"
+
+"Of course," breathed Anderson.
+
+"Well, my friend wants to reform. All he asks is a slice of the reward.
+If we capture the gang, we can afford to give him a thousand or so,
+can't we?"
+
+"Of course," was the dignified response.
+
+"Here's his letter to me. I'll read it to you." In the gathering dusk
+Gregory read the letter to the marshal of Tinkletown. "Now, you see," he
+said, at the close of the astounding epistle, "this means that if we
+observe strict secrecy, we may have the game in our hands. No one must
+hear a word of this. They may have spies right here in Tinkletown. We
+can succeed only by keeping our mouths sealed."
+
+"Tighter'n beeswax," promised Anderson Crow.
+
+Briefly, the letter to Andrew Gregory was an exposure of the plans of
+the great train-robber gang, together with their whereabouts on a
+certain day to come. They were to swoop down on Tinkletown on the night
+of the open-air performance of "As You Like It," and their most
+desperate coup was to be the result. The scheme was to hold up and rob
+the entire audience while the performance was going on. Anderson Crow
+was in a cold perspiration. The performance was but three days off, and
+he felt that he required three months for preparation.
+
+"How in thunder are we goin' to capture that awful gang, jest you an'
+me?" he asked, voicing his doubts and fears.
+
+"We'll have to engage help, that's all."
+
+"We'll need a regiment."
+
+"Don't you think it. Buck up, old fellow, don't be afraid."
+
+"Afeerd? Me? I don't know what it is to be skeered. Didn't you ever hear
+about how I landed them fellers that kidnaped my daughter Rosalie? Well,
+you jest ast some one 'at knows about it. Umph! I guess that was a
+recommend fer bravery. But these fellers will be ready fer us, won't
+they?"
+
+"We can trick them easily. I've been thinking of a plan all afternoon.
+We don't know just where they are now, so we can't rake them in
+to-night. We'll have to wait until they come to us. My plan is to have a
+half-dozen competent private detectives up from New York. We can scatter
+them through the audience next Thursday night, and when the right time
+comes we can land on every one of those fellows like hawks on spring
+chickens. I know the chief of a big private agency in New York, and I
+think the best plan is to have him send up some good men. It won't cost
+much, and I'd rather have those fearless practical men here than all the
+rubes you could deputise. One of 'em is worth ten of your
+fellow-citizens, Mr. Crow, begging your pardon for the remark. You and I
+can keep the secret and we can do the right thing, but we would be asses
+to take more Tinkletown asses into our confidence. If you'll agree, I'll
+write to Mr. Pinkerton this evening. He can have his men here, disguised
+and ready for work, by Thursday afternoon. If you don't mind, I'd like
+to have you take charge of the affair, because you know just how to
+handle thieves, and I don't. What say you?"
+
+Anderson was ready and eager to agree to anything, but he hesitated a
+long time before concluding to take supreme charge of the undertaking.
+Mr. Gregory at once implored him to take command. It meant the success
+of the venture; anything else meant failure.
+
+"But how'n thunder am I to know the robbers when I see 'em?" demanded
+the marshal, nervously pulling bluegrass up by the roots.
+
+"You'll know 'em all right," said Andrew Gregory. Thursday came and with
+it the "troupe." Anderson Crow had not slept for three nights, he was so
+full of thrills and responsibility. Bright and early that morning he was
+on the lookout for suspicious characters. Gregory was to meet the
+detectives from New York at half-past seven in the evening. By previous
+arrangement, these strangers were to congregate casually at Tinkletown
+Inn, perfectly diguised as gentlemen, ready for instructions. The two
+arch-plotters had carefully devised a plan of action. Gregory chuckled
+secretly when he thought of the sensation Tinkletown was to
+experience--and he thought of it often, too.
+
+The leading members of Boothby's All Star Company "put up" at the Inn,
+which was so humble that it staggered beneath this unaccustomed weight
+of dignity. The beautiful Miss Marmaduke (in reality, Miss Cora Miller)
+was there, and so were Miss Trevanian, Miss Gladys Fitzmaurice, Richmond
+Barrett (privately Jackie Blake), Thomas J. Booth, Francisco Irving, Ben
+Jefferson and others. The Inn was glorified. All Tinkletown looked upon
+the despised old "eating house" with a reverence that was not reluctant.
+
+The manager, a busy and preoccupied person, who looked to be the
+lowliest hireling in the party, came to the Inn at noon and spread the
+news that the reserved seats were sold out and there was promise of a
+fine crowd. Whereupon there was rejoicing among the All Star Cast, for
+the last legs of the enterprise were to be materially strengthened.
+
+"We won't have to walk back home," announced Mr. Jackie Blake, that
+good-looking young chap who played Orlando.
+
+"Glorious Shakespeare, thou art come to life again," said Ben Jefferson,
+a barn-stormer for fifty years. "I was beginning to think you were a
+dead one."
+
+"And no one will seize our trunks for board," added Miss Marmaduke
+cheerfully. She was a very pretty young woman and desperately in love
+with Mr. Orlando.
+
+"If any one seized Orlando's trunks, I couldn't appear in public
+to-night," said Mr. Blake. "Orlando possesses but one pair of trunks."
+
+"You might wear a mackintosh," suggested Mr. Booth.
+
+"Or borrow trunks of the trees," added Mr. Irving.
+
+"They're off," growled Mr. Jefferson, who hated the puns he did not
+make.
+
+"Let's dazzle the town, Cora," said Jackie Blake; and before Tinkletown
+could take its second gasp for breath, the leading man and woman were
+slowly promenading the chief and only thoroughfare.
+
+"By ginger! she's a purty one, ain't she?" murmured Ed Higgins, sole
+clerk at Lamson's. He stood in the doorway until she was out of sight
+and remained there for nearly an hour awaiting her return. The men of
+Tinkletown took but one look at the pretty young woman, but that one
+look was continuous and unbroken.
+
+"If this jay town can turn up enough money to-night to keep us from
+stranding, I'll take off my hat to it for ever more," said Jackie Blake.
+
+"Boothby says the house is sold out," said
+
+Miss Marmaduke, a shade of anxiety in her dark eyes. "Oh, how I wish we
+were at home again."
+
+"I'd rather starve in New York than feast in the high hills," said he
+wistfully. The idols to whom Tinkletown was paying homage were but
+human, after all. For two months the Boothby Company had been buffeted
+from pillar to post, struggling hard to keep its head above water,
+always expecting the crash. The "all-stars" were no more than striving
+young Thespians, who were kept playing throughout the heated term with
+this uncertain enterprise, solely because necessity was in command of
+their destinies. It was not for them to enjoy a summer in ease and
+indolence.
+
+"Never mind, dear," said she, turning her green parasol so that it
+obstructed the intense but complimentary gaze of no less than a dozen
+men; "our luck will change. We won't be barn-storming for ever."
+
+"We've one thing to be thankful for, little woman," said Jackie, his
+face brightening. "We go out again this fall in the same company. That's
+luck, isn't it? We'll be married as soon as we get back to New York and
+we won't have to be separated for a whole season, at least."
+
+"Isn't it dear to think of, Jackie sweetheart? A whole season and then
+another, and then all of them after that? Oh, dear, won't it be sweet?"
+It was love's young dream for both of them.
+
+"Hello, what's this?" exclaimed Orlando the Thousandth, pausing before a
+placard which covered the lower limbs of his pictorial partner. "Ten
+Thousand Dollars reward! Great Scott, Cora, wouldn't I like to catch
+those fellows? Great, eh? But it's a desperate gang! The worst ever!"
+
+Just then both became conscious of the fact that some one was
+scrutinising them intently from behind. They turned and beheld Anderson
+Crow, his badges glistening.
+
+"How are you, officer?" said Jackie cheerily. Miss Marmaduke, in her
+happiness, beamed a smile upon the austere man with the chin whiskers.
+Anderson was past seventy, but that smile caused the intake of his
+breath to almost lift him from the ground.
+
+"First rate, thanks; how's yourself? Readin' the reward notice? Lemme
+tell you something. There's goin' to be somethin' happen tarnation soon
+that will astonish them fellers ef--" but here Anderson pulled up with a
+jerk, realising that he was on the point of betraying a great secret.
+Afraid to trust himself in continued conversation, he abruptly said:
+"Good afternoon," and started off down the street, his ears tingling.
+
+"Queer old chap, isn't he?" observed Jackie, and immediately forgot him
+as they strolled onward.
+
+That evening Tinkletown swarmed with strangers. The weather was fine,
+and scores of the summer dwellers in the hills across the river came
+over to see the performance, as the advance agent had predicted. Bluff
+Top Hotel sent a large delegation of people seeking the variety of life.
+There were automobiles, traps, victorias, hay-racks, and "sundowns"
+standing all along the street in the vicinity of Hapgood's Grove. It was
+to be, in the expansive language of the press agent, "a cultured
+audience made up of the élite of the community."
+
+Late in the afternoon, a paralysing thought struck in upon the marshal's
+brain. It occurred to him that this band of robbers might also be
+engaged to carry off Rosalie Gray. After all, it might be the great
+dominant reason for their descent upon the community. Covered with a
+perspiration that was not caused by heat, he accosted Wicker Bonner, the
+minute that gentleman arrived in town. Rosalie went, of course, to the
+Crow home for a short visit with the family.
+
+"Say, Wick, I want you to do me a favour," said Anderson eagerly, taking
+the young man aside. "I cain't tell you all about it, 'cause I'm bound
+by a deathless oath. But, listen, I'm afraid somethin's goin' to happen
+to-night. There's a lot o' strangers here, an' I'm nervous about
+Rosalie. Somebody might try to steal her in the excitement. Now I want
+you to take good keer of her. Don't let 'er out o' your sight, an' don't
+let anybody git 'er away from you. I'll keep my eye on her, too. Promise
+me."
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Crow. I'll look out for her. That's what I hope to do
+all the rest of--'
+
+"Somethin's liable to happen," Mr. Crow broke in, and then quietly
+slipped away.
+
+Bonner laughed easily at the old man's fears and set them down as a part
+of his whimsical nature. Later, he saw the old man near the entrance as
+the party passed inside the inclosure. The Bonner party occupied
+prominent seats in front, reserved by the marshal. There were ten in the
+group, a half-dozen young Boston people completing the house party.
+
+The side walls of a pavilion inclosed the most beautiful section of the
+grove. In one end were the seats, rapidly filling with people. At the
+opposite end, upon Mother Earth's green carpet, was the stage, lighted
+dimly by means of subdued spot lights and a few auxiliary stars on high.
+There was no scenery save that provided by Nature herself. An orchestra
+of violins broke through the constant hum of eager voices.
+
+Anderson Crow's heart was inside the charmed inclosure, but his person
+was elsewhere. Simultaneously, with the beginning of the performance of
+"As You like It," he was in his own barn-loft confronting Andrew Gregory
+and the five bewhiskered assistants from New York City. Gregory had met
+the detectives at the Inn and had guided them to the marshal's barn,
+where final instructions were to be given. For half an hour the party
+discussed plans with Anderson Crow, speaking in low, mysterious tones
+that rang in the marshal's ears to his dying day.
+
+"We've located those fellows," asserted Mr. Gregory firmly. "There can
+be no mistake. They are already in the audience over there, and at a
+signal will set to work to hold up the whole crowd. We must get the
+drop on them, Mr. Crow. Don't do that! You don't need a disguise. Keep
+those yellow whiskers in your pocket. The rest of us will wear
+disguises. These men came here disguised because the robbers would be
+onto them in a minute if they didn't. They know every detective's face
+in the land. If it were not for these beards and wigs they'd have
+spotted Pinkerton's men long ago. Now, you know your part in the affair,
+don't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," respectfully responded Anderson, his chin whisker wobbling
+pathetically.
+
+"Then we're ready to proceed. It takes a little nerve, that's all, but
+we'll soon have those robbers just where we want them," said Andrew
+Gregory.
+
+The second act of the play was fairly well under way when Orlando, in
+the "green room," remarked to the stage director:
+
+"What's that old rube doing back here, Ramsay? Why, hang it, man, he's
+carrying a couple of guns. Is this a hold-up?" At the same instant
+Rosalind and two of the women came rushing from their dressing tent,
+alarmed and indignant. Miss Marmaduke, her eyes blazing, confronted the
+stage director.
+
+"What does this mean, Mr. Ramsay?" she cried. "That old man ordered us
+out of our dressing-room at the point of a revolver, and--see! There he
+is now doing the same to the men."
+
+It was true. Anderson Crow, with a brace of horse pistols, was driving
+the players toward the centre of the stage. In a tremulous voice he
+commanded them to remain there and take the consequences. A moment later
+the marshal of Tinkletown strode into the limelight with his arsenal,
+facing an astonished and temporarily amused audience. His voice, pitched
+high with excitement, reached to the remotest corners of the inclosure.
+Behind him the players were looking on, open-mouthed and bewildered. To
+them he loomed up as the long-dreaded constable detailed to attach their
+personal effects. The audience, if at first it laughed at him as a joke,
+soon changed its view. Commotion followed his opening speech.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+The Luck of Anderson Crow
+
+
+"Don't anybody attempt to leave this tent!" commanded Mr. Crow, standing
+bravely forth with his levelled revolvers. The orchestra made itself as
+small as possible, for one of the guns wavered dangerously. "Don't be
+alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. The train robbers are among you."
+
+There were a few feminine shrieks, a volume of masculine "Whats!" a
+half-hearted and uncertain snigger, and a general turning of heads.
+
+"Keep your seats!" commanded Anderson. "They can't escape. I have them
+surrounded. I now call upon all robbers present to surrender in the name
+of the law. Surrender peaceful and you will not he damaged; resist and
+we'll blow you to hell an' gone, even at the risk of injurin' the women
+and childern. The law is no respecter of persons. Throw up your hands!"
+
+He waited impressively, but either through stupefaction or obstinacy the
+robbers failed to lift their hands.
+
+"You're cornered, you golderned scamps!" shouted Anderson Crow, "an' you
+might jest as well give up! Twenty Pinkerton men are here from New York
+City, an' you can't escape! Throw up your hands!"
+
+"The damned old fool is in earnest," gasped Judge Brewster, from across
+the river.
+
+"He's crazy!" cried Congressman Bonner.
+
+"Let everybody in this crowd throw up their hands!" called a firm, clear
+voice from the entrance. At the same instant five bewhiskered
+individuals appeared as if by magic with drawn revolvers, dominating the
+situation completely. The speaker was Andrew Gregory, the insurance
+agent.
+
+"Now, what have you got to say?" cried Anderson gaily. "I guess me an'
+the detectives have you cornered all right, ain't we?"
+
+The audience sat stupefied, paralysed. While all this was going on upon
+the inside, a single detective on the outside was stealthily puncturing
+the tires of every automobile in the collection, Mr. Bracken's huge
+touring car being excepted for reasons to be seen later on.
+
+"Good heavens!" groaned old Judge Brewster. A half dozen women fainted
+and a hundred men broke into a cold perspiration.
+
+"Hands up, everybody!" commanded Andrew Gregory. "We can take no
+chances. The train robbers are in this audience. They came to hold up
+the entire crowd, but we are too quick for you, my fine birds. The place
+is surrounded!"
+
+"Mr. Gregory, the insurance--" began Anderson Crow, but he was cut
+short.
+
+"Mr. Crow deserves great credit for this piece of detective work. His
+mere presence is a guaranty of safety to those of you who are not
+thieves. You all have your hands up? Thanks. Mr. Crow, please keep those
+actors quiet. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is not always an easy matter
+to distinguish thieves from honest men. I will first give the
+desperadoes a chance to surrender peaceably. No one steps forward? Very
+well. Keep your hands up, all of you. The man who lowers his hands will
+be instantly regarded as a desperado and may get a bullet in his body
+for his folly. The innocent must suffer with the guilty. Mr. Crow, shall
+we proceed with the search?"
+
+"Yes, sir; go right ahead, and be quick," replied Anderson Crow.
+
+"Very well, then, in the name of the law, my men will begin the search.
+They will pass among you, ladies and gentlemen, and any effort to retard
+their progress will be met with instant--well, you know."
+
+Before the petrified audience could fully realise what was taking place,
+three of the detectives were swiftly passing from person to person,
+stripping the women of their jewels, the men of their money and their
+watches. A half-hearted protest went up to Anderson Crow, but it was
+checked summarily by the "searching party." It was well for the poor
+marshal that he never knew what the audience thought of him at that
+ghastly moment.
+
+It was all over in five minutes. The detectives had searched every
+prosperous-looking person in the audience, under the very nose and guns
+of Marshal Crow, and they were sardonically bidding the assemblage a
+fond good-bye from the flapping doorway in the side wall. Andrew Gregory
+addressed the crowd, smiling broadly.
+
+"We found a good many more robbers in the crowd than we could
+conveniently handle, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, I never came across
+such a rare collection of hold-up men outside of Wall Street. The only
+perfectly honest man in Tinkletown to-night is Anderson Crow, your
+esteemed marshal. Believe me, he is ridiculously honest. He may be a
+damn fool, but he is honest. Don't blame him. Thanking you, one and all,
+for your generous help in our search for the train robbers, we bid you
+an affectionate farewell. We may meet again if you travel extensively on
+express trains. Good-night!"
+
+With a taunting laugh, Andrew Gregory dropped the flap and leaped after
+his companions. Bracken's chauffeur lay senseless by the roadside, and
+one of the "detectives" sat in his seat. Even as the audience opened
+its collective mouth to shout its wrath and surprise, the big touring
+car, with six armed men aboard, leaped away with a rush. Down the dark
+road it flew like an express train, its own noise drowning the shouts of
+the multitude, far behind.
+
+Bonner, recovering from his stupefaction and rage, led the pursuit,
+first commanding Rosalie to hurry home with the women and lock herself
+safely indoors.
+
+Anderson Crow, realising what a dupe he had been in the hands of the
+clever scoundrels, was covered with fear and shame. The outraged crowd
+might have killed him had not his escape been made under cover of
+darkness. Shivering and moaning in abject misery, the pride of
+Tinkletown fled unseeing, unthinking into the forest along the river. He
+was not to know until afterward that his "detectives" had stripped the
+rich sojourners of at least ten thousand dollars in money and jewels. It
+is not necessary to say that the performance of "As You Like It" came to
+an abrupt end, because it was not as they liked it. Everybody knew by
+this time that they had seen the celebrated "train robbers."
+
+Jackie Blake was half dressed when he leaped to his feet with an
+exclamation so loud that those preceding it were whispers.
+
+"Holy smoke!" fell from his lips; and then he dashed across the green to
+the women's dressing tent. "Cora! Cora! Come out!"
+
+"I can't," came back in muffled tones.
+
+"Then good-bye; I'm off!" he shouted. That brought her, partially
+dressed, from the tent. "Say, do you remember the river road we walked
+over to-day? Well, those fellows went in that direction, didn't they?
+Don't you see? Aren't you on? The washout! If they don't know about it
+the whole bunch is at the bottom of the ravine or in the river by this
+time! Mum's the word! There's a chance, darling; the reward said 'dead
+or alive!' I'm off!"
+
+She tried to call him back, but it was too late. With his own revolver
+in his hand, the half Orlando, half Blake, tore down the rarely
+travelled river road south. Behind him Tinkletown raved and wailed over
+the great calamity, but generally stood impotent in the face of it all.
+But few felt inclined to pursue the robbers. Blake soon had the race to
+himself. It was a mile or more to the washout in the road, but the
+excitement made him keen for the test. The road ran through the woods
+and along the high bluff that overlooked the river. He did not know it,
+but this same road was a "short cut" to the macadam pike farther south.
+By taking this route the robbers gave Boggs City a wide berth.
+
+Blake's mind was full of the possibilities of disaster to the
+over-confident fugitives. The washout was fresh, and he was counting on
+the chance that they were not aware of its existence. If they struck it
+even at half speed the whole party would be hurled a hundred feet down
+to the edge of the river or into the current itself. In that event,
+some, if not all, would be seriously injured.
+
+As he neared the turn in the road, his course pointed out to him by the
+stars above, he was startled half out of his boots by the sudden
+appearance of a man, who staggered from the roadside and wobbled
+painfully away, pleading for mercy.
+
+"Halt, or I'll shoot!" called Jackie Blake, and the pathetic figure not
+only halted, but sat down in the middle of the road.
+
+"For the Lord's sake, don't shoot!" groaned a hoarse voice. "I wasn't in
+cahoots with them. They fooled me--they fooled me." It was Anderson
+Crow, and he would have gone on interminably had not Jackie Blake
+stopped him short.
+
+"You're the marshal, eh? The darned rube--"
+
+"Yes, I'm him. Call me anything, only don't shoot. Who are you?" groaned
+Anderson, rising to his knees. He was holding his revolvers by the
+muzzles. "Never mind who I am. I haven't time. Say, you'd better come
+with me. Maybe we can head off those villains. They came this way and--"
+
+"Show 'em to me," roared Anderson, recognising a friend. Rage surged up
+and drove out the shame in his soul. "I'll tackle the hull caboodle,
+dang 'em!" And he meant it, too.
+
+Blake did not stop to explain, but started on, commanding Mr. Crow to
+follow. With rare fore-thought the marshal donned his yellow beard as he
+panted in the trail of the lithe young actor. The latter remembered that
+the odds were heavily against him. The marshal might prove a valuable
+aid in case of resistance, provided, of course, that they came upon the
+robbers in the plight he was hoping for.
+
+"Where the dickens are you a-goin'?" wheezed the marshal, kicking up a
+great dust in the rear. The other did not answer. His whole soul was
+enveloped in the hope that the washout had trapped the robbers. He was
+almost praying that it might be so. The reward could be divided with the
+poor old marshal if--
+
+He gave a yell of delight, an instant later, and then began jumping
+straight up and down like one demented. Anderson Crow stopped so
+abruptly that his knees were stiff for weeks. Jackie Blake's wild dream
+had come true. The huge automobile had struck the washout, and it was
+now lying at the base of the bluff, smashed to pieces on the rocks! By
+the dim light from the heavens, Blake could see the black hulk down
+there, but it was too dark to distinguish other objects. He was about to
+descend to the river bank when Anderson Crow came up.
+
+"What's the matter, man?" panted he.
+
+"They're down there, don't you see it? They went over the bluff right
+here--come on. We've got 'em!"
+
+"Hold on!" exclaimed Anderson, grasping his arm. "Don't rush down there
+like a danged fool. If they're alive they can plug you full of bullets
+in no time. Let's be careful."
+
+"By thunder, you're right. You're a wise old owl, after all. I never
+thought of that. Let's reconnoitre."
+
+Tingling with excitement, the two oddly mated pursuers descended
+stealthily by a roundabout way. They climbed over rocks and crept
+through underbrush until finally they came to a clear spot not twenty
+feet from where the great machine was lying, at the very edge of the
+swift, deep current. They heard groans and faint cries, with now and
+then a piteous oath. From their hiding place they counted the forms of
+four men lying upon the rocks, as if dead. The two held a whispered
+consultation of war, a plan of action resulting.
+
+"Surrender!" shouted Jackie Blake, standing forth. He and Anderson had
+their pistols levelled upon the prostrate robbers. For answer there were
+louder groans, a fiercer oath or two and then a weak, pain-struck voice
+came out to them:
+
+"For God's sake, get this machine off my legs. I'm dying. Help! Help! We
+surrender!"
+
+Ten minutes later, the jubilant captors had released the miserable
+Andrew Gregory from his position beneath the machine, and had
+successfully bound the hands and feet of five half-unconscious men.
+Gregory's legs were crushed and one other's skull was cracked. The sixth
+man was nowhere to be found. The disaster had been complete, the
+downfall of the great train robbers inglorious. Looking up into the face
+of Anderson Crow, Gregory smiled through his pain and said hoarsely:
+
+"Damned rotten luck; but if we had to be taken, I'm glad you did it,
+Crow. You're a good fool, anyway. But for God's sake, get me to a
+doctor."
+
+"Dang it! I'm sorry fer you, Mr. Gregory--" began Anderson, ready to
+cry.
+
+"Don't waste your time, old man. I need the doctor. Are the others
+dead?" he groaned.
+
+"I don't know," replied Jackie Blake. "Some of them look like it. We
+can't carry you up that hill, but we'll do the next best thing. Marshal,
+I'll stay here and guard the prisoners while you run to the village for
+help--and doctors."
+
+"And run fast, Anderson," added Gregory. "You always were so devilish
+slow. Don't walk-trot."
+
+Soon afterward, when Anderson, fagged but overjoyed, hobbled into the
+village, the excited crowd was ready to lynch him, but with his first
+words the atmosphere changed.
+
+"Where is Jackie Blake?" sobbed a pretty young woman, grasping the proud
+marshal's arm and shaking him violently.
+
+"Derned if I know, ma'am. Was he stole?"
+
+She made him understand, and together, followed by the actors, the
+audience and the whole town, they led the way to the washout, the fair
+Rosalind dragging the overworked hero of the hour along at a gait which
+threatened to be his undoing.
+
+Later on, after the five bandits had been carried to the village, Jackie
+Blake gladly informed his sweetheart that they could have easy sailing
+with the seven thousand dollars he expected. Anderson Crow had agreed to
+take but three thousand dollars for his share in the capture. One of the
+robbers was dead. The body of the sixth was found in the river weeks
+afterward.
+
+"I'm glad I was the first on the ground," said Blake, in anticipation of
+the reward which was eventually to be handed over to him. "But Anderson
+Crow turned out to be a regular trump, after all. He's a corker!" He was
+speaking to Wicker Bonner and a crowd of New Yorkers.
+
+Tinkletown began to talk of a monument to Anderson Crow, even while he
+lived. The general opinion was that it should be erected while he was
+still able to enjoy it and not after his death, when he would not know
+anything about its size and cost.
+
+"By gosh! 'Twas a great capture!" swelling perceptibly. "I knowed they
+couldn't escape me. Dang 'em! they didn't figger on me, did they? Pshaw!
+it was reediculus of 'em to think they c'd fool me entirely, although
+I'll have to confess they did fool me at first. It was a desprit gang
+an' mighty slick."
+
+"You worked it great, Anderson," said George Ray. "Did you know about
+the washout?"
+
+"Did I know about it?" snorted Anderson witheringly. "Why, good Gosh
+a'mighty, didn't I purty near run my legs off to git there in time to
+throw down the barricade before they could get there with Mr. Bracken's
+automobile? Thunderation! What a fool question!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+Bill Briggs Tells a Tale
+
+
+Tinkletown fairly bubbled with excitement. At last the eyes of the world
+were upon it. News of the great sensation was flashed to the end of the
+earth; every detail was gone into with harrowing minuteness. The
+Hemisphere Company announced by telegraph that it stood ready to hand
+over the ten thousand dollars; and the sheriff of Bramble County with
+all the United States deputy marshals within reach raced at once to
+Tinkletown to stick a finger in the pie.
+
+The morning after the "great pavilion robbery," as it was called in the
+_Banner_, Anderson Crow and Bonner fared forth early to have a look at
+the injured desperadoes, all of whom were safely under guard at the
+reincarnated calaboose. Fifty armed men had stood guard all night long,
+notwithstanding the fact that one robber was dead and the others so
+badly injured that they were not expected to survive the day.
+
+A horseman passed the marshal and his friend near the post-office,
+riding rapidly to the north. He waved his crop pleasantly to them and
+Bonner responded. Anderson stopped stock still and tried to speak, but
+did not succeed for a full minute; he was dumb with excitement.
+
+"That's him!" he managed to gasp. "The feller I saw the other day--the
+man on horseback!"
+
+"That?" cried Bonner, laughing heartily. "Why, that is John E. Barnes,
+the lawyer and probably a United States Senator some day. Good heavens,
+Mr. Crow, you've made a bad guess of it this time! He is staying with
+Judge Brewster, his father-in-law."
+
+"What! Well, by Geminy! I thought I knowed him," cried Anderson. "They
+cain't fool me long, Wick--none of 'em. He's the same feller 'at run
+away with Judge Brewster's daughter more'n twenty year ago. 'y Gosh, I
+was standin' right on this very spot the first time I ever see him. He
+sold me a hoss and buggy--but I got the money back. I arrested him the
+same day."
+
+"Arrested John Barnes?" in amazement.
+
+"Yep--fer murder--only he wasn't the murderer. We follered him down the
+river--him an' the girl--to Bracken's place, but they were married afore
+we got there. Doggone, that was a busy day! Some blamed good detective
+work was did, too. I--"
+
+"And Mr. Barnes was interested in Rosalie?" asked Bonner suddenly. "How
+could he have known anything about her?"
+
+"That's what puzzles me. She came here about two years after the
+elopement more er less, but I don't remember ever seein' him after that
+time."
+
+"It's very strange, Mr. Crow," reflected Bonner soberly. "He has a son,
+I know. His wife died a year or so after the boy's birth. Young Barnes
+is about twenty-one, I think at this time. By George! I've heard it said
+that Barnes and his wife were not hitting it off very well. They say she
+died of a broken heart. I've heard mother speak of it often. I
+wonder--great heavens, it isn't possible that Rosalie can be
+connected in any way with John Barnes? Anderson Crow, I--I wonder if
+there is a possibility?" Bonner was quivering with excitement,
+wonder--and--unbelief.
+
+"I'm workin' on that clew," said Anderson as calmly as his tremors would
+permit. He was thrilled by the mere suggestion, but it was second nature
+for him to act as if every discovery were his own. "Ever sence I saw him
+on the road up there, I've been trackin' him. I tell you, Wick, he's my
+man. I've got it almost worked out. Just as soon as these blamed robbers
+are moved to Boggs City, er buried, I'm goin' over an' git the truth out
+of Mr. Barnes. I've been huntin' him fer twenty-one years." Anderson, of
+course, was forgetting that Barnes had slipped from his mind completely
+until Bonner nudged his memory into life.
+
+"It's a delicate matter, Mr. Crow. We must go about it carefully," said
+Bonner severely. "If Mr. Barnes is really interested in her, we can't
+find it out by blundering; if he is not interested, we can't afford to
+drag him into it. It will require tact--"
+
+"Thunderation, don't you suppose I know that?" exploded Anderson.
+"Detectives are allers tackin'. They got to, y' see, ef they're goin' to
+foller half a dozen clews at oncet. Gee whiz, Wick, leave this thing to
+me! I'll git at the bottom of it inside o' no time."
+
+"Wait a few days, Mr. Crow," argued Bonner, playing for time. "Don't
+hurry. We've got all we can do now to take care of the fellows you and
+that young actor captured last night." The young man's plan was to keep
+Anderson off the trail entirely and give the seemingly impossible clew
+into the possession of the New York bureau.
+
+"I don't know what I'd 'a' done ef it hadn't been fer that young
+feller," said the marshal. "He was right smart help to me last night."
+Bonner, who knew the true story, suppressed a smile and loved the old
+man none the less for his mild deception.
+
+They entered the "calaboose," which now had all the looks and odours of
+a hospital. A half-dozen doctors had made the four injured men as
+comfortable as possible. They were stretched on mattresses in the jail
+dining-room, guarded by a curious horde of citizens.
+
+"That's Gregory!" whispered Anderson, as they neared the suffering
+group. He pointed to the most distant cot. "That's jest the way he swore
+last night. He must 'a' shaved in the automobile last night," though
+Gregory had merely discarded the false whiskers he had worn for days.
+
+"Wait!" exclaimed Bonner, stopping short beside the first cot. He
+stooped and peered intently into the face of the wounded bandit. "By
+George!"
+
+"What's up?"
+
+"As I live, Mr. Crow, this fellow was one of the gang that abducted
+Rosalie Gray last winter. I can swear to it. Don't you remember the one
+she tried to intercede for? Briggs! That's it! Briggs!"
+
+The injured man slowly opened his eyes as the name was half shouted. A
+sickly grin spread slowly over his pain-racked face.
+
+"She tried to intercede fer me, did she?" he murmured weakly. "She said
+she would. She was square."
+
+"You were half decent to her," said Bonner. "How do you happen to be
+with this gang? Another kidnaping scheme afloat?"
+
+"No--not that I know of. Ain't you the guy that fixed us? Say, on the
+dead, I was goin' to do the right thing by her that night. I was duckin'
+the gang when you slugged me. Honest, mister, I was goin' to put her
+friends next. Say, I don't know how bad I'm hurt, but if I ever git to
+trial, do what you can fer me, boss. On the dead, I was her friend."
+
+Bonner saw pity in Anderson's face and rudely dragged him away, although
+Bill's plea was not addressed to the old marshal.
+
+"Wait for me out here, Mr. Crow," said he when they reached the office.
+"You are overcome. I'll talk to him." He returned at once to the injured
+man's cot.
+
+"Look here, Briggs, I'll do what I can for you, but I'm afraid it won't
+help much. What do the doctors say?"
+
+"If they ain't lyin', I'll be up an' about in a few weeks. Shoulder and
+some ribs cracked and my legs stove up. I can't move. God, that was an
+awful tumble!" He shuddered in memory of the auto's leap.
+
+"Is Sam or Davy in this gang?"
+
+"No; Davy's at Blackwell's Island, an' Sam told me he was goin' to
+Canada fer his health. Jim Courtney is the leader of this gang. He
+sailed under the name of Gregory. That's him swearin' at the rubes."
+
+"The thing for you to do is to make a clean breast of it, Briggs. It
+will go easier with you."
+
+"Turn State's evidence? What good will that do when we was all caught
+with the goods?"
+
+"If you will tell us all of the inside facts concerning the abduction
+I'll guarantee that something can be done to lighten your sentence. I am
+Congressman Bonner's nephew."
+
+"So? I thought you was the swellest hold-up man I ever met, that night
+out in the woods. You'd do credit to Sam Welch himself. I'll tell you
+all I know, pardner, but it ain't a great deal. It won't do me any good
+to keep my mouth shut now, an', if you say so, it may help me to squeal.
+But, fer the Lord's sake, have one of these rotten doctors give me
+something to make me sleep. Don't they know what morphine is for?"
+
+Growling and cursing at the doctors, Bill was moved into the office.
+Anderson came in from the dining-room at that juncture, visibly excited.
+
+"I've got a confession from Gregory," he said. "He confesses that he
+oughter be hung."
+
+"What!"
+
+"That's what he said--'y ginger. Here's his very words, plain as day: 'I
+oughter be hung half a dozen times.' 'What fer?' says I. 'Fer bein' sech
+a damned ass,' said he. 'But that ain't a hangable offence,' said I.
+You know, I kinder like Gregory, spite of all. 'It's the worst crime in
+the world,' said he. 'Then you confess you've committed it?' said I,
+anxious to pin him right down to it, y' see.' 'ou bet I do. Ef they hang
+me it'll be because I'm a drivelling idiot, an' not because I've shot
+one er two in my time. Nobody but an ass could be caught at it, an'
+that's why I feel so infernal guilty. Look here, Mr. Crow, ever' time
+you see a feller that's proved himself a downright ass, jest take him
+out an' lynch him. He deserves it, that's all I've got to say. The
+greatest crime in the world is criminal neglect.' Don't bother me now,
+Wick; I'm going to write that down an' have him sign it."
+
+"Look here, pard," said Bill Briggs, laboriously breaking in upon their
+conversation; "I want to do the right thing by you an' her as fer as I
+can. You've been good to me, an' I won't fergit it. Besides, you said
+you'd make things easy fer me if I told you what I knowed about that job
+last winter. Well, I'd better tell it now, 'cause I'm liable to pass in
+my checks before these doctors git through with me. An' besides, they'll
+be haulin' me off to the county seat in a day or two. Now, this is dead
+straight, I'm goin' to give you. Maybe it won't help you none, but 'll
+give you a lead."
+
+"Go on," cried Bonner breathlessly.
+
+"Well, Sam Welch come to me in Branigan's place one night--that's in
+Fourt' Avenue--an' says he's got a big job on. We went over to Davy
+Wolfe's house an' found him an' his mother--the old fairy, you remember.
+Well, to make it short, Sam said it was a kidnaping job an' the Wolfes
+was to be in on it because they used to live in this neighbourhood an'
+done a lot of work here way back in the seventies. There was to be five
+thousand dollars in the job if we got that girl safe on board a ship
+bound fer Europe. Sam told us that the guy what engineered the game was
+a swell party an' a big boy in politics, finance, society an' ever'thin'
+else. He could afford to pay, but he didn't want to be seen in the job.
+Nobody but Sam ever seen his face. Sam used to be in politics some. Jest
+before we left New York to come up here, the swell guy comes around to
+Davy's with another guy fer final orders. See? It was as cold as h----
+as the dickens--an' the two of 'em was all muffled up so's we couldn't
+get a pipe at their mugs. One of 'em was old--over fifty, I guess--an'
+the other was a young chap. I'm sure of that.
+
+"They said that one or the other of 'em would be in this neighbourhood
+when the job was pulled off; that one thousand dollars would be paid
+down when we started; another thousand when we got 'er into the cave;
+and the rest when we had 'er at the dock in New York--alive an' unhurt.
+See? We was given to understand that she was to travel all the rest of
+'er life fer 'er health. I remember one thing plain: The old man said to
+the young 'un: 'She must not know a thing of this, or it will ruin
+everything.' He wasn't referrin' to the girl either. There was another
+woman in the case. They seemed mighty anxious to pull the job off
+without this woman gettin' next.
+
+"Well, we got ready to start, and the two parties coughed up the
+thousand plunks--that is, the young 'un handed it over to Sam when the
+old 'un told him to. Sam took three hundred and the rest of us two
+hundred a piece. When they were lookin' from the winder to see that
+nobody on the streets was watchin' the house, I asked Sam if he knowed
+either of them by name. He swore he didn't, but I think he lied. But
+jest before they left the house, I happened to look inside of the old
+boy's hat--he had a stiff dicer. There was a big gilt letter in the top
+of it."
+
+"What was that letter?" demanded Bonner eagerly.
+
+"It was a B."
+
+Bonner looked at Anderson as if the floor were being drawn from under
+his feet.
+
+"The young chap said somethin' low to the old 'un about takin' the night
+train back to the University an' comin' down again Saturday."
+
+"To the University? Which one? Did he mention the name?" cried Bonner.
+
+"No. That's all he said."
+
+"Good heavens, if it should be!" said Bonner as if to himself.
+
+"Well, we come up here an' done the job. You know about that, I guess.
+Sam saw the young feller one night up at Boggs City, an' got
+instructions from him. He was to help us git 'er away from here in an
+automobile, an' the old man was to go across the ocean with 'er. That's
+all I know. It didn't turn out their way that time, but Sam says it's
+bound to happen."
+
+Bonner, all eagerness and excitement, quickly looked around for
+Anderson, but the marshal had surreptitiously left the room. Then,
+going over to the door, he called for Anderson Crow. Bud Long was there.
+
+"Anderson left five minutes ago, Mr. Bonner, hurryin' like the dickens,
+too," he said. "He's gone to hunt up a feller named Barnes. He told me
+to tell you when you came out."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+Elsie Banks Returns
+
+
+Bonner, considerably annoyed and alarmed by the marshal's actions, made
+every effort to turn him back before he could ruin everything by an
+encounter with Mr. Barnes. He sent men on bicycles and horseback to
+overtake him; but the effort was unsuccessful. Mr. Crow had secured a
+"ride" in an automobile which had brought two newspaper correspondents
+over from Boggs City. They speeded furiously in order to catch a train
+for New York, but agreed to drop the marshal at the big bridge, not more
+than a mile from Judge Brewster's place.
+
+Chagrined beyond expression, he made ready to follow Anderson with all
+haste in his own machine. Rosalie hurriedly perfected preparations to
+accompany him. She was rejoining the house party that day, was consumed
+by excitement over the situation, and just as eager as Bonner to
+checkmate the untimely operations of poor old Anderson Crow.
+
+The marshal had more than half an hour's start of them. Bonner was his
+own chauffeur and he was a reckless one to-day. Luck was against him at
+the outset. The vigorous old detective inspired to real speed, for the
+first time in his lackadaisacal life, left the newspaper men at the
+bridge nearly three-quarters of an hour before Bonner passed the same
+spot, driving furiously up the hill toward Judge Brewster's.
+
+"If your bothersome old daddy gets his eyes on Barnes before I can head
+him off, dearest, the jig will be up," groaned Bonner, the first words
+he had spoken in miles. "Barnes will be on his guard and ready for
+anything. The old--pardon me, for saying it--the old jay ought to know
+the value of discretion in a case like this."
+
+"Poor old daddy," she sighed, compassion in her heart. "He thinks he is
+doing it for the best. Wicker, I hope it is--it is not Mr. Barnes," she
+added, voicing a thought which had been struggling in her mind for a
+long time.
+
+"Why not, dearest?"
+
+"It would mean one of two things. Either he does not want to recognise
+me as his child--or cannot, which is even worse. Wicker, I don't want to
+know the truth. I am afraid--I am afraid."
+
+She was trembling like a leaf and there was positive distress in her
+eyes, eyes half covered by lids tense with alarm.
+
+"Don't feel that way about it, dear," cried he, recovering from his
+astonishment and instantly grasping the situation as it must have
+appeared to her. "To tell you the truth, I do not believe that Mr.
+Barnes is related to you in any way. If he is connected with the case at
+all, it is in the capacity of attorney."
+
+"But he is supposed to be an honourable man."
+
+"True, and I still believe him to be. It does not seem possible that he
+can be engaged in such work as this. We are going altogether on
+supposition--putting two and two together, don't you know, and hoping
+they will stick. But, in any event, we must not let any chance slip by.
+If he is interested, we must bring him to time. It may mean the
+unravelling of the whole skein, dear. Don't look so distressed. Be
+brave. It doesn't matter what we learn in the end, I love you just the
+same. You shall be my wife."
+
+"I _do_ love you, Wicker. I will always love you."
+
+"Dear little sweetheart!"
+
+They whirled up to the lodge gate at Judge Brewster's place at last, the
+throbbing machine coming to a quick stop. Before he called out to the
+lodge keeper, Bonner impulsively drew her gloveless hand to his lips.
+
+"Nothing can make any difference now," he said.
+
+The lodge keeper, in reply to Bonner's eager query, informed them that
+Mr. Barnes had gone away ten or fifteen minutes before with an old man
+who claimed to be a detective, and who had placed the great lawyer under
+arrest.
+
+"Good Lord!" gasped Bonner with a sinking heart.
+
+"It's an outrage, sir! Mr. Barnes is the best man in the world. He never
+wronged no one, sir. There's an 'orrible mistake, sir," groaned the
+lodge keeper. "Judge Brewster is in Boggs City, and the man wouldn't
+wait for his return. He didn't even want to tell Mr. Barnes what 'e was
+charged with."
+
+"Did you ever hear of anything so idiotic?" roared Bonner. Rosalie was
+white and red by turn. "What direction did they take?"
+
+"The constable told Mr. Barnes he'd 'ave to go to Tinkletown with 'im at
+once, sir, even if he 'ad to walk all the way. The old chap said
+something, sir, about a man being there who could identify him on sight.
+Mr. Barnes 'ad to laugh, sir, and appeared to take it all in good
+humour. He said he'd go along of 'im, but he wouldn't walk. So he got
+his own auto out, sir, and they went off together. They took the short
+cut, sir, by the ferry road, 'eaded for Tinkletown. Mr. Barnes said he'd
+be back before noon, sir--if he wasn't lynched."
+
+"It's all over," groaned Bonner dejectedly. Something had slipped from
+under his feet and he was dangling in space, figuratively speaking.
+"There's nothing to do, Rosalie, except to chase them down. Mr. Crow has
+ruined everything. I'll leave you at Bonner Place with mother and Edith,
+and I'll hurry back to Tinkletown."
+
+The excitement was too much for Rosalie's nerves. She was in a state of
+physical collapse when he set her down at his uncle's summer home half
+an hour later. Leaving her to explain the situation to the curious
+friends, he set speed again for Tinkletown, inwardly cursing Anderson
+Crow for a meddling old fool.
+
+In the meantime Tinkletown was staring open-mouthed upon a new
+sensation. The race between Anderson and Bonner was hardly under way
+when down the main street of the town came a jaded team and surrey.
+Behind the driver sat a pretty young woman with an eager expression on
+her pale face, her gaze bent intently on the turn in the street which
+hid Anderson Crow's home from view. Beside the young woman lounged
+another of her sex, much older, and to all appearances, in a precarious
+state of health. The young men along the street gasped in amazement and
+then ventured to doff their timid hats to the young woman, very much as
+if they were saluting a ghost. Few of them received a nod of recognition
+from Elsie Banks, one-time queen of all their hearts.
+
+Roscoe Crow bounded out to the gate when he saw who was in the carriage,
+first shouting to his mother and sisters, who were indoors receiving
+congratulations and condolences from their neighbours.
+
+Miss Banks immediately inquired if she could see Rosalie.
+
+"She ain't here," said Roscoe. "She's away fer a month--over at the
+Bonners'. He's her feller, you know. Ma! Here's Miss Banks! Edner! Sue!"
+Mrs. Crow and the girls flew out to the gate, babbling their surprise
+and greetings.
+
+"This is my mother," introduced the young lady. "We have just come from
+New York, Mrs. Crow. We sail for England this week, and I must see
+Rosalie before we go. How can we get to Mr. Bonner's place?"
+
+"It's across the river, about twelve miles from here," said Mrs. Crow.
+"Come in and rest yourselves. You don't have to go back to-day, do you?
+Ain't you married yet?"
+
+"No, Mrs. Crow," responded Elsie, with a stiff, perfunctory smile.
+"Thank you, we cannot stop. It is necessary that we return to New York
+to-night, but I must see Rosalie before going. You see, Mrs. Crow, I do
+not expect to return to America. We are to live in London forever, I
+fear. It may be the last chance I'll have to see Rosalie. I must go on
+to Bonner Place to-day. But, dear me, I am so tired and hot, and it is
+so far to drive," she cried ruefully. "Do you know the way, driver?" The
+driver gruffly admitted that he did not. Roscoe eagerly bridged the
+difficulty by offering to act as pathfinder.
+
+At first Mrs. Banks tried to dissuade her daughter from undertaking the
+long trip, but the girl was obstinate. Her mother then flatly refused to
+accompany her, complaining of her head and heart. In the end the elder
+lady decided to accept Mrs. Crow's invitation to remain at the house
+until Elsie's return.
+
+"I shall bring Rosalie back with me, mother," said Elsie as she prepared
+to drive away. Mrs. Banks, frail and wan, bowed her head listlessly and
+turned to follow her hostess indoors. With Roscoe in the seat with the
+driver, the carriage started briskly off down the shady street, headed
+for the ferry road and Bonner Place.
+
+To return to Anderson Crow and his precipitancy. Just as the lodge
+keeper had said, the marshal, afoot and dusty, descended upon Mr. Barnes
+without ceremony. The great lawyer was strolling about the grounds when
+his old enemy arrived. He recognised the odd figure as it approached
+among the trees.
+
+"Hello, Mr. Crow!" he called cheerily. "Are you going to arrest me
+again?" He advanced to shake hands.
+
+"Yes, sir; you are my prisoner," said Anderson, panting, but stern. "I
+know you, Mr. Barnes. It won't do you any good to deny it."
+
+"Come in and sit down. You look tired," said Barnes genially, regarding
+his words as a jest; but Anderson proudly stood his ground.
+
+"You can't come any game with me. It won't do you no good to be perlite,
+my man. This time you don't git away."
+
+"You don't mean to say you are in earnest?" cried Barnes.
+
+"I never joke when on duty. Come along with me. You c'n talk afterward.
+Your hirelin' is in jail an' he c'n identify you; so don't resist."
+
+"Wait a moment, sir. What is the charge?"
+
+"I don't know yet. You know better'n I do what it is."
+
+"Look here, Mr. Crow. You arrested me the first time I ever saw you, and
+now you yank me up again, after all these years. Haven't you anything
+else to do but arrest me by mistake? Is that your only occupation?"
+
+Anderson sputtered indignantly. Driven to it, he informed John Barnes
+that he was charged with kidnaping, attempted murder, polygamy, child
+desertion, and nearly everything else under the sun. Barnes, at first
+indignant, finally broke into a hearty laugh. He magnanimously agreed to
+accompany his captor to Tinkletown. Not only that, but he provided the
+means of transportation. To the intense dismay of the servants, he
+merrily departed with Mr. Crow, a prisoner operating his own patrol
+wagon. The two were smoking the captive's best cigars.
+
+"It's mighty nice of you, Mr. Barnes, to let us use your autermobile,"
+said Anderson, benignly puffing away as they bowled off through the
+dust. "It would 'a' been a long walk. I'll speak a good word fer you fer
+this."
+
+"Don't mention it, old chap. I rather enjoy it. It's been uncommonly
+dull up here. I did not get away as soon as I expected, you see. So I am
+charged with being Rosalie's father, eh? And deserting her? And
+kidnaping her? By jove, I ought to be hung for all this!"
+
+"'Tain't nothin' to laugh at, my friend. You ought to be ashamed of
+yourself. I was onto you the day you stopped me in the road an' ast
+about her. What a fool you was. Reg'lar dead give-away."
+
+"See here, Mr. Crow, I don't like to upset your hopes and calculations,"
+said Barnes soberly. "I did that once before, you remember. That was
+years ago. You were wrong then, and you are wrong now. Shall I tell you
+why I am interested in this pretty waif of yours?"
+
+"It ain't necessary," protested the marshal.
+
+"I'll tell you just the same. My son met her in New York while he was at
+school. He heard her story from mutual friends and repeated it to me. I
+was naturally interested, and questioned you. He said she was very
+pretty. That is the whole story, my dear sir."
+
+"That's all very purty, but how about the B in your hat?"
+
+"I don't understand. Oh, you mean the political bee?"
+
+"Politics, your granny! I mean the 'nitial that Briggs saw. No; hold on!
+Don't answer. Don't say anything that'll incriminate yourself."
+
+"I never had an initial in my hat, and I don't know Briggs. Mr. Crow,
+you are as crazy as a loon." He prepared to bring the machine to a
+standstill. "I'm going home. You can ride back with me or get out and
+walk on, just as you please."
+
+"Hold on! Don't do that! I'll see that you're paid fer the use of the
+machine. Besides, consarn ye, you're my prisoner." This was too much for
+Barnes. He laughed long and loud, and he did not turn back.
+
+Just beyond the ferry they turned aside to permit a carriage to pass. A
+boy on the box with the driver shouted frantically after them, and
+Anderson tried to stop the machine himself.
+
+"Stop her!" he cried; "that's Roscoe, my boy. Hold on! Who's that with
+him? Why, by cracky, it's Miss Banks! Gee whiz, has she come back here
+to teach again? Whoa! Turn her around, Mr. Barnes. They are motionin'
+fer us to come back. 'Pears to be important, too."
+
+Barnes obligingly turned around and ran back to where the carriage was
+standing. An hour later the automobile rolled into the driveway at
+Bonner Place, and Anderson Crow, a glorious triumph in his face, handed
+Miss Banks from the tonneau and into the arms of Rosalie Gray, who at
+first had mistaken the automobile for another. Pompous to the point of
+explosion, Anderson waved his hand to the party assembled on the
+veranda, strolled around to Mr. Barnes's seat and acquired a light for
+his cigar with a nonchalance that almost overcame his one-time prisoner,
+and then said, apparently to the whole world, for he addressed no one in
+particular:
+
+"I knowed I could solve the blamed thing if they'd jest give me time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+The Story is Told
+
+
+Elsie Banks had a small and select audience in Mrs. Bonner's room
+upstairs. She had come from New York--or from California, strictly
+speaking--to furnish the narrative which was to set Rosalie Gray's mind
+at rest forever-more. It was not a pleasant task; it was not an easy
+sacrifice for this spirited girl who had known luxury all her life. Her
+spellbound hearers were Mrs. Bonner and Edith, Wicker Bonner, Anderson
+Crow, Rosalie, and John E. Barnes, who, far from being a captive of the
+law, was now Miss Gray's attorney, retained some hours before by his
+former captor.
+
+"I discharge you, sir," Anderson had said, after hearing Miss Bank's
+statement in the roadway. "You are no longer a prisoner. Have you
+anything to say, sir?"
+
+"Nothing, Mr. Crow, except to offer my legal services to you and your
+ward in this extraordinary matter. Put the matter in my hands, sir, and
+she shall soon come into her own, thanks to this young lady. I may add
+that, as I am not in the habit of soliciting clients, it is not my
+intention in this instance to exact a fee from your ward. My services
+are quite free, given in return, Mr. Crow, for the magnanimous way in
+which you have taken me into your confidence ever since I have known
+you. It is an honour to have been arrested by you; truthfully it is no
+disgrace."
+
+In the privacy of Mrs. Bonner's sitting-room, Elsie Banks, dry-eyed and
+bitter, told the story of her life. I cannot tell it as she did, for she
+was able to bring tears to the eyes of her listeners. It is only for me
+to relate the bare facts, putting them into her words as closely as
+possible. Rosalie Gray, faint with astonishment and incredulity, a lump
+in her throat that would not go down, and tears in her eyes, leaned back
+in an easy-chair and watched her unhappy friend.
+
+"I shall provide Mr. Barnes with proof of everything I say," said Miss
+Banks. "There can be no difficulty, Rosalie dear, in confirming all that
+I have to tell. If you will permit me to relate the story without
+interruption and afterward let me go my way without either pity or
+contempt, I shall be, oh, so grateful to you all--especially to you,
+dear Rosalie. Believe me I love you with my whole soul.
+
+"I have come to you voluntarily, and my mother, who is in Tinkletown, in
+resigning herself to the calls of conscience, is now happier than she
+has ever been before. A more powerful influence than her own will or her
+own honour, an influence that was evil to the core, inspired her to
+countenance this awful wrong. It also checkmated every good impulse she
+may have had to undo it in after years. That influence came from Oswald
+Banks, a base monster to whom my mother was married when I was a year
+old. My mother was the daughter of Lord Abbott Brace, but married my own
+father, George Stuart, who was a brilliant but radical newspaper writer
+in London, against her father's wish. For this he cast her off and
+disinherited her. Grandfather hated him and his views, and he could not
+forgive my mother even after my father died, which was two years after
+their marriage.
+
+"Lord Richard Brace, my mother's only brother, married the daughter of
+the Duchess of B----. You, Rosalie, are Lady Rosalie Brace of Brace
+Hall, W--shire, England, the true granddaughter of General Lord Abbott
+Brace, one of the noblest and richest men of his day. Please let me go
+on; I cannot endure the interruptions. The absolute, unalterable proof
+of what I say shall be established through the confession of my own
+mother, in whose possession lies every document necessary to give back
+to you that which she would have given to me.
+
+"Your mother died a few weeks after you were born, and Sir Richard, who
+loved my mother in the face of his father's displeasure, placed you in
+her care, while he rushed off, heart-broken, to find solace in Egypt. It
+is said that he hated you because you were the cause of her death. On
+the day after your birth, old Lord Brace changed his will and bequeathed
+a vast amount of unentailed property to you, to be held in trust by your
+father until you were twenty-one years of age. I was almost two years
+old at the time, and the old man, unexpectedly compassionate, inserted a
+provision which, in the event that you were to die before that time,
+gave all this money to me on my twenty-first birthday. The interest on
+this money, amounting to five thousand pounds annually, was to go to
+you regularly, in one case, or to me, in the other. Oswald Banks was an
+American, whom my mother had met in London several years prior to her
+first marriage. He was the London representative of a big Pennsylvania
+manufacturing concern. He was ambitious, unscrupulous and clever beyond
+conception. He still is all of these and more, for he is now a coward.
+
+"Well, it was he who concocted the diabolical scheme to one day get
+possession of your inheritance. He coerced my poor mother into
+acquiescense, and she became his wretched tool instead of an honoured
+wife and helpmate. One night, when you were three weeks old, the house
+in which we lived was burned to the ground, the inmates narrowly
+escaping. So narrow was the escape, in fact, that you were said to have
+been left behind in the confusion, and the world was told, the next day,
+that the granddaughter of Lord Brace had been destroyed by the flames.
+
+"The truth, however, was not told. My stepfather did not dare to go so
+far as to kill you. It was he who caused the fire, but he had you
+removed to a small hotel in another part of the city some hours earlier,
+secretly, of course, but in charge of a trusted maid. My mother was
+responsible for this. She would not listen to his awful plan to leave
+you in the house. But you might just as well have died. No one was the
+wiser and you were given up as lost. A week later, my mother and Mr.
+Banks started for America. You and I were with them, but you went as the
+daughter of a maid-servant--Ellen Hayes.
+
+"This is the story as my mother has told it to me after all these years.
+My stepfather's plan, of course, was to place you where you could never
+be found, and then to see to it that our grandfather did not succeed in
+changing his will. Moreover, he was bound and determined that he himself
+should be named as trustee--when the fortune came over at Lord Brace's
+death. That part of it turned out precisely as he had calculated. Let me
+go on a few months in advance of my story. Lord Brace died, and the will
+was properly probated and the provisions carried out. Brace Hall and the
+estates went to your father and the bequest came to me, for you were
+considered dead. My stepfather was made trustee. He gave bond in England
+and America, I believe. In any event, the fortune was to be mine when I
+reached the age of twenty-one, but each year the income, nearly
+twenty-five thousand dollars, was to be paid to my stepfather as
+trustee, to be safely invested by him. My mother's name was not
+mentioned in the document, except once, to identify me as the
+beneficiary. I can only add to this phase of the hateful conspiracy,
+that for nineteen years my stepfather received this income, and that he
+used it to establish his own fortune. By investing what was supposed to
+be my money, he has won his own way to wealth.
+
+"Mr. Banks decided that the operations were safest from this side of the
+Atlantic. He and my mother took up their residence in New York, and it
+has been their home ever since. He spent the first half year after your
+suspected death in London, solely for the purpose of establishing
+himself in Lord Brace's favour. Within a year after the death of Lord
+Brace your father was killed by a poacher on the estate. He had but
+lately returned from Egypt, and was in full control of the lands and
+property attached to Brace Hall. If my stepfather had designs upon Brace
+Hall, they failed, for the lands and the title went at once to your
+father's cousin, Sir Harry Brace, the present lord.
+
+"So much for the conditions in England then and now. I now return to
+that part of the story which most interests and concerns you. My poor
+mother was compelled, within a fortnight after we landed in New York, to
+give up the dangerous infant who was always to hang like a cloud between
+fortune and honour. The maid-servant was paid well for her silence. By
+the way, she died mysteriously soon after coming to America, but not
+before giving to my mother a signed paper setting forth clearly every
+detail in so far as it bore upon her connection with the hateful
+transaction. Conscience was forever at work in my mother's heart; honour
+was constantly struggling to the surface, only to be held back by fear
+of and loyalty to the man she loved.
+
+"It was decided that the most humane way to put you out of existence was
+to leave you on the doorstep of some kindly disposed person, far from
+New York. My stepfather and my mother deliberately set forth on this
+so-called mission of mercy. They came north, and by chance, fell in with
+a resident of Boggs City while in the station at Albany. They were
+debating which way to turn for the next step. My mother was firm in the
+resolve that you should be left in the care of honest, reliable,
+tender-hearted people, who would not abuse the trust she was to impose.
+The Boggs City man said he had been in Albany to see about a bill in the
+legislature, which was to provide for the erection of a monument in
+Tinkletown--where a Revolutionary battle had been fought. It was he who
+spoke of Anderson Crow, and it was his stories of your goodness and
+generosity, Mr. Crow, that caused them to select you as the man who was
+to have Rosalie, and, with her, the sum of one thousand dollars a year
+for your trouble and her needs.
+
+"My mother's description of that stormy night in February, more than
+twenty-one years ago, is the most pitiful thing I have ever listened to.
+Together they made their way to Tinkletown, hiring a vehicle in Boggs
+City for the purpose. Mr. Banks left the basket on your porch while
+mother stood far down the street and waited for him, half frozen and
+heartsick. Then they hurried out of town and were soon safely on their
+way to New York. It was while my stepfather was in London, later on,
+that mother came up to see Rosalie and make that memorable first payment
+to Mr. Crow. How it went on for years, you all know. It was my
+stepfather's cleverness that made it so impossible to learn the source
+from which the mysterious money came.
+
+"We travelled constantly, always finding new places of interest in which
+my mother's conscience could be eased by contact with beauty and
+excitement. Gradually she became hardened to the conditions, for, after
+all, was it not her own child who was to be enriched by the theft and
+the deception? Mr. Banks constantly forced that fact in upon her
+mother-love and her vanity. Through it all, however, you were never
+neglected nor forgotten. My mother had your welfare always in mind. It
+was she who saw that you and I were placed at the same school in New
+York, and it was she who saw that your training in a way was as good as
+it could possibly be without exciting risk.
+
+"Of course, I knew nothing of all this. I was rolling in wealth and
+luxury, but not in happiness. Instinctively I loathed my stepfather. He
+was hard, cruel, unreasonable. It was because of him that I left school
+and afterward sought to earn my own living. You know, Rosalie, how Tom
+Reddon came into my life. He was the son of William Reddon, my
+stepfather's business partner, who had charge of the Western branch of
+the concern in Chicago. We lived in Chicago for several years,
+establishing the business. Mr. Banks was until recently president of the
+Banks & Reddon Iron Works. Last year, you doubtless know, the plant was
+sold to the great combine and the old company passed out of existence.
+This act was the result of a demand from England that the trust under
+which he served be closed and struck from the records. It was his plan
+to settle the matter, turn the inheritance over to me according to law,
+and then impose upon my inexperience for all time to come. The money,
+while mine literally, was to be his in point of possession.
+
+"But he had reckoned without the son of his partner. Tom Reddon in some
+way learned the secret, and he was compelled to admit the young man into
+all of his plans. This came about some three years ago, while I was in
+school. I had known Tom Reddon in Chicago. He won my love. I cannot deny
+it, although I despise him to-day more deeply than I ever expect to hate
+again. He was even more despicable than my stepfather. Without the
+faintest touch of pity, he set about to obliterate every chance Rosalie
+could have had for restitution. Time began to prove to me that he was
+not the man I thought him to be. His nature revealed itself; and I found
+I could not marry him. Besides, my mother was beginning to repent. She
+awoke from her stupor of indifference and strove in every way to
+circumvent the plot of the two conspirators, so far as I was concerned.
+The strain told on her at last, and we went to California soon after my
+ridiculous flight from Tinkletown last winter. It was not until after
+that adventure that I began to see deep into the wretched soul of Tom
+Reddon.
+
+"Then came the most villainous part of the whole conspiracy. Reddon,
+knowing full well that exposure was possible at any time, urged my
+stepfather to have you kidnaped and hurried off to some part of the
+world where you could never be found. Even Reddon did not have the
+courage to kill you. Neither had the heart to commit actual murder. It
+was while we were at Colonel Randall's place that the abduction took
+place, you remember. Mr. Banks and Tom Reddon had engaged their men in
+New York. These desperadoes came to Boggs City while Tom was here to
+watch their operations. All the time Mr. Crow was chasing us down
+Reddon was laughing in his sleeve, for he knew what was to happen during
+the marshal's absence. You know how successfully he managed the job. It
+was my stepfather's fault that it did not succeed.
+
+"My mother, down in New York, driven to the last extreme, had finally
+turned on him and demanded that he make restitution to Rosalie Gray, as
+we had come to know her. Of course, there was a scene and almost a
+catastrophe. He was so worried over the position she was taking, that he
+failed to carry out his part of the plans, which were to banish Rosalie
+forever from this country. You were to have been taken to Paris, dear,
+and kept forever in one of those awful sanitoriums. They are worse than
+the grave. In the meantime, the delay gave Mr. Bonner a chance to rescue
+you from the kidnapers.
+
+"Shortly after reaching New York I quarrelled with Thomas Reddon, and my
+mother and I fled to California. He followed us and sought a
+reconciliation. I loathed him so much by this time, that I appealed to
+my mother. It was then that she told me this miserable story, and that
+is why we are in Tinkletown to-day. We learned in some way of the plot
+to kidnap you and to place you where you could not be found. The inhuman
+scheme of my stepfather and his adviser was to have my mother declared
+insane and confined in an asylum, where her truthful utterances could
+never be heard by the world, or if they were, as the ravings of a mad
+woman.
+
+"The day that we reached New York my mother _placed_ the documents and
+every particle of proof in her possession in the hands of the British
+Consul. The story was told to him and also to certain attorneys. A
+member of his firm visited my stepfather and confronted him with the
+charges. That very night Mr. Banks disappeared, leaving behind him a
+note, in which he said we should never see his face again. Tom Reddon
+has gone to Europe. My mother and I expect to sail this week for
+England, and I have come to ask Rosalie to accompany us. I want her to
+stand at last on the soil which knows her to be Rosalie Brace. The
+fortune which was mine last week is hers to-day. We are not poor,
+Rosalie dear, but we are not as rich as we were when we had all that
+belonged to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+Anderson Crow's Resignation
+
+
+Some days later Anderson Crow returned to Tinkletown from New York,
+where he had seen Rosalie Bonner and her husband off for England,
+accompanied by Mrs. Banks and Elsie, who had taken passage on the same
+steamer. He was attired in a brand-new suit of blue serge, a panama hat,
+and patent-leather shoes which hurt his feet. Moreover, he carried a new
+walking stick with a great gold head and there was a huge pearl
+scarf-pin in his necktie Besides all this, his hair and beard had been
+trimmed to perfection by a Holland House barber. Every morning his wife
+was obliged to run a flatiron over his trousers to perpetuate the
+crease. Altogether Anderson was a revelation not only to his family and
+to the town at large, but to himself as well. He fairly staggered every
+time he got a glimpse of himself in the shop windows.
+
+All day long he strolled about the street, from store to store, or
+leaned imposingly against every post that presented itself conveniently.
+Naturally he was the talk of the town.
+
+"Gee-mi-nently!" ejaculated Alf Reesling, catching sight of him late in
+the day. "Is that the president?"
+
+"It's Anderson Crow," explained Blootch Peabody.
+
+"Who's dead?" demanded Alf.
+
+"What's that got to do with it?"
+
+"Why, whose clothes is he wearin'?" pursued Alf, utterly overcome by the
+picture.
+
+"You'd better not let him hear you say that," cautioned Isaac Porter.
+"He got 'em in New York. He says young Mr. Bonner give 'em to him fer a
+weddin' present. Rosalie give him a pearl dingus to wear in his cravat,
+an' derned ef he don't have to wear a collar all the time now. That
+lawyer Barnes give him the cane. Gee whiz! he looks like a king, don't
+he?"
+
+At that moment Anderson approached the group in front of Lamson's store.
+He walked with a stateliness that seemed to signify pain in his lower
+extremities more than it did dignity higher up.
+
+"How fer out do you reckon they are by this time, Blootch?" he asked
+earnestly.
+
+"'Bout ten miles further than when you asked while ago," responded
+Blootch, consulting his watch.
+
+"Well, that ought to get 'em to Liverpool sometime soon then. They took
+a powerful fast ship. Makes it in less 'n six days, they say. Let's see.
+They sailed day before yesterday. They must be out sight o' land by this
+time."
+
+"Yes, unless they're passin' some islands," agreed Blootch.
+
+"Thunderation! What air you talkin' about?" said Anderson scornfully.
+"Cuby an' Porty Rico's been passed long ago. Them islands ain't far from
+Boston. Don't you remember how skeered the Boston people were durin' the
+war with Spain? Feared the Spanish shells might go a little high an'
+smash up the town? Islands nothin'! They've got away out into deep
+water by this time, boys. 'y Gosh, I'm anxious about Rosalie. S'posin'
+that derned boat struck a rock er upset er somethin'! They never could
+swim ashore."
+
+"Oh, there's no danger, Anderson," said Mr. Lamson. "Those boats are
+perfectly safe. I suppose they're going to telegraph you when they
+land."
+
+"No, they're goin' to cable, Wick says. Doggone, I'm glad it's all
+settled. You don't know how hard I've worked all these years to find out
+who her parents was. Course I knowed they were foreigners all the time,
+but Rosalie never had no brogue, so you c'n see how I was threw off the
+track. She talked jest as good American as we do. I was mighty glad when
+I finally run Miss Banks to earth." The crowd was in no position to
+argue the point with him. "That Miss Banks is a fine girl, boys. She
+done the right thing. An' so did my Rosalie--I mean Lady Rosalie. She
+made Elsie keep some of the money. Mr. Barnes is goin' to England next
+week to help settle the matter for Lady Rosalie. He says she's got
+nearly a million dollars tied up some'eres. It's easy sailin', though,
+'cause Mrs. Banks says so. Did you hear what Rosalie said when she got
+convinced about bein' an English lady?"
+
+"No; what did she say?"
+
+"She jest stuck up that derned little nose o' hern an' said: 'I am an
+American as long as I live.'"
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Alf Reesling, throwing Isaac Porter's new hat into the
+air. The crowd joined in the cheering.
+
+"Did I ever tell you how I knowed all along that it was a man who left
+Rosalie on the porch?" asked Anderson.
+
+"Why, you allus told me it was a woman," said Alf. "You accused me of
+bein' her."
+
+"Shucks! Woman nothin'! I knowed it was a man. Here's somethin' you
+don't know, Alf. I sized up the foot-prints on my front steps jest after
+she--I mean he--dropped the basket. The toes turned outward, plain as
+day, right there in the snow." He paused to let the statement settle in
+their puzzled brains. "Don't you know that one hunderd percent of the
+women turn their toes in when they go upstairs? To keep from hookin'
+into their skirts? Thunder, you oughter of thought of that, too!"
+
+Some one had posted Anderson on this peculiarly feminine trait, and he
+was making the best of it. Incidentally, it may be said that every man
+in Tinkletown took personal observations in order to satisfy himself.
+
+"Any one seen Pastor MacFarlane?" went on Anderson. "Wick Bonner give me
+a hunderd dollar bill to give him fer performin' the ceremony up to our
+house that night. G'way, Ed Higgins! I'm not goin' 'round showin' that
+bill to people. If robbers got onto the fact I have it, they'd probably
+try to steal it. I don't keer if you ain't seen that much money in one
+piece. That's none of my lookout. Say, are you comin' to the town
+meetin' to-night?"
+
+They were all at the meeting of the town board that night. It was held,
+as usual, in Odd Fellows' Hall, above Peterson's dry-goods store, and
+there was not so much as standing room in the place when the clerk read
+the minutes of the last meeting. Word had gone forth that something
+unusual was to happen. It was not idle rumour, for soon after the
+session began, Anderson Crow arose to address the board.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "I have come
+before you as I notified you I would. I hereby tender my resignation as
+marshal of Tinkletown, street commissioner and chief of the fire
+department--an' any other job I may have that has slipped my mind. I now
+suggest that you app'int Mr. Ed Higgins in my place. He has wanted the
+job fer some time, an' says it won't interfere with his business any
+more than it did with mine. I have worked hard all these years an' I
+feel that I ought to have a rest. Besides, it has got to be so that
+thieves an' other criminals won't visit Tinkletown on account o' me, an'
+I think the town is bein' held back considerable in that way. What's the
+use havin' a marshal an' a jail ef nobody comes here to commit crimes?
+They have to commit 'em in New York City er Chicago nowadays, jest
+because it's safer there than it is here. Look at this last case I had.
+Wasn't that arranged in New York? Well, it shouldn't be that way. Even
+the train robbers put up their job in New York. I feel that the best
+interests of the town would be served ef I resign an' give the criminals
+a chance. You all know Ed Higgins. He will ketch 'em if anybody kin. I
+move that he be app'inted."
+
+The motion prevailed, as did the vote of thanks, which was vociferously
+called for in behalf of Anderson Crow.
+
+"You honour me," said the ex-marshal, when the "ayes" died away. "I
+promise to help Marshal Higgins in ever' way possible. I'll tell him
+jest what to do in everything. I wish to say that I am not goin' out of
+the detective business, however. I'm goin' to open an agency of my own
+here. All sorts of detective business will be done at reasonable prices.
+I had these cards printed at the _Banner_ office to-day, an' Mr. Squires
+is goin' to run an ad. fer me fer a year in the paper."
+
+He proudly handed a card to the president of the board and then told the
+crowd that each person present could have one by applying to his son
+Roscoe, who would be waiting in the hallway after the meeting. The card
+read:
+
+           "Anderson Crow, Detective.
+     All kinds of cases Taken and Satisfaction
+                    Guaranteed.
+           Berth mysteries a Specialty."
+
+Mrs. Bonner, upon hearing of his resignation the next day, just as she
+was leaving for Boston, drily remarked to the Congressman:
+
+"I still maintain that Anderson Crow is utterly impossible."
+
+No doubt the entire world, aside from the village of Tinkletown, agrees
+with her in that opinion.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14818 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14818 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Daughter of Anderson Crow, by George Barr
+McCutcheon, Illustrated by B. Martin Justice</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="Frontispiece" id=
+"Frontispiece"></a> <a href="images/001.jpg"><img src=
+"images/001.jpg" width="45%" alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>Anderson Crow</b>
+<br /></div>
+<h1>THE DAUGHTER</h1>
+<h1>OF ANDERSON CROW</h1>
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<h2>GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON</h2>
+<div class="center">Author of<br />
+<br />
+<i>Beverly of Graustark</i>, <i>Jane Cable</i>, etc.</div>
+<h4>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY</h4>
+<h3>B. MARTIN JUSTICE</h3>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/002.png" width="10%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h6>New York<br />
+Dodd, Mead and Company</h6>
+<h4>1907</h4>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>
+<td align='right'>CHAPTER</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">ANDERSON CROW, DETECTIVE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">THE PURSUIT BEGINS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE CULPRITS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">ANDERSON RECTIFIES AN ERROR</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">THE BABE ON THE DOORSTEP</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">REFLECTION AND DEDUCTION</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">SOME YEARS GO BY</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">THE VILLAGE QUEEN</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">ROSALIE HAS PLANS OF HER OWN</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">ELSIE BANKS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">THE SPELLING-BEE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">A TINKLETOWN SENSATION</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">ROSALIE DISAPPEARS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">THE HAUNTED HOUSE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">WICKER BONNER, HARVARD</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">THE MEN IN THE SLEIGH</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">WITH THE KIDNAPERS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">IN THE CAVE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">THE TRAP-DOOR</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">JACK, THE GIANT KILLER</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">TINKLETOWN'S CONVULSION</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">THE FLIGHT OF THE KIDNAPERS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">AS THE HEART GROWS OLDER</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">XXVI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">THE LEFT VENTRICLE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">XXVII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">THE GRIN DERISIVE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">XXVIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">THE BLIND MAN'S EYES</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">XXIX.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">THE MYSTERIOUS QUESTIONER</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">XXX.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">THE HEMISPHERE TRAIN ROBBERY</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">XXXI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">"AS YOU LIKE IT"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">XXXII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">THE LUCK OF ANDERSON CROW</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">XXXIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">BILL BRIGGS TELLS A TALE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">XXXIV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">ELSIE BANKS RETURNS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">XXXV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">THE STORY IS TOLD</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">XXXVI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">ANDERSON CROW'S RESIGNATION</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#Frontispiece">Anderson Crow (Frontispiece)</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i036.jpg">"'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he
+whispered"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">"A baby, alive and warm, lay packed in the blankets"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i106.jpg">"September brought Elsie Banks"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i122.jpg">"The teacher was amazingly pretty on this
+eventful night"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i140.jpg">"'What is the meaning of all
+this?'"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i162.jpg">The haunted house</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">Wicker Bonner</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i192.jpg">"Rosalie was no match for the huge
+woman"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i204.jpg">"She shrank back from another blow which
+seemed impending"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">"Left the young man to the care of an excellent nurse"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i268.jpg">"'I think I understand, Rosalie'"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i272.jpg">"'I beg your pardon,' he said
+humbly'"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i278.jpg">"It was a wise, discreet old oak"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">"The huge automobile had struck the washout"</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW</h1>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<h3><i>Anderson Crow, Detective</i></h3>
+<p>He was imposing, even in his pensiveness. There was no denying
+the fact that he was an important personage in Tinkletown, and to
+the residents of Tinkletown that meant a great deal, for was not
+their village a perpetual monument to the American Revolution? Even
+the most generalising of historians were compelled to devote at
+least a paragraph to the battle of Tinkletown, while some of the
+more enlightened gave a whole page and a picture of the conflict
+that brought glory to the sleepy inhabitants whose ancestors were
+enterprising enough to annihilate a whole company of British
+redcoats, once on a time.</p>
+<p>Notwithstanding all this, a particularly disagreeable visitor
+from the city once remarked, in the presence of half a dozen
+descendants (after waiting twenty minutes at the post-office for a
+dime's worth of stamps), that Tinkletown was indeed a monument, but
+he could not understand why the dead had been left unburied. There
+was excellent cause for resentment, but the young man and his
+stamps were far away before the full force of the slander
+penetrated the brains of the listeners.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow was as imposing and as rugged as the tallest shaft
+of marble in the little cemetery on the edge of the town. No one
+questioned his power and authority, no one misjudged his altitude,
+and no one overlooked his dignity. For twenty-eight years he had
+served Tinkletown and himself in the triple capacity of town
+marshal, fire chief and street commissioner. He had a system of
+government peculiarly his own; and no one possessed the heart or
+temerity to upset it, no matter what may have been the political
+inducements. It would have been like trying to improve the laws of
+nature to put a new man in his place. He had become a fixture that
+only dissolution could remove. Be it said, however, that
+dissolution did not have its common and accepted meaning when
+applied to Anderson Crow. For instance, in discoursing upon the
+obnoxious habits of the town's most dissolute rake&mdash;Alf
+Reesling&mdash;Anderson had more than once ventured the opinion
+that "he was carrying his dissolution entirely too far."</p>
+<p>And had not Anderson Crow risen to more than local distinction?
+Had not his fame gone abroad throughout the land? Not only was he
+the Marshal of Tinkletown at a salary of $200 a year, but he was
+president of the County Horse-thief Detectives' Association and
+also a life-long delegate to the State Convention of the Sons of
+the Revolution. Along that line, let it be added, every parent in
+Tinkletown bemoaned the birth of a daughter, because that simple
+circumstance of origin robbed the society's roster of a new
+name.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/010.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Anderson Crow, at the age of forty-nine, had a proud official
+record behind him and a guaranteed future ahead. Doubtless it was
+of this that he was thinking, as he leaned pensively against the
+town hitching-rack and gingerly chewed the blade of wire-grass
+which dangled even below the chin whiskers that had been with him
+for twenty years. The faraway expression in his watery-blue eyes
+gave evidence that he was as great reminiscently as he was
+personally. So successful had been his career as a law preserver,
+that of late years no evil-doer had had the courage to ply his
+nefarious games in the community. The town drunkard, Alf Reesling,
+seldom appeared on the streets in his habitual condition, because,
+as he dolefully remarked, he would deserve arrest and confinement
+for "criminal negligence," if for nothing else. The marshal's fame
+as a detective had long since escaped from the narrow confines of
+Tinkletown. He was well known at the county seat, and on no less
+than three occasions had his name mentioned in the "big city"
+papers in connection with the arrest of notorious
+horse-thieves.</p>
+<p>And now the whole town was trembling with a new excitement, due
+to the recognition accorded her triple official. On Monday morning
+he had ventured forth from his office in the long-deserted
+"calaboose," resplendent in a brand-new nickel-plated star. By noon
+everybody in town knew that he was a genuine "detective," a member
+of the great organisation known as the New York Imperial Detective
+Association; and that fresh honour had come to Tinkletown through
+the agency of a post-revolution generation. The beauty of it all
+was that Anderson never lost a shred of his serenity in explaining
+how the association had implored him to join its forces, even going
+so far as to urge him to come to New York City, where he could
+assist and advise in all of its large operations. And, moreover, he
+had been obliged to pay but ten dollars membership fee, besides
+buying the blazing star for the paltry sum of three dollars and a
+quarter.</p>
+<p>Every passer-by on this bright spring morning offered a
+respectful "Howdy" to Anderson Crow, whose only recognition was a
+slow and imposing nod of the head. Once only was he driven to
+relinquish his pensive attitude, and that was when an impertinent
+blue-bottle fly undertook to rest for a brief spell upon the
+nickel-plated star. Never was blue-bottle more energetically put to
+flight.</p>
+<p>But even as the Tinkletown Pooh-Bah posed in restful supremacy
+there were rushing down upon him affairs of the epoch-making kind.
+Up in the clear, lazy sky a thunderbolt was preparing to hurl
+itself into the very heart of Tinkletown, and at the very head of
+Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>Afterward it was recalled by observing citizens that just before
+noon&mdash;seven minutes to twelve, in fact&mdash;a small cloud no
+bigger than the proverbial hand crossed the sun hurriedly as if
+afraid to tarry. At that very instant a stranger drove up to the
+hitching-rack, bringing his sweat-covered horse to a standstill so
+abruptly in front of the marshal's nose that that dignitary's hat
+fell off backward.</p>
+<p>"Whoa!" came clearly and unmistakably from the lips of the
+stranger who held the reins. Half a dozen loafers on the
+post-office steps were positive that he said nothing more, a fact
+that was afterward worth remembering.</p>
+<p>"Here!" exclaimed Anderson Crow wrathfully. "Do you know what
+you're doin', consarn you?"</p>
+<p>"I beg pardon," everybody within hearing heard the young man
+say. "Is this the city of Tinkletown?" He said "city," they could
+swear, every man's son of them.</p>
+<p>"Yes, it is," answered the marshal severely. "What of it?"</p>
+<p>"That's all. I just wanted to know. Where's the store?"</p>
+<p>"Which store?" quite crossly. The stranger seemed nonplussed at
+this.</p>
+<p>"Have you more than&mdash;oh, to be sure. I should say, where is
+the <i>nearest</i> store?" apologised the stranger.</p>
+<p>"Well, this is a good one, I reckon," said Mr. Crow laconically,
+indicating the post-office and general store.</p>
+<p>"Will you be good enough to hold my horse while I run in there
+for a minute?" calmly asked the new arrival in town, springing
+lightly from the mud-spattered buggy. Anderson Crow almost
+staggered beneath this indignity. The crowd gasped, and then waited
+breathlessly for the withering process.</p>
+<p>"Why&mdash;why, dod-gast you, sir, what do you think I
+am&mdash;a hitchin'-post?" exploded on the lips of the new
+detective. His face was flaming red.</p>
+<p>"You'll have to excuse me, my good man, but I thought I saw a
+hitching-rack as I drove up. Ah, here it is. How careless of me.
+But say, I won't be in the store more than a second, and it doesn't
+seem worth while to tie the old crow-bait. If you'll just watch
+him&mdash;or her&mdash;for a minute I'll be greatly obliged,
+and&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Watch your own horse," roared the marshal thunderously.</p>
+<p>"Don't get huffy," cried the young man cheerily. "It will be
+worth a quarter to you."</p>
+<p>"Do you know who I am?" demanded Anderson Crow, purple to the
+roots of his goatee.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/014.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Yes, sir; I know perfectly well, but I refuse to give it away.
+Here, take the bit, old chap, and hold Dobbin for about a minute
+and half," went on the stranger ruthlessly; and before Anderson
+Crow knew what had happened he was actually holding the panting nag
+by the bit. The young man went up the steps three at a time, almost
+upsetting Uncle Gideon Luce, who had not been so spry as the others
+in clearing the way for him. The crowd had ample time in which to
+study the face, apparel and manner of this energetic young man.</p>
+<p>That he was from the city, good-looking and well dressed, there
+was no doubt. He was tall and his face was beardless; that much
+could be seen at a glance. Somehow, he seemed to be laughing all
+the time&mdash;a fact that was afterward recalled with some
+surprise and no little horror. At the time, the loungers thought
+his smile was a merry one, but afterward they stoutly maintained
+there was downright villainy in the leer. His coat was very dusty,
+proving that he had driven far and swiftly. Three or four of the
+loungers followed him into the store. He was standing before the
+counter over which Mr. Lamson served his soda-water. In one hand he
+held an envelope and in the other his straw hat. George Ray, more
+observant than the rest, took note of the fact that it was with the
+hat that he was fanning himself vigorously.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/015.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"A plain vanilla&mdash;please rush it along," commanded the
+stranger. Mr. Lamson, if possible slower than the town itself,
+actually showed unmistakable signs of acceleration. Tossing off the
+soda, the stranger dried his lips with a blue-hemmed white
+handkerchief. "Is this the post-office?" he asked.</p>
+<p>"Yep," said Mr. Lamson, who was too penurious to waste
+words.</p>
+<p>"Anything here for me?" demanded the newcomer.</p>
+<p>"I'll see," said the postmaster, and from force of habit began
+looking through the pile of letters without asking the man's name.
+Mr. Lamson knew everybody in the county.</p>
+<p>"Nothing here," taking off his spectacles conclusively.</p>
+<p>"I didn't think there was," said the other complacently. "Give
+me a bottle of witch hazel, a package of invisible hair-pins and a
+box of parlor matches. Quick; I'm in a hurry!"</p>
+<p>"Did you say hat-pins?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir; I said hair-pins."</p>
+<p>"We haven't any that ain't visible. How would safety-pins
+do?"</p>
+<p>"Never mind; give me the bottle and the matches," said the
+other, glancing at a very handsome gold watch. "Is the old man
+still holding my horse?" he called to a citizen near the door.
+Seven necks stretched simultaneously to accommodate him, and seven
+voices answered in the affirmative. The stranger calmly opened the
+box of matches, filled his silver match-safe, and then threw the
+box back on the counter, an unheard-of piece of profligacy in those
+parts. "Needn't mind wrapping up the bottle," he said.</p>
+<p>"Don't you care for these matches?" asked Mr. Lamson in mild
+surprise.</p>
+<p>"I'll donate them to the church," said the other, tossing a coin
+upon the counter and dashing from the store. The crowd ebbed along
+behind him. "Gentle as a lamb, isn't he?" he called to Anderson
+Crow, who still clutched the bit. "Much obliged, sir; I'll do as
+much for you some day. If you're ever in New York, hunt me up and
+I'll see that you have a good time. What road do I take to Crow's
+Cliff?"</p>
+<p>"Turn to your left here," said Anderson Crow before he thought.
+Then he called himself a fool for being so obliging to the
+fellow.</p>
+<p>"How far is it from here?"</p>
+<p>"Mile and a half," again answered Mr. Crow helplessly. This time
+he almost swore under his breath.</p>
+<p>"But he can't get there," volunteered one of the bystanders.</p>
+<p>"Why can't he?" demanded the marshal.</p>
+<p>"Bridge over Turnip Creek is washed out. Did you forget
+that?"</p>
+<p>"Of course not," promptly replied Mr. Crow, who <i>had</i>
+forgotten it; "But, dang it, he c'n swim, can't he?"</p>
+<p>"You say the bridge is gone?" asked the stranger, visibly
+excited.</p>
+<p>"Yes, and the crick's too high to ford, too."</p>
+<p>"Well, how in thunder am I to get to Crow's Cliff?"</p>
+<p>"There's another bridge four miles upstream. It's still there,"
+said George Ray. Anderson Crow had scornfully washed his hands of
+the affair.</p>
+<p>"Confound the luck! I haven't time to drive that far. I have to
+be there at half-past twelve. I'm late now! Is there no way to get
+across this miserable creek?" He was in the buggy now, whip in
+hand, and his eyes wore an anxious expression. Some of the men
+vowed later that he positively looked frightened.</p>
+<p>"There's a foot-log high and dry, and you can walk across, but
+you can't get the horse and buggy over," said one of the men.</p>
+<p>"Well, that's just what I'll have to do. Say, Mr. Officer,
+suppose you drive me down to the creek and then bring the horse
+back here to a livery stable. I'll pay you well for it. I must get
+to Crow's Cliff in fifteen minutes."</p>
+<p>"I'm no errant-boy!" cried Anderson Crow so wrathfully that two
+or three boys snickered.</p>
+<p>"You're a darned old crank, that's what you are!" exclaimed the
+stranger angrily. Everybody gasped, and Mr. Crow staggered back
+against the hitching-rail.</p>
+<p>"See here, young man, none o' that!" he sputtered. "You can't
+talk that way to an officer of the law. I'll&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"You won't do anything, do you hear that? But if you knew who I
+am you'd be doing something blamed quick." A dozen men heard him
+say it, and they remembered it word for word.</p>
+<p>"You go scratch yourself!" retorted Anderson Crow scornfully.
+That was supposed to be a terrible challenge, but the stranger took
+no notice of it.</p>
+<p>"What am I to do with this horse and buggy?" he growled, half to
+himself. "I bought the darned thing outright up in Boggs City, just
+because the liveryman didn't know me and wouldn't let me a rig. Now
+I suppose I'll have to take the old plug down to the creek and
+drown him in order to get rid of him."</p>
+<p>Nobody remonstrated. He looked a bit dangerous with his broad
+shoulders and square jaw.</p>
+<p>"What will you give me for the outfit, horse, buggy, harness and
+all? I'll sell cheap if some one makes a quick offer." The
+bystanders looked at one another blankly, and at last the
+concentrated gaze fell upon the Pooh-Bah of the town. The case
+seemed to be one that called for his attention; truly, it did not
+look like public property, this astounding proposition.</p>
+<p>"What you so derned anxious to sell for?" demanded Anderson
+Crow, listening from a distance to see if he could detect a blemish
+in the horse's breathing gear. At a glance, the buggy looked safe
+enough.</p>
+<p>"I'm anxious to sell for cash," replied the stranger; and
+Anderson was floored. The boy who snickered this time had cause to
+regret it, for Mr. Crow arrested him half an hour later for
+carrying a bean-shooter. "I paid a hundred dollars for the outfit
+in Boggs City," went on the stranger nervously. "Some one make an
+offer&mdash;and quick! I'm in a rush!"</p>
+<p>"I'll give five dollars!" said one of the onlookers with an
+apologetic laugh. This was the match that started fire in the
+thrifty noddles of Tinkletown's best citizens. Before they knew it
+they were bidding against each other with the true "horse-swapping"
+instinct, and the offers had reached $21.25 when the stranger
+unceremoniously closed the sale by crying out, "Sold!" There is no
+telling how high the bids might have gone if he could have waited
+half an hour or so. Uncle Gideon Luce afterward said that he could
+have had twenty-four dollars "just as well as not." They were
+bidding up a quarter at a time, and no one seemed willing to drop
+out. The successful bidder was Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"You can pay me as we drive along. Jump in!" cried the stranger,
+looking at his watch with considerable agitation. "All I ask is
+that you drive me to the foot-log that crosses the creek."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<h3><i>The Pursuit Begins</i></h3>
+<p>Fifteen minutes later Anderson Crow was parading proudly about
+the town. He had taken the stranger to the creek and had seen him
+scurry across the log to the opposite side, supplied with
+directions that would lead him to the nearest route through the
+swamps and timberland to Crow's Cliff. The stranger had Anderson's
+money in his pocket; but Anderson had a very respectable sort of
+driving outfit to show for it. His wife kept dinner for him until
+two o'clock, and then sent the youngest Crow out to tell her father
+that he'd have to go hungry until supper-time.</p>
+<p>It is no wonder that Anderson failed to reach home in time for
+the midday meal. He started home properly enough, but what progress
+could he make when everybody in town stopped him to inquire about
+the remarkable deal and to have a look at the purchase. Without a
+single dissenting voice, Tinkletown said Anderson had very much the
+"best of the bargain." George Ray meant all right when he said, "A
+fool for luck," but he was obliged to explain thoroughly the
+witticism before the proud Mr. Crow could consider himself
+appeased.</p>
+<p>It was not until he pulled up in front of the <i>Weekly
+Banner</i> establishment to tell the reporter "the news" that his
+equanimity received its first jar. He was quite proud of the deal,
+and, moreover, he enjoyed seeing his name in the paper. In the
+meantime almost everybody in Tinkletown was discussing the awful
+profligacy of the stranger. It had not occurred to anybody to
+wonder why he had been in such a hurry to reach Crow's Cliff, a
+wild, desolate spot down the river.</p>
+<p>"The hoss alone is worth fifty dollars easy," volunteered Mr.
+Crow triumphantly. The detective's badge on his inflated chest
+seemed to sparkle with glee.</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson, isn't it a little queer that he should sell out
+so cheap?" asked Harry Squires, the local reporter and
+pressfeeder.</p>
+<p>"What's that?" demanded Anderson Crow sharply.</p>
+<p>"Do you think it's really true that he bought the nag up at
+Boggs City?" asked the sceptic. Mr. Crow wallowed his quid of
+tobacco helplessly for a minute or two. He could feel himself
+turning pale.</p>
+<p>"He said so; ain't that enough?" he managed to bluster.</p>
+<p>"It seems to have been," replied Harry, who had gone to night
+school in Albany for two years.</p>
+<p>"Well, what in thunder are you talking about then?" exclaimed
+Anderson Crow, whipping up.</p>
+<p>"I'll bet three dollars it's a stolen outfit!"</p>
+<p>"You go to Halifax!" shouted Anderson, but his heart was cold.
+Something told him that Harry Squires was right. He drove home in a
+state of dire uncertainty and distress. Somehow, his enthusiasm was
+gone.</p>
+<p>"Dang it!" he said, without reason, as he was unhitching the
+horse in the barn lot.</p>
+<p>"Hey, Mr. Crow!" cried a shrill voice from the street. He looked
+up and saw a small boy coming on the run.</p>
+<p>"What's up, Toby?" asked Mr. Crow, all a-tremble. He knew!</p>
+<p>"They just got a telephone from Boggs City," panted the boy,
+"down to the <i>Banner</i> office. Harry Squires says for you to
+hurry down&mdash;buggy and all. It's been stole."</p>
+<p>"Good Lord!" gasped Anderson. His badge danced before his eyes
+and then seemed to shrivel.</p>
+<p>Quite a crowd had collected at the <i>Banner</i> office. There
+was a sudden hush when the marshal drove up. Even the horse felt
+the intensity of the moment. He shied at a dog and then kicked over
+the dashboard, upsetting Anderson Crow's meagre dignity and almost
+doing the same to the vehicle.</p>
+<p>"You're a fine detective!" jeered Harry Squires; and poor old
+Anderson hated him ever afterward.</p>
+<p>"What have you heerd?" demanded the marshal.</p>
+<p>"There's been a terrible murder at Boggs City, that's all. The
+chief of police just telephoned to us that a farmer named Grover
+was found dead in a ditch just outside of town&mdash;shot through
+the head, his pockets rifled. It is known that he started to town
+to deposit four hundred dollars hog-money in the bank. The money is
+missing, and so are his horse and buggy. A young fellow was seen in
+the neighbourhood early this morning&mdash;a stranger. The chief's
+description corresponds with the man who sold that rig to you. The
+murderer is known to have driven in this direction. People saw him
+going almost at a gallop."</p>
+<p>It is not necessary to say that Tinkletown thoroughly turned
+inside out with excitement. The whole population was soon at the
+post-office, and everybody was trying to supply Anderson Crow with
+wits. He had lost his own.</p>
+<p>"We've got to catch that fellow," finally resolved the marshal.
+There was a dead silence.</p>
+<p>"He's got a pistol," ventured some one.</p>
+<p>"How do you know?" demanded Mr. Crow keenly. "Did y' see
+it?"</p>
+<p>"He couldn't ha' killed that feller 'thout a gun."</p>
+<p>"That's a fact," agreed Anderson Crow. "Well, we've got to get
+him, anyhow. I call for volunteers! Who will join me in the
+search?" cried the marshal bravely.</p>
+<p>"I hate to go to Crow's Cliff after him," said George Ray. "It's
+a lonesome place, and as dark as night 'mong them trees and
+rocks."</p>
+<p>"It's our duty to catch him. He's a criminal, and besides, he's
+killed a man," said Crow severely.</p>
+<p>"And he has twenty-one dollars of your money," added Harry
+Squires. "I'll go with you, Anderson. I've got a revolver."</p>
+<p>"Look out there!" roared Anderson Crow. "The blamed thing might
+go off!" he added as the reporter drew a shiny six-shooter from his
+pocket.</p>
+<p>The example set by one brave man had its influence on the crowd.
+A score or more volunteered, despite the objections of their wives,
+and it was not long before Anderson Crow was leading his motley
+band of sleuths down the lane to the foot-log over which the
+desperado had gone an hour before.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/025.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>It was at the beginning of the man-hunt that various citizens
+recalled certain actions and certain characteristics of the
+stranger which had made them suspicious from the start. His
+prodigal disposition of the box of matches impressed most of them
+as reckless dare-devilism; his haste, anxiety, and a single
+instance of mild profanity told others of his viciousness. One man
+was sure he had seen the stranger's watch chain in farmer Grover's
+possession; and another saw something black on his thumb, which he
+now remembered was a powder stain.</p>
+<p>"I noticed all them things," averred Anderson Crow, supreme once
+more.</p>
+<p>"But what in thunder did he want with those hair-pins?" inquired
+George Ray.</p>
+<p>"Never mind," said Anderson mysteriously. "You'll find out soon
+enough."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/026.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Do you know Anderson?" some one asked.</p>
+<p>"Of course I do," responded the marshal loftily.</p>
+<p>"Well, what were they for, then?"</p>
+<p>"I'm not givin' any clews away. You just wait a while and see if
+I'm not right."</p>
+<p>And they were satisfied that the detective knew all about it.
+After crossing the foot-log the party was divided as to which
+direction it should take. The marshal said the man had run to the
+southeast, but for some inexplicable reason quite a number of the
+pursuers wanted to hunt for him in the northwest. Finally it was
+decided to separate into posses of ten, all to converge at Crow's
+Cliff as soon as possible. There were enough double-barrelled
+shotguns in the party to have conquered a pirate crew.</p>
+<p>At the end of an hour Anderson Crow and his delegation came to
+the narrow path which led to the summit of Crow's Cliff. They were
+very brave by this time. A small boy was telling them he had seen
+the fugitive about dinner-time "right where you fellers are
+standin' now."</p>
+<p>"Did he have any blood on him?" demanded Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"No, sir; not 'less it was under his clothes."</p>
+<p>"Did he say anythin' to you?"</p>
+<p>"He ast me where this path went to."</p>
+<p>"See that, gentlemen!" cried Anderson. "I knew I was right. He
+wanted&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Well, where did he go?" demanded Harry Squires.</p>
+<p>"I said it went to the top of the clift. An' then he said, 'How
+do you git to the river?' I tole him to go down this side path here
+an' 'round the bottom of the hill."</p>
+<p>"Didn't he go up the cliff?" demanded the marshal.</p>
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+<p>"Well, what in thunder did he ask me where the cliff was if
+he&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"So he went to the river, eh?" interrupted Squires. "Come on,
+men; he went down through this brush and bottomland."</p>
+<p>"He got lost, I guess," volunteered the boy.</p>
+<p>"What!"</p>
+<p>"'Cause he yelled at me after he'd gone in a-ways an'
+ast&mdash;an' ast&mdash;" The boy paused irresolutely.</p>
+<p>"Asked what?"</p>
+<p>"He ast me where in h&mdash;&mdash; the path was."</p>
+<p>"By ginger, that's him, right out an' out!" exclaimed Mr. Crow
+excitedly.</p>
+<p>"'Nen he said he'd give me a quarter if I'd show him the way; so
+I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Did he give you the quarter?" questioned one of the men.</p>
+<p>"Yep. He'd a roll of bills as big as my leg." Everybody gasped
+and thought of Grover's hog-money.</p>
+<p>"You went to the river with him?" interrogated the reporter.</p>
+<p>"I went as fur as the clearin', an' then he tole me to stop. He
+said he could find the way from there. After that he run up the
+bank as if some one was after him. There was a boat waitin' fer him
+under the clift."</p>
+<p>"Did he get into it?" cried Squires.</p>
+<p>"He tole me not to look or he'd break my neck," said the boy.
+The posse nervously fingered its arsenal.</p>
+<p>"But you <i>did</i> look?"</p>
+<p>"Yep. I seen 'em plain."</p>
+<p>"Them? Was there more than one?"</p>
+<p>"There was a woman in the skift."</p>
+<p>"You don't say so!" gasped Squires.</p>
+<p>"Dang it, ain't he tellin' you!" Anderson ejaculated
+scornfully.</p>
+<p>The boy was hurried off at the head of the posse, which by this
+time had been reinforced. He led the way through the dismal
+thickets, telling his story as he went.</p>
+<p>"She was mighty purty, too," he said. "The feller waved his hat
+when he seen her, an' she waved back. He run down an' jumped in the
+boat, an' 'nen&mdash;'nen&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Then what?" exploded Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"He kissed her!"</p>
+<p>"The d&mdash;&mdash; murderer!" roared Crow.</p>
+<p>"He grabbed up the oars and rowed 'cross an' downstream. An' he
+shuck his fist at me when he see I'd been watchin'," said the
+youngster, ready to whimper now that he realised what a desperate
+character he had been dealing with.</p>
+<p>"Where did he land on the other side?" pursued the eager
+reporter.</p>
+<p>"Down by them willer trees, 'bout half a mile down. There's the
+skift tied to a saplin'. Cain't you see it?"</p>
+<p>Sure enough, the stern of a small boat stuck out into the deep,
+broad river, the bow being hidden by the bushes.</p>
+<p>"Both of 'em hurried up the hill over yender, an' that's the
+last I seen of 'em," concluded the lad.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow and his man-hunters stared helplessly at the
+broad, swift river, and then looked at each other in despair. There
+was no boat in sight except the murderer's, and there was no bridge
+within ten miles.</p>
+<p>While they were growling a belated detachment of hunters came up
+to the river bank greatly agitated.</p>
+<p>"A telephone message has just come to town sayin' there would be
+a thousand dollars reward," announced one of the late arrivals; and
+instantly there was an imperative demand for boats.</p>
+<p>"There's an old raft upstream a-ways," said the boy, "but I
+don't know how many it will kerry. They use it to pole corn over
+from Mr. Knoblock's farm to them big summer places in the hills up
+yender."</p>
+<p>"Is it sound?" demanded Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"Must be or they wouldn't use it," said Squires sarcastically.
+"Where is it, kid?"</p>
+<p>The boy led the way up the river bank, the whole company
+trailing behind.</p>
+<p>"Sh! Not too loud," cautioned Anderson Crow. Fifteen minutes
+later a wobbly craft put out to sea, manned by a picked crew of
+determined citizens of Tinkletown. When they were in midstream a
+loud cry came from the bank they had left behind. Looking back,
+Anderson Crow saw excited men dashing about, most of them pointing
+excitedly up into the hills across the river. After a diligent
+search the eyes of the men on the raft saw what it was that had
+created such a stir at the base of Crow's Cliff.</p>
+<p>"There he is!" cried Anderson Crow in awed tones. There was no
+mistaking the identity of the coatless man on the hillside. A dozen
+men recognised him as the man they were after. Putting his hands to
+his mouth, Anderson Crow bellowed in tones that savoured more of
+fright than command:</p>
+<p>"Say!"</p>
+<p>There was no response.</p>
+<p>"Will you surrender peaceably?" called the captain of the
+craft.</p>
+<p>There was a moment of indecision on the part of the fugitive. He
+looked at his companion, and she shook her head&mdash;they all saw
+her do it.</p>
+<p>Then he shouted back his reply.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/031.jpg" width="30%" alt=""
+title="" /><br />
+<b>Then he shouted back his reply</b></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<h3><i>The Culprits</i></h3>
+<p>"Ship ahoy!" shouted the coatless stranger between his
+palms.</p>
+<p>"Surrender or we'll fill you full of lead!" called Anderson
+Crow.</p>
+<p>"Who are you&mdash;pirates?" responded the fugitive with a laugh
+that chilled the marrow of the men on the raft.</p>
+<p>"I'll show you who we are!" bellowed Anderson Crow. "Send her
+ashore, boys, fast. The derned scamp sha'n't escape us. Dead er
+alive, we must have him."</p>
+<p>As they poled toward the bank the woman grasped the man by the
+arm, dragging him back among the trees. It was observed by all that
+she was greatly terrified. Moreover, she was exceedingly fair to
+look upon&mdash;young, beautiful, and a most incongruous companion
+for the bloody rascal who had her in his power. The raft bumped
+against the reedy bank, and Anderson Crow was the first man
+ashore.</p>
+<p>"Come on, boys; follow me! See that your guns are all right!
+Straight up the hill now, an' spread out a bit so's we can surround
+him!" commanded he in a high treble.</p>
+<p>"'But supposin' he surrounds us," panted a cautious pursuer,
+half way up the hill.</p>
+<p>"That's what we've got to guard against," retorted Anderson
+Crow. The posse bravely swept up to and across the greensward; but
+the fox was gone: There was no sight or sound of him to be had. It
+is but just to say that fatigue was responsible for the deep breath
+that came from each member of the pursuing party.</p>
+<p>"Into the woods after him!" shouted Anderson Crow. "Hunt him
+down like a rat!"</p>
+<p>In the meantime a coatless young man and a most enticing young
+woman were scampering off among the oaks and underbrush, consumed
+by excitement and no small degree of apprehension.</p>
+<p>"They really seem to be in earnest about it, Jack," urged the
+young woman insistently, to offset his somewhat sarcastic
+comments.</p>
+<p>"How the dickens do you suppose they got onto me?" he groaned.
+"I thought the tracks were beautifully covered. No one suspected,
+I'm sure."</p>
+<p>"I told you, dear, how it would turn out," she cried in a
+panic-stricken voice.</p>
+<p>"Good heavens, Marjory, don't turn against me! It all seemed so
+easy and so sure, dear. There wasn't a breath of suspicion. What
+are we to do? I'll stop and fight the whole bunch if you'll just
+let go my arm."</p>
+<p>"No, you won't, Jack Barnes!" she exclaimed resolutely, her
+pretty blue eyes wide with alarm. "Didn't you hear them say they'd
+fill you full of lead? They had guns and everything. Oh, dear! oh,
+dear! isn't it horrid?"</p>
+<p>"The worst of it is they've cut us off from the river," he said
+miserably. "If I could have reached the boat ahead of them they
+never could have caught us. I could distance that old raft in a
+mile."</p>
+<p>"I know you could, dear," she cried, looking with frantic
+admiration upon his broad shoulders and brawny bare arms. "But it
+is out of the question now."</p>
+<p>"Never mind, sweetheart; don't let it fuss you so. It will turn
+out all right, I know it will."</p>
+<p>"Oh, I can't run any farther," she gasped despairingly.</p>
+<p>"Poor little chap! Let me carry you?"</p>
+<p>"You big ninny!"</p>
+<p>"We are at least three miles from your house, dear, and
+surrounded by deadly perils. Can you climb a tree?"</p>
+<p>"I can&mdash;but I won't!" she refused flatly, her cheeks very
+red.</p>
+<p>"Then I fancy we'll have to keep on in this manner. It's a
+confounded shame&mdash;the whole business. Just as I thought
+everything was going so smoothly, too. It was all arranged to a
+queen's taste&mdash;nothing was left undone. Bracken was to meet us
+at his uncle's boathouse down there, and&mdash;good heavens, there
+was a shot!"</p>
+<p>The sharp crack of a rifle broke upon the still, balmy air, as
+they say in the "yellow-backs," and the fugitives looked at each
+other with suddenly awakened dread.</p>
+<p>"The fools!" grated the man.</p>
+<p>"What do they mean?" cried the breathless girl, very white in
+the face.</p>
+<p>"They are trying to frighten us, that's all. Hang it! If I only
+knew the lay of the land. I'm completely lost, Marjory. Do you know
+precisely where we are?"</p>
+<p>"Our home is off to the north about three miles. We are almost
+opposite Crow's Cliff&mdash;the wildest part of the country. There
+are no houses along this part of the river. All of the summer
+houses are farther up or on the other side. It is too hilly here.
+There is a railroad off there about six miles. There isn't a
+boathouse or fisherman's hut nearer than two miles. Mr. Bracken
+keeps his boat at the point&mdash;two miles south, at least."</p>
+<p>"Yes; that's where we were to have gone&mdash;by boat. Hang it
+all! Why did we ever leave the boat? You can never scramble through
+all this brush to Bracken's place; it's all I can do. Look at my
+arms! They are scratched to&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Oh, dear! It's dreadful, Jack. You poor fellow, let
+me&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"We haven't time, dearest. By thunder, I wouldn't have those
+Rubes head us off now for the whole county. The jays! How could
+they have found us out?"</p>
+<p>"Some one must have told."</p>
+<p>"But no one knew except the Brackens, you and I."</p><p>"I'll wager my
+head Bracken is saying hard things for fair down the river
+there."</p>
+<p>"He&mdash;he&mdash;doesn't swear, Jack," she panted.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i036.jpg" id="i036.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/036.jpg"><img src="images/036.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he whispered"</b></div>
+<p>"Why, you are ready to drop! Can't you go a step farther? Let's
+stop here and face 'em. I'll bluff 'em out and we'll get to
+Bracken's some way. But I <i>won't</i> give up the game! Not for a
+million!"</p>
+<p>"Then we can't stop. You forget I go in for gymnasium work. I'm
+as strong as anything, only I'm&mdash;I'm a bit nervous. Oh, I knew
+something would go wrong!" she wailed. They were now standing like
+trapped deer in a little thicket, listening for sounds of the
+hounds.</p>
+<p>"Are you sorry, dear?"</p>
+<p>"No, no! I love you, Jack, and I'll go through everything with
+you and for you. Really," she cried with a fine show of enthusiasm,
+"this is jolly good fun, isn't it? Being chased like regular
+bandits&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Sh! Drop down, dear! There's somebody passing above
+us&mdash;hear him?"</p>
+<p>They crawled into a maze of hazel bushes with much less dignity
+than haste. Two men sped by an instant later, panting and
+growling.</p>
+<p>"Safe for a minute or two at least," he whispered as the
+crunching footsteps were lost to the ear. "They won't come back
+this way, dear."</p>
+<p>"They had guns, Jack!" she whispered, terrified.</p>
+<p>"I don't understand it, hanged if I do," he said, pulling his
+brows into a mighty scowl. "They are after us like a pack of
+hounds. It must mean something. Lord, but we seem to have stirred
+up a hornet's nest!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, dear, I wish we were safely at&mdash;" she paused.</p>
+<p>"At home?" he asked quickly.</p>
+<p>"At Bracken's," she finished; and if any of the pursuers had
+been near enough he might have heard the unmistakable suggestion of
+a kiss.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/039.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"I feel better," he said, squaring his shoulders. "Now, let me
+think. We must outwit these fellows, whoever they are. By George, I
+remember one of them! That old fellow who bought the horse is with
+them. That's it! The horse is mixed up in this, I'll bet my head."
+They sat upon the ground for several minutes, he thinking deeply,
+she listening with her pretty ears intent.</p>
+<p>"I wonder if they've left anybody to guard our boat?" he said
+suddenly. "Come on, Marjory; let's investigate! By George, it would
+be just like them to leave it unprotected!"</p>
+<p>Once more they were moving cautiously through the brush, headed
+for the river. Mr. Jack Barnes, whoever he was and whatever his
+crime, was a resourceful, clever young man. He had gauged the
+intelligence of the pursuers correctly. When he peered through the
+brush along the river bank he saw the skiff in the reeds below,
+just as they had left it. There was the lunch basket, the wee bit
+of a steamer trunk with all its labels, a parasol and a small
+handbag.</p>
+<p>"Goody, goody!" Marjory cried like a happy child.</p>
+<p>"Don't show yourself yet, dearie. I'll make sure. They may have
+an ambuscade. Wait here for me."</p>
+<p>He crept down the bank and back again before she could fully
+subdue the tremendous thumping his temerity had started in her left
+side.</p>
+<p>"It's safe and sound," he whispered joyously. "The idiots have
+forgotten the boat. Quick, dear; let's make a dash for it! Their
+raft is upstream a hundred yards, and it is also deserted. If we
+can once get well across the river we can give them the laugh."</p>
+<p>"But they may shoot us from the bank," she protested as they
+plunged through the weeds.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/040.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"They surely wouldn't shoot a woman!" he cried gayly.</p>
+<p>"But you are not a woman!"</p>
+<p>"And I'm not afraid of mice or men. Jump in!"</p>
+<p>Off from the weeds shot the light skiff. The water splashed for
+a moment under the spasmodic strokes of the oarsman, and then the
+little boat streaked out into the river like a thing of life.
+Marjory sat in the stern and kept her eyes upon the bank they were
+leaving. Jack Barnes drove every vestige of his strength into the
+stroke; somehow he pulled like a man who had learned how on a
+college crew. They were half way across the broad river before they
+were seen from the hills. The half dozen men who lingered at the
+base of Crow's Cliff had shouted the alarm to their friends on the
+other side, and the fugitives were sighted once more. But it was
+too late. The boat was well out of gunshot range and making rapid
+progress downstream in the shelter of the high bluffs below Crow's
+Cliff. Jack Barnes was dripping with perspiration, but his stroke
+was none the feebler.</p>
+<p>"They see us!" she cried.</p>
+<p>"Don't wriggle so, Marjory&mdash;trim boat!" he panted. "They
+can't hit us, and we can go two miles to their one."</p>
+<p>"And we can get to Bracken's!" she cried triumphantly. A deep
+flush overspread her pretty face.</p>
+<p>"Hooray!" he shouted with a grin of pure delight. Far away on
+the opposite bank Anderson Crow and his sleuths were congregating,
+their baffled gaze upon the man who had slipped out of their grasp.
+The men of the posse were pointing at the boat and arguing
+frantically; there were decided signs of dispute among them.
+Finally two guns flew up, and then came the puffs of smoke, the
+reports and little splashes of water near the flying skiff.</p>
+<p>"Oh, they are shooting!" she cried in a panic.</p>
+<p>"And rifles, too," he grated, redoubling his pull on the oars.
+Other shots followed, all falling short. "Get down in the bottom of
+the boat, Marjory. Don't sit up there and be&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I'll sit right where I am," she cried defiantly.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow waved to the men under Crow's Cliff, and they
+began to make their arduous way along the bank in the trail of the
+skiff. Part of the armed posse hurried down and boarded the raft,
+while others followed the chase by land.</p>
+<p>"We'll beat them to Bracken's by a mile," cried Jack Barnes.</p>
+<p>"If they don't shoot us," she responded. "Why, oh, why are they
+so intent upon killing us?"</p>
+<p>"They don't want you to be a widow and&mdash;break a&mdash;lot
+of hearts," he said. "If they&mdash;hit me now you&mdash;won't
+be&mdash;dangerous as a&mdash;widow."</p>
+<p>"Oh, you heartless thing! How can you jest about it?
+I'd&mdash;I'd go into mourning, anyway, Jack," she concluded, on
+second thought. "We are just as good as married, you see."</p>
+<p>"It's nice&mdash;of you to say it, dear&mdash;but we're a
+long&mdash;way from&mdash;Bracken's. Gee! That was close!"</p>
+<p>A bullet splashed in the water not ten feet from the boat. "The
+cowards! They're actually trying to kill us!" For the first time
+his face took on a look of alarm and his eyes grew desperate. "I
+can't let them shoot at you, Marjory, dear! What the dickens they
+want I don't know, but I'm going to surrender." He had stopped
+rowing and was making ready to wave his white handkerchief on
+high.</p>
+<p>"Never!" she cried with blazing eyes. "Give me the oars!" She
+slid into the other rowing seat and tried to snatch the oars from
+the rowlocks.</p>
+<p>"Bravo! I could kiss you a thousand times for that. Come on, you
+Indians! You're a darling, Marjory." Again the oars caught the
+water, and Jack Barnes's white handkerchief lay in the bottom of
+the boat. He was rowing for dear life, and there was a smile on his
+face.</p>
+<p>The raft was left far behind and the marksmen were put out of
+range with surprising ease. Fifteen minutes later the skiff shot
+across the river and up to the landing of Bracken's boathouse,
+while a mile back in the brush Anderson Crow and his men were
+wrathfully scrambling in pursuit.</p>
+<p>"Hey, Bracken! Jimmy!" shouted Jack Barnes, jumping out upon the
+little wharf. Marjory gave him her hands and was whisked ashore and
+into his arms. "Run into the boathouse, dear. I'll yank this stuff
+ashore. Where the dickens is Bracken?"</p>
+<p>The boathouse door opened slowly and a sleepy young man looked
+forth.</p>
+<p>"I thought you'd never come," he yawned.</p>
+<p>"Wake up, you old loafer! We're here and we are pursued! Where
+are George and Amy?" cried Mr. Barnes, doing herculean duty as a
+baggage smasher.</p>
+<p>"Pursued?" cried the sleepy young man, suddenly awake.</p>
+<p>"Yes, and shot at!" cried Marjory, running past him and into the
+arms of a handsome young woman who was emerging from the house.</p>
+<p>"We've no time to lose, Jimmy! They are on to us, Heaven knows
+how. They are not more than ten minutes behind us. Get it over
+with, Jimmy, for Heaven's sake! Here, George, grab this trunk!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<h3><i>Anderson Rectifies an Error</i></h3>
+<p>In a jiffy the fugitives and their property were transferred to
+the interior of the roomy boathouse, the doors bolted, and George
+Crosby stationed at a window to act as lookout.</p>
+<p>"Is it your father?" demanded the Rev. James Bracken, turning to
+Marjory. Young Mrs. Crosby was looking on eagerly.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Brewster is at home and totally oblivious to all this,"
+cried Jack Barnes. "I don't know what it means. Here's the license,
+Jimmy. Are you ready, Marjory?"</p>
+<p>"This is rather a squeamish business, Jack&mdash;" began the
+young minister in the neglig&eacute;e shirt. He was pulling on his
+coat as he made the remark.</p>
+<p>"Oh, hurry, Jimmy; please hurry!" cried Marjory Brewster.</p>
+<p>"Don't wait a second, Jimmy Bracken!" cried Amy Crosby, dancing
+with excitement. "You can't go back on them now!"</p>
+<p>Three minutes later there was no Marjory Brewster, but there was
+a Mrs. John Ethelbert Barnes&mdash;and she was kissing her husband
+rapturously.</p>
+<p>"Now, tell us everything," cried Mrs. Crosby after the frantic
+congratulations. The Reverend "Jimmy" Bracken, of the Eleventh
+Presbyterian Church, was the only one who seemed uncertain as to
+his position. In the first place, old Judge Brewster was a man of
+influence in the metropolis, from which all had fled for a sojourn
+in the hills. He and his daughter were Episcopalians, but that made
+them none the less important in the eyes of "Jimmy" Bracken. In the
+second place, Jack Barnes was a struggling lawyer, in the Year of
+our Lord 1880, and possessed of objectionable poverty. The young
+men had been room-mates at college. Friendship had overcome
+discretion in this instance, at least. The deed being done, young
+Mr. Bracken was beginning to wonder if it had not been overdone, so
+to speak.</p>
+<p>"I wish somebody would tell me!" exclaimed Jack Barnes, with a
+perplexed frown. "The beastly jays shot at us and all that. You'd
+think I was an outlaw. And they blazed away at Marjory, too, hang
+them!"</p>
+<p>Marjory, too excited to act like a blushing bride, took up the
+story and told all that had happened. George Crosby became so
+interested that he forgot to keep guard.</p>
+<p>"This is a funny mess!" he exclaimed. "There's something
+wrong&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Hey, you!" came a shout from the outside.</p>
+<p>"There they are!" cried Marjory, flying to her husband's side.
+"What are we to do?"</p>
+<p>"You mean, what are they to do? We're married, and they can't
+get around that, you know. Let 'em come!" cried the groom
+exultantly. "You don't regret it, do you, sweetheart?" quite
+anxiously. She smiled up into his eyes, and he felt very
+secure.</p>
+<p>"What do you fellows want?" demanded Crosby from the window.
+Anderson Crow was standing on the river bank like a true Napoleon,
+flanked by three trusty riflemen.</p>
+<p>"Who air you?" asked Anderson in return. He was panting heavily,
+and his legs trembled.</p>
+<p>"None of your business! Get off these grounds at once; they're
+private!"</p>
+<p>"None o' your sass, now, young man; I'm an officer of the law,
+an' a detective to boot! We sha'n't stand any nonsense. The place
+is surrounded and he can't escape! Where is he?"</p>
+<p>"That's for you to find out if you're such a good detective!
+This is David Bracken's place, and you can find him at his home on
+the hilltop yonder!"</p>
+<p>"Ask him what we've done, George," whispered Barnes.</p>
+<p>"We ain't after Mr. Bracken, young feller, but you know what we
+<i>do</i> want! He's in there&mdash;you're shielding him&mdash;we
+won't parley much longer! Send him out!" said Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"If you come a foot nearer you'll get shot into the middle of
+kingdom come!" shouted Crosby defiantly.</p>
+<p>The inmates gasped, for there was not a firearm on the
+place.</p>
+<p>"Be careful!" warned the Reverend "Jimmy" nervously.</p>
+<p>"Goin' to resist, eh? Well, we'll get him; don't you worry; an'
+that ornery female o' hisn', too!"</p>
+<p>"Did you hear that?" exclaimed Jack Barnes. "Let me get at the
+old rat." He was making for the door when the two women obstructed
+the way. Both were frantic with fear.</p>
+<p>"But he called you a female!" roared he.</p>
+<p>"Well, I <i>am</i>!" she wailed miserably.</p>
+<p>"Who is it you want?" asked Crosby from the window.</p>
+<p>"That's all right," roared Anderson Crow; "purduce him at
+once!"</p>
+<p>"Is this the fellow?" and Crosby dragged the Reverend "Jimmy"
+into view. There was a moment's inspection of the cadaverous face,
+and then the sleuths shook their heads.</p>
+<p>"Not on your life!" said Mr. Crow. "But he's in there&mdash;Ike
+Smalley seen him an' his paramount go up the steps from the
+landin'! 'Twon't do no good to hide him, young feller;
+he's&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Well, let me tell you something. You are too late&mdash;they're
+married!" cried Crosby triumphantly.</p>
+<p>"I don't give a cuss if they're married and have sixteen
+children!" shouted the exasperated Crow, his badge fairly dancing.
+"He's got to surrender!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, he does, eh?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir-ee-o-bob; he's got to give up, dead or alive! Trot him
+out lively, now!"</p>
+<p>"I don't mind telling you that Mr. Barnes is here; but I'd like
+to know why you're hunting him down like a wild beast, shooting at
+him and Miss&mdash;I mean Mrs. Barnes. It's an outrage!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, we ain't the on'y people that can kill and slaughter! She's
+just as bad as he is, for that matter&mdash;an' so are you and that
+other lantern-jawed outlaw in there." The Reverend "Jimmy" gasped
+and turned a fiery red.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/049.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Did he call me a&mdash;say!" and he pushed Crosby aside. "I'd
+have you to understand that I'm a minister of the gospel&mdash;I am
+the Reverend James Bracken, of&mdash;"</p>
+<p>A roar of laughter greeted his attempt to explain; and there
+were a few remarks so uncomplimentary that the man of cloth sank
+back in sheer hopelessness.</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll give them reason to think that I'm something of a
+desperado," grated the Reverend "Jimmy," squaring his shoulders.
+"If they attempt to put foot inside my uncle's house
+I'll&mdash;I'll smash a few heads."</p>
+<p>"Bravo!" cried Mrs. Crosby. She was his cousin, and up to that
+time had had small regard for her mild-mannered relative.</p>
+<p>"He can preach the funeral!" shouted Ike Smalley. By this time
+there were a dozen men on the bank below.</p>
+<p>"I give you fair warning," cried Anderson Crow impressively.
+"We're goin' to surround the house, an' we'll take that rascal if
+we have to shoot the boards into sawdust!"</p>
+<p>"But what has he done, except to get married?" called Crosby as
+the posse began to spread out.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/050.jpg" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Do you s'pose I'm fool enough to tell you if you don't know?"
+said Anderson Crow. "Just as like as not you'd be claimin' the
+thousand dollars reward if you knowed it had been offered! Spread
+out, boys, an' we'll show 'em dern quick!"</p>
+<p>There was dead silence inside the house for a full minute. Every
+eye was wide and every mouth was open in surprise and
+consternation.</p>
+<p>"A thousand dollars reward!" gasped Jack Barnes. "Then, good
+Lord, I <i>must</i> have done something!"</p>
+<p>"What <i>have</i> you been doing, Jack Barnes?" cried his bride,
+aghast.</p>
+<p>"I must have robbed a train," said he dejectedly.</p>
+<p>"Well, this is serious, after all," said Crosby. "It's not an
+eloper they're after, but a desperado."</p>
+<p>"A kidnaper, perhaps," suggested his wife.</p>
+<p>"What are we to do?" demanded Jack Barnes.</p>
+<p>"First, old man, what have you actually done?" asked the
+Reverend "Jimmy."</p>
+<p>"Nothing that's worth a thousand dollars, I'm dead sure," said
+Barnes positively. "By George, Marjory, this is a nice mess I've
+led you into!"</p>
+<p>"It's all right, Jack; I'm happier than I ever was before in my
+life. We ran away to get married, and I'll go to jail with you if
+they'll take me."</p>
+<p>"This is no time for kissing," objected Crosby sourly. "We must
+find out what it all means. Leave it to me."</p>
+<p>It was getting dark in the room, and the shadows were heavy on
+the hills. While the remaining members of the besieged party sat
+silent and depressed upon the casks and boxes, Crosby stood at the
+window calling to the enemy.</p>
+<p>"Is he ready to surrender?" thundered Anderson Crow from the
+shadows.</p>
+<p>Then followed a brief and entirely unsatisfactory dialogue
+between the two spokesmen. Anderson Crow was firm in his decision
+that the fugitive did not have to be told what he had done; and
+George Crosby was equally insistent that he had to be told before
+he could decide whether he was guilty or innocent.</p>
+<p>"We'll starve him out!" said Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"But there are ladies here, my good man; you won't subject them
+to such treatment!"</p>
+<p>"You're all of a kind&mdash;we're going to take the whole
+bunch!"</p>
+<p>"What do you think will happen to you if you are mistaken in
+your man?"</p>
+<p>"We're not mistaken, dang ye!"</p>
+<p>"He could sue you for every dollar you possess. I know, for I'm
+a lawyer!"</p>
+<p>"Now, I'm sure you're in the job with him. I s'pose you'll try
+to work in the insanity dodge! It's a nest of thieves and robbers!
+Say, I'll give you five minutes to surrender; if you don't, we'll
+set fire to the derned shanty!"</p>
+<p>"Look here, boys," said Jack Barnes suddenly, "I've done nothing
+and am not afraid to be arrested. I'm going to give myself up." Of
+course there was a storm of protest and a flow of tears, but the
+culprit was firm. "Tell the old fossil that if he'll guarantee
+safety to me I'll give up!"</p>
+<p>Anderson was almost too quick in promising protection.</p>
+<p>"Ask him if he will surrender and make a confession to
+me&mdash;I am Anderson Crow, sir!" was the marshal's tactful
+suggestion.</p>
+<p>"He'll do both, Mr. Crow!" replied Crosby.</p>
+<p>"We've got to take the whole bunch of you, young man. You're all
+guilty of conspiracy, the whole caboodle!"</p>
+<p>"But the ladies, you darned old Rube&mdash;they
+can't&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Looky here, young feller, you can't dictate to me. I'll have
+you to&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"We'll all go!" cried Mrs. Crosby warmly.</p>
+<p>"To the very end!" added the new Mrs. Barnes.</p>
+<p>"What will your father say?" demanded the groom.</p>
+<p>"He'll disown me anyway, dear, so what's the difference?"</p>
+<p>"It's rather annoying for a minister&mdash;" began the Reverend
+"Jimmy," putting on his hat.</p>
+<p>"We'll beg off for you!" cried Mrs. Crosby ironically.</p>
+<p>"But I'm going to jail, too," finished he grimly.</p>
+<p>"All right," called Crosby from the window; "here we come!"</p>
+<p>And forth marched the desperate quintet, three strapping young
+men and two very pretty and nervous young women. They were met by
+Anderson Crow and a dozen armed men from Tinkletown, every one of
+them shaking in his boots. The irrepressible Mrs. Crosby said
+"Boo!" suddenly, and half the posse jumped as though some one had
+thrown a bomb at them.</p>
+<p>"Now, I demand an explanation of this outrage," said Jack Barnes
+savagely. "What do you mean by shooting at me and my&mdash;my wife
+and arresting us, and all that?"</p>
+<p>"You'll find out soon enough when you're strung up fer it,"
+snarled Anderson Crow. "An' you'll please hand over that money I
+paid fer the hoss and buggy. I'll learn you how to sell stolen
+property to me."</p>
+<p>"Oh, I'm a horse-thief, am I? This is rich. And they'll string
+me up, eh? Next thing you'll be accusing me of killing that farmer
+up near Boggs City."</p>
+<p>"Well, by gosh! you're a cool one!" ejaculated Anderson Crow. "I
+s'pose you're goin' ter try the insanity dodge."</p>
+<p>"It's lucky for me that they caught him," said Barnes as the
+herd of prisoners moved off toward the string of boats tied to Mr.
+Bracken's wharf.</p>
+<p>"Come off!" exclaimed Squires, the reporter, scornfully. "We're
+onto you, all right, all right."</p>
+<p>"What! Do you think I'm the man who&mdash;well, holy mackerel!
+Say, you gravestones, don't you ever hear any news out here? Wake
+up! They caught the murderer at Billsport, not more than five miles
+from your jay burg. I was driving through the town when they
+brought him in. That's what made me late, dear," turning to
+Marjory.</p>
+<p>"Yes, and I'll bet my soul that here comes some one with the
+news," cried George Crosby, who had heard nothing of the tragedy
+until this instant.</p>
+<p>A rowboat containing three men was making for the landing.
+Somehow, Anderson Crow and his posse felt the ground sinking
+beneath them. Not a man uttered a sound until one of the newcomers
+called out from the boat:</p>
+<p>"Is Anderson Crow there?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; what is it?" demanded Crow in a wobbly voice.</p>
+<p>"Your wife wants to know when in thunder you're comin' home." By
+this time the skiff was bumping against the landing.</p>
+<p>"You tell her to go to Halifax!" retorted Anderson Crow. "Is
+that all you want?"</p>
+<p>"They nabbed that murderer up to Billsport long 'bout 'leven
+o'clock," said Alf Reesling, the town drunkard. "We thought we'd
+row down and tell you so's you wouldn't be huntin' all night for
+the feller who&mdash;hello, you got him, eh?"</p>
+<p>"Are you fellers lyin'?" cried poor Anderson Crow.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/055.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Not on your life. We knowed about the captcher over in town
+just about half an hour after you started 'cross the river this
+afternoon."</p>
+<p>"You&mdash;four hours ago? You&mdash;you&mdash;" sputtered the
+marshal. "An' why didn't you let us know afore this?"</p>
+<p>"There was a game o' baseball in Hasty's lot, an'&mdash;" began
+one of the newcomers sheepishly.</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll be gosh-whizzled!" gasped Anderson Crow, sitting
+down suddenly.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>An hour and a half later Mr. and Mrs. John Ethelbert Barnes were
+driven up to Judge Brewster's country place in Mr. David Bracken's
+brake. They were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. George Crosby, and
+were carrying out the plans as outlined in the original
+programme.</p>
+<p>"Where's papa?" Marjory tremulously inquired of the footman in
+the hallway.</p>
+<p>"He's waitin' for you in the library, miss&mdash;I should say
+Mrs. Barnes," replied the man, a trace of excitement in his
+face.</p>
+<p>"Mrs. Barnes!" exclaimed four voices at once.</p>
+<p>"Who told you, William?" cried Marjory, leaning upon Jack for
+support.</p>
+<p>"A Mr. Anderson Crow was here not half an hour ago, ma'am, to
+assure Mr. Brewster as to how his new son-in-law was in nowise
+connected with the murder up the way. He said as how he had
+personally investigated the case, miss&mdash;ma'am, and Mr.
+Brewster could rely on his word for it, Mr. Jack was not the man.
+He told him as how you was married at the boathouse."</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;and then?" cried Marjory eagerly.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Brewster said that Mr. Jack wasn't born to be hanged, and
+for me to have an extry plate laid at the table for him to-night,"
+concluded William with an expressive grin.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<h3><i>The Babe on the Doorstep</i></h3>
+<p>It was midnight in Tinkletown, many months after the events
+mentioned in the foregoing chapters, and a blizzard was raging. The
+February wind rasped through the bare trees, shrieked around the
+corners of lightless houses and whipped its way through the
+scurrying snow with all the rage of a lion. The snow, on account of
+the bitter cold in the air, did not fly in big flakes, but whizzed
+like tiny bullets, cutting the flesh of men and beasts like the
+sting of wasps. It was a good night to be indoors over a roaring
+fire or in bed between extra blankets. No one, unless commanded by
+emergency, had the temerity to be abroad that night.</p>
+<p>The Crow family snoozed comfortably in spite of the calliope
+shrieks of the wind. The home of the town marshal was blanketed in
+peace and the wind had no terrors for its occupants. They slept the
+sleep of the toasted. The windows may have rattled a bit, perhaps,
+and the shutters may have banged a trifle too remorselessly, but
+the Crows were not to be disturbed.</p>
+<p>The big, old-fashioned clock in the hall downstairs was striking
+twelve when Anderson Crow awoke with a start. He was amazed, for to
+awake in the middle of the night was an unheard-of proceeding for
+him. He caught the clang of the last five strokes from the clock,
+however, and was comforting himself with the belief that it was
+five o'clock, after all, when his wife stirred nervously.</p>
+<p>"Are you awake, Anderson?" she asked softly.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Eva, and it's about time to get up. It jest struck five.
+Doggone, it's been blowin' cats and dogs outside, ain't it?" he
+yawned.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/059.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Five? It's twelve-now, don't tell me you counted the strokes,
+because I did myself. Ain't it queer we should both git awake at
+this unearthly hour?"</p>
+<p>"Well," murmured he sleepily now that it was not five o'clock,
+"it's a mighty good hour to go back to sleep ag'in, I reckon."</p>
+<p>"I thought I heard a noise outside," she persisted.</p>
+<p>"I don't blame you," he said, chuckling. "It's been out there
+all night."</p>
+<p>"I mean something besides the wind. Sounded like some one
+walkin' on the front porch."</p>
+<p>"Now, look here, Eva, you ain't goin' to git me out there in
+this blizzard&mdash;in my stockin' feet&mdash;lookin' fer
+robbers&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Just the same, Anderson, I'm sure I heard some one. Mebby it's
+some poor creature freezin' an' in distress. If I was you, I'd go
+and look out there. Please do."</p>
+<p>"Doggone, Eva, if you was me you'd be asleep instid of huntin'
+up trouble on a night like this. They ain't nothin' down there an'
+you&mdash;but, by cracky! mebby you're right. Supposin' there is
+some poor cuss out there huntin' a place to sleep. I'll go and
+look;" and Mr. Crow, the most tender-hearted man in the world,
+crawled shiveringly but quickly from the warm bed. In his stocking
+feet&mdash;Anderson slept in his socks on those bitter
+nights&mdash;he made his way down the front stairs, grumbling but
+determined. Mrs. Crow followed close behind, anxious to verify the
+claim that routed him from his nest.</p>
+<p>"It may be a robber," she chattered, as he pulled aside a front
+window curtain. Anderson drew back hastily.</p>
+<p>"Well, why in thunder didn't you say so before?" he gasped.
+"Doggone, Eva, that's no way to do! He might 'a' fired through the
+winder at me."</p>
+<p>"But he's in the house by this time, if it was a robber," she
+whispered. "He wouldn't stand out on the porch all night."</p>
+<p>"That's right," he whispered in reply. "You're a good deducer,
+after all. I wish I had my dark lantern. Thunderation!" He stubbed
+his toe against the sewing machine. There is nothing that hurts
+more than unintentional contact with a sewing machine. "Why in
+sixty don't you light a light, Eva? How can I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Listen!" she whispered shrilly. "Hear that? Anderson, there's
+some one walkin' on the porch!"</p>
+<p>"'y gosh!" faltered he. "Sure as Christmas! You wait here, Eva,
+till I go upstairs an' put on my badge and I'll&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I'll do nothing of the kind. You don't ketch me stayin' down
+here alone," and she grabbed the back of his nightshirt as he
+started for the stairs.</p>
+<p>"Sho! What air you afeerd of? I'll get my revolver, too. I never
+did see such a coward'y calf as&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Just then there was a tremendous pounding on the front door,
+followed by the creaking of footsteps on the frozen porch, a
+clatter down the steps, and then the same old howling of the wind.
+The Crows jumped almost out of their scanty garments, and then
+settled down as if frozen to the spot. It was a full minute before
+Anderson found his voice&mdash;in advance of Mrs. Crow at that,
+which was more than marvellous.</p>
+<p>"What was that?" he chattered.</p>
+<p>"A knock!" she gasped.</p>
+<p>"Some neighbour's sick."</p>
+<p>"Old Mrs. Luce. Oh, goodness, how my heart's going!"</p>
+<p>"Why don't you open the door, Eva?"</p>
+<p>"Why don't you? It's your place."</p>
+<p>"But, doggone it, cain't you see&mdash;I mean feel&mdash;that I
+ain't got hardly any clothes on? I'd ketch my death o' cold, an'
+besides&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Well, I ain't got as much on as you have. You got socks on
+an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"But supposin' it's a woman," protested he. "You wouldn't want a
+woman to see me lookin' like this, would you? Go ahead
+an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I suppose you'd like to have a man see me like this. I ain't
+used to receivin' men in&mdash;but, say, whoever it was, is gone.
+Didn't you hear the steps? Open the door, Anderson. See what it
+is."</p>
+<p>And so, after much urging, Anderson Crow unbolted his front door
+and turned the knob. The wind did the rest. It almost blew the door
+off its hinges, carrying Mr. and Mrs. Crow back against the wall. A
+gale of snow swept over them.</p>
+<p>"Gee!" gasped Anderson, crimping his toes. Mrs. Crow was peering
+under his arm.</p>
+<p>"Look there!" she cried. Close to the door a large bundle was
+lying.</p>
+<p>"A present from some one!" speculated Mr. Crow; but some seconds
+passed before he stooped to pick it up. "Funny time fer Santy to be
+callin' 'round. Wonder if he thinks it's next Christmas."</p>
+<p>"Be careful, Anderson; mebby it's an infernal machine!" cried
+his wife.</p>
+<p>"Well, it's loaded, 'y ginger," he grunted as straightened up in
+the face of the gale. "Shut the door, Eva! Cain't you see it's
+snowin'?"</p>
+<p>"I'll bet it was Joe Ramsey leavin' a sack o' hickor' nuts fer
+us," she said eagerly, slamming the door.</p>
+<p>"You better bolt the door. He might change his mind an' come
+back fer 'em," observed her husband. "It don't feel like hickor'
+nuts. Why, Eva, it's a baskit&mdash;a reg'lar clothes baskit. What
+in thunder do&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Let's get a light out by the kitchen fire. It's too cold in
+here."</p>
+<p>Together they sped to the kitchen with the mysterious offering
+from the blizzard. There was a fire in the stove, which Anderson
+replenished, while Eva began to remove the blankets and packing
+from the basket, which she had placed on the hearth. Anderson
+looked on eagerly.</p>
+<p>"Lord!" fell from the lips of both as the contents of the basket
+were exposed to their gaze.</p>
+<p>A baby, alive and warm, lay packed in the blankets, sound asleep
+and happy. For an interminable length of time the Crows, <i>en
+dishabille</i>, stood and gazed open-mouthed and awed at the little
+stranger. Ten minutes later, after the ejaculations and surmises,
+after the tears and expletives, after the whole house had been
+aroused, Anderson Crow was plunging amiably but aimlessly through
+the snowstorm in search of the heartless wretch who had deposited
+the infant on his doorstep. His top boots scuttled up and down the
+street, through yards and barn lots for an hour, but despite the
+fact that he carried his dark lantern and trailed like an Indian
+bloodhound, he found no trace of the wanton visitor. In the
+meantime, Mrs. Crow, assisted by the entire family, had stowed the
+infant, a six-weeks-old girl, into a warm bed, ministering to the
+best of her ability to its meagre but vociferous wants. There was
+no more sleep in the Crow establishment that night. The head of the
+house roused a half dozen neighbours from their beds to tell them
+of the astounding occurrence, with the perfectly natural result
+that one and all hurried over to see the baby and to hear the
+particulars.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/064.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Early next morning Tinkletown wagged with an excitement so
+violent that it threatened to end in a municipal convulsion.
+Anderson Crow's home was besieged. The snow in his front yard was
+packed to an icy consistency by the myriad of footprints that fell
+upon it; the interior of the house was "tracked" with mud and slush
+and three window panes were broken by the noses of curious but
+unwelcome spectators. Altogether, it was a sensation unequalled in
+the history of the village. Through it all the baby blinked and
+wept and cooed in perfect peace, guarded by Mrs. Crow and the
+faithful progeny who had been left by the stork, and not by a
+mysterious stranger.</p>
+<p>The missionary societies wanted to do something heroic, but Mrs.
+Crow headed them off; the sewing circle got ready to take charge of
+affairs, but Mrs. Crow punctured the project; figuratively, the
+churches ached for a chance to handle the infant, but Mrs. Crow
+stood between. And all Tinkletown called upon Anderson Crow to
+solve the mystery before it was a day older.</p>
+<p>"It's purty hard to solve a mystery that's got six weeks' start
+o' me," said Anderson despairingly, "but I'll try, you bet. The
+doggone thing's got a parent or two somewhere in the universe, an'
+I'll locate 'em er explode somethin'. I've got a private opinion
+about it myself."</p>
+<p>Whatever this private opinion might have been, it was not
+divulged. Possibly something in connection with it might have
+accounted for the temporary annoyance felt by nearly every
+respectable woman in Tinkletown. The marshal eyed each and every
+one of them, irrespective of position, condition or age, with a
+gleam so accusing that the Godliest of them flushed and then turned
+cold. So knowing were these equitable looks that before night every
+woman in the village was constrained to believe the worst of her
+neighbour, and almost as ready to look with suspicion upon
+herself.</p>
+<p>One thing was certain&mdash;business was at a standstill in
+Tinkletown. The old men forgot their chess and checker games at the
+corner store; young men neglected their love affairs; women forgot
+to talk about each other; children froze their ears rather than
+miss any of the talk that went about the wintry streets; everybody
+was asking the question, "Whose baby is it?"</p>
+<p>But the greatest sensation of all came late in the day when Mrs.
+Crow, in going over the garments worn by the babe, found a note
+addressed to Anderson Crow. It was stitched to the baby's dress,
+and proved beyond question that the strange visitor of the night
+before had selected not only the house, but the individual. The
+note was to the point. It said:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"February 18, 1883.</p>
+<p>"ANDERSON CROW: To your good and merciful care an unhappy
+creature consigns this helpless though well-beloved babe. All the
+world knows you to be a tender, loving, unselfish man and father.
+The writer humbly, prayerfully implores you to care for this babe
+as you would for one of your own. It is best that her origin be
+kept a secret. Care for her, cherish her as your own, and at the
+end of each year the sum of a thousand dollars will be paid to you
+as long as she lives in your household as a member thereof. Do not
+seek to find her parents. It would be a fool's errand. May God
+bless you and yours, and may God care for and protect
+Rosalie&mdash;the name she shall bear."</p>
+</div>
+<p>Obviously, there was no signature and absolutely no clew to the
+identity of the writer. Two telegraph line repairers who had been
+working near Crow's house during the night, repairing damage done
+by the blizzard, gave out the news that they had seen a cloaked and
+mysterious-looking woman standing near the Methodist Church just
+before midnight, evidently disregarding the rage of the storm. The
+sight was so unusual that the men paused and gazed at her for
+several minutes. One of them was about to approach her when she
+turned and fled down the side street near by.</p>
+<p>"Was she carryin' a big bundle?" asked Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>The men replied in the negative.</p>
+<p>"Then she couldn't have been the party wanted. The one we're
+after certainly had a big bundle."</p>
+<p>"But, Mr. Crow, isn't it possible that these men saw her after
+she left the basket at&mdash;" began the Presbyterian minister.</p>
+<p>"That ain't the way I deduce it," observed the town detective
+tartly. "In the first place, she wouldn't 'a' been standin' 'round
+like that if the job was over, would she? Wouldn't she 'a' been
+streakin' out fer home? 'Course she would."</p>
+<p>"She may have paused near the church to see whether you took the
+child in," persisted the divine.</p>
+<p>"But she couldn't have saw my porch from the back end of the
+church."</p>
+<p>"Nobody said she was standing back of the church," said the
+lineman.</p>
+<p>"What's that? You don't mean it?" cried Anderson, pulling out of
+a difficulty bravely. "That makes all the difference in the world.
+Why didn't you say she was in front of the church? Cain't you see
+we've wasted time here jest because you didn't have sense 'nough
+to&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Anybody ought to know it 'thout being told, you old Rube,"
+growled the lineman, who was from Boggs City.</p>
+<p>"Here, now, sir, that will do you! I won't 'low no man
+to&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Anderson, be quiet!" cautioned Mrs. Crow. "You'll wake the
+baby!" This started a new train of thought in Anderson's perplexed
+mind.</p>
+<p>"Mebby she was waitin' there while some one&mdash;her husband,
+fer instance&mdash;was leavin' the baskit," volunteered Isaac
+Porter humbly.</p>
+<p>"Don't bother me, Ike; I'm thinkin' of somethin' else," muttered
+Anderson. "Husband nothin'! Do you s'pose she'd 'a' trusted that
+baby with a fool husband on a terrible night like that? Ladies and
+gentlemen, this here baby was left by a <i>female</i> resident of
+this very town." His hearers gasped and looked at him wide-eyed.
+"If she has a husband, he don't know he's the father of this here
+baby. Don't you see that a woman couldn't 'a' carried a heavy
+baskit any great distance? She couldn't 'a' packed it from Boggs
+City er New York er Baltimore, could she? She wouldn't 'a' been
+strong enough. No, siree; she didn't have far to come, folks. An'
+she was a woman, 'cause ain't all typewritin' done by women? You
+don't hear of men typewriters, do you? People wouldn't have 'em.
+Now, the thing fer me to do first is to make a house-to-house
+search to see if I c'n locate a typewritin' machine anywheres. Get
+out of the way, Toby. Doggone you boys, anyhow, cain't you see I
+want ter get started on this job?"</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson," said Harry Squires, the reporter, "I'd like to
+ask if there is any one in Tinkletown, male or female, who can
+afford to pay you a thousand dollars a year for taking care of that
+kid?"</p>
+<p>"What's that?" slowly oozed from Anderson's lips.</p>
+<p>"You heard what I said. Say, don't you know you can bring up a
+kid in this town for eleven or twelve dollars a year?"</p>
+<p>"You don't know what you're talkin' about," burst from
+Anderson's indignant lips, but he found instant excuse to retire
+from the circle of speculators. A few minutes later he and his wife
+were surreptitiously re-reading the note, both filled with the fear
+that it said $10.00 instead of $1000.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<h3><i>Reflection and Deduction</i></h3>
+<p>"By gum, it does say a thousand," cried Anderson, mightily
+relieved. "Harry Squires is a fool. He said jest now that it could
+be did fer eleven or twelve dollars. Don't you suppose, Eva, that
+the mother of this here child knows what it costs to bring 'em up?
+Of course she does. When I find her I'll prove it by her own lips
+that she knows. But don't bother me any more, Eva; I got to git out
+an' track her down. This is the greatest job I've had in
+years."</p>
+<p>"See here, Anderson," said his wife thoughtfully and somewhat
+stealthily, "let's go slow about this thing. What do you want to
+find her for?"</p>
+<p>"Why&mdash;why, doggone it, Eva, what air you talkin' about?"
+began he in amazement.</p>
+<p>"Well, it's just this way: I don't think we can earn a thousand
+dollars a year easier than takin' care of this child. Don't you
+see? Suppose we keep her fer twenty years. That means twenty
+thousand dollars, don't it? It beats a pension all to pieces."</p>
+<p>"Well, by ginger!" gasped Anderson, vaguely comprehending.
+"Fifty years would mean fifty thousand dollars, wouldn't it. Gee
+whiz, Eva!"</p>
+<p>"I don't imagine we can keep her that long."</p>
+<p>"No," reflectively; "the chances are she'd want ter git married
+inside of that time. They always&mdash;</p>
+<p>"'Tain't that, Anderson. You an' me'd have to live to be more'n
+a hundred years old."</p>
+<p>"That's so. We ain't spring chickens, are we, deary?"</p>
+<p>She put her hard, bony hand in his and there was a suspicion of
+moisture in the kindly old eyes.</p>
+<p>"I love to hear you call me 'deary,' Anderson. We never get too
+old for that."</p>
+<p>He coughed and then patted her hand rather confusedly. Anderson
+had long since forgotten the meaning of sentiment, but he was
+surprised to find that he had not forgotten how to love his
+wife.</p>
+<p>"Shucks!" he muttered bravely. "We'll be kissin' like a couple
+of young jay birds first thing we know. Doggone if it ain't funny
+how a baby, even if it is some one else's, kinder makes a feller
+foolisher'n he intends to be." Hand in hand they watched the
+sleeping innocent for several minutes. Finally the detective shook
+himself and spoke:</p>
+<p>"Well, Eva, I got to make a bluff at findin' out whose baby it
+is, ain't I? My reputation's at stake. I jest have to
+investigate."</p>
+<p>"I don't see that any harm can come from that, Anderson," she
+replied, and neither appreciated the sarcasm unintentionally
+involved.</p>
+<p>"I won't waste another minute," he announced promptly. "I will
+stick to my theory that the parents live in Tinkletown."</p>
+<p>"Fiddlesticks!" snorted Mrs. Crow disgustedly, and then left him
+to cultivate the choleric anger her exclamation had inspired.</p>
+<p>"Doggone, I wish I hadn't patted her hand," he lamented. "She
+didn't deserve it. Consarn it, a woman's always doin' something to
+spoil things."</p>
+<p>And so he fared forth with his badges and stars, bent on duty,
+but not accomplishment. All the town soon knew that he was
+following a clew, but all the town was at sea concerning its
+character, origin, and plausibility. A dozen persons saw him stop
+young Mrs. Perkins in front of Lamson's store, and the same
+spectators saw his feathers droop as she let loose her wrath upon
+his head and went away with her nose in the air and her cheeks far
+more scarlet than when Boreas kissed them, and all in response to a
+single remark volunteered by the faithful detective. He entered
+Lamson's store a moment later, singularly abashed and red in the
+face.</p>
+<p>"Doggone," he observed, seeing that an explanation was expected,
+"she might 'a' knowed I was only foolin'."</p>
+<p>A few minutes later he had Alf Reesling, the town sot, in a far
+corner of the store talking to him in a most peremptory fashion. It
+may be well to mention that Alf had so far forgotten himself as to
+laugh at the marshal's temporary discomfiture at the hands of Mrs.
+Perkins.</p>
+<p>"Alf, have you been havin' another baby up to your house without
+lettin' me know?" demanded Anderson firmly.</p>
+<p>"Anderson," replied Alf, maudlin tears starting in his eyes,
+"it's not kind of you to rake up my feelin's like this. You know I
+been a widower fer three years."</p>
+<p>"I want you to understand one thing, Alf Reesling. A detective
+never <i>knows</i> anything till he proves it. Let me warn you,
+sir, you are under suspicion. An' now, let me tell you one thing
+more. Doggone your ornery hide, don't you ever laugh ag'in like you
+did jest now er I'll&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Just then the door flew open with a bang and Edna Crow,
+Anderson's eldest, almost flopped into the store, her cap in her
+hand, eyes starting from her head. She had run at top speed all the
+way from home.</p>
+<p>"Pop," she gasped. "Ma says fer you to hurry home! She says fer
+you to <i>run</i>!"</p>
+<p>Anderson covered the distance between Lamson's store and his own
+home in record time. Indeed, Edna, flying as fast as her slim legs
+could twinkle, barely beat her father to the front porch. It was
+quite clear to Mr. Crow that something unusual had happened or Mrs.
+Crow would not have summoned him so peremptorily.</p>
+<p>She was in the hallway downstairs awaiting his arrival, visibly
+agitated. Before uttering a word she dragged him into the little
+sitting-room and closed the door. They were alone.</p>
+<p>"Is it dead?" he panted.</p>
+<p>"No, but what do you think, Anderson?" she questioned
+excitedly.</p>
+<p>"I ain't had time to think. You don't mean to say it has begun
+to talk an' c'n tell who it is," he faltered.</p>
+<p>"Heavens no&mdash;an' it only six weeks old."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, what in thunder <i>has</i> happened?"</p>
+<p>"A <i>detective</i> has been here."</p>
+<p>"Good gosh!"</p>
+<p>"Yes, a <i>real</i> detective. He's out there in the kitchen
+gettin' his feet warm by the bake-oven. He says he's lookin' for a
+six-weeks-old baby. Anderson, we're goin' to lose that twenty
+thousand."</p>
+<p>"Don't cry, Eva; mebby we c'n find another baby some day. Has he
+seen the&mdash;the&mdash;it?" Anderson was holding to the
+stair-post for support.</p>
+<p>"Not yet, but he says he understands we've got one here that
+ain't been <i>tagged</i>&mdash;that's what he said&mdash;'tagged.'
+What does he mean by that?"</p>
+<p>"Why&mdash;why, don't you see? Just as soon as he tags it, it's
+<i>it</i>. Doggone, I wonder if it would make any legal difference
+if I tagged it first."</p>
+<p>"He's a queer-lookin' feller, Anderson. Says he's in disguise,
+and he certainly looks like a regular scamp."</p>
+<p>"I'll take a look at him an' ast fer his badge." Marshal Crow
+paraded boldly into the kitchen, where the strange man was regaling
+the younger Crows with conversation the while he partook
+comfortably of pie and other things more substantial.</p>
+<p>"Are you Mr. Crow?" he asked nonchalantly, as Anderson appeared
+before him.</p>
+<p>"I am. Who are you?"</p>
+<p>"I am Hawkshaw, the detective," responded the man, his mouth
+full of blackberry pie.</p>
+<p>"Gee whiz!" gasped Anderson. "Eva, it's the celebrated
+Hawkshaw."</p>
+<p>"Right you are, sir. I'm after the kid."</p>
+<p>"You'll have to identify it," something inspired Anderson to
+say.</p>
+<p>"Sure. That's easy. It's the one that was left on your doorstep
+last night," said the man glibly.</p>
+<p>"Well, I guess you're right," began Anderson disconsolately.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/075.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Boy or girl?" demanded Mrs. Crow, shrewdly and very quickly.
+She had been inspecting the man more closely than before, and
+woman's intuition was telling her a truth that Anderson overlooked.
+Mr. Hawkshaw was not only very seedy, but very drunk.</p>
+<p>"Madam," he responded loftily, "it is nothing but a mere
+child."</p>
+<p>"I'll give you jest one minute to get out of this house," said
+Mrs. Crow sharply, to Anderson's consternation. "If you're not
+gone, I'll douse you with this kettle of scalding water. Open the
+back door, Edna. He sha'n't take his dirty self through my parlour
+again. <i>Open that door, Edna!</i>"</p>
+<p>Edna, half paralysed with astonishment, opened the kitchen door
+just in time. Mr. Hawkshaw was not so drunk but he could recognise
+disaster when it hovered near. As she lifted the steaming kettle
+from the stove he made a flying leap for the door. The rush of air
+that followed him as he shot through the aperture almost swept Edna
+from her feet. In ten seconds the tattered Hawkshaw was scrambling
+over the garden fence and making lively if inaccurate tracks
+through last year's cabbage patch.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Mysterious Visitor</i></h3>
+<p>The entire Crow family watched him in stupefaction until he
+disappeared down the lane that led to Hapgood's grove. It was then,
+and not until then, that Anderson Crow took a breath.</p>
+<p>"Good Lord, Eva, what do you mean?" he gasped.</p>
+<p>"Mean?" she almost shrieked. "Anderson Crow, didn't you
+recognise that feller? He ain't no more detective than you er me.
+He's the self-same tramp that you put in the calaboose last week,
+and the week before, too. I thought I'd seen his ugly face before.
+He's&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Great jumpin' geeswax!" roared the town marshal. "I recollect
+him now. He's the one that said he'd been exposed to smallpox an'
+wanted to be kept where it was warm all winter. Well, I'll
+be&mdash;I'll be&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Don't say it, pa. He said it fer you when he clumb over that
+barb-wire fence out there," cried Edna gleefully.</p>
+<p>Several days of anxiety and energy followed this interesting
+episode. In that time two tramps attempted to obtain food and
+shelter at Crow's home, one on the plea that he was the father of
+the unfortunate child, the other as an officer for the Foundlings'
+Home at Boggs City. Three babies were left on the
+doorstep&mdash;two in one night&mdash;their fond mothers confessing
+fessing by letters that they appreciated Anderson's well-known
+charitable inclinations and implored him to care for their
+offspring as if they were his own. The harassed marshal experienced
+some difficulty in forcing the mothers to take back their
+children.</p>
+<p>In each instance he was reviled by the estimable ladies, all of
+whom accused him of being utterly heartless. Mrs. Crow came to his
+rescue and told the disappointed mothers that the scalding water
+was ready for application if they did not take their baskets of
+babies away on short order. It may be well for the reputation of
+Tinkletown to mention that one of the donors was Mrs. Raspus, a
+negro washerwoman who did work for the "dagoes" engaged in building
+the railroad hard by; another was the wife of Antonio Galli, a
+member of the grading gang, and the third was Mrs. Pool, the widow
+of a fisherman who had recently drowned himself in drink.</p>
+<p>It is quite possible that Anderson might have had the three
+infants on his hands permanently had not the mothers been so eager
+to know their fate. They appeared in person early the next morning
+to see if the babies had frozen to death on the doorstep. Mrs. Pool
+even went so far as to fetch some extra baby clothes which she had
+neglected to drop with her male. Mrs. Raspus came for her basket,
+claiming it was the only one she had in which to "tote" the washing
+for the men.</p>
+<p>After these annoying but enlivening incidents Anderson was
+permitted to recover from his daze and to throw off symptoms of
+nervous prostration. Tinkletown resumed its tranquil attitude and
+the checker games began to thrive once more. Little Rosalie was a
+week older than when she came, but it was five weeks before
+anything happened to disturb the even tenor of the foster-father's
+way. He had worked diligently in the effort to discover the parents
+of the baby, but without result. Two or three exasperated husbands
+in Tinkletown had threatened to blow his brains out if he persisted
+in questioning their wives in his insinuating manner, and one of
+the kitchen girls at the village inn threw a dishpan at him on the
+occasion of his third visit of inquiry. A colored woman in the
+employ of the Baptist minister denied that Rosalie was her child,
+but when he insisted, agreed with fine sarcasm to "go over an' have
+a look at it," after his assurance that it was perfectly white.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/079.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Eva, I've investigated the case thoroughly," he said at last,
+"an' there is no solution to the mystery. The only thing I c'n
+deduce is that the child is here an' we'll have to take keer of
+her. Now, I wonder if that woman really meant it when she said we'd
+have a thousand dollars at the end of each year. Doggone, I wish
+the year was up, jest to see."</p>
+<p>"We'll have to wait, Anderson, that's all," said Mrs. Crow. "I
+love the baby so it can't matter much. I'm glad you're through
+investigatin'. It's been most tryin' to me. Half the women in town
+don't speak to me."</p>
+<p>It was at the end of Rosalie's fifth week as a member of the
+family that something happened. Late one night when Anderson opened
+the front door to put out the cat a heavily veiled woman mounted
+the steps and accosted him. In some trepidation he drew back and
+would have closed the door but for her eager remonstrance.</p>
+<p>"I must see you, Mr. Crow," she cried in a low, agitated
+voice.</p>
+<p>"Who are you?" he demanded. She was dressed entirely in
+black.</p>
+<p>"I came to see you about the baby."</p>
+<p>"That won't do, madam. There's been three tramps here to
+hornswoggle us an' I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I <i>must</i> see her, Mr. Crow," pleaded the stranger, and he
+was struck by the richness of her voice.</p>
+<p>"Mighty queer, it seems to me," he muttered hesitatingly. "Are
+you any kin to it?"</p>
+<p>"I am very much interested."</p>
+<p>"By giminy, I believe you're the one who left her here," cried
+the detective. "Are you a typewriter?"</p>
+<p>"I'll answer your questions if you'll allow me to step inside.
+It is very cold out here."</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow stood aside and the tall, black figure entered the
+hall. He led her to the warm sitting-room and gave her a chair
+before the "base-burner."</p>
+<p>"Here, Mr. Crow, is an envelope containing two hundred and fifty
+dollars. That proves my good faith. I cannot tell you who I am nor
+what relation I bear to the baby. I am quite fully aware that you
+will not undertake to detain me, for it is not an easy matter to
+earn a thousand dollars a year in this part of the world. I am
+going abroad next week and do not expect to return for a long, long
+time. Try as I would, I could not go without seeing the child. I
+will not keep you out of bed ten minutes, and you and your wife may
+be present while I hold Rosalie in my arms. I know that she is in
+good hands, and I have no intention of taking her away. Please call
+Mrs. Crow."</p>
+<p>Anderson was too amazed to act at once. He began to flounder
+interrogatively, but the visitor abruptly checked him.</p>
+<p>"You are wasting time, Mr. Crow, in attempting to question my
+authority or identity. No one need know that I have made this
+visit. You are perfectly secure in the promise to have a thousand
+dollars a year; why should you hesitate? As long as she lives with
+you the money is yours. I am advancing the amount you now hold in
+order that her immediate wants may be provided for. You are not
+required to keep an account of the money paid to you. There are
+means of ascertaining at once whether she is being well cared for
+and educated by you, and if it becomes apparent that you are not
+doing your duty, she shall be removed from your custody. From time
+to time you may expect written instructions from&mdash;from one who
+loves her."</p>
+<p>"I jest want to ast if you live in Tinkletown?" Anderson managed
+to say.</p>
+<p>"I do not," she replied emphatically.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, lift your veil. If you don't live here I sha'n't
+know you."</p>
+<p>"I prefer to keep my face covered, Mr. Crow; believe me and
+trust me. Please let me see her." The plea was so earnest that
+Anderson's heart gave a great thump of understanding.</p>
+<p>"By ginger, you are her mother!" he gasped. Mrs. Crow came in at
+this juncture, and she was much quicker at grasping the situation
+than her husband. It was in her mind to openly denounce the woman
+for her heartlessness, but her natural thriftiness interposed. She
+would do nothing that might remove the golden spoon from the family
+mouth.</p>
+<p>The trio stole upstairs and into the warm bedchamber. There,
+with Anderson Crow and his wife looking on from a remote corner of
+the room, the tall woman in black knelt beside the crib that had
+housed a generation of Crows. The sleeping Rosalie did not know of
+the soft kisses that swept her little cheek. She did not feel the
+tears that fell when the visitor lifted her veil, nor did she hear
+the whisperings that rose to the woman's lips.</p>
+<p>"That is all," murmured the mysterious stranger at last,
+dropping her veil as she arose. She staggered as she started for
+the door, but recovered herself instantly. Without a word she left
+the room, the Crows following her down the stairs in silence. At
+the bottom she paused, and then extended her hands to the old
+couple. Her voice faltered as she spoke.</p>
+<p>"Let me clasp your hands and let me tell you that my love and my
+prayers are forever for you and for that little one up there. Thank
+you. I know you will be good to her. She is well born. Her blood is
+as good as the best. Above all things, Mrs. Crow, she is not
+illegitimate. You may easily suspect that her parents are wealthy
+or they could not pay so well for her care. Some day the mystery
+surrounding her will be cleared. It may not be for many years. I
+can safely say that she will be left in your care for twenty years
+at least. Some day you will know why it is that Rosalie is not
+supposed to exist. God bless you."</p>
+<p>She was gone before they could utter a word. They watched her
+walk swiftly into the darkness; a few minutes later the sound of
+carriage wheels suddenly broke upon the air. Anderson Crow and his
+wife stood over the "base-burner," and there were tears in their
+thoughtful eyes.</p>
+<p>"She said twenty years, Eva. Let's see, this is 1883. What would
+that make it?"</p>
+<p>"About 1903 or 1904, Anderson."</p>
+<p>"Well, I guess we c'n wait if other people can," mused he. Then
+they went slowly upstairs and to bed.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<h3><i>Some Years Go By</i></h3>
+<p>Tinkletown as a unit supported Anderson in his application for
+guardianship papers. They were filed immediately after the secret
+visit of the mysterious woman; the Circuit Court at Boggs City,
+after hearing the evidence, at once entered the appointment of Mr.
+Crow. When the court asked in mild surprise why he did not adopt
+the child, Anderson and Eva looked at each other sheepishly and
+were silent for a full minute. Then Anderson spoke up a bit
+huskily:</p>
+<p>"Well, you see, judge, her name would have to be Crow, an' while
+it's a good name an' an honoured one, it don't jest seem to fit the
+young 'un. She 'pears to be more of a canary than a crow,
+figuratively speakin', and Eva an' me jest decided we'd give her a
+different sort of a last name if we could find one. Seems to me
+that Rosie Canary would be a good one, but Eva an' the childern are
+ag'in me. They've decided to call her Rosalie Gray, an' I guess
+that about settles it. If you don't mind, I reckon that name c'n go
+in the records. Besides, you must recollect that she's liable to
+have a lot of property some time, an' it seems more fit fer me to
+be guardian than foster-father if that time ever comes. It'll be
+easier to say good-bye if she keers to leave us."</p>
+<p>That same day Anderson deposited two hundred and fifty dollars
+to his credit in the First National Bank, saying to his wife as he
+walked away from the teller's window, "I guess Rosalie cain't
+starve till the bank busts, an' maybe not then."</p>
+<p>Of course Tinkletown knew that a sum of money had been paid to
+Anderson, but no one knew that it had been handed to him in person
+by an interested party. Had Anderson and his wife even whispered
+that such a visit had occurred, the town would have gone into a
+convulsion of wrath; the marshal's pedestal would have been jerked
+out from under him without compunction or mercy. Eva cautioned him
+to be more than silent on the subject for the child's sake as well
+as for their own, and Anderson saw wisdom in her counselling. He
+even lagged in his avowed intention to unravel the mystery or die
+in the attempt. A sharp reminder in the shape of an item in the
+<i>Banner</i> restored his energies, and he again took up the case
+with a vigour that startled even himself. Anything in the shape of
+vigour startled his wife.</p>
+<p>Harry Squires, the reporter, who poked more or less fun at
+Anderson from time to time because he had the "power of the press
+behind him," some weeks later wrote the following item about the
+"baby mystery," as he called it, in large type:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"There is no news in regard to the child found upon the doorstep
+of our esteemed fellow-citizen Anderson Crow, last February. The
+item concerning its discovery first appeared in the columns of the
+<i>Banner</i>, as will be remembered by our many readers. Detective
+Crow promised developments some time ago, but they have not showed
+up. It is rumoured that he has a new clew, but it cannot be
+substantiated. The general impression is that he does not know
+whether it is a boy or girl. We advise Mr. Crow to go slow. He
+should not forget the time when he arrested Mr. John Barnes, two
+years ago, for the murder of Mr. Grover, and afterward found that
+the young gent was merely eloping with Judge Brewster's daughter,
+which was no crime. We saw the girl. Those of our readers who were
+alive at the time doubtless recall the excitement of that man-hunt
+two years ago. Mr. Barnes, as innocent as a child unborn, came to
+our little city engaged in the innocent pastime of getting married.
+At the same time it was reported that a murder had been committed
+in this county. Mr. Crow had his suspicions aroused and pursued Mr.
+Barnes down the river and arrested him. It was a fine piece of
+detective work. But, unfortunately for Mr. Crow, the real murderer
+had been caught in the meantime. Mr. Barnes was guilty only of
+stealing judge Brewster's daughter and getting married to her. The
+last heard of them they were happy in New York. They even forgave
+Mr. Crow, it is reported. It is to be hoped that our clever
+detective will soon jump down upon the heartless parents of this
+innocent child, but it is also to be hoped that he think at least
+four times before he leaps."</p>
+</div>
+<p>To say that the foregoing editorial disturbed the evenness of
+Mr. Crow's temper would be saying nothing at all. In the privacy of
+his barn lot Anderson did a war dance that shamed Tecumseh. He
+threatened to annihilate Harry Squires "from head to foot," for
+publishing the base slander.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/087.jpg" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Doggone his hide," roared poor Anderson, "fer two cents I'd
+tell all I know about him bein' tight up at Boggs City three years
+ago. He couldn't walk half an inch that time without staggerin'.
+Anyhow, I wouldn't have chased Mr. Barnes that time if it hadn't
+been fer Harry Squires. He egged me on, doggone his hide. If he
+didn't have that big typesetter from Albany over at the
+<i>Banner</i> office to back him up I'd go over an' bust his snoot
+fer him. After all the items I've give him, too. That's all the
+thanks you git fer gittin' up news fer them blamed reporters. But
+I'll show him! I wonder what he'd think if I traced that baby right
+up to his own&mdash;<i>What's</i> that, Eva? Well, now, you don't
+know anything about it neither, so keep your mouth shet. Harry
+Squires is a purty sly cuss. Mebby it's his'n. You ain't supposed
+to know. You jest let me do my own deducin'. I don't want no blamed
+woman tellin' me who to shadder. An' you, too, Edner; get out of
+the way, consarn ye! The next thing <i>you'll</i> be tellin' me
+what to do&mdash;an' me your father, too!"</p>
+<p>And that is why Anderson Crow resumed his search for the parents
+of Rosalie Gray. Not that he hoped or expected to find them, but to
+offset the pernicious influence of Harry's "item." For many days he
+followed the most highly impossible clews, some of them
+intractable, to supply a rather unusual word of description. In
+other words, they reacted with a vigour that often found him
+unprepared but serene. Consequences bothered Anderson but little in
+those days of despised activity.</p>
+<p>It is not necessary to dwell upon the incidents of the ensuing
+years, which saw Rosalie crawl from babyhood to childhood and then
+stride proudly through the teens with a springiness that boded ill
+for Father Time. Regularly each succeeding February there came to
+Anderson Crow a package of twenty dollar bills amounting to one
+thousand dollars, the mails being inscrutable. The Crow family
+prospered correspondingly, but there was a liberal frugality behind
+it all that meant well for Rosalie when the time came for an
+accounting. Anderson and Eva "laid by" a goodly portion of the
+money for the child, whom they loved as one of their own flesh and
+blood. The district school lessons were followed later on by a
+boarding-school education down State, and then came the finishing
+touches at Miss Brown's in New York.</p>
+<p>Rosalie grew into a rare flower, as dainty as the rose, as
+piquant as the daisy. The unmistakable mark of the high bred glowed
+in her face, the fine traces of blue blood graced her every
+movement, her every tone and look. At the time that she, as well as
+every one else in Tinkletown, for that matter, was twenty years
+older than when she first came to Anderson's home, we find her the
+queen of the village, its one rich human possession, its one truly
+sophisticated inhabitant. Anderson Crow and his wife were so proud
+of her that they forgot their duty to their own offspring; but if
+the Crow children resented this it was not exhibited in the
+expressions of love and admiration for their foster-sister. Edna
+Crow, the eldest of the girls&mdash;Anderson called her
+"Edner"&mdash;was Rosalie's most devoted slave, while Roscoe, the
+twelve-year-old boy, who comprised the rear rank of Anderson's
+little army, knelt so constantly at her shrine that he fell far
+behind in his studies, and stuck to the third reader for two
+years.</p>
+<p>Anderson had not been idle in all these years. He was fast
+approaching his seventieth anniversary, but he was not a day older
+in spirit than when we first made his acquaintance. True, his hair
+was thinner and whiter, and his whiskers straggled a little more
+carelessly than in other days, but he was as young and active as a
+youth of twenty. Hard times did not worry him, nor did domestic
+troubles. Mrs. Crow often admitted that she tried her best to worry
+him, but it was like "pouring water on a duck's back." He went
+blissfully on his way, earning encomiums for himself and honours
+for Tinkletown. There was no grave crime committed in the land that
+he did not have a well-defined scheme for apprehending the
+perpetrators. His "deductions" at Lamson's store never failed to
+draw out and hold large audiences, and no one disputed his theories
+in public. The fact that he was responsible for the arrest of
+various hog, horse, and chicken thieves from time to time, and for
+the continuous seizure of the two town drunkards, Tom Folly and Alf
+Reesling, kept his reputation untarnished, despite the numerous
+errors of commission and omission that crept in between.</p>
+<p>That Rosalie's mysterious friends&mdash;or enemies, it might
+have been&mdash;kept close and accurate watch over her was
+manifested from time to time. Once, when Anderson was very ill with
+typhoid fever, the package of bills was accompanied by an unsigned,
+typewritten letter. The writer announced that Mr. Crow's state of
+health was causing some anxiety on Rosalie's account&mdash;the
+child was then six years old&mdash;and it was hoped that nothing
+serious would result. Another time the strange writer, in a letter
+from Paris, instructed Mr. Crow to send Rosalie to a certain
+boarding school and to see that she had French, German, and music
+from competent instructors. Again, just before the girl went to New
+York for her two years' stay in Miss Brown's school, there came a
+package containing $2500 for her own personal use. Rosalie often
+spoke to Anderson of this mysterious sender as the "fairy
+godmother"; but the old marshal had a deeper and more significant
+opinion.</p>
+<p>Perhaps the most anxious period in the life of Anderson Crow
+came when Rosalie was about ten years old. A new sheriff had been
+elected in Bramble County, and he posed as a reformer. His sister
+taught school in Tinkletown, and Rosalie was her favourite. She
+took an interest in the child that was almost the undoing of Mr.
+Crow's prosperity. Imagining that she was befriending the girl, the
+teacher appealed to her brother, the sheriff, insisting that he do
+what he could to solve the mystery of her birth. The sheriff saw a
+chance to distinguish himself. He enlisted the help of an
+aggressive prosecuting attorney, also new, and set about to
+investigate the case.</p>
+<p>The two officers of the law descended upon Tinkletown one day
+and began to ask peremptory questions. They went about it in such a
+high-handed, lordly manner that Anderson took alarm and his heart
+sank like lead. He saw in his mind's eye the utter collapse of all
+his hopes, the dashing away of his cup of leisure and the upsetting
+of the "fairy godmother's" plans. Pulling his wits together, he set
+about to frustrate the attack of the meddlers. Whether it was his
+shrewdness in placing obstacles in their way or whether he coerced
+the denizens into blocking the sheriff's investigation does not
+matter. It is only necessary to say that the officious gentleman
+from Boggs City finally gave up the quest in disgust and retired
+into the oblivion usual to county officials who try to be
+progressive. It was many weeks, however, before Anderson slept
+soundly. He was once more happy in the consciousness that Rosalie
+had been saved from disaster and that he had done his duty by
+her.</p>
+<p>"I'd like to know how them doggone jays from Boggs City expected
+to find out anything about that child when I hain't been able to,"
+growled Mr. Crow in Lamson's store one night. "If they'll jest keep
+their blamed noses out of this affair I'll find out who her parents
+are some day. It takes time to trace down things like this. I guess
+I know what I'm doin', don't I, boys?"</p>
+<p>"That's what you do, Anderson," said Mr. Lamson, as Anderson
+reached over and took a handful of licorice drops from the jar on
+the counter.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<h3>The Village Queen</h3>
+<p>The spring of 1903 brought Rosalie back to Tinkletown after her
+second and last year with Miss Brown in New York City. The sun
+seemed brighter, the birds sang more blithely, the flowers took on
+a new fragrance and the village spruced up as if Sunday was the
+only day in the week. The young men of the town trembled when she
+passed them by, and not a few of them grew thin and haggard for
+want of food and sleep, having lost both appetite and repose
+through a relapse in love. Her smile was the same as of yore, her
+cheery greetings the same, and yet the village swains stood in awe
+of this fine young aristocrat for days and days. Gradually it
+dawned upon them that she was human, after all, despite her New
+York training, and they slowly resumed the old-time manner of
+courting, which was with the eyes exclusively.</p>
+<p>A few of the more venturesome&mdash;but not the more
+ardent&mdash;asked her to go walking, driving, or to the church
+"sociables," and there was a rivalry in town which threatened to
+upset commerce. There was no theatre in Tinkletown, but they
+delighted in her descriptions of the gorgeous play-houses in New
+York. The town hall seemed smaller than ever to them. The younger
+merchants and their clerks neglected business with charming
+impartiality, and trade was going to "rack and ruin" until Rosalie
+declined to marry George Rawlins, the minister's son. He was looked
+upon as the favoured one; but she refused him in such a decisive
+manner that all others lost hope and courage. It is on record that
+the day after George's <i>cong&eacute;</i> Tinkletown indulged in a
+complete business somersault. Never before had there been such
+strict attention to customers; merchants and clerks alike settled
+down to the inevitable and tried to banish Rosalie's face from the
+cost tags and trading stamps of their dull, mercantile cloister.
+Even Tony Brink, the blacksmith's 'prentice, fell into the habits
+of industry, but with an absent-mindedness that got him kicked
+through a partition in the smithy when he attempted to shoe the
+fetlock of Mr. Martin's colt instead of its hoof.</p>
+<p>The Crow family took on a new dignity. Anderson gave fifty
+dollars to the Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian
+Church, claiming that a foreign education had done so much for his
+ward; and Mrs. Crow succeeded in holding two big afternoon teas
+before Rosalie could apply the check rein.</p>
+<p>One night Anderson sat up until nearly ten o'clock&mdash;an
+unheard-of proceeding for him. Rosalie, with the elder Crow girls,
+Edna and Susie, had gone to protracted meeting with a party of
+young men and women. The younger boys and girls were in bed, and
+Mrs. Crow was yawning prodigiously. She never retired until
+Anderson was ready to do likewise. Suddenly it dawned upon her that
+he was unusually quiet and preoccupied. They were sitting on the
+moonlit porch.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter, Anderson? Ain't you well?" she asked at
+last.</p>
+<p>"No; I'm just thinkin'," he responded, rather dismally.
+"Doggone, I cain't get it out of my head, Eva."</p>
+<p>"Can't get what out?"</p>
+<p>"About Rosalie."</p>
+<p>"Well, what about her?"</p>
+<p>"That's jest like a woman&mdash;always fergittin' the most
+important things in the world. Don't you know that the twenty years
+is up?"</p>
+<p>"Of course I know it, but 'tain't worryin' me any. She's still
+here, ain't she? Nobody has come to take her away. The thousand
+dollars came all right last February, didn't it? Well, what's the
+use worryin'?"</p>
+<p>"Mebbe you're right, but I'm skeered to death fer fear some one
+will turn up an' claim her, er that a big estate will be settled,
+er somethin' awful like that. I don't mind the money, Eva; I jest
+hate to think of losin' her, now that she's such a credit to us.
+Besides, I'm up a stump about next year."</p>
+<p>"Well, what happens then?"</p>
+<p>"Derned if I know. That's what's worryin' me."</p>
+<p>"I don't see why you&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Certainly you don't. You never do. I've got to do all the
+thinkin' fer this fambly. Next year she's twenty-one years old an'
+her own boss, ain't she? I ain't her guardeen after that, am I?
+What happens then, I'd like to know."</p>
+<p>"You jest have to settle with the court, pay over to her what
+belongs to her and keep the thousand every spring jest the same.
+Her people, whoever they be, are payin' you fer keepin' her an' not
+her fer stayin' here. 'Tain't likely she'll want to leave a good
+home like this 'un, is it? Don't worry till the time comes,
+Anderson."</p>
+<p>"That's jest the point. She's lived in New York an' she's got
+used to it. She's got fine idees; even her clothes seem to fit
+different. Now, do you s'pose that fine-lookin' girl with all her
+New York trimmin's 's goin' to hang 'round a fool little town like
+this? Not much! She's goin' to dig out o' here as soon's she gits a
+chance; an' she's goin' to live right where her heart tells her she
+belongs&mdash;in the metropolees of New York. She don't belong in
+no jim-crow town like this. Doggone, Eva, I hate to see 'er
+go!"</p>
+<p>There was such a wail of bitterness in the old constable's
+remark that Mrs. Crow felt the tears start to her own eyes. It was
+the girl they both wanted, after all&mdash;not the money. Rosalie,
+coming home with her party some time afterward, found the old
+couple still seated on the porch. The young people could not
+conceal their surprise.</p>
+<p>"Counting the stars, pop?" asked Edna Crow.</p>
+<p>"He's waiting for the eclipse," bawled noisy Ed Higgins, the
+grocer's clerk. "It's due next winter. H'are you, Anderson?"</p>
+<p>"How's that?" was Anderson's rebuke.</p>
+<p>"I mean Mr. Crow," corrected Ed, with a nervous glance at
+Rosalie, who had been his companion for the evening.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/097.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Oh, I'm jest so-so," remarked Anderson, mollified. "How was the
+party?"</p>
+<p>"It wasn't a party, Daddy Crow," laughed Rosalie, seating
+herself in front of him on the porch rail. "It was an experience
+meeting. Alf Reesling has reformed again. He told us all about his
+last attack of delirium tremens."</p>
+<p>"You don't say so! Well, sir, I never thought Alf could find the
+time to reform ag'in. He's too busy gittin' tight," mused Anderson.
+"But I guess reformin' c'n git to be as much a habit as anythin'
+else."</p>
+<p>"I think he was a little woozy to-night," ventured 'Rast
+Little.</p>
+<p>"A little what?"</p>
+<p>"Drunk," explained 'Rast, without wasting words. 'Rast had
+acquired the synonym at the business men's carnival in Boggs City
+the preceding fall. Sometimes he substituted the words "pie-eyed,"
+"skeed," "lit up," etc., just to show his worldliness.</p>
+<p>After the young men had departed and the Crow girls had gone
+upstairs with their mother Rosalie slipped out on the porch and sat
+herself down upon the knee of her disconsolate guardian.</p>
+<p>"You are worried about something, Daddy Crow," she said gently.
+"Now, speak up, sir. What is it?"</p>
+<p>"It's time you were in bed," scolded Anderson, pulling his
+whiskers nervously.</p>
+<p>"Oh, I'm young, daddy. I don't need sleep. But you never have
+been up as late as this since I've known you."</p>
+<p>"I was up later'n this the time you had the whoopin'-cough, all
+right."</p>
+<p>"What's troubling you, daddy?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, nothin'&mdash;nothin' at all. Doggone, cain't a man set out
+on his own porch 'thout&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Forgive me, daddy. Shall I go away and leave you?"</p>
+<p>"Gosh a'mighty, no!" he gasped. "That's what's worryin'
+me&mdash;oh, you didn't mean forever. You jest meant to-night?
+Geminy crickets, you did give me a skeer!" He sank back with a
+great sigh of relief.</p>
+<p>"Why, I never expect to leave you forever," she cried, caressing
+his scanty hair. "You couldn't drive me away. This is home, and
+you've been too good to me all these years. I may want to travel
+after a while, but I'll always come back to you, Daddy Crow."</p>
+<p>"I'm&mdash;I'm mighty glad to hear ye say that, Rosie. Ye
+see&mdash;ye see, me an' your ma kinder learned to love you,
+an'&mdash;an&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Why, Daddy Crow, you silly old goose! You're almost
+crying!"</p>
+<p>"What's that? Now, don't talk like that to me, you little
+whipper-snapper, er you go to bed in a hurry. I never cried in my
+life," growled Anderson in a great bluster.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, let's talk about something else&mdash;me, for
+instance. Do you know, Daddy Crow, that I'm too strong to live an
+idle life. There is no reason why I shouldn't have an occupation. I
+want to work&mdash;accomplish something."</p>
+<p>Anderson was silent a long time collecting his nerves. "You
+wouldn't keer to be a female detective, would you?" he asked
+drily.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<h3>Rosalie Has Plans of Her Own</h3>
+<p>"Do be serious, daddy. I want to do something worth while. I
+could teach school or&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Not much! You ain't cut out fer that job. Don't you know that
+ever'body hates school-teachers when they're growed up? Jerusalem,
+how I still hate old Rachel Kidwell! An' yet she's bin dead nigh
+onto thirty years. She was my first teacher. You wasn't born to be
+hated by all the boys in the district. I don't see what put the
+idee of work inter your head You got 'bout eight thousand dollars
+in the bank an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"But I insist that the money is yours, daddy. My fairy godmother
+paid it to you for keeping, clothing, and educating me. It is not
+mine."</p>
+<p>"You talk like I was a boardin' school instead o' bein' your
+guardeen. No, siree; it's your money, an' that ends it. You git it
+when you're twenty-one."</p>
+<p>"We'll see, daddy," she replied, a stubborn light in her dark
+eyes. "But I want to learn to do something worth while. If I had a
+million it would be just the same."</p>
+<p>"You'll have something to do when you git married," observed he
+sharply.</p>
+<p>"Nonsense!"</p>
+<p>"I s'pose you're goin' to say you never expect to git married.
+They all say it&mdash;an' then take the first feller 'at comes
+along."</p>
+<p>"I didn't take the first, or the second, or the third, or
+the&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Hold on! Gosh a'mighty, have you had that many? Well, why don't
+you go into the matrimonial agent's business? That's an
+occupation."</p>
+<p>"Oh, none of them was serious, daddy," she said
+na&iuml;vely.</p>
+<p>"You could have all of the men in the county!" he declared
+proudly. "Only," he added quickly, "it wouldn't seem jest right an'
+proper."</p>
+<p>"There was a girl at Miss Brown's a year ago who had loads of
+money, and yet she declared she was going to have an occupation.
+Nobody knew much about her or why she left school suddenly in the
+middle of a term. I liked her, for she was very nice to me when I
+first went there, a stranger. Mr. Reddon&mdash;you've heard me
+speak of him&mdash;was devoted to her, and I'm sure she liked him.
+It was only yesterday I heard from her. She is going to teach
+school in this township next winter."</p>
+<p>"An' she's got money?"</p>
+<p>"I am sure she had it in those days. It's the strangest thing in
+the world that she should be coming here to teach school in No. 5.
+Congressman Ritchey secured the appointment for her, she says. The
+township trustee&mdash;whatever his name is&mdash;for a long time
+insisted that he must appoint a teacher from Tinkletown and not an
+outsider. I am glad she is coming here because&mdash;well, daddy,
+because she is like the girls I knew in the city. She has asked me
+to look up a boarding place for next winter. Do you know of any
+one, daddy, who could let her have a nice room?"</p>
+<p>"I'll bet my ears you'd like to have your ma take her in right
+here. But I don't see how it c'n be done, Rosie-posie. There's so
+derned many of us now, an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I didn't mean that, daddy. She couldn't come here. But
+don't you think Mrs. Jim Holabird would take her in for the
+winter?"</p>
+<p>"P'raps. She's a widder. She might let her have Jim's room now
+that there's a vacancy. You might go over an' ast her about it
+to-morrer. It's a good thing she's a friend of yourn, Rosalie,
+because if she wasn't I'd have to fight her app'intment."</p>
+<p>"Why, daddy!" reproachfully.</p>
+<p>"Well, she's a foreigner, an' I don't think it's right to give
+her a job when we've got so many home products that want the place
+an' who look unpopular enough to fill the bill. I'm fer home
+industry every time, an' 'specially as this girl don't appear to
+need the place. I don't see what business Congressman Ritchey has
+foolin' with our school system anyhow. He'd better be reducin' the
+tariff er increasin' the pensions down to Washington."</p>
+<p>"I quite agree with you, Daddy Crow," said Rosalie with a
+diplomacy that always won for her. She knew precisely how to handle
+her guardian, and that was why she won where his own daughters
+failed. "And now, good-night, daddy. Go to bed and don't worry
+about me. You'll have me on your hands much longer than you think
+or want. What time is it?"</p>
+<p>Anderson patted her head reflectively as he solemnly drew his
+huge silver time-piece from an unlocated pocket. He held it out
+into the bright moonlight.</p>
+<p>"Geminy crickets!" he exclaimed. "It's forty-nine minutes to
+twelve!" Anderson Crow's policy was to always look at things
+through the small end of the telescope.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/103.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>The slow, hot summer wore away, and to Rosalie it was the
+longest that she ever had experienced. She was tired of the
+ceaseless twaddle of Tinkletown, its flow of "missions,"
+"sociables," "buggy-horses," "George Rawlin's new dress-suit,"
+"harvesting," and "politics"&mdash;for even the children talked
+politics. Nor did the assiduous attentions of the village young men
+possess the power to shorten the days for her&mdash;and they
+certainly lengthened the nights. She liked them because they were
+her friends from the beginning&mdash;and Rosalie was not a snob.
+Not for the world would she have hurt the feelings of one poor,
+humble, adoring soul in Tinkletown; and while her smile was none
+the less sweet, her laugh none the less joyous, in her heart there
+was the hidden longing that smiled only in dreams. She longed for
+the day that was to bring Elsie Banks to live with Mrs. Holabird,
+for with her would come a breath of the world she had known for two
+years, and which she had learned to love so well.</p>
+<p>In three months seven men had asked her to marry them. Of the
+seven, one only had the means or the prospect of means to support
+her. He was a grass-widower with five grown children. Anderson took
+occasion to warn her against widowers.</p>
+<p>"Why," he said, "they're jest like widders. You know Dave Smith
+that runs the tavern down street, don't you? Well, doggone ef he
+didn't turn in an' marry a widder with seven childern an' a
+husband, an' he's led a dog's life ever sence."</p>
+<p>"Seven children and a husband? Daddy Crow!"</p>
+<p>"Yep. Her derned husband wouldn't stay divorced when he found
+out Dave could support a fambly as big as that. He figgered it
+would be jest as easy to take keer of eight as seven, so he
+perlitely attached hisself to Dave's kitchen an' started in to eat
+hisself to death. Dave was goin' to have his wife apply fer another
+divorce an' leave the name blank, so's he could put in either
+husband ef it came to a pinch, but I coaxed him out of it. He
+finally got rid of the feller by askin' him one day to sweep out
+the office. He could eat all right, but it wasn't natural fer him
+to work, so he skipped out. Next I heerd of him he had married a
+widder who was gittin' a pension because her first husband fit fer
+his country. The Government shet off the pension jest as soon as
+she got married ag'in, and then that blamed cuss took in washin'
+fer her. He stayed away from home on wash-days, but as every day
+was wash-day with her, he didn't see her by daylight fer three
+years. She died, an' now he's back at Dave's ag'in. He calls Dave
+his husband-in-law."</p>
+<p>It required all of Anderson's social and official diplomacy to
+forestall an indignation meeting when it was announced that a
+stranger, Miss Banks, had been selected to teach school No. 5.
+There was some talk of mobbing the township trustee and Board of
+County Commissioners, but Anderson secured the names of the more
+virulent talkers and threatened to "jail" them for conspiracy.</p>
+<p>"Why, Anderson," almost wailed George Ray, "that girl's from the
+city. What does she know about grammar an' history an' all that?
+They don't teach anything but French an' Italian in the cities an'
+you know it."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw!" sniffed Anderson. "I hate grammar an' always did. I c'n
+talk better Italian than grammar right now, an' I hope Miss Banks
+will teach every child in the district how to talk French. You'd
+orter hear Rosalie talk it. Besides, Rosie says she's a nice girl
+an'&mdash;an' needs the job." Anderson lied bravely, but he
+swallowed twice in doing it.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i106.jpg" id="i106.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/106.jpg"><img src="images/106.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"September brought Elsie Banks"</b></div>
+<p>September brought Elsie Banks to make life worth living for
+Rosalie. The two girls were constantly together, talking over the
+old days and what the new ones were to bring forth, especially for
+Miss Gray, who had resumed wood carving as a temporary occupation.
+Miss Banks was more than ever reluctant to discuss her own affairs,
+and Rosalie after a few trials was tactful enough to respect her
+mute appeal. It is doubtful if either of the girls mentioned the
+name of big, handsome Tom Reddon&mdash;Tom, who had rowed in his
+college crew; but it is safe to say that both of them thought of
+him more than once those long, soft, autumn nights&mdash;nights
+when Tinkletown's beaux were fairly tumbling over themselves in the
+effort to make New York life seem like a flimsy shadow in
+comparison.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<h3><i>Elsie Banks</i></h3>
+<p>Aderson Crow stood afar off&mdash;among the bleak, leafless
+trees of Badger's Grove&mdash;and gazed thoughtfully, even
+earnestly, upon the little red schoolhouse with its high brick
+chimney and snow-clad roof. A biting January wind cut through his
+whiskers and warmed his nose to a half-broiled shade of red. On the
+lapel of his overcoat glistened his social and official badges,
+augmented by a new and particularly shiny emblem of respect
+bestowed by the citizens of Tinkletown.</p>
+<p>At first it had been the sense of the town to erect a monument
+in recognition of his part in the capture of the Bramble County
+horse-thief gang, but a thrifty and considerate committee of five
+substituted a fancy gold badge with suitable inscriptions on both
+sides, extolling him to the skies "long before he went there
+hisself" (to quote Uncle Gideon Luce, whose bump of perception was
+a stubborn prophet when it came to picking out the site of Mr.
+Crow's heaven). For a full half hour the marshal of Tinkletown had
+been standing among the trees surveying the schoolhouse at the foot
+of the slope. If his frosted cheeks and watery eyes ached for the
+warmth that urged the curls of smoke to soar away from the
+chimney-top, his attitude did not betray the fact. He was watching
+and thinking, and when Anderson thought of one thing he never
+thought of another at the same time.</p>
+<p>"It'll soon be recess time," he reflected. "Then I'll step down
+there an' let on to be makin' a social call on the schoolma'am. By
+gum, I believe she's the one! It'll take some tarnation good work
+to find out the truth about her, but I guess I c'n do it all right.
+The only thing I got to guard ag'inst is lettin' anybody else know
+of the mystery surroundin' her. Gosh! it'll surprise some of the
+folks 'round here, 'specially Rosalie. An' mebby the township
+trustee won't be sorry he give the school this year to a strange
+girl instid o' to Jane Rankin er Effie Dickens! Congressman Ritchey
+hadn't no business puttin' his nose into our affairs anyhow, no
+matter if this here teacher is a friend of his fambly. He's got
+some kind a holt on these here trustees&mdash;'y gosh, I'd like to
+know what 'tis. He c'n jest wrap 'em round his finger an' make 'em
+app'int anybody he likes. Must be politics. There, it's recess!
+I'll jest light out an' pay the schoolhouse a little visit."</p>
+<p>Inside a capacious and official pocket of Mr. Crow's coat
+reposed a letter from a law firm in Chicago. It asked if within the
+last two years a young woman had applied for a position as teacher
+in the township schools at Tinkletown. A description accompanied
+the inquiry, but it was admitted she might have applied under a
+name not her own, which was Marion Lovering. In explanation, the
+letter said she had left her home in Chicago without the consent of
+her aunt, imbued with the idea that she would sooner support
+herself than depend upon the charity of that worthy though wealthy
+relative. The aunt had recently died, and counsel for the estate
+was trying to establish proof concerning the actions and
+whereabouts of Miss Lovering since her departure from Chicago.</p>
+<p>The young woman often had said she would become a teacher, a
+tutor, a governess, or a companion, and it was known that she had
+made her way to that section of the world presided over by Anderson
+Crow&mdash;although the distinguished lawyers did not put it in
+those words. A reward of five hundred dollars for positive
+information concerning the "life of the girl" while in "that or any
+other community" was promised.</p>
+<p>Miss Banks's appointment came through the agency of the
+district's congressman, in whose home she had acted as governess
+for a period. Moreover, she answered the description in that she
+was young, pretty, and refined. Anderson Crow felt that he was on
+the right track; he was now engaged in as pretty a piece of
+detective business as had ever fallen to his lot, and he was not
+going to spoil it by haste and overconfidence.</p>
+<p>Just why Anderson Crow should "shadow" the schoolhouse instead
+of the teacher's temporary place of abode no one could possibly
+have known but himself&mdash;and it is doubtful if <i>he</i> knew.
+He resolved not to answer the Chicago letter until he was quite
+ready to produce the girl and the proof desired.</p>
+<p>"I'd be a gol-swiggled fool to put 'em onter my s'picions an'
+then have 'em cheat me out of the reward," he reflected keenly.
+"You cain't trust them Chicago lawyers an inch an' a half. Doggone
+it, I'll never fergit that feller who got my pockit-book out to
+Central Park that time. He tole me positively he was a lawyer from
+Chicago, an' had an office in the Y.M.C.A. Building. An' the idee
+of him tellin' me he wanted to see if my pockit-book had better
+leather in it than hisn!"</p>
+<p>The fact that the school children, big and little, loved Miss
+Banks possessed no point of influence over their elders of the
+feminine persuasion. They turned up their Tinkletown noses and
+sniffed at her because she was a "vain creature," who thought more
+of "attractin' the men than she did of anything else on earth." And
+all this in spite of the fact that she was the intimate friend of
+the town goddess, Rosalie Gray.</p>
+<p>Everybody in school No. 5 over the age of seven was deeply,
+jealously in love with Miss Banks. Many a frozen snowball did its
+deadly work from ambush because of this impotent jealousy.</p>
+<p>But the merriest rivalry was that which developed between Ed
+Higgins, the Beau Brummel of Tinkletown, and 'Rast Little, whose
+father owned the biggest farm in Bramble County. If she was amused
+by the frantic efforts of each suitor to outwit the other she was
+too tactful to display her emotion. Perhaps she was more highly
+entertained by the manner in which Tinkletown femininity paired its
+venom with masculine admiration.</p>
+<p>"Mornin', Miss Banks," was Anderson's greeting as he stamped
+noisily into the room. He forgot that he had said good-morning to
+her when she stopped in to see Rosalie on her way to the
+schoolhouse. The children ceased their outdoor game and peered
+eagerly through the windows, conscious that the visit of this
+dignitary was of supreme importance. Miss Banks looked up from the
+papers she was correcting, the pucker vanishing from her pretty
+brow as if by magic.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/113.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Good-morning, Mr. Crow. What are you doing away out here in the
+country? Jimmy"&mdash;to a small boy&mdash;"please close the door."
+Anderson had left it open, and it was a raw January wind which
+followed him into the room.</p>
+<p>"'Scuse me," he murmured. "Seems I ain't got sense enough to
+shet a door even. My wife says&mdash;but you don't keer to hear
+about that, do you? Oh, I jest dropped in," finally answering her
+question. He took a bench near the big stove and spread his hands
+before the sheet-iron warmth. "Lookin' up a little affair, that's
+all. Powerful chilly, ain't it?"</p>
+<p>"Very." She stood on the opposite side of the stove, puzzled by
+this unexpected visit, looking at him with undisguised
+curiosity.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/114.jpg" width="75%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Ever been to Chicago?" asked Anderson suddenly, hoping to catch
+her unawares.</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes. I have lived there," she answered readily. He shifted
+his legs twice and took a hasty pull at his whiskers.</p>
+<p>"That's what I thought. Why don't you go back there?"</p>
+<p>"Because I'm teaching school here, Mr. Crow."</p>
+<p>"Well, I reckon that's a good excuse. I thought mebby you had a
+different one."</p>
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I dunno. I jest asked."</p>
+<p>"You are a detective, are you not?" asked Miss Banks, smiling
+brightly and with understanding.</p>
+<p>"Oh, off an' on I do a little detectin'. See my badge?"</p>
+<p>"Am I suspected of a heinous crime?" she asked so abruptly that
+he gasped. "Won't you take off your cap, Mr. Crow?" He removed it
+sheepishly.</p>
+<p>"Lord, no!" he exclaimed in confusion. "I mean the
+crime&mdash;not the cap. Well, I guess I'll be goin'. School's
+goin' to take up, I reckon. See you later, Miss Banks." He restored
+his cap to its accustomed place and was starting toward the door, a
+trifle dazed and bewildered.</p>
+<p>"What is it that you wish to find out, Mr. Crow?" she suddenly
+called to him. He halted and faced about so quickly that his reply
+came like a shot out of a gun.</p>
+<p>"I'm on the lookout fer a girl&mdash;an' she'll be's rich's
+Crowses if I c'n only find 'er. I dassent tell 'er name jest now,"
+he went on, slowly retracing his steps, "'cause I don't want
+people&mdash;er her either, fer that matter&mdash;to git onter my
+scheme. But you jest wait." He was standing very close to her now
+and looking her full in the face. "You're sure you don't know
+anythin' 'bout her?"</p>
+<p>"Why, how should I know? You've told me nothing."</p>
+<p>"You've got purty good clothes fer a common school-teacher," he
+flung at her in an aggressive, impertinent tone, but the warm
+colour that swiftly rose to her cheeks forced him to recall his
+words, for he quickly tempered them with, "Er, at least, that's
+what all the women folks say."</p>
+<p>"Oh, so some one has been talking about my affairs? Some of your
+excellent women want to know more about me than&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Don't git excited, Miss Banks," he interrupted; "the women
+ain't got anythin' to do with it&mdash;I mean, it's nothin' to
+them. I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Mr. Crow," she broke in, "if there is anything you or anybody
+in Tinkletown wants to know about me you will have to deduce it for
+yourself. I believe that is what you call it&mdash;deduce? And now
+good-bye, Mr. Crow. Recess is over," she said pointedly; and Mr.
+Crow shuffled out as the children galloped in.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/116.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>That evening Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little came to call, but she
+excused herself because of her correspondence. In her little
+upstairs room she wrote letter after letter, one in particular
+being voluminous. Mrs. Holabird, as she passed her door, distinctly
+heard her laugh aloud. It was a point to be recalled afterward with
+no little consideration. Later she went downstairs, cloaked warmly,
+for a walk to the post-office. Ed Higgins was still in the parlour
+talking to the family. He hastily put in his petition to accompany
+her, and it was granted absently. Then he surreptitiously and
+triumphantly glanced through the window, the scene outside pleasing
+him audibly. 'Rast was standing at the front gate talking to
+Anderson Crow. Miss Banks noticed as they passed the confused twain
+at the gate that Anderson carried his dark lantern.</p>
+<p>"Any trace of the heiress, Mr. Crow?" she asked merrily.</p>
+<p>"Doggone it," muttered Anderson, "she'll give the whole snap
+away!"</p>
+<p>"What's that?" asked 'Rast.</p>
+<p>"Nothin' much," said Anderson, repairing the damage. "Ed's got
+your time beat to-night, 'Rast, that's all!"</p>
+<p>"I could 'a' took her out ridin' to-night if I'd wanted to,"
+lied 'Rast promptly. "I'm goin' to take her to the spellin'-bee
+to-morrow night out to the schoolhouse."</p>
+<p>"Did she say she'd go with you?"</p>
+<p>"Not yet. I was jest goin' to ast her to-night."</p>
+<p>"Mebby Ed's askin' her now."</p>
+<p>"Gosh dern it, that's so! Maybe he is," almost wailed 'Rast; and
+Anderson felt sorry for him as he ambled away from the gate and its
+love-sick guardian.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Spelling-Bee</i></h3>
+<p>Young Mr. Higgins found his companion bubbling over with
+vivacity. Her pretty chin was in the air and every word bore the
+promise of a laugh. He afterward recalled one little incident of
+their walk through the frosty night, and repeated it to Anderson
+Crow with more awe than seemed necessary. They were passing the
+town pump on their way to the post-office. The street was dark and
+deserted.</p>
+<p>"Gosh!" said Ed, "I bet the town pump's froze up!"</p>
+<p>"It doesn't seem very cold," she said brightly.</p>
+<p>"Gee! it's below zero! I bet 'Rast thinks it's pretty doggone
+cold up there by your gate."</p>
+<p>"Poor 'Rast! His mother should keep him indoors on nights like
+this." Ed laughed loud and long and a tingle of happiness shot
+through his erstwhile shivering frame. "I'm not a bit cold," she
+went on. "See&mdash;feel my hand. I'm not even wearing
+mittens."</p>
+<p>Ed Higgins gingerly clasped the little hand, but it was
+withdrawn at once. He found it as warm as toast. Words of love
+surged to his humble lips; his knees felt a tendency to lower
+themselves precipitously to the frozen sidewalk; he was ready to
+grovel at her feet&mdash;and he wondered if they were as warm as
+toast. But 'Rast Little came up at that instant and the chance was
+lost.</p>
+<p>"Doggone!" slipped unconsciously but bitterly from Ed's
+lips.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/119.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Can I be your company to the spellin'-bee to-morrow night, Miss
+Banks?" burst unceremoniously from the lips of the newcomer.</p>
+<p>"Thank you, 'Rast. I was just wondering how I should get out to
+the schoolhouse. You are very kind. We'll go in the bob-sled with
+the Holabirds."</p>
+<p>"Doggone!" came in almost a wail from poor Ed. He could have
+killed 'Rast for the triumphant laugh that followed.</p>
+<p>In the meantime Anderson Crow was preparing to crawl in between
+the icy sheets at home. Mrs. Crow was "sitting up" with old Mrs.
+Luce, who was ill next door.</p>
+<p>"She's a girl with a past," reflected Anderson. "She's a
+mystery, that's what she is; but I'll unravel her. She had a mighty
+good reason fer sawin' me off out there to-day. I was gittin' too
+close home. She seen I was about to corner her. By gum, I hope she
+don't suspect nothin'! She's found out that Ed Higgins has a good
+job down to Lamson's store, an' she's settin' her cap fer him. It
+shows she'd ruther live in the city than in the country&mdash;so
+it's all up with 'Rast. That proves she's from Chicago er some
+other big place. Ed's gettin' eight dollars a week down there at
+Lamson's. By gum, that boy's doin' well! I used to think he
+wouldn't amount to nothin'. It shows that the best of us git fooled
+in a feller once in a while. To-morrow night I'll go out to the
+spellin'-match, an' when the chanct comes I'll sidle up to her an'
+whisper her real name in her ear. I bet four dollars an' a half
+that'll fetch her purty prompt. Doggone, these here sheets air
+cold! It's forty below zero right here in this bed."</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow soon slept, but he did not dream of the tragedy
+the next night was to bring upon Tinkletown, nor of the test his
+prowess was to endure.</p>
+<p>The next night and the "spellin'-bee" at school No. 5 came on
+apace together. It was bitterly cold and starlight. By eight
+o'clock the warm schoolhouse was comfortably filled with the
+"spellers" of the neighbourhood, their numbers increased by
+competitors from Tinkletown itself. In the crowd were men and women
+who time after time had "spelled down" whole companies, and who
+were eager for the conflict. They had "studied up" on their
+spelling for days in anticipation of a hard battle in the words.
+Mrs. Borum and Mrs. Cartwill, both famous for their victories and
+for the rivalry that existed between them, were selected as
+captains of the opposing sides, and Miss Banks herself was to "give
+out" the words. The captains selected their forces, choosing
+alternately from the anxious crowd of grown folks. There were no
+children there, for it was understood that big words would be given
+out&mdash;words children could not pronounce, much less spell.</p>
+<p>The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful night. She was
+dressed as no other woman in Bramble County, except Rosalie Gray,
+could have attired herself&mdash;simply, tastefully, daintily. Her
+face was flushed and eager and the joy of living glowed in every
+feature. Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little were struck senseless,
+nerveless by this vision of health and loveliness. Anderson Crow
+stealthily admitted to himself that she was a stranger in a strange
+land; she was not of Tinkletown or any place like it.</p>
+<p>Just as the captains were completing their selections of
+spellers the door opened and three strangers entered the
+school-room, overcoated and furred to the tips of their
+noses&mdash;two men and a woman. As Miss Banks rushed forward to
+greet them&mdash;she had evidently been expecting them&mdash;the
+startled assemblage caught its breath and stared. To the further
+amazement of every one, Rosalie hastened to her side and joined in
+the effusive welcome. Every word of joyous greeting was heard by
+the amazed listeners and every word from the strangers was as
+distinct. Surely the newcomers were friends of long standing. When
+their heavy wraps were removed the trio stood forth before as
+curious an audience as ever sat spellbound. The men were young,
+well dressed and handsome; the woman a beauty of the most dashing
+type. Tinkletown's best spellers quivered with excitement.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i122.jpg" id="i122.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/122.jpg"><img src="images/122.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful
+night"</b></div>
+<p>"Ladies and gentlemen," said Miss Banks, her voice trembling
+with eagerness, "let me introduce my friends, Mrs. Farnsworth, Mr.
+Farnsworth, and Mr. Reddon. They have driven over to attend the
+spelling-match." Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little observed with sinking
+hearts that it was Mr. Reddon whom she led forward by the hand, and
+they cursed him inwardly for the look he gave her&mdash;because she
+blushed beneath it.</p>
+<p>"You don't live in Boggs City," remarked Mr. Crow, appointing
+himself spokesman. "I c'n deduce that, 'cause you're carrying
+satchels an' valises."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Crow is a famous detective," explained Miss Banks. Anderson
+attempted to assume an unconscious pose, but in leaning back he
+missed the end of the bench, and sat sprawling upon the lap of Mrs.
+Harbaugh. As Mrs. Harbaugh had little or no lap to speak of, his
+downward course was diverted but not stayed. He landed on the floor
+with a grunt that broke simultaneously with the lady's squeak; a
+fraction of a second later a roar of laughter swept the room. It
+was many minutes before quiet was restored and the "match" could be
+opened. Mrs. Cartwill chose Mrs. Farnsworth and her rival selected
+the husband of the dashing young woman. Mr. Reddon firmly and
+significantly announced his determination to sit near the teacher
+"to preserve order," and not enter the contest of words.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/125.jpg" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Possibly it was the presence of the strangers that rattled and
+unnerved the famed spellers of both sides, for it was not long
+until the lines had dwindled to almost nothing. Three or four
+arrogant competitors stood forth and valiantly spelled such words
+as "Popocatepetl," "Tschaikowsky," "terpsichorean,"
+"Yang-tse-Kiang," "Yseult," and scores of words that could scarcely
+be pronounced by the teacher herself. But at last, just as the
+sleepy watchers began to nod and yawn the hardest, Mrs. Cartwill
+stood alone and victorious, her single opponent having gone down on
+the word "sassafras." Anderson Crow had "gone down" early in the
+match by spelling "kerosene" "kerry-seen." Ed Higgins followed with
+"ceriseen," and 'Rast Little explosively had it "coal-oil."</p>
+<p>During the turmoil incident to the dispersing of the gathered
+hosts Miss Banks made her way to 'Rast Little's side and informed
+him that the Farnsworths were to take her to Mrs. Holabird's in
+their big sleigh. 'Rast was floored. When he started to
+remonstrate, claiming to be her "company," big Tom Reddon
+interposed and drew Miss Banks away from her lover's wrath.</p>
+<p>"But I'm so sorry for him, Tom," she protested contritely. "He
+<i>did</i> bring me here&mdash;in a way."</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll take you home another way," said good-looking Mr.
+Reddon. It was also noticed that Rosalie Gray had much of a
+confidential nature to say to Miss Banks as they parted for the
+evening, she to go home in Blucher Peabody's new sleigh.</p>
+<p>'Rast and Ed Higgins almost came to blows out at the hitch-rack,
+where the latter began twitting his discomfited rival. Anderson
+Crow kept them apart.</p>
+<p>"I'll kill that big dude," growled 'Rast. "He's got no business
+comin' here an' rakin' up trouble between me an' her. You mark my
+words, I'll fix him before the night's over, doggone his hide!"</p>
+<p>At least a dozen men, including Alf Reesling, heard this threat,
+and not one of them was to forget it soon. Anderson Crow noticed
+that Mrs. Holabird's bob-sled drove away without either Miss Banks
+or 'Rast Little in its capacious depths. Miss Banks announced that
+her three friends from the city and she would stay behind and close
+the schoolhouse, putting everything in order. It was Friday night,
+and there would be no session until the following Monday. Mr. Crow
+was very sleepy for a detective. He snored all the way home.</p>
+<p>The next morning two farmers drove madly into Tinkletown with
+the astounding news that some one had been murdered at schoolhouse
+No. 5. In passing the place soon after daybreak they had noticed
+blood on the snow at the roadside. The school-room door was half
+open and they entered. Blood in great quantities smeared the floor
+near the stove, but there was no sign of humanity, alive or dead.
+Miss Banks's handkerchief was found on the floor saturated.</p>
+<p>Moreover, the school-teacher was missing. She had not returned
+to the home of Mrs. Holabird the night before. To make the horror
+all the more ghastly, Anderson Crow, hastening to the schoolhouse,
+positively identified the blood as that of Miss Banks.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<h3><i>A Tinkletown Sensation</i></h3>
+<p>Sensations came thick and fast in Tinkletown during the next few
+hours. Investigation proved that 'Rast Little was nowhere to be
+found. He had not returned to his home after the spelling-bee, nor
+had he been seen since. Mrs. Holabird passed him in the road on her
+way home in the "bob-sled." In response to her command to "climb
+in" he sullenly said he was going to walk home by a "short cut"
+through the woods. A farmer had seen the stylish Farnsworth sleigh
+driving north furiously at half-past eleven, the occupants huddled
+in a bunch as if to protect themselves from the biting air. The
+witness was not able to tell "which was which" in the sleigh, but
+he added interest to the situation by solemnly asserting that one
+of the persons in the rear seat was "bundled up" more than the
+rest, and evidently was unable to sit erect.</p>
+<p>According to his tale, the figure was lying over against the
+other occupant of the seat. He was also, positive that there were
+three figures in the front seat! Who was the extra person? was the
+question that flashed into the minds of the listeners. A small boy
+came to the schoolhouse at nine o'clock in the morning with 'Rast
+Little's new derby hat. He had picked it up at the roadside not far
+from the schoolhouse and in the direction taken by the Farnsworth
+party.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/129.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Anderson gave orders that no word of the catastrophe be carried
+to Rosalie, who was reported to be ill of a fever the next morning
+after the spelling-bee. She had a cough, and the doctor had said
+that nothing should be said or done to excite her.</p>
+<p>The crowd at the schoolhouse grew larger as the morning passed
+Everybody talked in whispers; everybody was mystified beyond
+belief. All eyes were turned to Anderson Crow, who stood aloof,
+pondering as he had never pondered before. In one hand he held Miss
+Banks's bloody handkerchief and in the other a common school
+text-book on physiology. His badges and stars fairly revelled in
+their own importance.</p>
+<p>"Don't pester him with questions," warned Isaac Porter,
+addressing Alf Reesling, the town drunkard, who had just
+arrived.</p>
+<p>"But I got something I want to say to him," persisted Alf
+eagerly. Two or three strong men restrained him.</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, Alf," whispered Elon Jones, "cain't you see he's
+figurin' something out? You're liable to throw him clear off the
+track if you say a word to him."</p>
+<p>"Well, this is something he'd oughter know," almost whimpered
+Alf, rubbing his frozen ears.</p>
+<p>"Sh!" muttered the bystanders, and poor Alf subsided. He was
+unceremoniously hustled into the background as Mr. Crow moved from
+the window toward the group.</p>
+<p>"Gentlemen," said Anderson gravely, "there is somethin' wrong
+here." It is barely possible that this was not news to the crowd,
+but with one accord they collectively and severally exchanged looks
+of appreciation. "I've been readin' up a bit on the human body, an'
+I've proved one thing sure in my own mind."</p>
+<p>"You bet you have, Anderson," said Elon Jones. "It's all
+settled. Let's go home."</p>
+<p>"Settled nothin'!" said the marshal. "It's jest begun. Here's
+what I deduce: Miss Banks has been foully dealt with. Ain't this
+her blood, an' ain't she used her own individual handkerchief to
+stop it up? It's blood right square from her heart, gentlemen!"</p>
+<p>"I don't see how&mdash;" began Ed Higgins; but Anderson silenced
+him with a look.</p>
+<p>"Of course <i>you</i> don't, but you would if you'd 'a' been a
+detective as long's I have. What in thunder do you s'pose I got
+these badges and these medals fer? Fer <i>not</i> seein' how? No,
+siree! I got 'em fer <i>seein</i>' how; that's what!"</p>
+<p>"But, Andy&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Don't call me 'Andy,'" commanded Mr. Crow.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, Anderson, I'd like to know how the dickens she
+could use her own handkerchief if she was stabbed to the heart,"
+protested Ed. He had been crying half the time. Anderson was
+stunned for the moment.</p>
+<p>"Why&mdash;why&mdash;now, look here, Ed Higgins, I ain't got
+time to explain things to a derned idgit like you. Everybody else
+understands <i>how</i>, don't you?" and he turned to the crowd.
+Everybody said yes. "Well, that shows what a fool you are, Ed.
+Don't bother me any more. I've got work to do."</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson," began Alf Reesling from the outer circle, "I
+got something important to tell&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Who is that? Alf Reesling?" cried Anderson wrathfully.</p>
+<p>"Yes; I want to see you private, Anderson. Its important,"
+begged Alf.</p>
+<p>"How many times have I got to set down on you, Alf Reesling?"
+exploded Anderson. "Doggone, I'd like to know how a man's to solve
+mysteries if he's got to stand around half the time an' listen to
+fambly quarrels. Tell yer wife I'll&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"This ain't no family quarrel. Besides, I ain't got no wife.
+It's about this here&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"That'll do, now, Alf! Not another word out of you!" commanded
+Anderson direfully.</p>
+<p>"But, dern you, Anderson," exploded Alf, "I've got to tell
+you&mdash;"</p>
+<p>But Anderson held up a hand.</p>
+<p>"Don't swear in the presence of the dead," he said solemnly.
+"You're drunk, Alf; go home!" And Alf, news and all was hustled
+from the schoolhouse by a self-appointed committee of ten.</p>
+<p>"Now, we'll search fer the body," announced Anderson. "Git out
+of the way, Bud!"</p>
+<p>"I ain't standin' on it," protested twelve-year-old Bud
+Long.</p>
+<p>"Well, you're standin' mighty near them blood-stains
+an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Yes, 'n ain't blood a part of the body?" rasped Isaac Porter
+scornfully; whereupon Bud faded into the outer rim.</p>
+<p>"First we'll look down cellar," said Mr. Crow. "Where's the
+cellar at?"</p>
+<p>"There ain't none," replied Elon Jones.</p>
+<p>"What? No cellar? Well, where in thunder did they hide the body,
+then?"</p>
+<p>"There's an attic," ventured Joe Perkins.</p>
+<p>A searching party headed by Anderson Crow shinned up the ladder
+to the low garret. No trace of a body was to be found, and the
+searchers came down rather thankfully. Then, under Mr. Crow's
+direction, they searched the wood piles, the woods, and the fields
+for many rods in all directions. At noon they congregated at the
+schoolhouse. Alf Reesling was there.</p>
+<p>"Find it?" said he thickly, with a cunning leer. He had been
+drinking. Anderson was tempted to club him half to death, but
+instead he sent him home with Joe Perkins, refusing absolutely to
+hear what the town drunkard had to say.</p>
+<p>"Well, you'll wish you'd listened to me," ominously hiccoughed
+Alf; and then, as a parting shot, "I wouldn't tell you now fer
+eighteen dollars cash. You c'n go to thunder!" It was
+<i>l&egrave;se majest&eacute;</i>, but the crowd did nothing worse
+than stare at the offender.</p>
+<p>Before starting off on the trail of the big sleigh, Anderson
+sent this message by wire to the lawyers in Chicago:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"<i>I have found the girl you want, but the body is lost. Would
+you just as soon have her dead as alive</i>?</p>
+<p>"ANDERSON CROW."</p>
+</div>
+<p>In a big bob-sled the marshal and a picked sextette of men set
+off at one o'clock on the road over which the sleigh had travelled
+many hours before. Anderson had failed to report the suspected
+crime to the sheriff at Boggs City and was working alone on the
+mystery. He said he did not want anybody from town interfering with
+his affairs.</p>
+<p>"Say, Andy&mdash;Anderson," said Harry Squires, now editor of
+the <i>Banner</i>, "maybe we're hunting the wrong body and the
+wrong people."</p>
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+<p>"Well, ain't 'Rast Little missing? Maybe he's been killed, eh?
+And say, ain't there some chance that he did the killing? Didn't he
+say he was going to murder that city chap? Well, supposing he did.
+We're on the wrong track, ain't we?"</p>
+<p>"Doggone you, Harry, that don't fit in with my deductions,"
+wailed Anderson. "I wish you'd let me alone. 'Rast may have done
+the killin', but it's our place to find the body, ain't it? Whoever
+has been slew was taken away last night in the sleigh. S'posin it
+was Mr. Reddon! Well, consarn it, ain't he got a body same as
+anybody else? We've just got to find somebody's body, that's all.
+We've got to prove the corpus deelicti. Drive up, Bill!"</p>
+<p>With a perseverance that spoke well for the detective's
+endurance, but ill for his intelligence, the "bob" sped along
+aimlessly. It was ridiculous to think of tracking a sleigh over a
+well-travelled road, and it was not until they reached the
+cross-roads that Harry Squires suggested that inquiries be made of
+the farmers in the neighbourhood. After diligent effort, a farmer
+was discovered who said he had heard the sleigh bells at midnight,
+and, peering from his window, had caught a glimpse of the party
+turning south at the cross-roads.</p>
+<p>"Jest as I thought!" exclaimed Anderson. "They went south so's
+to skip Boggs City. Boys, they've got her body er 'Rast's body er
+that other feller's body with 'em, an' they're skootin' down this
+pike so's to get to the big bridge. My idee is that they allowed to
+drop the body in the river, which ain't friz plum over."</p>
+<p>"Gee! We ain't expected to search all over the bottom of the
+river, are we, Anderson?" shivered Isaac Porter, the pump
+repairer.</p>
+<p>"<i>I</i> ain't," said the leader, "but I can deputise anybody I
+want to."</p>
+<p>And so they hurried on to the six-span bridge that crossed the
+ice-laden river. As they stood silent, awed and shivering on the
+middle span, staring down into the black water with its navy of
+swirling ice-chunks, even the heart of Anderson Crow chilled and
+grew faint.</p>
+<p>"Boys," he said, "we've lost the track! Not even a bloodhound
+could track 'em in that water."</p>
+<p>"Bloodhound?" sniffed Harry Squires. "A hippopotamus, you
+mean."</p>
+<p>They were hungry and cold, and they were ready to turn homeward.
+Anderson said he "guessed" he'd turn the job over to the sheriff
+and his men. Plainly, he was much too hungry to do any more
+trailing. Besides, for more than an hour he had been thinking of
+the warm wood fire at home. Bill Rubley was putting the "gad" to
+the horses when a man on horseback rode up from the opposite end of
+the bridge. He had come far and in a hurry, and he recognised
+Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson!" he called, "somebody broke into Colonel
+Randall's summer home last night an' they're there yet. Got fires
+goin' in all the stoves, an' havin' a high old time. They ain't got
+no business there, becuz the place is closed fer the winter. Aleck
+Burbank went over to order 'em out; one of the fellers said he'd
+bust his head if he didn't clear out. I think it's a gang!"</p>
+<p>A hurried interview brought out the facts. The invaders had come
+up in a big sleigh long before dawn, and&mdash;but that was
+sufficient. Anderson and his men returned to the hunt, eager and
+sure of their prey. Darkness was upon them when they came in sight
+of Colonel Randall's country place in the hills. There were lights
+in the windows and people were making merry indoors; while outside
+the pursuing Nemesis and his men were wondering how and where to
+assault the stronghold.</p>
+<p>"I'll jest walk up an' rap on the door," said Anderson Crow,
+"lettin' on to be a tramp. I'll ast fer somethin' to eat an' a
+place to sleep. While I'm out there in the kitchen eatin' you
+fellers c'n sneak up an' surround us. Then you c'n let on like
+you're lookin' fer me because I'd robbed a hen-roost er something,
+an' that'll get 'em off their guard. Once we all git inside the
+house with these shotguns we've got 'em where we want 'em. Then
+I'll make 'em purduce the body."</p>
+<p>"Don't we git anythin' to eat, too?" demanded Isaac Porter
+faintly.</p>
+<p>"The horses ain't had nothin' to eat, Ike," said Anderson.
+"Ain't you as good as a horse?"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<h3><i>A Case of Mistaken Identity</i></h3>
+<p>Detective Crow found little difficulty in gaining admittance to
+Colonel Randall's summer home. He had secreted his badge, and it
+was indeed a sorry-looking tramp who asked for a bite to eat at the
+kitchen door.</p>
+<p>Three or four young women were busy with chafing dishes in this
+department of the house, and some good-looking young men were
+looking on and bothering them with attentions. In the front part of
+the house a score of people were laughing and making merry.</p>
+<p>"Gosh!" said the new tramp, twisting his chin whiskers, "how
+many of you are there?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, there are many more at home like us," trilled out one of
+the young women gaily. "You're just in time, you poor old thing, to
+have some of the bride-to-be's cake."</p>
+<p>"I guess I'm in the wrong house," murmured Anderson blankly. "Is
+it a weddin'?"</p>
+<p>"No; but there will be one before many days. It's just a
+reunion. How I wish Rosalie Gray were here!" cried another
+girl.</p>
+<p>Just then there was a pounding on the door, and an instant later
+Isaac Porter stalked in at the head of the posse.</p>
+<p>"Throw up your hands!" called Anderson, addressing himself to
+the posse, the members of which stopped in blank amazement. Some of
+them obligingly stuck their hands on high. "What do you want
+here?"</p>
+<p>"We&mdash;we&mdash;we're lookin' fer a tramp who said he robbed
+a hen roost," faltered Isaac Porter.</p>
+<p>"What is the meaning of all this?" called a strong voice from
+the dining-room, and the flabbergasted Tinkletownians turned to
+face Colonel Randall himself, the owner of the house.</p>
+<p>"Derned if I know!" muttered Anderson Crow; and he spoke the
+truth.</p>
+<p>"Why, it's Anderson Crow!" cried a gay young voice.</p>
+<p>"Jumpin' Jehosophat!" ejaculated the detective; "it's the
+body!"</p>
+<p>"The school-teacher!" exclaimed the surprised Tinkletownians, as
+with their eyes they proceeded to search the figure before them for
+blood stains. But no sooner had the chorused words escaped their
+lips than they realised how wretchedly commonplace was their
+blundering expression in comparison with the faultlessly
+professional phraseology of their leader; and, overwhelmed with
+mortification, the posse ached to recall them; for that the correct
+technical term had been applied by one for years trained to the
+vernacular of his calling was little consolation to these sensitive
+souls, now consumed with envy.</p>
+<p>In the meantime, the quarry, if we may be permitted so to
+designate her, stood before them as pretty as a picture. At her
+side was Tom Reddon, and a dozen guests of the house fell in behind
+them.</p>
+<p>"Did Rosalie tell you?" demanded Miss Banks. "The mean thing!
+She said she wouldn't."</p>
+<p>"Ro&mdash;Rosalie!" gasped Anderson; "tell me what?"
+nervously.</p>
+<p>"That I was&mdash;was coming over here with Tom. Didn't she tell
+you?"</p>
+<p>"I should say not. If she'd told me you don't suppose I'd'a'
+driv' clear over here in this kinder weather fer nothin', do you?
+Thunder! Did she know 'bout it?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly, Mr. Crow. She helped with the plans."</p>
+<p>"Well, good gosh a'mighty! An' we was a-keepin' from her the
+awful news fer fear 'twould give her a backset."</p>
+<p>"Awful news! What do you mean? Oh, you frighten me
+terribly!"</p>
+<p>"Doggone! I don't believe Rosalie was sick at all," continued
+Anderson, quite regardless of the impatience of his listeners; "she
+jest wanted to keep from answerin' questions. She jest regularly
+let everybody believe you had been slaughtered, an' never opened
+her mouth."</p>
+<p>"Slaughtered!" cried half a dozen people.</p>
+<p>"Sure! Hain't you heard 'bout the murder?"</p>
+<p>"Murder?" apprehensively from the excited New Yorkers.</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;the teacher of schoolhouse No. 5 was brutally
+butchered las&mdash;las&mdash;night&mdash;by&mdash;"</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i140.jpg" id="i140.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/140.jpg"><img src="images/140.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"What is the meaning of all this?"</b></div>
+<p>"Go slow, Anderson! Better hold your horses!" cautioned Harry
+Squires. "Don't forget the body's alive and kic&mdash;" and
+stopping short, in the hope that his break might escape the
+school-teacher's attention, he confusedly substituted, "and
+here."</p>
+<p>Anderson's jaw dropped, but the movement was barely perceptible,
+the discomfiture temporary, for to the analytical mind of the great
+detective the fact that a murder had been committed was fully
+established by the discovery of the blood. That a body was
+obviously necessary for the continuance of further investigations
+he frankly acknowledged to himself; and not for one instant would
+any supposition or explanation other than assassination be
+tolerated. And it was with unshaken conviction that he
+declared:</p>
+<p>"Well, somebody was slew, wasn't they? That's as plain's the
+nose on y'r face. Don't you contradict me, Harry Squires. I guess
+Anderson Crow knows blood when he sees it."</p>
+<p>"Do you mean to tell me that you've been trailing us all day in
+the belief that some one of us had killed somebody?" demanded Tom
+Reddon.</p>
+<p>Harry Squires explained the situation, Anderson being too far
+gone to step into the breach. It may be of interest to say that the
+Tinkletown detective was the sensation of the hour. The crowd,
+merry once more, lauded him to the skies for the manner in which
+the supposed culprits had been trailed, and the marshal's pomposity
+grew almost to the bursting point.</p>
+<p>"But how about that blood?" he demanded.</p>
+<p>"Yes," said Harry Squires with a sly grin, "it was positively
+identified as yours, Miss Banks."</p>
+<p>"Well, it's the first time I was ever fooled," confessed
+Anderson glibly. "I'll have to admit it. The blood really belonged
+to 'Rast Little. Boys, the seegars are on me."</p>
+<p>"No, they're on me," exclaimed Tom Reddon, producing a box of
+Perfectos.</p>
+<p>"But, Miss Banks, you are wanted in Chicago," insisted Anderson.
+Reddon interrupted him.</p>
+<p>"Right you are, my dear Sherlock, and I'm going to take her
+there as soon as I can. It's what I came East for."</p>
+<p>"Ain't&mdash;I mean, wasn't you Miss Lovering?" muttered
+Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"Good heavens, no!" cried Miss Banks. "Who is she&mdash;a
+shoplifter?"</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you the story, Mr. Crow, if you'll come with me,"
+said Mr. Farnsworth, stepping forward with a wink.</p>
+<p>In the library he told the Tinkletown posse that Tom Reddon had
+met Miss Banks while she was at school in New York. He was a
+Chicago millionaire's son and she was the daughter of wealthy New
+York people. Her mother was eager to have the young people marry,
+but the girl at that time imagined herself to be in love with
+another man. In a pique she left school and set forth to earn her
+own living. A year's hardship as governess in the family of
+Congressman Ritchey and subsequent disillusionment as a country
+school-teacher brought her to her senses and she realised that she
+cared for Tom Reddon after all. She and Miss Gray together prepared
+the letter which told Reddon where she could be found, and that
+eager young gentleman did the rest. He had been waiting for months
+for just such a message from her. The night of the spelling-match
+he induced her to come to Colonel Randall's, and now the whole
+house-party, including Miss Banks, was to leave on the following
+day for New York. The marriage would take place in a very few
+weeks.</p>
+<p>"I'll accept your explanation," said Mr. Crow composedly as he
+took a handful of cigars. "Well, I guess I'll be startin' back.
+It's gettin' kind o' late-like."</p>
+<p>There was a telegram at the livery stable for him when he
+reached that haven of warmth and rest in Tinkletown about dawn the
+next day. It was from Chicago and marked "Charges collect."</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>"What girl and whose body," it said, "do you refer to? Miss
+Lovering has been dead two years, and we are settling the estate in
+behalf of the other heirs. We were trying to establish her place of
+residence. Never mind the body you have lost."</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>"Doggone," said Anderson, chuckling aloud, "that was an awful
+good joke on 'Rast, wasn't it?"</p>
+<p>The stablemen stood around and looked at him with jaws that were
+drooping helplessly. The air seemed laden with a sombre uncertainty
+that had not yet succeeded in penetrating the nature of Marshal
+Crow.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/145.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Is it from her?" finally asked Ike Smith hoarsely, his lips
+trembling.</p>
+<p>"From what her?"</p>
+<p>"Rosalie."</p>
+<p>"Thunder, no! It's from my lawyers in Chicago."</p>
+<p>"Ain't you&mdash;ain't you heerd about it?" half groaned Ike,
+moving away as if he expected something calamitous.</p>
+<p>"What the dickens are you fellers drivin' at?" demanded
+Anderson. The remainder of his posse deserted the red-hot stove and
+drew near with the instinctive feeling that something dreadful had
+happened.</p>
+<p>"Ro&mdash;Rosalie has been missin' sence early last night. She
+was grabbed by some feller near Mrs. Luce's, chucked into a big
+wagon an' rushed out of town before Ros Crow could let out a yell.
+Clean stole her&mdash;look out! Ketch him, Joe!"</p>
+<p>Anderson dropped limply into a hostler's arms.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<h3><i>Rosalie Disappears</i></h3>
+<p>Things had happened in Tinkletown that night. Alf Reesling
+finally found some one who would listen to his story. He told the
+minister and the minister alarmed the town. To be brief, Alf
+admitted that 'Rast Little was at his house in the outskirts of the
+village, laid up with a broken arm and a bad cut in the top of his
+head.</p>
+<p>"He came crawlin' up to my place about six o'clock in the
+mornin'," explained Alf, "an' I took the poor cuss in. That's what
+I wanted to tell Anderson, but the old rip wouldn't listen to me.
+Seems as though 'Rast waited around the schoolhouse last night to
+git a crack at that feller from town. Miss Banks and her three
+friends set around the stove in the schoolhouse for about an hour
+after the crowd left, an' 'Rast got so cold he liked to died out
+there in the woodshed.</p>
+<p>"Purty soon they all come out, an' 'Rast cut acrost the lot to
+git inside the house by the fire. He was so derned cold that he
+didn't feel like crackin' anybody. When they wasn't lookin' he
+sneaked inside. Jest as he was gittin' ready to hug the stove he
+heard Miss Banks an' one of the men comin' back. He shinned up the
+ladder into the garret just in time. In they come an' the feller
+lit a lamp. 'Rast could hear 'em talkin'. She said good-bye to the
+schoolhouse forever, an' the feller kissed her a couple of times.
+'Rast pretty nigh swore out loud at that. Then she said she'd leave
+a note in her desk fer the trustees, resignin' her job, er whatever
+she called it. He heard her read the note to the man, an' it said
+somethin' about goin' away unexpected to git married. 'Rast says ef
+Anderson had looked in the desk he'd have found the note.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/147.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Then she packed up some books an' her an' the feller went out.
+'Rast was paralysed. He heerd the sleigh-bells jingle an' then he
+come to. He started down the ladder so quick that he missed his
+hold and went kerslam clear to the bottom. Doggone ef he didn't
+light on his head, too. He don't know how long he laid there, but
+finally he was resurrected enough to crawl over by the stove. His
+arm was broke an' he was bleedin' like a stuck hog. Miss Banks had
+left her handkerchief on the desk, an' he says he tried to bind up
+his head with it, but it was too infernal small. Somehow he got
+outside an' wandered around half crazy fer a long time, finally
+pullin' up at my house, derned nigh froze to death an' so weak he
+couldn't walk no more. He'd lost his hat an' his ear muffs an' his
+way all at the same time. If Anderson had let me talk this mornin'
+he'd 'a' knowed there wasn't no murder. It was just a match."</p>
+<p>Hours passed before Anderson was himself again and able to
+comprehend the details of the story which involved the
+disappearance of his ward. It slowly filtered through his mind as
+he sat stark-eyed and numb before the kitchen fire that this was
+the means her mysterious people had taken to remove her from his
+custody. The twenty years had expired, and they had come to claim
+their own. There was gloom in the home of Anderson Crow&mdash;gloom
+so dense that death would have seemed bright in comparison. Mrs.
+Crow was prostrated, Anderson in a state of mental and physical
+collapse, the children hysterical.</p>
+<p>All Tinkletown stood close and ministered dumbly to the misery
+of the bereaved ones, but made no effort to follow or frustrate the
+abductors. The town seemed as helpless as the marshal, not
+willingly or wittingly, but because it had so long known him as
+leader that no one possessed the temerity to step into his place,
+even in an hour of emergency.</p>
+<p>A dull state of paralysis fell upon the citizens, big and
+little. It was as if universal palsy had been ordained to pinch the
+limbs and brains of Tinkletown until the hour came for the
+rehabilitation of Anderson Crow himself. No one suggested a move in
+any direction&mdash;in fact, no one felt like moving at all.
+Everything stood stockstill while Anderson slowly pulled himself
+together; everything waited dumbly for its own comatose condition
+to be dispelled by the man who had been hit the hardest.</p>
+<p>It was not until late in the afternoon that Blucher Peabody, the
+druggist, awoke from his lethargy and moved as though he intended
+to take the initiative. "Blootch" was Rosalie's most persistent
+admirer. He had fallen heir to his father's apothecary shop and
+notion store, and he was regarded as one of the best catches in
+town. He approached the half-frozen crowd that huddled near old
+Mrs. Luce's front gate. In this crowd were some of the prominent
+men of the town, young and old; they left their places of business
+every half hour or so and wandered aimlessly to the now historic
+spot, as if drawn by a magnet. Just why they congregated there no
+one could explain and no one attempted to do so. Presumably it was
+because the whole town centred its mind on one of two
+places&mdash;the spot where Rosalie was seized or the home of
+Anderson Crow. When they were not at Mrs. Luce's gate they were
+tramping through Anderson's front yard and into his house.</p>
+<p>"Say," said "Blootch" so loudly that the crowd felt like
+remonstrating with him, "what's the use of all this?"</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/150.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>No one responded. No one was equal to it on such short
+notice.</p>
+<p>"We've got to do something besides stand around and whisper," he
+said. "We've got to find Rosalie Gray."</p>
+<p>"But good gosh!" ejaculated Isaac Porter, "they've got purty
+nigh a day's start of us."</p>
+<p>"Well, that don't matter. Anderson would do as much for us.
+Let's get a move on."</p>
+<p>"But where in thunder will we hunt?" murmured George Ray.</p>
+<p>"To the end of the earth," announced Blootch, inflating his
+chest and slapping it violently, a strangely personal proceeding,
+which went unnoticed. He had reached the conclusion that his chance
+to be a hero was at hand and not to be despised. Here was the
+opportunity to outstrip all of his competitors in the race for
+Rosalie's favour. It might be confessed that, with all his good
+intentions, his plans were hopelessly vague. The group braced up a
+little at the sound of his heroic words.</p>
+<p>"But the derned thing's round," was the only thing Ed Higgins
+could find to say. Ed, as fickle as the wind, was once more deeply
+in love with Rosalie, having switched from Miss Banks immediately
+after the visit to Colonel Randall's.</p>
+<p>"Aw, you go to Guinea!" was Blootch's insulting reply. Nothing
+could be more disparaging than that, but Ed failed to retaliate.
+"Let's appoint a committee to wait on Anderson and find out what he
+thinks we'd better do."</p>
+<p>"But Anderson ain't&mdash;" began some one. Blootch calmly
+waived him into silence.</p>
+<p>"What he wants is encouragement, and not a lot of soup and broth
+and lemonade. He ain't sick. He's as able-bodied as I am. Every
+woman in town took soup to him this noon. He needs a good stiff
+drink of whiskey and a committee to cheer him up. I took a bottle
+up to 'Rast Little last night and he acted like another man."</p>
+<p>At last it was decided that a committee should first wait on
+Anderson, ascertaining his wishes in the premises, and then proceed
+to get at the bottom of the mystery. In forming this committee the
+wise men of the town ignored Mr. Peabody, and he might have been
+left off completely had he not stepped in and appointed himself
+chairman.</p>
+<p>The five good men and true descended upon the marshal late in
+the afternoon, half fearful of the result, but resolute. They found
+him slowly emerging from his spell of lassitude. He greeted them
+with a solemn nod of the head. Since early morning he had been
+conscious of a long stream of sympathisers passing through the
+house, but it was not until now that he felt equal to the task of
+recognising any of them.</p>
+<p>His son Roscoe had just finished telling him the story of the
+abduction. Roscoe's awestruck tones and reddened eyes carried great
+weight with them, and for the tenth time that day he had his
+sisters in tears. With each succeeding repetition the details grew
+until at last there was but little of the original event remaining,
+a fact which his own family properly overlooked.</p>
+<p>"Gentlemen," said Anderson, as if suddenly coming from a trance,
+"this wasn't the work of Tinkletown desperadoes." Whereupon the
+committee felt mightily relieved. The marshal displayed signs of a
+returning energy that augured well for the enterprise. After the
+chairman had impressively announced that something must be done,
+and that he was willing to lead his little band to death's
+door&mdash;and beyond, if necessary&mdash;Mr. Crow pathetically
+upset all their hopes by saying that he had long been expecting
+such a calamity, and that nothing could be done.</p>
+<p>"They took the very night when I was not here to pertect her,"
+he lamented. "It shows that they been a-watchin' me all along. The
+job was did by persons who was in the employ of her family, an' she
+has been carried off secretly to keep me from findin' out who and
+what her parents were. Don't ye see? Her mother&mdash;or father,
+fer that matter&mdash;couldn't afford to come right out plain an'
+say they wanted their child after all these years. The only way was
+to take her away without givin' themselves away. It's been the plan
+all along. There ain't no use huntin' fer her, gentlemen. She's in
+New York by this time, an' maybe she's ready fer a trip to
+Europe."</p>
+<p>"But I should think she'd telegraph to you," said Blootch.</p>
+<p>"Telegraph yer granny! Do you s'pose they'd 'a' stole her if
+they intended to let her telegraph to anybody? Not much. They're
+spiritin' her away until her estate's settled. After a while it
+will all come out, an' you'll see if I ain't right. But she's gone.
+They've got her away from me an'&mdash;an' we got to stand it,
+that's all. I&mdash;I&mdash;cain't bear to think about it. It's
+broke my heart mighty ne&mdash;near. Don't mind me
+if&mdash;I&mdash;cry, boys. You would, too, if you was me."</p>
+<p>As the committee departed soon after without any plan of action
+arising from the interview with the dejected marshal, it may be
+well to acquaint the reader with the history of the abduction, as
+told by Roscoe Crow and his bosom friend, Bud Long, thoroughly
+expurgated.</p>
+<p>According to instructions, no one in the Crow family mentioned
+the strange disappearance of Elsie Banks to Rosalie. Nor was she
+told of the pursuit by the marshal and his posse. The girl, far
+from being afflicted with a fever, really now kept in her room by
+grief over the departure of her friend and companion. She was in
+tears all that night and the next day, suffering intensely in her
+loss. Rosalie did not know that the teacher was to leave Tinkletown
+surreptitiously until after the spelling-bee. The sly, blushing
+announcement came as a shock, but she was loyal to her friend, and
+not a word in exposure escaped from her lips. Of course, she knew
+nothing of the sensational developments that followed the
+uncalled-for flight of Elsie Banks.</p>
+<p>Shortly after the supper dishes had been cleared away Rosalie
+came downstairs and announced that she was going over to read to
+old Mrs. Luce, who was bedridden. Her guardian's absence was not
+explained to her, and she did not in the least suspect that he had
+been away all day on a fool's errand. Roscoe and Bud accompanied
+her to Mrs. Luce's front door, heavily bound by promises to hold
+their tongues regarding Miss Banks.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/154.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"We left her there at old Mis' Luce's," related Roscoe, "an'
+then went over to Robertson's Pond to skate. She tole us to stop in
+fer her about nine o'clock, didn't she, Bud? Er was it eight?" He
+saw the necessity for accuracy.</p>
+<p>"Ten," corrected Bud deliberately.</p>
+<p>"Well, pop, we stopped fer her, an'&mdash;an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Stop yer blubberin', Roscoe," commanded Anderson as harshly as
+he could.</p>
+<p>"An' got her," concluded Roscoe. "She put on her shawl an'
+mittens an' said she'd run us a race all the way home. We all got
+ready to start right in front of old Mis' Luce's gate. Bud he
+stopped an' said, 'Here comes Tony Brink.' We all looked around,
+an' sure enough, a heavy-set feller was comin' to'rds us. It looked
+like Tony, but when he got up to us I see it wasn't him. He ast us
+if we could tell him where Mr. Crow lived&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"He must 'a' been a stranger," deduced Anderson
+mechanically.</p>
+<p>"&mdash;an' Bud said you lived right on ahead where the street
+lamps was. Jest then a big sleigh turned out of the lane back of
+Mis' Luce's an' drove up to where we was standin'. Bud was standin'
+jest like this&mdash; me here an' Rosalie a little off to one side.
+S'posin' this chair was her an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;yes, go on," from Anderson.</p>
+<p>"The sleigh stopped, and there was two fellers in it. There was
+two seats, too."</p>
+<p>"Front and back?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+<p>"I understand. It was a double-seated one," again deduced the
+marshal.</p>
+<p>"An' nen, by gum, 'fore we could say Jack Robinson, one of the
+fellers jumped out an' grabbed Rosalie. The feller on the groun',
+he up an' hit me a clip in the ear. I fell down, an' so did
+Bud&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"He hit me on top of the head," corrected Bud sourly.</p>
+<p>"I heerd Rosalie start to scream, but the next minute they had a
+blanket over her head an' she was chucked into the back seat. It
+was all over in a second. I got up, but 'fore I could run a feller
+yelled, 'Ketch him!' An' another feller did. 'Don't let 'em get
+away,' said the driver in low, hissin' tones&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Regular villains," vowed Anderson.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir. 'Don't let 'em git away er they'll rouse the town.'
+'What'll we do with 'em?' asked the feller who held both of us.
+'Kill 'em?' Gosh, I was skeered. Neither one of us could yell,
+'cause he had us by the neck, an' he was powerful strong. 'Chuck
+'em in here an' I'll tend to 'em,' said the driver. Next thing we
+knowed we was in the front of the sleigh, an' the whole outfit was
+off like a runaway. They said they'd kill us if we made a noise,
+an' we didn't. I wish I'd'a' had my rifle, doggone it! I'd'a'
+showed 'em."</p>
+<p>"They drove like thunder out to'rds Boggs City fer about two
+mile," said Bud, who had been silent as long as human nature would
+permit. "'Nen they stopped an' throwed us out in the road. 'Go
+home, you devils, an' don't you tell anybody about us er I'll come
+back here some day an' give you a kick in the slats.'</p>
+<p>"Slats?" murmured Anderson.</p>
+<p>"That's short fer ribs," explained Bud loftily.</p>
+<p>"Well, why couldn't he have said short ribs an' been done with
+it?" complained Anderson.</p>
+<p>"Then they whipped up an' turned off west in the pike," resumed
+Bud. "We run all the way home an' tole Mr. Lamson, an'
+he&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Where was Rosalie all this time?" asked Anderson.</p>
+<p>"Layin' in the back seat covered with a blanket, jest the same
+as if she was dead. I heerd 'em say somethin' about chloroformin'
+her. What does chloroform smell like, Mr. Crow?"</p>
+<p>"Jest like any medicine. It has drugs in it. They use it to pull
+teeth. Well, what then?"</p>
+<p>"Well," interposed Roscoe, "Mr. Lamson gave the alarm, an'
+nearly ever'body in town got out o' bed. They telegraphed to Boggs
+City an' all around, but it didn't seem to do no good. Them horses
+went faster'n telegraphs."</p>
+<p>"Did you ever see them fellers before?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir; but I think I'd know 'em with their masks off."</p>
+<p>"Was they masked?"</p>
+<p>"Their faces were."</p>
+<p>"Oh, my poor little Rosalie!" sobbed old Anderson
+hopelessly.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<h3>The Haunted House</h3>
+<p>Days passed without word or sign from the missing girl. The
+marshal haunted the post-office and the railroad station, hoping
+with all his poor old heart that word would come from her; but the
+letter was not there, nor was there a telegram at the station when
+he strolled over to that place. The county officials at Boggs City
+came down and began a cursory investigation, but Anderson's
+emphatic though doleful opinions set them quite straight, and they
+gave up the quest. There was nothing to do but to sit back and
+wait.</p>
+<p>In those three days Anderson Crow turned greyer and older,
+although he maintained a splendid show of resignation. He had made
+a perfunctory offer of reward for Rosalie, dead or alive, but he
+knew all the time that it would be fruitless. Mark Riley, the
+bill-poster, stuck up the glaring reward notices as far away as the
+telegraph poles in Clay County. The world was given to understand
+that $1000 reward would be paid for Rosalie's return or for
+information leading to the apprehension and capture of her
+abductors.</p>
+<p>There was one very mysterious point in connection with the
+affair&mdash;something so strange that it bordered on the
+supernatural. No human being in Bramble County except the two boys
+had seen the double-seated sleigh. It had disappeared as if
+swallowed by the earth itself.</p>
+<p>"Well, it don't do any good to cry over spilt milk," said
+Anderson bravely. "She's gone, an' I only hope she ain't bein'
+mistreated. I don't see why they should harm her. She's never done
+nobody a wrong. Like as not she's been taken to a comfortable place
+in New York, an' we'll hear from her as soon as she recovers from
+the shock. There ain't no use huntin' fer her, I know, but I jest
+can't help nosin' around a little. Mebby I can git some track of
+her. I'd give all I got in this world to know that she's safe an'
+sound, no matter if I never see her ag'in."</p>
+<p>The hungry look in his eyes deepened, and no one bandied jests
+with him as was the custom in days gone by.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>There were not many tramps practising in that section of the
+State. Anderson Crow proudly announced that they gave Tinkletown a
+wide berth because of his prowess; but the vagabond gentry took an
+entirely different view of the question. They did not infest the
+upper part of the State for the simple but eloquent reason that it
+meant starvation to them. The farmers compelled the weary wayfarer
+to work all day like a borrowed horse for a single meal at the
+"second table." There was no such thing as a "hand-out," as it is
+known in the tramp's vocabulary. It is not extraordinary,
+therefore, that tramps found the community so unattractive that
+they cheerfully walked miles to avoid it. A peculiarly
+well-informed vagrant once characterised the up-state farmer as
+being so "close that he never shaved because it was a waste of
+hair."</p>
+<p>It is hardly necessary to state, in view of the attitude of both
+farmer and tramp, that the misguided vagrant who wandered that way
+was the object of distinct, if not distinguished, curiosity. In the
+country roads he was stared at with a malevolence that chilled his
+appetite, no matter how long he had been cultivating it on barren
+soil. In the streets of Tinkletown, and even at the county seat, he
+was an object of such amazing concern that he slunk away in pure
+distress. It was indeed an unsophisticated tramp who thought to
+thrive in Bramble County even for a day and a night. In front of
+the general store and post-office at Tinkletown there was a
+sign-post, on which Anderson Crow had painted these words:</p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"No tramps or Live Stock
+Allowed on these Streets.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">By order of</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">A. CROW, Marshal."</span></p>
+<p>The live stock disregarded the command, but the tramp took
+warning. On rare occasions he may have gone through some of the
+houses in Tinkletown, but if he went through the streets no one was
+the wiser. Anderson Crow solemnly but studiously headed him off in
+the outskirts, and he took another direction. Twice in his career
+he drove out tramps who had burglarised the houses of prominent
+citizens in broad daylight, but what did it matter so long as the
+"hoboes" were kept from desecrating the main street of the town?
+Mr. Crow's official star, together with his badge from the New York
+detective agency, his Sons of the Revolution pin, and his G.A.R.
+insignia, made him a person to be feared. If the weather became too
+hot for coat and vest the proud dignitary fastened the badges to
+his suspenders, and their presence glorified the otherwise humble
+"galluses."</p>
+<p>On the fourth day after the abduction Marshal Crow was suddenly
+aroused from his lethargy by the news that the peace and security
+of the neighbourhood was being imposed upon.</p>
+<p>"The dickens you say!" he observed, abandoning the perpetual
+grip upon his straggling chin whiskers.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir," responded the excited small boy, who, with two
+companions, had run himself quite out of breath all over town
+before he found the officer at Harkin's blacksmith shop.</p>
+<p>"Well, dang 'em!" said Mr. Crow impressively.</p>
+<p>"We was skatin' in the marsh when we heerd 'em plain as day,"
+said the other boy. "You bet I'm nuvver goin' nigh that house
+ag'in."</p>
+<p>"Sho! Bud, they ain't no sech thing as ghosts," said Mr. Crow;
+"it's tramps."</p>
+<p>"You know that house is ha'nted," protested Bud. "Wasn't ole
+Mrs. Rank slew there by her son-in-law? Wasn't she chopped to
+pieces and buried there right in her own cellar?"</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, boy, that was thirty year ago!"</p>
+<p>"Well, nobody's lived in the ha'nted house sence then, has they?
+Didn't Jim Smith try to sleep there oncet on a bet, an' didn't he
+hear sech awful noises 'at he liked to went crazy?" insisted
+Bud.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i162.jpg" id="i162.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/162.jpg"><img src="images/162.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>The haunted house</b></div>
+<p>"I <i>do</i> recollect that Jim run two mile past his own house
+before he could stop, he was in sech a hurry to git away from the
+place. But Jim didn't <i>see</i> anything. Besides, that was twenty
+year ago. Ghosts don't hang aroun' a place when there ain't nothin'
+to ha'nt. Her son-in-law was hung, an' she ain't got no one else to
+pester. I tell you it's tramps."</p>
+<p>"Well, we just thought we'd tell you, Mr. Crow," said the first
+boy.</p>
+<p>In a few minutes it was known throughout the business centre of
+Tinkletown that tramps were making their home in the haunted house
+down the river, and that Anderson Crow was to ride forth on his
+bicycle to rout them out. The haunted house was three miles from
+town and in the most desolate section of the bottomland. It was
+approachable only through the treacherous swamp on one side or by
+means of the river on the other. Not until after the murder of its
+owner and builder, old Johanna Rank, was there an explanation
+offered for the existence of a home in such an unwholesome
+locality.</p>
+<p>Federal authorities discovered that she and her son-in-law, Dave
+Wolfe, were at the head of a great counterfeiting gang, and that
+they had been working up there in security for years, turning out
+spurious coins by the hundred. One night Dave up and killed his
+mother-in-law, and was hanged for his good deed before he could be
+punished for his bad ones. For thirty years the weather-beaten,
+ramshackle old cabin in the swamp had been unoccupied except by
+birds, lizards, and other denizens of the solitude&mdash;always, of
+course, including the ghost of old Mrs. Rank.</p>
+<p>Inasmuch as Dave chopped her into small bits and buried them in
+the cellar, while her own daughter held the lantern, it was not
+beyond the range of possibility that certain atoms of the
+unlamented Johanna were never unearthed by the searchers. It was
+generally believed in the community that Mrs. Rank's spirit came
+back every little while to nose around in the dirt of the cellar in
+quest of such portions of her person as had not been respectably
+interred in the village graveyard.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/165.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Mysterious noises had been heard about the place at the dead
+hour of night, and ghostly lights had flitted past the cellar
+windows. All Tinkletown agreed that the place was haunted and kept
+at a most respectful distance. The three small boys who startled
+Marshal Crow from his moping had gone down the river to skate
+instead of going to school. They swore that the sound of muffled
+voices came from the interior of the cabin, near which they had
+inadvertently wandered. Although Dave Wolfe had been dead thirty
+years, one of the youngest of the lads was positive that he
+recognised the voice of the desperado. And at once the trio fled
+the 'cursed spot and brought the horrifying news to Anderson Crow.
+The detective was immediately called upon to solve the ghostly
+mystery.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/166.jpg" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Marshal Crow first went to his home and donned his blue coat,
+transferring the stars and badges to the greasy lapel of the
+garment. He also secured his dark lantern and the official cane of
+the village, but why he should carry a cane on a bicycle expedition
+was known only to himself. Followed by a horde of small boys and a
+few representative citizens of Tinkletown on antiquated wheels, Mr.
+Crow pedalled majestically off to the south. Skirting the swamp,
+the party approached the haunted house over the narrow path which
+ran along the river bank. Once in sight of the dilapidated cabin,
+which seemed to slink farther and farther back into the dense
+shadows of the late afternoon, with all the diffidence of the
+supernatural, the marshal called a halt and announced his
+plans.</p>
+<p>"You kids go up an' tell them fellers I want to see 'em," he
+commanded. The boys fell back and prepared to whimper.</p>
+<p>"I don't want to," protested Bud.</p>
+<p>"Why don't you go an' tell 'em yourself, Anderson?" demanded
+Isaac Porter, the pump repairer.</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, Ike, who's runnin' this thing?" retorted Anderson
+Crow. "I got a right to deputise anybody to do anything at any
+time. Don't you s'pose I know how to handle a job like this? I got
+my own idees how to waylay them raskils, an' I reckon I been in the
+detectin' business long enough to know how to manage a gol-derned
+tramp, ain't I? How's that? Who says I ain't?"</p>
+<p>"Nobody said a word, Anderson," meekly observed Jim Borum.</p>
+<p>"Well, I <i>thought</i> somebody did. An' I don't want nobody
+interferin' with an officer, either. Bud, you an' them two Heffner
+boys go up an' tell them loafers to step down here right spry er
+I'll come up there an' see about it."</p>
+<p>"Gosh, Mr. Crow, I'm a-skeered to!" whimpered Bud. The Heffner
+boys started for home on a dead run.</p>
+<p>"Askeered to?" sniffed Anderson. "An' your great-grand-dad was
+in the Revolution, too. Geminy crickets, ef you was my boy I'd give
+you somethin' to be askeered of! Now, Bud, nothin' kin happen to
+you. Ain't I here?"</p>
+<p>"But suppose they won't come when I tell 'em?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, 'n' supposin' 'tain't tramps, but ghosts?" volunteered Mr.
+Porter, edging away with his bicycle. It was now quite dark and
+menacing in there where the cabin stood. As the outcome of half an
+hour's discussion, the whole party advanced slowly upon the house,
+Anderson Crow in the lead, his dark lantern in one hand, his cane
+in the other. Half way to the house he stopped short and turned to
+Bud.</p>
+<p>"Gosh dern you, Bud! I don't believe you heerd any noise in
+there at all! There ain't no use goin' any further with this,
+gentlemen. The dern boys was lyin'. We might jest as well go home."
+And he would have started for home had not Isaac Porter uttered a
+fearful groan and staggered back against a swamp reed for support,
+his horrified eyes glued upon a window in the log house. The reed
+was inadequate, and Isaac tumbled over backward.</p>
+<p>For a full minute the company stared dumbly at the indistinct
+little window, paralysis attacking every sense but that of sight.
+At the expiration of another minute the place was deserted, and
+Anderson Crow was the first to reach the bicycles far up the river
+bank. Every face was as white as chalk, and every voice trembled.
+Mr. Crow's dignity asserted itself just as the valiant posse
+prepared to "straddle" the wheels in mad flight.</p>
+<p>"Hold on!" he panted. "I lost my dark lantern down there. Go
+back an' git it, Bud."</p>
+<p>"Land o' mighty! Did y'ever see anythin' like it?" gasped Jim
+Borum, trying to mount a ten-year-old boy's wheel instead of his
+own.</p>
+<p>"I'd like to have anybody tell me there ain't no sech things as
+ghosts," faltered Uncle Jimmy Borton, who had always said there
+wasn't. "Let go, there! Ouch!" The command and subsequent
+exclamation were the inevitable results of his unsuccessful attempt
+to mount with Elon Jones the same wheel.</p>
+<p>"What'd I tell you, Anderson?" exclaimed Isaac Porter. "Didn't I
+say it was ghosts? Tramps nothin'! A tramp wouldn't last a second
+up in that house. It's been ha'nted fer thirty years an' it gits
+worse all the time. What air we goin' to do next?"</p>
+<p>Even the valiant Mr. Crow approved of an immediate return to
+Tinkletown, and the posse was trying to disentangle its collection
+of bicycles when an interruption came from an unsuspected
+quarter&mdash;a deep, masculine voice arose from the ice-covered
+river hard by, almost directly below that section of the bank on
+which Anderson and his friends were herded. The result was
+startling. Every man leaped a foot in the air and every hair stood
+on end; bicycles rattled and clashed together, and Ed Higgins,
+hopelessly bewildered, started to run in the direction of the
+haunted house.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<h3><i>Wicker Bonner, Harvard</i></h3>
+<p>"Hello, up there!" was what the deep, masculine voice shouted
+from the river. Anderson Crow was the first to distinguish the form
+of the speaker, and he was not long in deciding that it was far
+from ghost-like. With a word of command he brought his disorganised
+forces out of chaos and huddled them together as if to resist
+attack.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter with you?" he demanded, addressing his men in
+a loud tone. "Don't get rattled!"</p>
+<p>"Are you speaking to me?" called the fresh voice from below.</p>
+<p>"Who are you?" demanded Mr. Crow in return.</p>
+<p>"Nobody in particular. What's going on up there? What's the
+fuss?"</p>
+<p>"Come up an' find out." Then Mr. Crow, observing that the man
+below was preparing to comply, turned and addressed his squad in
+low, earnest tones. "This feller will bear watchin'. He's mixed up
+in this thing somehow. Else why is he wanderin' around here close
+to the house? I'll question him."</p>
+<p>"By gosh, he ain't no ghost!" murmured Ed Higgins, eyeing the
+newcomer as he crawled up the bank. "Say, did y' see me a minute
+ago? If you fellers had come on, I was goin' right up to search
+that house from top to bottom. Was you all askeered to come?"</p>
+<p>"Aw, you!" said Anderson Crow in deep scorn.</p>
+<p>The next instant a stalwart young fellow stood before the
+marshal, who was eyeing him keenly, even imperiously. The
+newcomer's good-looking, strong-featured face was lighted up by a
+smile of surpassing friendliness.</p>
+<p>"It's lonesome as thunder down here, isn't it? Glad to see you,
+gentlemen. What's up&mdash;a bicycle race?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir; we got a little business up here, that's all,"
+responded Anderson Crow diplomatically. "What air you doin'
+here?"</p>
+<p>"Skating. My name is Wicker Bonner, and I'm visiting my uncle,
+Congressman Bonner, across the river. You know him, I dare say.
+I've been hanging around here for a week's hunting, and haven't had
+an ounce of luck in all that time. It's rotten! Aha, I see that you
+are an officer, sir&mdash;a detective, too. By George, can it be
+possible that you are searching for some one? If you are, let me in
+on it. I'm dying for excitement."</p>
+<p>The young man's face was eager and his voice rang true. Besides,
+he was a tall, athletic chap, with brawny arms and a broad back.
+Altogether, he would make a splendid recruit, thought Anderson
+Crow. He was dressed in rough corduroy knickerbockers, the thick
+coat buttoned up close to his muffled neck. A woollen cap came down
+over his ears and a pair of skates dangled from his arm.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; I'm a detective, and we are up here doin' a little
+investigatin'. You are from Chicago, I see."</p>
+<p>"What makes you think so?"</p>
+<p>"Can't fool me. I c'n always tell. You said, 'I've <i>bean</i>
+hangin',' instead of 'I've <i>ben</i> hangin'.' See? They say
+<i>bean</i> in Chicago. Ha! ha! You didn't think I could deduce
+that, did you?"</p>
+<p>"I'll confess that I didn't," said Mr. Bonner with a dry smile.
+"I'm from Boston, however."</p>
+<p>"Sure," interposed Isaac Porter; "that's where the beans come
+from, Anderson."</p>
+<p>"Well, that's neither here nor there," said Mr. Crow, hastily
+changing the subject. "We're wastin' time."</p>
+<p>"Stayin' here, you mean?" asked Ed Higgins, quite ready to
+start. Involuntarily the eyes of the posse turned toward the house
+among the willows. The stranger saw the concerted glance and made
+inquiry. Whereupon Mr. Crow, assisted by seven men and five small
+boys, told Mr. Wicker Bonner, late of Harvard, what had brought
+them from Tinkletown to the haunted house, and what they had seen
+upon their arrival. Young Bonner's face glowed with the joy of
+excitement.</p>
+<p>"Great!" he cried, fastening his happy eyes upon the hated thing
+among the trees. "Let's search the place. By George, this is
+glorious!"</p>
+<p>"Not on your life!" said Ed Higgins. "You can't get me inside
+that house. Like as not a feller'd never come out alive."</p>
+<p>"Well, better men than we have died," said Mr. Bonner
+tranquilly. "Come on; I'll go in first. It's all tommy-rot about
+the place being haunted. In any event, ghosts don't monkey around
+at this time of day. It's hardly dusk."</p>
+<p>"But, gosh dern it," exploded Anderson Crow, "we seen it!"</p>
+<p>"I seen it first," said Isaac Porter proudly.</p>
+<p>"But I heerd it first," peeped up Master Bud.</p>
+<p>"You've all been drinking hard cider or pop or something like
+that," said the brawny scoffer.</p>
+<p>"Now, see here, you're gittin' fresh, an&mdash;" began the
+marshal, swelling up like a pigeon.</p>
+<p>"Look out behind!" sang out Mr. Bonner, and Anderson jumped
+almost out of his shoes, besides ripping his shirt in the back, he
+turned so suddenly.</p>
+<p>"Jeemses River!" he gasped.</p>
+<p>"Never turn your back on an unknown danger," cautioned the young
+man serenely. "Be ready to meet it."</p>
+<p>"If you're turned t'other way you c'n git a quicker start if you
+want to run," suggested Jim Borum, bracing himself with a fresh
+chew of tobacco.</p>
+<p>"What time is it?" asked Wicker Bonner.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow squinted up through the leafless treetops toward
+the setting sun; then he looked at the shadow of a sapling down on
+the bank.</p>
+<p>"It's about seven minutes past five&mdash;in the evenin'," he
+said conclusively. Bonner was impolite enough to pull out his watch
+for verification.</p>
+<p>"You're a minute fast," he observed; but he looked at Anderson
+with a new and respectful admiration.</p>
+<p>"He c'n detect anything under the sun," said Porter with a
+feeble laugh at his own joke.</p>
+<p>"Well, let's go up and ransack that old cabin," announced
+Bonner, starting toward the willows. The crowd held back. "I'll go
+alone if you're afraid to come," he went on. "It's my firm belief
+that you didn't see anything and the noise you boys heard was the
+wind whistling through the trees. Now, tell the truth, how many of
+you saw it?"</p>
+<p>"I did," came from every throat so unanimously that Jim Borum's
+supplemental oath stood out alone and forceful as a climax.</p>
+<p>"Then it's worth investigating," announced the Boston man. "It
+is certainly a very mysterious affair, and you, at least, Mr. Town
+Marshal, should back me up in the effort to unravel it. Tell me
+again just what it was you saw and what it looked like."</p>
+<p>"I won't let no man tell me what my duties are," snorted
+Anderson, his stars trembling with injured pride. "Of course I'm
+going to solve the mystery. We've got to see what's inside that
+house. I thought it was tramps at first."</p>
+<p>"Well, lead on, then; I'll follow!" said Bonner with a grin.</p>
+<p>"I thought you was so anxious to go first!" exclaimed Anderson
+with fine tact. "Go ahead yourself, ef you're so derned brave. I
+dare you to."</p>
+<p>Bonner laughed loud enough to awaken every ghost in Bramble
+County and then strode rapidly toward the house. Anderson Crow
+followed slowly and the rest straggled after, all alert for the
+first sign of resistance.</p>
+<p>"I wish I could find that derned lantern," said Anderson,
+searching diligently in the deep grass as he walked along, in the
+meantime permitting Bonner to reach the grim old doorway far in
+advance of him.</p>
+<p>"Come on!" called back the intrepid leader, seeing that all save
+the marshal had halted. "You don't need the lantern. It's still
+daylight, old chap. We'll find out what it was you all saw in the
+window."</p>
+<p>"That's the last of him," muttered Isaac Porter, as the broad
+back disappeared through the low aperture that was called a
+doorway. There were no window sashes or panes in the house, and the
+door had long since rotted from the hinges.</p>
+<p>"He'll never come out. Let's go home," added Ed Higgins
+conclusively.</p>
+<p>"Are you coming?" sang out Bonner from the interior of the
+house. His voice sounded prophetically sepulchral.</p>
+<p>"Consarn it, cain't you wait a minute?" replied Anderson Crow,
+still bravely but consistently looking for the much-needed dark
+lantern.</p>
+<p>"It's all right in here. There hasn't been a human being in the
+house for years. Come on in; it's fine!"</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow finally ventured up to the doorway and peeped in.
+Bonner was standing near the tumbledown fireplace, placidly
+lighting a cigarette.</p>
+<p>"This is a fine job you've put up on me," he growled. "I thought
+there would be something doing. There isn't a soul here, and there
+hasn't been, either."</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, man, you cain't see ghosts when they don't want
+you to!" said Anderson Crow. "It was a ghost, that's settled. I
+knowed it all the time. Nothin' human ever looked like it, and
+nothin' alive ever moaned like it did."</p>
+<p>By this time the rest of the party had reached the cabin door.
+The less timorous ventured inside, while others contented
+themselves by looking through the small windows.</p>
+<p>"Well, if you're sure you really saw something, we'd better make
+a thorough search of the house and the grounds," said Bonner, and
+forthwith began nosing about the two rooms.</p>
+<p>The floors were shaky and the place had the odour of decayed
+wood. Mould clung to the half-plastered walls, cobwebs matted the
+ceilings, and rotted fungi covered the filth in the corners.
+Altogether it was a most uninviting hole, in which no
+self-respecting ghost would have made its home. When the time came
+to climb up to the little garret Bonner's followers rebelled. He
+was compelled to go alone, carrying the lantern, which one of the
+small boys had found. This part of the house was even more
+loathsome than below, and it would be impossible to describe its
+condition. He saw no sign of life, and retired in utter disgust.
+Then came the trip to the cellar. Again he had no followers, the
+Tinkletown men emphatically refusing to go down where old Mrs.
+Rank's body had been buried. Bonner laughed at them and went down
+alone. It was nauseous with age and the smell of damp earth, but it
+was cleaner there than above stairs. The cellar was smaller than
+either of the living rooms, and was to be reached only through the
+kitchen. There was no exit leading directly to the exterior of the
+house, but there was one small window at the south end. Bonner
+examined the room carefully and then rejoined the party. For some
+reason the posse had retired to the open air as soon as he left
+them to go below. No one knew exactly why, but when one started to
+go forth the others followed with more or less alacrity.</p>
+<p>"Did you see anything?" demanded the marshal.</p>
+<p>"What did old Mrs. Rank look like when she was alive?" asked
+Bonner with a beautifully mysterious air. No one answered; but
+there was a sudden shifting of feet backward, while an expression
+of alarmed inquiry came into every face. "Don't back into that open
+well," warned the amused young man in the doorway. Anderson Crow
+looked sharply behind, and flushed indignantly when he saw that the
+well was at least fifty feet away. "I saw something down there that
+looked like a woman's toe," went on Bonner very soberly.</p>
+<p>"Good Lord! What did I tell you?" cried the marshal, turning to
+his friends. To the best of their ability they could not remember
+that Anderson had told them anything, but with one accord the whole
+party nodded approval.</p>
+<p>"I fancy it was the ghost of a toe, however, for when I tried to
+pick it up it wriggled away, and I think it chuckled. It
+disappear&mdash;what's the matter? Where are you going?"</p>
+<p>It is only necessary to state that the marshal and his posse
+retreated in good order to a distant spot where it was not quite so
+dark, there to await the approach of Wicker Bonner, who leisurely
+but laughingly inspected the exterior of the house and the grounds
+adjoining. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, except as to
+dilapidation, he rejoined the party with palpable displeasure in
+his face.</p>
+<p>"Well, I think I'll go back to the ice," he said; "that place is
+as quiet as the grave. You are a fine lot of jokers, and I'll admit
+that the laugh is on me."</p>
+<p>But Bonner was mystified, uncertain. He had searched the house
+thoroughly from top to bottom, and he had seen nothing unusual, but
+these men and boys were so positive that he could not believe the
+eyes of all had been deceived.</p>
+<p>"This interests me," he said at last. "I'll tell you what we'll
+do, Mr. Crow. You and I will come down here to-night, rig up a tent
+of some sort and divide watch until morning. If there is anything
+to be seen we'll find out what it is. I'll get a couple of straw
+mattresses from our boathouse and&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I've got rheumatiz, Mr. Bonner, an' it would be the death o' me
+to sleep in this swamp," objected Anderson hastily.</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll come alone, then. I'm not afraid. I don't mean to
+say I'll sleep in that old shack, but I'll bunk out here in the
+woods. No human being could sleep in that place. Will any one
+volunteer to keep me company?"</p>
+<p>Silence.</p>
+<p>"I don't blame you. It does take nerve, I'll confess. My only
+stipulation is that you shall come down here from the village early
+to-morrow morning. I may have something of importance to tell you,
+Mr. Crow."</p>
+<p>"We'll find his dead body," groaned old Mr. Borton.</p>
+<p>"Say, mister," piped up a shrill voice, "I'll stay with you." It
+was Bud who spoke, and all Tinkletown was afterward to resound with
+stories of his bravery. The boy had been silently admiring the bold
+sportsman from Boston town, and he was ready to cast his lot with
+him in this adventure. He thrilled with pleasure when the big hero
+slapped him on the back and called him the only man in the
+crowd.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/180.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>At eight o'clock that night Bonner and the determined but
+trembling Bud came up the bank from the river and pitched a tent
+among the trees near the haunted house. From the sledge on the
+river below they trundled up their bedding and their stores. Bud
+had an old single-barrel shotgun, a knife and a pipe, which he was
+just learning to smoke; Bonner brought a Navajo blanket, a revolver
+and a heavy walking stick. He also had a large flask of whiskey and
+the pipe that had graduated from Harvard with him.</p>
+<p>At nine o'clock he put to bed in one of the chilly nests a very
+sick boy, who hated to admit that the pipe was too strong for him,
+but who felt very much relieved when he found himself wrapped
+snugly in the blankets with his head tucked entirely out of sight.
+Bud had spent the hour in regaling Bonner with the story of Rosalie
+Gray's abduction and his own heroic conduct in connection with the
+case. He confessed that he had knocked one of the villains down,
+but they were too many for him. Bonner listened politely and
+then&mdash;put the hero to bed.</p>
+<p>Bonner dozed off at midnight. An hour or so later he suddenly
+sat bolt upright, wide awake and alert. He had the vague impression
+that he was deathly cold and that his hair was standing on end.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XVIII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Men in the Sleigh</i></h3>
+<p>Let us go back to the night on which Rosalie was seized and
+carried away from Mrs. Luce's front gate, despite the valiant
+resistance of her youthful defenders.</p>
+<p>Rosalie had drooned Thackeray to the old lady until both of them
+were dozing, and it was indeed a welcome relief that came with
+Roscoe's resounding thumps on the front door. Mrs. Luce was too old
+to be frightened out of a year's growth, but it is perfectly safe
+to agree with her that the noise cost her at least three
+months.</p>
+<p>Desperately blue over the defection of Elsie Banks, Rosalie had
+found little to make her evening cheerful indoors, but the fresh,
+crisp air set her spirits bounding the instant she closed Mrs.
+Luce's door from the outside. We have only to refer to Roscoe's
+lively narrative for proof of what followed almost instantly. She
+was seized, her head tightly wrapped in a thick cloak or blanket;
+then she was thrown into a sleigh, and knew nothing more except a
+smothering sensation and the odour of chloroform.</p>
+<p>When she regained consciousness she was lying on the ground in
+the open air, dark night about her. Three men were standing nearby,
+but there was no vehicle in sight. She tried to rise, but on
+account of her bonds was powerless to do so. Speech was prevented
+by the cloth which closed her lips tightly. After a time she began
+to grasp the meaning of the muttered words that passed between the
+men.</p>
+<p>"You got the rig in all right, Bill&mdash;you're sure that no
+one heard or saw you?" were the first questions she could make out,
+evidently arising from a previous report or explanation.</p>
+<p>"Sure. Everybody in these parts goes to bed at sundown. They
+ain't got nothing to do but sleep up 'ere."</p>
+<p>"Nobody knows we had that feller's sleigh an' horses
+out&mdash;nobody ever will know," said the big man, evidently the
+leader. She noticed they called him Sam.</p>
+<p>"Next thing is to git her across the river without leavin' any
+tracks. We ain't on a travelled road now, pals; we got to be
+careful. I'll carry her down to the bank; but be sure to step
+squarely in my footprints&mdash;it'll look like they were made by
+one man. See?"</p>
+<p>"The river's froze over an' we can't be tracked on the ice. It's
+too dark, too, for any one to see us. Go ahead, Sammy; it's
+d&mdash;&mdash; cold here."</p>
+<p>The big man lifted her from the ground as if she were a feather,
+and she was conscious of being borne swiftly through a stretch of
+sloping woodland down to the river bank, a journey of two or three
+hundred yards, it seemed. Here the party paused for many minutes
+before venturing out upon the wide expanse of frozen river,
+evidently making sure that the way was clear. Rosalie, her senses
+quite fully restored by this time, began to analyse the situation
+with a clearness and calmness that afterward was the object of
+considerable surprise to her. Instead of being hysterical with
+fear, she was actually experiencing the thrill of a real emotion.
+She had no doubt but that her abductors were persons hired by those
+connected with her early history, and, strange as it may seem, she
+could not believe that bodily harm was to be her fate after all
+these years of secret attention on the part of those so deeply,
+though remotely, interested.</p>
+<p>Somehow there raced through her brain the exhilarating
+conviction that at last the mystery of her origin was to be cleared
+away, and with it all that had been as a closed book. No thought of
+death entered her mind at that time. Afterward she was to feel that
+death would be most welcome, no matter how it came.</p>
+<p>Her captors made the trip across the river in dead silence.
+There was no moon and the night was inky black. The exposed
+portions of her face tingled with cold, but she was so heavily
+wrapped in the blanket that her body did not feel the effects of
+the zero weather.</p>
+<p>At length the icy stretch was passed, and after resting a few
+minutes, Sam proceeded to ascend the steep bank with her in his
+arms. Why she was not permitted to walk she did not know then or
+afterward. It is possible, even likely, that the men thought their
+charge was unconscious. She did nothing to cause them to think
+otherwise. Again they passed among trees, Sam's companions
+following in his footprints as before. Another halt and a brief
+command for Davy to go ahead and see that the coast was clear came
+after a long and tortuous struggle through the underbrush. Twice
+they seemed to have lost their bearings in the darkness, but
+eventually they came into the open.</p>
+<p>"Here we are!" grunted Sam as they hurried across the clearing.
+"A hard night's work, pals, but I guess we're in Easy Street now.
+Go ahead, Davy, an' open the trap!"</p>
+<p>Davy swore a mighty but sibilant oath and urged his thick, ugly
+figure ahead of the others.</p>
+<p>A moment later the desperadoes and their victim passed through a
+door and into a darkness even blacker than that outside. Davy was
+pounding carefully upon the floor of the room in which they stood.
+Suddenly a faint light spread throughout the room and a hoarse,
+raucous voice whispered:</p>
+<p>"Have you got her?"</p>
+<p>"Get out of the way&mdash;we're near froze," responded Davy
+gruffly.</p>
+<p>"Get down there, Bill, and take her; I'm tired carryin' this
+hundred and twenty pounder," growled Sam.</p>
+<p>The next instant Rosalie was conscious of being lowered through
+a trap door in the floor, and then of being borne rapidly through a
+long, narrow passage, lighted fitfully by the rays of a lantern in
+the hands of a fourth and as yet unseen member of the band.</p>
+<p>"There!" said Bill, impolitely dropping his burden upon a pile
+of straw in the corner of the rather extensive cave at the end of
+the passage; "wonder if the little fool is dead. She ought to be
+coming to by this time."</p>
+<p>"She's got her eyes wide open," uttered the raucous voice on the
+opposite side; and Rosalie turned her eyes in that direction. She
+looked for a full minute as if spellbound with terror, her gaze
+centred at the most repulsive human face she ever had
+seen&mdash;the face of Davy's mother.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/186.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>The woman was a giantess, a huge, hideous creature with the face
+of a man, hairy and bloated. Her unkempt hair was grey almost to
+whiteness, her teeth were snags, and her eyes were almost hidden
+beneath the shaggy brow. There was a glare of brutal satisfaction
+in them that appalled the girl.</p>
+<p>For the first time since the adventure began her heart failed
+her, and she shuddered perceptibly as her lids fell.</p>
+<p>"What the h&mdash;&mdash; are you skeering her fer like that,
+ma," growled Davy. "Don't look at her like that, or&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"See here, my boy, don't talk like that to me if you don't want
+me to kick your head off right where you stand. I'm your mother,
+Davy, an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"That'll do. This ain't no time to chew the rag," muttered Sam.
+"We're done fer. Get us something to eat an' something to drink,
+old woman; give the girl a nifter, too. She's fainted, I reckon.
+Hurry up; I want to turn in."</p>
+<p>"Better untie her hands&mdash;see if she's froze," added Bill
+savagely.</p>
+<p>Roughly the old woman slashed the bonds from the girl's hands
+and feet and then looked askance at Sam, who stood warming his
+hands over a kerosene stove not far away. He nodded his head, and
+she instantly untied the cloth that covered Rosalie's mouth.</p>
+<p>"It won't do no good to scream, girl. Nobody'll hear ye but
+us&mdash;and we're your friends," snarled the old woman.</p>
+<p>"Let her yell if she wants to, Maude. It may relieve her a bit,"
+said Sam, meaning to be kind. Instinctively Rosalie looked about
+for the person addressed as Maude. There was but one woman in the
+gang. Maude! That was the creature's name. Instead of crying or
+shrieking, Rosalie laughed outright.</p>
+<p>At the sound of the laugh the woman drew back hastily.</p>
+<p>"By gor!" she gasped; "the&mdash;she's gone daffy!"</p>
+<p>The men turned toward them with wonder in their faces. Bill was
+the first to comprehend. He saw the girl's face grow sober with an
+effort, and realised that she was checking her amusement because it
+was sure to offend.</p>
+<p>"Aw," he grinned, "I don't blame her fer laughin'! Say what ye
+will, Maude, your name don't fit you."</p>
+<p>"It's as good as any name&mdash;" began the old hag, glaring at
+him; but Sam interposed with a command to her to get them some hot
+coffee while he had a talk with the girl. "Set up!" he said
+roughly, addressing Rosalie. "We ain't goin' to hurt you."</p>
+<p>Rosalie struggled to a sitting posture, her limbs and back stiff
+from the cold and inaction. "Don't ask questions, because they
+won't be answered. I jest want to give you some advice as to how
+you must act while you are our guest. You must be like one of the
+family. Maybe we'll be here a day, maybe a week, but it won't be
+any longer than that."</p>
+<p>"Would you mind telling me where I am and what this all means?
+Why have you committed this outrage? What have I done&mdash;" she
+found voice to say. He held up his hand.</p>
+<p>"You forget what I said about askin' questions. There ain't
+nothin' to tell you, that's all. You're here and that's
+enough."</p>
+<p>"Well, who is it that has the power to answer questions, sir? I
+have some right to ask them. You have&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"That'll do, now!" he growled. "I'll put the gag back on you if
+you keep it up. So's you won't worry, I want to say this to you:
+Your friends don't know where you are, and they couldn't find you
+if they tried. You are to stay right here in this cave until we get
+orders to move you. When the time comes we'll take you to wherever
+we're ordered, and then we're through with you. Somebody else will
+have the say. You won't be hurt here unless you try to
+escape&mdash;it won't do you any good to yell. It ain't a palace,
+but it's better than the grave. So be wise. All we got to do is to
+turn you over to the proper parties at the proper time. That's
+all."</p>
+<p>"Is the person you speak of my&mdash;my mother or my father?"
+Rosalie asked with bated breath.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<h3><i>With the Kidnapers</i></h3>
+<p>Sam stared at her, and there was something like real amazement
+in his eyes.</p>
+<p>"Yer mother or father?" he repeated interrogatively.
+"Wha&mdash;what the devil can they have to do with this affair? I
+guess they're askin' a lot of questions themselves about this
+time."</p>
+<p>"Mr. and Mrs. Crow are not my parents," she said; and then
+shrewdly added, "and you know it, sir."</p>
+<p>"I've heard that sayin' 'bout a child never knowin' its own
+father, but this business of both the father and mother is a new
+one on me. I guess it's the chloroform. Give us that booze, Bill.
+She's dippy yet."</p>
+<p>He tried to induce her to swallow some of the whiskey, but
+steadfastly she refused, until finally, with an evil snarl, Sam
+commanded the giantess to hold her while he forced the burning
+liquor down her throat. There was a brief struggle, but Rosalie was
+no match for the huge woman, whose enormous arms encircled her; and
+as the liquid trickled in upon her tongue she heard above the
+brutal laughter of the would-be doctors the hoarse voice of Bill
+crying:</p>
+<p>"Don't hurt her, Sam! Let 'er alone!"</p>
+<p>"Close yer face! Don't you monkey in this thing, Bill Briggs.
+I'll&mdash;well, you know. Drink this, damn you!"</p>
+<p>Sputtering and choking, her heart beating wildly with fear and
+rage, Rosalie was thrown back upon the straw by the woman. Her
+throat was burning from the effects of the whiskey and her eyes
+were blinded by the tears of anger and helplessness.</p>
+<p>"Don't come any of your highfalutin' airs with me, you little
+cat," shrieked the old woman, rubbing a knee that Rosalie had
+kicked in her struggles.</p>
+<p>"Lay still there," added Sam. "We don't want to hurt you, but
+you got to do as I tell you. Understand? Not a word, now! Gimme
+that coffee-pot, Davy. Go an' see that everything's locked up an'
+we'll turn in fer the night. Maude, you set up an' keep watch. If
+she makes a crack, soak her one."</p>
+<p>"You bet I will. She'll find she ain't attendin' no
+Sunday-school picnic."</p>
+<p>"No boozin'!" was Sam's order as he told out small portions of
+whiskey. Then the gang ate ravenously of the bacon and beans and
+drank cup after cup of coffee. Later the men threw themselves upon
+the piles of straw and soon all were snoring. The big woman
+refilled the lantern and hung it on a peg in the wall of the cave;
+then she took up her post near the square door leading to the
+underground passage, her throne an upturned whiskey barrel, her
+back against the wall of the cave. She glared at Rosalie through
+the semi-darkness, frequently addressing her with the vilest
+invectives cautiously uttered&mdash;and all because her victim had
+beautiful eyes and was unable to close them in sleep.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i192.jpg" id="i192.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/192.jpg"><img src="images/192.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"Rosalie was no match for the huge woman"</b></div>
+<p>Rosalie's heart sank as she surveyed the surroundings with her
+mind once more clear and composed. After her recovery from the
+shock of contact with the old woman and Sam she shrank into a state
+of mental lassitude that foretold the despair which was to come
+later on. She did not sleep that night. Her brain was full of
+whirling thoughts of escape, speculations as to what was to become
+of her, miserable fears that the end would not be what the first
+impressions had made it, and, over all, a most intense horror of
+the old woman, who dozed, but guarded her as no dragon ever watched
+in the days of long ago.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/194.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>The cave in which they were housed was thirty or forty feet from
+side to side, almost circular in shape, a low roof slanting to the
+rocky floor. Here and there were niches in the walls, and in the
+side opposite to the entrance to the passageway there was a small,
+black opening, leading without doubt to the outer world. The fact
+that it was not used at any time during her stay in the cave led
+her to believe it was not of practical use. Two or three coal-oil
+stoves were used to heat the cave and for cooking purposes. There
+were several lanterns, a number of implements (such as spades,
+axes, crowbars, sledges, and so forth), stool-kegs, a rough table,
+which was used for all purposes known to the dining-room, kitchen,
+scullery and even bedchamber. Sam slept on the table. Horse
+blankets were thrown about the floor in confusion. They served as
+bedclothes when the gang slept. At other times they might as well
+have been called doormats. One of the niches in the wall was used
+as the resting place for such bones or remnants as might strike it
+when hurled in that direction by the occupants. No one took the
+trouble to carefully bestow anything in the garbage hole, and no
+one pretended to clean up after the other. The place was foul
+smelling, hot and almost suffocating with the fumes from the
+stoves, for which there seemed no avenue of escape.</p>
+<p>Hours afterward, although they seemed drawn out into years, the
+men began to breathe naturally, and a weird silence reigned in the
+cave. They were awake. The venerable Maude emerged from her doze,
+looked apprehensively at Sam, prodded the corner to see that the
+prize had not faded away, and then began ponderously to make
+preparations for a meal, supposedly breakfast. Meagre ablutions,
+such as they were, were performed in the "living room," a bucket of
+water serving as a general wash-basin. No one had removed his
+clothing during the night, not even his shoes. It seemed to her
+that the gang was in an ever-ready condition to evacuate the place
+at a moment's notice.</p>
+<p>Rosalie would not eat, nor would she bathe her face in the water
+that had been used by the quartette before her. Bill Briggs, with
+some sense of delicacy in his nature, brought some fresh water from
+the far end of the passageway. For this act he was reviled by his
+companions.</p>
+<p>"It's no easy job to get water here, Briggs," roared Sam. "We
+got to be savin' with it."</p>
+<p>"Well, don't let it hurt you," retorted Bill. "I'll carry it up
+from the river to-night. You won't have to do it."</p>
+<p>"She ain't any better'n I am," snorted Maude, "and nobody goes
+out to bring me a private bath, I take notice. Get up here and eat
+something, you rat! Do you want us to force it down you&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"If she don't want to eat don't coax her," said Sam. "She'll
+soon get over that. We was only hired to get her here and get her
+away again, and not to make her eat or even wash. That's nothing to
+us."</p>
+<p>"Well, she's got to eat or she'll die, and you know, Sam Welch,
+that ain't to be," retorted the old woman.</p>
+<p>"She'll eat before she'll die, Maudie; don't worry."</p>
+<p>"I'll never eat a mouthful!" cried Rosalie, a brave, stubborn
+light in her eyes. She was standing in the far corner drying her
+face with her handkerchief.</p>
+<p>"Oho, you can talk again, eh? Hooray! Now we'll hear the story
+of her life," laughed big Sam, his mouth full of bacon and bread.
+Rosalie flushed and the tears welled to her eyes.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/197.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>All day long she suffered taunts and gibes from the gang. She
+grew to fear Davy's ugly leers more than the brutal words of the
+others. When he came near she shrank back against the wall; when he
+spoke she cringed; when he attempted to touch her person she
+screamed. It was this act that brought Sam's wrath upon Davy's
+head. He won something like gratitude from the girl by profanely
+commanding Davy to confine his love to looks and not to acts.</p>
+<p>"She ain't to be harmed," was Sam's edict. "That goes, too."</p>
+<p>"Aw, you go to&mdash;" began Davy belligerently.</p>
+<p>"What's that?" snarled Sam, whirling upon him with a glare. Davy
+slunk behind his mother and glared back. Bill moved over to Sam's
+side. For a moment the air was heavy with signs of an affray.
+Rosalie crouched in her corner, her hand over her ears, her eyes
+closed. There was murder in Davy's face. "I'll break every bone in
+your body!" added Sam; but Bill laconically stayed him with a
+word.</p>
+<p>"Rats!" It was brief, but it brought the irate Sam to his
+senses. Trouble was averted for the time being.</p>
+<p>"Davy ain't afraid of him," cried that worthy's mother
+shrilly.</p>
+<p>"You bet I ain't!" added Davy after a long string of oaths. Sam
+grinned viciously.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/198.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"There ain't nothin' to fight about, I guess," he said, although
+he did not look it. "We'd be fools to scrap. Everything to lose and
+nothin' to gain. All I got to say, Davy, is that you ain't to touch
+that girl."</p>
+<p>"Who's goin' to touch her?" roared Davy, bristling bravely. "An'
+you ain't to touch her nuther," he added.</p>
+<p>The day wore away, although it was always night in the
+windowless cave, and again the trio of men slept, with Maude as
+guard. Exhausted and faint, Rosalie fell into a sound sleep. The
+next morning she ate sparingly of the bacon and bread and drank
+some steaming coffee, much to the derisive delight of the hag.</p>
+<p>"You had to come to it, eh?" she croaked. "Had to feed that
+purty face, after all. I guess we're all alike. We're all flesh and
+blood, my lady."</p>
+<p>The old woman never openly offered personal violence to the
+girl. She stood in some fear of the leader&mdash;not physical fear,
+but the strange homage that a brute pays to its master. Secretly
+she took savage delight in treading on the girl's toes or in
+pinching her arms and legs, twisting her hair, spilling hot coffee
+on her hands, cursing her softly and perpetrating all sorts of
+little indignities that could not be resented, for the simple
+reason that they could not be proved against her. Her word was as
+good as Rosalie's.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/199.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Hourly the strain grew worse and worse. The girl became ill and
+feverish with fear, loathing and uncertainty. Her ears rang with
+the horrors of their lewdness, her eyes came to see but little, for
+she kept them closed for the very pain of what they were likely to
+witness. In her heart there grew a constant prayer for deliverance
+from their clutches. She was much too strong-minded and healthy to
+pray for death, but her mind fairly reeled with the thoughts of the
+vengeance she would exact.</p>
+<p>The third day found the gang morose and ugly. The confinement
+was as irksome to them as it was to her. They fretted and worried,
+swore and growled. At nightfall of each day Sam ventured forth
+through the passage and out into the night. Each time he was gone
+for two or three hours, and each succeeding return to the vile cave
+threw the gang into deeper wrath. The word they were expecting was
+not forthcoming, the command from the real master was not given.
+They played cards all day, and at last began to drink more deeply
+than was wise. Two desperate fights occurred between Davy and Sam
+on the third day. Bill and the old woman pulled them apart after
+both had been battered savagely.</p>
+<p>"She's sick, Sam," growled Bill, standing over the cowering,
+white-faced prisoner near the close of the fourth day. Sam had been
+away nearly all of the previous night, returning gloomily without
+news from headquarters. "She'll die in this d&mdash;&mdash; place
+and so will we if we don't get out soon. Look at her! Why, she's as
+white as a sheet. Let's give her some fresh air, Sammy. It's safe.
+Take her up in the cabin for a while. To-night we can take her
+outside the place. Good Lord, Sammy, I've got a bit of heart! I
+can't see her die in this hole. Look at her! Can't you see she's
+nearly done for?"</p>
+<p>After considerable argument, pro and con, it was decided that it
+would be safe and certainly wise to let the girl breathe the fresh
+air once in a while. That morning Sam took her into the cabin
+through the passage. The half hour in the cold, fresh air revived
+her, strengthened her perceptibly. Her spirits took an upward
+bound. She began to ask questions, and for some reason he began to
+take notice of them. It may have been the irksomeness of the
+situation, his own longing to be away, his anger toward the person
+who had failed to keep the promise made before the abduction, that
+led him to talk quite freely.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<h3><i>In the Cave</i></h3>
+<p>"It's not my fault that we're still here," he growled in answer
+to her pathetic appeal. "I've heard you prayin' for Daddy Crow to
+come and take you away. Well, it's lucky for him that he don't know
+where you are. We'd make mincemeat of that old jay in three
+minutes. Don't do any more prayin'. Prayers are like
+dreams&mdash;you have 'em at night and wonder why the next day.
+Now, look 'ere, Miss Gray, we didn't do this rotten job for the
+love of excitement. We're just as anxious to get out of it as you
+are."</p>
+<p>"I only ask why I am held here and what is to become of me?"
+said Rosalie resignedly. She was standing across the table from
+where he sat smoking his great, black pipe. The other members of
+the gang were lounging about, surly and black-browed, chafing
+inwardly over the delay in getting away from the cave.</p>
+<p>"I don't know why you've been held here. I only know it's
+d&mdash;&mdash; slow. I'd chuck the job, if there wasn't so much
+dust in it for me."</p>
+<p>"But what is to become of me? I cannot endure this much longer.
+It is killing me. Look! I am black and blue from pinches. The old
+woman never misses an opportunity to hurt me."</p>
+<p>"She's jealous of you because you're purty, that's all. Women
+are all alike, hang 'em! I wouldn't be in this sort of work if it
+hadn't been for a jealous wife."</p>
+<p>He puffed at his pipe moodily for a long time, evidently turning
+some problem over and over in his mind. At last, heaving a deep
+sigh, and prefacing his remarks with an oath, he let light in upon
+the mystery. "I'll put you next to the job. Can't give any names;
+it wouldn't be square. You see, it's this way: you ain't wanted in
+this country. I don't know why, but you ain't."</p>
+<p>"Not wanted in this country?" she cried blankly. "I don't stand
+in any one's way. My life and my love are for the peaceful home
+that you have taken me from. I don't ask for anything else. Won't
+you tell your employer as much for me? If I am released, I shall
+never interfere with the plans of&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"'Tain't that, I reckon. You must be mighty important to
+somebody, or all this trouble wouldn't be gone through with. The
+funny part of it is that we ain't to hurt you. You ain't to be
+killed, you know. That's the queer part of it, ain't it?"</p>
+<p>"I'll admit it has an agreeable sound to me," said Rosalie, with
+a shadow of a smile on her trembling lips. "It seems ghastly,
+though."</p>
+<p>"Well, anyhow, it's part of somebody's scheme to get you out of
+this country altogether. You are to be taken away on a ship, across
+the ocean, I think. Paris or London, mebby, and you are never to
+come back to the United States. Never, that's what I'm told."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i204.jpg" id="i204.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/204.jpg"><img src="images/204.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"She shrank back from another blow which seemed
+impending"</b></div>
+<p>Rosalie was speechless, stunned. Her eyes grew wide with the
+misery of doubt and horror, her lips moved as if forming the words
+which would not come. Before she could bring a sound from the
+contracted throat the raucous voice of old Maude broke in:</p>
+<p>"What are you tellin' her, Sam Welch? Can't you keep your face
+closed?" she called, advancing upon him with a menacing look.</p>
+<p>"Aw, it's nothin' to you," he retorted, but an uncomfortable
+expression suddenly crept into his face. A loud, angry discussion
+ensued, the whole gang engaging. Three to one was the way it stood
+against the leader, who was forced to admit, secretly if not
+publicly, that he had no right to talk freely of the matter to the
+girl. In vain she pleaded and promised. Her tears were of no avail,
+once Sam had concluded to hold his tongue. Angry with himself for
+having to submit to the demands of the others, furious because she
+saw his surrender, Sam, without a word of warning, suddenly struck
+her on the side of the head with the flat of his broad hand,
+sending her reeling into the corner. Dazed, hurt and half stunned,
+she dropped to her knees, unable to stand. With a piteous look in
+her eyes she shrank back from another blow which seemed impending.
+Bill Briggs grasped his leader's arm and drew him away, cursing and
+snarling.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/207.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Late in the afternoon, Bill was permitted to conduct her into
+the cabin above, for a few minutes in the air, and for a glimpse of
+the failing sunlight. She had scarcely taken her stand before the
+little window when she was hastily jerked away, but not before she
+thought she had perceived a crowd of men, huddling among the trees
+not far away. A scream for help started to her lips; but Bill's
+heavy hand checked it effectually. His burly arm sent her scuttling
+toward the trap-door; and a second later she was below, bruised
+from the fall and half fainting with disappointment and
+despair.</p>
+<p>Brief as the glimpse had been, she was positive she recognised
+two faces in the crowd of men&mdash;Anderson Crow's and Ed
+Higgins's. It meant, if her eyes did not deceive her, that the
+searchers were near at hand, and that dear, old Daddy Crow was
+leading them. Her hopes flew upward and she could not subdue the
+triumphant glance that swept the startled crowd when Bill
+breathlessly broke the news.</p>
+<p>Absolute quiet reigned in the cave after that. Maude cowed the
+prisoner into silence with the threat to cut out her tongue if she
+uttered a cry. Later, the tramp of feet could be heard on the floor
+of the cabin. There was a sound of voices, loud peals of laughter,
+and then the noise made by some one in the cellar that served as a
+blind at one end of the cabin. After that, dead silence. At
+nightfall, Sam stealthily ventured forth to reconnoitre. He came
+back with the report that the woods and swamps were clear and that
+the searchers, if such they were, had gone away.</p>
+<p>"The house, since Davy's grandma's bones were stored away in
+that cellar for several moons, has always been thought to be
+haunted. The fools probably thought they saw a ghost&mdash;an'
+they're runnin' yet."</p>
+<p>Then for the first time Rosalie realised that she was in the
+haunted cabin in the swamp, the most fearsome of all places in the
+world to Tinkletown, large and small. Not more than three miles
+from her own fireside! Not more than half an hour's walk from Daddy
+Crow and others in the warmth of whose love she had lived so
+long!</p>
+<p>"It's gettin' too hot here for us," growled Sam at supper.
+"We've just got to do something. I'm going out to-night to see if
+there's any word from the&mdash;from the party. These guys ain't
+all fools. Somebody is liable to nose out the trap-door before long
+and there'll be hell to pay. They won't come back before to-morrow,
+I reckon. By thunder, there ought to be word from the&mdash;the
+boss by this time. Lay low, everybody; I'll be back before
+daybreak. This time I'm a-goin' to find out something sure or know
+the reason why. I'm gettin' tired of this business. Never know what
+minute the jig's up, nor when the balloon busts."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/209.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Again he stole forth into the night, leaving his companions more
+or less uneasy as to the result, after the startling events of the
+afternoon. Hour after hour passed, and with every minute therein,
+Rosalie's ears strained themselves to catch the first sound of
+approaching rescuers. Her spirits fell, but her hopes were high.
+She felt sure that the men outside had seen her face and that at
+last they had discovered the place in which she was kept. It would
+only be a question of time until they learned the baffling secret
+of the trap-door. Her only fear lay in the possibility that she
+might be removed by her captors before the rescuers could
+accomplish her delivery. Her bright, feverish, eager eyes, gleaming
+from the sunken white cheeks, appealed to Bill Briggs more than he
+cared to admit. The ruffian, less hardened than his fellows, began
+to feel sorry for her.</p>
+<p>Eleven o'clock found the trio anxious and ugly in their
+restlessness. There was no sleep for them. Davy visited the trap
+over a hundred times that night. His mother, breaking over the
+traces of restraint, hugged the jug of whiskey, taking swig after
+swig as the vigil wore on. At last Davy, driven to it, insisted
+upon having his share. Bill drank but little, and it was not long
+before Rosalie observed the shifty, nervous look in his eyes. From
+time to time he slyly appropriated certain articles, dropping them
+into his coat pocket. His ear muffs, muffler, gloves, matches,
+tobacco and many chunks of bread and bacon were stowed stealthily
+in the pockets of his coat. At last it dawned upon her that Bill
+was preparing to desert. Hope lay with him, then. If he could only
+be induced to give her an equal chance to escape!</p>
+<p>Mother and son became maudlin in their&mdash;not cups, but jug;
+but Davy had the sense to imbibe more cautiously, a fact which
+seemed to annoy the nervous Bill.</p>
+<p>"I must have air&mdash;fresh air," suddenly moaned Rosalie from
+her corner, the strain proving too great for her nerves. Bill
+strode over and looked down upon the trembling form for a full
+minute. "Take me outside for just a minute&mdash;just a minute,
+please. I am dying in here."</p>
+<p>"Lemme take her out," cackled old Maude. "I'll give her all the
+air she wants. Want so&mdash;some air myself. Lemme give her air,
+Bill. Have some air on me, pardner. Lemme&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Shut up, Maude!" growled Bill, glancing uneasily about the
+cave. "I'll take her up in the cabin fer a couple of minutes. There
+ain't no danger."</p>
+<p>Davy protested, but Bill carried his point, simply because he
+was sober and knew his power over the half-stupefied pair. Davy let
+them out through the trap, promising to wait below until they were
+ready to return.</p>
+<p>"Are you going away?" whispered Rosalie, as they passed out into
+the cold, black night.</p>
+<p>"Sh! Don't talk, damn you!" he hissed.</p>
+<p>"Let me go too. I know the way home and you need have no fear of
+me. I like you, but I hate the others. Please, please! For God's
+sake, let me go! They can't catch me if I have a little start."</p>
+<p>"I'd like to, but I&mdash;I dassent. Sam would hunt me down and
+kill me&mdash;he would sure. I am goin' myself&mdash;I can't stand
+it no longer."</p>
+<p>"Have pity! Don't leave me alone with them. Oh, God, if
+you&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Moaning piteously, she pleaded with him; but he was obdurate,
+chiefly through fear of the consequences. In his heart he might
+have been willing to give her the chance, but his head saw the
+danger to itself and it was firm.</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you what I'll do," he whispered in the end. "I'll
+take you back there and then I'll go and tell your friends where
+you are and how to help you. Honest! Honest, I will. I know it's as
+broad as it is long, but I'd rather do it that way. They'll be here
+in a couple of hours and you'll be free. Nobody will be the wiser.
+Curse your whining! Shut up! Damn you, get back in there! Don't
+give me away to Davy, and I'll swear to help you out of this."</p>
+<p>A minute or two later, he dragged her back into the cabin,
+moaning, pleading, and crying from the pain of a sudden blow. Ten
+minutes afterward he went forth again, this time ostensibly to meet
+Sam; but Rosalie knew that he was gone forever.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<h3><i>The Trap-Door</i></h3>
+<p>A sickly new moon threw vague ghostly beams across the
+willow-lined swamp, out beyond the little cabin that stood on its
+border. Through the dense undergrowth and high among the skeleton
+treetops ugly shadows played with each other, while a sepulchral
+orchestra of wind and bough shrieked a dirge that flattened in
+Bonner's ears; but it was not the weird music of the swamp that
+sent the shudder of actual terror through the frame of the big
+athlete.</p>
+<p>A series of muffled, heartbreaking moans, like those of a woman
+in dire pain, came to his ears. He felt the cold perspiration start
+over his body. His nerves grew tense with trepidation, his eyes
+wide with horror. Instinctively, his fingers clutched the revolver
+at his side and his gaze went toward the black, square thing which
+marked the presence of the haunted house. The orchestra of the
+night seemed to bring its dirge to a close; a chill interlude of
+silence ensued. The moans died away into choking sobs, and Bonner's
+ears could hear nothing else. A sudden thought striking him, he
+rolled out of his bed and made his way to Bud's pile of blankets.
+But the solution was not there. The lad was sound asleep and no
+sound issued from his lips. The moans came from another source,
+human or otherwise, out there in the crinkling night.</p>
+<p>Carefully making his way from the tent, his courage once more
+restored but his flesh still quivering, Bonner looked intently for
+manifestations in the black home of Johanna Rank. He half expected
+to see a ghostly light flit past a window. It was intensely dark in
+the thicket, but the shadowy marsh beyond silhouetted the house
+into a black relief. He was on all fours behind a thick pile of
+brush, nervously drawing his pipe from his pocket, conscious that
+he needed it to steady his nerves, when a fresh sound, rising above
+the faint sobs, reached his ears. Then the low voice of a man came
+from some place in the darkness, and these words rang out
+distinctly:</p>
+<p>"Damn you!"</p>
+<p>He drew back involuntarily, for the voice seemed to be at his
+elbow. The sobs ceased suddenly, as if choked by a mighty hand.</p>
+<p>The listener's inclination was to follow the example of Anderson
+Crow and run madly off into the night. But beneath this natural
+panic was the soul of chivalry. Something told him that a woman out
+there in the solitude needed the arms of a man; and his blood began
+to grow hot again. Presently the silence was broken by a sharp cry
+of despair:</p>
+<p>"Have pity! Oh, God&mdash;" moaned the voice that sent thrills
+through his body&mdash;the voice of a woman, tender, refined,
+crushed. His fingers gripped the revolver with fresh vigor, but
+almost instantly the rustling of dead leaves reached his ears: the
+man and his victim were making their way toward the house.</p>
+<p>Bonner crouched among the bushes as if paralysed. He began to
+comprehend the situation. In a vague sort of way he remembered
+hearing of Tinkletown's sensation over at his uncle's house, where
+he was living with a couple of servants for a month's shooting. The
+atmosphere had been full of the sensational abduction story for
+several days&mdash;the abduction of a beautiful young woman and the
+helpless attitude of the relatives and friends. Like a whirlwind
+the whole situation spread itself before him; it left him weak. He
+had come upon the gang and their victim in this out-of-the-way
+corner of the world, far from the city toward which they were
+supposed to have fled. He had the solution in his hands and he was
+filled with the fire of the ancients.</p>
+<p>A light appeared in the low doorway and the squat figure of a
+man held a lantern on high. An instant later, another man dragged
+the helpless girl across the threshold and into the house. Even as
+Bonner squared himself to rush down upon them the light disappeared
+and darkness fell over the cabin. There was a sound of footsteps on
+the floor, a creaking of hinges and the stealthy closing of a door.
+Then there was absolute quiet.</p>
+<p>Bonner was wise as well as brave. He saw that to rush down upon
+the house now might prove his own as well as her undoing. In the
+darkness, the bandits would have every advantage. For a moment he
+glared at the black shadow ahead, his brain working like
+lightning.</p>
+<p>"That poor girl!" he muttered vaguely. "Damn beasts! But I'll
+fix 'em, by heaven! It won't be long, my boys."</p>
+<p>His pondering brought quick results. Crawling to Bud's cot, he
+aroused him from a deep sleep. Inside of two minutes the lad was
+streaking off through the woods toward town, with instructions to
+bring Anderson Crow and a large force of men to the spot as quickly
+as possible.</p>
+<p>"I'll stand guard," said Wicker Bonner.</p>
+<p>As the minutes went by Bonner's thoughts dwelt more and more
+intently upon the poor, imprisoned girl in the cabin. His blood
+charged his reason and he could scarce control the impulse to dash
+in upon the wretches. Then he brought himself up with a jerk. Where
+was he to find them? Had he not searched the house that morning and
+was there a sign of life to be found? He was stunned by this
+memory. For many minutes he stood with his perplexed eyes upon the
+house before a solution came to him.</p>
+<p>He now knew that there was a secret apartment in the old house
+and a secret means of entrance and exit. With this explanation
+firmly impressed upon his mind, Wicker Bonner decided to begin his
+own campaign for the liberation of Rosalie Gray. It would be hours
+before the sluggish Anderson Crow appeared; and Bonner was not the
+sort to leave a woman in jeopardy if it was in his power to help
+her. Besides, the country people had filled him with stories of
+Miss Gray's beauty, and they found him at an impressionable and
+heart-free age. The thrill of romance seized him and he was ready
+to dare.</p>
+<p>He crept up to the doorway and listened. Reason told him that
+the coast was clear; the necessity for a sentinel did not exist, so
+cleverly were the desperadoes under cover. After a few moments, he
+crawled into the room, holding his breath, as he made his way
+toward the cellar staircase. He had gone but a few feet when the
+sound of voices came to him. Slinking into a corner, he awaited
+developments. The sounds came from below, but not from the cellar
+room, as he had located it. A moment later, a man crawled into the
+room, coming through a hole in the floor, just as he had suspected.
+A faint light from below revealed the sinister figure plainly, but
+Bonner felt himself to be quite thoroughly hidden. The man in the
+room spoke to some one below.</p>
+<p>"I'll be back in half an hour, Davy. I'll wait fer Sam out there
+on the Point. He ought to have some news from headquarters by this
+time. I don't see why we have to hang around this place forever.
+She ought to be half way to Paris by now."</p>
+<p>"They don't want to take chances, Bill, till the excitement
+blows over."</p>
+<p>"Well, you an' your mother just keep your hands off of her while
+I'm out, that's all," warned Bill Briggs.</p>
+<p>The trap-door was closed, and Bonner heard the other occupant of
+the room shuffle out into the night. He was not long in deciding
+what to do. Here was the chance to dispose of one of the bandits,
+and he was not slow to seize it. There was a meeting in the thicket
+a few minutes later, and Bill was "out of the way" for the time
+being. Wicker Bonner dropped him with a sledge-hammer blow, and
+when he returned to the cabin Bill was lying bound and gagged in
+the tent, a helpless captive.</p>
+<p>His conqueror, immensely satisfied, supplied himself with the
+surplus ends of "guy ropes" from the tent and calmly sat down to
+await the approach of the one called Sam, he who had doubtless gone
+to a rendezvous "for news." He could well afford to bide his time.
+With two of the desperadoes disposed of in ambuscade, he could have
+a fairly even chance with the man called Davy.</p>
+<p>It seemed hours before he heard the stealthy approach of some
+one moving through the bushes. He was stiff with cold, and chafing
+at the interminable delay, but the approach of real danger
+quickened his blood once more. There was another short, sharp,
+silent struggle near the doorway, and once more Wicker Bonner stood
+victorious over an unsuspecting and now unconscious bandit. Sam, a
+big, powerful man, was soon bound and gagged and his bulk dragged
+off to the tent among the bushes.</p>
+<p>"Now for Davy," muttered Bonner, stretching his great arms in
+the pure relish of power. "There will be something doing around
+your heart, Miss Babe-in-the-Woods, in a very few minutes."</p>
+<p>He chuckled as he crept into the cabin, first having listened
+intently for sounds. For some minutes he lay quietly with his ear
+to the floor. In that time he solved one of the problems
+confronting him. The man Davy was a son of old Mrs. Rank's
+murderer, and the "old woman" who kept watch with him was his
+mother, wife of the historic David. It was she who had held the
+lantern, no doubt, while David Wolfe chopped her own mother to
+mincemeat. This accounted for the presence of the gang in the
+haunted house and for their knowledge of the underground room.</p>
+<p>Bonner's inspiration began to wear off. Pure luck had aided him
+up to this stage, but the bearding of David in his lair was another
+proposition altogether. His only hope was that he might find the
+man asleep. He was not taking the old woman into consideration at
+all. Had he but known it, she was the most dangerous of all.</p>
+<p>His chance, he thought, lay in strategy. It was impossible to
+open the trap-door from above, he had found by investigation. There
+was but one way to get to Miss Gray, and that was by means of a
+daring ruse. Trusting to luck, he tapped gently on the floor at the
+spot where memory told him the trap-door was situated. His heart
+was thumping violently.</p>
+<p>There was a movement below him, and then the sound of some one
+handling the bolts in the door. Bonner drew back, hoping against
+hope that a light would not be shown. In one hand he held his
+revolver ready for use; in the other his heavy walking stick. His
+plans were fully developed. After a moment the trap was lifted
+partially and a draft of warm air came out upon him.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<h3><i>Jack, the Giant Killer</i></h3>
+<p>"That you, Sam?" half whispered a man's voice. There was no
+light.</p>
+<p>"Sh!" hissed Bonner, muffling his voice. "Is everybody in?"</p>
+<p>"Bill's waitin' fer you outside. Ma an' me are here. Come on
+down. What's up?"</p>
+<p>"How's the girl?"</p>
+<p>"Bellerin' like a baby. Ma's with her in the cave. Hurry up!
+This thing's heavy."</p>
+<p>For reply Bonner seized the edge of the door with his left hand,
+first pushing his revolver in his trousers' pocket. Then he
+silently swung the heavy cane through the air and downward, a very
+faint light from below revealing the shock head of Davy in the
+aperture. It was a mighty blow and true. Davy's body fell away from
+the trap, and a second later Bonner's dropped through the hole. He
+left the trap wide open in case retreat were necessary. Pausing
+long enough to assure himself that the man was unconscious and
+bleeding profusely, and to snatch the big revolver from Davy's
+person, Bonner turned his attention to the surroundings.</p>
+<p>Perhaps a hundred feet away, at the end of a long, low passage,
+he saw the glimmer of a light. Without a second's hesitation he
+started toward it, feeling that the worst of the adventure was
+past. A shadow coming between him and the light, he paused in his
+approach. This shadow resolved itself into the form of a woman, a
+gigantic creature, who peered intently up the passage.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter, Davy?" she called in raucous tones. "You
+damn fool, can't you do anything without breaking your neck? I
+reckon you fell down the steps? That you, Sam?"</p>
+<p>Receiving no answer, the woman clutched the lantern and advanced
+boldly upon Bonner, who stood far down the passage, amazed and
+irresolute. She looked more formidable to him than any of the men,
+so he prepared for a struggle.</p>
+<p>"Halt!" he cried, when she was within ten feet of him. "Don't
+resist; you are surrounded!"</p>
+<p>The woman stopped like one shot, glared ahead as if she saw him
+for the first time, and then uttered a frightful shriek of rage.
+Dashing the lantern to the ground, she raised her arm and fired a
+revolver point blank at Bonner, despite the fact that his pistol
+was covering her. He heard the bullet crash into the rotten timbers
+near his ear. Contrary to her design, the lantern was not
+extinguished. Instead, it lay sputtering but effective upon the
+floor.</p>
+<p>Before Bonner could make up his mind to shoot at the woman she
+was upon him, firing again as she came. He did not have time to
+retaliate. The huge frame crushed down upon him and his pistol flew
+from his hand. As luck would have it, his free hand clutched her
+revolver, and she was prevented from blowing his brains out with
+the succeeding shots, all of which went wild.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/222.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Then came a desperate struggle. Bonner, a trained athlete,
+realised that she was even stronger than he, more desperate in her
+frenzy, and with murder in her heart. As they lunged to and fro,
+her curses and shrieks in his ear, he began to feel the despair of
+defeat. She was beating him down with one mighty arm, crushing
+blows, every one of them. Then came the sound which turned the tide
+of battle, for it filled him with a frenzy equal to her own. The
+scream of a woman came down through the passage, piteous,
+terror-stricken.</p>
+<p>He knew the fate of that poor girl if his adversary overcame
+him. The thought sent his blood hot and cold at once. Infuriatedly,
+he exerted his fine strength, and the tide turned. Panting and
+snarling, the big woman was battered down. He flung her heavily to
+the ground and then leaped back to pick up his revolver, expecting
+a renewal of the attack. For the first time he was conscious of
+intense pain in his left leg. The woman made a violent effort to
+rise, and then fell back, groaning and cursing.</p>
+<p>"You've done it! You've got me!" she yelled. "My leg's broke!"
+Then she shrieked for Davy and Bill and Sam, raining curses upon
+the law and upon the traitor who had been their undoing.</p>
+<p>Bonner, his own leg wobbling and covered with blood, tried to
+quiet her, but without success. He saw that she was utterly
+helpless, her leg twisted under her heavy body. Her screams of pain
+as he turned her over proved conclusively that she was not
+shamming. Her hip was dislocated. The young man had sense enough
+left to return to Davy before venturing into the cave where Miss
+Gray was doubtless in a dead faint. The man was breathing, but
+still unconscious from the blow on the head. Bonner quickly tied
+his hands and feet, guarding against emergencies in case of his own
+incapacitation as the result of the bullet wound in his leg; then
+he hobbled off with the lantern past the groaning Amazon in quest
+of Rosalie Gray. It did not occur to him until afterward that
+single handed he had overcome a most desperate band of criminals,
+so simply had it all worked out up to the time of the encounter
+with the woman.</p>
+<p>A few yards beyond where the old woman lay moaning he came upon
+the cave in which the bandits made their home. Holding the lantern
+above his head, Bonner peered eagerly into the cavern. In the
+farthest corner crouched a girl, her terror-struck eyes fastened
+upon the stranger.</p>
+<p>"How do you do, Miss Gray," came the cheery greeting from his
+lips. She gasped, swept her hand over her eyes, and tried piteously
+to speak. The words would not come. "The long-prayed-for rescue has
+come. You are free&mdash;that is, as soon as we find our way out of
+this place. Let me introduce myself as Jack, the Giant
+Killer&mdash;hello! Don't do that! Oh, the devil!" She had toppled
+over in a dead faint.</p>
+<p>How Wicker Bonner, with his wounded leg, weak from loss of
+blood, and faint from the reaction, carried her from the cave
+through the passage and the trap-door and into the tent can only be
+imagined, not described. He only knew that it was necessary to
+remove her from the place, and that his strength would soon be
+gone. The sun was tinting the east before she opened her eyes and
+shuddered. In the meantime he had stanched the flow of blood in the
+fleshy part of his leg, binding the limb tightly with a piece of
+rope. It was an ugly, glancing cut made by a bullet of large
+calibre, and it was sure to put him on crutches for some time to
+come. Even now he was scarcely able to move the member. For an hour
+he had been venting his wrath upon the sluggish Anderson Crow, who
+should have been on the scene long before this. Two of his
+captives, now fully conscious, were glaring at their companions in
+the tent with hate in their eyes.</p>
+<p>Rosalie Gray, wan, dishevelled, but more beautiful than the
+reports had foretold, could not at first believe herself to be free
+from the clutches of the bandits. It took him many
+minutes&mdash;many painful minutes&mdash;to convince her that it
+was not a dream, and that in truth he was Wicker Bonner, gentleman.
+Sitting with his back against a tent pole, facing the cabin through
+the flap, with a revolver in his trembling hand, he told her of the
+night's adventures, and was repaid tenfold by the gratitude which
+shone from her eyes and trembled in her voice. In return she told
+him of her capture, of the awful experiences in the cave, and of
+the threats which had driven her almost to the end of
+endurance.</p>
+<p>"Oh, oh, I could love you forever for this!" she cried in the
+fulness of her joy. A rapturous smile flew to Bonner's eyes.</p>
+<p>"Forever begins with this instant, Miss Gray," he said; and
+without any apparent reason the two shook hands. Afterward they
+were to think of this trivial act and vow that it was truly the
+beginning. They were young, heart-free, and full of the romance of
+life.</p>
+<p>"And those awful men are really captured&mdash;and the woman?"
+she cried, after another exciting recital from him. Sam and Bill
+fairly snarled. "Suppose they should get loose?" Her eyes grew wide
+with the thought of it.</p>
+<p>"They can't," he said laconically. "I wish the marshal and his
+bicycle army would hurry along. That woman and Davy need attention.
+I'd hate like the mischief to have either of them die. One doesn't
+want to kill people, you know, Miss Gray."</p>
+<p>"But they were killing me by inches," she protested.</p>
+<p>"Ouch!" he groaned, his leg giving him a mighty twinge.</p>
+<p>"What is it?" she cried in alarm. "Why should we wait for those
+men? Come, Mr. Bonner, take me to the village&mdash;please do. I am
+crazy, absolutely crazy, to see Daddy Crow and mother. I can walk
+there&mdash;how far is it?&mdash;please come." She was running on
+eagerly in this strain until she saw the look of pain in his
+face&mdash;the look he tried so hard to conceal. She was standing
+straight and strong and eager before him, and he was very pale
+under the tan.</p>
+<p>"I can't, Miss Gray. I'm sorry, you know. See! Where there's
+smoke there's fire&mdash;I mean, where there's blood there's a
+wound. I'm done for, in other words."</p>
+<p>"Done for? Oh, you're not&mdash;not going to die! Are you hurt?
+Why didn't you tell me?" Whereupon she dropped to her knees at his
+side, her dark eyes searching his intently, despair in them until
+the winning smile struggled back into his. The captives chuckled
+audibly. "What can I&mdash;what shall I do? Oh, why don't those men
+come! It must be noon or&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"It's barely six A.M., Miss Gray. Don't worry. I'm all right. A
+cut in my leg; the old woman plugged me. I can't walk, you
+know&mdash;but&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"And you carried me out here and did all that and never said a
+word about&mdash;oh, how good and brave and noble you are!"</p>
+<p>When Anderson Crow and half of Tinkletown, routed out <i>en
+masse</i> by Bud, appeared on the scene an hour or two later, they
+found Wicker Bonner stretched out on a mattress, his head in
+Rosalie's lap. The young woman held his revolver in her hand, and
+there was a look in her face which said that she would shoot any
+one who came to molest her charge. Two helpless desperadoes lay
+cursing in the corner of the tent.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow, after an hour of deliberation and explanation,
+fell upon the bound and helpless bandits and bravely carted the
+whole lot to the town "calaboose." Wicker Bonner and his nurse were
+taken into town, and the news of the rescue went flying over the
+county, and eventually to the four corners of the land, for
+Congressman Bonner's nephew was a person of prominence.</p>
+<p>Bonner, as he passed up the main street in Peabody's sleigh on
+the way to Anderson Crow's home, was the centre of attraction. He
+was the hero of the hour, for was not Rosalie Gray herself, pale
+and ill with torture, his most devoted slave? What else could
+Tinkletown do but pay homage when it saw Bonner's head against her
+shoulder and Anderson Crow shouting approval from the bob-sled that
+carried the kidnapers. The four bandits, two of them much the worse
+for the night's contact with Wicker Bonner, were bundled into the
+lock-up, a sadly morose gang of ghosts.</p>
+<p>"I owe you a thousand dollars," said Anderson to Bonner as they
+drew up in front of the marshal's home. All Tinkletown was there to
+see how Mrs. Crow and the family would act when Rosalie was
+restored to them. The yard was full of gaping villagers, and there
+was a diffident cheer when Mrs. Crow rushed forth and fairly
+dragged Rosalie from the sleigh. "Blootch" Peabody gallantly
+interposed and undertook to hand the girl forth with the grace of a
+Chesterfield. But Mrs. Crow had her way.</p>
+<p>"I'll take it out in board and lodging," grinned Wicker Bonner
+to Anderson as two strong men lifted him from the sleigh.</p>
+<p>"Where's Bud?" demanded Anderson after the others had entered
+the house.</p>
+<p>"He stayed down to the 'calaboose' to guard the prisoners," said
+"Blootch." "Nobody could find the key to the door and nobody else
+would stay. They ain't locked in, but Bud's got two revolvers, and
+he says they can only escape over his dead body."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXIII</h2>
+<h3><i>Tinkletown's Convulsion</i></h3>
+<p>Anderson Crow was himself once more. He was twenty years younger
+than when he went to bed the night before. His joy and pride had
+reached the bursting point&mdash;dignity alone prevented the
+catastrophe.</p>
+<p>"What do you expect to do with the gang, Mr. Crow?" asked
+Bonner, reclining with amiable ease in the marshal's Morris chair.
+He was feeling very comfortable, despite "Doc" Smith's stitches;
+and he could not help acknowledging, with more or less of a glow in
+his heart, that it was nice to play hero to such a heroine.</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll protect 'em, of course. Nobody c'n lynch 'em while
+I'm marshal of this town," Anderson said, forgetful of the fact
+that he had not been near the jail, where Master Bud still had full
+charge of affairs, keyless but determined. "I'll have to turn them
+over to the county sheriff to-day er to-morrow, I reckon. This
+derned old calaboose of ourn ain't any too safe. That's a mighty
+desperit gang we've captured. I cain't remember havin' took sech a
+mob before."</p>
+<p>"Has it occurred to you, Mr. Crow, that we have captured only
+the hirelings? Their employer, whoever he or she may be, is at
+large and probably laughing at us. Isn't there some way in which we
+can follow the case up and land the leader?"</p>
+<p>"'y Gosh, you're right," said Anderson. "I thought of that this
+mornin', but it clean skipped my mind since then. There's where the
+mistake was made, Mr. Bonner. It's probably too late now. You'd
+oughter thought about the leader. Seems to me&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Why, Daddy Crow," cried Rosalie, a warm flush in her cheeks
+once more, "hasn't Mr. Bonner done his part? Hasn't he taken them
+single-handed and hasn't he saved me from worse than death?"</p>
+<p>"I ain't castin' any insinyations at him, Rosalie," retorted
+Anderson, very sternly for him. "How <i>can</i> you talk like
+that?"</p>
+<p>"I'm not offended, Miss Gray," laughed Bonner. "We all make
+mistakes. It has just occurred to me, however, that Mr. Crow may
+still be able to find out who the leader is. The prisoners can be
+pumped, I dare say."</p>
+<p>"You're right ag'in, Mr. Bonner. It's funny how you c'n read my
+thoughts. I was jest goin' down to the jail to put 'em through the
+sweat cell."</p>
+<p>"Sweat cell? You mean sweat box, Mr. Crow," said Bonner,
+laughing in spite of himself.</p>
+<p>"No, sir; it's a cell. We couldn't find a box big enough. I use
+the cell reserved fer women prisoners. Mebby some day the town
+board will put in a reg'lar box, but, so far, the cell has done all
+right. I'll be back 'bout supper-time, Eva. You take keer o'
+Rosalie. Make her sleep a while an' I guess you'd better dose her
+up a bit with quinine an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I guess I know what to give her, Anderson Crow," resented his
+wife. "Go 'long with you. You'd oughter been lookin' after them
+kidnapers three hours ago. I bet Bud's purty nigh wore out guardin'
+them. He's been there ever sence nine o'clock, an' it's half-past
+two now."</p>
+<p>"Roscoe's helpin' him," muttered Anderson, abashed.</p>
+<p>At that instant there came a rush of footsteps across the front
+porch and in burst Ed Higgins and "Blootch" Peabody, fairly gasping
+with excitement.</p>
+<p>"Hurry up, Anderson&mdash;down to the jail," sputtered the
+former; and then he was gone like the wind. "Blootch," determined
+to miss nothing, whirled to follow, or pass him if possible. He had
+time to shout over his shoulder as he went forth without closing
+the door:</p>
+<p>"The old woman has lynched herself!"</p>
+<p>It would now be superfluous to remark, after all the convulsions
+Tinkletown had experienced inside of twenty-four hours, that the
+populace went completely to pieces in face of this last trying
+experiment of Fate. With one accord the village toppled over as if
+struck by a broadside and lay, figuratively speaking, writhing in
+its own gore. Stupefaction assailed the town. Then one by one the
+minds of the people scrambled up from the ashes, slowly but surely,
+only to wonder where lightning would strike next. Not since the
+days of the American Revolution had the town experienced such an
+incessant rush of incident. The Judgment Day itself, with Gabriel's
+clarion blasts, could not be expected to surpass this productive
+hour in thrills.</p>
+<p>It was true that old Maude had committed suicide in the
+calaboose. She had been placed on a cot in the office of the prison
+and Dr. Smith had been sent for, immediately after her arrival; but
+he was making a call in the country. Bud Long, supported by half a
+dozen boys armed with Revolutionary muskets, which would not go off
+unless carried, stood in front of the little jail with its wooden
+walls and iron bars, guarding the prisoners zealously. The
+calaboose was built to hold tramps and drunken men, but not for the
+purpose of housing desperadoes. Even as the heroic Bud watched with
+persevering faithfulness, his charges were planning to knock their
+prison to smithereens and at the proper moment escape to the woods
+and hills. They knew the grated door was unlocked, but they
+imagined the place to be completely surrounded by vengeful
+villagers, who would cut them down like rats if they ventured
+forth. Had they but known that Bud was alone, it is quite likely
+they would have sallied forth and relieved him of his guns, spanked
+him soundly and then ambled off unmolested to the country.</p>
+<p>All the morning old Maude had been groaning and swearing in the
+office, where she lay unattended. Bud was telling his friends how
+he had knocked her down twice in the cave, after she had shot six
+times and slashed at him with her dagger, when a sudden cessation
+of groans from the interior attracted the attention of all. "Doc"
+Smith arrived at that juncture and found the boys listening
+intently for a resumption of the picturesque profanity. It was some
+time before the crowd became large enough to inspire a visit to the
+interior of the calaboose. As became his dignity, Bud led the
+way.</p>
+<p>The old woman, unable to endure the pain any longer, and knowing
+full well that her days were bound to end in prison, had managed,
+in some way, to hang herself from a window bar beside her bed,
+using a twisted bed sheet. She was quite dead when "Doc" made the
+examination. A committee of the whole started at once to notify
+Anderson Crow. For a minute it looked as though the jail would be
+left entirely unguarded, but Bud loyally returned to his post,
+reinforced by Roscoe and the doctor.</p>
+<p>Upon Mr. Crow's arrival at the jail, affairs assumed some aspect
+of order. He first locked the grate doors, thereby keeping the
+fiery David from coming out to see his mother before they cut her
+down. A messenger was sent for the coroner at Boggs City, and then
+the big body was released from its last hanging place.</p>
+<p>"Doggone, but this is a busy day fer me!" said Anderson. "I
+won't have time to pump them fellers till this evenin'. But I guess
+they'll keep. 'What's that, Blootch?"</p>
+<p>"I was just goin' to ask Bud if they're still in there," said
+Blootch.</p>
+<p>"Are they, Bud?" asked Anderson in quick alarm.</p>
+<p>"Sure," replied Bud with a mighty swelling of the chest. Even
+Blootch envied him.</p>
+<p>"She's been dead jest an hour an' seven minutes," observed
+Anderson, gingerly touching the dead woman's wrist. "Doggone, I'm
+glad o' one thing!"</p>
+<p>"What's that, Anderson?"</p>
+<p>"We won't have to set her hip. Saved expense."</p>
+<p>"But we'll have to bury her, like as not," said Isaac
+Porter.</p>
+<p>"Yes," said Anderson reflectively. "She'll have to be buried.
+But&mdash;but&mdash;" and here his face lightened up in
+relief&mdash;"not fer a day er two; so what's the use
+worryin'."</p>
+<p>When the coroner arrived, soon after six o'clock, a jury was
+empanelled and witnesses sworn. In ten minutes a verdict of suicide
+was returned and the coroner was on his way back to Boggs City. He
+did not even know that a hip had been dislocated. Anderson insisted
+upon a post-mortem examination, but was laughed out of countenance
+by the officious M.D.</p>
+<p>"I voted fer that fool last November," said Anderson wrathfully,
+as the coroner drove off, "but you c'n kick the daylights out of me
+if I ever do it ag'in. Look out there, Bud! What in thunder are you
+doin' with them pistols? Doggone, ain't you got no sense? Pointin'
+'em around that way. Why, you're liable to shoot
+somebody&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Aw, them ain't pistols," scoffed Bud, his mouth full of
+something. "They're bologny sausages. I ain't had nothin' to eat
+sence last night and I'm hungry."</p>
+<p>"Well, it's dark out here," explained Anderson, suddenly
+shuffling into the jail. "I guess I'll put them fellers through the
+sweat box."</p>
+<p>"The <i>what?</i>" demanded George Ray.</p>
+<p>"The sweat-box&mdash;b-o-x, box. Cain't you hear?"</p>
+<p>"I thought you used a cell."</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, no! Nobody but country jakes call it a cell,"
+said Anderson in fine scorn.</p>
+<p>The three prisoners scowled at him so fiercely and snarled so
+vindictively when they asked him if they were to be starved to
+death, that poor Anderson hurried home and commanded his wife to
+pack "a baskit of bread and butter an' things fer the prisoners."
+It was nine o'clock before he could make up his mind to venture
+back to the calaboose with his basket. He spent the intervening
+hours in telling Rosalie and Bonner about the shocking incident at
+the jail and in absorbing advice from the clear-headed young man
+from Boston.</p>
+<p>"I'd like to go with you to see those fellows, Mr. Crow," was
+Bonner's rueful lament. "But the doctor says I must be quiet until
+this confounded thing heals a bit. Together, I think we could bluff
+the whole story out of those scoundrels."</p>
+<p>"Oh, never you fear," said the marshal; "I'll learn all there is
+to be learnt. You jest ask Alf Reesling what kind of a pumper I
+am."</p>
+<p>"Who is Alf Reesling?"</p>
+<p>"Ain't you heerd of him in Boston? Why, every temperance
+lecturer that comes here says he's the biggest drunkard in the
+world. I supposed his reputation had got to Boston by this time.
+He's been sober only once in twenty-five years."</p>
+<p>"Is it possible?"</p>
+<p>"That was when his wife died. He said he felt so good it wasn't
+necessary to get drunk. Well, I'll tell you all about it when I
+come back. Don't worry no more, Rosalie. I'll find out who's back
+of this business an' then we'll know all about you. It's a long
+lane that has no turn."</p>
+<p>"Them prisoners must be mighty near starved to death by this
+time, Anderson," warned Mrs. Crow.</p>
+<p>"Doggone, that's so!" he cried, and hustled out into the
+night.</p>
+<p>The calaboose was almost totally dark&mdash;quite so, had it not
+been for the single lamp that burned in the office where the body
+of the old woman was lying. Two or three timid citizens stood afar
+off, in front of Thompson's feed yard, looking with awe upon the
+dungeon keep. Anderson's footsteps grew slower and more halting as
+they approached the entrance to the forbidding square of black. The
+snow creaked resoundingly under his heels and the chill wind nipped
+his muffless ears with a spitefulness that annoyed. In fact, he
+became so incensed, that he set his basket down and slapped his
+ears vigorously for some minutes before resuming his slow progress.
+He hated the thought of going in where the dead woman lay.</p>
+<p>Suddenly he made up his mind that a confession from the men
+would be worthless unless he had ear witnesses to substantiate it
+in court. Without further deliberation, he retraced his steps
+hurriedly to Lamson's store, where, after half an hour's
+conversation on the topics of the day, he deputised the entire
+crowd to accompany him to the jail.</p>
+<p>"Where's Bud?" he demanded sharply.</p>
+<p>"Home in bed, poor child," said old Mr. Borton.</p>
+<p>"Well, doggone his ornery hide, why ain't he here to&mdash;"
+began Anderson, but checked himself in time to prevent the crowd
+from seeing that he expected Bud to act as leader in the
+expedition. "I wanted him to jot down notes," he substituted.
+Editor Squires volunteered to act as secretary, prompter,
+interpreter, and everything else that his scoffing tongue could
+utter.</p>
+<p>"Well, go ahead, then," said Anderson, pushing him forward.
+Harry led the party down the dark street with more rapidity than
+seemed necessary; few in the crowd could keep pace with him. A
+majority fell hopelessly behind, in fact.</p>
+<p>Straight into the office walked Harry, closely followed by
+Blootch and the marshal. Maude, looking like a monument of sheets,
+still occupied the centre of the floor. Without a word, the party
+filed past the gruesome, silent thing and into the jail corridor.
+It was as dark as Erebus in the barred section of the prison; a
+cold draft of air flew into the faces of the visitors.</p>
+<p>"Come here, you fellers!" called Anderson bravely into the
+darkness; but there was no response from the prisoners.</p>
+<p>For the very good reason that some hours earlier they had calmly
+removed a window from its moorings and by this time were much too
+far away to answer questions.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+<h3><i>The Flight of the Kidnapers</i></h3>
+<p>Searching parties were organised and sent out to scour the
+country, late as it was. Swift riders gave the alarm along every
+roadway, and the station agent telegraphed the news into every
+section of the land. At Boggs City, the sheriff, berating Anderson
+Crow for a fool and Tinkletown for an open-air lunatic asylum, sent
+his deputies down to assist in the pursuit. The marshal himself
+undertook to lead each separate and distinct posse. He was so
+overwhelmed by the magnitude of his misfortune that it is no wonder
+his brain whirled widely enough to encompass the whole
+enterprise.</p>
+<p>Be it said to the credit of Tinkletown, her citizens made every
+reasonable effort to recapture the men. The few hundred able-bodied
+men of the town rallied to the support of their marshal and the
+law, and there was not one who refused to turn out in the cold
+night air for a sweeping search of the woods and fields.</p>
+<p>Rosalie, who had been awakened early in the evening by Mr.
+Crow's noisy preparations for the pursuit, came downstairs, and
+instantly lost all desire to sleep. Bonner was lying on a couch in
+the "sitting-room," which now served as a temporary bedchamber.</p>
+<p>"If you'll just hand me those revolvers, Mr. Crow," said he,
+indicating the two big automatics he had taken from Davy and Bill,
+"I'll stand guard over the house as best I can while you're
+away."</p>
+<p>"Stand guard? What fer? Nobody's goin' to steal the house."</p>
+<p>"We should not forget that these same rascals may take it into
+their heads to double on their tracks and try to carry Miss Gray
+away again. With her in their possession they'll receive their pay;
+without her their work will have been for nothing. It is a
+desperate crowd, and they may think the plan at least worth
+trying."</p>
+<p>Rosalie's grateful, beaming glance sent a quiver that was not of
+pain through Bonner's frame.</p>
+<p>"Don't worry about that," said the marshal. "We'll have 'em shot
+to pieces inside of an hour an' a half."</p>
+<p>"Anderson, I want you to be very careful with that horse
+pistol," said his wife nervously. "It ain't been shot off sence the
+war, an' like as not it'll kill you from behind."</p>
+<p>"Gosh blast it, Eva!" roared Anderson, "don't you suppose I know
+which end to shoot with?" And away he rushed in great dudgeon.</p>
+<p>Edna Crow sat at the front window, keeping watch for hours. She
+reported to the other members of the household as each scurrying
+band of searchers passed the place. Bonner commanded Rosalie to
+keep away from the windows, fearing a shot from the outside. From
+time to time Roscoe replenished the big blaze in the fireplace. It
+was cosey in the old-fashioned sitting-room, even though the strain
+upon its occupants was trying in the extreme.</p>
+<p>Great excitement came to them when the figure of a man was seen
+to drop to the walk near the front gate. At first it was feared
+that one of the bandits, injured by pursuers, had fallen to die,
+but the mournful calls for help that soon came from the sidewalk
+were more or less reassuring. The prostrate figure had a queer
+habit from time to time of raising itself high enough to peer
+between the pickets of the fence, and each succeeding shout seemed
+more vigorous than the others. Finally they became impatient, and
+then full of wrath. It was evident that the stranger resented the
+inhospitality of the house.</p>
+<p>"Who are you?" called Edna, opening the window ever so slightly.
+Whereupon the man at the gate sank to the ground and groaned with
+splendid misery.</p>
+<p>"It's me," he replied.</p>
+<p>"Who's me?"</p>
+<p>"'Rast&mdash;'Rast Little. I think I'm dyin'."</p>
+<p>There was a hurried consultation indoors, and then Roscoe
+bravely ventured out to the sidewalk.</p>
+<p>"Are you shot, 'Rast?" he asked in trembling tones.</p>
+<p>"No; I'm just wounded. Is Rosalie in there?"</p>
+<p>"Yep. She's&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I guess I'll go in, then. Dern it! It's a long walk from our
+house over here. I guess I'll stay all night. If I don't get better
+to-morrow I'll have to stay longer. I ought to be nursed, too."</p>
+<p>"Rosalie's playin' nurse fer Mr. Bonner," volunteered Roscoe,
+still blocking the gate through which 'Rast was trying to wedge
+himself.</p>
+<p>"Mr. who?"</p>
+<p>"Bonner."</p>
+<p>"Well," said 'Rast after a moment's consideration, "he ought to
+be moved to a hospital. Lemme lean on you, Roscoe. I can't hardly
+walk, my arm hurts so."</p>
+<p>Mr. Little, with his bandages and his hobble, had joined in the
+expedition, and was not to be deterred until faintness overcame him
+and he dropped by the wayside. He was taken in and given a warm
+chair before the fire. One long look at Bonner and the newcomer
+lapsed into a stubborn pout. He groaned occasionally and made much
+ado over his condition, but sourly resented any approach at
+sympathy. Finally he fell asleep in the chair, his last speech
+being to the effect that he was going home early in the morning if
+he had to drag himself every foot of the way. Plainly, 'Rast had
+forgotten Miss Banks in the sudden revival of affection for Rosalie
+Gray. The course of true love did not run smoothly in
+Tinkletown.</p>
+<p>The searchers straggled in empty handed. Early morning found
+most of them asleep at their homes, tucked away by thankful wives,
+and with the promises of late breakfasts. The next day business was
+slow in asserting its claim upon public attention. Masculine
+Tinkletown dozed while femininity chattered to its heart's content.
+There was much to talk about and more to anticipate. The officials
+in all counties contiguous had out their dragnets, and word was
+expected at any time that the fugitives had fallen into their
+hands.</p>
+<p>But not that day, nor the next, nor any day, in fact, did news
+come of their capture, so Tinkletown was obliged to settle back
+into a state of tranquility. Some little interest was aroused when
+the town board ordered the calaboose repaired, and there was a
+ripple of excitement attached to the funeral of the only kidnaper
+in captivity. It was necessary to postpone the oyster supper at the
+Methodist Church, but there was some consolation in the knowledge
+that it would soon be summer-time and the benighted Africans would
+not need the money for winter clothes. The reception at the
+minister's house was a fizzle. He was warned in time, however, and
+it was his own fault that he received no more than a jug of
+vinegar, two loaves of bread and a pound of honey as the result of
+his expectations. It was the first time that a "pound" party had
+proven a losing enterprise.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow maintained a relentless search for the
+desperadoes. He refused to accept Wicker Bonner's theory that they
+were safe in the city of New York. It was his own opinion that they
+were still in the neighbourhood, waiting for a chance to exhume the
+body of Davy's mother and make off with it.</p>
+<p>"Don't try to tell me, Mr. Bonner, that even a raskil like him
+hasn't any love fer his mother," he contended. "Davy may not be
+much of a model, but he had a feelin' fer the woman who bore him,
+an' don't you fergit it."</p>
+<p>"Why, Daddy Crow, he was the most heartless brute in the world!"
+cried Rosalie. "I've seen him knock her down more than
+once&mdash;and kick her, too."</p>
+<p>"A slip of the memory, that's all. He was probably thinkin' of
+his wife, if he has one."</p>
+<p>At a public meeting the town board was condemned for its failure
+to strengthen the jail at the time Anderson made his demand three
+years before.</p>
+<p>"What's the use in me catchin' thieves, and so forth, if the
+jail won't hold 'em?" Anderson declared. "I cain't afford to waste
+time in runnin' desperite characters down if the town board ain't
+goin' to obstruct 'em from gittin' away as soon as the sun sits.
+What's the use, I'd like to know? Where's the justice? I don't want
+it to git noised aroun' that the on'y way we c'n hold a prisoner is
+to have him commit suicide as soon as he's arrested. Fer two cents
+I'd resign right now."</p>
+<p>Of course no one would hear to that. As a result, nearly five
+hundred dollars was voted from the corporation funds to strengthen
+and modernise the "calaboose." It was the sense of the meeting that
+a "sweat box" should be installed under Mr. Crow's supervision, and
+that the marshal's salary should be increased fifty dollars a year.
+After the adoption of this popular resolution Mr. Crow arose and
+solemnly informed the people that their faith in him was not
+misplaced. He threw the meeting into a state of great excitement by
+announcing that the kidnapers would soon be in the toils once more.
+In response to eager queries he merely stated that he had a
+valuable clew, which could not be divulged without detriment to the
+cause. Everybody went home that night with the assurance that the
+fugitives would soon be taken. Anderson promised the town board
+that he would not take them until the jail was repaired.</p>
+<p>It was almost a fortnight before Wicker Bonner was able to walk
+about with crutches. The wound in his leg was an ugly one and
+healed slowly. His uncle, the Congressman, sent up a surgeon from
+New York, but that worthy approved of "Doc" Smith's methods, and
+abruptly left the young man to the care of an excellent nurse,
+Rosalie Gray. Congressman Bonner's servants came over every day or
+two with books, newspapers, sweetmeats, and fresh supplies from the
+city, but it was impossible for them to get any satisfaction from
+the young man in reply to their inquiries as to when he expected to
+return to the big house across the river. Bonner was beginning to
+hate the thought of giving up Rosalie's readings, her
+ministrations, and the no uncertain development of his own opinions
+as to her personal attractiveness.</p>
+<p>"I don't know when I'll be able to walk, Watkins," he said to
+the caretaker. "I'm afraid my heart is affected."</p>
+<p>Bonner's enforced presence at Anderson Crow's home was the
+source of extreme annoyance to the young men of the town. "Blootch"
+Peabody created a frightful scandal by getting boiling drunk toward
+the end of the week, so great was his dejection. As it was his
+first real spree, he did not recover from the effect for three
+days. He then took the pledge, and talked about the evils of strong
+drink with so much feeling at prayer meeting that the women of the
+town inaugurated a movement to stop the sale of liquor in the town.
+As Peabody's drug store was the only place where whiskey could be
+obtained, "Blootch" soon saw the error of his ways and came down
+from his pedestal to mend them.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/245.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Bonner was a friend in need to Anderson Crow. The two were in
+consultation half of the time, and the young man's opinions were
+not to be disregarded. He advanced a theory concerning the motives
+of the leader in the plot to send Rosalie into an exile from which
+she was not expected to return. It was his belief that the person
+who abandoned her as a babe was actuated by the desire to possess a
+fortune which should have been the child's. The conditions
+attending the final disposition of this fortune doubtless were such
+as to make it unwise to destroy the girl's life. The plotter,
+whatever his or her relation to the child may have been, must have
+felt that a time might come when the existence of the real heiress
+would be necessary. Either such a fear was the inspiration or the
+relationship was so dear that the heart of the arch-plotter was
+full of love for the innocent victim.</p>
+<p>"Who is to say, Miss Gray," said Bonner one night as they sat
+before the fire, "that the woman who left you with Mr. Crow was not
+your own mother? Suppose that a vast estate was to be yours in
+trust after the death of some rich relative, say grandparent. It
+would naturally mean that some one else resented this bequest, and
+probably with some justice. The property was to become your own
+when you attained a certain age, let us say. Don't you see that the
+day would rob the disinherited person of every hope to retain the
+fortune? Even a mother might be tempted, for ambitious reasons, to
+go to extreme measures to secure the fortune for herself. Or she
+might have been influenced by a will stronger than her
+own&mdash;the will of an unscrupulous man. There are many
+contingencies, all probable, as you choose to analyse them."</p>
+<p>"But why should this person wish to banish me from the country
+altogether? I am no more dangerous here than I would be anywhere in
+Europe. And then think of the means they would have employed to get
+me away from Tinkletown. Have I not been lost to the world for
+years? Why&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"True; but I am quite convinced, and I think Mr. Crow agrees
+with me, that the recent move was made necessary by the demands of
+one whose heart is not interested, but whose hand wields the
+sceptre of power over the love which tries to shield you. Any other
+would have cut off your life at the beginning."</p>
+<p>"That's my idee," agreed Anderson solemnly.</p>
+<p>"I don't want the fortune!" cried Rosalie. "I am happy here! Why
+can't they let me alone?"</p>
+<p>"I tell you, Miss Gray, unless something happens to prevent it,
+that woman will some day give you back your own&mdash;your fortune
+and your name."</p>
+<p>"I can't believe it, Mr. Bonner. It is too much like a dream to
+me."</p>
+<p>"Well, doggone it, Rosalie, dreams don't last forever!" broke in
+Anderson Crow. "You've got to wake up some time, don't you
+see?"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+<h3><i>As the Heart Grows Older</i></h3>
+<p>Bonner's eagerness to begin probing into the mystery grew as his
+strength came back to him. He volunteered to interest his uncle in
+the matter, and through him to begin a systematic effort to unravel
+the tangled ends of Rosalie's life. Money was not to be spared;
+time and intelligence were to be devoted to the cause. He knew that
+Rosalie was in reality a creature of good birth and worthy of the
+name that any man might seek to bestow upon her&mdash;a name given
+in love by a man to the woman who would share it with him
+forever.</p>
+<p>The days and nights were teaching him the sacredness of a
+growing attachment. He was not closing his eyes to the truth. It
+was quite as impossible for big, worldly Wick Bonner to be near her
+and not fall a victim, as it was for the crude, humble youth of
+Tinkletown. His heart was just as fragile as theirs when it bared
+itself to her attack. Her beauty attracted him, her natural
+refinement of character appealed to him; her pureness, her
+tenderness, her goodness, wrought havoc with his impressions.
+Fresh, bright, as clear-headed as the June sunshine, she was a
+revelation to him&mdash;to Bonner, who had known her sex in all its
+environments. His heart was full of her, day and night; for day and
+night he was wondering whether she could care for him as he knew he
+was coming to care for her.</p>
+<p>One day he received a telegram. It was from his mother and his
+sister, who had just reached Boston from Bermuda, and it carried
+the brief though emphatic information that they were starting to
+Tinkletown to nurse and care for him. Bonner was thrown into a
+panic. He realised in the instant that it would be impossible for
+them to come to Mr. Crow's home, and he knew they could not be
+deceived as to his real condition. His mother would naturally
+insist upon his going at once to Bonner Place, across the river,
+and on to Boston as soon as he was able; his clever sister would
+see through his motives like a flash of lightning. Young Mr. Bonner
+loved them, but he was distinctly bored by the prospect of their
+coming. In some haste and confusion, he sent for "Doc" Smith.</p>
+<p>"Doctor, how soon will I be able to navigate?" he asked
+anxiously.</p>
+<p>"Right now."</p>
+<p>"You don't say so! I don't feel strong, you know."</p>
+<p>"Well, your leg's doing well and all danger is past. Of course,
+you won't be as spry as usual for some time, and you can't walk
+without crutches, but I don't see any sense in your loafing around
+here on that account. You'd be safe to go at any time, Mr.
+Bonner."</p>
+<p>"Look here, doctor, I'm afraid to change doctors. You've handled
+this case mighty well, and if I went to some other chap, he might
+undo it all. I've made up my mind to have you look out for me until
+this wound is completely healed. That's all right, now. I know what
+I'm talking about. I'll take no chances. How long will it be until
+it is completely healed?"</p>
+<p>"A couple of weeks, I suppose."</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll stay right here and have you look at it every day.
+It's too serious a matter for me to trifle with. By the way, my
+mother is coming up, and I dare say she'll want me to go to Boston.
+Our family doctor is an old fossil and I don't like to trust him
+with this thing. You'll be doing me a favour, doctor, if you keep
+me here until I'm thoroughly well. I intend to tell my mother that
+it will not be wise to move me until all danger of blood poisoning
+is past."</p>
+<p>"Blood poisoning? There's no danger now, sir."</p>
+<p>"You never can tell," said Bonner sagely.</p>
+<p>"But I'd be a perfect fool, Mr. Bonner, if there were still
+danger of that," complained the doctor. "What sort of a doctor
+would they consider me?"</p>
+<p>"They'd certainly give you credit for being careful, and that's
+what appeals to a mother, you know," said Bonner still more sagely.
+"Besides, it's <i>my</i> leg, doctor, and I'll have it treated my
+way. I think a couple of weeks more under your care will put me
+straight. Mother has to consider me, that's all. I wish you'd stop
+in to-morrow and change these bandages, doctor; if you don't
+mind&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Doc" Smith was not slow. He saw more than Bonner thought, so he
+winked to himself as he crossed over to his office. At the corner
+he met Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson," he said, half chuckling, "that young Bonner has
+had a relapse."</p>
+<p>"Thunderation!"</p>
+<p>"He can't be moved for a week or two."</p>
+<p>"Will you have to cut it off?"</p>
+<p>"The leg?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly. That's the only thing that pains him, ain't it?"</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/251.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"I think not. I'm going to put his heart in a sling," said
+Smith, laughing heartily at what he thought would be taken as a
+brilliant piece of jesting. But he erred. Anderson went home in a
+great flurry and privately cautioned every member of the household,
+including Rosalie, to treat Bonner with every consideration, as his
+heart was weak and liable to give him great trouble. Above all, he
+cautioned them to keep the distressing news from Bonner. It would
+discourage him mightily. For a full week Anderson watched Bonner
+with anxious eyes, writhing every time the big fellow exerted
+himself, groaning when he gave vent to his hearty laugh.</p>
+<p>"Have you heard anything?" asked Bonner with faithful regularity
+when Anderson came home each night. He referred to the chase for
+the fugitives.</p>
+<p>"Nothin' worth while," replied Anderson dismally. "Uncle Jimmy
+Borton had a letter from Albany to-day, an' his son-in-law said
+three strange men had been seen in the Albany depot the other day.
+I had Uncle Jimmy write an' ast him if he had seen anybody
+answerin' the description, you know. But the three men he spoke of
+took a train for New York, so I suppose they're lost by this time.
+It's the most bafflin' case I ever worked on."</p>
+<p>"Has it occurred to you that the real leader was in this
+neighbourhood at the time? In Boggs City, let us say. According to
+Rosa&mdash;Miss Gray's story, the man Sam went out nightly for
+instructions. Well, he either went to Boggs City or to a meeting
+place agreed upon between him and his superior. It is possible that
+he saw this person on the very night of my own adventure. Now, the
+thing for us to do is to find out if a stranger was seen in these
+parts on that night. The hotel registers in Boggs City may give us
+a clew. If you don't mind, Mr. Crow, I'll have this New York
+detective, who is coming up to-morrow, take a look into this phase
+of the case. It won't interfere with your plans, will it?" asked
+Bonner, always considerate of the feelings of the good-hearted,
+simple-minded old marshal.</p>
+<p>"Not at all, an' I'll help him all I can, sir," responded
+Anderson magnanimously. "Here, Eva, here's a letter fer Rosalie.
+It's the second she's had from New York in three days."</p>
+<p>"It's from Miss Banks. They correspond, Anderson," said Mrs.
+Crow.</p>
+<p>"And say, Eva, I've decided on one thing. We've got to calculate
+on gittin' along without that thousand dollars after this."</p>
+<p>"Why, An&mdash;der&mdash;son Crow!"</p>
+<p>"Yep. We're goin' to find her folks, no matter if we do have to
+give up the thousand. It's no more'n right. She'll be twenty-one in
+March, an' I'll have to settle the guardeenship business anyhow.
+But, doggone it, Mr. Bonner, she says she won't take the money
+we've saved fer her."</p>
+<p>"She has told me as much, Mr. Crow. I think she's partly right.
+If she takes my advice she will divide it with you. You are
+entitled to all of it, you know&mdash;it was to be your
+pay&mdash;and she will not listen to your plan to give all of it to
+her. Still, I feel that she should not be penniless at this time.
+She may never need it&mdash;she certainly will not as long as you
+are alive&mdash;but it seems a wise thing for her to be protected
+against emergencies. But I dare say you can arrange that between
+yourselves. I have no right to interfere. Was there any mail for
+me?"</p>
+<p>"Yep. I almost fergot to fork it over. Here's one from your
+mother, I figger. This is from your sister, an' here's one from
+your&mdash;your sweetheart, I reckon. I deduce all this by sizin'
+up the&mdash;" and he went on to tell how he reached his
+conclusions, all of which were wrong. They were invitations to
+social affairs in Boston. "But I got somethin' important to tell
+you, Mr. Bonner. I think a trap is bein' set fer me by the
+desperadoes we're after. I guess I'm gittin' too hot on their
+trail. I had an ananymous letter to-day."</p>
+<p>"A what?"</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/254.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Ananymous letter. Didn't you ever hear of one? This one was
+writ fer the express purpose of lurin' me into a trap. They want to
+git me out of the way. But I'll fool 'em. I'll not pay any
+attention to it."</p>
+<p>"Goodness, Anderson, I bet you'll be assassinated yet!" cried
+his poor wife. "I wish you'd give up chasin' people down."</p>
+<p>"May I have a look at the letter, Mr. Crow?" asked Bonner.
+Anderson stealthily drew the square envelope from his inside pocket
+and passed it over.</p>
+<p>"They've got to git up purty early to ketch me asleep," he said
+proudly. Bonner drew the enclosure from the envelope. As he read,
+his eyes twinkled and the corners of his mouth twitched, but his
+face was politely sober as he handed the missive back to the
+marshal. "Looks like a trap, don't it?" said Anderson. "You see
+there ain't no signature. The raskils were afraid to sign a
+name."</p>
+<p>"I wouldn't say anything to Miss Gray about this if I were you,
+Mr. Crow. It might disturb her, you know," said Bonner.</p>
+<p>"That means you, too, Eva," commanded Anderson in turn. "Don't
+worry the girl. She mustn't know anything about this."</p>
+<p>"I don't think it's a trap," remarked Eva as she finished
+reading the missive. Bonner took this opportunity to laugh
+heartily. He had held it back as long as possible. What Anderson
+described as an "ananymous" letter was nothing more than a polite,
+formal invitation to attend a "house warming" at Colonel Randall's
+on the opposite side of the river. It read:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"Mr. and Mrs. D.F. Randall request the honour of your presence
+at a house warming, Friday evening, January 30, 190&mdash;, at
+eight o'clock. Rockden-of-the-Hills."</p>
+</div>
+<p>"It is addressed to me, too, Anderson," said his wife, pointing
+to the envelope. "It's the new house they finished last fall.
+Anonymous letter! Fiddlesticks! I bet there's one at the
+post-office fer each one of the girls."</p>
+<p>"Roscoe got some of the mail," murmured the marshal sheepishly.
+"Where is that infernal boy? He'd oughter be strapped good and hard
+fer holdin' back letters like this," growled he, eager to run the
+subject into another channel. After pondering all evening, he
+screwed up the courage and asked Bonner not to tell any one of his
+error in regard to the invitation. Roscoe produced invitations for
+his sister and Rosalie. He furthermore announced that half the
+people in town had received them.</p>
+<p>"There's a telegram comin' up fer you after a while, Mr.
+Bonner," he said. "Bud's out delivering one to Mr. Grimes, and he's
+going to stop here on the way back. I was at the station when it
+come in. It's from your ma, and it says she'll be over from Boggs
+City early in the morning."</p>
+<p>"Thanks, Roscoe," said Bonner with an amused glance at Rosalie;
+"you've saved me the trouble of reading it."</p>
+<p>"They are coming to-morrow," said Rosalie long afterward, as the
+last of the Crows straggled off to bed. "You will have to go away
+with them, won't you?"</p>
+<p>"I'm an awful nuisance about here, I fancy, and you'll be glad
+to be rid of me," he said softly, his gaze on the blazing
+"back-log."</p>
+<p>"No more so than you will be to go," she said so coolly that his
+pride suffered a distinct shock. He stole a shy glance at the face
+of the girl opposite. It was as calm and serene as a May morning.
+Her eyes likewise were gazing into the blaze, and her fingers were
+idly toying with the fringe on the arm of the chair.</p>
+<p>"By George!" he thought, a weakness assailing his heart
+suddenly; "I don't believe she cares a rap!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+<h3><i>The Left Ventricle</i></h3>
+<p>The next day Mrs. Bonner and Miss Bonner descended upon
+Tinkletown. They were driven over from Boggs City in an automobile,
+and their advent caused a new thrill of excitement in town. Half of
+the women in Tinkletown found excuse to walk past Mr. Crow's home
+some time during the day, and not a few of them called to pay their
+respects to Mrs. Crow, whether they owed them or not, much to that
+estimable lady's discomfiture.</p>
+<p>Wicker's mother was a handsome, aristocratic woman with a
+pedigree reaching back to Babylon or some other historic starting
+place. Her ancestors were Tories at the time of the American
+Revolution, and she was proud of it. Her husband's forefathers had
+shot a few British in those days, it is true, and had successfully
+chased some of her own ancestors over to Long Island, but that did
+not matter in these twentieth century days. Mr. Bonner long since
+had gone to the tomb; and his widow at fifty was quite the queen of
+all she surveyed, which was not inconsiderable. The Bonners were
+rich in worldly possessions, rich in social position, rich in
+traditions. The daughter, just out in society, was a pretty girl,
+several years younger than Wicker. She was the idol of his heart.
+This slip of a girl had been to him the brightest, wittiest and
+prettiest girl in all the world. Now, he was wondering how the
+other girl, who was not his sister, would compare with her when
+they stood together before him.</p>
+<p>Naturally, Mrs. Crow and her daughters sank into a nervous panic
+as soon as these fashionable women from Boston set foot inside the
+humble home. They lost what little self-possession they had managed
+to acquire and floundered miserably through the preliminaries.</p>
+<p>But calm, sweet and composed as the most fastidious would
+require, Rosalie greeted the visitors without a shadow of confusion
+or a sign of gaucherie. Bonner felt a thrill of joy and pride as he
+took note of the look of surprise that crept into his mother's
+face&mdash;a surprise that did not diminish as the girl went
+through her unconscious test.</p>
+<p>"By George!" he cried jubilantly to himself, "she's something to
+be proud of&mdash;she's a queen!"</p>
+<p>Later in the day, after the humble though imposing lunch (the
+paradox was permissible in Tinkletown), Mrs. Bonner found time and
+opportunity to express her surprise and her approval to him. With
+the insight of the real aristocrat, she was not blind to the charms
+of the girl, who blossomed like a rose in this out-of-the-way patch
+of nature. The tact which impelled Rosalie to withdraw herself and
+all of the Crows from the house, giving the Bonners an opportunity
+to be together undisturbed, did not escape the clever woman of the
+world.</p>
+<p>"She is remarkable, Wicker. Tell me about her. Why does she
+happen to be living in this wretched town and among such
+people?"</p>
+<p>Whereupon Bonner rushed into a detailed and somewhat lengthy
+history of the mysterious Miss Gray, repeating it as it had come to
+him from her own frank lips, but with embellishments of his own
+that would have brought the red to her cheeks, could she have heard
+them. His mother's interest was not assumed; his sister was
+fascinated by the recital.</p>
+<p>"Who knows," she cried, her dark eyes sparkling, "she may be an
+heiress to millions!"</p>
+<p>"Or a princess of the royal blood!" amended her mother with an
+enthusiasm that was uncommon. "Blood alone has made this girl what
+she is. Heaven knows that billions or trillions could not have
+overcome the influences of a lifetime spent in&mdash;in
+Winkletown&mdash;or is that the name? It doesn't matter,
+Wicker&mdash;any name will satisfy. Frankly, I am interested in the
+girl. It is a crime to permit her to vegetate and die in a place
+like this."</p>
+<p>"But, mother, she loves these people," protested Bonner
+lifelessly. "They have been kind to her all these years. They have
+been parents, protectors&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"And they have been well paid for it, my son. Please do not
+misunderstand me, I am not planning to take her off their hands. I
+am not going to reconstruct her sphere in life. Not by any means. I
+am merely saying that it is a crime for her to be penned up for
+life in this&mdash;this desert. I doubt very much whether her
+parentage will ever be known, and perhaps it is just as well that
+it isn't to be. Still, I am interested."</p>
+<p>"Mamma, I think it would be very nice to ask her to come to
+Boston for a week or two, don't you?" suggested Edith Bonner,
+warmly but doubtfully.</p>
+<p>"Bully!" exclaimed Wicker, forgetting in his excitement that he
+was a cripple. "Have her come on to stop a while with you, Ede. It
+will be a great treat for her and, by George, I'm inclined to think
+it maybe somewhat beneficial to us."</p>
+<p>"Your enthusiasm is beautiful, Wicker," said his mother,
+perfectly unruffled. "I have no doubt you think Boston would be
+benefited, too."</p>
+<p>"Now, you know, mother, it's not just like you to be snippish,"
+said he easily. "Besides, after living a while in other parts of
+the world, I'm beginning to feel that population is not the only
+thing about Boston that can be enlarged. It's all very nice to pave
+our streets with intellect so that we can't stray from our own
+footsteps, but I rather like the idea of losing my way, once in a
+while, even if I have to look at the same common, old sky up there
+that the rest of the world looks at, don't you know. I've learned
+recently that the same sun that shines on Boston also radiates for
+the rest of the world."</p>
+<p>"Yes, it shines in Tinkletown," agreed his mother serenely.
+"But, my dear&mdash;" turning to her daughter&mdash;"I think you
+would better wait a while before extending the invitation. There is
+no excuse for rushing into the unknown. Let time have a
+chance."</p>
+<p>"By Jove, mother, you talk sometimes like Anderson Crow. He
+often says things like that," cried Wicker delightedly.</p>
+<p>"Dear me! How can you say such a thing, Wicker?"</p>
+<p>"Well, you'd like old Anderson. He's a jewel!"</p>
+<p>"I dare say&mdash;an emerald. No, no&mdash;that was not fair or
+kind, Wicker. I unsay it. Mr. Crow and all of them have been good
+to you. Forgive me the sarcasm. Mr. Crow is perfectly impossible,
+but I like him. He has a heart, and that is more than most of us
+can say. And now let us return to earth once more. When will you be
+ready to start for Boston? To-morrow?"</p>
+<p>"Heavens, no! I'm not to be moved for quite a long
+time&mdash;danger of gangrene or something of the sort. It's
+astonishing, mother, what capable men these country doctors are.
+Dr. Smith is something of a marvel. He&mdash;he&mdash;saved my
+leg."</p>
+<p>"My boy&mdash;you don't mean that&mdash;" his mother was saying,
+her voice trembling.</p>
+<p>"Yes; that's what I mean. I'm all right now, but, of course, I
+shall be very careful for a couple of weeks. One can't tell, you
+know. Blood poisoning and all that sort of thing. But let's not
+talk of it&mdash;it's gruesome."</p>
+<p>"Indeed it is. You must be extremely careful, Wicker. Promise me
+that you will do nothing foolish. Don't use your leg until the
+doctor&mdash;but I have something better. We will send for Dr.
+J&mdash;&mdash;. He can run up from Boston two or three
+times&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Nothing of the sort, mother! Nonsense! Smith knows more in a
+minute than J&mdash;&mdash; does in a month. He's handling the case
+exactly as I want him to. Let well enough alone, say I. You know
+J&mdash;&mdash; always wants to amputate everything that can be cut
+or sawed off. For heaven's sake, don't let him try it on me. I need
+my legs."</p>
+<p>It is not necessary to say that Mrs. Bonner was completely won
+over by this argument. She commanded him to stay where he was until
+it was perfectly safe to be moved across the river, where he could
+recuperate before venturing into the city of his birth. Moreover,
+she announced that Edith and she would remain in Boggs City until
+he was quite out of danger, driving over every day in their
+chartered automobile. It suddenly struck Bonner that it would be
+necessary to bribe "Doc" Smith and the entire Crow family, if he
+was to maintain his position as an invalid.</p>
+<p>"Doc" Smith when put to the test lied ably in behalf of his
+client (he refused to call him his patient), and Mrs. Bonner was
+convinced. Mr. Crow and Eva vigorously protested that the young man
+would not be a "mite of trouble," and that he could stay as long as
+he liked.</p>
+<p>"He's a gentleman, Mrs. Bonner," announced the marshal, as if
+the mother was being made aware of the fact for the first time.
+"Mrs. Crow an' me have talked it over, an' I know what I'm talkin'
+about. He's a perfect gentleman."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, Mr. Crow. I am happy to hear you say that," said
+Mrs. Bonner, with fine tact. "You will not mind if he stops here a
+while longer then?"</p>
+<p>"I should say not. If he'll take the job, I'll app'int him
+deputy marshal."</p>
+<p>"I'd like a picture of you with the badge and uniform, Wick,"
+said Edith with good-natured banter.</p>
+<p>Just before the two ladies left for Boggs City that evening
+Bonner managed to say something to Edith.</p>
+<p>"Say, Ede, I think it would be uncommonly decent of you to ask
+Miss Gray down to Boston this spring. You'll like her."</p>
+<p>"Wicker, if it were not so awfully common, I'd laugh in my
+sleeve," said she, surveying him with a calm scrutiny that
+disconcerted. "I wasn't born yesterday, you know. Mother was,
+perhaps, but not your dear little sister. Cheer up, brother. You'll
+get over it, just like all the rest. I'll ask her to come,
+but&mdash;Please don't frown like that. I'll suspect
+something."</p>
+<p>During the many little automobile excursions that the two girls
+enjoyed during those few days in Tinkletown, Miss Bonner found much
+to love in Rosalie, much to esteem and a great deal to anticipate.
+Purposely, she set about to learn by "deduction" just what
+Rosalie's feelings were for the big brother. She would not have
+been surprised to discover the telltale signs of a real but secret
+affection on Rosalie's part, but she was, on the contrary, amazed
+and not a little chagrined to have the young girl meet every
+advance with a joyous candour, that definitely set aside any
+possibility of love for the supposedly irresistible brother. Miss
+Edith's mind was quite at rest, but with the arrogant pride of a
+sister, she resented the fact that any one could know this
+cherished brother and not fall a victim. Perversely, she would have
+hated Rosalie had she caught her, in a single moment of
+unguardedness, revealing a feeling more tender than friendly
+interest for him.</p>
+<p>Sophisticated and world-wise, the gay, careless Miss Bonner read
+her pages quickly&mdash;she skimmed them&mdash;but she saw a great
+deal between the lines. If her mother had been equally discerning,
+that very estimable lady might have found herself immensely
+relieved along certain lines.</p>
+<p>Bonner was having a hard time of it these days. It was worse
+than misery to stay indoors, and it was utterly out of the question
+for him to venture out. His leg was healing with disgusting
+rashness, but his heart was going into an illness that was to scoff
+at the cures of man. And if his parting with his mother and the
+rosy-faced young woman savoured of relief, he must he forgiven. A
+sore breast is no respecter of persons.</p>
+<p>They were returning to the Hub by the early morning train from
+Boggs City, and it was understood that Rosalie was to come to them
+in June. Let it be said in good truth that both Mrs. Bonner and her
+daughter were delighted to have her promise. If they felt any
+uneasiness as to the possibility of unwholesome revelations in
+connection with her birth, they purposely blindfolded themselves
+and indulged in the game of consequences.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Bonner was waiting in the automobile, having said good-bye
+to Wicker.</p>
+<p>"I'll keep close watch on him, Mrs. Bonner," promised Anderson,
+"and telegraph you if his condition changes a mite. I ast 'Doc'
+Smith to-day to tell me the real truth 'bout him, an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"The real truth? What do you mean?" she cried, in fresh
+alarm.</p>
+<p>"Don't worry, ma'am. He's improvin' fine, 'doc' says. He told me
+he'd be out o' danger when he got back to Boston. His heart's
+worryin' 'doc' a little. I ast 'im to speak plain an' tell me jest
+how bad it's affected. He said: 'At present, only the left
+ventricle&mdash;whatever that be&mdash;only the left one is
+punctured, but the right one seems to need a change of air.'"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXVII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Grin Derisive</i></h3>
+<p>"I like your ma," said Anderson to Wicker, later in the evening.
+"She's a perfect lady. Doggone, it's a relief to see a rich woman
+that knows how to be a lady. She ain't a bit stuck up an' yet she's
+a reg'lar aristocrat. Did I ever tell you about what happened to
+Judge Courtwright's wife? No? Well, it was a long time ago, right
+here in Tinkletown. The judge concluded this would be a good place
+fer a summer home&mdash;so him an' her put up a grand residence
+down there on the river bluff. It was the only summer place on this
+side of the river. Well, of course Mrs. Courtwright had to turn in
+an' be the leader of the women in this place. She lorded it over
+'em an' she give 'em to understand that she was a queen er
+somethin' like that an' they was nothin' but peasants. An' the
+derned fool women 'lowed her to do it, too. Seems as though her
+great-grandfather was a 'squire over in England, an' she had a
+right to be swell. Well, she ruled the roost fer two summers an'
+nobody could get near her without a special dispensation from the
+Almighty. She wouldn't look at anybody with her eyes; her chin was
+so high in the air that she had to look through her nose.</p>
+<p>"Her husband was as old as Methoosalum&mdash;that is, he was as
+old as Methoosalum was when he was a boy, so to speak&mdash;an' she
+had him skeered of his life. But I fixed her. At the end of the
+second summer she was ready to git up an' git, duke er no duke.
+Lemme me give you a tip, Wick. If you want to fetch a queen down to
+your level, jest let her know you're laughin' at her. Well, sir,
+the judge's wife used to turn up her nose at me until I got to
+feelin' too small to be seen. My pride was wallerin' in the dust.
+Finally, I thought of a scheme to fix her. Every time I saw her,
+I'd grin at her&mdash;not sayin' a word, mind you, but jest lookin'
+at her as if she struck me as bein' funny. Well, sir, I kept it up
+good an' strong. First thing I knowed, she was beginnin' to look as
+though a bee had stung her an' she couldn't find the place. I'd
+ketch her stealin' sly glances at me an' she allus found me with a
+grin on my face&mdash;a good, healthy grin, too.</p>
+<p>"There wasn't anything to laugh at, mind you, but she didn't
+know that. She got to fixin' her back hair and lookin' worried
+about her clothes. 'Nen she'd wipe her face to see if the powder
+was on straight, all the time wonderin' what in thunder I was
+laughin' at. If she passed in her kerridge she'd peep back to see
+if I was laughin'; and I allus was. I never failed. All this time I
+wasn't sayin' a word-jest grinnin' as though she tickled me half to
+death. Gradually I begin to be scientific about it. I got so that
+when she caught me laughin', I'd try my best to hide the grin.
+Course that made it all the worse. She fidgeted an' squirmed an'
+got red in the face till it looked like she was pickled. Doggone,
+ef she didn't begin to neglect her business as a
+great-granddaughter! She didn't have time to lord it over her
+peasants. She was too blame busy wonderin' what I was laughin'
+at.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i268.jpg" id="i268.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/268.jpg"><img src="images/268.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"It was a wise, discreet old oak"</b></div>
+<p>"'Nen she begin to look peaked an' thin. She looked like she was
+seem' ghosts all the time. That blamed grin of mine pursued her
+every minute. Course, she couldn't kick about it. That wouldn't do
+at all. She jest had to bear it without grinnin'. There wasn't
+anything to say. Finally, she got to stayin' away from the meetin's
+an' almost quit drivin' through the town. Everybody noticed the
+change in her. People said she was goin' crazy about her back hair.
+She lost thirty pounds worryin' before August, and when September
+come, the judge had to take her to a rest cure. They never come
+back to Tinkletown, an' the judge had to sell the place fer half
+what it cost him. Fer two years she almost went into hysterics when
+anybody laughed. But it done her good. It changed her idees. She
+got over her high an' mighty ways, they say, an' I hear she's one
+of the nicest, sweetest old ladies in Boggs City nowadays. But
+Blootch Peabody says that to this day she looks flustered when
+anybody notices her back hair. The Lord knows I wa'n't laughin' at
+her hair. I don't see why she thought so, do you?"</p>
+<p>Bonner laughed long and heartily over the experiment; but
+Rosalie vigorously expressed her disapproval of the marshal's
+methods.</p>
+<p>"It's the only real mean thing I ever heard of you doing, daddy
+Crow!" she cried. "It was cruel!"</p>
+<p>"Course you'd take her part, bein' a woman," said he serenely.
+"Mrs. Crow did, too, when I told her about it twenty years ago.
+Women ain't got much sense of humour, have they, Wick?" He was
+calling him Wick nowadays; and the young man enjoyed the
+familiarity.</p>
+<p>The days came when Bonner could walk about with his cane, and he
+was not slow to avail himself of the privilege this afforded. It
+meant enjoyable strolls with Rosalie, and it meant the elevation of
+his spirits to such heights that the skies formed no bounds for
+them. The town was not slow to draw conclusions. Every one said it
+would be a "match." It was certain that the interesting Boston man
+had acquired a clear field. Tinkletown's beaux gave up in despair
+and dropped out of the contest with the hope that complete recovery
+from his injuries might not only banish Bonner from the village,
+but also from the thoughts of Rosalie Gray. Most of the young men
+took their medicine philosophically. They had known from the first
+that their chances were small. Blootch Peabody and Ed Higgins,
+because of the personal rivalry between themselves, hoped on and on
+and grew more bitter between themselves, instead of toward
+Bonner.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i272.jpg" id="i272.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/272.jpg"><img src="images/272.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"'I beg your pardon,' he said humbly"</b></div>
+<p>Anderson Crow and Eva were delighted and the Misses Crow, after
+futile efforts to interest the young man in their own wares, fell
+in with the old folks and exuberantly whispered to the world that
+"it would be perfectly glorious." Roscoe was not so charitable. He
+was soundly disgusted with the thought of losing his friend Bonner
+in the hated bonds of matrimony. From his juvenile point of view,
+it was a fate that a good fellow like Bonner did not deserve. Even
+Rosalie was not good enough for him, so he told Bud Long; but Bud,
+who had worshipped Rosalie with a hopeless devotion through most of
+his short life, took strong though sheepish exceptions to the
+remark. It seemed quite settled in the minds of every one but
+Bonner and Rosalie themselves. They went along evenly, happily,
+perhaps dreamily, letting the present and the future take care of
+themselves as best they could, making mountains of the
+past&mdash;mountains so high and sheer that they could not be
+surmounted in retreat.</p>
+<p>Bonner was helplessly in love&mdash;so much so, indeed, that in
+the face of it, he lost the courage that had carried him through
+trivial affairs of the past, and left him floundering vaguely in
+seas that looked old and yet were new. Hourly, he sought for the
+first sign of love in her eyes, for the first touch of sentiment;
+but if there was a point of weakness in her defence, it was not
+revealed to the hungry perception of the would-be conqueror. And so
+they drifted on through the February chill, that seemed warm to
+them, through the light hours and the dark ones, quickly and surely
+to the day which was to call him cured of one ill and yet sorely
+afflicted by another.</p>
+<p>Through it all he was saying to himself that it did not matter
+what her birth may have been, so long as she lived at this hour in
+his life, and yet a still, cool voice was whispering
+procrastination with ding-dong persistency through every avenue of
+his brain. "Wait!" said the cool voice of prejudice. His heart did
+not hear, but his brain did. One look of submission from her tender
+eyes and his brain would have turned deaf to the small, cool
+voice&mdash;but her eyes stood their ground and the voice
+survived.</p>
+<p>The day was fast approaching when it would be necessary for him
+to leave the home of Mr. Crow. He could no longer encroach upon the
+hospitality and good nature of the marshal&mdash;especially as he
+had declined the proffered appointment to become deputy town
+marshal. Together they had discussed every possible side to the
+abduction mystery and had laid the groundwork for a systematic
+attempt at a solution. There was nothing more for them to do. True
+to his promise, Bonner had put the case in the hands of one of the
+greatest detectives in the land, together with every known point in
+the girl's history. Tinkletown was not to provide the solution,
+although it contained the mystery. On that point there could be no
+doubt; so, Mr. Bonner was reluctantly compelled to admit to himself
+that he had no plausible excuse for staying on. The great detective
+from New York had come to town, gathered all of the facts under
+cover of strictest secrecy, run down every possible shadow of a
+clew in Boggs City, and had returned to the metropolis, there to
+begin the search twenty-one years back.</p>
+<p>"Four weeks," Bonner was saying to her reflectively, as they
+came homeward from their last visit to the abandoned mill on Turnip
+Creek. It was a bright, warm February morning, suggestive of spring
+and fraught with the fragrance of something far sweeter. "Four
+weeks of idleness and joy to me&mdash;almost a lifetime in the
+waste of years. Does it seem long to you, Miss Gray&mdash;oh, I
+remember, I am to call you Rosalie."</p>
+<p>"It seems that I have known you always instead of for four
+weeks," she said gently. "They have been happy weeks, haven't they?
+My&mdash;our only fear is that you haven't been comfortable in our
+poor little home. It's not what you are accustomed&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Home is what the home folks make it," he said, striving to
+quote a vague old saying. He was dimly conscious of a subdued smile
+on her part and he felt the fool. "At any rate, I was more than
+comfortable. I was happy&mdash;never so happy. All my life shall be
+built about this single month&mdash;my past ends with it, my future
+begins. You, Rosalie," he went on swiftly, his eyes gleaming with
+the love that would not be denied, "are the spirit of life as I
+shall know it from this day forth. It is you who have made
+Tinkletown a kingdom, one of its homes a palace. Don't turn your
+face away, Rosalie."</p>
+<p>But she turned her face toward him and her dark eyes did not
+flinch as they met his, out there in the bleak old wood.</p>
+<p>"Don't, please don't, Wicker," she said softly, firmly. Her hand
+touched his arm for an instant. "You will understand, won't you?
+Please don't!" There was a world of meaning in it.</p>
+<p>His heart turned cold as ice, the blood left his face. He
+understood. She did not love him.</p>
+<p>"Yes," he said, his voice dead and hoarse, "I think I
+understand, Rosalie. I have taken too much for granted, fool that I
+am. Bah! The egotism of a fool!"</p>
+<p>"You must not speak like that," she said, her face contracted by
+pain and pity. "You are the most wonderful man I've ever
+known&mdash;the best and the truest. But&mdash;" and she paused,
+with a wan, drear smile on her lips.</p>
+<p>"I understand," he interrupted. "Don't say it. I want to think
+that some day you will feel like saying something else, and I want
+to hope, Rosalie, that it won't always be like this. Let us talk
+about something else." But neither cared to speak for what seemed
+an hour. They were in sight of home before the stony silence was
+broken. "I may come over from Bonner Place to see you?" he asked at
+last. He was to cross the river the next day for a stay of a week
+or two at his uncle's place.</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;often, Wicker. I shall want to see you every day.
+Yes, every day; I'm sure of it," she said wistfully, a hungry look
+in her eyes that he did not see, for he was staring straight ahead.
+Had he seen that look or caught the true tone in her voice, the
+world might not have looked so dark to him. When he did look at her
+again, her face was calm almost to sereneness.</p>
+<p>"And you will come to Boston in June just the same?"</p>
+<p>"If your sister and&mdash;and your mother still want me to
+come."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i278.jpg" id="i278.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/278.jpg"><img src="images/278.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"'I think I understand, Rosalie'"</b></div>
+<p>She was thinking of herself, the nameless one, in the house of
+his people; she was thinking of the doubts, the
+speculations&mdash;even the fears that would form the background of
+her welcome in that proud house. No longer was Rosalie Gray
+regarding herself as the happy, careless foster-child of Anderson
+Crow; she was seeing herself only as the castaway, the unwanted,
+and the world was growing bitter for her. But Bonner was blind to
+all this; he could not, should not know.</p>
+<p>"You know they want you to come. Why do you say that?" he asked
+quickly, a strange, dim perspective rising before him for an
+instant, only to fade away before it could be analysed.</p>
+<p>"One always says that," she replied with a smile. "It is the
+penalty of being invited. Your sister has written the dearest
+letter to me, and I have answered it. We love one another, she and
+I."</p>
+<p>"Rosalie, I am going to write to you," said he suddenly; "you
+will answer?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," she told him simply. His heart quickened, but faltered,
+and was lost. "I had a long letter from Elsie Banks to-day," she
+went on with an indifference that chilled.</p>
+<p>"Oh," he said; "she is your friend who was or is to marry Tom
+Reddon, I believe. I knew him at Harvard. Tell me, are they
+married?"</p>
+<p>"No. It was not to take place until March, but now she writes
+that her mother is ill and must go to California for several
+months. Mr. Reddon wants to be married at once, or before they go
+West, at least; but she says she cannot consent while her mother
+requires so much of her. I don't know how it will end, but I
+presume they will be married and all go to California. That seems
+the simple and just way, doesn't it?"</p>
+<p>"Any way seems just, I'd say," he said. "They love one another,
+so what's the odds? Do you know Reddon well?"</p>
+<p>"I have seen him many times," she replied with apparent
+evasiveness.</p>
+<p>"He is a&mdash;" but here he stopped as if paralysis had seized
+him suddenly. The truth shot into his brain like a deadly bolt.
+Everything was as plain as day to him now. She stooped to pick up a
+slim, broken reed that crossed her path, and her face was averted.
+"God!" was the cry that almost escaped his lips. "She loves Reddon,
+and he is going to marry her best friend!" Cold perspiration
+started from every pore in his body. He had met the doom of
+love&mdash;the end of hope.</p>
+<p>"He has always loved her," said Rosalie so calmly that he was
+shocked by her courage. "I hope she will not ask him to wait."</p>
+<p>Rosalie never understood why Bonner looked at her in amazement
+and said:</p>
+<p>"By Jove, you are a&mdash;a marvel, Rosalie!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXVIII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Blind Man's Eyes</i></h3>
+<p>Bonner went away without another word of love to her. He saw the
+futility of hoping, and he was noble enough to respect her plea for
+silence on the subject that seemed distasteful to her. He went as
+one conquered and subdued; he went with the iron in his heart for
+the first time&mdash;deeply imbedded and racking.</p>
+<p>Bonner came twice from the place across the river. Anderson
+observed that he looked "peaked," and Rosalie mistook the hungry,
+wan look in his face for the emaciation natural to confinement
+indoors. He was whiter than was his wont, and there was a dogged,
+stubborn look growing about his eyes and mouth that would have been
+understood by the sophisticated. It was the first indication of the
+battle his love was to wage in days to come. He saw no sign of
+weakening in Rosalie. She would not let him look into her brave
+little heart, and so he turned his back upon the field and fled to
+Boston, half beaten, but unconsciously collecting his forces for
+the strife of another day. He did not know it then, nor did she,
+but his love was not vanquished; it had met its first rebuff, that
+was all.</p>
+<p>Tinkletown was sorry to see him depart, but it thrived on his
+promise to return. Every one winked slyly behind his back, for, of
+course, Tinkletown understood it all. He would come back often and
+then not at all&mdash;for the magnet would go away with him in the
+end. The busybodies, good-natured but garrulous, did not have to
+rehearse the story to its end; it would have been superfluous. Be
+it said here, however, that Rosalie was not long in settling many
+of the speculators straight in their minds. It seemed improbable
+that it should not be as they had thought and hoped. The news soon
+reached Blootch Peabody and Ed Higgins, and, both eager to revive a
+blighted hope, in high spirits, called to see Rosalie on the same
+night. It is on record that neither of them uttered two dozen words
+between eight o'clock and ten, so bitterly was the presence of the
+other resented.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/283.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>March came, and with it, to the intense amazement of Anderson
+Crow, the ever-mysterious thousand dollars, a few weeks late. On a
+certain day the old marshal took Rosalie to Boggs City, and the
+guardianship proceedings were legally closed. Listlessly she
+accepted half of the money he had saved, having refused to take all
+of it. She was now her own mistress, much to her regret if not to
+his.</p>
+<p>"I may go on living with you, Daddy Crow, may I not?" she asked
+wistfully as they drove home through the March blizzard. "This
+doesn't mean that I cannot be your own little girl after to-day,
+does it?"</p>
+<p>"Don't talk like that, Rosalie Gray, er I'll put you to bed
+'thout a speck o' supper," growled he in his most threatening
+tones, but the tears were rolling down his cheeks at the time.</p>
+<p>"Do you know, daddy, I honestly hope that the big city detective
+won't find out who I am," she said after a long period of
+reflection.</p>
+<p>"Cause why?"</p>
+<p>"Because, if he doesn't, you won't have any excuse for turning
+me out."</p>
+<p>"I'll not only send you to bed, but I'll give you a tarnation
+good lickin' besides if you talk like&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"But I'm twenty-one. You have no right," said she so brightly
+that he cracked his whip over the horse's back and blew his nose
+twice for full measure of gratitude.</p>
+<p>"Well, I ain't heerd anything from that fly detective lately,
+an' I'm beginnin' to think he ain't sech a long sight better'n I
+am," said he proudly.</p>
+<p>"He isn't half as good!" she cried.</p>
+<p>"I mean as a detective," he supplemented apologetically.</p>
+<p>"So do I," she agreed earnestly; but it was lost on him.</p>
+<p>There was a letter at home for her from Edith Bonner. It brought
+the news that Wicker was going South to recuperate. His system had
+"gone off" since the accident, and the March winds were driving him
+away temporarily. Rosalie's heart ached that night, and there was a
+still, cold dread in its depths that drove sleep away. He had not
+written to her, and she had begun to fear that their month had been
+a trifle to him, after all. Now she was troubled and grieved that
+she should have entertained the fear. Edith went on to say that her
+brother had seen the New York detective, who was still hopelessly
+in the dark, but struggling on in the belief that chance would open
+the way for him.</p>
+<p>Rosalie, strive as she would to prevent it, grew pale and the
+roundness left her cheek as the weeks went by. Her every thought
+was with the man who had gone to the Southland. She loved him as
+she loved life, but she could not confess to him then or thereafter
+unless Providence made clear the purity of her birth to her and to
+all the world. When finally there came to her a long, friendly,
+even dignified letter from the far South, the roses began to
+struggle back to her cheeks and the warmth to her heart. Her
+response brought a prompt answer from him, and the roses grew
+faster than the spring itself. Friendship, sweet and loyal, marked
+every word that passed between them, but there was a dear world in
+each epistle&mdash;for her, at least, a world of comfort and hope.
+She was praying, hungering, longing for June to come&mdash;sweet
+June and its tender touch&mdash;June with its bitter-sweet and sun
+clouds. Now she was forgetting the wish which had been expressed to
+Anderson Crow on the drive home from Boggs City. In its place grew
+the fierce hope that the once despised detective might clear away
+the mystery and give her the right to stand among others without
+shame and despair.</p>
+<p>"Hear from Wick purty reg'lar, don't you, Rosalie?" asked
+Anderson wickedly, one night while Blootch was there. The suitor
+moved uneasily, and Rosalie shot a reproachful glance at Anderson,
+a glance full of mischief as well.</p>
+<p>"He writes occasionally, daddy."</p>
+<p>"I didn't know you corresponded reg'larly," said Blootch.</p>
+<p>"I did not say regularly, Blucher."</p>
+<p>"He writes sweet things to beat the band, I bet," said Blootch
+with a disdain he did not feel.</p>
+<p>"What a good guesser you are!" she cried tormentingly.</p>
+<p>"Well, I guess I'll be goin'," exploded Blootch wrathfully;
+"it's gittin' late."</p>
+<p>"He won't sleep much to-night," said Anderson, with a twinkle in
+his eye, as the gate slammed viciously behind the caller. "Say,
+Rosalie, there's somethin' been fidgetin' me fer quite a while.
+I'll blurt it right out an' have it over with. Air you in love with
+Wick Bonner?"</p>
+<p>She started, and for an instant looked at him with wide open
+eyes; then they faltered and fell. Her breath came in a frightened,
+surprised gasp and her cheeks grew warm. When she looked up again,
+her eyes were soft and pleading, and her lips trembled ever so
+slightly.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Daddy Crow, I love him," she almost whispered.</p>
+<p>"An' him? How about him?"</p>
+<p>"I can't answer that, daddy. He has not told me."</p>
+<p>"Well, he ought to, doggone him!"</p>
+<p>"I could not permit him to do so if he tried."</p>
+<p>"What! You wouldn't permit? What in tarnation do you mean?"</p>
+<p>"You forget, daddy, I have no right to his love. It would be
+wrong&mdash;all wrong. Good-night, daddy," she cried, impulsively
+kissing him and dashing away before he could check her, but not
+before he caught the sound of a half sob. For a long time he sat
+and stared at the fire in the grate. Then he slapped his knee
+vigorously, squared his shoulders and set his jaw like a vise.
+Arising, he stalked upstairs and tapped on her door. She opened it
+an inch or two and peered forth at him&mdash;a pathetic figure in
+white.</p>
+<p>"Don't you worry, Rosalie," he gulped. "It will be all right and
+hunky dory. I've just took a solemn oath down stairs."</p>
+<p>"An oath, daddy?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; I swore by all that's good and holy I'd find out who
+your parents are ef it took till doomsday. You shall be set right
+in the eyes of everybody. Now, if I was you, I'd go right to sleep.
+There ain't nothin' to worry about. I've got another clew."</p>
+<p>She smiled lovingly as he ambled away. Poor old Anderson's
+confidence in himself was only exceeded by his great love for
+her.</p>
+<p>At last June smiled upon Rosalie and she was off for Boston. Her
+gowns were from Albany and her happiness from
+heaven&mdash;according to a reverential Tinkletown impression. For
+two weeks after her departure, Anderson Crow talked himself hoarse
+into willing ears, always extolling the beauty of his erstwhile
+ward as she appeared before the family circle in each and every one
+of those wonderful gowns.</p>
+<p>This humble narrative has not to do with the glories and foibles
+of Boston social life. It has to deal with the adventures of
+Anderson Crow and Rosalie Gray in so far as they pertain to a place
+called Tinkletown. The joys and pleasures that Rosalie experienced
+during that month of June were not unusual in character. The
+loneliness of Anderson Crow was not a novelty, if one stops to
+consider how the world revolves for every one else. Suffice to say
+that the Bonners, <i>m&egrave;re, fils</i> and <i>fille</i>,
+exerted themselves to make the month an unforgetable one to the
+girl&mdash;and they succeeded. The usual gaiety, the same old whirl
+of experiences, came to her that come to any other mortal who is
+being entertained, f&ecirc;ted and admired. She was a
+success&mdash;a pleasure in every way&mdash;not only to her hosts
+but to herself. If there was a cloud hanging over her head through
+all these days and nights, the world was none the wiser; the silver
+lining was always visible.</p>
+<p>Once while she was driving with the Bonners she saw a man whom
+she knew, but did not expect to ever look upon again. She could not
+be mistaken in him. It was Sam Welch, chief of the kidnapers. He
+was gazing at her from a crowded street corner, but disappeared
+completely before Bonner could set the police on his trail.</p>
+<p>Commencement Day at Cambridge brought back hundreds of the old
+men&mdash;the men famous in every branch of study and athletics.
+Among them was handsome Tom Reddon. He came to see her at the
+Bonner home. Elsie Banks was to return in September from Honolulu,
+and they were to be married in the fall. Wicker Bonner eagerly
+looked for the confusion of love in her eyes, but none appeared.
+That night she told him, in reply to an impulsive demand, that she
+did not care for Reddon, that she never had known the slightest
+feeling of tenderness for him.</p>
+<p>"Have you ever been in love, Rosalie?" he asked ruthlessly.</p>
+<p>"Yes," she said after a moment, looking him bravely in the
+eyes.</p>
+<p>"And could you never learn to love any one else?"</p>
+<p>"I think not, Wicker," she said ever so softly.</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon," he said humbly, his face white and his lips
+drawn. "I should not have asked."</p>
+<p>And so he remained the blind man, with the light shining full
+into his eyes.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+<h3><i>The Mysterious Questioner</i></h3>
+<p>July brought Rosalie's visit to an end, and once more Tinkletown
+basked in her smiles and yet wondered why they were so sad and
+wistful. She and Bonner were much nearer, far dearer to one another
+than ever, and yet not one effort had been made to bridge the chasm
+of silence concerning the thing that lay uppermost in their minds.
+She only knew that Anderson Crow had not "run down" his clew, nor
+had the New York sleuth reported for weeks. Undoubtedly, the latter
+had given up the search, for the last heard of him was when he left
+for Europe with his wife for a pleasure trip of unknown duration.
+It looked so dark and hopeless to her, all of it. Had Bonner
+pressed his demands upon her at the end of the visit in Boston, it
+is possible&mdash;more than possible&mdash;that she would have
+faltered in her resolution. After all, why should she deprive
+herself of happiness if it was held out to her with the promise
+that it should never end?</p>
+<p>The summer turned steaming hot in the lowlands about Tinkletown,
+but in the great hills across the river the air was cool, bright,
+and invigorating. People began to hurry to their country homes from
+the distant cities. Before the month was old, a score or more of
+beautiful places were opened and filled with the sons and daughters
+of the rich. Lazily they drifted and drove and walked through the
+wonderful hills, famed throughout the world, and lazily they
+wondered why the rest of the world lived. In the hills now were the
+Randalls, the Farnsworths, the Brackens, the Brewsters, the Van
+Wagenens, the Rolfes and a host of others. Tinkletown saw them
+occasionally as they came jaunting by in their traps and brakes and
+automobiles&mdash;but it is extremely doubtful if they saw
+Tinkletown in passing.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow swelled and blossomed in the radiance of his own
+importance. In his old age he was becoming fastidious. Only in the
+privacy of his own back yard did he go without the black alpaca
+coat; he was beginning to despise the other days, when he had gone
+coatless from dawn till dark, on the street or off. His badges were
+pinned neatly to his lapel and not to his suspenders, as in the
+days of yore. His dignity was the same, but the old sense of
+irritation was very much modified. In these new days he was
+considerate&mdash;and patronising. Was he not one of the wealthiest
+men in town&mdash;with his six thousand dollars laid by? Was he not
+its most honoured citizen, not excepting the mayor and selectmen?
+Was he not, above all, a close friend of the Bonners?</p>
+<p>The Bonners were to spend August in the Congressman's home
+across the big river. This fact alone was enough to stir the Crow
+establishment to its most infinitesimal roots. Rosalie was to be
+one of the guests at the house party, but her foster-sisters were
+not the kind to be envious. They revelled with her in the
+preparations for that new season of delight.</p>
+<p>With the coming of the Bonners, Anderson once more revived his
+resolution to unravel the mystery attending Rosalie's birth. For
+some months this ambition had lain dormant, but now, with the
+approach of the man she loved, the old marshal's devotion took fire
+and he swore daily that the mystery should be cleared "whether it
+wanted to be or not."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/292.jpg" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>He put poor old Alf Reesling through the "sweat box" time and
+again, and worthless Tom Folly had many an unhappy night, wondering
+why the marshal was shadowing him so persistently.</p>
+<p>"Alf," demanded Anderson during one of the sessions, "where were
+you on the night of February 18, 1883? Don't hesitate. Speak up.
+Where were you? Aha, you cain't answer. That looks suspicious."</p>
+<p>"You bet I c'n answer," said Alf bravely, blinking his blear
+eyes. "I was in Tinkletown."</p>
+<p>"What were you doin' that night?"</p>
+<p>"I was sleepin'."</p>
+<p>"At what time? Keerful now, don't lie."</p>
+<p>"What time o' night did they leave her on your porch?" demanded
+Alf in turn.</p>
+<p>"It was jest half past 'leven."</p>
+<p>"You're right, Anderson. That's jest the time I was asleep."</p>
+<p>"C'n you prove it? Got witnesses?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, but they don't remember the night."</p>
+<p>"Then it may go hard with you. Alf, I still believe you had
+somethin' to do with that case."</p>
+<p>"I didn't, Anderson, so help me."</p>
+<p>"Well, doggone it, somebody did," roared the marshal. "If it
+wasn't you, who was it? Answer that, sir."</p>
+<p>"Why, consarn you, Anderson Crow, I didn't have any spare
+children to leave around on doorsteps. I've allus had trouble to
+keep from leavin' myself there. Besides, it was a woman that left
+her, wasn't it? Well, consarn it, I'm not a woman, am I? Look at my
+whiskers, gee whiz! I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I didn't say you left the baskit, Alf; I only said you'd
+somethin' to do with it. I remember that there was a strong smell
+of liquor around the place that night." In an instant Anderson was
+sniffing the air. "Consarn ye, the same smell as now&mdash;yer
+drunk."</p>
+<p>"Tom Folly drinks, too," protested Alf. "He drinks Martini
+cocktails."</p>
+<p>"Don't you?"</p>
+<p>"Not any more. The last time I ordered one was in a Dutch eatin'
+house up to Boggs City. The waiter couldn't speak a word of
+English, an' that's the reason I got so full. Every time I ordered
+'dry Martini' he brought me three. He didn't know how to spell it.
+No, sir, Anderson; I'm not the woman you want. I was at home asleep
+that night. I remember jest as well as anything, that I said before
+goin' to bed that it was a good night to sleep. I remember lookin'
+at the kitchen clock an' seein' it was jest eighteen minutes after
+eleven. 'Nen I said&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"That'll be all for to-day, Alf," interrupted the questioner,
+his gaze suddenly centering on something down the street. "You've
+told me that six hundred times in the last twenty years. Come on, I
+see the boys pitchin' horseshoes up by the blacksmith shop. I'll
+pitch you a game fer the seegars."</p>
+<p>"I cain't pay if I lose," protested Alf.</p>
+<p>"I know it," said Anderson; "I don't expect you to."</p>
+<p>The first day that Bonner drove over in the automobile, to
+transplant Rosalie in the place across the river, found Anderson
+full of a new and startling sensation. He stealthily drew the big
+sunburnt young man into the stable, far from the house. Somehow, in
+spite of his smiles, Bonner was looking older and more serious.
+There was a set, determined expression about his mouth and eyes
+that struck Anderson as new.</p>
+<p>"Say, Wick," began the marshal mysteriously, "I'm up a
+stump."</p>
+<p>"What? Another?"</p>
+<p>"No; jest the same one. I almost got track of somethin'
+to-day&mdash;not two hours ago. I met a man out yander near the
+cross-roads that I'm sure I seen aroun' here about the time Rosalie
+was left on the porch. An' the funny part of it was, he stopped me
+an' ast me about her. Doggone, I wish I'd ast him his name."</p>
+<p>"You don't mean it!" cried Bonner, all interest. "Asked about
+her? Was he a stranger?"</p>
+<p>"I think he was. Leastwise, he said he hadn't been aroun' here
+fer more'n twenty year. Y'see, it was this way. I was over to Lem
+Hudlow's to ask if he had any hogs stole last night&mdash;Lem lives
+nigh the poorhouse, you know. He said he hadn't missed any an' ast
+me if any hogs had been found. I tole him no, not that I knowed of,
+but I jest thought I'd ask; I thought mebby he'd had some stole.
+You never c'n tell, you know, an' it pays to be attendin' to
+business all the time. Well, I was drivin' back slow when up rode a
+feller on horseback. He was a fine-lookin' man 'bout fifty year
+old, I reckon, an' was dressed in all them new-fangled ridin' togs.
+'Ain't this Mr. Crow, my old friend, the detective?' said he. 'Yes,
+sir,' said I. 'I guess you don't remember me,' says he. I told him
+I did, but I lied. It wouldn't do fer him to think I didn't know
+him an' me a detective, don't y'see?</p>
+<p>"We chatted about the weather an' the crops, him ridin' longside
+the buckboard. Doggone, his face was familiar, but I couldn't place
+it. Finally, he leaned over an' said, solemn-like: 'Have you still
+got the little girl that was left on your porch?' You bet I jumped
+when he said that. 'Yes,' says I, 'but she ain't a little girl now.
+She's growed up.' 'Is she purty?' he ast. 'Yes,' says I, 'purty as
+a speckled pup!' 'I'd like to see her,' he said. 'I hear she was a
+beautiful baby. I hope she is very, very happy.' 'What's that to
+you?' says I, sharp-like. 'I am very much interested in her, Mr.
+Crow,' he answered. 'Poor child, I have had her in mind for a long
+time,' he went on very solemn. I begin to suspect right away that
+he had a lot to do with her affairs. Somehow, I couldn't help
+thinkin' I'd seen him in Tinkletown about the time she was
+dropped&mdash;left, I mean.</p>
+<p>"'You have given her a good eddication, I hope,' said he. 'Yes,
+she's got the best in town,' said I. 'The thousand dollars came all
+right every year?' 'Every February.' 'I should like to see her
+sometime, if I may, without her knowin' it, Mr. Crow.' 'An' why
+that way, sir?' demanded I. 'It would probably annoy her if she
+thought I was regardin' her as an object of curiosity,' said he.
+'Tell her fer me,' he went on' gittin' ready to whip up, 'that she
+has an unknown friend who would give anything he has to help her.'
+Goshed, if he didn't put the gad to his horse an' gallop off 'fore
+I could say another word. I was goin' to ask him a lot of
+questions, too."</p>
+<p>"Can't you remember where and under what circumstances you saw
+him before?" cried Bonner, very much excited.</p>
+<p>"I'm goin' to try to think it up to-night. He was a rich-lookin'
+feller an' he had a heavy black band aroun' one of his coat
+sleeves. Wick, I bet he's the man we want. I've made up my mind 'at
+he's her father!"</p>
+<p>Bonner impatiently wormed all the information possible out of
+the marshal, especially as to the stranger's looks, voice, the
+direction taken when they parted company and then dismally
+concluded that an excellent opportunity had been hopelessly lost.
+Anderson said, in cross-examination, that the stranger had told him
+he "was leavin' at once fer New York and then going to Europe." His
+mother had died recently.</p>
+<p>"I'll try to head him off at Boggs City," said Bonner; and half
+an hour later he was off at full speed in the big machine for the
+county seat, a roundabout way to Bonner Place. The New York train
+had gone, but no one had seen a man answering the description of
+Anderson's interviewer.</p>
+<p>"I'm sorry, Rosalie," said Bonner some time later. He was taking
+her for a spin in the automobile. "It was a forlorn hope, and it is
+also quite probable that Mr. Crow's impressions are wrong. The man
+may have absolutely no connection with the matter. I'll admit it
+looks interesting, his manner and his questions, and there is a
+chance that he knows the true story. In any event, he did not go to
+New York to-day and he can't get another train until to-morrow.
+I'll pick up Mr. Crow in the morning and we'll run up here to have
+a look at him if he appears."</p>
+<p>"I think it is a wild goose chase, Wicker," Rosalie said
+despairingly. "Daddy Crow has done such things before."</p>
+<p>"But this seems different. The man's actions were curious. He
+must have had some reason for being interested in you. I am
+absolutely wild with eagerness to solve this mystery, Rosalie. It
+means life to me."</p>
+<p>"Oh, if you only could do it," she cried so fervently, that his
+heart leaped with pity for her.</p>
+<p>"I love you, Rosalie. I would give my whole life to make you
+happy. Listen, dearest&mdash;don't turn away from me! Are you
+afraid of me?" He was almost wailing it into her ear.</p>
+<p>"I&mdash;I was only thinking of the danger, Wicker. You are not
+watching the road," she said, flushing a deep red. He laughed gaily
+for the first time in months.</p>
+<p>"It is a wide road and clear," he said jubilantly. "We are alone
+and we are merely drifting. The machine is alive with happiness.
+Rosalie&mdash;Rosalie, I could shout for joy! You <i>do</i> love
+me? You will be my wife?"</p>
+<p>She was white and silent and faint with the joy of it all and
+the pain of it all. Joy in the full knowledge that he loved her and
+had spoken in spite of the cloud that enveloped her, pain in the
+certainty that she could not accept the sacrifice. For a long time
+she sat staring straight down the broad road over which they were
+rolling.</p>
+<p>"Wicker, you must not ask me now," she said at last, bravely and
+earnestly. "It is sweet to know that you love me. It is life to
+me&mdash;yes, life, Wicker. But, don't you see? No, no! You must
+not expect it. You must not ask it. Don't, don't, dear!" she cried,
+drawing away as he leaned toward her, passion in his eyes, triumph
+in his face.</p>
+<p>"But we love each other!" he cried. "What matters the rest? I
+want you&mdash;<i>you!</i>"</p>
+<p>"Have you considered? Have you thought? I have, a thousand
+times, a thousand bitter thoughts. I cannot, I will not be
+your&mdash;your wife, Wicker, until&mdash;"</p>
+<p>In vain he argued, pleaded, commanded. She was firm and she felt
+she was right if not just. Underneath it all lurked the fear, the
+dreadful fear that she may have been a child of love, the
+illegitimate offspring of passion. It was the weight that crushed
+her almost to lifelessness; it was the bar sinister.</p>
+<p>"No, Wicker, I mean it," she said in the end resolutely. "Not
+until I can give you a name in exchange for your own."</p>
+<p>"Your name shall one day be Bonner if I have to wreck the social
+system of the whole universe to uncover another one for you."</p>
+<p>The automobile had been standing, by some extraordinary chance,
+in the cool shade of a great oak for ten minutes or more, but it
+was a wise, discreet old oak.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+<h3><i>The Hemisphere Train Robbery</i></h3>
+<p>Anderson Crow lived at the extreme south end of Tinkletown's
+principal thoroughfare. The "calaboose" was situated at the far end
+of Main Street, at least half a mile separating the home of the law
+and the home of the lawless. Marshal Crow's innate love for the
+spectacular alone explains the unneighbourliness of the two
+establishments. He felt an inward glory in riding or walking the
+full length of the street, and he certainly had no reason to
+suspect the populace of disregarding the outward glory he
+presented.</p>
+<p>The original plan of the merchantry comprehended the erection of
+the jail in close proximity to the home of its chief official, but
+Mr. Crow put his foot flatly and ponderously upon the scheme. With
+the dignity which made him noticeable, he said he'd "be doggoned ef
+he wanted to have people come to his own dooryard to be arrested."
+By which, it may be inferred, that he expected the evil-doer to
+choose his own arresting place.</p>
+<p>Mr. and Mrs. Crow were becoming thrifty, in view of the prospect
+that confronted them, to wit: The possible marriage of Rosalie and
+the cutting off of the yearly payments. As she was to be absent for
+a full month or more, Anderson conceived the idea of advertising
+for a lodger and boarder. By turning Roscoe out of his bed, they
+obtained a spare room that looked down upon the peony beds beyond
+the side "portico."</p>
+<p>Mr. Crow was lazily twisting his meagre chin whiskers one
+morning soon after Rosalie's departure. He was leaning against the
+town pump in front of the post-office, the sun glancing impotently
+off the bright badge on the lapel of his alpaca coat. A stranger
+came forth from the post-office and approached the marshal.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/301.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Is this Mr. Crow?" he asked, with considerable deference.</p>
+<p>"It is, sir."</p>
+<p>"They tell me you take lodgers."</p>
+<p>"Depends."</p>
+<p>"My name is Gregory, Andrew Gregory, and I am here to canvass
+the neighbourhood in the interest of the Human Life Insurance
+Company of Penobscot. If you need references, I can procure them
+from New York or Boston."</p>
+<p>The stranger was a tall, lean-faced man of forty or forty-five,
+well dressed, with a brusque yet pleasant manner of speech. His
+moustache and beard were black and quite heavy. Mr. Crow eyed him
+quietly for a moment.</p>
+<p>"I don't reckon I'll ask fer references. Our rates are six
+dollars a week, board an' room. Childern bother you?"</p>
+<p>"Not at all. Have you any?"</p>
+<p>"Some, more or less. They're mostly grown."</p>
+<p>"I will take board and room for two weeks, at least," said Mr.
+Gregory, who seemed to be a man of action.</p>
+<p>For almost a week the insurance agent plied his vocation
+assiduously but fruitlessly. The farmers and the citizens of
+Tinkletown were slow to take up insurance. They would talk crops
+and politics with the obliging Mr. Gregory, but that was all. And
+yet, his suavity won for him many admirers. There were not a few
+who promised to give him their insurance if they concluded to "take
+any out." Only one man in town was willing to be insured, and he
+was too old to be comforting. Mr. Calligan was reputed to be one
+hundred and three years of age; and he wanted the twenty-year
+endowment plan. Gregory popularised himself at the Crow home by
+paying for his room in advance. Moreover, he was an affable chap
+with a fund of good stories straight from Broadway. At the
+post-office and in Lamson's store he was soon established as a
+mighty favourite. Even the women who came to make purchases in the
+evening,&mdash;a hitherto unknown custom,&mdash;lingered outside
+the circle on the porch, revelling in the second edition of the
+"Arabian Nights."</p>
+<p>"Our friend, the detective here," he said, one night at the
+close of the first week, "tells me that we are to have a show in
+town next week. I haven't seen any posters."</p>
+<p>"Mark Riley's been goin' to put up them bills sence day 'fore
+yesterday," said Anderson Crow, with exasperation in his voice, "an
+he ain't done it yet. The agent fer the troupe left 'em here an'
+hired Mark, but he's so thunderation slow that he won't paste 'em
+up 'til after the show's been an' gone. I'll give him a talkin' to
+to-morrer."</p>
+<p>"What-fer show is it?" asked Jim Borum.</p>
+<p>"Somethin' like a circus on'y 'tain't one," said Anderson. "They
+don't pertend to have animals."</p>
+<p>"Don't carry a menagerie, I see," remarked Gregory.</p>
+<p>"'Pears that way," said Anderson, slowly analysing the word.</p>
+<p>"I understand it is a stage performance under a tent,"
+volunteered the postmaster.</p>
+<p>"That's what it is," said Harry Squires, the editor, with a
+superior air. "They play 'As You Like It,' by Shakespeare. It's a
+swell show. We got out the hand bills over at the office. They'll
+be distributed in town to-morrow, and a big batch of them will be
+sent over to the summer places across the river. The advance agent
+says it is a high-class performance and will appeal particularly to
+the rich city people up in the mountains. It's a sort of open-air
+affair, you know." And then Mr. Squires was obliged to explain to
+his fellow-townsmen all the known details in connection with the
+approaching performance of "As You Like It" by the Boothby Company,
+set for Tinkletown on the following Thursday night. Hapgood's Grove
+had been selected by the agent as the place in which the
+performance should be given.</p>
+<p>"Don't they give an afternoon show?" asked Mrs. Williams.</p>
+<p>"Sure not," said Harry curtly. "It isn't a museum."</p>
+<p>"Of course not," added Anderson Crow reflectively. "It's a
+troupe."</p>
+<p>The next morning, bright and early, Mark Riley fared forth with
+paste and brush. Before noon, the board fences, barns and blank
+walls of Tinkletown flamed with great red and blue letters, twining
+in and about the portraits of Shakespeare, Manager Boothby,
+Rosalind, Orlando, and an extra king or two in royal robes. A dozen
+small boys spread the hand bills from the <i>Banner</i> presses,
+and Tinkletown was stirred by the excitement of a sensation that
+had not been experienced since Forepaugh's circus visited the
+county seat three years before. It went without saying that Manager
+Boothby would present "As You Like It" with an "unrivalled cast."
+He had "an all-star production," direct from "the leading theatres
+of the universe."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/305.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>When Mark Riley started out again in the afternoon for a second
+excursion with paste and brush, "slapping up" small posters with a
+celerity that bespoke extreme interest on his part, the astonished
+populace feared that he was announcing a postponement of the
+performance. Instead of that, however, he was heralding the fact
+that the Hemisphere Trunk Line and Express Company would gladly pay
+ten thousand dollars reward for the "apprehension and capture" of
+the men who robbed one of its richest trains a few nights before,
+seizing as booty over sixty thousand dollars in money, besides
+killing two messengers in cold blood. The great train robbery
+occurred in the western part of the State, hundreds of miles from
+Tinkletown, but nearly all of its citizens had read accounts of the
+deed in the weekly paper from Boggs City.</p>
+<p>"I seen the item about it in Mr. Gregory's New York paper," said
+Anderson Crow to the crowd at Lamson's.</p>
+<p>"Gee whiz, it must 'a' been a peach!" said Isaac Porter,
+open-mouthed and eager for details. Whereupon Marshal Crow related
+the story of the crime which stupefied the world on the morning of
+July 31st. The express had been held up in an isolated spot by a
+half-dozen masked men. A safe had been shattered and the contents
+confiscated, the perpetrators vanishing as completely as if aided
+by Satan himself. The authorities were baffled. A huge reward was
+offered in the hope that it might induce some discontented
+underling in the band to expose his comrades.</p>
+<p>"Are you goin' after 'em, Anderson?" asked old Mr. Borton, with
+unfailing faith in the town's chief officer.</p>
+<p>"Them fellers is in Asia by this time," vouchsafed Mr. Crow
+scornfully, forgetting that less than a week had elapsed since the
+robbery. He flecked a fly from his detective's badge and then
+struck viciously at the same insect when it straightway attacked
+his G.A.R. emblem.</p>
+<p>"I doubt it," said Mr. Lamson. "Like as not they're right here
+in this State, mebby in this county. You can't tell about them
+slick desperadoes. Hello, Harry! Has anything more been heard from
+the train robbers?" Harry Squires approached the group with
+something like news in his face.</p>
+<p>"I should say so," he said. "The darned cusses robbed the State
+Express last night at Vanderskoop and got away with thirteen
+hundred dollars. Say, they're wonders! The engineer says they're
+only five of them."</p>
+<p>"Why, gosh dern it, Vanderskoop's only the fourth station west
+of Boggs City!" exclaimed Anderson Crow, pricking up his official
+ear. "How in thunder do you reckon they got up here in such a short
+time?"</p>
+<p>"They probably stopped off on their way back from Asia," drily
+remarked Mr. Lamson; but it passed unnoticed.</p>
+<p>"Have you heard anything more about the show, Harry?" asked Jim
+Borum. "Is she sure to be here?" What did Tinkletown care about the
+train robbers when a "show" was headed that way?</p>
+<p>"Sure. The press comments are very favourable," said Harry.
+"They all say that Miss Marmaduke, who plays Rosalind, is great.
+We've got a cut of her and, say, she's a beauty. I can see myself
+sitting in the front row next Thursday night, good and proper."</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson, I think it's a dern shame fer Mark Riley to go
+'round pastin' them reward bills over the show pictures," growled
+Isaac Porter. "He ain't got a bit o' sense."</p>
+<p>With one accord the crowd turned to inspect two adjacent bill
+boards. Mark had either malignantly or insanely pasted the reward
+notices over the nether extremities of Rosalind as she was expected
+to appear in the Forest of Arden. There was a period of reflection
+on the part of an outraged constituency.</p>
+<p>"I don't see how he's goin' to remove off them reward bills
+without scraping off her legs at the same time," mused Anderson
+Crow in perplexity. Two housewives of Tinkletown suddenly deserted
+the group and entered the store. And so it was that the train
+robbers were forgotten for the time being.</p>
+<p>But Marshal Crow's reputation as a horse-thief taker and general
+suppressor of crime constantly upbraided him. It seemed to call
+upon him to take steps toward the capture of the train robbers. All
+that afternoon he reflected. Tinkletown, seeing his mood, refrained
+from breaking in upon it. He was allowed to stroke his whiskers in
+peace and to think to his heart's content. By nightfall his face
+had become an inscrutable mask, and then it was known that the
+President of Bramble County's Horse-Thief Detective Association was
+determined to fathom the great problem. Stealthily he went up to
+the great attic in his home and inspected his "disguises." In some
+far-off period of his official career he had purchased the most
+amazing collection of false beards, wigs and garments that any
+stranded comedian ever disposed of at a sacrifice. He tried each
+separate article, seeking for the best individual effect; then he
+tried them collectively. It would certainly have been impossible to
+recognise him as Anderson Crow. In truth, no one could safely have
+identified him as a human being.</p>
+<p>"I'm goin' after them raskils," he announced to Andrew Gregory
+and the whole family, as he came down late to take his place at the
+head of the supper table.</p>
+<p>"Ain't you goin' to let 'em show here, pop?" asked Roscoe in
+distress.</p>
+<p>"Show here? What air you talkin' about?"</p>
+<p>"He means the train robbers, Roscoe," explained the lad's
+mother. The boy breathed again.</p>
+<p>"They are a dangerous lot," volunteered Gregory, who had been in
+Albany for two days. "The papers are full of their deeds.
+Cutthroats of the worst character."</p>
+<p>"I'd let them alone, Anderson," pleaded his wife. "If you corner
+them, they'll shoot, and it would be jest like you to follow them
+right into their lair."</p>
+<p>"Consarn it, Eva, don't you s'pose that I c'n shoot, too?"
+snorted Anderson. "What you reckon I've been keepin' them loaded
+revolvers out in the barn all these years fer? Jest fer ornaments?
+Not much! They're to shoot with, ef anybody asks you. Thunderation,
+Mr. Gregory, you ain't no idee how a feller can be handicapped by a
+timid wife an' a lot o' fool childern. I'm almost afeard to turn
+'round fer fear they'll be skeered to death fer my safety."</p>
+<p>"You cut yourself with a razor once when ma told you not to try
+to shave the back of your neck by yourself," said one of the girls.
+"She wanted you to let Mr. Beck shave it for you, but you wouldn't
+have it that way."</p>
+<p>"Do you suppose I want an undertaker shavin' my neck? I'm not
+that anxious to be shaved. Beck's the undertaker, Mr. Gregory."</p>
+<p>"Well, he runs the barber shop, too," insisted the girl.</p>
+<p>During the next three days Tinkletown saw but little of its
+marshal, fire chief and street commissioner. That triple personage
+was off on business of great import. Early, each morning, he
+mysteriously stole away to the woods, either up or down the river,
+carrying a queer bundle under the seat of his "buckboard." Two
+revolvers, neither of which had been discharged for ten years,
+reposed in a box fastened to the dashboard. Anderson solemnly but
+positively refused to allow any one to accompany him, nor would he
+permit any one to question him. Farmers coming to town spoke of
+seeing him in the lanes and in the woods, but he had winked
+genially when they had asked what he was trailing.</p>
+<p>"He's after the train robbers," explained all Tinkletown
+soberly. Whereupon the farmers and their wives did not begrudge
+Anderson Crow the chicken dinners he had eaten with them, nor did
+they blame him for bothering the men in the fields. It was
+sufficient that he found excuse to sleep in the shade of their
+trees during his still hunt.</p>
+<p>"Got any track of 'em?" asked George Ray one evening, stopping
+at Anderson's back gate to watch the marshal unhitch his thankful
+nag. Patience had ceased to be a virtue with George.</p>
+<p>"Any track of who?" asked Mr. Crow with a fine show of
+innocence.</p>
+<p>"The robbers."</p>
+<p>"I ain't been trackin' robbers, George."</p>
+<p>"What in thunder have you been trackin' all over the country
+every day, then?"</p>
+<p>"I'm breakin' this colt," calmly replied the marshal, with a
+mighty wink at old Betty, whom he had driven to the same buckboard
+for twenty years. As George departed with an insulted snort, Andrew
+Gregory came from the barn, where he had been awaiting the return
+of Mr. Crow."</p>
+<p>"I'm next to something big," he announced in a low tone, first
+looking in all directions to see that no one was listening.</p>
+<p>"Gosh! Did you land Mr. Farnsworth?"</p>
+<p>"It has nothing to do with insurance," hastily explained the
+agent. "I've heard something of vast importance to you."</p>
+<p>"You don't mean to say the troupe has busted?"</p>
+<p>"No&mdash;no; it is in connection with&mdash;with&mdash;" and
+here Mr. Gregory leaned forward and whispered something in
+Anderson's ear. Mr. Crow promptly stopped dead still in his tracks,
+his eyes bulging. Betty, who was being led to the water trough,
+being blind and having no command to halt, proceeded to bump
+forcibly against her master's frame.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+<h3>"<i>As You Like It</i>"</h3>
+<p>"You&mdash;don't&mdash;say&mdash;so! Whoa! dang ye! Cain't you
+see where you're goin', you old rip?" Betty was jerked to a
+standstill. "What have you heerd?" asked Anderson, his voice
+shaking with interest.</p>
+<p>"I can't tell you out here," said the other cautiously. "Put up
+the nag and then meet me in the pasture out there. We can sit down
+and talk and not be overheard."</p>
+<p>"I won't be a minute. Here, you Roscoe! Feed Betty and water her
+first. Step lively, now. Tell your ma we'll be in to supper when we
+git good an' ready."</p>
+<p>Anderson and Andrew Gregory strode through the pasture gate and
+far out into the green meadow. Once entirely out of hearing,
+Gregory stopped and both sat down upon a little hillock. The agent
+was evidently suppressing considerable excitement.</p>
+<p>"Those train robbers are in this neighbourhood," he said,
+breaking a long silence. Anderson looked behind involuntarily. "I
+don't mean that they are in this pasture, Mr. Crow. You've been a
+good friend to me, and I'm inclined to share the secret with you.
+If we go together, we may divide the ten-thousand-dollar reward,
+because I'm quite sure we can land those chaps."</p>
+<p>"What's your plan?" asked Anderson, turning a little pale at the
+thought. Before going any further into the matter, Gregory asked
+Anderson if he would sign a paper agreeing to divide the reward
+equally with him. This point was easily settled, and then the
+insurance man unfolded his secret.</p>
+<p>"I have a straight tip from a friend in New York and he wouldn't
+steer me wrong. The truth about him is this: He used to work for
+our company, but took some money that didn't belong to him. It got
+him a sentence in the pen. He's just out, and he knows a whole lot
+about these robbers. Some of them were in Sing Sing with him. The
+leader wanted him to join the gang and he half-way consented. His
+duty is to keep the gang posted on what the officers in New York
+are doing. See?"</p>
+<p>"Of course," breathed Anderson.</p>
+<p>"Well, my friend wants to reform. All he asks is a slice of the
+reward. If we capture the gang, we can afford to give him a
+thousand or so, can't we?"</p>
+<p>"Of course," was the dignified response.</p>
+<p>"Here's his letter to me. I'll read it to you." In the gathering
+dusk Gregory read the letter to the marshal of Tinkletown. "Now,
+you see," he said, at the close of the astounding epistle, "this
+means that if we observe strict secrecy, we may have the game in
+our hands. No one must hear a word of this. They may have spies
+right here in Tinkletown. We can succeed only by keeping our mouths
+sealed."</p>
+<p>"Tighter'n beeswax," promised Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>Briefly, the letter to Andrew Gregory was an exposure of the
+plans of the great train-robber gang, together with their
+whereabouts on a certain day to come. They were to swoop down on
+Tinkletown on the night of the open-air performance of "As You Like
+It," and their most desperate coup was to be the result. The scheme
+was to hold up and rob the entire audience while the performance
+was going on. Anderson Crow was in a cold perspiration. The
+performance was but three days off, and he felt that he required
+three months for preparation.</p>
+<p>"How in thunder are we goin' to capture that awful gang, jest
+you an' me?" he asked, voicing his doubts and fears.</p>
+<p>"We'll have to engage help, that's all."</p>
+<p>"We'll need a regiment."</p>
+<p>"Don't you think it. Buck up, old fellow, don't be afraid."</p>
+<p>"Afeerd? Me? I don't know what it is to be skeered. Didn't you
+ever hear about how I landed them fellers that kidnaped my daughter
+Rosalie? Well, you jest ast some one 'at knows about it. Umph! I
+guess that was a recommend fer bravery. But these fellers will be
+ready fer us, won't they?"</p>
+<p>"We can trick them easily. I've been thinking of a plan all
+afternoon. We don't know just where they are now, so we can't rake
+them in to-night. We'll have to wait until they come to us. My plan
+is to have a half-dozen competent private detectives up from New
+York. We can scatter them through the audience next Thursday night,
+and when the right time comes we can land on every one of those
+fellows like hawks on spring chickens. I know the chief of a big
+private agency in New York, and I think the best plan is to have
+him send up some good men. It won't cost much, and I'd rather have
+those fearless practical men here than all the rubes you could
+deputise. One of 'em is worth ten of your fellow-citizens, Mr.
+Crow, begging your pardon for the remark. You and I can keep the
+secret and we can do the right thing, but we would be asses to take
+more Tinkletown asses into our confidence. If you'll agree, I'll
+write to Mr. Pinkerton this evening. He can have his men here,
+disguised and ready for work, by Thursday afternoon. If you don't
+mind, I'd like to have you take charge of the affair, because you
+know just how to handle thieves, and I don't. What say you?"</p>
+<p>Anderson was ready and eager to agree to anything, but he
+hesitated a long time before concluding to take supreme charge of
+the undertaking. Mr. Gregory at once implored him to take command.
+It meant the success of the venture; anything else meant
+failure.</p>
+<p>"But how'n thunder am I to know the robbers when I see 'em?"
+demanded the marshal, nervously pulling bluegrass up by the
+roots.</p>
+<p>"You'll know 'em all right," said Andrew Gregory. Thursday came
+and with it the "troupe." Anderson Crow had not slept for three
+nights, he was so full of thrills and responsibility. Bright and
+early that morning he was on the lookout for suspicious characters.
+Gregory was to meet the detectives from New York at half-past seven
+in the evening. By previous arrangement, these strangers were to
+congregate casually at Tinkletown Inn, perfectly diguised as
+gentlemen, ready for instructions. The two arch-plotters had
+carefully devised a plan of action. Gregory chuckled secretly when
+he thought of the sensation Tinkletown was to experience&mdash;and
+he thought of it often, too.</p>
+<p>The leading members of Boothby's All Star Company "put up" at
+the Inn, which was so humble that it staggered beneath this
+unaccustomed weight of dignity. The beautiful Miss Marmaduke (in
+reality, Miss Cora Miller) was there, and so were Miss Trevanian,
+Miss Gladys Fitzmaurice, Richmond Barrett (privately Jackie Blake),
+Thomas J. Booth, Francisco Irving, Ben Jefferson and others. The
+Inn was glorified. All Tinkletown looked upon the despised old
+"eating house" with a reverence that was not reluctant.</p>
+<p>The manager, a busy and preoccupied person, who looked to be the
+lowliest hireling in the party, came to the Inn at noon and spread
+the news that the reserved seats were sold out and there was
+promise of a fine crowd. Whereupon there was rejoicing among the
+All Star Cast, for the last legs of the enterprise were to be
+materially strengthened.</p>
+<p>"We won't have to walk back home," announced Mr. Jackie Blake,
+that good-looking young chap who played Orlando.</p>
+<p>"Glorious Shakespeare, thou art come to life again," said Ben
+Jefferson, a barn-stormer for fifty years. "I was beginning to
+think you were a dead one."</p>
+<p>"And no one will seize our trunks for board," added Miss
+Marmaduke cheerfully. She was a very pretty young woman and
+desperately in love with Mr. Orlando.</p>
+<p>"If any one seized Orlando's trunks, I couldn't appear in public
+to-night," said Mr. Blake. "Orlando possesses but one pair of
+trunks."</p>
+<p>"You might wear a mackintosh," suggested Mr. Booth.</p>
+<p>"Or borrow trunks of the trees," added Mr. Irving.</p>
+<p>"They're off," growled Mr. Jefferson, who hated the puns he did
+not make.</p>
+<p>"Let's dazzle the town, Cora," said Jackie Blake; and before
+Tinkletown could take its second gasp for breath, the leading man
+and woman were slowly promenading the chief and only
+thoroughfare.</p>
+<p>"By ginger! she's a purty one, ain't she?" murmured Ed Higgins,
+sole clerk at Lamson's. He stood in the doorway until she was out
+of sight and remained there for nearly an hour awaiting her return.
+The men of Tinkletown took but one look at the pretty young woman,
+but that one look was continuous and unbroken.</p>
+<p>"If this jay town can turn up enough money to-night to keep us
+from stranding, I'll take off my hat to it for ever more," said
+Jackie Blake.</p>
+<p>"Boothby says the house is sold out," said</p>
+<p>Miss Marmaduke, a shade of anxiety in her dark eyes. "Oh, how I
+wish we were at home again."</p>
+<p>"I'd rather starve in New York than feast in the high hills,"
+said he wistfully. The idols to whom Tinkletown was paying homage
+were but human, after all. For two months the Boothby Company had
+been buffeted from pillar to post, struggling hard to keep its head
+above water, always expecting the crash. The "all-stars" were no
+more than striving young Thespians, who were kept playing
+throughout the heated term with this uncertain enterprise, solely
+because necessity was in command of their destinies. It was not for
+them to enjoy a summer in ease and indolence.</p>
+<p>"Never mind, dear," said she, turning her green parasol so that
+it obstructed the intense but complimentary gaze of no less than a
+dozen men; "our luck will change. We won't be barn-storming for
+ever."</p>
+<p>"We've one thing to be thankful for, little woman," said Jackie,
+his face brightening. "We go out again this fall in the same
+company. That's luck, isn't it? We'll be married as soon as we get
+back to New York and we won't have to be separated for a whole
+season, at least."</p>
+<p>"Isn't it dear to think of, Jackie sweetheart? A whole season
+and then another, and then all of them after that? Oh, dear, won't
+it be sweet?" It was love's young dream for both of them.</p>
+<p>"Hello, what's this?" exclaimed Orlando the Thousandth, pausing
+before a placard which covered the lower limbs of his pictorial
+partner. "Ten Thousand Dollars reward! Great Scott, Cora, wouldn't
+I like to catch those fellows? Great, eh? But it's a desperate
+gang! The worst ever!"</p>
+<p>Just then both became conscious of the fact that some one was
+scrutinising them intently from behind. They turned and beheld
+Anderson Crow, his badges glistening.</p>
+<p>"How are you, officer?" said Jackie cheerily. Miss Marmaduke, in
+her happiness, beamed a smile upon the austere man with the chin
+whiskers. Anderson was past seventy, but that smile caused the
+intake of his breath to almost lift him from the ground.</p>
+<p>"First rate, thanks; how's yourself? Readin' the reward notice?
+Lemme tell you something. There's goin' to be somethin' happen
+tarnation soon that will astonish them fellers ef&mdash;" but here
+Anderson pulled up with a jerk, realising that he was on the point
+of betraying a great secret. Afraid to trust himself in continued
+conversation, he abruptly said: "Good afternoon," and started off
+down the street, his ears tingling.</p>
+<p>"Queer old chap, isn't he?" observed Jackie, and immediately
+forgot him as they strolled onward.</p>
+<p>That evening Tinkletown swarmed with strangers. The weather was
+fine, and scores of the summer dwellers in the hills across the
+river came over to see the performance, as the advance agent had
+predicted. Bluff Top Hotel sent a large delegation of people
+seeking the variety of life. There were automobiles, traps,
+victorias, hay-racks, and "sundowns" standing all along the street
+in the vicinity of Hapgood's Grove. It was to be, in the expansive
+language of the press agent, "a cultured audience made up of the
+&eacute;lite of the community."</p>
+<p>Late in the afternoon, a paralysing thought struck in upon the
+marshal's brain. It occurred to him that this band of robbers might
+also be engaged to carry off Rosalie Gray. After all, it might be
+the great dominant reason for their descent upon the community.
+Covered with a perspiration that was not caused by heat, he
+accosted Wicker Bonner, the minute that gentleman arrived in town.
+Rosalie went, of course, to the Crow home for a short visit with
+the family.</p>
+<p>"Say, Wick, I want you to do me a favour," said Anderson
+eagerly, taking the young man aside. "I cain't tell you all about
+it, 'cause I'm bound by a deathless oath. But, listen, I'm afraid
+somethin's goin' to happen to-night. There's a lot o' strangers
+here, an' I'm nervous about Rosalie. Somebody might try to steal
+her in the excitement. Now I want you to take good keer of her.
+Don't let 'er out o' your sight, an' don't let anybody git 'er away
+from you. I'll keep my eye on her, too. Promise me."</p>
+<p>"Certainly, Mr. Crow. I'll look out for her. That's what I hope
+to do all the rest of&mdash;'</p>
+<p>"Somethin's liable to happen," Mr. Crow broke in, and then
+quietly slipped away.</p>
+<p>Bonner laughed easily at the old man's fears and set them down
+as a part of his whimsical nature. Later, he saw the old man near
+the entrance as the party passed inside the inclosure. The Bonner
+party occupied prominent seats in front, reserved by the marshal.
+There were ten in the group, a half-dozen young Boston people
+completing the house party.</p>
+<p>The side walls of a pavilion inclosed the most beautiful section
+of the grove. In one end were the seats, rapidly filling with
+people. At the opposite end, upon Mother Earth's green carpet, was
+the stage, lighted dimly by means of subdued spot lights and a few
+auxiliary stars on high. There was no scenery save that provided by
+Nature herself. An orchestra of violins broke through the constant
+hum of eager voices.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/321.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Anderson Crow's heart was inside the charmed inclosure, but his
+person was elsewhere. Simultaneously, with the beginning of the
+performance of "As You like It," he was in his own barn-loft
+confronting Andrew Gregory and the five bewhiskered assistants from
+New York City. Gregory had met the detectives at the Inn and had
+guided them to the marshal's barn, where final instructions were to
+be given. For half an hour the party discussed plans with Anderson
+Crow, speaking in low, mysterious tones that rang in the marshal's
+ears to his dying day.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/322.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"We've located those fellows," asserted Mr. Gregory firmly.
+"There can be no mistake. They are already in the audience over
+there, and at a signal will set to work to hold up the whole crowd.
+We must get the drop on them, Mr. Crow. Don't do that! You don't
+need a disguise. Keep those yellow whiskers in your pocket. The
+rest of us will wear disguises. These men came here disguised
+because the robbers would be onto them in a minute if they didn't.
+They know every detective's face in the land. If it were not for
+these beards and wigs they'd have spotted Pinkerton's men long ago.
+Now, you know your part in the affair, don't you?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir," respectfully responded Anderson, his chin whisker
+wobbling pathetically.</p>
+<p>"Then we're ready to proceed. It takes a little nerve, that's
+all, but we'll soon have those robbers just where we want them,"
+said Andrew Gregory.</p>
+<p>The second act of the play was fairly well under way when
+Orlando, in the "green room," remarked to the stage director:</p>
+<p>"What's that old rube doing back here, Ramsay? Why, hang it,
+man, he's carrying a couple of guns. Is this a hold-up?" At the
+same instant Rosalind and two of the women came rushing from their
+dressing tent, alarmed and indignant. Miss Marmaduke, her eyes
+blazing, confronted the stage director.</p>
+<p>"What does this mean, Mr. Ramsay?" she cried. "That old man
+ordered us out of our dressing-room at the point of a revolver,
+and&mdash;see! There he is now doing the same to the men."</p>
+<p>It was true. Anderson Crow, with a brace of horse pistols, was
+driving the players toward the centre of the stage. In a tremulous
+voice he commanded them to remain there and take the consequences.
+A moment later the marshal of Tinkletown strode into the limelight
+with his arsenal, facing an astonished and temporarily amused
+audience. His voice, pitched high with excitement, reached to the
+remotest corners of the inclosure. Behind him the players were
+looking on, open-mouthed and bewildered. To them he loomed up as
+the long-dreaded constable detailed to attach their personal
+effects. The audience, if at first it laughed at him as a joke,
+soon changed its view. Commotion followed his opening speech.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXXII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Luck of Anderson Crow</i></h3>
+<p>"Don't anybody attempt to leave this tent!" commanded Mr. Crow,
+standing bravely forth with his levelled revolvers. The orchestra
+made itself as small as possible, for one of the guns wavered
+dangerously. "Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. The train
+robbers are among you."</p>
+<p>There were a few feminine shrieks, a volume of masculine
+"Whats!" a half-hearted and uncertain snigger, and a general
+turning of heads.</p>
+<p>"Keep your seats!" commanded Anderson. "They can't escape. I
+have them surrounded. I now call upon all robbers present to
+surrender in the name of the law. Surrender peaceful and you will
+not he damaged; resist and we'll blow you to hell an' gone, even at
+the risk of injurin' the women and childern. The law is no
+respecter of persons. Throw up your hands!"</p>
+<p>He waited impressively, but either through stupefaction or
+obstinacy the robbers failed to lift their hands.</p>
+<p>"You're cornered, you golderned scamps!" shouted Anderson Crow,
+"an' you might jest as well give up! Twenty Pinkerton men are here
+from New York City, an' you can't escape! Throw up your hands!"</p>
+<p>"The damned old fool is in earnest," gasped Judge Brewster, from
+across the river.</p>
+<p>"He's crazy!" cried Congressman Bonner.</p>
+<p>"Let everybody in this crowd throw up their hands!" called a
+firm, clear voice from the entrance. At the same instant five
+bewhiskered individuals appeared as if by magic with drawn
+revolvers, dominating the situation completely. The speaker was
+Andrew Gregory, the insurance agent.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/325.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Now, what have you got to say?" cried Anderson gaily. "I guess
+me an' the detectives have you cornered all right, ain't we?"</p>
+<p>The audience sat stupefied, paralysed. While all this was going
+on upon the inside, a single detective on the outside was
+stealthily puncturing the tires of every automobile in the
+collection, Mr. Bracken's huge touring car being excepted for
+reasons to be seen later on.</p>
+<p>"Good heavens!" groaned old Judge Brewster. A half dozen women
+fainted and a hundred men broke into a cold perspiration.</p>
+<p>"Hands up, everybody!" commanded Andrew Gregory. "We can take no
+chances. The train robbers are in this audience. They came to hold
+up the entire crowd, but we are too quick for you, my fine birds.
+The place is surrounded!"</p>
+<p>"Mr. Gregory, the insurance&mdash;" began Anderson Crow, but he
+was cut short.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Crow deserves great credit for this piece of detective
+work. His mere presence is a guaranty of safety to those of you who
+are not thieves. You all have your hands up? Thanks. Mr. Crow,
+please keep those actors quiet. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is
+not always an easy matter to distinguish thieves from honest men. I
+will first give the desperadoes a chance to surrender peaceably. No
+one steps forward? Very well. Keep your hands up, all of you. The
+man who lowers his hands will be instantly regarded as a desperado
+and may get a bullet in his body for his folly. The innocent must
+suffer with the guilty. Mr. Crow, shall we proceed with the
+search?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; go right ahead, and be quick," replied Anderson
+Crow.</p>
+<p>"Very well, then, in the name of the law, my men will begin the
+search. They will pass among you, ladies and gentlemen, and any
+effort to retard their progress will be met with
+instant&mdash;well, you know."</p>
+<p>Before the petrified audience could fully realise what was
+taking place, three of the detectives were swiftly passing from
+person to person, stripping the women of their jewels, the men of
+their money and their watches. A half-hearted protest went up to
+Anderson Crow, but it was checked summarily by the "searching
+party." It was well for the poor marshal that he never knew what
+the audience thought of him at that ghastly moment.</p>
+<p>It was all over in five minutes. The detectives had searched
+every prosperous-looking person in the audience, under the very
+nose and guns of Marshal Crow, and they were sardonically bidding
+the assemblage a fond good-bye from the flapping doorway in the
+side wall. Andrew Gregory addressed the crowd, smiling broadly.</p>
+<p>"We found a good many more robbers in the crowd than we could
+conveniently handle, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, I never came
+across such a rare collection of hold-up men outside of Wall
+Street. The only perfectly honest man in Tinkletown to-night is
+Anderson Crow, your esteemed marshal. Believe me, he is
+ridiculously honest. He may be a damn fool, but he is honest. Don't
+blame him. Thanking you, one and all, for your generous help in our
+search for the train robbers, we bid you an affectionate farewell.
+We may meet again if you travel extensively on express trains.
+Good-night!"</p>
+<p>With a taunting laugh, Andrew Gregory dropped the flap and
+leaped after his companions. Bracken's chauffeur lay senseless by
+the roadside, and one of the "detectives" sat in his seat. Even as
+the audience opened its collective mouth to shout its wrath and
+surprise, the big touring car, with six armed men aboard, leaped
+away with a rush. Down the dark road it flew like an express train,
+its own noise drowning the shouts of the multitude, far behind.</p>
+<p>Bonner, recovering from his stupefaction and rage, led the
+pursuit, first commanding Rosalie to hurry home with the women and
+lock herself safely indoors.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow, realising what a dupe he had been in the hands of
+the clever scoundrels, was covered with fear and shame. The
+outraged crowd might have killed him had not his escape been made
+under cover of darkness. Shivering and moaning in abject misery,
+the pride of Tinkletown fled unseeing, unthinking into the forest
+along the river. He was not to know until afterward that his
+"detectives" had stripped the rich sojourners of at least ten
+thousand dollars in money and jewels. It is not necessary to say
+that the performance of "As You Like It" came to an abrupt end,
+because it was not as they liked it. Everybody knew by this time
+that they had seen the celebrated "train robbers."</p>
+<p>Jackie Blake was half dressed when he leaped to his feet with an
+exclamation so loud that those preceding it were whispers.</p>
+<p>"Holy smoke!" fell from his lips; and then he dashed across the
+green to the women's dressing tent. "Cora! Cora! Come out!"</p>
+<p>"I can't," came back in muffled tones.</p>
+<p>"Then good-bye; I'm off!" he shouted. That brought her,
+partially dressed, from the tent. "Say, do you remember the river
+road we walked over to-day? Well, those fellows went in that
+direction, didn't they? Don't you see? Aren't you on? The washout!
+If they don't know about it the whole bunch is at the bottom of the
+ravine or in the river by this time! Mum's the word! There's a
+chance, darling; the reward said 'dead or alive!' I'm off!"</p>
+<p>She tried to call him back, but it was too late. With his own
+revolver in his hand, the half Orlando, half Blake, tore down the
+rarely travelled river road south. Behind him Tinkletown raved and
+wailed over the great calamity, but generally stood impotent in the
+face of it all. But few felt inclined to pursue the robbers. Blake
+soon had the race to himself. It was a mile or more to the washout
+in the road, but the excitement made him keen for the test. The
+road ran through the woods and along the high bluff that overlooked
+the river. He did not know it, but this same road was a "short cut"
+to the macadam pike farther south. By taking this route the robbers
+gave Boggs City a wide berth.</p>
+<p>Blake's mind was full of the possibilities of disaster to the
+over-confident fugitives. The washout was fresh, and he was
+counting on the chance that they were not aware of its existence.
+If they struck it even at half speed the whole party would be
+hurled a hundred feet down to the edge of the river or into the
+current itself. In that event, some, if not all, would be seriously
+injured.</p>
+<p>As he neared the turn in the road, his course pointed out to him
+by the stars above, he was startled half out of his boots by the
+sudden appearance of a man, who staggered from the roadside and
+wobbled painfully away, pleading for mercy.</p>
+<p>"Halt, or I'll shoot!" called Jackie Blake, and the pathetic
+figure not only halted, but sat down in the middle of the road.</p>
+<p>"For the Lord's sake, don't shoot!" groaned a hoarse voice. "I
+wasn't in cahoots with them. They fooled me&mdash;they fooled me."
+It was Anderson Crow, and he would have gone on interminably had
+not Jackie Blake stopped him short.</p>
+<p>"You're the marshal, eh? The darned rube&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I'm him. Call me anything, only don't shoot. Who are you?"
+groaned Anderson, rising to his knees. He was holding his revolvers
+by the muzzles. "Never mind who I am. I haven't time. Say, you'd
+better come with me. Maybe we can head off those villains. They
+came this way and&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Show 'em to me," roared Anderson, recognising a friend. Rage
+surged up and drove out the shame in his soul. "I'll tackle the
+hull caboodle, dang 'em!" And he meant it, too.</p>
+<p>Blake did not stop to explain, but started on, commanding Mr.
+Crow to follow. With rare fore-thought the marshal donned his
+yellow beard as he panted in the trail of the lithe young actor.
+The latter remembered that the odds were heavily against him. The
+marshal might prove a valuable aid in case of resistance, provided,
+of course, that they came upon the robbers in the plight he was
+hoping for.</p>
+<p>"Where the dickens are you a-goin'?" wheezed the marshal,
+kicking up a great dust in the rear. The other did not answer. His
+whole soul was enveloped in the hope that the washout had trapped
+the robbers. He was almost praying that it might be so. The reward
+could be divided with the poor old marshal if&mdash;</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/331.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>He gave a yell of delight, an instant later, and then began
+jumping straight up and down like one demented. Anderson Crow
+stopped so abruptly that his knees were stiff for weeks. Jackie
+Blake's wild dream had come true. The huge automobile had struck
+the washout, and it was now lying at the base of the bluff, smashed
+to pieces on the rocks! By the dim light from the heavens, Blake
+could see the black hulk down there, but it was too dark to
+distinguish other objects. He was about to descend to the river
+bank when Anderson Crow came up.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter, man?" panted he.</p>
+<p>"They're down there, don't you see it? They went over the bluff
+right here&mdash;come on. We've got 'em!"</p>
+<p>"Hold on!" exclaimed Anderson, grasping his arm. "Don't rush
+down there like a danged fool. If they're alive they can plug you
+full of bullets in no time. Let's be careful."</p>
+<p>"By thunder, you're right. You're a wise old owl, after all. I
+never thought of that. Let's reconnoitre."</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/332.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Tingling with excitement, the two oddly mated pursuers descended
+stealthily by a roundabout way. They climbed over rocks and crept
+through underbrush until finally they came to a clear spot not
+twenty feet from where the great machine was lying, at the very
+edge of the swift, deep current. They heard groans and faint cries,
+with now and then a piteous oath. From their hiding place they
+counted the forms of four men lying upon the rocks, as if dead. The
+two held a whispered consultation of war, a plan of action
+resulting.</p>
+<p>"Surrender!" shouted Jackie Blake, standing forth. He and
+Anderson had their pistols levelled upon the prostrate robbers. For
+answer there were louder groans, a fiercer oath or two and then a
+weak, pain-struck voice came out to them:</p>
+<p>"For God's sake, get this machine off my legs. I'm dying. Help!
+Help! We surrender!"</p>
+<p>Ten minutes later, the jubilant captors had released the
+miserable Andrew Gregory from his position beneath the machine, and
+had successfully bound the hands and feet of five half-unconscious
+men. Gregory's legs were crushed and one other's skull was cracked.
+The sixth man was nowhere to be found. The disaster had been
+complete, the downfall of the great train robbers inglorious.
+Looking up into the face of Anderson Crow, Gregory smiled through
+his pain and said hoarsely:</p>
+<p>"Damned rotten luck; but if we had to be taken, I'm glad you did
+it, Crow. You're a good fool, anyway. But for God's sake, get me to
+a doctor."</p>
+<p>"Dang it! I'm sorry fer you, Mr. Gregory&mdash;" began Anderson,
+ready to cry.</p>
+<p>"Don't waste your time, old man. I need the doctor. Are the
+others dead?" he groaned.</p>
+<p>"I don't know," replied Jackie Blake. "Some of them look like
+it. We can't carry you up that hill, but we'll do the next best
+thing. Marshal, I'll stay here and guard the prisoners while you
+run to the village for help&mdash;and doctors."</p>
+<p>"And run fast, Anderson," added Gregory. "You always were so
+devilish slow. Don't walk-trot."</p>
+<p>Soon afterward, when Anderson, fagged but overjoyed, hobbled
+into the village, the excited crowd was ready to lynch him, but
+with his first words the atmosphere changed.</p>
+<p>"Where is Jackie Blake?" sobbed a pretty young woman, grasping
+the proud marshal's arm and shaking him violently.</p>
+<p>"Derned if I know, ma'am. Was he stole?"</p>
+<p>She made him understand, and together, followed by the actors,
+the audience and the whole town, they led the way to the washout,
+the fair Rosalind dragging the overworked hero of the hour along at
+a gait which threatened to be his undoing.</p>
+<p>Later on, after the five bandits had been carried to the
+village, Jackie Blake gladly informed his sweetheart that they
+could have easy sailing with the seven thousand dollars he
+expected. Anderson Crow had agreed to take but three thousand
+dollars for his share in the capture. One of the robbers was dead.
+The body of the sixth was found in the river weeks afterward.</p>
+<p>"I'm glad I was the first on the ground," said Blake, in
+anticipation of the reward which was eventually to be handed over
+to him. "But Anderson Crow turned out to be a regular trump, after
+all. He's a corker!" He was speaking to Wicker Bonner and a crowd
+of New Yorkers.</p>
+<p>Tinkletown began to talk of a monument to Anderson Crow, even
+while he lived. The general opinion was that it should be erected
+while he was still able to enjoy it and not after his death, when
+he would not know anything about its size and cost.</p>
+<p>"By gosh! 'Twas a great capture!" swelling perceptibly. "I
+knowed they couldn't escape me. Dang 'em! they didn't figger on me,
+did they? Pshaw! it was reediculus of 'em to think they c'd fool me
+entirely, although I'll have to confess they did fool me at first.
+It was a desprit gang an' mighty slick."</p>
+<p>"You worked it great, Anderson," said George Ray. "Did you know
+about the washout?"</p>
+<p>"Did I know about it?" snorted Anderson witheringly. "Why, good
+Gosh a'mighty, didn't I purty near run my legs off to git there in
+time to throw down the barricade before they could get there with
+Mr. Bracken's automobile? Thunderation! What a fool question!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXXIII</h2>
+<h3><i>Bill Briggs Tells a Tale</i></h3>
+<p>Tinkletown fairly bubbled with excitement. At last the eyes of
+the world were upon it. News of the great sensation was flashed to
+the end of the earth; every detail was gone into with harrowing
+minuteness. The Hemisphere Company announced by telegraph that it
+stood ready to hand over the ten thousand dollars; and the sheriff
+of Bramble County with all the United States deputy marshals within
+reach raced at once to Tinkletown to stick a finger in the pie.</p>
+<p>The morning after the "great pavilion robbery," as it was called
+in the <i>Banner</i>, Anderson Crow and Bonner fared forth early to
+have a look at the injured desperadoes, all of whom were safely
+under guard at the reincarnated calaboose. Fifty armed men had
+stood guard all night long, notwithstanding the fact that one
+robber was dead and the others so badly injured that they were not
+expected to survive the day.</p>
+<p>A horseman passed the marshal and his friend near the
+post-office, riding rapidly to the north. He waved his crop
+pleasantly to them and Bonner responded. Anderson stopped stock
+still and tried to speak, but did not succeed for a full minute; he
+was dumb with excitement.</p>
+<p>"That's him!" he managed to gasp. "The feller I saw the other
+day&mdash;the man on horseback!"</p>
+<p>"That?" cried Bonner, laughing heartily. "Why, that is John E.
+Barnes, the lawyer and probably a United States Senator some day.
+Good heavens, Mr. Crow, you've made a bad guess of it this time! He
+is staying with Judge Brewster, his father-in-law."</p>
+<p>"What! Well, by Geminy! I thought I knowed him," cried Anderson.
+"They cain't fool me long, Wick&mdash;none of 'em. He's the same
+feller 'at run away with Judge Brewster's daughter more'n twenty
+year ago. 'y Gosh, I was standin' right on this very spot the first
+time I ever see him. He sold me a hoss and buggy&mdash;but I got
+the money back. I arrested him the same day."</p>
+<p>"Arrested John Barnes?" in amazement.</p>
+<p>"Yep&mdash;fer murder&mdash;only he wasn't the murderer. We
+follered him down the river&mdash;him an' the girl&mdash;to
+Bracken's place, but they were married afore we got there. Doggone,
+that was a busy day! Some blamed good detective work was did, too.
+I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"And Mr. Barnes was interested in Rosalie?" asked Bonner
+suddenly. "How could he have known anything about her?"</p>
+<p>"That's what puzzles me. She came here about two years after the
+elopement more er less, but I don't remember ever seein' him after
+that time."</p>
+<p>"It's very strange, Mr. Crow," reflected Bonner soberly. "He has
+a son, I know. His wife died a year or so after the boy's birth.
+Young Barnes is about twenty-one, I think at this time. By George!
+I've heard it said that Barnes and his wife were not hitting it off
+very well. They say she died of a broken heart. I've heard mother
+speak of it often. I wonder&mdash;great heavens, it isn't possible
+that Rosalie can be connected in any way with John Barnes? Anderson
+Crow, I&mdash;I wonder if there is a possibility?" Bonner was
+quivering with excitement, wonder&mdash;and&mdash;unbelief.</p>
+<p>"I'm workin' on that clew," said Anderson as calmly as his
+tremors would permit. He was thrilled by the mere suggestion, but
+it was second nature for him to act as if every discovery were his
+own. "Ever sence I saw him on the road up there, I've been trackin'
+him. I tell you, Wick, he's my man. I've got it almost worked out.
+Just as soon as these blamed robbers are moved to Boggs City, er
+buried, I'm goin' over an' git the truth out of Mr. Barnes. I've
+been huntin' him fer twenty-one years." Anderson, of course, was
+forgetting that Barnes had slipped from his mind completely until
+Bonner nudged his memory into life.</p>
+<p>"It's a delicate matter, Mr. Crow. We must go about it
+carefully," said Bonner severely. "If Mr. Barnes is really
+interested in her, we can't find it out by blundering; if he is not
+interested, we can't afford to drag him into it. It will require
+tact&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, don't you suppose I know that?" exploded
+Anderson. "Detectives are allers tackin'. They got to, y' see, ef
+they're goin' to foller half a dozen clews at oncet. Gee whiz,
+Wick, leave this thing to me! I'll git at the bottom of it inside
+o' no time."</p>
+<p>"Wait a few days, Mr. Crow," argued Bonner, playing for time.
+"Don't hurry. We've got all we can do now to take care of the
+fellows you and that young actor captured last night." The young
+man's plan was to keep Anderson off the trail entirely and give the
+seemingly impossible clew into the possession of the New York
+bureau.</p>
+<p>"I don't know what I'd 'a' done ef it hadn't been fer that young
+feller," said the marshal. "He was right smart help to me last
+night." Bonner, who knew the true story, suppressed a smile and
+loved the old man none the less for his mild deception.</p>
+<p>They entered the "calaboose," which now had all the looks and
+odours of a hospital. A half-dozen doctors had made the four
+injured men as comfortable as possible. They were stretched on
+mattresses in the jail dining-room, guarded by a curious horde of
+citizens.</p>
+<p>"That's Gregory!" whispered Anderson, as they neared the
+suffering group. He pointed to the most distant cot. "That's jest
+the way he swore last night. He must 'a' shaved in the automobile
+last night," though Gregory had merely discarded the false whiskers
+he had worn for days.</p>
+<p>"Wait!" exclaimed Bonner, stopping short beside the first cot.
+He stooped and peered intently into the face of the wounded bandit.
+"By George!"</p>
+<p>"What's up?"</p>
+<p>"As I live, Mr. Crow, this fellow was one of the gang that
+abducted Rosalie Gray last winter. I can swear to it. Don't you
+remember the one she tried to intercede for? Briggs! That's it!
+Briggs!"</p>
+<p>The injured man slowly opened his eyes as the name was half
+shouted. A sickly grin spread slowly over his pain-racked face.</p>
+<p>"She tried to intercede fer me, did she?" he murmured weakly.
+"She said she would. She was square."</p>
+<p>"You were half decent to her," said Bonner. "How do you happen
+to be with this gang? Another kidnaping scheme afloat?"</p>
+<p>"No&mdash;not that I know of. Ain't you the guy that fixed us?
+Say, on the dead, I was goin' to do the right thing by her that
+night. I was duckin' the gang when you slugged me. Honest, mister,
+I was goin' to put her friends next. Say, I don't know how bad I'm
+hurt, but if I ever git to trial, do what you can fer me, boss. On
+the dead, I was her friend."</p>
+<p>Bonner saw pity in Anderson's face and rudely dragged him away,
+although Bill's plea was not addressed to the old marshal.</p>
+<p>"Wait for me out here, Mr. Crow," said he when they reached the
+office. "You are overcome. I'll talk to him." He returned at once
+to the injured man's cot.</p>
+<p>"Look here, Briggs, I'll do what I can for you, but I'm afraid
+it won't help much. What do the doctors say?"</p>
+<p>"If they ain't lyin', I'll be up an' about in a few weeks.
+Shoulder and some ribs cracked and my legs stove up. I can't move.
+God, that was an awful tumble!" He shuddered in memory of the
+auto's leap.</p>
+<p>"Is Sam or Davy in this gang?"</p>
+<p>"No; Davy's at Blackwell's Island, an' Sam told me he was goin'
+to Canada fer his health. Jim Courtney is the leader of this gang.
+He sailed under the name of Gregory. That's him swearin' at the
+rubes."</p>
+<p>"The thing for you to do is to make a clean breast of it,
+Briggs. It will go easier with you."</p>
+<p>"Turn State's evidence? What good will that do when we was all
+caught with the goods?"</p>
+<p>"If you will tell us all of the inside facts concerning the
+abduction I'll guarantee that something can be done to lighten your
+sentence. I am Congressman Bonner's nephew."</p>
+<p>"So? I thought you was the swellest hold-up man I ever met, that
+night out in the woods. You'd do credit to Sam Welch himself. I'll
+tell you all I know, pardner, but it ain't a great deal. It won't
+do me any good to keep my mouth shut now, an', if you say so, it
+may help me to squeal. But, fer the Lord's sake, have one of these
+rotten doctors give me something to make me sleep. Don't they know
+what morphine is for?"</p>
+<p>Growling and cursing at the doctors, Bill was moved into the
+office. Anderson came in from the dining-room at that juncture,
+visibly excited.</p>
+<p>"I've got a confession from Gregory," he said. "He confesses
+that he oughter be hung."</p>
+<p>"What!"</p>
+<p>"That's what he said&mdash;'y ginger. Here's his very words,
+plain as day: 'I oughter be hung half a dozen times.' 'What fer?'
+says I. 'Fer bein' sech a damned ass,' said he. 'But that ain't a
+hangable offence,' said I. You know, I kinder like Gregory, spite
+of all. 'It's the worst crime in the world,' said he. 'Then you
+confess you've committed it?' said I, anxious to pin him right down
+to it, y' see.' 'ou bet I do. Ef they hang me it'll be because I'm
+a drivelling idiot, an' not because I've shot one er two in my
+time. Nobody but an ass could be caught at it, an' that's why I
+feel so infernal guilty. Look here, Mr. Crow, ever' time you see a
+feller that's proved himself a downright ass, jest take him out an'
+lynch him. He deserves it, that's all I've got to say. The greatest
+crime in the world is criminal neglect.' Don't bother me now, Wick;
+I'm going to write that down an' have him sign it."</p>
+<p>"Look here, pard," said Bill Briggs, laboriously breaking in
+upon their conversation; "I want to do the right thing by you an'
+her as fer as I can. You've been good to me, an' I won't fergit it.
+Besides, you said you'd make things easy fer me if I told you what
+I knowed about that job last winter. Well, I'd better tell it now,
+'cause I'm liable to pass in my checks before these doctors git
+through with me. An' besides, they'll be haulin' me off to the
+county seat in a day or two. Now, this is dead straight, I'm goin'
+to give you. Maybe it won't help you none, but 'll give you a
+lead."</p>
+<p>"Go on," cried Bonner breathlessly.</p>
+<p>"Well, Sam Welch come to me in Branigan's place one
+night&mdash;that's in Fourt' Avenue&mdash;an' says he's got a big
+job on. We went over to Davy Wolfe's house an' found him an' his
+mother&mdash;the old fairy, you remember. Well, to make it short,
+Sam said it was a kidnaping job an' the Wolfes was to be in on it
+because they used to live in this neighbourhood an' done a lot of
+work here way back in the seventies. There was to be five thousand
+dollars in the job if we got that girl safe on board a ship bound
+fer Europe. Sam told us that the guy what engineered the game was a
+swell party an' a big boy in politics, finance, society an'
+ever'thin' else. He could afford to pay, but he didn't want to be
+seen in the job. Nobody but Sam ever seen his face. Sam used to be
+in politics some. Jest before we left New York to come up here, the
+swell guy comes around to Davy's with another guy fer final orders.
+See? It was as cold as h&mdash;&mdash; as the dickens&mdash;an' the
+two of 'em was all muffled up so's we couldn't get a pipe at their
+mugs. One of 'em was old&mdash;over fifty, I guess&mdash;an' the
+other was a young chap. I'm sure of that.</p>
+<p>"They said that one or the other of 'em would be in this
+neighbourhood when the job was pulled off; that one thousand
+dollars would be paid down when we started; another thousand when
+we got 'er into the cave; and the rest when we had 'er at the dock
+in New York&mdash;alive an' unhurt. See? We was given to understand
+that she was to travel all the rest of 'er life fer 'er health. I
+remember one thing plain: The old man said to the young 'un: 'She
+must not know a thing of this, or it will ruin everything.' He
+wasn't referrin' to the girl either. There was another woman in the
+case. They seemed mighty anxious to pull the job off without this
+woman gettin' next.</p>
+<p>"Well, we got ready to start, and the two parties coughed up the
+thousand plunks&mdash;that is, the young 'un handed it over to Sam
+when the old 'un told him to. Sam took three hundred and the rest
+of us two hundred a piece. When they were lookin' from the winder
+to see that nobody on the streets was watchin' the house, I asked
+Sam if he knowed either of them by name. He swore he didn't, but I
+think he lied. But jest before they left the house, I happened to
+look inside of the old boy's hat&mdash;he had a stiff dicer. There
+was a big gilt letter in the top of it."</p>
+<p>"What was that letter?" demanded Bonner eagerly.</p>
+<p>"It was a B."</p>
+<p>Bonner looked at Anderson as if the floor were being drawn from
+under his feet.</p>
+<p>"The young chap said somethin' low to the old 'un about takin'
+the night train back to the University an' comin' down again
+Saturday."</p>
+<p>"To the University? Which one? Did he mention the name?" cried
+Bonner.</p>
+<p>"No. That's all he said."</p>
+<p>"Good heavens, if it should be!" said Bonner as if to
+himself.</p>
+<p>"Well, we come up here an' done the job. You know about that, I
+guess. Sam saw the young feller one night up at Boggs City, an' got
+instructions from him. He was to help us git 'er away from here in
+an automobile, an' the old man was to go across the ocean with 'er.
+That's all I know. It didn't turn out their way that time, but Sam
+says it's bound to happen."</p>
+<p>Bonner, all eagerness and excitement, quickly looked around for
+Anderson, but the marshal had surreptitiously left the room. Then,
+going over to the door, he called for Anderson Crow. Bud Long was
+there.</p>
+<p>"Anderson left five minutes ago, Mr. Bonner, hurryin' like the
+dickens, too," he said. "He's gone to hunt up a feller named
+Barnes. He told me to tell you when you came out."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER
+XXXIV</h2>
+<h3><i>Elsie Banks Returns</i></h3>
+<p>Bonner, considerably annoyed and alarmed by the marshal's
+actions, made every effort to turn him back before he could ruin
+everything by an encounter with Mr. Barnes. He sent men on bicycles
+and horseback to overtake him; but the effort was unsuccessful. Mr.
+Crow had secured a "ride" in an automobile which had brought two
+newspaper correspondents over from Boggs City. They speeded
+furiously in order to catch a train for New York, but agreed to
+drop the marshal at the big bridge, not more than a mile from Judge
+Brewster's place.</p>
+<p>Chagrined beyond expression, he made ready to follow Anderson
+with all haste in his own machine. Rosalie hurriedly perfected
+preparations to accompany him. She was rejoining the house party
+that day, was consumed by excitement over the situation, and just
+as eager as Bonner to checkmate the untimely operations of poor old
+Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>The marshal had more than half an hour's start of them. Bonner
+was his own chauffeur and he was a reckless one to-day. Luck was
+against him at the outset. The vigorous old detective inspired to
+real speed, for the first time in his lackadaisacal life, left the
+newspaper men at the bridge nearly three-quarters of an hour before
+Bonner passed the same spot, driving furiously up the hill toward
+Judge Brewster's.</p>
+<p>"If your bothersome old daddy gets his eyes on Barnes before I
+can head him off, dearest, the jig will be up," groaned Bonner, the
+first words he had spoken in miles. "Barnes will be on his guard
+and ready for anything. The old&mdash;pardon me, for saying
+it&mdash;the old jay ought to know the value of discretion in a
+case like this."</p>
+<p>"Poor old daddy," she sighed, compassion in her heart. "He
+thinks he is doing it for the best. Wicker, I hope it is&mdash;it
+is not Mr. Barnes," she added, voicing a thought which had been
+struggling in her mind for a long time.</p>
+<p>"Why not, dearest?"</p>
+<p>"It would mean one of two things. Either he does not want to
+recognise me as his child&mdash;or cannot, which is even worse.
+Wicker, I don't want to know the truth. I am afraid&mdash;I am
+afraid."</p>
+<p>She was trembling like a leaf and there was positive distress in
+her eyes, eyes half covered by lids tense with alarm.</p>
+<p>"Don't feel that way about it, dear," cried he, recovering from
+his astonishment and instantly grasping the situation as it must
+have appeared to her. "To tell you the truth, I do not believe that
+Mr. Barnes is related to you in any way. If he is connected with
+the case at all, it is in the capacity of attorney."</p>
+<p>"But he is supposed to be an honourable man."</p>
+<p>"True, and I still believe him to be. It does not seem possible
+that he can be engaged in such work as this. We are going
+altogether on supposition&mdash;putting two and two together, don't
+you know, and hoping they will stick. But, in any event, we must
+not let any chance slip by. If he is interested, we must bring him
+to time. It may mean the unravelling of the whole skein, dear.
+Don't look so distressed. Be brave. It doesn't matter what we learn
+in the end, I love you just the same. You shall be my wife."</p>
+<p>"I <i>do</i> love you, Wicker. I will always love you."</p>
+<p>"Dear little sweetheart!"</p>
+<p>They whirled up to the lodge gate at Judge Brewster's place at
+last, the throbbing machine coming to a quick stop. Before he
+called out to the lodge keeper, Bonner impulsively drew her
+gloveless hand to his lips.</p>
+<p>"Nothing can make any difference now," he said.</p>
+<p>The lodge keeper, in reply to Bonner's eager query, informed
+them that Mr. Barnes had gone away ten or fifteen minutes before
+with an old man who claimed to be a detective, and who had placed
+the great lawyer under arrest.</p>
+<p>"Good Lord!" gasped Bonner with a sinking heart.</p>
+<p>"It's an outrage, sir! Mr. Barnes is the best man in the world.
+He never wronged no one, sir. There's an 'orrible mistake, sir,"
+groaned the lodge keeper. "Judge Brewster is in Boggs City, and the
+man wouldn't wait for his return. He didn't even want to tell Mr.
+Barnes what 'e was charged with."</p>
+<p>"Did you ever hear of anything so idiotic?" roared Bonner.
+Rosalie was white and red by turn. "What direction did they
+take?"</p>
+<p>"The constable told Mr. Barnes he'd 'ave to go to Tinkletown
+with 'im at once, sir, even if he 'ad to walk all the way. The old
+chap said something, sir, about a man being there who could
+identify him on sight. Mr. Barnes 'ad to laugh, sir, and appeared
+to take it all in good humour. He said he'd go along of 'im, but he
+wouldn't walk. So he got his own auto out, sir, and they went off
+together. They took the short cut, sir, by the ferry road, 'eaded
+for Tinkletown. Mr. Barnes said he'd be back before noon,
+sir&mdash;if he wasn't lynched."</p>
+<p>"It's all over," groaned Bonner dejectedly. Something had
+slipped from under his feet and he was dangling in space,
+figuratively speaking. "There's nothing to do, Rosalie, except to
+chase them down. Mr. Crow has ruined everything. I'll leave you at
+Bonner Place with mother and Edith, and I'll hurry back to
+Tinkletown."</p>
+<p>The excitement was too much for Rosalie's nerves. She was in a
+state of physical collapse when he set her down at his uncle's
+summer home half an hour later. Leaving her to explain the
+situation to the curious friends, he set speed again for
+Tinkletown, inwardly cursing Anderson Crow for a meddling old
+fool.</p>
+<p>In the meantime Tinkletown was staring open-mouthed upon a new
+sensation. The race between Anderson and Bonner was hardly under
+way when down the main street of the town came a jaded team and
+surrey. Behind the driver sat a pretty young woman with an eager
+expression on her pale face, her gaze bent intently on the turn in
+the street which hid Anderson Crow's home from view. Beside the
+young woman lounged another of her sex, much older, and to all
+appearances, in a precarious state of health. The young men along
+the street gasped in amazement and then ventured to doff their
+timid hats to the young woman, very much as if they were saluting a
+ghost. Few of them received a nod of recognition from Elsie Banks,
+one-time queen of all their hearts.</p>
+<p>Roscoe Crow bounded out to the gate when he saw who was in the
+carriage, first shouting to his mother and sisters, who were
+indoors receiving congratulations and condolences from their
+neighbours.</p>
+<p>Miss Banks immediately inquired if she could see Rosalie.</p>
+<p>"She ain't here," said Roscoe. "She's away fer a
+month&mdash;over at the Bonners'. He's her feller, you know. Ma!
+Here's Miss Banks! Edner! Sue!" Mrs. Crow and the girls flew out to
+the gate, babbling their surprise and greetings.</p>
+<p>"This is my mother," introduced the young lady. "We have just
+come from New York, Mrs. Crow. We sail for England this week, and I
+must see Rosalie before we go. How can we get to Mr. Bonner's
+place?"</p>
+<p>"It's across the river, about twelve miles from here," said Mrs.
+Crow. "Come in and rest yourselves. You don't have to go back
+to-day, do you? Ain't you married yet?"</p>
+<p>"No, Mrs. Crow," responded Elsie, with a stiff, perfunctory
+smile. "Thank you, we cannot stop. It is necessary that we return
+to New York to-night, but I must see Rosalie before going. You see,
+Mrs. Crow, I do not expect to return to America. We are to live in
+London forever, I fear. It may be the last chance I'll have to see
+Rosalie. I must go on to Bonner Place to-day. But, dear me, I am so
+tired and hot, and it is so far to drive," she cried ruefully. "Do
+you know the way, driver?" The driver gruffly admitted that he did
+not. Roscoe eagerly bridged the difficulty by offering to act as
+pathfinder.</p>
+<p>At first Mrs. Banks tried to dissuade her daughter from
+undertaking the long trip, but the girl was obstinate. Her mother
+then flatly refused to accompany her, complaining of her head and
+heart. In the end the elder lady decided to accept Mrs. Crow's
+invitation to remain at the house until Elsie's return.</p>
+<p>"I shall bring Rosalie back with me, mother," said Elsie as she
+prepared to drive away. Mrs. Banks, frail and wan, bowed her head
+listlessly and turned to follow her hostess indoors. With Roscoe in
+the seat with the driver, the carriage started briskly off down the
+shady street, headed for the ferry road and Bonner Place.</p>
+<p>To return to Anderson Crow and his precipitancy. Just as the
+lodge keeper had said, the marshal, afoot and dusty, descended upon
+Mr. Barnes without ceremony. The great lawyer was strolling about
+the grounds when his old enemy arrived. He recognised the odd
+figure as it approached among the trees.</p>
+<p>"Hello, Mr. Crow!" he called cheerily. "Are you going to arrest
+me again?" He advanced to shake hands.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; you are my prisoner," said Anderson, panting, but
+stern. "I know you, Mr. Barnes. It won't do you any good to deny
+it."</p>
+<p>"Come in and sit down. You look tired," said Barnes genially,
+regarding his words as a jest; but Anderson proudly stood his
+ground.</p>
+<p>"You can't come any game with me. It won't do you no good to be
+perlite, my man. This time you don't git away."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/352.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"You don't mean to say you are in earnest?" cried Barnes.</p>
+<p>"I never joke when on duty. Come along with me. You c'n talk
+afterward. Your hirelin' is in jail an' he c'n identify you; so
+don't resist."</p>
+<p>"Wait a moment, sir. What is the charge?"</p>
+<p>"I don't know yet. You know better'n I do what it is."</p>
+<p>"Look here, Mr. Crow. You arrested me the first time I ever saw
+you, and now you yank me up again, after all these years. Haven't
+you anything else to do but arrest me by mistake? Is that your only
+occupation?"</p>
+<p>Anderson sputtered indignantly. Driven to it, he informed John
+Barnes that he was charged with kidnaping, attempted murder,
+polygamy, child desertion, and nearly everything else under the
+sun. Barnes, at first indignant, finally broke into a hearty laugh.
+He magnanimously agreed to accompany his captor to Tinkletown. Not
+only that, but he provided the means of transportation. To the
+intense dismay of the servants, he merrily departed with Mr. Crow,
+a prisoner operating his own patrol wagon. The two were smoking the
+captive's best cigars.</p>
+<p>"It's mighty nice of you, Mr. Barnes, to let us use your
+autermobile," said Anderson, benignly puffing away as they bowled
+off through the dust. "It would 'a' been a long walk. I'll speak a
+good word fer you fer this."</p>
+<p>"Don't mention it, old chap. I rather enjoy it. It's been
+uncommonly dull up here. I did not get away as soon as I expected,
+you see. So I am charged with being Rosalie's father, eh? And
+deserting her? And kidnaping her? By jove, I ought to be hung for
+all this!"</p>
+<p>"'Tain't nothin' to laugh at, my friend. You ought to be ashamed
+of yourself. I was onto you the day you stopped me in the road an'
+ast about her. What a fool you was. Reg'lar dead give-away."</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/354.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"See here, Mr. Crow, I don't like to upset your hopes and
+calculations," said Barnes soberly. "I did that once before, you
+remember. That was years ago. You were wrong then, and you are
+wrong now. Shall I tell you why I am interested in this pretty waif
+of yours?"</p>
+<p>"It ain't necessary," protested the marshal.</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you just the same. My son met her in New York while
+he was at school. He heard her story from mutual friends and
+repeated it to me. I was naturally interested, and questioned you.
+He said she was very pretty. That is the whole story, my dear
+sir."</p>
+<p>"That's all very purty, but how about the B in your hat?"</p>
+<p>"I don't understand. Oh, you mean the political bee?"</p>
+<p>"Politics, your granny! I mean the 'nitial that Briggs saw. No;
+hold on! Don't answer. Don't say anything that'll incriminate
+yourself."</p>
+<p>"I never had an initial in my hat, and I don't know Briggs. Mr.
+Crow, you are as crazy as a loon." He prepared to bring the machine
+to a standstill. "I'm going home. You can ride back with me or get
+out and walk on, just as you please."</p>
+<p>"Hold on! Don't do that! I'll see that you're paid fer the use
+of the machine. Besides, consarn ye, you're my prisoner." This was
+too much for Barnes. He laughed long and loud, and he did not turn
+back.</p>
+<p>Just beyond the ferry they turned aside to permit a carriage to
+pass. A boy on the box with the driver shouted frantically after
+them, and Anderson tried to stop the machine himself.</p>
+<p>"Stop her!" he cried; "that's Roscoe, my boy. Hold on! Who's
+that with him? Why, by cracky, it's Miss Banks! Gee whiz, has she
+come back here to teach again? Whoa! Turn her around, Mr. Barnes.
+They are motionin' fer us to come back. 'Pears to be important,
+too."</p>
+<p>Barnes obligingly turned around and ran back to where the
+carriage was standing. An hour later the automobile rolled into the
+driveway at Bonner Place, and Anderson Crow, a glorious triumph in
+his face, handed Miss Banks from the tonneau and into the arms of
+Rosalie Gray, who at first had mistaken the automobile for another.
+Pompous to the point of explosion, Anderson waved his hand to the
+party assembled on the veranda, strolled around to Mr. Barnes's
+seat and acquired a light for his cigar with a nonchalance that
+almost overcame his one-time prisoner, and then said, apparently to
+the whole world, for he addressed no one in particular:</p>
+<p>"I knowed I could solve the blamed thing if they'd jest give me
+time."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+<h3><i>The Story is Told</i></h3>
+<p>Elsie Banks had a small and select audience in Mrs. Bonner's
+room upstairs. She had come from New York&mdash;or from California,
+strictly speaking&mdash;to furnish the narrative which was to set
+Rosalie Gray's mind at rest forever-more. It was not a pleasant
+task; it was not an easy sacrifice for this spirited girl who had
+known luxury all her life. Her spellbound hearers were Mrs. Bonner
+and Edith, Wicker Bonner, Anderson Crow, Rosalie, and John E.
+Barnes, who, far from being a captive of the law, was now Miss
+Gray's attorney, retained some hours before by his former
+captor.</p>
+<p>"I discharge you, sir," Anderson had said, after hearing Miss
+Bank's statement in the roadway. "You are no longer a prisoner.
+Have you anything to say, sir?"</p>
+<p>"Nothing, Mr. Crow, except to offer my legal services to you and
+your ward in this extraordinary matter. Put the matter in my hands,
+sir, and she shall soon come into her own, thanks to this young
+lady. I may add that, as I am not in the habit of soliciting
+clients, it is not my intention in this instance to exact a fee
+from your ward. My services are quite free, given in return, Mr.
+Crow, for the magnanimous way in which you have taken me into your
+confidence ever since I have known you. It is an honour to have
+been arrested by you; truthfully it is no disgrace."</p>
+<p>In the privacy of Mrs. Bonner's sitting-room, Elsie Banks,
+dry-eyed and bitter, told the story of her life. I cannot tell it
+as she did, for she was able to bring tears to the eyes of her
+listeners. It is only for me to relate the bare facts, putting them
+into her words as closely as possible. Rosalie Gray, faint with
+astonishment and incredulity, a lump in her throat that would not
+go down, and tears in her eyes, leaned back in an easy-chair and
+watched her unhappy friend.</p>
+<p>"I shall provide Mr. Barnes with proof of everything I say,"
+said Miss Banks. "There can be no difficulty, Rosalie dear, in
+confirming all that I have to tell. If you will permit me to relate
+the story without interruption and afterward let me go my way
+without either pity or contempt, I shall be, oh, so grateful to you
+all&mdash;especially to you, dear Rosalie. Believe me I love you
+with my whole soul.</p>
+<p>"I have come to you voluntarily, and my mother, who is in
+Tinkletown, in resigning herself to the calls of conscience, is now
+happier than she has ever been before. A more powerful influence
+than her own will or her own honour, an influence that was evil to
+the core, inspired her to countenance this awful wrong. It also
+checkmated every good impulse she may have had to undo it in after
+years. That influence came from Oswald Banks, a base monster to
+whom my mother was married when I was a year old. My mother was the
+daughter of Lord Abbott Brace, but married my own father, George
+Stuart, who was a brilliant but radical newspaper writer in London,
+against her father's wish. For this he cast her off and
+disinherited her. Grandfather hated him and his views, and he could
+not forgive my mother even after my father died, which was two
+years after their marriage.</p>
+<p>"Lord Richard Brace, my mother's only brother, married the
+daughter of the Duchess of B&mdash;&mdash;. You, Rosalie, are Lady
+Rosalie Brace of Brace Hall, W&mdash;shire, England, the true
+granddaughter of General Lord Abbott Brace, one of the noblest and
+richest men of his day. Please let me go on; I cannot endure the
+interruptions. The absolute, unalterable proof of what I say shall
+be established through the confession of my own mother, in whose
+possession lies every document necessary to give back to you that
+which she would have given to me.</p>
+<p>"Your mother died a few weeks after you were born, and Sir
+Richard, who loved my mother in the face of his father's
+displeasure, placed you in her care, while he rushed off,
+heart-broken, to find solace in Egypt. It is said that he hated you
+because you were the cause of her death. On the day after your
+birth, old Lord Brace changed his will and bequeathed a vast amount
+of unentailed property to you, to be held in trust by your father
+until you were twenty-one years of age. I was almost two years old
+at the time, and the old man, unexpectedly compassionate, inserted
+a provision which, in the event that you were to die before that
+time, gave all this money to me on my twenty-first birthday. The
+interest on this money, amounting to five thousand pounds annually,
+was to go to you regularly, in one case, or to me, in the other.
+Oswald Banks was an American, whom my mother had met in London
+several years prior to her first marriage. He was the London
+representative of a big Pennsylvania manufacturing concern. He was
+ambitious, unscrupulous and clever beyond conception. He still is
+all of these and more, for he is now a coward.</p>
+<p>"Well, it was he who concocted the diabolical scheme to one day
+get possession of your inheritance. He coerced my poor mother into
+acquiescense, and she became his wretched tool instead of an
+honoured wife and helpmate. One night, when you were three weeks
+old, the house in which we lived was burned to the ground, the
+inmates narrowly escaping. So narrow was the escape, in fact, that
+you were said to have been left behind in the confusion, and the
+world was told, the next day, that the granddaughter of Lord Brace
+had been destroyed by the flames.</p>
+<p>"The truth, however, was not told. My stepfather did not dare to
+go so far as to kill you. It was he who caused the fire, but he had
+you removed to a small hotel in another part of the city some hours
+earlier, secretly, of course, but in charge of a trusted maid. My
+mother was responsible for this. She would not listen to his awful
+plan to leave you in the house. But you might just as well have
+died. No one was the wiser and you were given up as lost. A week
+later, my mother and Mr. Banks started for America. You and I were
+with them, but you went as the daughter of a
+maid-servant&mdash;Ellen Hayes.</p>
+<p>"This is the story as my mother has told it to me after all
+these years. My stepfather's plan, of course, was to place you
+where you could never be found, and then to see to it that our
+grandfather did not succeed in changing his will. Moreover, he was
+bound and determined that he himself should be named as
+trustee&mdash;when the fortune came over at Lord Brace's death.
+That part of it turned out precisely as he had calculated. Let me
+go on a few months in advance of my story. Lord Brace died, and the
+will was properly probated and the provisions carried out. Brace
+Hall and the estates went to your father and the bequest came to
+me, for you were considered dead. My stepfather was made trustee.
+He gave bond in England and America, I believe. In any event, the
+fortune was to be mine when I reached the age of twenty-one, but
+each year the income, nearly twenty-five thousand dollars, was to
+be paid to my stepfather as trustee, to be safely invested by him.
+My mother's name was not mentioned in the document, except once, to
+identify me as the beneficiary. I can only add to this phase of the
+hateful conspiracy, that for nineteen years my stepfather received
+this income, and that he used it to establish his own fortune. By
+investing what was supposed to be my money, he has won his own way
+to wealth.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Banks decided that the operations were safest from this
+side of the Atlantic. He and my mother took up their residence in
+New York, and it has been their home ever since. He spent the first
+half year after your suspected death in London, solely for the
+purpose of establishing himself in Lord Brace's favour. Within a
+year after the death of Lord Brace your father was killed by a
+poacher on the estate. He had but lately returned from Egypt, and
+was in full control of the lands and property attached to Brace
+Hall. If my stepfather had designs upon Brace Hall, they failed,
+for the lands and the title went at once to your father's cousin,
+Sir Harry Brace, the present lord.</p>
+<p>"So much for the conditions in England then and now. I now
+return to that part of the story which most interests and concerns
+you. My poor mother was compelled, within a fortnight after we
+landed in New York, to give up the dangerous infant who was always
+to hang like a cloud between fortune and honour. The maid-servant
+was paid well for her silence. By the way, she died mysteriously
+soon after coming to America, but not before giving to my mother a
+signed paper setting forth clearly every detail in so far as it
+bore upon her connection with the hateful transaction. Conscience
+was forever at work in my mother's heart; honour was constantly
+struggling to the surface, only to be held back by fear of and
+loyalty to the man she loved.</p>
+<p>"It was decided that the most humane way to put you out of
+existence was to leave you on the doorstep of some kindly disposed
+person, far from New York. My stepfather and my mother deliberately
+set forth on this so-called mission of mercy. They came north, and
+by chance, fell in with a resident of Boggs City while in the
+station at Albany. They were debating which way to turn for the
+next step. My mother was firm in the resolve that you should be
+left in the care of honest, reliable, tender-hearted people, who
+would not abuse the trust she was to impose. The Boggs City man
+said he had been in Albany to see about a bill in the legislature,
+which was to provide for the erection of a monument in
+Tinkletown&mdash;where a Revolutionary battle had been fought. It
+was he who spoke of Anderson Crow, and it was his stories of your
+goodness and generosity, Mr. Crow, that caused them to select you
+as the man who was to have Rosalie, and, with her, the sum of one
+thousand dollars a year for your trouble and her needs.</p>
+<p>"My mother's description of that stormy night in February, more
+than twenty-one years ago, is the most pitiful thing I have ever
+listened to. Together they made their way to Tinkletown, hiring a
+vehicle in Boggs City for the purpose. Mr. Banks left the basket on
+your porch while mother stood far down the street and waited for
+him, half frozen and heartsick. Then they hurried out of town and
+were soon safely on their way to New York. It was while my
+stepfather was in London, later on, that mother came up to see
+Rosalie and make that memorable first payment to Mr. Crow. How it
+went on for years, you all know. It was my stepfather's cleverness
+that made it so impossible to learn the source from which the
+mysterious money came.</p>
+<p>"We travelled constantly, always finding new places of interest
+in which my mother's conscience could be eased by contact with
+beauty and excitement. Gradually she became hardened to the
+conditions, for, after all, was it not her own child who was to be
+enriched by the theft and the deception? Mr. Banks constantly
+forced that fact in upon her mother-love and her vanity. Through it
+all, however, you were never neglected nor forgotten. My mother had
+your welfare always in mind. It was she who saw that you and I were
+placed at the same school in New York, and it was she who saw that
+your training in a way was as good as it could possibly be without
+exciting risk.</p>
+<p>"Of course, I knew nothing of all this. I was rolling in wealth
+and luxury, but not in happiness. Instinctively I loathed my
+stepfather. He was hard, cruel, unreasonable. It was because of him
+that I left school and afterward sought to earn my own living. You
+know, Rosalie, how Tom Reddon came into my life. He was the son of
+William Reddon, my stepfather's business partner, who had charge of
+the Western branch of the concern in Chicago. We lived in Chicago
+for several years, establishing the business. Mr. Banks was until
+recently president of the Banks &amp; Reddon Iron Works. Last year,
+you doubtless know, the plant was sold to the great combine and the
+old company passed out of existence. This act was the result of a
+demand from England that the trust under which he served be closed
+and struck from the records. It was his plan to settle the matter,
+turn the inheritance over to me according to law, and then impose
+upon my inexperience for all time to come. The money, while mine
+literally, was to be his in point of possession.</p>
+<p>"But he had reckoned without the son of his partner. Tom Reddon
+in some way learned the secret, and he was compelled to admit the
+young man into all of his plans. This came about some three years
+ago, while I was in school. I had known Tom Reddon in Chicago. He
+won my love. I cannot deny it, although I despise him to-day more
+deeply than I ever expect to hate again. He was even more
+despicable than my stepfather. Without the faintest touch of pity,
+he set about to obliterate every chance Rosalie could have had for
+restitution. Time began to prove to me that he was not the man I
+thought him to be. His nature revealed itself; and I found I could
+not marry him. Besides, my mother was beginning to repent. She
+awoke from her stupor of indifference and strove in every way to
+circumvent the plot of the two conspirators, so far as I was
+concerned. The strain told on her at last, and we went to
+California soon after my ridiculous flight from Tinkletown last
+winter. It was not until after that adventure that I began to see
+deep into the wretched soul of Tom Reddon.</p>
+<p>"Then came the most villainous part of the whole conspiracy.
+Reddon, knowing full well that exposure was possible at any time,
+urged my stepfather to have you kidnaped and hurried off to some
+part of the world where you could never be found. Even Reddon did
+not have the courage to kill you. Neither had the heart to commit
+actual murder. It was while we were at Colonel Randall's place that
+the abduction took place, you remember. Mr. Banks and Tom Reddon
+had engaged their men in New York. These desperadoes came to Boggs
+City while Tom was here to watch their operations. All the time Mr.
+Crow was chasing us down Reddon was laughing in his sleeve, for he
+knew what was to happen during the marshal's absence. You know how
+successfully he managed the job. It was my stepfather's fault that
+it did not succeed.</p>
+<p>"My mother, down in New York, driven to the last extreme, had
+finally turned on him and demanded that he make restitution to
+Rosalie Gray, as we had come to know her. Of course, there was a
+scene and almost a catastrophe. He was so worried over the position
+she was taking, that he failed to carry out his part of the plans,
+which were to banish Rosalie forever from this country. You were to
+have been taken to Paris, dear, and kept forever in one of those
+awful sanitoriums. They are worse than the grave. In the meantime,
+the delay gave Mr. Bonner a chance to rescue you from the
+kidnapers.</p>
+<p>"Shortly after reaching New York I quarrelled with Thomas
+Reddon, and my mother and I fled to California. He followed us and
+sought a reconciliation. I loathed him so much by this time, that I
+appealed to my mother. It was then that she told me this miserable
+story, and that is why we are in Tinkletown to-day. We learned in
+some way of the plot to kidnap you and to place you where you could
+not be found. The inhuman scheme of my stepfather and his adviser
+was to have my mother declared insane and confined in an asylum,
+where her truthful utterances could never be heard by the world, or
+if they were, as the ravings of a mad woman.</p>
+<p>"The day that we reached New York my mother <i>placed</i> the
+documents and every particle of proof in her possession in the
+hands of the British Consul. The story was told to him and also to
+certain attorneys. A member of his firm visited my stepfather and
+confronted him with the charges. That very night Mr. Banks
+disappeared, leaving behind him a note, in which he said we should
+never see his face again. Tom Reddon has gone to Europe. My mother
+and I expect to sail this week for England, and I have come to ask
+Rosalie to accompany us. I want her to stand at last on the soil
+which knows her to be Rosalie Brace. The fortune which was mine
+last week is hers to-day. We are not poor, Rosalie dear, but we are
+not as rich as we were when we had all that belonged to you."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER
+XXXVI</h2>
+<h3><i>Anderson Crow's Resignation</i></h3>
+<p>Some days later Anderson Crow returned to Tinkletown from New
+York, where he had seen Rosalie Bonner and her husband off for
+England, accompanied by Mrs. Banks and Elsie, who had taken passage
+on the same steamer. He was attired in a brand-new suit of blue
+serge, a panama hat, and patent-leather shoes which hurt his feet.
+Moreover, he carried a new walking stick with a great gold head and
+there was a huge pearl scarf-pin in his necktie Besides all this,
+his hair and beard had been trimmed to perfection by a Holland
+House barber. Every morning his wife was obliged to run a flatiron
+over his trousers to perpetuate the crease. Altogether Anderson was
+a revelation not only to his family and to the town at large, but
+to himself as well. He fairly staggered every time he got a glimpse
+of himself in the shop windows.</p>
+<p>All day long he strolled about the street, from store to store,
+or leaned imposingly against every post that presented itself
+conveniently. Naturally he was the talk of the town.</p>
+<p>"Gee-mi-nently!" ejaculated Alf Reesling, catching sight of him
+late in the day. "Is that the president?"</p>
+<p>"It's Anderson Crow," explained Blootch Peabody.</p>
+<p>"Who's dead?" demanded Alf.</p>
+<p>"What's that got to do with it?"</p>
+<p>"Why, whose clothes is he wearin'?" pursued Alf, utterly
+overcome by the picture.</p>
+<p>"You'd better not let him hear you say that," cautioned Isaac
+Porter. "He got 'em in New York. He says young Mr. Bonner give 'em
+to him fer a weddin' present. Rosalie give him a pearl dingus to
+wear in his cravat, an' derned ef he don't have to wear a collar
+all the time now. That lawyer Barnes give him the cane. Gee whiz!
+he looks like a king, don't he?"</p>
+<p>At that moment Anderson approached the group in front of
+Lamson's store. He walked with a stateliness that seemed to signify
+pain in his lower extremities more than it did dignity higher
+up.</p>
+<p>"How fer out do you reckon they are by this time, Blootch?" he
+asked earnestly.</p>
+<p>"'Bout ten miles further than when you asked while ago,"
+responded Blootch, consulting his watch.</p>
+<p>"Well, that ought to get 'em to Liverpool sometime soon then.
+They took a powerful fast ship. Makes it in less 'n six days, they
+say. Let's see. They sailed day before yesterday. They must be out
+sight o' land by this time."</p>
+<p>"Yes, unless they're passin' some islands," agreed Blootch.</p>
+<p>"Thunderation! What air you talkin' about?" said Anderson
+scornfully. "Cuby an' Porty Rico's been passed long ago. Them
+islands ain't far from Boston. Don't you remember how skeered the
+Boston people were durin' the war with Spain? Feared the Spanish
+shells might go a little high an' smash up the town? Islands
+nothin'! They've got away out into deep water by this time, boys.
+'y Gosh, I'm anxious about Rosalie. S'posin' that derned boat
+struck a rock er upset er somethin'! They never could swim
+ashore."</p>
+<p>"Oh, there's no danger, Anderson," said Mr. Lamson. "Those boats
+are perfectly safe. I suppose they're going to telegraph you when
+they land."</p>
+<p>"No, they're goin' to cable, Wick says. Doggone, I'm glad it's
+all settled. You don't know how hard I've worked all these years to
+find out who her parents was. Course I knowed they were foreigners
+all the time, but Rosalie never had no brogue, so you c'n see how I
+was threw off the track. She talked jest as good American as we do.
+I was mighty glad when I finally run Miss Banks to earth." The
+crowd was in no position to argue the point with him. "That Miss
+Banks is a fine girl, boys. She done the right thing. An' so did my
+Rosalie&mdash;I mean Lady Rosalie. She made Elsie keep some of the
+money. Mr. Barnes is goin' to England next week to help settle the
+matter for Lady Rosalie. He says she's got nearly a million dollars
+tied up some'eres. It's easy sailin', though, 'cause Mrs. Banks
+says so. Did you hear what Rosalie said when she got convinced
+about bein' an English lady?"</p>
+<p>"No; what did she say?"</p>
+<p>"She jest stuck up that derned little nose o' hern an' said: 'I
+am an American as long as I live.'"</p>
+<p>"Hooray!" shouted Alf Reesling, throwing Isaac Porter's new hat
+into the air. The crowd joined in the cheering.</p>
+<p>"Did I ever tell you how I knowed all along that it was a man
+who left Rosalie on the porch?" asked Anderson.</p>
+<p>"Why, you allus told me it was a woman," said Alf. "You accused
+me of bein' her."</p>
+<p>"Shucks! Woman nothin'! I knowed it was a man. Here's somethin'
+you don't know, Alf. I sized up the foot-prints on my front steps
+jest after she&mdash;I mean he&mdash;dropped the basket. The toes
+turned outward, plain as day, right there in the snow." He paused
+to let the statement settle in their puzzled brains. "Don't you
+know that one hunderd percent of the women turn their toes in when
+they go upstairs? To keep from hookin' into their skirts? Thunder,
+you oughter of thought of that, too!"</p>
+<p>Some one had posted Anderson on this peculiarly feminine trait,
+and he was making the best of it. Incidentally, it may be said that
+every man in Tinkletown took personal observations in order to
+satisfy himself.</p>
+<p>"Any one seen Pastor MacFarlane?" went on Anderson. "Wick Bonner
+give me a hunderd dollar bill to give him fer performin' the
+ceremony up to our house that night. G'way, Ed Higgins! I'm not
+goin' 'round showin' that bill to people. If robbers got onto the
+fact I have it, they'd probably try to steal it. I don't keer if
+you ain't seen that much money in one piece. That's none of my
+lookout. Say, are you comin' to the town meetin' to-night?"</p>
+<p>They were all at the meeting of the town board that night. It
+was held, as usual, in Odd Fellows' Hall, above Peterson's
+dry-goods store, and there was not so much as standing room in the
+place when the clerk read the minutes of the last meeting. Word had
+gone forth that something unusual was to happen. It was not idle
+rumour, for soon after the session began, Anderson Crow arose to
+address the board.</p>
+<p>"Gentlemen," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "I have
+come before you as I notified you I would. I hereby tender my
+resignation as marshal of Tinkletown, street commissioner and chief
+of the fire department&mdash;an' any other job I may have that has
+slipped my mind. I now suggest that you app'int Mr. Ed Higgins in
+my place. He has wanted the job fer some time, an' says it won't
+interfere with his business any more than it did with mine. I have
+worked hard all these years an' I feel that I ought to have a rest.
+Besides, it has got to be so that thieves an' other criminals won't
+visit Tinkletown on account o' me, an' I think the town is bein'
+held back considerable in that way. What's the use havin' a marshal
+an' a jail ef nobody comes here to commit crimes? They have to
+commit 'em in New York City er Chicago nowadays, jest because it's
+safer there than it is here. Look at this last case I had. Wasn't
+that arranged in New York? Well, it shouldn't be that way. Even the
+train robbers put up their job in New York. I feel that the best
+interests of the town would be served ef I resign an' give the
+criminals a chance. You all know Ed Higgins. He will ketch 'em if
+anybody kin. I move that he be app'inted."</p>
+<p>The motion prevailed, as did the vote of thanks, which was
+vociferously called for in behalf of Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"You honour me," said the ex-marshal, when the "ayes" died away.
+"I promise to help Marshal Higgins in ever' way possible. I'll tell
+him jest what to do in everything. I wish to say that I am not
+goin' out of the detective business, however. I'm goin' to open an
+agency of my own here. All sorts of detective business will be done
+at reasonable prices. I had these cards printed at the
+<i>Banner</i> office to-day, an' Mr. Squires is goin' to run an ad.
+fer me fer a year in the paper."</p>
+<p>He proudly handed a card to the president of the board and then
+told the crowd that each person present could have one by applying
+to his son Roscoe, who would be waiting in the hallway after the
+meeting. The card read:</p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">"Anderson Crow,
+Detective.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">All kinds of cases Taken and
+Satisfaction</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Guaranteed.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Berth mysteries a
+Specialty."</span></p>
+<p>Mrs. Bonner, upon hearing of his resignation the next day, just
+as she was leaving for Boston, drily remarked to the
+Congressman:</p>
+<p>"I still maintain that Anderson Crow is utterly impossible."</p>
+<p>No doubt the entire world, aside from the village of Tinkletown,
+agrees with her in that opinion.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14818 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #14818 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14818)
diff --git a/old/14818-8.txt b/old/14818-8.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Daughter of Anderson Crow, by George Barr
+McCutcheon, Illustrated by B. Martin Justice
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Daughter of Anderson Crow
+
+Author: George Barr McCutcheon
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2005  [eBook #14818]
+[Last updated: December 28, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14818-h.htm or 14818-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/1/14818/14818-h/14818-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/1/14818/14818-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW
+
+by
+
+GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON
+
+Author of _Beverly of Graustark_, _Jane Cable_, etc.
+
+With Illustrations by B. Martin Justice
+
+New York
+Dodd, Mead and Company
+
+1907
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Anderson Crow]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+     I.  ANDERSON CROW, DETECTIVE
+    II.  THE PURSUIT BEGINS
+   III.  THE CULPRITS
+    IV.  ANDERSON RECTIFIES AN ERROR
+     V.  THE BABE ON THE DOORSTEP
+    VI.  REFLECTION AND DEDUCTION
+   VII.  THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
+  VIII.  SOME YEARS GO BY
+    IX.  THE VILLAGE QUEEN
+     X.  ROSALIE HAS PLANS OF HER OWN
+    XI.  ELSIE BANKS
+   XII.  THE SPELLING-BEE
+  XIII.  A TINKLETOWN SENSATION
+   XIV.  A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
+    XV.  ROSALIE DISAPPEARS
+   XVI.  THE HAUNTED HOUSE
+  XVII.  WICKER BONNER, HARVARD
+ XVIII.  THE MEN IN THE SLEIGH
+   XIX.  WITH THE KIDNAPERS
+    XX.  IN THE CAVE
+   XXI.  THE TRAP-DOOR
+  XXII.  JACK, THE GIANT KILLER
+ XXIII.  TINKLETOWN'S CONVULSION
+  XXIV.  THE FLIGHT OF THE KIDNAPERS
+   XXV.  AS THE HEART GROWS OLDER
+  XXVI.  THE LEFT VENTRICLE
+ XXVII.  THE GRIN DERISIVE
+XXVIII.  THE BLIND MAN'S EYES
+  XXIX.  THE MYSTERIOUS QUESTIONER
+   XXX.  THE HEMISPHERE TRAIN ROBBERY
+  XXXI.  "AS YOU LIKE IT"
+ XXXII.  THE LUCK OF ANDERSON CROW
+XXXIII.  BILL BRIGGS TELLS A TALE
+ XXXIV.  ELSIE BANKS RETURNS
+  XXXV.  THE STORY IS TOLD
+ XXXVI.  ANDERSON CROW'S RESIGNATION
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+   Anderson Crow (Frontispiece)
+
+   "'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he whispered"
+
+   "A baby, alive and warm, lay packed in the blankets"
+
+   "September brought Elsie Banks"
+
+   "The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful night"
+
+   "'What is the meaning of all this?'"
+
+   The haunted house
+
+   Wicker Bonner
+
+   "Rosalie was no match for the huge woman"
+
+   "She shrank back from another blow which seemed impending"
+
+   "Left the young man to the care of an excellent nurse"
+
+   "'I think I understand, Rosalie'"
+
+   "'I beg your pardon,' he said humbly'"
+
+   "It was a wise, discreet old oak"
+
+   "The huge automobile had struck the washout"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Anderson Crow, Detective
+
+
+He was imposing, even in his pensiveness. There was no denying the fact
+that he was an important personage in Tinkletown, and to the residents
+of Tinkletown that meant a great deal, for was not their village a
+perpetual monument to the American Revolution? Even the most
+generalising of historians were compelled to devote at least a paragraph
+to the battle of Tinkletown, while some of the more enlightened gave a
+whole page and a picture of the conflict that brought glory to the
+sleepy inhabitants whose ancestors were enterprising enough to
+annihilate a whole company of British redcoats, once on a time.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, a particularly disagreeable visitor from the
+city once remarked, in the presence of half a dozen descendants (after
+waiting twenty minutes at the post-office for a dime's worth of stamps),
+that Tinkletown was indeed a monument, but he could not understand why
+the dead had been left unburied. There was excellent cause for
+resentment, but the young man and his stamps were far away before the
+full force of the slander penetrated the brains of the listeners.
+
+Anderson Crow was as imposing and as rugged as the tallest shaft of
+marble in the little cemetery on the edge of the town. No one questioned
+his power and authority, no one misjudged his altitude, and no one
+overlooked his dignity. For twenty-eight years he had served Tinkletown
+and himself in the triple capacity of town marshal, fire chief and
+street commissioner. He had a system of government peculiarly his own;
+and no one possessed the heart or temerity to upset it, no matter what
+may have been the political inducements. It would have been like trying
+to improve the laws of nature to put a new man in his place. He had
+become a fixture that only dissolution could remove. Be it said,
+however, that dissolution did not have its common and accepted meaning
+when applied to Anderson Crow. For instance, in discoursing upon the
+obnoxious habits of the town's most dissolute rake--Alf
+Reesling--Anderson had more than once ventured the opinion that "he was
+carrying his dissolution entirely too far."
+
+And had not Anderson Crow risen to more than local distinction? Had not
+his fame gone abroad throughout the land? Not only was he the Marshal of
+Tinkletown at a salary of $200 a year, but he was president of the
+County Horse-thief Detectives' Association and also a life-long delegate
+to the State Convention of the Sons of the Revolution. Along that line,
+let it be added, every parent in Tinkletown bemoaned the birth of a
+daughter, because that simple circumstance of origin robbed the
+society's roster of a new name.
+
+Anderson Crow, at the age of forty-nine, had a proud official record
+behind him and a guaranteed future ahead. Doubtless it was of this that
+he was thinking, as he leaned pensively against the town hitching-rack
+and gingerly chewed the blade of wire-grass which dangled even below the
+chin whiskers that had been with him for twenty years. The faraway
+expression in his watery-blue eyes gave evidence that he was as great
+reminiscently as he was personally. So successful had been his career as
+a law preserver, that of late years no evil-doer had had the courage to
+ply his nefarious games in the community. The town drunkard, Alf
+Reesling, seldom appeared on the streets in his habitual condition,
+because, as he dolefully remarked, he would deserve arrest and
+confinement for "criminal negligence," if for nothing else. The
+marshal's fame as a detective had long since escaped from the narrow
+confines of Tinkletown. He was well known at the county seat, and on no
+less than three occasions had his name mentioned in the "big city"
+papers in connection with the arrest of notorious horse-thieves.
+
+And now the whole town was trembling with a new excitement, due to the
+recognition accorded her triple official. On Monday morning he had
+ventured forth from his office in the long-deserted "calaboose,"
+resplendent in a brand-new nickel-plated star. By noon everybody in town
+knew that he was a genuine "detective," a member of the great
+organisation known as the New York Imperial Detective Association; and
+that fresh honour had come to Tinkletown through the agency of a
+post-revolution generation. The beauty of it all was that Anderson never
+lost a shred of his serenity in explaining how the association had
+implored him to join its forces, even going so far as to urge him to
+come to New York City, where he could assist and advise in all of its
+large operations. And, moreover, he had been obliged to pay but ten
+dollars membership fee, besides buying the blazing star for the paltry
+sum of three dollars and a quarter.
+
+Every passer-by on this bright spring morning offered a respectful
+"Howdy" to Anderson Crow, whose only recognition was a slow and
+imposing nod of the head. Once only was he driven to relinquish his
+pensive attitude, and that was when an impertinent blue-bottle fly
+undertook to rest for a brief spell upon the nickel-plated star. Never
+was blue-bottle more energetically put to flight.
+
+But even as the Tinkletown Pooh-Bah posed in restful supremacy there
+were rushing down upon him affairs of the epoch-making kind. Up in the
+clear, lazy sky a thunderbolt was preparing to hurl itself into the very
+heart of Tinkletown, and at the very head of Anderson Crow.
+
+Afterward it was recalled by observing citizens that just before
+noon--seven minutes to twelve, in fact--a small cloud no bigger than the
+proverbial hand crossed the sun hurriedly as if afraid to tarry. At that
+very instant a stranger drove up to the hitching-rack, bringing his
+sweat-covered horse to a standstill so abruptly in front of the
+marshal's nose that that dignitary's hat fell off backward.
+
+"Whoa!" came clearly and unmistakably from the lips of the stranger who
+held the reins. Half a dozen loafers on the post-office steps were
+positive that he said nothing more, a fact that was afterward worth
+remembering.
+
+"Here!" exclaimed Anderson Crow wrathfully. "Do you know what you're
+doin', consarn you?"
+
+"I beg pardon," everybody within hearing heard the young man say. "Is
+this the city of Tinkletown?" He said "city," they could swear, every
+man's son of them.
+
+"Yes, it is," answered the marshal severely. "What of it?"
+
+"That's all. I just wanted to know. Where's the store?"
+
+"Which store?" quite crossly. The stranger seemed nonplussed at this.
+
+"Have you more than--oh, to be sure. I should say, where is the
+_nearest_ store?" apologised the stranger.
+
+"Well, this is a good one, I reckon," said Mr. Crow laconically,
+indicating the post-office and general store.
+
+"Will you be good enough to hold my horse while I run in there for a
+minute?" calmly asked the new arrival in town, springing lightly from
+the mud-spattered buggy. Anderson Crow almost staggered beneath this
+indignity. The crowd gasped, and then waited breathlessly for the
+withering process.
+
+"Why--why, dod-gast you, sir, what do you think I am--a hitchin'-post?"
+exploded on the lips of the new detective. His face was flaming red.
+
+"You'll have to excuse me, my good man, but I thought I saw a
+hitching-rack as I drove up. Ah, here it is. How careless of me. But
+say, I won't be in the store more than a second, and it doesn't seem
+worth while to tie the old crow-bait. If you'll just watch him--or
+her--for a minute I'll be greatly obliged, and--"
+
+"Watch your own horse," roared the marshal thunderously.
+
+"Don't get huffy," cried the young man cheerily. "It will be worth a
+quarter to you."
+
+"Do you know who I am?" demanded Anderson Crow, purple to the roots of
+his goatee.
+
+"Yes, sir; I know perfectly well, but I refuse to give it away. Here,
+take the bit, old chap, and hold Dobbin for about a minute and half,"
+went on the stranger ruthlessly; and before Anderson Crow knew what had
+happened he was actually holding the panting nag by the bit. The young
+man went up the steps three at a time, almost upsetting Uncle Gideon
+Luce, who had not been so spry as the others in clearing the way for
+him. The crowd had ample time in which to study the face, apparel and
+manner of this energetic young man.
+
+That he was from the city, good-looking and well dressed, there was no
+doubt. He was tall and his face was beardless; that much could be seen
+at a glance. Somehow, he seemed to be laughing all the time--a fact that
+was afterward recalled with some surprise and no little horror. At the
+time, the loungers thought his smile was a merry one, but afterward they
+stoutly maintained there was downright villainy in the leer. His coat
+was very dusty, proving that he had driven far and swiftly. Three or
+four of the loungers followed him into the store. He was standing before
+the counter over which Mr. Lamson served his soda-water. In one hand he
+held an envelope and in the other his straw hat. George Ray, more
+observant than the rest, took note of the fact that it was with the hat
+that he was fanning himself vigorously.
+
+"A plain vanilla--please rush it along," commanded the stranger. Mr.
+Lamson, if possible slower than the town itself, actually showed
+unmistakable signs of acceleration. Tossing off the soda, the stranger
+dried his lips with a blue-hemmed white handkerchief. "Is this the
+post-office?" he asked.
+
+"Yep," said Mr. Lamson, who was too penurious to waste words.
+
+"Anything here for me?" demanded the newcomer.
+
+"I'll see," said the postmaster, and from force of habit began looking
+through the pile of letters without asking the man's name. Mr. Lamson
+knew everybody in the county.
+
+"Nothing here," taking off his spectacles conclusively.
+
+"I didn't think there was," said the other complacently. "Give me a
+bottle of witch hazel, a package of invisible hair-pins and a box of
+parlor matches. Quick; I'm in a hurry!"
+
+"Did you say hat-pins?"
+
+"No, sir; I said hair-pins."
+
+"We haven't any that ain't visible. How would safety-pins do?"
+
+"Never mind; give me the bottle and the matches," said the other,
+glancing at a very handsome gold watch. "Is the old man still holding my
+horse?" he called to a citizen near the door. Seven necks stretched
+simultaneously to accommodate him, and seven voices answered in the
+affirmative. The stranger calmly opened the box of matches, filled his
+silver match-safe, and then threw the box back on the counter, an
+unheard-of piece of profligacy in those parts. "Needn't mind wrapping
+up the bottle," he said.
+
+"Don't you care for these matches?" asked Mr. Lamson in mild surprise.
+
+"I'll donate them to the church," said the other, tossing a coin upon
+the counter and dashing from the store. The crowd ebbed along behind
+him. "Gentle as a lamb, isn't he?" he called to Anderson Crow, who still
+clutched the bit. "Much obliged, sir; I'll do as much for you some day.
+If you're ever in New York, hunt me up and I'll see that you have a good
+time. What road do I take to Crow's Cliff?"
+
+"Turn to your left here," said Anderson Crow before he thought. Then he
+called himself a fool for being so obliging to the fellow.
+
+"How far is it from here?"
+
+"Mile and a half," again answered Mr. Crow helplessly. This time he
+almost swore under his breath.
+
+"But he can't get there," volunteered one of the bystanders.
+
+"Why can't he?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"Bridge over Turnip Creek is washed out. Did you forget that?"
+
+"Of course not," promptly replied Mr. Crow, who _had_ forgotten it;
+"But, dang it, he c'n swim, can't he?"
+
+"You say the bridge is gone?" asked the stranger, visibly excited.
+
+"Yes, and the crick's too high to ford, too."
+
+"Well, how in thunder am I to get to Crow's Cliff?"
+
+"There's another bridge four miles upstream. It's still there," said
+George Ray. Anderson Crow had scornfully washed his hands of the affair.
+
+"Confound the luck! I haven't time to drive that far. I have to be there
+at half-past twelve. I'm late now! Is there no way to get across this
+miserable creek?" He was in the buggy now, whip in hand, and his eyes
+wore an anxious expression. Some of the men vowed later that he
+positively looked frightened.
+
+"There's a foot-log high and dry, and you can walk across, but you can't
+get the horse and buggy over," said one of the men.
+
+"Well, that's just what I'll have to do. Say, Mr. Officer, suppose you
+drive me down to the creek and then bring the horse back here to a
+livery stable. I'll pay you well for it. I must get to Crow's Cliff in
+fifteen minutes."
+
+"I'm no errant-boy!" cried Anderson Crow so wrathfully that two or three
+boys snickered.
+
+"You're a darned old crank, that's what you are!" exclaimed the stranger
+angrily. Everybody gasped, and Mr. Crow staggered back against the
+hitching-rail.
+
+"See here, young man, none o' that!" he sputtered. "You can't talk that
+way to an officer of the law. I'll--"
+
+"You won't do anything, do you hear that? But if you knew who I am you'd
+be doing something blamed quick." A dozen men heard him say it, and they
+remembered it word for word.
+
+"You go scratch yourself!" retorted Anderson Crow scornfully. That was
+supposed to be a terrible challenge, but the stranger took no notice of
+it.
+
+"What am I to do with this horse and buggy?" he growled, half to
+himself. "I bought the darned thing outright up in Boggs City, just
+because the liveryman didn't know me and wouldn't let me a rig. Now I
+suppose I'll have to take the old plug down to the creek and drown him
+in order to get rid of him."
+
+Nobody remonstrated. He looked a bit dangerous with his broad shoulders
+and square jaw.
+
+"What will you give me for the outfit, horse, buggy, harness and all?
+I'll sell cheap if some one makes a quick offer." The bystanders looked
+at one another blankly, and at last the concentrated gaze fell upon the
+Pooh-Bah of the town. The case seemed to be one that called for his
+attention; truly, it did not look like public property, this astounding
+proposition.
+
+"What you so derned anxious to sell for?" demanded Anderson Crow,
+listening from a distance to see if he could detect a blemish in the
+horse's breathing gear. At a glance, the buggy looked safe enough.
+
+"I'm anxious to sell for cash," replied the stranger; and Anderson was
+floored. The boy who snickered this time had cause to regret it, for Mr.
+Crow arrested him half an hour later for carrying a bean-shooter. "I
+paid a hundred dollars for the outfit in Boggs City," went on the
+stranger nervously. "Some one make an offer--and quick! I'm in a rush!"
+
+"I'll give five dollars!" said one of the onlookers with an apologetic
+laugh. This was the match that started fire in the thrifty noddles of
+Tinkletown's best citizens. Before they knew it they were bidding
+against each other with the true "horse-swapping" instinct, and the
+offers had reached $21.25 when the stranger unceremoniously closed the
+sale by crying out, "Sold!" There is no telling how high the bids might
+have gone if he could have waited half an hour or so. Uncle Gideon Luce
+afterward said that he could have had twenty-four dollars "just as well
+as not." They were bidding up a quarter at a time, and no one seemed
+willing to drop out. The successful bidder was Anderson Crow.
+
+"You can pay me as we drive along. Jump in!" cried the stranger, looking
+at his watch with considerable agitation. "All I ask is that you drive
+me to the foot-log that crosses the creek."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The Pursuit Begins
+
+
+Fifteen minutes later Anderson Crow was parading proudly about the town.
+He had taken the stranger to the creek and had seen him scurry across
+the log to the opposite side, supplied with directions that would lead
+him to the nearest route through the swamps and timberland to Crow's
+Cliff. The stranger had Anderson's money in his pocket; but Anderson had
+a very respectable sort of driving outfit to show for it. His wife kept
+dinner for him until two o'clock, and then sent the youngest Crow out to
+tell her father that he'd have to go hungry until supper-time.
+
+It is no wonder that Anderson failed to reach home in time for the
+midday meal. He started home properly enough, but what progress could he
+make when everybody in town stopped him to inquire about the remarkable
+deal and to have a look at the purchase. Without a single dissenting
+voice, Tinkletown said Anderson had very much the "best of the bargain."
+George Ray meant all right when he said, "A fool for luck," but he was
+obliged to explain thoroughly the witticism before the proud Mr. Crow
+could consider himself appeased.
+
+It was not until he pulled up in front of the _Weekly Banner_
+establishment to tell the reporter "the news" that his equanimity
+received its first jar. He was quite proud of the deal, and, moreover,
+he enjoyed seeing his name in the paper. In the meantime almost
+everybody in Tinkletown was discussing the awful profligacy of the
+stranger. It had not occurred to anybody to wonder why he had been in
+such a hurry to reach Crow's Cliff, a wild, desolate spot down the
+river.
+
+"The hoss alone is worth fifty dollars easy," volunteered Mr. Crow
+triumphantly. The detective's badge on his inflated chest seemed to
+sparkle with glee.
+
+"Say, Anderson, isn't it a little queer that he should sell out so
+cheap?" asked Harry Squires, the local reporter and pressfeeder.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Anderson Crow sharply.
+
+"Do you think it's really true that he bought the nag up at Boggs City?"
+asked the sceptic. Mr. Crow wallowed his quid of tobacco helplessly for
+a minute or two. He could feel himself turning pale.
+
+"He said so; ain't that enough?" he managed to bluster.
+
+"It seems to have been," replied Harry, who had gone to night school in
+Albany for two years.
+
+"Well, what in thunder are you talking about then?" exclaimed Anderson
+Crow, whipping up.
+
+"I'll bet three dollars it's a stolen outfit!"
+
+"You go to Halifax!" shouted Anderson, but his heart was cold. Something
+told him that Harry Squires was right. He drove home in a state of dire
+uncertainty and distress. Somehow, his enthusiasm was gone.
+
+"Dang it!" he said, without reason, as he was unhitching the horse in
+the barn lot.
+
+"Hey, Mr. Crow!" cried a shrill voice from the street. He looked up and
+saw a small boy coming on the run.
+
+"What's up, Toby?" asked Mr. Crow, all a-tremble. He knew!
+
+"They just got a telephone from Boggs City," panted the boy, "down to
+the _Banner_ office. Harry Squires says for you to hurry down--buggy and
+all. It's been stole."
+
+"Good Lord!" gasped Anderson. His badge danced before his eyes and then
+seemed to shrivel.
+
+Quite a crowd had collected at the _Banner_ office. There was a sudden
+hush when the marshal drove up. Even the horse felt the intensity of the
+moment. He shied at a dog and then kicked over the dashboard, upsetting
+Anderson Crow's meagre dignity and almost doing the same to the vehicle.
+
+"You're a fine detective!" jeered Harry Squires; and poor old Anderson
+hated him ever afterward.
+
+"What have you heerd?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"There's been a terrible murder at Boggs City, that's all. The chief of
+police just telephoned to us that a farmer named Grover was found dead
+in a ditch just outside of town--shot through the head, his pockets
+rifled. It is known that he started to town to deposit four hundred
+dollars hog-money in the bank. The money is missing, and so are his
+horse and buggy. A young fellow was seen in the neighbourhood early this
+morning--a stranger. The chief's description corresponds with the man
+who sold that rig to you. The murderer is known to have driven in this
+direction. People saw him going almost at a gallop."
+
+It is not necessary to say that Tinkletown thoroughly turned inside out
+with excitement. The whole population was soon at the post-office, and
+everybody was trying to supply Anderson Crow with wits. He had lost his
+own.
+
+"We've got to catch that fellow," finally resolved the marshal. There
+was a dead silence.
+
+"He's got a pistol," ventured some one.
+
+"How do you know?" demanded Mr. Crow keenly. "Did y' see it?"
+
+"He couldn't ha' killed that feller 'thout a gun."
+
+"That's a fact," agreed Anderson Crow. "Well, we've got to get him,
+anyhow. I call for volunteers! Who will join me in the search?" cried
+the marshal bravely.
+
+"I hate to go to Crow's Cliff after him," said George Ray. "It's a
+lonesome place, and as dark as night 'mong them trees and rocks."
+
+"It's our duty to catch him. He's a criminal, and besides, he's killed a
+man," said Crow severely.
+
+"And he has twenty-one dollars of your money," added Harry Squires.
+"I'll go with you, Anderson. I've got a revolver."
+
+"Look out there!" roared Anderson Crow. "The blamed thing might go off!"
+he added as the reporter drew a shiny six-shooter from his pocket.
+
+The example set by one brave man had its influence on the crowd. A
+score or more volunteered, despite the objections of their wives, and it
+was not long before Anderson Crow was leading his motley band of sleuths
+down the lane to the foot-log over which the desperado had gone an hour
+before.
+
+It was at the beginning of the man-hunt that various citizens recalled
+certain actions and certain characteristics of the stranger which had
+made them suspicious from the start. His prodigal disposition of the box
+of matches impressed most of them as reckless dare-devilism; his haste,
+anxiety, and a single instance of mild profanity told others of his
+viciousness. One man was sure he had seen the stranger's watch chain in
+farmer Grover's possession; and another saw something black on his
+thumb, which he now remembered was a powder stain.
+
+"I noticed all them things," averred Anderson Crow, supreme once more.
+
+"But what in thunder did he want with those hair-pins?" inquired George
+Ray.
+
+"Never mind," said Anderson mysteriously. "You'll find out soon enough."
+
+"Do you know Anderson?" some one asked.
+
+"Of course I do," responded the marshal loftily.
+
+"Well, what were they for, then?"
+
+"I'm not givin' any clews away. You just wait a while and see if I'm not
+right."
+
+And they were satisfied that the detective knew all about it. After
+crossing the foot-log the party was divided as to which direction it
+should take. The marshal said the man had run to the southeast, but for
+some inexplicable reason quite a number of the pursuers wanted to hunt
+for him in the northwest. Finally it was decided to separate into posses
+of ten, all to converge at Crow's Cliff as soon as possible. There were
+enough double-barrelled shotguns in the party to have conquered a pirate
+crew.
+
+At the end of an hour Anderson Crow and his delegation came to the
+narrow path which led to the summit of Crow's Cliff. They were very
+brave by this time. A small boy was telling them he had seen the
+fugitive about dinner-time "right where you fellers are standin' now."
+
+"Did he have any blood on him?" demanded Anderson Crow.
+
+"No, sir; not 'less it was under his clothes."
+
+"Did he say anythin' to you?"
+
+"He ast me where this path went to."
+
+"See that, gentlemen!" cried Anderson. "I knew I was right. He wanted--"
+
+"Well, where did he go?" demanded Harry Squires.
+
+"I said it went to the top of the clift. An' then he said, 'How do you
+git to the river?' I tole him to go down this side path here an' 'round
+the bottom of the hill."
+
+"Didn't he go up the cliff?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, what in thunder did he ask me where the cliff was if he--"
+
+"So he went to the river, eh?" interrupted Squires. "Come on, men; he
+went down through this brush and bottomland."
+
+"He got lost, I guess," volunteered the boy.
+
+"What!"
+
+"'Cause he yelled at me after he'd gone in a-ways an' ast--an' ast--"
+The boy paused irresolutely.
+
+"Asked what?"
+
+"He ast me where in h---- the path was."
+
+"By ginger, that's him, right out an' out!" exclaimed Mr. Crow
+excitedly.
+
+"'Nen he said he'd give me a quarter if I'd show him the way; so I--"
+
+"Did he give you the quarter?" questioned one of the men.
+
+"Yep. He'd a roll of bills as big as my leg." Everybody gasped and
+thought of Grover's hog-money.
+
+"You went to the river with him?" interrogated the reporter.
+
+"I went as fur as the clearin', an' then he tole me to stop. He said he
+could find the way from there. After that he run up the bank as if some
+one was after him. There was a boat waitin' fer him under the clift."
+
+"Did he get into it?" cried Squires.
+
+"He tole me not to look or he'd break my neck," said the boy. The posse
+nervously fingered its arsenal.
+
+"But you _did_ look?"
+
+"Yep. I seen 'em plain."
+
+"Them? Was there more than one?"
+
+"There was a woman in the skift."
+
+"You don't say so!" gasped Squires.
+
+"Dang it, ain't he tellin' you!" Anderson ejaculated scornfully.
+
+The boy was hurried off at the head of the posse, which by this time had
+been reinforced. He led the way through the dismal thickets, telling his
+story as he went.
+
+"She was mighty purty, too," he said. "The feller waved his hat when he
+seen her, an' she waved back. He run down an' jumped in the boat, an'
+'nen--'nen--"
+
+"Then what?" exploded Anderson Crow.
+
+"He kissed her!"
+
+"The d---- murderer!" roared Crow.
+
+"He grabbed up the oars and rowed 'cross an' downstream. An' he shuck
+his fist at me when he see I'd been watchin'," said the youngster, ready
+to whimper now that he realised what a desperate character he had been
+dealing with.
+
+"Where did he land on the other side?" pursued the eager reporter.
+
+"Down by them willer trees, 'bout half a mile down. There's the skift
+tied to a saplin'. Cain't you see it?"
+
+Sure enough, the stern of a small boat stuck out into the deep, broad
+river, the bow being hidden by the bushes.
+
+"Both of 'em hurried up the hill over yender, an' that's the last I seen
+of 'em," concluded the lad.
+
+Anderson Crow and his man-hunters stared helplessly at the broad, swift
+river, and then looked at each other in despair. There was no boat in
+sight except the murderer's, and there was no bridge within ten miles.
+
+While they were growling a belated detachment of hunters came up to the
+river bank greatly agitated.
+
+"A telephone message has just come to town sayin' there would be a
+thousand dollars reward," announced one of the late arrivals; and
+instantly there was an imperative demand for boats.
+
+"There's an old raft upstream a-ways," said the boy, "but I don't know
+how many it will kerry. They use it to pole corn over from Mr.
+Knoblock's farm to them big summer places in the hills up yender."
+
+"Is it sound?" demanded Anderson Crow.
+
+"Must be or they wouldn't use it," said Squires sarcastically. "Where is
+it, kid?"
+
+The boy led the way up the river bank, the whole company trailing
+behind.
+
+"Sh! Not too loud," cautioned Anderson Crow. Fifteen minutes later a
+wobbly craft put out to sea, manned by a picked crew of determined
+citizens of Tinkletown. When they were in midstream a loud cry came from
+the bank they had left behind. Looking back, Anderson Crow saw excited
+men dashing about, most of them pointing excitedly up into the hills
+across the river. After a diligent search the eyes of the men on the
+raft saw what it was that had created such a stir at the base of Crow's
+Cliff.
+
+"There he is!" cried Anderson Crow in awed tones. There was no mistaking
+the identity of the coatless man on the hillside. A dozen men recognised
+him as the man they were after. Putting his hands to his mouth, Anderson
+Crow bellowed in tones that savoured more of fright than command:
+
+"Say!"
+
+There was no response.
+
+"Will you surrender peaceably?" called the captain of the craft.
+
+There was a moment of indecision on the part of the fugitive. He looked
+at his companion, and she shook her head--they all saw her do it.
+
+Then he shouted back his reply.
+
+[Illustration: Then he shouted back his reply]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The Culprits
+
+
+"Ship ahoy!" shouted the coatless stranger between his palms.
+
+"Surrender or we'll fill you full of lead!" called Anderson Crow.
+
+"Who are you--pirates?" responded the fugitive with a laugh that chilled
+the marrow of the men on the raft.
+
+"I'll show you who we are!" bellowed Anderson Crow. "Send her ashore,
+boys, fast. The derned scamp sha'n't escape us. Dead er alive, we must
+have him."
+
+As they poled toward the bank the woman grasped the man by the arm,
+dragging him back among the trees. It was observed by all that she was
+greatly terrified. Moreover, she was exceedingly fair to look
+upon--young, beautiful, and a most incongruous companion for the bloody
+rascal who had her in his power. The raft bumped against the reedy bank,
+and Anderson Crow was the first man ashore.
+
+"Come on, boys; follow me! See that your guns are all right! Straight up
+the hill now, an' spread out a bit so's we can surround him!" commanded
+he in a high treble.
+
+"'But supposin' he surrounds us," panted a cautious pursuer, half way up
+the hill.
+
+"That's what we've got to guard against," retorted Anderson Crow. The
+posse bravely swept up to and across the greensward; but the fox was
+gone: There was no sight or sound of him to be had. It is but just to
+say that fatigue was responsible for the deep breath that came from each
+member of the pursuing party.
+
+"Into the woods after him!" shouted Anderson Crow. "Hunt him down like a
+rat!"
+
+In the meantime a coatless young man and a most enticing young woman
+were scampering off among the oaks and underbrush, consumed by
+excitement and no small degree of apprehension.
+
+"They really seem to be in earnest about it, Jack," urged the young
+woman insistently, to offset his somewhat sarcastic comments.
+
+"How the dickens do you suppose they got onto me?" he groaned. "I
+thought the tracks were beautifully covered. No one suspected, I'm
+sure."
+
+"I told you, dear, how it would turn out," she cried in a panic-stricken
+voice.
+
+"Good heavens, Marjory, don't turn against me! It all seemed so easy and
+so sure, dear. There wasn't a breath of suspicion. What are we to do?
+I'll stop and fight the whole bunch if you'll just let go my arm."
+
+"No, you won't, Jack Barnes!" she exclaimed resolutely, her pretty blue
+eyes wide with alarm. "Didn't you hear them say they'd fill you full of
+lead? They had guns and everything. Oh, dear! oh, dear! isn't it
+horrid?"
+
+"The worst of it is they've cut us off from the river," he said
+miserably. "If I could have reached the boat ahead of them they never
+could have caught us. I could distance that old raft in a mile."
+
+"I know you could, dear," she cried, looking with frantic admiration
+upon his broad shoulders and brawny bare arms. "But it is out of the
+question now."
+
+"Never mind, sweetheart; don't let it fuss you so. It will turn out all
+right, I know it will."
+
+"Oh, I can't run any farther," she gasped despairingly.
+
+"Poor little chap! Let me carry you?"
+
+"You big ninny!"
+
+"We are at least three miles from your house, dear, and surrounded by
+deadly perils. Can you climb a tree?"
+
+"I can--but I won't!" she refused flatly, her cheeks very red.
+
+"Then I fancy we'll have to keep on in this manner. It's a confounded
+shame--the whole business. Just as I thought everything was going so
+smoothly, too. It was all arranged to a queen's taste--nothing was left
+undone. Bracken was to meet us at his uncle's boathouse down there,
+and--good heavens, there was a shot!"
+
+The sharp crack of a rifle broke upon the still, balmy air, as they say
+in the "yellow-backs," and the fugitives looked at each other with
+suddenly awakened dread.
+
+"The fools!" grated the man.
+
+"What do they mean?" cried the breathless girl, very white in the face.
+
+"They are trying to frighten us, that's all. Hang it! If I only knew the
+lay of the land. I'm completely lost, Marjory. Do you know precisely
+where we are?"
+
+"Our home is off to the north about three miles. We are almost opposite
+Crow's Cliff--the wildest part of the country. There are no houses along
+this part of the river. All of the summer houses are farther up or on
+the other side. It is too hilly here. There is a railroad off there
+about six miles. There isn't a boathouse or fisherman's hut nearer than
+two miles. Mr. Bracken keeps his boat at the point--two miles south, at
+least."
+
+"Yes; that's where we were to have gone--by boat. Hang it all! Why did
+we ever leave the boat? You can never scramble through all this brush to
+Bracken's place; it's all I can do. Look at my arms! They are scratched
+to--"
+
+"Oh, dear! It's dreadful, Jack. You poor fellow, let me--"
+
+"We haven't time, dearest. By thunder, I wouldn't have those Rubes head
+us off now for the whole county. The jays! How could they have found us
+out?"
+
+"Some one must have told."
+
+"But no one knew except the Brackens, you and I."
+
+"I'll wager my head Bracken is saying hard things for fair down the river there."
+
+"He--he--doesn't swear, Jack," she panted.
+
+[Illustration: "'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he whispered"]
+
+"Why, you are ready to drop! Can't you go a step farther? Let's stop
+here and face 'em. I'll bluff 'em out and we'll get to Bracken's some
+way. But I _won't_ give up the game! Not for a million!"
+
+"Then we can't stop. You forget I go in for gymnasium work. I'm as
+strong as anything, only I'm--I'm a bit nervous. Oh, I knew something
+would go wrong!" she wailed. They were now standing like trapped deer in
+a little thicket, listening for sounds of the hounds.
+
+"Are you sorry, dear?"
+
+"No, no! I love you, Jack, and I'll go through everything with you and
+for you. Really," she cried with a fine show of enthusiasm, "this is
+jolly good fun, isn't it? Being chased like regular bandits--"
+
+"Sh! Drop down, dear! There's somebody passing above us--hear him?"
+
+They crawled into a maze of hazel bushes with much less dignity than
+haste. Two men sped by an instant later, panting and growling.
+
+"Safe for a minute or two at least," he whispered as the crunching
+footsteps were lost to the ear. "They won't come back this way, dear."
+
+"They had guns, Jack!" she whispered, terrified.
+
+"I don't understand it, hanged if I do," he said, pulling his brows into
+a mighty scowl. "They are after us like a pack of hounds. It must mean
+something. Lord, but we seem to have stirred up a hornet's nest!"
+
+"Oh, dear, I wish we were safely at--" she paused.
+
+"At home?" he asked quickly.
+
+"At Bracken's," she finished; and if any of the pursuers had been near
+enough he might have heard the unmistakable suggestion of a kiss.
+
+"I feel better," he said, squaring his shoulders. "Now, let me think. We
+must outwit these fellows, whoever they are. By George, I remember one
+of them! That old fellow who bought the horse is with them. That's it!
+The horse is mixed up in this, I'll bet my head." They sat upon the
+ground for several minutes, he thinking deeply, she listening with her
+pretty ears intent.
+
+"I wonder if they've left anybody to guard our boat?" he said suddenly.
+"Come on, Marjory; let's investigate! By George, it would be just like
+them to leave it unprotected!"
+
+Once more they were moving cautiously through the brush, headed for the
+river. Mr. Jack Barnes, whoever he was and whatever his crime, was a
+resourceful, clever young man. He had gauged the intelligence of the
+pursuers correctly. When he peered through the brush along the river
+bank he saw the skiff in the reeds below, just as they had left it.
+There was the lunch basket, the wee bit of a steamer trunk with all its
+labels, a parasol and a small handbag.
+
+"Goody, goody!" Marjory cried like a happy child.
+
+"Don't show yourself yet, dearie. I'll make sure. They may have an
+ambuscade. Wait here for me."
+
+He crept down the bank and back again before she could fully subdue the
+tremendous thumping his temerity had started in her left side.
+
+"It's safe and sound," he whispered joyously. "The idiots have forgotten
+the boat. Quick, dear; let's make a dash for it! Their raft is upstream
+a hundred yards, and it is also deserted. If we can once get well across
+the river we can give them the laugh."
+
+"But they may shoot us from the bank," she protested as they plunged
+through the weeds.
+
+"They surely wouldn't shoot a woman!" he cried gayly.
+
+"But you are not a woman!"
+
+"And I'm not afraid of mice or men. Jump in!"
+
+Off from the weeds shot the light skiff. The water splashed for a moment
+under the spasmodic strokes of the oarsman, and then the little boat
+streaked out into the river like a thing of life. Marjory sat in the
+stern and kept her eyes upon the bank they were leaving. Jack Barnes
+drove every vestige of his strength into the stroke; somehow he pulled
+like a man who had learned how on a college crew. They were half way
+across the broad river before they were seen from the hills. The half
+dozen men who lingered at the base of Crow's Cliff had shouted the alarm
+to their friends on the other side, and the fugitives were sighted once
+more. But it was too late. The boat was well out of gunshot range and
+making rapid progress downstream in the shelter of the high bluffs below
+Crow's Cliff. Jack Barnes was dripping with perspiration, but his stroke
+was none the feebler.
+
+"They see us!" she cried.
+
+"Don't wriggle so, Marjory--trim boat!" he panted. "They can't hit us,
+and we can go two miles to their one."
+
+"And we can get to Bracken's!" she cried triumphantly. A deep flush
+overspread her pretty face.
+
+"Hooray!" he shouted with a grin of pure delight. Far away on the
+opposite bank Anderson Crow and his sleuths were congregating, their
+baffled gaze upon the man who had slipped out of their grasp. The men
+of the posse were pointing at the boat and arguing frantically; there
+were decided signs of dispute among them. Finally two guns flew up, and
+then came the puffs of smoke, the reports and little splashes of water
+near the flying skiff.
+
+"Oh, they are shooting!" she cried in a panic.
+
+"And rifles, too," he grated, redoubling his pull on the oars. Other
+shots followed, all falling short. "Get down in the bottom of the boat,
+Marjory. Don't sit up there and be--"
+
+"I'll sit right where I am," she cried defiantly.
+
+Anderson Crow waved to the men under Crow's Cliff, and they began to
+make their arduous way along the bank in the trail of the skiff. Part of
+the armed posse hurried down and boarded the raft, while others followed
+the chase by land.
+
+"We'll beat them to Bracken's by a mile," cried Jack Barnes.
+
+"If they don't shoot us," she responded. "Why, oh, why are they so
+intent upon killing us?"
+
+"They don't want you to be a widow and--break a--lot of hearts," he
+said. "If they--hit me now you--won't be--dangerous as a--widow."
+
+"Oh, you heartless thing! How can you jest about it? I'd--I'd go into
+mourning, anyway, Jack," she concluded, on second thought. "We are just
+as good as married, you see."
+
+"It's nice--of you to say it, dear--but we're a long--way
+from--Bracken's. Gee! That was close!"
+
+A bullet splashed in the water not ten feet from the boat. "The cowards!
+They're actually trying to kill us!" For the first time his face took
+on a look of alarm and his eyes grew desperate. "I can't let them shoot
+at you, Marjory, dear! What the dickens they want I don't know, but I'm
+going to surrender." He had stopped rowing and was making ready to wave
+his white handkerchief on high.
+
+"Never!" she cried with blazing eyes. "Give me the oars!" She slid into
+the other rowing seat and tried to snatch the oars from the rowlocks.
+
+"Bravo! I could kiss you a thousand times for that. Come on, you
+Indians! You're a darling, Marjory." Again the oars caught the water,
+and Jack Barnes's white handkerchief lay in the bottom of the boat. He
+was rowing for dear life, and there was a smile on his face.
+
+The raft was left far behind and the marksmen were put out of range with
+surprising ease. Fifteen minutes later the skiff shot across the river
+and up to the landing of Bracken's boathouse, while a mile back in the
+brush Anderson Crow and his men were wrathfully scrambling in pursuit.
+
+"Hey, Bracken! Jimmy!" shouted Jack Barnes, jumping out upon the little
+wharf. Marjory gave him her hands and was whisked ashore and into his
+arms. "Run into the boathouse, dear. I'll yank this stuff ashore. Where
+the dickens is Bracken?"
+
+The boathouse door opened slowly and a sleepy young man looked forth.
+
+"I thought you'd never come," he yawned.
+
+"Wake up, you old loafer! We're here and we are pursued! Where are
+George and Amy?" cried Mr. Barnes, doing herculean duty as a baggage
+smasher.
+
+"Pursued?" cried the sleepy young man, suddenly awake.
+
+"Yes, and shot at!" cried Marjory, running past him and into the arms of
+a handsome young woman who was emerging from the house.
+
+"We've no time to lose, Jimmy! They are on to us, Heaven knows how. They
+are not more than ten minutes behind us. Get it over with, Jimmy, for
+Heaven's sake! Here, George, grab this trunk!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Anderson Rectifies an Error
+
+
+In a jiffy the fugitives and their property were transferred to the
+interior of the roomy boathouse, the doors bolted, and George Crosby
+stationed at a window to act as lookout.
+
+"Is it your father?" demanded the Rev. James Bracken, turning to
+Marjory. Young Mrs. Crosby was looking on eagerly.
+
+"Mr. Brewster is at home and totally oblivious to all this," cried Jack
+Barnes. "I don't know what it means. Here's the license, Jimmy. Are you
+ready, Marjory?"
+
+"This is rather a squeamish business, Jack--" began the young minister
+in the negligée shirt. He was pulling on his coat as he made the remark.
+
+"Oh, hurry, Jimmy; please hurry!" cried Marjory Brewster.
+
+"Don't wait a second, Jimmy Bracken!" cried Amy Crosby, dancing with
+excitement. "You can't go back on them now!"
+
+Three minutes later there was no Marjory Brewster, but there was a Mrs.
+John Ethelbert Barnes--and she was kissing her husband rapturously.
+
+"Now, tell us everything," cried Mrs. Crosby after the frantic
+congratulations. The Reverend "Jimmy" Bracken, of the Eleventh
+Presbyterian Church, was the only one who seemed uncertain as to his
+position. In the first place, old Judge Brewster was a man of influence
+in the metropolis, from which all had fled for a sojourn in the hills.
+He and his daughter were Episcopalians, but that made them none the less
+important in the eyes of "Jimmy" Bracken. In the second place, Jack
+Barnes was a struggling lawyer, in the Year of our Lord 1880, and
+possessed of objectionable poverty. The young men had been room-mates at
+college. Friendship had overcome discretion in this instance, at least.
+The deed being done, young Mr. Bracken was beginning to wonder if it had
+not been overdone, so to speak.
+
+"I wish somebody would tell me!" exclaimed Jack Barnes, with a perplexed
+frown. "The beastly jays shot at us and all that. You'd think I was an
+outlaw. And they blazed away at Marjory, too, hang them!"
+
+Marjory, too excited to act like a blushing bride, took up the story and
+told all that had happened. George Crosby became so interested that he
+forgot to keep guard.
+
+"This is a funny mess!" he exclaimed. "There's something wrong--"
+
+"Hey, you!" came a shout from the outside.
+
+"There they are!" cried Marjory, flying to her husband's side. "What are
+we to do?"
+
+"You mean, what are they to do? We're married, and they can't get around
+that, you know. Let 'em come!" cried the groom exultantly. "You don't
+regret it, do you, sweetheart?" quite anxiously. She smiled up into his
+eyes, and he felt very secure.
+
+"What do you fellows want?" demanded Crosby from the window. Anderson
+Crow was standing on the river bank like a true Napoleon, flanked by
+three trusty riflemen.
+
+"Who air you?" asked Anderson in return. He was panting heavily, and his
+legs trembled.
+
+"None of your business! Get off these grounds at once; they're private!"
+
+"None o' your sass, now, young man; I'm an officer of the law, an' a
+detective to boot! We sha'n't stand any nonsense. The place is
+surrounded and he can't escape! Where is he?"
+
+"That's for you to find out if you're such a good detective! This is
+David Bracken's place, and you can find him at his home on the hilltop
+yonder!"
+
+"Ask him what we've done, George," whispered Barnes.
+
+"We ain't after Mr. Bracken, young feller, but you know what we _do_
+want! He's in there--you're shielding him--we won't parley much longer!
+Send him out!" said Anderson Crow.
+
+"If you come a foot nearer you'll get shot into the middle of kingdom
+come!" shouted Crosby defiantly.
+
+The inmates gasped, for there was not a firearm on the place.
+
+"Be careful!" warned the Reverend "Jimmy" nervously.
+
+"Goin' to resist, eh? Well, we'll get him; don't you worry; an' that
+ornery female o' hisn', too!"
+
+"Did you hear that?" exclaimed Jack Barnes. "Let me get at the old rat."
+He was making for the door when the two women obstructed the way. Both
+were frantic with fear.
+
+"But he called you a female!" roared he.
+
+"Well, I _am_!" she wailed miserably.
+
+"Who is it you want?" asked Crosby from the window.
+
+"That's all right," roared Anderson Crow; "purduce him at once!"
+
+"Is this the fellow?" and Crosby dragged the Reverend "Jimmy" into view.
+There was a moment's inspection of the cadaverous face, and then the
+sleuths shook their heads.
+
+"Not on your life!" said Mr. Crow. "But he's in there--Ike Smalley seen
+him an' his paramount go up the steps from the landin'! 'Twon't do no
+good to hide him, young feller; he's--"
+
+"Well, let me tell you something. You are too late--they're married!"
+cried Crosby triumphantly.
+
+"I don't give a cuss if they're married and have sixteen children!"
+shouted the exasperated Crow, his badge fairly dancing. "He's got to
+surrender!"
+
+"Oh, he does, eh?"
+
+"Yes, sir-ee-o-bob; he's got to give up, dead or alive! Trot him out
+lively, now!"
+
+"I don't mind telling you that Mr. Barnes is here; but I'd like to know
+why you're hunting him down like a wild beast, shooting at him and
+Miss--I mean Mrs. Barnes. It's an outrage!"
+
+"Oh, we ain't the on'y people that can kill and slaughter! She's just
+as bad as he is, for that matter--an' so are you and that other
+lantern-jawed outlaw in there." The Reverend "Jimmy" gasped and turned a
+fiery red.
+
+"Did he call me a--say!" and he pushed Crosby aside. "I'd have you to
+understand that I'm a minister of the gospel--I am the Reverend James
+Bracken, of--"
+
+A roar of laughter greeted his attempt to explain; and there were a few
+remarks so uncomplimentary that the man of cloth sank back in sheer
+hopelessness.
+
+"Well, I'll give them reason to think that I'm something of a
+desperado," grated the Reverend "Jimmy," squaring his shoulders. "If
+they attempt to put foot inside my uncle's house I'll--I'll smash a few
+heads."
+
+"Bravo!" cried Mrs. Crosby. She was his cousin, and up to that time had
+had small regard for her mild-mannered relative.
+
+"He can preach the funeral!" shouted Ike Smalley. By this time there
+were a dozen men on the bank below.
+
+"I give you fair warning," cried Anderson Crow impressively. "We're
+goin' to surround the house, an' we'll take that rascal if we have to
+shoot the boards into sawdust!"
+
+"But what has he done, except to get married?" called Crosby as the
+posse began to spread out.
+
+"Do you s'pose I'm fool enough to tell you if you don't know?" said
+Anderson Crow. "Just as like as not you'd be claimin' the thousand
+dollars reward if you knowed it had been offered! Spread out, boys, an'
+we'll show 'em dern quick!"
+
+There was dead silence inside the house for a full minute. Every eye was
+wide and every mouth was open in surprise and consternation.
+
+"A thousand dollars reward!" gasped Jack Barnes. "Then, good Lord, I
+_must_ have done something!"
+
+"What _have_ you been doing, Jack Barnes?" cried his bride, aghast.
+
+"I must have robbed a train," said he dejectedly.
+
+"Well, this is serious, after all," said Crosby. "It's not an eloper
+they're after, but a desperado."
+
+"A kidnaper, perhaps," suggested his wife.
+
+"What are we to do?" demanded Jack Barnes.
+
+"First, old man, what have you actually done?" asked the Reverend
+"Jimmy."
+
+"Nothing that's worth a thousand dollars, I'm dead sure," said Barnes
+positively. "By George, Marjory, this is a nice mess I've led you into!"
+
+"It's all right, Jack; I'm happier than I ever was before in my life. We
+ran away to get married, and I'll go to jail with you if they'll take
+me."
+
+"This is no time for kissing," objected Crosby sourly. "We must find out
+what it all means. Leave it to me."
+
+It was getting dark in the room, and the shadows were heavy on the
+hills. While the remaining members of the besieged party sat silent and
+depressed upon the casks and boxes, Crosby stood at the window calling
+to the enemy.
+
+"Is he ready to surrender?" thundered Anderson Crow from the shadows.
+
+Then followed a brief and entirely unsatisfactory dialogue between the
+two spokesmen. Anderson Crow was firm in his decision that the fugitive
+did not have to be told what he had done; and George Crosby was equally
+insistent that he had to be told before he could decide whether he was
+guilty or innocent.
+
+"We'll starve him out!" said Anderson Crow.
+
+"But there are ladies here, my good man; you won't subject them to such
+treatment!"
+
+"You're all of a kind--we're going to take the whole bunch!"
+
+"What do you think will happen to you if you are mistaken in your man?"
+
+"We're not mistaken, dang ye!"
+
+"He could sue you for every dollar you possess. I know, for I'm a
+lawyer!"
+
+"Now, I'm sure you're in the job with him. I s'pose you'll try to work
+in the insanity dodge! It's a nest of thieves and robbers! Say, I'll
+give you five minutes to surrender; if you don't, we'll set fire to the
+derned shanty!"
+
+"Look here, boys," said Jack Barnes suddenly, "I've done nothing and am
+not afraid to be arrested. I'm going to give myself up." Of course there
+was a storm of protest and a flow of tears, but the culprit was firm.
+"Tell the old fossil that if he'll guarantee safety to me I'll give up!"
+
+Anderson was almost too quick in promising protection.
+
+"Ask him if he will surrender and make a confession to me--I am Anderson
+Crow, sir!" was the marshal's tactful suggestion.
+
+"He'll do both, Mr. Crow!" replied Crosby.
+
+"We've got to take the whole bunch of you, young man. You're all guilty
+of conspiracy, the whole caboodle!"
+
+"But the ladies, you darned old Rube--they can't--"
+
+"Looky here, young feller, you can't dictate to me. I'll have you to--"
+
+"We'll all go!" cried Mrs. Crosby warmly.
+
+"To the very end!" added the new Mrs. Barnes.
+
+"What will your father say?" demanded the groom.
+
+"He'll disown me anyway, dear, so what's the difference?"
+
+"It's rather annoying for a minister--" began the Reverend "Jimmy,"
+putting on his hat.
+
+"We'll beg off for you!" cried Mrs. Crosby ironically.
+
+"But I'm going to jail, too," finished he grimly.
+
+"All right," called Crosby from the window; "here we come!"
+
+And forth marched the desperate quintet, three strapping young men and
+two very pretty and nervous young women. They were met by Anderson Crow
+and a dozen armed men from Tinkletown, every one of them shaking in his
+boots. The irrepressible Mrs. Crosby said "Boo!" suddenly, and half the
+posse jumped as though some one had thrown a bomb at them.
+
+"Now, I demand an explanation of this outrage," said Jack Barnes
+savagely. "What do you mean by shooting at me and my--my wife and
+arresting us, and all that?"
+
+"You'll find out soon enough when you're strung up fer it," snarled
+Anderson Crow. "An' you'll please hand over that money I paid fer the
+hoss and buggy. I'll learn you how to sell stolen property to me."
+
+"Oh, I'm a horse-thief, am I? This is rich. And they'll string me up,
+eh? Next thing you'll be accusing me of killing that farmer up near
+Boggs City."
+
+"Well, by gosh! you're a cool one!" ejaculated Anderson Crow. "I s'pose
+you're goin' ter try the insanity dodge."
+
+"It's lucky for me that they caught him," said Barnes as the herd of
+prisoners moved off toward the string of boats tied to Mr. Bracken's
+wharf.
+
+"Come off!" exclaimed Squires, the reporter, scornfully. "We're onto
+you, all right, all right."
+
+"What! Do you think I'm the man who--well, holy mackerel! Say, you
+gravestones, don't you ever hear any news out here? Wake up! They caught
+the murderer at Billsport, not more than five miles from your jay burg.
+I was driving through the town when they brought him in. That's what
+made me late, dear," turning to Marjory.
+
+"Yes, and I'll bet my soul that here comes some one with the news,"
+cried George Crosby, who had heard nothing of the tragedy until this
+instant.
+
+A rowboat containing three men was making for the landing. Somehow,
+Anderson Crow and his posse felt the ground sinking beneath them. Not a
+man uttered a sound until one of the newcomers called out from the boat:
+
+"Is Anderson Crow there?"
+
+"Yes, sir; what is it?" demanded Crow in a wobbly voice.
+
+"Your wife wants to know when in thunder you're comin' home." By this
+time the skiff was bumping against the landing.
+
+"You tell her to go to Halifax!" retorted Anderson Crow. "Is that all
+you want?"
+
+"They nabbed that murderer up to Billsport long 'bout 'leven o'clock,"
+said Alf Reesling, the town drunkard. "We thought we'd row down and tell
+you so's you wouldn't be huntin' all night for the feller who--hello,
+you got him, eh?"
+
+"Are you fellers lyin'?" cried poor Anderson Crow.
+
+"Not on your life. We knowed about the captcher over in town just about
+half an hour after you started 'cross the river this afternoon."
+
+"You--four hours ago? You--you--" sputtered the marshal. "An' why didn't
+you let us know afore this?"
+
+"There was a game o' baseball in Hasty's lot, an'--" began one of the
+newcomers sheepishly.
+
+"Well, I'll be gosh-whizzled!" gasped Anderson Crow, sitting down
+suddenly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour and a half later Mr. and Mrs. John Ethelbert Barnes were driven
+up to Judge Brewster's country place in Mr. David Bracken's brake. They
+were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. George Crosby, and were carrying out
+the plans as outlined in the original programme.
+
+"Where's papa?" Marjory tremulously inquired of the footman in the
+hallway.
+
+"He's waitin' for you in the library, miss--I should say Mrs. Barnes,"
+replied the man, a trace of excitement in his face.
+
+"Mrs. Barnes!" exclaimed four voices at once.
+
+"Who told you, William?" cried Marjory, leaning upon Jack for support.
+
+"A Mr. Anderson Crow was here not half an hour ago, ma'am, to assure Mr.
+Brewster as to how his new son-in-law was in nowise connected with the
+murder up the way. He said as how he had personally investigated the
+case, miss--ma'am, and Mr. Brewster could rely on his word for it, Mr.
+Jack was not the man. He told him as how you was married at the
+boathouse."
+
+"Yes--and then?" cried Marjory eagerly.
+
+"Mr. Brewster said that Mr. Jack wasn't born to be hanged, and for me to
+have an extry plate laid at the table for him to-night," concluded
+William with an expressive grin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The Babe on the Doorstep
+
+
+It was midnight in Tinkletown, many months after the events mentioned in
+the foregoing chapters, and a blizzard was raging. The February wind
+rasped through the bare trees, shrieked around the corners of lightless
+houses and whipped its way through the scurrying snow with all the rage
+of a lion. The snow, on account of the bitter cold in the air, did not
+fly in big flakes, but whizzed like tiny bullets, cutting the flesh of
+men and beasts like the sting of wasps. It was a good night to be
+indoors over a roaring fire or in bed between extra blankets. No one,
+unless commanded by emergency, had the temerity to be abroad that night.
+
+The Crow family snoozed comfortably in spite of the calliope shrieks of
+the wind. The home of the town marshal was blanketed in peace and the
+wind had no terrors for its occupants. They slept the sleep of the
+toasted. The windows may have rattled a bit, perhaps, and the shutters
+may have banged a trifle too remorselessly, but the Crows were not to be
+disturbed.
+
+The big, old-fashioned clock in the hall downstairs was striking twelve
+when Anderson Crow awoke with a start. He was amazed, for to awake in
+the middle of the night was an unheard-of proceeding for him. He caught
+the clang of the last five strokes from the clock, however, and was
+comforting himself with the belief that it was five o'clock, after all,
+when his wife stirred nervously.
+
+"Are you awake, Anderson?" she asked softly.
+
+"Yes, Eva, and it's about time to get up. It jest struck five. Doggone,
+it's been blowin' cats and dogs outside, ain't it?" he yawned.
+
+"Five? It's twelve-now, don't tell me you counted the strokes, because I
+did myself. Ain't it queer we should both git awake at this unearthly
+hour?"
+
+"Well," murmured he sleepily now that it was not five o'clock, "it's a
+mighty good hour to go back to sleep ag'in, I reckon."
+
+"I thought I heard a noise outside," she persisted.
+
+"I don't blame you," he said, chuckling. "It's been out there all
+night."
+
+"I mean something besides the wind. Sounded like some one walkin' on the
+front porch."
+
+"Now, look here, Eva, you ain't goin' to git me out there in this
+blizzard--in my stockin' feet--lookin' fer robbers--"
+
+"Just the same, Anderson, I'm sure I heard some one. Mebby it's some
+poor creature freezin' an' in distress. If I was you, I'd go and look
+out there. Please do."
+
+"Doggone, Eva, if you was me you'd be asleep instid of huntin' up
+trouble on a night like this. They ain't nothin' down there an'
+you--but, by cracky! mebby you're right. Supposin' there is some poor
+cuss out there huntin' a place to sleep. I'll go and look;" and Mr.
+Crow, the most tender-hearted man in the world, crawled shiveringly but
+quickly from the warm bed. In his stocking feet--Anderson slept in his
+socks on those bitter nights--he made his way down the front stairs,
+grumbling but determined. Mrs. Crow followed close behind, anxious to
+verify the claim that routed him from his nest.
+
+"It may be a robber," she chattered, as he pulled aside a front window
+curtain. Anderson drew back hastily.
+
+"Well, why in thunder didn't you say so before?" he gasped. "Doggone,
+Eva, that's no way to do! He might 'a' fired through the winder at me."
+
+"But he's in the house by this time, if it was a robber," she
+whispered. "He wouldn't stand out on the porch all night."
+
+"That's right," he whispered in reply. "You're a good deducer, after
+all. I wish I had my dark lantern. Thunderation!" He stubbed his toe
+against the sewing machine. There is nothing that hurts more than
+unintentional contact with a sewing machine. "Why in sixty don't you
+light a light, Eva? How can I--"
+
+"Listen!" she whispered shrilly. "Hear that? Anderson, there's some one
+walkin' on the porch!"
+
+"'y gosh!" faltered he. "Sure as Christmas! You wait here, Eva, till I
+go upstairs an' put on my badge and I'll--"
+
+"I'll do nothing of the kind. You don't ketch me stayin' down here
+alone," and she grabbed the back of his nightshirt as he started for the
+stairs.
+
+"Sho! What air you afeerd of? I'll get my revolver, too. I never did see
+such a coward'y calf as--"
+
+Just then there was a tremendous pounding on the front door, followed by
+the creaking of footsteps on the frozen porch, a clatter down the steps,
+and then the same old howling of the wind. The Crows jumped almost out
+of their scanty garments, and then settled down as if frozen to the
+spot. It was a full minute before Anderson found his voice--in advance
+of Mrs. Crow at that, which was more than marvellous.
+
+"What was that?" he chattered.
+
+"A knock!" she gasped.
+
+"Some neighbour's sick."
+
+"Old Mrs. Luce. Oh, goodness, how my heart's going!"
+
+"Why don't you open the door, Eva?"
+
+"Why don't you? It's your place."
+
+"But, doggone it, cain't you see--I mean feel--that I ain't got hardly
+any clothes on? I'd ketch my death o' cold, an' besides--"
+
+"Well, I ain't got as much on as you have. You got socks on an'--"
+
+"But supposin' it's a woman," protested he. "You wouldn't want a woman
+to see me lookin' like this, would you? Go ahead an'--"
+
+"I suppose you'd like to have a man see me like this. I ain't used to
+receivin' men in--but, say, whoever it was, is gone. Didn't you hear the
+steps? Open the door, Anderson. See what it is."
+
+And so, after much urging, Anderson Crow unbolted his front door and
+turned the knob. The wind did the rest. It almost blew the door off its
+hinges, carrying Mr. and Mrs. Crow back against the wall. A gale of snow
+swept over them.
+
+"Gee!" gasped Anderson, crimping his toes. Mrs. Crow was peering under
+his arm.
+
+"Look there!" she cried. Close to the door a large bundle was lying.
+
+"A present from some one!" speculated Mr. Crow; but some seconds passed
+before he stooped to pick it up. "Funny time fer Santy to be callin'
+'round. Wonder if he thinks it's next Christmas."
+
+"Be careful, Anderson; mebby it's an infernal machine!" cried his wife.
+
+"Well, it's loaded, 'y ginger," he grunted as straightened up in the
+face of the gale. "Shut the door, Eva! Cain't you see it's snowin'?"
+
+"I'll bet it was Joe Ramsey leavin' a sack o' hickor' nuts fer us," she
+said eagerly, slamming the door.
+
+"You better bolt the door. He might change his mind an' come back fer
+'em," observed her husband. "It don't feel like hickor' nuts. Why, Eva,
+it's a baskit--a reg'lar clothes baskit. What in thunder do--"
+
+"Let's get a light out by the kitchen fire. It's too cold in here."
+
+Together they sped to the kitchen with the mysterious offering from the
+blizzard. There was a fire in the stove, which Anderson replenished,
+while Eva began to remove the blankets and packing from the basket,
+which she had placed on the hearth. Anderson looked on eagerly.
+
+"Lord!" fell from the lips of both as the contents of the basket were
+exposed to their gaze.
+
+A baby, alive and warm, lay packed in the blankets, sound asleep and
+happy. For an interminable length of time the Crows, _en dishabille_,
+stood and gazed open-mouthed and awed at the little stranger. Ten
+minutes later, after the ejaculations and surmises, after the tears and
+expletives, after the whole house had been aroused, Anderson Crow was
+plunging amiably but aimlessly through the snowstorm in search of the
+heartless wretch who had deposited the infant on his doorstep. His top
+boots scuttled up and down the street, through yards and barn lots for
+an hour, but despite the fact that he carried his dark lantern and
+trailed like an Indian bloodhound, he found no trace of the wanton
+visitor. In the meantime, Mrs. Crow, assisted by the entire family, had
+stowed the infant, a six-weeks-old girl, into a warm bed, ministering to
+the best of her ability to its meagre but vociferous wants. There was no
+more sleep in the Crow establishment that night. The head of the house
+roused a half dozen neighbours from their beds to tell them of the
+astounding occurrence, with the perfectly natural result that one and
+all hurried over to see the baby and to hear the particulars.
+
+Early next morning Tinkletown wagged with an excitement so violent that
+it threatened to end in a municipal convulsion. Anderson Crow's home was
+besieged. The snow in his front yard was packed to an icy consistency by
+the myriad of footprints that fell upon it; the interior of the house
+was "tracked" with mud and slush and three window panes were broken by
+the noses of curious but unwelcome spectators. Altogether, it was a
+sensation unequalled in the history of the village. Through it all the
+baby blinked and wept and cooed in perfect peace, guarded by Mrs. Crow
+and the faithful progeny who had been left by the stork, and not by a
+mysterious stranger.
+
+The missionary societies wanted to do something heroic, but Mrs. Crow
+headed them off; the sewing circle got ready to take charge of affairs,
+but Mrs. Crow punctured the project; figuratively, the churches ached
+for a chance to handle the infant, but Mrs. Crow stood between. And all
+Tinkletown called upon Anderson Crow to solve the mystery before it was
+a day older.
+
+"It's purty hard to solve a mystery that's got six weeks' start o' me,"
+said Anderson despairingly, "but I'll try, you bet. The doggone thing's
+got a parent or two somewhere in the universe, an' I'll locate 'em er
+explode somethin'. I've got a private opinion about it myself."
+
+Whatever this private opinion might have been, it was not divulged.
+Possibly something in connection with it might have accounted for the
+temporary annoyance felt by nearly every respectable woman in
+Tinkletown. The marshal eyed each and every one of them, irrespective of
+position, condition or age, with a gleam so accusing that the Godliest
+of them flushed and then turned cold. So knowing were these equitable
+looks that before night every woman in the village was constrained to
+believe the worst of her neighbour, and almost as ready to look with
+suspicion upon herself.
+
+One thing was certain--business was at a standstill in Tinkletown. The
+old men forgot their chess and checker games at the corner store; young
+men neglected their love affairs; women forgot to talk about each other;
+children froze their ears rather than miss any of the talk that went
+about the wintry streets; everybody was asking the question, "Whose baby
+is it?"
+
+But the greatest sensation of all came late in the day when Mrs. Crow,
+in going over the garments worn by the babe, found a note addressed to
+Anderson Crow. It was stitched to the baby's dress, and proved beyond
+question that the strange visitor of the night before had selected not
+only the house, but the individual. The note was to the point. It said:
+
+     "February 18, 1883.
+
+     "ANDERSON CROW: To your good and merciful care an unhappy creature
+     consigns this helpless though well-beloved babe. All the world
+     knows you to be a tender, loving, unselfish man and father. The
+     writer humbly, prayerfully implores you to care for this babe as
+     you would for one of your own. It is best that her origin be kept a
+     secret. Care for her, cherish her as your own, and at the end of
+     each year the sum of a thousand dollars will be paid to you as long
+     as she lives in your household as a member thereof. Do not seek to
+     find her parents. It would be a fool's errand. May God bless you
+     and yours, and may God care for and protect Rosalie--the name she
+     shall bear."
+
+Obviously, there was no signature and absolutely no clew to the identity
+of the writer. Two telegraph line repairers who had been working near
+Crow's house during the night, repairing damage done by the blizzard,
+gave out the news that they had seen a cloaked and mysterious-looking
+woman standing near the Methodist Church just before midnight, evidently
+disregarding the rage of the storm. The sight was so unusual that the
+men paused and gazed at her for several minutes. One of them was about
+to approach her when she turned and fled down the side street near by.
+
+"Was she carryin' a big bundle?" asked Anderson Crow.
+
+The men replied in the negative.
+
+"Then she couldn't have been the party wanted. The one we're after
+certainly had a big bundle."
+
+"But, Mr. Crow, isn't it possible that these men saw her after she left
+the basket at--" began the Presbyterian minister.
+
+"That ain't the way I deduce it," observed the town detective tartly.
+"In the first place, she wouldn't 'a' been standin' 'round like that if
+the job was over, would she? Wouldn't she 'a' been streakin' out fer
+home? 'Course she would."
+
+"She may have paused near the church to see whether you took the child
+in," persisted the divine.
+
+"But she couldn't have saw my porch from the back end of the church."
+
+"Nobody said she was standing back of the church," said the lineman.
+
+"What's that? You don't mean it?" cried Anderson, pulling out of a
+difficulty bravely. "That makes all the difference in the world. Why
+didn't you say she was in front of the church? Cain't you see we've
+wasted time here jest because you didn't have sense 'nough to--"
+
+"Anybody ought to know it 'thout being told, you old Rube," growled the
+lineman, who was from Boggs City.
+
+"Here, now, sir, that will do you! I won't 'low no man to--"
+
+"Anderson, be quiet!" cautioned Mrs. Crow. "You'll wake the baby!" This
+started a new train of thought in Anderson's perplexed mind.
+
+"Mebby she was waitin' there while some one--her husband, fer
+instance--was leavin' the baskit," volunteered Isaac Porter humbly.
+
+"Don't bother me, Ike; I'm thinkin' of somethin' else," muttered
+Anderson. "Husband nothin'! Do you s'pose she'd 'a' trusted that baby
+with a fool husband on a terrible night like that? Ladies and gentlemen,
+this here baby was left by a _female_ resident of this very town." His
+hearers gasped and looked at him wide-eyed. "If she has a husband, he
+don't know he's the father of this here baby. Don't you see that a woman
+couldn't 'a' carried a heavy baskit any great distance? She couldn't 'a'
+packed it from Boggs City er New York er Baltimore, could she? She
+wouldn't 'a' been strong enough. No, siree; she didn't have far to come,
+folks. An' she was a woman, 'cause ain't all typewritin' done by women?
+You don't hear of men typewriters, do you? People wouldn't have 'em.
+Now, the thing fer me to do first is to make a house-to-house search to
+see if I c'n locate a typewritin' machine anywheres. Get out of the way,
+Toby. Doggone you boys, anyhow, cain't you see I want ter get started on
+this job?"
+
+"Say, Anderson," said Harry Squires, the reporter, "I'd like to ask if
+there is any one in Tinkletown, male or female, who can afford to pay
+you a thousand dollars a year for taking care of that kid?"
+
+"What's that?" slowly oozed from Anderson's lips.
+
+"You heard what I said. Say, don't you know you can bring up a kid in
+this town for eleven or twelve dollars a year?"
+
+"You don't know what you're talkin' about," burst from Anderson's
+indignant lips, but he found instant excuse to retire from the circle of
+speculators. A few minutes later he and his wife were surreptitiously
+re-reading the note, both filled with the fear that it said $10.00
+instead of $1000.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Reflection and Deduction
+
+
+"By gum, it does say a thousand," cried Anderson, mightily relieved.
+"Harry Squires is a fool. He said jest now that it could be did fer
+eleven or twelve dollars. Don't you suppose, Eva, that the mother of
+this here child knows what it costs to bring 'em up? Of course she does.
+When I find her I'll prove it by her own lips that she knows. But don't
+bother me any more, Eva; I got to git out an' track her down. This is
+the greatest job I've had in years."
+
+"See here, Anderson," said his wife thoughtfully and somewhat
+stealthily, "let's go slow about this thing. What do you want to find
+her for?"
+
+"Why--why, doggone it, Eva, what air you talkin' about?" began he in
+amazement.
+
+"Well, it's just this way: I don't think we can earn a thousand dollars
+a year easier than takin' care of this child. Don't you see? Suppose we
+keep her fer twenty years. That means twenty thousand dollars, don't it?
+It beats a pension all to pieces."
+
+"Well, by ginger!" gasped Anderson, vaguely comprehending. "Fifty years
+would mean fifty thousand dollars, wouldn't it. Gee whiz, Eva!"
+
+"I don't imagine we can keep her that long."
+
+"No," reflectively; "the chances are she'd want ter git married inside
+of that time. They always--
+
+"'Tain't that, Anderson. You an' me'd have to live to be more'n a
+hundred years old."
+
+"That's so. We ain't spring chickens, are we, deary?"
+
+She put her hard, bony hand in his and there was a suspicion of moisture
+in the kindly old eyes.
+
+"I love to hear you call me 'deary,' Anderson. We never get too old for
+that."
+
+He coughed and then patted her hand rather confusedly. Anderson had long
+since forgotten the meaning of sentiment, but he was surprised to find
+that he had not forgotten how to love his wife.
+
+"Shucks!" he muttered bravely. "We'll be kissin' like a couple of young
+jay birds first thing we know. Doggone if it ain't funny how a baby,
+even if it is some one else's, kinder makes a feller foolisher'n he
+intends to be." Hand in hand they watched the sleeping innocent for
+several minutes. Finally the detective shook himself and spoke:
+
+"Well, Eva, I got to make a bluff at findin' out whose baby it is, ain't
+I? My reputation's at stake. I jest have to investigate."
+
+"I don't see that any harm can come from that, Anderson," she replied,
+and neither appreciated the sarcasm unintentionally involved.
+
+"I won't waste another minute," he announced promptly. "I will stick to
+my theory that the parents live in Tinkletown."
+
+"Fiddlesticks!" snorted Mrs. Crow disgustedly, and then left him to
+cultivate the choleric anger her exclamation had inspired.
+
+"Doggone, I wish I hadn't patted her hand," he lamented. "She didn't
+deserve it. Consarn it, a woman's always doin' something to spoil
+things."
+
+And so he fared forth with his badges and stars, bent on duty, but not
+accomplishment. All the town soon knew that he was following a clew, but
+all the town was at sea concerning its character, origin, and
+plausibility. A dozen persons saw him stop young Mrs. Perkins in front
+of Lamson's store, and the same spectators saw his feathers droop as she
+let loose her wrath upon his head and went away with her nose in the air
+and her cheeks far more scarlet than when Boreas kissed them, and all in
+response to a single remark volunteered by the faithful detective. He
+entered Lamson's store a moment later, singularly abashed and red in the
+face.
+
+"Doggone," he observed, seeing that an explanation was expected, "she
+might 'a' knowed I was only foolin'."
+
+A few minutes later he had Alf Reesling, the town sot, in a far corner
+of the store talking to him in a most peremptory fashion. It may be well
+to mention that Alf had so far forgotten himself as to laugh at the
+marshal's temporary discomfiture at the hands of Mrs. Perkins.
+
+"Alf, have you been havin' another baby up to your house without lettin'
+me know?" demanded Anderson firmly.
+
+"Anderson," replied Alf, maudlin tears starting in his eyes, "it's not
+kind of you to rake up my feelin's like this. You know I been a widower
+fer three years."
+
+"I want you to understand one thing, Alf Reesling. A detective never
+_knows_ anything till he proves it. Let me warn you, sir, you are under
+suspicion. An' now, let me tell you one thing more. Doggone your ornery
+hide, don't you ever laugh ag'in like you did jest now er I'll--"
+
+Just then the door flew open with a bang and Edna Crow, Anderson's
+eldest, almost flopped into the store, her cap in her hand, eyes
+starting from her head. She had run at top speed all the way from home.
+
+"Pop," she gasped. "Ma says fer you to hurry home! She says fer you to
+_run_!"
+
+Anderson covered the distance between Lamson's store and his own home in
+record time. Indeed, Edna, flying as fast as her slim legs could
+twinkle, barely beat her father to the front porch. It was quite clear
+to Mr. Crow that something unusual had happened or Mrs. Crow would not
+have summoned him so peremptorily.
+
+She was in the hallway downstairs awaiting his arrival, visibly
+agitated. Before uttering a word she dragged him into the little
+sitting-room and closed the door. They were alone.
+
+"Is it dead?" he panted.
+
+"No, but what do you think, Anderson?" she questioned excitedly.
+
+"I ain't had time to think. You don't mean to say it has begun to talk
+an' c'n tell who it is," he faltered.
+
+"Heavens no--an' it only six weeks old."
+
+"Well, then, what in thunder _has_ happened?"
+
+"A _detective_ has been here."
+
+"Good gosh!"
+
+"Yes, a _real_ detective. He's out there in the kitchen gettin' his feet
+warm by the bake-oven. He says he's lookin' for a six-weeks-old baby.
+Anderson, we're goin' to lose that twenty thousand."
+
+"Don't cry, Eva; mebby we c'n find another baby some day. Has he seen
+the--the--it?" Anderson was holding to the stair-post for support.
+
+"Not yet, but he says he understands we've got one here that ain't been
+_tagged_--that's what he said--'tagged.' What does he mean by that?"
+
+"Why--why, don't you see? Just as soon as he tags it, it's _it_.
+Doggone, I wonder if it would make any legal difference if I tagged it
+first."
+
+"He's a queer-lookin' feller, Anderson. Says he's in disguise, and he
+certainly looks like a regular scamp."
+
+"I'll take a look at him an' ast fer his badge." Marshal Crow paraded
+boldly into the kitchen, where the strange man was regaling the younger
+Crows with conversation the while he partook comfortably of pie and
+other things more substantial.
+
+"Are you Mr. Crow?" he asked nonchalantly, as Anderson appeared before
+him.
+
+"I am. Who are you?"
+
+"I am Hawkshaw, the detective," responded the man, his mouth full of
+blackberry pie.
+
+"Gee whiz!" gasped Anderson. "Eva, it's the celebrated Hawkshaw."
+
+"Right you are, sir. I'm after the kid."
+
+"You'll have to identify it," something inspired Anderson to say.
+
+"Sure. That's easy. It's the one that was left on your doorstep last
+night," said the man glibly.
+
+"Well, I guess you're right," began Anderson disconsolately.
+
+"Boy or girl?" demanded Mrs. Crow, shrewdly and very quickly. She had
+been inspecting the man more closely than before, and woman's intuition
+was telling her a truth that Anderson overlooked. Mr. Hawkshaw was not
+only very seedy, but very drunk.
+
+"Madam," he responded loftily, "it is nothing but a mere child."
+
+"I'll give you jest one minute to get out of this house," said Mrs. Crow
+sharply, to Anderson's consternation. "If you're not gone, I'll douse
+you with this kettle of scalding water. Open the back door, Edna. He
+sha'n't take his dirty self through my parlour again. _Open that door,
+Edna!_"
+
+Edna, half paralysed with astonishment, opened the kitchen door just in
+time. Mr. Hawkshaw was not so drunk but he could recognise disaster when
+it hovered near. As she lifted the steaming kettle from the stove he
+made a flying leap for the door. The rush of air that followed him as he
+shot through the aperture almost swept Edna from her feet. In ten
+seconds the tattered Hawkshaw was scrambling over the garden fence and
+making lively if inaccurate tracks through last year's cabbage patch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+The Mysterious Visitor
+
+
+The entire Crow family watched him in stupefaction until he disappeared
+down the lane that led to Hapgood's grove. It was then, and not until
+then, that Anderson Crow took a breath.
+
+"Good Lord, Eva, what do you mean?" he gasped.
+
+"Mean?" she almost shrieked. "Anderson Crow, didn't you recognise that
+feller? He ain't no more detective than you er me. He's the self-same
+tramp that you put in the calaboose last week, and the week before, too.
+I thought I'd seen his ugly face before. He's--"
+
+"Great jumpin' geeswax!" roared the town marshal. "I recollect him now.
+He's the one that said he'd been exposed to smallpox an' wanted to be
+kept where it was warm all winter. Well, I'll be--I'll be--"
+
+"Don't say it, pa. He said it fer you when he clumb over that barb-wire
+fence out there," cried Edna gleefully.
+
+Several days of anxiety and energy followed this interesting episode. In
+that time two tramps attempted to obtain food and shelter at Crow's
+home, one on the plea that he was the father of the unfortunate child,
+the other as an officer for the Foundlings' Home at Boggs City. Three
+babies were left on the doorstep--two in one night--their fond mothers
+confessing fessing by letters that they appreciated Anderson's
+well-known charitable inclinations and implored him to care for their
+offspring as if they were his own. The harassed marshal experienced some
+difficulty in forcing the mothers to take back their children.
+
+In each instance he was reviled by the estimable ladies, all of whom
+accused him of being utterly heartless. Mrs. Crow came to his rescue and
+told the disappointed mothers that the scalding water was ready for
+application if they did not take their baskets of babies away on short
+order. It may be well for the reputation of Tinkletown to mention that
+one of the donors was Mrs. Raspus, a negro washerwoman who did work for
+the "dagoes" engaged in building the railroad hard by; another was the
+wife of Antonio Galli, a member of the grading gang, and the third was
+Mrs. Pool, the widow of a fisherman who had recently drowned himself in
+drink.
+
+It is quite possible that Anderson might have had the three infants on
+his hands permanently had not the mothers been so eager to know their
+fate. They appeared in person early the next morning to see if the
+babies had frozen to death on the doorstep. Mrs. Pool even went so far
+as to fetch some extra baby clothes which she had neglected to drop with
+her male. Mrs. Raspus came for her basket, claiming it was the only one
+she had in which to "tote" the washing for the men.
+
+After these annoying but enlivening incidents Anderson was permitted to
+recover from his daze and to throw off symptoms of nervous prostration.
+Tinkletown resumed its tranquil attitude and the checker games began to
+thrive once more. Little Rosalie was a week older than when she came,
+but it was five weeks before anything happened to disturb the even tenor
+of the foster-father's way. He had worked diligently in the effort to
+discover the parents of the baby, but without result. Two or three
+exasperated husbands in Tinkletown had threatened to blow his brains out
+if he persisted in questioning their wives in his insinuating manner,
+and one of the kitchen girls at the village inn threw a dishpan at him
+on the occasion of his third visit of inquiry. A colored woman in the
+employ of the Baptist minister denied that Rosalie was her child, but
+when he insisted, agreed with fine sarcasm to "go over an' have a look
+at it," after his assurance that it was perfectly white.
+
+"Eva, I've investigated the case thoroughly," he said at last, "an'
+there is no solution to the mystery. The only thing I c'n deduce is that
+the child is here an' we'll have to take keer of her. Now, I wonder if
+that woman really meant it when she said we'd have a thousand dollars
+at the end of each year. Doggone, I wish the year was up, jest to see."
+
+"We'll have to wait, Anderson, that's all," said Mrs. Crow. "I love the
+baby so it can't matter much. I'm glad you're through investigatin'.
+It's been most tryin' to me. Half the women in town don't speak to me."
+
+It was at the end of Rosalie's fifth week as a member of the family that
+something happened. Late one night when Anderson opened the front door
+to put out the cat a heavily veiled woman mounted the steps and accosted
+him. In some trepidation he drew back and would have closed the door but
+for her eager remonstrance.
+
+"I must see you, Mr. Crow," she cried in a low, agitated voice.
+
+"Who are you?" he demanded. She was dressed entirely in black.
+
+"I came to see you about the baby."
+
+"That won't do, madam. There's been three tramps here to hornswoggle us
+an' I--"
+
+"I _must_ see her, Mr. Crow," pleaded the stranger, and he was struck by
+the richness of her voice.
+
+"Mighty queer, it seems to me," he muttered hesitatingly. "Are you any
+kin to it?"
+
+"I am very much interested."
+
+"By giminy, I believe you're the one who left her here," cried the
+detective. "Are you a typewriter?"
+
+"I'll answer your questions if you'll allow me to step inside. It is
+very cold out here."
+
+Anderson Crow stood aside and the tall, black figure entered the hall.
+He led her to the warm sitting-room and gave her a chair before the
+"base-burner."
+
+"Here, Mr. Crow, is an envelope containing two hundred and fifty
+dollars. That proves my good faith. I cannot tell you who I am nor what
+relation I bear to the baby. I am quite fully aware that you will not
+undertake to detain me, for it is not an easy matter to earn a thousand
+dollars a year in this part of the world. I am going abroad next week
+and do not expect to return for a long, long time. Try as I would, I
+could not go without seeing the child. I will not keep you out of bed
+ten minutes, and you and your wife may be present while I hold Rosalie
+in my arms. I know that she is in good hands, and I have no intention of
+taking her away. Please call Mrs. Crow."
+
+Anderson was too amazed to act at once. He began to flounder
+interrogatively, but the visitor abruptly checked him.
+
+"You are wasting time, Mr. Crow, in attempting to question my authority
+or identity. No one need know that I have made this visit. You are
+perfectly secure in the promise to have a thousand dollars a year; why
+should you hesitate? As long as she lives with you the money is yours. I
+am advancing the amount you now hold in order that her immediate wants
+may be provided for. You are not required to keep an account of the
+money paid to you. There are means of ascertaining at once whether she
+is being well cared for and educated by you, and if it becomes apparent
+that you are not doing your duty, she shall be removed from your
+custody. From time to time you may expect written instructions
+from--from one who loves her."
+
+"I jest want to ast if you live in Tinkletown?" Anderson managed to say.
+
+"I do not," she replied emphatically.
+
+"Well, then, lift your veil. If you don't live here I sha'n't know you."
+
+"I prefer to keep my face covered, Mr. Crow; believe me and trust me.
+Please let me see her." The plea was so earnest that Anderson's heart
+gave a great thump of understanding.
+
+"By ginger, you are her mother!" he gasped. Mrs. Crow came in at this
+juncture, and she was much quicker at grasping the situation than her
+husband. It was in her mind to openly denounce the woman for her
+heartlessness, but her natural thriftiness interposed. She would do
+nothing that might remove the golden spoon from the family mouth.
+
+The trio stole upstairs and into the warm bedchamber. There, with
+Anderson Crow and his wife looking on from a remote corner of the room,
+the tall woman in black knelt beside the crib that had housed a
+generation of Crows. The sleeping Rosalie did not know of the soft
+kisses that swept her little cheek. She did not feel the tears that fell
+when the visitor lifted her veil, nor did she hear the whisperings that
+rose to the woman's lips.
+
+"That is all," murmured the mysterious stranger at last, dropping her
+veil as she arose. She staggered as she started for the door, but
+recovered herself instantly. Without a word she left the room, the
+Crows following her down the stairs in silence. At the bottom she
+paused, and then extended her hands to the old couple. Her voice
+faltered as she spoke.
+
+"Let me clasp your hands and let me tell you that my love and my prayers
+are forever for you and for that little one up there. Thank you. I know
+you will be good to her. She is well born. Her blood is as good as the
+best. Above all things, Mrs. Crow, she is not illegitimate. You may
+easily suspect that her parents are wealthy or they could not pay so
+well for her care. Some day the mystery surrounding her will be cleared.
+It may not be for many years. I can safely say that she will be left in
+your care for twenty years at least. Some day you will know why it is
+that Rosalie is not supposed to exist. God bless you."
+
+She was gone before they could utter a word. They watched her walk
+swiftly into the darkness; a few minutes later the sound of carriage
+wheels suddenly broke upon the air. Anderson Crow and his wife stood
+over the "base-burner," and there were tears in their thoughtful eyes.
+
+"She said twenty years, Eva. Let's see, this is 1883. What would that
+make it?"
+
+"About 1903 or 1904, Anderson."
+
+"Well, I guess we c'n wait if other people can," mused he. Then they
+went slowly upstairs and to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Some Years Go By
+
+
+Tinkletown as a unit supported Anderson in his application for
+guardianship papers. They were filed immediately after the secret visit
+of the mysterious woman; the Circuit Court at Boggs City, after hearing
+the evidence, at once entered the appointment of Mr. Crow. When the
+court asked in mild surprise why he did not adopt the child, Anderson
+and Eva looked at each other sheepishly and were silent for a full
+minute. Then Anderson spoke up a bit huskily:
+
+"Well, you see, judge, her name would have to be Crow, an' while it's a
+good name an' an honoured one, it don't jest seem to fit the young 'un.
+She 'pears to be more of a canary than a crow, figuratively speakin',
+and Eva an' me jest decided we'd give her a different sort of a last
+name if we could find one. Seems to me that Rosie Canary would be a good
+one, but Eva an' the childern are ag'in me. They've decided to call her
+Rosalie Gray, an' I guess that about settles it. If you don't mind, I
+reckon that name c'n go in the records. Besides, you must recollect that
+she's liable to have a lot of property some time, an' it seems more fit
+fer me to be guardian than foster-father if that time ever comes. It'll
+be easier to say good-bye if she keers to leave us."
+
+That same day Anderson deposited two hundred and fifty dollars to his
+credit in the First National Bank, saying to his wife as he walked away
+from the teller's window, "I guess Rosalie cain't starve till the bank
+busts, an' maybe not then."
+
+Of course Tinkletown knew that a sum of money had been paid to Anderson,
+but no one knew that it had been handed to him in person by an
+interested party. Had Anderson and his wife even whispered that such a
+visit had occurred, the town would have gone into a convulsion of wrath;
+the marshal's pedestal would have been jerked out from under him without
+compunction or mercy. Eva cautioned him to be more than silent on the
+subject for the child's sake as well as for their own, and Anderson saw
+wisdom in her counselling. He even lagged in his avowed intention to
+unravel the mystery or die in the attempt. A sharp reminder in the shape
+of an item in the _Banner_ restored his energies, and he again took up
+the case with a vigour that startled even himself. Anything in the shape
+of vigour startled his wife.
+
+Harry Squires, the reporter, who poked more or less fun at Anderson from
+time to time because he had the "power of the press behind him," some
+weeks later wrote the following item about the "baby mystery," as he
+called it, in large type:
+
+     "There is no news in regard to the child found upon the doorstep of
+     our esteemed fellow-citizen Anderson Crow, last February. The item
+     concerning its discovery first appeared in the columns of the
+     _Banner_, as will be remembered by our many readers. Detective
+     Crow promised developments some time ago, but they have not showed
+     up. It is rumoured that he has a new clew, but it cannot be
+     substantiated. The general impression is that he does not know
+     whether it is a boy or girl. We advise Mr. Crow to go slow. He
+     should not forget the time when he arrested Mr. John Barnes, two
+     years ago, for the murder of Mr. Grover, and afterward found that
+     the young gent was merely eloping with Judge Brewster's daughter,
+     which was no crime. We saw the girl. Those of our readers who were
+     alive at the time doubtless recall the excitement of that man-hunt
+     two years ago. Mr. Barnes, as innocent as a child unborn, came to
+     our little city engaged in the innocent pastime of getting married.
+     At the same time it was reported that a murder had been committed
+     in this county. Mr. Crow had his suspicions aroused and pursued Mr.
+     Barnes down the river and arrested him. It was a fine piece of
+     detective work. But, unfortunately for Mr. Crow, the real murderer
+     had been caught in the meantime. Mr. Barnes was guilty only of
+     stealing judge Brewster's daughter and getting married to her. The
+     last heard of them they were happy in New York. They even forgave
+     Mr. Crow, it is reported. It is to be hoped that our clever
+     detective will soon jump down upon the heartless parents of this
+     innocent child, but it is also to be hoped that he think at least
+     four times before he leaps."
+
+To say that the foregoing editorial disturbed the evenness of Mr. Crow's
+temper would be saying nothing at all. In the privacy of his barn lot
+Anderson did a war dance that shamed Tecumseh. He threatened to
+annihilate Harry Squires "from head to foot," for publishing the base
+slander.
+
+"Doggone his hide," roared poor Anderson, "fer two cents I'd tell all I
+know about him bein' tight up at Boggs City three years ago. He couldn't
+walk half an inch that time without staggerin'. Anyhow, I wouldn't have
+chased Mr. Barnes that time if it hadn't been fer Harry Squires. He
+egged me on, doggone his hide. If he didn't have that big typesetter
+from Albany over at the _Banner_ office to back him up I'd go over an'
+bust his snoot fer him. After all the items I've give him, too. That's
+all the thanks you git fer gittin' up news fer them blamed reporters.
+But I'll show him! I wonder what he'd think if I traced that baby right
+up to his own--_What's_ that, Eva? Well, now, you don't know anything
+about it neither, so keep your mouth shet. Harry Squires is a purty sly
+cuss. Mebby it's his'n. You ain't supposed to know. You jest let me do
+my own deducin'. I don't want no blamed woman tellin' me who to shadder.
+An' you, too, Edner; get out of the way, consarn ye! The next thing
+_you'll_ be tellin' me what to do--an' me your father, too!"
+
+And that is why Anderson Crow resumed his search for the parents of
+Rosalie Gray. Not that he hoped or expected to find them, but to offset
+the pernicious influence of Harry's "item." For many days he followed
+the most highly impossible clews, some of them intractable, to supply a
+rather unusual word of description. In other words, they reacted with a
+vigour that often found him unprepared but serene. Consequences bothered
+Anderson but little in those days of despised activity.
+
+It is not necessary to dwell upon the incidents of the ensuing years,
+which saw Rosalie crawl from babyhood to childhood and then stride
+proudly through the teens with a springiness that boded ill for Father
+Time. Regularly each succeeding February there came to Anderson Crow a
+package of twenty dollar bills amounting to one thousand dollars, the
+mails being inscrutable. The Crow family prospered correspondingly, but
+there was a liberal frugality behind it all that meant well for Rosalie
+when the time came for an accounting. Anderson and Eva "laid by" a
+goodly portion of the money for the child, whom they loved as one of
+their own flesh and blood. The district school lessons were followed
+later on by a boarding-school education down State, and then came the
+finishing touches at Miss Brown's in New York.
+
+Rosalie grew into a rare flower, as dainty as the rose, as piquant as
+the daisy. The unmistakable mark of the high bred glowed in her face,
+the fine traces of blue blood graced her every movement, her every tone
+and look. At the time that she, as well as every one else in Tinkletown,
+for that matter, was twenty years older than when she first came to
+Anderson's home, we find her the queen of the village, its one rich
+human possession, its one truly sophisticated inhabitant. Anderson Crow
+and his wife were so proud of her that they forgot their duty to their
+own offspring; but if the Crow children resented this it was not
+exhibited in the expressions of love and admiration for their
+foster-sister. Edna Crow, the eldest of the girls--Anderson called her
+"Edner"--was Rosalie's most devoted slave, while Roscoe, the
+twelve-year-old boy, who comprised the rear rank of Anderson's little
+army, knelt so constantly at her shrine that he fell far behind in his
+studies, and stuck to the third reader for two years.
+
+Anderson had not been idle in all these years. He was fast approaching
+his seventieth anniversary, but he was not a day older in spirit than
+when we first made his acquaintance. True, his hair was thinner and
+whiter, and his whiskers straggled a little more carelessly than in
+other days, but he was as young and active as a youth of twenty. Hard
+times did not worry him, nor did domestic troubles. Mrs. Crow often
+admitted that she tried her best to worry him, but it was like "pouring
+water on a duck's back." He went blissfully on his way, earning
+encomiums for himself and honours for Tinkletown. There was no grave
+crime committed in the land that he did not have a well-defined scheme
+for apprehending the perpetrators. His "deductions" at Lamson's store
+never failed to draw out and hold large audiences, and no one disputed
+his theories in public. The fact that he was responsible for the arrest
+of various hog, horse, and chicken thieves from time to time, and for
+the continuous seizure of the two town drunkards, Tom Folly and Alf
+Reesling, kept his reputation untarnished, despite the numerous errors
+of commission and omission that crept in between.
+
+That Rosalie's mysterious friends--or enemies, it might have been--kept
+close and accurate watch over her was manifested from time to time.
+Once, when Anderson was very ill with typhoid fever, the package of
+bills was accompanied by an unsigned, typewritten letter. The writer
+announced that Mr. Crow's state of health was causing some anxiety on
+Rosalie's account--the child was then six years old--and it was hoped
+that nothing serious would result. Another time the strange writer, in a
+letter from Paris, instructed Mr. Crow to send Rosalie to a certain
+boarding school and to see that she had French, German, and music from
+competent instructors. Again, just before the girl went to New York for
+her two years' stay in Miss Brown's school, there came a package
+containing $2500 for her own personal use. Rosalie often spoke to
+Anderson of this mysterious sender as the "fairy godmother"; but the old
+marshal had a deeper and more significant opinion.
+
+Perhaps the most anxious period in the life of Anderson Crow came when
+Rosalie was about ten years old. A new sheriff had been elected in
+Bramble County, and he posed as a reformer. His sister taught school in
+Tinkletown, and Rosalie was her favourite. She took an interest in the
+child that was almost the undoing of Mr. Crow's prosperity. Imagining
+that she was befriending the girl, the teacher appealed to her brother,
+the sheriff, insisting that he do what he could to solve the mystery of
+her birth. The sheriff saw a chance to distinguish himself. He enlisted
+the help of an aggressive prosecuting attorney, also new, and set about
+to investigate the case.
+
+The two officers of the law descended upon Tinkletown one day and began
+to ask peremptory questions. They went about it in such a high-handed,
+lordly manner that Anderson took alarm and his heart sank like lead. He
+saw in his mind's eye the utter collapse of all his hopes, the dashing
+away of his cup of leisure and the upsetting of the "fairy godmother's"
+plans. Pulling his wits together, he set about to frustrate the attack
+of the meddlers. Whether it was his shrewdness in placing obstacles in
+their way or whether he coerced the denizens into blocking the sheriff's
+investigation does not matter. It is only necessary to say that the
+officious gentleman from Boggs City finally gave up the quest in disgust
+and retired into the oblivion usual to county officials who try to be
+progressive. It was many weeks, however, before Anderson slept soundly.
+He was once more happy in the consciousness that Rosalie had been saved
+from disaster and that he had done his duty by her.
+
+"I'd like to know how them doggone jays from Boggs City expected to find
+out anything about that child when I hain't been able to," growled Mr.
+Crow in Lamson's store one night. "If they'll jest keep their blamed
+noses out of this affair I'll find out who her parents are some day. It
+takes time to trace down things like this. I guess I know what I'm
+doin', don't I, boys?"
+
+"That's what you do, Anderson," said Mr. Lamson, as Anderson reached
+over and took a handful of licorice drops from the jar on the counter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The Village Queen
+
+
+The spring of 1903 brought Rosalie back to Tinkletown after her second
+and last year with Miss Brown in New York City. The sun seemed brighter,
+the birds sang more blithely, the flowers took on a new fragrance and
+the village spruced up as if Sunday was the only day in the week. The
+young men of the town trembled when she passed them by, and not a few of
+them grew thin and haggard for want of food and sleep, having lost both
+appetite and repose through a relapse in love. Her smile was the same as
+of yore, her cheery greetings the same, and yet the village swains stood
+in awe of this fine young aristocrat for days and days. Gradually it
+dawned upon them that she was human, after all, despite her New York
+training, and they slowly resumed the old-time manner of courting, which
+was with the eyes exclusively.
+
+A few of the more venturesome--but not the more ardent--asked her to go
+walking, driving, or to the church "sociables," and there was a rivalry
+in town which threatened to upset commerce. There was no theatre in
+Tinkletown, but they delighted in her descriptions of the gorgeous
+play-houses in New York. The town hall seemed smaller than ever to them.
+The younger merchants and their clerks neglected business with charming
+impartiality, and trade was going to "rack and ruin" until Rosalie
+declined to marry George Rawlins, the minister's son. He was looked upon
+as the favoured one; but she refused him in such a decisive manner that
+all others lost hope and courage. It is on record that the day after
+George's _congé_ Tinkletown indulged in a complete business somersault.
+Never before had there been such strict attention to customers;
+merchants and clerks alike settled down to the inevitable and tried to
+banish Rosalie's face from the cost tags and trading stamps of their
+dull, mercantile cloister. Even Tony Brink, the blacksmith's 'prentice,
+fell into the habits of industry, but with an absent-mindedness that got
+him kicked through a partition in the smithy when he attempted to shoe
+the fetlock of Mr. Martin's colt instead of its hoof.
+
+The Crow family took on a new dignity. Anderson gave fifty dollars to
+the Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church, claiming that
+a foreign education had done so much for his ward; and Mrs. Crow
+succeeded in holding two big afternoon teas before Rosalie could apply
+the check rein.
+
+One night Anderson sat up until nearly ten o'clock--an unheard-of
+proceeding for him. Rosalie, with the elder Crow girls, Edna and Susie,
+had gone to protracted meeting with a party of young men and women. The
+younger boys and girls were in bed, and Mrs. Crow was yawning
+prodigiously. She never retired until Anderson was ready to do likewise.
+Suddenly it dawned upon her that he was unusually quiet and
+preoccupied. They were sitting on the moonlit porch.
+
+"What's the matter, Anderson? Ain't you well?" she asked at last.
+
+"No; I'm just thinkin'," he responded, rather dismally. "Doggone, I
+cain't get it out of my head, Eva."
+
+"Can't get what out?"
+
+"About Rosalie."
+
+"Well, what about her?"
+
+"That's jest like a woman--always fergittin' the most important things
+in the world. Don't you know that the twenty years is up?"
+
+"Of course I know it, but 'tain't worryin' me any. She's still here,
+ain't she? Nobody has come to take her away. The thousand dollars came
+all right last February, didn't it? Well, what's the use worryin'?"
+
+"Mebbe you're right, but I'm skeered to death fer fear some one will
+turn up an' claim her, er that a big estate will be settled, er
+somethin' awful like that. I don't mind the money, Eva; I jest hate to
+think of losin' her, now that she's such a credit to us. Besides, I'm up
+a stump about next year."
+
+"Well, what happens then?"
+
+"Derned if I know. That's what's worryin' me."
+
+"I don't see why you--"
+
+"Certainly you don't. You never do. I've got to do all the thinkin' fer
+this fambly. Next year she's twenty-one years old an' her own boss,
+ain't she? I ain't her guardeen after that, am I? What happens then, I'd
+like to know."
+
+"You jest have to settle with the court, pay over to her what belongs to
+her and keep the thousand every spring jest the same. Her people,
+whoever they be, are payin' you fer keepin' her an' not her fer stayin'
+here. 'Tain't likely she'll want to leave a good home like this 'un, is
+it? Don't worry till the time comes, Anderson."
+
+"That's jest the point. She's lived in New York an' she's got used to
+it. She's got fine idees; even her clothes seem to fit different. Now,
+do you s'pose that fine-lookin' girl with all her New York trimmin's 's
+goin' to hang 'round a fool little town like this? Not much! She's goin'
+to dig out o' here as soon's she gits a chance; an' she's goin' to live
+right where her heart tells her she belongs--in the metropolees of New
+York. She don't belong in no jim-crow town like this. Doggone, Eva, I
+hate to see 'er go!"
+
+There was such a wail of bitterness in the old constable's remark that
+Mrs. Crow felt the tears start to her own eyes. It was the girl they
+both wanted, after all--not the money. Rosalie, coming home with her
+party some time afterward, found the old couple still seated on the
+porch. The young people could not conceal their surprise.
+
+"Counting the stars, pop?" asked Edna Crow.
+
+"He's waiting for the eclipse," bawled noisy Ed Higgins, the grocer's
+clerk. "It's due next winter. H'are you, Anderson?"
+
+"How's that?" was Anderson's rebuke.
+
+"I mean Mr. Crow," corrected Ed, with a nervous glance at Rosalie, who
+had been his companion for the evening.
+
+"Oh, I'm jest so-so," remarked Anderson, mollified. "How was the party?"
+
+"It wasn't a party, Daddy Crow," laughed Rosalie, seating herself in
+front of him on the porch rail. "It was an experience meeting. Alf
+Reesling has reformed again. He told us all about his last attack of
+delirium tremens."
+
+"You don't say so! Well, sir, I never thought Alf could find the time to
+reform ag'in. He's too busy gittin' tight," mused Anderson. "But I guess
+reformin' c'n git to be as much a habit as anythin' else."
+
+"I think he was a little woozy to-night," ventured 'Rast Little.
+
+"A little what?"
+
+"Drunk," explained 'Rast, without wasting words. 'Rast had acquired the
+synonym at the business men's carnival in Boggs City the preceding fall.
+Sometimes he substituted the words "pie-eyed," "skeed," "lit up," etc.,
+just to show his worldliness.
+
+After the young men had departed and the Crow girls had gone upstairs
+with their mother Rosalie slipped out on the porch and sat herself down
+upon the knee of her disconsolate guardian.
+
+"You are worried about something, Daddy Crow," she said gently. "Now,
+speak up, sir. What is it?"
+
+"It's time you were in bed," scolded Anderson, pulling his whiskers
+nervously.
+
+"Oh, I'm young, daddy. I don't need sleep. But you never have been up as
+late as this since I've known you."
+
+"I was up later'n this the time you had the whoopin'-cough, all right."
+
+"What's troubling you, daddy?"
+
+"Oh, nothin'--nothin' at all. Doggone, cain't a man set out on his own
+porch 'thout--"
+
+"Forgive me, daddy. Shall I go away and leave you?"
+
+"Gosh a'mighty, no!" he gasped. "That's what's worryin' me--oh, you
+didn't mean forever. You jest meant to-night? Geminy crickets, you did
+give me a skeer!" He sank back with a great sigh of relief.
+
+"Why, I never expect to leave you forever," she cried, caressing his
+scanty hair. "You couldn't drive me away. This is home, and you've been
+too good to me all these years. I may want to travel after a while, but
+I'll always come back to you, Daddy Crow."
+
+"I'm--I'm mighty glad to hear ye say that, Rosie. Ye see--ye see, me an'
+your ma kinder learned to love you, an'--an--"
+
+"Why, Daddy Crow, you silly old goose! You're almost crying!"
+
+"What's that? Now, don't talk like that to me, you little
+whipper-snapper, er you go to bed in a hurry. I never cried in my life,"
+growled Anderson in a great bluster.
+
+"Well, then, let's talk about something else--me, for instance. Do you
+know, Daddy Crow, that I'm too strong to live an idle life. There is no
+reason why I shouldn't have an occupation. I want to work--accomplish
+something."
+
+Anderson was silent a long time collecting his nerves. "You wouldn't
+keer to be a female detective, would you?" he asked drily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Rosalie Has Plans of Her Own
+
+
+"Do be serious, daddy. I want to do something worth while. I could teach
+school or--"
+
+"Not much! You ain't cut out fer that job. Don't you know that ever'body
+hates school-teachers when they're growed up? Jerusalem, how I still
+hate old Rachel Kidwell! An' yet she's bin dead nigh onto thirty years.
+She was my first teacher. You wasn't born to be hated by all the boys in
+the district. I don't see what put the idee of work inter your head You
+got 'bout eight thousand dollars in the bank an'--"
+
+"But I insist that the money is yours, daddy. My fairy godmother paid it
+to you for keeping, clothing, and educating me. It is not mine."
+
+"You talk like I was a boardin' school instead o' bein' your guardeen.
+No, siree; it's your money, an' that ends it. You git it when you're
+twenty-one."
+
+"We'll see, daddy," she replied, a stubborn light in her dark eyes. "But
+I want to learn to do something worth while. If I had a million it would
+be just the same."
+
+"You'll have something to do when you git married," observed he sharply.
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"I s'pose you're goin' to say you never expect to git married. They all
+say it--an' then take the first feller 'at comes along."
+
+"I didn't take the first, or the second, or the third, or the--"
+
+"Hold on! Gosh a'mighty, have you had that many? Well, why don't you go
+into the matrimonial agent's business? That's an occupation."
+
+"Oh, none of them was serious, daddy," she said naïvely.
+
+"You could have all of the men in the county!" he declared proudly.
+"Only," he added quickly, "it wouldn't seem jest right an' proper."
+
+"There was a girl at Miss Brown's a year ago who had loads of money, and
+yet she declared she was going to have an occupation. Nobody knew much
+about her or why she left school suddenly in the middle of a term. I
+liked her, for she was very nice to me when I first went there, a
+stranger. Mr. Reddon--you've heard me speak of him--was devoted to her,
+and I'm sure she liked him. It was only yesterday I heard from her. She
+is going to teach school in this township next winter."
+
+"An' she's got money?"
+
+"I am sure she had it in those days. It's the strangest thing in the
+world that she should be coming here to teach school in No. 5.
+Congressman Ritchey secured the appointment for her, she says. The
+township trustee--whatever his name is--for a long time insisted that he
+must appoint a teacher from Tinkletown and not an outsider. I am glad
+she is coming here because--well, daddy, because she is like the girls
+I knew in the city. She has asked me to look up a boarding place for
+next winter. Do you know of any one, daddy, who could let her have a
+nice room?"
+
+"I'll bet my ears you'd like to have your ma take her in right here. But
+I don't see how it c'n be done, Rosie-posie. There's so derned many of
+us now, an'--"
+
+"Oh, I didn't mean that, daddy. She couldn't come here. But don't you
+think Mrs. Jim Holabird would take her in for the winter?"
+
+"P'raps. She's a widder. She might let her have Jim's room now that
+there's a vacancy. You might go over an' ast her about it to-morrer.
+It's a good thing she's a friend of yourn, Rosalie, because if she
+wasn't I'd have to fight her app'intment."
+
+"Why, daddy!" reproachfully.
+
+"Well, she's a foreigner, an' I don't think it's right to give her a job
+when we've got so many home products that want the place an' who look
+unpopular enough to fill the bill. I'm fer home industry every time, an'
+'specially as this girl don't appear to need the place. I don't see what
+business Congressman Ritchey has foolin' with our school system anyhow.
+He'd better be reducin' the tariff er increasin' the pensions down to
+Washington."
+
+"I quite agree with you, Daddy Crow," said Rosalie with a diplomacy that
+always won for her. She knew precisely how to handle her guardian, and
+that was why she won where his own daughters failed. "And now,
+good-night, daddy. Go to bed and don't worry about me. You'll have me
+on your hands much longer than you think or want. What time is it?"
+
+Anderson patted her head reflectively as he solemnly drew his huge
+silver time-piece from an unlocated pocket. He held it out into the
+bright moonlight.
+
+"Geminy crickets!" he exclaimed. "It's forty-nine minutes to twelve!"
+Anderson Crow's policy was to always look at things through the small
+end of the telescope.
+
+The slow, hot summer wore away, and to Rosalie it was the longest that
+she ever had experienced. She was tired of the ceaseless twaddle of
+Tinkletown, its flow of "missions," "sociables," "buggy-horses," "George
+Rawlin's new dress-suit," "harvesting," and "politics"--for even the
+children talked politics. Nor did the assiduous attentions of the
+village young men possess the power to shorten the days for her--and
+they certainly lengthened the nights. She liked them because they were
+her friends from the beginning--and Rosalie was not a snob. Not for the
+world would she have hurt the feelings of one poor, humble, adoring soul
+in Tinkletown; and while her smile was none the less sweet, her laugh
+none the less joyous, in her heart there was the hidden longing that
+smiled only in dreams. She longed for the day that was to bring Elsie
+Banks to live with Mrs. Holabird, for with her would come a breath of
+the world she had known for two years, and which she had learned to love
+so well.
+
+In three months seven men had asked her to marry them. Of the seven, one
+only had the means or the prospect of means to support her. He was a
+grass-widower with five grown children. Anderson took occasion to warn
+her against widowers.
+
+"Why," he said, "they're jest like widders. You know Dave Smith that
+runs the tavern down street, don't you? Well, doggone ef he didn't turn
+in an' marry a widder with seven childern an' a husband, an' he's led a
+dog's life ever sence."
+
+"Seven children and a husband? Daddy Crow!"
+
+"Yep. Her derned husband wouldn't stay divorced when he found out Dave
+could support a fambly as big as that. He figgered it would be jest as
+easy to take keer of eight as seven, so he perlitely attached hisself to
+Dave's kitchen an' started in to eat hisself to death. Dave was goin' to
+have his wife apply fer another divorce an' leave the name blank, so's
+he could put in either husband ef it came to a pinch, but I coaxed him
+out of it. He finally got rid of the feller by askin' him one day to
+sweep out the office. He could eat all right, but it wasn't natural fer
+him to work, so he skipped out. Next I heerd of him he had married a
+widder who was gittin' a pension because her first husband fit fer his
+country. The Government shet off the pension jest as soon as she got
+married ag'in, and then that blamed cuss took in washin' fer her. He
+stayed away from home on wash-days, but as every day was wash-day with
+her, he didn't see her by daylight fer three years. She died, an' now
+he's back at Dave's ag'in. He calls Dave his husband-in-law."
+
+It required all of Anderson's social and official diplomacy to forestall
+an indignation meeting when it was announced that a stranger, Miss
+Banks, had been selected to teach school No. 5. There was some talk of
+mobbing the township trustee and Board of County Commissioners, but
+Anderson secured the names of the more virulent talkers and threatened
+to "jail" them for conspiracy.
+
+"Why, Anderson," almost wailed George Ray, "that girl's from the city.
+What does she know about grammar an' history an' all that? They don't
+teach anything but French an' Italian in the cities an' you know it."
+
+"Pshaw!" sniffed Anderson. "I hate grammar an' always did. I c'n talk
+better Italian than grammar right now, an' I hope Miss Banks will teach
+every child in the district how to talk French. You'd orter hear Rosalie
+talk it. Besides, Rosie says she's a nice girl an'--an' needs the
+job." Anderson lied bravely, but he swallowed twice in doing it.
+
+[Illustration: "September brought Elsie Banks"]
+
+September brought Elsie Banks to make life worth living for Rosalie. The
+two girls were constantly together, talking over the old days and what
+the new ones were to bring forth, especially for Miss Gray, who had
+resumed wood carving as a temporary occupation. Miss Banks was more than
+ever reluctant to discuss her own affairs, and Rosalie after a few
+trials was tactful enough to respect her mute appeal. It is doubtful if
+either of the girls mentioned the name of big, handsome Tom Reddon--Tom,
+who had rowed in his college crew; but it is safe to say that both of
+them thought of him more than once those long, soft, autumn
+nights--nights when Tinkletown's beaux were fairly tumbling over
+themselves in the effort to make New York life seem like a flimsy shadow
+in comparison.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Elsie Banks
+
+
+Aderson Crow stood afar off--among the bleak, leafless trees of Badger's
+Grove--and gazed thoughtfully, even earnestly, upon the little red
+schoolhouse with its high brick chimney and snow-clad roof. A biting
+January wind cut through his whiskers and warmed his nose to a
+half-broiled shade of red. On the lapel of his overcoat glistened his
+social and official badges, augmented by a new and particularly shiny
+emblem of respect bestowed by the citizens of Tinkletown.
+
+At first it had been the sense of the town to erect a monument in
+recognition of his part in the capture of the Bramble County horse-thief
+gang, but a thrifty and considerate committee of five substituted a
+fancy gold badge with suitable inscriptions on both sides, extolling him
+to the skies "long before he went there hisself" (to quote Uncle Gideon
+Luce, whose bump of perception was a stubborn prophet when it came to
+picking out the site of Mr. Crow's heaven). For a full half hour the
+marshal of Tinkletown had been standing among the trees surveying the
+schoolhouse at the foot of the slope. If his frosted cheeks and watery
+eyes ached for the warmth that urged the curls of smoke to soar away
+from the chimney-top, his attitude did not betray the fact. He was
+watching and thinking, and when Anderson thought of one thing he never
+thought of another at the same time.
+
+"It'll soon be recess time," he reflected. "Then I'll step down there
+an' let on to be makin' a social call on the schoolma'am. By gum, I
+believe she's the one! It'll take some tarnation good work to find out
+the truth about her, but I guess I c'n do it all right. The only thing I
+got to guard ag'inst is lettin' anybody else know of the mystery
+surroundin' her. Gosh! it'll surprise some of the folks 'round here,
+'specially Rosalie. An' mebby the township trustee won't be sorry he
+give the school this year to a strange girl instid o' to Jane Rankin er
+Effie Dickens! Congressman Ritchey hadn't no business puttin' his nose
+into our affairs anyhow, no matter if this here teacher is a friend of
+his fambly. He's got some kind a holt on these here trustees--'y gosh,
+I'd like to know what 'tis. He c'n jest wrap 'em round his finger an'
+make 'em app'int anybody he likes. Must be politics. There, it's recess!
+I'll jest light out an' pay the schoolhouse a little visit."
+
+Inside a capacious and official pocket of Mr. Crow's coat reposed a
+letter from a law firm in Chicago. It asked if within the last two years
+a young woman had applied for a position as teacher in the township
+schools at Tinkletown. A description accompanied the inquiry, but it was
+admitted she might have applied under a name not her own, which was
+Marion Lovering. In explanation, the letter said she had left her home
+in Chicago without the consent of her aunt, imbued with the idea that
+she would sooner support herself than depend upon the charity of that
+worthy though wealthy relative. The aunt had recently died, and counsel
+for the estate was trying to establish proof concerning the actions and
+whereabouts of Miss Lovering since her departure from Chicago.
+
+The young woman often had said she would become a teacher, a tutor, a
+governess, or a companion, and it was known that she had made her way to
+that section of the world presided over by Anderson Crow--although the
+distinguished lawyers did not put it in those words. A reward of five
+hundred dollars for positive information concerning the "life of the
+girl" while in "that or any other community" was promised.
+
+Miss Banks's appointment came through the agency of the district's
+congressman, in whose home she had acted as governess for a period.
+Moreover, she answered the description in that she was young, pretty,
+and refined. Anderson Crow felt that he was on the right track; he was
+now engaged in as pretty a piece of detective business as had ever
+fallen to his lot, and he was not going to spoil it by haste and
+overconfidence.
+
+Just why Anderson Crow should "shadow" the schoolhouse instead of the
+teacher's temporary place of abode no one could possibly have known but
+himself--and it is doubtful if _he_ knew. He resolved not to answer the
+Chicago letter until he was quite ready to produce the girl and the
+proof desired.
+
+"I'd be a gol-swiggled fool to put 'em onter my s'picions an' then have
+'em cheat me out of the reward," he reflected keenly. "You cain't trust
+them Chicago lawyers an inch an' a half. Doggone it, I'll never fergit
+that feller who got my pockit-book out to Central Park that time. He
+tole me positively he was a lawyer from Chicago, an' had an office in
+the Y.M.C.A. Building. An' the idee of him tellin' me he wanted to see
+if my pockit-book had better leather in it than hisn!"
+
+The fact that the school children, big and little, loved Miss Banks
+possessed no point of influence over their elders of the feminine
+persuasion. They turned up their Tinkletown noses and sniffed at her
+because she was a "vain creature," who thought more of "attractin' the
+men than she did of anything else on earth." And all this in spite of
+the fact that she was the intimate friend of the town goddess, Rosalie
+Gray.
+
+Everybody in school No. 5 over the age of seven was deeply, jealously in
+love with Miss Banks. Many a frozen snowball did its deadly work from
+ambush because of this impotent jealousy.
+
+But the merriest rivalry was that which developed between Ed Higgins,
+the Beau Brummel of Tinkletown, and 'Rast Little, whose father owned the
+biggest farm in Bramble County. If she was amused by the frantic efforts
+of each suitor to outwit the other she was too tactful to display her
+emotion. Perhaps she was more highly entertained by the manner in which
+Tinkletown femininity paired its venom with masculine admiration.
+
+"Mornin', Miss Banks," was Anderson's greeting as he stamped noisily
+into the room. He forgot that he had said good-morning to her when she
+stopped in to see Rosalie on her way to the schoolhouse. The children
+ceased their outdoor game and peered eagerly through the windows,
+conscious that the visit of this dignitary was of supreme importance.
+Miss Banks looked up from the papers she was correcting, the pucker
+vanishing from her pretty brow as if by magic.
+
+"Good-morning, Mr. Crow. What are you doing away out here in the
+country? Jimmy"--to a small boy--"please close the door." Anderson had
+left it open, and it was a raw January wind which followed him into the
+room.
+
+"'Scuse me," he murmured. "Seems I ain't got sense enough to shet a door
+even. My wife says--but you don't keer to hear about that, do you? Oh, I
+jest dropped in," finally answering her question. He took a bench near
+the big stove and spread his hands before the sheet-iron warmth.
+"Lookin' up a little affair, that's all. Powerful chilly, ain't it?"
+
+"Very." She stood on the opposite side of the stove, puzzled by this
+unexpected visit, looking at him with undisguised curiosity.
+
+"Ever been to Chicago?" asked Anderson suddenly, hoping to catch her
+unawares.
+
+"Oh, yes. I have lived there," she answered readily. He shifted his legs
+twice and took a hasty pull at his whiskers.
+
+"That's what I thought. Why don't you go back there?"
+
+"Because I'm teaching school here, Mr. Crow."
+
+"Well, I reckon that's a good excuse. I thought mebby you had a
+different one."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, I dunno. I jest asked."
+
+"You are a detective, are you not?" asked Miss Banks, smiling brightly
+and with understanding.
+
+"Oh, off an' on I do a little detectin'. See my badge?"
+
+"Am I suspected of a heinous crime?" she asked so abruptly that he
+gasped. "Won't you take off your cap, Mr. Crow?" He removed it
+sheepishly.
+
+"Lord, no!" he exclaimed in confusion. "I mean the crime--not the cap.
+Well, I guess I'll be goin'. School's goin' to take up, I reckon. See
+you later, Miss Banks." He restored his cap to its accustomed place and
+was starting toward the door, a trifle dazed and bewildered.
+
+"What is it that you wish to find out, Mr. Crow?" she suddenly called to
+him. He halted and faced about so quickly that his reply came like a
+shot out of a gun.
+
+"I'm on the lookout fer a girl--an' she'll be's rich's Crowses if I c'n
+only find 'er. I dassent tell 'er name jest now," he went on, slowly
+retracing his steps, "'cause I don't want people--er her either, fer
+that matter--to git onter my scheme. But you jest wait." He was standing
+very close to her now and looking her full in the face. "You're sure you
+don't know anythin' 'bout her?"
+
+"Why, how should I know? You've told me nothing."
+
+"You've got purty good clothes fer a common school-teacher," he flung at
+her in an aggressive, impertinent tone, but the warm colour that swiftly
+rose to her cheeks forced him to recall his words, for he quickly
+tempered them with, "Er, at least, that's what all the women folks say."
+
+"Oh, so some one has been talking about my affairs? Some of your
+excellent women want to know more about me than--"
+
+"Don't git excited, Miss Banks," he interrupted; "the women ain't got
+anythin' to do with it--I mean, it's nothin' to them. I--"
+
+"Mr. Crow," she broke in, "if there is anything you or anybody in
+Tinkletown wants to know about me you will have to deduce it for
+yourself. I believe that is what you call it--deduce? And now good-bye,
+Mr. Crow. Recess is over," she said pointedly; and Mr. Crow shuffled out
+as the children galloped in.
+
+That evening Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little came to call, but she excused
+herself because of her correspondence. In her little upstairs room she
+wrote letter after letter, one in particular being voluminous. Mrs.
+Holabird, as she passed her door, distinctly heard her laugh aloud. It
+was a point to be recalled afterward with no little consideration. Later
+she went downstairs, cloaked warmly, for a walk to the post-office. Ed
+Higgins was still in the parlour talking to the family. He hastily put
+in his petition to accompany her, and it was granted absently. Then he
+surreptitiously and triumphantly glanced through the window, the scene
+outside pleasing him audibly. 'Rast was standing at the front gate
+talking to Anderson Crow. Miss Banks noticed as they passed the confused
+twain at the gate that Anderson carried his dark lantern.
+
+"Any trace of the heiress, Mr. Crow?" she asked merrily.
+
+"Doggone it," muttered Anderson, "she'll give the whole snap away!"
+
+"What's that?" asked 'Rast.
+
+"Nothin' much," said Anderson, repairing the damage. "Ed's got your time
+beat to-night, 'Rast, that's all!"
+
+"I could 'a' took her out ridin' to-night if I'd wanted to," lied 'Rast
+promptly. "I'm goin' to take her to the spellin'-bee to-morrow night out
+to the schoolhouse."
+
+"Did she say she'd go with you?"
+
+"Not yet. I was jest goin' to ast her to-night."
+
+"Mebby Ed's askin' her now."
+
+"Gosh dern it, that's so! Maybe he is," almost wailed 'Rast; and
+Anderson felt sorry for him as he ambled away from the gate and its
+love-sick guardian.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+The Spelling-Bee
+
+
+Young Mr. Higgins found his companion bubbling over with vivacity. Her
+pretty chin was in the air and every word bore the promise of a laugh.
+He afterward recalled one little incident of their walk through the
+frosty night, and repeated it to Anderson Crow with more awe than seemed
+necessary. They were passing the town pump on their way to the
+post-office. The street was dark and deserted.
+
+"Gosh!" said Ed, "I bet the town pump's froze up!"
+
+"It doesn't seem very cold," she said brightly.
+
+"Gee! it's below zero! I bet 'Rast thinks it's pretty doggone cold up
+there by your gate."
+
+"Poor 'Rast! His mother should keep him indoors on nights like this." Ed
+laughed loud and long and a tingle of happiness shot through his
+erstwhile shivering frame. "I'm not a bit cold," she went on. "See--feel
+my hand. I'm not even wearing mittens."
+
+Ed Higgins gingerly clasped the little hand, but it was withdrawn at
+once. He found it as warm as toast. Words of love surged to his humble
+lips; his knees felt a tendency to lower themselves precipitously to the
+frozen sidewalk; he was ready to grovel at her feet--and he wondered if
+they were as warm as toast. But 'Rast Little came up at that instant and
+the chance was lost.
+
+"Doggone!" slipped unconsciously but bitterly from Ed's lips.
+
+"Can I be your company to the spellin'-bee to-morrow night, Miss Banks?"
+burst unceremoniously from the lips of the newcomer.
+
+"Thank you, 'Rast. I was just wondering how I should get out to the
+schoolhouse. You are very kind. We'll go in the bob-sled with the
+Holabirds."
+
+"Doggone!" came in almost a wail from poor Ed. He could have killed
+'Rast for the triumphant laugh that followed.
+
+In the meantime Anderson Crow was preparing to crawl in between the icy
+sheets at home. Mrs. Crow was "sitting up" with old Mrs. Luce, who was
+ill next door.
+
+"She's a girl with a past," reflected Anderson. "She's a mystery,
+that's what she is; but I'll unravel her. She had a mighty good reason
+fer sawin' me off out there to-day. I was gittin' too close home. She
+seen I was about to corner her. By gum, I hope she don't suspect
+nothin'! She's found out that Ed Higgins has a good job down to Lamson's
+store, an' she's settin' her cap fer him. It shows she'd ruther live in
+the city than in the country--so it's all up with 'Rast. That proves
+she's from Chicago er some other big place. Ed's gettin' eight dollars a
+week down there at Lamson's. By gum, that boy's doin' well! I used to
+think he wouldn't amount to nothin'. It shows that the best of us git
+fooled in a feller once in a while. To-morrow night I'll go out to the
+spellin'-match, an' when the chanct comes I'll sidle up to her an'
+whisper her real name in her ear. I bet four dollars an' a half that'll
+fetch her purty prompt. Doggone, these here sheets air cold! It's forty
+below zero right here in this bed."
+
+Anderson Crow soon slept, but he did not dream of the tragedy the next
+night was to bring upon Tinkletown, nor of the test his prowess was to
+endure.
+
+The next night and the "spellin'-bee" at school No. 5 came on apace
+together. It was bitterly cold and starlight. By eight o'clock the warm
+schoolhouse was comfortably filled with the "spellers" of the
+neighbourhood, their numbers increased by competitors from Tinkletown
+itself. In the crowd were men and women who time after time had "spelled
+down" whole companies, and who were eager for the conflict. They had
+"studied up" on their spelling for days in anticipation of a hard
+battle in the words. Mrs. Borum and Mrs. Cartwill, both famous for their
+victories and for the rivalry that existed between them, were selected
+as captains of the opposing sides, and Miss Banks herself was to "give
+out" the words. The captains selected their forces, choosing alternately
+from the anxious crowd of grown folks. There were no children there, for
+it was understood that big words would be given out--words children
+could not pronounce, much less spell.
+
+The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful night. She was dressed
+as no other woman in Bramble County, except Rosalie Gray, could have
+attired herself--simply, tastefully, daintily. Her face was flushed and
+eager and the joy of living glowed in every feature. Ed Higgins and
+'Rast Little were struck senseless, nerveless by this vision of health
+and loveliness. Anderson Crow stealthily admitted to himself that she
+was a stranger in a strange land; she was not of Tinkletown or any place
+like it.
+
+Just as the captains were completing their selections of spellers the
+door opened and three strangers entered the school-room, overcoated and
+furred to the tips of their noses--two men and a woman. As Miss Banks
+rushed forward to greet them--she had evidently been expecting them--the
+startled assemblage caught its breath and stared. To the further
+amazement of every one, Rosalie hastened to her side and joined in the
+effusive welcome. Every word of joyous greeting was heard by the amazed
+listeners and every word from the strangers was as distinct. Surely
+the newcomers were friends of long standing. When their heavy wraps
+were removed the trio stood forth before as curious an audience as ever
+sat spellbound. The men were young, well dressed and handsome; the woman
+a beauty of the most dashing type. Tinkletown's best spellers quivered
+with excitement.
+
+[Illustration: "The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful
+night"]
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," said Miss Banks, her voice trembling with
+eagerness, "let me introduce my friends, Mrs. Farnsworth, Mr.
+Farnsworth, and Mr. Reddon. They have driven over to attend the
+spelling-match." Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little observed with sinking
+hearts that it was Mr. Reddon whom she led forward by the hand, and they
+cursed him inwardly for the look he gave her--because she blushed
+beneath it.
+
+"You don't live in Boggs City," remarked Mr. Crow, appointing himself
+spokesman. "I c'n deduce that, 'cause you're carrying satchels an'
+valises."
+
+"Mr. Crow is a famous detective," explained Miss Banks. Anderson
+attempted to assume an unconscious pose, but in leaning back he missed
+the end of the bench, and sat sprawling upon the lap of Mrs. Harbaugh.
+As Mrs. Harbaugh had little or no lap to speak of, his downward course
+was diverted but not stayed. He landed on the floor with a grunt that
+broke simultaneously with the lady's squeak; a fraction of a second
+later a roar of laughter swept the room. It was many minutes before
+quiet was restored and the "match" could be opened. Mrs. Cartwill chose
+Mrs. Farnsworth and her rival selected the husband of the dashing young
+woman. Mr. Reddon firmly and significantly announced his determination
+to sit near the teacher "to preserve order," and not enter the contest
+of words.
+
+Possibly it was the presence of the strangers that rattled and unnerved
+the famed spellers of both sides, for it was not long until the lines
+had dwindled to almost nothing. Three or four arrogant competitors stood
+forth and valiantly spelled such words as "Popocatepetl,"
+"Tschaikowsky," "terpsichorean," "Yang-tse-Kiang," "Yseult," and scores
+of words that could scarcely be pronounced by the teacher herself. But
+at last, just as the sleepy watchers began to nod and yawn the hardest,
+Mrs. Cartwill stood alone and victorious, her single opponent having
+gone down on the word "sassafras." Anderson Crow had "gone down" early
+in the match by spelling "kerosene" "kerry-seen." Ed Higgins followed
+with "ceriseen," and 'Rast Little explosively had it "coal-oil."
+
+During the turmoil incident to the dispersing of the gathered hosts Miss
+Banks made her way to 'Rast Little's side and informed him that the
+Farnsworths were to take her to Mrs. Holabird's in their big sleigh.
+'Rast was floored. When he started to remonstrate, claiming to be her
+"company," big Tom Reddon interposed and drew Miss Banks away from her
+lover's wrath.
+
+"But I'm so sorry for him, Tom," she protested contritely. "He _did_
+bring me here--in a way."
+
+"Well, I'll take you home another way," said good-looking Mr. Reddon. It
+was also noticed that Rosalie Gray had much of a confidential nature to
+say to Miss Banks as they parted for the evening, she to go home in
+Blucher Peabody's new sleigh.
+
+'Rast and Ed Higgins almost came to blows out at the hitch-rack, where
+the latter began twitting his discomfited rival. Anderson Crow kept them
+apart.
+
+"I'll kill that big dude," growled 'Rast. "He's got no business comin'
+here an' rakin' up trouble between me an' her. You mark my words, I'll
+fix him before the night's over, doggone his hide!"
+
+At least a dozen men, including Alf Reesling, heard this threat, and not
+one of them was to forget it soon. Anderson Crow noticed that Mrs.
+Holabird's bob-sled drove away without either Miss Banks or 'Rast
+Little in its capacious depths. Miss Banks announced that her three
+friends from the city and she would stay behind and close the
+schoolhouse, putting everything in order. It was Friday night, and there
+would be no session until the following Monday. Mr. Crow was very sleepy
+for a detective. He snored all the way home.
+
+The next morning two farmers drove madly into Tinkletown with the
+astounding news that some one had been murdered at schoolhouse No. 5. In
+passing the place soon after daybreak they had noticed blood on the snow
+at the roadside. The school-room door was half open and they entered.
+Blood in great quantities smeared the floor near the stove, but there
+was no sign of humanity, alive or dead. Miss Banks's handkerchief was
+found on the floor saturated.
+
+Moreover, the school-teacher was missing. She had not returned to the
+home of Mrs. Holabird the night before. To make the horror all the more
+ghastly, Anderson Crow, hastening to the schoolhouse, positively
+identified the blood as that of Miss Banks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A Tinkletown Sensation
+
+
+Sensations came thick and fast in Tinkletown during the next few hours.
+Investigation proved that 'Rast Little was nowhere to be found. He had
+not returned to his home after the spelling-bee, nor had he been seen
+since. Mrs. Holabird passed him in the road on her way home in the
+"bob-sled." In response to her command to "climb in" he sullenly said he
+was going to walk home by a "short cut" through the woods. A farmer had
+seen the stylish Farnsworth sleigh driving north furiously at half-past
+eleven, the occupants huddled in a bunch as if to protect themselves
+from the biting air. The witness was not able to tell "which was which"
+in the sleigh, but he added interest to the situation by solemnly
+asserting that one of the persons in the rear seat was "bundled up" more
+than the rest, and evidently was unable to sit erect.
+
+According to his tale, the figure was lying over against the other
+occupant of the seat. He was also, positive that there were three
+figures in the front seat! Who was the extra person? was the question
+that flashed into the minds of the listeners. A small boy came to the
+schoolhouse at nine o'clock in the morning with 'Rast Little's new derby
+hat. He had picked it up at the roadside not far from the schoolhouse
+and in the direction taken by the Farnsworth party.
+
+Anderson gave orders that no word of the catastrophe be carried to
+Rosalie, who was reported to be ill of a fever the next morning after
+the spelling-bee. She had a cough, and the doctor had said that nothing
+should be said or done to excite her.
+
+The crowd at the schoolhouse grew larger as the morning passed Everybody
+talked in whispers; everybody was mystified beyond belief. All eyes were
+turned to Anderson Crow, who stood aloof, pondering as he had never
+pondered before. In one hand he held Miss Banks's bloody handkerchief
+and in the other a common school text-book on physiology. His badges
+and stars fairly revelled in their own importance.
+
+"Don't pester him with questions," warned Isaac Porter, addressing Alf
+Reesling, the town drunkard, who had just arrived.
+
+"But I got something I want to say to him," persisted Alf eagerly. Two
+or three strong men restrained him.
+
+"Thunderation, Alf," whispered Elon Jones, "cain't you see he's figurin'
+something out? You're liable to throw him clear off the track if you say
+a word to him."
+
+"Well, this is something he'd oughter know," almost whimpered Alf,
+rubbing his frozen ears.
+
+"Sh!" muttered the bystanders, and poor Alf subsided. He was
+unceremoniously hustled into the background as Mr. Crow moved from the
+window toward the group.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Anderson gravely, "there is somethin' wrong here." It
+is barely possible that this was not news to the crowd, but with one
+accord they collectively and severally exchanged looks of appreciation.
+"I've been readin' up a bit on the human body, an' I've proved one thing
+sure in my own mind."
+
+"You bet you have, Anderson," said Elon Jones. "It's all settled. Let's
+go home."
+
+"Settled nothin'!" said the marshal. "It's jest begun. Here's what I
+deduce: Miss Banks has been foully dealt with. Ain't this her blood, an'
+ain't she used her own individual handkerchief to stop it up? It's
+blood right square from her heart, gentlemen!"
+
+"I don't see how--" began Ed Higgins; but Anderson silenced him with a
+look.
+
+"Of course _you_ don't, but you would if you'd 'a' been a detective as
+long's I have. What in thunder do you s'pose I got these badges and
+these medals fer? Fer _not_ seein' how? No, siree! I got 'em fer _seein_'
+how; that's what!"
+
+"But, Andy--"
+
+"Don't call me 'Andy,'" commanded Mr. Crow.
+
+"Well, then, Anderson, I'd like to know how the dickens she could use
+her own handkerchief if she was stabbed to the heart," protested Ed. He
+had been crying half the time. Anderson was stunned for the moment.
+
+"Why--why--now, look here, Ed Higgins, I ain't got time to explain
+things to a derned idgit like you. Everybody else understands _how_,
+don't you?" and he turned to the crowd. Everybody said yes. "Well, that
+shows what a fool you are, Ed. Don't bother me any more. I've got work
+to do."
+
+"Say, Anderson," began Alf Reesling from the outer circle, "I got
+something important to tell--"
+
+"Who is that? Alf Reesling?" cried Anderson wrathfully.
+
+"Yes; I want to see you private, Anderson. Its important," begged Alf.
+
+"How many times have I got to set down on you, Alf Reesling?" exploded
+Anderson. "Doggone, I'd like to know how a man's to solve mysteries if
+he's got to stand around half the time an' listen to fambly quarrels.
+Tell yer wife I'll--"
+
+"This ain't no family quarrel. Besides, I ain't got no wife. It's about
+this here--"
+
+"That'll do, now, Alf! Not another word out of you!" commanded Anderson
+direfully.
+
+"But, dern you, Anderson," exploded Alf, "I've got to tell you--"
+
+But Anderson held up a hand.
+
+"Don't swear in the presence of the dead," he said solemnly. "You're
+drunk, Alf; go home!" And Alf, news and all was hustled from the
+schoolhouse by a self-appointed committee of ten.
+
+"Now, we'll search fer the body," announced Anderson. "Git out of the
+way, Bud!"
+
+"I ain't standin' on it," protested twelve-year-old Bud Long.
+
+"Well, you're standin' mighty near them blood-stains an'--"
+
+"Yes, 'n ain't blood a part of the body?" rasped Isaac Porter
+scornfully; whereupon Bud faded into the outer rim.
+
+"First we'll look down cellar," said Mr. Crow. "Where's the cellar at?"
+
+"There ain't none," replied Elon Jones.
+
+"What? No cellar? Well, where in thunder did they hide the body, then?"
+
+"There's an attic," ventured Joe Perkins.
+
+A searching party headed by Anderson Crow shinned up the ladder to the
+low garret. No trace of a body was to be found, and the searchers came
+down rather thankfully. Then, under Mr. Crow's direction, they searched
+the wood piles, the woods, and the fields for many rods in all
+directions. At noon they congregated at the schoolhouse. Alf Reesling
+was there.
+
+"Find it?" said he thickly, with a cunning leer. He had been drinking.
+Anderson was tempted to club him half to death, but instead he sent him
+home with Joe Perkins, refusing absolutely to hear what the town
+drunkard had to say.
+
+"Well, you'll wish you'd listened to me," ominously hiccoughed Alf; and
+then, as a parting shot, "I wouldn't tell you now fer eighteen dollars
+cash. You c'n go to thunder!" It was _lèse majesté_, but the crowd did
+nothing worse than stare at the offender.
+
+Before starting off on the trail of the big sleigh, Anderson sent this
+message by wire to the lawyers in Chicago:
+
+     "_I have found the girl you want, but the body is lost. Would you
+     just as soon have her dead as alive_?
+
+     "ANDERSON CROW."
+
+In a big bob-sled the marshal and a picked sextette of men set off at
+one o'clock on the road over which the sleigh had travelled many hours
+before. Anderson had failed to report the suspected crime to the sheriff
+at Boggs City and was working alone on the mystery. He said he did not
+want anybody from town interfering with his affairs.
+
+"Say, Andy--Anderson," said Harry Squires, now editor of the _Banner_,
+"maybe we're hunting the wrong body and the wrong people."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, ain't 'Rast Little missing? Maybe he's been killed, eh? And say,
+ain't there some chance that he did the killing? Didn't he say he was
+going to murder that city chap? Well, supposing he did. We're on the
+wrong track, ain't we?"
+
+"Doggone you, Harry, that don't fit in with my deductions," wailed
+Anderson. "I wish you'd let me alone. 'Rast may have done the killin',
+but it's our place to find the body, ain't it? Whoever has been slew was
+taken away last night in the sleigh. S'posin it was Mr. Reddon! Well,
+consarn it, ain't he got a body same as anybody else? We've just got to
+find somebody's body, that's all. We've got to prove the corpus
+deelicti. Drive up, Bill!"
+
+With a perseverance that spoke well for the detective's endurance, but
+ill for his intelligence, the "bob" sped along aimlessly. It was
+ridiculous to think of tracking a sleigh over a well-travelled road, and
+it was not until they reached the cross-roads that Harry Squires
+suggested that inquiries be made of the farmers in the neighbourhood.
+After diligent effort, a farmer was discovered who said he had heard the
+sleigh bells at midnight, and, peering from his window, had caught a
+glimpse of the party turning south at the cross-roads.
+
+"Jest as I thought!" exclaimed Anderson. "They went south so's to skip
+Boggs City. Boys, they've got her body er 'Rast's body er that other
+feller's body with 'em, an' they're skootin' down this pike so's to get
+to the big bridge. My idee is that they allowed to drop the body in the
+river, which ain't friz plum over."
+
+"Gee! We ain't expected to search all over the bottom of the river, are
+we, Anderson?" shivered Isaac Porter, the pump repairer.
+
+"_I_ ain't," said the leader, "but I can deputise anybody I want to."
+
+And so they hurried on to the six-span bridge that crossed the ice-laden
+river. As they stood silent, awed and shivering on the middle span,
+staring down into the black water with its navy of swirling ice-chunks,
+even the heart of Anderson Crow chilled and grew faint.
+
+"Boys," he said, "we've lost the track! Not even a bloodhound could
+track 'em in that water."
+
+"Bloodhound?" sniffed Harry Squires. "A hippopotamus, you mean."
+
+They were hungry and cold, and they were ready to turn homeward.
+Anderson said he "guessed" he'd turn the job over to the sheriff and his
+men. Plainly, he was much too hungry to do any more trailing. Besides,
+for more than an hour he had been thinking of the warm wood fire at
+home. Bill Rubley was putting the "gad" to the horses when a man on
+horseback rode up from the opposite end of the bridge. He had come far
+and in a hurry, and he recognised Anderson Crow.
+
+"Say, Anderson!" he called, "somebody broke into Colonel Randall's
+summer home last night an' they're there yet. Got fires goin' in all
+the stoves, an' havin' a high old time. They ain't got no business
+there, becuz the place is closed fer the winter. Aleck Burbank went over
+to order 'em out; one of the fellers said he'd bust his head if he
+didn't clear out. I think it's a gang!"
+
+A hurried interview brought out the facts. The invaders had come up in a
+big sleigh long before dawn, and--but that was sufficient. Anderson and
+his men returned to the hunt, eager and sure of their prey. Darkness was
+upon them when they came in sight of Colonel Randall's country place in
+the hills. There were lights in the windows and people were making merry
+indoors; while outside the pursuing Nemesis and his men were wondering
+how and where to assault the stronghold.
+
+"I'll jest walk up an' rap on the door," said Anderson Crow, "lettin' on
+to be a tramp. I'll ast fer somethin' to eat an' a place to sleep. While
+I'm out there in the kitchen eatin' you fellers c'n sneak up an'
+surround us. Then you c'n let on like you're lookin' fer me because I'd
+robbed a hen-roost er something, an' that'll get 'em off their guard.
+Once we all git inside the house with these shotguns we've got 'em where
+we want 'em. Then I'll make 'em purduce the body."
+
+"Don't we git anythin' to eat, too?" demanded Isaac Porter faintly.
+
+"The horses ain't had nothin' to eat, Ike," said Anderson. "Ain't you as
+good as a horse?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A Case of Mistaken Identity
+
+
+Detective Crow found little difficulty in gaining admittance to Colonel
+Randall's summer home. He had secreted his badge, and it was indeed a
+sorry-looking tramp who asked for a bite to eat at the kitchen door.
+
+Three or four young women were busy with chafing dishes in this
+department of the house, and some good-looking young men were looking on
+and bothering them with attentions. In the front part of the house a
+score of people were laughing and making merry.
+
+"Gosh!" said the new tramp, twisting his chin whiskers, "how many of you
+are there?"
+
+"Oh, there are many more at home like us," trilled out one of the young
+women gaily. "You're just in time, you poor old thing, to have some of
+the bride-to-be's cake."
+
+"I guess I'm in the wrong house," murmured Anderson blankly. "Is it a
+weddin'?"
+
+"No; but there will be one before many days. It's just a reunion. How I
+wish Rosalie Gray were here!" cried another girl.
+
+Just then there was a pounding on the door, and an instant later Isaac
+Porter stalked in at the head of the posse.
+
+"Throw up your hands!" called Anderson, addressing himself to the posse,
+the members of which stopped in blank amazement. Some of them obligingly
+stuck their hands on high. "What do you want here?"
+
+"We--we--we're lookin' fer a tramp who said he robbed a hen roost,"
+faltered Isaac Porter.
+
+"What is the meaning of all this?" called a strong voice from the
+dining-room, and the flabbergasted Tinkletownians turned to face Colonel
+Randall himself, the owner of the house.
+
+"Derned if I know!" muttered Anderson Crow; and he spoke the truth.
+
+"Why, it's Anderson Crow!" cried a gay young voice.
+
+"Jumpin' Jehosophat!" ejaculated the detective; "it's the body!"
+
+"The school-teacher!" exclaimed the surprised Tinkletownians, as with
+their eyes they proceeded to search the figure before them for blood
+stains. But no sooner had the chorused words escaped their lips than
+they realised how wretchedly commonplace was their blundering expression
+in comparison with the faultlessly professional phraseology of their
+leader; and, overwhelmed with mortification, the posse ached to recall
+them; for that the correct technical term had been applied by one for
+years trained to the vernacular of his calling was little consolation to
+these sensitive souls, now consumed with envy.
+
+In the meantime, the quarry, if we may be permitted so to designate her,
+stood before them as pretty as a picture. At her side was Tom Reddon,
+and a dozen guests of the house fell in behind them.
+
+"Did Rosalie tell you?" demanded Miss Banks. "The mean thing! She said
+she wouldn't."
+
+"Ro--Rosalie!" gasped Anderson; "tell me what?" nervously.
+
+"That I was--was coming over here with Tom. Didn't she tell you?"
+
+"I should say not. If she'd told me you don't suppose I'd'a' driv' clear
+over here in this kinder weather fer nothin', do you? Thunder! Did she
+know 'bout it?"
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Crow. She helped with the plans."
+
+"Well, good gosh a'mighty! An' we was a-keepin' from her the awful news
+fer fear 'twould give her a backset."
+
+"Awful news! What do you mean? Oh, you frighten me terribly!"
+
+"Doggone! I don't believe Rosalie was sick at all," continued Anderson,
+quite regardless of the impatience of his listeners; "she jest wanted to
+keep from answerin' questions. She jest regularly let everybody believe
+you had been slaughtered, an' never opened her mouth."
+
+"Slaughtered!" cried half a dozen people.
+
+"Sure! Hain't you heard 'bout the murder?"
+
+"Murder?" apprehensively from the excited New Yorkers.
+
+"Yes--the teacher of schoolhouse No. 5 was brutally butchered
+las--las--night--by--"
+
+[Illustration: "What is the meaning of all this?"]
+
+"Go slow, Anderson! Better hold your horses!" cautioned Harry
+Squires. "Don't forget the body's alive and kic--" and stopping short,
+in the hope that his break might escape the school-teacher's attention,
+he confusedly substituted, "and here."
+
+Anderson's jaw dropped, but the movement was barely perceptible, the
+discomfiture temporary, for to the analytical mind of the great
+detective the fact that a murder had been committed was fully
+established by the discovery of the blood. That a body was obviously
+necessary for the continuance of further investigations he frankly
+acknowledged to himself; and not for one instant would any supposition
+or explanation other than assassination be tolerated. And it was with
+unshaken conviction that he declared:
+
+"Well, somebody was slew, wasn't they? That's as plain's the nose on y'r
+face. Don't you contradict me, Harry Squires. I guess Anderson Crow
+knows blood when he sees it."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that you've been trailing us all day in the
+belief that some one of us had killed somebody?" demanded Tom Reddon.
+
+Harry Squires explained the situation, Anderson being too far gone to
+step into the breach. It may be of interest to say that the Tinkletown
+detective was the sensation of the hour. The crowd, merry once more,
+lauded him to the skies for the manner in which the supposed culprits
+had been trailed, and the marshal's pomposity grew almost to the
+bursting point.
+
+"But how about that blood?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes," said Harry Squires with a sly grin, "it was positively identified
+as yours, Miss Banks."
+
+"Well, it's the first time I was ever fooled," confessed Anderson
+glibly. "I'll have to admit it. The blood really belonged to 'Rast
+Little. Boys, the seegars are on me."
+
+"No, they're on me," exclaimed Tom Reddon, producing a box of Perfectos.
+
+"But, Miss Banks, you are wanted in Chicago," insisted Anderson. Reddon
+interrupted him.
+
+"Right you are, my dear Sherlock, and I'm going to take her there as
+soon as I can. It's what I came East for."
+
+"Ain't--I mean, wasn't you Miss Lovering?" muttered Anderson Crow.
+
+"Good heavens, no!" cried Miss Banks. "Who is she--a shoplifter?"
+
+"I'll tell you the story, Mr. Crow, if you'll come with me," said Mr.
+Farnsworth, stepping forward with a wink.
+
+In the library he told the Tinkletown posse that Tom Reddon had met Miss
+Banks while she was at school in New York. He was a Chicago
+millionaire's son and she was the daughter of wealthy New York people.
+Her mother was eager to have the young people marry, but the girl at
+that time imagined herself to be in love with another man. In a pique
+she left school and set forth to earn her own living. A year's hardship
+as governess in the family of Congressman Ritchey and subsequent
+disillusionment as a country school-teacher brought her to her senses
+and she realised that she cared for Tom Reddon after all. She and Miss
+Gray together prepared the letter which told Reddon where she could be
+found, and that eager young gentleman did the rest. He had been waiting
+for months for just such a message from her. The night of the
+spelling-match he induced her to come to Colonel Randall's, and now the
+whole house-party, including Miss Banks, was to leave on the following
+day for New York. The marriage would take place in a very few weeks.
+
+"I'll accept your explanation," said Mr. Crow composedly as he took a
+handful of cigars. "Well, I guess I'll be startin' back. It's gettin'
+kind o' late-like."
+
+There was a telegram at the livery stable for him when he reached that
+haven of warmth and rest in Tinkletown about dawn the next day. It was
+from Chicago and marked "Charges collect."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What girl and whose body," it said, "do you refer to? Miss Lovering has
+been dead two years, and we are settling the estate in behalf of the
+other heirs. We were trying to establish her place of residence. Never
+mind the body you have lost."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Doggone," said Anderson, chuckling aloud, "that was an awful good joke
+on 'Rast, wasn't it?"
+
+The stablemen stood around and looked at him with jaws that were
+drooping helplessly. The air seemed laden with a sombre uncertainty that
+had not yet succeeded in penetrating the nature of Marshal Crow.
+
+"Is it from her?" finally asked Ike Smith hoarsely, his lips trembling.
+
+"From what her?"
+
+"Rosalie."
+
+"Thunder, no! It's from my lawyers in Chicago."
+
+"Ain't you--ain't you heerd about it?" half groaned Ike, moving away as
+if he expected something calamitous.
+
+"What the dickens are you fellers drivin' at?" demanded Anderson. The
+remainder of his posse deserted the red-hot stove and drew near with the
+instinctive feeling that something dreadful had happened.
+
+"Ro--Rosalie has been missin' sence early last night. She was grabbed by
+some feller near Mrs. Luce's, chucked into a big wagon an' rushed out of
+town before Ros Crow could let out a yell. Clean stole her--look out!
+Ketch him, Joe!"
+
+Anderson dropped limply into a hostler's arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Rosalie Disappears
+
+
+Things had happened in Tinkletown that night. Alf Reesling finally found
+some one who would listen to his story. He told the minister and the
+minister alarmed the town. To be brief, Alf admitted that 'Rast Little
+was at his house in the outskirts of the village, laid up with a broken
+arm and a bad cut in the top of his head.
+
+"He came crawlin' up to my place about six o'clock in the mornin',"
+explained Alf, "an' I took the poor cuss in. That's what I wanted to
+tell Anderson, but the old rip wouldn't listen to me. Seems as though
+'Rast waited around the schoolhouse last night to git a crack at that
+feller from town. Miss Banks and her three friends set around the stove
+in the schoolhouse for about an hour after the crowd left, an' 'Rast got
+so cold he liked to died out there in the woodshed.
+
+"Purty soon they all come out, an' 'Rast cut acrost the lot to git
+inside the house by the fire. He was so derned cold that he didn't feel
+like crackin' anybody. When they wasn't lookin' he sneaked inside. Jest
+as he was gittin' ready to hug the stove he heard Miss Banks an' one of
+the men comin' back. He shinned up the ladder into the garret just in
+time. In they come an' the feller lit a lamp. 'Rast could hear 'em
+talkin'. She said good-bye to the schoolhouse forever, an' the feller
+kissed her a couple of times. 'Rast pretty nigh swore out loud at that.
+Then she said she'd leave a note in her desk fer the trustees, resignin'
+her job, er whatever she called it. He heard her read the note to the
+man, an' it said somethin' about goin' away unexpected to git married.
+'Rast says ef Anderson had looked in the desk he'd have found the note.
+
+"Then she packed up some books an' her an' the feller went out. 'Rast
+was paralysed. He heerd the sleigh-bells jingle an' then he come to. He
+started down the ladder so quick that he missed his hold and went
+kerslam clear to the bottom. Doggone ef he didn't light on his head,
+too. He don't know how long he laid there, but finally he was
+resurrected enough to crawl over by the stove. His arm was broke an' he
+was bleedin' like a stuck hog. Miss Banks had left her handkerchief on
+the desk, an' he says he tried to bind up his head with it, but it was
+too infernal small. Somehow he got outside an' wandered around half
+crazy fer a long time, finally pullin' up at my house, derned nigh froze
+to death an' so weak he couldn't walk no more. He'd lost his hat an' his
+ear muffs an' his way all at the same time. If Anderson had let me talk
+this mornin' he'd 'a' knowed there wasn't no murder. It was just a
+match."
+
+Hours passed before Anderson was himself again and able to comprehend
+the details of the story which involved the disappearance of his ward.
+It slowly filtered through his mind as he sat stark-eyed and numb before
+the kitchen fire that this was the means her mysterious people had taken
+to remove her from his custody. The twenty years had expired, and they
+had come to claim their own. There was gloom in the home of Anderson
+Crow--gloom so dense that death would have seemed bright in comparison.
+Mrs. Crow was prostrated, Anderson in a state of mental and physical
+collapse, the children hysterical.
+
+All Tinkletown stood close and ministered dumbly to the misery of the
+bereaved ones, but made no effort to follow or frustrate the abductors.
+The town seemed as helpless as the marshal, not willingly or wittingly,
+but because it had so long known him as leader that no one possessed the
+temerity to step into his place, even in an hour of emergency.
+
+A dull state of paralysis fell upon the citizens, big and little. It
+was as if universal palsy had been ordained to pinch the limbs and
+brains of Tinkletown until the hour came for the rehabilitation of
+Anderson Crow himself. No one suggested a move in any direction--in
+fact, no one felt like moving at all. Everything stood stockstill while
+Anderson slowly pulled himself together; everything waited dumbly for
+its own comatose condition to be dispelled by the man who had been hit
+the hardest.
+
+It was not until late in the afternoon that Blucher Peabody, the
+druggist, awoke from his lethargy and moved as though he intended to
+take the initiative. "Blootch" was Rosalie's most persistent admirer. He
+had fallen heir to his father's apothecary shop and notion store, and he
+was regarded as one of the best catches in town. He approached the
+half-frozen crowd that huddled near old Mrs. Luce's front gate. In this
+crowd were some of the prominent men of the town, young and old; they
+left their places of business every half hour or so and wandered
+aimlessly to the now historic spot, as if drawn by a magnet. Just why
+they congregated there no one could explain and no one attempted to do
+so. Presumably it was because the whole town centred its mind on one of
+two places--the spot where Rosalie was seized or the home of Anderson
+Crow. When they were not at Mrs. Luce's gate they were tramping through
+Anderson's front yard and into his house.
+
+"Say," said "Blootch" so loudly that the crowd felt like remonstrating
+with him, "what's the use of all this?"
+
+No one responded. No one was equal to it on such short notice.
+
+"We've got to do something besides stand around and whisper," he said.
+"We've got to find Rosalie Gray."
+
+"But good gosh!" ejaculated Isaac Porter, "they've got purty nigh a
+day's start of us."
+
+"Well, that don't matter. Anderson would do as much for us. Let's get a
+move on."
+
+"But where in thunder will we hunt?" murmured George Ray.
+
+"To the end of the earth," announced Blootch, inflating his chest and
+slapping it violently, a strangely personal proceeding, which went
+unnoticed. He had reached the conclusion that his chance to be a hero
+was at hand and not to be despised. Here was the opportunity to outstrip
+all of his competitors in the race for Rosalie's favour. It might be
+confessed that, with all his good intentions, his plans were hopelessly
+vague. The group braced up a little at the sound of his heroic words.
+
+"But the derned thing's round," was the only thing Ed Higgins could find
+to say. Ed, as fickle as the wind, was once more deeply in love with
+Rosalie, having switched from Miss Banks immediately after the visit to
+Colonel Randall's.
+
+"Aw, you go to Guinea!" was Blootch's insulting reply. Nothing could be
+more disparaging than that, but Ed failed to retaliate. "Let's appoint a
+committee to wait on Anderson and find out what he thinks we'd better
+do."
+
+"But Anderson ain't--" began some one. Blootch calmly waived him into
+silence.
+
+"What he wants is encouragement, and not a lot of soup and broth and
+lemonade. He ain't sick. He's as able-bodied as I am. Every woman in
+town took soup to him this noon. He needs a good stiff drink of whiskey
+and a committee to cheer him up. I took a bottle up to 'Rast Little last
+night and he acted like another man."
+
+At last it was decided that a committee should first wait on Anderson,
+ascertaining his wishes in the premises, and then proceed to get at the
+bottom of the mystery. In forming this committee the wise men of the
+town ignored Mr. Peabody, and he might have been left off completely had
+he not stepped in and appointed himself chairman.
+
+The five good men and true descended upon the marshal late in the
+afternoon, half fearful of the result, but resolute. They found him
+slowly emerging from his spell of lassitude. He greeted them with a
+solemn nod of the head. Since early morning he had been conscious of a
+long stream of sympathisers passing through the house, but it was not
+until now that he felt equal to the task of recognising any of them.
+
+His son Roscoe had just finished telling him the story of the abduction.
+Roscoe's awestruck tones and reddened eyes carried great weight with
+them, and for the tenth time that day he had his sisters in tears. With
+each succeeding repetition the details grew until at last there was but
+little of the original event remaining, a fact which his own family
+properly overlooked.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Anderson, as if suddenly coming from a trance, "this
+wasn't the work of Tinkletown desperadoes." Whereupon the committee felt
+mightily relieved. The marshal displayed signs of a returning energy
+that augured well for the enterprise. After the chairman had
+impressively announced that something must be done, and that he was
+willing to lead his little band to death's door--and beyond, if
+necessary--Mr. Crow pathetically upset all their hopes by saying that he
+had long been expecting such a calamity, and that nothing could be done.
+
+"They took the very night when I was not here to pertect her," he
+lamented. "It shows that they been a-watchin' me all along. The job was
+did by persons who was in the employ of her family, an' she has been
+carried off secretly to keep me from findin' out who and what her
+parents were. Don't ye see? Her mother--or father, fer that
+matter--couldn't afford to come right out plain an' say they wanted
+their child after all these years. The only way was to take her away
+without givin' themselves away. It's been the plan all along. There
+ain't no use huntin' fer her, gentlemen. She's in New York by this time,
+an' maybe she's ready fer a trip to Europe."
+
+"But I should think she'd telegraph to you," said Blootch.
+
+"Telegraph yer granny! Do you s'pose they'd 'a' stole her if they
+intended to let her telegraph to anybody? Not much. They're spiritin'
+her away until her estate's settled. After a while it will all come out,
+an' you'll see if I ain't right. But she's gone. They've got her away
+from me an'--an' we got to stand it, that's all. I--I--cain't bear to
+think about it. It's broke my heart mighty ne--near. Don't mind me
+if--I--cry, boys. You would, too, if you was me."
+
+As the committee departed soon after without any plan of action arising
+from the interview with the dejected marshal, it may be well to acquaint
+the reader with the history of the abduction, as told by Roscoe Crow and
+his bosom friend, Bud Long, thoroughly expurgated.
+
+According to instructions, no one in the Crow family mentioned the
+strange disappearance of Elsie Banks to Rosalie. Nor was she told of the
+pursuit by the marshal and his posse. The girl, far from being afflicted
+with a fever, really now kept in her room by grief over the departure of
+her friend and companion. She was in tears all that night and the next
+day, suffering intensely in her loss. Rosalie did not know that the
+teacher was to leave Tinkletown surreptitiously until after the
+spelling-bee. The sly, blushing announcement came as a shock, but she
+was loyal to her friend, and not a word in exposure escaped from her
+lips. Of course, she knew nothing of the sensational developments that
+followed the uncalled-for flight of Elsie Banks.
+
+Shortly after the supper dishes had been cleared away Rosalie came
+downstairs and announced that she was going over to read to old Mrs.
+Luce, who was bedridden. Her guardian's absence was not explained to
+her, and she did not in the least suspect that he had been away all day
+on a fool's errand. Roscoe and Bud accompanied her to Mrs. Luce's front
+door, heavily bound by promises to hold their tongues regarding Miss
+Banks.
+
+"We left her there at old Mis' Luce's," related Roscoe, "an' then went
+over to Robertson's Pond to skate. She tole us to stop in fer her about
+nine o'clock, didn't she, Bud? Er was it eight?" He saw the necessity
+for accuracy.
+
+"Ten," corrected Bud deliberately.
+
+"Well, pop, we stopped fer her, an'--an'--"
+
+"Stop yer blubberin', Roscoe," commanded Anderson as harshly as he
+could.
+
+"An' got her," concluded Roscoe. "She put on her shawl an' mittens an'
+said she'd run us a race all the way home. We all got ready to start
+right in front of old Mis' Luce's gate. Bud he stopped an' said, 'Here
+comes Tony Brink.' We all looked around, an' sure enough, a heavy-set
+feller was comin' to'rds us. It looked like Tony, but when he got up to
+us I see it wasn't him. He ast us if we could tell him where Mr. Crow
+lived--"
+
+"He must 'a' been a stranger," deduced Anderson mechanically.
+
+"--an' Bud said you lived right on ahead where the street lamps was.
+Jest then a big sleigh turned out of the lane back of Mis' Luce's an'
+drove up to where we was standin'. Bud was standin' jest like this--me
+here an' Rosalie a little off to one side. S'posin' this chair was her
+an'--"
+
+"Yes--yes, go on," from Anderson.
+
+"The sleigh stopped, and there was two fellers in it. There was two
+seats, too."
+
+"Front and back?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I understand. It was a double-seated one," again deduced the marshal.
+
+"An' nen, by gum, 'fore we could say Jack Robinson, one of the fellers
+jumped out an' grabbed Rosalie. The feller on the groun', he up an' hit
+me a clip in the ear. I fell down, an' so did Bud--"
+
+"He hit me on top of the head," corrected Bud sourly.
+
+"I heerd Rosalie start to scream, but the next minute they had a blanket
+over her head an' she was chucked into the back seat. It was all over in
+a second. I got up, but 'fore I could run a feller yelled, 'Ketch him!'
+An' another feller did. 'Don't let 'em get away,' said the driver in
+low, hissin' tones--"
+
+"Regular villains," vowed Anderson.
+
+"Yes, sir. 'Don't let 'em git away er they'll rouse the town.' 'What'll
+we do with 'em?' asked the feller who held both of us. 'Kill 'em?' Gosh,
+I was skeered. Neither one of us could yell, 'cause he had us by the
+neck, an' he was powerful strong. 'Chuck 'em in here an' I'll tend to
+'em,' said the driver. Next thing we knowed we was in the front of the
+sleigh, an' the whole outfit was off like a runaway. They said they'd
+kill us if we made a noise, an' we didn't. I wish I'd'a' had my rifle,
+doggone it! I'd'a' showed 'em."
+
+"They drove like thunder out to'rds Boggs City fer about two mile," said
+Bud, who had been silent as long as human nature would permit. "'Nen
+they stopped an' throwed us out in the road. 'Go home, you devils, an'
+don't you tell anybody about us er I'll come back here some day an' give
+you a kick in the slats.'
+
+"Slats?" murmured Anderson.
+
+"That's short fer ribs," explained Bud loftily.
+
+"Well, why couldn't he have said short ribs an' been done with it?"
+complained Anderson.
+
+"Then they whipped up an' turned off west in the pike," resumed Bud. "We
+run all the way home an' tole Mr. Lamson, an' he--"
+
+"Where was Rosalie all this time?" asked Anderson.
+
+"Layin' in the back seat covered with a blanket, jest the same as if she
+was dead. I heerd 'em say somethin' about chloroformin' her. What does
+chloroform smell like, Mr. Crow?"
+
+"Jest like any medicine. It has drugs in it. They use it to pull teeth.
+Well, what then?"
+
+"Well," interposed Roscoe, "Mr. Lamson gave the alarm, an' nearly
+ever'body in town got out o' bed. They telegraphed to Boggs City an' all
+around, but it didn't seem to do no good. Them horses went faster'n
+telegraphs."
+
+"Did you ever see them fellers before?"
+
+"No, sir; but I think I'd know 'em with their masks off."
+
+"Was they masked?"
+
+"Their faces were."
+
+"Oh, my poor little Rosalie!" sobbed old Anderson hopelessly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The Haunted House
+
+
+Days passed without word or sign from the missing girl. The marshal
+haunted the post-office and the railroad station, hoping with all his
+poor old heart that word would come from her; but the letter was not
+there, nor was there a telegram at the station when he strolled over to
+that place. The county officials at Boggs City came down and began a
+cursory investigation, but Anderson's emphatic though doleful opinions
+set them quite straight, and they gave up the quest. There was nothing
+to do but to sit back and wait.
+
+In those three days Anderson Crow turned greyer and older, although he
+maintained a splendid show of resignation. He had made a perfunctory
+offer of reward for Rosalie, dead or alive, but he knew all the time
+that it would be fruitless. Mark Riley, the bill-poster, stuck up the
+glaring reward notices as far away as the telegraph poles in Clay
+County. The world was given to understand that $1000 reward would be
+paid for Rosalie's return or for information leading to the apprehension
+and capture of her abductors.
+
+There was one very mysterious point in connection with the
+affair--something so strange that it bordered on the supernatural. No
+human being in Bramble County except the two boys had seen the
+double-seated sleigh. It had disappeared as if swallowed by the earth
+itself.
+
+"Well, it don't do any good to cry over spilt milk," said Anderson
+bravely. "She's gone, an' I only hope she ain't bein' mistreated. I
+don't see why they should harm her. She's never done nobody a wrong.
+Like as not she's been taken to a comfortable place in New York, an'
+we'll hear from her as soon as she recovers from the shock. There ain't
+no use huntin' fer her, I know, but I jest can't help nosin' around a
+little. Mebby I can git some track of her. I'd give all I got in this
+world to know that she's safe an' sound, no matter if I never see her
+ag'in."
+
+The hungry look in his eyes deepened, and no one bandied jests with him
+as was the custom in days gone by.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were not many tramps practising in that section of the State.
+Anderson Crow proudly announced that they gave Tinkletown a wide berth
+because of his prowess; but the vagabond gentry took an entirely
+different view of the question. They did not infest the upper part of
+the State for the simple but eloquent reason that it meant starvation to
+them. The farmers compelled the weary wayfarer to work all day like a
+borrowed horse for a single meal at the "second table." There was no
+such thing as a "hand-out," as it is known in the tramp's vocabulary. It
+is not extraordinary, therefore, that tramps found the community so
+unattractive that they cheerfully walked miles to avoid it. A
+peculiarly well-informed vagrant once characterised the up-state farmer
+as being so "close that he never shaved because it was a waste of hair."
+
+It is hardly necessary to state, in view of the attitude of both farmer
+and tramp, that the misguided vagrant who wandered that way was the
+object of distinct, if not distinguished, curiosity. In the country
+roads he was stared at with a malevolence that chilled his appetite, no
+matter how long he had been cultivating it on barren soil. In the
+streets of Tinkletown, and even at the county seat, he was an object of
+such amazing concern that he slunk away in pure distress. It was indeed
+an unsophisticated tramp who thought to thrive in Bramble County even
+for a day and a night. In front of the general store and post-office at
+Tinkletown there was a sign-post, on which Anderson Crow had painted
+these words:
+
+     "No tramps or Live Stock Allowed on these Streets.
+             By order of
+                     A. CROW, Marshal."
+
+The live stock disregarded the command, but the tramp took warning. On
+rare occasions he may have gone through some of the houses in
+Tinkletown, but if he went through the streets no one was the wiser.
+Anderson Crow solemnly but studiously headed him off in the outskirts,
+and he took another direction. Twice in his career he drove out tramps
+who had burglarised the houses of prominent citizens in broad daylight,
+but what did it matter so long as the "hoboes" were kept from
+desecrating the main street of the town? Mr. Crow's official star,
+together with his badge from the New York detective agency, his Sons of
+the Revolution pin, and his G.A.R. insignia, made him a person to be
+feared. If the weather became too hot for coat and vest the proud
+dignitary fastened the badges to his suspenders, and their presence
+glorified the otherwise humble "galluses."
+
+On the fourth day after the abduction Marshal Crow was suddenly aroused
+from his lethargy by the news that the peace and security of the
+neighbourhood was being imposed upon.
+
+"The dickens you say!" he observed, abandoning the perpetual grip upon
+his straggling chin whiskers.
+
+"Yes, sir," responded the excited small boy, who, with two companions,
+had run himself quite out of breath all over town before he found the
+officer at Harkin's blacksmith shop.
+
+"Well, dang 'em!" said Mr. Crow impressively.
+
+"We was skatin' in the marsh when we heerd 'em plain as day," said the
+other boy. "You bet I'm nuvver goin' nigh that house ag'in."
+
+"Sho! Bud, they ain't no sech thing as ghosts," said Mr. Crow; "it's
+tramps."
+
+"You know that house is ha'nted," protested Bud. "Wasn't ole Mrs. Rank
+slew there by her son-in-law? Wasn't she chopped to pieces and buried
+there right in her own cellar?"
+
+"Thunderation, boy, that was thirty year ago!"
+
+"Well, nobody's lived in the ha'nted house sence then, has they? Didn't
+Jim Smith try to sleep there oncet on a bet, an' didn't he hear sech
+awful noises 'at he liked to went crazy?" insisted Bud.
+
+[Illustration: The haunted house]
+
+"I _do_ recollect that Jim run two mile past his own house before he
+could stop, he was in sech a hurry to git away from the place. But Jim
+didn't _see_ anything. Besides, that was twenty year ago. Ghosts don't
+hang aroun' a place when there ain't nothin' to ha'nt. Her son-in-law
+was hung, an' she ain't got no one else to pester. I tell you it's
+tramps."
+
+"Well, we just thought we'd tell you, Mr. Crow," said the first boy.
+
+In a few minutes it was known throughout the business centre of
+Tinkletown that tramps were making their home in the haunted house down
+the river, and that Anderson Crow was to ride forth on his bicycle to
+rout them out. The haunted house was three miles from town and in the
+most desolate section of the bottomland. It was approachable only
+through the treacherous swamp on one side or by means of the river on
+the other. Not until after the murder of its owner and builder, old
+Johanna Rank, was there an explanation offered for the existence of a
+home in such an unwholesome locality.
+
+Federal authorities discovered that she and her son-in-law, Dave Wolfe,
+were at the head of a great counterfeiting gang, and that they had been
+working up there in security for years, turning out spurious coins by
+the hundred. One night Dave up and killed his mother-in-law, and was
+hanged for his good deed before he could be punished for his bad ones.
+For thirty years the weather-beaten, ramshackle old cabin in the swamp
+had been unoccupied except by birds, lizards, and other denizens of the
+solitude--always, of course, including the ghost of old Mrs. Rank.
+
+Inasmuch as Dave chopped her into small bits and buried them in the
+cellar, while her own daughter held the lantern, it was not beyond the
+range of possibility that certain atoms of the unlamented Johanna were
+never unearthed by the searchers. It was generally believed in the
+community that Mrs. Rank's spirit came back every little while to nose
+around in the dirt of the cellar in quest of such portions of her person
+as had not been respectably interred in the village graveyard.
+
+Mysterious noises had been heard about the place at the dead hour of
+night, and ghostly lights had flitted past the cellar windows. All
+Tinkletown agreed that the place was haunted and kept at a most
+respectful distance. The three small boys who startled Marshal Crow from
+his moping had gone down the river to skate instead of going to school.
+They swore that the sound of muffled voices came from the interior of
+the cabin, near which they had inadvertently wandered. Although Dave
+Wolfe had been dead thirty years, one of the youngest of the lads was
+positive that he recognised the voice of the desperado. And at once the
+trio fled the 'cursed spot and brought the horrifying news to Anderson
+Crow. The detective was immediately called upon to solve the ghostly
+mystery.
+
+Marshal Crow first went to his home and donned his blue coat,
+transferring the stars and badges to the greasy lapel of the garment. He
+also secured his dark lantern and the official cane of the village, but
+why he should carry a cane on a bicycle expedition was known only to
+himself. Followed by a horde of small boys and a few representative
+citizens of Tinkletown on antiquated wheels, Mr. Crow pedalled
+majestically off to the south. Skirting the swamp, the party approached
+the haunted house over the narrow path which ran along the river bank.
+Once in sight of the dilapidated cabin, which seemed to slink farther
+and farther back into the dense shadows of the late afternoon, with all
+the diffidence of the supernatural, the marshal called a halt and
+announced his plans.
+
+"You kids go up an' tell them fellers I want to see 'em," he commanded.
+The boys fell back and prepared to whimper.
+
+"I don't want to," protested Bud.
+
+"Why don't you go an' tell 'em yourself, Anderson?" demanded Isaac
+Porter, the pump repairer.
+
+"Thunderation, Ike, who's runnin' this thing?" retorted Anderson Crow.
+"I got a right to deputise anybody to do anything at any time. Don't you
+s'pose I know how to handle a job like this? I got my own idees how to
+waylay them raskils, an' I reckon I been in the detectin' business long
+enough to know how to manage a gol-derned tramp, ain't I? How's that?
+Who says I ain't?"
+
+"Nobody said a word, Anderson," meekly observed Jim Borum.
+
+"Well, I _thought_ somebody did. An' I don't want nobody interferin'
+with an officer, either. Bud, you an' them two Heffner boys go up an'
+tell them loafers to step down here right spry er I'll come up there an'
+see about it."
+
+"Gosh, Mr. Crow, I'm a-skeered to!" whimpered Bud. The Heffner boys
+started for home on a dead run.
+
+"Askeered to?" sniffed Anderson. "An' your great-grand-dad was in the
+Revolution, too. Geminy crickets, ef you was my boy I'd give you
+somethin' to be askeered of! Now, Bud, nothin' kin happen to you. Ain't
+I here?"
+
+"But suppose they won't come when I tell 'em?"
+
+"Yes, 'n' supposin' 'tain't tramps, but ghosts?" volunteered Mr. Porter,
+edging away with his bicycle. It was now quite dark and menacing in
+there where the cabin stood. As the outcome of half an hour's
+discussion, the whole party advanced slowly upon the house, Anderson
+Crow in the lead, his dark lantern in one hand, his cane in the other.
+Half way to the house he stopped short and turned to Bud.
+
+"Gosh dern you, Bud! I don't believe you heerd any noise in there at
+all! There ain't no use goin' any further with this, gentlemen. The dern
+boys was lyin'. We might jest as well go home." And he would have
+started for home had not Isaac Porter uttered a fearful groan and
+staggered back against a swamp reed for support, his horrified eyes
+glued upon a window in the log house. The reed was inadequate, and Isaac
+tumbled over backward.
+
+For a full minute the company stared dumbly at the indistinct little
+window, paralysis attacking every sense but that of sight. At the
+expiration of another minute the place was deserted, and Anderson Crow
+was the first to reach the bicycles far up the river bank. Every face
+was as white as chalk, and every voice trembled. Mr. Crow's dignity
+asserted itself just as the valiant posse prepared to "straddle" the
+wheels in mad flight.
+
+"Hold on!" he panted. "I lost my dark lantern down there. Go back an'
+git it, Bud."
+
+"Land o' mighty! Did y'ever see anythin' like it?" gasped Jim Borum,
+trying to mount a ten-year-old boy's wheel instead of his own.
+
+"I'd like to have anybody tell me there ain't no sech things as ghosts,"
+faltered Uncle Jimmy Borton, who had always said there wasn't. "Let go,
+there! Ouch!" The command and subsequent exclamation were the inevitable
+results of his unsuccessful attempt to mount with Elon Jones the same
+wheel.
+
+"What'd I tell you, Anderson?" exclaimed Isaac Porter. "Didn't I say it
+was ghosts? Tramps nothin'! A tramp wouldn't last a second up in that
+house. It's been ha'nted fer thirty years an' it gits worse all the
+time. What air we goin' to do next?"
+
+Even the valiant Mr. Crow approved of an immediate return to Tinkletown,
+and the posse was trying to disentangle its collection of bicycles when
+an interruption came from an unsuspected quarter--a deep, masculine
+voice arose from the ice-covered river hard by, almost directly below
+that section of the bank on which Anderson and his friends were herded.
+The result was startling. Every man leaped a foot in the air and every
+hair stood on end; bicycles rattled and clashed together, and Ed
+Higgins, hopelessly bewildered, started to run in the direction of the
+haunted house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+Wicker Bonner, Harvard
+
+
+"Hello, up there!" was what the deep, masculine voice shouted from the
+river. Anderson Crow was the first to distinguish the form of the
+speaker, and he was not long in deciding that it was far from
+ghost-like. With a word of command he brought his disorganised forces
+out of chaos and huddled them together as if to resist attack.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" he demanded, addressing his men in a loud
+tone. "Don't get rattled!"
+
+"Are you speaking to me?" called the fresh voice from below.
+
+"Who are you?" demanded Mr. Crow in return.
+
+"Nobody in particular. What's going on up there? What's the fuss?"
+
+"Come up an' find out." Then Mr. Crow, observing that the man below was
+preparing to comply, turned and addressed his squad in low, earnest
+tones. "This feller will bear watchin'. He's mixed up in this thing
+somehow. Else why is he wanderin' around here close to the house? I'll
+question him."
+
+"By gosh, he ain't no ghost!" murmured Ed Higgins, eyeing the newcomer
+as he crawled up the bank. "Say, did y' see me a minute ago? If you
+fellers had come on, I was goin' right up to search that house from top
+to bottom. Was you all askeered to come?"
+
+"Aw, you!" said Anderson Crow in deep scorn.
+
+The next instant a stalwart young fellow stood before the marshal, who
+was eyeing him keenly, even imperiously. The newcomer's good-looking,
+strong-featured face was lighted up by a smile of surpassing
+friendliness.
+
+"It's lonesome as thunder down here, isn't it? Glad to see you,
+gentlemen. What's up--a bicycle race?"
+
+"No, sir; we got a little business up here, that's all," responded
+Anderson Crow diplomatically. "What air you doin' here?"
+
+"Skating. My name is Wicker Bonner, and I'm visiting my uncle,
+Congressman Bonner, across the river. You know him, I dare say. I've
+been hanging around here for a week's hunting, and haven't had an ounce
+of luck in all that time. It's rotten! Aha, I see that you are an
+officer, sir--a detective, too. By George, can it be possible that you
+are searching for some one? If you are, let me in on it. I'm dying for
+excitement."
+
+The young man's face was eager and his voice rang true. Besides, he was
+a tall, athletic chap, with brawny arms and a broad back. Altogether, he
+would make a splendid recruit, thought Anderson Crow. He was dressed in
+rough corduroy knickerbockers, the thick coat buttoned up close to his
+muffled neck. A woollen cap came down over his ears and a pair of skates
+dangled from his arm.
+
+"Yes, sir; I'm a detective, and we are up here doin' a little
+investigatin'. You are from Chicago, I see."
+
+"What makes you think so?"
+
+"Can't fool me. I c'n always tell. You said, 'I've _bean_ hangin','
+instead of 'I've _ben_ hangin'.' See? They say _bean_ in Chicago. Ha!
+ha! You didn't think I could deduce that, did you?"
+
+"I'll confess that I didn't," said Mr. Bonner with a dry smile. "I'm
+from Boston, however."
+
+"Sure," interposed Isaac Porter; "that's where the beans come from,
+Anderson."
+
+"Well, that's neither here nor there," said Mr. Crow, hastily changing
+the subject. "We're wastin' time."
+
+"Stayin' here, you mean?" asked Ed Higgins, quite ready to start.
+Involuntarily the eyes of the posse turned toward the house among the
+willows. The stranger saw the concerted glance and made inquiry.
+Whereupon Mr. Crow, assisted by seven men and five small boys, told Mr.
+Wicker Bonner, late of Harvard, what had brought them from Tinkletown to
+the haunted house, and what they had seen upon their arrival. Young
+Bonner's face glowed with the joy of excitement.
+
+"Great!" he cried, fastening his happy eyes upon the hated thing among
+the trees. "Let's search the place. By George, this is glorious!"
+
+"Not on your life!" said Ed Higgins. "You can't get me inside that
+house. Like as not a feller'd never come out alive."
+
+"Well, better men than we have died," said Mr. Bonner tranquilly. "Come
+on; I'll go in first. It's all tommy-rot about the place being haunted.
+In any event, ghosts don't monkey around at this time of day. It's
+hardly dusk."
+
+"But, gosh dern it," exploded Anderson Crow, "we seen it!"
+
+"I seen it first," said Isaac Porter proudly.
+
+"But I heerd it first," peeped up Master Bud.
+
+"You've all been drinking hard cider or pop or something like that,"
+said the brawny scoffer.
+
+"Now, see here, you're gittin' fresh, an--" began the marshal, swelling
+up like a pigeon.
+
+"Look out behind!" sang out Mr. Bonner, and Anderson jumped almost out
+of his shoes, besides ripping his shirt in the back, he turned so
+suddenly.
+
+"Jeemses River!" he gasped.
+
+"Never turn your back on an unknown danger," cautioned the young man
+serenely. "Be ready to meet it."
+
+"If you're turned t'other way you c'n git a quicker start if you want to
+run," suggested Jim Borum, bracing himself with a fresh chew of tobacco.
+
+"What time is it?" asked Wicker Bonner.
+
+Anderson Crow squinted up through the leafless treetops toward the
+setting sun; then he looked at the shadow of a sapling down on the bank.
+
+"It's about seven minutes past five--in the evenin'," he said
+conclusively. Bonner was impolite enough to pull out his watch for
+verification.
+
+"You're a minute fast," he observed; but he looked at Anderson with a
+new and respectful admiration.
+
+"He c'n detect anything under the sun," said Porter with a feeble laugh
+at his own joke.
+
+"Well, let's go up and ransack that old cabin," announced Bonner,
+starting toward the willows. The crowd held back. "I'll go alone if
+you're afraid to come," he went on. "It's my firm belief that you didn't
+see anything and the noise you boys heard was the wind whistling through
+the trees. Now, tell the truth, how many of you saw it?"
+
+"I did," came from every throat so unanimously that Jim Borum's
+supplemental oath stood out alone and forceful as a climax.
+
+"Then it's worth investigating," announced the Boston man. "It is
+certainly a very mysterious affair, and you, at least, Mr. Town Marshal,
+should back me up in the effort to unravel it. Tell me again just what
+it was you saw and what it looked like."
+
+"I won't let no man tell me what my duties are," snorted Anderson, his
+stars trembling with injured pride. "Of course I'm going to solve the
+mystery. We've got to see what's inside that house. I thought it was
+tramps at first."
+
+"Well, lead on, then; I'll follow!" said Bonner with a grin.
+
+"I thought you was so anxious to go first!" exclaimed Anderson with fine
+tact. "Go ahead yourself, ef you're so derned brave. I dare you to."
+
+Bonner laughed loud enough to awaken every ghost in Bramble County and
+then strode rapidly toward the house. Anderson Crow followed slowly and
+the rest straggled after, all alert for the first sign of resistance.
+
+"I wish I could find that derned lantern," said Anderson, searching
+diligently in the deep grass as he walked along, in the meantime
+permitting Bonner to reach the grim old doorway far in advance of him.
+
+"Come on!" called back the intrepid leader, seeing that all save the
+marshal had halted. "You don't need the lantern. It's still daylight,
+old chap. We'll find out what it was you all saw in the window."
+
+"That's the last of him," muttered Isaac Porter, as the broad back
+disappeared through the low aperture that was called a doorway. There
+were no window sashes or panes in the house, and the door had long since
+rotted from the hinges.
+
+"He'll never come out. Let's go home," added Ed Higgins conclusively.
+
+"Are you coming?" sang out Bonner from the interior of the house. His
+voice sounded prophetically sepulchral.
+
+"Consarn it, cain't you wait a minute?" replied Anderson Crow, still
+bravely but consistently looking for the much-needed dark lantern.
+
+"It's all right in here. There hasn't been a human being in the house
+for years. Come on in; it's fine!"
+
+Anderson Crow finally ventured up to the doorway and peeped in. Bonner
+was standing near the tumbledown fireplace, placidly lighting a
+cigarette.
+
+"This is a fine job you've put up on me," he growled. "I thought there
+would be something doing. There isn't a soul here, and there hasn't
+been, either."
+
+"Thunderation, man, you cain't see ghosts when they don't want you to!"
+said Anderson Crow. "It was a ghost, that's settled. I knowed it all
+the time. Nothin' human ever looked like it, and nothin' alive ever
+moaned like it did."
+
+By this time the rest of the party had reached the cabin door. The less
+timorous ventured inside, while others contented themselves by looking
+through the small windows.
+
+"Well, if you're sure you really saw something, we'd better make a
+thorough search of the house and the grounds," said Bonner, and
+forthwith began nosing about the two rooms.
+
+The floors were shaky and the place had the odour of decayed wood. Mould
+clung to the half-plastered walls, cobwebs matted the ceilings, and
+rotted fungi covered the filth in the corners. Altogether it was a most
+uninviting hole, in which no self-respecting ghost would have made its
+home. When the time came to climb up to the little garret Bonner's
+followers rebelled. He was compelled to go alone, carrying the lantern,
+which one of the small boys had found. This part of the house was even
+more loathsome than below, and it would be impossible to describe its
+condition. He saw no sign of life, and retired in utter disgust. Then
+came the trip to the cellar. Again he had no followers, the Tinkletown
+men emphatically refusing to go down where old Mrs. Rank's body had been
+buried. Bonner laughed at them and went down alone. It was nauseous with
+age and the smell of damp earth, but it was cleaner there than above
+stairs. The cellar was smaller than either of the living rooms, and was
+to be reached only through the kitchen. There was no exit leading
+directly to the exterior of the house, but there was one small window at
+the south end. Bonner examined the room carefully and then rejoined the
+party. For some reason the posse had retired to the open air as soon as
+he left them to go below. No one knew exactly why, but when one started
+to go forth the others followed with more or less alacrity.
+
+"Did you see anything?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"What did old Mrs. Rank look like when she was alive?" asked Bonner with
+a beautifully mysterious air. No one answered; but there was a sudden
+shifting of feet backward, while an expression of alarmed inquiry came
+into every face. "Don't back into that open well," warned the amused
+young man in the doorway. Anderson Crow looked sharply behind, and
+flushed indignantly when he saw that the well was at least fifty feet
+away. "I saw something down there that looked like a woman's toe," went
+on Bonner very soberly.
+
+"Good Lord! What did I tell you?" cried the marshal, turning to his
+friends. To the best of their ability they could not remember that
+Anderson had told them anything, but with one accord the whole party
+nodded approval.
+
+"I fancy it was the ghost of a toe, however, for when I tried to pick it
+up it wriggled away, and I think it chuckled. It disappear--what's the
+matter? Where are you going?"
+
+It is only necessary to state that the marshal and his posse retreated
+in good order to a distant spot where it was not quite so dark, there
+to await the approach of Wicker Bonner, who leisurely but laughingly
+inspected the exterior of the house and the grounds adjoining. Finding
+nothing out of the ordinary, except as to dilapidation, he rejoined the
+party with palpable displeasure in his face.
+
+"Well, I think I'll go back to the ice," he said; "that place is as
+quiet as the grave. You are a fine lot of jokers, and I'll admit that
+the laugh is on me."
+
+But Bonner was mystified, uncertain. He had searched the house
+thoroughly from top to bottom, and he had seen nothing unusual, but
+these men and boys were so positive that he could not believe the eyes
+of all had been deceived.
+
+"This interests me," he said at last. "I'll tell you what we'll do, Mr.
+Crow. You and I will come down here to-night, rig up a tent of some sort
+and divide watch until morning. If there is anything to be seen we'll
+find out what it is. I'll get a couple of straw mattresses from our
+boathouse and--"
+
+"I've got rheumatiz, Mr. Bonner, an' it would be the death o' me to
+sleep in this swamp," objected Anderson hastily.
+
+"Well, I'll come alone, then. I'm not afraid. I don't mean to say I'll
+sleep in that old shack, but I'll bunk out here in the woods. No human
+being could sleep in that place. Will any one volunteer to keep me
+company?"
+
+Silence.
+
+"I don't blame you. It does take nerve, I'll confess. My only
+stipulation is that you shall come down here from the village early
+to-morrow morning. I may have something of importance to tell you, Mr.
+Crow."
+
+"We'll find his dead body," groaned old Mr. Borton.
+
+"Say, mister," piped up a shrill voice, "I'll stay with you." It was Bud
+who spoke, and all Tinkletown was afterward to resound with stories of
+his bravery. The boy had been silently admiring the bold sportsman from
+Boston town, and he was ready to cast his lot with him in this
+adventure. He thrilled with pleasure when the big hero slapped him on
+the back and called him the only man in the crowd.
+
+At eight o'clock that night Bonner and the determined but trembling Bud
+came up the bank from the river and pitched a tent among the trees near
+the haunted house. From the sledge on the river below they trundled up
+their bedding and their stores. Bud had an old single-barrel shotgun, a
+knife and a pipe, which he was just learning to smoke; Bonner brought a
+Navajo blanket, a revolver and a heavy walking stick. He also had a
+large flask of whiskey and the pipe that had graduated from Harvard with
+him.
+
+At nine o'clock he put to bed in one of the chilly nests a very sick
+boy, who hated to admit that the pipe was too strong for him, but who
+felt very much relieved when he found himself wrapped snugly in the
+blankets with his head tucked entirely out of sight. Bud had spent the
+hour in regaling Bonner with the story of Rosalie Gray's abduction and
+his own heroic conduct in connection with the case. He confessed that he
+had knocked one of the villains down, but they were too many for him.
+Bonner listened politely and then--put the hero to bed.
+
+Bonner dozed off at midnight. An hour or so later he suddenly sat bolt
+upright, wide awake and alert. He had the vague impression that he was
+deathly cold and that his hair was standing on end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+The Men in the Sleigh
+
+
+Let us go back to the night on which Rosalie was seized and carried away
+from Mrs. Luce's front gate, despite the valiant resistance of her
+youthful defenders.
+
+Rosalie had drooned Thackeray to the old lady until both of them were
+dozing, and it was indeed a welcome relief that came with Roscoe's
+resounding thumps on the front door. Mrs. Luce was too old to be
+frightened out of a year's growth, but it is perfectly safe to agree
+with her that the noise cost her at least three months.
+
+Desperately blue over the defection of Elsie Banks, Rosalie had found
+little to make her evening cheerful indoors, but the fresh, crisp air
+set her spirits bounding the instant she closed Mrs. Luce's door from
+the outside. We have only to refer to Roscoe's lively narrative for
+proof of what followed almost instantly. She was seized, her head
+tightly wrapped in a thick cloak or blanket; then she was thrown into a
+sleigh, and knew nothing more except a smothering sensation and the
+odour of chloroform.
+
+When she regained consciousness she was lying on the ground in the open
+air, dark night about her. Three men were standing nearby, but there was
+no vehicle in sight. She tried to rise, but on account of her bonds was
+powerless to do so. Speech was prevented by the cloth which closed her
+lips tightly. After a time she began to grasp the meaning of the
+muttered words that passed between the men.
+
+"You got the rig in all right, Bill--you're sure that no one heard or
+saw you?" were the first questions she could make out, evidently arising
+from a previous report or explanation.
+
+"Sure. Everybody in these parts goes to bed at sundown. They ain't got
+nothing to do but sleep up 'ere."
+
+"Nobody knows we had that feller's sleigh an' horses out--nobody ever
+will know," said the big man, evidently the leader. She noticed they
+called him Sam.
+
+"Next thing is to git her across the river without leavin' any tracks.
+We ain't on a travelled road now, pals; we got to be careful. I'll carry
+her down to the bank; but be sure to step squarely in my
+footprints--it'll look like they were made by one man. See?"
+
+"The river's froze over an' we can't be tracked on the ice. It's too
+dark, too, for any one to see us. Go ahead, Sammy; it's d---- cold
+here."
+
+The big man lifted her from the ground as if she were a feather, and she
+was conscious of being borne swiftly through a stretch of sloping
+woodland down to the river bank, a journey of two or three hundred
+yards, it seemed. Here the party paused for many minutes before
+venturing out upon the wide expanse of frozen river, evidently making
+sure that the way was clear. Rosalie, her senses quite fully restored by
+this time, began to analyse the situation with a clearness and calmness
+that afterward was the object of considerable surprise to her. Instead
+of being hysterical with fear, she was actually experiencing the thrill
+of a real emotion. She had no doubt but that her abductors were persons
+hired by those connected with her early history, and, strange as it may
+seem, she could not believe that bodily harm was to be her fate after
+all these years of secret attention on the part of those so deeply,
+though remotely, interested.
+
+Somehow there raced through her brain the exhilarating conviction that
+at last the mystery of her origin was to be cleared away, and with it
+all that had been as a closed book. No thought of death entered her mind
+at that time. Afterward she was to feel that death would be most
+welcome, no matter how it came.
+
+Her captors made the trip across the river in dead silence. There was no
+moon and the night was inky black. The exposed portions of her face
+tingled with cold, but she was so heavily wrapped in the blanket that
+her body did not feel the effects of the zero weather.
+
+At length the icy stretch was passed, and after resting a few minutes,
+Sam proceeded to ascend the steep bank with her in his arms. Why she was
+not permitted to walk she did not know then or afterward. It is
+possible, even likely, that the men thought their charge was
+unconscious. She did nothing to cause them to think otherwise. Again
+they passed among trees, Sam's companions following in his footprints as
+before. Another halt and a brief command for Davy to go ahead and see
+that the coast was clear came after a long and tortuous struggle through
+the underbrush. Twice they seemed to have lost their bearings in the
+darkness, but eventually they came into the open.
+
+"Here we are!" grunted Sam as they hurried across the clearing. "A hard
+night's work, pals, but I guess we're in Easy Street now. Go ahead,
+Davy, an' open the trap!"
+
+Davy swore a mighty but sibilant oath and urged his thick, ugly figure
+ahead of the others.
+
+A moment later the desperadoes and their victim passed through a door
+and into a darkness even blacker than that outside. Davy was pounding
+carefully upon the floor of the room in which they stood. Suddenly a
+faint light spread throughout the room and a hoarse, raucous voice
+whispered:
+
+"Have you got her?"
+
+"Get out of the way--we're near froze," responded Davy gruffly.
+
+"Get down there, Bill, and take her; I'm tired carryin' this hundred and
+twenty pounder," growled Sam.
+
+The next instant Rosalie was conscious of being lowered through a trap
+door in the floor, and then of being borne rapidly through a long,
+narrow passage, lighted fitfully by the rays of a lantern in the hands
+of a fourth and as yet unseen member of the band.
+
+"There!" said Bill, impolitely dropping his burden upon a pile of straw
+in the corner of the rather extensive cave at the end of the passage;
+"wonder if the little fool is dead. She ought to be coming to by this
+time."
+
+"She's got her eyes wide open," uttered the raucous voice on the
+opposite side; and Rosalie turned her eyes in that direction. She looked
+for a full minute as if spellbound with terror, her gaze centred at the
+most repulsive human face she ever had seen--the face of Davy's mother.
+
+The woman was a giantess, a huge, hideous creature with the face of a
+man, hairy and bloated. Her unkempt hair was grey almost to whiteness,
+her teeth were snags, and her eyes were almost hidden beneath the shaggy
+brow. There was a glare of brutal satisfaction in them that appalled the
+girl.
+
+For the first time since the adventure began her heart failed her, and
+she shuddered perceptibly as her lids fell.
+
+"What the h---- are you skeering her fer like that, ma," growled Davy.
+"Don't look at her like that, or--"
+
+"See here, my boy, don't talk like that to me if you don't want me to
+kick your head off right where you stand. I'm your mother, Davy, an'--"
+
+"That'll do. This ain't no time to chew the rag," muttered Sam. "We're
+done fer. Get us something to eat an' something to drink, old woman;
+give the girl a nifter, too. She's fainted, I reckon. Hurry up; I want
+to turn in."
+
+"Better untie her hands--see if she's froze," added Bill savagely.
+
+Roughly the old woman slashed the bonds from the girl's hands and feet
+and then looked askance at Sam, who stood warming his hands over a
+kerosene stove not far away. He nodded his head, and she instantly
+untied the cloth that covered Rosalie's mouth.
+
+"It won't do no good to scream, girl. Nobody'll hear ye but us--and
+we're your friends," snarled the old woman.
+
+"Let her yell if she wants to, Maude. It may relieve her a bit," said
+Sam, meaning to be kind. Instinctively Rosalie looked about for the
+person addressed as Maude. There was but one woman in the gang. Maude!
+That was the creature's name. Instead of crying or shrieking, Rosalie
+laughed outright.
+
+At the sound of the laugh the woman drew back hastily.
+
+"By gor!" she gasped; "the--she's gone daffy!"
+
+The men turned toward them with wonder in their faces. Bill was the
+first to comprehend. He saw the girl's face grow sober with an effort,
+and realised that she was checking her amusement because it was sure to
+offend.
+
+"Aw," he grinned, "I don't blame her fer laughin'! Say what ye will,
+Maude, your name don't fit you."
+
+"It's as good as any name--" began the old hag, glaring at him; but Sam
+interposed with a command to her to get them some hot coffee while he
+had a talk with the girl. "Set up!" he said roughly, addressing Rosalie.
+"We ain't goin' to hurt you."
+
+Rosalie struggled to a sitting posture, her limbs and back stiff from
+the cold and inaction. "Don't ask questions, because they won't be
+answered. I jest want to give you some advice as to how you must act
+while you are our guest. You must be like one of the family. Maybe we'll
+be here a day, maybe a week, but it won't be any longer than that."
+
+"Would you mind telling me where I am and what this all means? Why have
+you committed this outrage? What have I done--" she found voice to say.
+He held up his hand.
+
+"You forget what I said about askin' questions. There ain't nothin' to
+tell you, that's all. You're here and that's enough."
+
+"Well, who is it that has the power to answer questions, sir? I have
+some right to ask them. You have--"
+
+"That'll do, now!" he growled. "I'll put the gag back on you if you
+keep it up. So's you won't worry, I want to say this to you: Your
+friends don't know where you are, and they couldn't find you if they
+tried. You are to stay right here in this cave until we get orders to
+move you. When the time comes we'll take you to wherever we're ordered,
+and then we're through with you. Somebody else will have the say. You
+won't be hurt here unless you try to escape--it won't do you any good to
+yell. It ain't a palace, but it's better than the grave. So be wise. All
+we got to do is to turn you over to the proper parties at the proper
+time. That's all."
+
+"Is the person you speak of my--my mother or my father?" Rosalie asked
+with bated breath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+With the Kidnapers
+
+
+Sam stared at her, and there was something like real amazement in his
+eyes.
+
+"Yer mother or father?" he repeated interrogatively. "Wha--what the
+devil can they have to do with this affair? I guess they're askin' a lot
+of questions themselves about this time."
+
+"Mr. and Mrs. Crow are not my parents," she said; and then shrewdly
+added, "and you know it, sir."
+
+"I've heard that sayin' 'bout a child never knowin' its own father, but
+this business of both the father and mother is a new one on me. I guess
+it's the chloroform. Give us that booze, Bill. She's dippy yet."
+
+He tried to induce her to swallow some of the whiskey, but steadfastly
+she refused, until finally, with an evil snarl, Sam commanded the
+giantess to hold her while he forced the burning liquor down her throat.
+There was a brief struggle, but Rosalie was no match for the huge woman,
+whose enormous arms encircled her; and as the liquid trickled in upon
+her tongue she heard above the brutal laughter of the would-be doctors
+the hoarse voice of Bill crying:
+
+"Don't hurt her, Sam! Let 'er alone!"
+
+"Close yer face! Don't you monkey in this thing, Bill Briggs.
+I'll--well, you know. Drink this, damn you!"
+
+Sputtering and choking, her heart beating wildly with fear and rage,
+Rosalie was thrown back upon the straw by the woman. Her throat was
+burning from the effects of the whiskey and her eyes were blinded by the
+tears of anger and helplessness.
+
+"Don't come any of your highfalutin' airs with me, you little cat,"
+shrieked the old woman, rubbing a knee that Rosalie had kicked in her
+struggles.
+
+"Lay still there," added Sam. "We don't want to hurt you, but you got to
+do as I tell you. Understand? Not a word, now! Gimme that coffee-pot,
+Davy. Go an' see that everything's locked up an' we'll turn in fer the
+night. Maude, you set up an' keep watch. If she makes a crack, soak her
+one."
+
+"You bet I will. She'll find she ain't attendin' no Sunday-school
+picnic."
+
+"No boozin'!" was Sam's order as he told out small portions of whiskey.
+Then the gang ate ravenously of the bacon and beans and drank cup after
+cup of coffee. Later the men threw themselves upon the piles of straw
+and soon all were snoring. The big woman refilled the lantern and hung
+it on a peg in the wall of the cave; then she took up her post near the
+square door leading to the underground passage, her throne an upturned
+whiskey barrel, her back against the wall of the cave. She glared at
+Rosalie through the semi-darkness, frequently addressing her with the
+vilest invectives cautiously uttered--and all because her victim had
+beautiful eyes and was unable to close them in sleep.
+
+[Illustration: "Rosalie was no match for the huge woman"]
+
+Rosalie's heart sank as she surveyed the surroundings with her mind
+once more clear and composed. After her recovery from the shock of
+contact with the old woman and Sam she shrank into a state of mental
+lassitude that foretold the despair which was to come later on. She did
+not sleep that night. Her brain was full of whirling thoughts of escape,
+speculations as to what was to become of her, miserable fears that the
+end would not be what the first impressions had made it, and, over all,
+a most intense horror of the old woman, who dozed, but guarded her as no
+dragon ever watched in the days of long ago.
+
+The cave in which they were housed was thirty or forty feet from side to
+side, almost circular in shape, a low roof slanting to the rocky floor.
+Here and there were niches in the walls, and in the side opposite to the
+entrance to the passageway there was a small, black opening, leading
+without doubt to the outer world. The fact that it was not used at any
+time during her stay in the cave led her to believe it was not of
+practical use. Two or three coal-oil stoves were used to heat the cave
+and for cooking purposes. There were several lanterns, a number of
+implements (such as spades, axes, crowbars, sledges, and so forth),
+stool-kegs, a rough table, which was used for all purposes known to the
+dining-room, kitchen, scullery and even bedchamber. Sam slept on the
+table. Horse blankets were thrown about the floor in confusion. They
+served as bedclothes when the gang slept. At other times they might as
+well have been called doormats. One of the niches in the wall was used
+as the resting place for such bones or remnants as might strike it when
+hurled in that direction by the occupants. No one took the trouble to
+carefully bestow anything in the garbage hole, and no one pretended to
+clean up after the other. The place was foul smelling, hot and almost
+suffocating with the fumes from the stoves, for which there seemed no
+avenue of escape.
+
+Hours afterward, although they seemed drawn out into years, the men
+began to breathe naturally, and a weird silence reigned in the cave.
+They were awake. The venerable Maude emerged from her doze, looked
+apprehensively at Sam, prodded the corner to see that the prize had not
+faded away, and then began ponderously to make preparations for a meal,
+supposedly breakfast. Meagre ablutions, such as they were, were
+performed in the "living room," a bucket of water serving as a general
+wash-basin. No one had removed his clothing during the night, not even
+his shoes. It seemed to her that the gang was in an ever-ready condition
+to evacuate the place at a moment's notice.
+
+Rosalie would not eat, nor would she bathe her face in the water that
+had been used by the quartette before her. Bill Briggs, with some sense
+of delicacy in his nature, brought some fresh water from the far end of
+the passageway. For this act he was reviled by his companions.
+
+"It's no easy job to get water here, Briggs," roared Sam. "We got to be
+savin' with it."
+
+"Well, don't let it hurt you," retorted Bill. "I'll carry it up from the
+river to-night. You won't have to do it."
+
+"She ain't any better'n I am," snorted Maude, "and nobody goes out to
+bring me a private bath, I take notice. Get up here and eat something,
+you rat! Do you want us to force it down you--"
+
+"If she don't want to eat don't coax her," said Sam. "She'll soon get
+over that. We was only hired to get her here and get her away again, and
+not to make her eat or even wash. That's nothing to us."
+
+"Well, she's got to eat or she'll die, and you know, Sam Welch, that
+ain't to be," retorted the old woman.
+
+"She'll eat before she'll die, Maudie; don't worry."
+
+"I'll never eat a mouthful!" cried Rosalie, a brave, stubborn light in
+her eyes. She was standing in the far corner drying her face with her
+handkerchief.
+
+"Oho, you can talk again, eh? Hooray! Now we'll hear the story of her
+life," laughed big Sam, his mouth full of bacon and bread. Rosalie
+flushed and the tears welled to her eyes.
+
+All day long she suffered taunts and gibes from the gang. She grew to
+fear Davy's ugly leers more than the brutal words of the others. When
+he came near she shrank back against the wall; when he spoke she
+cringed; when he attempted to touch her person she screamed. It was this
+act that brought Sam's wrath upon Davy's head. He won something like
+gratitude from the girl by profanely commanding Davy to confine his love
+to looks and not to acts.
+
+"She ain't to be harmed," was Sam's edict. "That goes, too."
+
+"Aw, you go to--" began Davy belligerently.
+
+"What's that?" snarled Sam, whirling upon him with a glare. Davy slunk
+behind his mother and glared back. Bill moved over to Sam's side. For a
+moment the air was heavy with signs of an affray. Rosalie crouched in
+her corner, her hand over her ears, her eyes closed. There was murder in
+Davy's face. "I'll break every bone in your body!" added Sam; but Bill
+laconically stayed him with a word.
+
+"Rats!" It was brief, but it brought the irate Sam to his senses.
+Trouble was averted for the time being.
+
+"Davy ain't afraid of him," cried that worthy's mother shrilly.
+
+"You bet I ain't!" added Davy after a long string of oaths. Sam grinned
+viciously.
+
+"There ain't nothin' to fight about, I guess," he said, although he did
+not look it. "We'd be fools to scrap. Everything to lose and nothin' to
+gain. All I got to say, Davy, is that you ain't to touch that girl."
+
+"Who's goin' to touch her?" roared Davy, bristling bravely. "An' you
+ain't to touch her nuther," he added.
+
+The day wore away, although it was always night in the windowless cave,
+and again the trio of men slept, with Maude as guard. Exhausted and
+faint, Rosalie fell into a sound sleep. The next morning she ate
+sparingly of the bacon and bread and drank some steaming coffee, much to
+the derisive delight of the hag.
+
+"You had to come to it, eh?" she croaked. "Had to feed that purty face,
+after all. I guess we're all alike. We're all flesh and blood, my lady."
+
+The old woman never openly offered personal violence to the girl. She
+stood in some fear of the leader--not physical fear, but the strange
+homage that a brute pays to its master. Secretly she took savage delight
+in treading on the girl's toes or in pinching her arms and legs,
+twisting her hair, spilling hot coffee on her hands, cursing her softly
+and perpetrating all sorts of little indignities that could not be
+resented, for the simple reason that they could not be proved against
+her. Her word was as good as Rosalie's.
+
+Hourly the strain grew worse and worse. The girl became ill and feverish
+with fear, loathing and uncertainty. Her ears rang with the horrors of
+their lewdness, her eyes came to see but little, for she kept them
+closed for the very pain of what they were likely to witness. In her
+heart there grew a constant prayer for deliverance from their clutches.
+She was much too strong-minded and healthy to pray for death, but her
+mind fairly reeled with the thoughts of the vengeance she would exact.
+
+The third day found the gang morose and ugly. The confinement was as
+irksome to them as it was to her. They fretted and worried, swore and
+growled. At nightfall of each day Sam ventured forth through the passage
+and out into the night. Each time he was gone for two or three hours,
+and each succeeding return to the vile cave threw the gang into deeper
+wrath. The word they were expecting was not forthcoming, the command
+from the real master was not given. They played cards all day, and at
+last began to drink more deeply than was wise. Two desperate fights
+occurred between Davy and Sam on the third day. Bill and the old woman
+pulled them apart after both had been battered savagely.
+
+"She's sick, Sam," growled Bill, standing over the cowering, white-faced
+prisoner near the close of the fourth day. Sam had been away nearly all
+of the previous night, returning gloomily without news from
+headquarters. "She'll die in this d---- place and so will we if we don't
+get out soon. Look at her! Why, she's as white as a sheet. Let's give
+her some fresh air, Sammy. It's safe. Take her up in the cabin for a
+while. To-night we can take her outside the place. Good Lord, Sammy,
+I've got a bit of heart! I can't see her die in this hole. Look at her!
+Can't you see she's nearly done for?"
+
+After considerable argument, pro and con, it was decided that it would
+be safe and certainly wise to let the girl breathe the fresh air once in
+a while. That morning Sam took her into the cabin through the passage.
+The half hour in the cold, fresh air revived her, strengthened her
+perceptibly. Her spirits took an upward bound. She began to ask
+questions, and for some reason he began to take notice of them. It may
+have been the irksomeness of the situation, his own longing to be away,
+his anger toward the person who had failed to keep the promise made
+before the abduction, that led him to talk quite freely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+In the Cave
+
+
+"It's not my fault that we're still here," he growled in answer to her
+pathetic appeal. "I've heard you prayin' for Daddy Crow to come and take
+you away. Well, it's lucky for him that he don't know where you are.
+We'd make mincemeat of that old jay in three minutes. Don't do any more
+prayin'. Prayers are like dreams--you have 'em at night and wonder why
+the next day. Now, look 'ere, Miss Gray, we didn't do this rotten job
+for the love of excitement. We're just as anxious to get out of it as
+you are."
+
+"I only ask why I am held here and what is to become of me?" said
+Rosalie resignedly. She was standing across the table from where he sat
+smoking his great, black pipe. The other members of the gang were
+lounging about, surly and black-browed, chafing inwardly over the delay
+in getting away from the cave.
+
+"I don't know why you've been held here. I only know it's d---- slow.
+I'd chuck the job, if there wasn't so much dust in it for me."
+
+"But what is to become of me? I cannot endure this much longer. It is
+killing me. Look! I am black and blue from pinches. The old woman never
+misses an opportunity to hurt me."
+
+"She's jealous of you because you're purty, that's all. Women are all
+alike, hang 'em! I wouldn't be in this sort of work if it hadn't been
+for a jealous wife."
+
+He puffed at his pipe moodily for a long time, evidently turning some
+problem over and over in his mind. At last, heaving a deep sigh, and
+prefacing his remarks with an oath, he let light in upon the mystery.
+"I'll put you next to the job. Can't give any names; it wouldn't be
+square. You see, it's this way: you ain't wanted in this country. I
+don't know why, but you ain't."
+
+"Not wanted in this country?" she cried blankly. "I don't stand in any
+one's way. My life and my love are for the peaceful home that you have
+taken me from. I don't ask for anything else. Won't you tell your
+employer as much for me? If I am released, I shall never interfere with
+the plans of--"
+
+"'Tain't that, I reckon. You must be mighty important to somebody, or
+all this trouble wouldn't be gone through with. The funny part of it is
+that we ain't to hurt you. You ain't to be killed, you know. That's the
+queer part of it, ain't it?"
+
+"I'll admit it has an agreeable sound to me," said Rosalie, with a
+shadow of a smile on her trembling lips. "It seems ghastly, though."
+
+"Well, anyhow, it's part of somebody's scheme to get you out of this
+country altogether. You are to be taken away on a ship, across the
+ocean, I think. Paris or London, mebby, and you are never to come
+back to the United States. Never, that's what I'm told."
+
+[Illustration: "She shrank back from another blow which seemed
+impending"]
+
+Rosalie was speechless, stunned. Her eyes grew wide with the misery of
+doubt and horror, her lips moved as if forming the words which would not
+come. Before she could bring a sound from the contracted throat the
+raucous voice of old Maude broke in:
+
+"What are you tellin' her, Sam Welch? Can't you keep your face closed?"
+she called, advancing upon him with a menacing look.
+
+"Aw, it's nothin' to you," he retorted, but an uncomfortable expression
+suddenly crept into his face. A loud, angry discussion ensued, the whole
+gang engaging. Three to one was the way it stood against the leader, who
+was forced to admit, secretly if not publicly, that he had no right to
+talk freely of the matter to the girl. In vain she pleaded and promised.
+Her tears were of no avail, once Sam had concluded to hold his tongue.
+Angry with himself for having to submit to the demands of the others,
+furious because she saw his surrender, Sam, without a word of warning,
+suddenly struck her on the side of the head with the flat of his broad
+hand, sending her reeling into the corner. Dazed, hurt and half stunned,
+she dropped to her knees, unable to stand. With a piteous look in her
+eyes she shrank back from another blow which seemed impending. Bill
+Briggs grasped his leader's arm and drew him away, cursing and snarling.
+
+Late in the afternoon, Bill was permitted to conduct her into the cabin
+above, for a few minutes in the air, and for a glimpse of the failing
+sunlight. She had scarcely taken her stand before the little window when
+she was hastily jerked away, but not before she thought she had
+perceived a crowd of men, huddling among the trees not far away. A
+scream for help started to her lips; but Bill's heavy hand checked it
+effectually. His burly arm sent her scuttling toward the trap-door; and
+a second later she was below, bruised from the fall and half fainting
+with disappointment and despair.
+
+Brief as the glimpse had been, she was positive she recognised two faces
+in the crowd of men--Anderson Crow's and Ed Higgins's. It meant, if her
+eyes did not deceive her, that the searchers were near at hand, and that
+dear, old Daddy Crow was leading them. Her hopes flew upward and she
+could not subdue the triumphant glance that swept the startled crowd
+when Bill breathlessly broke the news.
+
+Absolute quiet reigned in the cave after that. Maude cowed the prisoner
+into silence with the threat to cut out her tongue if she uttered a cry.
+Later, the tramp of feet could be heard on the floor of the cabin.
+There was a sound of voices, loud peals of laughter, and then the noise
+made by some one in the cellar that served as a blind at one end of the
+cabin. After that, dead silence. At nightfall, Sam stealthily ventured
+forth to reconnoitre. He came back with the report that the woods and
+swamps were clear and that the searchers, if such they were, had gone
+away.
+
+"The house, since Davy's grandma's bones were stored away in that cellar
+for several moons, has always been thought to be haunted. The fools
+probably thought they saw a ghost--an' they're runnin' yet."
+
+Then for the first time Rosalie realised that she was in the haunted
+cabin in the swamp, the most fearsome of all places in the world to
+Tinkletown, large and small. Not more than three miles from her own
+fireside! Not more than half an hour's walk from Daddy Crow and others
+in the warmth of whose love she had lived so long!
+
+"It's gettin' too hot here for us," growled Sam at supper. "We've just
+got to do something. I'm going out to-night to see if there's any word
+from the--from the party. These guys ain't all fools. Somebody is liable
+to nose out the trap-door before long and there'll be hell to pay. They
+won't come back before to-morrow, I reckon. By thunder, there ought to
+be word from the--the boss by this time. Lay low, everybody; I'll be
+back before daybreak. This time I'm a-goin' to find out something sure
+or know the reason why. I'm gettin' tired of this business. Never know
+what minute the jig's up, nor when the balloon busts."
+
+Again he stole forth into the night, leaving his companions more or less
+uneasy as to the result, after the startling events of the afternoon.
+Hour after hour passed, and with every minute therein, Rosalie's ears
+strained themselves to catch the first sound of approaching rescuers.
+Her spirits fell, but her hopes were high. She felt sure that the men
+outside had seen her face and that at last they had discovered the place
+in which she was kept. It would only be a question of time until they
+learned the baffling secret of the trap-door. Her only fear lay in the
+possibility that she might be removed by her captors before the rescuers
+could accomplish her delivery. Her bright, feverish, eager eyes,
+gleaming from the sunken white cheeks, appealed to Bill Briggs more than
+he cared to admit. The ruffian, less hardened than his fellows, began to
+feel sorry for her.
+
+Eleven o'clock found the trio anxious and ugly in their restlessness.
+There was no sleep for them. Davy visited the trap over a hundred times
+that night. His mother, breaking over the traces of restraint, hugged
+the jug of whiskey, taking swig after swig as the vigil wore on. At last
+Davy, driven to it, insisted upon having his share. Bill drank but
+little, and it was not long before Rosalie observed the shifty, nervous
+look in his eyes. From time to time he slyly appropriated certain
+articles, dropping them into his coat pocket. His ear muffs, muffler,
+gloves, matches, tobacco and many chunks of bread and bacon were stowed
+stealthily in the pockets of his coat. At last it dawned upon her that
+Bill was preparing to desert. Hope lay with him, then. If he could only
+be induced to give her an equal chance to escape!
+
+Mother and son became maudlin in their--not cups, but jug; but Davy had
+the sense to imbibe more cautiously, a fact which seemed to annoy the
+nervous Bill.
+
+"I must have air--fresh air," suddenly moaned Rosalie from her corner,
+the strain proving too great for her nerves. Bill strode over and looked
+down upon the trembling form for a full minute. "Take me outside for
+just a minute--just a minute, please. I am dying in here."
+
+"Lemme take her out," cackled old Maude. "I'll give her all the air she
+wants. Want so--some air myself. Lemme give her air, Bill. Have some air
+on me, pardner. Lemme--"
+
+"Shut up, Maude!" growled Bill, glancing uneasily about the cave. "I'll
+take her up in the cabin fer a couple of minutes. There ain't no
+danger."
+
+Davy protested, but Bill carried his point, simply because he was sober
+and knew his power over the half-stupefied pair. Davy let them out
+through the trap, promising to wait below until they were ready to
+return.
+
+"Are you going away?" whispered Rosalie, as they passed out into the
+cold, black night.
+
+"Sh! Don't talk, damn you!" he hissed.
+
+"Let me go too. I know the way home and you need have no fear of me. I
+like you, but I hate the others. Please, please! For God's sake, let me
+go! They can't catch me if I have a little start."
+
+"I'd like to, but I--I dassent. Sam would hunt me down and kill me--he
+would sure. I am goin' myself--I can't stand it no longer."
+
+"Have pity! Don't leave me alone with them. Oh, God, if you--"
+
+Moaning piteously, she pleaded with him; but he was obdurate, chiefly
+through fear of the consequences. In his heart he might have been
+willing to give her the chance, but his head saw the danger to itself
+and it was firm.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do," he whispered in the end. "I'll take you
+back there and then I'll go and tell your friends where you are and how
+to help you. Honest! Honest, I will. I know it's as broad as it is
+long, but I'd rather do it that way. They'll be here in a couple of
+hours and you'll be free. Nobody will be the wiser. Curse your whining!
+Shut up! Damn you, get back in there! Don't give me away to Davy, and
+I'll swear to help you out of this."
+
+A minute or two later, he dragged her back into the cabin,
+moaning, pleading, and crying from the pain of a sudden blow. Ten
+minutes afterward he went forth again, this time ostensibly to meet Sam;
+but Rosalie knew that he was gone forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+The Trap-Door
+
+
+A sickly new moon threw vague ghostly beams across the willow-lined
+swamp, out beyond the little cabin that stood on its border. Through the
+dense undergrowth and high among the skeleton treetops ugly shadows
+played with each other, while a sepulchral orchestra of wind and bough
+shrieked a dirge that flattened in Bonner's ears; but it was not the
+weird music of the swamp that sent the shudder of actual terror through
+the frame of the big athlete.
+
+A series of muffled, heartbreaking moans, like those of a woman in dire
+pain, came to his ears. He felt the cold perspiration start over his
+body. His nerves grew tense with trepidation, his eyes wide with horror.
+Instinctively, his fingers clutched the revolver at his side and his
+gaze went toward the black, square thing which marked the presence of
+the haunted house. The orchestra of the night seemed to bring its dirge
+to a close; a chill interlude of silence ensued. The moans died away
+into choking sobs, and Bonner's ears could hear nothing else. A sudden
+thought striking him, he rolled out of his bed and made his way to Bud's
+pile of blankets. But the solution was not there. The lad was sound
+asleep and no sound issued from his lips. The moans came from another
+source, human or otherwise, out there in the crinkling night.
+
+Carefully making his way from the tent, his courage once more restored
+but his flesh still quivering, Bonner looked intently for manifestations
+in the black home of Johanna Rank. He half expected to see a ghostly
+light flit past a window. It was intensely dark in the thicket, but the
+shadowy marsh beyond silhouetted the house into a black relief. He was
+on all fours behind a thick pile of brush, nervously drawing his pipe
+from his pocket, conscious that he needed it to steady his nerves, when
+a fresh sound, rising above the faint sobs, reached his ears. Then the
+low voice of a man came from some place in the darkness, and these words
+rang out distinctly:
+
+"Damn you!"
+
+He drew back involuntarily, for the voice seemed to be at his elbow. The
+sobs ceased suddenly, as if choked by a mighty hand.
+
+The listener's inclination was to follow the example of Anderson Crow
+and run madly off into the night. But beneath this natural panic was the
+soul of chivalry. Something told him that a woman out there in the
+solitude needed the arms of a man; and his blood began to grow hot
+again. Presently the silence was broken by a sharp cry of despair:
+
+"Have pity! Oh, God--" moaned the voice that sent thrills through his
+body--the voice of a woman, tender, refined, crushed. His fingers
+gripped the revolver with fresh vigor, but almost instantly the rustling
+of dead leaves reached his ears: the man and his victim were making
+their way toward the house.
+
+Bonner crouched among the bushes as if paralysed. He began to comprehend
+the situation. In a vague sort of way he remembered hearing of
+Tinkletown's sensation over at his uncle's house, where he was living
+with a couple of servants for a month's shooting. The atmosphere had
+been full of the sensational abduction story for several days--the
+abduction of a beautiful young woman and the helpless attitude of the
+relatives and friends. Like a whirlwind the whole situation spread
+itself before him; it left him weak. He had come upon the gang and their
+victim in this out-of-the-way corner of the world, far from the city
+toward which they were supposed to have fled. He had the solution in his
+hands and he was filled with the fire of the ancients.
+
+A light appeared in the low doorway and the squat figure of a man held a
+lantern on high. An instant later, another man dragged the helpless girl
+across the threshold and into the house. Even as Bonner squared himself
+to rush down upon them the light disappeared and darkness fell over the
+cabin. There was a sound of footsteps on the floor, a creaking of hinges
+and the stealthy closing of a door. Then there was absolute quiet.
+
+Bonner was wise as well as brave. He saw that to rush down upon the
+house now might prove his own as well as her undoing. In the darkness,
+the bandits would have every advantage. For a moment he glared at the
+black shadow ahead, his brain working like lightning.
+
+"That poor girl!" he muttered vaguely. "Damn beasts! But I'll fix 'em,
+by heaven! It won't be long, my boys."
+
+His pondering brought quick results. Crawling to Bud's cot, he aroused
+him from a deep sleep. Inside of two minutes the lad was streaking off
+through the woods toward town, with instructions to bring Anderson Crow
+and a large force of men to the spot as quickly as possible.
+
+"I'll stand guard," said Wicker Bonner.
+
+As the minutes went by Bonner's thoughts dwelt more and more intently
+upon the poor, imprisoned girl in the cabin. His blood charged his
+reason and he could scarce control the impulse to dash in upon the
+wretches. Then he brought himself up with a jerk. Where was he to find
+them? Had he not searched the house that morning and was there a sign of
+life to be found? He was stunned by this memory. For many minutes he
+stood with his perplexed eyes upon the house before a solution came to
+him.
+
+He now knew that there was a secret apartment in the old house and a
+secret means of entrance and exit. With this explanation firmly
+impressed upon his mind, Wicker Bonner decided to begin his own campaign
+for the liberation of Rosalie Gray. It would be hours before the
+sluggish Anderson Crow appeared; and Bonner was not the sort to leave a
+woman in jeopardy if it was in his power to help her. Besides, the
+country people had filled him with stories of Miss Gray's beauty, and
+they found him at an impressionable and heart-free age. The thrill of
+romance seized him and he was ready to dare.
+
+He crept up to the doorway and listened. Reason told him that the coast
+was clear; the necessity for a sentinel did not exist, so cleverly were
+the desperadoes under cover. After a few moments, he crawled into the
+room, holding his breath, as he made his way toward the cellar
+staircase. He had gone but a few feet when the sound of voices came to
+him. Slinking into a corner, he awaited developments. The sounds came
+from below, but not from the cellar room, as he had located it. A moment
+later, a man crawled into the room, coming through a hole in the floor,
+just as he had suspected. A faint light from below revealed the sinister
+figure plainly, but Bonner felt himself to be quite thoroughly hidden.
+The man in the room spoke to some one below.
+
+"I'll be back in half an hour, Davy. I'll wait fer Sam out there on the
+Point. He ought to have some news from headquarters by this time. I
+don't see why we have to hang around this place forever. She ought to be
+half way to Paris by now."
+
+"They don't want to take chances, Bill, till the excitement blows over."
+
+"Well, you an' your mother just keep your hands off of her while I'm
+out, that's all," warned Bill Briggs.
+
+The trap-door was closed, and Bonner heard the other occupant of the
+room shuffle out into the night. He was not long in deciding what to do.
+Here was the chance to dispose of one of the bandits, and he was not
+slow to seize it. There was a meeting in the thicket a few minutes
+later, and Bill was "out of the way" for the time being. Wicker Bonner
+dropped him with a sledge-hammer blow, and when he returned to the cabin
+Bill was lying bound and gagged in the tent, a helpless captive.
+
+His conqueror, immensely satisfied, supplied himself with the surplus
+ends of "guy ropes" from the tent and calmly sat down to await the
+approach of the one called Sam, he who had doubtless gone to a
+rendezvous "for news." He could well afford to bide his time. With two
+of the desperadoes disposed of in ambuscade, he could have a fairly even
+chance with the man called Davy.
+
+It seemed hours before he heard the stealthy approach of some one moving
+through the bushes. He was stiff with cold, and chafing at the
+interminable delay, but the approach of real danger quickened his blood
+once more. There was another short, sharp, silent struggle near the
+doorway, and once more Wicker Bonner stood victorious over an
+unsuspecting and now unconscious bandit. Sam, a big, powerful man, was
+soon bound and gagged and his bulk dragged off to the tent among the
+bushes.
+
+"Now for Davy," muttered Bonner, stretching his great arms in the pure
+relish of power. "There will be something doing around your heart, Miss
+Babe-in-the-Woods, in a very few minutes."
+
+He chuckled as he crept into the cabin, first having listened intently
+for sounds. For some minutes he lay quietly with his ear to the floor.
+In that time he solved one of the problems confronting him. The man Davy
+was a son of old Mrs. Rank's murderer, and the "old woman" who kept
+watch with him was his mother, wife of the historic David. It was she
+who had held the lantern, no doubt, while David Wolfe chopped her own
+mother to mincemeat. This accounted for the presence of the gang in the
+haunted house and for their knowledge of the underground room.
+
+Bonner's inspiration began to wear off. Pure luck had aided him up to
+this stage, but the bearding of David in his lair was another
+proposition altogether. His only hope was that he might find the man
+asleep. He was not taking the old woman into consideration at all. Had
+he but known it, she was the most dangerous of all.
+
+His chance, he thought, lay in strategy. It was impossible to open the
+trap-door from above, he had found by investigation. There was but one
+way to get to Miss Gray, and that was by means of a daring ruse.
+Trusting to luck, he tapped gently on the floor at the spot where memory
+told him the trap-door was situated. His heart was thumping violently.
+
+There was a movement below him, and then the sound of some one handling
+the bolts in the door. Bonner drew back, hoping against hope that a
+light would not be shown. In one hand he held his revolver ready for
+use; in the other his heavy walking stick. His plans were fully
+developed. After a moment the trap was lifted partially and a draft of
+warm air came out upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Jack, the Giant Killer
+
+
+"That you, Sam?" half whispered a man's voice. There was no light.
+
+"Sh!" hissed Bonner, muffling his voice. "Is everybody in?"
+
+"Bill's waitin' fer you outside. Ma an' me are here. Come on down.
+What's up?"
+
+"How's the girl?"
+
+"Bellerin' like a baby. Ma's with her in the cave. Hurry up! This
+thing's heavy."
+
+For reply Bonner seized the edge of the door with his left hand, first
+pushing his revolver in his trousers' pocket. Then he silently swung the
+heavy cane through the air and downward, a very faint light from below
+revealing the shock head of Davy in the aperture. It was a mighty blow
+and true. Davy's body fell away from the trap, and a second later
+Bonner's dropped through the hole. He left the trap wide open in case
+retreat were necessary. Pausing long enough to assure himself that the
+man was unconscious and bleeding profusely, and to snatch the big
+revolver from Davy's person, Bonner turned his attention to the
+surroundings.
+
+Perhaps a hundred feet away, at the end of a long, low passage, he saw
+the glimmer of a light. Without a second's hesitation he started toward
+it, feeling that the worst of the adventure was past. A shadow coming
+between him and the light, he paused in his approach. This shadow
+resolved itself into the form of a woman, a gigantic creature, who
+peered intently up the passage.
+
+"What's the matter, Davy?" she called in raucous tones. "You damn fool,
+can't you do anything without breaking your neck? I reckon you fell down
+the steps? That you, Sam?"
+
+Receiving no answer, the woman clutched the lantern and advanced boldly
+upon Bonner, who stood far down the passage, amazed and irresolute. She
+looked more formidable to him than any of the men, so he prepared for a
+struggle.
+
+"Halt!" he cried, when she was within ten feet of him. "Don't resist;
+you are surrounded!"
+
+The woman stopped like one shot, glared ahead as if she saw him for the
+first time, and then uttered a frightful shriek of rage. Dashing the
+lantern to the ground, she raised her arm and fired a revolver point
+blank at Bonner, despite the fact that his pistol was covering her. He
+heard the bullet crash into the rotten timbers near his ear. Contrary to
+her design, the lantern was not extinguished. Instead, it lay sputtering
+but effective upon the floor.
+
+Before Bonner could make up his mind to shoot at the woman she was upon
+him, firing again as she came. He did not have time to retaliate. The
+huge frame crushed down upon him and his pistol flew from his hand. As
+luck would have it, his free hand clutched her revolver, and she was
+prevented from blowing his brains out with the succeeding shots, all of
+which went wild.
+
+Then came a desperate struggle. Bonner, a trained athlete, realised that
+she was even stronger than he, more desperate in her frenzy, and with
+murder in her heart. As they lunged to and fro, her curses and shrieks
+in his ear, he began to feel the despair of defeat. She was beating him
+down with one mighty arm, crushing blows, every one of them. Then came
+the sound which turned the tide of battle, for it filled him with a
+frenzy equal to her own. The scream of a woman came down through the
+passage, piteous, terror-stricken.
+
+He knew the fate of that poor girl if his adversary overcame him. The
+thought sent his blood hot and cold at once. Infuriatedly, he exerted
+his fine strength, and the tide turned. Panting and snarling, the big
+woman was battered down. He flung her heavily to the ground and then
+leaped back to pick up his revolver, expecting a renewal of the attack.
+For the first time he was conscious of intense pain in his left leg. The
+woman made a violent effort to rise, and then fell back, groaning and
+cursing.
+
+"You've done it! You've got me!" she yelled. "My leg's broke!" Then she
+shrieked for Davy and Bill and Sam, raining curses upon the law and upon
+the traitor who had been their undoing.
+
+Bonner, his own leg wobbling and covered with blood, tried to quiet her,
+but without success. He saw that she was utterly helpless, her leg
+twisted under her heavy body. Her screams of pain as he turned her over
+proved conclusively that she was not shamming. Her hip was dislocated.
+The young man had sense enough left to return to Davy before venturing
+into the cave where Miss Gray was doubtless in a dead faint. The man was
+breathing, but still unconscious from the blow on the head. Bonner
+quickly tied his hands and feet, guarding against emergencies in case
+of his own incapacitation as the result of the bullet wound in his leg;
+then he hobbled off with the lantern past the groaning Amazon in quest
+of Rosalie Gray. It did not occur to him until afterward that single
+handed he had overcome a most desperate band of criminals, so simply had
+it all worked out up to the time of the encounter with the woman.
+
+A few yards beyond where the old woman lay moaning he came upon the cave
+in which the bandits made their home. Holding the lantern above his
+head, Bonner peered eagerly into the cavern. In the farthest corner
+crouched a girl, her terror-struck eyes fastened upon the stranger.
+
+"How do you do, Miss Gray," came the cheery greeting from his lips. She
+gasped, swept her hand over her eyes, and tried piteously to speak. The
+words would not come. "The long-prayed-for rescue has come. You are
+free--that is, as soon as we find our way out of this place. Let me
+introduce myself as Jack, the Giant Killer--hello! Don't do that! Oh,
+the devil!" She had toppled over in a dead faint.
+
+How Wicker Bonner, with his wounded leg, weak from loss of blood, and
+faint from the reaction, carried her from the cave through the passage
+and the trap-door and into the tent can only be imagined, not described.
+He only knew that it was necessary to remove her from the place, and
+that his strength would soon be gone. The sun was tinting the east
+before she opened her eyes and shuddered. In the meantime he had
+stanched the flow of blood in the fleshy part of his leg, binding the
+limb tightly with a piece of rope. It was an ugly, glancing cut made by
+a bullet of large calibre, and it was sure to put him on crutches for
+some time to come. Even now he was scarcely able to move the member. For
+an hour he had been venting his wrath upon the sluggish Anderson Crow,
+who should have been on the scene long before this. Two of his captives,
+now fully conscious, were glaring at their companions in the tent with
+hate in their eyes.
+
+Rosalie Gray, wan, dishevelled, but more beautiful than the reports had
+foretold, could not at first believe herself to be free from the
+clutches of the bandits. It took him many minutes--many painful
+minutes--to convince her that it was not a dream, and that in truth he
+was Wicker Bonner, gentleman. Sitting with his back against a tent pole,
+facing the cabin through the flap, with a revolver in his trembling
+hand, he told her of the night's adventures, and was repaid tenfold by
+the gratitude which shone from her eyes and trembled in her voice. In
+return she told him of her capture, of the awful experiences in the
+cave, and of the threats which had driven her almost to the end of
+endurance.
+
+"Oh, oh, I could love you forever for this!" she cried in the fulness of
+her joy. A rapturous smile flew to Bonner's eyes.
+
+"Forever begins with this instant, Miss Gray," he said; and without any
+apparent reason the two shook hands. Afterward they were to think of
+this trivial act and vow that it was truly the beginning. They were
+young, heart-free, and full of the romance of life.
+
+"And those awful men are really captured--and the woman?" she cried,
+after another exciting recital from him. Sam and Bill fairly snarled.
+"Suppose they should get loose?" Her eyes grew wide with the thought of
+it.
+
+"They can't," he said laconically. "I wish the marshal and his bicycle
+army would hurry along. That woman and Davy need attention. I'd hate
+like the mischief to have either of them die. One doesn't want to kill
+people, you know, Miss Gray."
+
+"But they were killing me by inches," she protested.
+
+"Ouch!" he groaned, his leg giving him a mighty twinge.
+
+"What is it?" she cried in alarm. "Why should we wait for those men?
+Come, Mr. Bonner, take me to the village--please do. I am crazy,
+absolutely crazy, to see Daddy Crow and mother. I can walk there--how
+far is it?--please come." She was running on eagerly in this strain
+until she saw the look of pain in his face--the look he tried so hard to
+conceal. She was standing straight and strong and eager before him, and
+he was very pale under the tan.
+
+"I can't, Miss Gray. I'm sorry, you know. See! Where there's smoke
+there's fire--I mean, where there's blood there's a wound. I'm done for,
+in other words."
+
+"Done for? Oh, you're not--not going to die! Are you hurt? Why didn't
+you tell me?" Whereupon she dropped to her knees at his side, her dark
+eyes searching his intently, despair in them until the winning smile
+struggled back into his. The captives chuckled audibly. "What can
+I--what shall I do? Oh, why don't those men come! It must be noon or--"
+
+"It's barely six A.M., Miss Gray. Don't worry. I'm all right. A cut in
+my leg; the old woman plugged me. I can't walk, you know--but--"
+
+"And you carried me out here and did all that and never said a word
+about--oh, how good and brave and noble you are!"
+
+When Anderson Crow and half of Tinkletown, routed out _en masse_ by Bud,
+appeared on the scene an hour or two later, they found Wicker Bonner
+stretched out on a mattress, his head in Rosalie's lap. The young woman
+held his revolver in her hand, and there was a look in her face which
+said that she would shoot any one who came to molest her charge. Two
+helpless desperadoes lay cursing in the corner of the tent.
+
+Anderson Crow, after an hour of deliberation and explanation, fell upon
+the bound and helpless bandits and bravely carted the whole lot to the
+town "calaboose." Wicker Bonner and his nurse were taken into town, and
+the news of the rescue went flying over the county, and eventually to
+the four corners of the land, for Congressman Bonner's nephew was a
+person of prominence.
+
+Bonner, as he passed up the main street in Peabody's sleigh on the way
+to Anderson Crow's home, was the centre of attraction. He was the hero
+of the hour, for was not Rosalie Gray herself, pale and ill with
+torture, his most devoted slave? What else could Tinkletown do but pay
+homage when it saw Bonner's head against her shoulder and Anderson Crow
+shouting approval from the bob-sled that carried the kidnapers. The four
+bandits, two of them much the worse for the night's contact with Wicker
+Bonner, were bundled into the lock-up, a sadly morose gang of ghosts.
+
+"I owe you a thousand dollars," said Anderson to Bonner as they drew up
+in front of the marshal's home. All Tinkletown was there to see how Mrs.
+Crow and the family would act when Rosalie was restored to them. The
+yard was full of gaping villagers, and there was a diffident cheer when
+Mrs. Crow rushed forth and fairly dragged Rosalie from the sleigh.
+"Blootch" Peabody gallantly interposed and undertook to hand the girl
+forth with the grace of a Chesterfield. But Mrs. Crow had her way.
+
+"I'll take it out in board and lodging," grinned Wicker Bonner to
+Anderson as two strong men lifted him from the sleigh.
+
+"Where's Bud?" demanded Anderson after the others had entered the house.
+
+"He stayed down to the 'calaboose' to guard the prisoners," said
+"Blootch." "Nobody could find the key to the door and nobody else would
+stay. They ain't locked in, but Bud's got two revolvers, and he says
+they can only escape over his dead body."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+Tinkletown's Convulsion
+
+
+Anderson Crow was himself once more. He was twenty years younger than
+when he went to bed the night before. His joy and pride had reached the
+bursting point--dignity alone prevented the catastrophe.
+
+"What do you expect to do with the gang, Mr. Crow?" asked Bonner,
+reclining with amiable ease in the marshal's Morris chair. He was
+feeling very comfortable, despite "Doc" Smith's stitches; and he could
+not help acknowledging, with more or less of a glow in his heart, that
+it was nice to play hero to such a heroine.
+
+"Well, I'll protect 'em, of course. Nobody c'n lynch 'em while I'm
+marshal of this town," Anderson said, forgetful of the fact that he had
+not been near the jail, where Master Bud still had full charge of
+affairs, keyless but determined. "I'll have to turn them over to the
+county sheriff to-day er to-morrow, I reckon. This derned old calaboose
+of ourn ain't any too safe. That's a mighty desperit gang we've
+captured. I cain't remember havin' took sech a mob before."
+
+"Has it occurred to you, Mr. Crow, that we have captured only the
+hirelings? Their employer, whoever he or she may be, is at large and
+probably laughing at us. Isn't there some way in which we can follow
+the case up and land the leader?"
+
+"'y Gosh, you're right," said Anderson. "I thought of that this mornin',
+but it clean skipped my mind since then. There's where the mistake was
+made, Mr. Bonner. It's probably too late now. You'd oughter thought
+about the leader. Seems to me--"
+
+"Why, Daddy Crow," cried Rosalie, a warm flush in her cheeks once more,
+"hasn't Mr. Bonner done his part? Hasn't he taken them single-handed and
+hasn't he saved me from worse than death?"
+
+"I ain't castin' any insinyations at him, Rosalie," retorted Anderson,
+very sternly for him. "How _can_ you talk like that?"
+
+"I'm not offended, Miss Gray," laughed Bonner. "We all make mistakes. It
+has just occurred to me, however, that Mr. Crow may still be able to
+find out who the leader is. The prisoners can be pumped, I dare say."
+
+"You're right ag'in, Mr. Bonner. It's funny how you c'n read my
+thoughts. I was jest goin' down to the jail to put 'em through the sweat
+cell."
+
+"Sweat cell? You mean sweat box, Mr. Crow," said Bonner, laughing in
+spite of himself.
+
+"No, sir; it's a cell. We couldn't find a box big enough. I use the cell
+reserved fer women prisoners. Mebby some day the town board will put in
+a reg'lar box, but, so far, the cell has done all right. I'll be back
+'bout supper-time, Eva. You take keer o' Rosalie. Make her sleep a while
+an' I guess you'd better dose her up a bit with quinine an'--"
+
+"I guess I know what to give her, Anderson Crow," resented his wife. "Go
+'long with you. You'd oughter been lookin' after them kidnapers three
+hours ago. I bet Bud's purty nigh wore out guardin' them. He's been
+there ever sence nine o'clock, an' it's half-past two now."
+
+"Roscoe's helpin' him," muttered Anderson, abashed.
+
+At that instant there came a rush of footsteps across the front porch
+and in burst Ed Higgins and "Blootch" Peabody, fairly gasping with
+excitement.
+
+"Hurry up, Anderson--down to the jail," sputtered the former; and then
+he was gone like the wind. "Blootch," determined to miss nothing,
+whirled to follow, or pass him if possible. He had time to shout over
+his shoulder as he went forth without closing the door:
+
+"The old woman has lynched herself!"
+
+It would now be superfluous to remark, after all the convulsions
+Tinkletown had experienced inside of twenty-four hours, that the
+populace went completely to pieces in face of this last trying
+experiment of Fate. With one accord the village toppled over as if
+struck by a broadside and lay, figuratively speaking, writhing in its
+own gore. Stupefaction assailed the town. Then one by one the minds of
+the people scrambled up from the ashes, slowly but surely, only to
+wonder where lightning would strike next. Not since the days of the
+American Revolution had the town experienced such an incessant rush of
+incident. The Judgment Day itself, with Gabriel's clarion blasts, could
+not be expected to surpass this productive hour in thrills.
+
+It was true that old Maude had committed suicide in the calaboose. She
+had been placed on a cot in the office of the prison and Dr. Smith had
+been sent for, immediately after her arrival; but he was making a call
+in the country. Bud Long, supported by half a dozen boys armed with
+Revolutionary muskets, which would not go off unless carried, stood in
+front of the little jail with its wooden walls and iron bars, guarding
+the prisoners zealously. The calaboose was built to hold tramps and
+drunken men, but not for the purpose of housing desperadoes. Even as the
+heroic Bud watched with persevering faithfulness, his charges were
+planning to knock their prison to smithereens and at the proper moment
+escape to the woods and hills. They knew the grated door was unlocked,
+but they imagined the place to be completely surrounded by vengeful
+villagers, who would cut them down like rats if they ventured forth. Had
+they but known that Bud was alone, it is quite likely they would have
+sallied forth and relieved him of his guns, spanked him soundly and then
+ambled off unmolested to the country.
+
+All the morning old Maude had been groaning and swearing in the office,
+where she lay unattended. Bud was telling his friends how he had knocked
+her down twice in the cave, after she had shot six times and slashed at
+him with her dagger, when a sudden cessation of groans from the interior
+attracted the attention of all. "Doc" Smith arrived at that juncture
+and found the boys listening intently for a resumption of the
+picturesque profanity. It was some time before the crowd became large
+enough to inspire a visit to the interior of the calaboose. As became
+his dignity, Bud led the way.
+
+The old woman, unable to endure the pain any longer, and knowing full
+well that her days were bound to end in prison, had managed, in some
+way, to hang herself from a window bar beside her bed, using a twisted
+bed sheet. She was quite dead when "Doc" made the examination. A
+committee of the whole started at once to notify Anderson Crow. For a
+minute it looked as though the jail would be left entirely unguarded,
+but Bud loyally returned to his post, reinforced by Roscoe and the
+doctor.
+
+Upon Mr. Crow's arrival at the jail, affairs assumed some aspect of
+order. He first locked the grate doors, thereby keeping the fiery David
+from coming out to see his mother before they cut her down. A messenger
+was sent for the coroner at Boggs City, and then the big body was
+released from its last hanging place.
+
+"Doggone, but this is a busy day fer me!" said Anderson. "I won't have
+time to pump them fellers till this evenin'. But I guess they'll keep.
+'What's that, Blootch?"
+
+"I was just goin' to ask Bud if they're still in there," said Blootch.
+
+"Are they, Bud?" asked Anderson in quick alarm.
+
+"Sure," replied Bud with a mighty swelling of the chest. Even Blootch
+envied him.
+
+"She's been dead jest an hour an' seven minutes," observed Anderson,
+gingerly touching the dead woman's wrist. "Doggone, I'm glad o' one
+thing!"
+
+"What's that, Anderson?"
+
+"We won't have to set her hip. Saved expense."
+
+"But we'll have to bury her, like as not," said Isaac Porter.
+
+"Yes," said Anderson reflectively. "She'll have to be buried.
+But--but--" and here his face lightened up in relief--"not fer a day er
+two; so what's the use worryin'."
+
+When the coroner arrived, soon after six o'clock, a jury was empanelled
+and witnesses sworn. In ten minutes a verdict of suicide was returned
+and the coroner was on his way back to Boggs City. He did not even know
+that a hip had been dislocated. Anderson insisted upon a post-mortem
+examination, but was laughed out of countenance by the officious M.D.
+
+"I voted fer that fool last November," said Anderson wrathfully, as the
+coroner drove off, "but you c'n kick the daylights out of me if I ever
+do it ag'in. Look out there, Bud! What in thunder are you doin' with
+them pistols? Doggone, ain't you got no sense? Pointin' 'em around that
+way. Why, you're liable to shoot somebody--"
+
+"Aw, them ain't pistols," scoffed Bud, his mouth full of something.
+"They're bologny sausages. I ain't had nothin' to eat sence last night
+and I'm hungry."
+
+"Well, it's dark out here," explained Anderson, suddenly shuffling into
+the jail. "I guess I'll put them fellers through the sweat box."
+
+"The _what?_" demanded George Ray.
+
+"The sweat-box--b-o-x, box. Cain't you hear?"
+
+"I thought you used a cell."
+
+"Thunderation, no! Nobody but country jakes call it a cell," said
+Anderson in fine scorn.
+
+The three prisoners scowled at him so fiercely and snarled so
+vindictively when they asked him if they were to be starved to death,
+that poor Anderson hurried home and commanded his wife to pack "a baskit
+of bread and butter an' things fer the prisoners." It was nine o'clock
+before he could make up his mind to venture back to the calaboose with
+his basket. He spent the intervening hours in telling Rosalie and Bonner
+about the shocking incident at the jail and in absorbing advice from the
+clear-headed young man from Boston.
+
+"I'd like to go with you to see those fellows, Mr. Crow," was Bonner's
+rueful lament. "But the doctor says I must be quiet until this
+confounded thing heals a bit. Together, I think we could bluff the whole
+story out of those scoundrels."
+
+"Oh, never you fear," said the marshal; "I'll learn all there is to be
+learnt. You jest ask Alf Reesling what kind of a pumper I am."
+
+"Who is Alf Reesling?"
+
+"Ain't you heerd of him in Boston? Why, every temperance lecturer that
+comes here says he's the biggest drunkard in the world. I supposed his
+reputation had got to Boston by this time. He's been sober only once in
+twenty-five years."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"That was when his wife died. He said he felt so good it wasn't
+necessary to get drunk. Well, I'll tell you all about it when I come
+back. Don't worry no more, Rosalie. I'll find out who's back of this
+business an' then we'll know all about you. It's a long lane that has no
+turn."
+
+"Them prisoners must be mighty near starved to death by this time,
+Anderson," warned Mrs. Crow.
+
+"Doggone, that's so!" he cried, and hustled out into the night.
+
+The calaboose was almost totally dark--quite so, had it not been for the
+single lamp that burned in the office where the body of the old woman
+was lying. Two or three timid citizens stood afar off, in front of
+Thompson's feed yard, looking with awe upon the dungeon keep. Anderson's
+footsteps grew slower and more halting as they approached the entrance
+to the forbidding square of black. The snow creaked resoundingly under
+his heels and the chill wind nipped his muffless ears with a
+spitefulness that annoyed. In fact, he became so incensed, that he set
+his basket down and slapped his ears vigorously for some minutes before
+resuming his slow progress. He hated the thought of going in where the
+dead woman lay.
+
+Suddenly he made up his mind that a confession from the men would be
+worthless unless he had ear witnesses to substantiate it in court.
+Without further deliberation, he retraced his steps hurriedly to
+Lamson's store, where, after half an hour's conversation on the topics
+of the day, he deputised the entire crowd to accompany him to the jail.
+
+"Where's Bud?" he demanded sharply.
+
+"Home in bed, poor child," said old Mr. Borton.
+
+"Well, doggone his ornery hide, why ain't he here to--" began Anderson,
+but checked himself in time to prevent the crowd from seeing that he
+expected Bud to act as leader in the expedition. "I wanted him to jot
+down notes," he substituted. Editor Squires volunteered to act as
+secretary, prompter, interpreter, and everything else that his scoffing
+tongue could utter.
+
+"Well, go ahead, then," said Anderson, pushing him forward. Harry led
+the party down the dark street with more rapidity than seemed necessary;
+few in the crowd could keep pace with him. A majority fell hopelessly
+behind, in fact.
+
+Straight into the office walked Harry, closely followed by Blootch and
+the marshal. Maude, looking like a monument of sheets, still occupied
+the centre of the floor. Without a word, the party filed past the
+gruesome, silent thing and into the jail corridor. It was as dark as
+Erebus in the barred section of the prison; a cold draft of air flew
+into the faces of the visitors.
+
+"Come here, you fellers!" called Anderson bravely into the darkness; but
+there was no response from the prisoners.
+
+For the very good reason that some hours earlier they had calmly removed
+a window from its moorings and by this time were much too far away to
+answer questions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+The Flight of the Kidnapers
+
+
+Searching parties were organised and sent out to scour the country, late
+as it was. Swift riders gave the alarm along every roadway, and the
+station agent telegraphed the news into every section of the land. At
+Boggs City, the sheriff, berating Anderson Crow for a fool and
+Tinkletown for an open-air lunatic asylum, sent his deputies down to
+assist in the pursuit. The marshal himself undertook to lead each
+separate and distinct posse. He was so overwhelmed by the magnitude of
+his misfortune that it is no wonder his brain whirled widely enough to
+encompass the whole enterprise.
+
+Be it said to the credit of Tinkletown, her citizens made every
+reasonable effort to recapture the men. The few hundred able-bodied men
+of the town rallied to the support of their marshal and the law, and
+there was not one who refused to turn out in the cold night air for a
+sweeping search of the woods and fields.
+
+Rosalie, who had been awakened early in the evening by Mr. Crow's noisy
+preparations for the pursuit, came downstairs, and instantly lost all
+desire to sleep. Bonner was lying on a couch in the "sitting-room,"
+which now served as a temporary bedchamber.
+
+"If you'll just hand me those revolvers, Mr. Crow," said he, indicating
+the two big automatics he had taken from Davy and Bill, "I'll stand
+guard over the house as best I can while you're away."
+
+"Stand guard? What fer? Nobody's goin' to steal the house."
+
+"We should not forget that these same rascals may take it into their
+heads to double on their tracks and try to carry Miss Gray away again.
+With her in their possession they'll receive their pay; without her
+their work will have been for nothing. It is a desperate crowd, and they
+may think the plan at least worth trying."
+
+Rosalie's grateful, beaming glance sent a quiver that was not of pain
+through Bonner's frame.
+
+"Don't worry about that," said the marshal. "We'll have 'em shot to
+pieces inside of an hour an' a half."
+
+"Anderson, I want you to be very careful with that horse pistol," said
+his wife nervously. "It ain't been shot off sence the war, an' like as
+not it'll kill you from behind."
+
+"Gosh blast it, Eva!" roared Anderson, "don't you suppose I know which
+end to shoot with?" And away he rushed in great dudgeon.
+
+Edna Crow sat at the front window, keeping watch for hours. She reported
+to the other members of the household as each scurrying band of
+searchers passed the place. Bonner commanded Rosalie to keep away from
+the windows, fearing a shot from the outside. From time to time Roscoe
+replenished the big blaze in the fireplace. It was cosey in the
+old-fashioned sitting-room, even though the strain upon its occupants
+was trying in the extreme.
+
+Great excitement came to them when the figure of a man was seen to drop
+to the walk near the front gate. At first it was feared that one of the
+bandits, injured by pursuers, had fallen to die, but the mournful calls
+for help that soon came from the sidewalk were more or less reassuring.
+The prostrate figure had a queer habit from time to time of raising
+itself high enough to peer between the pickets of the fence, and each
+succeeding shout seemed more vigorous than the others. Finally they
+became impatient, and then full of wrath. It was evident that the
+stranger resented the inhospitality of the house.
+
+"Who are you?" called Edna, opening the window ever so slightly.
+Whereupon the man at the gate sank to the ground and groaned with
+splendid misery.
+
+"It's me," he replied.
+
+"Who's me?"
+
+"'Rast--'Rast Little. I think I'm dyin'."
+
+There was a hurried consultation indoors, and then Roscoe bravely
+ventured out to the sidewalk.
+
+"Are you shot, 'Rast?" he asked in trembling tones.
+
+"No; I'm just wounded. Is Rosalie in there?"
+
+"Yep. She's--"
+
+"I guess I'll go in, then. Dern it! It's a long walk from our house over
+here. I guess I'll stay all night. If I don't get better to-morrow I'll
+have to stay longer. I ought to be nursed, too."
+
+"Rosalie's playin' nurse fer Mr. Bonner," volunteered Roscoe, still
+blocking the gate through which 'Rast was trying to wedge himself.
+
+"Mr. who?"
+
+"Bonner."
+
+"Well," said 'Rast after a moment's consideration, "he ought to be moved
+to a hospital. Lemme lean on you, Roscoe. I can't hardly walk, my arm
+hurts so."
+
+Mr. Little, with his bandages and his hobble, had joined in the
+expedition, and was not to be deterred until faintness overcame him and
+he dropped by the wayside. He was taken in and given a warm chair before
+the fire. One long look at Bonner and the newcomer lapsed into a
+stubborn pout. He groaned occasionally and made much ado over his
+condition, but sourly resented any approach at sympathy. Finally he fell
+asleep in the chair, his last speech being to the effect that he was
+going home early in the morning if he had to drag himself every foot of
+the way. Plainly, 'Rast had forgotten Miss Banks in the sudden revival
+of affection for Rosalie Gray. The course of true love did not run
+smoothly in Tinkletown.
+
+The searchers straggled in empty handed. Early morning found most of
+them asleep at their homes, tucked away by thankful wives, and with the
+promises of late breakfasts. The next day business was slow in asserting
+its claim upon public attention. Masculine Tinkletown dozed while
+femininity chattered to its heart's content. There was much to talk
+about and more to anticipate. The officials in all counties contiguous
+had out their dragnets, and word was expected at any time that the
+fugitives had fallen into their hands.
+
+But not that day, nor the next, nor any day, in fact, did news come of
+their capture, so Tinkletown was obliged to settle back into a state of
+tranquility. Some little interest was aroused when the town board
+ordered the calaboose repaired, and there was a ripple of excitement
+attached to the funeral of the only kidnaper in captivity. It was
+necessary to postpone the oyster supper at the Methodist Church, but
+there was some consolation in the knowledge that it would soon be
+summer-time and the benighted Africans would not need the money for
+winter clothes. The reception at the minister's house was a fizzle. He
+was warned in time, however, and it was his own fault that he received
+no more than a jug of vinegar, two loaves of bread and a pound of honey
+as the result of his expectations. It was the first time that a "pound"
+party had proven a losing enterprise.
+
+Anderson Crow maintained a relentless search for the desperadoes. He
+refused to accept Wicker Bonner's theory that they were safe in the city
+of New York. It was his own opinion that they were still in the
+neighbourhood, waiting for a chance to exhume the body of Davy's mother
+and make off with it.
+
+"Don't try to tell me, Mr. Bonner, that even a raskil like him hasn't
+any love fer his mother," he contended. "Davy may not be much of a
+model, but he had a feelin' fer the woman who bore him, an' don't you
+fergit it."
+
+"Why, Daddy Crow, he was the most heartless brute in the world!" cried
+Rosalie. "I've seen him knock her down more than once--and kick her,
+too."
+
+"A slip of the memory, that's all. He was probably thinkin' of his wife,
+if he has one."
+
+At a public meeting the town board was condemned for its failure to
+strengthen the jail at the time Anderson made his demand three years
+before.
+
+"What's the use in me catchin' thieves, and so forth, if the jail won't
+hold 'em?" Anderson declared. "I cain't afford to waste time in runnin'
+desperite characters down if the town board ain't goin' to obstruct 'em
+from gittin' away as soon as the sun sits. What's the use, I'd like to
+know? Where's the justice? I don't want it to git noised aroun' that the
+on'y way we c'n hold a prisoner is to have him commit suicide as soon as
+he's arrested. Fer two cents I'd resign right now."
+
+Of course no one would hear to that. As a result, nearly five hundred
+dollars was voted from the corporation funds to strengthen and modernise
+the "calaboose." It was the sense of the meeting that a "sweat box"
+should be installed under Mr. Crow's supervision, and that the marshal's
+salary should be increased fifty dollars a year. After the adoption of
+this popular resolution Mr. Crow arose and solemnly informed the people
+that their faith in him was not misplaced. He threw the meeting into a
+state of great excitement by announcing that the kidnapers would soon be
+in the toils once more. In response to eager queries he merely stated
+that he had a valuable clew, which could not be divulged without
+detriment to the cause. Everybody went home that night with the
+assurance that the fugitives would soon be taken. Anderson promised the
+town board that he would not take them until the jail was repaired.
+
+It was almost a fortnight before Wicker Bonner was able to walk about
+with crutches. The wound in his leg was an ugly one and healed slowly.
+His uncle, the Congressman, sent up a surgeon from New York, but that
+worthy approved of "Doc" Smith's methods, and abruptly left the young
+man to the care of an excellent nurse, Rosalie Gray. Congressman
+Bonner's servants came over every day or two with books, newspapers,
+sweetmeats, and fresh supplies from the city, but it was impossible for
+them to get any satisfaction from the young man in reply to their
+inquiries as to when he expected to return to the big house across the
+river. Bonner was beginning to hate the thought of giving up Rosalie's
+readings, her ministrations, and the no uncertain development of his own
+opinions as to her personal attractiveness.
+
+"I don't know when I'll be able to walk, Watkins," he said to the
+caretaker. "I'm afraid my heart is affected."
+
+Bonner's enforced presence at Anderson Crow's home was the source of
+extreme annoyance to the young men of the town. "Blootch" Peabody
+created a frightful scandal by getting boiling drunk toward the end of
+the week, so great was his dejection. As it was his first real spree, he
+did not recover from the effect for three days. He then took the pledge,
+and talked about the evils of strong drink with so much feeling at
+prayer meeting that the women of the town inaugurated a movement to stop
+the sale of liquor in the town. As Peabody's drug store was the only
+place where whiskey could be obtained, "Blootch" soon saw the error of
+his ways and came down from his pedestal to mend them.
+
+Bonner was a friend in need to Anderson Crow. The two were in
+consultation half of the time, and the young man's opinions were not to
+be disregarded. He advanced a theory concerning the motives of the
+leader in the plot to send Rosalie into an exile from which she was not
+expected to return. It was his belief that the person who abandoned her
+as a babe was actuated by the desire to possess a fortune which should
+have been the child's. The conditions attending the final disposition of
+this fortune doubtless were such as to make it unwise to destroy the
+girl's life. The plotter, whatever his or her relation to the child may
+have been, must have felt that a time might come when the existence of
+the real heiress would be necessary. Either such a fear was the
+inspiration or the relationship was so dear that the heart of the
+arch-plotter was full of love for the innocent victim.
+
+"Who is to say, Miss Gray," said Bonner one night as they sat before the
+fire, "that the woman who left you with Mr. Crow was not your own
+mother? Suppose that a vast estate was to be yours in trust after the
+death of some rich relative, say grandparent. It would naturally mean
+that some one else resented this bequest, and probably with some
+justice. The property was to become your own when you attained a certain
+age, let us say. Don't you see that the day would rob the disinherited
+person of every hope to retain the fortune? Even a mother might be
+tempted, for ambitious reasons, to go to extreme measures to secure the
+fortune for herself. Or she might have been influenced by a will
+stronger than her own--the will of an unscrupulous man. There are many
+contingencies, all probable, as you choose to analyse them."
+
+"But why should this person wish to banish me from the country
+altogether? I am no more dangerous here than I would be anywhere in
+Europe. And then think of the means they would have employed to get me
+away from Tinkletown. Have I not been lost to the world for years?
+Why--"
+
+"True; but I am quite convinced, and I think Mr. Crow agrees with me,
+that the recent move was made necessary by the demands of one whose
+heart is not interested, but whose hand wields the sceptre of power
+over the love which tries to shield you. Any other would have cut off
+your life at the beginning."
+
+"That's my idee," agreed Anderson solemnly.
+
+"I don't want the fortune!" cried Rosalie. "I am happy here! Why can't
+they let me alone?"
+
+"I tell you, Miss Gray, unless something happens to prevent it, that
+woman will some day give you back your own--your fortune and your name."
+
+"I can't believe it, Mr. Bonner. It is too much like a dream to me."
+
+"Well, doggone it, Rosalie, dreams don't last forever!" broke in
+Anderson Crow. "You've got to wake up some time, don't you see?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+As the Heart Grows Older
+
+
+Bonner's eagerness to begin probing into the mystery grew as his
+strength came back to him. He volunteered to interest his uncle in the
+matter, and through him to begin a systematic effort to unravel the
+tangled ends of Rosalie's life. Money was not to be spared; time and
+intelligence were to be devoted to the cause. He knew that Rosalie was
+in reality a creature of good birth and worthy of the name that any man
+might seek to bestow upon her--a name given in love by a man to the
+woman who would share it with him forever.
+
+The days and nights were teaching him the sacredness of a growing
+attachment. He was not closing his eyes to the truth. It was quite as
+impossible for big, worldly Wick Bonner to be near her and not fall a
+victim, as it was for the crude, humble youth of Tinkletown. His heart
+was just as fragile as theirs when it bared itself to her attack. Her
+beauty attracted him, her natural refinement of character appealed to
+him; her pureness, her tenderness, her goodness, wrought havoc with his
+impressions. Fresh, bright, as clear-headed as the June sunshine, she
+was a revelation to him--to Bonner, who had known her sex in all its
+environments. His heart was full of her, day and night; for day and
+night he was wondering whether she could care for him as he knew he was
+coming to care for her.
+
+One day he received a telegram. It was from his mother and his sister,
+who had just reached Boston from Bermuda, and it carried the brief
+though emphatic information that they were starting to Tinkletown to
+nurse and care for him. Bonner was thrown into a panic. He realised in
+the instant that it would be impossible for them to come to Mr. Crow's
+home, and he knew they could not be deceived as to his real condition.
+His mother would naturally insist upon his going at once to Bonner
+Place, across the river, and on to Boston as soon as he was able; his
+clever sister would see through his motives like a flash of lightning.
+Young Mr. Bonner loved them, but he was distinctly bored by the prospect
+of their coming. In some haste and confusion, he sent for "Doc" Smith.
+
+"Doctor, how soon will I be able to navigate?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"Right now."
+
+"You don't say so! I don't feel strong, you know."
+
+"Well, your leg's doing well and all danger is past. Of course, you
+won't be as spry as usual for some time, and you can't walk without
+crutches, but I don't see any sense in your loafing around here on that
+account. You'd be safe to go at any time, Mr. Bonner."
+
+"Look here, doctor, I'm afraid to change doctors. You've handled this
+case mighty well, and if I went to some other chap, he might undo it
+all. I've made up my mind to have you look out for me until this wound
+is completely healed. That's all right, now. I know what I'm talking
+about. I'll take no chances. How long will it be until it is completely
+healed?"
+
+"A couple of weeks, I suppose."
+
+"Well, I'll stay right here and have you look at it every day. It's too
+serious a matter for me to trifle with. By the way, my mother is coming
+up, and I dare say she'll want me to go to Boston. Our family doctor is
+an old fossil and I don't like to trust him with this thing. You'll be
+doing me a favour, doctor, if you keep me here until I'm thoroughly
+well. I intend to tell my mother that it will not be wise to move me
+until all danger of blood poisoning is past."
+
+"Blood poisoning? There's no danger now, sir."
+
+"You never can tell," said Bonner sagely.
+
+"But I'd be a perfect fool, Mr. Bonner, if there were still danger of
+that," complained the doctor. "What sort of a doctor would they consider
+me?"
+
+"They'd certainly give you credit for being careful, and that's what
+appeals to a mother, you know," said Bonner still more sagely. "Besides,
+it's _my_ leg, doctor, and I'll have it treated my way. I think a couple
+of weeks more under your care will put me straight. Mother has to
+consider me, that's all. I wish you'd stop in to-morrow and change these
+bandages, doctor; if you don't mind--"
+
+"Doc" Smith was not slow. He saw more than Bonner thought, so he winked
+to himself as he crossed over to his office. At the corner he met
+Anderson Crow.
+
+"Say, Anderson," he said, half chuckling, "that young Bonner has had a
+relapse."
+
+"Thunderation!"
+
+"He can't be moved for a week or two."
+
+"Will you have to cut it off?"
+
+"The leg?"
+
+"Certainly. That's the only thing that pains him, ain't it?"
+
+"I think not. I'm going to put his heart in a sling," said Smith,
+laughing heartily at what he thought would be taken as a brilliant piece
+of jesting. But he erred. Anderson went home in a great flurry and
+privately cautioned every member of the household, including Rosalie, to
+treat Bonner with every consideration, as his heart was weak and liable
+to give him great trouble. Above all, he cautioned them to keep the
+distressing news from Bonner. It would discourage him mightily. For a
+full week Anderson watched Bonner with anxious eyes, writhing every
+time the big fellow exerted himself, groaning when he gave vent to his
+hearty laugh.
+
+"Have you heard anything?" asked Bonner with faithful regularity when
+Anderson came home each night. He referred to the chase for the
+fugitives.
+
+"Nothin' worth while," replied Anderson dismally. "Uncle Jimmy Borton
+had a letter from Albany to-day, an' his son-in-law said three strange
+men had been seen in the Albany depot the other day. I had Uncle Jimmy
+write an' ast him if he had seen anybody answerin' the description, you
+know. But the three men he spoke of took a train for New York, so I
+suppose they're lost by this time. It's the most bafflin' case I ever
+worked on."
+
+"Has it occurred to you that the real leader was in this neighbourhood
+at the time? In Boggs City, let us say. According to Rosa--Miss Gray's
+story, the man Sam went out nightly for instructions. Well, he either
+went to Boggs City or to a meeting place agreed upon between him and his
+superior. It is possible that he saw this person on the very night of my
+own adventure. Now, the thing for us to do is to find out if a stranger
+was seen in these parts on that night. The hotel registers in Boggs City
+may give us a clew. If you don't mind, Mr. Crow, I'll have this New York
+detective, who is coming up to-morrow, take a look into this phase of
+the case. It won't interfere with your plans, will it?" asked Bonner,
+always considerate of the feelings of the good-hearted, simple-minded
+old marshal.
+
+"Not at all, an' I'll help him all I can, sir," responded Anderson
+magnanimously. "Here, Eva, here's a letter fer Rosalie. It's the second
+she's had from New York in three days."
+
+"It's from Miss Banks. They correspond, Anderson," said Mrs. Crow.
+
+"And say, Eva, I've decided on one thing. We've got to calculate on
+gittin' along without that thousand dollars after this."
+
+"Why, An--der--son Crow!"
+
+"Yep. We're goin' to find her folks, no matter if we do have to give up
+the thousand. It's no more'n right. She'll be twenty-one in March, an'
+I'll have to settle the guardeenship business anyhow. But, doggone it,
+Mr. Bonner, she says she won't take the money we've saved fer her."
+
+"She has told me as much, Mr. Crow. I think she's partly right. If she
+takes my advice she will divide it with you. You are entitled to all of
+it, you know--it was to be your pay--and she will not listen to your
+plan to give all of it to her. Still, I feel that she should not be
+penniless at this time. She may never need it--she certainly will not as
+long as you are alive--but it seems a wise thing for her to be protected
+against emergencies. But I dare say you can arrange that between
+yourselves. I have no right to interfere. Was there any mail for me?"
+
+"Yep. I almost fergot to fork it over. Here's one from your mother, I
+figger. This is from your sister, an' here's one from your--your
+sweetheart, I reckon. I deduce all this by sizin' up the--" and he went
+on to tell how he reached his conclusions, all of which were wrong.
+They were invitations to social affairs in Boston. "But I got somethin'
+important to tell you, Mr. Bonner. I think a trap is bein' set fer me by
+the desperadoes we're after. I guess I'm gittin' too hot on their trail.
+I had an ananymous letter to-day."
+
+"A what?"
+
+"Ananymous letter. Didn't you ever hear of one? This one was writ fer
+the express purpose of lurin' me into a trap. They want to git me out of
+the way. But I'll fool 'em. I'll not pay any attention to it."
+
+"Goodness, Anderson, I bet you'll be assassinated yet!" cried his poor
+wife. "I wish you'd give up chasin' people down."
+
+"May I have a look at the letter, Mr. Crow?" asked Bonner. Anderson
+stealthily drew the square envelope from his inside pocket and passed it
+over.
+
+"They've got to git up purty early to ketch me asleep," he said proudly.
+Bonner drew the enclosure from the envelope. As he read, his eyes
+twinkled and the corners of his mouth twitched, but his face was
+politely sober as he handed the missive back to the marshal. "Looks like
+a trap, don't it?" said Anderson. "You see there ain't no signature.
+The raskils were afraid to sign a name."
+
+"I wouldn't say anything to Miss Gray about this if I were you, Mr.
+Crow. It might disturb her, you know," said Bonner.
+
+"That means you, too, Eva," commanded Anderson in turn. "Don't worry the
+girl. She mustn't know anything about this."
+
+"I don't think it's a trap," remarked Eva as she finished reading the
+missive. Bonner took this opportunity to laugh heartily. He had held it
+back as long as possible. What Anderson described as an "ananymous"
+letter was nothing more than a polite, formal invitation to attend a
+"house warming" at Colonel Randall's on the opposite side of the river.
+It read:
+
+     "Mr. and Mrs. D.F. Randall request the honour of your presence at a
+     house warming, Friday evening, January 30, 190--, at eight o'clock.
+     Rockden-of-the-Hills."
+
+"It is addressed to me, too, Anderson," said his wife, pointing to the
+envelope. "It's the new house they finished last fall. Anonymous letter!
+Fiddlesticks! I bet there's one at the post-office fer each one of the
+girls."
+
+"Roscoe got some of the mail," murmured the marshal sheepishly. "Where
+is that infernal boy? He'd oughter be strapped good and hard fer holdin'
+back letters like this," growled he, eager to run the subject into
+another channel. After pondering all evening, he screwed up the courage
+and asked Bonner not to tell any one of his error in regard to the
+invitation. Roscoe produced invitations for his sister and Rosalie. He
+furthermore announced that half the people in town had received them.
+
+"There's a telegram comin' up fer you after a while, Mr. Bonner," he
+said. "Bud's out delivering one to Mr. Grimes, and he's going to stop
+here on the way back. I was at the station when it come in. It's from
+your ma, and it says she'll be over from Boggs City early in the
+morning."
+
+"Thanks, Roscoe," said Bonner with an amused glance at Rosalie; "you've
+saved me the trouble of reading it."
+
+"They are coming to-morrow," said Rosalie long afterward, as the last of
+the Crows straggled off to bed. "You will have to go away with them,
+won't you?"
+
+"I'm an awful nuisance about here, I fancy, and you'll be glad to be rid
+of me," he said softly, his gaze on the blazing "back-log."
+
+"No more so than you will be to go," she said so coolly that his pride
+suffered a distinct shock. He stole a shy glance at the face of the girl
+opposite. It was as calm and serene as a May morning. Her eyes likewise
+were gazing into the blaze, and her fingers were idly toying with the
+fringe on the arm of the chair.
+
+"By George!" he thought, a weakness assailing his heart suddenly; "I
+don't believe she cares a rap!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+The Left Ventricle
+
+
+The next day Mrs. Bonner and Miss Bonner descended upon Tinkletown. They
+were driven over from Boggs City in an automobile, and their advent
+caused a new thrill of excitement in town. Half of the women in
+Tinkletown found excuse to walk past Mr. Crow's home some time during
+the day, and not a few of them called to pay their respects to Mrs.
+Crow, whether they owed them or not, much to that estimable lady's
+discomfiture.
+
+Wicker's mother was a handsome, aristocratic woman with a pedigree
+reaching back to Babylon or some other historic starting place. Her
+ancestors were Tories at the time of the American Revolution, and she
+was proud of it. Her husband's forefathers had shot a few British in
+those days, it is true, and had successfully chased some of her own
+ancestors over to Long Island, but that did not matter in these
+twentieth century days. Mr. Bonner long since had gone to the tomb; and
+his widow at fifty was quite the queen of all she surveyed, which was
+not inconsiderable. The Bonners were rich in worldly possessions, rich
+in social position, rich in traditions. The daughter, just out in
+society, was a pretty girl, several years younger than Wicker. She was
+the idol of his heart. This slip of a girl had been to him the
+brightest, wittiest and prettiest girl in all the world. Now, he was
+wondering how the other girl, who was not his sister, would compare with
+her when they stood together before him.
+
+Naturally, Mrs. Crow and her daughters sank into a nervous panic as soon
+as these fashionable women from Boston set foot inside the humble home.
+They lost what little self-possession they had managed to acquire and
+floundered miserably through the preliminaries.
+
+But calm, sweet and composed as the most fastidious would require,
+Rosalie greeted the visitors without a shadow of confusion or a sign of
+gaucherie. Bonner felt a thrill of joy and pride as he took note of the
+look of surprise that crept into his mother's face--a surprise that did
+not diminish as the girl went through her unconscious test.
+
+"By George!" he cried jubilantly to himself, "she's something to be
+proud of--she's a queen!"
+
+Later in the day, after the humble though imposing lunch (the paradox
+was permissible in Tinkletown), Mrs. Bonner found time and opportunity
+to express her surprise and her approval to him. With the insight of the
+real aristocrat, she was not blind to the charms of the girl, who
+blossomed like a rose in this out-of-the-way patch of nature. The tact
+which impelled Rosalie to withdraw herself and all of the Crows from the
+house, giving the Bonners an opportunity to be together undisturbed, did
+not escape the clever woman of the world.
+
+"She is remarkable, Wicker. Tell me about her. Why does she happen to
+be living in this wretched town and among such people?"
+
+Whereupon Bonner rushed into a detailed and somewhat lengthy history of
+the mysterious Miss Gray, repeating it as it had come to him from her
+own frank lips, but with embellishments of his own that would have
+brought the red to her cheeks, could she have heard them. His mother's
+interest was not assumed; his sister was fascinated by the recital.
+
+"Who knows," she cried, her dark eyes sparkling, "she may be an heiress
+to millions!"
+
+"Or a princess of the royal blood!" amended her mother with an
+enthusiasm that was uncommon. "Blood alone has made this girl what she
+is. Heaven knows that billions or trillions could not have overcome the
+influences of a lifetime spent in--in Winkletown--or is that the name?
+It doesn't matter, Wicker--any name will satisfy. Frankly, I am
+interested in the girl. It is a crime to permit her to vegetate and die
+in a place like this."
+
+"But, mother, she loves these people," protested Bonner lifelessly.
+"They have been kind to her all these years. They have been parents,
+protectors--"
+
+"And they have been well paid for it, my son. Please do not
+misunderstand me, I am not planning to take her off their hands. I am
+not going to reconstruct her sphere in life. Not by any means. I am
+merely saying that it is a crime for her to be penned up for life in
+this--this desert. I doubt very much whether her parentage will ever be
+known, and perhaps it is just as well that it isn't to be. Still, I am
+interested."
+
+"Mamma, I think it would be very nice to ask her to come to Boston for a
+week or two, don't you?" suggested Edith Bonner, warmly but doubtfully.
+
+"Bully!" exclaimed Wicker, forgetting in his excitement that he was a
+cripple. "Have her come on to stop a while with you, Ede. It will be a
+great treat for her and, by George, I'm inclined to think it maybe
+somewhat beneficial to us."
+
+"Your enthusiasm is beautiful, Wicker," said his mother, perfectly
+unruffled. "I have no doubt you think Boston would be benefited, too."
+
+"Now, you know, mother, it's not just like you to be snippish," said he
+easily. "Besides, after living a while in other parts of the world, I'm
+beginning to feel that population is not the only thing about Boston
+that can be enlarged. It's all very nice to pave our streets with
+intellect so that we can't stray from our own footsteps, but I rather
+like the idea of losing my way, once in a while, even if I have to look
+at the same common, old sky up there that the rest of the world looks
+at, don't you know. I've learned recently that the same sun that shines
+on Boston also radiates for the rest of the world."
+
+"Yes, it shines in Tinkletown," agreed his mother serenely. "But, my
+dear--" turning to her daughter--"I think you would better wait a while
+before extending the invitation. There is no excuse for rushing into the
+unknown. Let time have a chance."
+
+"By Jove, mother, you talk sometimes like Anderson Crow. He often says
+things like that," cried Wicker delightedly.
+
+"Dear me! How can you say such a thing, Wicker?"
+
+"Well, you'd like old Anderson. He's a jewel!"
+
+"I dare say--an emerald. No, no--that was not fair or kind, Wicker. I
+unsay it. Mr. Crow and all of them have been good to you. Forgive me the
+sarcasm. Mr. Crow is perfectly impossible, but I like him. He has a
+heart, and that is more than most of us can say. And now let us return
+to earth once more. When will you be ready to start for Boston?
+To-morrow?"
+
+"Heavens, no! I'm not to be moved for quite a long time--danger of
+gangrene or something of the sort. It's astonishing, mother, what
+capable men these country doctors are. Dr. Smith is something of a
+marvel. He--he--saved my leg."
+
+"My boy--you don't mean that--" his mother was saying, her voice
+trembling.
+
+"Yes; that's what I mean. I'm all right now, but, of course, I shall be
+very careful for a couple of weeks. One can't tell, you know. Blood
+poisoning and all that sort of thing. But let's not talk of it--it's
+gruesome."
+
+"Indeed it is. You must be extremely careful, Wicker. Promise me that
+you will do nothing foolish. Don't use your leg until the doctor--but I
+have something better. We will send for Dr. J----. He can run up from
+Boston two or three times--"
+
+"Nothing of the sort, mother! Nonsense! Smith knows more in a minute
+than J---- does in a month. He's handling the case exactly as I want him
+to. Let well enough alone, say I. You know J---- always wants to
+amputate everything that can be cut or sawed off. For heaven's sake,
+don't let him try it on me. I need my legs."
+
+It is not necessary to say that Mrs. Bonner was completely won over by
+this argument. She commanded him to stay where he was until it was
+perfectly safe to be moved across the river, where he could recuperate
+before venturing into the city of his birth. Moreover, she announced
+that Edith and she would remain in Boggs City until he was quite out of
+danger, driving over every day in their chartered automobile. It
+suddenly struck Bonner that it would be necessary to bribe "Doc" Smith
+and the entire Crow family, if he was to maintain his position as an
+invalid.
+
+"Doc" Smith when put to the test lied ably in behalf of his client (he
+refused to call him his patient), and Mrs. Bonner was convinced. Mr.
+Crow and Eva vigorously protested that the young man would not be a
+"mite of trouble," and that he could stay as long as he liked.
+
+"He's a gentleman, Mrs. Bonner," announced the marshal, as if the mother
+was being made aware of the fact for the first time. "Mrs. Crow an' me
+have talked it over, an' I know what I'm talkin' about. He's a perfect
+gentleman."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Crow. I am happy to hear you say that," said Mrs.
+Bonner, with fine tact. "You will not mind if he stops here a while
+longer then?"
+
+"I should say not. If he'll take the job, I'll app'int him deputy
+marshal."
+
+"I'd like a picture of you with the badge and uniform, Wick," said Edith
+with good-natured banter.
+
+Just before the two ladies left for Boggs City that evening Bonner
+managed to say something to Edith.
+
+"Say, Ede, I think it would be uncommonly decent of you to ask Miss Gray
+down to Boston this spring. You'll like her."
+
+"Wicker, if it were not so awfully common, I'd laugh in my sleeve," said
+she, surveying him with a calm scrutiny that disconcerted. "I wasn't
+born yesterday, you know. Mother was, perhaps, but not your dear little
+sister. Cheer up, brother. You'll get over it, just like all the rest.
+I'll ask her to come, but--Please don't frown like that. I'll suspect
+something."
+
+During the many little automobile excursions that the two girls enjoyed
+during those few days in Tinkletown, Miss Bonner found much to love in
+Rosalie, much to esteem and a great deal to anticipate. Purposely, she
+set about to learn by "deduction" just what Rosalie's feelings were for
+the big brother. She would not have been surprised to discover the
+telltale signs of a real but secret affection on Rosalie's part, but she
+was, on the contrary, amazed and not a little chagrined to have the
+young girl meet every advance with a joyous candour, that definitely set
+aside any possibility of love for the supposedly irresistible brother.
+Miss Edith's mind was quite at rest, but with the arrogant pride of a
+sister, she resented the fact that any one could know this cherished
+brother and not fall a victim. Perversely, she would have hated Rosalie
+had she caught her, in a single moment of unguardedness, revealing a
+feeling more tender than friendly interest for him.
+
+Sophisticated and world-wise, the gay, careless Miss Bonner read her
+pages quickly--she skimmed them--but she saw a great deal between the
+lines. If her mother had been equally discerning, that very estimable
+lady might have found herself immensely relieved along certain lines.
+
+Bonner was having a hard time of it these days. It was worse than misery
+to stay indoors, and it was utterly out of the question for him to
+venture out. His leg was healing with disgusting rashness, but his heart
+was going into an illness that was to scoff at the cures of man. And if
+his parting with his mother and the rosy-faced young woman savoured of
+relief, he must he forgiven. A sore breast is no respecter of persons.
+
+They were returning to the Hub by the early morning train from Boggs
+City, and it was understood that Rosalie was to come to them in June.
+Let it be said in good truth that both Mrs. Bonner and her daughter were
+delighted to have her promise. If they felt any uneasiness as to the
+possibility of unwholesome revelations in connection with her birth,
+they purposely blindfolded themselves and indulged in the game of
+consequences.
+
+Mrs. Bonner was waiting in the automobile, having said good-bye to
+Wicker.
+
+"I'll keep close watch on him, Mrs. Bonner," promised Anderson, "and
+telegraph you if his condition changes a mite. I ast 'Doc' Smith to-day
+to tell me the real truth 'bout him, an'--"
+
+"The real truth? What do you mean?" she cried, in fresh alarm.
+
+"Don't worry, ma'am. He's improvin' fine, 'doc' says. He told me he'd be
+out o' danger when he got back to Boston. His heart's worryin' 'doc' a
+little. I ast 'im to speak plain an' tell me jest how bad it's affected.
+He said: 'At present, only the left ventricle--whatever that be--only
+the left one is punctured, but the right one seems to need a change of
+air.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+The Grin Derisive
+
+
+"I like your ma," said Anderson to Wicker, later in the evening. "She's
+a perfect lady. Doggone, it's a relief to see a rich woman that knows
+how to be a lady. She ain't a bit stuck up an' yet she's a reg'lar
+aristocrat. Did I ever tell you about what happened to Judge
+Courtwright's wife? No? Well, it was a long time ago, right here in
+Tinkletown. The judge concluded this would be a good place fer a summer
+home--so him an' her put up a grand residence down there on the river
+bluff. It was the only summer place on this side of the river. Well, of
+course Mrs. Courtwright had to turn in an' be the leader of the women in
+this place. She lorded it over 'em an' she give 'em to understand that
+she was a queen er somethin' like that an' they was nothin' but
+peasants. An' the derned fool women 'lowed her to do it, too. Seems as
+though her great-grandfather was a 'squire over in England, an' she had
+a right to be swell. Well, she ruled the roost fer two summers an'
+nobody could get near her without a special dispensation from the
+Almighty. She wouldn't look at anybody with her eyes; her chin was so
+high in the air that she had to look through her nose.
+
+"Her husband was as old as Methoosalum--that is, he was as old as
+Methoosalum was when he was a boy, so to speak--an' she had him skeered
+of his life. But I fixed her. At the end of the second summer she was
+ready to git up an' git, duke er no duke. Lemme me give you a tip, Wick.
+If you want to fetch a queen down to your level, jest let her know
+you're laughin' at her. Well, sir, the judge's wife used to turn up her
+nose at me until I got to feelin' too small to be seen. My pride was
+wallerin' in the dust. Finally, I thought of a scheme to fix her. Every
+time I saw her, I'd grin at her--not sayin' a word, mind you, but jest
+lookin' at her as if she struck me as bein' funny. Well, sir, I kept it
+up good an' strong. First thing I knowed, she was beginnin' to look as
+though a bee had stung her an' she couldn't find the place. I'd ketch
+her stealin' sly glances at me an' she allus found me with a grin on my
+face--a good, healthy grin, too.
+
+"There wasn't anything to laugh at, mind you, but she didn't know that.
+She got to fixin' her back hair and lookin' worried about her clothes.
+'Nen she'd wipe her face to see if the powder was on straight, all the
+time wonderin' what in thunder I was laughin' at. If she passed in her
+kerridge she'd peep back to see if I was laughin'; and I allus was. I
+never failed. All this time I wasn't sayin' a word-jest grinnin' as
+though she tickled me half to death. Gradually I begin to be scientific
+about it. I got so that when she caught me laughin', I'd try my best to
+hide the grin. Course that made it all the worse. She fidgeted an'
+squirmed an' got red in the face till it looked like she was pickled.
+Doggone, ef she didn't begin to neglect her business as a
+great-granddaughter! She didn't have time to lord it over her peasants.
+She was too blame busy wonderin' what I was laughin' at.
+
+[Illustration: "It was a wise, discreet old oak"]
+
+"'Nen she begin to look peaked an' thin. She looked like she was seem'
+ghosts all the time. That blamed grin of mine pursued her every minute.
+Course, she couldn't kick about it. That wouldn't do at all. She jest
+had to bear it without grinnin'. There wasn't anything to say. Finally,
+she got to stayin' away from the meetin's an' almost quit drivin'
+through the town. Everybody noticed the change in her. People said she
+was goin' crazy about her back hair. She lost thirty pounds worryin'
+before August, and when September come, the judge had to take her to a
+rest cure. They never come back to Tinkletown, an' the judge had to sell
+the place fer half what it cost him. Fer two years she almost went into
+hysterics when anybody laughed. But it done her good. It changed her
+idees. She got over her high an' mighty ways, they say, an' I hear she's
+one of the nicest, sweetest old ladies in Boggs City nowadays. But
+Blootch Peabody says that to this day she looks flustered when anybody
+notices her back hair. The Lord knows I wa'n't laughin' at her hair. I
+don't see why she thought so, do you?"
+
+Bonner laughed long and heartily over the experiment; but Rosalie
+vigorously expressed her disapproval of the marshal's methods.
+
+"It's the only real mean thing I ever heard of you doing, daddy Crow!"
+she cried. "It was cruel!"
+
+"Course you'd take her part, bein' a woman," said he serenely. "Mrs.
+Crow did, too, when I told her about it twenty years ago. Women ain't
+got much sense of humour, have they, Wick?" He was calling him Wick
+nowadays; and the young man enjoyed the familiarity.
+
+The days came when Bonner could walk about with his cane, and he was not
+slow to avail himself of the privilege this afforded. It meant enjoyable
+strolls with Rosalie, and it meant the elevation of his spirits to such
+heights that the skies formed no bounds for them. The town was not slow
+to draw conclusions. Every one said it would be a "match." It was
+certain that the interesting Boston man had acquired a clear field.
+Tinkletown's beaux gave up in despair and dropped out of the contest
+with the hope that complete recovery from his injuries might not only
+banish Bonner from the village, but also from the thoughts of Rosalie
+Gray. Most of the young men took their medicine philosophically. They
+had known from the first that their chances were small. Blootch Peabody
+and Ed Higgins, because of the personal rivalry between themselves,
+hoped on and on and grew more bitter between themselves, instead of
+toward Bonner.
+
+[Illustration: "'I beg your pardon,' he said humbly"]
+
+Anderson Crow and Eva were delighted and the Misses Crow, after futile
+efforts to interest the young man in their own wares, fell in with the
+old folks and exuberantly whispered to the world that "it would be
+perfectly glorious." Roscoe was not so charitable. He was soundly
+disgusted with the thought of losing his friend Bonner in the hated
+bonds of matrimony. From his juvenile point of view, it was a fate
+that a good fellow like Bonner did not deserve. Even Rosalie was not
+good enough for him, so he told Bud Long; but Bud, who had worshipped
+Rosalie with a hopeless devotion through most of his short life, took
+strong though sheepish exceptions to the remark. It seemed quite settled
+in the minds of every one but Bonner and Rosalie themselves. They went
+along evenly, happily, perhaps dreamily, letting the present and the
+future take care of themselves as best they could, making mountains of
+the past--mountains so high and sheer that they could not be surmounted
+in retreat.
+
+Bonner was helplessly in love--so much so, indeed, that in the face of
+it, he lost the courage that had carried him through trivial affairs of
+the past, and left him floundering vaguely in seas that looked old and
+yet were new. Hourly, he sought for the first sign of love in her eyes,
+for the first touch of sentiment; but if there was a point of weakness
+in her defence, it was not revealed to the hungry perception of the
+would-be conqueror. And so they drifted on through the February chill,
+that seemed warm to them, through the light hours and the dark ones,
+quickly and surely to the day which was to call him cured of one ill and
+yet sorely afflicted by another.
+
+Through it all he was saying to himself that it did not matter what her
+birth may have been, so long as she lived at this hour in his life, and
+yet a still, cool voice was whispering procrastination with ding-dong
+persistency through every avenue of his brain. "Wait!" said the cool
+voice of prejudice. His heart did not hear, but his brain did. One look
+of submission from her tender eyes and his brain would have turned deaf
+to the small, cool voice--but her eyes stood their ground and the voice
+survived.
+
+The day was fast approaching when it would be necessary for him to leave
+the home of Mr. Crow. He could no longer encroach upon the hospitality
+and good nature of the marshal--especially as he had declined the
+proffered appointment to become deputy town marshal. Together they had
+discussed every possible side to the abduction mystery and had laid the
+groundwork for a systematic attempt at a solution. There was nothing
+more for them to do. True to his promise, Bonner had put the case in the
+hands of one of the greatest detectives in the land, together with every
+known point in the girl's history. Tinkletown was not to provide the
+solution, although it contained the mystery. On that point there could
+be no doubt; so, Mr. Bonner was reluctantly compelled to admit to
+himself that he had no plausible excuse for staying on. The great
+detective from New York had come to town, gathered all of the facts
+under cover of strictest secrecy, run down every possible shadow of a
+clew in Boggs City, and had returned to the metropolis, there to begin
+the search twenty-one years back.
+
+"Four weeks," Bonner was saying to her reflectively, as they came
+homeward from their last visit to the abandoned mill on Turnip Creek. It
+was a bright, warm February morning, suggestive of spring and fraught
+with the fragrance of something far sweeter. "Four weeks of idleness and
+joy to me--almost a lifetime in the waste of years. Does it seem long to
+you, Miss Gray--oh, I remember, I am to call you Rosalie."
+
+"It seems that I have known you always instead of for four weeks," she
+said gently. "They have been happy weeks, haven't they? My--our only
+fear is that you haven't been comfortable in our poor little home. It's
+not what you are accustomed--"
+
+"Home is what the home folks make it," he said, striving to quote a
+vague old saying. He was dimly conscious of a subdued smile on her part
+and he felt the fool. "At any rate, I was more than comfortable. I was
+happy--never so happy. All my life shall be built about this single
+month--my past ends with it, my future begins. You, Rosalie," he went on
+swiftly, his eyes gleaming with the love that would not be denied, "are
+the spirit of life as I shall know it from this day forth. It is you who
+have made Tinkletown a kingdom, one of its homes a palace. Don't turn
+your face away, Rosalie."
+
+But she turned her face toward him and her dark eyes did not flinch as
+they met his, out there in the bleak old wood.
+
+"Don't, please don't, Wicker," she said softly, firmly. Her hand touched
+his arm for an instant. "You will understand, won't you? Please don't!"
+There was a world of meaning in it.
+
+His heart turned cold as ice, the blood left his face. He understood.
+She did not love him.
+
+"Yes," he said, his voice dead and hoarse, "I think I understand,
+Rosalie. I have taken too much for granted, fool that I am. Bah! The
+egotism of a fool!"
+
+"You must not speak like that," she said, her face contracted by pain
+and pity. "You are the most wonderful man I've ever known--the best and
+the truest. But--" and she paused, with a wan, drear smile on her lips.
+
+"I understand," he interrupted. "Don't say it. I want to think that some
+day you will feel like saying something else, and I want to hope,
+Rosalie, that it won't always be like this. Let us talk about something
+else." But neither cared to speak for what seemed an hour. They were in
+sight of home before the stony silence was broken. "I may come over from
+Bonner Place to see you?" he asked at last. He was to cross the river
+the next day for a stay of a week or two at his uncle's place.
+
+"Yes--often, Wicker. I shall want to see you every day. Yes, every day;
+I'm sure of it," she said wistfully, a hungry look in her eyes that he
+did not see, for he was staring straight ahead. Had he seen that look or
+caught the true tone in her voice, the world might not have looked so
+dark to him. When he did look at her again, her face was calm almost to
+sereneness.
+
+"And you will come to Boston in June just the same?"
+
+"If your sister and--and your mother still want me to come."
+
+[Illustration: "'I think I understand, Rosalie'"]
+
+She was thinking of herself, the nameless one, in the house of his
+people; she was thinking of the doubts, the speculations--even the fears
+that would form the background of her welcome in that proud house. No
+longer was Rosalie Gray regarding herself as the happy, careless
+foster-child of Anderson Crow; she was seeing herself only as the
+castaway, the unwanted, and the world was growing bitter for her. But
+Bonner was blind to all this; he could not, should not know.
+
+"You know they want you to come. Why do you say that?" he asked quickly,
+a strange, dim perspective rising before him for an instant, only to
+fade away before it could be analysed.
+
+"One always says that," she replied with a smile. "It is the penalty of
+being invited. Your sister has written the dearest letter to me, and I
+have answered it. We love one another, she and I."
+
+"Rosalie, I am going to write to you," said he suddenly; "you will
+answer?"
+
+"Yes," she told him simply. His heart quickened, but faltered, and was
+lost. "I had a long letter from Elsie Banks to-day," she went on with an
+indifference that chilled.
+
+"Oh," he said; "she is your friend who was or is to marry Tom Reddon, I
+believe. I knew him at Harvard. Tell me, are they married?"
+
+"No. It was not to take place until March, but now she writes that her
+mother is ill and must go to California for several months. Mr. Reddon
+wants to be married at once, or before they go West, at least; but she
+says she cannot consent while her mother requires so much of her. I
+don't know how it will end, but I presume they will be married and all
+go to California. That seems the simple and just way, doesn't it?"
+
+"Any way seems just, I'd say," he said. "They love one another, so
+what's the odds? Do you know Reddon well?"
+
+"I have seen him many times," she replied with apparent evasiveness.
+
+"He is a--" but here he stopped as if paralysis had seized him suddenly.
+The truth shot into his brain like a deadly bolt. Everything was as
+plain as day to him now. She stooped to pick up a slim, broken reed that
+crossed her path, and her face was averted. "God!" was the cry that
+almost escaped his lips. "She loves Reddon, and he is going to marry her
+best friend!" Cold perspiration started from every pore in his body. He
+had met the doom of love--the end of hope.
+
+"He has always loved her," said Rosalie so calmly that he was shocked by
+her courage. "I hope she will not ask him to wait."
+
+Rosalie never understood why Bonner looked at her in amazement and said:
+
+"By Jove, you are a--a marvel, Rosalie!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+The Blind Man's Eyes
+
+
+Bonner went away without another word of love to her. He saw the
+futility of hoping, and he was noble enough to respect her plea for
+silence on the subject that seemed distasteful to her. He went as one
+conquered and subdued; he went with the iron in his heart for the first
+time--deeply imbedded and racking.
+
+Bonner came twice from the place across the river. Anderson observed
+that he looked "peaked," and Rosalie mistook the hungry, wan look in his
+face for the emaciation natural to confinement indoors. He was whiter
+than was his wont, and there was a dogged, stubborn look growing about
+his eyes and mouth that would have been understood by the sophisticated.
+It was the first indication of the battle his love was to wage in days
+to come. He saw no sign of weakening in Rosalie. She would not let him
+look into her brave little heart, and so he turned his back upon the
+field and fled to Boston, half beaten, but unconsciously collecting his
+forces for the strife of another day. He did not know it then, nor did
+she, but his love was not vanquished; it had met its first rebuff, that
+was all.
+
+Tinkletown was sorry to see him depart, but it thrived on his promise to
+return. Every one winked slyly behind his back, for, of course,
+Tinkletown understood it all. He would come back often and then not at
+all--for the magnet would go away with him in the end. The busybodies,
+good-natured but garrulous, did not have to rehearse the story to its
+end; it would have been superfluous. Be it said here, however, that
+Rosalie was not long in settling many of the speculators straight in
+their minds. It seemed improbable that it should not be as they had
+thought and hoped. The news soon reached Blootch Peabody and Ed Higgins,
+and, both eager to revive a blighted hope, in high spirits, called to
+see Rosalie on the same night. It is on record that neither of them
+uttered two dozen words between eight o'clock and ten, so bitterly was
+the presence of the other resented.
+
+March came, and with it, to the intense amazement of Anderson Crow, the
+ever-mysterious thousand dollars, a few weeks late. On a certain day the
+old marshal took Rosalie to Boggs City, and the guardianship proceedings
+were legally closed. Listlessly she accepted half of the money he had
+saved, having refused to take all of it. She was now her own mistress,
+much to her regret if not to his.
+
+"I may go on living with you, Daddy Crow, may I not?" she asked
+wistfully as they drove home through the March blizzard. "This doesn't
+mean that I cannot be your own little girl after to-day, does it?"
+
+"Don't talk like that, Rosalie Gray, er I'll put you to bed 'thout a
+speck o' supper," growled he in his most threatening tones, but the
+tears were rolling down his cheeks at the time.
+
+"Do you know, daddy, I honestly hope that the big city detective won't
+find out who I am," she said after a long period of reflection.
+
+"Cause why?"
+
+"Because, if he doesn't, you won't have any excuse for turning me out."
+
+"I'll not only send you to bed, but I'll give you a tarnation good
+lickin' besides if you talk like--"
+
+"But I'm twenty-one. You have no right," said she so brightly that he
+cracked his whip over the horse's back and blew his nose twice for full
+measure of gratitude.
+
+"Well, I ain't heerd anything from that fly detective lately, an' I'm
+beginnin' to think he ain't sech a long sight better'n I am," said he
+proudly.
+
+"He isn't half as good!" she cried.
+
+"I mean as a detective," he supplemented apologetically.
+
+"So do I," she agreed earnestly; but it was lost on him.
+
+There was a letter at home for her from Edith Bonner. It brought the
+news that Wicker was going South to recuperate. His system had "gone
+off" since the accident, and the March winds were driving him away
+temporarily. Rosalie's heart ached that night, and there was a still,
+cold dread in its depths that drove sleep away. He had not written to
+her, and she had begun to fear that their month had been a trifle to
+him, after all. Now she was troubled and grieved that she should have
+entertained the fear. Edith went on to say that her brother had seen the
+New York detective, who was still hopelessly in the dark, but struggling
+on in the belief that chance would open the way for him.
+
+Rosalie, strive as she would to prevent it, grew pale and the roundness
+left her cheek as the weeks went by. Her every thought was with the man
+who had gone to the Southland. She loved him as she loved life, but she
+could not confess to him then or thereafter unless Providence made clear
+the purity of her birth to her and to all the world. When finally there
+came to her a long, friendly, even dignified letter from the far South,
+the roses began to struggle back to her cheeks and the warmth to her
+heart. Her response brought a prompt answer from him, and the roses grew
+faster than the spring itself. Friendship, sweet and loyal, marked every
+word that passed between them, but there was a dear world in each
+epistle--for her, at least, a world of comfort and hope. She was
+praying, hungering, longing for June to come--sweet June and its tender
+touch--June with its bitter-sweet and sun clouds. Now she was forgetting
+the wish which had been expressed to Anderson Crow on the drive home
+from Boggs City. In its place grew the fierce hope that the once
+despised detective might clear away the mystery and give her the right
+to stand among others without shame and despair.
+
+"Hear from Wick purty reg'lar, don't you, Rosalie?" asked Anderson
+wickedly, one night while Blootch was there. The suitor moved uneasily,
+and Rosalie shot a reproachful glance at Anderson, a glance full of
+mischief as well.
+
+"He writes occasionally, daddy."
+
+"I didn't know you corresponded reg'larly," said Blootch.
+
+"I did not say regularly, Blucher."
+
+"He writes sweet things to beat the band, I bet," said Blootch with a
+disdain he did not feel.
+
+"What a good guesser you are!" she cried tormentingly.
+
+"Well, I guess I'll be goin'," exploded Blootch wrathfully; "it's
+gittin' late."
+
+"He won't sleep much to-night," said Anderson, with a twinkle in his
+eye, as the gate slammed viciously behind the caller. "Say, Rosalie,
+there's somethin' been fidgetin' me fer quite a while. I'll blurt it
+right out an' have it over with. Air you in love with Wick Bonner?"
+
+She started, and for an instant looked at him with wide open eyes; then
+they faltered and fell. Her breath came in a frightened, surprised gasp
+and her cheeks grew warm. When she looked up again, her eyes were soft
+and pleading, and her lips trembled ever so slightly.
+
+"Yes, Daddy Crow, I love him," she almost whispered.
+
+"An' him? How about him?"
+
+"I can't answer that, daddy. He has not told me."
+
+"Well, he ought to, doggone him!"
+
+"I could not permit him to do so if he tried."
+
+"What! You wouldn't permit? What in tarnation do you mean?"
+
+"You forget, daddy, I have no right to his love. It would be wrong--all
+wrong. Good-night, daddy," she cried, impulsively kissing him and
+dashing away before he could check her, but not before he caught the
+sound of a half sob. For a long time he sat and stared at the fire in
+the grate. Then he slapped his knee vigorously, squared his shoulders
+and set his jaw like a vise. Arising, he stalked upstairs and tapped on
+her door. She opened it an inch or two and peered forth at him--a
+pathetic figure in white.
+
+"Don't you worry, Rosalie," he gulped. "It will be all right and hunky
+dory. I've just took a solemn oath down stairs."
+
+"An oath, daddy?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I swore by all that's good and holy I'd find out who your
+parents are ef it took till doomsday. You shall be set right in the eyes
+of everybody. Now, if I was you, I'd go right to sleep. There ain't
+nothin' to worry about. I've got another clew."
+
+She smiled lovingly as he ambled away. Poor old Anderson's confidence in
+himself was only exceeded by his great love for her.
+
+At last June smiled upon Rosalie and she was off for Boston. Her gowns
+were from Albany and her happiness from heaven--according to a
+reverential Tinkletown impression. For two weeks after her departure,
+Anderson Crow talked himself hoarse into willing ears, always extolling
+the beauty of his erstwhile ward as she appeared before the family
+circle in each and every one of those wonderful gowns.
+
+This humble narrative has not to do with the glories and foibles of
+Boston social life. It has to deal with the adventures of Anderson Crow
+and Rosalie Gray in so far as they pertain to a place called Tinkletown.
+The joys and pleasures that Rosalie experienced during that month of
+June were not unusual in character. The loneliness of Anderson Crow was
+not a novelty, if one stops to consider how the world revolves for every
+one else. Suffice to say that the Bonners, _mère, fils_ and _fille_,
+exerted themselves to make the month an unforgetable one to the
+girl--and they succeeded. The usual gaiety, the same old whirl of
+experiences, came to her that come to any other mortal who is being
+entertained, fêted and admired. She was a success--a pleasure in every
+way--not only to her hosts but to herself. If there was a cloud hanging
+over her head through all these days and nights, the world was none the
+wiser; the silver lining was always visible.
+
+Once while she was driving with the Bonners she saw a man whom she knew,
+but did not expect to ever look upon again. She could not be mistaken in
+him. It was Sam Welch, chief of the kidnapers. He was gazing at her from
+a crowded street corner, but disappeared completely before Bonner could
+set the police on his trail.
+
+Commencement Day at Cambridge brought back hundreds of the old men--the
+men famous in every branch of study and athletics. Among them was
+handsome Tom Reddon. He came to see her at the Bonner home. Elsie Banks
+was to return in September from Honolulu, and they were to be married in
+the fall. Wicker Bonner eagerly looked for the confusion of love in her
+eyes, but none appeared. That night she told him, in reply to an
+impulsive demand, that she did not care for Reddon, that she never had
+known the slightest feeling of tenderness for him.
+
+"Have you ever been in love, Rosalie?" he asked ruthlessly.
+
+"Yes," she said after a moment, looking him bravely in the eyes.
+
+"And could you never learn to love any one else?"
+
+"I think not, Wicker," she said ever so softly.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said humbly, his face white and his lips drawn.
+"I should not have asked."
+
+And so he remained the blind man, with the light shining full into his
+eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+The Mysterious Questioner
+
+
+July brought Rosalie's visit to an end, and once more Tinkletown basked
+in her smiles and yet wondered why they were so sad and wistful. She and
+Bonner were much nearer, far dearer to one another than ever, and yet
+not one effort had been made to bridge the chasm of silence concerning
+the thing that lay uppermost in their minds. She only knew that Anderson
+Crow had not "run down" his clew, nor had the New York sleuth reported
+for weeks. Undoubtedly, the latter had given up the search, for the last
+heard of him was when he left for Europe with his wife for a pleasure
+trip of unknown duration. It looked so dark and hopeless to her, all of
+it. Had Bonner pressed his demands upon her at the end of the visit in
+Boston, it is possible--more than possible--that she would have faltered
+in her resolution. After all, why should she deprive herself of
+happiness if it was held out to her with the promise that it should
+never end?
+
+The summer turned steaming hot in the lowlands about Tinkletown, but in
+the great hills across the river the air was cool, bright, and
+invigorating. People began to hurry to their country homes from the
+distant cities. Before the month was old, a score or more of beautiful
+places were opened and filled with the sons and daughters of the rich.
+Lazily they drifted and drove and walked through the wonderful hills,
+famed throughout the world, and lazily they wondered why the rest of the
+world lived. In the hills now were the Randalls, the Farnsworths, the
+Brackens, the Brewsters, the Van Wagenens, the Rolfes and a host of
+others. Tinkletown saw them occasionally as they came jaunting by in
+their traps and brakes and automobiles--but it is extremely doubtful if
+they saw Tinkletown in passing.
+
+Anderson Crow swelled and blossomed in the radiance of his own
+importance. In his old age he was becoming fastidious. Only in the
+privacy of his own back yard did he go without the black alpaca coat; he
+was beginning to despise the other days, when he had gone coatless from
+dawn till dark, on the street or off. His badges were pinned neatly to
+his lapel and not to his suspenders, as in the days of yore. His dignity
+was the same, but the old sense of irritation was very much modified. In
+these new days he was considerate--and patronising. Was he not one of
+the wealthiest men in town--with his six thousand dollars laid by? Was
+he not its most honoured citizen, not excepting the mayor and selectmen?
+Was he not, above all, a close friend of the Bonners?
+
+The Bonners were to spend August in the Congressman's home across the
+big river. This fact alone was enough to stir the Crow establishment to
+its most infinitesimal roots. Rosalie was to be one of the guests at the
+house party, but her foster-sisters were not the kind to be envious.
+They revelled with her in the preparations for that new season of
+delight.
+
+With the coming of the Bonners, Anderson once more revived his
+resolution to unravel the mystery attending Rosalie's birth. For some
+months this ambition had lain dormant, but now, with the approach of the
+man she loved, the old marshal's devotion took fire and he swore daily
+that the mystery should be cleared "whether it wanted to be or not."
+
+He put poor old Alf Reesling through the "sweat box" time and again, and
+worthless Tom Folly had many an unhappy night, wondering why the marshal
+was shadowing him so persistently.
+
+"Alf," demanded Anderson during one of the sessions, "where were you on
+the night of February 18, 1883? Don't hesitate. Speak up. Where were
+you? Aha, you cain't answer. That looks suspicious."
+
+"You bet I c'n answer," said Alf bravely, blinking his blear eyes. "I
+was in Tinkletown."
+
+"What were you doin' that night?"
+
+"I was sleepin'."
+
+"At what time? Keerful now, don't lie."
+
+"What time o' night did they leave her on your porch?" demanded Alf in
+turn.
+
+"It was jest half past 'leven."
+
+"You're right, Anderson. That's jest the time I was asleep."
+
+"C'n you prove it? Got witnesses?"
+
+"Yes, but they don't remember the night."
+
+"Then it may go hard with you. Alf, I still believe you had somethin' to
+do with that case."
+
+"I didn't, Anderson, so help me."
+
+"Well, doggone it, somebody did," roared the marshal. "If it wasn't you,
+who was it? Answer that, sir."
+
+"Why, consarn you, Anderson Crow, I didn't have any spare children to
+leave around on doorsteps. I've allus had trouble to keep from leavin'
+myself there. Besides, it was a woman that left her, wasn't it? Well,
+consarn it, I'm not a woman, am I? Look at my whiskers, gee whiz! I--"
+
+"I didn't say you left the baskit, Alf; I only said you'd somethin' to
+do with it. I remember that there was a strong smell of liquor around
+the place that night." In an instant Anderson was sniffing the air.
+"Consarn ye, the same smell as now--yer drunk."
+
+"Tom Folly drinks, too," protested Alf. "He drinks Martini cocktails."
+
+"Don't you?"
+
+"Not any more. The last time I ordered one was in a Dutch eatin' house
+up to Boggs City. The waiter couldn't speak a word of English, an'
+that's the reason I got so full. Every time I ordered 'dry Martini' he
+brought me three. He didn't know how to spell it. No, sir, Anderson; I'm
+not the woman you want. I was at home asleep that night. I remember jest
+as well as anything, that I said before goin' to bed that it was a good
+night to sleep. I remember lookin' at the kitchen clock an' seein' it
+was jest eighteen minutes after eleven. 'Nen I said--"
+
+"That'll be all for to-day, Alf," interrupted the questioner, his gaze
+suddenly centering on something down the street. "You've told me that
+six hundred times in the last twenty years. Come on, I see the boys
+pitchin' horseshoes up by the blacksmith shop. I'll pitch you a game fer
+the seegars."
+
+"I cain't pay if I lose," protested Alf.
+
+"I know it," said Anderson; "I don't expect you to."
+
+The first day that Bonner drove over in the automobile, to transplant
+Rosalie in the place across the river, found Anderson full of a new and
+startling sensation. He stealthily drew the big sunburnt young man into
+the stable, far from the house. Somehow, in spite of his smiles, Bonner
+was looking older and more serious. There was a set, determined
+expression about his mouth and eyes that struck Anderson as new.
+
+"Say, Wick," began the marshal mysteriously, "I'm up a stump."
+
+"What? Another?"
+
+"No; jest the same one. I almost got track of somethin' to-day--not two
+hours ago. I met a man out yander near the cross-roads that I'm sure I
+seen aroun' here about the time Rosalie was left on the porch. An' the
+funny part of it was, he stopped me an' ast me about her. Doggone, I
+wish I'd ast him his name."
+
+"You don't mean it!" cried Bonner, all interest. "Asked about her? Was
+he a stranger?"
+
+"I think he was. Leastwise, he said he hadn't been aroun' here fer
+more'n twenty year. Y'see, it was this way. I was over to Lem Hudlow's
+to ask if he had any hogs stole last night--Lem lives nigh the
+poorhouse, you know. He said he hadn't missed any an' ast me if any hogs
+had been found. I tole him no, not that I knowed of, but I jest thought
+I'd ask; I thought mebby he'd had some stole. You never c'n tell, you
+know, an' it pays to be attendin' to business all the time. Well, I was
+drivin' back slow when up rode a feller on horseback. He was a
+fine-lookin' man 'bout fifty year old, I reckon, an' was dressed in all
+them new-fangled ridin' togs. 'Ain't this Mr. Crow, my old friend, the
+detective?' said he. 'Yes, sir,' said I. 'I guess you don't remember
+me,' says he. I told him I did, but I lied. It wouldn't do fer him to
+think I didn't know him an' me a detective, don't y'see?
+
+"We chatted about the weather an' the crops, him ridin' longside the
+buckboard. Doggone, his face was familiar, but I couldn't place it.
+Finally, he leaned over an' said, solemn-like: 'Have you still got the
+little girl that was left on your porch?' You bet I jumped when he said
+that. 'Yes,' says I, 'but she ain't a little girl now. She's growed
+up.' 'Is she purty?' he ast. 'Yes,' says I, 'purty as a speckled pup!'
+'I'd like to see her,' he said. 'I hear she was a beautiful baby. I hope
+she is very, very happy.' 'What's that to you?' says I, sharp-like. 'I
+am very much interested in her, Mr. Crow,' he answered. 'Poor child, I
+have had her in mind for a long time,' he went on very solemn. I begin
+to suspect right away that he had a lot to do with her affairs. Somehow,
+I couldn't help thinkin' I'd seen him in Tinkletown about the time she
+was dropped--left, I mean.
+
+"'You have given her a good eddication, I hope,' said he. 'Yes, she's
+got the best in town,' said I. 'The thousand dollars came all right
+every year?' 'Every February.' 'I should like to see her sometime, if I
+may, without her knowin' it, Mr. Crow.' 'An' why that way, sir?'
+demanded I. 'It would probably annoy her if she thought I was regardin'
+her as an object of curiosity,' said he. 'Tell her fer me,' he went on'
+gittin' ready to whip up, 'that she has an unknown friend who would give
+anything he has to help her.' Goshed, if he didn't put the gad to his
+horse an' gallop off 'fore I could say another word. I was goin' to ask
+him a lot of questions, too."
+
+"Can't you remember where and under what circumstances you saw him
+before?" cried Bonner, very much excited.
+
+"I'm goin' to try to think it up to-night. He was a rich-lookin' feller
+an' he had a heavy black band aroun' one of his coat sleeves. Wick, I
+bet he's the man we want. I've made up my mind 'at he's her father!"
+
+Bonner impatiently wormed all the information possible out of the
+marshal, especially as to the stranger's looks, voice, the direction
+taken when they parted company and then dismally concluded that an
+excellent opportunity had been hopelessly lost. Anderson said, in
+cross-examination, that the stranger had told him he "was leavin' at
+once fer New York and then going to Europe." His mother had died
+recently.
+
+"I'll try to head him off at Boggs City," said Bonner; and half an hour
+later he was off at full speed in the big machine for the county seat, a
+roundabout way to Bonner Place. The New York train had gone, but no one
+had seen a man answering the description of Anderson's interviewer.
+
+"I'm sorry, Rosalie," said Bonner some time later. He was taking her for
+a spin in the automobile. "It was a forlorn hope, and it is also quite
+probable that Mr. Crow's impressions are wrong. The man may have
+absolutely no connection with the matter. I'll admit it looks
+interesting, his manner and his questions, and there is a chance that he
+knows the true story. In any event, he did not go to New York to-day and
+he can't get another train until to-morrow. I'll pick up Mr. Crow in the
+morning and we'll run up here to have a look at him if he appears."
+
+"I think it is a wild goose chase, Wicker," Rosalie said despairingly.
+"Daddy Crow has done such things before."
+
+"But this seems different. The man's actions were curious. He must have
+had some reason for being interested in you. I am absolutely wild with
+eagerness to solve this mystery, Rosalie. It means life to me."
+
+"Oh, if you only could do it," she cried so fervently, that his heart
+leaped with pity for her.
+
+"I love you, Rosalie. I would give my whole life to make you happy.
+Listen, dearest--don't turn away from me! Are you afraid of me?" He was
+almost wailing it into her ear.
+
+"I--I was only thinking of the danger, Wicker. You are not watching the
+road," she said, flushing a deep red. He laughed gaily for the first
+time in months.
+
+"It is a wide road and clear," he said jubilantly. "We are alone and we
+are merely drifting. The machine is alive with happiness.
+Rosalie--Rosalie, I could shout for joy! You _do_ love me? You will be
+my wife?"
+
+She was white and silent and faint with the joy of it all and the pain
+of it all. Joy in the full knowledge that he loved her and had spoken in
+spite of the cloud that enveloped her, pain in the certainty that she
+could not accept the sacrifice. For a long time she sat staring straight
+down the broad road over which they were rolling.
+
+"Wicker, you must not ask me now," she said at last, bravely and
+earnestly. "It is sweet to know that you love me. It is life to me--yes,
+life, Wicker. But, don't you see? No, no! You must not expect it. You
+must not ask it. Don't, don't, dear!" she cried, drawing away as he
+leaned toward her, passion in his eyes, triumph in his face.
+
+"But we love each other!" he cried. "What matters the rest? I want
+you--_you!_"
+
+"Have you considered? Have you thought? I have, a thousand times, a
+thousand bitter thoughts. I cannot, I will not be your--your wife,
+Wicker, until--"
+
+In vain he argued, pleaded, commanded. She was firm and she felt she was
+right if not just. Underneath it all lurked the fear, the dreadful fear
+that she may have been a child of love, the illegitimate offspring of
+passion. It was the weight that crushed her almost to lifelessness; it
+was the bar sinister.
+
+"No, Wicker, I mean it," she said in the end resolutely. "Not until I
+can give you a name in exchange for your own."
+
+"Your name shall one day be Bonner if I have to wreck the social system
+of the whole universe to uncover another one for you."
+
+The automobile had been standing, by some extraordinary chance, in the
+cool shade of a great oak for ten minutes or more, but it was a wise,
+discreet old oak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+The Hemisphere Train Robbery
+
+
+Anderson Crow lived at the extreme south end of Tinkletown's principal
+thoroughfare. The "calaboose" was situated at the far end of Main
+Street, at least half a mile separating the home of the law and the home
+of the lawless. Marshal Crow's innate love for the spectacular alone
+explains the unneighbourliness of the two establishments. He felt an
+inward glory in riding or walking the full length of the street, and he
+certainly had no reason to suspect the populace of disregarding the
+outward glory he presented.
+
+The original plan of the merchantry comprehended the erection of the
+jail in close proximity to the home of its chief official, but Mr. Crow
+put his foot flatly and ponderously upon the scheme. With the dignity
+which made him noticeable, he said he'd "be doggoned ef he wanted to
+have people come to his own dooryard to be arrested." By which, it may
+be inferred, that he expected the evil-doer to choose his own arresting
+place.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Crow were becoming thrifty, in view of the prospect that
+confronted them, to wit: The possible marriage of Rosalie and the
+cutting off of the yearly payments. As she was to be absent for a full
+month or more, Anderson conceived the idea of advertising for a lodger
+and boarder. By turning Roscoe out of his bed, they obtained a spare
+room that looked down upon the peony beds beyond the side "portico."
+
+Mr. Crow was lazily twisting his meagre chin whiskers one morning soon
+after Rosalie's departure. He was leaning against the town pump in front
+of the post-office, the sun glancing impotently off the bright badge on
+the lapel of his alpaca coat. A stranger came forth from the post-office
+and approached the marshal.
+
+"Is this Mr. Crow?" he asked, with considerable deference.
+
+"It is, sir."
+
+"They tell me you take lodgers."
+
+"Depends."
+
+"My name is Gregory, Andrew Gregory, and I am here to canvass the
+neighbourhood in the interest of the Human Life Insurance Company of
+Penobscot. If you need references, I can procure them from New York or
+Boston."
+
+The stranger was a tall, lean-faced man of forty or forty-five, well
+dressed, with a brusque yet pleasant manner of speech. His moustache and
+beard were black and quite heavy. Mr. Crow eyed him quietly for a
+moment.
+
+"I don't reckon I'll ask fer references. Our rates are six dollars a
+week, board an' room. Childern bother you?"
+
+"Not at all. Have you any?"
+
+"Some, more or less. They're mostly grown."
+
+"I will take board and room for two weeks, at least," said Mr. Gregory,
+who seemed to be a man of action.
+
+For almost a week the insurance agent plied his vocation assiduously but
+fruitlessly. The farmers and the citizens of Tinkletown were slow to
+take up insurance. They would talk crops and politics with the obliging
+Mr. Gregory, but that was all. And yet, his suavity won for him many
+admirers. There were not a few who promised to give him their insurance
+if they concluded to "take any out." Only one man in town was willing to
+be insured, and he was too old to be comforting. Mr. Calligan was
+reputed to be one hundred and three years of age; and he wanted the
+twenty-year endowment plan. Gregory popularised himself at the Crow home
+by paying for his room in advance. Moreover, he was an affable chap with
+a fund of good stories straight from Broadway. At the post-office and
+in Lamson's store he was soon established as a mighty favourite. Even
+the women who came to make purchases in the evening,--a hitherto unknown
+custom,--lingered outside the circle on the porch, revelling in the
+second edition of the "Arabian Nights."
+
+"Our friend, the detective here," he said, one night at the close of the
+first week, "tells me that we are to have a show in town next week. I
+haven't seen any posters."
+
+"Mark Riley's been goin' to put up them bills sence day 'fore
+yesterday," said Anderson Crow, with exasperation in his voice, "an he
+ain't done it yet. The agent fer the troupe left 'em here an' hired
+Mark, but he's so thunderation slow that he won't paste 'em up 'til
+after the show's been an' gone. I'll give him a talkin' to to-morrer."
+
+"What-fer show is it?" asked Jim Borum.
+
+"Somethin' like a circus on'y 'tain't one," said Anderson. "They don't
+pertend to have animals."
+
+"Don't carry a menagerie, I see," remarked Gregory.
+
+"'Pears that way," said Anderson, slowly analysing the word.
+
+"I understand it is a stage performance under a tent," volunteered the
+postmaster.
+
+"That's what it is," said Harry Squires, the editor, with a superior
+air. "They play 'As You Like It,' by Shakespeare. It's a swell show. We
+got out the hand bills over at the office. They'll be distributed in
+town to-morrow, and a big batch of them will be sent over to the summer
+places across the river. The advance agent says it is a high-class
+performance and will appeal particularly to the rich city people up in
+the mountains. It's a sort of open-air affair, you know." And then Mr.
+Squires was obliged to explain to his fellow-townsmen all the known
+details in connection with the approaching performance of "As You Like
+It" by the Boothby Company, set for Tinkletown on the following Thursday
+night. Hapgood's Grove had been selected by the agent as the place in
+which the performance should be given.
+
+"Don't they give an afternoon show?" asked Mrs. Williams.
+
+"Sure not," said Harry curtly. "It isn't a museum."
+
+"Of course not," added Anderson Crow reflectively. "It's a troupe."
+
+The next morning, bright and early, Mark Riley fared forth with paste
+and brush. Before noon, the board fences, barns and blank walls of
+Tinkletown flamed with great red and blue letters, twining in and about
+the portraits of Shakespeare, Manager Boothby, Rosalind, Orlando, and an
+extra king or two in royal robes. A dozen small boys spread the hand
+bills from the _Banner_ presses, and Tinkletown was stirred by the
+excitement of a sensation that had not been experienced since
+Forepaugh's circus visited the county seat three years before. It went
+without saying that Manager Boothby would present "As You Like It" with
+an "unrivalled cast." He had "an all-star production," direct from "the
+leading theatres of the universe."
+
+When Mark Riley started out again in the afternoon for a second
+excursion with paste and brush, "slapping up" small posters with a
+celerity that bespoke extreme interest on his part, the astonished
+populace feared that he was announcing a postponement of the
+performance. Instead of that, however, he was heralding the fact that
+the Hemisphere Trunk Line and Express Company would gladly pay ten
+thousand dollars reward for the "apprehension and capture" of the men
+who robbed one of its richest trains a few nights before, seizing as
+booty over sixty thousand dollars in money, besides killing two
+messengers in cold blood. The great train robbery occurred in the
+western part of the State, hundreds of miles from Tinkletown, but nearly
+all of its citizens had read accounts of the deed in the weekly paper
+from Boggs City.
+
+"I seen the item about it in Mr. Gregory's New York paper," said
+Anderson Crow to the crowd at Lamson's.
+
+"Gee whiz, it must 'a' been a peach!" said Isaac Porter, open-mouthed
+and eager for details. Whereupon Marshal Crow related the story of the
+crime which stupefied the world on the morning of July 31st. The express
+had been held up in an isolated spot by a half-dozen masked men. A safe
+had been shattered and the contents confiscated, the perpetrators
+vanishing as completely as if aided by Satan himself. The authorities
+were baffled. A huge reward was offered in the hope that it might induce
+some discontented underling in the band to expose his comrades.
+
+"Are you goin' after 'em, Anderson?" asked old Mr. Borton, with
+unfailing faith in the town's chief officer.
+
+"Them fellers is in Asia by this time," vouchsafed Mr. Crow scornfully,
+forgetting that less than a week had elapsed since the robbery. He
+flecked a fly from his detective's badge and then struck viciously at
+the same insect when it straightway attacked his G.A.R. emblem.
+
+"I doubt it," said Mr. Lamson. "Like as not they're right here in this
+State, mebby in this county. You can't tell about them slick
+desperadoes. Hello, Harry! Has anything more been heard from the train
+robbers?" Harry Squires approached the group with something like news in
+his face.
+
+"I should say so," he said. "The darned cusses robbed the State Express
+last night at Vanderskoop and got away with thirteen hundred dollars.
+Say, they're wonders! The engineer says they're only five of them."
+
+"Why, gosh dern it, Vanderskoop's only the fourth station west of Boggs
+City!" exclaimed Anderson Crow, pricking up his official ear. "How in
+thunder do you reckon they got up here in such a short time?"
+
+"They probably stopped off on their way back from Asia," drily remarked
+Mr. Lamson; but it passed unnoticed.
+
+"Have you heard anything more about the show, Harry?" asked Jim Borum.
+"Is she sure to be here?" What did Tinkletown care about the train
+robbers when a "show" was headed that way?
+
+"Sure. The press comments are very favourable," said Harry. "They all
+say that Miss Marmaduke, who plays Rosalind, is great. We've got a cut
+of her and, say, she's a beauty. I can see myself sitting in the front
+row next Thursday night, good and proper."
+
+"Say, Anderson, I think it's a dern shame fer Mark Riley to go 'round
+pastin' them reward bills over the show pictures," growled Isaac Porter.
+"He ain't got a bit o' sense."
+
+With one accord the crowd turned to inspect two adjacent bill boards.
+Mark had either malignantly or insanely pasted the reward notices over
+the nether extremities of Rosalind as she was expected to appear in the
+Forest of Arden. There was a period of reflection on the part of an
+outraged constituency.
+
+"I don't see how he's goin' to remove off them reward bills without
+scraping off her legs at the same time," mused Anderson Crow in
+perplexity. Two housewives of Tinkletown suddenly deserted the group and
+entered the store. And so it was that the train robbers were forgotten
+for the time being.
+
+But Marshal Crow's reputation as a horse-thief taker and general
+suppressor of crime constantly upbraided him. It seemed to call upon him
+to take steps toward the capture of the train robbers. All that
+afternoon he reflected. Tinkletown, seeing his mood, refrained from
+breaking in upon it. He was allowed to stroke his whiskers in peace and
+to think to his heart's content. By nightfall his face had become an
+inscrutable mask, and then it was known that the President of Bramble
+County's Horse-Thief Detective Association was determined to fathom the
+great problem. Stealthily he went up to the great attic in his home and
+inspected his "disguises." In some far-off period of his official career
+he had purchased the most amazing collection of false beards, wigs and
+garments that any stranded comedian ever disposed of at a sacrifice. He
+tried each separate article, seeking for the best individual effect;
+then he tried them collectively. It would certainly have been
+impossible to recognise him as Anderson Crow. In truth, no one could
+safely have identified him as a human being.
+
+"I'm goin' after them raskils," he announced to Andrew Gregory and the
+whole family, as he came down late to take his place at the head of the
+supper table.
+
+"Ain't you goin' to let 'em show here, pop?" asked Roscoe in distress.
+
+"Show here? What air you talkin' about?"
+
+"He means the train robbers, Roscoe," explained the lad's mother. The
+boy breathed again.
+
+"They are a dangerous lot," volunteered Gregory, who had been in Albany
+for two days. "The papers are full of their deeds. Cutthroats of the
+worst character."
+
+"I'd let them alone, Anderson," pleaded his wife. "If you corner them,
+they'll shoot, and it would be jest like you to follow them right into
+their lair."
+
+"Consarn it, Eva, don't you s'pose that I c'n shoot, too?" snorted
+Anderson. "What you reckon I've been keepin' them loaded revolvers out
+in the barn all these years fer? Jest fer ornaments? Not much! They're
+to shoot with, ef anybody asks you. Thunderation, Mr. Gregory, you ain't
+no idee how a feller can be handicapped by a timid wife an' a lot o'
+fool childern. I'm almost afeard to turn 'round fer fear they'll be
+skeered to death fer my safety."
+
+"You cut yourself with a razor once when ma told you not to try to shave
+the back of your neck by yourself," said one of the girls. "She wanted
+you to let Mr. Beck shave it for you, but you wouldn't have it that
+way."
+
+"Do you suppose I want an undertaker shavin' my neck? I'm not that
+anxious to be shaved. Beck's the undertaker, Mr. Gregory."
+
+"Well, he runs the barber shop, too," insisted the girl.
+
+During the next three days Tinkletown saw but little of its marshal,
+fire chief and street commissioner. That triple personage was off on
+business of great import. Early, each morning, he mysteriously stole
+away to the woods, either up or down the river, carrying a queer bundle
+under the seat of his "buckboard." Two revolvers, neither of which had
+been discharged for ten years, reposed in a box fastened to the
+dashboard. Anderson solemnly but positively refused to allow any one to
+accompany him, nor would he permit any one to question him. Farmers
+coming to town spoke of seeing him in the lanes and in the woods, but he
+had winked genially when they had asked what he was trailing.
+
+"He's after the train robbers," explained all Tinkletown soberly.
+Whereupon the farmers and their wives did not begrudge Anderson Crow the
+chicken dinners he had eaten with them, nor did they blame him for
+bothering the men in the fields. It was sufficient that he found excuse
+to sleep in the shade of their trees during his still hunt.
+
+"Got any track of 'em?" asked George Ray one evening, stopping at
+Anderson's back gate to watch the marshal unhitch his thankful nag.
+Patience had ceased to be a virtue with George.
+
+"Any track of who?" asked Mr. Crow with a fine show of innocence.
+
+"The robbers."
+
+"I ain't been trackin' robbers, George."
+
+"What in thunder have you been trackin' all over the country every day,
+then?"
+
+"I'm breakin' this colt," calmly replied the marshal, with a mighty wink
+at old Betty, whom he had driven to the same buckboard for twenty years.
+As George departed with an insulted snort, Andrew Gregory came from the
+barn, where he had been awaiting the return of Mr. Crow."
+
+"I'm next to something big," he announced in a low tone, first looking
+in all directions to see that no one was listening.
+
+"Gosh! Did you land Mr. Farnsworth?"
+
+"It has nothing to do with insurance," hastily explained the agent.
+"I've heard something of vast importance to you."
+
+"You don't mean to say the troupe has busted?"
+
+"No--no; it is in connection with--with--" and here Mr. Gregory leaned
+forward and whispered something in Anderson's ear. Mr. Crow promptly
+stopped dead still in his tracks, his eyes bulging. Betty, who was being
+led to the water trough, being blind and having no command to halt,
+proceeded to bump forcibly against her master's frame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+"As You Like It"
+
+
+"You--don't--say--so! Whoa! dang ye! Cain't you see where you're goin',
+you old rip?" Betty was jerked to a standstill. "What have you heerd?"
+asked Anderson, his voice shaking with interest.
+
+"I can't tell you out here," said the other cautiously. "Put up the nag
+and then meet me in the pasture out there. We can sit down and talk and
+not be overheard."
+
+"I won't be a minute. Here, you Roscoe! Feed Betty and water her first.
+Step lively, now. Tell your ma we'll be in to supper when we git good
+an' ready."
+
+Anderson and Andrew Gregory strode through the pasture gate and far out
+into the green meadow. Once entirely out of hearing, Gregory stopped and
+both sat down upon a little hillock. The agent was evidently suppressing
+considerable excitement.
+
+"Those train robbers are in this neighbourhood," he said, breaking a
+long silence. Anderson looked behind involuntarily. "I don't mean that
+they are in this pasture, Mr. Crow. You've been a good friend to me, and
+I'm inclined to share the secret with you. If we go together, we may
+divide the ten-thousand-dollar reward, because I'm quite sure we can
+land those chaps."
+
+"What's your plan?" asked Anderson, turning a little pale at the
+thought. Before going any further into the matter, Gregory asked
+Anderson if he would sign a paper agreeing to divide the reward equally
+with him. This point was easily settled, and then the insurance man
+unfolded his secret.
+
+"I have a straight tip from a friend in New York and he wouldn't steer
+me wrong. The truth about him is this: He used to work for our company,
+but took some money that didn't belong to him. It got him a sentence in
+the pen. He's just out, and he knows a whole lot about these robbers.
+Some of them were in Sing Sing with him. The leader wanted him to join
+the gang and he half-way consented. His duty is to keep the gang posted
+on what the officers in New York are doing. See?"
+
+"Of course," breathed Anderson.
+
+"Well, my friend wants to reform. All he asks is a slice of the reward.
+If we capture the gang, we can afford to give him a thousand or so,
+can't we?"
+
+"Of course," was the dignified response.
+
+"Here's his letter to me. I'll read it to you." In the gathering dusk
+Gregory read the letter to the marshal of Tinkletown. "Now, you see," he
+said, at the close of the astounding epistle, "this means that if we
+observe strict secrecy, we may have the game in our hands. No one must
+hear a word of this. They may have spies right here in Tinkletown. We
+can succeed only by keeping our mouths sealed."
+
+"Tighter'n beeswax," promised Anderson Crow.
+
+Briefly, the letter to Andrew Gregory was an exposure of the plans of
+the great train-robber gang, together with their whereabouts on a
+certain day to come. They were to swoop down on Tinkletown on the night
+of the open-air performance of "As You Like It," and their most
+desperate coup was to be the result. The scheme was to hold up and rob
+the entire audience while the performance was going on. Anderson Crow
+was in a cold perspiration. The performance was but three days off, and
+he felt that he required three months for preparation.
+
+"How in thunder are we goin' to capture that awful gang, jest you an'
+me?" he asked, voicing his doubts and fears.
+
+"We'll have to engage help, that's all."
+
+"We'll need a regiment."
+
+"Don't you think it. Buck up, old fellow, don't be afraid."
+
+"Afeerd? Me? I don't know what it is to be skeered. Didn't you ever hear
+about how I landed them fellers that kidnaped my daughter Rosalie? Well,
+you jest ast some one 'at knows about it. Umph! I guess that was a
+recommend fer bravery. But these fellers will be ready fer us, won't
+they?"
+
+"We can trick them easily. I've been thinking of a plan all afternoon.
+We don't know just where they are now, so we can't rake them in
+to-night. We'll have to wait until they come to us. My plan is to have a
+half-dozen competent private detectives up from New York. We can scatter
+them through the audience next Thursday night, and when the right time
+comes we can land on every one of those fellows like hawks on spring
+chickens. I know the chief of a big private agency in New York, and I
+think the best plan is to have him send up some good men. It won't cost
+much, and I'd rather have those fearless practical men here than all the
+rubes you could deputise. One of 'em is worth ten of your
+fellow-citizens, Mr. Crow, begging your pardon for the remark. You and I
+can keep the secret and we can do the right thing, but we would be asses
+to take more Tinkletown asses into our confidence. If you'll agree, I'll
+write to Mr. Pinkerton this evening. He can have his men here, disguised
+and ready for work, by Thursday afternoon. If you don't mind, I'd like
+to have you take charge of the affair, because you know just how to
+handle thieves, and I don't. What say you?"
+
+Anderson was ready and eager to agree to anything, but he hesitated a
+long time before concluding to take supreme charge of the undertaking.
+Mr. Gregory at once implored him to take command. It meant the success
+of the venture; anything else meant failure.
+
+"But how'n thunder am I to know the robbers when I see 'em?" demanded
+the marshal, nervously pulling bluegrass up by the roots.
+
+"You'll know 'em all right," said Andrew Gregory. Thursday came and with
+it the "troupe." Anderson Crow had not slept for three nights, he was so
+full of thrills and responsibility. Bright and early that morning he was
+on the lookout for suspicious characters. Gregory was to meet the
+detectives from New York at half-past seven in the evening. By previous
+arrangement, these strangers were to congregate casually at Tinkletown
+Inn, perfectly diguised as gentlemen, ready for instructions. The two
+arch-plotters had carefully devised a plan of action. Gregory chuckled
+secretly when he thought of the sensation Tinkletown was to
+experience--and he thought of it often, too.
+
+The leading members of Boothby's All Star Company "put up" at the Inn,
+which was so humble that it staggered beneath this unaccustomed weight
+of dignity. The beautiful Miss Marmaduke (in reality, Miss Cora Miller)
+was there, and so were Miss Trevanian, Miss Gladys Fitzmaurice, Richmond
+Barrett (privately Jackie Blake), Thomas J. Booth, Francisco Irving, Ben
+Jefferson and others. The Inn was glorified. All Tinkletown looked upon
+the despised old "eating house" with a reverence that was not reluctant.
+
+The manager, a busy and preoccupied person, who looked to be the
+lowliest hireling in the party, came to the Inn at noon and spread the
+news that the reserved seats were sold out and there was promise of a
+fine crowd. Whereupon there was rejoicing among the All Star Cast, for
+the last legs of the enterprise were to be materially strengthened.
+
+"We won't have to walk back home," announced Mr. Jackie Blake, that
+good-looking young chap who played Orlando.
+
+"Glorious Shakespeare, thou art come to life again," said Ben Jefferson,
+a barn-stormer for fifty years. "I was beginning to think you were a
+dead one."
+
+"And no one will seize our trunks for board," added Miss Marmaduke
+cheerfully. She was a very pretty young woman and desperately in love
+with Mr. Orlando.
+
+"If any one seized Orlando's trunks, I couldn't appear in public
+to-night," said Mr. Blake. "Orlando possesses but one pair of trunks."
+
+"You might wear a mackintosh," suggested Mr. Booth.
+
+"Or borrow trunks of the trees," added Mr. Irving.
+
+"They're off," growled Mr. Jefferson, who hated the puns he did not
+make.
+
+"Let's dazzle the town, Cora," said Jackie Blake; and before Tinkletown
+could take its second gasp for breath, the leading man and woman were
+slowly promenading the chief and only thoroughfare.
+
+"By ginger! she's a purty one, ain't she?" murmured Ed Higgins, sole
+clerk at Lamson's. He stood in the doorway until she was out of sight
+and remained there for nearly an hour awaiting her return. The men of
+Tinkletown took but one look at the pretty young woman, but that one
+look was continuous and unbroken.
+
+"If this jay town can turn up enough money to-night to keep us from
+stranding, I'll take off my hat to it for ever more," said Jackie Blake.
+
+"Boothby says the house is sold out," said
+
+Miss Marmaduke, a shade of anxiety in her dark eyes. "Oh, how I wish we
+were at home again."
+
+"I'd rather starve in New York than feast in the high hills," said he
+wistfully. The idols to whom Tinkletown was paying homage were but
+human, after all. For two months the Boothby Company had been buffeted
+from pillar to post, struggling hard to keep its head above water,
+always expecting the crash. The "all-stars" were no more than striving
+young Thespians, who were kept playing throughout the heated term with
+this uncertain enterprise, solely because necessity was in command of
+their destinies. It was not for them to enjoy a summer in ease and
+indolence.
+
+"Never mind, dear," said she, turning her green parasol so that it
+obstructed the intense but complimentary gaze of no less than a dozen
+men; "our luck will change. We won't be barn-storming for ever."
+
+"We've one thing to be thankful for, little woman," said Jackie, his
+face brightening. "We go out again this fall in the same company. That's
+luck, isn't it? We'll be married as soon as we get back to New York and
+we won't have to be separated for a whole season, at least."
+
+"Isn't it dear to think of, Jackie sweetheart? A whole season and then
+another, and then all of them after that? Oh, dear, won't it be sweet?"
+It was love's young dream for both of them.
+
+"Hello, what's this?" exclaimed Orlando the Thousandth, pausing before a
+placard which covered the lower limbs of his pictorial partner. "Ten
+Thousand Dollars reward! Great Scott, Cora, wouldn't I like to catch
+those fellows? Great, eh? But it's a desperate gang! The worst ever!"
+
+Just then both became conscious of the fact that some one was
+scrutinising them intently from behind. They turned and beheld Anderson
+Crow, his badges glistening.
+
+"How are you, officer?" said Jackie cheerily. Miss Marmaduke, in her
+happiness, beamed a smile upon the austere man with the chin whiskers.
+Anderson was past seventy, but that smile caused the intake of his
+breath to almost lift him from the ground.
+
+"First rate, thanks; how's yourself? Readin' the reward notice? Lemme
+tell you something. There's goin' to be somethin' happen tarnation soon
+that will astonish them fellers ef--" but here Anderson pulled up with a
+jerk, realising that he was on the point of betraying a great secret.
+Afraid to trust himself in continued conversation, he abruptly said:
+"Good afternoon," and started off down the street, his ears tingling.
+
+"Queer old chap, isn't he?" observed Jackie, and immediately forgot him
+as they strolled onward.
+
+That evening Tinkletown swarmed with strangers. The weather was fine,
+and scores of the summer dwellers in the hills across the river came
+over to see the performance, as the advance agent had predicted. Bluff
+Top Hotel sent a large delegation of people seeking the variety of life.
+There were automobiles, traps, victorias, hay-racks, and "sundowns"
+standing all along the street in the vicinity of Hapgood's Grove. It was
+to be, in the expansive language of the press agent, "a cultured
+audience made up of the élite of the community."
+
+Late in the afternoon, a paralysing thought struck in upon the marshal's
+brain. It occurred to him that this band of robbers might also be
+engaged to carry off Rosalie Gray. After all, it might be the great
+dominant reason for their descent upon the community. Covered with a
+perspiration that was not caused by heat, he accosted Wicker Bonner, the
+minute that gentleman arrived in town. Rosalie went, of course, to the
+Crow home for a short visit with the family.
+
+"Say, Wick, I want you to do me a favour," said Anderson eagerly, taking
+the young man aside. "I cain't tell you all about it, 'cause I'm bound
+by a deathless oath. But, listen, I'm afraid somethin's goin' to happen
+to-night. There's a lot o' strangers here, an' I'm nervous about
+Rosalie. Somebody might try to steal her in the excitement. Now I want
+you to take good keer of her. Don't let 'er out o' your sight, an' don't
+let anybody git 'er away from you. I'll keep my eye on her, too. Promise
+me."
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Crow. I'll look out for her. That's what I hope to do
+all the rest of--'
+
+"Somethin's liable to happen," Mr. Crow broke in, and then quietly
+slipped away.
+
+Bonner laughed easily at the old man's fears and set them down as a part
+of his whimsical nature. Later, he saw the old man near the entrance as
+the party passed inside the inclosure. The Bonner party occupied
+prominent seats in front, reserved by the marshal. There were ten in the
+group, a half-dozen young Boston people completing the house party.
+
+The side walls of a pavilion inclosed the most beautiful section of the
+grove. In one end were the seats, rapidly filling with people. At the
+opposite end, upon Mother Earth's green carpet, was the stage, lighted
+dimly by means of subdued spot lights and a few auxiliary stars on high.
+There was no scenery save that provided by Nature herself. An orchestra
+of violins broke through the constant hum of eager voices.
+
+Anderson Crow's heart was inside the charmed inclosure, but his person
+was elsewhere. Simultaneously, with the beginning of the performance of
+"As You like It," he was in his own barn-loft confronting Andrew Gregory
+and the five bewhiskered assistants from New York City. Gregory had met
+the detectives at the Inn and had guided them to the marshal's barn,
+where final instructions were to be given. For half an hour the party
+discussed plans with Anderson Crow, speaking in low, mysterious tones
+that rang in the marshal's ears to his dying day.
+
+"We've located those fellows," asserted Mr. Gregory firmly. "There can
+be no mistake. They are already in the audience over there, and at a
+signal will set to work to hold up the whole crowd. We must get the
+drop on them, Mr. Crow. Don't do that! You don't need a disguise. Keep
+those yellow whiskers in your pocket. The rest of us will wear
+disguises. These men came here disguised because the robbers would be
+onto them in a minute if they didn't. They know every detective's face
+in the land. If it were not for these beards and wigs they'd have
+spotted Pinkerton's men long ago. Now, you know your part in the affair,
+don't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," respectfully responded Anderson, his chin whisker wobbling
+pathetically.
+
+"Then we're ready to proceed. It takes a little nerve, that's all, but
+we'll soon have those robbers just where we want them," said Andrew
+Gregory.
+
+The second act of the play was fairly well under way when Orlando, in
+the "green room," remarked to the stage director:
+
+"What's that old rube doing back here, Ramsay? Why, hang it, man, he's
+carrying a couple of guns. Is this a hold-up?" At the same instant
+Rosalind and two of the women came rushing from their dressing tent,
+alarmed and indignant. Miss Marmaduke, her eyes blazing, confronted the
+stage director.
+
+"What does this mean, Mr. Ramsay?" she cried. "That old man ordered us
+out of our dressing-room at the point of a revolver, and--see! There he
+is now doing the same to the men."
+
+It was true. Anderson Crow, with a brace of horse pistols, was driving
+the players toward the centre of the stage. In a tremulous voice he
+commanded them to remain there and take the consequences. A moment later
+the marshal of Tinkletown strode into the limelight with his arsenal,
+facing an astonished and temporarily amused audience. His voice, pitched
+high with excitement, reached to the remotest corners of the inclosure.
+Behind him the players were looking on, open-mouthed and bewildered. To
+them he loomed up as the long-dreaded constable detailed to attach their
+personal effects. The audience, if at first it laughed at him as a joke,
+soon changed its view. Commotion followed his opening speech.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+The Luck of Anderson Crow
+
+
+"Don't anybody attempt to leave this tent!" commanded Mr. Crow, standing
+bravely forth with his levelled revolvers. The orchestra made itself as
+small as possible, for one of the guns wavered dangerously. "Don't be
+alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. The train robbers are among you."
+
+There were a few feminine shrieks, a volume of masculine "Whats!" a
+half-hearted and uncertain snigger, and a general turning of heads.
+
+"Keep your seats!" commanded Anderson. "They can't escape. I have them
+surrounded. I now call upon all robbers present to surrender in the name
+of the law. Surrender peaceful and you will not he damaged; resist and
+we'll blow you to hell an' gone, even at the risk of injurin' the women
+and childern. The law is no respecter of persons. Throw up your hands!"
+
+He waited impressively, but either through stupefaction or obstinacy the
+robbers failed to lift their hands.
+
+"You're cornered, you golderned scamps!" shouted Anderson Crow, "an' you
+might jest as well give up! Twenty Pinkerton men are here from New York
+City, an' you can't escape! Throw up your hands!"
+
+"The damned old fool is in earnest," gasped Judge Brewster, from across
+the river.
+
+"He's crazy!" cried Congressman Bonner.
+
+"Let everybody in this crowd throw up their hands!" called a firm, clear
+voice from the entrance. At the same instant five bewhiskered
+individuals appeared as if by magic with drawn revolvers, dominating the
+situation completely. The speaker was Andrew Gregory, the insurance
+agent.
+
+"Now, what have you got to say?" cried Anderson gaily. "I guess me an'
+the detectives have you cornered all right, ain't we?"
+
+The audience sat stupefied, paralysed. While all this was going on upon
+the inside, a single detective on the outside was stealthily puncturing
+the tires of every automobile in the collection, Mr. Bracken's huge
+touring car being excepted for reasons to be seen later on.
+
+"Good heavens!" groaned old Judge Brewster. A half dozen women fainted
+and a hundred men broke into a cold perspiration.
+
+"Hands up, everybody!" commanded Andrew Gregory. "We can take no
+chances. The train robbers are in this audience. They came to hold up
+the entire crowd, but we are too quick for you, my fine birds. The place
+is surrounded!"
+
+"Mr. Gregory, the insurance--" began Anderson Crow, but he was cut
+short.
+
+"Mr. Crow deserves great credit for this piece of detective work. His
+mere presence is a guaranty of safety to those of you who are not
+thieves. You all have your hands up? Thanks. Mr. Crow, please keep those
+actors quiet. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is not always an easy matter
+to distinguish thieves from honest men. I will first give the
+desperadoes a chance to surrender peaceably. No one steps forward? Very
+well. Keep your hands up, all of you. The man who lowers his hands will
+be instantly regarded as a desperado and may get a bullet in his body
+for his folly. The innocent must suffer with the guilty. Mr. Crow, shall
+we proceed with the search?"
+
+"Yes, sir; go right ahead, and be quick," replied Anderson Crow.
+
+"Very well, then, in the name of the law, my men will begin the search.
+They will pass among you, ladies and gentlemen, and any effort to retard
+their progress will be met with instant--well, you know."
+
+Before the petrified audience could fully realise what was taking place,
+three of the detectives were swiftly passing from person to person,
+stripping the women of their jewels, the men of their money and their
+watches. A half-hearted protest went up to Anderson Crow, but it was
+checked summarily by the "searching party." It was well for the poor
+marshal that he never knew what the audience thought of him at that
+ghastly moment.
+
+It was all over in five minutes. The detectives had searched every
+prosperous-looking person in the audience, under the very nose and guns
+of Marshal Crow, and they were sardonically bidding the assemblage a
+fond good-bye from the flapping doorway in the side wall. Andrew Gregory
+addressed the crowd, smiling broadly.
+
+"We found a good many more robbers in the crowd than we could
+conveniently handle, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, I never came across
+such a rare collection of hold-up men outside of Wall Street. The only
+perfectly honest man in Tinkletown to-night is Anderson Crow, your
+esteemed marshal. Believe me, he is ridiculously honest. He may be a
+damn fool, but he is honest. Don't blame him. Thanking you, one and all,
+for your generous help in our search for the train robbers, we bid you
+an affectionate farewell. We may meet again if you travel extensively on
+express trains. Good-night!"
+
+With a taunting laugh, Andrew Gregory dropped the flap and leaped after
+his companions. Bracken's chauffeur lay senseless by the roadside, and
+one of the "detectives" sat in his seat. Even as the audience opened
+its collective mouth to shout its wrath and surprise, the big touring
+car, with six armed men aboard, leaped away with a rush. Down the dark
+road it flew like an express train, its own noise drowning the shouts of
+the multitude, far behind.
+
+Bonner, recovering from his stupefaction and rage, led the pursuit,
+first commanding Rosalie to hurry home with the women and lock herself
+safely indoors.
+
+Anderson Crow, realising what a dupe he had been in the hands of the
+clever scoundrels, was covered with fear and shame. The outraged crowd
+might have killed him had not his escape been made under cover of
+darkness. Shivering and moaning in abject misery, the pride of
+Tinkletown fled unseeing, unthinking into the forest along the river. He
+was not to know until afterward that his "detectives" had stripped the
+rich sojourners of at least ten thousand dollars in money and jewels. It
+is not necessary to say that the performance of "As You Like It" came to
+an abrupt end, because it was not as they liked it. Everybody knew by
+this time that they had seen the celebrated "train robbers."
+
+Jackie Blake was half dressed when he leaped to his feet with an
+exclamation so loud that those preceding it were whispers.
+
+"Holy smoke!" fell from his lips; and then he dashed across the green to
+the women's dressing tent. "Cora! Cora! Come out!"
+
+"I can't," came back in muffled tones.
+
+"Then good-bye; I'm off!" he shouted. That brought her, partially
+dressed, from the tent. "Say, do you remember the river road we walked
+over to-day? Well, those fellows went in that direction, didn't they?
+Don't you see? Aren't you on? The washout! If they don't know about it
+the whole bunch is at the bottom of the ravine or in the river by this
+time! Mum's the word! There's a chance, darling; the reward said 'dead
+or alive!' I'm off!"
+
+She tried to call him back, but it was too late. With his own revolver
+in his hand, the half Orlando, half Blake, tore down the rarely
+travelled river road south. Behind him Tinkletown raved and wailed over
+the great calamity, but generally stood impotent in the face of it all.
+But few felt inclined to pursue the robbers. Blake soon had the race to
+himself. It was a mile or more to the washout in the road, but the
+excitement made him keen for the test. The road ran through the woods
+and along the high bluff that overlooked the river. He did not know it,
+but this same road was a "short cut" to the macadam pike farther south.
+By taking this route the robbers gave Boggs City a wide berth.
+
+Blake's mind was full of the possibilities of disaster to the
+over-confident fugitives. The washout was fresh, and he was counting on
+the chance that they were not aware of its existence. If they struck it
+even at half speed the whole party would be hurled a hundred feet down
+to the edge of the river or into the current itself. In that event,
+some, if not all, would be seriously injured.
+
+As he neared the turn in the road, his course pointed out to him by the
+stars above, he was startled half out of his boots by the sudden
+appearance of a man, who staggered from the roadside and wobbled
+painfully away, pleading for mercy.
+
+"Halt, or I'll shoot!" called Jackie Blake, and the pathetic figure not
+only halted, but sat down in the middle of the road.
+
+"For the Lord's sake, don't shoot!" groaned a hoarse voice. "I wasn't in
+cahoots with them. They fooled me--they fooled me." It was Anderson
+Crow, and he would have gone on interminably had not Jackie Blake
+stopped him short.
+
+"You're the marshal, eh? The darned rube--"
+
+"Yes, I'm him. Call me anything, only don't shoot. Who are you?" groaned
+Anderson, rising to his knees. He was holding his revolvers by the
+muzzles. "Never mind who I am. I haven't time. Say, you'd better come
+with me. Maybe we can head off those villains. They came this way and--"
+
+"Show 'em to me," roared Anderson, recognising a friend. Rage surged up
+and drove out the shame in his soul. "I'll tackle the hull caboodle,
+dang 'em!" And he meant it, too.
+
+Blake did not stop to explain, but started on, commanding Mr. Crow to
+follow. With rare fore-thought the marshal donned his yellow beard as he
+panted in the trail of the lithe young actor. The latter remembered that
+the odds were heavily against him. The marshal might prove a valuable
+aid in case of resistance, provided, of course, that they came upon the
+robbers in the plight he was hoping for.
+
+"Where the dickens are you a-goin'?" wheezed the marshal, kicking up a
+great dust in the rear. The other did not answer. His whole soul was
+enveloped in the hope that the washout had trapped the robbers. He was
+almost praying that it might be so. The reward could be divided with the
+poor old marshal if--
+
+He gave a yell of delight, an instant later, and then began jumping
+straight up and down like one demented. Anderson Crow stopped so
+abruptly that his knees were stiff for weeks. Jackie Blake's wild dream
+had come true. The huge automobile had struck the washout, and it was
+now lying at the base of the bluff, smashed to pieces on the rocks! By
+the dim light from the heavens, Blake could see the black hulk down
+there, but it was too dark to distinguish other objects. He was about to
+descend to the river bank when Anderson Crow came up.
+
+"What's the matter, man?" panted he.
+
+"They're down there, don't you see it? They went over the bluff right
+here--come on. We've got 'em!"
+
+"Hold on!" exclaimed Anderson, grasping his arm. "Don't rush down there
+like a danged fool. If they're alive they can plug you full of bullets
+in no time. Let's be careful."
+
+"By thunder, you're right. You're a wise old owl, after all. I never
+thought of that. Let's reconnoitre."
+
+Tingling with excitement, the two oddly mated pursuers descended
+stealthily by a roundabout way. They climbed over rocks and crept
+through underbrush until finally they came to a clear spot not twenty
+feet from where the great machine was lying, at the very edge of the
+swift, deep current. They heard groans and faint cries, with now and
+then a piteous oath. From their hiding place they counted the forms of
+four men lying upon the rocks, as if dead. The two held a whispered
+consultation of war, a plan of action resulting.
+
+"Surrender!" shouted Jackie Blake, standing forth. He and Anderson had
+their pistols levelled upon the prostrate robbers. For answer there were
+louder groans, a fiercer oath or two and then a weak, pain-struck voice
+came out to them:
+
+"For God's sake, get this machine off my legs. I'm dying. Help! Help! We
+surrender!"
+
+Ten minutes later, the jubilant captors had released the miserable
+Andrew Gregory from his position beneath the machine, and had
+successfully bound the hands and feet of five half-unconscious men.
+Gregory's legs were crushed and one other's skull was cracked. The sixth
+man was nowhere to be found. The disaster had been complete, the
+downfall of the great train robbers inglorious. Looking up into the face
+of Anderson Crow, Gregory smiled through his pain and said hoarsely:
+
+"Damned rotten luck; but if we had to be taken, I'm glad you did it,
+Crow. You're a good fool, anyway. But for God's sake, get me to a
+doctor."
+
+"Dang it! I'm sorry fer you, Mr. Gregory--" began Anderson, ready to
+cry.
+
+"Don't waste your time, old man. I need the doctor. Are the others
+dead?" he groaned.
+
+"I don't know," replied Jackie Blake. "Some of them look like it. We
+can't carry you up that hill, but we'll do the next best thing. Marshal,
+I'll stay here and guard the prisoners while you run to the village for
+help--and doctors."
+
+"And run fast, Anderson," added Gregory. "You always were so devilish
+slow. Don't walk-trot."
+
+Soon afterward, when Anderson, fagged but overjoyed, hobbled into the
+village, the excited crowd was ready to lynch him, but with his first
+words the atmosphere changed.
+
+"Where is Jackie Blake?" sobbed a pretty young woman, grasping the proud
+marshal's arm and shaking him violently.
+
+"Derned if I know, ma'am. Was he stole?"
+
+She made him understand, and together, followed by the actors, the
+audience and the whole town, they led the way to the washout, the fair
+Rosalind dragging the overworked hero of the hour along at a gait which
+threatened to be his undoing.
+
+Later on, after the five bandits had been carried to the village, Jackie
+Blake gladly informed his sweetheart that they could have easy sailing
+with the seven thousand dollars he expected. Anderson Crow had agreed to
+take but three thousand dollars for his share in the capture. One of the
+robbers was dead. The body of the sixth was found in the river weeks
+afterward.
+
+"I'm glad I was the first on the ground," said Blake, in anticipation of
+the reward which was eventually to be handed over to him. "But Anderson
+Crow turned out to be a regular trump, after all. He's a corker!" He was
+speaking to Wicker Bonner and a crowd of New Yorkers.
+
+Tinkletown began to talk of a monument to Anderson Crow, even while he
+lived. The general opinion was that it should be erected while he was
+still able to enjoy it and not after his death, when he would not know
+anything about its size and cost.
+
+"By gosh! 'Twas a great capture!" swelling perceptibly. "I knowed they
+couldn't escape me. Dang 'em! they didn't figger on me, did they? Pshaw!
+it was reediculus of 'em to think they c'd fool me entirely, although
+I'll have to confess they did fool me at first. It was a desprit gang
+an' mighty slick."
+
+"You worked it great, Anderson," said George Ray. "Did you know about
+the washout?"
+
+"Did I know about it?" snorted Anderson witheringly. "Why, good Gosh
+a'mighty, didn't I purty near run my legs off to git there in time to
+throw down the barricade before they could get there with Mr. Bracken's
+automobile? Thunderation! What a fool question!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+Bill Briggs Tells a Tale
+
+
+Tinkletown fairly bubbled with excitement. At last the eyes of the world
+were upon it. News of the great sensation was flashed to the end of the
+earth; every detail was gone into with harrowing minuteness. The
+Hemisphere Company announced by telegraph that it stood ready to hand
+over the ten thousand dollars; and the sheriff of Bramble County with
+all the United States deputy marshals within reach raced at once to
+Tinkletown to stick a finger in the pie.
+
+The morning after the "great pavilion robbery," as it was called in the
+_Banner_, Anderson Crow and Bonner fared forth early to have a look at
+the injured desperadoes, all of whom were safely under guard at the
+reincarnated calaboose. Fifty armed men had stood guard all night long,
+notwithstanding the fact that one robber was dead and the others so
+badly injured that they were not expected to survive the day.
+
+A horseman passed the marshal and his friend near the post-office,
+riding rapidly to the north. He waved his crop pleasantly to them and
+Bonner responded. Anderson stopped stock still and tried to speak, but
+did not succeed for a full minute; he was dumb with excitement.
+
+"That's him!" he managed to gasp. "The feller I saw the other day--the
+man on horseback!"
+
+"That?" cried Bonner, laughing heartily. "Why, that is John E. Barnes,
+the lawyer and probably a United States Senator some day. Good heavens,
+Mr. Crow, you've made a bad guess of it this time! He is staying with
+Judge Brewster, his father-in-law."
+
+"What! Well, by Geminy! I thought I knowed him," cried Anderson. "They
+cain't fool me long, Wick--none of 'em. He's the same feller 'at run
+away with Judge Brewster's daughter more'n twenty year ago. 'y Gosh, I
+was standin' right on this very spot the first time I ever see him. He
+sold me a hoss and buggy--but I got the money back. I arrested him the
+same day."
+
+"Arrested John Barnes?" in amazement.
+
+"Yep--fer murder--only he wasn't the murderer. We follered him down the
+river--him an' the girl--to Bracken's place, but they were married afore
+we got there. Doggone, that was a busy day! Some blamed good detective
+work was did, too. I--"
+
+"And Mr. Barnes was interested in Rosalie?" asked Bonner suddenly. "How
+could he have known anything about her?"
+
+"That's what puzzles me. She came here about two years after the
+elopement more er less, but I don't remember ever seein' him after that
+time."
+
+"It's very strange, Mr. Crow," reflected Bonner soberly. "He has a son,
+I know. His wife died a year or so after the boy's birth. Young Barnes
+is about twenty-one, I think at this time. By George! I've heard it said
+that Barnes and his wife were not hitting it off very well. They say she
+died of a broken heart. I've heard mother speak of it often. I
+wonder--great heavens, it isn't possible that Rosalie can be
+connected in any way with John Barnes? Anderson Crow, I--I wonder if
+there is a possibility?" Bonner was quivering with excitement,
+wonder--and--unbelief.
+
+"I'm workin' on that clew," said Anderson as calmly as his tremors would
+permit. He was thrilled by the mere suggestion, but it was second nature
+for him to act as if every discovery were his own. "Ever sence I saw him
+on the road up there, I've been trackin' him. I tell you, Wick, he's my
+man. I've got it almost worked out. Just as soon as these blamed robbers
+are moved to Boggs City, er buried, I'm goin' over an' git the truth out
+of Mr. Barnes. I've been huntin' him fer twenty-one years." Anderson, of
+course, was forgetting that Barnes had slipped from his mind completely
+until Bonner nudged his memory into life.
+
+"It's a delicate matter, Mr. Crow. We must go about it carefully," said
+Bonner severely. "If Mr. Barnes is really interested in her, we can't
+find it out by blundering; if he is not interested, we can't afford to
+drag him into it. It will require tact--"
+
+"Thunderation, don't you suppose I know that?" exploded Anderson.
+"Detectives are allers tackin'. They got to, y' see, ef they're goin' to
+foller half a dozen clews at oncet. Gee whiz, Wick, leave this thing to
+me! I'll git at the bottom of it inside o' no time."
+
+"Wait a few days, Mr. Crow," argued Bonner, playing for time. "Don't
+hurry. We've got all we can do now to take care of the fellows you and
+that young actor captured last night." The young man's plan was to keep
+Anderson off the trail entirely and give the seemingly impossible clew
+into the possession of the New York bureau.
+
+"I don't know what I'd 'a' done ef it hadn't been fer that young
+feller," said the marshal. "He was right smart help to me last night."
+Bonner, who knew the true story, suppressed a smile and loved the old
+man none the less for his mild deception.
+
+They entered the "calaboose," which now had all the looks and odours of
+a hospital. A half-dozen doctors had made the four injured men as
+comfortable as possible. They were stretched on mattresses in the jail
+dining-room, guarded by a curious horde of citizens.
+
+"That's Gregory!" whispered Anderson, as they neared the suffering
+group. He pointed to the most distant cot. "That's jest the way he swore
+last night. He must 'a' shaved in the automobile last night," though
+Gregory had merely discarded the false whiskers he had worn for days.
+
+"Wait!" exclaimed Bonner, stopping short beside the first cot. He
+stooped and peered intently into the face of the wounded bandit. "By
+George!"
+
+"What's up?"
+
+"As I live, Mr. Crow, this fellow was one of the gang that abducted
+Rosalie Gray last winter. I can swear to it. Don't you remember the one
+she tried to intercede for? Briggs! That's it! Briggs!"
+
+The injured man slowly opened his eyes as the name was half shouted. A
+sickly grin spread slowly over his pain-racked face.
+
+"She tried to intercede fer me, did she?" he murmured weakly. "She said
+she would. She was square."
+
+"You were half decent to her," said Bonner. "How do you happen to be
+with this gang? Another kidnaping scheme afloat?"
+
+"No--not that I know of. Ain't you the guy that fixed us? Say, on the
+dead, I was goin' to do the right thing by her that night. I was duckin'
+the gang when you slugged me. Honest, mister, I was goin' to put her
+friends next. Say, I don't know how bad I'm hurt, but if I ever git to
+trial, do what you can fer me, boss. On the dead, I was her friend."
+
+Bonner saw pity in Anderson's face and rudely dragged him away, although
+Bill's plea was not addressed to the old marshal.
+
+"Wait for me out here, Mr. Crow," said he when they reached the office.
+"You are overcome. I'll talk to him." He returned at once to the injured
+man's cot.
+
+"Look here, Briggs, I'll do what I can for you, but I'm afraid it won't
+help much. What do the doctors say?"
+
+"If they ain't lyin', I'll be up an' about in a few weeks. Shoulder and
+some ribs cracked and my legs stove up. I can't move. God, that was an
+awful tumble!" He shuddered in memory of the auto's leap.
+
+"Is Sam or Davy in this gang?"
+
+"No; Davy's at Blackwell's Island, an' Sam told me he was goin' to
+Canada fer his health. Jim Courtney is the leader of this gang. He
+sailed under the name of Gregory. That's him swearin' at the rubes."
+
+"The thing for you to do is to make a clean breast of it, Briggs. It
+will go easier with you."
+
+"Turn State's evidence? What good will that do when we was all caught
+with the goods?"
+
+"If you will tell us all of the inside facts concerning the abduction
+I'll guarantee that something can be done to lighten your sentence. I am
+Congressman Bonner's nephew."
+
+"So? I thought you was the swellest hold-up man I ever met, that night
+out in the woods. You'd do credit to Sam Welch himself. I'll tell you
+all I know, pardner, but it ain't a great deal. It won't do me any good
+to keep my mouth shut now, an', if you say so, it may help me to squeal.
+But, fer the Lord's sake, have one of these rotten doctors give me
+something to make me sleep. Don't they know what morphine is for?"
+
+Growling and cursing at the doctors, Bill was moved into the office.
+Anderson came in from the dining-room at that juncture, visibly excited.
+
+"I've got a confession from Gregory," he said. "He confesses that he
+oughter be hung."
+
+"What!"
+
+"That's what he said--'y ginger. Here's his very words, plain as day: 'I
+oughter be hung half a dozen times.' 'What fer?' says I. 'Fer bein' sech
+a damned ass,' said he. 'But that ain't a hangable offence,' said I.
+You know, I kinder like Gregory, spite of all. 'It's the worst crime in
+the world,' said he. 'Then you confess you've committed it?' said I,
+anxious to pin him right down to it, y' see.' 'ou bet I do. Ef they hang
+me it'll be because I'm a drivelling idiot, an' not because I've shot
+one er two in my time. Nobody but an ass could be caught at it, an'
+that's why I feel so infernal guilty. Look here, Mr. Crow, ever' time
+you see a feller that's proved himself a downright ass, jest take him
+out an' lynch him. He deserves it, that's all I've got to say. The
+greatest crime in the world is criminal neglect.' Don't bother me now,
+Wick; I'm going to write that down an' have him sign it."
+
+"Look here, pard," said Bill Briggs, laboriously breaking in upon their
+conversation; "I want to do the right thing by you an' her as fer as I
+can. You've been good to me, an' I won't fergit it. Besides, you said
+you'd make things easy fer me if I told you what I knowed about that job
+last winter. Well, I'd better tell it now, 'cause I'm liable to pass in
+my checks before these doctors git through with me. An' besides, they'll
+be haulin' me off to the county seat in a day or two. Now, this is dead
+straight, I'm goin' to give you. Maybe it won't help you none, but 'll
+give you a lead."
+
+"Go on," cried Bonner breathlessly.
+
+"Well, Sam Welch come to me in Branigan's place one night--that's in
+Fourt' Avenue--an' says he's got a big job on. We went over to Davy
+Wolfe's house an' found him an' his mother--the old fairy, you remember.
+Well, to make it short, Sam said it was a kidnaping job an' the Wolfes
+was to be in on it because they used to live in this neighbourhood an'
+done a lot of work here way back in the seventies. There was to be five
+thousand dollars in the job if we got that girl safe on board a ship
+bound fer Europe. Sam told us that the guy what engineered the game was
+a swell party an' a big boy in politics, finance, society an' ever'thin'
+else. He could afford to pay, but he didn't want to be seen in the job.
+Nobody but Sam ever seen his face. Sam used to be in politics some. Jest
+before we left New York to come up here, the swell guy comes around to
+Davy's with another guy fer final orders. See? It was as cold as h----
+as the dickens--an' the two of 'em was all muffled up so's we couldn't
+get a pipe at their mugs. One of 'em was old--over fifty, I guess--an'
+the other was a young chap. I'm sure of that.
+
+"They said that one or the other of 'em would be in this neighbourhood
+when the job was pulled off; that one thousand dollars would be paid
+down when we started; another thousand when we got 'er into the cave;
+and the rest when we had 'er at the dock in New York--alive an' unhurt.
+See? We was given to understand that she was to travel all the rest of
+'er life fer 'er health. I remember one thing plain: The old man said to
+the young 'un: 'She must not know a thing of this, or it will ruin
+everything.' He wasn't referrin' to the girl either. There was another
+woman in the case. They seemed mighty anxious to pull the job off
+without this woman gettin' next.
+
+"Well, we got ready to start, and the two parties coughed up the
+thousand plunks--that is, the young 'un handed it over to Sam when the
+old 'un told him to. Sam took three hundred and the rest of us two
+hundred a piece. When they were lookin' from the winder to see that
+nobody on the streets was watchin' the house, I asked Sam if he knowed
+either of them by name. He swore he didn't, but I think he lied. But
+jest before they left the house, I happened to look inside of the old
+boy's hat--he had a stiff dicer. There was a big gilt letter in the top
+of it."
+
+"What was that letter?" demanded Bonner eagerly.
+
+"It was a B."
+
+Bonner looked at Anderson as if the floor were being drawn from under
+his feet.
+
+"The young chap said somethin' low to the old 'un about takin' the night
+train back to the University an' comin' down again Saturday."
+
+"To the University? Which one? Did he mention the name?" cried Bonner.
+
+"No. That's all he said."
+
+"Good heavens, if it should be!" said Bonner as if to himself.
+
+"Well, we come up here an' done the job. You know about that, I guess.
+Sam saw the young feller one night up at Boggs City, an' got
+instructions from him. He was to help us git 'er away from here in an
+automobile, an' the old man was to go across the ocean with 'er. That's
+all I know. It didn't turn out their way that time, but Sam says it's
+bound to happen."
+
+Bonner, all eagerness and excitement, quickly looked around for
+Anderson, but the marshal had surreptitiously left the room. Then,
+going over to the door, he called for Anderson Crow. Bud Long was there.
+
+"Anderson left five minutes ago, Mr. Bonner, hurryin' like the dickens,
+too," he said. "He's gone to hunt up a feller named Barnes. He told me
+to tell you when you came out."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+Elsie Banks Returns
+
+
+Bonner, considerably annoyed and alarmed by the marshal's actions, made
+every effort to turn him back before he could ruin everything by an
+encounter with Mr. Barnes. He sent men on bicycles and horseback to
+overtake him; but the effort was unsuccessful. Mr. Crow had secured a
+"ride" in an automobile which had brought two newspaper correspondents
+over from Boggs City. They speeded furiously in order to catch a train
+for New York, but agreed to drop the marshal at the big bridge, not more
+than a mile from Judge Brewster's place.
+
+Chagrined beyond expression, he made ready to follow Anderson with all
+haste in his own machine. Rosalie hurriedly perfected preparations to
+accompany him. She was rejoining the house party that day, was consumed
+by excitement over the situation, and just as eager as Bonner to
+checkmate the untimely operations of poor old Anderson Crow.
+
+The marshal had more than half an hour's start of them. Bonner was his
+own chauffeur and he was a reckless one to-day. Luck was against him at
+the outset. The vigorous old detective inspired to real speed, for the
+first time in his lackadaisacal life, left the newspaper men at the
+bridge nearly three-quarters of an hour before Bonner passed the same
+spot, driving furiously up the hill toward Judge Brewster's.
+
+"If your bothersome old daddy gets his eyes on Barnes before I can head
+him off, dearest, the jig will be up," groaned Bonner, the first words
+he had spoken in miles. "Barnes will be on his guard and ready for
+anything. The old--pardon me, for saying it--the old jay ought to know
+the value of discretion in a case like this."
+
+"Poor old daddy," she sighed, compassion in her heart. "He thinks he is
+doing it for the best. Wicker, I hope it is--it is not Mr. Barnes," she
+added, voicing a thought which had been struggling in her mind for a
+long time.
+
+"Why not, dearest?"
+
+"It would mean one of two things. Either he does not want to recognise
+me as his child--or cannot, which is even worse. Wicker, I don't want to
+know the truth. I am afraid--I am afraid."
+
+She was trembling like a leaf and there was positive distress in her
+eyes, eyes half covered by lids tense with alarm.
+
+"Don't feel that way about it, dear," cried he, recovering from his
+astonishment and instantly grasping the situation as it must have
+appeared to her. "To tell you the truth, I do not believe that Mr.
+Barnes is related to you in any way. If he is connected with the case at
+all, it is in the capacity of attorney."
+
+"But he is supposed to be an honourable man."
+
+"True, and I still believe him to be. It does not seem possible that he
+can be engaged in such work as this. We are going altogether on
+supposition--putting two and two together, don't you know, and hoping
+they will stick. But, in any event, we must not let any chance slip by.
+If he is interested, we must bring him to time. It may mean the
+unravelling of the whole skein, dear. Don't look so distressed. Be
+brave. It doesn't matter what we learn in the end, I love you just the
+same. You shall be my wife."
+
+"I _do_ love you, Wicker. I will always love you."
+
+"Dear little sweetheart!"
+
+They whirled up to the lodge gate at Judge Brewster's place at last, the
+throbbing machine coming to a quick stop. Before he called out to the
+lodge keeper, Bonner impulsively drew her gloveless hand to his lips.
+
+"Nothing can make any difference now," he said.
+
+The lodge keeper, in reply to Bonner's eager query, informed them that
+Mr. Barnes had gone away ten or fifteen minutes before with an old man
+who claimed to be a detective, and who had placed the great lawyer under
+arrest.
+
+"Good Lord!" gasped Bonner with a sinking heart.
+
+"It's an outrage, sir! Mr. Barnes is the best man in the world. He never
+wronged no one, sir. There's an 'orrible mistake, sir," groaned the
+lodge keeper. "Judge Brewster is in Boggs City, and the man wouldn't
+wait for his return. He didn't even want to tell Mr. Barnes what 'e was
+charged with."
+
+"Did you ever hear of anything so idiotic?" roared Bonner. Rosalie was
+white and red by turn. "What direction did they take?"
+
+"The constable told Mr. Barnes he'd 'ave to go to Tinkletown with 'im at
+once, sir, even if he 'ad to walk all the way. The old chap said
+something, sir, about a man being there who could identify him on sight.
+Mr. Barnes 'ad to laugh, sir, and appeared to take it all in good
+humour. He said he'd go along of 'im, but he wouldn't walk. So he got
+his own auto out, sir, and they went off together. They took the short
+cut, sir, by the ferry road, 'eaded for Tinkletown. Mr. Barnes said he'd
+be back before noon, sir--if he wasn't lynched."
+
+"It's all over," groaned Bonner dejectedly. Something had slipped from
+under his feet and he was dangling in space, figuratively speaking.
+"There's nothing to do, Rosalie, except to chase them down. Mr. Crow has
+ruined everything. I'll leave you at Bonner Place with mother and Edith,
+and I'll hurry back to Tinkletown."
+
+The excitement was too much for Rosalie's nerves. She was in a state of
+physical collapse when he set her down at his uncle's summer home half
+an hour later. Leaving her to explain the situation to the curious
+friends, he set speed again for Tinkletown, inwardly cursing Anderson
+Crow for a meddling old fool.
+
+In the meantime Tinkletown was staring open-mouthed upon a new
+sensation. The race between Anderson and Bonner was hardly under way
+when down the main street of the town came a jaded team and surrey.
+Behind the driver sat a pretty young woman with an eager expression on
+her pale face, her gaze bent intently on the turn in the street which
+hid Anderson Crow's home from view. Beside the young woman lounged
+another of her sex, much older, and to all appearances, in a precarious
+state of health. The young men along the street gasped in amazement and
+then ventured to doff their timid hats to the young woman, very much as
+if they were saluting a ghost. Few of them received a nod of recognition
+from Elsie Banks, one-time queen of all their hearts.
+
+Roscoe Crow bounded out to the gate when he saw who was in the carriage,
+first shouting to his mother and sisters, who were indoors receiving
+congratulations and condolences from their neighbours.
+
+Miss Banks immediately inquired if she could see Rosalie.
+
+"She ain't here," said Roscoe. "She's away fer a month--over at the
+Bonners'. He's her feller, you know. Ma! Here's Miss Banks! Edner! Sue!"
+Mrs. Crow and the girls flew out to the gate, babbling their surprise
+and greetings.
+
+"This is my mother," introduced the young lady. "We have just come from
+New York, Mrs. Crow. We sail for England this week, and I must see
+Rosalie before we go. How can we get to Mr. Bonner's place?"
+
+"It's across the river, about twelve miles from here," said Mrs. Crow.
+"Come in and rest yourselves. You don't have to go back to-day, do you?
+Ain't you married yet?"
+
+"No, Mrs. Crow," responded Elsie, with a stiff, perfunctory smile.
+"Thank you, we cannot stop. It is necessary that we return to New York
+to-night, but I must see Rosalie before going. You see, Mrs. Crow, I do
+not expect to return to America. We are to live in London forever, I
+fear. It may be the last chance I'll have to see Rosalie. I must go on
+to Bonner Place to-day. But, dear me, I am so tired and hot, and it is
+so far to drive," she cried ruefully. "Do you know the way, driver?" The
+driver gruffly admitted that he did not. Roscoe eagerly bridged the
+difficulty by offering to act as pathfinder.
+
+At first Mrs. Banks tried to dissuade her daughter from undertaking the
+long trip, but the girl was obstinate. Her mother then flatly refused to
+accompany her, complaining of her head and heart. In the end the elder
+lady decided to accept Mrs. Crow's invitation to remain at the house
+until Elsie's return.
+
+"I shall bring Rosalie back with me, mother," said Elsie as she prepared
+to drive away. Mrs. Banks, frail and wan, bowed her head listlessly and
+turned to follow her hostess indoors. With Roscoe in the seat with the
+driver, the carriage started briskly off down the shady street, headed
+for the ferry road and Bonner Place.
+
+To return to Anderson Crow and his precipitancy. Just as the lodge
+keeper had said, the marshal, afoot and dusty, descended upon Mr. Barnes
+without ceremony. The great lawyer was strolling about the grounds when
+his old enemy arrived. He recognised the odd figure as it approached
+among the trees.
+
+"Hello, Mr. Crow!" he called cheerily. "Are you going to arrest me
+again?" He advanced to shake hands.
+
+"Yes, sir; you are my prisoner," said Anderson, panting, but stern. "I
+know you, Mr. Barnes. It won't do you any good to deny it."
+
+"Come in and sit down. You look tired," said Barnes genially, regarding
+his words as a jest; but Anderson proudly stood his ground.
+
+"You can't come any game with me. It won't do you no good to be perlite,
+my man. This time you don't git away."
+
+"You don't mean to say you are in earnest?" cried Barnes.
+
+"I never joke when on duty. Come along with me. You c'n talk afterward.
+Your hirelin' is in jail an' he c'n identify you; so don't resist."
+
+"Wait a moment, sir. What is the charge?"
+
+"I don't know yet. You know better'n I do what it is."
+
+"Look here, Mr. Crow. You arrested me the first time I ever saw you, and
+now you yank me up again, after all these years. Haven't you anything
+else to do but arrest me by mistake? Is that your only occupation?"
+
+Anderson sputtered indignantly. Driven to it, he informed John Barnes
+that he was charged with kidnaping, attempted murder, polygamy, child
+desertion, and nearly everything else under the sun. Barnes, at first
+indignant, finally broke into a hearty laugh. He magnanimously agreed to
+accompany his captor to Tinkletown. Not only that, but he provided the
+means of transportation. To the intense dismay of the servants, he
+merrily departed with Mr. Crow, a prisoner operating his own patrol
+wagon. The two were smoking the captive's best cigars.
+
+"It's mighty nice of you, Mr. Barnes, to let us use your autermobile,"
+said Anderson, benignly puffing away as they bowled off through the
+dust. "It would 'a' been a long walk. I'll speak a good word fer you fer
+this."
+
+"Don't mention it, old chap. I rather enjoy it. It's been uncommonly
+dull up here. I did not get away as soon as I expected, you see. So I am
+charged with being Rosalie's father, eh? And deserting her? And
+kidnaping her? By jove, I ought to be hung for all this!"
+
+"'Tain't nothin' to laugh at, my friend. You ought to be ashamed of
+yourself. I was onto you the day you stopped me in the road an' ast
+about her. What a fool you was. Reg'lar dead give-away."
+
+"See here, Mr. Crow, I don't like to upset your hopes and calculations,"
+said Barnes soberly. "I did that once before, you remember. That was
+years ago. You were wrong then, and you are wrong now. Shall I tell you
+why I am interested in this pretty waif of yours?"
+
+"It ain't necessary," protested the marshal.
+
+"I'll tell you just the same. My son met her in New York while he was at
+school. He heard her story from mutual friends and repeated it to me. I
+was naturally interested, and questioned you. He said she was very
+pretty. That is the whole story, my dear sir."
+
+"That's all very purty, but how about the B in your hat?"
+
+"I don't understand. Oh, you mean the political bee?"
+
+"Politics, your granny! I mean the 'nitial that Briggs saw. No; hold on!
+Don't answer. Don't say anything that'll incriminate yourself."
+
+"I never had an initial in my hat, and I don't know Briggs. Mr. Crow,
+you are as crazy as a loon." He prepared to bring the machine to a
+standstill. "I'm going home. You can ride back with me or get out and
+walk on, just as you please."
+
+"Hold on! Don't do that! I'll see that you're paid fer the use of the
+machine. Besides, consarn ye, you're my prisoner." This was too much for
+Barnes. He laughed long and loud, and he did not turn back.
+
+Just beyond the ferry they turned aside to permit a carriage to pass. A
+boy on the box with the driver shouted frantically after them, and
+Anderson tried to stop the machine himself.
+
+"Stop her!" he cried; "that's Roscoe, my boy. Hold on! Who's that with
+him? Why, by cracky, it's Miss Banks! Gee whiz, has she come back here
+to teach again? Whoa! Turn her around, Mr. Barnes. They are motionin'
+fer us to come back. 'Pears to be important, too."
+
+Barnes obligingly turned around and ran back to where the carriage was
+standing. An hour later the automobile rolled into the driveway at
+Bonner Place, and Anderson Crow, a glorious triumph in his face, handed
+Miss Banks from the tonneau and into the arms of Rosalie Gray, who at
+first had mistaken the automobile for another. Pompous to the point of
+explosion, Anderson waved his hand to the party assembled on the
+veranda, strolled around to Mr. Barnes's seat and acquired a light for
+his cigar with a nonchalance that almost overcame his one-time prisoner,
+and then said, apparently to the whole world, for he addressed no one in
+particular:
+
+"I knowed I could solve the blamed thing if they'd jest give me time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+The Story is Told
+
+
+Elsie Banks had a small and select audience in Mrs. Bonner's room
+upstairs. She had come from New York--or from California, strictly
+speaking--to furnish the narrative which was to set Rosalie Gray's mind
+at rest forever-more. It was not a pleasant task; it was not an easy
+sacrifice for this spirited girl who had known luxury all her life. Her
+spellbound hearers were Mrs. Bonner and Edith, Wicker Bonner, Anderson
+Crow, Rosalie, and John E. Barnes, who, far from being a captive of the
+law, was now Miss Gray's attorney, retained some hours before by his
+former captor.
+
+"I discharge you, sir," Anderson had said, after hearing Miss Bank's
+statement in the roadway. "You are no longer a prisoner. Have you
+anything to say, sir?"
+
+"Nothing, Mr. Crow, except to offer my legal services to you and your
+ward in this extraordinary matter. Put the matter in my hands, sir, and
+she shall soon come into her own, thanks to this young lady. I may add
+that, as I am not in the habit of soliciting clients, it is not my
+intention in this instance to exact a fee from your ward. My services
+are quite free, given in return, Mr. Crow, for the magnanimous way in
+which you have taken me into your confidence ever since I have known
+you. It is an honour to have been arrested by you; truthfully it is no
+disgrace."
+
+In the privacy of Mrs. Bonner's sitting-room, Elsie Banks, dry-eyed and
+bitter, told the story of her life. I cannot tell it as she did, for she
+was able to bring tears to the eyes of her listeners. It is only for me
+to relate the bare facts, putting them into her words as closely as
+possible. Rosalie Gray, faint with astonishment and incredulity, a lump
+in her throat that would not go down, and tears in her eyes, leaned back
+in an easy-chair and watched her unhappy friend.
+
+"I shall provide Mr. Barnes with proof of everything I say," said Miss
+Banks. "There can be no difficulty, Rosalie dear, in confirming all that
+I have to tell. If you will permit me to relate the story without
+interruption and afterward let me go my way without either pity or
+contempt, I shall be, oh, so grateful to you all--especially to you,
+dear Rosalie. Believe me I love you with my whole soul.
+
+"I have come to you voluntarily, and my mother, who is in Tinkletown, in
+resigning herself to the calls of conscience, is now happier than she
+has ever been before. A more powerful influence than her own will or her
+own honour, an influence that was evil to the core, inspired her to
+countenance this awful wrong. It also checkmated every good impulse she
+may have had to undo it in after years. That influence came from Oswald
+Banks, a base monster to whom my mother was married when I was a year
+old. My mother was the daughter of Lord Abbott Brace, but married my own
+father, George Stuart, who was a brilliant but radical newspaper writer
+in London, against her father's wish. For this he cast her off and
+disinherited her. Grandfather hated him and his views, and he could not
+forgive my mother even after my father died, which was two years after
+their marriage.
+
+"Lord Richard Brace, my mother's only brother, married the daughter of
+the Duchess of B----. You, Rosalie, are Lady Rosalie Brace of Brace
+Hall, W--shire, England, the true granddaughter of General Lord Abbott
+Brace, one of the noblest and richest men of his day. Please let me go
+on; I cannot endure the interruptions. The absolute, unalterable proof
+of what I say shall be established through the confession of my own
+mother, in whose possession lies every document necessary to give back
+to you that which she would have given to me.
+
+"Your mother died a few weeks after you were born, and Sir Richard, who
+loved my mother in the face of his father's displeasure, placed you in
+her care, while he rushed off, heart-broken, to find solace in Egypt. It
+is said that he hated you because you were the cause of her death. On
+the day after your birth, old Lord Brace changed his will and bequeathed
+a vast amount of unentailed property to you, to be held in trust by your
+father until you were twenty-one years of age. I was almost two years
+old at the time, and the old man, unexpectedly compassionate, inserted a
+provision which, in the event that you were to die before that time,
+gave all this money to me on my twenty-first birthday. The interest on
+this money, amounting to five thousand pounds annually, was to go to
+you regularly, in one case, or to me, in the other. Oswald Banks was an
+American, whom my mother had met in London several years prior to her
+first marriage. He was the London representative of a big Pennsylvania
+manufacturing concern. He was ambitious, unscrupulous and clever beyond
+conception. He still is all of these and more, for he is now a coward.
+
+"Well, it was he who concocted the diabolical scheme to one day get
+possession of your inheritance. He coerced my poor mother into
+acquiescense, and she became his wretched tool instead of an honoured
+wife and helpmate. One night, when you were three weeks old, the house
+in which we lived was burned to the ground, the inmates narrowly
+escaping. So narrow was the escape, in fact, that you were said to have
+been left behind in the confusion, and the world was told, the next day,
+that the granddaughter of Lord Brace had been destroyed by the flames.
+
+"The truth, however, was not told. My stepfather did not dare to go so
+far as to kill you. It was he who caused the fire, but he had you
+removed to a small hotel in another part of the city some hours earlier,
+secretly, of course, but in charge of a trusted maid. My mother was
+responsible for this. She would not listen to his awful plan to leave
+you in the house. But you might just as well have died. No one was the
+wiser and you were given up as lost. A week later, my mother and Mr.
+Banks started for America. You and I were with them, but you went as the
+daughter of a maid-servant--Ellen Hayes.
+
+"This is the story as my mother has told it to me after all these years.
+My stepfather's plan, of course, was to place you where you could never
+be found, and then to see to it that our grandfather did not succeed in
+changing his will. Moreover, he was bound and determined that he himself
+should be named as trustee--when the fortune came over at Lord Brace's
+death. That part of it turned out precisely as he had calculated. Let me
+go on a few months in advance of my story. Lord Brace died, and the will
+was properly probated and the provisions carried out. Brace Hall and the
+estates went to your father and the bequest came to me, for you were
+considered dead. My stepfather was made trustee. He gave bond in England
+and America, I believe. In any event, the fortune was to be mine when I
+reached the age of twenty-one, but each year the income, nearly
+twenty-five thousand dollars, was to be paid to my stepfather as
+trustee, to be safely invested by him. My mother's name was not
+mentioned in the document, except once, to identify me as the
+beneficiary. I can only add to this phase of the hateful conspiracy,
+that for nineteen years my stepfather received this income, and that he
+used it to establish his own fortune. By investing what was supposed to
+be my money, he has won his own way to wealth.
+
+"Mr. Banks decided that the operations were safest from this side of the
+Atlantic. He and my mother took up their residence in New York, and it
+has been their home ever since. He spent the first half year after your
+suspected death in London, solely for the purpose of establishing
+himself in Lord Brace's favour. Within a year after the death of Lord
+Brace your father was killed by a poacher on the estate. He had but
+lately returned from Egypt, and was in full control of the lands and
+property attached to Brace Hall. If my stepfather had designs upon Brace
+Hall, they failed, for the lands and the title went at once to your
+father's cousin, Sir Harry Brace, the present lord.
+
+"So much for the conditions in England then and now. I now return to
+that part of the story which most interests and concerns you. My poor
+mother was compelled, within a fortnight after we landed in New York, to
+give up the dangerous infant who was always to hang like a cloud between
+fortune and honour. The maid-servant was paid well for her silence. By
+the way, she died mysteriously soon after coming to America, but not
+before giving to my mother a signed paper setting forth clearly every
+detail in so far as it bore upon her connection with the hateful
+transaction. Conscience was forever at work in my mother's heart; honour
+was constantly struggling to the surface, only to be held back by fear
+of and loyalty to the man she loved.
+
+"It was decided that the most humane way to put you out of existence was
+to leave you on the doorstep of some kindly disposed person, far from
+New York. My stepfather and my mother deliberately set forth on this
+so-called mission of mercy. They came north, and by chance, fell in with
+a resident of Boggs City while in the station at Albany. They were
+debating which way to turn for the next step. My mother was firm in the
+resolve that you should be left in the care of honest, reliable,
+tender-hearted people, who would not abuse the trust she was to impose.
+The Boggs City man said he had been in Albany to see about a bill in the
+legislature, which was to provide for the erection of a monument in
+Tinkletown--where a Revolutionary battle had been fought. It was he who
+spoke of Anderson Crow, and it was his stories of your goodness and
+generosity, Mr. Crow, that caused them to select you as the man who was
+to have Rosalie, and, with her, the sum of one thousand dollars a year
+for your trouble and her needs.
+
+"My mother's description of that stormy night in February, more than
+twenty-one years ago, is the most pitiful thing I have ever listened to.
+Together they made their way to Tinkletown, hiring a vehicle in Boggs
+City for the purpose. Mr. Banks left the basket on your porch while
+mother stood far down the street and waited for him, half frozen and
+heartsick. Then they hurried out of town and were soon safely on their
+way to New York. It was while my stepfather was in London, later on,
+that mother came up to see Rosalie and make that memorable first payment
+to Mr. Crow. How it went on for years, you all know. It was my
+stepfather's cleverness that made it so impossible to learn the source
+from which the mysterious money came.
+
+"We travelled constantly, always finding new places of interest in which
+my mother's conscience could be eased by contact with beauty and
+excitement. Gradually she became hardened to the conditions, for, after
+all, was it not her own child who was to be enriched by the theft and
+the deception? Mr. Banks constantly forced that fact in upon her
+mother-love and her vanity. Through it all, however, you were never
+neglected nor forgotten. My mother had your welfare always in mind. It
+was she who saw that you and I were placed at the same school in New
+York, and it was she who saw that your training in a way was as good as
+it could possibly be without exciting risk.
+
+"Of course, I knew nothing of all this. I was rolling in wealth and
+luxury, but not in happiness. Instinctively I loathed my stepfather. He
+was hard, cruel, unreasonable. It was because of him that I left school
+and afterward sought to earn my own living. You know, Rosalie, how Tom
+Reddon came into my life. He was the son of William Reddon, my
+stepfather's business partner, who had charge of the Western branch of
+the concern in Chicago. We lived in Chicago for several years,
+establishing the business. Mr. Banks was until recently president of the
+Banks & Reddon Iron Works. Last year, you doubtless know, the plant was
+sold to the great combine and the old company passed out of existence.
+This act was the result of a demand from England that the trust under
+which he served be closed and struck from the records. It was his plan
+to settle the matter, turn the inheritance over to me according to law,
+and then impose upon my inexperience for all time to come. The money,
+while mine literally, was to be his in point of possession.
+
+"But he had reckoned without the son of his partner. Tom Reddon in some
+way learned the secret, and he was compelled to admit the young man into
+all of his plans. This came about some three years ago, while I was in
+school. I had known Tom Reddon in Chicago. He won my love. I cannot deny
+it, although I despise him to-day more deeply than I ever expect to hate
+again. He was even more despicable than my stepfather. Without the
+faintest touch of pity, he set about to obliterate every chance Rosalie
+could have had for restitution. Time began to prove to me that he was
+not the man I thought him to be. His nature revealed itself; and I found
+I could not marry him. Besides, my mother was beginning to repent. She
+awoke from her stupor of indifference and strove in every way to
+circumvent the plot of the two conspirators, so far as I was concerned.
+The strain told on her at last, and we went to California soon after my
+ridiculous flight from Tinkletown last winter. It was not until after
+that adventure that I began to see deep into the wretched soul of Tom
+Reddon.
+
+"Then came the most villainous part of the whole conspiracy. Reddon,
+knowing full well that exposure was possible at any time, urged my
+stepfather to have you kidnaped and hurried off to some part of the
+world where you could never be found. Even Reddon did not have the
+courage to kill you. Neither had the heart to commit actual murder. It
+was while we were at Colonel Randall's place that the abduction took
+place, you remember. Mr. Banks and Tom Reddon had engaged their men in
+New York. These desperadoes came to Boggs City while Tom was here to
+watch their operations. All the time Mr. Crow was chasing us down
+Reddon was laughing in his sleeve, for he knew what was to happen during
+the marshal's absence. You know how successfully he managed the job. It
+was my stepfather's fault that it did not succeed.
+
+"My mother, down in New York, driven to the last extreme, had finally
+turned on him and demanded that he make restitution to Rosalie Gray, as
+we had come to know her. Of course, there was a scene and almost a
+catastrophe. He was so worried over the position she was taking, that he
+failed to carry out his part of the plans, which were to banish Rosalie
+forever from this country. You were to have been taken to Paris, dear,
+and kept forever in one of those awful sanitoriums. They are worse than
+the grave. In the meantime, the delay gave Mr. Bonner a chance to rescue
+you from the kidnapers.
+
+"Shortly after reaching New York I quarrelled with Thomas Reddon, and my
+mother and I fled to California. He followed us and sought a
+reconciliation. I loathed him so much by this time, that I appealed to
+my mother. It was then that she told me this miserable story, and that
+is why we are in Tinkletown to-day. We learned in some way of the plot
+to kidnap you and to place you where you could not be found. The inhuman
+scheme of my stepfather and his adviser was to have my mother declared
+insane and confined in an asylum, where her truthful utterances could
+never be heard by the world, or if they were, as the ravings of a mad
+woman.
+
+"The day that we reached New York my mother _placed_ the documents and
+every particle of proof in her possession in the hands of the British
+Consul. The story was told to him and also to certain attorneys. A
+member of his firm visited my stepfather and confronted him with the
+charges. That very night Mr. Banks disappeared, leaving behind him a
+note, in which he said we should never see his face again. Tom Reddon
+has gone to Europe. My mother and I expect to sail this week for
+England, and I have come to ask Rosalie to accompany us. I want her to
+stand at last on the soil which knows her to be Rosalie Brace. The
+fortune which was mine last week is hers to-day. We are not poor,
+Rosalie dear, but we are not as rich as we were when we had all that
+belonged to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+Anderson Crow's Resignation
+
+
+Some days later Anderson Crow returned to Tinkletown from New York,
+where he had seen Rosalie Bonner and her husband off for England,
+accompanied by Mrs. Banks and Elsie, who had taken passage on the same
+steamer. He was attired in a brand-new suit of blue serge, a panama hat,
+and patent-leather shoes which hurt his feet. Moreover, he carried a new
+walking stick with a great gold head and there was a huge pearl
+scarf-pin in his necktie Besides all this, his hair and beard had been
+trimmed to perfection by a Holland House barber. Every morning his wife
+was obliged to run a flatiron over his trousers to perpetuate the
+crease. Altogether Anderson was a revelation not only to his family and
+to the town at large, but to himself as well. He fairly staggered every
+time he got a glimpse of himself in the shop windows.
+
+All day long he strolled about the street, from store to store, or
+leaned imposingly against every post that presented itself conveniently.
+Naturally he was the talk of the town.
+
+"Gee-mi-nently!" ejaculated Alf Reesling, catching sight of him late in
+the day. "Is that the president?"
+
+"It's Anderson Crow," explained Blootch Peabody.
+
+"Who's dead?" demanded Alf.
+
+"What's that got to do with it?"
+
+"Why, whose clothes is he wearin'?" pursued Alf, utterly overcome by the
+picture.
+
+"You'd better not let him hear you say that," cautioned Isaac Porter.
+"He got 'em in New York. He says young Mr. Bonner give 'em to him fer a
+weddin' present. Rosalie give him a pearl dingus to wear in his cravat,
+an' derned ef he don't have to wear a collar all the time now. That
+lawyer Barnes give him the cane. Gee whiz! he looks like a king, don't
+he?"
+
+At that moment Anderson approached the group in front of Lamson's store.
+He walked with a stateliness that seemed to signify pain in his lower
+extremities more than it did dignity higher up.
+
+"How fer out do you reckon they are by this time, Blootch?" he asked
+earnestly.
+
+"'Bout ten miles further than when you asked while ago," responded
+Blootch, consulting his watch.
+
+"Well, that ought to get 'em to Liverpool sometime soon then. They took
+a powerful fast ship. Makes it in less 'n six days, they say. Let's see.
+They sailed day before yesterday. They must be out sight o' land by this
+time."
+
+"Yes, unless they're passin' some islands," agreed Blootch.
+
+"Thunderation! What air you talkin' about?" said Anderson scornfully.
+"Cuby an' Porty Rico's been passed long ago. Them islands ain't far from
+Boston. Don't you remember how skeered the Boston people were durin' the
+war with Spain? Feared the Spanish shells might go a little high an'
+smash up the town? Islands nothin'! They've got away out into deep
+water by this time, boys. 'y Gosh, I'm anxious about Rosalie. S'posin'
+that derned boat struck a rock er upset er somethin'! They never could
+swim ashore."
+
+"Oh, there's no danger, Anderson," said Mr. Lamson. "Those boats are
+perfectly safe. I suppose they're going to telegraph you when they
+land."
+
+"No, they're goin' to cable, Wick says. Doggone, I'm glad it's all
+settled. You don't know how hard I've worked all these years to find out
+who her parents was. Course I knowed they were foreigners all the time,
+but Rosalie never had no brogue, so you c'n see how I was threw off the
+track. She talked jest as good American as we do. I was mighty glad when
+I finally run Miss Banks to earth." The crowd was in no position to
+argue the point with him. "That Miss Banks is a fine girl, boys. She
+done the right thing. An' so did my Rosalie--I mean Lady Rosalie. She
+made Elsie keep some of the money. Mr. Barnes is goin' to England next
+week to help settle the matter for Lady Rosalie. He says she's got
+nearly a million dollars tied up some'eres. It's easy sailin', though,
+'cause Mrs. Banks says so. Did you hear what Rosalie said when she got
+convinced about bein' an English lady?"
+
+"No; what did she say?"
+
+"She jest stuck up that derned little nose o' hern an' said: 'I am an
+American as long as I live.'"
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Alf Reesling, throwing Isaac Porter's new hat into the
+air. The crowd joined in the cheering.
+
+"Did I ever tell you how I knowed all along that it was a man who left
+Rosalie on the porch?" asked Anderson.
+
+"Why, you allus told me it was a woman," said Alf. "You accused me of
+bein' her."
+
+"Shucks! Woman nothin'! I knowed it was a man. Here's somethin' you
+don't know, Alf. I sized up the foot-prints on my front steps jest after
+she--I mean he--dropped the basket. The toes turned outward, plain as
+day, right there in the snow." He paused to let the statement settle in
+their puzzled brains. "Don't you know that one hunderd percent of the
+women turn their toes in when they go upstairs? To keep from hookin'
+into their skirts? Thunder, you oughter of thought of that, too!"
+
+Some one had posted Anderson on this peculiarly feminine trait, and he
+was making the best of it. Incidentally, it may be said that every man
+in Tinkletown took personal observations in order to satisfy himself.
+
+"Any one seen Pastor MacFarlane?" went on Anderson. "Wick Bonner give me
+a hunderd dollar bill to give him fer performin' the ceremony up to our
+house that night. G'way, Ed Higgins! I'm not goin' 'round showin' that
+bill to people. If robbers got onto the fact I have it, they'd probably
+try to steal it. I don't keer if you ain't seen that much money in one
+piece. That's none of my lookout. Say, are you comin' to the town
+meetin' to-night?"
+
+They were all at the meeting of the town board that night. It was held,
+as usual, in Odd Fellows' Hall, above Peterson's dry-goods store, and
+there was not so much as standing room in the place when the clerk read
+the minutes of the last meeting. Word had gone forth that something
+unusual was to happen. It was not idle rumour, for soon after the
+session began, Anderson Crow arose to address the board.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "I have come
+before you as I notified you I would. I hereby tender my resignation as
+marshal of Tinkletown, street commissioner and chief of the fire
+department--an' any other job I may have that has slipped my mind. I now
+suggest that you app'int Mr. Ed Higgins in my place. He has wanted the
+job fer some time, an' says it won't interfere with his business any
+more than it did with mine. I have worked hard all these years an' I
+feel that I ought to have a rest. Besides, it has got to be so that
+thieves an' other criminals won't visit Tinkletown on account o' me, an'
+I think the town is bein' held back considerable in that way. What's the
+use havin' a marshal an' a jail ef nobody comes here to commit crimes?
+They have to commit 'em in New York City er Chicago nowadays, jest
+because it's safer there than it is here. Look at this last case I had.
+Wasn't that arranged in New York? Well, it shouldn't be that way. Even
+the train robbers put up their job in New York. I feel that the best
+interests of the town would be served ef I resign an' give the criminals
+a chance. You all know Ed Higgins. He will ketch 'em if anybody kin. I
+move that he be app'inted."
+
+The motion prevailed, as did the vote of thanks, which was vociferously
+called for in behalf of Anderson Crow.
+
+"You honour me," said the ex-marshal, when the "ayes" died away. "I
+promise to help Marshal Higgins in ever' way possible. I'll tell him
+jest what to do in everything. I wish to say that I am not goin' out of
+the detective business, however. I'm goin' to open an agency of my own
+here. All sorts of detective business will be done at reasonable prices.
+I had these cards printed at the _Banner_ office to-day, an' Mr. Squires
+is goin' to run an ad. fer me fer a year in the paper."
+
+He proudly handed a card to the president of the board and then told the
+crowd that each person present could have one by applying to his son
+Roscoe, who would be waiting in the hallway after the meeting. The card
+read:
+
+           "Anderson Crow, Detective.
+     All kinds of cases Taken and Satisfaction
+                    Guaranteed.
+           Berth mysteries a Specialty."
+
+Mrs. Bonner, upon hearing of his resignation the next day, just as she
+was leaving for Boston, drily remarked to the Congressman:
+
+"I still maintain that Anderson Crow is utterly impossible."
+
+No doubt the entire world, aside from the village of Tinkletown, agrees
+with her in that opinion.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Daughter of Anderson Crow, by George Barr
+McCutcheon, Illustrated by B. Martin Justice</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Daughter of Anderson Crow</p>
+<p>Author: George Barr McCutcheon</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 27, 2005  [eBook #14818]</p>
+<p>[Last updated: December 28, 2020]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="Frontispiece" id=
+"Frontispiece"></a> <a href="images/001.jpg"><img src=
+"images/001.jpg" width="45%" alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>Anderson Crow</b>
+<br /></div>
+<h1>THE DAUGHTER</h1>
+<h1>OF ANDERSON CROW</h1>
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<h2>GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON</h2>
+<div class="center">Author of<br />
+<br />
+<i>Beverly of Graustark</i>, <i>Jane Cable</i>, etc.</div>
+<h4>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY</h4>
+<h3>B. MARTIN JUSTICE</h3>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/002.png" width="10%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h6>New York<br />
+Dodd, Mead and Company</h6>
+<h4>1907</h4>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>
+<td align='right'>CHAPTER</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">ANDERSON CROW, DETECTIVE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">THE PURSUIT BEGINS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE CULPRITS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">ANDERSON RECTIFIES AN ERROR</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">THE BABE ON THE DOORSTEP</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">REFLECTION AND DEDUCTION</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">SOME YEARS GO BY</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">THE VILLAGE QUEEN</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">ROSALIE HAS PLANS OF HER OWN</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">ELSIE BANKS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">THE SPELLING-BEE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">A TINKLETOWN SENSATION</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">ROSALIE DISAPPEARS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">THE HAUNTED HOUSE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">WICKER BONNER, HARVARD</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">THE MEN IN THE SLEIGH</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">WITH THE KIDNAPERS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">IN THE CAVE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">THE TRAP-DOOR</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">JACK, THE GIANT KILLER</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">TINKLETOWN'S CONVULSION</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">THE FLIGHT OF THE KIDNAPERS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">AS THE HEART GROWS OLDER</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">XXVI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">THE LEFT VENTRICLE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">XXVII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">THE GRIN DERISIVE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">XXVIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">THE BLIND MAN'S EYES</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">XXIX.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">THE MYSTERIOUS QUESTIONER</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">XXX.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">THE HEMISPHERE TRAIN ROBBERY</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">XXXI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">"AS YOU LIKE IT"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">XXXII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">THE LUCK OF ANDERSON CROW</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">XXXIII.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">BILL BRIGGS TELLS A TALE</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">XXXIV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">ELSIE BANKS RETURNS</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">XXXV.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">THE STORY IS TOLD</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">XXXVI.</a></td>
+<td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">ANDERSON CROW'S RESIGNATION</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#Frontispiece">Anderson Crow (Frontispiece)</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i036.jpg">"'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he
+whispered"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">"A baby, alive and warm, lay packed in the blankets"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i106.jpg">"September brought Elsie Banks"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i122.jpg">"The teacher was amazingly pretty on this
+eventful night"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i140.jpg">"'What is the meaning of all
+this?'"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i162.jpg">The haunted house</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">Wicker Bonner</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i192.jpg">"Rosalie was no match for the huge
+woman"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i204.jpg">"She shrank back from another blow which
+seemed impending"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">"Left the young man to the care of an excellent nurse"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i268.jpg">"'I think I understand, Rosalie'"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i272.jpg">"'I beg your pardon,' he said
+humbly'"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><a href="#i278.jpg">"It was a wise, discreet old oak"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">"The huge automobile had struck the washout"</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW</h1>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<h3><i>Anderson Crow, Detective</i></h3>
+<p>He was imposing, even in his pensiveness. There was no denying
+the fact that he was an important personage in Tinkletown, and to
+the residents of Tinkletown that meant a great deal, for was not
+their village a perpetual monument to the American Revolution? Even
+the most generalising of historians were compelled to devote at
+least a paragraph to the battle of Tinkletown, while some of the
+more enlightened gave a whole page and a picture of the conflict
+that brought glory to the sleepy inhabitants whose ancestors were
+enterprising enough to annihilate a whole company of British
+redcoats, once on a time.</p>
+<p>Notwithstanding all this, a particularly disagreeable visitor
+from the city once remarked, in the presence of half a dozen
+descendants (after waiting twenty minutes at the post-office for a
+dime's worth of stamps), that Tinkletown was indeed a monument, but
+he could not understand why the dead had been left unburied. There
+was excellent cause for resentment, but the young man and his
+stamps were far away before the full force of the slander
+penetrated the brains of the listeners.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow was as imposing and as rugged as the tallest shaft
+of marble in the little cemetery on the edge of the town. No one
+questioned his power and authority, no one misjudged his altitude,
+and no one overlooked his dignity. For twenty-eight years he had
+served Tinkletown and himself in the triple capacity of town
+marshal, fire chief and street commissioner. He had a system of
+government peculiarly his own; and no one possessed the heart or
+temerity to upset it, no matter what may have been the political
+inducements. It would have been like trying to improve the laws of
+nature to put a new man in his place. He had become a fixture that
+only dissolution could remove. Be it said, however, that
+dissolution did not have its common and accepted meaning when
+applied to Anderson Crow. For instance, in discoursing upon the
+obnoxious habits of the town's most dissolute rake&mdash;Alf
+Reesling&mdash;Anderson had more than once ventured the opinion
+that "he was carrying his dissolution entirely too far."</p>
+<p>And had not Anderson Crow risen to more than local distinction?
+Had not his fame gone abroad throughout the land? Not only was he
+the Marshal of Tinkletown at a salary of $200 a year, but he was
+president of the County Horse-thief Detectives' Association and
+also a life-long delegate to the State Convention of the Sons of
+the Revolution. Along that line, let it be added, every parent in
+Tinkletown bemoaned the birth of a daughter, because that simple
+circumstance of origin robbed the society's roster of a new
+name.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/010.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Anderson Crow, at the age of forty-nine, had a proud official
+record behind him and a guaranteed future ahead. Doubtless it was
+of this that he was thinking, as he leaned pensively against the
+town hitching-rack and gingerly chewed the blade of wire-grass
+which dangled even below the chin whiskers that had been with him
+for twenty years. The faraway expression in his watery-blue eyes
+gave evidence that he was as great reminiscently as he was
+personally. So successful had been his career as a law preserver,
+that of late years no evil-doer had had the courage to ply his
+nefarious games in the community. The town drunkard, Alf Reesling,
+seldom appeared on the streets in his habitual condition, because,
+as he dolefully remarked, he would deserve arrest and confinement
+for "criminal negligence," if for nothing else. The marshal's fame
+as a detective had long since escaped from the narrow confines of
+Tinkletown. He was well known at the county seat, and on no less
+than three occasions had his name mentioned in the "big city"
+papers in connection with the arrest of notorious
+horse-thieves.</p>
+<p>And now the whole town was trembling with a new excitement, due
+to the recognition accorded her triple official. On Monday morning
+he had ventured forth from his office in the long-deserted
+"calaboose," resplendent in a brand-new nickel-plated star. By noon
+everybody in town knew that he was a genuine "detective," a member
+of the great organisation known as the New York Imperial Detective
+Association; and that fresh honour had come to Tinkletown through
+the agency of a post-revolution generation. The beauty of it all
+was that Anderson never lost a shred of his serenity in explaining
+how the association had implored him to join its forces, even going
+so far as to urge him to come to New York City, where he could
+assist and advise in all of its large operations. And, moreover, he
+had been obliged to pay but ten dollars membership fee, besides
+buying the blazing star for the paltry sum of three dollars and a
+quarter.</p>
+<p>Every passer-by on this bright spring morning offered a
+respectful "Howdy" to Anderson Crow, whose only recognition was a
+slow and imposing nod of the head. Once only was he driven to
+relinquish his pensive attitude, and that was when an impertinent
+blue-bottle fly undertook to rest for a brief spell upon the
+nickel-plated star. Never was blue-bottle more energetically put to
+flight.</p>
+<p>But even as the Tinkletown Pooh-Bah posed in restful supremacy
+there were rushing down upon him affairs of the epoch-making kind.
+Up in the clear, lazy sky a thunderbolt was preparing to hurl
+itself into the very heart of Tinkletown, and at the very head of
+Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>Afterward it was recalled by observing citizens that just before
+noon&mdash;seven minutes to twelve, in fact&mdash;a small cloud no
+bigger than the proverbial hand crossed the sun hurriedly as if
+afraid to tarry. At that very instant a stranger drove up to the
+hitching-rack, bringing his sweat-covered horse to a standstill so
+abruptly in front of the marshal's nose that that dignitary's hat
+fell off backward.</p>
+<p>"Whoa!" came clearly and unmistakably from the lips of the
+stranger who held the reins. Half a dozen loafers on the
+post-office steps were positive that he said nothing more, a fact
+that was afterward worth remembering.</p>
+<p>"Here!" exclaimed Anderson Crow wrathfully. "Do you know what
+you're doin', consarn you?"</p>
+<p>"I beg pardon," everybody within hearing heard the young man
+say. "Is this the city of Tinkletown?" He said "city," they could
+swear, every man's son of them.</p>
+<p>"Yes, it is," answered the marshal severely. "What of it?"</p>
+<p>"That's all. I just wanted to know. Where's the store?"</p>
+<p>"Which store?" quite crossly. The stranger seemed nonplussed at
+this.</p>
+<p>"Have you more than&mdash;oh, to be sure. I should say, where is
+the <i>nearest</i> store?" apologised the stranger.</p>
+<p>"Well, this is a good one, I reckon," said Mr. Crow laconically,
+indicating the post-office and general store.</p>
+<p>"Will you be good enough to hold my horse while I run in there
+for a minute?" calmly asked the new arrival in town, springing
+lightly from the mud-spattered buggy. Anderson Crow almost
+staggered beneath this indignity. The crowd gasped, and then waited
+breathlessly for the withering process.</p>
+<p>"Why&mdash;why, dod-gast you, sir, what do you think I
+am&mdash;a hitchin'-post?" exploded on the lips of the new
+detective. His face was flaming red.</p>
+<p>"You'll have to excuse me, my good man, but I thought I saw a
+hitching-rack as I drove up. Ah, here it is. How careless of me.
+But say, I won't be in the store more than a second, and it doesn't
+seem worth while to tie the old crow-bait. If you'll just watch
+him&mdash;or her&mdash;for a minute I'll be greatly obliged,
+and&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Watch your own horse," roared the marshal thunderously.</p>
+<p>"Don't get huffy," cried the young man cheerily. "It will be
+worth a quarter to you."</p>
+<p>"Do you know who I am?" demanded Anderson Crow, purple to the
+roots of his goatee.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/014.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Yes, sir; I know perfectly well, but I refuse to give it away.
+Here, take the bit, old chap, and hold Dobbin for about a minute
+and half," went on the stranger ruthlessly; and before Anderson
+Crow knew what had happened he was actually holding the panting nag
+by the bit. The young man went up the steps three at a time, almost
+upsetting Uncle Gideon Luce, who had not been so spry as the others
+in clearing the way for him. The crowd had ample time in which to
+study the face, apparel and manner of this energetic young man.</p>
+<p>That he was from the city, good-looking and well dressed, there
+was no doubt. He was tall and his face was beardless; that much
+could be seen at a glance. Somehow, he seemed to be laughing all
+the time&mdash;a fact that was afterward recalled with some
+surprise and no little horror. At the time, the loungers thought
+his smile was a merry one, but afterward they stoutly maintained
+there was downright villainy in the leer. His coat was very dusty,
+proving that he had driven far and swiftly. Three or four of the
+loungers followed him into the store. He was standing before the
+counter over which Mr. Lamson served his soda-water. In one hand he
+held an envelope and in the other his straw hat. George Ray, more
+observant than the rest, took note of the fact that it was with the
+hat that he was fanning himself vigorously.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/015.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"A plain vanilla&mdash;please rush it along," commanded the
+stranger. Mr. Lamson, if possible slower than the town itself,
+actually showed unmistakable signs of acceleration. Tossing off the
+soda, the stranger dried his lips with a blue-hemmed white
+handkerchief. "Is this the post-office?" he asked.</p>
+<p>"Yep," said Mr. Lamson, who was too penurious to waste
+words.</p>
+<p>"Anything here for me?" demanded the newcomer.</p>
+<p>"I'll see," said the postmaster, and from force of habit began
+looking through the pile of letters without asking the man's name.
+Mr. Lamson knew everybody in the county.</p>
+<p>"Nothing here," taking off his spectacles conclusively.</p>
+<p>"I didn't think there was," said the other complacently. "Give
+me a bottle of witch hazel, a package of invisible hair-pins and a
+box of parlor matches. Quick; I'm in a hurry!"</p>
+<p>"Did you say hat-pins?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir; I said hair-pins."</p>
+<p>"We haven't any that ain't visible. How would safety-pins
+do?"</p>
+<p>"Never mind; give me the bottle and the matches," said the
+other, glancing at a very handsome gold watch. "Is the old man
+still holding my horse?" he called to a citizen near the door.
+Seven necks stretched simultaneously to accommodate him, and seven
+voices answered in the affirmative. The stranger calmly opened the
+box of matches, filled his silver match-safe, and then threw the
+box back on the counter, an unheard-of piece of profligacy in those
+parts. "Needn't mind wrapping up the bottle," he said.</p>
+<p>"Don't you care for these matches?" asked Mr. Lamson in mild
+surprise.</p>
+<p>"I'll donate them to the church," said the other, tossing a coin
+upon the counter and dashing from the store. The crowd ebbed along
+behind him. "Gentle as a lamb, isn't he?" he called to Anderson
+Crow, who still clutched the bit. "Much obliged, sir; I'll do as
+much for you some day. If you're ever in New York, hunt me up and
+I'll see that you have a good time. What road do I take to Crow's
+Cliff?"</p>
+<p>"Turn to your left here," said Anderson Crow before he thought.
+Then he called himself a fool for being so obliging to the
+fellow.</p>
+<p>"How far is it from here?"</p>
+<p>"Mile and a half," again answered Mr. Crow helplessly. This time
+he almost swore under his breath.</p>
+<p>"But he can't get there," volunteered one of the bystanders.</p>
+<p>"Why can't he?" demanded the marshal.</p>
+<p>"Bridge over Turnip Creek is washed out. Did you forget
+that?"</p>
+<p>"Of course not," promptly replied Mr. Crow, who <i>had</i>
+forgotten it; "But, dang it, he c'n swim, can't he?"</p>
+<p>"You say the bridge is gone?" asked the stranger, visibly
+excited.</p>
+<p>"Yes, and the crick's too high to ford, too."</p>
+<p>"Well, how in thunder am I to get to Crow's Cliff?"</p>
+<p>"There's another bridge four miles upstream. It's still there,"
+said George Ray. Anderson Crow had scornfully washed his hands of
+the affair.</p>
+<p>"Confound the luck! I haven't time to drive that far. I have to
+be there at half-past twelve. I'm late now! Is there no way to get
+across this miserable creek?" He was in the buggy now, whip in
+hand, and his eyes wore an anxious expression. Some of the men
+vowed later that he positively looked frightened.</p>
+<p>"There's a foot-log high and dry, and you can walk across, but
+you can't get the horse and buggy over," said one of the men.</p>
+<p>"Well, that's just what I'll have to do. Say, Mr. Officer,
+suppose you drive me down to the creek and then bring the horse
+back here to a livery stable. I'll pay you well for it. I must get
+to Crow's Cliff in fifteen minutes."</p>
+<p>"I'm no errant-boy!" cried Anderson Crow so wrathfully that two
+or three boys snickered.</p>
+<p>"You're a darned old crank, that's what you are!" exclaimed the
+stranger angrily. Everybody gasped, and Mr. Crow staggered back
+against the hitching-rail.</p>
+<p>"See here, young man, none o' that!" he sputtered. "You can't
+talk that way to an officer of the law. I'll&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"You won't do anything, do you hear that? But if you knew who I
+am you'd be doing something blamed quick." A dozen men heard him
+say it, and they remembered it word for word.</p>
+<p>"You go scratch yourself!" retorted Anderson Crow scornfully.
+That was supposed to be a terrible challenge, but the stranger took
+no notice of it.</p>
+<p>"What am I to do with this horse and buggy?" he growled, half to
+himself. "I bought the darned thing outright up in Boggs City, just
+because the liveryman didn't know me and wouldn't let me a rig. Now
+I suppose I'll have to take the old plug down to the creek and
+drown him in order to get rid of him."</p>
+<p>Nobody remonstrated. He looked a bit dangerous with his broad
+shoulders and square jaw.</p>
+<p>"What will you give me for the outfit, horse, buggy, harness and
+all? I'll sell cheap if some one makes a quick offer." The
+bystanders looked at one another blankly, and at last the
+concentrated gaze fell upon the Pooh-Bah of the town. The case
+seemed to be one that called for his attention; truly, it did not
+look like public property, this astounding proposition.</p>
+<p>"What you so derned anxious to sell for?" demanded Anderson
+Crow, listening from a distance to see if he could detect a blemish
+in the horse's breathing gear. At a glance, the buggy looked safe
+enough.</p>
+<p>"I'm anxious to sell for cash," replied the stranger; and
+Anderson was floored. The boy who snickered this time had cause to
+regret it, for Mr. Crow arrested him half an hour later for
+carrying a bean-shooter. "I paid a hundred dollars for the outfit
+in Boggs City," went on the stranger nervously. "Some one make an
+offer&mdash;and quick! I'm in a rush!"</p>
+<p>"I'll give five dollars!" said one of the onlookers with an
+apologetic laugh. This was the match that started fire in the
+thrifty noddles of Tinkletown's best citizens. Before they knew it
+they were bidding against each other with the true "horse-swapping"
+instinct, and the offers had reached $21.25 when the stranger
+unceremoniously closed the sale by crying out, "Sold!" There is no
+telling how high the bids might have gone if he could have waited
+half an hour or so. Uncle Gideon Luce afterward said that he could
+have had twenty-four dollars "just as well as not." They were
+bidding up a quarter at a time, and no one seemed willing to drop
+out. The successful bidder was Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"You can pay me as we drive along. Jump in!" cried the stranger,
+looking at his watch with considerable agitation. "All I ask is
+that you drive me to the foot-log that crosses the creek."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<h3><i>The Pursuit Begins</i></h3>
+<p>Fifteen minutes later Anderson Crow was parading proudly about
+the town. He had taken the stranger to the creek and had seen him
+scurry across the log to the opposite side, supplied with
+directions that would lead him to the nearest route through the
+swamps and timberland to Crow's Cliff. The stranger had Anderson's
+money in his pocket; but Anderson had a very respectable sort of
+driving outfit to show for it. His wife kept dinner for him until
+two o'clock, and then sent the youngest Crow out to tell her father
+that he'd have to go hungry until supper-time.</p>
+<p>It is no wonder that Anderson failed to reach home in time for
+the midday meal. He started home properly enough, but what progress
+could he make when everybody in town stopped him to inquire about
+the remarkable deal and to have a look at the purchase. Without a
+single dissenting voice, Tinkletown said Anderson had very much the
+"best of the bargain." George Ray meant all right when he said, "A
+fool for luck," but he was obliged to explain thoroughly the
+witticism before the proud Mr. Crow could consider himself
+appeased.</p>
+<p>It was not until he pulled up in front of the <i>Weekly
+Banner</i> establishment to tell the reporter "the news" that his
+equanimity received its first jar. He was quite proud of the deal,
+and, moreover, he enjoyed seeing his name in the paper. In the
+meantime almost everybody in Tinkletown was discussing the awful
+profligacy of the stranger. It had not occurred to anybody to
+wonder why he had been in such a hurry to reach Crow's Cliff, a
+wild, desolate spot down the river.</p>
+<p>"The hoss alone is worth fifty dollars easy," volunteered Mr.
+Crow triumphantly. The detective's badge on his inflated chest
+seemed to sparkle with glee.</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson, isn't it a little queer that he should sell out
+so cheap?" asked Harry Squires, the local reporter and
+pressfeeder.</p>
+<p>"What's that?" demanded Anderson Crow sharply.</p>
+<p>"Do you think it's really true that he bought the nag up at
+Boggs City?" asked the sceptic. Mr. Crow wallowed his quid of
+tobacco helplessly for a minute or two. He could feel himself
+turning pale.</p>
+<p>"He said so; ain't that enough?" he managed to bluster.</p>
+<p>"It seems to have been," replied Harry, who had gone to night
+school in Albany for two years.</p>
+<p>"Well, what in thunder are you talking about then?" exclaimed
+Anderson Crow, whipping up.</p>
+<p>"I'll bet three dollars it's a stolen outfit!"</p>
+<p>"You go to Halifax!" shouted Anderson, but his heart was cold.
+Something told him that Harry Squires was right. He drove home in a
+state of dire uncertainty and distress. Somehow, his enthusiasm was
+gone.</p>
+<p>"Dang it!" he said, without reason, as he was unhitching the
+horse in the barn lot.</p>
+<p>"Hey, Mr. Crow!" cried a shrill voice from the street. He looked
+up and saw a small boy coming on the run.</p>
+<p>"What's up, Toby?" asked Mr. Crow, all a-tremble. He knew!</p>
+<p>"They just got a telephone from Boggs City," panted the boy,
+"down to the <i>Banner</i> office. Harry Squires says for you to
+hurry down&mdash;buggy and all. It's been stole."</p>
+<p>"Good Lord!" gasped Anderson. His badge danced before his eyes
+and then seemed to shrivel.</p>
+<p>Quite a crowd had collected at the <i>Banner</i> office. There
+was a sudden hush when the marshal drove up. Even the horse felt
+the intensity of the moment. He shied at a dog and then kicked over
+the dashboard, upsetting Anderson Crow's meagre dignity and almost
+doing the same to the vehicle.</p>
+<p>"You're a fine detective!" jeered Harry Squires; and poor old
+Anderson hated him ever afterward.</p>
+<p>"What have you heerd?" demanded the marshal.</p>
+<p>"There's been a terrible murder at Boggs City, that's all. The
+chief of police just telephoned to us that a farmer named Grover
+was found dead in a ditch just outside of town&mdash;shot through
+the head, his pockets rifled. It is known that he started to town
+to deposit four hundred dollars hog-money in the bank. The money is
+missing, and so are his horse and buggy. A young fellow was seen in
+the neighbourhood early this morning&mdash;a stranger. The chief's
+description corresponds with the man who sold that rig to you. The
+murderer is known to have driven in this direction. People saw him
+going almost at a gallop."</p>
+<p>It is not necessary to say that Tinkletown thoroughly turned
+inside out with excitement. The whole population was soon at the
+post-office, and everybody was trying to supply Anderson Crow with
+wits. He had lost his own.</p>
+<p>"We've got to catch that fellow," finally resolved the marshal.
+There was a dead silence.</p>
+<p>"He's got a pistol," ventured some one.</p>
+<p>"How do you know?" demanded Mr. Crow keenly. "Did y' see
+it?"</p>
+<p>"He couldn't ha' killed that feller 'thout a gun."</p>
+<p>"That's a fact," agreed Anderson Crow. "Well, we've got to get
+him, anyhow. I call for volunteers! Who will join me in the
+search?" cried the marshal bravely.</p>
+<p>"I hate to go to Crow's Cliff after him," said George Ray. "It's
+a lonesome place, and as dark as night 'mong them trees and
+rocks."</p>
+<p>"It's our duty to catch him. He's a criminal, and besides, he's
+killed a man," said Crow severely.</p>
+<p>"And he has twenty-one dollars of your money," added Harry
+Squires. "I'll go with you, Anderson. I've got a revolver."</p>
+<p>"Look out there!" roared Anderson Crow. "The blamed thing might
+go off!" he added as the reporter drew a shiny six-shooter from his
+pocket.</p>
+<p>The example set by one brave man had its influence on the crowd.
+A score or more volunteered, despite the objections of their wives,
+and it was not long before Anderson Crow was leading his motley
+band of sleuths down the lane to the foot-log over which the
+desperado had gone an hour before.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/025.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>It was at the beginning of the man-hunt that various citizens
+recalled certain actions and certain characteristics of the
+stranger which had made them suspicious from the start. His
+prodigal disposition of the box of matches impressed most of them
+as reckless dare-devilism; his haste, anxiety, and a single
+instance of mild profanity told others of his viciousness. One man
+was sure he had seen the stranger's watch chain in farmer Grover's
+possession; and another saw something black on his thumb, which he
+now remembered was a powder stain.</p>
+<p>"I noticed all them things," averred Anderson Crow, supreme once
+more.</p>
+<p>"But what in thunder did he want with those hair-pins?" inquired
+George Ray.</p>
+<p>"Never mind," said Anderson mysteriously. "You'll find out soon
+enough."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/026.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Do you know Anderson?" some one asked.</p>
+<p>"Of course I do," responded the marshal loftily.</p>
+<p>"Well, what were they for, then?"</p>
+<p>"I'm not givin' any clews away. You just wait a while and see if
+I'm not right."</p>
+<p>And they were satisfied that the detective knew all about it.
+After crossing the foot-log the party was divided as to which
+direction it should take. The marshal said the man had run to the
+southeast, but for some inexplicable reason quite a number of the
+pursuers wanted to hunt for him in the northwest. Finally it was
+decided to separate into posses of ten, all to converge at Crow's
+Cliff as soon as possible. There were enough double-barrelled
+shotguns in the party to have conquered a pirate crew.</p>
+<p>At the end of an hour Anderson Crow and his delegation came to
+the narrow path which led to the summit of Crow's Cliff. They were
+very brave by this time. A small boy was telling them he had seen
+the fugitive about dinner-time "right where you fellers are
+standin' now."</p>
+<p>"Did he have any blood on him?" demanded Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"No, sir; not 'less it was under his clothes."</p>
+<p>"Did he say anythin' to you?"</p>
+<p>"He ast me where this path went to."</p>
+<p>"See that, gentlemen!" cried Anderson. "I knew I was right. He
+wanted&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Well, where did he go?" demanded Harry Squires.</p>
+<p>"I said it went to the top of the clift. An' then he said, 'How
+do you git to the river?' I tole him to go down this side path here
+an' 'round the bottom of the hill."</p>
+<p>"Didn't he go up the cliff?" demanded the marshal.</p>
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+<p>"Well, what in thunder did he ask me where the cliff was if
+he&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"So he went to the river, eh?" interrupted Squires. "Come on,
+men; he went down through this brush and bottomland."</p>
+<p>"He got lost, I guess," volunteered the boy.</p>
+<p>"What!"</p>
+<p>"'Cause he yelled at me after he'd gone in a-ways an'
+ast&mdash;an' ast&mdash;" The boy paused irresolutely.</p>
+<p>"Asked what?"</p>
+<p>"He ast me where in h&mdash;&mdash; the path was."</p>
+<p>"By ginger, that's him, right out an' out!" exclaimed Mr. Crow
+excitedly.</p>
+<p>"'Nen he said he'd give me a quarter if I'd show him the way; so
+I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Did he give you the quarter?" questioned one of the men.</p>
+<p>"Yep. He'd a roll of bills as big as my leg." Everybody gasped
+and thought of Grover's hog-money.</p>
+<p>"You went to the river with him?" interrogated the reporter.</p>
+<p>"I went as fur as the clearin', an' then he tole me to stop. He
+said he could find the way from there. After that he run up the
+bank as if some one was after him. There was a boat waitin' fer him
+under the clift."</p>
+<p>"Did he get into it?" cried Squires.</p>
+<p>"He tole me not to look or he'd break my neck," said the boy.
+The posse nervously fingered its arsenal.</p>
+<p>"But you <i>did</i> look?"</p>
+<p>"Yep. I seen 'em plain."</p>
+<p>"Them? Was there more than one?"</p>
+<p>"There was a woman in the skift."</p>
+<p>"You don't say so!" gasped Squires.</p>
+<p>"Dang it, ain't he tellin' you!" Anderson ejaculated
+scornfully.</p>
+<p>The boy was hurried off at the head of the posse, which by this
+time had been reinforced. He led the way through the dismal
+thickets, telling his story as he went.</p>
+<p>"She was mighty purty, too," he said. "The feller waved his hat
+when he seen her, an' she waved back. He run down an' jumped in the
+boat, an' 'nen&mdash;'nen&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Then what?" exploded Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"He kissed her!"</p>
+<p>"The d&mdash;&mdash; murderer!" roared Crow.</p>
+<p>"He grabbed up the oars and rowed 'cross an' downstream. An' he
+shuck his fist at me when he see I'd been watchin'," said the
+youngster, ready to whimper now that he realised what a desperate
+character he had been dealing with.</p>
+<p>"Where did he land on the other side?" pursued the eager
+reporter.</p>
+<p>"Down by them willer trees, 'bout half a mile down. There's the
+skift tied to a saplin'. Cain't you see it?"</p>
+<p>Sure enough, the stern of a small boat stuck out into the deep,
+broad river, the bow being hidden by the bushes.</p>
+<p>"Both of 'em hurried up the hill over yender, an' that's the
+last I seen of 'em," concluded the lad.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow and his man-hunters stared helplessly at the
+broad, swift river, and then looked at each other in despair. There
+was no boat in sight except the murderer's, and there was no bridge
+within ten miles.</p>
+<p>While they were growling a belated detachment of hunters came up
+to the river bank greatly agitated.</p>
+<p>"A telephone message has just come to town sayin' there would be
+a thousand dollars reward," announced one of the late arrivals; and
+instantly there was an imperative demand for boats.</p>
+<p>"There's an old raft upstream a-ways," said the boy, "but I
+don't know how many it will kerry. They use it to pole corn over
+from Mr. Knoblock's farm to them big summer places in the hills up
+yender."</p>
+<p>"Is it sound?" demanded Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"Must be or they wouldn't use it," said Squires sarcastically.
+"Where is it, kid?"</p>
+<p>The boy led the way up the river bank, the whole company
+trailing behind.</p>
+<p>"Sh! Not too loud," cautioned Anderson Crow. Fifteen minutes
+later a wobbly craft put out to sea, manned by a picked crew of
+determined citizens of Tinkletown. When they were in midstream a
+loud cry came from the bank they had left behind. Looking back,
+Anderson Crow saw excited men dashing about, most of them pointing
+excitedly up into the hills across the river. After a diligent
+search the eyes of the men on the raft saw what it was that had
+created such a stir at the base of Crow's Cliff.</p>
+<p>"There he is!" cried Anderson Crow in awed tones. There was no
+mistaking the identity of the coatless man on the hillside. A dozen
+men recognised him as the man they were after. Putting his hands to
+his mouth, Anderson Crow bellowed in tones that savoured more of
+fright than command:</p>
+<p>"Say!"</p>
+<p>There was no response.</p>
+<p>"Will you surrender peaceably?" called the captain of the
+craft.</p>
+<p>There was a moment of indecision on the part of the fugitive. He
+looked at his companion, and she shook her head&mdash;they all saw
+her do it.</p>
+<p>Then he shouted back his reply.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/031.jpg" width="30%" alt=""
+title="" /><br />
+<b>Then he shouted back his reply</b></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<h3><i>The Culprits</i></h3>
+<p>"Ship ahoy!" shouted the coatless stranger between his
+palms.</p>
+<p>"Surrender or we'll fill you full of lead!" called Anderson
+Crow.</p>
+<p>"Who are you&mdash;pirates?" responded the fugitive with a laugh
+that chilled the marrow of the men on the raft.</p>
+<p>"I'll show you who we are!" bellowed Anderson Crow. "Send her
+ashore, boys, fast. The derned scamp sha'n't escape us. Dead er
+alive, we must have him."</p>
+<p>As they poled toward the bank the woman grasped the man by the
+arm, dragging him back among the trees. It was observed by all that
+she was greatly terrified. Moreover, she was exceedingly fair to
+look upon&mdash;young, beautiful, and a most incongruous companion
+for the bloody rascal who had her in his power. The raft bumped
+against the reedy bank, and Anderson Crow was the first man
+ashore.</p>
+<p>"Come on, boys; follow me! See that your guns are all right!
+Straight up the hill now, an' spread out a bit so's we can surround
+him!" commanded he in a high treble.</p>
+<p>"'But supposin' he surrounds us," panted a cautious pursuer,
+half way up the hill.</p>
+<p>"That's what we've got to guard against," retorted Anderson
+Crow. The posse bravely swept up to and across the greensward; but
+the fox was gone: There was no sight or sound of him to be had. It
+is but just to say that fatigue was responsible for the deep breath
+that came from each member of the pursuing party.</p>
+<p>"Into the woods after him!" shouted Anderson Crow. "Hunt him
+down like a rat!"</p>
+<p>In the meantime a coatless young man and a most enticing young
+woman were scampering off among the oaks and underbrush, consumed
+by excitement and no small degree of apprehension.</p>
+<p>"They really seem to be in earnest about it, Jack," urged the
+young woman insistently, to offset his somewhat sarcastic
+comments.</p>
+<p>"How the dickens do you suppose they got onto me?" he groaned.
+"I thought the tracks were beautifully covered. No one suspected,
+I'm sure."</p>
+<p>"I told you, dear, how it would turn out," she cried in a
+panic-stricken voice.</p>
+<p>"Good heavens, Marjory, don't turn against me! It all seemed so
+easy and so sure, dear. There wasn't a breath of suspicion. What
+are we to do? I'll stop and fight the whole bunch if you'll just
+let go my arm."</p>
+<p>"No, you won't, Jack Barnes!" she exclaimed resolutely, her
+pretty blue eyes wide with alarm. "Didn't you hear them say they'd
+fill you full of lead? They had guns and everything. Oh, dear! oh,
+dear! isn't it horrid?"</p>
+<p>"The worst of it is they've cut us off from the river," he said
+miserably. "If I could have reached the boat ahead of them they
+never could have caught us. I could distance that old raft in a
+mile."</p>
+<p>"I know you could, dear," she cried, looking with frantic
+admiration upon his broad shoulders and brawny bare arms. "But it
+is out of the question now."</p>
+<p>"Never mind, sweetheart; don't let it fuss you so. It will turn
+out all right, I know it will."</p>
+<p>"Oh, I can't run any farther," she gasped despairingly.</p>
+<p>"Poor little chap! Let me carry you?"</p>
+<p>"You big ninny!"</p>
+<p>"We are at least three miles from your house, dear, and
+surrounded by deadly perils. Can you climb a tree?"</p>
+<p>"I can&mdash;but I won't!" she refused flatly, her cheeks very
+red.</p>
+<p>"Then I fancy we'll have to keep on in this manner. It's a
+confounded shame&mdash;the whole business. Just as I thought
+everything was going so smoothly, too. It was all arranged to a
+queen's taste&mdash;nothing was left undone. Bracken was to meet us
+at his uncle's boathouse down there, and&mdash;good heavens, there
+was a shot!"</p>
+<p>The sharp crack of a rifle broke upon the still, balmy air, as
+they say in the "yellow-backs," and the fugitives looked at each
+other with suddenly awakened dread.</p>
+<p>"The fools!" grated the man.</p>
+<p>"What do they mean?" cried the breathless girl, very white in
+the face.</p>
+<p>"They are trying to frighten us, that's all. Hang it! If I only
+knew the lay of the land. I'm completely lost, Marjory. Do you know
+precisely where we are?"</p>
+<p>"Our home is off to the north about three miles. We are almost
+opposite Crow's Cliff&mdash;the wildest part of the country. There
+are no houses along this part of the river. All of the summer
+houses are farther up or on the other side. It is too hilly here.
+There is a railroad off there about six miles. There isn't a
+boathouse or fisherman's hut nearer than two miles. Mr. Bracken
+keeps his boat at the point&mdash;two miles south, at least."</p>
+<p>"Yes; that's where we were to have gone&mdash;by boat. Hang it
+all! Why did we ever leave the boat? You can never scramble through
+all this brush to Bracken's place; it's all I can do. Look at my
+arms! They are scratched to&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Oh, dear! It's dreadful, Jack. You poor fellow, let
+me&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"We haven't time, dearest. By thunder, I wouldn't have those
+Rubes head us off now for the whole county. The jays! How could
+they have found us out?"</p>
+<p>"Some one must have told."</p>
+<p>"But no one knew except the Brackens, you and I."</p><p>"I'll wager my
+head Bracken is saying hard things for fair down the river
+there."</p>
+<p>"He&mdash;he&mdash;doesn't swear, Jack," she panted.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i036.jpg" id="i036.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/036.jpg"><img src="images/036.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he whispered"</b></div>
+<p>"Why, you are ready to drop! Can't you go a step farther? Let's
+stop here and face 'em. I'll bluff 'em out and we'll get to
+Bracken's some way. But I <i>won't</i> give up the game! Not for a
+million!"</p>
+<p>"Then we can't stop. You forget I go in for gymnasium work. I'm
+as strong as anything, only I'm&mdash;I'm a bit nervous. Oh, I knew
+something would go wrong!" she wailed. They were now standing like
+trapped deer in a little thicket, listening for sounds of the
+hounds.</p>
+<p>"Are you sorry, dear?"</p>
+<p>"No, no! I love you, Jack, and I'll go through everything with
+you and for you. Really," she cried with a fine show of enthusiasm,
+"this is jolly good fun, isn't it? Being chased like regular
+bandits&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Sh! Drop down, dear! There's somebody passing above
+us&mdash;hear him?"</p>
+<p>They crawled into a maze of hazel bushes with much less dignity
+than haste. Two men sped by an instant later, panting and
+growling.</p>
+<p>"Safe for a minute or two at least," he whispered as the
+crunching footsteps were lost to the ear. "They won't come back
+this way, dear."</p>
+<p>"They had guns, Jack!" she whispered, terrified.</p>
+<p>"I don't understand it, hanged if I do," he said, pulling his
+brows into a mighty scowl. "They are after us like a pack of
+hounds. It must mean something. Lord, but we seem to have stirred
+up a hornet's nest!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, dear, I wish we were safely at&mdash;" she paused.</p>
+<p>"At home?" he asked quickly.</p>
+<p>"At Bracken's," she finished; and if any of the pursuers had
+been near enough he might have heard the unmistakable suggestion of
+a kiss.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/039.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"I feel better," he said, squaring his shoulders. "Now, let me
+think. We must outwit these fellows, whoever they are. By George, I
+remember one of them! That old fellow who bought the horse is with
+them. That's it! The horse is mixed up in this, I'll bet my head."
+They sat upon the ground for several minutes, he thinking deeply,
+she listening with her pretty ears intent.</p>
+<p>"I wonder if they've left anybody to guard our boat?" he said
+suddenly. "Come on, Marjory; let's investigate! By George, it would
+be just like them to leave it unprotected!"</p>
+<p>Once more they were moving cautiously through the brush, headed
+for the river. Mr. Jack Barnes, whoever he was and whatever his
+crime, was a resourceful, clever young man. He had gauged the
+intelligence of the pursuers correctly. When he peered through the
+brush along the river bank he saw the skiff in the reeds below,
+just as they had left it. There was the lunch basket, the wee bit
+of a steamer trunk with all its labels, a parasol and a small
+handbag.</p>
+<p>"Goody, goody!" Marjory cried like a happy child.</p>
+<p>"Don't show yourself yet, dearie. I'll make sure. They may have
+an ambuscade. Wait here for me."</p>
+<p>He crept down the bank and back again before she could fully
+subdue the tremendous thumping his temerity had started in her left
+side.</p>
+<p>"It's safe and sound," he whispered joyously. "The idiots have
+forgotten the boat. Quick, dear; let's make a dash for it! Their
+raft is upstream a hundred yards, and it is also deserted. If we
+can once get well across the river we can give them the laugh."</p>
+<p>"But they may shoot us from the bank," she protested as they
+plunged through the weeds.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/040.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"They surely wouldn't shoot a woman!" he cried gayly.</p>
+<p>"But you are not a woman!"</p>
+<p>"And I'm not afraid of mice or men. Jump in!"</p>
+<p>Off from the weeds shot the light skiff. The water splashed for
+a moment under the spasmodic strokes of the oarsman, and then the
+little boat streaked out into the river like a thing of life.
+Marjory sat in the stern and kept her eyes upon the bank they were
+leaving. Jack Barnes drove every vestige of his strength into the
+stroke; somehow he pulled like a man who had learned how on a
+college crew. They were half way across the broad river before they
+were seen from the hills. The half dozen men who lingered at the
+base of Crow's Cliff had shouted the alarm to their friends on the
+other side, and the fugitives were sighted once more. But it was
+too late. The boat was well out of gunshot range and making rapid
+progress downstream in the shelter of the high bluffs below Crow's
+Cliff. Jack Barnes was dripping with perspiration, but his stroke
+was none the feebler.</p>
+<p>"They see us!" she cried.</p>
+<p>"Don't wriggle so, Marjory&mdash;trim boat!" he panted. "They
+can't hit us, and we can go two miles to their one."</p>
+<p>"And we can get to Bracken's!" she cried triumphantly. A deep
+flush overspread her pretty face.</p>
+<p>"Hooray!" he shouted with a grin of pure delight. Far away on
+the opposite bank Anderson Crow and his sleuths were congregating,
+their baffled gaze upon the man who had slipped out of their grasp.
+The men of the posse were pointing at the boat and arguing
+frantically; there were decided signs of dispute among them.
+Finally two guns flew up, and then came the puffs of smoke, the
+reports and little splashes of water near the flying skiff.</p>
+<p>"Oh, they are shooting!" she cried in a panic.</p>
+<p>"And rifles, too," he grated, redoubling his pull on the oars.
+Other shots followed, all falling short. "Get down in the bottom of
+the boat, Marjory. Don't sit up there and be&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I'll sit right where I am," she cried defiantly.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow waved to the men under Crow's Cliff, and they
+began to make their arduous way along the bank in the trail of the
+skiff. Part of the armed posse hurried down and boarded the raft,
+while others followed the chase by land.</p>
+<p>"We'll beat them to Bracken's by a mile," cried Jack Barnes.</p>
+<p>"If they don't shoot us," she responded. "Why, oh, why are they
+so intent upon killing us?"</p>
+<p>"They don't want you to be a widow and&mdash;break a&mdash;lot
+of hearts," he said. "If they&mdash;hit me now you&mdash;won't
+be&mdash;dangerous as a&mdash;widow."</p>
+<p>"Oh, you heartless thing! How can you jest about it?
+I'd&mdash;I'd go into mourning, anyway, Jack," she concluded, on
+second thought. "We are just as good as married, you see."</p>
+<p>"It's nice&mdash;of you to say it, dear&mdash;but we're a
+long&mdash;way from&mdash;Bracken's. Gee! That was close!"</p>
+<p>A bullet splashed in the water not ten feet from the boat. "The
+cowards! They're actually trying to kill us!" For the first time
+his face took on a look of alarm and his eyes grew desperate. "I
+can't let them shoot at you, Marjory, dear! What the dickens they
+want I don't know, but I'm going to surrender." He had stopped
+rowing and was making ready to wave his white handkerchief on
+high.</p>
+<p>"Never!" she cried with blazing eyes. "Give me the oars!" She
+slid into the other rowing seat and tried to snatch the oars from
+the rowlocks.</p>
+<p>"Bravo! I could kiss you a thousand times for that. Come on, you
+Indians! You're a darling, Marjory." Again the oars caught the
+water, and Jack Barnes's white handkerchief lay in the bottom of
+the boat. He was rowing for dear life, and there was a smile on his
+face.</p>
+<p>The raft was left far behind and the marksmen were put out of
+range with surprising ease. Fifteen minutes later the skiff shot
+across the river and up to the landing of Bracken's boathouse,
+while a mile back in the brush Anderson Crow and his men were
+wrathfully scrambling in pursuit.</p>
+<p>"Hey, Bracken! Jimmy!" shouted Jack Barnes, jumping out upon the
+little wharf. Marjory gave him her hands and was whisked ashore and
+into his arms. "Run into the boathouse, dear. I'll yank this stuff
+ashore. Where the dickens is Bracken?"</p>
+<p>The boathouse door opened slowly and a sleepy young man looked
+forth.</p>
+<p>"I thought you'd never come," he yawned.</p>
+<p>"Wake up, you old loafer! We're here and we are pursued! Where
+are George and Amy?" cried Mr. Barnes, doing herculean duty as a
+baggage smasher.</p>
+<p>"Pursued?" cried the sleepy young man, suddenly awake.</p>
+<p>"Yes, and shot at!" cried Marjory, running past him and into the
+arms of a handsome young woman who was emerging from the house.</p>
+<p>"We've no time to lose, Jimmy! They are on to us, Heaven knows
+how. They are not more than ten minutes behind us. Get it over
+with, Jimmy, for Heaven's sake! Here, George, grab this trunk!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<h3><i>Anderson Rectifies an Error</i></h3>
+<p>In a jiffy the fugitives and their property were transferred to
+the interior of the roomy boathouse, the doors bolted, and George
+Crosby stationed at a window to act as lookout.</p>
+<p>"Is it your father?" demanded the Rev. James Bracken, turning to
+Marjory. Young Mrs. Crosby was looking on eagerly.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Brewster is at home and totally oblivious to all this,"
+cried Jack Barnes. "I don't know what it means. Here's the license,
+Jimmy. Are you ready, Marjory?"</p>
+<p>"This is rather a squeamish business, Jack&mdash;" began the
+young minister in the neglig&eacute;e shirt. He was pulling on his
+coat as he made the remark.</p>
+<p>"Oh, hurry, Jimmy; please hurry!" cried Marjory Brewster.</p>
+<p>"Don't wait a second, Jimmy Bracken!" cried Amy Crosby, dancing
+with excitement. "You can't go back on them now!"</p>
+<p>Three minutes later there was no Marjory Brewster, but there was
+a Mrs. John Ethelbert Barnes&mdash;and she was kissing her husband
+rapturously.</p>
+<p>"Now, tell us everything," cried Mrs. Crosby after the frantic
+congratulations. The Reverend "Jimmy" Bracken, of the Eleventh
+Presbyterian Church, was the only one who seemed uncertain as to
+his position. In the first place, old Judge Brewster was a man of
+influence in the metropolis, from which all had fled for a sojourn
+in the hills. He and his daughter were Episcopalians, but that made
+them none the less important in the eyes of "Jimmy" Bracken. In the
+second place, Jack Barnes was a struggling lawyer, in the Year of
+our Lord 1880, and possessed of objectionable poverty. The young
+men had been room-mates at college. Friendship had overcome
+discretion in this instance, at least. The deed being done, young
+Mr. Bracken was beginning to wonder if it had not been overdone, so
+to speak.</p>
+<p>"I wish somebody would tell me!" exclaimed Jack Barnes, with a
+perplexed frown. "The beastly jays shot at us and all that. You'd
+think I was an outlaw. And they blazed away at Marjory, too, hang
+them!"</p>
+<p>Marjory, too excited to act like a blushing bride, took up the
+story and told all that had happened. George Crosby became so
+interested that he forgot to keep guard.</p>
+<p>"This is a funny mess!" he exclaimed. "There's something
+wrong&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Hey, you!" came a shout from the outside.</p>
+<p>"There they are!" cried Marjory, flying to her husband's side.
+"What are we to do?"</p>
+<p>"You mean, what are they to do? We're married, and they can't
+get around that, you know. Let 'em come!" cried the groom
+exultantly. "You don't regret it, do you, sweetheart?" quite
+anxiously. She smiled up into his eyes, and he felt very
+secure.</p>
+<p>"What do you fellows want?" demanded Crosby from the window.
+Anderson Crow was standing on the river bank like a true Napoleon,
+flanked by three trusty riflemen.</p>
+<p>"Who air you?" asked Anderson in return. He was panting heavily,
+and his legs trembled.</p>
+<p>"None of your business! Get off these grounds at once; they're
+private!"</p>
+<p>"None o' your sass, now, young man; I'm an officer of the law,
+an' a detective to boot! We sha'n't stand any nonsense. The place
+is surrounded and he can't escape! Where is he?"</p>
+<p>"That's for you to find out if you're such a good detective!
+This is David Bracken's place, and you can find him at his home on
+the hilltop yonder!"</p>
+<p>"Ask him what we've done, George," whispered Barnes.</p>
+<p>"We ain't after Mr. Bracken, young feller, but you know what we
+<i>do</i> want! He's in there&mdash;you're shielding him&mdash;we
+won't parley much longer! Send him out!" said Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"If you come a foot nearer you'll get shot into the middle of
+kingdom come!" shouted Crosby defiantly.</p>
+<p>The inmates gasped, for there was not a firearm on the
+place.</p>
+<p>"Be careful!" warned the Reverend "Jimmy" nervously.</p>
+<p>"Goin' to resist, eh? Well, we'll get him; don't you worry; an'
+that ornery female o' hisn', too!"</p>
+<p>"Did you hear that?" exclaimed Jack Barnes. "Let me get at the
+old rat." He was making for the door when the two women obstructed
+the way. Both were frantic with fear.</p>
+<p>"But he called you a female!" roared he.</p>
+<p>"Well, I <i>am</i>!" she wailed miserably.</p>
+<p>"Who is it you want?" asked Crosby from the window.</p>
+<p>"That's all right," roared Anderson Crow; "purduce him at
+once!"</p>
+<p>"Is this the fellow?" and Crosby dragged the Reverend "Jimmy"
+into view. There was a moment's inspection of the cadaverous face,
+and then the sleuths shook their heads.</p>
+<p>"Not on your life!" said Mr. Crow. "But he's in there&mdash;Ike
+Smalley seen him an' his paramount go up the steps from the
+landin'! 'Twon't do no good to hide him, young feller;
+he's&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Well, let me tell you something. You are too late&mdash;they're
+married!" cried Crosby triumphantly.</p>
+<p>"I don't give a cuss if they're married and have sixteen
+children!" shouted the exasperated Crow, his badge fairly dancing.
+"He's got to surrender!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, he does, eh?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir-ee-o-bob; he's got to give up, dead or alive! Trot him
+out lively, now!"</p>
+<p>"I don't mind telling you that Mr. Barnes is here; but I'd like
+to know why you're hunting him down like a wild beast, shooting at
+him and Miss&mdash;I mean Mrs. Barnes. It's an outrage!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, we ain't the on'y people that can kill and slaughter! She's
+just as bad as he is, for that matter&mdash;an' so are you and that
+other lantern-jawed outlaw in there." The Reverend "Jimmy" gasped
+and turned a fiery red.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/049.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Did he call me a&mdash;say!" and he pushed Crosby aside. "I'd
+have you to understand that I'm a minister of the gospel&mdash;I am
+the Reverend James Bracken, of&mdash;"</p>
+<p>A roar of laughter greeted his attempt to explain; and there
+were a few remarks so uncomplimentary that the man of cloth sank
+back in sheer hopelessness.</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll give them reason to think that I'm something of a
+desperado," grated the Reverend "Jimmy," squaring his shoulders.
+"If they attempt to put foot inside my uncle's house
+I'll&mdash;I'll smash a few heads."</p>
+<p>"Bravo!" cried Mrs. Crosby. She was his cousin, and up to that
+time had had small regard for her mild-mannered relative.</p>
+<p>"He can preach the funeral!" shouted Ike Smalley. By this time
+there were a dozen men on the bank below.</p>
+<p>"I give you fair warning," cried Anderson Crow impressively.
+"We're goin' to surround the house, an' we'll take that rascal if
+we have to shoot the boards into sawdust!"</p>
+<p>"But what has he done, except to get married?" called Crosby as
+the posse began to spread out.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/050.jpg" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Do you s'pose I'm fool enough to tell you if you don't know?"
+said Anderson Crow. "Just as like as not you'd be claimin' the
+thousand dollars reward if you knowed it had been offered! Spread
+out, boys, an' we'll show 'em dern quick!"</p>
+<p>There was dead silence inside the house for a full minute. Every
+eye was wide and every mouth was open in surprise and
+consternation.</p>
+<p>"A thousand dollars reward!" gasped Jack Barnes. "Then, good
+Lord, I <i>must</i> have done something!"</p>
+<p>"What <i>have</i> you been doing, Jack Barnes?" cried his bride,
+aghast.</p>
+<p>"I must have robbed a train," said he dejectedly.</p>
+<p>"Well, this is serious, after all," said Crosby. "It's not an
+eloper they're after, but a desperado."</p>
+<p>"A kidnaper, perhaps," suggested his wife.</p>
+<p>"What are we to do?" demanded Jack Barnes.</p>
+<p>"First, old man, what have you actually done?" asked the
+Reverend "Jimmy."</p>
+<p>"Nothing that's worth a thousand dollars, I'm dead sure," said
+Barnes positively. "By George, Marjory, this is a nice mess I've
+led you into!"</p>
+<p>"It's all right, Jack; I'm happier than I ever was before in my
+life. We ran away to get married, and I'll go to jail with you if
+they'll take me."</p>
+<p>"This is no time for kissing," objected Crosby sourly. "We must
+find out what it all means. Leave it to me."</p>
+<p>It was getting dark in the room, and the shadows were heavy on
+the hills. While the remaining members of the besieged party sat
+silent and depressed upon the casks and boxes, Crosby stood at the
+window calling to the enemy.</p>
+<p>"Is he ready to surrender?" thundered Anderson Crow from the
+shadows.</p>
+<p>Then followed a brief and entirely unsatisfactory dialogue
+between the two spokesmen. Anderson Crow was firm in his decision
+that the fugitive did not have to be told what he had done; and
+George Crosby was equally insistent that he had to be told before
+he could decide whether he was guilty or innocent.</p>
+<p>"We'll starve him out!" said Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"But there are ladies here, my good man; you won't subject them
+to such treatment!"</p>
+<p>"You're all of a kind&mdash;we're going to take the whole
+bunch!"</p>
+<p>"What do you think will happen to you if you are mistaken in
+your man?"</p>
+<p>"We're not mistaken, dang ye!"</p>
+<p>"He could sue you for every dollar you possess. I know, for I'm
+a lawyer!"</p>
+<p>"Now, I'm sure you're in the job with him. I s'pose you'll try
+to work in the insanity dodge! It's a nest of thieves and robbers!
+Say, I'll give you five minutes to surrender; if you don't, we'll
+set fire to the derned shanty!"</p>
+<p>"Look here, boys," said Jack Barnes suddenly, "I've done nothing
+and am not afraid to be arrested. I'm going to give myself up." Of
+course there was a storm of protest and a flow of tears, but the
+culprit was firm. "Tell the old fossil that if he'll guarantee
+safety to me I'll give up!"</p>
+<p>Anderson was almost too quick in promising protection.</p>
+<p>"Ask him if he will surrender and make a confession to
+me&mdash;I am Anderson Crow, sir!" was the marshal's tactful
+suggestion.</p>
+<p>"He'll do both, Mr. Crow!" replied Crosby.</p>
+<p>"We've got to take the whole bunch of you, young man. You're all
+guilty of conspiracy, the whole caboodle!"</p>
+<p>"But the ladies, you darned old Rube&mdash;they
+can't&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Looky here, young feller, you can't dictate to me. I'll have
+you to&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"We'll all go!" cried Mrs. Crosby warmly.</p>
+<p>"To the very end!" added the new Mrs. Barnes.</p>
+<p>"What will your father say?" demanded the groom.</p>
+<p>"He'll disown me anyway, dear, so what's the difference?"</p>
+<p>"It's rather annoying for a minister&mdash;" began the Reverend
+"Jimmy," putting on his hat.</p>
+<p>"We'll beg off for you!" cried Mrs. Crosby ironically.</p>
+<p>"But I'm going to jail, too," finished he grimly.</p>
+<p>"All right," called Crosby from the window; "here we come!"</p>
+<p>And forth marched the desperate quintet, three strapping young
+men and two very pretty and nervous young women. They were met by
+Anderson Crow and a dozen armed men from Tinkletown, every one of
+them shaking in his boots. The irrepressible Mrs. Crosby said
+"Boo!" suddenly, and half the posse jumped as though some one had
+thrown a bomb at them.</p>
+<p>"Now, I demand an explanation of this outrage," said Jack Barnes
+savagely. "What do you mean by shooting at me and my&mdash;my wife
+and arresting us, and all that?"</p>
+<p>"You'll find out soon enough when you're strung up fer it,"
+snarled Anderson Crow. "An' you'll please hand over that money I
+paid fer the hoss and buggy. I'll learn you how to sell stolen
+property to me."</p>
+<p>"Oh, I'm a horse-thief, am I? This is rich. And they'll string
+me up, eh? Next thing you'll be accusing me of killing that farmer
+up near Boggs City."</p>
+<p>"Well, by gosh! you're a cool one!" ejaculated Anderson Crow. "I
+s'pose you're goin' ter try the insanity dodge."</p>
+<p>"It's lucky for me that they caught him," said Barnes as the
+herd of prisoners moved off toward the string of boats tied to Mr.
+Bracken's wharf.</p>
+<p>"Come off!" exclaimed Squires, the reporter, scornfully. "We're
+onto you, all right, all right."</p>
+<p>"What! Do you think I'm the man who&mdash;well, holy mackerel!
+Say, you gravestones, don't you ever hear any news out here? Wake
+up! They caught the murderer at Billsport, not more than five miles
+from your jay burg. I was driving through the town when they
+brought him in. That's what made me late, dear," turning to
+Marjory.</p>
+<p>"Yes, and I'll bet my soul that here comes some one with the
+news," cried George Crosby, who had heard nothing of the tragedy
+until this instant.</p>
+<p>A rowboat containing three men was making for the landing.
+Somehow, Anderson Crow and his posse felt the ground sinking
+beneath them. Not a man uttered a sound until one of the newcomers
+called out from the boat:</p>
+<p>"Is Anderson Crow there?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; what is it?" demanded Crow in a wobbly voice.</p>
+<p>"Your wife wants to know when in thunder you're comin' home." By
+this time the skiff was bumping against the landing.</p>
+<p>"You tell her to go to Halifax!" retorted Anderson Crow. "Is
+that all you want?"</p>
+<p>"They nabbed that murderer up to Billsport long 'bout 'leven
+o'clock," said Alf Reesling, the town drunkard. "We thought we'd
+row down and tell you so's you wouldn't be huntin' all night for
+the feller who&mdash;hello, you got him, eh?"</p>
+<p>"Are you fellers lyin'?" cried poor Anderson Crow.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/055.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Not on your life. We knowed about the captcher over in town
+just about half an hour after you started 'cross the river this
+afternoon."</p>
+<p>"You&mdash;four hours ago? You&mdash;you&mdash;" sputtered the
+marshal. "An' why didn't you let us know afore this?"</p>
+<p>"There was a game o' baseball in Hasty's lot, an'&mdash;" began
+one of the newcomers sheepishly.</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll be gosh-whizzled!" gasped Anderson Crow, sitting
+down suddenly.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>An hour and a half later Mr. and Mrs. John Ethelbert Barnes were
+driven up to Judge Brewster's country place in Mr. David Bracken's
+brake. They were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. George Crosby, and
+were carrying out the plans as outlined in the original
+programme.</p>
+<p>"Where's papa?" Marjory tremulously inquired of the footman in
+the hallway.</p>
+<p>"He's waitin' for you in the library, miss&mdash;I should say
+Mrs. Barnes," replied the man, a trace of excitement in his
+face.</p>
+<p>"Mrs. Barnes!" exclaimed four voices at once.</p>
+<p>"Who told you, William?" cried Marjory, leaning upon Jack for
+support.</p>
+<p>"A Mr. Anderson Crow was here not half an hour ago, ma'am, to
+assure Mr. Brewster as to how his new son-in-law was in nowise
+connected with the murder up the way. He said as how he had
+personally investigated the case, miss&mdash;ma'am, and Mr.
+Brewster could rely on his word for it, Mr. Jack was not the man.
+He told him as how you was married at the boathouse."</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;and then?" cried Marjory eagerly.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Brewster said that Mr. Jack wasn't born to be hanged, and
+for me to have an extry plate laid at the table for him to-night,"
+concluded William with an expressive grin.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<h3><i>The Babe on the Doorstep</i></h3>
+<p>It was midnight in Tinkletown, many months after the events
+mentioned in the foregoing chapters, and a blizzard was raging. The
+February wind rasped through the bare trees, shrieked around the
+corners of lightless houses and whipped its way through the
+scurrying snow with all the rage of a lion. The snow, on account of
+the bitter cold in the air, did not fly in big flakes, but whizzed
+like tiny bullets, cutting the flesh of men and beasts like the
+sting of wasps. It was a good night to be indoors over a roaring
+fire or in bed between extra blankets. No one, unless commanded by
+emergency, had the temerity to be abroad that night.</p>
+<p>The Crow family snoozed comfortably in spite of the calliope
+shrieks of the wind. The home of the town marshal was blanketed in
+peace and the wind had no terrors for its occupants. They slept the
+sleep of the toasted. The windows may have rattled a bit, perhaps,
+and the shutters may have banged a trifle too remorselessly, but
+the Crows were not to be disturbed.</p>
+<p>The big, old-fashioned clock in the hall downstairs was striking
+twelve when Anderson Crow awoke with a start. He was amazed, for to
+awake in the middle of the night was an unheard-of proceeding for
+him. He caught the clang of the last five strokes from the clock,
+however, and was comforting himself with the belief that it was
+five o'clock, after all, when his wife stirred nervously.</p>
+<p>"Are you awake, Anderson?" she asked softly.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Eva, and it's about time to get up. It jest struck five.
+Doggone, it's been blowin' cats and dogs outside, ain't it?" he
+yawned.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/059.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Five? It's twelve-now, don't tell me you counted the strokes,
+because I did myself. Ain't it queer we should both git awake at
+this unearthly hour?"</p>
+<p>"Well," murmured he sleepily now that it was not five o'clock,
+"it's a mighty good hour to go back to sleep ag'in, I reckon."</p>
+<p>"I thought I heard a noise outside," she persisted.</p>
+<p>"I don't blame you," he said, chuckling. "It's been out there
+all night."</p>
+<p>"I mean something besides the wind. Sounded like some one
+walkin' on the front porch."</p>
+<p>"Now, look here, Eva, you ain't goin' to git me out there in
+this blizzard&mdash;in my stockin' feet&mdash;lookin' fer
+robbers&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Just the same, Anderson, I'm sure I heard some one. Mebby it's
+some poor creature freezin' an' in distress. If I was you, I'd go
+and look out there. Please do."</p>
+<p>"Doggone, Eva, if you was me you'd be asleep instid of huntin'
+up trouble on a night like this. They ain't nothin' down there an'
+you&mdash;but, by cracky! mebby you're right. Supposin' there is
+some poor cuss out there huntin' a place to sleep. I'll go and
+look;" and Mr. Crow, the most tender-hearted man in the world,
+crawled shiveringly but quickly from the warm bed. In his stocking
+feet&mdash;Anderson slept in his socks on those bitter
+nights&mdash;he made his way down the front stairs, grumbling but
+determined. Mrs. Crow followed close behind, anxious to verify the
+claim that routed him from his nest.</p>
+<p>"It may be a robber," she chattered, as he pulled aside a front
+window curtain. Anderson drew back hastily.</p>
+<p>"Well, why in thunder didn't you say so before?" he gasped.
+"Doggone, Eva, that's no way to do! He might 'a' fired through the
+winder at me."</p>
+<p>"But he's in the house by this time, if it was a robber," she
+whispered. "He wouldn't stand out on the porch all night."</p>
+<p>"That's right," he whispered in reply. "You're a good deducer,
+after all. I wish I had my dark lantern. Thunderation!" He stubbed
+his toe against the sewing machine. There is nothing that hurts
+more than unintentional contact with a sewing machine. "Why in
+sixty don't you light a light, Eva? How can I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Listen!" she whispered shrilly. "Hear that? Anderson, there's
+some one walkin' on the porch!"</p>
+<p>"'y gosh!" faltered he. "Sure as Christmas! You wait here, Eva,
+till I go upstairs an' put on my badge and I'll&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I'll do nothing of the kind. You don't ketch me stayin' down
+here alone," and she grabbed the back of his nightshirt as he
+started for the stairs.</p>
+<p>"Sho! What air you afeerd of? I'll get my revolver, too. I never
+did see such a coward'y calf as&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Just then there was a tremendous pounding on the front door,
+followed by the creaking of footsteps on the frozen porch, a
+clatter down the steps, and then the same old howling of the wind.
+The Crows jumped almost out of their scanty garments, and then
+settled down as if frozen to the spot. It was a full minute before
+Anderson found his voice&mdash;in advance of Mrs. Crow at that,
+which was more than marvellous.</p>
+<p>"What was that?" he chattered.</p>
+<p>"A knock!" she gasped.</p>
+<p>"Some neighbour's sick."</p>
+<p>"Old Mrs. Luce. Oh, goodness, how my heart's going!"</p>
+<p>"Why don't you open the door, Eva?"</p>
+<p>"Why don't you? It's your place."</p>
+<p>"But, doggone it, cain't you see&mdash;I mean feel&mdash;that I
+ain't got hardly any clothes on? I'd ketch my death o' cold, an'
+besides&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Well, I ain't got as much on as you have. You got socks on
+an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"But supposin' it's a woman," protested he. "You wouldn't want a
+woman to see me lookin' like this, would you? Go ahead
+an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I suppose you'd like to have a man see me like this. I ain't
+used to receivin' men in&mdash;but, say, whoever it was, is gone.
+Didn't you hear the steps? Open the door, Anderson. See what it
+is."</p>
+<p>And so, after much urging, Anderson Crow unbolted his front door
+and turned the knob. The wind did the rest. It almost blew the door
+off its hinges, carrying Mr. and Mrs. Crow back against the wall. A
+gale of snow swept over them.</p>
+<p>"Gee!" gasped Anderson, crimping his toes. Mrs. Crow was peering
+under his arm.</p>
+<p>"Look there!" she cried. Close to the door a large bundle was
+lying.</p>
+<p>"A present from some one!" speculated Mr. Crow; but some seconds
+passed before he stooped to pick it up. "Funny time fer Santy to be
+callin' 'round. Wonder if he thinks it's next Christmas."</p>
+<p>"Be careful, Anderson; mebby it's an infernal machine!" cried
+his wife.</p>
+<p>"Well, it's loaded, 'y ginger," he grunted as straightened up in
+the face of the gale. "Shut the door, Eva! Cain't you see it's
+snowin'?"</p>
+<p>"I'll bet it was Joe Ramsey leavin' a sack o' hickor' nuts fer
+us," she said eagerly, slamming the door.</p>
+<p>"You better bolt the door. He might change his mind an' come
+back fer 'em," observed her husband. "It don't feel like hickor'
+nuts. Why, Eva, it's a baskit&mdash;a reg'lar clothes baskit. What
+in thunder do&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Let's get a light out by the kitchen fire. It's too cold in
+here."</p>
+<p>Together they sped to the kitchen with the mysterious offering
+from the blizzard. There was a fire in the stove, which Anderson
+replenished, while Eva began to remove the blankets and packing
+from the basket, which she had placed on the hearth. Anderson
+looked on eagerly.</p>
+<p>"Lord!" fell from the lips of both as the contents of the basket
+were exposed to their gaze.</p>
+<p>A baby, alive and warm, lay packed in the blankets, sound asleep
+and happy. For an interminable length of time the Crows, <i>en
+dishabille</i>, stood and gazed open-mouthed and awed at the little
+stranger. Ten minutes later, after the ejaculations and surmises,
+after the tears and expletives, after the whole house had been
+aroused, Anderson Crow was plunging amiably but aimlessly through
+the snowstorm in search of the heartless wretch who had deposited
+the infant on his doorstep. His top boots scuttled up and down the
+street, through yards and barn lots for an hour, but despite the
+fact that he carried his dark lantern and trailed like an Indian
+bloodhound, he found no trace of the wanton visitor. In the
+meantime, Mrs. Crow, assisted by the entire family, had stowed the
+infant, a six-weeks-old girl, into a warm bed, ministering to the
+best of her ability to its meagre but vociferous wants. There was
+no more sleep in the Crow establishment that night. The head of the
+house roused a half dozen neighbours from their beds to tell them
+of the astounding occurrence, with the perfectly natural result
+that one and all hurried over to see the baby and to hear the
+particulars.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/064.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Early next morning Tinkletown wagged with an excitement so
+violent that it threatened to end in a municipal convulsion.
+Anderson Crow's home was besieged. The snow in his front yard was
+packed to an icy consistency by the myriad of footprints that fell
+upon it; the interior of the house was "tracked" with mud and slush
+and three window panes were broken by the noses of curious but
+unwelcome spectators. Altogether, it was a sensation unequalled in
+the history of the village. Through it all the baby blinked and
+wept and cooed in perfect peace, guarded by Mrs. Crow and the
+faithful progeny who had been left by the stork, and not by a
+mysterious stranger.</p>
+<p>The missionary societies wanted to do something heroic, but Mrs.
+Crow headed them off; the sewing circle got ready to take charge of
+affairs, but Mrs. Crow punctured the project; figuratively, the
+churches ached for a chance to handle the infant, but Mrs. Crow
+stood between. And all Tinkletown called upon Anderson Crow to
+solve the mystery before it was a day older.</p>
+<p>"It's purty hard to solve a mystery that's got six weeks' start
+o' me," said Anderson despairingly, "but I'll try, you bet. The
+doggone thing's got a parent or two somewhere in the universe, an'
+I'll locate 'em er explode somethin'. I've got a private opinion
+about it myself."</p>
+<p>Whatever this private opinion might have been, it was not
+divulged. Possibly something in connection with it might have
+accounted for the temporary annoyance felt by nearly every
+respectable woman in Tinkletown. The marshal eyed each and every
+one of them, irrespective of position, condition or age, with a
+gleam so accusing that the Godliest of them flushed and then turned
+cold. So knowing were these equitable looks that before night every
+woman in the village was constrained to believe the worst of her
+neighbour, and almost as ready to look with suspicion upon
+herself.</p>
+<p>One thing was certain&mdash;business was at a standstill in
+Tinkletown. The old men forgot their chess and checker games at the
+corner store; young men neglected their love affairs; women forgot
+to talk about each other; children froze their ears rather than
+miss any of the talk that went about the wintry streets; everybody
+was asking the question, "Whose baby is it?"</p>
+<p>But the greatest sensation of all came late in the day when Mrs.
+Crow, in going over the garments worn by the babe, found a note
+addressed to Anderson Crow. It was stitched to the baby's dress,
+and proved beyond question that the strange visitor of the night
+before had selected not only the house, but the individual. The
+note was to the point. It said:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"February 18, 1883.</p>
+<p>"ANDERSON CROW: To your good and merciful care an unhappy
+creature consigns this helpless though well-beloved babe. All the
+world knows you to be a tender, loving, unselfish man and father.
+The writer humbly, prayerfully implores you to care for this babe
+as you would for one of your own. It is best that her origin be
+kept a secret. Care for her, cherish her as your own, and at the
+end of each year the sum of a thousand dollars will be paid to you
+as long as she lives in your household as a member thereof. Do not
+seek to find her parents. It would be a fool's errand. May God
+bless you and yours, and may God care for and protect
+Rosalie&mdash;the name she shall bear."</p>
+</div>
+<p>Obviously, there was no signature and absolutely no clew to the
+identity of the writer. Two telegraph line repairers who had been
+working near Crow's house during the night, repairing damage done
+by the blizzard, gave out the news that they had seen a cloaked and
+mysterious-looking woman standing near the Methodist Church just
+before midnight, evidently disregarding the rage of the storm. The
+sight was so unusual that the men paused and gazed at her for
+several minutes. One of them was about to approach her when she
+turned and fled down the side street near by.</p>
+<p>"Was she carryin' a big bundle?" asked Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>The men replied in the negative.</p>
+<p>"Then she couldn't have been the party wanted. The one we're
+after certainly had a big bundle."</p>
+<p>"But, Mr. Crow, isn't it possible that these men saw her after
+she left the basket at&mdash;" began the Presbyterian minister.</p>
+<p>"That ain't the way I deduce it," observed the town detective
+tartly. "In the first place, she wouldn't 'a' been standin' 'round
+like that if the job was over, would she? Wouldn't she 'a' been
+streakin' out fer home? 'Course she would."</p>
+<p>"She may have paused near the church to see whether you took the
+child in," persisted the divine.</p>
+<p>"But she couldn't have saw my porch from the back end of the
+church."</p>
+<p>"Nobody said she was standing back of the church," said the
+lineman.</p>
+<p>"What's that? You don't mean it?" cried Anderson, pulling out of
+a difficulty bravely. "That makes all the difference in the world.
+Why didn't you say she was in front of the church? Cain't you see
+we've wasted time here jest because you didn't have sense 'nough
+to&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Anybody ought to know it 'thout being told, you old Rube,"
+growled the lineman, who was from Boggs City.</p>
+<p>"Here, now, sir, that will do you! I won't 'low no man
+to&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Anderson, be quiet!" cautioned Mrs. Crow. "You'll wake the
+baby!" This started a new train of thought in Anderson's perplexed
+mind.</p>
+<p>"Mebby she was waitin' there while some one&mdash;her husband,
+fer instance&mdash;was leavin' the baskit," volunteered Isaac
+Porter humbly.</p>
+<p>"Don't bother me, Ike; I'm thinkin' of somethin' else," muttered
+Anderson. "Husband nothin'! Do you s'pose she'd 'a' trusted that
+baby with a fool husband on a terrible night like that? Ladies and
+gentlemen, this here baby was left by a <i>female</i> resident of
+this very town." His hearers gasped and looked at him wide-eyed.
+"If she has a husband, he don't know he's the father of this here
+baby. Don't you see that a woman couldn't 'a' carried a heavy
+baskit any great distance? She couldn't 'a' packed it from Boggs
+City er New York er Baltimore, could she? She wouldn't 'a' been
+strong enough. No, siree; she didn't have far to come, folks. An'
+she was a woman, 'cause ain't all typewritin' done by women? You
+don't hear of men typewriters, do you? People wouldn't have 'em.
+Now, the thing fer me to do first is to make a house-to-house
+search to see if I c'n locate a typewritin' machine anywheres. Get
+out of the way, Toby. Doggone you boys, anyhow, cain't you see I
+want ter get started on this job?"</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson," said Harry Squires, the reporter, "I'd like to
+ask if there is any one in Tinkletown, male or female, who can
+afford to pay you a thousand dollars a year for taking care of that
+kid?"</p>
+<p>"What's that?" slowly oozed from Anderson's lips.</p>
+<p>"You heard what I said. Say, don't you know you can bring up a
+kid in this town for eleven or twelve dollars a year?"</p>
+<p>"You don't know what you're talkin' about," burst from
+Anderson's indignant lips, but he found instant excuse to retire
+from the circle of speculators. A few minutes later he and his wife
+were surreptitiously re-reading the note, both filled with the fear
+that it said $10.00 instead of $1000.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<h3><i>Reflection and Deduction</i></h3>
+<p>"By gum, it does say a thousand," cried Anderson, mightily
+relieved. "Harry Squires is a fool. He said jest now that it could
+be did fer eleven or twelve dollars. Don't you suppose, Eva, that
+the mother of this here child knows what it costs to bring 'em up?
+Of course she does. When I find her I'll prove it by her own lips
+that she knows. But don't bother me any more, Eva; I got to git out
+an' track her down. This is the greatest job I've had in
+years."</p>
+<p>"See here, Anderson," said his wife thoughtfully and somewhat
+stealthily, "let's go slow about this thing. What do you want to
+find her for?"</p>
+<p>"Why&mdash;why, doggone it, Eva, what air you talkin' about?"
+began he in amazement.</p>
+<p>"Well, it's just this way: I don't think we can earn a thousand
+dollars a year easier than takin' care of this child. Don't you
+see? Suppose we keep her fer twenty years. That means twenty
+thousand dollars, don't it? It beats a pension all to pieces."</p>
+<p>"Well, by ginger!" gasped Anderson, vaguely comprehending.
+"Fifty years would mean fifty thousand dollars, wouldn't it. Gee
+whiz, Eva!"</p>
+<p>"I don't imagine we can keep her that long."</p>
+<p>"No," reflectively; "the chances are she'd want ter git married
+inside of that time. They always&mdash;</p>
+<p>"'Tain't that, Anderson. You an' me'd have to live to be more'n
+a hundred years old."</p>
+<p>"That's so. We ain't spring chickens, are we, deary?"</p>
+<p>She put her hard, bony hand in his and there was a suspicion of
+moisture in the kindly old eyes.</p>
+<p>"I love to hear you call me 'deary,' Anderson. We never get too
+old for that."</p>
+<p>He coughed and then patted her hand rather confusedly. Anderson
+had long since forgotten the meaning of sentiment, but he was
+surprised to find that he had not forgotten how to love his
+wife.</p>
+<p>"Shucks!" he muttered bravely. "We'll be kissin' like a couple
+of young jay birds first thing we know. Doggone if it ain't funny
+how a baby, even if it is some one else's, kinder makes a feller
+foolisher'n he intends to be." Hand in hand they watched the
+sleeping innocent for several minutes. Finally the detective shook
+himself and spoke:</p>
+<p>"Well, Eva, I got to make a bluff at findin' out whose baby it
+is, ain't I? My reputation's at stake. I jest have to
+investigate."</p>
+<p>"I don't see that any harm can come from that, Anderson," she
+replied, and neither appreciated the sarcasm unintentionally
+involved.</p>
+<p>"I won't waste another minute," he announced promptly. "I will
+stick to my theory that the parents live in Tinkletown."</p>
+<p>"Fiddlesticks!" snorted Mrs. Crow disgustedly, and then left him
+to cultivate the choleric anger her exclamation had inspired.</p>
+<p>"Doggone, I wish I hadn't patted her hand," he lamented. "She
+didn't deserve it. Consarn it, a woman's always doin' something to
+spoil things."</p>
+<p>And so he fared forth with his badges and stars, bent on duty,
+but not accomplishment. All the town soon knew that he was
+following a clew, but all the town was at sea concerning its
+character, origin, and plausibility. A dozen persons saw him stop
+young Mrs. Perkins in front of Lamson's store, and the same
+spectators saw his feathers droop as she let loose her wrath upon
+his head and went away with her nose in the air and her cheeks far
+more scarlet than when Boreas kissed them, and all in response to a
+single remark volunteered by the faithful detective. He entered
+Lamson's store a moment later, singularly abashed and red in the
+face.</p>
+<p>"Doggone," he observed, seeing that an explanation was expected,
+"she might 'a' knowed I was only foolin'."</p>
+<p>A few minutes later he had Alf Reesling, the town sot, in a far
+corner of the store talking to him in a most peremptory fashion. It
+may be well to mention that Alf had so far forgotten himself as to
+laugh at the marshal's temporary discomfiture at the hands of Mrs.
+Perkins.</p>
+<p>"Alf, have you been havin' another baby up to your house without
+lettin' me know?" demanded Anderson firmly.</p>
+<p>"Anderson," replied Alf, maudlin tears starting in his eyes,
+"it's not kind of you to rake up my feelin's like this. You know I
+been a widower fer three years."</p>
+<p>"I want you to understand one thing, Alf Reesling. A detective
+never <i>knows</i> anything till he proves it. Let me warn you,
+sir, you are under suspicion. An' now, let me tell you one thing
+more. Doggone your ornery hide, don't you ever laugh ag'in like you
+did jest now er I'll&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Just then the door flew open with a bang and Edna Crow,
+Anderson's eldest, almost flopped into the store, her cap in her
+hand, eyes starting from her head. She had run at top speed all the
+way from home.</p>
+<p>"Pop," she gasped. "Ma says fer you to hurry home! She says fer
+you to <i>run</i>!"</p>
+<p>Anderson covered the distance between Lamson's store and his own
+home in record time. Indeed, Edna, flying as fast as her slim legs
+could twinkle, barely beat her father to the front porch. It was
+quite clear to Mr. Crow that something unusual had happened or Mrs.
+Crow would not have summoned him so peremptorily.</p>
+<p>She was in the hallway downstairs awaiting his arrival, visibly
+agitated. Before uttering a word she dragged him into the little
+sitting-room and closed the door. They were alone.</p>
+<p>"Is it dead?" he panted.</p>
+<p>"No, but what do you think, Anderson?" she questioned
+excitedly.</p>
+<p>"I ain't had time to think. You don't mean to say it has begun
+to talk an' c'n tell who it is," he faltered.</p>
+<p>"Heavens no&mdash;an' it only six weeks old."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, what in thunder <i>has</i> happened?"</p>
+<p>"A <i>detective</i> has been here."</p>
+<p>"Good gosh!"</p>
+<p>"Yes, a <i>real</i> detective. He's out there in the kitchen
+gettin' his feet warm by the bake-oven. He says he's lookin' for a
+six-weeks-old baby. Anderson, we're goin' to lose that twenty
+thousand."</p>
+<p>"Don't cry, Eva; mebby we c'n find another baby some day. Has he
+seen the&mdash;the&mdash;it?" Anderson was holding to the
+stair-post for support.</p>
+<p>"Not yet, but he says he understands we've got one here that
+ain't been <i>tagged</i>&mdash;that's what he said&mdash;'tagged.'
+What does he mean by that?"</p>
+<p>"Why&mdash;why, don't you see? Just as soon as he tags it, it's
+<i>it</i>. Doggone, I wonder if it would make any legal difference
+if I tagged it first."</p>
+<p>"He's a queer-lookin' feller, Anderson. Says he's in disguise,
+and he certainly looks like a regular scamp."</p>
+<p>"I'll take a look at him an' ast fer his badge." Marshal Crow
+paraded boldly into the kitchen, where the strange man was regaling
+the younger Crows with conversation the while he partook
+comfortably of pie and other things more substantial.</p>
+<p>"Are you Mr. Crow?" he asked nonchalantly, as Anderson appeared
+before him.</p>
+<p>"I am. Who are you?"</p>
+<p>"I am Hawkshaw, the detective," responded the man, his mouth
+full of blackberry pie.</p>
+<p>"Gee whiz!" gasped Anderson. "Eva, it's the celebrated
+Hawkshaw."</p>
+<p>"Right you are, sir. I'm after the kid."</p>
+<p>"You'll have to identify it," something inspired Anderson to
+say.</p>
+<p>"Sure. That's easy. It's the one that was left on your doorstep
+last night," said the man glibly.</p>
+<p>"Well, I guess you're right," began Anderson disconsolately.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/075.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Boy or girl?" demanded Mrs. Crow, shrewdly and very quickly.
+She had been inspecting the man more closely than before, and
+woman's intuition was telling her a truth that Anderson overlooked.
+Mr. Hawkshaw was not only very seedy, but very drunk.</p>
+<p>"Madam," he responded loftily, "it is nothing but a mere
+child."</p>
+<p>"I'll give you jest one minute to get out of this house," said
+Mrs. Crow sharply, to Anderson's consternation. "If you're not
+gone, I'll douse you with this kettle of scalding water. Open the
+back door, Edna. He sha'n't take his dirty self through my parlour
+again. <i>Open that door, Edna!</i>"</p>
+<p>Edna, half paralysed with astonishment, opened the kitchen door
+just in time. Mr. Hawkshaw was not so drunk but he could recognise
+disaster when it hovered near. As she lifted the steaming kettle
+from the stove he made a flying leap for the door. The rush of air
+that followed him as he shot through the aperture almost swept Edna
+from her feet. In ten seconds the tattered Hawkshaw was scrambling
+over the garden fence and making lively if inaccurate tracks
+through last year's cabbage patch.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Mysterious Visitor</i></h3>
+<p>The entire Crow family watched him in stupefaction until he
+disappeared down the lane that led to Hapgood's grove. It was then,
+and not until then, that Anderson Crow took a breath.</p>
+<p>"Good Lord, Eva, what do you mean?" he gasped.</p>
+<p>"Mean?" she almost shrieked. "Anderson Crow, didn't you
+recognise that feller? He ain't no more detective than you er me.
+He's the self-same tramp that you put in the calaboose last week,
+and the week before, too. I thought I'd seen his ugly face before.
+He's&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Great jumpin' geeswax!" roared the town marshal. "I recollect
+him now. He's the one that said he'd been exposed to smallpox an'
+wanted to be kept where it was warm all winter. Well, I'll
+be&mdash;I'll be&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Don't say it, pa. He said it fer you when he clumb over that
+barb-wire fence out there," cried Edna gleefully.</p>
+<p>Several days of anxiety and energy followed this interesting
+episode. In that time two tramps attempted to obtain food and
+shelter at Crow's home, one on the plea that he was the father of
+the unfortunate child, the other as an officer for the Foundlings'
+Home at Boggs City. Three babies were left on the
+doorstep&mdash;two in one night&mdash;their fond mothers confessing
+fessing by letters that they appreciated Anderson's well-known
+charitable inclinations and implored him to care for their
+offspring as if they were his own. The harassed marshal experienced
+some difficulty in forcing the mothers to take back their
+children.</p>
+<p>In each instance he was reviled by the estimable ladies, all of
+whom accused him of being utterly heartless. Mrs. Crow came to his
+rescue and told the disappointed mothers that the scalding water
+was ready for application if they did not take their baskets of
+babies away on short order. It may be well for the reputation of
+Tinkletown to mention that one of the donors was Mrs. Raspus, a
+negro washerwoman who did work for the "dagoes" engaged in building
+the railroad hard by; another was the wife of Antonio Galli, a
+member of the grading gang, and the third was Mrs. Pool, the widow
+of a fisherman who had recently drowned himself in drink.</p>
+<p>It is quite possible that Anderson might have had the three
+infants on his hands permanently had not the mothers been so eager
+to know their fate. They appeared in person early the next morning
+to see if the babies had frozen to death on the doorstep. Mrs. Pool
+even went so far as to fetch some extra baby clothes which she had
+neglected to drop with her male. Mrs. Raspus came for her basket,
+claiming it was the only one she had in which to "tote" the washing
+for the men.</p>
+<p>After these annoying but enlivening incidents Anderson was
+permitted to recover from his daze and to throw off symptoms of
+nervous prostration. Tinkletown resumed its tranquil attitude and
+the checker games began to thrive once more. Little Rosalie was a
+week older than when she came, but it was five weeks before
+anything happened to disturb the even tenor of the foster-father's
+way. He had worked diligently in the effort to discover the parents
+of the baby, but without result. Two or three exasperated husbands
+in Tinkletown had threatened to blow his brains out if he persisted
+in questioning their wives in his insinuating manner, and one of
+the kitchen girls at the village inn threw a dishpan at him on the
+occasion of his third visit of inquiry. A colored woman in the
+employ of the Baptist minister denied that Rosalie was her child,
+but when he insisted, agreed with fine sarcasm to "go over an' have
+a look at it," after his assurance that it was perfectly white.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/079.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Eva, I've investigated the case thoroughly," he said at last,
+"an' there is no solution to the mystery. The only thing I c'n
+deduce is that the child is here an' we'll have to take keer of
+her. Now, I wonder if that woman really meant it when she said we'd
+have a thousand dollars at the end of each year. Doggone, I wish
+the year was up, jest to see."</p>
+<p>"We'll have to wait, Anderson, that's all," said Mrs. Crow. "I
+love the baby so it can't matter much. I'm glad you're through
+investigatin'. It's been most tryin' to me. Half the women in town
+don't speak to me."</p>
+<p>It was at the end of Rosalie's fifth week as a member of the
+family that something happened. Late one night when Anderson opened
+the front door to put out the cat a heavily veiled woman mounted
+the steps and accosted him. In some trepidation he drew back and
+would have closed the door but for her eager remonstrance.</p>
+<p>"I must see you, Mr. Crow," she cried in a low, agitated
+voice.</p>
+<p>"Who are you?" he demanded. She was dressed entirely in
+black.</p>
+<p>"I came to see you about the baby."</p>
+<p>"That won't do, madam. There's been three tramps here to
+hornswoggle us an' I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I <i>must</i> see her, Mr. Crow," pleaded the stranger, and he
+was struck by the richness of her voice.</p>
+<p>"Mighty queer, it seems to me," he muttered hesitatingly. "Are
+you any kin to it?"</p>
+<p>"I am very much interested."</p>
+<p>"By giminy, I believe you're the one who left her here," cried
+the detective. "Are you a typewriter?"</p>
+<p>"I'll answer your questions if you'll allow me to step inside.
+It is very cold out here."</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow stood aside and the tall, black figure entered the
+hall. He led her to the warm sitting-room and gave her a chair
+before the "base-burner."</p>
+<p>"Here, Mr. Crow, is an envelope containing two hundred and fifty
+dollars. That proves my good faith. I cannot tell you who I am nor
+what relation I bear to the baby. I am quite fully aware that you
+will not undertake to detain me, for it is not an easy matter to
+earn a thousand dollars a year in this part of the world. I am
+going abroad next week and do not expect to return for a long, long
+time. Try as I would, I could not go without seeing the child. I
+will not keep you out of bed ten minutes, and you and your wife may
+be present while I hold Rosalie in my arms. I know that she is in
+good hands, and I have no intention of taking her away. Please call
+Mrs. Crow."</p>
+<p>Anderson was too amazed to act at once. He began to flounder
+interrogatively, but the visitor abruptly checked him.</p>
+<p>"You are wasting time, Mr. Crow, in attempting to question my
+authority or identity. No one need know that I have made this
+visit. You are perfectly secure in the promise to have a thousand
+dollars a year; why should you hesitate? As long as she lives with
+you the money is yours. I am advancing the amount you now hold in
+order that her immediate wants may be provided for. You are not
+required to keep an account of the money paid to you. There are
+means of ascertaining at once whether she is being well cared for
+and educated by you, and if it becomes apparent that you are not
+doing your duty, she shall be removed from your custody. From time
+to time you may expect written instructions from&mdash;from one who
+loves her."</p>
+<p>"I jest want to ast if you live in Tinkletown?" Anderson managed
+to say.</p>
+<p>"I do not," she replied emphatically.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, lift your veil. If you don't live here I sha'n't
+know you."</p>
+<p>"I prefer to keep my face covered, Mr. Crow; believe me and
+trust me. Please let me see her." The plea was so earnest that
+Anderson's heart gave a great thump of understanding.</p>
+<p>"By ginger, you are her mother!" he gasped. Mrs. Crow came in at
+this juncture, and she was much quicker at grasping the situation
+than her husband. It was in her mind to openly denounce the woman
+for her heartlessness, but her natural thriftiness interposed. She
+would do nothing that might remove the golden spoon from the family
+mouth.</p>
+<p>The trio stole upstairs and into the warm bedchamber. There,
+with Anderson Crow and his wife looking on from a remote corner of
+the room, the tall woman in black knelt beside the crib that had
+housed a generation of Crows. The sleeping Rosalie did not know of
+the soft kisses that swept her little cheek. She did not feel the
+tears that fell when the visitor lifted her veil, nor did she hear
+the whisperings that rose to the woman's lips.</p>
+<p>"That is all," murmured the mysterious stranger at last,
+dropping her veil as she arose. She staggered as she started for
+the door, but recovered herself instantly. Without a word she left
+the room, the Crows following her down the stairs in silence. At
+the bottom she paused, and then extended her hands to the old
+couple. Her voice faltered as she spoke.</p>
+<p>"Let me clasp your hands and let me tell you that my love and my
+prayers are forever for you and for that little one up there. Thank
+you. I know you will be good to her. She is well born. Her blood is
+as good as the best. Above all things, Mrs. Crow, she is not
+illegitimate. You may easily suspect that her parents are wealthy
+or they could not pay so well for her care. Some day the mystery
+surrounding her will be cleared. It may not be for many years. I
+can safely say that she will be left in your care for twenty years
+at least. Some day you will know why it is that Rosalie is not
+supposed to exist. God bless you."</p>
+<p>She was gone before they could utter a word. They watched her
+walk swiftly into the darkness; a few minutes later the sound of
+carriage wheels suddenly broke upon the air. Anderson Crow and his
+wife stood over the "base-burner," and there were tears in their
+thoughtful eyes.</p>
+<p>"She said twenty years, Eva. Let's see, this is 1883. What would
+that make it?"</p>
+<p>"About 1903 or 1904, Anderson."</p>
+<p>"Well, I guess we c'n wait if other people can," mused he. Then
+they went slowly upstairs and to bed.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<h3><i>Some Years Go By</i></h3>
+<p>Tinkletown as a unit supported Anderson in his application for
+guardianship papers. They were filed immediately after the secret
+visit of the mysterious woman; the Circuit Court at Boggs City,
+after hearing the evidence, at once entered the appointment of Mr.
+Crow. When the court asked in mild surprise why he did not adopt
+the child, Anderson and Eva looked at each other sheepishly and
+were silent for a full minute. Then Anderson spoke up a bit
+huskily:</p>
+<p>"Well, you see, judge, her name would have to be Crow, an' while
+it's a good name an' an honoured one, it don't jest seem to fit the
+young 'un. She 'pears to be more of a canary than a crow,
+figuratively speakin', and Eva an' me jest decided we'd give her a
+different sort of a last name if we could find one. Seems to me
+that Rosie Canary would be a good one, but Eva an' the childern are
+ag'in me. They've decided to call her Rosalie Gray, an' I guess
+that about settles it. If you don't mind, I reckon that name c'n go
+in the records. Besides, you must recollect that she's liable to
+have a lot of property some time, an' it seems more fit fer me to
+be guardian than foster-father if that time ever comes. It'll be
+easier to say good-bye if she keers to leave us."</p>
+<p>That same day Anderson deposited two hundred and fifty dollars
+to his credit in the First National Bank, saying to his wife as he
+walked away from the teller's window, "I guess Rosalie cain't
+starve till the bank busts, an' maybe not then."</p>
+<p>Of course Tinkletown knew that a sum of money had been paid to
+Anderson, but no one knew that it had been handed to him in person
+by an interested party. Had Anderson and his wife even whispered
+that such a visit had occurred, the town would have gone into a
+convulsion of wrath; the marshal's pedestal would have been jerked
+out from under him without compunction or mercy. Eva cautioned him
+to be more than silent on the subject for the child's sake as well
+as for their own, and Anderson saw wisdom in her counselling. He
+even lagged in his avowed intention to unravel the mystery or die
+in the attempt. A sharp reminder in the shape of an item in the
+<i>Banner</i> restored his energies, and he again took up the case
+with a vigour that startled even himself. Anything in the shape of
+vigour startled his wife.</p>
+<p>Harry Squires, the reporter, who poked more or less fun at
+Anderson from time to time because he had the "power of the press
+behind him," some weeks later wrote the following item about the
+"baby mystery," as he called it, in large type:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"There is no news in regard to the child found upon the doorstep
+of our esteemed fellow-citizen Anderson Crow, last February. The
+item concerning its discovery first appeared in the columns of the
+<i>Banner</i>, as will be remembered by our many readers. Detective
+Crow promised developments some time ago, but they have not showed
+up. It is rumoured that he has a new clew, but it cannot be
+substantiated. The general impression is that he does not know
+whether it is a boy or girl. We advise Mr. Crow to go slow. He
+should not forget the time when he arrested Mr. John Barnes, two
+years ago, for the murder of Mr. Grover, and afterward found that
+the young gent was merely eloping with Judge Brewster's daughter,
+which was no crime. We saw the girl. Those of our readers who were
+alive at the time doubtless recall the excitement of that man-hunt
+two years ago. Mr. Barnes, as innocent as a child unborn, came to
+our little city engaged in the innocent pastime of getting married.
+At the same time it was reported that a murder had been committed
+in this county. Mr. Crow had his suspicions aroused and pursued Mr.
+Barnes down the river and arrested him. It was a fine piece of
+detective work. But, unfortunately for Mr. Crow, the real murderer
+had been caught in the meantime. Mr. Barnes was guilty only of
+stealing judge Brewster's daughter and getting married to her. The
+last heard of them they were happy in New York. They even forgave
+Mr. Crow, it is reported. It is to be hoped that our clever
+detective will soon jump down upon the heartless parents of this
+innocent child, but it is also to be hoped that he think at least
+four times before he leaps."</p>
+</div>
+<p>To say that the foregoing editorial disturbed the evenness of
+Mr. Crow's temper would be saying nothing at all. In the privacy of
+his barn lot Anderson did a war dance that shamed Tecumseh. He
+threatened to annihilate Harry Squires "from head to foot," for
+publishing the base slander.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/087.jpg" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Doggone his hide," roared poor Anderson, "fer two cents I'd
+tell all I know about him bein' tight up at Boggs City three years
+ago. He couldn't walk half an inch that time without staggerin'.
+Anyhow, I wouldn't have chased Mr. Barnes that time if it hadn't
+been fer Harry Squires. He egged me on, doggone his hide. If he
+didn't have that big typesetter from Albany over at the
+<i>Banner</i> office to back him up I'd go over an' bust his snoot
+fer him. After all the items I've give him, too. That's all the
+thanks you git fer gittin' up news fer them blamed reporters. But
+I'll show him! I wonder what he'd think if I traced that baby right
+up to his own&mdash;<i>What's</i> that, Eva? Well, now, you don't
+know anything about it neither, so keep your mouth shet. Harry
+Squires is a purty sly cuss. Mebby it's his'n. You ain't supposed
+to know. You jest let me do my own deducin'. I don't want no blamed
+woman tellin' me who to shadder. An' you, too, Edner; get out of
+the way, consarn ye! The next thing <i>you'll</i> be tellin' me
+what to do&mdash;an' me your father, too!"</p>
+<p>And that is why Anderson Crow resumed his search for the parents
+of Rosalie Gray. Not that he hoped or expected to find them, but to
+offset the pernicious influence of Harry's "item." For many days he
+followed the most highly impossible clews, some of them
+intractable, to supply a rather unusual word of description. In
+other words, they reacted with a vigour that often found him
+unprepared but serene. Consequences bothered Anderson but little in
+those days of despised activity.</p>
+<p>It is not necessary to dwell upon the incidents of the ensuing
+years, which saw Rosalie crawl from babyhood to childhood and then
+stride proudly through the teens with a springiness that boded ill
+for Father Time. Regularly each succeeding February there came to
+Anderson Crow a package of twenty dollar bills amounting to one
+thousand dollars, the mails being inscrutable. The Crow family
+prospered correspondingly, but there was a liberal frugality behind
+it all that meant well for Rosalie when the time came for an
+accounting. Anderson and Eva "laid by" a goodly portion of the
+money for the child, whom they loved as one of their own flesh and
+blood. The district school lessons were followed later on by a
+boarding-school education down State, and then came the finishing
+touches at Miss Brown's in New York.</p>
+<p>Rosalie grew into a rare flower, as dainty as the rose, as
+piquant as the daisy. The unmistakable mark of the high bred glowed
+in her face, the fine traces of blue blood graced her every
+movement, her every tone and look. At the time that she, as well as
+every one else in Tinkletown, for that matter, was twenty years
+older than when she first came to Anderson's home, we find her the
+queen of the village, its one rich human possession, its one truly
+sophisticated inhabitant. Anderson Crow and his wife were so proud
+of her that they forgot their duty to their own offspring; but if
+the Crow children resented this it was not exhibited in the
+expressions of love and admiration for their foster-sister. Edna
+Crow, the eldest of the girls&mdash;Anderson called her
+"Edner"&mdash;was Rosalie's most devoted slave, while Roscoe, the
+twelve-year-old boy, who comprised the rear rank of Anderson's
+little army, knelt so constantly at her shrine that he fell far
+behind in his studies, and stuck to the third reader for two
+years.</p>
+<p>Anderson had not been idle in all these years. He was fast
+approaching his seventieth anniversary, but he was not a day older
+in spirit than when we first made his acquaintance. True, his hair
+was thinner and whiter, and his whiskers straggled a little more
+carelessly than in other days, but he was as young and active as a
+youth of twenty. Hard times did not worry him, nor did domestic
+troubles. Mrs. Crow often admitted that she tried her best to worry
+him, but it was like "pouring water on a duck's back." He went
+blissfully on his way, earning encomiums for himself and honours
+for Tinkletown. There was no grave crime committed in the land that
+he did not have a well-defined scheme for apprehending the
+perpetrators. His "deductions" at Lamson's store never failed to
+draw out and hold large audiences, and no one disputed his theories
+in public. The fact that he was responsible for the arrest of
+various hog, horse, and chicken thieves from time to time, and for
+the continuous seizure of the two town drunkards, Tom Folly and Alf
+Reesling, kept his reputation untarnished, despite the numerous
+errors of commission and omission that crept in between.</p>
+<p>That Rosalie's mysterious friends&mdash;or enemies, it might
+have been&mdash;kept close and accurate watch over her was
+manifested from time to time. Once, when Anderson was very ill with
+typhoid fever, the package of bills was accompanied by an unsigned,
+typewritten letter. The writer announced that Mr. Crow's state of
+health was causing some anxiety on Rosalie's account&mdash;the
+child was then six years old&mdash;and it was hoped that nothing
+serious would result. Another time the strange writer, in a letter
+from Paris, instructed Mr. Crow to send Rosalie to a certain
+boarding school and to see that she had French, German, and music
+from competent instructors. Again, just before the girl went to New
+York for her two years' stay in Miss Brown's school, there came a
+package containing $2500 for her own personal use. Rosalie often
+spoke to Anderson of this mysterious sender as the "fairy
+godmother"; but the old marshal had a deeper and more significant
+opinion.</p>
+<p>Perhaps the most anxious period in the life of Anderson Crow
+came when Rosalie was about ten years old. A new sheriff had been
+elected in Bramble County, and he posed as a reformer. His sister
+taught school in Tinkletown, and Rosalie was her favourite. She
+took an interest in the child that was almost the undoing of Mr.
+Crow's prosperity. Imagining that she was befriending the girl, the
+teacher appealed to her brother, the sheriff, insisting that he do
+what he could to solve the mystery of her birth. The sheriff saw a
+chance to distinguish himself. He enlisted the help of an
+aggressive prosecuting attorney, also new, and set about to
+investigate the case.</p>
+<p>The two officers of the law descended upon Tinkletown one day
+and began to ask peremptory questions. They went about it in such a
+high-handed, lordly manner that Anderson took alarm and his heart
+sank like lead. He saw in his mind's eye the utter collapse of all
+his hopes, the dashing away of his cup of leisure and the upsetting
+of the "fairy godmother's" plans. Pulling his wits together, he set
+about to frustrate the attack of the meddlers. Whether it was his
+shrewdness in placing obstacles in their way or whether he coerced
+the denizens into blocking the sheriff's investigation does not
+matter. It is only necessary to say that the officious gentleman
+from Boggs City finally gave up the quest in disgust and retired
+into the oblivion usual to county officials who try to be
+progressive. It was many weeks, however, before Anderson slept
+soundly. He was once more happy in the consciousness that Rosalie
+had been saved from disaster and that he had done his duty by
+her.</p>
+<p>"I'd like to know how them doggone jays from Boggs City expected
+to find out anything about that child when I hain't been able to,"
+growled Mr. Crow in Lamson's store one night. "If they'll jest keep
+their blamed noses out of this affair I'll find out who her parents
+are some day. It takes time to trace down things like this. I guess
+I know what I'm doin', don't I, boys?"</p>
+<p>"That's what you do, Anderson," said Mr. Lamson, as Anderson
+reached over and took a handful of licorice drops from the jar on
+the counter.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<h3>The Village Queen</h3>
+<p>The spring of 1903 brought Rosalie back to Tinkletown after her
+second and last year with Miss Brown in New York City. The sun
+seemed brighter, the birds sang more blithely, the flowers took on
+a new fragrance and the village spruced up as if Sunday was the
+only day in the week. The young men of the town trembled when she
+passed them by, and not a few of them grew thin and haggard for
+want of food and sleep, having lost both appetite and repose
+through a relapse in love. Her smile was the same as of yore, her
+cheery greetings the same, and yet the village swains stood in awe
+of this fine young aristocrat for days and days. Gradually it
+dawned upon them that she was human, after all, despite her New
+York training, and they slowly resumed the old-time manner of
+courting, which was with the eyes exclusively.</p>
+<p>A few of the more venturesome&mdash;but not the more
+ardent&mdash;asked her to go walking, driving, or to the church
+"sociables," and there was a rivalry in town which threatened to
+upset commerce. There was no theatre in Tinkletown, but they
+delighted in her descriptions of the gorgeous play-houses in New
+York. The town hall seemed smaller than ever to them. The younger
+merchants and their clerks neglected business with charming
+impartiality, and trade was going to "rack and ruin" until Rosalie
+declined to marry George Rawlins, the minister's son. He was looked
+upon as the favoured one; but she refused him in such a decisive
+manner that all others lost hope and courage. It is on record that
+the day after George's <i>cong&eacute;</i> Tinkletown indulged in a
+complete business somersault. Never before had there been such
+strict attention to customers; merchants and clerks alike settled
+down to the inevitable and tried to banish Rosalie's face from the
+cost tags and trading stamps of their dull, mercantile cloister.
+Even Tony Brink, the blacksmith's 'prentice, fell into the habits
+of industry, but with an absent-mindedness that got him kicked
+through a partition in the smithy when he attempted to shoe the
+fetlock of Mr. Martin's colt instead of its hoof.</p>
+<p>The Crow family took on a new dignity. Anderson gave fifty
+dollars to the Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian
+Church, claiming that a foreign education had done so much for his
+ward; and Mrs. Crow succeeded in holding two big afternoon teas
+before Rosalie could apply the check rein.</p>
+<p>One night Anderson sat up until nearly ten o'clock&mdash;an
+unheard-of proceeding for him. Rosalie, with the elder Crow girls,
+Edna and Susie, had gone to protracted meeting with a party of
+young men and women. The younger boys and girls were in bed, and
+Mrs. Crow was yawning prodigiously. She never retired until
+Anderson was ready to do likewise. Suddenly it dawned upon her that
+he was unusually quiet and preoccupied. They were sitting on the
+moonlit porch.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter, Anderson? Ain't you well?" she asked at
+last.</p>
+<p>"No; I'm just thinkin'," he responded, rather dismally.
+"Doggone, I cain't get it out of my head, Eva."</p>
+<p>"Can't get what out?"</p>
+<p>"About Rosalie."</p>
+<p>"Well, what about her?"</p>
+<p>"That's jest like a woman&mdash;always fergittin' the most
+important things in the world. Don't you know that the twenty years
+is up?"</p>
+<p>"Of course I know it, but 'tain't worryin' me any. She's still
+here, ain't she? Nobody has come to take her away. The thousand
+dollars came all right last February, didn't it? Well, what's the
+use worryin'?"</p>
+<p>"Mebbe you're right, but I'm skeered to death fer fear some one
+will turn up an' claim her, er that a big estate will be settled,
+er somethin' awful like that. I don't mind the money, Eva; I jest
+hate to think of losin' her, now that she's such a credit to us.
+Besides, I'm up a stump about next year."</p>
+<p>"Well, what happens then?"</p>
+<p>"Derned if I know. That's what's worryin' me."</p>
+<p>"I don't see why you&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Certainly you don't. You never do. I've got to do all the
+thinkin' fer this fambly. Next year she's twenty-one years old an'
+her own boss, ain't she? I ain't her guardeen after that, am I?
+What happens then, I'd like to know."</p>
+<p>"You jest have to settle with the court, pay over to her what
+belongs to her and keep the thousand every spring jest the same.
+Her people, whoever they be, are payin' you fer keepin' her an' not
+her fer stayin' here. 'Tain't likely she'll want to leave a good
+home like this 'un, is it? Don't worry till the time comes,
+Anderson."</p>
+<p>"That's jest the point. She's lived in New York an' she's got
+used to it. She's got fine idees; even her clothes seem to fit
+different. Now, do you s'pose that fine-lookin' girl with all her
+New York trimmin's 's goin' to hang 'round a fool little town like
+this? Not much! She's goin' to dig out o' here as soon's she gits a
+chance; an' she's goin' to live right where her heart tells her she
+belongs&mdash;in the metropolees of New York. She don't belong in
+no jim-crow town like this. Doggone, Eva, I hate to see 'er
+go!"</p>
+<p>There was such a wail of bitterness in the old constable's
+remark that Mrs. Crow felt the tears start to her own eyes. It was
+the girl they both wanted, after all&mdash;not the money. Rosalie,
+coming home with her party some time afterward, found the old
+couple still seated on the porch. The young people could not
+conceal their surprise.</p>
+<p>"Counting the stars, pop?" asked Edna Crow.</p>
+<p>"He's waiting for the eclipse," bawled noisy Ed Higgins, the
+grocer's clerk. "It's due next winter. H'are you, Anderson?"</p>
+<p>"How's that?" was Anderson's rebuke.</p>
+<p>"I mean Mr. Crow," corrected Ed, with a nervous glance at
+Rosalie, who had been his companion for the evening.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/097.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Oh, I'm jest so-so," remarked Anderson, mollified. "How was the
+party?"</p>
+<p>"It wasn't a party, Daddy Crow," laughed Rosalie, seating
+herself in front of him on the porch rail. "It was an experience
+meeting. Alf Reesling has reformed again. He told us all about his
+last attack of delirium tremens."</p>
+<p>"You don't say so! Well, sir, I never thought Alf could find the
+time to reform ag'in. He's too busy gittin' tight," mused Anderson.
+"But I guess reformin' c'n git to be as much a habit as anythin'
+else."</p>
+<p>"I think he was a little woozy to-night," ventured 'Rast
+Little.</p>
+<p>"A little what?"</p>
+<p>"Drunk," explained 'Rast, without wasting words. 'Rast had
+acquired the synonym at the business men's carnival in Boggs City
+the preceding fall. Sometimes he substituted the words "pie-eyed,"
+"skeed," "lit up," etc., just to show his worldliness.</p>
+<p>After the young men had departed and the Crow girls had gone
+upstairs with their mother Rosalie slipped out on the porch and sat
+herself down upon the knee of her disconsolate guardian.</p>
+<p>"You are worried about something, Daddy Crow," she said gently.
+"Now, speak up, sir. What is it?"</p>
+<p>"It's time you were in bed," scolded Anderson, pulling his
+whiskers nervously.</p>
+<p>"Oh, I'm young, daddy. I don't need sleep. But you never have
+been up as late as this since I've known you."</p>
+<p>"I was up later'n this the time you had the whoopin'-cough, all
+right."</p>
+<p>"What's troubling you, daddy?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, nothin'&mdash;nothin' at all. Doggone, cain't a man set out
+on his own porch 'thout&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Forgive me, daddy. Shall I go away and leave you?"</p>
+<p>"Gosh a'mighty, no!" he gasped. "That's what's worryin'
+me&mdash;oh, you didn't mean forever. You jest meant to-night?
+Geminy crickets, you did give me a skeer!" He sank back with a
+great sigh of relief.</p>
+<p>"Why, I never expect to leave you forever," she cried, caressing
+his scanty hair. "You couldn't drive me away. This is home, and
+you've been too good to me all these years. I may want to travel
+after a while, but I'll always come back to you, Daddy Crow."</p>
+<p>"I'm&mdash;I'm mighty glad to hear ye say that, Rosie. Ye
+see&mdash;ye see, me an' your ma kinder learned to love you,
+an'&mdash;an&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Why, Daddy Crow, you silly old goose! You're almost
+crying!"</p>
+<p>"What's that? Now, don't talk like that to me, you little
+whipper-snapper, er you go to bed in a hurry. I never cried in my
+life," growled Anderson in a great bluster.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, let's talk about something else&mdash;me, for
+instance. Do you know, Daddy Crow, that I'm too strong to live an
+idle life. There is no reason why I shouldn't have an occupation. I
+want to work&mdash;accomplish something."</p>
+<p>Anderson was silent a long time collecting his nerves. "You
+wouldn't keer to be a female detective, would you?" he asked
+drily.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<h3>Rosalie Has Plans of Her Own</h3>
+<p>"Do be serious, daddy. I want to do something worth while. I
+could teach school or&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Not much! You ain't cut out fer that job. Don't you know that
+ever'body hates school-teachers when they're growed up? Jerusalem,
+how I still hate old Rachel Kidwell! An' yet she's bin dead nigh
+onto thirty years. She was my first teacher. You wasn't born to be
+hated by all the boys in the district. I don't see what put the
+idee of work inter your head You got 'bout eight thousand dollars
+in the bank an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"But I insist that the money is yours, daddy. My fairy godmother
+paid it to you for keeping, clothing, and educating me. It is not
+mine."</p>
+<p>"You talk like I was a boardin' school instead o' bein' your
+guardeen. No, siree; it's your money, an' that ends it. You git it
+when you're twenty-one."</p>
+<p>"We'll see, daddy," she replied, a stubborn light in her dark
+eyes. "But I want to learn to do something worth while. If I had a
+million it would be just the same."</p>
+<p>"You'll have something to do when you git married," observed he
+sharply.</p>
+<p>"Nonsense!"</p>
+<p>"I s'pose you're goin' to say you never expect to git married.
+They all say it&mdash;an' then take the first feller 'at comes
+along."</p>
+<p>"I didn't take the first, or the second, or the third, or
+the&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Hold on! Gosh a'mighty, have you had that many? Well, why don't
+you go into the matrimonial agent's business? That's an
+occupation."</p>
+<p>"Oh, none of them was serious, daddy," she said
+na&iuml;vely.</p>
+<p>"You could have all of the men in the county!" he declared
+proudly. "Only," he added quickly, "it wouldn't seem jest right an'
+proper."</p>
+<p>"There was a girl at Miss Brown's a year ago who had loads of
+money, and yet she declared she was going to have an occupation.
+Nobody knew much about her or why she left school suddenly in the
+middle of a term. I liked her, for she was very nice to me when I
+first went there, a stranger. Mr. Reddon&mdash;you've heard me
+speak of him&mdash;was devoted to her, and I'm sure she liked him.
+It was only yesterday I heard from her. She is going to teach
+school in this township next winter."</p>
+<p>"An' she's got money?"</p>
+<p>"I am sure she had it in those days. It's the strangest thing in
+the world that she should be coming here to teach school in No. 5.
+Congressman Ritchey secured the appointment for her, she says. The
+township trustee&mdash;whatever his name is&mdash;for a long time
+insisted that he must appoint a teacher from Tinkletown and not an
+outsider. I am glad she is coming here because&mdash;well, daddy,
+because she is like the girls I knew in the city. She has asked me
+to look up a boarding place for next winter. Do you know of any
+one, daddy, who could let her have a nice room?"</p>
+<p>"I'll bet my ears you'd like to have your ma take her in right
+here. But I don't see how it c'n be done, Rosie-posie. There's so
+derned many of us now, an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I didn't mean that, daddy. She couldn't come here. But
+don't you think Mrs. Jim Holabird would take her in for the
+winter?"</p>
+<p>"P'raps. She's a widder. She might let her have Jim's room now
+that there's a vacancy. You might go over an' ast her about it
+to-morrer. It's a good thing she's a friend of yourn, Rosalie,
+because if she wasn't I'd have to fight her app'intment."</p>
+<p>"Why, daddy!" reproachfully.</p>
+<p>"Well, she's a foreigner, an' I don't think it's right to give
+her a job when we've got so many home products that want the place
+an' who look unpopular enough to fill the bill. I'm fer home
+industry every time, an' 'specially as this girl don't appear to
+need the place. I don't see what business Congressman Ritchey has
+foolin' with our school system anyhow. He'd better be reducin' the
+tariff er increasin' the pensions down to Washington."</p>
+<p>"I quite agree with you, Daddy Crow," said Rosalie with a
+diplomacy that always won for her. She knew precisely how to handle
+her guardian, and that was why she won where his own daughters
+failed. "And now, good-night, daddy. Go to bed and don't worry
+about me. You'll have me on your hands much longer than you think
+or want. What time is it?"</p>
+<p>Anderson patted her head reflectively as he solemnly drew his
+huge silver time-piece from an unlocated pocket. He held it out
+into the bright moonlight.</p>
+<p>"Geminy crickets!" he exclaimed. "It's forty-nine minutes to
+twelve!" Anderson Crow's policy was to always look at things
+through the small end of the telescope.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/103.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>The slow, hot summer wore away, and to Rosalie it was the
+longest that she ever had experienced. She was tired of the
+ceaseless twaddle of Tinkletown, its flow of "missions,"
+"sociables," "buggy-horses," "George Rawlin's new dress-suit,"
+"harvesting," and "politics"&mdash;for even the children talked
+politics. Nor did the assiduous attentions of the village young men
+possess the power to shorten the days for her&mdash;and they
+certainly lengthened the nights. She liked them because they were
+her friends from the beginning&mdash;and Rosalie was not a snob.
+Not for the world would she have hurt the feelings of one poor,
+humble, adoring soul in Tinkletown; and while her smile was none
+the less sweet, her laugh none the less joyous, in her heart there
+was the hidden longing that smiled only in dreams. She longed for
+the day that was to bring Elsie Banks to live with Mrs. Holabird,
+for with her would come a breath of the world she had known for two
+years, and which she had learned to love so well.</p>
+<p>In three months seven men had asked her to marry them. Of the
+seven, one only had the means or the prospect of means to support
+her. He was a grass-widower with five grown children. Anderson took
+occasion to warn her against widowers.</p>
+<p>"Why," he said, "they're jest like widders. You know Dave Smith
+that runs the tavern down street, don't you? Well, doggone ef he
+didn't turn in an' marry a widder with seven childern an' a
+husband, an' he's led a dog's life ever sence."</p>
+<p>"Seven children and a husband? Daddy Crow!"</p>
+<p>"Yep. Her derned husband wouldn't stay divorced when he found
+out Dave could support a fambly as big as that. He figgered it
+would be jest as easy to take keer of eight as seven, so he
+perlitely attached hisself to Dave's kitchen an' started in to eat
+hisself to death. Dave was goin' to have his wife apply fer another
+divorce an' leave the name blank, so's he could put in either
+husband ef it came to a pinch, but I coaxed him out of it. He
+finally got rid of the feller by askin' him one day to sweep out
+the office. He could eat all right, but it wasn't natural fer him
+to work, so he skipped out. Next I heerd of him he had married a
+widder who was gittin' a pension because her first husband fit fer
+his country. The Government shet off the pension jest as soon as
+she got married ag'in, and then that blamed cuss took in washin'
+fer her. He stayed away from home on wash-days, but as every day
+was wash-day with her, he didn't see her by daylight fer three
+years. She died, an' now he's back at Dave's ag'in. He calls Dave
+his husband-in-law."</p>
+<p>It required all of Anderson's social and official diplomacy to
+forestall an indignation meeting when it was announced that a
+stranger, Miss Banks, had been selected to teach school No. 5.
+There was some talk of mobbing the township trustee and Board of
+County Commissioners, but Anderson secured the names of the more
+virulent talkers and threatened to "jail" them for conspiracy.</p>
+<p>"Why, Anderson," almost wailed George Ray, "that girl's from the
+city. What does she know about grammar an' history an' all that?
+They don't teach anything but French an' Italian in the cities an'
+you know it."</p>
+<p>"Pshaw!" sniffed Anderson. "I hate grammar an' always did. I c'n
+talk better Italian than grammar right now, an' I hope Miss Banks
+will teach every child in the district how to talk French. You'd
+orter hear Rosalie talk it. Besides, Rosie says she's a nice girl
+an'&mdash;an' needs the job." Anderson lied bravely, but he
+swallowed twice in doing it.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i106.jpg" id="i106.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/106.jpg"><img src="images/106.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"September brought Elsie Banks"</b></div>
+<p>September brought Elsie Banks to make life worth living for
+Rosalie. The two girls were constantly together, talking over the
+old days and what the new ones were to bring forth, especially for
+Miss Gray, who had resumed wood carving as a temporary occupation.
+Miss Banks was more than ever reluctant to discuss her own affairs,
+and Rosalie after a few trials was tactful enough to respect her
+mute appeal. It is doubtful if either of the girls mentioned the
+name of big, handsome Tom Reddon&mdash;Tom, who had rowed in his
+college crew; but it is safe to say that both of them thought of
+him more than once those long, soft, autumn nights&mdash;nights
+when Tinkletown's beaux were fairly tumbling over themselves in the
+effort to make New York life seem like a flimsy shadow in
+comparison.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<h3><i>Elsie Banks</i></h3>
+<p>Aderson Crow stood afar off&mdash;among the bleak, leafless
+trees of Badger's Grove&mdash;and gazed thoughtfully, even
+earnestly, upon the little red schoolhouse with its high brick
+chimney and snow-clad roof. A biting January wind cut through his
+whiskers and warmed his nose to a half-broiled shade of red. On the
+lapel of his overcoat glistened his social and official badges,
+augmented by a new and particularly shiny emblem of respect
+bestowed by the citizens of Tinkletown.</p>
+<p>At first it had been the sense of the town to erect a monument
+in recognition of his part in the capture of the Bramble County
+horse-thief gang, but a thrifty and considerate committee of five
+substituted a fancy gold badge with suitable inscriptions on both
+sides, extolling him to the skies "long before he went there
+hisself" (to quote Uncle Gideon Luce, whose bump of perception was
+a stubborn prophet when it came to picking out the site of Mr.
+Crow's heaven). For a full half hour the marshal of Tinkletown had
+been standing among the trees surveying the schoolhouse at the foot
+of the slope. If his frosted cheeks and watery eyes ached for the
+warmth that urged the curls of smoke to soar away from the
+chimney-top, his attitude did not betray the fact. He was watching
+and thinking, and when Anderson thought of one thing he never
+thought of another at the same time.</p>
+<p>"It'll soon be recess time," he reflected. "Then I'll step down
+there an' let on to be makin' a social call on the schoolma'am. By
+gum, I believe she's the one! It'll take some tarnation good work
+to find out the truth about her, but I guess I c'n do it all right.
+The only thing I got to guard ag'inst is lettin' anybody else know
+of the mystery surroundin' her. Gosh! it'll surprise some of the
+folks 'round here, 'specially Rosalie. An' mebby the township
+trustee won't be sorry he give the school this year to a strange
+girl instid o' to Jane Rankin er Effie Dickens! Congressman Ritchey
+hadn't no business puttin' his nose into our affairs anyhow, no
+matter if this here teacher is a friend of his fambly. He's got
+some kind a holt on these here trustees&mdash;'y gosh, I'd like to
+know what 'tis. He c'n jest wrap 'em round his finger an' make 'em
+app'int anybody he likes. Must be politics. There, it's recess!
+I'll jest light out an' pay the schoolhouse a little visit."</p>
+<p>Inside a capacious and official pocket of Mr. Crow's coat
+reposed a letter from a law firm in Chicago. It asked if within the
+last two years a young woman had applied for a position as teacher
+in the township schools at Tinkletown. A description accompanied
+the inquiry, but it was admitted she might have applied under a
+name not her own, which was Marion Lovering. In explanation, the
+letter said she had left her home in Chicago without the consent of
+her aunt, imbued with the idea that she would sooner support
+herself than depend upon the charity of that worthy though wealthy
+relative. The aunt had recently died, and counsel for the estate
+was trying to establish proof concerning the actions and
+whereabouts of Miss Lovering since her departure from Chicago.</p>
+<p>The young woman often had said she would become a teacher, a
+tutor, a governess, or a companion, and it was known that she had
+made her way to that section of the world presided over by Anderson
+Crow&mdash;although the distinguished lawyers did not put it in
+those words. A reward of five hundred dollars for positive
+information concerning the "life of the girl" while in "that or any
+other community" was promised.</p>
+<p>Miss Banks's appointment came through the agency of the
+district's congressman, in whose home she had acted as governess
+for a period. Moreover, she answered the description in that she
+was young, pretty, and refined. Anderson Crow felt that he was on
+the right track; he was now engaged in as pretty a piece of
+detective business as had ever fallen to his lot, and he was not
+going to spoil it by haste and overconfidence.</p>
+<p>Just why Anderson Crow should "shadow" the schoolhouse instead
+of the teacher's temporary place of abode no one could possibly
+have known but himself&mdash;and it is doubtful if <i>he</i> knew.
+He resolved not to answer the Chicago letter until he was quite
+ready to produce the girl and the proof desired.</p>
+<p>"I'd be a gol-swiggled fool to put 'em onter my s'picions an'
+then have 'em cheat me out of the reward," he reflected keenly.
+"You cain't trust them Chicago lawyers an inch an' a half. Doggone
+it, I'll never fergit that feller who got my pockit-book out to
+Central Park that time. He tole me positively he was a lawyer from
+Chicago, an' had an office in the Y.M.C.A. Building. An' the idee
+of him tellin' me he wanted to see if my pockit-book had better
+leather in it than hisn!"</p>
+<p>The fact that the school children, big and little, loved Miss
+Banks possessed no point of influence over their elders of the
+feminine persuasion. They turned up their Tinkletown noses and
+sniffed at her because she was a "vain creature," who thought more
+of "attractin' the men than she did of anything else on earth." And
+all this in spite of the fact that she was the intimate friend of
+the town goddess, Rosalie Gray.</p>
+<p>Everybody in school No. 5 over the age of seven was deeply,
+jealously in love with Miss Banks. Many a frozen snowball did its
+deadly work from ambush because of this impotent jealousy.</p>
+<p>But the merriest rivalry was that which developed between Ed
+Higgins, the Beau Brummel of Tinkletown, and 'Rast Little, whose
+father owned the biggest farm in Bramble County. If she was amused
+by the frantic efforts of each suitor to outwit the other she was
+too tactful to display her emotion. Perhaps she was more highly
+entertained by the manner in which Tinkletown femininity paired its
+venom with masculine admiration.</p>
+<p>"Mornin', Miss Banks," was Anderson's greeting as he stamped
+noisily into the room. He forgot that he had said good-morning to
+her when she stopped in to see Rosalie on her way to the
+schoolhouse. The children ceased their outdoor game and peered
+eagerly through the windows, conscious that the visit of this
+dignitary was of supreme importance. Miss Banks looked up from the
+papers she was correcting, the pucker vanishing from her pretty
+brow as if by magic.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/113.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Good-morning, Mr. Crow. What are you doing away out here in the
+country? Jimmy"&mdash;to a small boy&mdash;"please close the door."
+Anderson had left it open, and it was a raw January wind which
+followed him into the room.</p>
+<p>"'Scuse me," he murmured. "Seems I ain't got sense enough to
+shet a door even. My wife says&mdash;but you don't keer to hear
+about that, do you? Oh, I jest dropped in," finally answering her
+question. He took a bench near the big stove and spread his hands
+before the sheet-iron warmth. "Lookin' up a little affair, that's
+all. Powerful chilly, ain't it?"</p>
+<p>"Very." She stood on the opposite side of the stove, puzzled by
+this unexpected visit, looking at him with undisguised
+curiosity.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/114.jpg" width="75%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Ever been to Chicago?" asked Anderson suddenly, hoping to catch
+her unawares.</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes. I have lived there," she answered readily. He shifted
+his legs twice and took a hasty pull at his whiskers.</p>
+<p>"That's what I thought. Why don't you go back there?"</p>
+<p>"Because I'm teaching school here, Mr. Crow."</p>
+<p>"Well, I reckon that's a good excuse. I thought mebby you had a
+different one."</p>
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I dunno. I jest asked."</p>
+<p>"You are a detective, are you not?" asked Miss Banks, smiling
+brightly and with understanding.</p>
+<p>"Oh, off an' on I do a little detectin'. See my badge?"</p>
+<p>"Am I suspected of a heinous crime?" she asked so abruptly that
+he gasped. "Won't you take off your cap, Mr. Crow?" He removed it
+sheepishly.</p>
+<p>"Lord, no!" he exclaimed in confusion. "I mean the
+crime&mdash;not the cap. Well, I guess I'll be goin'. School's
+goin' to take up, I reckon. See you later, Miss Banks." He restored
+his cap to its accustomed place and was starting toward the door, a
+trifle dazed and bewildered.</p>
+<p>"What is it that you wish to find out, Mr. Crow?" she suddenly
+called to him. He halted and faced about so quickly that his reply
+came like a shot out of a gun.</p>
+<p>"I'm on the lookout fer a girl&mdash;an' she'll be's rich's
+Crowses if I c'n only find 'er. I dassent tell 'er name jest now,"
+he went on, slowly retracing his steps, "'cause I don't want
+people&mdash;er her either, fer that matter&mdash;to git onter my
+scheme. But you jest wait." He was standing very close to her now
+and looking her full in the face. "You're sure you don't know
+anythin' 'bout her?"</p>
+<p>"Why, how should I know? You've told me nothing."</p>
+<p>"You've got purty good clothes fer a common school-teacher," he
+flung at her in an aggressive, impertinent tone, but the warm
+colour that swiftly rose to her cheeks forced him to recall his
+words, for he quickly tempered them with, "Er, at least, that's
+what all the women folks say."</p>
+<p>"Oh, so some one has been talking about my affairs? Some of your
+excellent women want to know more about me than&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Don't git excited, Miss Banks," he interrupted; "the women
+ain't got anythin' to do with it&mdash;I mean, it's nothin' to
+them. I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Mr. Crow," she broke in, "if there is anything you or anybody
+in Tinkletown wants to know about me you will have to deduce it for
+yourself. I believe that is what you call it&mdash;deduce? And now
+good-bye, Mr. Crow. Recess is over," she said pointedly; and Mr.
+Crow shuffled out as the children galloped in.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/116.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>That evening Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little came to call, but she
+excused herself because of her correspondence. In her little
+upstairs room she wrote letter after letter, one in particular
+being voluminous. Mrs. Holabird, as she passed her door, distinctly
+heard her laugh aloud. It was a point to be recalled afterward with
+no little consideration. Later she went downstairs, cloaked warmly,
+for a walk to the post-office. Ed Higgins was still in the parlour
+talking to the family. He hastily put in his petition to accompany
+her, and it was granted absently. Then he surreptitiously and
+triumphantly glanced through the window, the scene outside pleasing
+him audibly. 'Rast was standing at the front gate talking to
+Anderson Crow. Miss Banks noticed as they passed the confused twain
+at the gate that Anderson carried his dark lantern.</p>
+<p>"Any trace of the heiress, Mr. Crow?" she asked merrily.</p>
+<p>"Doggone it," muttered Anderson, "she'll give the whole snap
+away!"</p>
+<p>"What's that?" asked 'Rast.</p>
+<p>"Nothin' much," said Anderson, repairing the damage. "Ed's got
+your time beat to-night, 'Rast, that's all!"</p>
+<p>"I could 'a' took her out ridin' to-night if I'd wanted to,"
+lied 'Rast promptly. "I'm goin' to take her to the spellin'-bee
+to-morrow night out to the schoolhouse."</p>
+<p>"Did she say she'd go with you?"</p>
+<p>"Not yet. I was jest goin' to ast her to-night."</p>
+<p>"Mebby Ed's askin' her now."</p>
+<p>"Gosh dern it, that's so! Maybe he is," almost wailed 'Rast; and
+Anderson felt sorry for him as he ambled away from the gate and its
+love-sick guardian.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Spelling-Bee</i></h3>
+<p>Young Mr. Higgins found his companion bubbling over with
+vivacity. Her pretty chin was in the air and every word bore the
+promise of a laugh. He afterward recalled one little incident of
+their walk through the frosty night, and repeated it to Anderson
+Crow with more awe than seemed necessary. They were passing the
+town pump on their way to the post-office. The street was dark and
+deserted.</p>
+<p>"Gosh!" said Ed, "I bet the town pump's froze up!"</p>
+<p>"It doesn't seem very cold," she said brightly.</p>
+<p>"Gee! it's below zero! I bet 'Rast thinks it's pretty doggone
+cold up there by your gate."</p>
+<p>"Poor 'Rast! His mother should keep him indoors on nights like
+this." Ed laughed loud and long and a tingle of happiness shot
+through his erstwhile shivering frame. "I'm not a bit cold," she
+went on. "See&mdash;feel my hand. I'm not even wearing
+mittens."</p>
+<p>Ed Higgins gingerly clasped the little hand, but it was
+withdrawn at once. He found it as warm as toast. Words of love
+surged to his humble lips; his knees felt a tendency to lower
+themselves precipitously to the frozen sidewalk; he was ready to
+grovel at her feet&mdash;and he wondered if they were as warm as
+toast. But 'Rast Little came up at that instant and the chance was
+lost.</p>
+<p>"Doggone!" slipped unconsciously but bitterly from Ed's
+lips.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/119.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Can I be your company to the spellin'-bee to-morrow night, Miss
+Banks?" burst unceremoniously from the lips of the newcomer.</p>
+<p>"Thank you, 'Rast. I was just wondering how I should get out to
+the schoolhouse. You are very kind. We'll go in the bob-sled with
+the Holabirds."</p>
+<p>"Doggone!" came in almost a wail from poor Ed. He could have
+killed 'Rast for the triumphant laugh that followed.</p>
+<p>In the meantime Anderson Crow was preparing to crawl in between
+the icy sheets at home. Mrs. Crow was "sitting up" with old Mrs.
+Luce, who was ill next door.</p>
+<p>"She's a girl with a past," reflected Anderson. "She's a
+mystery, that's what she is; but I'll unravel her. She had a mighty
+good reason fer sawin' me off out there to-day. I was gittin' too
+close home. She seen I was about to corner her. By gum, I hope she
+don't suspect nothin'! She's found out that Ed Higgins has a good
+job down to Lamson's store, an' she's settin' her cap fer him. It
+shows she'd ruther live in the city than in the country&mdash;so
+it's all up with 'Rast. That proves she's from Chicago er some
+other big place. Ed's gettin' eight dollars a week down there at
+Lamson's. By gum, that boy's doin' well! I used to think he
+wouldn't amount to nothin'. It shows that the best of us git fooled
+in a feller once in a while. To-morrow night I'll go out to the
+spellin'-match, an' when the chanct comes I'll sidle up to her an'
+whisper her real name in her ear. I bet four dollars an' a half
+that'll fetch her purty prompt. Doggone, these here sheets air
+cold! It's forty below zero right here in this bed."</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow soon slept, but he did not dream of the tragedy
+the next night was to bring upon Tinkletown, nor of the test his
+prowess was to endure.</p>
+<p>The next night and the "spellin'-bee" at school No. 5 came on
+apace together. It was bitterly cold and starlight. By eight
+o'clock the warm schoolhouse was comfortably filled with the
+"spellers" of the neighbourhood, their numbers increased by
+competitors from Tinkletown itself. In the crowd were men and women
+who time after time had "spelled down" whole companies, and who
+were eager for the conflict. They had "studied up" on their
+spelling for days in anticipation of a hard battle in the words.
+Mrs. Borum and Mrs. Cartwill, both famous for their victories and
+for the rivalry that existed between them, were selected as
+captains of the opposing sides, and Miss Banks herself was to "give
+out" the words. The captains selected their forces, choosing
+alternately from the anxious crowd of grown folks. There were no
+children there, for it was understood that big words would be given
+out&mdash;words children could not pronounce, much less spell.</p>
+<p>The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful night. She was
+dressed as no other woman in Bramble County, except Rosalie Gray,
+could have attired herself&mdash;simply, tastefully, daintily. Her
+face was flushed and eager and the joy of living glowed in every
+feature. Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little were struck senseless,
+nerveless by this vision of health and loveliness. Anderson Crow
+stealthily admitted to himself that she was a stranger in a strange
+land; she was not of Tinkletown or any place like it.</p>
+<p>Just as the captains were completing their selections of
+spellers the door opened and three strangers entered the
+school-room, overcoated and furred to the tips of their
+noses&mdash;two men and a woman. As Miss Banks rushed forward to
+greet them&mdash;she had evidently been expecting them&mdash;the
+startled assemblage caught its breath and stared. To the further
+amazement of every one, Rosalie hastened to her side and joined in
+the effusive welcome. Every word of joyous greeting was heard by
+the amazed listeners and every word from the strangers was as
+distinct. Surely the newcomers were friends of long standing. When
+their heavy wraps were removed the trio stood forth before as
+curious an audience as ever sat spellbound. The men were young,
+well dressed and handsome; the woman a beauty of the most dashing
+type. Tinkletown's best spellers quivered with excitement.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i122.jpg" id="i122.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/122.jpg"><img src="images/122.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful
+night"</b></div>
+<p>"Ladies and gentlemen," said Miss Banks, her voice trembling
+with eagerness, "let me introduce my friends, Mrs. Farnsworth, Mr.
+Farnsworth, and Mr. Reddon. They have driven over to attend the
+spelling-match." Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little observed with sinking
+hearts that it was Mr. Reddon whom she led forward by the hand, and
+they cursed him inwardly for the look he gave her&mdash;because she
+blushed beneath it.</p>
+<p>"You don't live in Boggs City," remarked Mr. Crow, appointing
+himself spokesman. "I c'n deduce that, 'cause you're carrying
+satchels an' valises."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Crow is a famous detective," explained Miss Banks. Anderson
+attempted to assume an unconscious pose, but in leaning back he
+missed the end of the bench, and sat sprawling upon the lap of Mrs.
+Harbaugh. As Mrs. Harbaugh had little or no lap to speak of, his
+downward course was diverted but not stayed. He landed on the floor
+with a grunt that broke simultaneously with the lady's squeak; a
+fraction of a second later a roar of laughter swept the room. It
+was many minutes before quiet was restored and the "match" could be
+opened. Mrs. Cartwill chose Mrs. Farnsworth and her rival selected
+the husband of the dashing young woman. Mr. Reddon firmly and
+significantly announced his determination to sit near the teacher
+"to preserve order," and not enter the contest of words.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/125.jpg" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Possibly it was the presence of the strangers that rattled and
+unnerved the famed spellers of both sides, for it was not long
+until the lines had dwindled to almost nothing. Three or four
+arrogant competitors stood forth and valiantly spelled such words
+as "Popocatepetl," "Tschaikowsky," "terpsichorean,"
+"Yang-tse-Kiang," "Yseult," and scores of words that could scarcely
+be pronounced by the teacher herself. But at last, just as the
+sleepy watchers began to nod and yawn the hardest, Mrs. Cartwill
+stood alone and victorious, her single opponent having gone down on
+the word "sassafras." Anderson Crow had "gone down" early in the
+match by spelling "kerosene" "kerry-seen." Ed Higgins followed with
+"ceriseen," and 'Rast Little explosively had it "coal-oil."</p>
+<p>During the turmoil incident to the dispersing of the gathered
+hosts Miss Banks made her way to 'Rast Little's side and informed
+him that the Farnsworths were to take her to Mrs. Holabird's in
+their big sleigh. 'Rast was floored. When he started to
+remonstrate, claiming to be her "company," big Tom Reddon
+interposed and drew Miss Banks away from her lover's wrath.</p>
+<p>"But I'm so sorry for him, Tom," she protested contritely. "He
+<i>did</i> bring me here&mdash;in a way."</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll take you home another way," said good-looking Mr.
+Reddon. It was also noticed that Rosalie Gray had much of a
+confidential nature to say to Miss Banks as they parted for the
+evening, she to go home in Blucher Peabody's new sleigh.</p>
+<p>'Rast and Ed Higgins almost came to blows out at the hitch-rack,
+where the latter began twitting his discomfited rival. Anderson
+Crow kept them apart.</p>
+<p>"I'll kill that big dude," growled 'Rast. "He's got no business
+comin' here an' rakin' up trouble between me an' her. You mark my
+words, I'll fix him before the night's over, doggone his hide!"</p>
+<p>At least a dozen men, including Alf Reesling, heard this threat,
+and not one of them was to forget it soon. Anderson Crow noticed
+that Mrs. Holabird's bob-sled drove away without either Miss Banks
+or 'Rast Little in its capacious depths. Miss Banks announced that
+her three friends from the city and she would stay behind and close
+the schoolhouse, putting everything in order. It was Friday night,
+and there would be no session until the following Monday. Mr. Crow
+was very sleepy for a detective. He snored all the way home.</p>
+<p>The next morning two farmers drove madly into Tinkletown with
+the astounding news that some one had been murdered at schoolhouse
+No. 5. In passing the place soon after daybreak they had noticed
+blood on the snow at the roadside. The school-room door was half
+open and they entered. Blood in great quantities smeared the floor
+near the stove, but there was no sign of humanity, alive or dead.
+Miss Banks's handkerchief was found on the floor saturated.</p>
+<p>Moreover, the school-teacher was missing. She had not returned
+to the home of Mrs. Holabird the night before. To make the horror
+all the more ghastly, Anderson Crow, hastening to the schoolhouse,
+positively identified the blood as that of Miss Banks.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<h3><i>A Tinkletown Sensation</i></h3>
+<p>Sensations came thick and fast in Tinkletown during the next few
+hours. Investigation proved that 'Rast Little was nowhere to be
+found. He had not returned to his home after the spelling-bee, nor
+had he been seen since. Mrs. Holabird passed him in the road on her
+way home in the "bob-sled." In response to her command to "climb
+in" he sullenly said he was going to walk home by a "short cut"
+through the woods. A farmer had seen the stylish Farnsworth sleigh
+driving north furiously at half-past eleven, the occupants huddled
+in a bunch as if to protect themselves from the biting air. The
+witness was not able to tell "which was which" in the sleigh, but
+he added interest to the situation by solemnly asserting that one
+of the persons in the rear seat was "bundled up" more than the
+rest, and evidently was unable to sit erect.</p>
+<p>According to his tale, the figure was lying over against the
+other occupant of the seat. He was also, positive that there were
+three figures in the front seat! Who was the extra person? was the
+question that flashed into the minds of the listeners. A small boy
+came to the schoolhouse at nine o'clock in the morning with 'Rast
+Little's new derby hat. He had picked it up at the roadside not far
+from the schoolhouse and in the direction taken by the Farnsworth
+party.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/129.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Anderson gave orders that no word of the catastrophe be carried
+to Rosalie, who was reported to be ill of a fever the next morning
+after the spelling-bee. She had a cough, and the doctor had said
+that nothing should be said or done to excite her.</p>
+<p>The crowd at the schoolhouse grew larger as the morning passed
+Everybody talked in whispers; everybody was mystified beyond
+belief. All eyes were turned to Anderson Crow, who stood aloof,
+pondering as he had never pondered before. In one hand he held Miss
+Banks's bloody handkerchief and in the other a common school
+text-book on physiology. His badges and stars fairly revelled in
+their own importance.</p>
+<p>"Don't pester him with questions," warned Isaac Porter,
+addressing Alf Reesling, the town drunkard, who had just
+arrived.</p>
+<p>"But I got something I want to say to him," persisted Alf
+eagerly. Two or three strong men restrained him.</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, Alf," whispered Elon Jones, "cain't you see he's
+figurin' something out? You're liable to throw him clear off the
+track if you say a word to him."</p>
+<p>"Well, this is something he'd oughter know," almost whimpered
+Alf, rubbing his frozen ears.</p>
+<p>"Sh!" muttered the bystanders, and poor Alf subsided. He was
+unceremoniously hustled into the background as Mr. Crow moved from
+the window toward the group.</p>
+<p>"Gentlemen," said Anderson gravely, "there is somethin' wrong
+here." It is barely possible that this was not news to the crowd,
+but with one accord they collectively and severally exchanged looks
+of appreciation. "I've been readin' up a bit on the human body, an'
+I've proved one thing sure in my own mind."</p>
+<p>"You bet you have, Anderson," said Elon Jones. "It's all
+settled. Let's go home."</p>
+<p>"Settled nothin'!" said the marshal. "It's jest begun. Here's
+what I deduce: Miss Banks has been foully dealt with. Ain't this
+her blood, an' ain't she used her own individual handkerchief to
+stop it up? It's blood right square from her heart, gentlemen!"</p>
+<p>"I don't see how&mdash;" began Ed Higgins; but Anderson silenced
+him with a look.</p>
+<p>"Of course <i>you</i> don't, but you would if you'd 'a' been a
+detective as long's I have. What in thunder do you s'pose I got
+these badges and these medals fer? Fer <i>not</i> seein' how? No,
+siree! I got 'em fer <i>seein</i>' how; that's what!"</p>
+<p>"But, Andy&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Don't call me 'Andy,'" commanded Mr. Crow.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, Anderson, I'd like to know how the dickens she
+could use her own handkerchief if she was stabbed to the heart,"
+protested Ed. He had been crying half the time. Anderson was
+stunned for the moment.</p>
+<p>"Why&mdash;why&mdash;now, look here, Ed Higgins, I ain't got
+time to explain things to a derned idgit like you. Everybody else
+understands <i>how</i>, don't you?" and he turned to the crowd.
+Everybody said yes. "Well, that shows what a fool you are, Ed.
+Don't bother me any more. I've got work to do."</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson," began Alf Reesling from the outer circle, "I
+got something important to tell&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Who is that? Alf Reesling?" cried Anderson wrathfully.</p>
+<p>"Yes; I want to see you private, Anderson. Its important,"
+begged Alf.</p>
+<p>"How many times have I got to set down on you, Alf Reesling?"
+exploded Anderson. "Doggone, I'd like to know how a man's to solve
+mysteries if he's got to stand around half the time an' listen to
+fambly quarrels. Tell yer wife I'll&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"This ain't no family quarrel. Besides, I ain't got no wife.
+It's about this here&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"That'll do, now, Alf! Not another word out of you!" commanded
+Anderson direfully.</p>
+<p>"But, dern you, Anderson," exploded Alf, "I've got to tell
+you&mdash;"</p>
+<p>But Anderson held up a hand.</p>
+<p>"Don't swear in the presence of the dead," he said solemnly.
+"You're drunk, Alf; go home!" And Alf, news and all was hustled
+from the schoolhouse by a self-appointed committee of ten.</p>
+<p>"Now, we'll search fer the body," announced Anderson. "Git out
+of the way, Bud!"</p>
+<p>"I ain't standin' on it," protested twelve-year-old Bud
+Long.</p>
+<p>"Well, you're standin' mighty near them blood-stains
+an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Yes, 'n ain't blood a part of the body?" rasped Isaac Porter
+scornfully; whereupon Bud faded into the outer rim.</p>
+<p>"First we'll look down cellar," said Mr. Crow. "Where's the
+cellar at?"</p>
+<p>"There ain't none," replied Elon Jones.</p>
+<p>"What? No cellar? Well, where in thunder did they hide the body,
+then?"</p>
+<p>"There's an attic," ventured Joe Perkins.</p>
+<p>A searching party headed by Anderson Crow shinned up the ladder
+to the low garret. No trace of a body was to be found, and the
+searchers came down rather thankfully. Then, under Mr. Crow's
+direction, they searched the wood piles, the woods, and the fields
+for many rods in all directions. At noon they congregated at the
+schoolhouse. Alf Reesling was there.</p>
+<p>"Find it?" said he thickly, with a cunning leer. He had been
+drinking. Anderson was tempted to club him half to death, but
+instead he sent him home with Joe Perkins, refusing absolutely to
+hear what the town drunkard had to say.</p>
+<p>"Well, you'll wish you'd listened to me," ominously hiccoughed
+Alf; and then, as a parting shot, "I wouldn't tell you now fer
+eighteen dollars cash. You c'n go to thunder!" It was
+<i>l&egrave;se majest&eacute;</i>, but the crowd did nothing worse
+than stare at the offender.</p>
+<p>Before starting off on the trail of the big sleigh, Anderson
+sent this message by wire to the lawyers in Chicago:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"<i>I have found the girl you want, but the body is lost. Would
+you just as soon have her dead as alive</i>?</p>
+<p>"ANDERSON CROW."</p>
+</div>
+<p>In a big bob-sled the marshal and a picked sextette of men set
+off at one o'clock on the road over which the sleigh had travelled
+many hours before. Anderson had failed to report the suspected
+crime to the sheriff at Boggs City and was working alone on the
+mystery. He said he did not want anybody from town interfering with
+his affairs.</p>
+<p>"Say, Andy&mdash;Anderson," said Harry Squires, now editor of
+the <i>Banner</i>, "maybe we're hunting the wrong body and the
+wrong people."</p>
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+<p>"Well, ain't 'Rast Little missing? Maybe he's been killed, eh?
+And say, ain't there some chance that he did the killing? Didn't he
+say he was going to murder that city chap? Well, supposing he did.
+We're on the wrong track, ain't we?"</p>
+<p>"Doggone you, Harry, that don't fit in with my deductions,"
+wailed Anderson. "I wish you'd let me alone. 'Rast may have done
+the killin', but it's our place to find the body, ain't it? Whoever
+has been slew was taken away last night in the sleigh. S'posin it
+was Mr. Reddon! Well, consarn it, ain't he got a body same as
+anybody else? We've just got to find somebody's body, that's all.
+We've got to prove the corpus deelicti. Drive up, Bill!"</p>
+<p>With a perseverance that spoke well for the detective's
+endurance, but ill for his intelligence, the "bob" sped along
+aimlessly. It was ridiculous to think of tracking a sleigh over a
+well-travelled road, and it was not until they reached the
+cross-roads that Harry Squires suggested that inquiries be made of
+the farmers in the neighbourhood. After diligent effort, a farmer
+was discovered who said he had heard the sleigh bells at midnight,
+and, peering from his window, had caught a glimpse of the party
+turning south at the cross-roads.</p>
+<p>"Jest as I thought!" exclaimed Anderson. "They went south so's
+to skip Boggs City. Boys, they've got her body er 'Rast's body er
+that other feller's body with 'em, an' they're skootin' down this
+pike so's to get to the big bridge. My idee is that they allowed to
+drop the body in the river, which ain't friz plum over."</p>
+<p>"Gee! We ain't expected to search all over the bottom of the
+river, are we, Anderson?" shivered Isaac Porter, the pump
+repairer.</p>
+<p>"<i>I</i> ain't," said the leader, "but I can deputise anybody I
+want to."</p>
+<p>And so they hurried on to the six-span bridge that crossed the
+ice-laden river. As they stood silent, awed and shivering on the
+middle span, staring down into the black water with its navy of
+swirling ice-chunks, even the heart of Anderson Crow chilled and
+grew faint.</p>
+<p>"Boys," he said, "we've lost the track! Not even a bloodhound
+could track 'em in that water."</p>
+<p>"Bloodhound?" sniffed Harry Squires. "A hippopotamus, you
+mean."</p>
+<p>They were hungry and cold, and they were ready to turn homeward.
+Anderson said he "guessed" he'd turn the job over to the sheriff
+and his men. Plainly, he was much too hungry to do any more
+trailing. Besides, for more than an hour he had been thinking of
+the warm wood fire at home. Bill Rubley was putting the "gad" to
+the horses when a man on horseback rode up from the opposite end of
+the bridge. He had come far and in a hurry, and he recognised
+Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson!" he called, "somebody broke into Colonel
+Randall's summer home last night an' they're there yet. Got fires
+goin' in all the stoves, an' havin' a high old time. They ain't got
+no business there, becuz the place is closed fer the winter. Aleck
+Burbank went over to order 'em out; one of the fellers said he'd
+bust his head if he didn't clear out. I think it's a gang!"</p>
+<p>A hurried interview brought out the facts. The invaders had come
+up in a big sleigh long before dawn, and&mdash;but that was
+sufficient. Anderson and his men returned to the hunt, eager and
+sure of their prey. Darkness was upon them when they came in sight
+of Colonel Randall's country place in the hills. There were lights
+in the windows and people were making merry indoors; while outside
+the pursuing Nemesis and his men were wondering how and where to
+assault the stronghold.</p>
+<p>"I'll jest walk up an' rap on the door," said Anderson Crow,
+"lettin' on to be a tramp. I'll ast fer somethin' to eat an' a
+place to sleep. While I'm out there in the kitchen eatin' you
+fellers c'n sneak up an' surround us. Then you c'n let on like
+you're lookin' fer me because I'd robbed a hen-roost er something,
+an' that'll get 'em off their guard. Once we all git inside the
+house with these shotguns we've got 'em where we want 'em. Then
+I'll make 'em purduce the body."</p>
+<p>"Don't we git anythin' to eat, too?" demanded Isaac Porter
+faintly.</p>
+<p>"The horses ain't had nothin' to eat, Ike," said Anderson.
+"Ain't you as good as a horse?"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<h3><i>A Case of Mistaken Identity</i></h3>
+<p>Detective Crow found little difficulty in gaining admittance to
+Colonel Randall's summer home. He had secreted his badge, and it
+was indeed a sorry-looking tramp who asked for a bite to eat at the
+kitchen door.</p>
+<p>Three or four young women were busy with chafing dishes in this
+department of the house, and some good-looking young men were
+looking on and bothering them with attentions. In the front part of
+the house a score of people were laughing and making merry.</p>
+<p>"Gosh!" said the new tramp, twisting his chin whiskers, "how
+many of you are there?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, there are many more at home like us," trilled out one of
+the young women gaily. "You're just in time, you poor old thing, to
+have some of the bride-to-be's cake."</p>
+<p>"I guess I'm in the wrong house," murmured Anderson blankly. "Is
+it a weddin'?"</p>
+<p>"No; but there will be one before many days. It's just a
+reunion. How I wish Rosalie Gray were here!" cried another
+girl.</p>
+<p>Just then there was a pounding on the door, and an instant later
+Isaac Porter stalked in at the head of the posse.</p>
+<p>"Throw up your hands!" called Anderson, addressing himself to
+the posse, the members of which stopped in blank amazement. Some of
+them obligingly stuck their hands on high. "What do you want
+here?"</p>
+<p>"We&mdash;we&mdash;we're lookin' fer a tramp who said he robbed
+a hen roost," faltered Isaac Porter.</p>
+<p>"What is the meaning of all this?" called a strong voice from
+the dining-room, and the flabbergasted Tinkletownians turned to
+face Colonel Randall himself, the owner of the house.</p>
+<p>"Derned if I know!" muttered Anderson Crow; and he spoke the
+truth.</p>
+<p>"Why, it's Anderson Crow!" cried a gay young voice.</p>
+<p>"Jumpin' Jehosophat!" ejaculated the detective; "it's the
+body!"</p>
+<p>"The school-teacher!" exclaimed the surprised Tinkletownians, as
+with their eyes they proceeded to search the figure before them for
+blood stains. But no sooner had the chorused words escaped their
+lips than they realised how wretchedly commonplace was their
+blundering expression in comparison with the faultlessly
+professional phraseology of their leader; and, overwhelmed with
+mortification, the posse ached to recall them; for that the correct
+technical term had been applied by one for years trained to the
+vernacular of his calling was little consolation to these sensitive
+souls, now consumed with envy.</p>
+<p>In the meantime, the quarry, if we may be permitted so to
+designate her, stood before them as pretty as a picture. At her
+side was Tom Reddon, and a dozen guests of the house fell in behind
+them.</p>
+<p>"Did Rosalie tell you?" demanded Miss Banks. "The mean thing!
+She said she wouldn't."</p>
+<p>"Ro&mdash;Rosalie!" gasped Anderson; "tell me what?"
+nervously.</p>
+<p>"That I was&mdash;was coming over here with Tom. Didn't she tell
+you?"</p>
+<p>"I should say not. If she'd told me you don't suppose I'd'a'
+driv' clear over here in this kinder weather fer nothin', do you?
+Thunder! Did she know 'bout it?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly, Mr. Crow. She helped with the plans."</p>
+<p>"Well, good gosh a'mighty! An' we was a-keepin' from her the
+awful news fer fear 'twould give her a backset."</p>
+<p>"Awful news! What do you mean? Oh, you frighten me
+terribly!"</p>
+<p>"Doggone! I don't believe Rosalie was sick at all," continued
+Anderson, quite regardless of the impatience of his listeners; "she
+jest wanted to keep from answerin' questions. She jest regularly
+let everybody believe you had been slaughtered, an' never opened
+her mouth."</p>
+<p>"Slaughtered!" cried half a dozen people.</p>
+<p>"Sure! Hain't you heard 'bout the murder?"</p>
+<p>"Murder?" apprehensively from the excited New Yorkers.</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;the teacher of schoolhouse No. 5 was brutally
+butchered las&mdash;las&mdash;night&mdash;by&mdash;"</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i140.jpg" id="i140.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/140.jpg"><img src="images/140.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"What is the meaning of all this?"</b></div>
+<p>"Go slow, Anderson! Better hold your horses!" cautioned Harry
+Squires. "Don't forget the body's alive and kic&mdash;" and
+stopping short, in the hope that his break might escape the
+school-teacher's attention, he confusedly substituted, "and
+here."</p>
+<p>Anderson's jaw dropped, but the movement was barely perceptible,
+the discomfiture temporary, for to the analytical mind of the great
+detective the fact that a murder had been committed was fully
+established by the discovery of the blood. That a body was
+obviously necessary for the continuance of further investigations
+he frankly acknowledged to himself; and not for one instant would
+any supposition or explanation other than assassination be
+tolerated. And it was with unshaken conviction that he
+declared:</p>
+<p>"Well, somebody was slew, wasn't they? That's as plain's the
+nose on y'r face. Don't you contradict me, Harry Squires. I guess
+Anderson Crow knows blood when he sees it."</p>
+<p>"Do you mean to tell me that you've been trailing us all day in
+the belief that some one of us had killed somebody?" demanded Tom
+Reddon.</p>
+<p>Harry Squires explained the situation, Anderson being too far
+gone to step into the breach. It may be of interest to say that the
+Tinkletown detective was the sensation of the hour. The crowd,
+merry once more, lauded him to the skies for the manner in which
+the supposed culprits had been trailed, and the marshal's pomposity
+grew almost to the bursting point.</p>
+<p>"But how about that blood?" he demanded.</p>
+<p>"Yes," said Harry Squires with a sly grin, "it was positively
+identified as yours, Miss Banks."</p>
+<p>"Well, it's the first time I was ever fooled," confessed
+Anderson glibly. "I'll have to admit it. The blood really belonged
+to 'Rast Little. Boys, the seegars are on me."</p>
+<p>"No, they're on me," exclaimed Tom Reddon, producing a box of
+Perfectos.</p>
+<p>"But, Miss Banks, you are wanted in Chicago," insisted Anderson.
+Reddon interrupted him.</p>
+<p>"Right you are, my dear Sherlock, and I'm going to take her
+there as soon as I can. It's what I came East for."</p>
+<p>"Ain't&mdash;I mean, wasn't you Miss Lovering?" muttered
+Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"Good heavens, no!" cried Miss Banks. "Who is she&mdash;a
+shoplifter?"</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you the story, Mr. Crow, if you'll come with me,"
+said Mr. Farnsworth, stepping forward with a wink.</p>
+<p>In the library he told the Tinkletown posse that Tom Reddon had
+met Miss Banks while she was at school in New York. He was a
+Chicago millionaire's son and she was the daughter of wealthy New
+York people. Her mother was eager to have the young people marry,
+but the girl at that time imagined herself to be in love with
+another man. In a pique she left school and set forth to earn her
+own living. A year's hardship as governess in the family of
+Congressman Ritchey and subsequent disillusionment as a country
+school-teacher brought her to her senses and she realised that she
+cared for Tom Reddon after all. She and Miss Gray together prepared
+the letter which told Reddon where she could be found, and that
+eager young gentleman did the rest. He had been waiting for months
+for just such a message from her. The night of the spelling-match
+he induced her to come to Colonel Randall's, and now the whole
+house-party, including Miss Banks, was to leave on the following
+day for New York. The marriage would take place in a very few
+weeks.</p>
+<p>"I'll accept your explanation," said Mr. Crow composedly as he
+took a handful of cigars. "Well, I guess I'll be startin' back.
+It's gettin' kind o' late-like."</p>
+<p>There was a telegram at the livery stable for him when he
+reached that haven of warmth and rest in Tinkletown about dawn the
+next day. It was from Chicago and marked "Charges collect."</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>"What girl and whose body," it said, "do you refer to? Miss
+Lovering has been dead two years, and we are settling the estate in
+behalf of the other heirs. We were trying to establish her place of
+residence. Never mind the body you have lost."</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>"Doggone," said Anderson, chuckling aloud, "that was an awful
+good joke on 'Rast, wasn't it?"</p>
+<p>The stablemen stood around and looked at him with jaws that were
+drooping helplessly. The air seemed laden with a sombre uncertainty
+that had not yet succeeded in penetrating the nature of Marshal
+Crow.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/145.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Is it from her?" finally asked Ike Smith hoarsely, his lips
+trembling.</p>
+<p>"From what her?"</p>
+<p>"Rosalie."</p>
+<p>"Thunder, no! It's from my lawyers in Chicago."</p>
+<p>"Ain't you&mdash;ain't you heerd about it?" half groaned Ike,
+moving away as if he expected something calamitous.</p>
+<p>"What the dickens are you fellers drivin' at?" demanded
+Anderson. The remainder of his posse deserted the red-hot stove and
+drew near with the instinctive feeling that something dreadful had
+happened.</p>
+<p>"Ro&mdash;Rosalie has been missin' sence early last night. She
+was grabbed by some feller near Mrs. Luce's, chucked into a big
+wagon an' rushed out of town before Ros Crow could let out a yell.
+Clean stole her&mdash;look out! Ketch him, Joe!"</p>
+<p>Anderson dropped limply into a hostler's arms.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<h3><i>Rosalie Disappears</i></h3>
+<p>Things had happened in Tinkletown that night. Alf Reesling
+finally found some one who would listen to his story. He told the
+minister and the minister alarmed the town. To be brief, Alf
+admitted that 'Rast Little was at his house in the outskirts of the
+village, laid up with a broken arm and a bad cut in the top of his
+head.</p>
+<p>"He came crawlin' up to my place about six o'clock in the
+mornin'," explained Alf, "an' I took the poor cuss in. That's what
+I wanted to tell Anderson, but the old rip wouldn't listen to me.
+Seems as though 'Rast waited around the schoolhouse last night to
+git a crack at that feller from town. Miss Banks and her three
+friends set around the stove in the schoolhouse for about an hour
+after the crowd left, an' 'Rast got so cold he liked to died out
+there in the woodshed.</p>
+<p>"Purty soon they all come out, an' 'Rast cut acrost the lot to
+git inside the house by the fire. He was so derned cold that he
+didn't feel like crackin' anybody. When they wasn't lookin' he
+sneaked inside. Jest as he was gittin' ready to hug the stove he
+heard Miss Banks an' one of the men comin' back. He shinned up the
+ladder into the garret just in time. In they come an' the feller
+lit a lamp. 'Rast could hear 'em talkin'. She said good-bye to the
+schoolhouse forever, an' the feller kissed her a couple of times.
+'Rast pretty nigh swore out loud at that. Then she said she'd leave
+a note in her desk fer the trustees, resignin' her job, er whatever
+she called it. He heard her read the note to the man, an' it said
+somethin' about goin' away unexpected to git married. 'Rast says ef
+Anderson had looked in the desk he'd have found the note.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/147.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Then she packed up some books an' her an' the feller went out.
+'Rast was paralysed. He heerd the sleigh-bells jingle an' then he
+come to. He started down the ladder so quick that he missed his
+hold and went kerslam clear to the bottom. Doggone ef he didn't
+light on his head, too. He don't know how long he laid there, but
+finally he was resurrected enough to crawl over by the stove. His
+arm was broke an' he was bleedin' like a stuck hog. Miss Banks had
+left her handkerchief on the desk, an' he says he tried to bind up
+his head with it, but it was too infernal small. Somehow he got
+outside an' wandered around half crazy fer a long time, finally
+pullin' up at my house, derned nigh froze to death an' so weak he
+couldn't walk no more. He'd lost his hat an' his ear muffs an' his
+way all at the same time. If Anderson had let me talk this mornin'
+he'd 'a' knowed there wasn't no murder. It was just a match."</p>
+<p>Hours passed before Anderson was himself again and able to
+comprehend the details of the story which involved the
+disappearance of his ward. It slowly filtered through his mind as
+he sat stark-eyed and numb before the kitchen fire that this was
+the means her mysterious people had taken to remove her from his
+custody. The twenty years had expired, and they had come to claim
+their own. There was gloom in the home of Anderson Crow&mdash;gloom
+so dense that death would have seemed bright in comparison. Mrs.
+Crow was prostrated, Anderson in a state of mental and physical
+collapse, the children hysterical.</p>
+<p>All Tinkletown stood close and ministered dumbly to the misery
+of the bereaved ones, but made no effort to follow or frustrate the
+abductors. The town seemed as helpless as the marshal, not
+willingly or wittingly, but because it had so long known him as
+leader that no one possessed the temerity to step into his place,
+even in an hour of emergency.</p>
+<p>A dull state of paralysis fell upon the citizens, big and
+little. It was as if universal palsy had been ordained to pinch the
+limbs and brains of Tinkletown until the hour came for the
+rehabilitation of Anderson Crow himself. No one suggested a move in
+any direction&mdash;in fact, no one felt like moving at all.
+Everything stood stockstill while Anderson slowly pulled himself
+together; everything waited dumbly for its own comatose condition
+to be dispelled by the man who had been hit the hardest.</p>
+<p>It was not until late in the afternoon that Blucher Peabody, the
+druggist, awoke from his lethargy and moved as though he intended
+to take the initiative. "Blootch" was Rosalie's most persistent
+admirer. He had fallen heir to his father's apothecary shop and
+notion store, and he was regarded as one of the best catches in
+town. He approached the half-frozen crowd that huddled near old
+Mrs. Luce's front gate. In this crowd were some of the prominent
+men of the town, young and old; they left their places of business
+every half hour or so and wandered aimlessly to the now historic
+spot, as if drawn by a magnet. Just why they congregated there no
+one could explain and no one attempted to do so. Presumably it was
+because the whole town centred its mind on one of two
+places&mdash;the spot where Rosalie was seized or the home of
+Anderson Crow. When they were not at Mrs. Luce's gate they were
+tramping through Anderson's front yard and into his house.</p>
+<p>"Say," said "Blootch" so loudly that the crowd felt like
+remonstrating with him, "what's the use of all this?"</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/150.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>No one responded. No one was equal to it on such short
+notice.</p>
+<p>"We've got to do something besides stand around and whisper," he
+said. "We've got to find Rosalie Gray."</p>
+<p>"But good gosh!" ejaculated Isaac Porter, "they've got purty
+nigh a day's start of us."</p>
+<p>"Well, that don't matter. Anderson would do as much for us.
+Let's get a move on."</p>
+<p>"But where in thunder will we hunt?" murmured George Ray.</p>
+<p>"To the end of the earth," announced Blootch, inflating his
+chest and slapping it violently, a strangely personal proceeding,
+which went unnoticed. He had reached the conclusion that his chance
+to be a hero was at hand and not to be despised. Here was the
+opportunity to outstrip all of his competitors in the race for
+Rosalie's favour. It might be confessed that, with all his good
+intentions, his plans were hopelessly vague. The group braced up a
+little at the sound of his heroic words.</p>
+<p>"But the derned thing's round," was the only thing Ed Higgins
+could find to say. Ed, as fickle as the wind, was once more deeply
+in love with Rosalie, having switched from Miss Banks immediately
+after the visit to Colonel Randall's.</p>
+<p>"Aw, you go to Guinea!" was Blootch's insulting reply. Nothing
+could be more disparaging than that, but Ed failed to retaliate.
+"Let's appoint a committee to wait on Anderson and find out what he
+thinks we'd better do."</p>
+<p>"But Anderson ain't&mdash;" began some one. Blootch calmly
+waived him into silence.</p>
+<p>"What he wants is encouragement, and not a lot of soup and broth
+and lemonade. He ain't sick. He's as able-bodied as I am. Every
+woman in town took soup to him this noon. He needs a good stiff
+drink of whiskey and a committee to cheer him up. I took a bottle
+up to 'Rast Little last night and he acted like another man."</p>
+<p>At last it was decided that a committee should first wait on
+Anderson, ascertaining his wishes in the premises, and then proceed
+to get at the bottom of the mystery. In forming this committee the
+wise men of the town ignored Mr. Peabody, and he might have been
+left off completely had he not stepped in and appointed himself
+chairman.</p>
+<p>The five good men and true descended upon the marshal late in
+the afternoon, half fearful of the result, but resolute. They found
+him slowly emerging from his spell of lassitude. He greeted them
+with a solemn nod of the head. Since early morning he had been
+conscious of a long stream of sympathisers passing through the
+house, but it was not until now that he felt equal to the task of
+recognising any of them.</p>
+<p>His son Roscoe had just finished telling him the story of the
+abduction. Roscoe's awestruck tones and reddened eyes carried great
+weight with them, and for the tenth time that day he had his
+sisters in tears. With each succeeding repetition the details grew
+until at last there was but little of the original event remaining,
+a fact which his own family properly overlooked.</p>
+<p>"Gentlemen," said Anderson, as if suddenly coming from a trance,
+"this wasn't the work of Tinkletown desperadoes." Whereupon the
+committee felt mightily relieved. The marshal displayed signs of a
+returning energy that augured well for the enterprise. After the
+chairman had impressively announced that something must be done,
+and that he was willing to lead his little band to death's
+door&mdash;and beyond, if necessary&mdash;Mr. Crow pathetically
+upset all their hopes by saying that he had long been expecting
+such a calamity, and that nothing could be done.</p>
+<p>"They took the very night when I was not here to pertect her,"
+he lamented. "It shows that they been a-watchin' me all along. The
+job was did by persons who was in the employ of her family, an' she
+has been carried off secretly to keep me from findin' out who and
+what her parents were. Don't ye see? Her mother&mdash;or father,
+fer that matter&mdash;couldn't afford to come right out plain an'
+say they wanted their child after all these years. The only way was
+to take her away without givin' themselves away. It's been the plan
+all along. There ain't no use huntin' fer her, gentlemen. She's in
+New York by this time, an' maybe she's ready fer a trip to
+Europe."</p>
+<p>"But I should think she'd telegraph to you," said Blootch.</p>
+<p>"Telegraph yer granny! Do you s'pose they'd 'a' stole her if
+they intended to let her telegraph to anybody? Not much. They're
+spiritin' her away until her estate's settled. After a while it
+will all come out, an' you'll see if I ain't right. But she's gone.
+They've got her away from me an'&mdash;an' we got to stand it,
+that's all. I&mdash;I&mdash;cain't bear to think about it. It's
+broke my heart mighty ne&mdash;near. Don't mind me
+if&mdash;I&mdash;cry, boys. You would, too, if you was me."</p>
+<p>As the committee departed soon after without any plan of action
+arising from the interview with the dejected marshal, it may be
+well to acquaint the reader with the history of the abduction, as
+told by Roscoe Crow and his bosom friend, Bud Long, thoroughly
+expurgated.</p>
+<p>According to instructions, no one in the Crow family mentioned
+the strange disappearance of Elsie Banks to Rosalie. Nor was she
+told of the pursuit by the marshal and his posse. The girl, far
+from being afflicted with a fever, really now kept in her room by
+grief over the departure of her friend and companion. She was in
+tears all that night and the next day, suffering intensely in her
+loss. Rosalie did not know that the teacher was to leave Tinkletown
+surreptitiously until after the spelling-bee. The sly, blushing
+announcement came as a shock, but she was loyal to her friend, and
+not a word in exposure escaped from her lips. Of course, she knew
+nothing of the sensational developments that followed the
+uncalled-for flight of Elsie Banks.</p>
+<p>Shortly after the supper dishes had been cleared away Rosalie
+came downstairs and announced that she was going over to read to
+old Mrs. Luce, who was bedridden. Her guardian's absence was not
+explained to her, and she did not in the least suspect that he had
+been away all day on a fool's errand. Roscoe and Bud accompanied
+her to Mrs. Luce's front door, heavily bound by promises to hold
+their tongues regarding Miss Banks.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/154.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"We left her there at old Mis' Luce's," related Roscoe, "an'
+then went over to Robertson's Pond to skate. She tole us to stop in
+fer her about nine o'clock, didn't she, Bud? Er was it eight?" He
+saw the necessity for accuracy.</p>
+<p>"Ten," corrected Bud deliberately.</p>
+<p>"Well, pop, we stopped fer her, an'&mdash;an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Stop yer blubberin', Roscoe," commanded Anderson as harshly as
+he could.</p>
+<p>"An' got her," concluded Roscoe. "She put on her shawl an'
+mittens an' said she'd run us a race all the way home. We all got
+ready to start right in front of old Mis' Luce's gate. Bud he
+stopped an' said, 'Here comes Tony Brink.' We all looked around,
+an' sure enough, a heavy-set feller was comin' to'rds us. It looked
+like Tony, but when he got up to us I see it wasn't him. He ast us
+if we could tell him where Mr. Crow lived&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"He must 'a' been a stranger," deduced Anderson
+mechanically.</p>
+<p>"&mdash;an' Bud said you lived right on ahead where the street
+lamps was. Jest then a big sleigh turned out of the lane back of
+Mis' Luce's an' drove up to where we was standin'. Bud was standin'
+jest like this&mdash; me here an' Rosalie a little off to one side.
+S'posin' this chair was her an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;yes, go on," from Anderson.</p>
+<p>"The sleigh stopped, and there was two fellers in it. There was
+two seats, too."</p>
+<p>"Front and back?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+<p>"I understand. It was a double-seated one," again deduced the
+marshal.</p>
+<p>"An' nen, by gum, 'fore we could say Jack Robinson, one of the
+fellers jumped out an' grabbed Rosalie. The feller on the groun',
+he up an' hit me a clip in the ear. I fell down, an' so did
+Bud&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"He hit me on top of the head," corrected Bud sourly.</p>
+<p>"I heerd Rosalie start to scream, but the next minute they had a
+blanket over her head an' she was chucked into the back seat. It
+was all over in a second. I got up, but 'fore I could run a feller
+yelled, 'Ketch him!' An' another feller did. 'Don't let 'em get
+away,' said the driver in low, hissin' tones&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Regular villains," vowed Anderson.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir. 'Don't let 'em git away er they'll rouse the town.'
+'What'll we do with 'em?' asked the feller who held both of us.
+'Kill 'em?' Gosh, I was skeered. Neither one of us could yell,
+'cause he had us by the neck, an' he was powerful strong. 'Chuck
+'em in here an' I'll tend to 'em,' said the driver. Next thing we
+knowed we was in the front of the sleigh, an' the whole outfit was
+off like a runaway. They said they'd kill us if we made a noise,
+an' we didn't. I wish I'd'a' had my rifle, doggone it! I'd'a'
+showed 'em."</p>
+<p>"They drove like thunder out to'rds Boggs City fer about two
+mile," said Bud, who had been silent as long as human nature would
+permit. "'Nen they stopped an' throwed us out in the road. 'Go
+home, you devils, an' don't you tell anybody about us er I'll come
+back here some day an' give you a kick in the slats.'</p>
+<p>"Slats?" murmured Anderson.</p>
+<p>"That's short fer ribs," explained Bud loftily.</p>
+<p>"Well, why couldn't he have said short ribs an' been done with
+it?" complained Anderson.</p>
+<p>"Then they whipped up an' turned off west in the pike," resumed
+Bud. "We run all the way home an' tole Mr. Lamson, an'
+he&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Where was Rosalie all this time?" asked Anderson.</p>
+<p>"Layin' in the back seat covered with a blanket, jest the same
+as if she was dead. I heerd 'em say somethin' about chloroformin'
+her. What does chloroform smell like, Mr. Crow?"</p>
+<p>"Jest like any medicine. It has drugs in it. They use it to pull
+teeth. Well, what then?"</p>
+<p>"Well," interposed Roscoe, "Mr. Lamson gave the alarm, an'
+nearly ever'body in town got out o' bed. They telegraphed to Boggs
+City an' all around, but it didn't seem to do no good. Them horses
+went faster'n telegraphs."</p>
+<p>"Did you ever see them fellers before?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir; but I think I'd know 'em with their masks off."</p>
+<p>"Was they masked?"</p>
+<p>"Their faces were."</p>
+<p>"Oh, my poor little Rosalie!" sobbed old Anderson
+hopelessly.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<h3>The Haunted House</h3>
+<p>Days passed without word or sign from the missing girl. The
+marshal haunted the post-office and the railroad station, hoping
+with all his poor old heart that word would come from her; but the
+letter was not there, nor was there a telegram at the station when
+he strolled over to that place. The county officials at Boggs City
+came down and began a cursory investigation, but Anderson's
+emphatic though doleful opinions set them quite straight, and they
+gave up the quest. There was nothing to do but to sit back and
+wait.</p>
+<p>In those three days Anderson Crow turned greyer and older,
+although he maintained a splendid show of resignation. He had made
+a perfunctory offer of reward for Rosalie, dead or alive, but he
+knew all the time that it would be fruitless. Mark Riley, the
+bill-poster, stuck up the glaring reward notices as far away as the
+telegraph poles in Clay County. The world was given to understand
+that $1000 reward would be paid for Rosalie's return or for
+information leading to the apprehension and capture of her
+abductors.</p>
+<p>There was one very mysterious point in connection with the
+affair&mdash;something so strange that it bordered on the
+supernatural. No human being in Bramble County except the two boys
+had seen the double-seated sleigh. It had disappeared as if
+swallowed by the earth itself.</p>
+<p>"Well, it don't do any good to cry over spilt milk," said
+Anderson bravely. "She's gone, an' I only hope she ain't bein'
+mistreated. I don't see why they should harm her. She's never done
+nobody a wrong. Like as not she's been taken to a comfortable place
+in New York, an' we'll hear from her as soon as she recovers from
+the shock. There ain't no use huntin' fer her, I know, but I jest
+can't help nosin' around a little. Mebby I can git some track of
+her. I'd give all I got in this world to know that she's safe an'
+sound, no matter if I never see her ag'in."</p>
+<p>The hungry look in his eyes deepened, and no one bandied jests
+with him as was the custom in days gone by.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p>There were not many tramps practising in that section of the
+State. Anderson Crow proudly announced that they gave Tinkletown a
+wide berth because of his prowess; but the vagabond gentry took an
+entirely different view of the question. They did not infest the
+upper part of the State for the simple but eloquent reason that it
+meant starvation to them. The farmers compelled the weary wayfarer
+to work all day like a borrowed horse for a single meal at the
+"second table." There was no such thing as a "hand-out," as it is
+known in the tramp's vocabulary. It is not extraordinary,
+therefore, that tramps found the community so unattractive that
+they cheerfully walked miles to avoid it. A peculiarly
+well-informed vagrant once characterised the up-state farmer as
+being so "close that he never shaved because it was a waste of
+hair."</p>
+<p>It is hardly necessary to state, in view of the attitude of both
+farmer and tramp, that the misguided vagrant who wandered that way
+was the object of distinct, if not distinguished, curiosity. In the
+country roads he was stared at with a malevolence that chilled his
+appetite, no matter how long he had been cultivating it on barren
+soil. In the streets of Tinkletown, and even at the county seat, he
+was an object of such amazing concern that he slunk away in pure
+distress. It was indeed an unsophisticated tramp who thought to
+thrive in Bramble County even for a day and a night. In front of
+the general store and post-office at Tinkletown there was a
+sign-post, on which Anderson Crow had painted these words:</p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"No tramps or Live Stock
+Allowed on these Streets.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">By order of</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">A. CROW, Marshal."</span></p>
+<p>The live stock disregarded the command, but the tramp took
+warning. On rare occasions he may have gone through some of the
+houses in Tinkletown, but if he went through the streets no one was
+the wiser. Anderson Crow solemnly but studiously headed him off in
+the outskirts, and he took another direction. Twice in his career
+he drove out tramps who had burglarised the houses of prominent
+citizens in broad daylight, but what did it matter so long as the
+"hoboes" were kept from desecrating the main street of the town?
+Mr. Crow's official star, together with his badge from the New York
+detective agency, his Sons of the Revolution pin, and his G.A.R.
+insignia, made him a person to be feared. If the weather became too
+hot for coat and vest the proud dignitary fastened the badges to
+his suspenders, and their presence glorified the otherwise humble
+"galluses."</p>
+<p>On the fourth day after the abduction Marshal Crow was suddenly
+aroused from his lethargy by the news that the peace and security
+of the neighbourhood was being imposed upon.</p>
+<p>"The dickens you say!" he observed, abandoning the perpetual
+grip upon his straggling chin whiskers.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir," responded the excited small boy, who, with two
+companions, had run himself quite out of breath all over town
+before he found the officer at Harkin's blacksmith shop.</p>
+<p>"Well, dang 'em!" said Mr. Crow impressively.</p>
+<p>"We was skatin' in the marsh when we heerd 'em plain as day,"
+said the other boy. "You bet I'm nuvver goin' nigh that house
+ag'in."</p>
+<p>"Sho! Bud, they ain't no sech thing as ghosts," said Mr. Crow;
+"it's tramps."</p>
+<p>"You know that house is ha'nted," protested Bud. "Wasn't ole
+Mrs. Rank slew there by her son-in-law? Wasn't she chopped to
+pieces and buried there right in her own cellar?"</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, boy, that was thirty year ago!"</p>
+<p>"Well, nobody's lived in the ha'nted house sence then, has they?
+Didn't Jim Smith try to sleep there oncet on a bet, an' didn't he
+hear sech awful noises 'at he liked to went crazy?" insisted
+Bud.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i162.jpg" id="i162.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/162.jpg"><img src="images/162.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>The haunted house</b></div>
+<p>"I <i>do</i> recollect that Jim run two mile past his own house
+before he could stop, he was in sech a hurry to git away from the
+place. But Jim didn't <i>see</i> anything. Besides, that was twenty
+year ago. Ghosts don't hang aroun' a place when there ain't nothin'
+to ha'nt. Her son-in-law was hung, an' she ain't got no one else to
+pester. I tell you it's tramps."</p>
+<p>"Well, we just thought we'd tell you, Mr. Crow," said the first
+boy.</p>
+<p>In a few minutes it was known throughout the business centre of
+Tinkletown that tramps were making their home in the haunted house
+down the river, and that Anderson Crow was to ride forth on his
+bicycle to rout them out. The haunted house was three miles from
+town and in the most desolate section of the bottomland. It was
+approachable only through the treacherous swamp on one side or by
+means of the river on the other. Not until after the murder of its
+owner and builder, old Johanna Rank, was there an explanation
+offered for the existence of a home in such an unwholesome
+locality.</p>
+<p>Federal authorities discovered that she and her son-in-law, Dave
+Wolfe, were at the head of a great counterfeiting gang, and that
+they had been working up there in security for years, turning out
+spurious coins by the hundred. One night Dave up and killed his
+mother-in-law, and was hanged for his good deed before he could be
+punished for his bad ones. For thirty years the weather-beaten,
+ramshackle old cabin in the swamp had been unoccupied except by
+birds, lizards, and other denizens of the solitude&mdash;always, of
+course, including the ghost of old Mrs. Rank.</p>
+<p>Inasmuch as Dave chopped her into small bits and buried them in
+the cellar, while her own daughter held the lantern, it was not
+beyond the range of possibility that certain atoms of the
+unlamented Johanna were never unearthed by the searchers. It was
+generally believed in the community that Mrs. Rank's spirit came
+back every little while to nose around in the dirt of the cellar in
+quest of such portions of her person as had not been respectably
+interred in the village graveyard.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/165.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Mysterious noises had been heard about the place at the dead
+hour of night, and ghostly lights had flitted past the cellar
+windows. All Tinkletown agreed that the place was haunted and kept
+at a most respectful distance. The three small boys who startled
+Marshal Crow from his moping had gone down the river to skate
+instead of going to school. They swore that the sound of muffled
+voices came from the interior of the cabin, near which they had
+inadvertently wandered. Although Dave Wolfe had been dead thirty
+years, one of the youngest of the lads was positive that he
+recognised the voice of the desperado. And at once the trio fled
+the 'cursed spot and brought the horrifying news to Anderson Crow.
+The detective was immediately called upon to solve the ghostly
+mystery.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/166.jpg" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Marshal Crow first went to his home and donned his blue coat,
+transferring the stars and badges to the greasy lapel of the
+garment. He also secured his dark lantern and the official cane of
+the village, but why he should carry a cane on a bicycle expedition
+was known only to himself. Followed by a horde of small boys and a
+few representative citizens of Tinkletown on antiquated wheels, Mr.
+Crow pedalled majestically off to the south. Skirting the swamp,
+the party approached the haunted house over the narrow path which
+ran along the river bank. Once in sight of the dilapidated cabin,
+which seemed to slink farther and farther back into the dense
+shadows of the late afternoon, with all the diffidence of the
+supernatural, the marshal called a halt and announced his
+plans.</p>
+<p>"You kids go up an' tell them fellers I want to see 'em," he
+commanded. The boys fell back and prepared to whimper.</p>
+<p>"I don't want to," protested Bud.</p>
+<p>"Why don't you go an' tell 'em yourself, Anderson?" demanded
+Isaac Porter, the pump repairer.</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, Ike, who's runnin' this thing?" retorted Anderson
+Crow. "I got a right to deputise anybody to do anything at any
+time. Don't you s'pose I know how to handle a job like this? I got
+my own idees how to waylay them raskils, an' I reckon I been in the
+detectin' business long enough to know how to manage a gol-derned
+tramp, ain't I? How's that? Who says I ain't?"</p>
+<p>"Nobody said a word, Anderson," meekly observed Jim Borum.</p>
+<p>"Well, I <i>thought</i> somebody did. An' I don't want nobody
+interferin' with an officer, either. Bud, you an' them two Heffner
+boys go up an' tell them loafers to step down here right spry er
+I'll come up there an' see about it."</p>
+<p>"Gosh, Mr. Crow, I'm a-skeered to!" whimpered Bud. The Heffner
+boys started for home on a dead run.</p>
+<p>"Askeered to?" sniffed Anderson. "An' your great-grand-dad was
+in the Revolution, too. Geminy crickets, ef you was my boy I'd give
+you somethin' to be askeered of! Now, Bud, nothin' kin happen to
+you. Ain't I here?"</p>
+<p>"But suppose they won't come when I tell 'em?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, 'n' supposin' 'tain't tramps, but ghosts?" volunteered Mr.
+Porter, edging away with his bicycle. It was now quite dark and
+menacing in there where the cabin stood. As the outcome of half an
+hour's discussion, the whole party advanced slowly upon the house,
+Anderson Crow in the lead, his dark lantern in one hand, his cane
+in the other. Half way to the house he stopped short and turned to
+Bud.</p>
+<p>"Gosh dern you, Bud! I don't believe you heerd any noise in
+there at all! There ain't no use goin' any further with this,
+gentlemen. The dern boys was lyin'. We might jest as well go home."
+And he would have started for home had not Isaac Porter uttered a
+fearful groan and staggered back against a swamp reed for support,
+his horrified eyes glued upon a window in the log house. The reed
+was inadequate, and Isaac tumbled over backward.</p>
+<p>For a full minute the company stared dumbly at the indistinct
+little window, paralysis attacking every sense but that of sight.
+At the expiration of another minute the place was deserted, and
+Anderson Crow was the first to reach the bicycles far up the river
+bank. Every face was as white as chalk, and every voice trembled.
+Mr. Crow's dignity asserted itself just as the valiant posse
+prepared to "straddle" the wheels in mad flight.</p>
+<p>"Hold on!" he panted. "I lost my dark lantern down there. Go
+back an' git it, Bud."</p>
+<p>"Land o' mighty! Did y'ever see anythin' like it?" gasped Jim
+Borum, trying to mount a ten-year-old boy's wheel instead of his
+own.</p>
+<p>"I'd like to have anybody tell me there ain't no sech things as
+ghosts," faltered Uncle Jimmy Borton, who had always said there
+wasn't. "Let go, there! Ouch!" The command and subsequent
+exclamation were the inevitable results of his unsuccessful attempt
+to mount with Elon Jones the same wheel.</p>
+<p>"What'd I tell you, Anderson?" exclaimed Isaac Porter. "Didn't I
+say it was ghosts? Tramps nothin'! A tramp wouldn't last a second
+up in that house. It's been ha'nted fer thirty years an' it gits
+worse all the time. What air we goin' to do next?"</p>
+<p>Even the valiant Mr. Crow approved of an immediate return to
+Tinkletown, and the posse was trying to disentangle its collection
+of bicycles when an interruption came from an unsuspected
+quarter&mdash;a deep, masculine voice arose from the ice-covered
+river hard by, almost directly below that section of the bank on
+which Anderson and his friends were herded. The result was
+startling. Every man leaped a foot in the air and every hair stood
+on end; bicycles rattled and clashed together, and Ed Higgins,
+hopelessly bewildered, started to run in the direction of the
+haunted house.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<h3><i>Wicker Bonner, Harvard</i></h3>
+<p>"Hello, up there!" was what the deep, masculine voice shouted
+from the river. Anderson Crow was the first to distinguish the form
+of the speaker, and he was not long in deciding that it was far
+from ghost-like. With a word of command he brought his disorganised
+forces out of chaos and huddled them together as if to resist
+attack.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter with you?" he demanded, addressing his men in
+a loud tone. "Don't get rattled!"</p>
+<p>"Are you speaking to me?" called the fresh voice from below.</p>
+<p>"Who are you?" demanded Mr. Crow in return.</p>
+<p>"Nobody in particular. What's going on up there? What's the
+fuss?"</p>
+<p>"Come up an' find out." Then Mr. Crow, observing that the man
+below was preparing to comply, turned and addressed his squad in
+low, earnest tones. "This feller will bear watchin'. He's mixed up
+in this thing somehow. Else why is he wanderin' around here close
+to the house? I'll question him."</p>
+<p>"By gosh, he ain't no ghost!" murmured Ed Higgins, eyeing the
+newcomer as he crawled up the bank. "Say, did y' see me a minute
+ago? If you fellers had come on, I was goin' right up to search
+that house from top to bottom. Was you all askeered to come?"</p>
+<p>"Aw, you!" said Anderson Crow in deep scorn.</p>
+<p>The next instant a stalwart young fellow stood before the
+marshal, who was eyeing him keenly, even imperiously. The
+newcomer's good-looking, strong-featured face was lighted up by a
+smile of surpassing friendliness.</p>
+<p>"It's lonesome as thunder down here, isn't it? Glad to see you,
+gentlemen. What's up&mdash;a bicycle race?"</p>
+<p>"No, sir; we got a little business up here, that's all,"
+responded Anderson Crow diplomatically. "What air you doin'
+here?"</p>
+<p>"Skating. My name is Wicker Bonner, and I'm visiting my uncle,
+Congressman Bonner, across the river. You know him, I dare say.
+I've been hanging around here for a week's hunting, and haven't had
+an ounce of luck in all that time. It's rotten! Aha, I see that you
+are an officer, sir&mdash;a detective, too. By George, can it be
+possible that you are searching for some one? If you are, let me in
+on it. I'm dying for excitement."</p>
+<p>The young man's face was eager and his voice rang true. Besides,
+he was a tall, athletic chap, with brawny arms and a broad back.
+Altogether, he would make a splendid recruit, thought Anderson
+Crow. He was dressed in rough corduroy knickerbockers, the thick
+coat buttoned up close to his muffled neck. A woollen cap came down
+over his ears and a pair of skates dangled from his arm.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; I'm a detective, and we are up here doin' a little
+investigatin'. You are from Chicago, I see."</p>
+<p>"What makes you think so?"</p>
+<p>"Can't fool me. I c'n always tell. You said, 'I've <i>bean</i>
+hangin',' instead of 'I've <i>ben</i> hangin'.' See? They say
+<i>bean</i> in Chicago. Ha! ha! You didn't think I could deduce
+that, did you?"</p>
+<p>"I'll confess that I didn't," said Mr. Bonner with a dry smile.
+"I'm from Boston, however."</p>
+<p>"Sure," interposed Isaac Porter; "that's where the beans come
+from, Anderson."</p>
+<p>"Well, that's neither here nor there," said Mr. Crow, hastily
+changing the subject. "We're wastin' time."</p>
+<p>"Stayin' here, you mean?" asked Ed Higgins, quite ready to
+start. Involuntarily the eyes of the posse turned toward the house
+among the willows. The stranger saw the concerted glance and made
+inquiry. Whereupon Mr. Crow, assisted by seven men and five small
+boys, told Mr. Wicker Bonner, late of Harvard, what had brought
+them from Tinkletown to the haunted house, and what they had seen
+upon their arrival. Young Bonner's face glowed with the joy of
+excitement.</p>
+<p>"Great!" he cried, fastening his happy eyes upon the hated thing
+among the trees. "Let's search the place. By George, this is
+glorious!"</p>
+<p>"Not on your life!" said Ed Higgins. "You can't get me inside
+that house. Like as not a feller'd never come out alive."</p>
+<p>"Well, better men than we have died," said Mr. Bonner
+tranquilly. "Come on; I'll go in first. It's all tommy-rot about
+the place being haunted. In any event, ghosts don't monkey around
+at this time of day. It's hardly dusk."</p>
+<p>"But, gosh dern it," exploded Anderson Crow, "we seen it!"</p>
+<p>"I seen it first," said Isaac Porter proudly.</p>
+<p>"But I heerd it first," peeped up Master Bud.</p>
+<p>"You've all been drinking hard cider or pop or something like
+that," said the brawny scoffer.</p>
+<p>"Now, see here, you're gittin' fresh, an&mdash;" began the
+marshal, swelling up like a pigeon.</p>
+<p>"Look out behind!" sang out Mr. Bonner, and Anderson jumped
+almost out of his shoes, besides ripping his shirt in the back, he
+turned so suddenly.</p>
+<p>"Jeemses River!" he gasped.</p>
+<p>"Never turn your back on an unknown danger," cautioned the young
+man serenely. "Be ready to meet it."</p>
+<p>"If you're turned t'other way you c'n git a quicker start if you
+want to run," suggested Jim Borum, bracing himself with a fresh
+chew of tobacco.</p>
+<p>"What time is it?" asked Wicker Bonner.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow squinted up through the leafless treetops toward
+the setting sun; then he looked at the shadow of a sapling down on
+the bank.</p>
+<p>"It's about seven minutes past five&mdash;in the evenin'," he
+said conclusively. Bonner was impolite enough to pull out his watch
+for verification.</p>
+<p>"You're a minute fast," he observed; but he looked at Anderson
+with a new and respectful admiration.</p>
+<p>"He c'n detect anything under the sun," said Porter with a
+feeble laugh at his own joke.</p>
+<p>"Well, let's go up and ransack that old cabin," announced
+Bonner, starting toward the willows. The crowd held back. "I'll go
+alone if you're afraid to come," he went on. "It's my firm belief
+that you didn't see anything and the noise you boys heard was the
+wind whistling through the trees. Now, tell the truth, how many of
+you saw it?"</p>
+<p>"I did," came from every throat so unanimously that Jim Borum's
+supplemental oath stood out alone and forceful as a climax.</p>
+<p>"Then it's worth investigating," announced the Boston man. "It
+is certainly a very mysterious affair, and you, at least, Mr. Town
+Marshal, should back me up in the effort to unravel it. Tell me
+again just what it was you saw and what it looked like."</p>
+<p>"I won't let no man tell me what my duties are," snorted
+Anderson, his stars trembling with injured pride. "Of course I'm
+going to solve the mystery. We've got to see what's inside that
+house. I thought it was tramps at first."</p>
+<p>"Well, lead on, then; I'll follow!" said Bonner with a grin.</p>
+<p>"I thought you was so anxious to go first!" exclaimed Anderson
+with fine tact. "Go ahead yourself, ef you're so derned brave. I
+dare you to."</p>
+<p>Bonner laughed loud enough to awaken every ghost in Bramble
+County and then strode rapidly toward the house. Anderson Crow
+followed slowly and the rest straggled after, all alert for the
+first sign of resistance.</p>
+<p>"I wish I could find that derned lantern," said Anderson,
+searching diligently in the deep grass as he walked along, in the
+meantime permitting Bonner to reach the grim old doorway far in
+advance of him.</p>
+<p>"Come on!" called back the intrepid leader, seeing that all save
+the marshal had halted. "You don't need the lantern. It's still
+daylight, old chap. We'll find out what it was you all saw in the
+window."</p>
+<p>"That's the last of him," muttered Isaac Porter, as the broad
+back disappeared through the low aperture that was called a
+doorway. There were no window sashes or panes in the house, and the
+door had long since rotted from the hinges.</p>
+<p>"He'll never come out. Let's go home," added Ed Higgins
+conclusively.</p>
+<p>"Are you coming?" sang out Bonner from the interior of the
+house. His voice sounded prophetically sepulchral.</p>
+<p>"Consarn it, cain't you wait a minute?" replied Anderson Crow,
+still bravely but consistently looking for the much-needed dark
+lantern.</p>
+<p>"It's all right in here. There hasn't been a human being in the
+house for years. Come on in; it's fine!"</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow finally ventured up to the doorway and peeped in.
+Bonner was standing near the tumbledown fireplace, placidly
+lighting a cigarette.</p>
+<p>"This is a fine job you've put up on me," he growled. "I thought
+there would be something doing. There isn't a soul here, and there
+hasn't been, either."</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, man, you cain't see ghosts when they don't want
+you to!" said Anderson Crow. "It was a ghost, that's settled. I
+knowed it all the time. Nothin' human ever looked like it, and
+nothin' alive ever moaned like it did."</p>
+<p>By this time the rest of the party had reached the cabin door.
+The less timorous ventured inside, while others contented
+themselves by looking through the small windows.</p>
+<p>"Well, if you're sure you really saw something, we'd better make
+a thorough search of the house and the grounds," said Bonner, and
+forthwith began nosing about the two rooms.</p>
+<p>The floors were shaky and the place had the odour of decayed
+wood. Mould clung to the half-plastered walls, cobwebs matted the
+ceilings, and rotted fungi covered the filth in the corners.
+Altogether it was a most uninviting hole, in which no
+self-respecting ghost would have made its home. When the time came
+to climb up to the little garret Bonner's followers rebelled. He
+was compelled to go alone, carrying the lantern, which one of the
+small boys had found. This part of the house was even more
+loathsome than below, and it would be impossible to describe its
+condition. He saw no sign of life, and retired in utter disgust.
+Then came the trip to the cellar. Again he had no followers, the
+Tinkletown men emphatically refusing to go down where old Mrs.
+Rank's body had been buried. Bonner laughed at them and went down
+alone. It was nauseous with age and the smell of damp earth, but it
+was cleaner there than above stairs. The cellar was smaller than
+either of the living rooms, and was to be reached only through the
+kitchen. There was no exit leading directly to the exterior of the
+house, but there was one small window at the south end. Bonner
+examined the room carefully and then rejoined the party. For some
+reason the posse had retired to the open air as soon as he left
+them to go below. No one knew exactly why, but when one started to
+go forth the others followed with more or less alacrity.</p>
+<p>"Did you see anything?" demanded the marshal.</p>
+<p>"What did old Mrs. Rank look like when she was alive?" asked
+Bonner with a beautifully mysterious air. No one answered; but
+there was a sudden shifting of feet backward, while an expression
+of alarmed inquiry came into every face. "Don't back into that open
+well," warned the amused young man in the doorway. Anderson Crow
+looked sharply behind, and flushed indignantly when he saw that the
+well was at least fifty feet away. "I saw something down there that
+looked like a woman's toe," went on Bonner very soberly.</p>
+<p>"Good Lord! What did I tell you?" cried the marshal, turning to
+his friends. To the best of their ability they could not remember
+that Anderson had told them anything, but with one accord the whole
+party nodded approval.</p>
+<p>"I fancy it was the ghost of a toe, however, for when I tried to
+pick it up it wriggled away, and I think it chuckled. It
+disappear&mdash;what's the matter? Where are you going?"</p>
+<p>It is only necessary to state that the marshal and his posse
+retreated in good order to a distant spot where it was not quite so
+dark, there to await the approach of Wicker Bonner, who leisurely
+but laughingly inspected the exterior of the house and the grounds
+adjoining. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, except as to
+dilapidation, he rejoined the party with palpable displeasure in
+his face.</p>
+<p>"Well, I think I'll go back to the ice," he said; "that place is
+as quiet as the grave. You are a fine lot of jokers, and I'll admit
+that the laugh is on me."</p>
+<p>But Bonner was mystified, uncertain. He had searched the house
+thoroughly from top to bottom, and he had seen nothing unusual, but
+these men and boys were so positive that he could not believe the
+eyes of all had been deceived.</p>
+<p>"This interests me," he said at last. "I'll tell you what we'll
+do, Mr. Crow. You and I will come down here to-night, rig up a tent
+of some sort and divide watch until morning. If there is anything
+to be seen we'll find out what it is. I'll get a couple of straw
+mattresses from our boathouse and&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I've got rheumatiz, Mr. Bonner, an' it would be the death o' me
+to sleep in this swamp," objected Anderson hastily.</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll come alone, then. I'm not afraid. I don't mean to
+say I'll sleep in that old shack, but I'll bunk out here in the
+woods. No human being could sleep in that place. Will any one
+volunteer to keep me company?"</p>
+<p>Silence.</p>
+<p>"I don't blame you. It does take nerve, I'll confess. My only
+stipulation is that you shall come down here from the village early
+to-morrow morning. I may have something of importance to tell you,
+Mr. Crow."</p>
+<p>"We'll find his dead body," groaned old Mr. Borton.</p>
+<p>"Say, mister," piped up a shrill voice, "I'll stay with you." It
+was Bud who spoke, and all Tinkletown was afterward to resound with
+stories of his bravery. The boy had been silently admiring the bold
+sportsman from Boston town, and he was ready to cast his lot with
+him in this adventure. He thrilled with pleasure when the big hero
+slapped him on the back and called him the only man in the
+crowd.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/180.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>At eight o'clock that night Bonner and the determined but
+trembling Bud came up the bank from the river and pitched a tent
+among the trees near the haunted house. From the sledge on the
+river below they trundled up their bedding and their stores. Bud
+had an old single-barrel shotgun, a knife and a pipe, which he was
+just learning to smoke; Bonner brought a Navajo blanket, a revolver
+and a heavy walking stick. He also had a large flask of whiskey and
+the pipe that had graduated from Harvard with him.</p>
+<p>At nine o'clock he put to bed in one of the chilly nests a very
+sick boy, who hated to admit that the pipe was too strong for him,
+but who felt very much relieved when he found himself wrapped
+snugly in the blankets with his head tucked entirely out of sight.
+Bud had spent the hour in regaling Bonner with the story of Rosalie
+Gray's abduction and his own heroic conduct in connection with the
+case. He confessed that he had knocked one of the villains down,
+but they were too many for him. Bonner listened politely and
+then&mdash;put the hero to bed.</p>
+<p>Bonner dozed off at midnight. An hour or so later he suddenly
+sat bolt upright, wide awake and alert. He had the vague impression
+that he was deathly cold and that his hair was standing on end.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XVIII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Men in the Sleigh</i></h3>
+<p>Let us go back to the night on which Rosalie was seized and
+carried away from Mrs. Luce's front gate, despite the valiant
+resistance of her youthful defenders.</p>
+<p>Rosalie had drooned Thackeray to the old lady until both of them
+were dozing, and it was indeed a welcome relief that came with
+Roscoe's resounding thumps on the front door. Mrs. Luce was too old
+to be frightened out of a year's growth, but it is perfectly safe
+to agree with her that the noise cost her at least three
+months.</p>
+<p>Desperately blue over the defection of Elsie Banks, Rosalie had
+found little to make her evening cheerful indoors, but the fresh,
+crisp air set her spirits bounding the instant she closed Mrs.
+Luce's door from the outside. We have only to refer to Roscoe's
+lively narrative for proof of what followed almost instantly. She
+was seized, her head tightly wrapped in a thick cloak or blanket;
+then she was thrown into a sleigh, and knew nothing more except a
+smothering sensation and the odour of chloroform.</p>
+<p>When she regained consciousness she was lying on the ground in
+the open air, dark night about her. Three men were standing nearby,
+but there was no vehicle in sight. She tried to rise, but on
+account of her bonds was powerless to do so. Speech was prevented
+by the cloth which closed her lips tightly. After a time she began
+to grasp the meaning of the muttered words that passed between the
+men.</p>
+<p>"You got the rig in all right, Bill&mdash;you're sure that no
+one heard or saw you?" were the first questions she could make out,
+evidently arising from a previous report or explanation.</p>
+<p>"Sure. Everybody in these parts goes to bed at sundown. They
+ain't got nothing to do but sleep up 'ere."</p>
+<p>"Nobody knows we had that feller's sleigh an' horses
+out&mdash;nobody ever will know," said the big man, evidently the
+leader. She noticed they called him Sam.</p>
+<p>"Next thing is to git her across the river without leavin' any
+tracks. We ain't on a travelled road now, pals; we got to be
+careful. I'll carry her down to the bank; but be sure to step
+squarely in my footprints&mdash;it'll look like they were made by
+one man. See?"</p>
+<p>"The river's froze over an' we can't be tracked on the ice. It's
+too dark, too, for any one to see us. Go ahead, Sammy; it's
+d&mdash;&mdash; cold here."</p>
+<p>The big man lifted her from the ground as if she were a feather,
+and she was conscious of being borne swiftly through a stretch of
+sloping woodland down to the river bank, a journey of two or three
+hundred yards, it seemed. Here the party paused for many minutes
+before venturing out upon the wide expanse of frozen river,
+evidently making sure that the way was clear. Rosalie, her senses
+quite fully restored by this time, began to analyse the situation
+with a clearness and calmness that afterward was the object of
+considerable surprise to her. Instead of being hysterical with
+fear, she was actually experiencing the thrill of a real emotion.
+She had no doubt but that her abductors were persons hired by those
+connected with her early history, and, strange as it may seem, she
+could not believe that bodily harm was to be her fate after all
+these years of secret attention on the part of those so deeply,
+though remotely, interested.</p>
+<p>Somehow there raced through her brain the exhilarating
+conviction that at last the mystery of her origin was to be cleared
+away, and with it all that had been as a closed book. No thought of
+death entered her mind at that time. Afterward she was to feel that
+death would be most welcome, no matter how it came.</p>
+<p>Her captors made the trip across the river in dead silence.
+There was no moon and the night was inky black. The exposed
+portions of her face tingled with cold, but she was so heavily
+wrapped in the blanket that her body did not feel the effects of
+the zero weather.</p>
+<p>At length the icy stretch was passed, and after resting a few
+minutes, Sam proceeded to ascend the steep bank with her in his
+arms. Why she was not permitted to walk she did not know then or
+afterward. It is possible, even likely, that the men thought their
+charge was unconscious. She did nothing to cause them to think
+otherwise. Again they passed among trees, Sam's companions
+following in his footprints as before. Another halt and a brief
+command for Davy to go ahead and see that the coast was clear came
+after a long and tortuous struggle through the underbrush. Twice
+they seemed to have lost their bearings in the darkness, but
+eventually they came into the open.</p>
+<p>"Here we are!" grunted Sam as they hurried across the clearing.
+"A hard night's work, pals, but I guess we're in Easy Street now.
+Go ahead, Davy, an' open the trap!"</p>
+<p>Davy swore a mighty but sibilant oath and urged his thick, ugly
+figure ahead of the others.</p>
+<p>A moment later the desperadoes and their victim passed through a
+door and into a darkness even blacker than that outside. Davy was
+pounding carefully upon the floor of the room in which they stood.
+Suddenly a faint light spread throughout the room and a hoarse,
+raucous voice whispered:</p>
+<p>"Have you got her?"</p>
+<p>"Get out of the way&mdash;we're near froze," responded Davy
+gruffly.</p>
+<p>"Get down there, Bill, and take her; I'm tired carryin' this
+hundred and twenty pounder," growled Sam.</p>
+<p>The next instant Rosalie was conscious of being lowered through
+a trap door in the floor, and then of being borne rapidly through a
+long, narrow passage, lighted fitfully by the rays of a lantern in
+the hands of a fourth and as yet unseen member of the band.</p>
+<p>"There!" said Bill, impolitely dropping his burden upon a pile
+of straw in the corner of the rather extensive cave at the end of
+the passage; "wonder if the little fool is dead. She ought to be
+coming to by this time."</p>
+<p>"She's got her eyes wide open," uttered the raucous voice on the
+opposite side; and Rosalie turned her eyes in that direction. She
+looked for a full minute as if spellbound with terror, her gaze
+centred at the most repulsive human face she ever had
+seen&mdash;the face of Davy's mother.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/186.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>The woman was a giantess, a huge, hideous creature with the face
+of a man, hairy and bloated. Her unkempt hair was grey almost to
+whiteness, her teeth were snags, and her eyes were almost hidden
+beneath the shaggy brow. There was a glare of brutal satisfaction
+in them that appalled the girl.</p>
+<p>For the first time since the adventure began her heart failed
+her, and she shuddered perceptibly as her lids fell.</p>
+<p>"What the h&mdash;&mdash; are you skeering her fer like that,
+ma," growled Davy. "Don't look at her like that, or&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"See here, my boy, don't talk like that to me if you don't want
+me to kick your head off right where you stand. I'm your mother,
+Davy, an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"That'll do. This ain't no time to chew the rag," muttered Sam.
+"We're done fer. Get us something to eat an' something to drink,
+old woman; give the girl a nifter, too. She's fainted, I reckon.
+Hurry up; I want to turn in."</p>
+<p>"Better untie her hands&mdash;see if she's froze," added Bill
+savagely.</p>
+<p>Roughly the old woman slashed the bonds from the girl's hands
+and feet and then looked askance at Sam, who stood warming his
+hands over a kerosene stove not far away. He nodded his head, and
+she instantly untied the cloth that covered Rosalie's mouth.</p>
+<p>"It won't do no good to scream, girl. Nobody'll hear ye but
+us&mdash;and we're your friends," snarled the old woman.</p>
+<p>"Let her yell if she wants to, Maude. It may relieve her a bit,"
+said Sam, meaning to be kind. Instinctively Rosalie looked about
+for the person addressed as Maude. There was but one woman in the
+gang. Maude! That was the creature's name. Instead of crying or
+shrieking, Rosalie laughed outright.</p>
+<p>At the sound of the laugh the woman drew back hastily.</p>
+<p>"By gor!" she gasped; "the&mdash;she's gone daffy!"</p>
+<p>The men turned toward them with wonder in their faces. Bill was
+the first to comprehend. He saw the girl's face grow sober with an
+effort, and realised that she was checking her amusement because it
+was sure to offend.</p>
+<p>"Aw," he grinned, "I don't blame her fer laughin'! Say what ye
+will, Maude, your name don't fit you."</p>
+<p>"It's as good as any name&mdash;" began the old hag, glaring at
+him; but Sam interposed with a command to her to get them some hot
+coffee while he had a talk with the girl. "Set up!" he said
+roughly, addressing Rosalie. "We ain't goin' to hurt you."</p>
+<p>Rosalie struggled to a sitting posture, her limbs and back stiff
+from the cold and inaction. "Don't ask questions, because they
+won't be answered. I jest want to give you some advice as to how
+you must act while you are our guest. You must be like one of the
+family. Maybe we'll be here a day, maybe a week, but it won't be
+any longer than that."</p>
+<p>"Would you mind telling me where I am and what this all means?
+Why have you committed this outrage? What have I done&mdash;" she
+found voice to say. He held up his hand.</p>
+<p>"You forget what I said about askin' questions. There ain't
+nothin' to tell you, that's all. You're here and that's
+enough."</p>
+<p>"Well, who is it that has the power to answer questions, sir? I
+have some right to ask them. You have&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"That'll do, now!" he growled. "I'll put the gag back on you if
+you keep it up. So's you won't worry, I want to say this to you:
+Your friends don't know where you are, and they couldn't find you
+if they tried. You are to stay right here in this cave until we get
+orders to move you. When the time comes we'll take you to wherever
+we're ordered, and then we're through with you. Somebody else will
+have the say. You won't be hurt here unless you try to
+escape&mdash;it won't do you any good to yell. It ain't a palace,
+but it's better than the grave. So be wise. All we got to do is to
+turn you over to the proper parties at the proper time. That's
+all."</p>
+<p>"Is the person you speak of my&mdash;my mother or my father?"
+Rosalie asked with bated breath.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<h3><i>With the Kidnapers</i></h3>
+<p>Sam stared at her, and there was something like real amazement
+in his eyes.</p>
+<p>"Yer mother or father?" he repeated interrogatively.
+"Wha&mdash;what the devil can they have to do with this affair? I
+guess they're askin' a lot of questions themselves about this
+time."</p>
+<p>"Mr. and Mrs. Crow are not my parents," she said; and then
+shrewdly added, "and you know it, sir."</p>
+<p>"I've heard that sayin' 'bout a child never knowin' its own
+father, but this business of both the father and mother is a new
+one on me. I guess it's the chloroform. Give us that booze, Bill.
+She's dippy yet."</p>
+<p>He tried to induce her to swallow some of the whiskey, but
+steadfastly she refused, until finally, with an evil snarl, Sam
+commanded the giantess to hold her while he forced the burning
+liquor down her throat. There was a brief struggle, but Rosalie was
+no match for the huge woman, whose enormous arms encircled her; and
+as the liquid trickled in upon her tongue she heard above the
+brutal laughter of the would-be doctors the hoarse voice of Bill
+crying:</p>
+<p>"Don't hurt her, Sam! Let 'er alone!"</p>
+<p>"Close yer face! Don't you monkey in this thing, Bill Briggs.
+I'll&mdash;well, you know. Drink this, damn you!"</p>
+<p>Sputtering and choking, her heart beating wildly with fear and
+rage, Rosalie was thrown back upon the straw by the woman. Her
+throat was burning from the effects of the whiskey and her eyes
+were blinded by the tears of anger and helplessness.</p>
+<p>"Don't come any of your highfalutin' airs with me, you little
+cat," shrieked the old woman, rubbing a knee that Rosalie had
+kicked in her struggles.</p>
+<p>"Lay still there," added Sam. "We don't want to hurt you, but
+you got to do as I tell you. Understand? Not a word, now! Gimme
+that coffee-pot, Davy. Go an' see that everything's locked up an'
+we'll turn in fer the night. Maude, you set up an' keep watch. If
+she makes a crack, soak her one."</p>
+<p>"You bet I will. She'll find she ain't attendin' no
+Sunday-school picnic."</p>
+<p>"No boozin'!" was Sam's order as he told out small portions of
+whiskey. Then the gang ate ravenously of the bacon and beans and
+drank cup after cup of coffee. Later the men threw themselves upon
+the piles of straw and soon all were snoring. The big woman
+refilled the lantern and hung it on a peg in the wall of the cave;
+then she took up her post near the square door leading to the
+underground passage, her throne an upturned whiskey barrel, her
+back against the wall of the cave. She glared at Rosalie through
+the semi-darkness, frequently addressing her with the vilest
+invectives cautiously uttered&mdash;and all because her victim had
+beautiful eyes and was unable to close them in sleep.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i192.jpg" id="i192.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/192.jpg"><img src="images/192.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"Rosalie was no match for the huge woman"</b></div>
+<p>Rosalie's heart sank as she surveyed the surroundings with her
+mind once more clear and composed. After her recovery from the
+shock of contact with the old woman and Sam she shrank into a state
+of mental lassitude that foretold the despair which was to come
+later on. She did not sleep that night. Her brain was full of
+whirling thoughts of escape, speculations as to what was to become
+of her, miserable fears that the end would not be what the first
+impressions had made it, and, over all, a most intense horror of
+the old woman, who dozed, but guarded her as no dragon ever watched
+in the days of long ago.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/194.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>The cave in which they were housed was thirty or forty feet from
+side to side, almost circular in shape, a low roof slanting to the
+rocky floor. Here and there were niches in the walls, and in the
+side opposite to the entrance to the passageway there was a small,
+black opening, leading without doubt to the outer world. The fact
+that it was not used at any time during her stay in the cave led
+her to believe it was not of practical use. Two or three coal-oil
+stoves were used to heat the cave and for cooking purposes. There
+were several lanterns, a number of implements (such as spades,
+axes, crowbars, sledges, and so forth), stool-kegs, a rough table,
+which was used for all purposes known to the dining-room, kitchen,
+scullery and even bedchamber. Sam slept on the table. Horse
+blankets were thrown about the floor in confusion. They served as
+bedclothes when the gang slept. At other times they might as well
+have been called doormats. One of the niches in the wall was used
+as the resting place for such bones or remnants as might strike it
+when hurled in that direction by the occupants. No one took the
+trouble to carefully bestow anything in the garbage hole, and no
+one pretended to clean up after the other. The place was foul
+smelling, hot and almost suffocating with the fumes from the
+stoves, for which there seemed no avenue of escape.</p>
+<p>Hours afterward, although they seemed drawn out into years, the
+men began to breathe naturally, and a weird silence reigned in the
+cave. They were awake. The venerable Maude emerged from her doze,
+looked apprehensively at Sam, prodded the corner to see that the
+prize had not faded away, and then began ponderously to make
+preparations for a meal, supposedly breakfast. Meagre ablutions,
+such as they were, were performed in the "living room," a bucket of
+water serving as a general wash-basin. No one had removed his
+clothing during the night, not even his shoes. It seemed to her
+that the gang was in an ever-ready condition to evacuate the place
+at a moment's notice.</p>
+<p>Rosalie would not eat, nor would she bathe her face in the water
+that had been used by the quartette before her. Bill Briggs, with
+some sense of delicacy in his nature, brought some fresh water from
+the far end of the passageway. For this act he was reviled by his
+companions.</p>
+<p>"It's no easy job to get water here, Briggs," roared Sam. "We
+got to be savin' with it."</p>
+<p>"Well, don't let it hurt you," retorted Bill. "I'll carry it up
+from the river to-night. You won't have to do it."</p>
+<p>"She ain't any better'n I am," snorted Maude, "and nobody goes
+out to bring me a private bath, I take notice. Get up here and eat
+something, you rat! Do you want us to force it down you&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"If she don't want to eat don't coax her," said Sam. "She'll
+soon get over that. We was only hired to get her here and get her
+away again, and not to make her eat or even wash. That's nothing to
+us."</p>
+<p>"Well, she's got to eat or she'll die, and you know, Sam Welch,
+that ain't to be," retorted the old woman.</p>
+<p>"She'll eat before she'll die, Maudie; don't worry."</p>
+<p>"I'll never eat a mouthful!" cried Rosalie, a brave, stubborn
+light in her eyes. She was standing in the far corner drying her
+face with her handkerchief.</p>
+<p>"Oho, you can talk again, eh? Hooray! Now we'll hear the story
+of her life," laughed big Sam, his mouth full of bacon and bread.
+Rosalie flushed and the tears welled to her eyes.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/197.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>All day long she suffered taunts and gibes from the gang. She
+grew to fear Davy's ugly leers more than the brutal words of the
+others. When he came near she shrank back against the wall; when he
+spoke she cringed; when he attempted to touch her person she
+screamed. It was this act that brought Sam's wrath upon Davy's
+head. He won something like gratitude from the girl by profanely
+commanding Davy to confine his love to looks and not to acts.</p>
+<p>"She ain't to be harmed," was Sam's edict. "That goes, too."</p>
+<p>"Aw, you go to&mdash;" began Davy belligerently.</p>
+<p>"What's that?" snarled Sam, whirling upon him with a glare. Davy
+slunk behind his mother and glared back. Bill moved over to Sam's
+side. For a moment the air was heavy with signs of an affray.
+Rosalie crouched in her corner, her hand over her ears, her eyes
+closed. There was murder in Davy's face. "I'll break every bone in
+your body!" added Sam; but Bill laconically stayed him with a
+word.</p>
+<p>"Rats!" It was brief, but it brought the irate Sam to his
+senses. Trouble was averted for the time being.</p>
+<p>"Davy ain't afraid of him," cried that worthy's mother
+shrilly.</p>
+<p>"You bet I ain't!" added Davy after a long string of oaths. Sam
+grinned viciously.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/198.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"There ain't nothin' to fight about, I guess," he said, although
+he did not look it. "We'd be fools to scrap. Everything to lose and
+nothin' to gain. All I got to say, Davy, is that you ain't to touch
+that girl."</p>
+<p>"Who's goin' to touch her?" roared Davy, bristling bravely. "An'
+you ain't to touch her nuther," he added.</p>
+<p>The day wore away, although it was always night in the
+windowless cave, and again the trio of men slept, with Maude as
+guard. Exhausted and faint, Rosalie fell into a sound sleep. The
+next morning she ate sparingly of the bacon and bread and drank
+some steaming coffee, much to the derisive delight of the hag.</p>
+<p>"You had to come to it, eh?" she croaked. "Had to feed that
+purty face, after all. I guess we're all alike. We're all flesh and
+blood, my lady."</p>
+<p>The old woman never openly offered personal violence to the
+girl. She stood in some fear of the leader&mdash;not physical fear,
+but the strange homage that a brute pays to its master. Secretly
+she took savage delight in treading on the girl's toes or in
+pinching her arms and legs, twisting her hair, spilling hot coffee
+on her hands, cursing her softly and perpetrating all sorts of
+little indignities that could not be resented, for the simple
+reason that they could not be proved against her. Her word was as
+good as Rosalie's.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/199.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Hourly the strain grew worse and worse. The girl became ill and
+feverish with fear, loathing and uncertainty. Her ears rang with
+the horrors of their lewdness, her eyes came to see but little, for
+she kept them closed for the very pain of what they were likely to
+witness. In her heart there grew a constant prayer for deliverance
+from their clutches. She was much too strong-minded and healthy to
+pray for death, but her mind fairly reeled with the thoughts of the
+vengeance she would exact.</p>
+<p>The third day found the gang morose and ugly. The confinement
+was as irksome to them as it was to her. They fretted and worried,
+swore and growled. At nightfall of each day Sam ventured forth
+through the passage and out into the night. Each time he was gone
+for two or three hours, and each succeeding return to the vile cave
+threw the gang into deeper wrath. The word they were expecting was
+not forthcoming, the command from the real master was not given.
+They played cards all day, and at last began to drink more deeply
+than was wise. Two desperate fights occurred between Davy and Sam
+on the third day. Bill and the old woman pulled them apart after
+both had been battered savagely.</p>
+<p>"She's sick, Sam," growled Bill, standing over the cowering,
+white-faced prisoner near the close of the fourth day. Sam had been
+away nearly all of the previous night, returning gloomily without
+news from headquarters. "She'll die in this d&mdash;&mdash; place
+and so will we if we don't get out soon. Look at her! Why, she's as
+white as a sheet. Let's give her some fresh air, Sammy. It's safe.
+Take her up in the cabin for a while. To-night we can take her
+outside the place. Good Lord, Sammy, I've got a bit of heart! I
+can't see her die in this hole. Look at her! Can't you see she's
+nearly done for?"</p>
+<p>After considerable argument, pro and con, it was decided that it
+would be safe and certainly wise to let the girl breathe the fresh
+air once in a while. That morning Sam took her into the cabin
+through the passage. The half hour in the cold, fresh air revived
+her, strengthened her perceptibly. Her spirits took an upward
+bound. She began to ask questions, and for some reason he began to
+take notice of them. It may have been the irksomeness of the
+situation, his own longing to be away, his anger toward the person
+who had failed to keep the promise made before the abduction, that
+led him to talk quite freely.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<h3><i>In the Cave</i></h3>
+<p>"It's not my fault that we're still here," he growled in answer
+to her pathetic appeal. "I've heard you prayin' for Daddy Crow to
+come and take you away. Well, it's lucky for him that he don't know
+where you are. We'd make mincemeat of that old jay in three
+minutes. Don't do any more prayin'. Prayers are like
+dreams&mdash;you have 'em at night and wonder why the next day.
+Now, look 'ere, Miss Gray, we didn't do this rotten job for the
+love of excitement. We're just as anxious to get out of it as you
+are."</p>
+<p>"I only ask why I am held here and what is to become of me?"
+said Rosalie resignedly. She was standing across the table from
+where he sat smoking his great, black pipe. The other members of
+the gang were lounging about, surly and black-browed, chafing
+inwardly over the delay in getting away from the cave.</p>
+<p>"I don't know why you've been held here. I only know it's
+d&mdash;&mdash; slow. I'd chuck the job, if there wasn't so much
+dust in it for me."</p>
+<p>"But what is to become of me? I cannot endure this much longer.
+It is killing me. Look! I am black and blue from pinches. The old
+woman never misses an opportunity to hurt me."</p>
+<p>"She's jealous of you because you're purty, that's all. Women
+are all alike, hang 'em! I wouldn't be in this sort of work if it
+hadn't been for a jealous wife."</p>
+<p>He puffed at his pipe moodily for a long time, evidently turning
+some problem over and over in his mind. At last, heaving a deep
+sigh, and prefacing his remarks with an oath, he let light in upon
+the mystery. "I'll put you next to the job. Can't give any names;
+it wouldn't be square. You see, it's this way: you ain't wanted in
+this country. I don't know why, but you ain't."</p>
+<p>"Not wanted in this country?" she cried blankly. "I don't stand
+in any one's way. My life and my love are for the peaceful home
+that you have taken me from. I don't ask for anything else. Won't
+you tell your employer as much for me? If I am released, I shall
+never interfere with the plans of&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"'Tain't that, I reckon. You must be mighty important to
+somebody, or all this trouble wouldn't be gone through with. The
+funny part of it is that we ain't to hurt you. You ain't to be
+killed, you know. That's the queer part of it, ain't it?"</p>
+<p>"I'll admit it has an agreeable sound to me," said Rosalie, with
+a shadow of a smile on her trembling lips. "It seems ghastly,
+though."</p>
+<p>"Well, anyhow, it's part of somebody's scheme to get you out of
+this country altogether. You are to be taken away on a ship, across
+the ocean, I think. Paris or London, mebby, and you are never to
+come back to the United States. Never, that's what I'm told."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i204.jpg" id="i204.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/204.jpg"><img src="images/204.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"She shrank back from another blow which seemed
+impending"</b></div>
+<p>Rosalie was speechless, stunned. Her eyes grew wide with the
+misery of doubt and horror, her lips moved as if forming the words
+which would not come. Before she could bring a sound from the
+contracted throat the raucous voice of old Maude broke in:</p>
+<p>"What are you tellin' her, Sam Welch? Can't you keep your face
+closed?" she called, advancing upon him with a menacing look.</p>
+<p>"Aw, it's nothin' to you," he retorted, but an uncomfortable
+expression suddenly crept into his face. A loud, angry discussion
+ensued, the whole gang engaging. Three to one was the way it stood
+against the leader, who was forced to admit, secretly if not
+publicly, that he had no right to talk freely of the matter to the
+girl. In vain she pleaded and promised. Her tears were of no avail,
+once Sam had concluded to hold his tongue. Angry with himself for
+having to submit to the demands of the others, furious because she
+saw his surrender, Sam, without a word of warning, suddenly struck
+her on the side of the head with the flat of his broad hand,
+sending her reeling into the corner. Dazed, hurt and half stunned,
+she dropped to her knees, unable to stand. With a piteous look in
+her eyes she shrank back from another blow which seemed impending.
+Bill Briggs grasped his leader's arm and drew him away, cursing and
+snarling.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/207.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Late in the afternoon, Bill was permitted to conduct her into
+the cabin above, for a few minutes in the air, and for a glimpse of
+the failing sunlight. She had scarcely taken her stand before the
+little window when she was hastily jerked away, but not before she
+thought she had perceived a crowd of men, huddling among the trees
+not far away. A scream for help started to her lips; but Bill's
+heavy hand checked it effectually. His burly arm sent her scuttling
+toward the trap-door; and a second later she was below, bruised
+from the fall and half fainting with disappointment and
+despair.</p>
+<p>Brief as the glimpse had been, she was positive she recognised
+two faces in the crowd of men&mdash;Anderson Crow's and Ed
+Higgins's. It meant, if her eyes did not deceive her, that the
+searchers were near at hand, and that dear, old Daddy Crow was
+leading them. Her hopes flew upward and she could not subdue the
+triumphant glance that swept the startled crowd when Bill
+breathlessly broke the news.</p>
+<p>Absolute quiet reigned in the cave after that. Maude cowed the
+prisoner into silence with the threat to cut out her tongue if she
+uttered a cry. Later, the tramp of feet could be heard on the floor
+of the cabin. There was a sound of voices, loud peals of laughter,
+and then the noise made by some one in the cellar that served as a
+blind at one end of the cabin. After that, dead silence. At
+nightfall, Sam stealthily ventured forth to reconnoitre. He came
+back with the report that the woods and swamps were clear and that
+the searchers, if such they were, had gone away.</p>
+<p>"The house, since Davy's grandma's bones were stored away in
+that cellar for several moons, has always been thought to be
+haunted. The fools probably thought they saw a ghost&mdash;an'
+they're runnin' yet."</p>
+<p>Then for the first time Rosalie realised that she was in the
+haunted cabin in the swamp, the most fearsome of all places in the
+world to Tinkletown, large and small. Not more than three miles
+from her own fireside! Not more than half an hour's walk from Daddy
+Crow and others in the warmth of whose love she had lived so
+long!</p>
+<p>"It's gettin' too hot here for us," growled Sam at supper.
+"We've just got to do something. I'm going out to-night to see if
+there's any word from the&mdash;from the party. These guys ain't
+all fools. Somebody is liable to nose out the trap-door before long
+and there'll be hell to pay. They won't come back before to-morrow,
+I reckon. By thunder, there ought to be word from the&mdash;the
+boss by this time. Lay low, everybody; I'll be back before
+daybreak. This time I'm a-goin' to find out something sure or know
+the reason why. I'm gettin' tired of this business. Never know what
+minute the jig's up, nor when the balloon busts."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/209.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Again he stole forth into the night, leaving his companions more
+or less uneasy as to the result, after the startling events of the
+afternoon. Hour after hour passed, and with every minute therein,
+Rosalie's ears strained themselves to catch the first sound of
+approaching rescuers. Her spirits fell, but her hopes were high.
+She felt sure that the men outside had seen her face and that at
+last they had discovered the place in which she was kept. It would
+only be a question of time until they learned the baffling secret
+of the trap-door. Her only fear lay in the possibility that she
+might be removed by her captors before the rescuers could
+accomplish her delivery. Her bright, feverish, eager eyes, gleaming
+from the sunken white cheeks, appealed to Bill Briggs more than he
+cared to admit. The ruffian, less hardened than his fellows, began
+to feel sorry for her.</p>
+<p>Eleven o'clock found the trio anxious and ugly in their
+restlessness. There was no sleep for them. Davy visited the trap
+over a hundred times that night. His mother, breaking over the
+traces of restraint, hugged the jug of whiskey, taking swig after
+swig as the vigil wore on. At last Davy, driven to it, insisted
+upon having his share. Bill drank but little, and it was not long
+before Rosalie observed the shifty, nervous look in his eyes. From
+time to time he slyly appropriated certain articles, dropping them
+into his coat pocket. His ear muffs, muffler, gloves, matches,
+tobacco and many chunks of bread and bacon were stowed stealthily
+in the pockets of his coat. At last it dawned upon her that Bill
+was preparing to desert. Hope lay with him, then. If he could only
+be induced to give her an equal chance to escape!</p>
+<p>Mother and son became maudlin in their&mdash;not cups, but jug;
+but Davy had the sense to imbibe more cautiously, a fact which
+seemed to annoy the nervous Bill.</p>
+<p>"I must have air&mdash;fresh air," suddenly moaned Rosalie from
+her corner, the strain proving too great for her nerves. Bill
+strode over and looked down upon the trembling form for a full
+minute. "Take me outside for just a minute&mdash;just a minute,
+please. I am dying in here."</p>
+<p>"Lemme take her out," cackled old Maude. "I'll give her all the
+air she wants. Want so&mdash;some air myself. Lemme give her air,
+Bill. Have some air on me, pardner. Lemme&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Shut up, Maude!" growled Bill, glancing uneasily about the
+cave. "I'll take her up in the cabin fer a couple of minutes. There
+ain't no danger."</p>
+<p>Davy protested, but Bill carried his point, simply because he
+was sober and knew his power over the half-stupefied pair. Davy let
+them out through the trap, promising to wait below until they were
+ready to return.</p>
+<p>"Are you going away?" whispered Rosalie, as they passed out into
+the cold, black night.</p>
+<p>"Sh! Don't talk, damn you!" he hissed.</p>
+<p>"Let me go too. I know the way home and you need have no fear of
+me. I like you, but I hate the others. Please, please! For God's
+sake, let me go! They can't catch me if I have a little start."</p>
+<p>"I'd like to, but I&mdash;I dassent. Sam would hunt me down and
+kill me&mdash;he would sure. I am goin' myself&mdash;I can't stand
+it no longer."</p>
+<p>"Have pity! Don't leave me alone with them. Oh, God, if
+you&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Moaning piteously, she pleaded with him; but he was obdurate,
+chiefly through fear of the consequences. In his heart he might
+have been willing to give her the chance, but his head saw the
+danger to itself and it was firm.</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you what I'll do," he whispered in the end. "I'll
+take you back there and then I'll go and tell your friends where
+you are and how to help you. Honest! Honest, I will. I know it's as
+broad as it is long, but I'd rather do it that way. They'll be here
+in a couple of hours and you'll be free. Nobody will be the wiser.
+Curse your whining! Shut up! Damn you, get back in there! Don't
+give me away to Davy, and I'll swear to help you out of this."</p>
+<p>A minute or two later, he dragged her back into the cabin,
+moaning, pleading, and crying from the pain of a sudden blow. Ten
+minutes afterward he went forth again, this time ostensibly to meet
+Sam; but Rosalie knew that he was gone forever.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<h3><i>The Trap-Door</i></h3>
+<p>A sickly new moon threw vague ghostly beams across the
+willow-lined swamp, out beyond the little cabin that stood on its
+border. Through the dense undergrowth and high among the skeleton
+treetops ugly shadows played with each other, while a sepulchral
+orchestra of wind and bough shrieked a dirge that flattened in
+Bonner's ears; but it was not the weird music of the swamp that
+sent the shudder of actual terror through the frame of the big
+athlete.</p>
+<p>A series of muffled, heartbreaking moans, like those of a woman
+in dire pain, came to his ears. He felt the cold perspiration start
+over his body. His nerves grew tense with trepidation, his eyes
+wide with horror. Instinctively, his fingers clutched the revolver
+at his side and his gaze went toward the black, square thing which
+marked the presence of the haunted house. The orchestra of the
+night seemed to bring its dirge to a close; a chill interlude of
+silence ensued. The moans died away into choking sobs, and Bonner's
+ears could hear nothing else. A sudden thought striking him, he
+rolled out of his bed and made his way to Bud's pile of blankets.
+But the solution was not there. The lad was sound asleep and no
+sound issued from his lips. The moans came from another source,
+human or otherwise, out there in the crinkling night.</p>
+<p>Carefully making his way from the tent, his courage once more
+restored but his flesh still quivering, Bonner looked intently for
+manifestations in the black home of Johanna Rank. He half expected
+to see a ghostly light flit past a window. It was intensely dark in
+the thicket, but the shadowy marsh beyond silhouetted the house
+into a black relief. He was on all fours behind a thick pile of
+brush, nervously drawing his pipe from his pocket, conscious that
+he needed it to steady his nerves, when a fresh sound, rising above
+the faint sobs, reached his ears. Then the low voice of a man came
+from some place in the darkness, and these words rang out
+distinctly:</p>
+<p>"Damn you!"</p>
+<p>He drew back involuntarily, for the voice seemed to be at his
+elbow. The sobs ceased suddenly, as if choked by a mighty hand.</p>
+<p>The listener's inclination was to follow the example of Anderson
+Crow and run madly off into the night. But beneath this natural
+panic was the soul of chivalry. Something told him that a woman out
+there in the solitude needed the arms of a man; and his blood began
+to grow hot again. Presently the silence was broken by a sharp cry
+of despair:</p>
+<p>"Have pity! Oh, God&mdash;" moaned the voice that sent thrills
+through his body&mdash;the voice of a woman, tender, refined,
+crushed. His fingers gripped the revolver with fresh vigor, but
+almost instantly the rustling of dead leaves reached his ears: the
+man and his victim were making their way toward the house.</p>
+<p>Bonner crouched among the bushes as if paralysed. He began to
+comprehend the situation. In a vague sort of way he remembered
+hearing of Tinkletown's sensation over at his uncle's house, where
+he was living with a couple of servants for a month's shooting. The
+atmosphere had been full of the sensational abduction story for
+several days&mdash;the abduction of a beautiful young woman and the
+helpless attitude of the relatives and friends. Like a whirlwind
+the whole situation spread itself before him; it left him weak. He
+had come upon the gang and their victim in this out-of-the-way
+corner of the world, far from the city toward which they were
+supposed to have fled. He had the solution in his hands and he was
+filled with the fire of the ancients.</p>
+<p>A light appeared in the low doorway and the squat figure of a
+man held a lantern on high. An instant later, another man dragged
+the helpless girl across the threshold and into the house. Even as
+Bonner squared himself to rush down upon them the light disappeared
+and darkness fell over the cabin. There was a sound of footsteps on
+the floor, a creaking of hinges and the stealthy closing of a door.
+Then there was absolute quiet.</p>
+<p>Bonner was wise as well as brave. He saw that to rush down upon
+the house now might prove his own as well as her undoing. In the
+darkness, the bandits would have every advantage. For a moment he
+glared at the black shadow ahead, his brain working like
+lightning.</p>
+<p>"That poor girl!" he muttered vaguely. "Damn beasts! But I'll
+fix 'em, by heaven! It won't be long, my boys."</p>
+<p>His pondering brought quick results. Crawling to Bud's cot, he
+aroused him from a deep sleep. Inside of two minutes the lad was
+streaking off through the woods toward town, with instructions to
+bring Anderson Crow and a large force of men to the spot as quickly
+as possible.</p>
+<p>"I'll stand guard," said Wicker Bonner.</p>
+<p>As the minutes went by Bonner's thoughts dwelt more and more
+intently upon the poor, imprisoned girl in the cabin. His blood
+charged his reason and he could scarce control the impulse to dash
+in upon the wretches. Then he brought himself up with a jerk. Where
+was he to find them? Had he not searched the house that morning and
+was there a sign of life to be found? He was stunned by this
+memory. For many minutes he stood with his perplexed eyes upon the
+house before a solution came to him.</p>
+<p>He now knew that there was a secret apartment in the old house
+and a secret means of entrance and exit. With this explanation
+firmly impressed upon his mind, Wicker Bonner decided to begin his
+own campaign for the liberation of Rosalie Gray. It would be hours
+before the sluggish Anderson Crow appeared; and Bonner was not the
+sort to leave a woman in jeopardy if it was in his power to help
+her. Besides, the country people had filled him with stories of
+Miss Gray's beauty, and they found him at an impressionable and
+heart-free age. The thrill of romance seized him and he was ready
+to dare.</p>
+<p>He crept up to the doorway and listened. Reason told him that
+the coast was clear; the necessity for a sentinel did not exist, so
+cleverly were the desperadoes under cover. After a few moments, he
+crawled into the room, holding his breath, as he made his way
+toward the cellar staircase. He had gone but a few feet when the
+sound of voices came to him. Slinking into a corner, he awaited
+developments. The sounds came from below, but not from the cellar
+room, as he had located it. A moment later, a man crawled into the
+room, coming through a hole in the floor, just as he had suspected.
+A faint light from below revealed the sinister figure plainly, but
+Bonner felt himself to be quite thoroughly hidden. The man in the
+room spoke to some one below.</p>
+<p>"I'll be back in half an hour, Davy. I'll wait fer Sam out there
+on the Point. He ought to have some news from headquarters by this
+time. I don't see why we have to hang around this place forever.
+She ought to be half way to Paris by now."</p>
+<p>"They don't want to take chances, Bill, till the excitement
+blows over."</p>
+<p>"Well, you an' your mother just keep your hands off of her while
+I'm out, that's all," warned Bill Briggs.</p>
+<p>The trap-door was closed, and Bonner heard the other occupant of
+the room shuffle out into the night. He was not long in deciding
+what to do. Here was the chance to dispose of one of the bandits,
+and he was not slow to seize it. There was a meeting in the thicket
+a few minutes later, and Bill was "out of the way" for the time
+being. Wicker Bonner dropped him with a sledge-hammer blow, and
+when he returned to the cabin Bill was lying bound and gagged in
+the tent, a helpless captive.</p>
+<p>His conqueror, immensely satisfied, supplied himself with the
+surplus ends of "guy ropes" from the tent and calmly sat down to
+await the approach of the one called Sam, he who had doubtless gone
+to a rendezvous "for news." He could well afford to bide his time.
+With two of the desperadoes disposed of in ambuscade, he could have
+a fairly even chance with the man called Davy.</p>
+<p>It seemed hours before he heard the stealthy approach of some
+one moving through the bushes. He was stiff with cold, and chafing
+at the interminable delay, but the approach of real danger
+quickened his blood once more. There was another short, sharp,
+silent struggle near the doorway, and once more Wicker Bonner stood
+victorious over an unsuspecting and now unconscious bandit. Sam, a
+big, powerful man, was soon bound and gagged and his bulk dragged
+off to the tent among the bushes.</p>
+<p>"Now for Davy," muttered Bonner, stretching his great arms in
+the pure relish of power. "There will be something doing around
+your heart, Miss Babe-in-the-Woods, in a very few minutes."</p>
+<p>He chuckled as he crept into the cabin, first having listened
+intently for sounds. For some minutes he lay quietly with his ear
+to the floor. In that time he solved one of the problems
+confronting him. The man Davy was a son of old Mrs. Rank's
+murderer, and the "old woman" who kept watch with him was his
+mother, wife of the historic David. It was she who had held the
+lantern, no doubt, while David Wolfe chopped her own mother to
+mincemeat. This accounted for the presence of the gang in the
+haunted house and for their knowledge of the underground room.</p>
+<p>Bonner's inspiration began to wear off. Pure luck had aided him
+up to this stage, but the bearding of David in his lair was another
+proposition altogether. His only hope was that he might find the
+man asleep. He was not taking the old woman into consideration at
+all. Had he but known it, she was the most dangerous of all.</p>
+<p>His chance, he thought, lay in strategy. It was impossible to
+open the trap-door from above, he had found by investigation. There
+was but one way to get to Miss Gray, and that was by means of a
+daring ruse. Trusting to luck, he tapped gently on the floor at the
+spot where memory told him the trap-door was situated. His heart
+was thumping violently.</p>
+<p>There was a movement below him, and then the sound of some one
+handling the bolts in the door. Bonner drew back, hoping against
+hope that a light would not be shown. In one hand he held his
+revolver ready for use; in the other his heavy walking stick. His
+plans were fully developed. After a moment the trap was lifted
+partially and a draft of warm air came out upon him.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<h3><i>Jack, the Giant Killer</i></h3>
+<p>"That you, Sam?" half whispered a man's voice. There was no
+light.</p>
+<p>"Sh!" hissed Bonner, muffling his voice. "Is everybody in?"</p>
+<p>"Bill's waitin' fer you outside. Ma an' me are here. Come on
+down. What's up?"</p>
+<p>"How's the girl?"</p>
+<p>"Bellerin' like a baby. Ma's with her in the cave. Hurry up!
+This thing's heavy."</p>
+<p>For reply Bonner seized the edge of the door with his left hand,
+first pushing his revolver in his trousers' pocket. Then he
+silently swung the heavy cane through the air and downward, a very
+faint light from below revealing the shock head of Davy in the
+aperture. It was a mighty blow and true. Davy's body fell away from
+the trap, and a second later Bonner's dropped through the hole. He
+left the trap wide open in case retreat were necessary. Pausing
+long enough to assure himself that the man was unconscious and
+bleeding profusely, and to snatch the big revolver from Davy's
+person, Bonner turned his attention to the surroundings.</p>
+<p>Perhaps a hundred feet away, at the end of a long, low passage,
+he saw the glimmer of a light. Without a second's hesitation he
+started toward it, feeling that the worst of the adventure was
+past. A shadow coming between him and the light, he paused in his
+approach. This shadow resolved itself into the form of a woman, a
+gigantic creature, who peered intently up the passage.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter, Davy?" she called in raucous tones. "You
+damn fool, can't you do anything without breaking your neck? I
+reckon you fell down the steps? That you, Sam?"</p>
+<p>Receiving no answer, the woman clutched the lantern and advanced
+boldly upon Bonner, who stood far down the passage, amazed and
+irresolute. She looked more formidable to him than any of the men,
+so he prepared for a struggle.</p>
+<p>"Halt!" he cried, when she was within ten feet of him. "Don't
+resist; you are surrounded!"</p>
+<p>The woman stopped like one shot, glared ahead as if she saw him
+for the first time, and then uttered a frightful shriek of rage.
+Dashing the lantern to the ground, she raised her arm and fired a
+revolver point blank at Bonner, despite the fact that his pistol
+was covering her. He heard the bullet crash into the rotten timbers
+near his ear. Contrary to her design, the lantern was not
+extinguished. Instead, it lay sputtering but effective upon the
+floor.</p>
+<p>Before Bonner could make up his mind to shoot at the woman she
+was upon him, firing again as she came. He did not have time to
+retaliate. The huge frame crushed down upon him and his pistol flew
+from his hand. As luck would have it, his free hand clutched her
+revolver, and she was prevented from blowing his brains out with
+the succeeding shots, all of which went wild.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/222.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Then came a desperate struggle. Bonner, a trained athlete,
+realised that she was even stronger than he, more desperate in her
+frenzy, and with murder in her heart. As they lunged to and fro,
+her curses and shrieks in his ear, he began to feel the despair of
+defeat. She was beating him down with one mighty arm, crushing
+blows, every one of them. Then came the sound which turned the tide
+of battle, for it filled him with a frenzy equal to her own. The
+scream of a woman came down through the passage, piteous,
+terror-stricken.</p>
+<p>He knew the fate of that poor girl if his adversary overcame
+him. The thought sent his blood hot and cold at once. Infuriatedly,
+he exerted his fine strength, and the tide turned. Panting and
+snarling, the big woman was battered down. He flung her heavily to
+the ground and then leaped back to pick up his revolver, expecting
+a renewal of the attack. For the first time he was conscious of
+intense pain in his left leg. The woman made a violent effort to
+rise, and then fell back, groaning and cursing.</p>
+<p>"You've done it! You've got me!" she yelled. "My leg's broke!"
+Then she shrieked for Davy and Bill and Sam, raining curses upon
+the law and upon the traitor who had been their undoing.</p>
+<p>Bonner, his own leg wobbling and covered with blood, tried to
+quiet her, but without success. He saw that she was utterly
+helpless, her leg twisted under her heavy body. Her screams of pain
+as he turned her over proved conclusively that she was not
+shamming. Her hip was dislocated. The young man had sense enough
+left to return to Davy before venturing into the cave where Miss
+Gray was doubtless in a dead faint. The man was breathing, but
+still unconscious from the blow on the head. Bonner quickly tied
+his hands and feet, guarding against emergencies in case of his own
+incapacitation as the result of the bullet wound in his leg; then
+he hobbled off with the lantern past the groaning Amazon in quest
+of Rosalie Gray. It did not occur to him until afterward that
+single handed he had overcome a most desperate band of criminals,
+so simply had it all worked out up to the time of the encounter
+with the woman.</p>
+<p>A few yards beyond where the old woman lay moaning he came upon
+the cave in which the bandits made their home. Holding the lantern
+above his head, Bonner peered eagerly into the cavern. In the
+farthest corner crouched a girl, her terror-struck eyes fastened
+upon the stranger.</p>
+<p>"How do you do, Miss Gray," came the cheery greeting from his
+lips. She gasped, swept her hand over her eyes, and tried piteously
+to speak. The words would not come. "The long-prayed-for rescue has
+come. You are free&mdash;that is, as soon as we find our way out of
+this place. Let me introduce myself as Jack, the Giant
+Killer&mdash;hello! Don't do that! Oh, the devil!" She had toppled
+over in a dead faint.</p>
+<p>How Wicker Bonner, with his wounded leg, weak from loss of
+blood, and faint from the reaction, carried her from the cave
+through the passage and the trap-door and into the tent can only be
+imagined, not described. He only knew that it was necessary to
+remove her from the place, and that his strength would soon be
+gone. The sun was tinting the east before she opened her eyes and
+shuddered. In the meantime he had stanched the flow of blood in the
+fleshy part of his leg, binding the limb tightly with a piece of
+rope. It was an ugly, glancing cut made by a bullet of large
+calibre, and it was sure to put him on crutches for some time to
+come. Even now he was scarcely able to move the member. For an hour
+he had been venting his wrath upon the sluggish Anderson Crow, who
+should have been on the scene long before this. Two of his
+captives, now fully conscious, were glaring at their companions in
+the tent with hate in their eyes.</p>
+<p>Rosalie Gray, wan, dishevelled, but more beautiful than the
+reports had foretold, could not at first believe herself to be free
+from the clutches of the bandits. It took him many
+minutes&mdash;many painful minutes&mdash;to convince her that it
+was not a dream, and that in truth he was Wicker Bonner, gentleman.
+Sitting with his back against a tent pole, facing the cabin through
+the flap, with a revolver in his trembling hand, he told her of the
+night's adventures, and was repaid tenfold by the gratitude which
+shone from her eyes and trembled in her voice. In return she told
+him of her capture, of the awful experiences in the cave, and of
+the threats which had driven her almost to the end of
+endurance.</p>
+<p>"Oh, oh, I could love you forever for this!" she cried in the
+fulness of her joy. A rapturous smile flew to Bonner's eyes.</p>
+<p>"Forever begins with this instant, Miss Gray," he said; and
+without any apparent reason the two shook hands. Afterward they
+were to think of this trivial act and vow that it was truly the
+beginning. They were young, heart-free, and full of the romance of
+life.</p>
+<p>"And those awful men are really captured&mdash;and the woman?"
+she cried, after another exciting recital from him. Sam and Bill
+fairly snarled. "Suppose they should get loose?" Her eyes grew wide
+with the thought of it.</p>
+<p>"They can't," he said laconically. "I wish the marshal and his
+bicycle army would hurry along. That woman and Davy need attention.
+I'd hate like the mischief to have either of them die. One doesn't
+want to kill people, you know, Miss Gray."</p>
+<p>"But they were killing me by inches," she protested.</p>
+<p>"Ouch!" he groaned, his leg giving him a mighty twinge.</p>
+<p>"What is it?" she cried in alarm. "Why should we wait for those
+men? Come, Mr. Bonner, take me to the village&mdash;please do. I am
+crazy, absolutely crazy, to see Daddy Crow and mother. I can walk
+there&mdash;how far is it?&mdash;please come." She was running on
+eagerly in this strain until she saw the look of pain in his
+face&mdash;the look he tried so hard to conceal. She was standing
+straight and strong and eager before him, and he was very pale
+under the tan.</p>
+<p>"I can't, Miss Gray. I'm sorry, you know. See! Where there's
+smoke there's fire&mdash;I mean, where there's blood there's a
+wound. I'm done for, in other words."</p>
+<p>"Done for? Oh, you're not&mdash;not going to die! Are you hurt?
+Why didn't you tell me?" Whereupon she dropped to her knees at his
+side, her dark eyes searching his intently, despair in them until
+the winning smile struggled back into his. The captives chuckled
+audibly. "What can I&mdash;what shall I do? Oh, why don't those men
+come! It must be noon or&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"It's barely six A.M., Miss Gray. Don't worry. I'm all right. A
+cut in my leg; the old woman plugged me. I can't walk, you
+know&mdash;but&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"And you carried me out here and did all that and never said a
+word about&mdash;oh, how good and brave and noble you are!"</p>
+<p>When Anderson Crow and half of Tinkletown, routed out <i>en
+masse</i> by Bud, appeared on the scene an hour or two later, they
+found Wicker Bonner stretched out on a mattress, his head in
+Rosalie's lap. The young woman held his revolver in her hand, and
+there was a look in her face which said that she would shoot any
+one who came to molest her charge. Two helpless desperadoes lay
+cursing in the corner of the tent.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow, after an hour of deliberation and explanation,
+fell upon the bound and helpless bandits and bravely carted the
+whole lot to the town "calaboose." Wicker Bonner and his nurse were
+taken into town, and the news of the rescue went flying over the
+county, and eventually to the four corners of the land, for
+Congressman Bonner's nephew was a person of prominence.</p>
+<p>Bonner, as he passed up the main street in Peabody's sleigh on
+the way to Anderson Crow's home, was the centre of attraction. He
+was the hero of the hour, for was not Rosalie Gray herself, pale
+and ill with torture, his most devoted slave? What else could
+Tinkletown do but pay homage when it saw Bonner's head against her
+shoulder and Anderson Crow shouting approval from the bob-sled that
+carried the kidnapers. The four bandits, two of them much the worse
+for the night's contact with Wicker Bonner, were bundled into the
+lock-up, a sadly morose gang of ghosts.</p>
+<p>"I owe you a thousand dollars," said Anderson to Bonner as they
+drew up in front of the marshal's home. All Tinkletown was there to
+see how Mrs. Crow and the family would act when Rosalie was
+restored to them. The yard was full of gaping villagers, and there
+was a diffident cheer when Mrs. Crow rushed forth and fairly
+dragged Rosalie from the sleigh. "Blootch" Peabody gallantly
+interposed and undertook to hand the girl forth with the grace of a
+Chesterfield. But Mrs. Crow had her way.</p>
+<p>"I'll take it out in board and lodging," grinned Wicker Bonner
+to Anderson as two strong men lifted him from the sleigh.</p>
+<p>"Where's Bud?" demanded Anderson after the others had entered
+the house.</p>
+<p>"He stayed down to the 'calaboose' to guard the prisoners," said
+"Blootch." "Nobody could find the key to the door and nobody else
+would stay. They ain't locked in, but Bud's got two revolvers, and
+he says they can only escape over his dead body."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXIII</h2>
+<h3><i>Tinkletown's Convulsion</i></h3>
+<p>Anderson Crow was himself once more. He was twenty years younger
+than when he went to bed the night before. His joy and pride had
+reached the bursting point&mdash;dignity alone prevented the
+catastrophe.</p>
+<p>"What do you expect to do with the gang, Mr. Crow?" asked
+Bonner, reclining with amiable ease in the marshal's Morris chair.
+He was feeling very comfortable, despite "Doc" Smith's stitches;
+and he could not help acknowledging, with more or less of a glow in
+his heart, that it was nice to play hero to such a heroine.</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll protect 'em, of course. Nobody c'n lynch 'em while
+I'm marshal of this town," Anderson said, forgetful of the fact
+that he had not been near the jail, where Master Bud still had full
+charge of affairs, keyless but determined. "I'll have to turn them
+over to the county sheriff to-day er to-morrow, I reckon. This
+derned old calaboose of ourn ain't any too safe. That's a mighty
+desperit gang we've captured. I cain't remember havin' took sech a
+mob before."</p>
+<p>"Has it occurred to you, Mr. Crow, that we have captured only
+the hirelings? Their employer, whoever he or she may be, is at
+large and probably laughing at us. Isn't there some way in which we
+can follow the case up and land the leader?"</p>
+<p>"'y Gosh, you're right," said Anderson. "I thought of that this
+mornin', but it clean skipped my mind since then. There's where the
+mistake was made, Mr. Bonner. It's probably too late now. You'd
+oughter thought about the leader. Seems to me&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Why, Daddy Crow," cried Rosalie, a warm flush in her cheeks
+once more, "hasn't Mr. Bonner done his part? Hasn't he taken them
+single-handed and hasn't he saved me from worse than death?"</p>
+<p>"I ain't castin' any insinyations at him, Rosalie," retorted
+Anderson, very sternly for him. "How <i>can</i> you talk like
+that?"</p>
+<p>"I'm not offended, Miss Gray," laughed Bonner. "We all make
+mistakes. It has just occurred to me, however, that Mr. Crow may
+still be able to find out who the leader is. The prisoners can be
+pumped, I dare say."</p>
+<p>"You're right ag'in, Mr. Bonner. It's funny how you c'n read my
+thoughts. I was jest goin' down to the jail to put 'em through the
+sweat cell."</p>
+<p>"Sweat cell? You mean sweat box, Mr. Crow," said Bonner,
+laughing in spite of himself.</p>
+<p>"No, sir; it's a cell. We couldn't find a box big enough. I use
+the cell reserved fer women prisoners. Mebby some day the town
+board will put in a reg'lar box, but, so far, the cell has done all
+right. I'll be back 'bout supper-time, Eva. You take keer o'
+Rosalie. Make her sleep a while an' I guess you'd better dose her
+up a bit with quinine an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I guess I know what to give her, Anderson Crow," resented his
+wife. "Go 'long with you. You'd oughter been lookin' after them
+kidnapers three hours ago. I bet Bud's purty nigh wore out guardin'
+them. He's been there ever sence nine o'clock, an' it's half-past
+two now."</p>
+<p>"Roscoe's helpin' him," muttered Anderson, abashed.</p>
+<p>At that instant there came a rush of footsteps across the front
+porch and in burst Ed Higgins and "Blootch" Peabody, fairly gasping
+with excitement.</p>
+<p>"Hurry up, Anderson&mdash;down to the jail," sputtered the
+former; and then he was gone like the wind. "Blootch," determined
+to miss nothing, whirled to follow, or pass him if possible. He had
+time to shout over his shoulder as he went forth without closing
+the door:</p>
+<p>"The old woman has lynched herself!"</p>
+<p>It would now be superfluous to remark, after all the convulsions
+Tinkletown had experienced inside of twenty-four hours, that the
+populace went completely to pieces in face of this last trying
+experiment of Fate. With one accord the village toppled over as if
+struck by a broadside and lay, figuratively speaking, writhing in
+its own gore. Stupefaction assailed the town. Then one by one the
+minds of the people scrambled up from the ashes, slowly but surely,
+only to wonder where lightning would strike next. Not since the
+days of the American Revolution had the town experienced such an
+incessant rush of incident. The Judgment Day itself, with Gabriel's
+clarion blasts, could not be expected to surpass this productive
+hour in thrills.</p>
+<p>It was true that old Maude had committed suicide in the
+calaboose. She had been placed on a cot in the office of the prison
+and Dr. Smith had been sent for, immediately after her arrival; but
+he was making a call in the country. Bud Long, supported by half a
+dozen boys armed with Revolutionary muskets, which would not go off
+unless carried, stood in front of the little jail with its wooden
+walls and iron bars, guarding the prisoners zealously. The
+calaboose was built to hold tramps and drunken men, but not for the
+purpose of housing desperadoes. Even as the heroic Bud watched with
+persevering faithfulness, his charges were planning to knock their
+prison to smithereens and at the proper moment escape to the woods
+and hills. They knew the grated door was unlocked, but they
+imagined the place to be completely surrounded by vengeful
+villagers, who would cut them down like rats if they ventured
+forth. Had they but known that Bud was alone, it is quite likely
+they would have sallied forth and relieved him of his guns, spanked
+him soundly and then ambled off unmolested to the country.</p>
+<p>All the morning old Maude had been groaning and swearing in the
+office, where she lay unattended. Bud was telling his friends how
+he had knocked her down twice in the cave, after she had shot six
+times and slashed at him with her dagger, when a sudden cessation
+of groans from the interior attracted the attention of all. "Doc"
+Smith arrived at that juncture and found the boys listening
+intently for a resumption of the picturesque profanity. It was some
+time before the crowd became large enough to inspire a visit to the
+interior of the calaboose. As became his dignity, Bud led the
+way.</p>
+<p>The old woman, unable to endure the pain any longer, and knowing
+full well that her days were bound to end in prison, had managed,
+in some way, to hang herself from a window bar beside her bed,
+using a twisted bed sheet. She was quite dead when "Doc" made the
+examination. A committee of the whole started at once to notify
+Anderson Crow. For a minute it looked as though the jail would be
+left entirely unguarded, but Bud loyally returned to his post,
+reinforced by Roscoe and the doctor.</p>
+<p>Upon Mr. Crow's arrival at the jail, affairs assumed some aspect
+of order. He first locked the grate doors, thereby keeping the
+fiery David from coming out to see his mother before they cut her
+down. A messenger was sent for the coroner at Boggs City, and then
+the big body was released from its last hanging place.</p>
+<p>"Doggone, but this is a busy day fer me!" said Anderson. "I
+won't have time to pump them fellers till this evenin'. But I guess
+they'll keep. 'What's that, Blootch?"</p>
+<p>"I was just goin' to ask Bud if they're still in there," said
+Blootch.</p>
+<p>"Are they, Bud?" asked Anderson in quick alarm.</p>
+<p>"Sure," replied Bud with a mighty swelling of the chest. Even
+Blootch envied him.</p>
+<p>"She's been dead jest an hour an' seven minutes," observed
+Anderson, gingerly touching the dead woman's wrist. "Doggone, I'm
+glad o' one thing!"</p>
+<p>"What's that, Anderson?"</p>
+<p>"We won't have to set her hip. Saved expense."</p>
+<p>"But we'll have to bury her, like as not," said Isaac
+Porter.</p>
+<p>"Yes," said Anderson reflectively. "She'll have to be buried.
+But&mdash;but&mdash;" and here his face lightened up in
+relief&mdash;"not fer a day er two; so what's the use
+worryin'."</p>
+<p>When the coroner arrived, soon after six o'clock, a jury was
+empanelled and witnesses sworn. In ten minutes a verdict of suicide
+was returned and the coroner was on his way back to Boggs City. He
+did not even know that a hip had been dislocated. Anderson insisted
+upon a post-mortem examination, but was laughed out of countenance
+by the officious M.D.</p>
+<p>"I voted fer that fool last November," said Anderson wrathfully,
+as the coroner drove off, "but you c'n kick the daylights out of me
+if I ever do it ag'in. Look out there, Bud! What in thunder are you
+doin' with them pistols? Doggone, ain't you got no sense? Pointin'
+'em around that way. Why, you're liable to shoot
+somebody&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Aw, them ain't pistols," scoffed Bud, his mouth full of
+something. "They're bologny sausages. I ain't had nothin' to eat
+sence last night and I'm hungry."</p>
+<p>"Well, it's dark out here," explained Anderson, suddenly
+shuffling into the jail. "I guess I'll put them fellers through the
+sweat box."</p>
+<p>"The <i>what?</i>" demanded George Ray.</p>
+<p>"The sweat-box&mdash;b-o-x, box. Cain't you hear?"</p>
+<p>"I thought you used a cell."</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, no! Nobody but country jakes call it a cell,"
+said Anderson in fine scorn.</p>
+<p>The three prisoners scowled at him so fiercely and snarled so
+vindictively when they asked him if they were to be starved to
+death, that poor Anderson hurried home and commanded his wife to
+pack "a baskit of bread and butter an' things fer the prisoners."
+It was nine o'clock before he could make up his mind to venture
+back to the calaboose with his basket. He spent the intervening
+hours in telling Rosalie and Bonner about the shocking incident at
+the jail and in absorbing advice from the clear-headed young man
+from Boston.</p>
+<p>"I'd like to go with you to see those fellows, Mr. Crow," was
+Bonner's rueful lament. "But the doctor says I must be quiet until
+this confounded thing heals a bit. Together, I think we could bluff
+the whole story out of those scoundrels."</p>
+<p>"Oh, never you fear," said the marshal; "I'll learn all there is
+to be learnt. You jest ask Alf Reesling what kind of a pumper I
+am."</p>
+<p>"Who is Alf Reesling?"</p>
+<p>"Ain't you heerd of him in Boston? Why, every temperance
+lecturer that comes here says he's the biggest drunkard in the
+world. I supposed his reputation had got to Boston by this time.
+He's been sober only once in twenty-five years."</p>
+<p>"Is it possible?"</p>
+<p>"That was when his wife died. He said he felt so good it wasn't
+necessary to get drunk. Well, I'll tell you all about it when I
+come back. Don't worry no more, Rosalie. I'll find out who's back
+of this business an' then we'll know all about you. It's a long
+lane that has no turn."</p>
+<p>"Them prisoners must be mighty near starved to death by this
+time, Anderson," warned Mrs. Crow.</p>
+<p>"Doggone, that's so!" he cried, and hustled out into the
+night.</p>
+<p>The calaboose was almost totally dark&mdash;quite so, had it not
+been for the single lamp that burned in the office where the body
+of the old woman was lying. Two or three timid citizens stood afar
+off, in front of Thompson's feed yard, looking with awe upon the
+dungeon keep. Anderson's footsteps grew slower and more halting as
+they approached the entrance to the forbidding square of black. The
+snow creaked resoundingly under his heels and the chill wind nipped
+his muffless ears with a spitefulness that annoyed. In fact, he
+became so incensed, that he set his basket down and slapped his
+ears vigorously for some minutes before resuming his slow progress.
+He hated the thought of going in where the dead woman lay.</p>
+<p>Suddenly he made up his mind that a confession from the men
+would be worthless unless he had ear witnesses to substantiate it
+in court. Without further deliberation, he retraced his steps
+hurriedly to Lamson's store, where, after half an hour's
+conversation on the topics of the day, he deputised the entire
+crowd to accompany him to the jail.</p>
+<p>"Where's Bud?" he demanded sharply.</p>
+<p>"Home in bed, poor child," said old Mr. Borton.</p>
+<p>"Well, doggone his ornery hide, why ain't he here to&mdash;"
+began Anderson, but checked himself in time to prevent the crowd
+from seeing that he expected Bud to act as leader in the
+expedition. "I wanted him to jot down notes," he substituted.
+Editor Squires volunteered to act as secretary, prompter,
+interpreter, and everything else that his scoffing tongue could
+utter.</p>
+<p>"Well, go ahead, then," said Anderson, pushing him forward.
+Harry led the party down the dark street with more rapidity than
+seemed necessary; few in the crowd could keep pace with him. A
+majority fell hopelessly behind, in fact.</p>
+<p>Straight into the office walked Harry, closely followed by
+Blootch and the marshal. Maude, looking like a monument of sheets,
+still occupied the centre of the floor. Without a word, the party
+filed past the gruesome, silent thing and into the jail corridor.
+It was as dark as Erebus in the barred section of the prison; a
+cold draft of air flew into the faces of the visitors.</p>
+<p>"Come here, you fellers!" called Anderson bravely into the
+darkness; but there was no response from the prisoners.</p>
+<p>For the very good reason that some hours earlier they had calmly
+removed a window from its moorings and by this time were much too
+far away to answer questions.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+<h3><i>The Flight of the Kidnapers</i></h3>
+<p>Searching parties were organised and sent out to scour the
+country, late as it was. Swift riders gave the alarm along every
+roadway, and the station agent telegraphed the news into every
+section of the land. At Boggs City, the sheriff, berating Anderson
+Crow for a fool and Tinkletown for an open-air lunatic asylum, sent
+his deputies down to assist in the pursuit. The marshal himself
+undertook to lead each separate and distinct posse. He was so
+overwhelmed by the magnitude of his misfortune that it is no wonder
+his brain whirled widely enough to encompass the whole
+enterprise.</p>
+<p>Be it said to the credit of Tinkletown, her citizens made every
+reasonable effort to recapture the men. The few hundred able-bodied
+men of the town rallied to the support of their marshal and the
+law, and there was not one who refused to turn out in the cold
+night air for a sweeping search of the woods and fields.</p>
+<p>Rosalie, who had been awakened early in the evening by Mr.
+Crow's noisy preparations for the pursuit, came downstairs, and
+instantly lost all desire to sleep. Bonner was lying on a couch in
+the "sitting-room," which now served as a temporary bedchamber.</p>
+<p>"If you'll just hand me those revolvers, Mr. Crow," said he,
+indicating the two big automatics he had taken from Davy and Bill,
+"I'll stand guard over the house as best I can while you're
+away."</p>
+<p>"Stand guard? What fer? Nobody's goin' to steal the house."</p>
+<p>"We should not forget that these same rascals may take it into
+their heads to double on their tracks and try to carry Miss Gray
+away again. With her in their possession they'll receive their pay;
+without her their work will have been for nothing. It is a
+desperate crowd, and they may think the plan at least worth
+trying."</p>
+<p>Rosalie's grateful, beaming glance sent a quiver that was not of
+pain through Bonner's frame.</p>
+<p>"Don't worry about that," said the marshal. "We'll have 'em shot
+to pieces inside of an hour an' a half."</p>
+<p>"Anderson, I want you to be very careful with that horse
+pistol," said his wife nervously. "It ain't been shot off sence the
+war, an' like as not it'll kill you from behind."</p>
+<p>"Gosh blast it, Eva!" roared Anderson, "don't you suppose I know
+which end to shoot with?" And away he rushed in great dudgeon.</p>
+<p>Edna Crow sat at the front window, keeping watch for hours. She
+reported to the other members of the household as each scurrying
+band of searchers passed the place. Bonner commanded Rosalie to
+keep away from the windows, fearing a shot from the outside. From
+time to time Roscoe replenished the big blaze in the fireplace. It
+was cosey in the old-fashioned sitting-room, even though the strain
+upon its occupants was trying in the extreme.</p>
+<p>Great excitement came to them when the figure of a man was seen
+to drop to the walk near the front gate. At first it was feared
+that one of the bandits, injured by pursuers, had fallen to die,
+but the mournful calls for help that soon came from the sidewalk
+were more or less reassuring. The prostrate figure had a queer
+habit from time to time of raising itself high enough to peer
+between the pickets of the fence, and each succeeding shout seemed
+more vigorous than the others. Finally they became impatient, and
+then full of wrath. It was evident that the stranger resented the
+inhospitality of the house.</p>
+<p>"Who are you?" called Edna, opening the window ever so slightly.
+Whereupon the man at the gate sank to the ground and groaned with
+splendid misery.</p>
+<p>"It's me," he replied.</p>
+<p>"Who's me?"</p>
+<p>"'Rast&mdash;'Rast Little. I think I'm dyin'."</p>
+<p>There was a hurried consultation indoors, and then Roscoe
+bravely ventured out to the sidewalk.</p>
+<p>"Are you shot, 'Rast?" he asked in trembling tones.</p>
+<p>"No; I'm just wounded. Is Rosalie in there?"</p>
+<p>"Yep. She's&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I guess I'll go in, then. Dern it! It's a long walk from our
+house over here. I guess I'll stay all night. If I don't get better
+to-morrow I'll have to stay longer. I ought to be nursed, too."</p>
+<p>"Rosalie's playin' nurse fer Mr. Bonner," volunteered Roscoe,
+still blocking the gate through which 'Rast was trying to wedge
+himself.</p>
+<p>"Mr. who?"</p>
+<p>"Bonner."</p>
+<p>"Well," said 'Rast after a moment's consideration, "he ought to
+be moved to a hospital. Lemme lean on you, Roscoe. I can't hardly
+walk, my arm hurts so."</p>
+<p>Mr. Little, with his bandages and his hobble, had joined in the
+expedition, and was not to be deterred until faintness overcame him
+and he dropped by the wayside. He was taken in and given a warm
+chair before the fire. One long look at Bonner and the newcomer
+lapsed into a stubborn pout. He groaned occasionally and made much
+ado over his condition, but sourly resented any approach at
+sympathy. Finally he fell asleep in the chair, his last speech
+being to the effect that he was going home early in the morning if
+he had to drag himself every foot of the way. Plainly, 'Rast had
+forgotten Miss Banks in the sudden revival of affection for Rosalie
+Gray. The course of true love did not run smoothly in
+Tinkletown.</p>
+<p>The searchers straggled in empty handed. Early morning found
+most of them asleep at their homes, tucked away by thankful wives,
+and with the promises of late breakfasts. The next day business was
+slow in asserting its claim upon public attention. Masculine
+Tinkletown dozed while femininity chattered to its heart's content.
+There was much to talk about and more to anticipate. The officials
+in all counties contiguous had out their dragnets, and word was
+expected at any time that the fugitives had fallen into their
+hands.</p>
+<p>But not that day, nor the next, nor any day, in fact, did news
+come of their capture, so Tinkletown was obliged to settle back
+into a state of tranquility. Some little interest was aroused when
+the town board ordered the calaboose repaired, and there was a
+ripple of excitement attached to the funeral of the only kidnaper
+in captivity. It was necessary to postpone the oyster supper at the
+Methodist Church, but there was some consolation in the knowledge
+that it would soon be summer-time and the benighted Africans would
+not need the money for winter clothes. The reception at the
+minister's house was a fizzle. He was warned in time, however, and
+it was his own fault that he received no more than a jug of
+vinegar, two loaves of bread and a pound of honey as the result of
+his expectations. It was the first time that a "pound" party had
+proven a losing enterprise.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow maintained a relentless search for the
+desperadoes. He refused to accept Wicker Bonner's theory that they
+were safe in the city of New York. It was his own opinion that they
+were still in the neighbourhood, waiting for a chance to exhume the
+body of Davy's mother and make off with it.</p>
+<p>"Don't try to tell me, Mr. Bonner, that even a raskil like him
+hasn't any love fer his mother," he contended. "Davy may not be
+much of a model, but he had a feelin' fer the woman who bore him,
+an' don't you fergit it."</p>
+<p>"Why, Daddy Crow, he was the most heartless brute in the world!"
+cried Rosalie. "I've seen him knock her down more than
+once&mdash;and kick her, too."</p>
+<p>"A slip of the memory, that's all. He was probably thinkin' of
+his wife, if he has one."</p>
+<p>At a public meeting the town board was condemned for its failure
+to strengthen the jail at the time Anderson made his demand three
+years before.</p>
+<p>"What's the use in me catchin' thieves, and so forth, if the
+jail won't hold 'em?" Anderson declared. "I cain't afford to waste
+time in runnin' desperite characters down if the town board ain't
+goin' to obstruct 'em from gittin' away as soon as the sun sits.
+What's the use, I'd like to know? Where's the justice? I don't want
+it to git noised aroun' that the on'y way we c'n hold a prisoner is
+to have him commit suicide as soon as he's arrested. Fer two cents
+I'd resign right now."</p>
+<p>Of course no one would hear to that. As a result, nearly five
+hundred dollars was voted from the corporation funds to strengthen
+and modernise the "calaboose." It was the sense of the meeting that
+a "sweat box" should be installed under Mr. Crow's supervision, and
+that the marshal's salary should be increased fifty dollars a year.
+After the adoption of this popular resolution Mr. Crow arose and
+solemnly informed the people that their faith in him was not
+misplaced. He threw the meeting into a state of great excitement by
+announcing that the kidnapers would soon be in the toils once more.
+In response to eager queries he merely stated that he had a
+valuable clew, which could not be divulged without detriment to the
+cause. Everybody went home that night with the assurance that the
+fugitives would soon be taken. Anderson promised the town board
+that he would not take them until the jail was repaired.</p>
+<p>It was almost a fortnight before Wicker Bonner was able to walk
+about with crutches. The wound in his leg was an ugly one and
+healed slowly. His uncle, the Congressman, sent up a surgeon from
+New York, but that worthy approved of "Doc" Smith's methods, and
+abruptly left the young man to the care of an excellent nurse,
+Rosalie Gray. Congressman Bonner's servants came over every day or
+two with books, newspapers, sweetmeats, and fresh supplies from the
+city, but it was impossible for them to get any satisfaction from
+the young man in reply to their inquiries as to when he expected to
+return to the big house across the river. Bonner was beginning to
+hate the thought of giving up Rosalie's readings, her
+ministrations, and the no uncertain development of his own opinions
+as to her personal attractiveness.</p>
+<p>"I don't know when I'll be able to walk, Watkins," he said to
+the caretaker. "I'm afraid my heart is affected."</p>
+<p>Bonner's enforced presence at Anderson Crow's home was the
+source of extreme annoyance to the young men of the town. "Blootch"
+Peabody created a frightful scandal by getting boiling drunk toward
+the end of the week, so great was his dejection. As it was his
+first real spree, he did not recover from the effect for three
+days. He then took the pledge, and talked about the evils of strong
+drink with so much feeling at prayer meeting that the women of the
+town inaugurated a movement to stop the sale of liquor in the town.
+As Peabody's drug store was the only place where whiskey could be
+obtained, "Blootch" soon saw the error of his ways and came down
+from his pedestal to mend them.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/245.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Bonner was a friend in need to Anderson Crow. The two were in
+consultation half of the time, and the young man's opinions were
+not to be disregarded. He advanced a theory concerning the motives
+of the leader in the plot to send Rosalie into an exile from which
+she was not expected to return. It was his belief that the person
+who abandoned her as a babe was actuated by the desire to possess a
+fortune which should have been the child's. The conditions
+attending the final disposition of this fortune doubtless were such
+as to make it unwise to destroy the girl's life. The plotter,
+whatever his or her relation to the child may have been, must have
+felt that a time might come when the existence of the real heiress
+would be necessary. Either such a fear was the inspiration or the
+relationship was so dear that the heart of the arch-plotter was
+full of love for the innocent victim.</p>
+<p>"Who is to say, Miss Gray," said Bonner one night as they sat
+before the fire, "that the woman who left you with Mr. Crow was not
+your own mother? Suppose that a vast estate was to be yours in
+trust after the death of some rich relative, say grandparent. It
+would naturally mean that some one else resented this bequest, and
+probably with some justice. The property was to become your own
+when you attained a certain age, let us say. Don't you see that the
+day would rob the disinherited person of every hope to retain the
+fortune? Even a mother might be tempted, for ambitious reasons, to
+go to extreme measures to secure the fortune for herself. Or she
+might have been influenced by a will stronger than her
+own&mdash;the will of an unscrupulous man. There are many
+contingencies, all probable, as you choose to analyse them."</p>
+<p>"But why should this person wish to banish me from the country
+altogether? I am no more dangerous here than I would be anywhere in
+Europe. And then think of the means they would have employed to get
+me away from Tinkletown. Have I not been lost to the world for
+years? Why&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"True; but I am quite convinced, and I think Mr. Crow agrees
+with me, that the recent move was made necessary by the demands of
+one whose heart is not interested, but whose hand wields the
+sceptre of power over the love which tries to shield you. Any other
+would have cut off your life at the beginning."</p>
+<p>"That's my idee," agreed Anderson solemnly.</p>
+<p>"I don't want the fortune!" cried Rosalie. "I am happy here! Why
+can't they let me alone?"</p>
+<p>"I tell you, Miss Gray, unless something happens to prevent it,
+that woman will some day give you back your own&mdash;your fortune
+and your name."</p>
+<p>"I can't believe it, Mr. Bonner. It is too much like a dream to
+me."</p>
+<p>"Well, doggone it, Rosalie, dreams don't last forever!" broke in
+Anderson Crow. "You've got to wake up some time, don't you
+see?"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+<h3><i>As the Heart Grows Older</i></h3>
+<p>Bonner's eagerness to begin probing into the mystery grew as his
+strength came back to him. He volunteered to interest his uncle in
+the matter, and through him to begin a systematic effort to unravel
+the tangled ends of Rosalie's life. Money was not to be spared;
+time and intelligence were to be devoted to the cause. He knew that
+Rosalie was in reality a creature of good birth and worthy of the
+name that any man might seek to bestow upon her&mdash;a name given
+in love by a man to the woman who would share it with him
+forever.</p>
+<p>The days and nights were teaching him the sacredness of a
+growing attachment. He was not closing his eyes to the truth. It
+was quite as impossible for big, worldly Wick Bonner to be near her
+and not fall a victim, as it was for the crude, humble youth of
+Tinkletown. His heart was just as fragile as theirs when it bared
+itself to her attack. Her beauty attracted him, her natural
+refinement of character appealed to him; her pureness, her
+tenderness, her goodness, wrought havoc with his impressions.
+Fresh, bright, as clear-headed as the June sunshine, she was a
+revelation to him&mdash;to Bonner, who had known her sex in all its
+environments. His heart was full of her, day and night; for day and
+night he was wondering whether she could care for him as he knew he
+was coming to care for her.</p>
+<p>One day he received a telegram. It was from his mother and his
+sister, who had just reached Boston from Bermuda, and it carried
+the brief though emphatic information that they were starting to
+Tinkletown to nurse and care for him. Bonner was thrown into a
+panic. He realised in the instant that it would be impossible for
+them to come to Mr. Crow's home, and he knew they could not be
+deceived as to his real condition. His mother would naturally
+insist upon his going at once to Bonner Place, across the river,
+and on to Boston as soon as he was able; his clever sister would
+see through his motives like a flash of lightning. Young Mr. Bonner
+loved them, but he was distinctly bored by the prospect of their
+coming. In some haste and confusion, he sent for "Doc" Smith.</p>
+<p>"Doctor, how soon will I be able to navigate?" he asked
+anxiously.</p>
+<p>"Right now."</p>
+<p>"You don't say so! I don't feel strong, you know."</p>
+<p>"Well, your leg's doing well and all danger is past. Of course,
+you won't be as spry as usual for some time, and you can't walk
+without crutches, but I don't see any sense in your loafing around
+here on that account. You'd be safe to go at any time, Mr.
+Bonner."</p>
+<p>"Look here, doctor, I'm afraid to change doctors. You've handled
+this case mighty well, and if I went to some other chap, he might
+undo it all. I've made up my mind to have you look out for me until
+this wound is completely healed. That's all right, now. I know what
+I'm talking about. I'll take no chances. How long will it be until
+it is completely healed?"</p>
+<p>"A couple of weeks, I suppose."</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll stay right here and have you look at it every day.
+It's too serious a matter for me to trifle with. By the way, my
+mother is coming up, and I dare say she'll want me to go to Boston.
+Our family doctor is an old fossil and I don't like to trust him
+with this thing. You'll be doing me a favour, doctor, if you keep
+me here until I'm thoroughly well. I intend to tell my mother that
+it will not be wise to move me until all danger of blood poisoning
+is past."</p>
+<p>"Blood poisoning? There's no danger now, sir."</p>
+<p>"You never can tell," said Bonner sagely.</p>
+<p>"But I'd be a perfect fool, Mr. Bonner, if there were still
+danger of that," complained the doctor. "What sort of a doctor
+would they consider me?"</p>
+<p>"They'd certainly give you credit for being careful, and that's
+what appeals to a mother, you know," said Bonner still more sagely.
+"Besides, it's <i>my</i> leg, doctor, and I'll have it treated my
+way. I think a couple of weeks more under your care will put me
+straight. Mother has to consider me, that's all. I wish you'd stop
+in to-morrow and change these bandages, doctor; if you don't
+mind&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Doc" Smith was not slow. He saw more than Bonner thought, so he
+winked to himself as he crossed over to his office. At the corner
+he met Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson," he said, half chuckling, "that young Bonner has
+had a relapse."</p>
+<p>"Thunderation!"</p>
+<p>"He can't be moved for a week or two."</p>
+<p>"Will you have to cut it off?"</p>
+<p>"The leg?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly. That's the only thing that pains him, ain't it?"</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/251.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"I think not. I'm going to put his heart in a sling," said
+Smith, laughing heartily at what he thought would be taken as a
+brilliant piece of jesting. But he erred. Anderson went home in a
+great flurry and privately cautioned every member of the household,
+including Rosalie, to treat Bonner with every consideration, as his
+heart was weak and liable to give him great trouble. Above all, he
+cautioned them to keep the distressing news from Bonner. It would
+discourage him mightily. For a full week Anderson watched Bonner
+with anxious eyes, writhing every time the big fellow exerted
+himself, groaning when he gave vent to his hearty laugh.</p>
+<p>"Have you heard anything?" asked Bonner with faithful regularity
+when Anderson came home each night. He referred to the chase for
+the fugitives.</p>
+<p>"Nothin' worth while," replied Anderson dismally. "Uncle Jimmy
+Borton had a letter from Albany to-day, an' his son-in-law said
+three strange men had been seen in the Albany depot the other day.
+I had Uncle Jimmy write an' ast him if he had seen anybody
+answerin' the description, you know. But the three men he spoke of
+took a train for New York, so I suppose they're lost by this time.
+It's the most bafflin' case I ever worked on."</p>
+<p>"Has it occurred to you that the real leader was in this
+neighbourhood at the time? In Boggs City, let us say. According to
+Rosa&mdash;Miss Gray's story, the man Sam went out nightly for
+instructions. Well, he either went to Boggs City or to a meeting
+place agreed upon between him and his superior. It is possible that
+he saw this person on the very night of my own adventure. Now, the
+thing for us to do is to find out if a stranger was seen in these
+parts on that night. The hotel registers in Boggs City may give us
+a clew. If you don't mind, Mr. Crow, I'll have this New York
+detective, who is coming up to-morrow, take a look into this phase
+of the case. It won't interfere with your plans, will it?" asked
+Bonner, always considerate of the feelings of the good-hearted,
+simple-minded old marshal.</p>
+<p>"Not at all, an' I'll help him all I can, sir," responded
+Anderson magnanimously. "Here, Eva, here's a letter fer Rosalie.
+It's the second she's had from New York in three days."</p>
+<p>"It's from Miss Banks. They correspond, Anderson," said Mrs.
+Crow.</p>
+<p>"And say, Eva, I've decided on one thing. We've got to calculate
+on gittin' along without that thousand dollars after this."</p>
+<p>"Why, An&mdash;der&mdash;son Crow!"</p>
+<p>"Yep. We're goin' to find her folks, no matter if we do have to
+give up the thousand. It's no more'n right. She'll be twenty-one in
+March, an' I'll have to settle the guardeenship business anyhow.
+But, doggone it, Mr. Bonner, she says she won't take the money
+we've saved fer her."</p>
+<p>"She has told me as much, Mr. Crow. I think she's partly right.
+If she takes my advice she will divide it with you. You are
+entitled to all of it, you know&mdash;it was to be your
+pay&mdash;and she will not listen to your plan to give all of it to
+her. Still, I feel that she should not be penniless at this time.
+She may never need it&mdash;she certainly will not as long as you
+are alive&mdash;but it seems a wise thing for her to be protected
+against emergencies. But I dare say you can arrange that between
+yourselves. I have no right to interfere. Was there any mail for
+me?"</p>
+<p>"Yep. I almost fergot to fork it over. Here's one from your
+mother, I figger. This is from your sister, an' here's one from
+your&mdash;your sweetheart, I reckon. I deduce all this by sizin'
+up the&mdash;" and he went on to tell how he reached his
+conclusions, all of which were wrong. They were invitations to
+social affairs in Boston. "But I got somethin' important to tell
+you, Mr. Bonner. I think a trap is bein' set fer me by the
+desperadoes we're after. I guess I'm gittin' too hot on their
+trail. I had an ananymous letter to-day."</p>
+<p>"A what?"</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/254.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Ananymous letter. Didn't you ever hear of one? This one was
+writ fer the express purpose of lurin' me into a trap. They want to
+git me out of the way. But I'll fool 'em. I'll not pay any
+attention to it."</p>
+<p>"Goodness, Anderson, I bet you'll be assassinated yet!" cried
+his poor wife. "I wish you'd give up chasin' people down."</p>
+<p>"May I have a look at the letter, Mr. Crow?" asked Bonner.
+Anderson stealthily drew the square envelope from his inside pocket
+and passed it over.</p>
+<p>"They've got to git up purty early to ketch me asleep," he said
+proudly. Bonner drew the enclosure from the envelope. As he read,
+his eyes twinkled and the corners of his mouth twitched, but his
+face was politely sober as he handed the missive back to the
+marshal. "Looks like a trap, don't it?" said Anderson. "You see
+there ain't no signature. The raskils were afraid to sign a
+name."</p>
+<p>"I wouldn't say anything to Miss Gray about this if I were you,
+Mr. Crow. It might disturb her, you know," said Bonner.</p>
+<p>"That means you, too, Eva," commanded Anderson in turn. "Don't
+worry the girl. She mustn't know anything about this."</p>
+<p>"I don't think it's a trap," remarked Eva as she finished
+reading the missive. Bonner took this opportunity to laugh
+heartily. He had held it back as long as possible. What Anderson
+described as an "ananymous" letter was nothing more than a polite,
+formal invitation to attend a "house warming" at Colonel Randall's
+on the opposite side of the river. It read:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"Mr. and Mrs. D.F. Randall request the honour of your presence
+at a house warming, Friday evening, January 30, 190&mdash;, at
+eight o'clock. Rockden-of-the-Hills."</p>
+</div>
+<p>"It is addressed to me, too, Anderson," said his wife, pointing
+to the envelope. "It's the new house they finished last fall.
+Anonymous letter! Fiddlesticks! I bet there's one at the
+post-office fer each one of the girls."</p>
+<p>"Roscoe got some of the mail," murmured the marshal sheepishly.
+"Where is that infernal boy? He'd oughter be strapped good and hard
+fer holdin' back letters like this," growled he, eager to run the
+subject into another channel. After pondering all evening, he
+screwed up the courage and asked Bonner not to tell any one of his
+error in regard to the invitation. Roscoe produced invitations for
+his sister and Rosalie. He furthermore announced that half the
+people in town had received them.</p>
+<p>"There's a telegram comin' up fer you after a while, Mr.
+Bonner," he said. "Bud's out delivering one to Mr. Grimes, and he's
+going to stop here on the way back. I was at the station when it
+come in. It's from your ma, and it says she'll be over from Boggs
+City early in the morning."</p>
+<p>"Thanks, Roscoe," said Bonner with an amused glance at Rosalie;
+"you've saved me the trouble of reading it."</p>
+<p>"They are coming to-morrow," said Rosalie long afterward, as the
+last of the Crows straggled off to bed. "You will have to go away
+with them, won't you?"</p>
+<p>"I'm an awful nuisance about here, I fancy, and you'll be glad
+to be rid of me," he said softly, his gaze on the blazing
+"back-log."</p>
+<p>"No more so than you will be to go," she said so coolly that his
+pride suffered a distinct shock. He stole a shy glance at the face
+of the girl opposite. It was as calm and serene as a May morning.
+Her eyes likewise were gazing into the blaze, and her fingers were
+idly toying with the fringe on the arm of the chair.</p>
+<p>"By George!" he thought, a weakness assailing his heart
+suddenly; "I don't believe she cares a rap!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+<h3><i>The Left Ventricle</i></h3>
+<p>The next day Mrs. Bonner and Miss Bonner descended upon
+Tinkletown. They were driven over from Boggs City in an automobile,
+and their advent caused a new thrill of excitement in town. Half of
+the women in Tinkletown found excuse to walk past Mr. Crow's home
+some time during the day, and not a few of them called to pay their
+respects to Mrs. Crow, whether they owed them or not, much to that
+estimable lady's discomfiture.</p>
+<p>Wicker's mother was a handsome, aristocratic woman with a
+pedigree reaching back to Babylon or some other historic starting
+place. Her ancestors were Tories at the time of the American
+Revolution, and she was proud of it. Her husband's forefathers had
+shot a few British in those days, it is true, and had successfully
+chased some of her own ancestors over to Long Island, but that did
+not matter in these twentieth century days. Mr. Bonner long since
+had gone to the tomb; and his widow at fifty was quite the queen of
+all she surveyed, which was not inconsiderable. The Bonners were
+rich in worldly possessions, rich in social position, rich in
+traditions. The daughter, just out in society, was a pretty girl,
+several years younger than Wicker. She was the idol of his heart.
+This slip of a girl had been to him the brightest, wittiest and
+prettiest girl in all the world. Now, he was wondering how the
+other girl, who was not his sister, would compare with her when
+they stood together before him.</p>
+<p>Naturally, Mrs. Crow and her daughters sank into a nervous panic
+as soon as these fashionable women from Boston set foot inside the
+humble home. They lost what little self-possession they had managed
+to acquire and floundered miserably through the preliminaries.</p>
+<p>But calm, sweet and composed as the most fastidious would
+require, Rosalie greeted the visitors without a shadow of confusion
+or a sign of gaucherie. Bonner felt a thrill of joy and pride as he
+took note of the look of surprise that crept into his mother's
+face&mdash;a surprise that did not diminish as the girl went
+through her unconscious test.</p>
+<p>"By George!" he cried jubilantly to himself, "she's something to
+be proud of&mdash;she's a queen!"</p>
+<p>Later in the day, after the humble though imposing lunch (the
+paradox was permissible in Tinkletown), Mrs. Bonner found time and
+opportunity to express her surprise and her approval to him. With
+the insight of the real aristocrat, she was not blind to the charms
+of the girl, who blossomed like a rose in this out-of-the-way patch
+of nature. The tact which impelled Rosalie to withdraw herself and
+all of the Crows from the house, giving the Bonners an opportunity
+to be together undisturbed, did not escape the clever woman of the
+world.</p>
+<p>"She is remarkable, Wicker. Tell me about her. Why does she
+happen to be living in this wretched town and among such
+people?"</p>
+<p>Whereupon Bonner rushed into a detailed and somewhat lengthy
+history of the mysterious Miss Gray, repeating it as it had come to
+him from her own frank lips, but with embellishments of his own
+that would have brought the red to her cheeks, could she have heard
+them. His mother's interest was not assumed; his sister was
+fascinated by the recital.</p>
+<p>"Who knows," she cried, her dark eyes sparkling, "she may be an
+heiress to millions!"</p>
+<p>"Or a princess of the royal blood!" amended her mother with an
+enthusiasm that was uncommon. "Blood alone has made this girl what
+she is. Heaven knows that billions or trillions could not have
+overcome the influences of a lifetime spent in&mdash;in
+Winkletown&mdash;or is that the name? It doesn't matter,
+Wicker&mdash;any name will satisfy. Frankly, I am interested in the
+girl. It is a crime to permit her to vegetate and die in a place
+like this."</p>
+<p>"But, mother, she loves these people," protested Bonner
+lifelessly. "They have been kind to her all these years. They have
+been parents, protectors&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"And they have been well paid for it, my son. Please do not
+misunderstand me, I am not planning to take her off their hands. I
+am not going to reconstruct her sphere in life. Not by any means. I
+am merely saying that it is a crime for her to be penned up for
+life in this&mdash;this desert. I doubt very much whether her
+parentage will ever be known, and perhaps it is just as well that
+it isn't to be. Still, I am interested."</p>
+<p>"Mamma, I think it would be very nice to ask her to come to
+Boston for a week or two, don't you?" suggested Edith Bonner,
+warmly but doubtfully.</p>
+<p>"Bully!" exclaimed Wicker, forgetting in his excitement that he
+was a cripple. "Have her come on to stop a while with you, Ede. It
+will be a great treat for her and, by George, I'm inclined to think
+it maybe somewhat beneficial to us."</p>
+<p>"Your enthusiasm is beautiful, Wicker," said his mother,
+perfectly unruffled. "I have no doubt you think Boston would be
+benefited, too."</p>
+<p>"Now, you know, mother, it's not just like you to be snippish,"
+said he easily. "Besides, after living a while in other parts of
+the world, I'm beginning to feel that population is not the only
+thing about Boston that can be enlarged. It's all very nice to pave
+our streets with intellect so that we can't stray from our own
+footsteps, but I rather like the idea of losing my way, once in a
+while, even if I have to look at the same common, old sky up there
+that the rest of the world looks at, don't you know. I've learned
+recently that the same sun that shines on Boston also radiates for
+the rest of the world."</p>
+<p>"Yes, it shines in Tinkletown," agreed his mother serenely.
+"But, my dear&mdash;" turning to her daughter&mdash;"I think you
+would better wait a while before extending the invitation. There is
+no excuse for rushing into the unknown. Let time have a
+chance."</p>
+<p>"By Jove, mother, you talk sometimes like Anderson Crow. He
+often says things like that," cried Wicker delightedly.</p>
+<p>"Dear me! How can you say such a thing, Wicker?"</p>
+<p>"Well, you'd like old Anderson. He's a jewel!"</p>
+<p>"I dare say&mdash;an emerald. No, no&mdash;that was not fair or
+kind, Wicker. I unsay it. Mr. Crow and all of them have been good
+to you. Forgive me the sarcasm. Mr. Crow is perfectly impossible,
+but I like him. He has a heart, and that is more than most of us
+can say. And now let us return to earth once more. When will you be
+ready to start for Boston? To-morrow?"</p>
+<p>"Heavens, no! I'm not to be moved for quite a long
+time&mdash;danger of gangrene or something of the sort. It's
+astonishing, mother, what capable men these country doctors are.
+Dr. Smith is something of a marvel. He&mdash;he&mdash;saved my
+leg."</p>
+<p>"My boy&mdash;you don't mean that&mdash;" his mother was saying,
+her voice trembling.</p>
+<p>"Yes; that's what I mean. I'm all right now, but, of course, I
+shall be very careful for a couple of weeks. One can't tell, you
+know. Blood poisoning and all that sort of thing. But let's not
+talk of it&mdash;it's gruesome."</p>
+<p>"Indeed it is. You must be extremely careful, Wicker. Promise me
+that you will do nothing foolish. Don't use your leg until the
+doctor&mdash;but I have something better. We will send for Dr.
+J&mdash;&mdash;. He can run up from Boston two or three
+times&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Nothing of the sort, mother! Nonsense! Smith knows more in a
+minute than J&mdash;&mdash; does in a month. He's handling the case
+exactly as I want him to. Let well enough alone, say I. You know
+J&mdash;&mdash; always wants to amputate everything that can be cut
+or sawed off. For heaven's sake, don't let him try it on me. I need
+my legs."</p>
+<p>It is not necessary to say that Mrs. Bonner was completely won
+over by this argument. She commanded him to stay where he was until
+it was perfectly safe to be moved across the river, where he could
+recuperate before venturing into the city of his birth. Moreover,
+she announced that Edith and she would remain in Boggs City until
+he was quite out of danger, driving over every day in their
+chartered automobile. It suddenly struck Bonner that it would be
+necessary to bribe "Doc" Smith and the entire Crow family, if he
+was to maintain his position as an invalid.</p>
+<p>"Doc" Smith when put to the test lied ably in behalf of his
+client (he refused to call him his patient), and Mrs. Bonner was
+convinced. Mr. Crow and Eva vigorously protested that the young man
+would not be a "mite of trouble," and that he could stay as long as
+he liked.</p>
+<p>"He's a gentleman, Mrs. Bonner," announced the marshal, as if
+the mother was being made aware of the fact for the first time.
+"Mrs. Crow an' me have talked it over, an' I know what I'm talkin'
+about. He's a perfect gentleman."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, Mr. Crow. I am happy to hear you say that," said
+Mrs. Bonner, with fine tact. "You will not mind if he stops here a
+while longer then?"</p>
+<p>"I should say not. If he'll take the job, I'll app'int him
+deputy marshal."</p>
+<p>"I'd like a picture of you with the badge and uniform, Wick,"
+said Edith with good-natured banter.</p>
+<p>Just before the two ladies left for Boggs City that evening
+Bonner managed to say something to Edith.</p>
+<p>"Say, Ede, I think it would be uncommonly decent of you to ask
+Miss Gray down to Boston this spring. You'll like her."</p>
+<p>"Wicker, if it were not so awfully common, I'd laugh in my
+sleeve," said she, surveying him with a calm scrutiny that
+disconcerted. "I wasn't born yesterday, you know. Mother was,
+perhaps, but not your dear little sister. Cheer up, brother. You'll
+get over it, just like all the rest. I'll ask her to come,
+but&mdash;Please don't frown like that. I'll suspect
+something."</p>
+<p>During the many little automobile excursions that the two girls
+enjoyed during those few days in Tinkletown, Miss Bonner found much
+to love in Rosalie, much to esteem and a great deal to anticipate.
+Purposely, she set about to learn by "deduction" just what
+Rosalie's feelings were for the big brother. She would not have
+been surprised to discover the telltale signs of a real but secret
+affection on Rosalie's part, but she was, on the contrary, amazed
+and not a little chagrined to have the young girl meet every
+advance with a joyous candour, that definitely set aside any
+possibility of love for the supposedly irresistible brother. Miss
+Edith's mind was quite at rest, but with the arrogant pride of a
+sister, she resented the fact that any one could know this
+cherished brother and not fall a victim. Perversely, she would have
+hated Rosalie had she caught her, in a single moment of
+unguardedness, revealing a feeling more tender than friendly
+interest for him.</p>
+<p>Sophisticated and world-wise, the gay, careless Miss Bonner read
+her pages quickly&mdash;she skimmed them&mdash;but she saw a great
+deal between the lines. If her mother had been equally discerning,
+that very estimable lady might have found herself immensely
+relieved along certain lines.</p>
+<p>Bonner was having a hard time of it these days. It was worse
+than misery to stay indoors, and it was utterly out of the question
+for him to venture out. His leg was healing with disgusting
+rashness, but his heart was going into an illness that was to scoff
+at the cures of man. And if his parting with his mother and the
+rosy-faced young woman savoured of relief, he must he forgiven. A
+sore breast is no respecter of persons.</p>
+<p>They were returning to the Hub by the early morning train from
+Boggs City, and it was understood that Rosalie was to come to them
+in June. Let it be said in good truth that both Mrs. Bonner and her
+daughter were delighted to have her promise. If they felt any
+uneasiness as to the possibility of unwholesome revelations in
+connection with her birth, they purposely blindfolded themselves
+and indulged in the game of consequences.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Bonner was waiting in the automobile, having said good-bye
+to Wicker.</p>
+<p>"I'll keep close watch on him, Mrs. Bonner," promised Anderson,
+"and telegraph you if his condition changes a mite. I ast 'Doc'
+Smith to-day to tell me the real truth 'bout him, an'&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"The real truth? What do you mean?" she cried, in fresh
+alarm.</p>
+<p>"Don't worry, ma'am. He's improvin' fine, 'doc' says. He told me
+he'd be out o' danger when he got back to Boston. His heart's
+worryin' 'doc' a little. I ast 'im to speak plain an' tell me jest
+how bad it's affected. He said: 'At present, only the left
+ventricle&mdash;whatever that be&mdash;only the left one is
+punctured, but the right one seems to need a change of air.'"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXVII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Grin Derisive</i></h3>
+<p>"I like your ma," said Anderson to Wicker, later in the evening.
+"She's a perfect lady. Doggone, it's a relief to see a rich woman
+that knows how to be a lady. She ain't a bit stuck up an' yet she's
+a reg'lar aristocrat. Did I ever tell you about what happened to
+Judge Courtwright's wife? No? Well, it was a long time ago, right
+here in Tinkletown. The judge concluded this would be a good place
+fer a summer home&mdash;so him an' her put up a grand residence
+down there on the river bluff. It was the only summer place on this
+side of the river. Well, of course Mrs. Courtwright had to turn in
+an' be the leader of the women in this place. She lorded it over
+'em an' she give 'em to understand that she was a queen er
+somethin' like that an' they was nothin' but peasants. An' the
+derned fool women 'lowed her to do it, too. Seems as though her
+great-grandfather was a 'squire over in England, an' she had a
+right to be swell. Well, she ruled the roost fer two summers an'
+nobody could get near her without a special dispensation from the
+Almighty. She wouldn't look at anybody with her eyes; her chin was
+so high in the air that she had to look through her nose.</p>
+<p>"Her husband was as old as Methoosalum&mdash;that is, he was as
+old as Methoosalum was when he was a boy, so to speak&mdash;an' she
+had him skeered of his life. But I fixed her. At the end of the
+second summer she was ready to git up an' git, duke er no duke.
+Lemme me give you a tip, Wick. If you want to fetch a queen down to
+your level, jest let her know you're laughin' at her. Well, sir,
+the judge's wife used to turn up her nose at me until I got to
+feelin' too small to be seen. My pride was wallerin' in the dust.
+Finally, I thought of a scheme to fix her. Every time I saw her,
+I'd grin at her&mdash;not sayin' a word, mind you, but jest lookin'
+at her as if she struck me as bein' funny. Well, sir, I kept it up
+good an' strong. First thing I knowed, she was beginnin' to look as
+though a bee had stung her an' she couldn't find the place. I'd
+ketch her stealin' sly glances at me an' she allus found me with a
+grin on my face&mdash;a good, healthy grin, too.</p>
+<p>"There wasn't anything to laugh at, mind you, but she didn't
+know that. She got to fixin' her back hair and lookin' worried
+about her clothes. 'Nen she'd wipe her face to see if the powder
+was on straight, all the time wonderin' what in thunder I was
+laughin' at. If she passed in her kerridge she'd peep back to see
+if I was laughin'; and I allus was. I never failed. All this time I
+wasn't sayin' a word-jest grinnin' as though she tickled me half to
+death. Gradually I begin to be scientific about it. I got so that
+when she caught me laughin', I'd try my best to hide the grin.
+Course that made it all the worse. She fidgeted an' squirmed an'
+got red in the face till it looked like she was pickled. Doggone,
+ef she didn't begin to neglect her business as a
+great-granddaughter! She didn't have time to lord it over her
+peasants. She was too blame busy wonderin' what I was laughin'
+at.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i268.jpg" id="i268.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/268.jpg"><img src="images/268.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"It was a wise, discreet old oak"</b></div>
+<p>"'Nen she begin to look peaked an' thin. She looked like she was
+seem' ghosts all the time. That blamed grin of mine pursued her
+every minute. Course, she couldn't kick about it. That wouldn't do
+at all. She jest had to bear it without grinnin'. There wasn't
+anything to say. Finally, she got to stayin' away from the meetin's
+an' almost quit drivin' through the town. Everybody noticed the
+change in her. People said she was goin' crazy about her back hair.
+She lost thirty pounds worryin' before August, and when September
+come, the judge had to take her to a rest cure. They never come
+back to Tinkletown, an' the judge had to sell the place fer half
+what it cost him. Fer two years she almost went into hysterics when
+anybody laughed. But it done her good. It changed her idees. She
+got over her high an' mighty ways, they say, an' I hear she's one
+of the nicest, sweetest old ladies in Boggs City nowadays. But
+Blootch Peabody says that to this day she looks flustered when
+anybody notices her back hair. The Lord knows I wa'n't laughin' at
+her hair. I don't see why she thought so, do you?"</p>
+<p>Bonner laughed long and heartily over the experiment; but
+Rosalie vigorously expressed her disapproval of the marshal's
+methods.</p>
+<p>"It's the only real mean thing I ever heard of you doing, daddy
+Crow!" she cried. "It was cruel!"</p>
+<p>"Course you'd take her part, bein' a woman," said he serenely.
+"Mrs. Crow did, too, when I told her about it twenty years ago.
+Women ain't got much sense of humour, have they, Wick?" He was
+calling him Wick nowadays; and the young man enjoyed the
+familiarity.</p>
+<p>The days came when Bonner could walk about with his cane, and he
+was not slow to avail himself of the privilege this afforded. It
+meant enjoyable strolls with Rosalie, and it meant the elevation of
+his spirits to such heights that the skies formed no bounds for
+them. The town was not slow to draw conclusions. Every one said it
+would be a "match." It was certain that the interesting Boston man
+had acquired a clear field. Tinkletown's beaux gave up in despair
+and dropped out of the contest with the hope that complete recovery
+from his injuries might not only banish Bonner from the village,
+but also from the thoughts of Rosalie Gray. Most of the young men
+took their medicine philosophically. They had known from the first
+that their chances were small. Blootch Peabody and Ed Higgins,
+because of the personal rivalry between themselves, hoped on and on
+and grew more bitter between themselves, instead of toward
+Bonner.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i272.jpg" id="i272.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/272.jpg"><img src="images/272.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"'I beg your pardon,' he said humbly"</b></div>
+<p>Anderson Crow and Eva were delighted and the Misses Crow, after
+futile efforts to interest the young man in their own wares, fell
+in with the old folks and exuberantly whispered to the world that
+"it would be perfectly glorious." Roscoe was not so charitable. He
+was soundly disgusted with the thought of losing his friend Bonner
+in the hated bonds of matrimony. From his juvenile point of view,
+it was a fate that a good fellow like Bonner did not deserve. Even
+Rosalie was not good enough for him, so he told Bud Long; but Bud,
+who had worshipped Rosalie with a hopeless devotion through most of
+his short life, took strong though sheepish exceptions to the
+remark. It seemed quite settled in the minds of every one but
+Bonner and Rosalie themselves. They went along evenly, happily,
+perhaps dreamily, letting the present and the future take care of
+themselves as best they could, making mountains of the
+past&mdash;mountains so high and sheer that they could not be
+surmounted in retreat.</p>
+<p>Bonner was helplessly in love&mdash;so much so, indeed, that in
+the face of it, he lost the courage that had carried him through
+trivial affairs of the past, and left him floundering vaguely in
+seas that looked old and yet were new. Hourly, he sought for the
+first sign of love in her eyes, for the first touch of sentiment;
+but if there was a point of weakness in her defence, it was not
+revealed to the hungry perception of the would-be conqueror. And so
+they drifted on through the February chill, that seemed warm to
+them, through the light hours and the dark ones, quickly and surely
+to the day which was to call him cured of one ill and yet sorely
+afflicted by another.</p>
+<p>Through it all he was saying to himself that it did not matter
+what her birth may have been, so long as she lived at this hour in
+his life, and yet a still, cool voice was whispering
+procrastination with ding-dong persistency through every avenue of
+his brain. "Wait!" said the cool voice of prejudice. His heart did
+not hear, but his brain did. One look of submission from her tender
+eyes and his brain would have turned deaf to the small, cool
+voice&mdash;but her eyes stood their ground and the voice
+survived.</p>
+<p>The day was fast approaching when it would be necessary for him
+to leave the home of Mr. Crow. He could no longer encroach upon the
+hospitality and good nature of the marshal&mdash;especially as he
+had declined the proffered appointment to become deputy town
+marshal. Together they had discussed every possible side to the
+abduction mystery and had laid the groundwork for a systematic
+attempt at a solution. There was nothing more for them to do. True
+to his promise, Bonner had put the case in the hands of one of the
+greatest detectives in the land, together with every known point in
+the girl's history. Tinkletown was not to provide the solution,
+although it contained the mystery. On that point there could be no
+doubt; so, Mr. Bonner was reluctantly compelled to admit to himself
+that he had no plausible excuse for staying on. The great detective
+from New York had come to town, gathered all of the facts under
+cover of strictest secrecy, run down every possible shadow of a
+clew in Boggs City, and had returned to the metropolis, there to
+begin the search twenty-one years back.</p>
+<p>"Four weeks," Bonner was saying to her reflectively, as they
+came homeward from their last visit to the abandoned mill on Turnip
+Creek. It was a bright, warm February morning, suggestive of spring
+and fraught with the fragrance of something far sweeter. "Four
+weeks of idleness and joy to me&mdash;almost a lifetime in the
+waste of years. Does it seem long to you, Miss Gray&mdash;oh, I
+remember, I am to call you Rosalie."</p>
+<p>"It seems that I have known you always instead of for four
+weeks," she said gently. "They have been happy weeks, haven't they?
+My&mdash;our only fear is that you haven't been comfortable in our
+poor little home. It's not what you are accustomed&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Home is what the home folks make it," he said, striving to
+quote a vague old saying. He was dimly conscious of a subdued smile
+on her part and he felt the fool. "At any rate, I was more than
+comfortable. I was happy&mdash;never so happy. All my life shall be
+built about this single month&mdash;my past ends with it, my future
+begins. You, Rosalie," he went on swiftly, his eyes gleaming with
+the love that would not be denied, "are the spirit of life as I
+shall know it from this day forth. It is you who have made
+Tinkletown a kingdom, one of its homes a palace. Don't turn your
+face away, Rosalie."</p>
+<p>But she turned her face toward him and her dark eyes did not
+flinch as they met his, out there in the bleak old wood.</p>
+<p>"Don't, please don't, Wicker," she said softly, firmly. Her hand
+touched his arm for an instant. "You will understand, won't you?
+Please don't!" There was a world of meaning in it.</p>
+<p>His heart turned cold as ice, the blood left his face. He
+understood. She did not love him.</p>
+<p>"Yes," he said, his voice dead and hoarse, "I think I
+understand, Rosalie. I have taken too much for granted, fool that I
+am. Bah! The egotism of a fool!"</p>
+<p>"You must not speak like that," she said, her face contracted by
+pain and pity. "You are the most wonderful man I've ever
+known&mdash;the best and the truest. But&mdash;" and she paused,
+with a wan, drear smile on her lips.</p>
+<p>"I understand," he interrupted. "Don't say it. I want to think
+that some day you will feel like saying something else, and I want
+to hope, Rosalie, that it won't always be like this. Let us talk
+about something else." But neither cared to speak for what seemed
+an hour. They were in sight of home before the stony silence was
+broken. "I may come over from Bonner Place to see you?" he asked at
+last. He was to cross the river the next day for a stay of a week
+or two at his uncle's place.</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;often, Wicker. I shall want to see you every day.
+Yes, every day; I'm sure of it," she said wistfully, a hungry look
+in her eyes that he did not see, for he was staring straight ahead.
+Had he seen that look or caught the true tone in her voice, the
+world might not have looked so dark to him. When he did look at her
+again, her face was calm almost to sereneness.</p>
+<p>"And you will come to Boston in June just the same?"</p>
+<p>"If your sister and&mdash;and your mother still want me to
+come."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="i278.jpg" id="i278.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/278.jpg"><img src="images/278.jpg" width="45%" alt=""
+title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"'I think I understand, Rosalie'"</b></div>
+<p>She was thinking of herself, the nameless one, in the house of
+his people; she was thinking of the doubts, the
+speculations&mdash;even the fears that would form the background of
+her welcome in that proud house. No longer was Rosalie Gray
+regarding herself as the happy, careless foster-child of Anderson
+Crow; she was seeing herself only as the castaway, the unwanted,
+and the world was growing bitter for her. But Bonner was blind to
+all this; he could not, should not know.</p>
+<p>"You know they want you to come. Why do you say that?" he asked
+quickly, a strange, dim perspective rising before him for an
+instant, only to fade away before it could be analysed.</p>
+<p>"One always says that," she replied with a smile. "It is the
+penalty of being invited. Your sister has written the dearest
+letter to me, and I have answered it. We love one another, she and
+I."</p>
+<p>"Rosalie, I am going to write to you," said he suddenly; "you
+will answer?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," she told him simply. His heart quickened, but faltered,
+and was lost. "I had a long letter from Elsie Banks to-day," she
+went on with an indifference that chilled.</p>
+<p>"Oh," he said; "she is your friend who was or is to marry Tom
+Reddon, I believe. I knew him at Harvard. Tell me, are they
+married?"</p>
+<p>"No. It was not to take place until March, but now she writes
+that her mother is ill and must go to California for several
+months. Mr. Reddon wants to be married at once, or before they go
+West, at least; but she says she cannot consent while her mother
+requires so much of her. I don't know how it will end, but I
+presume they will be married and all go to California. That seems
+the simple and just way, doesn't it?"</p>
+<p>"Any way seems just, I'd say," he said. "They love one another,
+so what's the odds? Do you know Reddon well?"</p>
+<p>"I have seen him many times," she replied with apparent
+evasiveness.</p>
+<p>"He is a&mdash;" but here he stopped as if paralysis had seized
+him suddenly. The truth shot into his brain like a deadly bolt.
+Everything was as plain as day to him now. She stooped to pick up a
+slim, broken reed that crossed her path, and her face was averted.
+"God!" was the cry that almost escaped his lips. "She loves Reddon,
+and he is going to marry her best friend!" Cold perspiration
+started from every pore in his body. He had met the doom of
+love&mdash;the end of hope.</p>
+<p>"He has always loved her," said Rosalie so calmly that he was
+shocked by her courage. "I hope she will not ask him to wait."</p>
+<p>Rosalie never understood why Bonner looked at her in amazement
+and said:</p>
+<p>"By Jove, you are a&mdash;a marvel, Rosalie!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXVIII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Blind Man's Eyes</i></h3>
+<p>Bonner went away without another word of love to her. He saw the
+futility of hoping, and he was noble enough to respect her plea for
+silence on the subject that seemed distasteful to her. He went as
+one conquered and subdued; he went with the iron in his heart for
+the first time&mdash;deeply imbedded and racking.</p>
+<p>Bonner came twice from the place across the river. Anderson
+observed that he looked "peaked," and Rosalie mistook the hungry,
+wan look in his face for the emaciation natural to confinement
+indoors. He was whiter than was his wont, and there was a dogged,
+stubborn look growing about his eyes and mouth that would have been
+understood by the sophisticated. It was the first indication of the
+battle his love was to wage in days to come. He saw no sign of
+weakening in Rosalie. She would not let him look into her brave
+little heart, and so he turned his back upon the field and fled to
+Boston, half beaten, but unconsciously collecting his forces for
+the strife of another day. He did not know it then, nor did she,
+but his love was not vanquished; it had met its first rebuff, that
+was all.</p>
+<p>Tinkletown was sorry to see him depart, but it thrived on his
+promise to return. Every one winked slyly behind his back, for, of
+course, Tinkletown understood it all. He would come back often and
+then not at all&mdash;for the magnet would go away with him in the
+end. The busybodies, good-natured but garrulous, did not have to
+rehearse the story to its end; it would have been superfluous. Be
+it said here, however, that Rosalie was not long in settling many
+of the speculators straight in their minds. It seemed improbable
+that it should not be as they had thought and hoped. The news soon
+reached Blootch Peabody and Ed Higgins, and, both eager to revive a
+blighted hope, in high spirits, called to see Rosalie on the same
+night. It is on record that neither of them uttered two dozen words
+between eight o'clock and ten, so bitterly was the presence of the
+other resented.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/283.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>March came, and with it, to the intense amazement of Anderson
+Crow, the ever-mysterious thousand dollars, a few weeks late. On a
+certain day the old marshal took Rosalie to Boggs City, and the
+guardianship proceedings were legally closed. Listlessly she
+accepted half of the money he had saved, having refused to take all
+of it. She was now her own mistress, much to her regret if not to
+his.</p>
+<p>"I may go on living with you, Daddy Crow, may I not?" she asked
+wistfully as they drove home through the March blizzard. "This
+doesn't mean that I cannot be your own little girl after to-day,
+does it?"</p>
+<p>"Don't talk like that, Rosalie Gray, er I'll put you to bed
+'thout a speck o' supper," growled he in his most threatening
+tones, but the tears were rolling down his cheeks at the time.</p>
+<p>"Do you know, daddy, I honestly hope that the big city detective
+won't find out who I am," she said after a long period of
+reflection.</p>
+<p>"Cause why?"</p>
+<p>"Because, if he doesn't, you won't have any excuse for turning
+me out."</p>
+<p>"I'll not only send you to bed, but I'll give you a tarnation
+good lickin' besides if you talk like&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"But I'm twenty-one. You have no right," said she so brightly
+that he cracked his whip over the horse's back and blew his nose
+twice for full measure of gratitude.</p>
+<p>"Well, I ain't heerd anything from that fly detective lately,
+an' I'm beginnin' to think he ain't sech a long sight better'n I
+am," said he proudly.</p>
+<p>"He isn't half as good!" she cried.</p>
+<p>"I mean as a detective," he supplemented apologetically.</p>
+<p>"So do I," she agreed earnestly; but it was lost on him.</p>
+<p>There was a letter at home for her from Edith Bonner. It brought
+the news that Wicker was going South to recuperate. His system had
+"gone off" since the accident, and the March winds were driving him
+away temporarily. Rosalie's heart ached that night, and there was a
+still, cold dread in its depths that drove sleep away. He had not
+written to her, and she had begun to fear that their month had been
+a trifle to him, after all. Now she was troubled and grieved that
+she should have entertained the fear. Edith went on to say that her
+brother had seen the New York detective, who was still hopelessly
+in the dark, but struggling on in the belief that chance would open
+the way for him.</p>
+<p>Rosalie, strive as she would to prevent it, grew pale and the
+roundness left her cheek as the weeks went by. Her every thought
+was with the man who had gone to the Southland. She loved him as
+she loved life, but she could not confess to him then or thereafter
+unless Providence made clear the purity of her birth to her and to
+all the world. When finally there came to her a long, friendly,
+even dignified letter from the far South, the roses began to
+struggle back to her cheeks and the warmth to her heart. Her
+response brought a prompt answer from him, and the roses grew
+faster than the spring itself. Friendship, sweet and loyal, marked
+every word that passed between them, but there was a dear world in
+each epistle&mdash;for her, at least, a world of comfort and hope.
+She was praying, hungering, longing for June to come&mdash;sweet
+June and its tender touch&mdash;June with its bitter-sweet and sun
+clouds. Now she was forgetting the wish which had been expressed to
+Anderson Crow on the drive home from Boggs City. In its place grew
+the fierce hope that the once despised detective might clear away
+the mystery and give her the right to stand among others without
+shame and despair.</p>
+<p>"Hear from Wick purty reg'lar, don't you, Rosalie?" asked
+Anderson wickedly, one night while Blootch was there. The suitor
+moved uneasily, and Rosalie shot a reproachful glance at Anderson,
+a glance full of mischief as well.</p>
+<p>"He writes occasionally, daddy."</p>
+<p>"I didn't know you corresponded reg'larly," said Blootch.</p>
+<p>"I did not say regularly, Blucher."</p>
+<p>"He writes sweet things to beat the band, I bet," said Blootch
+with a disdain he did not feel.</p>
+<p>"What a good guesser you are!" she cried tormentingly.</p>
+<p>"Well, I guess I'll be goin'," exploded Blootch wrathfully;
+"it's gittin' late."</p>
+<p>"He won't sleep much to-night," said Anderson, with a twinkle in
+his eye, as the gate slammed viciously behind the caller. "Say,
+Rosalie, there's somethin' been fidgetin' me fer quite a while.
+I'll blurt it right out an' have it over with. Air you in love with
+Wick Bonner?"</p>
+<p>She started, and for an instant looked at him with wide open
+eyes; then they faltered and fell. Her breath came in a frightened,
+surprised gasp and her cheeks grew warm. When she looked up again,
+her eyes were soft and pleading, and her lips trembled ever so
+slightly.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Daddy Crow, I love him," she almost whispered.</p>
+<p>"An' him? How about him?"</p>
+<p>"I can't answer that, daddy. He has not told me."</p>
+<p>"Well, he ought to, doggone him!"</p>
+<p>"I could not permit him to do so if he tried."</p>
+<p>"What! You wouldn't permit? What in tarnation do you mean?"</p>
+<p>"You forget, daddy, I have no right to his love. It would be
+wrong&mdash;all wrong. Good-night, daddy," she cried, impulsively
+kissing him and dashing away before he could check her, but not
+before he caught the sound of a half sob. For a long time he sat
+and stared at the fire in the grate. Then he slapped his knee
+vigorously, squared his shoulders and set his jaw like a vise.
+Arising, he stalked upstairs and tapped on her door. She opened it
+an inch or two and peered forth at him&mdash;a pathetic figure in
+white.</p>
+<p>"Don't you worry, Rosalie," he gulped. "It will be all right and
+hunky dory. I've just took a solemn oath down stairs."</p>
+<p>"An oath, daddy?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; I swore by all that's good and holy I'd find out who
+your parents are ef it took till doomsday. You shall be set right
+in the eyes of everybody. Now, if I was you, I'd go right to sleep.
+There ain't nothin' to worry about. I've got another clew."</p>
+<p>She smiled lovingly as he ambled away. Poor old Anderson's
+confidence in himself was only exceeded by his great love for
+her.</p>
+<p>At last June smiled upon Rosalie and she was off for Boston. Her
+gowns were from Albany and her happiness from
+heaven&mdash;according to a reverential Tinkletown impression. For
+two weeks after her departure, Anderson Crow talked himself hoarse
+into willing ears, always extolling the beauty of his erstwhile
+ward as she appeared before the family circle in each and every one
+of those wonderful gowns.</p>
+<p>This humble narrative has not to do with the glories and foibles
+of Boston social life. It has to deal with the adventures of
+Anderson Crow and Rosalie Gray in so far as they pertain to a place
+called Tinkletown. The joys and pleasures that Rosalie experienced
+during that month of June were not unusual in character. The
+loneliness of Anderson Crow was not a novelty, if one stops to
+consider how the world revolves for every one else. Suffice to say
+that the Bonners, <i>m&egrave;re, fils</i> and <i>fille</i>,
+exerted themselves to make the month an unforgetable one to the
+girl&mdash;and they succeeded. The usual gaiety, the same old whirl
+of experiences, came to her that come to any other mortal who is
+being entertained, f&ecirc;ted and admired. She was a
+success&mdash;a pleasure in every way&mdash;not only to her hosts
+but to herself. If there was a cloud hanging over her head through
+all these days and nights, the world was none the wiser; the silver
+lining was always visible.</p>
+<p>Once while she was driving with the Bonners she saw a man whom
+she knew, but did not expect to ever look upon again. She could not
+be mistaken in him. It was Sam Welch, chief of the kidnapers. He
+was gazing at her from a crowded street corner, but disappeared
+completely before Bonner could set the police on his trail.</p>
+<p>Commencement Day at Cambridge brought back hundreds of the old
+men&mdash;the men famous in every branch of study and athletics.
+Among them was handsome Tom Reddon. He came to see her at the
+Bonner home. Elsie Banks was to return in September from Honolulu,
+and they were to be married in the fall. Wicker Bonner eagerly
+looked for the confusion of love in her eyes, but none appeared.
+That night she told him, in reply to an impulsive demand, that she
+did not care for Reddon, that she never had known the slightest
+feeling of tenderness for him.</p>
+<p>"Have you ever been in love, Rosalie?" he asked ruthlessly.</p>
+<p>"Yes," she said after a moment, looking him bravely in the
+eyes.</p>
+<p>"And could you never learn to love any one else?"</p>
+<p>"I think not, Wicker," she said ever so softly.</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon," he said humbly, his face white and his lips
+drawn. "I should not have asked."</p>
+<p>And so he remained the blind man, with the light shining full
+into his eyes.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+<h3><i>The Mysterious Questioner</i></h3>
+<p>July brought Rosalie's visit to an end, and once more Tinkletown
+basked in her smiles and yet wondered why they were so sad and
+wistful. She and Bonner were much nearer, far dearer to one another
+than ever, and yet not one effort had been made to bridge the chasm
+of silence concerning the thing that lay uppermost in their minds.
+She only knew that Anderson Crow had not "run down" his clew, nor
+had the New York sleuth reported for weeks. Undoubtedly, the latter
+had given up the search, for the last heard of him was when he left
+for Europe with his wife for a pleasure trip of unknown duration.
+It looked so dark and hopeless to her, all of it. Had Bonner
+pressed his demands upon her at the end of the visit in Boston, it
+is possible&mdash;more than possible&mdash;that she would have
+faltered in her resolution. After all, why should she deprive
+herself of happiness if it was held out to her with the promise
+that it should never end?</p>
+<p>The summer turned steaming hot in the lowlands about Tinkletown,
+but in the great hills across the river the air was cool, bright,
+and invigorating. People began to hurry to their country homes from
+the distant cities. Before the month was old, a score or more of
+beautiful places were opened and filled with the sons and daughters
+of the rich. Lazily they drifted and drove and walked through the
+wonderful hills, famed throughout the world, and lazily they
+wondered why the rest of the world lived. In the hills now were the
+Randalls, the Farnsworths, the Brackens, the Brewsters, the Van
+Wagenens, the Rolfes and a host of others. Tinkletown saw them
+occasionally as they came jaunting by in their traps and brakes and
+automobiles&mdash;but it is extremely doubtful if they saw
+Tinkletown in passing.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow swelled and blossomed in the radiance of his own
+importance. In his old age he was becoming fastidious. Only in the
+privacy of his own back yard did he go without the black alpaca
+coat; he was beginning to despise the other days, when he had gone
+coatless from dawn till dark, on the street or off. His badges were
+pinned neatly to his lapel and not to his suspenders, as in the
+days of yore. His dignity was the same, but the old sense of
+irritation was very much modified. In these new days he was
+considerate&mdash;and patronising. Was he not one of the wealthiest
+men in town&mdash;with his six thousand dollars laid by? Was he not
+its most honoured citizen, not excepting the mayor and selectmen?
+Was he not, above all, a close friend of the Bonners?</p>
+<p>The Bonners were to spend August in the Congressman's home
+across the big river. This fact alone was enough to stir the Crow
+establishment to its most infinitesimal roots. Rosalie was to be
+one of the guests at the house party, but her foster-sisters were
+not the kind to be envious. They revelled with her in the
+preparations for that new season of delight.</p>
+<p>With the coming of the Bonners, Anderson once more revived his
+resolution to unravel the mystery attending Rosalie's birth. For
+some months this ambition had lain dormant, but now, with the
+approach of the man she loved, the old marshal's devotion took fire
+and he swore daily that the mystery should be cleared "whether it
+wanted to be or not."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/292.jpg" width="40%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>He put poor old Alf Reesling through the "sweat box" time and
+again, and worthless Tom Folly had many an unhappy night, wondering
+why the marshal was shadowing him so persistently.</p>
+<p>"Alf," demanded Anderson during one of the sessions, "where were
+you on the night of February 18, 1883? Don't hesitate. Speak up.
+Where were you? Aha, you cain't answer. That looks suspicious."</p>
+<p>"You bet I c'n answer," said Alf bravely, blinking his blear
+eyes. "I was in Tinkletown."</p>
+<p>"What were you doin' that night?"</p>
+<p>"I was sleepin'."</p>
+<p>"At what time? Keerful now, don't lie."</p>
+<p>"What time o' night did they leave her on your porch?" demanded
+Alf in turn.</p>
+<p>"It was jest half past 'leven."</p>
+<p>"You're right, Anderson. That's jest the time I was asleep."</p>
+<p>"C'n you prove it? Got witnesses?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, but they don't remember the night."</p>
+<p>"Then it may go hard with you. Alf, I still believe you had
+somethin' to do with that case."</p>
+<p>"I didn't, Anderson, so help me."</p>
+<p>"Well, doggone it, somebody did," roared the marshal. "If it
+wasn't you, who was it? Answer that, sir."</p>
+<p>"Why, consarn you, Anderson Crow, I didn't have any spare
+children to leave around on doorsteps. I've allus had trouble to
+keep from leavin' myself there. Besides, it was a woman that left
+her, wasn't it? Well, consarn it, I'm not a woman, am I? Look at my
+whiskers, gee whiz! I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I didn't say you left the baskit, Alf; I only said you'd
+somethin' to do with it. I remember that there was a strong smell
+of liquor around the place that night." In an instant Anderson was
+sniffing the air. "Consarn ye, the same smell as now&mdash;yer
+drunk."</p>
+<p>"Tom Folly drinks, too," protested Alf. "He drinks Martini
+cocktails."</p>
+<p>"Don't you?"</p>
+<p>"Not any more. The last time I ordered one was in a Dutch eatin'
+house up to Boggs City. The waiter couldn't speak a word of
+English, an' that's the reason I got so full. Every time I ordered
+'dry Martini' he brought me three. He didn't know how to spell it.
+No, sir, Anderson; I'm not the woman you want. I was at home asleep
+that night. I remember jest as well as anything, that I said before
+goin' to bed that it was a good night to sleep. I remember lookin'
+at the kitchen clock an' seein' it was jest eighteen minutes after
+eleven. 'Nen I said&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"That'll be all for to-day, Alf," interrupted the questioner,
+his gaze suddenly centering on something down the street. "You've
+told me that six hundred times in the last twenty years. Come on, I
+see the boys pitchin' horseshoes up by the blacksmith shop. I'll
+pitch you a game fer the seegars."</p>
+<p>"I cain't pay if I lose," protested Alf.</p>
+<p>"I know it," said Anderson; "I don't expect you to."</p>
+<p>The first day that Bonner drove over in the automobile, to
+transplant Rosalie in the place across the river, found Anderson
+full of a new and startling sensation. He stealthily drew the big
+sunburnt young man into the stable, far from the house. Somehow, in
+spite of his smiles, Bonner was looking older and more serious.
+There was a set, determined expression about his mouth and eyes
+that struck Anderson as new.</p>
+<p>"Say, Wick," began the marshal mysteriously, "I'm up a
+stump."</p>
+<p>"What? Another?"</p>
+<p>"No; jest the same one. I almost got track of somethin'
+to-day&mdash;not two hours ago. I met a man out yander near the
+cross-roads that I'm sure I seen aroun' here about the time Rosalie
+was left on the porch. An' the funny part of it was, he stopped me
+an' ast me about her. Doggone, I wish I'd ast him his name."</p>
+<p>"You don't mean it!" cried Bonner, all interest. "Asked about
+her? Was he a stranger?"</p>
+<p>"I think he was. Leastwise, he said he hadn't been aroun' here
+fer more'n twenty year. Y'see, it was this way. I was over to Lem
+Hudlow's to ask if he had any hogs stole last night&mdash;Lem lives
+nigh the poorhouse, you know. He said he hadn't missed any an' ast
+me if any hogs had been found. I tole him no, not that I knowed of,
+but I jest thought I'd ask; I thought mebby he'd had some stole.
+You never c'n tell, you know, an' it pays to be attendin' to
+business all the time. Well, I was drivin' back slow when up rode a
+feller on horseback. He was a fine-lookin' man 'bout fifty year
+old, I reckon, an' was dressed in all them new-fangled ridin' togs.
+'Ain't this Mr. Crow, my old friend, the detective?' said he. 'Yes,
+sir,' said I. 'I guess you don't remember me,' says he. I told him
+I did, but I lied. It wouldn't do fer him to think I didn't know
+him an' me a detective, don't y'see?</p>
+<p>"We chatted about the weather an' the crops, him ridin' longside
+the buckboard. Doggone, his face was familiar, but I couldn't place
+it. Finally, he leaned over an' said, solemn-like: 'Have you still
+got the little girl that was left on your porch?' You bet I jumped
+when he said that. 'Yes,' says I, 'but she ain't a little girl now.
+She's growed up.' 'Is she purty?' he ast. 'Yes,' says I, 'purty as
+a speckled pup!' 'I'd like to see her,' he said. 'I hear she was a
+beautiful baby. I hope she is very, very happy.' 'What's that to
+you?' says I, sharp-like. 'I am very much interested in her, Mr.
+Crow,' he answered. 'Poor child, I have had her in mind for a long
+time,' he went on very solemn. I begin to suspect right away that
+he had a lot to do with her affairs. Somehow, I couldn't help
+thinkin' I'd seen him in Tinkletown about the time she was
+dropped&mdash;left, I mean.</p>
+<p>"'You have given her a good eddication, I hope,' said he. 'Yes,
+she's got the best in town,' said I. 'The thousand dollars came all
+right every year?' 'Every February.' 'I should like to see her
+sometime, if I may, without her knowin' it, Mr. Crow.' 'An' why
+that way, sir?' demanded I. 'It would probably annoy her if she
+thought I was regardin' her as an object of curiosity,' said he.
+'Tell her fer me,' he went on' gittin' ready to whip up, 'that she
+has an unknown friend who would give anything he has to help her.'
+Goshed, if he didn't put the gad to his horse an' gallop off 'fore
+I could say another word. I was goin' to ask him a lot of
+questions, too."</p>
+<p>"Can't you remember where and under what circumstances you saw
+him before?" cried Bonner, very much excited.</p>
+<p>"I'm goin' to try to think it up to-night. He was a rich-lookin'
+feller an' he had a heavy black band aroun' one of his coat
+sleeves. Wick, I bet he's the man we want. I've made up my mind 'at
+he's her father!"</p>
+<p>Bonner impatiently wormed all the information possible out of
+the marshal, especially as to the stranger's looks, voice, the
+direction taken when they parted company and then dismally
+concluded that an excellent opportunity had been hopelessly lost.
+Anderson said, in cross-examination, that the stranger had told him
+he "was leavin' at once fer New York and then going to Europe." His
+mother had died recently.</p>
+<p>"I'll try to head him off at Boggs City," said Bonner; and half
+an hour later he was off at full speed in the big machine for the
+county seat, a roundabout way to Bonner Place. The New York train
+had gone, but no one had seen a man answering the description of
+Anderson's interviewer.</p>
+<p>"I'm sorry, Rosalie," said Bonner some time later. He was taking
+her for a spin in the automobile. "It was a forlorn hope, and it is
+also quite probable that Mr. Crow's impressions are wrong. The man
+may have absolutely no connection with the matter. I'll admit it
+looks interesting, his manner and his questions, and there is a
+chance that he knows the true story. In any event, he did not go to
+New York to-day and he can't get another train until to-morrow.
+I'll pick up Mr. Crow in the morning and we'll run up here to have
+a look at him if he appears."</p>
+<p>"I think it is a wild goose chase, Wicker," Rosalie said
+despairingly. "Daddy Crow has done such things before."</p>
+<p>"But this seems different. The man's actions were curious. He
+must have had some reason for being interested in you. I am
+absolutely wild with eagerness to solve this mystery, Rosalie. It
+means life to me."</p>
+<p>"Oh, if you only could do it," she cried so fervently, that his
+heart leaped with pity for her.</p>
+<p>"I love you, Rosalie. I would give my whole life to make you
+happy. Listen, dearest&mdash;don't turn away from me! Are you
+afraid of me?" He was almost wailing it into her ear.</p>
+<p>"I&mdash;I was only thinking of the danger, Wicker. You are not
+watching the road," she said, flushing a deep red. He laughed gaily
+for the first time in months.</p>
+<p>"It is a wide road and clear," he said jubilantly. "We are alone
+and we are merely drifting. The machine is alive with happiness.
+Rosalie&mdash;Rosalie, I could shout for joy! You <i>do</i> love
+me? You will be my wife?"</p>
+<p>She was white and silent and faint with the joy of it all and
+the pain of it all. Joy in the full knowledge that he loved her and
+had spoken in spite of the cloud that enveloped her, pain in the
+certainty that she could not accept the sacrifice. For a long time
+she sat staring straight down the broad road over which they were
+rolling.</p>
+<p>"Wicker, you must not ask me now," she said at last, bravely and
+earnestly. "It is sweet to know that you love me. It is life to
+me&mdash;yes, life, Wicker. But, don't you see? No, no! You must
+not expect it. You must not ask it. Don't, don't, dear!" she cried,
+drawing away as he leaned toward her, passion in his eyes, triumph
+in his face.</p>
+<p>"But we love each other!" he cried. "What matters the rest? I
+want you&mdash;<i>you!</i>"</p>
+<p>"Have you considered? Have you thought? I have, a thousand
+times, a thousand bitter thoughts. I cannot, I will not be
+your&mdash;your wife, Wicker, until&mdash;"</p>
+<p>In vain he argued, pleaded, commanded. She was firm and she felt
+she was right if not just. Underneath it all lurked the fear, the
+dreadful fear that she may have been a child of love, the
+illegitimate offspring of passion. It was the weight that crushed
+her almost to lifelessness; it was the bar sinister.</p>
+<p>"No, Wicker, I mean it," she said in the end resolutely. "Not
+until I can give you a name in exchange for your own."</p>
+<p>"Your name shall one day be Bonner if I have to wreck the social
+system of the whole universe to uncover another one for you."</p>
+<p>The automobile had been standing, by some extraordinary chance,
+in the cool shade of a great oak for ten minutes or more, but it
+was a wise, discreet old oak.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+<h3><i>The Hemisphere Train Robbery</i></h3>
+<p>Anderson Crow lived at the extreme south end of Tinkletown's
+principal thoroughfare. The "calaboose" was situated at the far end
+of Main Street, at least half a mile separating the home of the law
+and the home of the lawless. Marshal Crow's innate love for the
+spectacular alone explains the unneighbourliness of the two
+establishments. He felt an inward glory in riding or walking the
+full length of the street, and he certainly had no reason to
+suspect the populace of disregarding the outward glory he
+presented.</p>
+<p>The original plan of the merchantry comprehended the erection of
+the jail in close proximity to the home of its chief official, but
+Mr. Crow put his foot flatly and ponderously upon the scheme. With
+the dignity which made him noticeable, he said he'd "be doggoned ef
+he wanted to have people come to his own dooryard to be arrested."
+By which, it may be inferred, that he expected the evil-doer to
+choose his own arresting place.</p>
+<p>Mr. and Mrs. Crow were becoming thrifty, in view of the prospect
+that confronted them, to wit: The possible marriage of Rosalie and
+the cutting off of the yearly payments. As she was to be absent for
+a full month or more, Anderson conceived the idea of advertising
+for a lodger and boarder. By turning Roscoe out of his bed, they
+obtained a spare room that looked down upon the peony beds beyond
+the side "portico."</p>
+<p>Mr. Crow was lazily twisting his meagre chin whiskers one
+morning soon after Rosalie's departure. He was leaning against the
+town pump in front of the post-office, the sun glancing impotently
+off the bright badge on the lapel of his alpaca coat. A stranger
+came forth from the post-office and approached the marshal.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/301.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Is this Mr. Crow?" he asked, with considerable deference.</p>
+<p>"It is, sir."</p>
+<p>"They tell me you take lodgers."</p>
+<p>"Depends."</p>
+<p>"My name is Gregory, Andrew Gregory, and I am here to canvass
+the neighbourhood in the interest of the Human Life Insurance
+Company of Penobscot. If you need references, I can procure them
+from New York or Boston."</p>
+<p>The stranger was a tall, lean-faced man of forty or forty-five,
+well dressed, with a brusque yet pleasant manner of speech. His
+moustache and beard were black and quite heavy. Mr. Crow eyed him
+quietly for a moment.</p>
+<p>"I don't reckon I'll ask fer references. Our rates are six
+dollars a week, board an' room. Childern bother you?"</p>
+<p>"Not at all. Have you any?"</p>
+<p>"Some, more or less. They're mostly grown."</p>
+<p>"I will take board and room for two weeks, at least," said Mr.
+Gregory, who seemed to be a man of action.</p>
+<p>For almost a week the insurance agent plied his vocation
+assiduously but fruitlessly. The farmers and the citizens of
+Tinkletown were slow to take up insurance. They would talk crops
+and politics with the obliging Mr. Gregory, but that was all. And
+yet, his suavity won for him many admirers. There were not a few
+who promised to give him their insurance if they concluded to "take
+any out." Only one man in town was willing to be insured, and he
+was too old to be comforting. Mr. Calligan was reputed to be one
+hundred and three years of age; and he wanted the twenty-year
+endowment plan. Gregory popularised himself at the Crow home by
+paying for his room in advance. Moreover, he was an affable chap
+with a fund of good stories straight from Broadway. At the
+post-office and in Lamson's store he was soon established as a
+mighty favourite. Even the women who came to make purchases in the
+evening,&mdash;a hitherto unknown custom,&mdash;lingered outside
+the circle on the porch, revelling in the second edition of the
+"Arabian Nights."</p>
+<p>"Our friend, the detective here," he said, one night at the
+close of the first week, "tells me that we are to have a show in
+town next week. I haven't seen any posters."</p>
+<p>"Mark Riley's been goin' to put up them bills sence day 'fore
+yesterday," said Anderson Crow, with exasperation in his voice, "an
+he ain't done it yet. The agent fer the troupe left 'em here an'
+hired Mark, but he's so thunderation slow that he won't paste 'em
+up 'til after the show's been an' gone. I'll give him a talkin' to
+to-morrer."</p>
+<p>"What-fer show is it?" asked Jim Borum.</p>
+<p>"Somethin' like a circus on'y 'tain't one," said Anderson. "They
+don't pertend to have animals."</p>
+<p>"Don't carry a menagerie, I see," remarked Gregory.</p>
+<p>"'Pears that way," said Anderson, slowly analysing the word.</p>
+<p>"I understand it is a stage performance under a tent,"
+volunteered the postmaster.</p>
+<p>"That's what it is," said Harry Squires, the editor, with a
+superior air. "They play 'As You Like It,' by Shakespeare. It's a
+swell show. We got out the hand bills over at the office. They'll
+be distributed in town to-morrow, and a big batch of them will be
+sent over to the summer places across the river. The advance agent
+says it is a high-class performance and will appeal particularly to
+the rich city people up in the mountains. It's a sort of open-air
+affair, you know." And then Mr. Squires was obliged to explain to
+his fellow-townsmen all the known details in connection with the
+approaching performance of "As You Like It" by the Boothby Company,
+set for Tinkletown on the following Thursday night. Hapgood's Grove
+had been selected by the agent as the place in which the
+performance should be given.</p>
+<p>"Don't they give an afternoon show?" asked Mrs. Williams.</p>
+<p>"Sure not," said Harry curtly. "It isn't a museum."</p>
+<p>"Of course not," added Anderson Crow reflectively. "It's a
+troupe."</p>
+<p>The next morning, bright and early, Mark Riley fared forth with
+paste and brush. Before noon, the board fences, barns and blank
+walls of Tinkletown flamed with great red and blue letters, twining
+in and about the portraits of Shakespeare, Manager Boothby,
+Rosalind, Orlando, and an extra king or two in royal robes. A dozen
+small boys spread the hand bills from the <i>Banner</i> presses,
+and Tinkletown was stirred by the excitement of a sensation that
+had not been experienced since Forepaugh's circus visited the
+county seat three years before. It went without saying that Manager
+Boothby would present "As You Like It" with an "unrivalled cast."
+He had "an all-star production," direct from "the leading theatres
+of the universe."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/305.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>When Mark Riley started out again in the afternoon for a second
+excursion with paste and brush, "slapping up" small posters with a
+celerity that bespoke extreme interest on his part, the astonished
+populace feared that he was announcing a postponement of the
+performance. Instead of that, however, he was heralding the fact
+that the Hemisphere Trunk Line and Express Company would gladly pay
+ten thousand dollars reward for the "apprehension and capture" of
+the men who robbed one of its richest trains a few nights before,
+seizing as booty over sixty thousand dollars in money, besides
+killing two messengers in cold blood. The great train robbery
+occurred in the western part of the State, hundreds of miles from
+Tinkletown, but nearly all of its citizens had read accounts of the
+deed in the weekly paper from Boggs City.</p>
+<p>"I seen the item about it in Mr. Gregory's New York paper," said
+Anderson Crow to the crowd at Lamson's.</p>
+<p>"Gee whiz, it must 'a' been a peach!" said Isaac Porter,
+open-mouthed and eager for details. Whereupon Marshal Crow related
+the story of the crime which stupefied the world on the morning of
+July 31st. The express had been held up in an isolated spot by a
+half-dozen masked men. A safe had been shattered and the contents
+confiscated, the perpetrators vanishing as completely as if aided
+by Satan himself. The authorities were baffled. A huge reward was
+offered in the hope that it might induce some discontented
+underling in the band to expose his comrades.</p>
+<p>"Are you goin' after 'em, Anderson?" asked old Mr. Borton, with
+unfailing faith in the town's chief officer.</p>
+<p>"Them fellers is in Asia by this time," vouchsafed Mr. Crow
+scornfully, forgetting that less than a week had elapsed since the
+robbery. He flecked a fly from his detective's badge and then
+struck viciously at the same insect when it straightway attacked
+his G.A.R. emblem.</p>
+<p>"I doubt it," said Mr. Lamson. "Like as not they're right here
+in this State, mebby in this county. You can't tell about them
+slick desperadoes. Hello, Harry! Has anything more been heard from
+the train robbers?" Harry Squires approached the group with
+something like news in his face.</p>
+<p>"I should say so," he said. "The darned cusses robbed the State
+Express last night at Vanderskoop and got away with thirteen
+hundred dollars. Say, they're wonders! The engineer says they're
+only five of them."</p>
+<p>"Why, gosh dern it, Vanderskoop's only the fourth station west
+of Boggs City!" exclaimed Anderson Crow, pricking up his official
+ear. "How in thunder do you reckon they got up here in such a short
+time?"</p>
+<p>"They probably stopped off on their way back from Asia," drily
+remarked Mr. Lamson; but it passed unnoticed.</p>
+<p>"Have you heard anything more about the show, Harry?" asked Jim
+Borum. "Is she sure to be here?" What did Tinkletown care about the
+train robbers when a "show" was headed that way?</p>
+<p>"Sure. The press comments are very favourable," said Harry.
+"They all say that Miss Marmaduke, who plays Rosalind, is great.
+We've got a cut of her and, say, she's a beauty. I can see myself
+sitting in the front row next Thursday night, good and proper."</p>
+<p>"Say, Anderson, I think it's a dern shame fer Mark Riley to go
+'round pastin' them reward bills over the show pictures," growled
+Isaac Porter. "He ain't got a bit o' sense."</p>
+<p>With one accord the crowd turned to inspect two adjacent bill
+boards. Mark had either malignantly or insanely pasted the reward
+notices over the nether extremities of Rosalind as she was expected
+to appear in the Forest of Arden. There was a period of reflection
+on the part of an outraged constituency.</p>
+<p>"I don't see how he's goin' to remove off them reward bills
+without scraping off her legs at the same time," mused Anderson
+Crow in perplexity. Two housewives of Tinkletown suddenly deserted
+the group and entered the store. And so it was that the train
+robbers were forgotten for the time being.</p>
+<p>But Marshal Crow's reputation as a horse-thief taker and general
+suppressor of crime constantly upbraided him. It seemed to call
+upon him to take steps toward the capture of the train robbers. All
+that afternoon he reflected. Tinkletown, seeing his mood, refrained
+from breaking in upon it. He was allowed to stroke his whiskers in
+peace and to think to his heart's content. By nightfall his face
+had become an inscrutable mask, and then it was known that the
+President of Bramble County's Horse-Thief Detective Association was
+determined to fathom the great problem. Stealthily he went up to
+the great attic in his home and inspected his "disguises." In some
+far-off period of his official career he had purchased the most
+amazing collection of false beards, wigs and garments that any
+stranded comedian ever disposed of at a sacrifice. He tried each
+separate article, seeking for the best individual effect; then he
+tried them collectively. It would certainly have been impossible to
+recognise him as Anderson Crow. In truth, no one could safely have
+identified him as a human being.</p>
+<p>"I'm goin' after them raskils," he announced to Andrew Gregory
+and the whole family, as he came down late to take his place at the
+head of the supper table.</p>
+<p>"Ain't you goin' to let 'em show here, pop?" asked Roscoe in
+distress.</p>
+<p>"Show here? What air you talkin' about?"</p>
+<p>"He means the train robbers, Roscoe," explained the lad's
+mother. The boy breathed again.</p>
+<p>"They are a dangerous lot," volunteered Gregory, who had been in
+Albany for two days. "The papers are full of their deeds.
+Cutthroats of the worst character."</p>
+<p>"I'd let them alone, Anderson," pleaded his wife. "If you corner
+them, they'll shoot, and it would be jest like you to follow them
+right into their lair."</p>
+<p>"Consarn it, Eva, don't you s'pose that I c'n shoot, too?"
+snorted Anderson. "What you reckon I've been keepin' them loaded
+revolvers out in the barn all these years fer? Jest fer ornaments?
+Not much! They're to shoot with, ef anybody asks you. Thunderation,
+Mr. Gregory, you ain't no idee how a feller can be handicapped by a
+timid wife an' a lot o' fool childern. I'm almost afeard to turn
+'round fer fear they'll be skeered to death fer my safety."</p>
+<p>"You cut yourself with a razor once when ma told you not to try
+to shave the back of your neck by yourself," said one of the girls.
+"She wanted you to let Mr. Beck shave it for you, but you wouldn't
+have it that way."</p>
+<p>"Do you suppose I want an undertaker shavin' my neck? I'm not
+that anxious to be shaved. Beck's the undertaker, Mr. Gregory."</p>
+<p>"Well, he runs the barber shop, too," insisted the girl.</p>
+<p>During the next three days Tinkletown saw but little of its
+marshal, fire chief and street commissioner. That triple personage
+was off on business of great import. Early, each morning, he
+mysteriously stole away to the woods, either up or down the river,
+carrying a queer bundle under the seat of his "buckboard." Two
+revolvers, neither of which had been discharged for ten years,
+reposed in a box fastened to the dashboard. Anderson solemnly but
+positively refused to allow any one to accompany him, nor would he
+permit any one to question him. Farmers coming to town spoke of
+seeing him in the lanes and in the woods, but he had winked
+genially when they had asked what he was trailing.</p>
+<p>"He's after the train robbers," explained all Tinkletown
+soberly. Whereupon the farmers and their wives did not begrudge
+Anderson Crow the chicken dinners he had eaten with them, nor did
+they blame him for bothering the men in the fields. It was
+sufficient that he found excuse to sleep in the shade of their
+trees during his still hunt.</p>
+<p>"Got any track of 'em?" asked George Ray one evening, stopping
+at Anderson's back gate to watch the marshal unhitch his thankful
+nag. Patience had ceased to be a virtue with George.</p>
+<p>"Any track of who?" asked Mr. Crow with a fine show of
+innocence.</p>
+<p>"The robbers."</p>
+<p>"I ain't been trackin' robbers, George."</p>
+<p>"What in thunder have you been trackin' all over the country
+every day, then?"</p>
+<p>"I'm breakin' this colt," calmly replied the marshal, with a
+mighty wink at old Betty, whom he had driven to the same buckboard
+for twenty years. As George departed with an insulted snort, Andrew
+Gregory came from the barn, where he had been awaiting the return
+of Mr. Crow."</p>
+<p>"I'm next to something big," he announced in a low tone, first
+looking in all directions to see that no one was listening.</p>
+<p>"Gosh! Did you land Mr. Farnsworth?"</p>
+<p>"It has nothing to do with insurance," hastily explained the
+agent. "I've heard something of vast importance to you."</p>
+<p>"You don't mean to say the troupe has busted?"</p>
+<p>"No&mdash;no; it is in connection with&mdash;with&mdash;" and
+here Mr. Gregory leaned forward and whispered something in
+Anderson's ear. Mr. Crow promptly stopped dead still in his tracks,
+his eyes bulging. Betty, who was being led to the water trough,
+being blind and having no command to halt, proceeded to bump
+forcibly against her master's frame.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+<h3>"<i>As You Like It</i>"</h3>
+<p>"You&mdash;don't&mdash;say&mdash;so! Whoa! dang ye! Cain't you
+see where you're goin', you old rip?" Betty was jerked to a
+standstill. "What have you heerd?" asked Anderson, his voice
+shaking with interest.</p>
+<p>"I can't tell you out here," said the other cautiously. "Put up
+the nag and then meet me in the pasture out there. We can sit down
+and talk and not be overheard."</p>
+<p>"I won't be a minute. Here, you Roscoe! Feed Betty and water her
+first. Step lively, now. Tell your ma we'll be in to supper when we
+git good an' ready."</p>
+<p>Anderson and Andrew Gregory strode through the pasture gate and
+far out into the green meadow. Once entirely out of hearing,
+Gregory stopped and both sat down upon a little hillock. The agent
+was evidently suppressing considerable excitement.</p>
+<p>"Those train robbers are in this neighbourhood," he said,
+breaking a long silence. Anderson looked behind involuntarily. "I
+don't mean that they are in this pasture, Mr. Crow. You've been a
+good friend to me, and I'm inclined to share the secret with you.
+If we go together, we may divide the ten-thousand-dollar reward,
+because I'm quite sure we can land those chaps."</p>
+<p>"What's your plan?" asked Anderson, turning a little pale at the
+thought. Before going any further into the matter, Gregory asked
+Anderson if he would sign a paper agreeing to divide the reward
+equally with him. This point was easily settled, and then the
+insurance man unfolded his secret.</p>
+<p>"I have a straight tip from a friend in New York and he wouldn't
+steer me wrong. The truth about him is this: He used to work for
+our company, but took some money that didn't belong to him. It got
+him a sentence in the pen. He's just out, and he knows a whole lot
+about these robbers. Some of them were in Sing Sing with him. The
+leader wanted him to join the gang and he half-way consented. His
+duty is to keep the gang posted on what the officers in New York
+are doing. See?"</p>
+<p>"Of course," breathed Anderson.</p>
+<p>"Well, my friend wants to reform. All he asks is a slice of the
+reward. If we capture the gang, we can afford to give him a
+thousand or so, can't we?"</p>
+<p>"Of course," was the dignified response.</p>
+<p>"Here's his letter to me. I'll read it to you." In the gathering
+dusk Gregory read the letter to the marshal of Tinkletown. "Now,
+you see," he said, at the close of the astounding epistle, "this
+means that if we observe strict secrecy, we may have the game in
+our hands. No one must hear a word of this. They may have spies
+right here in Tinkletown. We can succeed only by keeping our mouths
+sealed."</p>
+<p>"Tighter'n beeswax," promised Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>Briefly, the letter to Andrew Gregory was an exposure of the
+plans of the great train-robber gang, together with their
+whereabouts on a certain day to come. They were to swoop down on
+Tinkletown on the night of the open-air performance of "As You Like
+It," and their most desperate coup was to be the result. The scheme
+was to hold up and rob the entire audience while the performance
+was going on. Anderson Crow was in a cold perspiration. The
+performance was but three days off, and he felt that he required
+three months for preparation.</p>
+<p>"How in thunder are we goin' to capture that awful gang, jest
+you an' me?" he asked, voicing his doubts and fears.</p>
+<p>"We'll have to engage help, that's all."</p>
+<p>"We'll need a regiment."</p>
+<p>"Don't you think it. Buck up, old fellow, don't be afraid."</p>
+<p>"Afeerd? Me? I don't know what it is to be skeered. Didn't you
+ever hear about how I landed them fellers that kidnaped my daughter
+Rosalie? Well, you jest ast some one 'at knows about it. Umph! I
+guess that was a recommend fer bravery. But these fellers will be
+ready fer us, won't they?"</p>
+<p>"We can trick them easily. I've been thinking of a plan all
+afternoon. We don't know just where they are now, so we can't rake
+them in to-night. We'll have to wait until they come to us. My plan
+is to have a half-dozen competent private detectives up from New
+York. We can scatter them through the audience next Thursday night,
+and when the right time comes we can land on every one of those
+fellows like hawks on spring chickens. I know the chief of a big
+private agency in New York, and I think the best plan is to have
+him send up some good men. It won't cost much, and I'd rather have
+those fearless practical men here than all the rubes you could
+deputise. One of 'em is worth ten of your fellow-citizens, Mr.
+Crow, begging your pardon for the remark. You and I can keep the
+secret and we can do the right thing, but we would be asses to take
+more Tinkletown asses into our confidence. If you'll agree, I'll
+write to Mr. Pinkerton this evening. He can have his men here,
+disguised and ready for work, by Thursday afternoon. If you don't
+mind, I'd like to have you take charge of the affair, because you
+know just how to handle thieves, and I don't. What say you?"</p>
+<p>Anderson was ready and eager to agree to anything, but he
+hesitated a long time before concluding to take supreme charge of
+the undertaking. Mr. Gregory at once implored him to take command.
+It meant the success of the venture; anything else meant
+failure.</p>
+<p>"But how'n thunder am I to know the robbers when I see 'em?"
+demanded the marshal, nervously pulling bluegrass up by the
+roots.</p>
+<p>"You'll know 'em all right," said Andrew Gregory. Thursday came
+and with it the "troupe." Anderson Crow had not slept for three
+nights, he was so full of thrills and responsibility. Bright and
+early that morning he was on the lookout for suspicious characters.
+Gregory was to meet the detectives from New York at half-past seven
+in the evening. By previous arrangement, these strangers were to
+congregate casually at Tinkletown Inn, perfectly diguised as
+gentlemen, ready for instructions. The two arch-plotters had
+carefully devised a plan of action. Gregory chuckled secretly when
+he thought of the sensation Tinkletown was to experience&mdash;and
+he thought of it often, too.</p>
+<p>The leading members of Boothby's All Star Company "put up" at
+the Inn, which was so humble that it staggered beneath this
+unaccustomed weight of dignity. The beautiful Miss Marmaduke (in
+reality, Miss Cora Miller) was there, and so were Miss Trevanian,
+Miss Gladys Fitzmaurice, Richmond Barrett (privately Jackie Blake),
+Thomas J. Booth, Francisco Irving, Ben Jefferson and others. The
+Inn was glorified. All Tinkletown looked upon the despised old
+"eating house" with a reverence that was not reluctant.</p>
+<p>The manager, a busy and preoccupied person, who looked to be the
+lowliest hireling in the party, came to the Inn at noon and spread
+the news that the reserved seats were sold out and there was
+promise of a fine crowd. Whereupon there was rejoicing among the
+All Star Cast, for the last legs of the enterprise were to be
+materially strengthened.</p>
+<p>"We won't have to walk back home," announced Mr. Jackie Blake,
+that good-looking young chap who played Orlando.</p>
+<p>"Glorious Shakespeare, thou art come to life again," said Ben
+Jefferson, a barn-stormer for fifty years. "I was beginning to
+think you were a dead one."</p>
+<p>"And no one will seize our trunks for board," added Miss
+Marmaduke cheerfully. She was a very pretty young woman and
+desperately in love with Mr. Orlando.</p>
+<p>"If any one seized Orlando's trunks, I couldn't appear in public
+to-night," said Mr. Blake. "Orlando possesses but one pair of
+trunks."</p>
+<p>"You might wear a mackintosh," suggested Mr. Booth.</p>
+<p>"Or borrow trunks of the trees," added Mr. Irving.</p>
+<p>"They're off," growled Mr. Jefferson, who hated the puns he did
+not make.</p>
+<p>"Let's dazzle the town, Cora," said Jackie Blake; and before
+Tinkletown could take its second gasp for breath, the leading man
+and woman were slowly promenading the chief and only
+thoroughfare.</p>
+<p>"By ginger! she's a purty one, ain't she?" murmured Ed Higgins,
+sole clerk at Lamson's. He stood in the doorway until she was out
+of sight and remained there for nearly an hour awaiting her return.
+The men of Tinkletown took but one look at the pretty young woman,
+but that one look was continuous and unbroken.</p>
+<p>"If this jay town can turn up enough money to-night to keep us
+from stranding, I'll take off my hat to it for ever more," said
+Jackie Blake.</p>
+<p>"Boothby says the house is sold out," said</p>
+<p>Miss Marmaduke, a shade of anxiety in her dark eyes. "Oh, how I
+wish we were at home again."</p>
+<p>"I'd rather starve in New York than feast in the high hills,"
+said he wistfully. The idols to whom Tinkletown was paying homage
+were but human, after all. For two months the Boothby Company had
+been buffeted from pillar to post, struggling hard to keep its head
+above water, always expecting the crash. The "all-stars" were no
+more than striving young Thespians, who were kept playing
+throughout the heated term with this uncertain enterprise, solely
+because necessity was in command of their destinies. It was not for
+them to enjoy a summer in ease and indolence.</p>
+<p>"Never mind, dear," said she, turning her green parasol so that
+it obstructed the intense but complimentary gaze of no less than a
+dozen men; "our luck will change. We won't be barn-storming for
+ever."</p>
+<p>"We've one thing to be thankful for, little woman," said Jackie,
+his face brightening. "We go out again this fall in the same
+company. That's luck, isn't it? We'll be married as soon as we get
+back to New York and we won't have to be separated for a whole
+season, at least."</p>
+<p>"Isn't it dear to think of, Jackie sweetheart? A whole season
+and then another, and then all of them after that? Oh, dear, won't
+it be sweet?" It was love's young dream for both of them.</p>
+<p>"Hello, what's this?" exclaimed Orlando the Thousandth, pausing
+before a placard which covered the lower limbs of his pictorial
+partner. "Ten Thousand Dollars reward! Great Scott, Cora, wouldn't
+I like to catch those fellows? Great, eh? But it's a desperate
+gang! The worst ever!"</p>
+<p>Just then both became conscious of the fact that some one was
+scrutinising them intently from behind. They turned and beheld
+Anderson Crow, his badges glistening.</p>
+<p>"How are you, officer?" said Jackie cheerily. Miss Marmaduke, in
+her happiness, beamed a smile upon the austere man with the chin
+whiskers. Anderson was past seventy, but that smile caused the
+intake of his breath to almost lift him from the ground.</p>
+<p>"First rate, thanks; how's yourself? Readin' the reward notice?
+Lemme tell you something. There's goin' to be somethin' happen
+tarnation soon that will astonish them fellers ef&mdash;" but here
+Anderson pulled up with a jerk, realising that he was on the point
+of betraying a great secret. Afraid to trust himself in continued
+conversation, he abruptly said: "Good afternoon," and started off
+down the street, his ears tingling.</p>
+<p>"Queer old chap, isn't he?" observed Jackie, and immediately
+forgot him as they strolled onward.</p>
+<p>That evening Tinkletown swarmed with strangers. The weather was
+fine, and scores of the summer dwellers in the hills across the
+river came over to see the performance, as the advance agent had
+predicted. Bluff Top Hotel sent a large delegation of people
+seeking the variety of life. There were automobiles, traps,
+victorias, hay-racks, and "sundowns" standing all along the street
+in the vicinity of Hapgood's Grove. It was to be, in the expansive
+language of the press agent, "a cultured audience made up of the
+&eacute;lite of the community."</p>
+<p>Late in the afternoon, a paralysing thought struck in upon the
+marshal's brain. It occurred to him that this band of robbers might
+also be engaged to carry off Rosalie Gray. After all, it might be
+the great dominant reason for their descent upon the community.
+Covered with a perspiration that was not caused by heat, he
+accosted Wicker Bonner, the minute that gentleman arrived in town.
+Rosalie went, of course, to the Crow home for a short visit with
+the family.</p>
+<p>"Say, Wick, I want you to do me a favour," said Anderson
+eagerly, taking the young man aside. "I cain't tell you all about
+it, 'cause I'm bound by a deathless oath. But, listen, I'm afraid
+somethin's goin' to happen to-night. There's a lot o' strangers
+here, an' I'm nervous about Rosalie. Somebody might try to steal
+her in the excitement. Now I want you to take good keer of her.
+Don't let 'er out o' your sight, an' don't let anybody git 'er away
+from you. I'll keep my eye on her, too. Promise me."</p>
+<p>"Certainly, Mr. Crow. I'll look out for her. That's what I hope
+to do all the rest of&mdash;'</p>
+<p>"Somethin's liable to happen," Mr. Crow broke in, and then
+quietly slipped away.</p>
+<p>Bonner laughed easily at the old man's fears and set them down
+as a part of his whimsical nature. Later, he saw the old man near
+the entrance as the party passed inside the inclosure. The Bonner
+party occupied prominent seats in front, reserved by the marshal.
+There were ten in the group, a half-dozen young Boston people
+completing the house party.</p>
+<p>The side walls of a pavilion inclosed the most beautiful section
+of the grove. In one end were the seats, rapidly filling with
+people. At the opposite end, upon Mother Earth's green carpet, was
+the stage, lighted dimly by means of subdued spot lights and a few
+auxiliary stars on high. There was no scenery save that provided by
+Nature herself. An orchestra of violins broke through the constant
+hum of eager voices.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/321.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Anderson Crow's heart was inside the charmed inclosure, but his
+person was elsewhere. Simultaneously, with the beginning of the
+performance of "As You like It," he was in his own barn-loft
+confronting Andrew Gregory and the five bewhiskered assistants from
+New York City. Gregory had met the detectives at the Inn and had
+guided them to the marshal's barn, where final instructions were to
+be given. For half an hour the party discussed plans with Anderson
+Crow, speaking in low, mysterious tones that rang in the marshal's
+ears to his dying day.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/322.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"We've located those fellows," asserted Mr. Gregory firmly.
+"There can be no mistake. They are already in the audience over
+there, and at a signal will set to work to hold up the whole crowd.
+We must get the drop on them, Mr. Crow. Don't do that! You don't
+need a disguise. Keep those yellow whiskers in your pocket. The
+rest of us will wear disguises. These men came here disguised
+because the robbers would be onto them in a minute if they didn't.
+They know every detective's face in the land. If it were not for
+these beards and wigs they'd have spotted Pinkerton's men long ago.
+Now, you know your part in the affair, don't you?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir," respectfully responded Anderson, his chin whisker
+wobbling pathetically.</p>
+<p>"Then we're ready to proceed. It takes a little nerve, that's
+all, but we'll soon have those robbers just where we want them,"
+said Andrew Gregory.</p>
+<p>The second act of the play was fairly well under way when
+Orlando, in the "green room," remarked to the stage director:</p>
+<p>"What's that old rube doing back here, Ramsay? Why, hang it,
+man, he's carrying a couple of guns. Is this a hold-up?" At the
+same instant Rosalind and two of the women came rushing from their
+dressing tent, alarmed and indignant. Miss Marmaduke, her eyes
+blazing, confronted the stage director.</p>
+<p>"What does this mean, Mr. Ramsay?" she cried. "That old man
+ordered us out of our dressing-room at the point of a revolver,
+and&mdash;see! There he is now doing the same to the men."</p>
+<p>It was true. Anderson Crow, with a brace of horse pistols, was
+driving the players toward the centre of the stage. In a tremulous
+voice he commanded them to remain there and take the consequences.
+A moment later the marshal of Tinkletown strode into the limelight
+with his arsenal, facing an astonished and temporarily amused
+audience. His voice, pitched high with excitement, reached to the
+remotest corners of the inclosure. Behind him the players were
+looking on, open-mouthed and bewildered. To them he loomed up as
+the long-dreaded constable detailed to attach their personal
+effects. The audience, if at first it laughed at him as a joke,
+soon changed its view. Commotion followed his opening speech.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXXII</h2>
+<h3><i>The Luck of Anderson Crow</i></h3>
+<p>"Don't anybody attempt to leave this tent!" commanded Mr. Crow,
+standing bravely forth with his levelled revolvers. The orchestra
+made itself as small as possible, for one of the guns wavered
+dangerously. "Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. The train
+robbers are among you."</p>
+<p>There were a few feminine shrieks, a volume of masculine
+"Whats!" a half-hearted and uncertain snigger, and a general
+turning of heads.</p>
+<p>"Keep your seats!" commanded Anderson. "They can't escape. I
+have them surrounded. I now call upon all robbers present to
+surrender in the name of the law. Surrender peaceful and you will
+not he damaged; resist and we'll blow you to hell an' gone, even at
+the risk of injurin' the women and childern. The law is no
+respecter of persons. Throw up your hands!"</p>
+<p>He waited impressively, but either through stupefaction or
+obstinacy the robbers failed to lift their hands.</p>
+<p>"You're cornered, you golderned scamps!" shouted Anderson Crow,
+"an' you might jest as well give up! Twenty Pinkerton men are here
+from New York City, an' you can't escape! Throw up your hands!"</p>
+<p>"The damned old fool is in earnest," gasped Judge Brewster, from
+across the river.</p>
+<p>"He's crazy!" cried Congressman Bonner.</p>
+<p>"Let everybody in this crowd throw up their hands!" called a
+firm, clear voice from the entrance. At the same instant five
+bewhiskered individuals appeared as if by magic with drawn
+revolvers, dominating the situation completely. The speaker was
+Andrew Gregory, the insurance agent.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/325.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"Now, what have you got to say?" cried Anderson gaily. "I guess
+me an' the detectives have you cornered all right, ain't we?"</p>
+<p>The audience sat stupefied, paralysed. While all this was going
+on upon the inside, a single detective on the outside was
+stealthily puncturing the tires of every automobile in the
+collection, Mr. Bracken's huge touring car being excepted for
+reasons to be seen later on.</p>
+<p>"Good heavens!" groaned old Judge Brewster. A half dozen women
+fainted and a hundred men broke into a cold perspiration.</p>
+<p>"Hands up, everybody!" commanded Andrew Gregory. "We can take no
+chances. The train robbers are in this audience. They came to hold
+up the entire crowd, but we are too quick for you, my fine birds.
+The place is surrounded!"</p>
+<p>"Mr. Gregory, the insurance&mdash;" began Anderson Crow, but he
+was cut short.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Crow deserves great credit for this piece of detective
+work. His mere presence is a guaranty of safety to those of you who
+are not thieves. You all have your hands up? Thanks. Mr. Crow,
+please keep those actors quiet. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is
+not always an easy matter to distinguish thieves from honest men. I
+will first give the desperadoes a chance to surrender peaceably. No
+one steps forward? Very well. Keep your hands up, all of you. The
+man who lowers his hands will be instantly regarded as a desperado
+and may get a bullet in his body for his folly. The innocent must
+suffer with the guilty. Mr. Crow, shall we proceed with the
+search?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; go right ahead, and be quick," replied Anderson
+Crow.</p>
+<p>"Very well, then, in the name of the law, my men will begin the
+search. They will pass among you, ladies and gentlemen, and any
+effort to retard their progress will be met with
+instant&mdash;well, you know."</p>
+<p>Before the petrified audience could fully realise what was
+taking place, three of the detectives were swiftly passing from
+person to person, stripping the women of their jewels, the men of
+their money and their watches. A half-hearted protest went up to
+Anderson Crow, but it was checked summarily by the "searching
+party." It was well for the poor marshal that he never knew what
+the audience thought of him at that ghastly moment.</p>
+<p>It was all over in five minutes. The detectives had searched
+every prosperous-looking person in the audience, under the very
+nose and guns of Marshal Crow, and they were sardonically bidding
+the assemblage a fond good-bye from the flapping doorway in the
+side wall. Andrew Gregory addressed the crowd, smiling broadly.</p>
+<p>"We found a good many more robbers in the crowd than we could
+conveniently handle, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, I never came
+across such a rare collection of hold-up men outside of Wall
+Street. The only perfectly honest man in Tinkletown to-night is
+Anderson Crow, your esteemed marshal. Believe me, he is
+ridiculously honest. He may be a damn fool, but he is honest. Don't
+blame him. Thanking you, one and all, for your generous help in our
+search for the train robbers, we bid you an affectionate farewell.
+We may meet again if you travel extensively on express trains.
+Good-night!"</p>
+<p>With a taunting laugh, Andrew Gregory dropped the flap and
+leaped after his companions. Bracken's chauffeur lay senseless by
+the roadside, and one of the "detectives" sat in his seat. Even as
+the audience opened its collective mouth to shout its wrath and
+surprise, the big touring car, with six armed men aboard, leaped
+away with a rush. Down the dark road it flew like an express train,
+its own noise drowning the shouts of the multitude, far behind.</p>
+<p>Bonner, recovering from his stupefaction and rage, led the
+pursuit, first commanding Rosalie to hurry home with the women and
+lock herself safely indoors.</p>
+<p>Anderson Crow, realising what a dupe he had been in the hands of
+the clever scoundrels, was covered with fear and shame. The
+outraged crowd might have killed him had not his escape been made
+under cover of darkness. Shivering and moaning in abject misery,
+the pride of Tinkletown fled unseeing, unthinking into the forest
+along the river. He was not to know until afterward that his
+"detectives" had stripped the rich sojourners of at least ten
+thousand dollars in money and jewels. It is not necessary to say
+that the performance of "As You Like It" came to an abrupt end,
+because it was not as they liked it. Everybody knew by this time
+that they had seen the celebrated "train robbers."</p>
+<p>Jackie Blake was half dressed when he leaped to his feet with an
+exclamation so loud that those preceding it were whispers.</p>
+<p>"Holy smoke!" fell from his lips; and then he dashed across the
+green to the women's dressing tent. "Cora! Cora! Come out!"</p>
+<p>"I can't," came back in muffled tones.</p>
+<p>"Then good-bye; I'm off!" he shouted. That brought her,
+partially dressed, from the tent. "Say, do you remember the river
+road we walked over to-day? Well, those fellows went in that
+direction, didn't they? Don't you see? Aren't you on? The washout!
+If they don't know about it the whole bunch is at the bottom of the
+ravine or in the river by this time! Mum's the word! There's a
+chance, darling; the reward said 'dead or alive!' I'm off!"</p>
+<p>She tried to call him back, but it was too late. With his own
+revolver in his hand, the half Orlando, half Blake, tore down the
+rarely travelled river road south. Behind him Tinkletown raved and
+wailed over the great calamity, but generally stood impotent in the
+face of it all. But few felt inclined to pursue the robbers. Blake
+soon had the race to himself. It was a mile or more to the washout
+in the road, but the excitement made him keen for the test. The
+road ran through the woods and along the high bluff that overlooked
+the river. He did not know it, but this same road was a "short cut"
+to the macadam pike farther south. By taking this route the robbers
+gave Boggs City a wide berth.</p>
+<p>Blake's mind was full of the possibilities of disaster to the
+over-confident fugitives. The washout was fresh, and he was
+counting on the chance that they were not aware of its existence.
+If they struck it even at half speed the whole party would be
+hurled a hundred feet down to the edge of the river or into the
+current itself. In that event, some, if not all, would be seriously
+injured.</p>
+<p>As he neared the turn in the road, his course pointed out to him
+by the stars above, he was startled half out of his boots by the
+sudden appearance of a man, who staggered from the roadside and
+wobbled painfully away, pleading for mercy.</p>
+<p>"Halt, or I'll shoot!" called Jackie Blake, and the pathetic
+figure not only halted, but sat down in the middle of the road.</p>
+<p>"For the Lord's sake, don't shoot!" groaned a hoarse voice. "I
+wasn't in cahoots with them. They fooled me&mdash;they fooled me."
+It was Anderson Crow, and he would have gone on interminably had
+not Jackie Blake stopped him short.</p>
+<p>"You're the marshal, eh? The darned rube&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I'm him. Call me anything, only don't shoot. Who are you?"
+groaned Anderson, rising to his knees. He was holding his revolvers
+by the muzzles. "Never mind who I am. I haven't time. Say, you'd
+better come with me. Maybe we can head off those villains. They
+came this way and&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Show 'em to me," roared Anderson, recognising a friend. Rage
+surged up and drove out the shame in his soul. "I'll tackle the
+hull caboodle, dang 'em!" And he meant it, too.</p>
+<p>Blake did not stop to explain, but started on, commanding Mr.
+Crow to follow. With rare fore-thought the marshal donned his
+yellow beard as he panted in the trail of the lithe young actor.
+The latter remembered that the odds were heavily against him. The
+marshal might prove a valuable aid in case of resistance, provided,
+of course, that they came upon the robbers in the plight he was
+hoping for.</p>
+<p>"Where the dickens are you a-goin'?" wheezed the marshal,
+kicking up a great dust in the rear. The other did not answer. His
+whole soul was enveloped in the hope that the washout had trapped
+the robbers. He was almost praying that it might be so. The reward
+could be divided with the poor old marshal if&mdash;</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/331.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>He gave a yell of delight, an instant later, and then began
+jumping straight up and down like one demented. Anderson Crow
+stopped so abruptly that his knees were stiff for weeks. Jackie
+Blake's wild dream had come true. The huge automobile had struck
+the washout, and it was now lying at the base of the bluff, smashed
+to pieces on the rocks! By the dim light from the heavens, Blake
+could see the black hulk down there, but it was too dark to
+distinguish other objects. He was about to descend to the river
+bank when Anderson Crow came up.</p>
+<p>"What's the matter, man?" panted he.</p>
+<p>"They're down there, don't you see it? They went over the bluff
+right here&mdash;come on. We've got 'em!"</p>
+<p>"Hold on!" exclaimed Anderson, grasping his arm. "Don't rush
+down there like a danged fool. If they're alive they can plug you
+full of bullets in no time. Let's be careful."</p>
+<p>"By thunder, you're right. You're a wise old owl, after all. I
+never thought of that. Let's reconnoitre."</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/332.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>Tingling with excitement, the two oddly mated pursuers descended
+stealthily by a roundabout way. They climbed over rocks and crept
+through underbrush until finally they came to a clear spot not
+twenty feet from where the great machine was lying, at the very
+edge of the swift, deep current. They heard groans and faint cries,
+with now and then a piteous oath. From their hiding place they
+counted the forms of four men lying upon the rocks, as if dead. The
+two held a whispered consultation of war, a plan of action
+resulting.</p>
+<p>"Surrender!" shouted Jackie Blake, standing forth. He and
+Anderson had their pistols levelled upon the prostrate robbers. For
+answer there were louder groans, a fiercer oath or two and then a
+weak, pain-struck voice came out to them:</p>
+<p>"For God's sake, get this machine off my legs. I'm dying. Help!
+Help! We surrender!"</p>
+<p>Ten minutes later, the jubilant captors had released the
+miserable Andrew Gregory from his position beneath the machine, and
+had successfully bound the hands and feet of five half-unconscious
+men. Gregory's legs were crushed and one other's skull was cracked.
+The sixth man was nowhere to be found. The disaster had been
+complete, the downfall of the great train robbers inglorious.
+Looking up into the face of Anderson Crow, Gregory smiled through
+his pain and said hoarsely:</p>
+<p>"Damned rotten luck; but if we had to be taken, I'm glad you did
+it, Crow. You're a good fool, anyway. But for God's sake, get me to
+a doctor."</p>
+<p>"Dang it! I'm sorry fer you, Mr. Gregory&mdash;" began Anderson,
+ready to cry.</p>
+<p>"Don't waste your time, old man. I need the doctor. Are the
+others dead?" he groaned.</p>
+<p>"I don't know," replied Jackie Blake. "Some of them look like
+it. We can't carry you up that hill, but we'll do the next best
+thing. Marshal, I'll stay here and guard the prisoners while you
+run to the village for help&mdash;and doctors."</p>
+<p>"And run fast, Anderson," added Gregory. "You always were so
+devilish slow. Don't walk-trot."</p>
+<p>Soon afterward, when Anderson, fagged but overjoyed, hobbled
+into the village, the excited crowd was ready to lynch him, but
+with his first words the atmosphere changed.</p>
+<p>"Where is Jackie Blake?" sobbed a pretty young woman, grasping
+the proud marshal's arm and shaking him violently.</p>
+<p>"Derned if I know, ma'am. Was he stole?"</p>
+<p>She made him understand, and together, followed by the actors,
+the audience and the whole town, they led the way to the washout,
+the fair Rosalind dragging the overworked hero of the hour along at
+a gait which threatened to be his undoing.</p>
+<p>Later on, after the five bandits had been carried to the
+village, Jackie Blake gladly informed his sweetheart that they
+could have easy sailing with the seven thousand dollars he
+expected. Anderson Crow had agreed to take but three thousand
+dollars for his share in the capture. One of the robbers was dead.
+The body of the sixth was found in the river weeks afterward.</p>
+<p>"I'm glad I was the first on the ground," said Blake, in
+anticipation of the reward which was eventually to be handed over
+to him. "But Anderson Crow turned out to be a regular trump, after
+all. He's a corker!" He was speaking to Wicker Bonner and a crowd
+of New Yorkers.</p>
+<p>Tinkletown began to talk of a monument to Anderson Crow, even
+while he lived. The general opinion was that it should be erected
+while he was still able to enjoy it and not after his death, when
+he would not know anything about its size and cost.</p>
+<p>"By gosh! 'Twas a great capture!" swelling perceptibly. "I
+knowed they couldn't escape me. Dang 'em! they didn't figger on me,
+did they? Pshaw! it was reediculus of 'em to think they c'd fool me
+entirely, although I'll have to confess they did fool me at first.
+It was a desprit gang an' mighty slick."</p>
+<p>"You worked it great, Anderson," said George Ray. "Did you know
+about the washout?"</p>
+<p>"Did I know about it?" snorted Anderson witheringly. "Why, good
+Gosh a'mighty, didn't I purty near run my legs off to git there in
+time to throw down the barricade before they could get there with
+Mr. Bracken's automobile? Thunderation! What a fool question!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXXIII</h2>
+<h3><i>Bill Briggs Tells a Tale</i></h3>
+<p>Tinkletown fairly bubbled with excitement. At last the eyes of
+the world were upon it. News of the great sensation was flashed to
+the end of the earth; every detail was gone into with harrowing
+minuteness. The Hemisphere Company announced by telegraph that it
+stood ready to hand over the ten thousand dollars; and the sheriff
+of Bramble County with all the United States deputy marshals within
+reach raced at once to Tinkletown to stick a finger in the pie.</p>
+<p>The morning after the "great pavilion robbery," as it was called
+in the <i>Banner</i>, Anderson Crow and Bonner fared forth early to
+have a look at the injured desperadoes, all of whom were safely
+under guard at the reincarnated calaboose. Fifty armed men had
+stood guard all night long, notwithstanding the fact that one
+robber was dead and the others so badly injured that they were not
+expected to survive the day.</p>
+<p>A horseman passed the marshal and his friend near the
+post-office, riding rapidly to the north. He waved his crop
+pleasantly to them and Bonner responded. Anderson stopped stock
+still and tried to speak, but did not succeed for a full minute; he
+was dumb with excitement.</p>
+<p>"That's him!" he managed to gasp. "The feller I saw the other
+day&mdash;the man on horseback!"</p>
+<p>"That?" cried Bonner, laughing heartily. "Why, that is John E.
+Barnes, the lawyer and probably a United States Senator some day.
+Good heavens, Mr. Crow, you've made a bad guess of it this time! He
+is staying with Judge Brewster, his father-in-law."</p>
+<p>"What! Well, by Geminy! I thought I knowed him," cried Anderson.
+"They cain't fool me long, Wick&mdash;none of 'em. He's the same
+feller 'at run away with Judge Brewster's daughter more'n twenty
+year ago. 'y Gosh, I was standin' right on this very spot the first
+time I ever see him. He sold me a hoss and buggy&mdash;but I got
+the money back. I arrested him the same day."</p>
+<p>"Arrested John Barnes?" in amazement.</p>
+<p>"Yep&mdash;fer murder&mdash;only he wasn't the murderer. We
+follered him down the river&mdash;him an' the girl&mdash;to
+Bracken's place, but they were married afore we got there. Doggone,
+that was a busy day! Some blamed good detective work was did, too.
+I&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"And Mr. Barnes was interested in Rosalie?" asked Bonner
+suddenly. "How could he have known anything about her?"</p>
+<p>"That's what puzzles me. She came here about two years after the
+elopement more er less, but I don't remember ever seein' him after
+that time."</p>
+<p>"It's very strange, Mr. Crow," reflected Bonner soberly. "He has
+a son, I know. His wife died a year or so after the boy's birth.
+Young Barnes is about twenty-one, I think at this time. By George!
+I've heard it said that Barnes and his wife were not hitting it off
+very well. They say she died of a broken heart. I've heard mother
+speak of it often. I wonder&mdash;great heavens, it isn't possible
+that Rosalie can be connected in any way with John Barnes? Anderson
+Crow, I&mdash;I wonder if there is a possibility?" Bonner was
+quivering with excitement, wonder&mdash;and&mdash;unbelief.</p>
+<p>"I'm workin' on that clew," said Anderson as calmly as his
+tremors would permit. He was thrilled by the mere suggestion, but
+it was second nature for him to act as if every discovery were his
+own. "Ever sence I saw him on the road up there, I've been trackin'
+him. I tell you, Wick, he's my man. I've got it almost worked out.
+Just as soon as these blamed robbers are moved to Boggs City, er
+buried, I'm goin' over an' git the truth out of Mr. Barnes. I've
+been huntin' him fer twenty-one years." Anderson, of course, was
+forgetting that Barnes had slipped from his mind completely until
+Bonner nudged his memory into life.</p>
+<p>"It's a delicate matter, Mr. Crow. We must go about it
+carefully," said Bonner severely. "If Mr. Barnes is really
+interested in her, we can't find it out by blundering; if he is not
+interested, we can't afford to drag him into it. It will require
+tact&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Thunderation, don't you suppose I know that?" exploded
+Anderson. "Detectives are allers tackin'. They got to, y' see, ef
+they're goin' to foller half a dozen clews at oncet. Gee whiz,
+Wick, leave this thing to me! I'll git at the bottom of it inside
+o' no time."</p>
+<p>"Wait a few days, Mr. Crow," argued Bonner, playing for time.
+"Don't hurry. We've got all we can do now to take care of the
+fellows you and that young actor captured last night." The young
+man's plan was to keep Anderson off the trail entirely and give the
+seemingly impossible clew into the possession of the New York
+bureau.</p>
+<p>"I don't know what I'd 'a' done ef it hadn't been fer that young
+feller," said the marshal. "He was right smart help to me last
+night." Bonner, who knew the true story, suppressed a smile and
+loved the old man none the less for his mild deception.</p>
+<p>They entered the "calaboose," which now had all the looks and
+odours of a hospital. A half-dozen doctors had made the four
+injured men as comfortable as possible. They were stretched on
+mattresses in the jail dining-room, guarded by a curious horde of
+citizens.</p>
+<p>"That's Gregory!" whispered Anderson, as they neared the
+suffering group. He pointed to the most distant cot. "That's jest
+the way he swore last night. He must 'a' shaved in the automobile
+last night," though Gregory had merely discarded the false whiskers
+he had worn for days.</p>
+<p>"Wait!" exclaimed Bonner, stopping short beside the first cot.
+He stooped and peered intently into the face of the wounded bandit.
+"By George!"</p>
+<p>"What's up?"</p>
+<p>"As I live, Mr. Crow, this fellow was one of the gang that
+abducted Rosalie Gray last winter. I can swear to it. Don't you
+remember the one she tried to intercede for? Briggs! That's it!
+Briggs!"</p>
+<p>The injured man slowly opened his eyes as the name was half
+shouted. A sickly grin spread slowly over his pain-racked face.</p>
+<p>"She tried to intercede fer me, did she?" he murmured weakly.
+"She said she would. She was square."</p>
+<p>"You were half decent to her," said Bonner. "How do you happen
+to be with this gang? Another kidnaping scheme afloat?"</p>
+<p>"No&mdash;not that I know of. Ain't you the guy that fixed us?
+Say, on the dead, I was goin' to do the right thing by her that
+night. I was duckin' the gang when you slugged me. Honest, mister,
+I was goin' to put her friends next. Say, I don't know how bad I'm
+hurt, but if I ever git to trial, do what you can fer me, boss. On
+the dead, I was her friend."</p>
+<p>Bonner saw pity in Anderson's face and rudely dragged him away,
+although Bill's plea was not addressed to the old marshal.</p>
+<p>"Wait for me out here, Mr. Crow," said he when they reached the
+office. "You are overcome. I'll talk to him." He returned at once
+to the injured man's cot.</p>
+<p>"Look here, Briggs, I'll do what I can for you, but I'm afraid
+it won't help much. What do the doctors say?"</p>
+<p>"If they ain't lyin', I'll be up an' about in a few weeks.
+Shoulder and some ribs cracked and my legs stove up. I can't move.
+God, that was an awful tumble!" He shuddered in memory of the
+auto's leap.</p>
+<p>"Is Sam or Davy in this gang?"</p>
+<p>"No; Davy's at Blackwell's Island, an' Sam told me he was goin'
+to Canada fer his health. Jim Courtney is the leader of this gang.
+He sailed under the name of Gregory. That's him swearin' at the
+rubes."</p>
+<p>"The thing for you to do is to make a clean breast of it,
+Briggs. It will go easier with you."</p>
+<p>"Turn State's evidence? What good will that do when we was all
+caught with the goods?"</p>
+<p>"If you will tell us all of the inside facts concerning the
+abduction I'll guarantee that something can be done to lighten your
+sentence. I am Congressman Bonner's nephew."</p>
+<p>"So? I thought you was the swellest hold-up man I ever met, that
+night out in the woods. You'd do credit to Sam Welch himself. I'll
+tell you all I know, pardner, but it ain't a great deal. It won't
+do me any good to keep my mouth shut now, an', if you say so, it
+may help me to squeal. But, fer the Lord's sake, have one of these
+rotten doctors give me something to make me sleep. Don't they know
+what morphine is for?"</p>
+<p>Growling and cursing at the doctors, Bill was moved into the
+office. Anderson came in from the dining-room at that juncture,
+visibly excited.</p>
+<p>"I've got a confession from Gregory," he said. "He confesses
+that he oughter be hung."</p>
+<p>"What!"</p>
+<p>"That's what he said&mdash;'y ginger. Here's his very words,
+plain as day: 'I oughter be hung half a dozen times.' 'What fer?'
+says I. 'Fer bein' sech a damned ass,' said he. 'But that ain't a
+hangable offence,' said I. You know, I kinder like Gregory, spite
+of all. 'It's the worst crime in the world,' said he. 'Then you
+confess you've committed it?' said I, anxious to pin him right down
+to it, y' see.' 'ou bet I do. Ef they hang me it'll be because I'm
+a drivelling idiot, an' not because I've shot one er two in my
+time. Nobody but an ass could be caught at it, an' that's why I
+feel so infernal guilty. Look here, Mr. Crow, ever' time you see a
+feller that's proved himself a downright ass, jest take him out an'
+lynch him. He deserves it, that's all I've got to say. The greatest
+crime in the world is criminal neglect.' Don't bother me now, Wick;
+I'm going to write that down an' have him sign it."</p>
+<p>"Look here, pard," said Bill Briggs, laboriously breaking in
+upon their conversation; "I want to do the right thing by you an'
+her as fer as I can. You've been good to me, an' I won't fergit it.
+Besides, you said you'd make things easy fer me if I told you what
+I knowed about that job last winter. Well, I'd better tell it now,
+'cause I'm liable to pass in my checks before these doctors git
+through with me. An' besides, they'll be haulin' me off to the
+county seat in a day or two. Now, this is dead straight, I'm goin'
+to give you. Maybe it won't help you none, but 'll give you a
+lead."</p>
+<p>"Go on," cried Bonner breathlessly.</p>
+<p>"Well, Sam Welch come to me in Branigan's place one
+night&mdash;that's in Fourt' Avenue&mdash;an' says he's got a big
+job on. We went over to Davy Wolfe's house an' found him an' his
+mother&mdash;the old fairy, you remember. Well, to make it short,
+Sam said it was a kidnaping job an' the Wolfes was to be in on it
+because they used to live in this neighbourhood an' done a lot of
+work here way back in the seventies. There was to be five thousand
+dollars in the job if we got that girl safe on board a ship bound
+fer Europe. Sam told us that the guy what engineered the game was a
+swell party an' a big boy in politics, finance, society an'
+ever'thin' else. He could afford to pay, but he didn't want to be
+seen in the job. Nobody but Sam ever seen his face. Sam used to be
+in politics some. Jest before we left New York to come up here, the
+swell guy comes around to Davy's with another guy fer final orders.
+See? It was as cold as h&mdash;&mdash; as the dickens&mdash;an' the
+two of 'em was all muffled up so's we couldn't get a pipe at their
+mugs. One of 'em was old&mdash;over fifty, I guess&mdash;an' the
+other was a young chap. I'm sure of that.</p>
+<p>"They said that one or the other of 'em would be in this
+neighbourhood when the job was pulled off; that one thousand
+dollars would be paid down when we started; another thousand when
+we got 'er into the cave; and the rest when we had 'er at the dock
+in New York&mdash;alive an' unhurt. See? We was given to understand
+that she was to travel all the rest of 'er life fer 'er health. I
+remember one thing plain: The old man said to the young 'un: 'She
+must not know a thing of this, or it will ruin everything.' He
+wasn't referrin' to the girl either. There was another woman in the
+case. They seemed mighty anxious to pull the job off without this
+woman gettin' next.</p>
+<p>"Well, we got ready to start, and the two parties coughed up the
+thousand plunks&mdash;that is, the young 'un handed it over to Sam
+when the old 'un told him to. Sam took three hundred and the rest
+of us two hundred a piece. When they were lookin' from the winder
+to see that nobody on the streets was watchin' the house, I asked
+Sam if he knowed either of them by name. He swore he didn't, but I
+think he lied. But jest before they left the house, I happened to
+look inside of the old boy's hat&mdash;he had a stiff dicer. There
+was a big gilt letter in the top of it."</p>
+<p>"What was that letter?" demanded Bonner eagerly.</p>
+<p>"It was a B."</p>
+<p>Bonner looked at Anderson as if the floor were being drawn from
+under his feet.</p>
+<p>"The young chap said somethin' low to the old 'un about takin'
+the night train back to the University an' comin' down again
+Saturday."</p>
+<p>"To the University? Which one? Did he mention the name?" cried
+Bonner.</p>
+<p>"No. That's all he said."</p>
+<p>"Good heavens, if it should be!" said Bonner as if to
+himself.</p>
+<p>"Well, we come up here an' done the job. You know about that, I
+guess. Sam saw the young feller one night up at Boggs City, an' got
+instructions from him. He was to help us git 'er away from here in
+an automobile, an' the old man was to go across the ocean with 'er.
+That's all I know. It didn't turn out their way that time, but Sam
+says it's bound to happen."</p>
+<p>Bonner, all eagerness and excitement, quickly looked around for
+Anderson, but the marshal had surreptitiously left the room. Then,
+going over to the door, he called for Anderson Crow. Bud Long was
+there.</p>
+<p>"Anderson left five minutes ago, Mr. Bonner, hurryin' like the
+dickens, too," he said. "He's gone to hunt up a feller named
+Barnes. He told me to tell you when you came out."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER
+XXXIV</h2>
+<h3><i>Elsie Banks Returns</i></h3>
+<p>Bonner, considerably annoyed and alarmed by the marshal's
+actions, made every effort to turn him back before he could ruin
+everything by an encounter with Mr. Barnes. He sent men on bicycles
+and horseback to overtake him; but the effort was unsuccessful. Mr.
+Crow had secured a "ride" in an automobile which had brought two
+newspaper correspondents over from Boggs City. They speeded
+furiously in order to catch a train for New York, but agreed to
+drop the marshal at the big bridge, not more than a mile from Judge
+Brewster's place.</p>
+<p>Chagrined beyond expression, he made ready to follow Anderson
+with all haste in his own machine. Rosalie hurriedly perfected
+preparations to accompany him. She was rejoining the house party
+that day, was consumed by excitement over the situation, and just
+as eager as Bonner to checkmate the untimely operations of poor old
+Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>The marshal had more than half an hour's start of them. Bonner
+was his own chauffeur and he was a reckless one to-day. Luck was
+against him at the outset. The vigorous old detective inspired to
+real speed, for the first time in his lackadaisacal life, left the
+newspaper men at the bridge nearly three-quarters of an hour before
+Bonner passed the same spot, driving furiously up the hill toward
+Judge Brewster's.</p>
+<p>"If your bothersome old daddy gets his eyes on Barnes before I
+can head him off, dearest, the jig will be up," groaned Bonner, the
+first words he had spoken in miles. "Barnes will be on his guard
+and ready for anything. The old&mdash;pardon me, for saying
+it&mdash;the old jay ought to know the value of discretion in a
+case like this."</p>
+<p>"Poor old daddy," she sighed, compassion in her heart. "He
+thinks he is doing it for the best. Wicker, I hope it is&mdash;it
+is not Mr. Barnes," she added, voicing a thought which had been
+struggling in her mind for a long time.</p>
+<p>"Why not, dearest?"</p>
+<p>"It would mean one of two things. Either he does not want to
+recognise me as his child&mdash;or cannot, which is even worse.
+Wicker, I don't want to know the truth. I am afraid&mdash;I am
+afraid."</p>
+<p>She was trembling like a leaf and there was positive distress in
+her eyes, eyes half covered by lids tense with alarm.</p>
+<p>"Don't feel that way about it, dear," cried he, recovering from
+his astonishment and instantly grasping the situation as it must
+have appeared to her. "To tell you the truth, I do not believe that
+Mr. Barnes is related to you in any way. If he is connected with
+the case at all, it is in the capacity of attorney."</p>
+<p>"But he is supposed to be an honourable man."</p>
+<p>"True, and I still believe him to be. It does not seem possible
+that he can be engaged in such work as this. We are going
+altogether on supposition&mdash;putting two and two together, don't
+you know, and hoping they will stick. But, in any event, we must
+not let any chance slip by. If he is interested, we must bring him
+to time. It may mean the unravelling of the whole skein, dear.
+Don't look so distressed. Be brave. It doesn't matter what we learn
+in the end, I love you just the same. You shall be my wife."</p>
+<p>"I <i>do</i> love you, Wicker. I will always love you."</p>
+<p>"Dear little sweetheart!"</p>
+<p>They whirled up to the lodge gate at Judge Brewster's place at
+last, the throbbing machine coming to a quick stop. Before he
+called out to the lodge keeper, Bonner impulsively drew her
+gloveless hand to his lips.</p>
+<p>"Nothing can make any difference now," he said.</p>
+<p>The lodge keeper, in reply to Bonner's eager query, informed
+them that Mr. Barnes had gone away ten or fifteen minutes before
+with an old man who claimed to be a detective, and who had placed
+the great lawyer under arrest.</p>
+<p>"Good Lord!" gasped Bonner with a sinking heart.</p>
+<p>"It's an outrage, sir! Mr. Barnes is the best man in the world.
+He never wronged no one, sir. There's an 'orrible mistake, sir,"
+groaned the lodge keeper. "Judge Brewster is in Boggs City, and the
+man wouldn't wait for his return. He didn't even want to tell Mr.
+Barnes what 'e was charged with."</p>
+<p>"Did you ever hear of anything so idiotic?" roared Bonner.
+Rosalie was white and red by turn. "What direction did they
+take?"</p>
+<p>"The constable told Mr. Barnes he'd 'ave to go to Tinkletown
+with 'im at once, sir, even if he 'ad to walk all the way. The old
+chap said something, sir, about a man being there who could
+identify him on sight. Mr. Barnes 'ad to laugh, sir, and appeared
+to take it all in good humour. He said he'd go along of 'im, but he
+wouldn't walk. So he got his own auto out, sir, and they went off
+together. They took the short cut, sir, by the ferry road, 'eaded
+for Tinkletown. Mr. Barnes said he'd be back before noon,
+sir&mdash;if he wasn't lynched."</p>
+<p>"It's all over," groaned Bonner dejectedly. Something had
+slipped from under his feet and he was dangling in space,
+figuratively speaking. "There's nothing to do, Rosalie, except to
+chase them down. Mr. Crow has ruined everything. I'll leave you at
+Bonner Place with mother and Edith, and I'll hurry back to
+Tinkletown."</p>
+<p>The excitement was too much for Rosalie's nerves. She was in a
+state of physical collapse when he set her down at his uncle's
+summer home half an hour later. Leaving her to explain the
+situation to the curious friends, he set speed again for
+Tinkletown, inwardly cursing Anderson Crow for a meddling old
+fool.</p>
+<p>In the meantime Tinkletown was staring open-mouthed upon a new
+sensation. The race between Anderson and Bonner was hardly under
+way when down the main street of the town came a jaded team and
+surrey. Behind the driver sat a pretty young woman with an eager
+expression on her pale face, her gaze bent intently on the turn in
+the street which hid Anderson Crow's home from view. Beside the
+young woman lounged another of her sex, much older, and to all
+appearances, in a precarious state of health. The young men along
+the street gasped in amazement and then ventured to doff their
+timid hats to the young woman, very much as if they were saluting a
+ghost. Few of them received a nod of recognition from Elsie Banks,
+one-time queen of all their hearts.</p>
+<p>Roscoe Crow bounded out to the gate when he saw who was in the
+carriage, first shouting to his mother and sisters, who were
+indoors receiving congratulations and condolences from their
+neighbours.</p>
+<p>Miss Banks immediately inquired if she could see Rosalie.</p>
+<p>"She ain't here," said Roscoe. "She's away fer a
+month&mdash;over at the Bonners'. He's her feller, you know. Ma!
+Here's Miss Banks! Edner! Sue!" Mrs. Crow and the girls flew out to
+the gate, babbling their surprise and greetings.</p>
+<p>"This is my mother," introduced the young lady. "We have just
+come from New York, Mrs. Crow. We sail for England this week, and I
+must see Rosalie before we go. How can we get to Mr. Bonner's
+place?"</p>
+<p>"It's across the river, about twelve miles from here," said Mrs.
+Crow. "Come in and rest yourselves. You don't have to go back
+to-day, do you? Ain't you married yet?"</p>
+<p>"No, Mrs. Crow," responded Elsie, with a stiff, perfunctory
+smile. "Thank you, we cannot stop. It is necessary that we return
+to New York to-night, but I must see Rosalie before going. You see,
+Mrs. Crow, I do not expect to return to America. We are to live in
+London forever, I fear. It may be the last chance I'll have to see
+Rosalie. I must go on to Bonner Place to-day. But, dear me, I am so
+tired and hot, and it is so far to drive," she cried ruefully. "Do
+you know the way, driver?" The driver gruffly admitted that he did
+not. Roscoe eagerly bridged the difficulty by offering to act as
+pathfinder.</p>
+<p>At first Mrs. Banks tried to dissuade her daughter from
+undertaking the long trip, but the girl was obstinate. Her mother
+then flatly refused to accompany her, complaining of her head and
+heart. In the end the elder lady decided to accept Mrs. Crow's
+invitation to remain at the house until Elsie's return.</p>
+<p>"I shall bring Rosalie back with me, mother," said Elsie as she
+prepared to drive away. Mrs. Banks, frail and wan, bowed her head
+listlessly and turned to follow her hostess indoors. With Roscoe in
+the seat with the driver, the carriage started briskly off down the
+shady street, headed for the ferry road and Bonner Place.</p>
+<p>To return to Anderson Crow and his precipitancy. Just as the
+lodge keeper had said, the marshal, afoot and dusty, descended upon
+Mr. Barnes without ceremony. The great lawyer was strolling about
+the grounds when his old enemy arrived. He recognised the odd
+figure as it approached among the trees.</p>
+<p>"Hello, Mr. Crow!" he called cheerily. "Are you going to arrest
+me again?" He advanced to shake hands.</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir; you are my prisoner," said Anderson, panting, but
+stern. "I know you, Mr. Barnes. It won't do you any good to deny
+it."</p>
+<p>"Come in and sit down. You look tired," said Barnes genially,
+regarding his words as a jest; but Anderson proudly stood his
+ground.</p>
+<p>"You can't come any game with me. It won't do you no good to be
+perlite, my man. This time you don't git away."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/352.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"You don't mean to say you are in earnest?" cried Barnes.</p>
+<p>"I never joke when on duty. Come along with me. You c'n talk
+afterward. Your hirelin' is in jail an' he c'n identify you; so
+don't resist."</p>
+<p>"Wait a moment, sir. What is the charge?"</p>
+<p>"I don't know yet. You know better'n I do what it is."</p>
+<p>"Look here, Mr. Crow. You arrested me the first time I ever saw
+you, and now you yank me up again, after all these years. Haven't
+you anything else to do but arrest me by mistake? Is that your only
+occupation?"</p>
+<p>Anderson sputtered indignantly. Driven to it, he informed John
+Barnes that he was charged with kidnaping, attempted murder,
+polygamy, child desertion, and nearly everything else under the
+sun. Barnes, at first indignant, finally broke into a hearty laugh.
+He magnanimously agreed to accompany his captor to Tinkletown. Not
+only that, but he provided the means of transportation. To the
+intense dismay of the servants, he merrily departed with Mr. Crow,
+a prisoner operating his own patrol wagon. The two were smoking the
+captive's best cigars.</p>
+<p>"It's mighty nice of you, Mr. Barnes, to let us use your
+autermobile," said Anderson, benignly puffing away as they bowled
+off through the dust. "It would 'a' been a long walk. I'll speak a
+good word fer you fer this."</p>
+<p>"Don't mention it, old chap. I rather enjoy it. It's been
+uncommonly dull up here. I did not get away as soon as I expected,
+you see. So I am charged with being Rosalie's father, eh? And
+deserting her? And kidnaping her? By jove, I ought to be hung for
+all this!"</p>
+<p>"'Tain't nothin' to laugh at, my friend. You ought to be ashamed
+of yourself. I was onto you the day you stopped me in the road an'
+ast about her. What a fool you was. Reg'lar dead give-away."</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/354.jpg" width="50%" alt=""
+title="" /></div>
+<p>"See here, Mr. Crow, I don't like to upset your hopes and
+calculations," said Barnes soberly. "I did that once before, you
+remember. That was years ago. You were wrong then, and you are
+wrong now. Shall I tell you why I am interested in this pretty waif
+of yours?"</p>
+<p>"It ain't necessary," protested the marshal.</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you just the same. My son met her in New York while
+he was at school. He heard her story from mutual friends and
+repeated it to me. I was naturally interested, and questioned you.
+He said she was very pretty. That is the whole story, my dear
+sir."</p>
+<p>"That's all very purty, but how about the B in your hat?"</p>
+<p>"I don't understand. Oh, you mean the political bee?"</p>
+<p>"Politics, your granny! I mean the 'nitial that Briggs saw. No;
+hold on! Don't answer. Don't say anything that'll incriminate
+yourself."</p>
+<p>"I never had an initial in my hat, and I don't know Briggs. Mr.
+Crow, you are as crazy as a loon." He prepared to bring the machine
+to a standstill. "I'm going home. You can ride back with me or get
+out and walk on, just as you please."</p>
+<p>"Hold on! Don't do that! I'll see that you're paid fer the use
+of the machine. Besides, consarn ye, you're my prisoner." This was
+too much for Barnes. He laughed long and loud, and he did not turn
+back.</p>
+<p>Just beyond the ferry they turned aside to permit a carriage to
+pass. A boy on the box with the driver shouted frantically after
+them, and Anderson tried to stop the machine himself.</p>
+<p>"Stop her!" he cried; "that's Roscoe, my boy. Hold on! Who's
+that with him? Why, by cracky, it's Miss Banks! Gee whiz, has she
+come back here to teach again? Whoa! Turn her around, Mr. Barnes.
+They are motionin' fer us to come back. 'Pears to be important,
+too."</p>
+<p>Barnes obligingly turned around and ran back to where the
+carriage was standing. An hour later the automobile rolled into the
+driveway at Bonner Place, and Anderson Crow, a glorious triumph in
+his face, handed Miss Banks from the tonneau and into the arms of
+Rosalie Gray, who at first had mistaken the automobile for another.
+Pompous to the point of explosion, Anderson waved his hand to the
+party assembled on the veranda, strolled around to Mr. Barnes's
+seat and acquired a light for his cigar with a nonchalance that
+almost overcame his one-time prisoner, and then said, apparently to
+the whole world, for he addressed no one in particular:</p>
+<p>"I knowed I could solve the blamed thing if they'd jest give me
+time."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+<h3><i>The Story is Told</i></h3>
+<p>Elsie Banks had a small and select audience in Mrs. Bonner's
+room upstairs. She had come from New York&mdash;or from California,
+strictly speaking&mdash;to furnish the narrative which was to set
+Rosalie Gray's mind at rest forever-more. It was not a pleasant
+task; it was not an easy sacrifice for this spirited girl who had
+known luxury all her life. Her spellbound hearers were Mrs. Bonner
+and Edith, Wicker Bonner, Anderson Crow, Rosalie, and John E.
+Barnes, who, far from being a captive of the law, was now Miss
+Gray's attorney, retained some hours before by his former
+captor.</p>
+<p>"I discharge you, sir," Anderson had said, after hearing Miss
+Bank's statement in the roadway. "You are no longer a prisoner.
+Have you anything to say, sir?"</p>
+<p>"Nothing, Mr. Crow, except to offer my legal services to you and
+your ward in this extraordinary matter. Put the matter in my hands,
+sir, and she shall soon come into her own, thanks to this young
+lady. I may add that, as I am not in the habit of soliciting
+clients, it is not my intention in this instance to exact a fee
+from your ward. My services are quite free, given in return, Mr.
+Crow, for the magnanimous way in which you have taken me into your
+confidence ever since I have known you. It is an honour to have
+been arrested by you; truthfully it is no disgrace."</p>
+<p>In the privacy of Mrs. Bonner's sitting-room, Elsie Banks,
+dry-eyed and bitter, told the story of her life. I cannot tell it
+as she did, for she was able to bring tears to the eyes of her
+listeners. It is only for me to relate the bare facts, putting them
+into her words as closely as possible. Rosalie Gray, faint with
+astonishment and incredulity, a lump in her throat that would not
+go down, and tears in her eyes, leaned back in an easy-chair and
+watched her unhappy friend.</p>
+<p>"I shall provide Mr. Barnes with proof of everything I say,"
+said Miss Banks. "There can be no difficulty, Rosalie dear, in
+confirming all that I have to tell. If you will permit me to relate
+the story without interruption and afterward let me go my way
+without either pity or contempt, I shall be, oh, so grateful to you
+all&mdash;especially to you, dear Rosalie. Believe me I love you
+with my whole soul.</p>
+<p>"I have come to you voluntarily, and my mother, who is in
+Tinkletown, in resigning herself to the calls of conscience, is now
+happier than she has ever been before. A more powerful influence
+than her own will or her own honour, an influence that was evil to
+the core, inspired her to countenance this awful wrong. It also
+checkmated every good impulse she may have had to undo it in after
+years. That influence came from Oswald Banks, a base monster to
+whom my mother was married when I was a year old. My mother was the
+daughter of Lord Abbott Brace, but married my own father, George
+Stuart, who was a brilliant but radical newspaper writer in London,
+against her father's wish. For this he cast her off and
+disinherited her. Grandfather hated him and his views, and he could
+not forgive my mother even after my father died, which was two
+years after their marriage.</p>
+<p>"Lord Richard Brace, my mother's only brother, married the
+daughter of the Duchess of B&mdash;&mdash;. You, Rosalie, are Lady
+Rosalie Brace of Brace Hall, W&mdash;shire, England, the true
+granddaughter of General Lord Abbott Brace, one of the noblest and
+richest men of his day. Please let me go on; I cannot endure the
+interruptions. The absolute, unalterable proof of what I say shall
+be established through the confession of my own mother, in whose
+possession lies every document necessary to give back to you that
+which she would have given to me.</p>
+<p>"Your mother died a few weeks after you were born, and Sir
+Richard, who loved my mother in the face of his father's
+displeasure, placed you in her care, while he rushed off,
+heart-broken, to find solace in Egypt. It is said that he hated you
+because you were the cause of her death. On the day after your
+birth, old Lord Brace changed his will and bequeathed a vast amount
+of unentailed property to you, to be held in trust by your father
+until you were twenty-one years of age. I was almost two years old
+at the time, and the old man, unexpectedly compassionate, inserted
+a provision which, in the event that you were to die before that
+time, gave all this money to me on my twenty-first birthday. The
+interest on this money, amounting to five thousand pounds annually,
+was to go to you regularly, in one case, or to me, in the other.
+Oswald Banks was an American, whom my mother had met in London
+several years prior to her first marriage. He was the London
+representative of a big Pennsylvania manufacturing concern. He was
+ambitious, unscrupulous and clever beyond conception. He still is
+all of these and more, for he is now a coward.</p>
+<p>"Well, it was he who concocted the diabolical scheme to one day
+get possession of your inheritance. He coerced my poor mother into
+acquiescense, and she became his wretched tool instead of an
+honoured wife and helpmate. One night, when you were three weeks
+old, the house in which we lived was burned to the ground, the
+inmates narrowly escaping. So narrow was the escape, in fact, that
+you were said to have been left behind in the confusion, and the
+world was told, the next day, that the granddaughter of Lord Brace
+had been destroyed by the flames.</p>
+<p>"The truth, however, was not told. My stepfather did not dare to
+go so far as to kill you. It was he who caused the fire, but he had
+you removed to a small hotel in another part of the city some hours
+earlier, secretly, of course, but in charge of a trusted maid. My
+mother was responsible for this. She would not listen to his awful
+plan to leave you in the house. But you might just as well have
+died. No one was the wiser and you were given up as lost. A week
+later, my mother and Mr. Banks started for America. You and I were
+with them, but you went as the daughter of a
+maid-servant&mdash;Ellen Hayes.</p>
+<p>"This is the story as my mother has told it to me after all
+these years. My stepfather's plan, of course, was to place you
+where you could never be found, and then to see to it that our
+grandfather did not succeed in changing his will. Moreover, he was
+bound and determined that he himself should be named as
+trustee&mdash;when the fortune came over at Lord Brace's death.
+That part of it turned out precisely as he had calculated. Let me
+go on a few months in advance of my story. Lord Brace died, and the
+will was properly probated and the provisions carried out. Brace
+Hall and the estates went to your father and the bequest came to
+me, for you were considered dead. My stepfather was made trustee.
+He gave bond in England and America, I believe. In any event, the
+fortune was to be mine when I reached the age of twenty-one, but
+each year the income, nearly twenty-five thousand dollars, was to
+be paid to my stepfather as trustee, to be safely invested by him.
+My mother's name was not mentioned in the document, except once, to
+identify me as the beneficiary. I can only add to this phase of the
+hateful conspiracy, that for nineteen years my stepfather received
+this income, and that he used it to establish his own fortune. By
+investing what was supposed to be my money, he has won his own way
+to wealth.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Banks decided that the operations were safest from this
+side of the Atlantic. He and my mother took up their residence in
+New York, and it has been their home ever since. He spent the first
+half year after your suspected death in London, solely for the
+purpose of establishing himself in Lord Brace's favour. Within a
+year after the death of Lord Brace your father was killed by a
+poacher on the estate. He had but lately returned from Egypt, and
+was in full control of the lands and property attached to Brace
+Hall. If my stepfather had designs upon Brace Hall, they failed,
+for the lands and the title went at once to your father's cousin,
+Sir Harry Brace, the present lord.</p>
+<p>"So much for the conditions in England then and now. I now
+return to that part of the story which most interests and concerns
+you. My poor mother was compelled, within a fortnight after we
+landed in New York, to give up the dangerous infant who was always
+to hang like a cloud between fortune and honour. The maid-servant
+was paid well for her silence. By the way, she died mysteriously
+soon after coming to America, but not before giving to my mother a
+signed paper setting forth clearly every detail in so far as it
+bore upon her connection with the hateful transaction. Conscience
+was forever at work in my mother's heart; honour was constantly
+struggling to the surface, only to be held back by fear of and
+loyalty to the man she loved.</p>
+<p>"It was decided that the most humane way to put you out of
+existence was to leave you on the doorstep of some kindly disposed
+person, far from New York. My stepfather and my mother deliberately
+set forth on this so-called mission of mercy. They came north, and
+by chance, fell in with a resident of Boggs City while in the
+station at Albany. They were debating which way to turn for the
+next step. My mother was firm in the resolve that you should be
+left in the care of honest, reliable, tender-hearted people, who
+would not abuse the trust she was to impose. The Boggs City man
+said he had been in Albany to see about a bill in the legislature,
+which was to provide for the erection of a monument in
+Tinkletown&mdash;where a Revolutionary battle had been fought. It
+was he who spoke of Anderson Crow, and it was his stories of your
+goodness and generosity, Mr. Crow, that caused them to select you
+as the man who was to have Rosalie, and, with her, the sum of one
+thousand dollars a year for your trouble and her needs.</p>
+<p>"My mother's description of that stormy night in February, more
+than twenty-one years ago, is the most pitiful thing I have ever
+listened to. Together they made their way to Tinkletown, hiring a
+vehicle in Boggs City for the purpose. Mr. Banks left the basket on
+your porch while mother stood far down the street and waited for
+him, half frozen and heartsick. Then they hurried out of town and
+were soon safely on their way to New York. It was while my
+stepfather was in London, later on, that mother came up to see
+Rosalie and make that memorable first payment to Mr. Crow. How it
+went on for years, you all know. It was my stepfather's cleverness
+that made it so impossible to learn the source from which the
+mysterious money came.</p>
+<p>"We travelled constantly, always finding new places of interest
+in which my mother's conscience could be eased by contact with
+beauty and excitement. Gradually she became hardened to the
+conditions, for, after all, was it not her own child who was to be
+enriched by the theft and the deception? Mr. Banks constantly
+forced that fact in upon her mother-love and her vanity. Through it
+all, however, you were never neglected nor forgotten. My mother had
+your welfare always in mind. It was she who saw that you and I were
+placed at the same school in New York, and it was she who saw that
+your training in a way was as good as it could possibly be without
+exciting risk.</p>
+<p>"Of course, I knew nothing of all this. I was rolling in wealth
+and luxury, but not in happiness. Instinctively I loathed my
+stepfather. He was hard, cruel, unreasonable. It was because of him
+that I left school and afterward sought to earn my own living. You
+know, Rosalie, how Tom Reddon came into my life. He was the son of
+William Reddon, my stepfather's business partner, who had charge of
+the Western branch of the concern in Chicago. We lived in Chicago
+for several years, establishing the business. Mr. Banks was until
+recently president of the Banks &amp; Reddon Iron Works. Last year,
+you doubtless know, the plant was sold to the great combine and the
+old company passed out of existence. This act was the result of a
+demand from England that the trust under which he served be closed
+and struck from the records. It was his plan to settle the matter,
+turn the inheritance over to me according to law, and then impose
+upon my inexperience for all time to come. The money, while mine
+literally, was to be his in point of possession.</p>
+<p>"But he had reckoned without the son of his partner. Tom Reddon
+in some way learned the secret, and he was compelled to admit the
+young man into all of his plans. This came about some three years
+ago, while I was in school. I had known Tom Reddon in Chicago. He
+won my love. I cannot deny it, although I despise him to-day more
+deeply than I ever expect to hate again. He was even more
+despicable than my stepfather. Without the faintest touch of pity,
+he set about to obliterate every chance Rosalie could have had for
+restitution. Time began to prove to me that he was not the man I
+thought him to be. His nature revealed itself; and I found I could
+not marry him. Besides, my mother was beginning to repent. She
+awoke from her stupor of indifference and strove in every way to
+circumvent the plot of the two conspirators, so far as I was
+concerned. The strain told on her at last, and we went to
+California soon after my ridiculous flight from Tinkletown last
+winter. It was not until after that adventure that I began to see
+deep into the wretched soul of Tom Reddon.</p>
+<p>"Then came the most villainous part of the whole conspiracy.
+Reddon, knowing full well that exposure was possible at any time,
+urged my stepfather to have you kidnaped and hurried off to some
+part of the world where you could never be found. Even Reddon did
+not have the courage to kill you. Neither had the heart to commit
+actual murder. It was while we were at Colonel Randall's place that
+the abduction took place, you remember. Mr. Banks and Tom Reddon
+had engaged their men in New York. These desperadoes came to Boggs
+City while Tom was here to watch their operations. All the time Mr.
+Crow was chasing us down Reddon was laughing in his sleeve, for he
+knew what was to happen during the marshal's absence. You know how
+successfully he managed the job. It was my stepfather's fault that
+it did not succeed.</p>
+<p>"My mother, down in New York, driven to the last extreme, had
+finally turned on him and demanded that he make restitution to
+Rosalie Gray, as we had come to know her. Of course, there was a
+scene and almost a catastrophe. He was so worried over the position
+she was taking, that he failed to carry out his part of the plans,
+which were to banish Rosalie forever from this country. You were to
+have been taken to Paris, dear, and kept forever in one of those
+awful sanitoriums. They are worse than the grave. In the meantime,
+the delay gave Mr. Bonner a chance to rescue you from the
+kidnapers.</p>
+<p>"Shortly after reaching New York I quarrelled with Thomas
+Reddon, and my mother and I fled to California. He followed us and
+sought a reconciliation. I loathed him so much by this time, that I
+appealed to my mother. It was then that she told me this miserable
+story, and that is why we are in Tinkletown to-day. We learned in
+some way of the plot to kidnap you and to place you where you could
+not be found. The inhuman scheme of my stepfather and his adviser
+was to have my mother declared insane and confined in an asylum,
+where her truthful utterances could never be heard by the world, or
+if they were, as the ravings of a mad woman.</p>
+<p>"The day that we reached New York my mother <i>placed</i> the
+documents and every particle of proof in her possession in the
+hands of the British Consul. The story was told to him and also to
+certain attorneys. A member of his firm visited my stepfather and
+confronted him with the charges. That very night Mr. Banks
+disappeared, leaving behind him a note, in which he said we should
+never see his face again. Tom Reddon has gone to Europe. My mother
+and I expect to sail this week for England, and I have come to ask
+Rosalie to accompany us. I want her to stand at last on the soil
+which knows her to be Rosalie Brace. The fortune which was mine
+last week is hers to-day. We are not poor, Rosalie dear, but we are
+not as rich as we were when we had all that belonged to you."</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER
+XXXVI</h2>
+<h3><i>Anderson Crow's Resignation</i></h3>
+<p>Some days later Anderson Crow returned to Tinkletown from New
+York, where he had seen Rosalie Bonner and her husband off for
+England, accompanied by Mrs. Banks and Elsie, who had taken passage
+on the same steamer. He was attired in a brand-new suit of blue
+serge, a panama hat, and patent-leather shoes which hurt his feet.
+Moreover, he carried a new walking stick with a great gold head and
+there was a huge pearl scarf-pin in his necktie Besides all this,
+his hair and beard had been trimmed to perfection by a Holland
+House barber. Every morning his wife was obliged to run a flatiron
+over his trousers to perpetuate the crease. Altogether Anderson was
+a revelation not only to his family and to the town at large, but
+to himself as well. He fairly staggered every time he got a glimpse
+of himself in the shop windows.</p>
+<p>All day long he strolled about the street, from store to store,
+or leaned imposingly against every post that presented itself
+conveniently. Naturally he was the talk of the town.</p>
+<p>"Gee-mi-nently!" ejaculated Alf Reesling, catching sight of him
+late in the day. "Is that the president?"</p>
+<p>"It's Anderson Crow," explained Blootch Peabody.</p>
+<p>"Who's dead?" demanded Alf.</p>
+<p>"What's that got to do with it?"</p>
+<p>"Why, whose clothes is he wearin'?" pursued Alf, utterly
+overcome by the picture.</p>
+<p>"You'd better not let him hear you say that," cautioned Isaac
+Porter. "He got 'em in New York. He says young Mr. Bonner give 'em
+to him fer a weddin' present. Rosalie give him a pearl dingus to
+wear in his cravat, an' derned ef he don't have to wear a collar
+all the time now. That lawyer Barnes give him the cane. Gee whiz!
+he looks like a king, don't he?"</p>
+<p>At that moment Anderson approached the group in front of
+Lamson's store. He walked with a stateliness that seemed to signify
+pain in his lower extremities more than it did dignity higher
+up.</p>
+<p>"How fer out do you reckon they are by this time, Blootch?" he
+asked earnestly.</p>
+<p>"'Bout ten miles further than when you asked while ago,"
+responded Blootch, consulting his watch.</p>
+<p>"Well, that ought to get 'em to Liverpool sometime soon then.
+They took a powerful fast ship. Makes it in less 'n six days, they
+say. Let's see. They sailed day before yesterday. They must be out
+sight o' land by this time."</p>
+<p>"Yes, unless they're passin' some islands," agreed Blootch.</p>
+<p>"Thunderation! What air you talkin' about?" said Anderson
+scornfully. "Cuby an' Porty Rico's been passed long ago. Them
+islands ain't far from Boston. Don't you remember how skeered the
+Boston people were durin' the war with Spain? Feared the Spanish
+shells might go a little high an' smash up the town? Islands
+nothin'! They've got away out into deep water by this time, boys.
+'y Gosh, I'm anxious about Rosalie. S'posin' that derned boat
+struck a rock er upset er somethin'! They never could swim
+ashore."</p>
+<p>"Oh, there's no danger, Anderson," said Mr. Lamson. "Those boats
+are perfectly safe. I suppose they're going to telegraph you when
+they land."</p>
+<p>"No, they're goin' to cable, Wick says. Doggone, I'm glad it's
+all settled. You don't know how hard I've worked all these years to
+find out who her parents was. Course I knowed they were foreigners
+all the time, but Rosalie never had no brogue, so you c'n see how I
+was threw off the track. She talked jest as good American as we do.
+I was mighty glad when I finally run Miss Banks to earth." The
+crowd was in no position to argue the point with him. "That Miss
+Banks is a fine girl, boys. She done the right thing. An' so did my
+Rosalie&mdash;I mean Lady Rosalie. She made Elsie keep some of the
+money. Mr. Barnes is goin' to England next week to help settle the
+matter for Lady Rosalie. He says she's got nearly a million dollars
+tied up some'eres. It's easy sailin', though, 'cause Mrs. Banks
+says so. Did you hear what Rosalie said when she got convinced
+about bein' an English lady?"</p>
+<p>"No; what did she say?"</p>
+<p>"She jest stuck up that derned little nose o' hern an' said: 'I
+am an American as long as I live.'"</p>
+<p>"Hooray!" shouted Alf Reesling, throwing Isaac Porter's new hat
+into the air. The crowd joined in the cheering.</p>
+<p>"Did I ever tell you how I knowed all along that it was a man
+who left Rosalie on the porch?" asked Anderson.</p>
+<p>"Why, you allus told me it was a woman," said Alf. "You accused
+me of bein' her."</p>
+<p>"Shucks! Woman nothin'! I knowed it was a man. Here's somethin'
+you don't know, Alf. I sized up the foot-prints on my front steps
+jest after she&mdash;I mean he&mdash;dropped the basket. The toes
+turned outward, plain as day, right there in the snow." He paused
+to let the statement settle in their puzzled brains. "Don't you
+know that one hunderd percent of the women turn their toes in when
+they go upstairs? To keep from hookin' into their skirts? Thunder,
+you oughter of thought of that, too!"</p>
+<p>Some one had posted Anderson on this peculiarly feminine trait,
+and he was making the best of it. Incidentally, it may be said that
+every man in Tinkletown took personal observations in order to
+satisfy himself.</p>
+<p>"Any one seen Pastor MacFarlane?" went on Anderson. "Wick Bonner
+give me a hunderd dollar bill to give him fer performin' the
+ceremony up to our house that night. G'way, Ed Higgins! I'm not
+goin' 'round showin' that bill to people. If robbers got onto the
+fact I have it, they'd probably try to steal it. I don't keer if
+you ain't seen that much money in one piece. That's none of my
+lookout. Say, are you comin' to the town meetin' to-night?"</p>
+<p>They were all at the meeting of the town board that night. It
+was held, as usual, in Odd Fellows' Hall, above Peterson's
+dry-goods store, and there was not so much as standing room in the
+place when the clerk read the minutes of the last meeting. Word had
+gone forth that something unusual was to happen. It was not idle
+rumour, for soon after the session began, Anderson Crow arose to
+address the board.</p>
+<p>"Gentlemen," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "I have
+come before you as I notified you I would. I hereby tender my
+resignation as marshal of Tinkletown, street commissioner and chief
+of the fire department&mdash;an' any other job I may have that has
+slipped my mind. I now suggest that you app'int Mr. Ed Higgins in
+my place. He has wanted the job fer some time, an' says it won't
+interfere with his business any more than it did with mine. I have
+worked hard all these years an' I feel that I ought to have a rest.
+Besides, it has got to be so that thieves an' other criminals won't
+visit Tinkletown on account o' me, an' I think the town is bein'
+held back considerable in that way. What's the use havin' a marshal
+an' a jail ef nobody comes here to commit crimes? They have to
+commit 'em in New York City er Chicago nowadays, jest because it's
+safer there than it is here. Look at this last case I had. Wasn't
+that arranged in New York? Well, it shouldn't be that way. Even the
+train robbers put up their job in New York. I feel that the best
+interests of the town would be served ef I resign an' give the
+criminals a chance. You all know Ed Higgins. He will ketch 'em if
+anybody kin. I move that he be app'inted."</p>
+<p>The motion prevailed, as did the vote of thanks, which was
+vociferously called for in behalf of Anderson Crow.</p>
+<p>"You honour me," said the ex-marshal, when the "ayes" died away.
+"I promise to help Marshal Higgins in ever' way possible. I'll tell
+him jest what to do in everything. I wish to say that I am not
+goin' out of the detective business, however. I'm goin' to open an
+agency of my own here. All sorts of detective business will be done
+at reasonable prices. I had these cards printed at the
+<i>Banner</i> office to-day, an' Mr. Squires is goin' to run an ad.
+fer me fer a year in the paper."</p>
+<p>He proudly handed a card to the president of the board and then
+told the crowd that each person present could have one by applying
+to his son Roscoe, who would be waiting in the hallway after the
+meeting. The card read:</p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">"Anderson Crow,
+Detective.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">All kinds of cases Taken and
+Satisfaction</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Guaranteed.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Berth mysteries a
+Specialty."</span></p>
+<p>Mrs. Bonner, upon hearing of his resignation the next day, just
+as she was leaving for Boston, drily remarked to the
+Congressman:</p>
+<p>"I still maintain that Anderson Crow is utterly impossible."</p>
+<p>No doubt the entire world, aside from the village of Tinkletown,
+agrees with her in that opinion.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW***</p>
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+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,9671 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Daughter of Anderson Crow, by George Barr
+McCutcheon, Illustrated by B. Martin Justice
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Daughter of Anderson Crow
+
+Author: George Barr McCutcheon
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2005  [eBook #14818]
+[Last updated: December 28, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14818-h.htm or 14818-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/1/14818/14818-h/14818-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/1/14818/14818-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DAUGHTER OF ANDERSON CROW
+
+by
+
+GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON
+
+Author of _Beverly of Graustark_, _Jane Cable_, etc.
+
+With Illustrations by B. Martin Justice
+
+New York
+Dodd, Mead and Company
+
+1907
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Anderson Crow]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+     I.  ANDERSON CROW, DETECTIVE
+    II.  THE PURSUIT BEGINS
+   III.  THE CULPRITS
+    IV.  ANDERSON RECTIFIES AN ERROR
+     V.  THE BABE ON THE DOORSTEP
+    VI.  REFLECTION AND DEDUCTION
+   VII.  THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
+  VIII.  SOME YEARS GO BY
+    IX.  THE VILLAGE QUEEN
+     X.  ROSALIE HAS PLANS OF HER OWN
+    XI.  ELSIE BANKS
+   XII.  THE SPELLING-BEE
+  XIII.  A TINKLETOWN SENSATION
+   XIV.  A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
+    XV.  ROSALIE DISAPPEARS
+   XVI.  THE HAUNTED HOUSE
+  XVII.  WICKER BONNER, HARVARD
+ XVIII.  THE MEN IN THE SLEIGH
+   XIX.  WITH THE KIDNAPERS
+    XX.  IN THE CAVE
+   XXI.  THE TRAP-DOOR
+  XXII.  JACK, THE GIANT KILLER
+ XXIII.  TINKLETOWN'S CONVULSION
+  XXIV.  THE FLIGHT OF THE KIDNAPERS
+   XXV.  AS THE HEART GROWS OLDER
+  XXVI.  THE LEFT VENTRICLE
+ XXVII.  THE GRIN DERISIVE
+XXVIII.  THE BLIND MAN'S EYES
+  XXIX.  THE MYSTERIOUS QUESTIONER
+   XXX.  THE HEMISPHERE TRAIN ROBBERY
+  XXXI.  "AS YOU LIKE IT"
+ XXXII.  THE LUCK OF ANDERSON CROW
+XXXIII.  BILL BRIGGS TELLS A TALE
+ XXXIV.  ELSIE BANKS RETURNS
+  XXXV.  THE STORY IS TOLD
+ XXXVI.  ANDERSON CROW'S RESIGNATION
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+   Anderson Crow (Frontispiece)
+
+   "'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he whispered"
+
+   "A baby, alive and warm, lay packed in the blankets"
+
+   "September brought Elsie Banks"
+
+   "The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful night"
+
+   "'What is the meaning of all this?'"
+
+   The haunted house
+
+   Wicker Bonner
+
+   "Rosalie was no match for the huge woman"
+
+   "She shrank back from another blow which seemed impending"
+
+   "Left the young man to the care of an excellent nurse"
+
+   "'I think I understand, Rosalie'"
+
+   "'I beg your pardon,' he said humbly'"
+
+   "It was a wise, discreet old oak"
+
+   "The huge automobile had struck the washout"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Anderson Crow, Detective
+
+
+He was imposing, even in his pensiveness. There was no denying the fact
+that he was an important personage in Tinkletown, and to the residents
+of Tinkletown that meant a great deal, for was not their village a
+perpetual monument to the American Revolution? Even the most
+generalising of historians were compelled to devote at least a paragraph
+to the battle of Tinkletown, while some of the more enlightened gave a
+whole page and a picture of the conflict that brought glory to the
+sleepy inhabitants whose ancestors were enterprising enough to
+annihilate a whole company of British redcoats, once on a time.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, a particularly disagreeable visitor from the
+city once remarked, in the presence of half a dozen descendants (after
+waiting twenty minutes at the post-office for a dime's worth of stamps),
+that Tinkletown was indeed a monument, but he could not understand why
+the dead had been left unburied. There was excellent cause for
+resentment, but the young man and his stamps were far away before the
+full force of the slander penetrated the brains of the listeners.
+
+Anderson Crow was as imposing and as rugged as the tallest shaft of
+marble in the little cemetery on the edge of the town. No one questioned
+his power and authority, no one misjudged his altitude, and no one
+overlooked his dignity. For twenty-eight years he had served Tinkletown
+and himself in the triple capacity of town marshal, fire chief and
+street commissioner. He had a system of government peculiarly his own;
+and no one possessed the heart or temerity to upset it, no matter what
+may have been the political inducements. It would have been like trying
+to improve the laws of nature to put a new man in his place. He had
+become a fixture that only dissolution could remove. Be it said,
+however, that dissolution did not have its common and accepted meaning
+when applied to Anderson Crow. For instance, in discoursing upon the
+obnoxious habits of the town's most dissolute rake--Alf
+Reesling--Anderson had more than once ventured the opinion that "he was
+carrying his dissolution entirely too far."
+
+And had not Anderson Crow risen to more than local distinction? Had not
+his fame gone abroad throughout the land? Not only was he the Marshal of
+Tinkletown at a salary of $200 a year, but he was president of the
+County Horse-thief Detectives' Association and also a life-long delegate
+to the State Convention of the Sons of the Revolution. Along that line,
+let it be added, every parent in Tinkletown bemoaned the birth of a
+daughter, because that simple circumstance of origin robbed the
+society's roster of a new name.
+
+Anderson Crow, at the age of forty-nine, had a proud official record
+behind him and a guaranteed future ahead. Doubtless it was of this that
+he was thinking, as he leaned pensively against the town hitching-rack
+and gingerly chewed the blade of wire-grass which dangled even below the
+chin whiskers that had been with him for twenty years. The faraway
+expression in his watery-blue eyes gave evidence that he was as great
+reminiscently as he was personally. So successful had been his career as
+a law preserver, that of late years no evil-doer had had the courage to
+ply his nefarious games in the community. The town drunkard, Alf
+Reesling, seldom appeared on the streets in his habitual condition,
+because, as he dolefully remarked, he would deserve arrest and
+confinement for "criminal negligence," if for nothing else. The
+marshal's fame as a detective had long since escaped from the narrow
+confines of Tinkletown. He was well known at the county seat, and on no
+less than three occasions had his name mentioned in the "big city"
+papers in connection with the arrest of notorious horse-thieves.
+
+And now the whole town was trembling with a new excitement, due to the
+recognition accorded her triple official. On Monday morning he had
+ventured forth from his office in the long-deserted "calaboose,"
+resplendent in a brand-new nickel-plated star. By noon everybody in town
+knew that he was a genuine "detective," a member of the great
+organisation known as the New York Imperial Detective Association; and
+that fresh honour had come to Tinkletown through the agency of a
+post-revolution generation. The beauty of it all was that Anderson never
+lost a shred of his serenity in explaining how the association had
+implored him to join its forces, even going so far as to urge him to
+come to New York City, where he could assist and advise in all of its
+large operations. And, moreover, he had been obliged to pay but ten
+dollars membership fee, besides buying the blazing star for the paltry
+sum of three dollars and a quarter.
+
+Every passer-by on this bright spring morning offered a respectful
+"Howdy" to Anderson Crow, whose only recognition was a slow and
+imposing nod of the head. Once only was he driven to relinquish his
+pensive attitude, and that was when an impertinent blue-bottle fly
+undertook to rest for a brief spell upon the nickel-plated star. Never
+was blue-bottle more energetically put to flight.
+
+But even as the Tinkletown Pooh-Bah posed in restful supremacy there
+were rushing down upon him affairs of the epoch-making kind. Up in the
+clear, lazy sky a thunderbolt was preparing to hurl itself into the very
+heart of Tinkletown, and at the very head of Anderson Crow.
+
+Afterward it was recalled by observing citizens that just before
+noon--seven minutes to twelve, in fact--a small cloud no bigger than the
+proverbial hand crossed the sun hurriedly as if afraid to tarry. At that
+very instant a stranger drove up to the hitching-rack, bringing his
+sweat-covered horse to a standstill so abruptly in front of the
+marshal's nose that that dignitary's hat fell off backward.
+
+"Whoa!" came clearly and unmistakably from the lips of the stranger who
+held the reins. Half a dozen loafers on the post-office steps were
+positive that he said nothing more, a fact that was afterward worth
+remembering.
+
+"Here!" exclaimed Anderson Crow wrathfully. "Do you know what you're
+doin', consarn you?"
+
+"I beg pardon," everybody within hearing heard the young man say. "Is
+this the city of Tinkletown?" He said "city," they could swear, every
+man's son of them.
+
+"Yes, it is," answered the marshal severely. "What of it?"
+
+"That's all. I just wanted to know. Where's the store?"
+
+"Which store?" quite crossly. The stranger seemed nonplussed at this.
+
+"Have you more than--oh, to be sure. I should say, where is the
+_nearest_ store?" apologised the stranger.
+
+"Well, this is a good one, I reckon," said Mr. Crow laconically,
+indicating the post-office and general store.
+
+"Will you be good enough to hold my horse while I run in there for a
+minute?" calmly asked the new arrival in town, springing lightly from
+the mud-spattered buggy. Anderson Crow almost staggered beneath this
+indignity. The crowd gasped, and then waited breathlessly for the
+withering process.
+
+"Why--why, dod-gast you, sir, what do you think I am--a hitchin'-post?"
+exploded on the lips of the new detective. His face was flaming red.
+
+"You'll have to excuse me, my good man, but I thought I saw a
+hitching-rack as I drove up. Ah, here it is. How careless of me. But
+say, I won't be in the store more than a second, and it doesn't seem
+worth while to tie the old crow-bait. If you'll just watch him--or
+her--for a minute I'll be greatly obliged, and--"
+
+"Watch your own horse," roared the marshal thunderously.
+
+"Don't get huffy," cried the young man cheerily. "It will be worth a
+quarter to you."
+
+"Do you know who I am?" demanded Anderson Crow, purple to the roots of
+his goatee.
+
+"Yes, sir; I know perfectly well, but I refuse to give it away. Here,
+take the bit, old chap, and hold Dobbin for about a minute and half,"
+went on the stranger ruthlessly; and before Anderson Crow knew what had
+happened he was actually holding the panting nag by the bit. The young
+man went up the steps three at a time, almost upsetting Uncle Gideon
+Luce, who had not been so spry as the others in clearing the way for
+him. The crowd had ample time in which to study the face, apparel and
+manner of this energetic young man.
+
+That he was from the city, good-looking and well dressed, there was no
+doubt. He was tall and his face was beardless; that much could be seen
+at a glance. Somehow, he seemed to be laughing all the time--a fact that
+was afterward recalled with some surprise and no little horror. At the
+time, the loungers thought his smile was a merry one, but afterward they
+stoutly maintained there was downright villainy in the leer. His coat
+was very dusty, proving that he had driven far and swiftly. Three or
+four of the loungers followed him into the store. He was standing before
+the counter over which Mr. Lamson served his soda-water. In one hand he
+held an envelope and in the other his straw hat. George Ray, more
+observant than the rest, took note of the fact that it was with the hat
+that he was fanning himself vigorously.
+
+"A plain vanilla--please rush it along," commanded the stranger. Mr.
+Lamson, if possible slower than the town itself, actually showed
+unmistakable signs of acceleration. Tossing off the soda, the stranger
+dried his lips with a blue-hemmed white handkerchief. "Is this the
+post-office?" he asked.
+
+"Yep," said Mr. Lamson, who was too penurious to waste words.
+
+"Anything here for me?" demanded the newcomer.
+
+"I'll see," said the postmaster, and from force of habit began looking
+through the pile of letters without asking the man's name. Mr. Lamson
+knew everybody in the county.
+
+"Nothing here," taking off his spectacles conclusively.
+
+"I didn't think there was," said the other complacently. "Give me a
+bottle of witch hazel, a package of invisible hair-pins and a box of
+parlor matches. Quick; I'm in a hurry!"
+
+"Did you say hat-pins?"
+
+"No, sir; I said hair-pins."
+
+"We haven't any that ain't visible. How would safety-pins do?"
+
+"Never mind; give me the bottle and the matches," said the other,
+glancing at a very handsome gold watch. "Is the old man still holding my
+horse?" he called to a citizen near the door. Seven necks stretched
+simultaneously to accommodate him, and seven voices answered in the
+affirmative. The stranger calmly opened the box of matches, filled his
+silver match-safe, and then threw the box back on the counter, an
+unheard-of piece of profligacy in those parts. "Needn't mind wrapping
+up the bottle," he said.
+
+"Don't you care for these matches?" asked Mr. Lamson in mild surprise.
+
+"I'll donate them to the church," said the other, tossing a coin upon
+the counter and dashing from the store. The crowd ebbed along behind
+him. "Gentle as a lamb, isn't he?" he called to Anderson Crow, who still
+clutched the bit. "Much obliged, sir; I'll do as much for you some day.
+If you're ever in New York, hunt me up and I'll see that you have a good
+time. What road do I take to Crow's Cliff?"
+
+"Turn to your left here," said Anderson Crow before he thought. Then he
+called himself a fool for being so obliging to the fellow.
+
+"How far is it from here?"
+
+"Mile and a half," again answered Mr. Crow helplessly. This time he
+almost swore under his breath.
+
+"But he can't get there," volunteered one of the bystanders.
+
+"Why can't he?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"Bridge over Turnip Creek is washed out. Did you forget that?"
+
+"Of course not," promptly replied Mr. Crow, who _had_ forgotten it;
+"But, dang it, he c'n swim, can't he?"
+
+"You say the bridge is gone?" asked the stranger, visibly excited.
+
+"Yes, and the crick's too high to ford, too."
+
+"Well, how in thunder am I to get to Crow's Cliff?"
+
+"There's another bridge four miles upstream. It's still there," said
+George Ray. Anderson Crow had scornfully washed his hands of the affair.
+
+"Confound the luck! I haven't time to drive that far. I have to be there
+at half-past twelve. I'm late now! Is there no way to get across this
+miserable creek?" He was in the buggy now, whip in hand, and his eyes
+wore an anxious expression. Some of the men vowed later that he
+positively looked frightened.
+
+"There's a foot-log high and dry, and you can walk across, but you can't
+get the horse and buggy over," said one of the men.
+
+"Well, that's just what I'll have to do. Say, Mr. Officer, suppose you
+drive me down to the creek and then bring the horse back here to a
+livery stable. I'll pay you well for it. I must get to Crow's Cliff in
+fifteen minutes."
+
+"I'm no errant-boy!" cried Anderson Crow so wrathfully that two or three
+boys snickered.
+
+"You're a darned old crank, that's what you are!" exclaimed the stranger
+angrily. Everybody gasped, and Mr. Crow staggered back against the
+hitching-rail.
+
+"See here, young man, none o' that!" he sputtered. "You can't talk that
+way to an officer of the law. I'll--"
+
+"You won't do anything, do you hear that? But if you knew who I am you'd
+be doing something blamed quick." A dozen men heard him say it, and they
+remembered it word for word.
+
+"You go scratch yourself!" retorted Anderson Crow scornfully. That was
+supposed to be a terrible challenge, but the stranger took no notice of
+it.
+
+"What am I to do with this horse and buggy?" he growled, half to
+himself. "I bought the darned thing outright up in Boggs City, just
+because the liveryman didn't know me and wouldn't let me a rig. Now I
+suppose I'll have to take the old plug down to the creek and drown him
+in order to get rid of him."
+
+Nobody remonstrated. He looked a bit dangerous with his broad shoulders
+and square jaw.
+
+"What will you give me for the outfit, horse, buggy, harness and all?
+I'll sell cheap if some one makes a quick offer." The bystanders looked
+at one another blankly, and at last the concentrated gaze fell upon the
+Pooh-Bah of the town. The case seemed to be one that called for his
+attention; truly, it did not look like public property, this astounding
+proposition.
+
+"What you so derned anxious to sell for?" demanded Anderson Crow,
+listening from a distance to see if he could detect a blemish in the
+horse's breathing gear. At a glance, the buggy looked safe enough.
+
+"I'm anxious to sell for cash," replied the stranger; and Anderson was
+floored. The boy who snickered this time had cause to regret it, for Mr.
+Crow arrested him half an hour later for carrying a bean-shooter. "I
+paid a hundred dollars for the outfit in Boggs City," went on the
+stranger nervously. "Some one make an offer--and quick! I'm in a rush!"
+
+"I'll give five dollars!" said one of the onlookers with an apologetic
+laugh. This was the match that started fire in the thrifty noddles of
+Tinkletown's best citizens. Before they knew it they were bidding
+against each other with the true "horse-swapping" instinct, and the
+offers had reached $21.25 when the stranger unceremoniously closed the
+sale by crying out, "Sold!" There is no telling how high the bids might
+have gone if he could have waited half an hour or so. Uncle Gideon Luce
+afterward said that he could have had twenty-four dollars "just as well
+as not." They were bidding up a quarter at a time, and no one seemed
+willing to drop out. The successful bidder was Anderson Crow.
+
+"You can pay me as we drive along. Jump in!" cried the stranger, looking
+at his watch with considerable agitation. "All I ask is that you drive
+me to the foot-log that crosses the creek."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The Pursuit Begins
+
+
+Fifteen minutes later Anderson Crow was parading proudly about the town.
+He had taken the stranger to the creek and had seen him scurry across
+the log to the opposite side, supplied with directions that would lead
+him to the nearest route through the swamps and timberland to Crow's
+Cliff. The stranger had Anderson's money in his pocket; but Anderson had
+a very respectable sort of driving outfit to show for it. His wife kept
+dinner for him until two o'clock, and then sent the youngest Crow out to
+tell her father that he'd have to go hungry until supper-time.
+
+It is no wonder that Anderson failed to reach home in time for the
+midday meal. He started home properly enough, but what progress could he
+make when everybody in town stopped him to inquire about the remarkable
+deal and to have a look at the purchase. Without a single dissenting
+voice, Tinkletown said Anderson had very much the "best of the bargain."
+George Ray meant all right when he said, "A fool for luck," but he was
+obliged to explain thoroughly the witticism before the proud Mr. Crow
+could consider himself appeased.
+
+It was not until he pulled up in front of the _Weekly Banner_
+establishment to tell the reporter "the news" that his equanimity
+received its first jar. He was quite proud of the deal, and, moreover,
+he enjoyed seeing his name in the paper. In the meantime almost
+everybody in Tinkletown was discussing the awful profligacy of the
+stranger. It had not occurred to anybody to wonder why he had been in
+such a hurry to reach Crow's Cliff, a wild, desolate spot down the
+river.
+
+"The hoss alone is worth fifty dollars easy," volunteered Mr. Crow
+triumphantly. The detective's badge on his inflated chest seemed to
+sparkle with glee.
+
+"Say, Anderson, isn't it a little queer that he should sell out so
+cheap?" asked Harry Squires, the local reporter and pressfeeder.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Anderson Crow sharply.
+
+"Do you think it's really true that he bought the nag up at Boggs City?"
+asked the sceptic. Mr. Crow wallowed his quid of tobacco helplessly for
+a minute or two. He could feel himself turning pale.
+
+"He said so; ain't that enough?" he managed to bluster.
+
+"It seems to have been," replied Harry, who had gone to night school in
+Albany for two years.
+
+"Well, what in thunder are you talking about then?" exclaimed Anderson
+Crow, whipping up.
+
+"I'll bet three dollars it's a stolen outfit!"
+
+"You go to Halifax!" shouted Anderson, but his heart was cold. Something
+told him that Harry Squires was right. He drove home in a state of dire
+uncertainty and distress. Somehow, his enthusiasm was gone.
+
+"Dang it!" he said, without reason, as he was unhitching the horse in
+the barn lot.
+
+"Hey, Mr. Crow!" cried a shrill voice from the street. He looked up and
+saw a small boy coming on the run.
+
+"What's up, Toby?" asked Mr. Crow, all a-tremble. He knew!
+
+"They just got a telephone from Boggs City," panted the boy, "down to
+the _Banner_ office. Harry Squires says for you to hurry down--buggy and
+all. It's been stole."
+
+"Good Lord!" gasped Anderson. His badge danced before his eyes and then
+seemed to shrivel.
+
+Quite a crowd had collected at the _Banner_ office. There was a sudden
+hush when the marshal drove up. Even the horse felt the intensity of the
+moment. He shied at a dog and then kicked over the dashboard, upsetting
+Anderson Crow's meagre dignity and almost doing the same to the vehicle.
+
+"You're a fine detective!" jeered Harry Squires; and poor old Anderson
+hated him ever afterward.
+
+"What have you heerd?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"There's been a terrible murder at Boggs City, that's all. The chief of
+police just telephoned to us that a farmer named Grover was found dead
+in a ditch just outside of town--shot through the head, his pockets
+rifled. It is known that he started to town to deposit four hundred
+dollars hog-money in the bank. The money is missing, and so are his
+horse and buggy. A young fellow was seen in the neighbourhood early this
+morning--a stranger. The chief's description corresponds with the man
+who sold that rig to you. The murderer is known to have driven in this
+direction. People saw him going almost at a gallop."
+
+It is not necessary to say that Tinkletown thoroughly turned inside out
+with excitement. The whole population was soon at the post-office, and
+everybody was trying to supply Anderson Crow with wits. He had lost his
+own.
+
+"We've got to catch that fellow," finally resolved the marshal. There
+was a dead silence.
+
+"He's got a pistol," ventured some one.
+
+"How do you know?" demanded Mr. Crow keenly. "Did y' see it?"
+
+"He couldn't ha' killed that feller 'thout a gun."
+
+"That's a fact," agreed Anderson Crow. "Well, we've got to get him,
+anyhow. I call for volunteers! Who will join me in the search?" cried
+the marshal bravely.
+
+"I hate to go to Crow's Cliff after him," said George Ray. "It's a
+lonesome place, and as dark as night 'mong them trees and rocks."
+
+"It's our duty to catch him. He's a criminal, and besides, he's killed a
+man," said Crow severely.
+
+"And he has twenty-one dollars of your money," added Harry Squires.
+"I'll go with you, Anderson. I've got a revolver."
+
+"Look out there!" roared Anderson Crow. "The blamed thing might go off!"
+he added as the reporter drew a shiny six-shooter from his pocket.
+
+The example set by one brave man had its influence on the crowd. A
+score or more volunteered, despite the objections of their wives, and it
+was not long before Anderson Crow was leading his motley band of sleuths
+down the lane to the foot-log over which the desperado had gone an hour
+before.
+
+It was at the beginning of the man-hunt that various citizens recalled
+certain actions and certain characteristics of the stranger which had
+made them suspicious from the start. His prodigal disposition of the box
+of matches impressed most of them as reckless dare-devilism; his haste,
+anxiety, and a single instance of mild profanity told others of his
+viciousness. One man was sure he had seen the stranger's watch chain in
+farmer Grover's possession; and another saw something black on his
+thumb, which he now remembered was a powder stain.
+
+"I noticed all them things," averred Anderson Crow, supreme once more.
+
+"But what in thunder did he want with those hair-pins?" inquired George
+Ray.
+
+"Never mind," said Anderson mysteriously. "You'll find out soon enough."
+
+"Do you know Anderson?" some one asked.
+
+"Of course I do," responded the marshal loftily.
+
+"Well, what were they for, then?"
+
+"I'm not givin' any clews away. You just wait a while and see if I'm not
+right."
+
+And they were satisfied that the detective knew all about it. After
+crossing the foot-log the party was divided as to which direction it
+should take. The marshal said the man had run to the southeast, but for
+some inexplicable reason quite a number of the pursuers wanted to hunt
+for him in the northwest. Finally it was decided to separate into posses
+of ten, all to converge at Crow's Cliff as soon as possible. There were
+enough double-barrelled shotguns in the party to have conquered a pirate
+crew.
+
+At the end of an hour Anderson Crow and his delegation came to the
+narrow path which led to the summit of Crow's Cliff. They were very
+brave by this time. A small boy was telling them he had seen the
+fugitive about dinner-time "right where you fellers are standin' now."
+
+"Did he have any blood on him?" demanded Anderson Crow.
+
+"No, sir; not 'less it was under his clothes."
+
+"Did he say anythin' to you?"
+
+"He ast me where this path went to."
+
+"See that, gentlemen!" cried Anderson. "I knew I was right. He wanted--"
+
+"Well, where did he go?" demanded Harry Squires.
+
+"I said it went to the top of the clift. An' then he said, 'How do you
+git to the river?' I tole him to go down this side path here an' 'round
+the bottom of the hill."
+
+"Didn't he go up the cliff?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, what in thunder did he ask me where the cliff was if he--"
+
+"So he went to the river, eh?" interrupted Squires. "Come on, men; he
+went down through this brush and bottomland."
+
+"He got lost, I guess," volunteered the boy.
+
+"What!"
+
+"'Cause he yelled at me after he'd gone in a-ways an' ast--an' ast--"
+The boy paused irresolutely.
+
+"Asked what?"
+
+"He ast me where in h---- the path was."
+
+"By ginger, that's him, right out an' out!" exclaimed Mr. Crow
+excitedly.
+
+"'Nen he said he'd give me a quarter if I'd show him the way; so I--"
+
+"Did he give you the quarter?" questioned one of the men.
+
+"Yep. He'd a roll of bills as big as my leg." Everybody gasped and
+thought of Grover's hog-money.
+
+"You went to the river with him?" interrogated the reporter.
+
+"I went as fur as the clearin', an' then he tole me to stop. He said he
+could find the way from there. After that he run up the bank as if some
+one was after him. There was a boat waitin' fer him under the clift."
+
+"Did he get into it?" cried Squires.
+
+"He tole me not to look or he'd break my neck," said the boy. The posse
+nervously fingered its arsenal.
+
+"But you _did_ look?"
+
+"Yep. I seen 'em plain."
+
+"Them? Was there more than one?"
+
+"There was a woman in the skift."
+
+"You don't say so!" gasped Squires.
+
+"Dang it, ain't he tellin' you!" Anderson ejaculated scornfully.
+
+The boy was hurried off at the head of the posse, which by this time had
+been reinforced. He led the way through the dismal thickets, telling his
+story as he went.
+
+"She was mighty purty, too," he said. "The feller waved his hat when he
+seen her, an' she waved back. He run down an' jumped in the boat, an'
+'nen--'nen--"
+
+"Then what?" exploded Anderson Crow.
+
+"He kissed her!"
+
+"The d---- murderer!" roared Crow.
+
+"He grabbed up the oars and rowed 'cross an' downstream. An' he shuck
+his fist at me when he see I'd been watchin'," said the youngster, ready
+to whimper now that he realised what a desperate character he had been
+dealing with.
+
+"Where did he land on the other side?" pursued the eager reporter.
+
+"Down by them willer trees, 'bout half a mile down. There's the skift
+tied to a saplin'. Cain't you see it?"
+
+Sure enough, the stern of a small boat stuck out into the deep, broad
+river, the bow being hidden by the bushes.
+
+"Both of 'em hurried up the hill over yender, an' that's the last I seen
+of 'em," concluded the lad.
+
+Anderson Crow and his man-hunters stared helplessly at the broad, swift
+river, and then looked at each other in despair. There was no boat in
+sight except the murderer's, and there was no bridge within ten miles.
+
+While they were growling a belated detachment of hunters came up to the
+river bank greatly agitated.
+
+"A telephone message has just come to town sayin' there would be a
+thousand dollars reward," announced one of the late arrivals; and
+instantly there was an imperative demand for boats.
+
+"There's an old raft upstream a-ways," said the boy, "but I don't know
+how many it will kerry. They use it to pole corn over from Mr.
+Knoblock's farm to them big summer places in the hills up yender."
+
+"Is it sound?" demanded Anderson Crow.
+
+"Must be or they wouldn't use it," said Squires sarcastically. "Where is
+it, kid?"
+
+The boy led the way up the river bank, the whole company trailing
+behind.
+
+"Sh! Not too loud," cautioned Anderson Crow. Fifteen minutes later a
+wobbly craft put out to sea, manned by a picked crew of determined
+citizens of Tinkletown. When they were in midstream a loud cry came from
+the bank they had left behind. Looking back, Anderson Crow saw excited
+men dashing about, most of them pointing excitedly up into the hills
+across the river. After a diligent search the eyes of the men on the
+raft saw what it was that had created such a stir at the base of Crow's
+Cliff.
+
+"There he is!" cried Anderson Crow in awed tones. There was no mistaking
+the identity of the coatless man on the hillside. A dozen men recognised
+him as the man they were after. Putting his hands to his mouth, Anderson
+Crow bellowed in tones that savoured more of fright than command:
+
+"Say!"
+
+There was no response.
+
+"Will you surrender peaceably?" called the captain of the craft.
+
+There was a moment of indecision on the part of the fugitive. He looked
+at his companion, and she shook her head--they all saw her do it.
+
+Then he shouted back his reply.
+
+[Illustration: Then he shouted back his reply]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The Culprits
+
+
+"Ship ahoy!" shouted the coatless stranger between his palms.
+
+"Surrender or we'll fill you full of lead!" called Anderson Crow.
+
+"Who are you--pirates?" responded the fugitive with a laugh that chilled
+the marrow of the men on the raft.
+
+"I'll show you who we are!" bellowed Anderson Crow. "Send her ashore,
+boys, fast. The derned scamp sha'n't escape us. Dead er alive, we must
+have him."
+
+As they poled toward the bank the woman grasped the man by the arm,
+dragging him back among the trees. It was observed by all that she was
+greatly terrified. Moreover, she was exceedingly fair to look
+upon--young, beautiful, and a most incongruous companion for the bloody
+rascal who had her in his power. The raft bumped against the reedy bank,
+and Anderson Crow was the first man ashore.
+
+"Come on, boys; follow me! See that your guns are all right! Straight up
+the hill now, an' spread out a bit so's we can surround him!" commanded
+he in a high treble.
+
+"'But supposin' he surrounds us," panted a cautious pursuer, half way up
+the hill.
+
+"That's what we've got to guard against," retorted Anderson Crow. The
+posse bravely swept up to and across the greensward; but the fox was
+gone: There was no sight or sound of him to be had. It is but just to
+say that fatigue was responsible for the deep breath that came from each
+member of the pursuing party.
+
+"Into the woods after him!" shouted Anderson Crow. "Hunt him down like a
+rat!"
+
+In the meantime a coatless young man and a most enticing young woman
+were scampering off among the oaks and underbrush, consumed by
+excitement and no small degree of apprehension.
+
+"They really seem to be in earnest about it, Jack," urged the young
+woman insistently, to offset his somewhat sarcastic comments.
+
+"How the dickens do you suppose they got onto me?" he groaned. "I
+thought the tracks were beautifully covered. No one suspected, I'm
+sure."
+
+"I told you, dear, how it would turn out," she cried in a panic-stricken
+voice.
+
+"Good heavens, Marjory, don't turn against me! It all seemed so easy and
+so sure, dear. There wasn't a breath of suspicion. What are we to do?
+I'll stop and fight the whole bunch if you'll just let go my arm."
+
+"No, you won't, Jack Barnes!" she exclaimed resolutely, her pretty blue
+eyes wide with alarm. "Didn't you hear them say they'd fill you full of
+lead? They had guns and everything. Oh, dear! oh, dear! isn't it
+horrid?"
+
+"The worst of it is they've cut us off from the river," he said
+miserably. "If I could have reached the boat ahead of them they never
+could have caught us. I could distance that old raft in a mile."
+
+"I know you could, dear," she cried, looking with frantic admiration
+upon his broad shoulders and brawny bare arms. "But it is out of the
+question now."
+
+"Never mind, sweetheart; don't let it fuss you so. It will turn out all
+right, I know it will."
+
+"Oh, I can't run any farther," she gasped despairingly.
+
+"Poor little chap! Let me carry you?"
+
+"You big ninny!"
+
+"We are at least three miles from your house, dear, and surrounded by
+deadly perils. Can you climb a tree?"
+
+"I can--but I won't!" she refused flatly, her cheeks very red.
+
+"Then I fancy we'll have to keep on in this manner. It's a confounded
+shame--the whole business. Just as I thought everything was going so
+smoothly, too. It was all arranged to a queen's taste--nothing was left
+undone. Bracken was to meet us at his uncle's boathouse down there,
+and--good heavens, there was a shot!"
+
+The sharp crack of a rifle broke upon the still, balmy air, as they say
+in the "yellow-backs," and the fugitives looked at each other with
+suddenly awakened dread.
+
+"The fools!" grated the man.
+
+"What do they mean?" cried the breathless girl, very white in the face.
+
+"They are trying to frighten us, that's all. Hang it! If I only knew the
+lay of the land. I'm completely lost, Marjory. Do you know precisely
+where we are?"
+
+"Our home is off to the north about three miles. We are almost opposite
+Crow's Cliff--the wildest part of the country. There are no houses along
+this part of the river. All of the summer houses are farther up or on
+the other side. It is too hilly here. There is a railroad off there
+about six miles. There isn't a boathouse or fisherman's hut nearer than
+two miles. Mr. Bracken keeps his boat at the point--two miles south, at
+least."
+
+"Yes; that's where we were to have gone--by boat. Hang it all! Why did
+we ever leave the boat? You can never scramble through all this brush to
+Bracken's place; it's all I can do. Look at my arms! They are scratched
+to--"
+
+"Oh, dear! It's dreadful, Jack. You poor fellow, let me--"
+
+"We haven't time, dearest. By thunder, I wouldn't have those Rubes head
+us off now for the whole county. The jays! How could they have found us
+out?"
+
+"Some one must have told."
+
+"But no one knew except the Brackens, you and I."
+
+"I'll wager my head Bracken is saying hard things for fair down the river there."
+
+"He--he--doesn't swear, Jack," she panted.
+
+[Illustration: "'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he whispered"]
+
+"Why, you are ready to drop! Can't you go a step farther? Let's stop
+here and face 'em. I'll bluff 'em out and we'll get to Bracken's some
+way. But I _won't_ give up the game! Not for a million!"
+
+"Then we can't stop. You forget I go in for gymnasium work. I'm as
+strong as anything, only I'm--I'm a bit nervous. Oh, I knew something
+would go wrong!" she wailed. They were now standing like trapped deer in
+a little thicket, listening for sounds of the hounds.
+
+"Are you sorry, dear?"
+
+"No, no! I love you, Jack, and I'll go through everything with you and
+for you. Really," she cried with a fine show of enthusiasm, "this is
+jolly good fun, isn't it? Being chased like regular bandits--"
+
+"Sh! Drop down, dear! There's somebody passing above us--hear him?"
+
+They crawled into a maze of hazel bushes with much less dignity than
+haste. Two men sped by an instant later, panting and growling.
+
+"Safe for a minute or two at least," he whispered as the crunching
+footsteps were lost to the ear. "They won't come back this way, dear."
+
+"They had guns, Jack!" she whispered, terrified.
+
+"I don't understand it, hanged if I do," he said, pulling his brows into
+a mighty scowl. "They are after us like a pack of hounds. It must mean
+something. Lord, but we seem to have stirred up a hornet's nest!"
+
+"Oh, dear, I wish we were safely at--" she paused.
+
+"At home?" he asked quickly.
+
+"At Bracken's," she finished; and if any of the pursuers had been near
+enough he might have heard the unmistakable suggestion of a kiss.
+
+"I feel better," he said, squaring his shoulders. "Now, let me think. We
+must outwit these fellows, whoever they are. By George, I remember one
+of them! That old fellow who bought the horse is with them. That's it!
+The horse is mixed up in this, I'll bet my head." They sat upon the
+ground for several minutes, he thinking deeply, she listening with her
+pretty ears intent.
+
+"I wonder if they've left anybody to guard our boat?" he said suddenly.
+"Come on, Marjory; let's investigate! By George, it would be just like
+them to leave it unprotected!"
+
+Once more they were moving cautiously through the brush, headed for the
+river. Mr. Jack Barnes, whoever he was and whatever his crime, was a
+resourceful, clever young man. He had gauged the intelligence of the
+pursuers correctly. When he peered through the brush along the river
+bank he saw the skiff in the reeds below, just as they had left it.
+There was the lunch basket, the wee bit of a steamer trunk with all its
+labels, a parasol and a small handbag.
+
+"Goody, goody!" Marjory cried like a happy child.
+
+"Don't show yourself yet, dearie. I'll make sure. They may have an
+ambuscade. Wait here for me."
+
+He crept down the bank and back again before she could fully subdue the
+tremendous thumping his temerity had started in her left side.
+
+"It's safe and sound," he whispered joyously. "The idiots have forgotten
+the boat. Quick, dear; let's make a dash for it! Their raft is upstream
+a hundred yards, and it is also deserted. If we can once get well across
+the river we can give them the laugh."
+
+"But they may shoot us from the bank," she protested as they plunged
+through the weeds.
+
+"They surely wouldn't shoot a woman!" he cried gayly.
+
+"But you are not a woman!"
+
+"And I'm not afraid of mice or men. Jump in!"
+
+Off from the weeds shot the light skiff. The water splashed for a moment
+under the spasmodic strokes of the oarsman, and then the little boat
+streaked out into the river like a thing of life. Marjory sat in the
+stern and kept her eyes upon the bank they were leaving. Jack Barnes
+drove every vestige of his strength into the stroke; somehow he pulled
+like a man who had learned how on a college crew. They were half way
+across the broad river before they were seen from the hills. The half
+dozen men who lingered at the base of Crow's Cliff had shouted the alarm
+to their friends on the other side, and the fugitives were sighted once
+more. But it was too late. The boat was well out of gunshot range and
+making rapid progress downstream in the shelter of the high bluffs below
+Crow's Cliff. Jack Barnes was dripping with perspiration, but his stroke
+was none the feebler.
+
+"They see us!" she cried.
+
+"Don't wriggle so, Marjory--trim boat!" he panted. "They can't hit us,
+and we can go two miles to their one."
+
+"And we can get to Bracken's!" she cried triumphantly. A deep flush
+overspread her pretty face.
+
+"Hooray!" he shouted with a grin of pure delight. Far away on the
+opposite bank Anderson Crow and his sleuths were congregating, their
+baffled gaze upon the man who had slipped out of their grasp. The men
+of the posse were pointing at the boat and arguing frantically; there
+were decided signs of dispute among them. Finally two guns flew up, and
+then came the puffs of smoke, the reports and little splashes of water
+near the flying skiff.
+
+"Oh, they are shooting!" she cried in a panic.
+
+"And rifles, too," he grated, redoubling his pull on the oars. Other
+shots followed, all falling short. "Get down in the bottom of the boat,
+Marjory. Don't sit up there and be--"
+
+"I'll sit right where I am," she cried defiantly.
+
+Anderson Crow waved to the men under Crow's Cliff, and they began to
+make their arduous way along the bank in the trail of the skiff. Part of
+the armed posse hurried down and boarded the raft, while others followed
+the chase by land.
+
+"We'll beat them to Bracken's by a mile," cried Jack Barnes.
+
+"If they don't shoot us," she responded. "Why, oh, why are they so
+intent upon killing us?"
+
+"They don't want you to be a widow and--break a--lot of hearts," he
+said. "If they--hit me now you--won't be--dangerous as a--widow."
+
+"Oh, you heartless thing! How can you jest about it? I'd--I'd go into
+mourning, anyway, Jack," she concluded, on second thought. "We are just
+as good as married, you see."
+
+"It's nice--of you to say it, dear--but we're a long--way
+from--Bracken's. Gee! That was close!"
+
+A bullet splashed in the water not ten feet from the boat. "The cowards!
+They're actually trying to kill us!" For the first time his face took
+on a look of alarm and his eyes grew desperate. "I can't let them shoot
+at you, Marjory, dear! What the dickens they want I don't know, but I'm
+going to surrender." He had stopped rowing and was making ready to wave
+his white handkerchief on high.
+
+"Never!" she cried with blazing eyes. "Give me the oars!" She slid into
+the other rowing seat and tried to snatch the oars from the rowlocks.
+
+"Bravo! I could kiss you a thousand times for that. Come on, you
+Indians! You're a darling, Marjory." Again the oars caught the water,
+and Jack Barnes's white handkerchief lay in the bottom of the boat. He
+was rowing for dear life, and there was a smile on his face.
+
+The raft was left far behind and the marksmen were put out of range with
+surprising ease. Fifteen minutes later the skiff shot across the river
+and up to the landing of Bracken's boathouse, while a mile back in the
+brush Anderson Crow and his men were wrathfully scrambling in pursuit.
+
+"Hey, Bracken! Jimmy!" shouted Jack Barnes, jumping out upon the little
+wharf. Marjory gave him her hands and was whisked ashore and into his
+arms. "Run into the boathouse, dear. I'll yank this stuff ashore. Where
+the dickens is Bracken?"
+
+The boathouse door opened slowly and a sleepy young man looked forth.
+
+"I thought you'd never come," he yawned.
+
+"Wake up, you old loafer! We're here and we are pursued! Where are
+George and Amy?" cried Mr. Barnes, doing herculean duty as a baggage
+smasher.
+
+"Pursued?" cried the sleepy young man, suddenly awake.
+
+"Yes, and shot at!" cried Marjory, running past him and into the arms of
+a handsome young woman who was emerging from the house.
+
+"We've no time to lose, Jimmy! They are on to us, Heaven knows how. They
+are not more than ten minutes behind us. Get it over with, Jimmy, for
+Heaven's sake! Here, George, grab this trunk!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Anderson Rectifies an Error
+
+
+In a jiffy the fugitives and their property were transferred to the
+interior of the roomy boathouse, the doors bolted, and George Crosby
+stationed at a window to act as lookout.
+
+"Is it your father?" demanded the Rev. James Bracken, turning to
+Marjory. Young Mrs. Crosby was looking on eagerly.
+
+"Mr. Brewster is at home and totally oblivious to all this," cried Jack
+Barnes. "I don't know what it means. Here's the license, Jimmy. Are you
+ready, Marjory?"
+
+"This is rather a squeamish business, Jack--" began the young minister
+in the negligee shirt. He was pulling on his coat as he made the remark.
+
+"Oh, hurry, Jimmy; please hurry!" cried Marjory Brewster.
+
+"Don't wait a second, Jimmy Bracken!" cried Amy Crosby, dancing with
+excitement. "You can't go back on them now!"
+
+Three minutes later there was no Marjory Brewster, but there was a Mrs.
+John Ethelbert Barnes--and she was kissing her husband rapturously.
+
+"Now, tell us everything," cried Mrs. Crosby after the frantic
+congratulations. The Reverend "Jimmy" Bracken, of the Eleventh
+Presbyterian Church, was the only one who seemed uncertain as to his
+position. In the first place, old Judge Brewster was a man of influence
+in the metropolis, from which all had fled for a sojourn in the hills.
+He and his daughter were Episcopalians, but that made them none the less
+important in the eyes of "Jimmy" Bracken. In the second place, Jack
+Barnes was a struggling lawyer, in the Year of our Lord 1880, and
+possessed of objectionable poverty. The young men had been room-mates at
+college. Friendship had overcome discretion in this instance, at least.
+The deed being done, young Mr. Bracken was beginning to wonder if it had
+not been overdone, so to speak.
+
+"I wish somebody would tell me!" exclaimed Jack Barnes, with a perplexed
+frown. "The beastly jays shot at us and all that. You'd think I was an
+outlaw. And they blazed away at Marjory, too, hang them!"
+
+Marjory, too excited to act like a blushing bride, took up the story and
+told all that had happened. George Crosby became so interested that he
+forgot to keep guard.
+
+"This is a funny mess!" he exclaimed. "There's something wrong--"
+
+"Hey, you!" came a shout from the outside.
+
+"There they are!" cried Marjory, flying to her husband's side. "What are
+we to do?"
+
+"You mean, what are they to do? We're married, and they can't get around
+that, you know. Let 'em come!" cried the groom exultantly. "You don't
+regret it, do you, sweetheart?" quite anxiously. She smiled up into his
+eyes, and he felt very secure.
+
+"What do you fellows want?" demanded Crosby from the window. Anderson
+Crow was standing on the river bank like a true Napoleon, flanked by
+three trusty riflemen.
+
+"Who air you?" asked Anderson in return. He was panting heavily, and his
+legs trembled.
+
+"None of your business! Get off these grounds at once; they're private!"
+
+"None o' your sass, now, young man; I'm an officer of the law, an' a
+detective to boot! We sha'n't stand any nonsense. The place is
+surrounded and he can't escape! Where is he?"
+
+"That's for you to find out if you're such a good detective! This is
+David Bracken's place, and you can find him at his home on the hilltop
+yonder!"
+
+"Ask him what we've done, George," whispered Barnes.
+
+"We ain't after Mr. Bracken, young feller, but you know what we _do_
+want! He's in there--you're shielding him--we won't parley much longer!
+Send him out!" said Anderson Crow.
+
+"If you come a foot nearer you'll get shot into the middle of kingdom
+come!" shouted Crosby defiantly.
+
+The inmates gasped, for there was not a firearm on the place.
+
+"Be careful!" warned the Reverend "Jimmy" nervously.
+
+"Goin' to resist, eh? Well, we'll get him; don't you worry; an' that
+ornery female o' hisn', too!"
+
+"Did you hear that?" exclaimed Jack Barnes. "Let me get at the old rat."
+He was making for the door when the two women obstructed the way. Both
+were frantic with fear.
+
+"But he called you a female!" roared he.
+
+"Well, I _am_!" she wailed miserably.
+
+"Who is it you want?" asked Crosby from the window.
+
+"That's all right," roared Anderson Crow; "purduce him at once!"
+
+"Is this the fellow?" and Crosby dragged the Reverend "Jimmy" into view.
+There was a moment's inspection of the cadaverous face, and then the
+sleuths shook their heads.
+
+"Not on your life!" said Mr. Crow. "But he's in there--Ike Smalley seen
+him an' his paramount go up the steps from the landin'! 'Twon't do no
+good to hide him, young feller; he's--"
+
+"Well, let me tell you something. You are too late--they're married!"
+cried Crosby triumphantly.
+
+"I don't give a cuss if they're married and have sixteen children!"
+shouted the exasperated Crow, his badge fairly dancing. "He's got to
+surrender!"
+
+"Oh, he does, eh?"
+
+"Yes, sir-ee-o-bob; he's got to give up, dead or alive! Trot him out
+lively, now!"
+
+"I don't mind telling you that Mr. Barnes is here; but I'd like to know
+why you're hunting him down like a wild beast, shooting at him and
+Miss--I mean Mrs. Barnes. It's an outrage!"
+
+"Oh, we ain't the on'y people that can kill and slaughter! She's just
+as bad as he is, for that matter--an' so are you and that other
+lantern-jawed outlaw in there." The Reverend "Jimmy" gasped and turned a
+fiery red.
+
+"Did he call me a--say!" and he pushed Crosby aside. "I'd have you to
+understand that I'm a minister of the gospel--I am the Reverend James
+Bracken, of--"
+
+A roar of laughter greeted his attempt to explain; and there were a few
+remarks so uncomplimentary that the man of cloth sank back in sheer
+hopelessness.
+
+"Well, I'll give them reason to think that I'm something of a
+desperado," grated the Reverend "Jimmy," squaring his shoulders. "If
+they attempt to put foot inside my uncle's house I'll--I'll smash a few
+heads."
+
+"Bravo!" cried Mrs. Crosby. She was his cousin, and up to that time had
+had small regard for her mild-mannered relative.
+
+"He can preach the funeral!" shouted Ike Smalley. By this time there
+were a dozen men on the bank below.
+
+"I give you fair warning," cried Anderson Crow impressively. "We're
+goin' to surround the house, an' we'll take that rascal if we have to
+shoot the boards into sawdust!"
+
+"But what has he done, except to get married?" called Crosby as the
+posse began to spread out.
+
+"Do you s'pose I'm fool enough to tell you if you don't know?" said
+Anderson Crow. "Just as like as not you'd be claimin' the thousand
+dollars reward if you knowed it had been offered! Spread out, boys, an'
+we'll show 'em dern quick!"
+
+There was dead silence inside the house for a full minute. Every eye was
+wide and every mouth was open in surprise and consternation.
+
+"A thousand dollars reward!" gasped Jack Barnes. "Then, good Lord, I
+_must_ have done something!"
+
+"What _have_ you been doing, Jack Barnes?" cried his bride, aghast.
+
+"I must have robbed a train," said he dejectedly.
+
+"Well, this is serious, after all," said Crosby. "It's not an eloper
+they're after, but a desperado."
+
+"A kidnaper, perhaps," suggested his wife.
+
+"What are we to do?" demanded Jack Barnes.
+
+"First, old man, what have you actually done?" asked the Reverend
+"Jimmy."
+
+"Nothing that's worth a thousand dollars, I'm dead sure," said Barnes
+positively. "By George, Marjory, this is a nice mess I've led you into!"
+
+"It's all right, Jack; I'm happier than I ever was before in my life. We
+ran away to get married, and I'll go to jail with you if they'll take
+me."
+
+"This is no time for kissing," objected Crosby sourly. "We must find out
+what it all means. Leave it to me."
+
+It was getting dark in the room, and the shadows were heavy on the
+hills. While the remaining members of the besieged party sat silent and
+depressed upon the casks and boxes, Crosby stood at the window calling
+to the enemy.
+
+"Is he ready to surrender?" thundered Anderson Crow from the shadows.
+
+Then followed a brief and entirely unsatisfactory dialogue between the
+two spokesmen. Anderson Crow was firm in his decision that the fugitive
+did not have to be told what he had done; and George Crosby was equally
+insistent that he had to be told before he could decide whether he was
+guilty or innocent.
+
+"We'll starve him out!" said Anderson Crow.
+
+"But there are ladies here, my good man; you won't subject them to such
+treatment!"
+
+"You're all of a kind--we're going to take the whole bunch!"
+
+"What do you think will happen to you if you are mistaken in your man?"
+
+"We're not mistaken, dang ye!"
+
+"He could sue you for every dollar you possess. I know, for I'm a
+lawyer!"
+
+"Now, I'm sure you're in the job with him. I s'pose you'll try to work
+in the insanity dodge! It's a nest of thieves and robbers! Say, I'll
+give you five minutes to surrender; if you don't, we'll set fire to the
+derned shanty!"
+
+"Look here, boys," said Jack Barnes suddenly, "I've done nothing and am
+not afraid to be arrested. I'm going to give myself up." Of course there
+was a storm of protest and a flow of tears, but the culprit was firm.
+"Tell the old fossil that if he'll guarantee safety to me I'll give up!"
+
+Anderson was almost too quick in promising protection.
+
+"Ask him if he will surrender and make a confession to me--I am Anderson
+Crow, sir!" was the marshal's tactful suggestion.
+
+"He'll do both, Mr. Crow!" replied Crosby.
+
+"We've got to take the whole bunch of you, young man. You're all guilty
+of conspiracy, the whole caboodle!"
+
+"But the ladies, you darned old Rube--they can't--"
+
+"Looky here, young feller, you can't dictate to me. I'll have you to--"
+
+"We'll all go!" cried Mrs. Crosby warmly.
+
+"To the very end!" added the new Mrs. Barnes.
+
+"What will your father say?" demanded the groom.
+
+"He'll disown me anyway, dear, so what's the difference?"
+
+"It's rather annoying for a minister--" began the Reverend "Jimmy,"
+putting on his hat.
+
+"We'll beg off for you!" cried Mrs. Crosby ironically.
+
+"But I'm going to jail, too," finished he grimly.
+
+"All right," called Crosby from the window; "here we come!"
+
+And forth marched the desperate quintet, three strapping young men and
+two very pretty and nervous young women. They were met by Anderson Crow
+and a dozen armed men from Tinkletown, every one of them shaking in his
+boots. The irrepressible Mrs. Crosby said "Boo!" suddenly, and half the
+posse jumped as though some one had thrown a bomb at them.
+
+"Now, I demand an explanation of this outrage," said Jack Barnes
+savagely. "What do you mean by shooting at me and my--my wife and
+arresting us, and all that?"
+
+"You'll find out soon enough when you're strung up fer it," snarled
+Anderson Crow. "An' you'll please hand over that money I paid fer the
+hoss and buggy. I'll learn you how to sell stolen property to me."
+
+"Oh, I'm a horse-thief, am I? This is rich. And they'll string me up,
+eh? Next thing you'll be accusing me of killing that farmer up near
+Boggs City."
+
+"Well, by gosh! you're a cool one!" ejaculated Anderson Crow. "I s'pose
+you're goin' ter try the insanity dodge."
+
+"It's lucky for me that they caught him," said Barnes as the herd of
+prisoners moved off toward the string of boats tied to Mr. Bracken's
+wharf.
+
+"Come off!" exclaimed Squires, the reporter, scornfully. "We're onto
+you, all right, all right."
+
+"What! Do you think I'm the man who--well, holy mackerel! Say, you
+gravestones, don't you ever hear any news out here? Wake up! They caught
+the murderer at Billsport, not more than five miles from your jay burg.
+I was driving through the town when they brought him in. That's what
+made me late, dear," turning to Marjory.
+
+"Yes, and I'll bet my soul that here comes some one with the news,"
+cried George Crosby, who had heard nothing of the tragedy until this
+instant.
+
+A rowboat containing three men was making for the landing. Somehow,
+Anderson Crow and his posse felt the ground sinking beneath them. Not a
+man uttered a sound until one of the newcomers called out from the boat:
+
+"Is Anderson Crow there?"
+
+"Yes, sir; what is it?" demanded Crow in a wobbly voice.
+
+"Your wife wants to know when in thunder you're comin' home." By this
+time the skiff was bumping against the landing.
+
+"You tell her to go to Halifax!" retorted Anderson Crow. "Is that all
+you want?"
+
+"They nabbed that murderer up to Billsport long 'bout 'leven o'clock,"
+said Alf Reesling, the town drunkard. "We thought we'd row down and tell
+you so's you wouldn't be huntin' all night for the feller who--hello,
+you got him, eh?"
+
+"Are you fellers lyin'?" cried poor Anderson Crow.
+
+"Not on your life. We knowed about the captcher over in town just about
+half an hour after you started 'cross the river this afternoon."
+
+"You--four hours ago? You--you--" sputtered the marshal. "An' why didn't
+you let us know afore this?"
+
+"There was a game o' baseball in Hasty's lot, an'--" began one of the
+newcomers sheepishly.
+
+"Well, I'll be gosh-whizzled!" gasped Anderson Crow, sitting down
+suddenly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour and a half later Mr. and Mrs. John Ethelbert Barnes were driven
+up to Judge Brewster's country place in Mr. David Bracken's brake. They
+were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. George Crosby, and were carrying out
+the plans as outlined in the original programme.
+
+"Where's papa?" Marjory tremulously inquired of the footman in the
+hallway.
+
+"He's waitin' for you in the library, miss--I should say Mrs. Barnes,"
+replied the man, a trace of excitement in his face.
+
+"Mrs. Barnes!" exclaimed four voices at once.
+
+"Who told you, William?" cried Marjory, leaning upon Jack for support.
+
+"A Mr. Anderson Crow was here not half an hour ago, ma'am, to assure Mr.
+Brewster as to how his new son-in-law was in nowise connected with the
+murder up the way. He said as how he had personally investigated the
+case, miss--ma'am, and Mr. Brewster could rely on his word for it, Mr.
+Jack was not the man. He told him as how you was married at the
+boathouse."
+
+"Yes--and then?" cried Marjory eagerly.
+
+"Mr. Brewster said that Mr. Jack wasn't born to be hanged, and for me to
+have an extry plate laid at the table for him to-night," concluded
+William with an expressive grin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The Babe on the Doorstep
+
+
+It was midnight in Tinkletown, many months after the events mentioned in
+the foregoing chapters, and a blizzard was raging. The February wind
+rasped through the bare trees, shrieked around the corners of lightless
+houses and whipped its way through the scurrying snow with all the rage
+of a lion. The snow, on account of the bitter cold in the air, did not
+fly in big flakes, but whizzed like tiny bullets, cutting the flesh of
+men and beasts like the sting of wasps. It was a good night to be
+indoors over a roaring fire or in bed between extra blankets. No one,
+unless commanded by emergency, had the temerity to be abroad that night.
+
+The Crow family snoozed comfortably in spite of the calliope shrieks of
+the wind. The home of the town marshal was blanketed in peace and the
+wind had no terrors for its occupants. They slept the sleep of the
+toasted. The windows may have rattled a bit, perhaps, and the shutters
+may have banged a trifle too remorselessly, but the Crows were not to be
+disturbed.
+
+The big, old-fashioned clock in the hall downstairs was striking twelve
+when Anderson Crow awoke with a start. He was amazed, for to awake in
+the middle of the night was an unheard-of proceeding for him. He caught
+the clang of the last five strokes from the clock, however, and was
+comforting himself with the belief that it was five o'clock, after all,
+when his wife stirred nervously.
+
+"Are you awake, Anderson?" she asked softly.
+
+"Yes, Eva, and it's about time to get up. It jest struck five. Doggone,
+it's been blowin' cats and dogs outside, ain't it?" he yawned.
+
+"Five? It's twelve-now, don't tell me you counted the strokes, because I
+did myself. Ain't it queer we should both git awake at this unearthly
+hour?"
+
+"Well," murmured he sleepily now that it was not five o'clock, "it's a
+mighty good hour to go back to sleep ag'in, I reckon."
+
+"I thought I heard a noise outside," she persisted.
+
+"I don't blame you," he said, chuckling. "It's been out there all
+night."
+
+"I mean something besides the wind. Sounded like some one walkin' on the
+front porch."
+
+"Now, look here, Eva, you ain't goin' to git me out there in this
+blizzard--in my stockin' feet--lookin' fer robbers--"
+
+"Just the same, Anderson, I'm sure I heard some one. Mebby it's some
+poor creature freezin' an' in distress. If I was you, I'd go and look
+out there. Please do."
+
+"Doggone, Eva, if you was me you'd be asleep instid of huntin' up
+trouble on a night like this. They ain't nothin' down there an'
+you--but, by cracky! mebby you're right. Supposin' there is some poor
+cuss out there huntin' a place to sleep. I'll go and look;" and Mr.
+Crow, the most tender-hearted man in the world, crawled shiveringly but
+quickly from the warm bed. In his stocking feet--Anderson slept in his
+socks on those bitter nights--he made his way down the front stairs,
+grumbling but determined. Mrs. Crow followed close behind, anxious to
+verify the claim that routed him from his nest.
+
+"It may be a robber," she chattered, as he pulled aside a front window
+curtain. Anderson drew back hastily.
+
+"Well, why in thunder didn't you say so before?" he gasped. "Doggone,
+Eva, that's no way to do! He might 'a' fired through the winder at me."
+
+"But he's in the house by this time, if it was a robber," she
+whispered. "He wouldn't stand out on the porch all night."
+
+"That's right," he whispered in reply. "You're a good deducer, after
+all. I wish I had my dark lantern. Thunderation!" He stubbed his toe
+against the sewing machine. There is nothing that hurts more than
+unintentional contact with a sewing machine. "Why in sixty don't you
+light a light, Eva? How can I--"
+
+"Listen!" she whispered shrilly. "Hear that? Anderson, there's some one
+walkin' on the porch!"
+
+"'y gosh!" faltered he. "Sure as Christmas! You wait here, Eva, till I
+go upstairs an' put on my badge and I'll--"
+
+"I'll do nothing of the kind. You don't ketch me stayin' down here
+alone," and she grabbed the back of his nightshirt as he started for the
+stairs.
+
+"Sho! What air you afeerd of? I'll get my revolver, too. I never did see
+such a coward'y calf as--"
+
+Just then there was a tremendous pounding on the front door, followed by
+the creaking of footsteps on the frozen porch, a clatter down the steps,
+and then the same old howling of the wind. The Crows jumped almost out
+of their scanty garments, and then settled down as if frozen to the
+spot. It was a full minute before Anderson found his voice--in advance
+of Mrs. Crow at that, which was more than marvellous.
+
+"What was that?" he chattered.
+
+"A knock!" she gasped.
+
+"Some neighbour's sick."
+
+"Old Mrs. Luce. Oh, goodness, how my heart's going!"
+
+"Why don't you open the door, Eva?"
+
+"Why don't you? It's your place."
+
+"But, doggone it, cain't you see--I mean feel--that I ain't got hardly
+any clothes on? I'd ketch my death o' cold, an' besides--"
+
+"Well, I ain't got as much on as you have. You got socks on an'--"
+
+"But supposin' it's a woman," protested he. "You wouldn't want a woman
+to see me lookin' like this, would you? Go ahead an'--"
+
+"I suppose you'd like to have a man see me like this. I ain't used to
+receivin' men in--but, say, whoever it was, is gone. Didn't you hear the
+steps? Open the door, Anderson. See what it is."
+
+And so, after much urging, Anderson Crow unbolted his front door and
+turned the knob. The wind did the rest. It almost blew the door off its
+hinges, carrying Mr. and Mrs. Crow back against the wall. A gale of snow
+swept over them.
+
+"Gee!" gasped Anderson, crimping his toes. Mrs. Crow was peering under
+his arm.
+
+"Look there!" she cried. Close to the door a large bundle was lying.
+
+"A present from some one!" speculated Mr. Crow; but some seconds passed
+before he stooped to pick it up. "Funny time fer Santy to be callin'
+'round. Wonder if he thinks it's next Christmas."
+
+"Be careful, Anderson; mebby it's an infernal machine!" cried his wife.
+
+"Well, it's loaded, 'y ginger," he grunted as straightened up in the
+face of the gale. "Shut the door, Eva! Cain't you see it's snowin'?"
+
+"I'll bet it was Joe Ramsey leavin' a sack o' hickor' nuts fer us," she
+said eagerly, slamming the door.
+
+"You better bolt the door. He might change his mind an' come back fer
+'em," observed her husband. "It don't feel like hickor' nuts. Why, Eva,
+it's a baskit--a reg'lar clothes baskit. What in thunder do--"
+
+"Let's get a light out by the kitchen fire. It's too cold in here."
+
+Together they sped to the kitchen with the mysterious offering from the
+blizzard. There was a fire in the stove, which Anderson replenished,
+while Eva began to remove the blankets and packing from the basket,
+which she had placed on the hearth. Anderson looked on eagerly.
+
+"Lord!" fell from the lips of both as the contents of the basket were
+exposed to their gaze.
+
+A baby, alive and warm, lay packed in the blankets, sound asleep and
+happy. For an interminable length of time the Crows, _en dishabille_,
+stood and gazed open-mouthed and awed at the little stranger. Ten
+minutes later, after the ejaculations and surmises, after the tears and
+expletives, after the whole house had been aroused, Anderson Crow was
+plunging amiably but aimlessly through the snowstorm in search of the
+heartless wretch who had deposited the infant on his doorstep. His top
+boots scuttled up and down the street, through yards and barn lots for
+an hour, but despite the fact that he carried his dark lantern and
+trailed like an Indian bloodhound, he found no trace of the wanton
+visitor. In the meantime, Mrs. Crow, assisted by the entire family, had
+stowed the infant, a six-weeks-old girl, into a warm bed, ministering to
+the best of her ability to its meagre but vociferous wants. There was no
+more sleep in the Crow establishment that night. The head of the house
+roused a half dozen neighbours from their beds to tell them of the
+astounding occurrence, with the perfectly natural result that one and
+all hurried over to see the baby and to hear the particulars.
+
+Early next morning Tinkletown wagged with an excitement so violent that
+it threatened to end in a municipal convulsion. Anderson Crow's home was
+besieged. The snow in his front yard was packed to an icy consistency by
+the myriad of footprints that fell upon it; the interior of the house
+was "tracked" with mud and slush and three window panes were broken by
+the noses of curious but unwelcome spectators. Altogether, it was a
+sensation unequalled in the history of the village. Through it all the
+baby blinked and wept and cooed in perfect peace, guarded by Mrs. Crow
+and the faithful progeny who had been left by the stork, and not by a
+mysterious stranger.
+
+The missionary societies wanted to do something heroic, but Mrs. Crow
+headed them off; the sewing circle got ready to take charge of affairs,
+but Mrs. Crow punctured the project; figuratively, the churches ached
+for a chance to handle the infant, but Mrs. Crow stood between. And all
+Tinkletown called upon Anderson Crow to solve the mystery before it was
+a day older.
+
+"It's purty hard to solve a mystery that's got six weeks' start o' me,"
+said Anderson despairingly, "but I'll try, you bet. The doggone thing's
+got a parent or two somewhere in the universe, an' I'll locate 'em er
+explode somethin'. I've got a private opinion about it myself."
+
+Whatever this private opinion might have been, it was not divulged.
+Possibly something in connection with it might have accounted for the
+temporary annoyance felt by nearly every respectable woman in
+Tinkletown. The marshal eyed each and every one of them, irrespective of
+position, condition or age, with a gleam so accusing that the Godliest
+of them flushed and then turned cold. So knowing were these equitable
+looks that before night every woman in the village was constrained to
+believe the worst of her neighbour, and almost as ready to look with
+suspicion upon herself.
+
+One thing was certain--business was at a standstill in Tinkletown. The
+old men forgot their chess and checker games at the corner store; young
+men neglected their love affairs; women forgot to talk about each other;
+children froze their ears rather than miss any of the talk that went
+about the wintry streets; everybody was asking the question, "Whose baby
+is it?"
+
+But the greatest sensation of all came late in the day when Mrs. Crow,
+in going over the garments worn by the babe, found a note addressed to
+Anderson Crow. It was stitched to the baby's dress, and proved beyond
+question that the strange visitor of the night before had selected not
+only the house, but the individual. The note was to the point. It said:
+
+     "February 18, 1883.
+
+     "ANDERSON CROW: To your good and merciful care an unhappy creature
+     consigns this helpless though well-beloved babe. All the world
+     knows you to be a tender, loving, unselfish man and father. The
+     writer humbly, prayerfully implores you to care for this babe as
+     you would for one of your own. It is best that her origin be kept a
+     secret. Care for her, cherish her as your own, and at the end of
+     each year the sum of a thousand dollars will be paid to you as long
+     as she lives in your household as a member thereof. Do not seek to
+     find her parents. It would be a fool's errand. May God bless you
+     and yours, and may God care for and protect Rosalie--the name she
+     shall bear."
+
+Obviously, there was no signature and absolutely no clew to the identity
+of the writer. Two telegraph line repairers who had been working near
+Crow's house during the night, repairing damage done by the blizzard,
+gave out the news that they had seen a cloaked and mysterious-looking
+woman standing near the Methodist Church just before midnight, evidently
+disregarding the rage of the storm. The sight was so unusual that the
+men paused and gazed at her for several minutes. One of them was about
+to approach her when she turned and fled down the side street near by.
+
+"Was she carryin' a big bundle?" asked Anderson Crow.
+
+The men replied in the negative.
+
+"Then she couldn't have been the party wanted. The one we're after
+certainly had a big bundle."
+
+"But, Mr. Crow, isn't it possible that these men saw her after she left
+the basket at--" began the Presbyterian minister.
+
+"That ain't the way I deduce it," observed the town detective tartly.
+"In the first place, she wouldn't 'a' been standin' 'round like that if
+the job was over, would she? Wouldn't she 'a' been streakin' out fer
+home? 'Course she would."
+
+"She may have paused near the church to see whether you took the child
+in," persisted the divine.
+
+"But she couldn't have saw my porch from the back end of the church."
+
+"Nobody said she was standing back of the church," said the lineman.
+
+"What's that? You don't mean it?" cried Anderson, pulling out of a
+difficulty bravely. "That makes all the difference in the world. Why
+didn't you say she was in front of the church? Cain't you see we've
+wasted time here jest because you didn't have sense 'nough to--"
+
+"Anybody ought to know it 'thout being told, you old Rube," growled the
+lineman, who was from Boggs City.
+
+"Here, now, sir, that will do you! I won't 'low no man to--"
+
+"Anderson, be quiet!" cautioned Mrs. Crow. "You'll wake the baby!" This
+started a new train of thought in Anderson's perplexed mind.
+
+"Mebby she was waitin' there while some one--her husband, fer
+instance--was leavin' the baskit," volunteered Isaac Porter humbly.
+
+"Don't bother me, Ike; I'm thinkin' of somethin' else," muttered
+Anderson. "Husband nothin'! Do you s'pose she'd 'a' trusted that baby
+with a fool husband on a terrible night like that? Ladies and gentlemen,
+this here baby was left by a _female_ resident of this very town." His
+hearers gasped and looked at him wide-eyed. "If she has a husband, he
+don't know he's the father of this here baby. Don't you see that a woman
+couldn't 'a' carried a heavy baskit any great distance? She couldn't 'a'
+packed it from Boggs City er New York er Baltimore, could she? She
+wouldn't 'a' been strong enough. No, siree; she didn't have far to come,
+folks. An' she was a woman, 'cause ain't all typewritin' done by women?
+You don't hear of men typewriters, do you? People wouldn't have 'em.
+Now, the thing fer me to do first is to make a house-to-house search to
+see if I c'n locate a typewritin' machine anywheres. Get out of the way,
+Toby. Doggone you boys, anyhow, cain't you see I want ter get started on
+this job?"
+
+"Say, Anderson," said Harry Squires, the reporter, "I'd like to ask if
+there is any one in Tinkletown, male or female, who can afford to pay
+you a thousand dollars a year for taking care of that kid?"
+
+"What's that?" slowly oozed from Anderson's lips.
+
+"You heard what I said. Say, don't you know you can bring up a kid in
+this town for eleven or twelve dollars a year?"
+
+"You don't know what you're talkin' about," burst from Anderson's
+indignant lips, but he found instant excuse to retire from the circle of
+speculators. A few minutes later he and his wife were surreptitiously
+re-reading the note, both filled with the fear that it said $10.00
+instead of $1000.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Reflection and Deduction
+
+
+"By gum, it does say a thousand," cried Anderson, mightily relieved.
+"Harry Squires is a fool. He said jest now that it could be did fer
+eleven or twelve dollars. Don't you suppose, Eva, that the mother of
+this here child knows what it costs to bring 'em up? Of course she does.
+When I find her I'll prove it by her own lips that she knows. But don't
+bother me any more, Eva; I got to git out an' track her down. This is
+the greatest job I've had in years."
+
+"See here, Anderson," said his wife thoughtfully and somewhat
+stealthily, "let's go slow about this thing. What do you want to find
+her for?"
+
+"Why--why, doggone it, Eva, what air you talkin' about?" began he in
+amazement.
+
+"Well, it's just this way: I don't think we can earn a thousand dollars
+a year easier than takin' care of this child. Don't you see? Suppose we
+keep her fer twenty years. That means twenty thousand dollars, don't it?
+It beats a pension all to pieces."
+
+"Well, by ginger!" gasped Anderson, vaguely comprehending. "Fifty years
+would mean fifty thousand dollars, wouldn't it. Gee whiz, Eva!"
+
+"I don't imagine we can keep her that long."
+
+"No," reflectively; "the chances are she'd want ter git married inside
+of that time. They always--
+
+"'Tain't that, Anderson. You an' me'd have to live to be more'n a
+hundred years old."
+
+"That's so. We ain't spring chickens, are we, deary?"
+
+She put her hard, bony hand in his and there was a suspicion of moisture
+in the kindly old eyes.
+
+"I love to hear you call me 'deary,' Anderson. We never get too old for
+that."
+
+He coughed and then patted her hand rather confusedly. Anderson had long
+since forgotten the meaning of sentiment, but he was surprised to find
+that he had not forgotten how to love his wife.
+
+"Shucks!" he muttered bravely. "We'll be kissin' like a couple of young
+jay birds first thing we know. Doggone if it ain't funny how a baby,
+even if it is some one else's, kinder makes a feller foolisher'n he
+intends to be." Hand in hand they watched the sleeping innocent for
+several minutes. Finally the detective shook himself and spoke:
+
+"Well, Eva, I got to make a bluff at findin' out whose baby it is, ain't
+I? My reputation's at stake. I jest have to investigate."
+
+"I don't see that any harm can come from that, Anderson," she replied,
+and neither appreciated the sarcasm unintentionally involved.
+
+"I won't waste another minute," he announced promptly. "I will stick to
+my theory that the parents live in Tinkletown."
+
+"Fiddlesticks!" snorted Mrs. Crow disgustedly, and then left him to
+cultivate the choleric anger her exclamation had inspired.
+
+"Doggone, I wish I hadn't patted her hand," he lamented. "She didn't
+deserve it. Consarn it, a woman's always doin' something to spoil
+things."
+
+And so he fared forth with his badges and stars, bent on duty, but not
+accomplishment. All the town soon knew that he was following a clew, but
+all the town was at sea concerning its character, origin, and
+plausibility. A dozen persons saw him stop young Mrs. Perkins in front
+of Lamson's store, and the same spectators saw his feathers droop as she
+let loose her wrath upon his head and went away with her nose in the air
+and her cheeks far more scarlet than when Boreas kissed them, and all in
+response to a single remark volunteered by the faithful detective. He
+entered Lamson's store a moment later, singularly abashed and red in the
+face.
+
+"Doggone," he observed, seeing that an explanation was expected, "she
+might 'a' knowed I was only foolin'."
+
+A few minutes later he had Alf Reesling, the town sot, in a far corner
+of the store talking to him in a most peremptory fashion. It may be well
+to mention that Alf had so far forgotten himself as to laugh at the
+marshal's temporary discomfiture at the hands of Mrs. Perkins.
+
+"Alf, have you been havin' another baby up to your house without lettin'
+me know?" demanded Anderson firmly.
+
+"Anderson," replied Alf, maudlin tears starting in his eyes, "it's not
+kind of you to rake up my feelin's like this. You know I been a widower
+fer three years."
+
+"I want you to understand one thing, Alf Reesling. A detective never
+_knows_ anything till he proves it. Let me warn you, sir, you are under
+suspicion. An' now, let me tell you one thing more. Doggone your ornery
+hide, don't you ever laugh ag'in like you did jest now er I'll--"
+
+Just then the door flew open with a bang and Edna Crow, Anderson's
+eldest, almost flopped into the store, her cap in her hand, eyes
+starting from her head. She had run at top speed all the way from home.
+
+"Pop," she gasped. "Ma says fer you to hurry home! She says fer you to
+_run_!"
+
+Anderson covered the distance between Lamson's store and his own home in
+record time. Indeed, Edna, flying as fast as her slim legs could
+twinkle, barely beat her father to the front porch. It was quite clear
+to Mr. Crow that something unusual had happened or Mrs. Crow would not
+have summoned him so peremptorily.
+
+She was in the hallway downstairs awaiting his arrival, visibly
+agitated. Before uttering a word she dragged him into the little
+sitting-room and closed the door. They were alone.
+
+"Is it dead?" he panted.
+
+"No, but what do you think, Anderson?" she questioned excitedly.
+
+"I ain't had time to think. You don't mean to say it has begun to talk
+an' c'n tell who it is," he faltered.
+
+"Heavens no--an' it only six weeks old."
+
+"Well, then, what in thunder _has_ happened?"
+
+"A _detective_ has been here."
+
+"Good gosh!"
+
+"Yes, a _real_ detective. He's out there in the kitchen gettin' his feet
+warm by the bake-oven. He says he's lookin' for a six-weeks-old baby.
+Anderson, we're goin' to lose that twenty thousand."
+
+"Don't cry, Eva; mebby we c'n find another baby some day. Has he seen
+the--the--it?" Anderson was holding to the stair-post for support.
+
+"Not yet, but he says he understands we've got one here that ain't been
+_tagged_--that's what he said--'tagged.' What does he mean by that?"
+
+"Why--why, don't you see? Just as soon as he tags it, it's _it_.
+Doggone, I wonder if it would make any legal difference if I tagged it
+first."
+
+"He's a queer-lookin' feller, Anderson. Says he's in disguise, and he
+certainly looks like a regular scamp."
+
+"I'll take a look at him an' ast fer his badge." Marshal Crow paraded
+boldly into the kitchen, where the strange man was regaling the younger
+Crows with conversation the while he partook comfortably of pie and
+other things more substantial.
+
+"Are you Mr. Crow?" he asked nonchalantly, as Anderson appeared before
+him.
+
+"I am. Who are you?"
+
+"I am Hawkshaw, the detective," responded the man, his mouth full of
+blackberry pie.
+
+"Gee whiz!" gasped Anderson. "Eva, it's the celebrated Hawkshaw."
+
+"Right you are, sir. I'm after the kid."
+
+"You'll have to identify it," something inspired Anderson to say.
+
+"Sure. That's easy. It's the one that was left on your doorstep last
+night," said the man glibly.
+
+"Well, I guess you're right," began Anderson disconsolately.
+
+"Boy or girl?" demanded Mrs. Crow, shrewdly and very quickly. She had
+been inspecting the man more closely than before, and woman's intuition
+was telling her a truth that Anderson overlooked. Mr. Hawkshaw was not
+only very seedy, but very drunk.
+
+"Madam," he responded loftily, "it is nothing but a mere child."
+
+"I'll give you jest one minute to get out of this house," said Mrs. Crow
+sharply, to Anderson's consternation. "If you're not gone, I'll douse
+you with this kettle of scalding water. Open the back door, Edna. He
+sha'n't take his dirty self through my parlour again. _Open that door,
+Edna!_"
+
+Edna, half paralysed with astonishment, opened the kitchen door just in
+time. Mr. Hawkshaw was not so drunk but he could recognise disaster when
+it hovered near. As she lifted the steaming kettle from the stove he
+made a flying leap for the door. The rush of air that followed him as he
+shot through the aperture almost swept Edna from her feet. In ten
+seconds the tattered Hawkshaw was scrambling over the garden fence and
+making lively if inaccurate tracks through last year's cabbage patch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+The Mysterious Visitor
+
+
+The entire Crow family watched him in stupefaction until he disappeared
+down the lane that led to Hapgood's grove. It was then, and not until
+then, that Anderson Crow took a breath.
+
+"Good Lord, Eva, what do you mean?" he gasped.
+
+"Mean?" she almost shrieked. "Anderson Crow, didn't you recognise that
+feller? He ain't no more detective than you er me. He's the self-same
+tramp that you put in the calaboose last week, and the week before, too.
+I thought I'd seen his ugly face before. He's--"
+
+"Great jumpin' geeswax!" roared the town marshal. "I recollect him now.
+He's the one that said he'd been exposed to smallpox an' wanted to be
+kept where it was warm all winter. Well, I'll be--I'll be--"
+
+"Don't say it, pa. He said it fer you when he clumb over that barb-wire
+fence out there," cried Edna gleefully.
+
+Several days of anxiety and energy followed this interesting episode. In
+that time two tramps attempted to obtain food and shelter at Crow's
+home, one on the plea that he was the father of the unfortunate child,
+the other as an officer for the Foundlings' Home at Boggs City. Three
+babies were left on the doorstep--two in one night--their fond mothers
+confessing fessing by letters that they appreciated Anderson's
+well-known charitable inclinations and implored him to care for their
+offspring as if they were his own. The harassed marshal experienced some
+difficulty in forcing the mothers to take back their children.
+
+In each instance he was reviled by the estimable ladies, all of whom
+accused him of being utterly heartless. Mrs. Crow came to his rescue and
+told the disappointed mothers that the scalding water was ready for
+application if they did not take their baskets of babies away on short
+order. It may be well for the reputation of Tinkletown to mention that
+one of the donors was Mrs. Raspus, a negro washerwoman who did work for
+the "dagoes" engaged in building the railroad hard by; another was the
+wife of Antonio Galli, a member of the grading gang, and the third was
+Mrs. Pool, the widow of a fisherman who had recently drowned himself in
+drink.
+
+It is quite possible that Anderson might have had the three infants on
+his hands permanently had not the mothers been so eager to know their
+fate. They appeared in person early the next morning to see if the
+babies had frozen to death on the doorstep. Mrs. Pool even went so far
+as to fetch some extra baby clothes which she had neglected to drop with
+her male. Mrs. Raspus came for her basket, claiming it was the only one
+she had in which to "tote" the washing for the men.
+
+After these annoying but enlivening incidents Anderson was permitted to
+recover from his daze and to throw off symptoms of nervous prostration.
+Tinkletown resumed its tranquil attitude and the checker games began to
+thrive once more. Little Rosalie was a week older than when she came,
+but it was five weeks before anything happened to disturb the even tenor
+of the foster-father's way. He had worked diligently in the effort to
+discover the parents of the baby, but without result. Two or three
+exasperated husbands in Tinkletown had threatened to blow his brains out
+if he persisted in questioning their wives in his insinuating manner,
+and one of the kitchen girls at the village inn threw a dishpan at him
+on the occasion of his third visit of inquiry. A colored woman in the
+employ of the Baptist minister denied that Rosalie was her child, but
+when he insisted, agreed with fine sarcasm to "go over an' have a look
+at it," after his assurance that it was perfectly white.
+
+"Eva, I've investigated the case thoroughly," he said at last, "an'
+there is no solution to the mystery. The only thing I c'n deduce is that
+the child is here an' we'll have to take keer of her. Now, I wonder if
+that woman really meant it when she said we'd have a thousand dollars
+at the end of each year. Doggone, I wish the year was up, jest to see."
+
+"We'll have to wait, Anderson, that's all," said Mrs. Crow. "I love the
+baby so it can't matter much. I'm glad you're through investigatin'.
+It's been most tryin' to me. Half the women in town don't speak to me."
+
+It was at the end of Rosalie's fifth week as a member of the family that
+something happened. Late one night when Anderson opened the front door
+to put out the cat a heavily veiled woman mounted the steps and accosted
+him. In some trepidation he drew back and would have closed the door but
+for her eager remonstrance.
+
+"I must see you, Mr. Crow," she cried in a low, agitated voice.
+
+"Who are you?" he demanded. She was dressed entirely in black.
+
+"I came to see you about the baby."
+
+"That won't do, madam. There's been three tramps here to hornswoggle us
+an' I--"
+
+"I _must_ see her, Mr. Crow," pleaded the stranger, and he was struck by
+the richness of her voice.
+
+"Mighty queer, it seems to me," he muttered hesitatingly. "Are you any
+kin to it?"
+
+"I am very much interested."
+
+"By giminy, I believe you're the one who left her here," cried the
+detective. "Are you a typewriter?"
+
+"I'll answer your questions if you'll allow me to step inside. It is
+very cold out here."
+
+Anderson Crow stood aside and the tall, black figure entered the hall.
+He led her to the warm sitting-room and gave her a chair before the
+"base-burner."
+
+"Here, Mr. Crow, is an envelope containing two hundred and fifty
+dollars. That proves my good faith. I cannot tell you who I am nor what
+relation I bear to the baby. I am quite fully aware that you will not
+undertake to detain me, for it is not an easy matter to earn a thousand
+dollars a year in this part of the world. I am going abroad next week
+and do not expect to return for a long, long time. Try as I would, I
+could not go without seeing the child. I will not keep you out of bed
+ten minutes, and you and your wife may be present while I hold Rosalie
+in my arms. I know that she is in good hands, and I have no intention of
+taking her away. Please call Mrs. Crow."
+
+Anderson was too amazed to act at once. He began to flounder
+interrogatively, but the visitor abruptly checked him.
+
+"You are wasting time, Mr. Crow, in attempting to question my authority
+or identity. No one need know that I have made this visit. You are
+perfectly secure in the promise to have a thousand dollars a year; why
+should you hesitate? As long as she lives with you the money is yours. I
+am advancing the amount you now hold in order that her immediate wants
+may be provided for. You are not required to keep an account of the
+money paid to you. There are means of ascertaining at once whether she
+is being well cared for and educated by you, and if it becomes apparent
+that you are not doing your duty, she shall be removed from your
+custody. From time to time you may expect written instructions
+from--from one who loves her."
+
+"I jest want to ast if you live in Tinkletown?" Anderson managed to say.
+
+"I do not," she replied emphatically.
+
+"Well, then, lift your veil. If you don't live here I sha'n't know you."
+
+"I prefer to keep my face covered, Mr. Crow; believe me and trust me.
+Please let me see her." The plea was so earnest that Anderson's heart
+gave a great thump of understanding.
+
+"By ginger, you are her mother!" he gasped. Mrs. Crow came in at this
+juncture, and she was much quicker at grasping the situation than her
+husband. It was in her mind to openly denounce the woman for her
+heartlessness, but her natural thriftiness interposed. She would do
+nothing that might remove the golden spoon from the family mouth.
+
+The trio stole upstairs and into the warm bedchamber. There, with
+Anderson Crow and his wife looking on from a remote corner of the room,
+the tall woman in black knelt beside the crib that had housed a
+generation of Crows. The sleeping Rosalie did not know of the soft
+kisses that swept her little cheek. She did not feel the tears that fell
+when the visitor lifted her veil, nor did she hear the whisperings that
+rose to the woman's lips.
+
+"That is all," murmured the mysterious stranger at last, dropping her
+veil as she arose. She staggered as she started for the door, but
+recovered herself instantly. Without a word she left the room, the
+Crows following her down the stairs in silence. At the bottom she
+paused, and then extended her hands to the old couple. Her voice
+faltered as she spoke.
+
+"Let me clasp your hands and let me tell you that my love and my prayers
+are forever for you and for that little one up there. Thank you. I know
+you will be good to her. She is well born. Her blood is as good as the
+best. Above all things, Mrs. Crow, she is not illegitimate. You may
+easily suspect that her parents are wealthy or they could not pay so
+well for her care. Some day the mystery surrounding her will be cleared.
+It may not be for many years. I can safely say that she will be left in
+your care for twenty years at least. Some day you will know why it is
+that Rosalie is not supposed to exist. God bless you."
+
+She was gone before they could utter a word. They watched her walk
+swiftly into the darkness; a few minutes later the sound of carriage
+wheels suddenly broke upon the air. Anderson Crow and his wife stood
+over the "base-burner," and there were tears in their thoughtful eyes.
+
+"She said twenty years, Eva. Let's see, this is 1883. What would that
+make it?"
+
+"About 1903 or 1904, Anderson."
+
+"Well, I guess we c'n wait if other people can," mused he. Then they
+went slowly upstairs and to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Some Years Go By
+
+
+Tinkletown as a unit supported Anderson in his application for
+guardianship papers. They were filed immediately after the secret visit
+of the mysterious woman; the Circuit Court at Boggs City, after hearing
+the evidence, at once entered the appointment of Mr. Crow. When the
+court asked in mild surprise why he did not adopt the child, Anderson
+and Eva looked at each other sheepishly and were silent for a full
+minute. Then Anderson spoke up a bit huskily:
+
+"Well, you see, judge, her name would have to be Crow, an' while it's a
+good name an' an honoured one, it don't jest seem to fit the young 'un.
+She 'pears to be more of a canary than a crow, figuratively speakin',
+and Eva an' me jest decided we'd give her a different sort of a last
+name if we could find one. Seems to me that Rosie Canary would be a good
+one, but Eva an' the childern are ag'in me. They've decided to call her
+Rosalie Gray, an' I guess that about settles it. If you don't mind, I
+reckon that name c'n go in the records. Besides, you must recollect that
+she's liable to have a lot of property some time, an' it seems more fit
+fer me to be guardian than foster-father if that time ever comes. It'll
+be easier to say good-bye if she keers to leave us."
+
+That same day Anderson deposited two hundred and fifty dollars to his
+credit in the First National Bank, saying to his wife as he walked away
+from the teller's window, "I guess Rosalie cain't starve till the bank
+busts, an' maybe not then."
+
+Of course Tinkletown knew that a sum of money had been paid to Anderson,
+but no one knew that it had been handed to him in person by an
+interested party. Had Anderson and his wife even whispered that such a
+visit had occurred, the town would have gone into a convulsion of wrath;
+the marshal's pedestal would have been jerked out from under him without
+compunction or mercy. Eva cautioned him to be more than silent on the
+subject for the child's sake as well as for their own, and Anderson saw
+wisdom in her counselling. He even lagged in his avowed intention to
+unravel the mystery or die in the attempt. A sharp reminder in the shape
+of an item in the _Banner_ restored his energies, and he again took up
+the case with a vigour that startled even himself. Anything in the shape
+of vigour startled his wife.
+
+Harry Squires, the reporter, who poked more or less fun at Anderson from
+time to time because he had the "power of the press behind him," some
+weeks later wrote the following item about the "baby mystery," as he
+called it, in large type:
+
+     "There is no news in regard to the child found upon the doorstep of
+     our esteemed fellow-citizen Anderson Crow, last February. The item
+     concerning its discovery first appeared in the columns of the
+     _Banner_, as will be remembered by our many readers. Detective
+     Crow promised developments some time ago, but they have not showed
+     up. It is rumoured that he has a new clew, but it cannot be
+     substantiated. The general impression is that he does not know
+     whether it is a boy or girl. We advise Mr. Crow to go slow. He
+     should not forget the time when he arrested Mr. John Barnes, two
+     years ago, for the murder of Mr. Grover, and afterward found that
+     the young gent was merely eloping with Judge Brewster's daughter,
+     which was no crime. We saw the girl. Those of our readers who were
+     alive at the time doubtless recall the excitement of that man-hunt
+     two years ago. Mr. Barnes, as innocent as a child unborn, came to
+     our little city engaged in the innocent pastime of getting married.
+     At the same time it was reported that a murder had been committed
+     in this county. Mr. Crow had his suspicions aroused and pursued Mr.
+     Barnes down the river and arrested him. It was a fine piece of
+     detective work. But, unfortunately for Mr. Crow, the real murderer
+     had been caught in the meantime. Mr. Barnes was guilty only of
+     stealing judge Brewster's daughter and getting married to her. The
+     last heard of them they were happy in New York. They even forgave
+     Mr. Crow, it is reported. It is to be hoped that our clever
+     detective will soon jump down upon the heartless parents of this
+     innocent child, but it is also to be hoped that he think at least
+     four times before he leaps."
+
+To say that the foregoing editorial disturbed the evenness of Mr. Crow's
+temper would be saying nothing at all. In the privacy of his barn lot
+Anderson did a war dance that shamed Tecumseh. He threatened to
+annihilate Harry Squires "from head to foot," for publishing the base
+slander.
+
+"Doggone his hide," roared poor Anderson, "fer two cents I'd tell all I
+know about him bein' tight up at Boggs City three years ago. He couldn't
+walk half an inch that time without staggerin'. Anyhow, I wouldn't have
+chased Mr. Barnes that time if it hadn't been fer Harry Squires. He
+egged me on, doggone his hide. If he didn't have that big typesetter
+from Albany over at the _Banner_ office to back him up I'd go over an'
+bust his snoot fer him. After all the items I've give him, too. That's
+all the thanks you git fer gittin' up news fer them blamed reporters.
+But I'll show him! I wonder what he'd think if I traced that baby right
+up to his own--_What's_ that, Eva? Well, now, you don't know anything
+about it neither, so keep your mouth shet. Harry Squires is a purty sly
+cuss. Mebby it's his'n. You ain't supposed to know. You jest let me do
+my own deducin'. I don't want no blamed woman tellin' me who to shadder.
+An' you, too, Edner; get out of the way, consarn ye! The next thing
+_you'll_ be tellin' me what to do--an' me your father, too!"
+
+And that is why Anderson Crow resumed his search for the parents of
+Rosalie Gray. Not that he hoped or expected to find them, but to offset
+the pernicious influence of Harry's "item." For many days he followed
+the most highly impossible clews, some of them intractable, to supply a
+rather unusual word of description. In other words, they reacted with a
+vigour that often found him unprepared but serene. Consequences bothered
+Anderson but little in those days of despised activity.
+
+It is not necessary to dwell upon the incidents of the ensuing years,
+which saw Rosalie crawl from babyhood to childhood and then stride
+proudly through the teens with a springiness that boded ill for Father
+Time. Regularly each succeeding February there came to Anderson Crow a
+package of twenty dollar bills amounting to one thousand dollars, the
+mails being inscrutable. The Crow family prospered correspondingly, but
+there was a liberal frugality behind it all that meant well for Rosalie
+when the time came for an accounting. Anderson and Eva "laid by" a
+goodly portion of the money for the child, whom they loved as one of
+their own flesh and blood. The district school lessons were followed
+later on by a boarding-school education down State, and then came the
+finishing touches at Miss Brown's in New York.
+
+Rosalie grew into a rare flower, as dainty as the rose, as piquant as
+the daisy. The unmistakable mark of the high bred glowed in her face,
+the fine traces of blue blood graced her every movement, her every tone
+and look. At the time that she, as well as every one else in Tinkletown,
+for that matter, was twenty years older than when she first came to
+Anderson's home, we find her the queen of the village, its one rich
+human possession, its one truly sophisticated inhabitant. Anderson Crow
+and his wife were so proud of her that they forgot their duty to their
+own offspring; but if the Crow children resented this it was not
+exhibited in the expressions of love and admiration for their
+foster-sister. Edna Crow, the eldest of the girls--Anderson called her
+"Edner"--was Rosalie's most devoted slave, while Roscoe, the
+twelve-year-old boy, who comprised the rear rank of Anderson's little
+army, knelt so constantly at her shrine that he fell far behind in his
+studies, and stuck to the third reader for two years.
+
+Anderson had not been idle in all these years. He was fast approaching
+his seventieth anniversary, but he was not a day older in spirit than
+when we first made his acquaintance. True, his hair was thinner and
+whiter, and his whiskers straggled a little more carelessly than in
+other days, but he was as young and active as a youth of twenty. Hard
+times did not worry him, nor did domestic troubles. Mrs. Crow often
+admitted that she tried her best to worry him, but it was like "pouring
+water on a duck's back." He went blissfully on his way, earning
+encomiums for himself and honours for Tinkletown. There was no grave
+crime committed in the land that he did not have a well-defined scheme
+for apprehending the perpetrators. His "deductions" at Lamson's store
+never failed to draw out and hold large audiences, and no one disputed
+his theories in public. The fact that he was responsible for the arrest
+of various hog, horse, and chicken thieves from time to time, and for
+the continuous seizure of the two town drunkards, Tom Folly and Alf
+Reesling, kept his reputation untarnished, despite the numerous errors
+of commission and omission that crept in between.
+
+That Rosalie's mysterious friends--or enemies, it might have been--kept
+close and accurate watch over her was manifested from time to time.
+Once, when Anderson was very ill with typhoid fever, the package of
+bills was accompanied by an unsigned, typewritten letter. The writer
+announced that Mr. Crow's state of health was causing some anxiety on
+Rosalie's account--the child was then six years old--and it was hoped
+that nothing serious would result. Another time the strange writer, in a
+letter from Paris, instructed Mr. Crow to send Rosalie to a certain
+boarding school and to see that she had French, German, and music from
+competent instructors. Again, just before the girl went to New York for
+her two years' stay in Miss Brown's school, there came a package
+containing $2500 for her own personal use. Rosalie often spoke to
+Anderson of this mysterious sender as the "fairy godmother"; but the old
+marshal had a deeper and more significant opinion.
+
+Perhaps the most anxious period in the life of Anderson Crow came when
+Rosalie was about ten years old. A new sheriff had been elected in
+Bramble County, and he posed as a reformer. His sister taught school in
+Tinkletown, and Rosalie was her favourite. She took an interest in the
+child that was almost the undoing of Mr. Crow's prosperity. Imagining
+that she was befriending the girl, the teacher appealed to her brother,
+the sheriff, insisting that he do what he could to solve the mystery of
+her birth. The sheriff saw a chance to distinguish himself. He enlisted
+the help of an aggressive prosecuting attorney, also new, and set about
+to investigate the case.
+
+The two officers of the law descended upon Tinkletown one day and began
+to ask peremptory questions. They went about it in such a high-handed,
+lordly manner that Anderson took alarm and his heart sank like lead. He
+saw in his mind's eye the utter collapse of all his hopes, the dashing
+away of his cup of leisure and the upsetting of the "fairy godmother's"
+plans. Pulling his wits together, he set about to frustrate the attack
+of the meddlers. Whether it was his shrewdness in placing obstacles in
+their way or whether he coerced the denizens into blocking the sheriff's
+investigation does not matter. It is only necessary to say that the
+officious gentleman from Boggs City finally gave up the quest in disgust
+and retired into the oblivion usual to county officials who try to be
+progressive. It was many weeks, however, before Anderson slept soundly.
+He was once more happy in the consciousness that Rosalie had been saved
+from disaster and that he had done his duty by her.
+
+"I'd like to know how them doggone jays from Boggs City expected to find
+out anything about that child when I hain't been able to," growled Mr.
+Crow in Lamson's store one night. "If they'll jest keep their blamed
+noses out of this affair I'll find out who her parents are some day. It
+takes time to trace down things like this. I guess I know what I'm
+doin', don't I, boys?"
+
+"That's what you do, Anderson," said Mr. Lamson, as Anderson reached
+over and took a handful of licorice drops from the jar on the counter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The Village Queen
+
+
+The spring of 1903 brought Rosalie back to Tinkletown after her second
+and last year with Miss Brown in New York City. The sun seemed brighter,
+the birds sang more blithely, the flowers took on a new fragrance and
+the village spruced up as if Sunday was the only day in the week. The
+young men of the town trembled when she passed them by, and not a few of
+them grew thin and haggard for want of food and sleep, having lost both
+appetite and repose through a relapse in love. Her smile was the same as
+of yore, her cheery greetings the same, and yet the village swains stood
+in awe of this fine young aristocrat for days and days. Gradually it
+dawned upon them that she was human, after all, despite her New York
+training, and they slowly resumed the old-time manner of courting, which
+was with the eyes exclusively.
+
+A few of the more venturesome--but not the more ardent--asked her to go
+walking, driving, or to the church "sociables," and there was a rivalry
+in town which threatened to upset commerce. There was no theatre in
+Tinkletown, but they delighted in her descriptions of the gorgeous
+play-houses in New York. The town hall seemed smaller than ever to them.
+The younger merchants and their clerks neglected business with charming
+impartiality, and trade was going to "rack and ruin" until Rosalie
+declined to marry George Rawlins, the minister's son. He was looked upon
+as the favoured one; but she refused him in such a decisive manner that
+all others lost hope and courage. It is on record that the day after
+George's _conge_ Tinkletown indulged in a complete business somersault.
+Never before had there been such strict attention to customers;
+merchants and clerks alike settled down to the inevitable and tried to
+banish Rosalie's face from the cost tags and trading stamps of their
+dull, mercantile cloister. Even Tony Brink, the blacksmith's 'prentice,
+fell into the habits of industry, but with an absent-mindedness that got
+him kicked through a partition in the smithy when he attempted to shoe
+the fetlock of Mr. Martin's colt instead of its hoof.
+
+The Crow family took on a new dignity. Anderson gave fifty dollars to
+the Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church, claiming that
+a foreign education had done so much for his ward; and Mrs. Crow
+succeeded in holding two big afternoon teas before Rosalie could apply
+the check rein.
+
+One night Anderson sat up until nearly ten o'clock--an unheard-of
+proceeding for him. Rosalie, with the elder Crow girls, Edna and Susie,
+had gone to protracted meeting with a party of young men and women. The
+younger boys and girls were in bed, and Mrs. Crow was yawning
+prodigiously. She never retired until Anderson was ready to do likewise.
+Suddenly it dawned upon her that he was unusually quiet and
+preoccupied. They were sitting on the moonlit porch.
+
+"What's the matter, Anderson? Ain't you well?" she asked at last.
+
+"No; I'm just thinkin'," he responded, rather dismally. "Doggone, I
+cain't get it out of my head, Eva."
+
+"Can't get what out?"
+
+"About Rosalie."
+
+"Well, what about her?"
+
+"That's jest like a woman--always fergittin' the most important things
+in the world. Don't you know that the twenty years is up?"
+
+"Of course I know it, but 'tain't worryin' me any. She's still here,
+ain't she? Nobody has come to take her away. The thousand dollars came
+all right last February, didn't it? Well, what's the use worryin'?"
+
+"Mebbe you're right, but I'm skeered to death fer fear some one will
+turn up an' claim her, er that a big estate will be settled, er
+somethin' awful like that. I don't mind the money, Eva; I jest hate to
+think of losin' her, now that she's such a credit to us. Besides, I'm up
+a stump about next year."
+
+"Well, what happens then?"
+
+"Derned if I know. That's what's worryin' me."
+
+"I don't see why you--"
+
+"Certainly you don't. You never do. I've got to do all the thinkin' fer
+this fambly. Next year she's twenty-one years old an' her own boss,
+ain't she? I ain't her guardeen after that, am I? What happens then, I'd
+like to know."
+
+"You jest have to settle with the court, pay over to her what belongs to
+her and keep the thousand every spring jest the same. Her people,
+whoever they be, are payin' you fer keepin' her an' not her fer stayin'
+here. 'Tain't likely she'll want to leave a good home like this 'un, is
+it? Don't worry till the time comes, Anderson."
+
+"That's jest the point. She's lived in New York an' she's got used to
+it. She's got fine idees; even her clothes seem to fit different. Now,
+do you s'pose that fine-lookin' girl with all her New York trimmin's 's
+goin' to hang 'round a fool little town like this? Not much! She's goin'
+to dig out o' here as soon's she gits a chance; an' she's goin' to live
+right where her heart tells her she belongs--in the metropolees of New
+York. She don't belong in no jim-crow town like this. Doggone, Eva, I
+hate to see 'er go!"
+
+There was such a wail of bitterness in the old constable's remark that
+Mrs. Crow felt the tears start to her own eyes. It was the girl they
+both wanted, after all--not the money. Rosalie, coming home with her
+party some time afterward, found the old couple still seated on the
+porch. The young people could not conceal their surprise.
+
+"Counting the stars, pop?" asked Edna Crow.
+
+"He's waiting for the eclipse," bawled noisy Ed Higgins, the grocer's
+clerk. "It's due next winter. H'are you, Anderson?"
+
+"How's that?" was Anderson's rebuke.
+
+"I mean Mr. Crow," corrected Ed, with a nervous glance at Rosalie, who
+had been his companion for the evening.
+
+"Oh, I'm jest so-so," remarked Anderson, mollified. "How was the party?"
+
+"It wasn't a party, Daddy Crow," laughed Rosalie, seating herself in
+front of him on the porch rail. "It was an experience meeting. Alf
+Reesling has reformed again. He told us all about his last attack of
+delirium tremens."
+
+"You don't say so! Well, sir, I never thought Alf could find the time to
+reform ag'in. He's too busy gittin' tight," mused Anderson. "But I guess
+reformin' c'n git to be as much a habit as anythin' else."
+
+"I think he was a little woozy to-night," ventured 'Rast Little.
+
+"A little what?"
+
+"Drunk," explained 'Rast, without wasting words. 'Rast had acquired the
+synonym at the business men's carnival in Boggs City the preceding fall.
+Sometimes he substituted the words "pie-eyed," "skeed," "lit up," etc.,
+just to show his worldliness.
+
+After the young men had departed and the Crow girls had gone upstairs
+with their mother Rosalie slipped out on the porch and sat herself down
+upon the knee of her disconsolate guardian.
+
+"You are worried about something, Daddy Crow," she said gently. "Now,
+speak up, sir. What is it?"
+
+"It's time you were in bed," scolded Anderson, pulling his whiskers
+nervously.
+
+"Oh, I'm young, daddy. I don't need sleep. But you never have been up as
+late as this since I've known you."
+
+"I was up later'n this the time you had the whoopin'-cough, all right."
+
+"What's troubling you, daddy?"
+
+"Oh, nothin'--nothin' at all. Doggone, cain't a man set out on his own
+porch 'thout--"
+
+"Forgive me, daddy. Shall I go away and leave you?"
+
+"Gosh a'mighty, no!" he gasped. "That's what's worryin' me--oh, you
+didn't mean forever. You jest meant to-night? Geminy crickets, you did
+give me a skeer!" He sank back with a great sigh of relief.
+
+"Why, I never expect to leave you forever," she cried, caressing his
+scanty hair. "You couldn't drive me away. This is home, and you've been
+too good to me all these years. I may want to travel after a while, but
+I'll always come back to you, Daddy Crow."
+
+"I'm--I'm mighty glad to hear ye say that, Rosie. Ye see--ye see, me an'
+your ma kinder learned to love you, an'--an--"
+
+"Why, Daddy Crow, you silly old goose! You're almost crying!"
+
+"What's that? Now, don't talk like that to me, you little
+whipper-snapper, er you go to bed in a hurry. I never cried in my life,"
+growled Anderson in a great bluster.
+
+"Well, then, let's talk about something else--me, for instance. Do you
+know, Daddy Crow, that I'm too strong to live an idle life. There is no
+reason why I shouldn't have an occupation. I want to work--accomplish
+something."
+
+Anderson was silent a long time collecting his nerves. "You wouldn't
+keer to be a female detective, would you?" he asked drily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Rosalie Has Plans of Her Own
+
+
+"Do be serious, daddy. I want to do something worth while. I could teach
+school or--"
+
+"Not much! You ain't cut out fer that job. Don't you know that ever'body
+hates school-teachers when they're growed up? Jerusalem, how I still
+hate old Rachel Kidwell! An' yet she's bin dead nigh onto thirty years.
+She was my first teacher. You wasn't born to be hated by all the boys in
+the district. I don't see what put the idee of work inter your head You
+got 'bout eight thousand dollars in the bank an'--"
+
+"But I insist that the money is yours, daddy. My fairy godmother paid it
+to you for keeping, clothing, and educating me. It is not mine."
+
+"You talk like I was a boardin' school instead o' bein' your guardeen.
+No, siree; it's your money, an' that ends it. You git it when you're
+twenty-one."
+
+"We'll see, daddy," she replied, a stubborn light in her dark eyes. "But
+I want to learn to do something worth while. If I had a million it would
+be just the same."
+
+"You'll have something to do when you git married," observed he sharply.
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"I s'pose you're goin' to say you never expect to git married. They all
+say it--an' then take the first feller 'at comes along."
+
+"I didn't take the first, or the second, or the third, or the--"
+
+"Hold on! Gosh a'mighty, have you had that many? Well, why don't you go
+into the matrimonial agent's business? That's an occupation."
+
+"Oh, none of them was serious, daddy," she said naively.
+
+"You could have all of the men in the county!" he declared proudly.
+"Only," he added quickly, "it wouldn't seem jest right an' proper."
+
+"There was a girl at Miss Brown's a year ago who had loads of money, and
+yet she declared she was going to have an occupation. Nobody knew much
+about her or why she left school suddenly in the middle of a term. I
+liked her, for she was very nice to me when I first went there, a
+stranger. Mr. Reddon--you've heard me speak of him--was devoted to her,
+and I'm sure she liked him. It was only yesterday I heard from her. She
+is going to teach school in this township next winter."
+
+"An' she's got money?"
+
+"I am sure she had it in those days. It's the strangest thing in the
+world that she should be coming here to teach school in No. 5.
+Congressman Ritchey secured the appointment for her, she says. The
+township trustee--whatever his name is--for a long time insisted that he
+must appoint a teacher from Tinkletown and not an outsider. I am glad
+she is coming here because--well, daddy, because she is like the girls
+I knew in the city. She has asked me to look up a boarding place for
+next winter. Do you know of any one, daddy, who could let her have a
+nice room?"
+
+"I'll bet my ears you'd like to have your ma take her in right here. But
+I don't see how it c'n be done, Rosie-posie. There's so derned many of
+us now, an'--"
+
+"Oh, I didn't mean that, daddy. She couldn't come here. But don't you
+think Mrs. Jim Holabird would take her in for the winter?"
+
+"P'raps. She's a widder. She might let her have Jim's room now that
+there's a vacancy. You might go over an' ast her about it to-morrer.
+It's a good thing she's a friend of yourn, Rosalie, because if she
+wasn't I'd have to fight her app'intment."
+
+"Why, daddy!" reproachfully.
+
+"Well, she's a foreigner, an' I don't think it's right to give her a job
+when we've got so many home products that want the place an' who look
+unpopular enough to fill the bill. I'm fer home industry every time, an'
+'specially as this girl don't appear to need the place. I don't see what
+business Congressman Ritchey has foolin' with our school system anyhow.
+He'd better be reducin' the tariff er increasin' the pensions down to
+Washington."
+
+"I quite agree with you, Daddy Crow," said Rosalie with a diplomacy that
+always won for her. She knew precisely how to handle her guardian, and
+that was why she won where his own daughters failed. "And now,
+good-night, daddy. Go to bed and don't worry about me. You'll have me
+on your hands much longer than you think or want. What time is it?"
+
+Anderson patted her head reflectively as he solemnly drew his huge
+silver time-piece from an unlocated pocket. He held it out into the
+bright moonlight.
+
+"Geminy crickets!" he exclaimed. "It's forty-nine minutes to twelve!"
+Anderson Crow's policy was to always look at things through the small
+end of the telescope.
+
+The slow, hot summer wore away, and to Rosalie it was the longest that
+she ever had experienced. She was tired of the ceaseless twaddle of
+Tinkletown, its flow of "missions," "sociables," "buggy-horses," "George
+Rawlin's new dress-suit," "harvesting," and "politics"--for even the
+children talked politics. Nor did the assiduous attentions of the
+village young men possess the power to shorten the days for her--and
+they certainly lengthened the nights. She liked them because they were
+her friends from the beginning--and Rosalie was not a snob. Not for the
+world would she have hurt the feelings of one poor, humble, adoring soul
+in Tinkletown; and while her smile was none the less sweet, her laugh
+none the less joyous, in her heart there was the hidden longing that
+smiled only in dreams. She longed for the day that was to bring Elsie
+Banks to live with Mrs. Holabird, for with her would come a breath of
+the world she had known for two years, and which she had learned to love
+so well.
+
+In three months seven men had asked her to marry them. Of the seven, one
+only had the means or the prospect of means to support her. He was a
+grass-widower with five grown children. Anderson took occasion to warn
+her against widowers.
+
+"Why," he said, "they're jest like widders. You know Dave Smith that
+runs the tavern down street, don't you? Well, doggone ef he didn't turn
+in an' marry a widder with seven childern an' a husband, an' he's led a
+dog's life ever sence."
+
+"Seven children and a husband? Daddy Crow!"
+
+"Yep. Her derned husband wouldn't stay divorced when he found out Dave
+could support a fambly as big as that. He figgered it would be jest as
+easy to take keer of eight as seven, so he perlitely attached hisself to
+Dave's kitchen an' started in to eat hisself to death. Dave was goin' to
+have his wife apply fer another divorce an' leave the name blank, so's
+he could put in either husband ef it came to a pinch, but I coaxed him
+out of it. He finally got rid of the feller by askin' him one day to
+sweep out the office. He could eat all right, but it wasn't natural fer
+him to work, so he skipped out. Next I heerd of him he had married a
+widder who was gittin' a pension because her first husband fit fer his
+country. The Government shet off the pension jest as soon as she got
+married ag'in, and then that blamed cuss took in washin' fer her. He
+stayed away from home on wash-days, but as every day was wash-day with
+her, he didn't see her by daylight fer three years. She died, an' now
+he's back at Dave's ag'in. He calls Dave his husband-in-law."
+
+It required all of Anderson's social and official diplomacy to forestall
+an indignation meeting when it was announced that a stranger, Miss
+Banks, had been selected to teach school No. 5. There was some talk of
+mobbing the township trustee and Board of County Commissioners, but
+Anderson secured the names of the more virulent talkers and threatened
+to "jail" them for conspiracy.
+
+"Why, Anderson," almost wailed George Ray, "that girl's from the city.
+What does she know about grammar an' history an' all that? They don't
+teach anything but French an' Italian in the cities an' you know it."
+
+"Pshaw!" sniffed Anderson. "I hate grammar an' always did. I c'n talk
+better Italian than grammar right now, an' I hope Miss Banks will teach
+every child in the district how to talk French. You'd orter hear Rosalie
+talk it. Besides, Rosie says she's a nice girl an'--an' needs the
+job." Anderson lied bravely, but he swallowed twice in doing it.
+
+[Illustration: "September brought Elsie Banks"]
+
+September brought Elsie Banks to make life worth living for Rosalie. The
+two girls were constantly together, talking over the old days and what
+the new ones were to bring forth, especially for Miss Gray, who had
+resumed wood carving as a temporary occupation. Miss Banks was more than
+ever reluctant to discuss her own affairs, and Rosalie after a few
+trials was tactful enough to respect her mute appeal. It is doubtful if
+either of the girls mentioned the name of big, handsome Tom Reddon--Tom,
+who had rowed in his college crew; but it is safe to say that both of
+them thought of him more than once those long, soft, autumn
+nights--nights when Tinkletown's beaux were fairly tumbling over
+themselves in the effort to make New York life seem like a flimsy shadow
+in comparison.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Elsie Banks
+
+
+Aderson Crow stood afar off--among the bleak, leafless trees of Badger's
+Grove--and gazed thoughtfully, even earnestly, upon the little red
+schoolhouse with its high brick chimney and snow-clad roof. A biting
+January wind cut through his whiskers and warmed his nose to a
+half-broiled shade of red. On the lapel of his overcoat glistened his
+social and official badges, augmented by a new and particularly shiny
+emblem of respect bestowed by the citizens of Tinkletown.
+
+At first it had been the sense of the town to erect a monument in
+recognition of his part in the capture of the Bramble County horse-thief
+gang, but a thrifty and considerate committee of five substituted a
+fancy gold badge with suitable inscriptions on both sides, extolling him
+to the skies "long before he went there hisself" (to quote Uncle Gideon
+Luce, whose bump of perception was a stubborn prophet when it came to
+picking out the site of Mr. Crow's heaven). For a full half hour the
+marshal of Tinkletown had been standing among the trees surveying the
+schoolhouse at the foot of the slope. If his frosted cheeks and watery
+eyes ached for the warmth that urged the curls of smoke to soar away
+from the chimney-top, his attitude did not betray the fact. He was
+watching and thinking, and when Anderson thought of one thing he never
+thought of another at the same time.
+
+"It'll soon be recess time," he reflected. "Then I'll step down there
+an' let on to be makin' a social call on the schoolma'am. By gum, I
+believe she's the one! It'll take some tarnation good work to find out
+the truth about her, but I guess I c'n do it all right. The only thing I
+got to guard ag'inst is lettin' anybody else know of the mystery
+surroundin' her. Gosh! it'll surprise some of the folks 'round here,
+'specially Rosalie. An' mebby the township trustee won't be sorry he
+give the school this year to a strange girl instid o' to Jane Rankin er
+Effie Dickens! Congressman Ritchey hadn't no business puttin' his nose
+into our affairs anyhow, no matter if this here teacher is a friend of
+his fambly. He's got some kind a holt on these here trustees--'y gosh,
+I'd like to know what 'tis. He c'n jest wrap 'em round his finger an'
+make 'em app'int anybody he likes. Must be politics. There, it's recess!
+I'll jest light out an' pay the schoolhouse a little visit."
+
+Inside a capacious and official pocket of Mr. Crow's coat reposed a
+letter from a law firm in Chicago. It asked if within the last two years
+a young woman had applied for a position as teacher in the township
+schools at Tinkletown. A description accompanied the inquiry, but it was
+admitted she might have applied under a name not her own, which was
+Marion Lovering. In explanation, the letter said she had left her home
+in Chicago without the consent of her aunt, imbued with the idea that
+she would sooner support herself than depend upon the charity of that
+worthy though wealthy relative. The aunt had recently died, and counsel
+for the estate was trying to establish proof concerning the actions and
+whereabouts of Miss Lovering since her departure from Chicago.
+
+The young woman often had said she would become a teacher, a tutor, a
+governess, or a companion, and it was known that she had made her way to
+that section of the world presided over by Anderson Crow--although the
+distinguished lawyers did not put it in those words. A reward of five
+hundred dollars for positive information concerning the "life of the
+girl" while in "that or any other community" was promised.
+
+Miss Banks's appointment came through the agency of the district's
+congressman, in whose home she had acted as governess for a period.
+Moreover, she answered the description in that she was young, pretty,
+and refined. Anderson Crow felt that he was on the right track; he was
+now engaged in as pretty a piece of detective business as had ever
+fallen to his lot, and he was not going to spoil it by haste and
+overconfidence.
+
+Just why Anderson Crow should "shadow" the schoolhouse instead of the
+teacher's temporary place of abode no one could possibly have known but
+himself--and it is doubtful if _he_ knew. He resolved not to answer the
+Chicago letter until he was quite ready to produce the girl and the
+proof desired.
+
+"I'd be a gol-swiggled fool to put 'em onter my s'picions an' then have
+'em cheat me out of the reward," he reflected keenly. "You cain't trust
+them Chicago lawyers an inch an' a half. Doggone it, I'll never fergit
+that feller who got my pockit-book out to Central Park that time. He
+tole me positively he was a lawyer from Chicago, an' had an office in
+the Y.M.C.A. Building. An' the idee of him tellin' me he wanted to see
+if my pockit-book had better leather in it than hisn!"
+
+The fact that the school children, big and little, loved Miss Banks
+possessed no point of influence over their elders of the feminine
+persuasion. They turned up their Tinkletown noses and sniffed at her
+because she was a "vain creature," who thought more of "attractin' the
+men than she did of anything else on earth." And all this in spite of
+the fact that she was the intimate friend of the town goddess, Rosalie
+Gray.
+
+Everybody in school No. 5 over the age of seven was deeply, jealously in
+love with Miss Banks. Many a frozen snowball did its deadly work from
+ambush because of this impotent jealousy.
+
+But the merriest rivalry was that which developed between Ed Higgins,
+the Beau Brummel of Tinkletown, and 'Rast Little, whose father owned the
+biggest farm in Bramble County. If she was amused by the frantic efforts
+of each suitor to outwit the other she was too tactful to display her
+emotion. Perhaps she was more highly entertained by the manner in which
+Tinkletown femininity paired its venom with masculine admiration.
+
+"Mornin', Miss Banks," was Anderson's greeting as he stamped noisily
+into the room. He forgot that he had said good-morning to her when she
+stopped in to see Rosalie on her way to the schoolhouse. The children
+ceased their outdoor game and peered eagerly through the windows,
+conscious that the visit of this dignitary was of supreme importance.
+Miss Banks looked up from the papers she was correcting, the pucker
+vanishing from her pretty brow as if by magic.
+
+"Good-morning, Mr. Crow. What are you doing away out here in the
+country? Jimmy"--to a small boy--"please close the door." Anderson had
+left it open, and it was a raw January wind which followed him into the
+room.
+
+"'Scuse me," he murmured. "Seems I ain't got sense enough to shet a door
+even. My wife says--but you don't keer to hear about that, do you? Oh, I
+jest dropped in," finally answering her question. He took a bench near
+the big stove and spread his hands before the sheet-iron warmth.
+"Lookin' up a little affair, that's all. Powerful chilly, ain't it?"
+
+"Very." She stood on the opposite side of the stove, puzzled by this
+unexpected visit, looking at him with undisguised curiosity.
+
+"Ever been to Chicago?" asked Anderson suddenly, hoping to catch her
+unawares.
+
+"Oh, yes. I have lived there," she answered readily. He shifted his legs
+twice and took a hasty pull at his whiskers.
+
+"That's what I thought. Why don't you go back there?"
+
+"Because I'm teaching school here, Mr. Crow."
+
+"Well, I reckon that's a good excuse. I thought mebby you had a
+different one."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, I dunno. I jest asked."
+
+"You are a detective, are you not?" asked Miss Banks, smiling brightly
+and with understanding.
+
+"Oh, off an' on I do a little detectin'. See my badge?"
+
+"Am I suspected of a heinous crime?" she asked so abruptly that he
+gasped. "Won't you take off your cap, Mr. Crow?" He removed it
+sheepishly.
+
+"Lord, no!" he exclaimed in confusion. "I mean the crime--not the cap.
+Well, I guess I'll be goin'. School's goin' to take up, I reckon. See
+you later, Miss Banks." He restored his cap to its accustomed place and
+was starting toward the door, a trifle dazed and bewildered.
+
+"What is it that you wish to find out, Mr. Crow?" she suddenly called to
+him. He halted and faced about so quickly that his reply came like a
+shot out of a gun.
+
+"I'm on the lookout fer a girl--an' she'll be's rich's Crowses if I c'n
+only find 'er. I dassent tell 'er name jest now," he went on, slowly
+retracing his steps, "'cause I don't want people--er her either, fer
+that matter--to git onter my scheme. But you jest wait." He was standing
+very close to her now and looking her full in the face. "You're sure you
+don't know anythin' 'bout her?"
+
+"Why, how should I know? You've told me nothing."
+
+"You've got purty good clothes fer a common school-teacher," he flung at
+her in an aggressive, impertinent tone, but the warm colour that swiftly
+rose to her cheeks forced him to recall his words, for he quickly
+tempered them with, "Er, at least, that's what all the women folks say."
+
+"Oh, so some one has been talking about my affairs? Some of your
+excellent women want to know more about me than--"
+
+"Don't git excited, Miss Banks," he interrupted; "the women ain't got
+anythin' to do with it--I mean, it's nothin' to them. I--"
+
+"Mr. Crow," she broke in, "if there is anything you or anybody in
+Tinkletown wants to know about me you will have to deduce it for
+yourself. I believe that is what you call it--deduce? And now good-bye,
+Mr. Crow. Recess is over," she said pointedly; and Mr. Crow shuffled out
+as the children galloped in.
+
+That evening Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little came to call, but she excused
+herself because of her correspondence. In her little upstairs room she
+wrote letter after letter, one in particular being voluminous. Mrs.
+Holabird, as she passed her door, distinctly heard her laugh aloud. It
+was a point to be recalled afterward with no little consideration. Later
+she went downstairs, cloaked warmly, for a walk to the post-office. Ed
+Higgins was still in the parlour talking to the family. He hastily put
+in his petition to accompany her, and it was granted absently. Then he
+surreptitiously and triumphantly glanced through the window, the scene
+outside pleasing him audibly. 'Rast was standing at the front gate
+talking to Anderson Crow. Miss Banks noticed as they passed the confused
+twain at the gate that Anderson carried his dark lantern.
+
+"Any trace of the heiress, Mr. Crow?" she asked merrily.
+
+"Doggone it," muttered Anderson, "she'll give the whole snap away!"
+
+"What's that?" asked 'Rast.
+
+"Nothin' much," said Anderson, repairing the damage. "Ed's got your time
+beat to-night, 'Rast, that's all!"
+
+"I could 'a' took her out ridin' to-night if I'd wanted to," lied 'Rast
+promptly. "I'm goin' to take her to the spellin'-bee to-morrow night out
+to the schoolhouse."
+
+"Did she say she'd go with you?"
+
+"Not yet. I was jest goin' to ast her to-night."
+
+"Mebby Ed's askin' her now."
+
+"Gosh dern it, that's so! Maybe he is," almost wailed 'Rast; and
+Anderson felt sorry for him as he ambled away from the gate and its
+love-sick guardian.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+The Spelling-Bee
+
+
+Young Mr. Higgins found his companion bubbling over with vivacity. Her
+pretty chin was in the air and every word bore the promise of a laugh.
+He afterward recalled one little incident of their walk through the
+frosty night, and repeated it to Anderson Crow with more awe than seemed
+necessary. They were passing the town pump on their way to the
+post-office. The street was dark and deserted.
+
+"Gosh!" said Ed, "I bet the town pump's froze up!"
+
+"It doesn't seem very cold," she said brightly.
+
+"Gee! it's below zero! I bet 'Rast thinks it's pretty doggone cold up
+there by your gate."
+
+"Poor 'Rast! His mother should keep him indoors on nights like this." Ed
+laughed loud and long and a tingle of happiness shot through his
+erstwhile shivering frame. "I'm not a bit cold," she went on. "See--feel
+my hand. I'm not even wearing mittens."
+
+Ed Higgins gingerly clasped the little hand, but it was withdrawn at
+once. He found it as warm as toast. Words of love surged to his humble
+lips; his knees felt a tendency to lower themselves precipitously to the
+frozen sidewalk; he was ready to grovel at her feet--and he wondered if
+they were as warm as toast. But 'Rast Little came up at that instant and
+the chance was lost.
+
+"Doggone!" slipped unconsciously but bitterly from Ed's lips.
+
+"Can I be your company to the spellin'-bee to-morrow night, Miss Banks?"
+burst unceremoniously from the lips of the newcomer.
+
+"Thank you, 'Rast. I was just wondering how I should get out to the
+schoolhouse. You are very kind. We'll go in the bob-sled with the
+Holabirds."
+
+"Doggone!" came in almost a wail from poor Ed. He could have killed
+'Rast for the triumphant laugh that followed.
+
+In the meantime Anderson Crow was preparing to crawl in between the icy
+sheets at home. Mrs. Crow was "sitting up" with old Mrs. Luce, who was
+ill next door.
+
+"She's a girl with a past," reflected Anderson. "She's a mystery,
+that's what she is; but I'll unravel her. She had a mighty good reason
+fer sawin' me off out there to-day. I was gittin' too close home. She
+seen I was about to corner her. By gum, I hope she don't suspect
+nothin'! She's found out that Ed Higgins has a good job down to Lamson's
+store, an' she's settin' her cap fer him. It shows she'd ruther live in
+the city than in the country--so it's all up with 'Rast. That proves
+she's from Chicago er some other big place. Ed's gettin' eight dollars a
+week down there at Lamson's. By gum, that boy's doin' well! I used to
+think he wouldn't amount to nothin'. It shows that the best of us git
+fooled in a feller once in a while. To-morrow night I'll go out to the
+spellin'-match, an' when the chanct comes I'll sidle up to her an'
+whisper her real name in her ear. I bet four dollars an' a half that'll
+fetch her purty prompt. Doggone, these here sheets air cold! It's forty
+below zero right here in this bed."
+
+Anderson Crow soon slept, but he did not dream of the tragedy the next
+night was to bring upon Tinkletown, nor of the test his prowess was to
+endure.
+
+The next night and the "spellin'-bee" at school No. 5 came on apace
+together. It was bitterly cold and starlight. By eight o'clock the warm
+schoolhouse was comfortably filled with the "spellers" of the
+neighbourhood, their numbers increased by competitors from Tinkletown
+itself. In the crowd were men and women who time after time had "spelled
+down" whole companies, and who were eager for the conflict. They had
+"studied up" on their spelling for days in anticipation of a hard
+battle in the words. Mrs. Borum and Mrs. Cartwill, both famous for their
+victories and for the rivalry that existed between them, were selected
+as captains of the opposing sides, and Miss Banks herself was to "give
+out" the words. The captains selected their forces, choosing alternately
+from the anxious crowd of grown folks. There were no children there, for
+it was understood that big words would be given out--words children
+could not pronounce, much less spell.
+
+The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful night. She was dressed
+as no other woman in Bramble County, except Rosalie Gray, could have
+attired herself--simply, tastefully, daintily. Her face was flushed and
+eager and the joy of living glowed in every feature. Ed Higgins and
+'Rast Little were struck senseless, nerveless by this vision of health
+and loveliness. Anderson Crow stealthily admitted to himself that she
+was a stranger in a strange land; she was not of Tinkletown or any place
+like it.
+
+Just as the captains were completing their selections of spellers the
+door opened and three strangers entered the school-room, overcoated and
+furred to the tips of their noses--two men and a woman. As Miss Banks
+rushed forward to greet them--she had evidently been expecting them--the
+startled assemblage caught its breath and stared. To the further
+amazement of every one, Rosalie hastened to her side and joined in the
+effusive welcome. Every word of joyous greeting was heard by the amazed
+listeners and every word from the strangers was as distinct. Surely
+the newcomers were friends of long standing. When their heavy wraps
+were removed the trio stood forth before as curious an audience as ever
+sat spellbound. The men were young, well dressed and handsome; the woman
+a beauty of the most dashing type. Tinkletown's best spellers quivered
+with excitement.
+
+[Illustration: "The teacher was amazingly pretty on this eventful
+night"]
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," said Miss Banks, her voice trembling with
+eagerness, "let me introduce my friends, Mrs. Farnsworth, Mr.
+Farnsworth, and Mr. Reddon. They have driven over to attend the
+spelling-match." Ed Higgins and 'Rast Little observed with sinking
+hearts that it was Mr. Reddon whom she led forward by the hand, and they
+cursed him inwardly for the look he gave her--because she blushed
+beneath it.
+
+"You don't live in Boggs City," remarked Mr. Crow, appointing himself
+spokesman. "I c'n deduce that, 'cause you're carrying satchels an'
+valises."
+
+"Mr. Crow is a famous detective," explained Miss Banks. Anderson
+attempted to assume an unconscious pose, but in leaning back he missed
+the end of the bench, and sat sprawling upon the lap of Mrs. Harbaugh.
+As Mrs. Harbaugh had little or no lap to speak of, his downward course
+was diverted but not stayed. He landed on the floor with a grunt that
+broke simultaneously with the lady's squeak; a fraction of a second
+later a roar of laughter swept the room. It was many minutes before
+quiet was restored and the "match" could be opened. Mrs. Cartwill chose
+Mrs. Farnsworth and her rival selected the husband of the dashing young
+woman. Mr. Reddon firmly and significantly announced his determination
+to sit near the teacher "to preserve order," and not enter the contest
+of words.
+
+Possibly it was the presence of the strangers that rattled and unnerved
+the famed spellers of both sides, for it was not long until the lines
+had dwindled to almost nothing. Three or four arrogant competitors stood
+forth and valiantly spelled such words as "Popocatepetl,"
+"Tschaikowsky," "terpsichorean," "Yang-tse-Kiang," "Yseult," and scores
+of words that could scarcely be pronounced by the teacher herself. But
+at last, just as the sleepy watchers began to nod and yawn the hardest,
+Mrs. Cartwill stood alone and victorious, her single opponent having
+gone down on the word "sassafras." Anderson Crow had "gone down" early
+in the match by spelling "kerosene" "kerry-seen." Ed Higgins followed
+with "ceriseen," and 'Rast Little explosively had it "coal-oil."
+
+During the turmoil incident to the dispersing of the gathered hosts Miss
+Banks made her way to 'Rast Little's side and informed him that the
+Farnsworths were to take her to Mrs. Holabird's in their big sleigh.
+'Rast was floored. When he started to remonstrate, claiming to be her
+"company," big Tom Reddon interposed and drew Miss Banks away from her
+lover's wrath.
+
+"But I'm so sorry for him, Tom," she protested contritely. "He _did_
+bring me here--in a way."
+
+"Well, I'll take you home another way," said good-looking Mr. Reddon. It
+was also noticed that Rosalie Gray had much of a confidential nature to
+say to Miss Banks as they parted for the evening, she to go home in
+Blucher Peabody's new sleigh.
+
+'Rast and Ed Higgins almost came to blows out at the hitch-rack, where
+the latter began twitting his discomfited rival. Anderson Crow kept them
+apart.
+
+"I'll kill that big dude," growled 'Rast. "He's got no business comin'
+here an' rakin' up trouble between me an' her. You mark my words, I'll
+fix him before the night's over, doggone his hide!"
+
+At least a dozen men, including Alf Reesling, heard this threat, and not
+one of them was to forget it soon. Anderson Crow noticed that Mrs.
+Holabird's bob-sled drove away without either Miss Banks or 'Rast
+Little in its capacious depths. Miss Banks announced that her three
+friends from the city and she would stay behind and close the
+schoolhouse, putting everything in order. It was Friday night, and there
+would be no session until the following Monday. Mr. Crow was very sleepy
+for a detective. He snored all the way home.
+
+The next morning two farmers drove madly into Tinkletown with the
+astounding news that some one had been murdered at schoolhouse No. 5. In
+passing the place soon after daybreak they had noticed blood on the snow
+at the roadside. The school-room door was half open and they entered.
+Blood in great quantities smeared the floor near the stove, but there
+was no sign of humanity, alive or dead. Miss Banks's handkerchief was
+found on the floor saturated.
+
+Moreover, the school-teacher was missing. She had not returned to the
+home of Mrs. Holabird the night before. To make the horror all the more
+ghastly, Anderson Crow, hastening to the schoolhouse, positively
+identified the blood as that of Miss Banks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A Tinkletown Sensation
+
+
+Sensations came thick and fast in Tinkletown during the next few hours.
+Investigation proved that 'Rast Little was nowhere to be found. He had
+not returned to his home after the spelling-bee, nor had he been seen
+since. Mrs. Holabird passed him in the road on her way home in the
+"bob-sled." In response to her command to "climb in" he sullenly said he
+was going to walk home by a "short cut" through the woods. A farmer had
+seen the stylish Farnsworth sleigh driving north furiously at half-past
+eleven, the occupants huddled in a bunch as if to protect themselves
+from the biting air. The witness was not able to tell "which was which"
+in the sleigh, but he added interest to the situation by solemnly
+asserting that one of the persons in the rear seat was "bundled up" more
+than the rest, and evidently was unable to sit erect.
+
+According to his tale, the figure was lying over against the other
+occupant of the seat. He was also, positive that there were three
+figures in the front seat! Who was the extra person? was the question
+that flashed into the minds of the listeners. A small boy came to the
+schoolhouse at nine o'clock in the morning with 'Rast Little's new derby
+hat. He had picked it up at the roadside not far from the schoolhouse
+and in the direction taken by the Farnsworth party.
+
+Anderson gave orders that no word of the catastrophe be carried to
+Rosalie, who was reported to be ill of a fever the next morning after
+the spelling-bee. She had a cough, and the doctor had said that nothing
+should be said or done to excite her.
+
+The crowd at the schoolhouse grew larger as the morning passed Everybody
+talked in whispers; everybody was mystified beyond belief. All eyes were
+turned to Anderson Crow, who stood aloof, pondering as he had never
+pondered before. In one hand he held Miss Banks's bloody handkerchief
+and in the other a common school text-book on physiology. His badges
+and stars fairly revelled in their own importance.
+
+"Don't pester him with questions," warned Isaac Porter, addressing Alf
+Reesling, the town drunkard, who had just arrived.
+
+"But I got something I want to say to him," persisted Alf eagerly. Two
+or three strong men restrained him.
+
+"Thunderation, Alf," whispered Elon Jones, "cain't you see he's figurin'
+something out? You're liable to throw him clear off the track if you say
+a word to him."
+
+"Well, this is something he'd oughter know," almost whimpered Alf,
+rubbing his frozen ears.
+
+"Sh!" muttered the bystanders, and poor Alf subsided. He was
+unceremoniously hustled into the background as Mr. Crow moved from the
+window toward the group.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Anderson gravely, "there is somethin' wrong here." It
+is barely possible that this was not news to the crowd, but with one
+accord they collectively and severally exchanged looks of appreciation.
+"I've been readin' up a bit on the human body, an' I've proved one thing
+sure in my own mind."
+
+"You bet you have, Anderson," said Elon Jones. "It's all settled. Let's
+go home."
+
+"Settled nothin'!" said the marshal. "It's jest begun. Here's what I
+deduce: Miss Banks has been foully dealt with. Ain't this her blood, an'
+ain't she used her own individual handkerchief to stop it up? It's
+blood right square from her heart, gentlemen!"
+
+"I don't see how--" began Ed Higgins; but Anderson silenced him with a
+look.
+
+"Of course _you_ don't, but you would if you'd 'a' been a detective as
+long's I have. What in thunder do you s'pose I got these badges and
+these medals fer? Fer _not_ seein' how? No, siree! I got 'em fer _seein_'
+how; that's what!"
+
+"But, Andy--"
+
+"Don't call me 'Andy,'" commanded Mr. Crow.
+
+"Well, then, Anderson, I'd like to know how the dickens she could use
+her own handkerchief if she was stabbed to the heart," protested Ed. He
+had been crying half the time. Anderson was stunned for the moment.
+
+"Why--why--now, look here, Ed Higgins, I ain't got time to explain
+things to a derned idgit like you. Everybody else understands _how_,
+don't you?" and he turned to the crowd. Everybody said yes. "Well, that
+shows what a fool you are, Ed. Don't bother me any more. I've got work
+to do."
+
+"Say, Anderson," began Alf Reesling from the outer circle, "I got
+something important to tell--"
+
+"Who is that? Alf Reesling?" cried Anderson wrathfully.
+
+"Yes; I want to see you private, Anderson. Its important," begged Alf.
+
+"How many times have I got to set down on you, Alf Reesling?" exploded
+Anderson. "Doggone, I'd like to know how a man's to solve mysteries if
+he's got to stand around half the time an' listen to fambly quarrels.
+Tell yer wife I'll--"
+
+"This ain't no family quarrel. Besides, I ain't got no wife. It's about
+this here--"
+
+"That'll do, now, Alf! Not another word out of you!" commanded Anderson
+direfully.
+
+"But, dern you, Anderson," exploded Alf, "I've got to tell you--"
+
+But Anderson held up a hand.
+
+"Don't swear in the presence of the dead," he said solemnly. "You're
+drunk, Alf; go home!" And Alf, news and all was hustled from the
+schoolhouse by a self-appointed committee of ten.
+
+"Now, we'll search fer the body," announced Anderson. "Git out of the
+way, Bud!"
+
+"I ain't standin' on it," protested twelve-year-old Bud Long.
+
+"Well, you're standin' mighty near them blood-stains an'--"
+
+"Yes, 'n ain't blood a part of the body?" rasped Isaac Porter
+scornfully; whereupon Bud faded into the outer rim.
+
+"First we'll look down cellar," said Mr. Crow. "Where's the cellar at?"
+
+"There ain't none," replied Elon Jones.
+
+"What? No cellar? Well, where in thunder did they hide the body, then?"
+
+"There's an attic," ventured Joe Perkins.
+
+A searching party headed by Anderson Crow shinned up the ladder to the
+low garret. No trace of a body was to be found, and the searchers came
+down rather thankfully. Then, under Mr. Crow's direction, they searched
+the wood piles, the woods, and the fields for many rods in all
+directions. At noon they congregated at the schoolhouse. Alf Reesling
+was there.
+
+"Find it?" said he thickly, with a cunning leer. He had been drinking.
+Anderson was tempted to club him half to death, but instead he sent him
+home with Joe Perkins, refusing absolutely to hear what the town
+drunkard had to say.
+
+"Well, you'll wish you'd listened to me," ominously hiccoughed Alf; and
+then, as a parting shot, "I wouldn't tell you now fer eighteen dollars
+cash. You c'n go to thunder!" It was _lese majeste_, but the crowd did
+nothing worse than stare at the offender.
+
+Before starting off on the trail of the big sleigh, Anderson sent this
+message by wire to the lawyers in Chicago:
+
+     "_I have found the girl you want, but the body is lost. Would you
+     just as soon have her dead as alive_?
+
+     "ANDERSON CROW."
+
+In a big bob-sled the marshal and a picked sextette of men set off at
+one o'clock on the road over which the sleigh had travelled many hours
+before. Anderson had failed to report the suspected crime to the sheriff
+at Boggs City and was working alone on the mystery. He said he did not
+want anybody from town interfering with his affairs.
+
+"Say, Andy--Anderson," said Harry Squires, now editor of the _Banner_,
+"maybe we're hunting the wrong body and the wrong people."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, ain't 'Rast Little missing? Maybe he's been killed, eh? And say,
+ain't there some chance that he did the killing? Didn't he say he was
+going to murder that city chap? Well, supposing he did. We're on the
+wrong track, ain't we?"
+
+"Doggone you, Harry, that don't fit in with my deductions," wailed
+Anderson. "I wish you'd let me alone. 'Rast may have done the killin',
+but it's our place to find the body, ain't it? Whoever has been slew was
+taken away last night in the sleigh. S'posin it was Mr. Reddon! Well,
+consarn it, ain't he got a body same as anybody else? We've just got to
+find somebody's body, that's all. We've got to prove the corpus
+deelicti. Drive up, Bill!"
+
+With a perseverance that spoke well for the detective's endurance, but
+ill for his intelligence, the "bob" sped along aimlessly. It was
+ridiculous to think of tracking a sleigh over a well-travelled road, and
+it was not until they reached the cross-roads that Harry Squires
+suggested that inquiries be made of the farmers in the neighbourhood.
+After diligent effort, a farmer was discovered who said he had heard the
+sleigh bells at midnight, and, peering from his window, had caught a
+glimpse of the party turning south at the cross-roads.
+
+"Jest as I thought!" exclaimed Anderson. "They went south so's to skip
+Boggs City. Boys, they've got her body er 'Rast's body er that other
+feller's body with 'em, an' they're skootin' down this pike so's to get
+to the big bridge. My idee is that they allowed to drop the body in the
+river, which ain't friz plum over."
+
+"Gee! We ain't expected to search all over the bottom of the river, are
+we, Anderson?" shivered Isaac Porter, the pump repairer.
+
+"_I_ ain't," said the leader, "but I can deputise anybody I want to."
+
+And so they hurried on to the six-span bridge that crossed the ice-laden
+river. As they stood silent, awed and shivering on the middle span,
+staring down into the black water with its navy of swirling ice-chunks,
+even the heart of Anderson Crow chilled and grew faint.
+
+"Boys," he said, "we've lost the track! Not even a bloodhound could
+track 'em in that water."
+
+"Bloodhound?" sniffed Harry Squires. "A hippopotamus, you mean."
+
+They were hungry and cold, and they were ready to turn homeward.
+Anderson said he "guessed" he'd turn the job over to the sheriff and his
+men. Plainly, he was much too hungry to do any more trailing. Besides,
+for more than an hour he had been thinking of the warm wood fire at
+home. Bill Rubley was putting the "gad" to the horses when a man on
+horseback rode up from the opposite end of the bridge. He had come far
+and in a hurry, and he recognised Anderson Crow.
+
+"Say, Anderson!" he called, "somebody broke into Colonel Randall's
+summer home last night an' they're there yet. Got fires goin' in all
+the stoves, an' havin' a high old time. They ain't got no business
+there, becuz the place is closed fer the winter. Aleck Burbank went over
+to order 'em out; one of the fellers said he'd bust his head if he
+didn't clear out. I think it's a gang!"
+
+A hurried interview brought out the facts. The invaders had come up in a
+big sleigh long before dawn, and--but that was sufficient. Anderson and
+his men returned to the hunt, eager and sure of their prey. Darkness was
+upon them when they came in sight of Colonel Randall's country place in
+the hills. There were lights in the windows and people were making merry
+indoors; while outside the pursuing Nemesis and his men were wondering
+how and where to assault the stronghold.
+
+"I'll jest walk up an' rap on the door," said Anderson Crow, "lettin' on
+to be a tramp. I'll ast fer somethin' to eat an' a place to sleep. While
+I'm out there in the kitchen eatin' you fellers c'n sneak up an'
+surround us. Then you c'n let on like you're lookin' fer me because I'd
+robbed a hen-roost er something, an' that'll get 'em off their guard.
+Once we all git inside the house with these shotguns we've got 'em where
+we want 'em. Then I'll make 'em purduce the body."
+
+"Don't we git anythin' to eat, too?" demanded Isaac Porter faintly.
+
+"The horses ain't had nothin' to eat, Ike," said Anderson. "Ain't you as
+good as a horse?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A Case of Mistaken Identity
+
+
+Detective Crow found little difficulty in gaining admittance to Colonel
+Randall's summer home. He had secreted his badge, and it was indeed a
+sorry-looking tramp who asked for a bite to eat at the kitchen door.
+
+Three or four young women were busy with chafing dishes in this
+department of the house, and some good-looking young men were looking on
+and bothering them with attentions. In the front part of the house a
+score of people were laughing and making merry.
+
+"Gosh!" said the new tramp, twisting his chin whiskers, "how many of you
+are there?"
+
+"Oh, there are many more at home like us," trilled out one of the young
+women gaily. "You're just in time, you poor old thing, to have some of
+the bride-to-be's cake."
+
+"I guess I'm in the wrong house," murmured Anderson blankly. "Is it a
+weddin'?"
+
+"No; but there will be one before many days. It's just a reunion. How I
+wish Rosalie Gray were here!" cried another girl.
+
+Just then there was a pounding on the door, and an instant later Isaac
+Porter stalked in at the head of the posse.
+
+"Throw up your hands!" called Anderson, addressing himself to the posse,
+the members of which stopped in blank amazement. Some of them obligingly
+stuck their hands on high. "What do you want here?"
+
+"We--we--we're lookin' fer a tramp who said he robbed a hen roost,"
+faltered Isaac Porter.
+
+"What is the meaning of all this?" called a strong voice from the
+dining-room, and the flabbergasted Tinkletownians turned to face Colonel
+Randall himself, the owner of the house.
+
+"Derned if I know!" muttered Anderson Crow; and he spoke the truth.
+
+"Why, it's Anderson Crow!" cried a gay young voice.
+
+"Jumpin' Jehosophat!" ejaculated the detective; "it's the body!"
+
+"The school-teacher!" exclaimed the surprised Tinkletownians, as with
+their eyes they proceeded to search the figure before them for blood
+stains. But no sooner had the chorused words escaped their lips than
+they realised how wretchedly commonplace was their blundering expression
+in comparison with the faultlessly professional phraseology of their
+leader; and, overwhelmed with mortification, the posse ached to recall
+them; for that the correct technical term had been applied by one for
+years trained to the vernacular of his calling was little consolation to
+these sensitive souls, now consumed with envy.
+
+In the meantime, the quarry, if we may be permitted so to designate her,
+stood before them as pretty as a picture. At her side was Tom Reddon,
+and a dozen guests of the house fell in behind them.
+
+"Did Rosalie tell you?" demanded Miss Banks. "The mean thing! She said
+she wouldn't."
+
+"Ro--Rosalie!" gasped Anderson; "tell me what?" nervously.
+
+"That I was--was coming over here with Tom. Didn't she tell you?"
+
+"I should say not. If she'd told me you don't suppose I'd'a' driv' clear
+over here in this kinder weather fer nothin', do you? Thunder! Did she
+know 'bout it?"
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Crow. She helped with the plans."
+
+"Well, good gosh a'mighty! An' we was a-keepin' from her the awful news
+fer fear 'twould give her a backset."
+
+"Awful news! What do you mean? Oh, you frighten me terribly!"
+
+"Doggone! I don't believe Rosalie was sick at all," continued Anderson,
+quite regardless of the impatience of his listeners; "she jest wanted to
+keep from answerin' questions. She jest regularly let everybody believe
+you had been slaughtered, an' never opened her mouth."
+
+"Slaughtered!" cried half a dozen people.
+
+"Sure! Hain't you heard 'bout the murder?"
+
+"Murder?" apprehensively from the excited New Yorkers.
+
+"Yes--the teacher of schoolhouse No. 5 was brutally butchered
+las--las--night--by--"
+
+[Illustration: "What is the meaning of all this?"]
+
+"Go slow, Anderson! Better hold your horses!" cautioned Harry
+Squires. "Don't forget the body's alive and kic--" and stopping short,
+in the hope that his break might escape the school-teacher's attention,
+he confusedly substituted, "and here."
+
+Anderson's jaw dropped, but the movement was barely perceptible, the
+discomfiture temporary, for to the analytical mind of the great
+detective the fact that a murder had been committed was fully
+established by the discovery of the blood. That a body was obviously
+necessary for the continuance of further investigations he frankly
+acknowledged to himself; and not for one instant would any supposition
+or explanation other than assassination be tolerated. And it was with
+unshaken conviction that he declared:
+
+"Well, somebody was slew, wasn't they? That's as plain's the nose on y'r
+face. Don't you contradict me, Harry Squires. I guess Anderson Crow
+knows blood when he sees it."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that you've been trailing us all day in the
+belief that some one of us had killed somebody?" demanded Tom Reddon.
+
+Harry Squires explained the situation, Anderson being too far gone to
+step into the breach. It may be of interest to say that the Tinkletown
+detective was the sensation of the hour. The crowd, merry once more,
+lauded him to the skies for the manner in which the supposed culprits
+had been trailed, and the marshal's pomposity grew almost to the
+bursting point.
+
+"But how about that blood?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes," said Harry Squires with a sly grin, "it was positively identified
+as yours, Miss Banks."
+
+"Well, it's the first time I was ever fooled," confessed Anderson
+glibly. "I'll have to admit it. The blood really belonged to 'Rast
+Little. Boys, the seegars are on me."
+
+"No, they're on me," exclaimed Tom Reddon, producing a box of Perfectos.
+
+"But, Miss Banks, you are wanted in Chicago," insisted Anderson. Reddon
+interrupted him.
+
+"Right you are, my dear Sherlock, and I'm going to take her there as
+soon as I can. It's what I came East for."
+
+"Ain't--I mean, wasn't you Miss Lovering?" muttered Anderson Crow.
+
+"Good heavens, no!" cried Miss Banks. "Who is she--a shoplifter?"
+
+"I'll tell you the story, Mr. Crow, if you'll come with me," said Mr.
+Farnsworth, stepping forward with a wink.
+
+In the library he told the Tinkletown posse that Tom Reddon had met Miss
+Banks while she was at school in New York. He was a Chicago
+millionaire's son and she was the daughter of wealthy New York people.
+Her mother was eager to have the young people marry, but the girl at
+that time imagined herself to be in love with another man. In a pique
+she left school and set forth to earn her own living. A year's hardship
+as governess in the family of Congressman Ritchey and subsequent
+disillusionment as a country school-teacher brought her to her senses
+and she realised that she cared for Tom Reddon after all. She and Miss
+Gray together prepared the letter which told Reddon where she could be
+found, and that eager young gentleman did the rest. He had been waiting
+for months for just such a message from her. The night of the
+spelling-match he induced her to come to Colonel Randall's, and now the
+whole house-party, including Miss Banks, was to leave on the following
+day for New York. The marriage would take place in a very few weeks.
+
+"I'll accept your explanation," said Mr. Crow composedly as he took a
+handful of cigars. "Well, I guess I'll be startin' back. It's gettin'
+kind o' late-like."
+
+There was a telegram at the livery stable for him when he reached that
+haven of warmth and rest in Tinkletown about dawn the next day. It was
+from Chicago and marked "Charges collect."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What girl and whose body," it said, "do you refer to? Miss Lovering has
+been dead two years, and we are settling the estate in behalf of the
+other heirs. We were trying to establish her place of residence. Never
+mind the body you have lost."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Doggone," said Anderson, chuckling aloud, "that was an awful good joke
+on 'Rast, wasn't it?"
+
+The stablemen stood around and looked at him with jaws that were
+drooping helplessly. The air seemed laden with a sombre uncertainty that
+had not yet succeeded in penetrating the nature of Marshal Crow.
+
+"Is it from her?" finally asked Ike Smith hoarsely, his lips trembling.
+
+"From what her?"
+
+"Rosalie."
+
+"Thunder, no! It's from my lawyers in Chicago."
+
+"Ain't you--ain't you heerd about it?" half groaned Ike, moving away as
+if he expected something calamitous.
+
+"What the dickens are you fellers drivin' at?" demanded Anderson. The
+remainder of his posse deserted the red-hot stove and drew near with the
+instinctive feeling that something dreadful had happened.
+
+"Ro--Rosalie has been missin' sence early last night. She was grabbed by
+some feller near Mrs. Luce's, chucked into a big wagon an' rushed out of
+town before Ros Crow could let out a yell. Clean stole her--look out!
+Ketch him, Joe!"
+
+Anderson dropped limply into a hostler's arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Rosalie Disappears
+
+
+Things had happened in Tinkletown that night. Alf Reesling finally found
+some one who would listen to his story. He told the minister and the
+minister alarmed the town. To be brief, Alf admitted that 'Rast Little
+was at his house in the outskirts of the village, laid up with a broken
+arm and a bad cut in the top of his head.
+
+"He came crawlin' up to my place about six o'clock in the mornin',"
+explained Alf, "an' I took the poor cuss in. That's what I wanted to
+tell Anderson, but the old rip wouldn't listen to me. Seems as though
+'Rast waited around the schoolhouse last night to git a crack at that
+feller from town. Miss Banks and her three friends set around the stove
+in the schoolhouse for about an hour after the crowd left, an' 'Rast got
+so cold he liked to died out there in the woodshed.
+
+"Purty soon they all come out, an' 'Rast cut acrost the lot to git
+inside the house by the fire. He was so derned cold that he didn't feel
+like crackin' anybody. When they wasn't lookin' he sneaked inside. Jest
+as he was gittin' ready to hug the stove he heard Miss Banks an' one of
+the men comin' back. He shinned up the ladder into the garret just in
+time. In they come an' the feller lit a lamp. 'Rast could hear 'em
+talkin'. She said good-bye to the schoolhouse forever, an' the feller
+kissed her a couple of times. 'Rast pretty nigh swore out loud at that.
+Then she said she'd leave a note in her desk fer the trustees, resignin'
+her job, er whatever she called it. He heard her read the note to the
+man, an' it said somethin' about goin' away unexpected to git married.
+'Rast says ef Anderson had looked in the desk he'd have found the note.
+
+"Then she packed up some books an' her an' the feller went out. 'Rast
+was paralysed. He heerd the sleigh-bells jingle an' then he come to. He
+started down the ladder so quick that he missed his hold and went
+kerslam clear to the bottom. Doggone ef he didn't light on his head,
+too. He don't know how long he laid there, but finally he was
+resurrected enough to crawl over by the stove. His arm was broke an' he
+was bleedin' like a stuck hog. Miss Banks had left her handkerchief on
+the desk, an' he says he tried to bind up his head with it, but it was
+too infernal small. Somehow he got outside an' wandered around half
+crazy fer a long time, finally pullin' up at my house, derned nigh froze
+to death an' so weak he couldn't walk no more. He'd lost his hat an' his
+ear muffs an' his way all at the same time. If Anderson had let me talk
+this mornin' he'd 'a' knowed there wasn't no murder. It was just a
+match."
+
+Hours passed before Anderson was himself again and able to comprehend
+the details of the story which involved the disappearance of his ward.
+It slowly filtered through his mind as he sat stark-eyed and numb before
+the kitchen fire that this was the means her mysterious people had taken
+to remove her from his custody. The twenty years had expired, and they
+had come to claim their own. There was gloom in the home of Anderson
+Crow--gloom so dense that death would have seemed bright in comparison.
+Mrs. Crow was prostrated, Anderson in a state of mental and physical
+collapse, the children hysterical.
+
+All Tinkletown stood close and ministered dumbly to the misery of the
+bereaved ones, but made no effort to follow or frustrate the abductors.
+The town seemed as helpless as the marshal, not willingly or wittingly,
+but because it had so long known him as leader that no one possessed the
+temerity to step into his place, even in an hour of emergency.
+
+A dull state of paralysis fell upon the citizens, big and little. It
+was as if universal palsy had been ordained to pinch the limbs and
+brains of Tinkletown until the hour came for the rehabilitation of
+Anderson Crow himself. No one suggested a move in any direction--in
+fact, no one felt like moving at all. Everything stood stockstill while
+Anderson slowly pulled himself together; everything waited dumbly for
+its own comatose condition to be dispelled by the man who had been hit
+the hardest.
+
+It was not until late in the afternoon that Blucher Peabody, the
+druggist, awoke from his lethargy and moved as though he intended to
+take the initiative. "Blootch" was Rosalie's most persistent admirer. He
+had fallen heir to his father's apothecary shop and notion store, and he
+was regarded as one of the best catches in town. He approached the
+half-frozen crowd that huddled near old Mrs. Luce's front gate. In this
+crowd were some of the prominent men of the town, young and old; they
+left their places of business every half hour or so and wandered
+aimlessly to the now historic spot, as if drawn by a magnet. Just why
+they congregated there no one could explain and no one attempted to do
+so. Presumably it was because the whole town centred its mind on one of
+two places--the spot where Rosalie was seized or the home of Anderson
+Crow. When they were not at Mrs. Luce's gate they were tramping through
+Anderson's front yard and into his house.
+
+"Say," said "Blootch" so loudly that the crowd felt like remonstrating
+with him, "what's the use of all this?"
+
+No one responded. No one was equal to it on such short notice.
+
+"We've got to do something besides stand around and whisper," he said.
+"We've got to find Rosalie Gray."
+
+"But good gosh!" ejaculated Isaac Porter, "they've got purty nigh a
+day's start of us."
+
+"Well, that don't matter. Anderson would do as much for us. Let's get a
+move on."
+
+"But where in thunder will we hunt?" murmured George Ray.
+
+"To the end of the earth," announced Blootch, inflating his chest and
+slapping it violently, a strangely personal proceeding, which went
+unnoticed. He had reached the conclusion that his chance to be a hero
+was at hand and not to be despised. Here was the opportunity to outstrip
+all of his competitors in the race for Rosalie's favour. It might be
+confessed that, with all his good intentions, his plans were hopelessly
+vague. The group braced up a little at the sound of his heroic words.
+
+"But the derned thing's round," was the only thing Ed Higgins could find
+to say. Ed, as fickle as the wind, was once more deeply in love with
+Rosalie, having switched from Miss Banks immediately after the visit to
+Colonel Randall's.
+
+"Aw, you go to Guinea!" was Blootch's insulting reply. Nothing could be
+more disparaging than that, but Ed failed to retaliate. "Let's appoint a
+committee to wait on Anderson and find out what he thinks we'd better
+do."
+
+"But Anderson ain't--" began some one. Blootch calmly waived him into
+silence.
+
+"What he wants is encouragement, and not a lot of soup and broth and
+lemonade. He ain't sick. He's as able-bodied as I am. Every woman in
+town took soup to him this noon. He needs a good stiff drink of whiskey
+and a committee to cheer him up. I took a bottle up to 'Rast Little last
+night and he acted like another man."
+
+At last it was decided that a committee should first wait on Anderson,
+ascertaining his wishes in the premises, and then proceed to get at the
+bottom of the mystery. In forming this committee the wise men of the
+town ignored Mr. Peabody, and he might have been left off completely had
+he not stepped in and appointed himself chairman.
+
+The five good men and true descended upon the marshal late in the
+afternoon, half fearful of the result, but resolute. They found him
+slowly emerging from his spell of lassitude. He greeted them with a
+solemn nod of the head. Since early morning he had been conscious of a
+long stream of sympathisers passing through the house, but it was not
+until now that he felt equal to the task of recognising any of them.
+
+His son Roscoe had just finished telling him the story of the abduction.
+Roscoe's awestruck tones and reddened eyes carried great weight with
+them, and for the tenth time that day he had his sisters in tears. With
+each succeeding repetition the details grew until at last there was but
+little of the original event remaining, a fact which his own family
+properly overlooked.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Anderson, as if suddenly coming from a trance, "this
+wasn't the work of Tinkletown desperadoes." Whereupon the committee felt
+mightily relieved. The marshal displayed signs of a returning energy
+that augured well for the enterprise. After the chairman had
+impressively announced that something must be done, and that he was
+willing to lead his little band to death's door--and beyond, if
+necessary--Mr. Crow pathetically upset all their hopes by saying that he
+had long been expecting such a calamity, and that nothing could be done.
+
+"They took the very night when I was not here to pertect her," he
+lamented. "It shows that they been a-watchin' me all along. The job was
+did by persons who was in the employ of her family, an' she has been
+carried off secretly to keep me from findin' out who and what her
+parents were. Don't ye see? Her mother--or father, fer that
+matter--couldn't afford to come right out plain an' say they wanted
+their child after all these years. The only way was to take her away
+without givin' themselves away. It's been the plan all along. There
+ain't no use huntin' fer her, gentlemen. She's in New York by this time,
+an' maybe she's ready fer a trip to Europe."
+
+"But I should think she'd telegraph to you," said Blootch.
+
+"Telegraph yer granny! Do you s'pose they'd 'a' stole her if they
+intended to let her telegraph to anybody? Not much. They're spiritin'
+her away until her estate's settled. After a while it will all come out,
+an' you'll see if I ain't right. But she's gone. They've got her away
+from me an'--an' we got to stand it, that's all. I--I--cain't bear to
+think about it. It's broke my heart mighty ne--near. Don't mind me
+if--I--cry, boys. You would, too, if you was me."
+
+As the committee departed soon after without any plan of action arising
+from the interview with the dejected marshal, it may be well to acquaint
+the reader with the history of the abduction, as told by Roscoe Crow and
+his bosom friend, Bud Long, thoroughly expurgated.
+
+According to instructions, no one in the Crow family mentioned the
+strange disappearance of Elsie Banks to Rosalie. Nor was she told of the
+pursuit by the marshal and his posse. The girl, far from being afflicted
+with a fever, really now kept in her room by grief over the departure of
+her friend and companion. She was in tears all that night and the next
+day, suffering intensely in her loss. Rosalie did not know that the
+teacher was to leave Tinkletown surreptitiously until after the
+spelling-bee. The sly, blushing announcement came as a shock, but she
+was loyal to her friend, and not a word in exposure escaped from her
+lips. Of course, she knew nothing of the sensational developments that
+followed the uncalled-for flight of Elsie Banks.
+
+Shortly after the supper dishes had been cleared away Rosalie came
+downstairs and announced that she was going over to read to old Mrs.
+Luce, who was bedridden. Her guardian's absence was not explained to
+her, and she did not in the least suspect that he had been away all day
+on a fool's errand. Roscoe and Bud accompanied her to Mrs. Luce's front
+door, heavily bound by promises to hold their tongues regarding Miss
+Banks.
+
+"We left her there at old Mis' Luce's," related Roscoe, "an' then went
+over to Robertson's Pond to skate. She tole us to stop in fer her about
+nine o'clock, didn't she, Bud? Er was it eight?" He saw the necessity
+for accuracy.
+
+"Ten," corrected Bud deliberately.
+
+"Well, pop, we stopped fer her, an'--an'--"
+
+"Stop yer blubberin', Roscoe," commanded Anderson as harshly as he
+could.
+
+"An' got her," concluded Roscoe. "She put on her shawl an' mittens an'
+said she'd run us a race all the way home. We all got ready to start
+right in front of old Mis' Luce's gate. Bud he stopped an' said, 'Here
+comes Tony Brink.' We all looked around, an' sure enough, a heavy-set
+feller was comin' to'rds us. It looked like Tony, but when he got up to
+us I see it wasn't him. He ast us if we could tell him where Mr. Crow
+lived--"
+
+"He must 'a' been a stranger," deduced Anderson mechanically.
+
+"--an' Bud said you lived right on ahead where the street lamps was.
+Jest then a big sleigh turned out of the lane back of Mis' Luce's an'
+drove up to where we was standin'. Bud was standin' jest like this--me
+here an' Rosalie a little off to one side. S'posin' this chair was her
+an'--"
+
+"Yes--yes, go on," from Anderson.
+
+"The sleigh stopped, and there was two fellers in it. There was two
+seats, too."
+
+"Front and back?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I understand. It was a double-seated one," again deduced the marshal.
+
+"An' nen, by gum, 'fore we could say Jack Robinson, one of the fellers
+jumped out an' grabbed Rosalie. The feller on the groun', he up an' hit
+me a clip in the ear. I fell down, an' so did Bud--"
+
+"He hit me on top of the head," corrected Bud sourly.
+
+"I heerd Rosalie start to scream, but the next minute they had a blanket
+over her head an' she was chucked into the back seat. It was all over in
+a second. I got up, but 'fore I could run a feller yelled, 'Ketch him!'
+An' another feller did. 'Don't let 'em get away,' said the driver in
+low, hissin' tones--"
+
+"Regular villains," vowed Anderson.
+
+"Yes, sir. 'Don't let 'em git away er they'll rouse the town.' 'What'll
+we do with 'em?' asked the feller who held both of us. 'Kill 'em?' Gosh,
+I was skeered. Neither one of us could yell, 'cause he had us by the
+neck, an' he was powerful strong. 'Chuck 'em in here an' I'll tend to
+'em,' said the driver. Next thing we knowed we was in the front of the
+sleigh, an' the whole outfit was off like a runaway. They said they'd
+kill us if we made a noise, an' we didn't. I wish I'd'a' had my rifle,
+doggone it! I'd'a' showed 'em."
+
+"They drove like thunder out to'rds Boggs City fer about two mile," said
+Bud, who had been silent as long as human nature would permit. "'Nen
+they stopped an' throwed us out in the road. 'Go home, you devils, an'
+don't you tell anybody about us er I'll come back here some day an' give
+you a kick in the slats.'
+
+"Slats?" murmured Anderson.
+
+"That's short fer ribs," explained Bud loftily.
+
+"Well, why couldn't he have said short ribs an' been done with it?"
+complained Anderson.
+
+"Then they whipped up an' turned off west in the pike," resumed Bud. "We
+run all the way home an' tole Mr. Lamson, an' he--"
+
+"Where was Rosalie all this time?" asked Anderson.
+
+"Layin' in the back seat covered with a blanket, jest the same as if she
+was dead. I heerd 'em say somethin' about chloroformin' her. What does
+chloroform smell like, Mr. Crow?"
+
+"Jest like any medicine. It has drugs in it. They use it to pull teeth.
+Well, what then?"
+
+"Well," interposed Roscoe, "Mr. Lamson gave the alarm, an' nearly
+ever'body in town got out o' bed. They telegraphed to Boggs City an' all
+around, but it didn't seem to do no good. Them horses went faster'n
+telegraphs."
+
+"Did you ever see them fellers before?"
+
+"No, sir; but I think I'd know 'em with their masks off."
+
+"Was they masked?"
+
+"Their faces were."
+
+"Oh, my poor little Rosalie!" sobbed old Anderson hopelessly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The Haunted House
+
+
+Days passed without word or sign from the missing girl. The marshal
+haunted the post-office and the railroad station, hoping with all his
+poor old heart that word would come from her; but the letter was not
+there, nor was there a telegram at the station when he strolled over to
+that place. The county officials at Boggs City came down and began a
+cursory investigation, but Anderson's emphatic though doleful opinions
+set them quite straight, and they gave up the quest. There was nothing
+to do but to sit back and wait.
+
+In those three days Anderson Crow turned greyer and older, although he
+maintained a splendid show of resignation. He had made a perfunctory
+offer of reward for Rosalie, dead or alive, but he knew all the time
+that it would be fruitless. Mark Riley, the bill-poster, stuck up the
+glaring reward notices as far away as the telegraph poles in Clay
+County. The world was given to understand that $1000 reward would be
+paid for Rosalie's return or for information leading to the apprehension
+and capture of her abductors.
+
+There was one very mysterious point in connection with the
+affair--something so strange that it bordered on the supernatural. No
+human being in Bramble County except the two boys had seen the
+double-seated sleigh. It had disappeared as if swallowed by the earth
+itself.
+
+"Well, it don't do any good to cry over spilt milk," said Anderson
+bravely. "She's gone, an' I only hope she ain't bein' mistreated. I
+don't see why they should harm her. She's never done nobody a wrong.
+Like as not she's been taken to a comfortable place in New York, an'
+we'll hear from her as soon as she recovers from the shock. There ain't
+no use huntin' fer her, I know, but I jest can't help nosin' around a
+little. Mebby I can git some track of her. I'd give all I got in this
+world to know that she's safe an' sound, no matter if I never see her
+ag'in."
+
+The hungry look in his eyes deepened, and no one bandied jests with him
+as was the custom in days gone by.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were not many tramps practising in that section of the State.
+Anderson Crow proudly announced that they gave Tinkletown a wide berth
+because of his prowess; but the vagabond gentry took an entirely
+different view of the question. They did not infest the upper part of
+the State for the simple but eloquent reason that it meant starvation to
+them. The farmers compelled the weary wayfarer to work all day like a
+borrowed horse for a single meal at the "second table." There was no
+such thing as a "hand-out," as it is known in the tramp's vocabulary. It
+is not extraordinary, therefore, that tramps found the community so
+unattractive that they cheerfully walked miles to avoid it. A
+peculiarly well-informed vagrant once characterised the up-state farmer
+as being so "close that he never shaved because it was a waste of hair."
+
+It is hardly necessary to state, in view of the attitude of both farmer
+and tramp, that the misguided vagrant who wandered that way was the
+object of distinct, if not distinguished, curiosity. In the country
+roads he was stared at with a malevolence that chilled his appetite, no
+matter how long he had been cultivating it on barren soil. In the
+streets of Tinkletown, and even at the county seat, he was an object of
+such amazing concern that he slunk away in pure distress. It was indeed
+an unsophisticated tramp who thought to thrive in Bramble County even
+for a day and a night. In front of the general store and post-office at
+Tinkletown there was a sign-post, on which Anderson Crow had painted
+these words:
+
+     "No tramps or Live Stock Allowed on these Streets.
+             By order of
+                     A. CROW, Marshal."
+
+The live stock disregarded the command, but the tramp took warning. On
+rare occasions he may have gone through some of the houses in
+Tinkletown, but if he went through the streets no one was the wiser.
+Anderson Crow solemnly but studiously headed him off in the outskirts,
+and he took another direction. Twice in his career he drove out tramps
+who had burglarised the houses of prominent citizens in broad daylight,
+but what did it matter so long as the "hoboes" were kept from
+desecrating the main street of the town? Mr. Crow's official star,
+together with his badge from the New York detective agency, his Sons of
+the Revolution pin, and his G.A.R. insignia, made him a person to be
+feared. If the weather became too hot for coat and vest the proud
+dignitary fastened the badges to his suspenders, and their presence
+glorified the otherwise humble "galluses."
+
+On the fourth day after the abduction Marshal Crow was suddenly aroused
+from his lethargy by the news that the peace and security of the
+neighbourhood was being imposed upon.
+
+"The dickens you say!" he observed, abandoning the perpetual grip upon
+his straggling chin whiskers.
+
+"Yes, sir," responded the excited small boy, who, with two companions,
+had run himself quite out of breath all over town before he found the
+officer at Harkin's blacksmith shop.
+
+"Well, dang 'em!" said Mr. Crow impressively.
+
+"We was skatin' in the marsh when we heerd 'em plain as day," said the
+other boy. "You bet I'm nuvver goin' nigh that house ag'in."
+
+"Sho! Bud, they ain't no sech thing as ghosts," said Mr. Crow; "it's
+tramps."
+
+"You know that house is ha'nted," protested Bud. "Wasn't ole Mrs. Rank
+slew there by her son-in-law? Wasn't she chopped to pieces and buried
+there right in her own cellar?"
+
+"Thunderation, boy, that was thirty year ago!"
+
+"Well, nobody's lived in the ha'nted house sence then, has they? Didn't
+Jim Smith try to sleep there oncet on a bet, an' didn't he hear sech
+awful noises 'at he liked to went crazy?" insisted Bud.
+
+[Illustration: The haunted house]
+
+"I _do_ recollect that Jim run two mile past his own house before he
+could stop, he was in sech a hurry to git away from the place. But Jim
+didn't _see_ anything. Besides, that was twenty year ago. Ghosts don't
+hang aroun' a place when there ain't nothin' to ha'nt. Her son-in-law
+was hung, an' she ain't got no one else to pester. I tell you it's
+tramps."
+
+"Well, we just thought we'd tell you, Mr. Crow," said the first boy.
+
+In a few minutes it was known throughout the business centre of
+Tinkletown that tramps were making their home in the haunted house down
+the river, and that Anderson Crow was to ride forth on his bicycle to
+rout them out. The haunted house was three miles from town and in the
+most desolate section of the bottomland. It was approachable only
+through the treacherous swamp on one side or by means of the river on
+the other. Not until after the murder of its owner and builder, old
+Johanna Rank, was there an explanation offered for the existence of a
+home in such an unwholesome locality.
+
+Federal authorities discovered that she and her son-in-law, Dave Wolfe,
+were at the head of a great counterfeiting gang, and that they had been
+working up there in security for years, turning out spurious coins by
+the hundred. One night Dave up and killed his mother-in-law, and was
+hanged for his good deed before he could be punished for his bad ones.
+For thirty years the weather-beaten, ramshackle old cabin in the swamp
+had been unoccupied except by birds, lizards, and other denizens of the
+solitude--always, of course, including the ghost of old Mrs. Rank.
+
+Inasmuch as Dave chopped her into small bits and buried them in the
+cellar, while her own daughter held the lantern, it was not beyond the
+range of possibility that certain atoms of the unlamented Johanna were
+never unearthed by the searchers. It was generally believed in the
+community that Mrs. Rank's spirit came back every little while to nose
+around in the dirt of the cellar in quest of such portions of her person
+as had not been respectably interred in the village graveyard.
+
+Mysterious noises had been heard about the place at the dead hour of
+night, and ghostly lights had flitted past the cellar windows. All
+Tinkletown agreed that the place was haunted and kept at a most
+respectful distance. The three small boys who startled Marshal Crow from
+his moping had gone down the river to skate instead of going to school.
+They swore that the sound of muffled voices came from the interior of
+the cabin, near which they had inadvertently wandered. Although Dave
+Wolfe had been dead thirty years, one of the youngest of the lads was
+positive that he recognised the voice of the desperado. And at once the
+trio fled the 'cursed spot and brought the horrifying news to Anderson
+Crow. The detective was immediately called upon to solve the ghostly
+mystery.
+
+Marshal Crow first went to his home and donned his blue coat,
+transferring the stars and badges to the greasy lapel of the garment. He
+also secured his dark lantern and the official cane of the village, but
+why he should carry a cane on a bicycle expedition was known only to
+himself. Followed by a horde of small boys and a few representative
+citizens of Tinkletown on antiquated wheels, Mr. Crow pedalled
+majestically off to the south. Skirting the swamp, the party approached
+the haunted house over the narrow path which ran along the river bank.
+Once in sight of the dilapidated cabin, which seemed to slink farther
+and farther back into the dense shadows of the late afternoon, with all
+the diffidence of the supernatural, the marshal called a halt and
+announced his plans.
+
+"You kids go up an' tell them fellers I want to see 'em," he commanded.
+The boys fell back and prepared to whimper.
+
+"I don't want to," protested Bud.
+
+"Why don't you go an' tell 'em yourself, Anderson?" demanded Isaac
+Porter, the pump repairer.
+
+"Thunderation, Ike, who's runnin' this thing?" retorted Anderson Crow.
+"I got a right to deputise anybody to do anything at any time. Don't you
+s'pose I know how to handle a job like this? I got my own idees how to
+waylay them raskils, an' I reckon I been in the detectin' business long
+enough to know how to manage a gol-derned tramp, ain't I? How's that?
+Who says I ain't?"
+
+"Nobody said a word, Anderson," meekly observed Jim Borum.
+
+"Well, I _thought_ somebody did. An' I don't want nobody interferin'
+with an officer, either. Bud, you an' them two Heffner boys go up an'
+tell them loafers to step down here right spry er I'll come up there an'
+see about it."
+
+"Gosh, Mr. Crow, I'm a-skeered to!" whimpered Bud. The Heffner boys
+started for home on a dead run.
+
+"Askeered to?" sniffed Anderson. "An' your great-grand-dad was in the
+Revolution, too. Geminy crickets, ef you was my boy I'd give you
+somethin' to be askeered of! Now, Bud, nothin' kin happen to you. Ain't
+I here?"
+
+"But suppose they won't come when I tell 'em?"
+
+"Yes, 'n' supposin' 'tain't tramps, but ghosts?" volunteered Mr. Porter,
+edging away with his bicycle. It was now quite dark and menacing in
+there where the cabin stood. As the outcome of half an hour's
+discussion, the whole party advanced slowly upon the house, Anderson
+Crow in the lead, his dark lantern in one hand, his cane in the other.
+Half way to the house he stopped short and turned to Bud.
+
+"Gosh dern you, Bud! I don't believe you heerd any noise in there at
+all! There ain't no use goin' any further with this, gentlemen. The dern
+boys was lyin'. We might jest as well go home." And he would have
+started for home had not Isaac Porter uttered a fearful groan and
+staggered back against a swamp reed for support, his horrified eyes
+glued upon a window in the log house. The reed was inadequate, and Isaac
+tumbled over backward.
+
+For a full minute the company stared dumbly at the indistinct little
+window, paralysis attacking every sense but that of sight. At the
+expiration of another minute the place was deserted, and Anderson Crow
+was the first to reach the bicycles far up the river bank. Every face
+was as white as chalk, and every voice trembled. Mr. Crow's dignity
+asserted itself just as the valiant posse prepared to "straddle" the
+wheels in mad flight.
+
+"Hold on!" he panted. "I lost my dark lantern down there. Go back an'
+git it, Bud."
+
+"Land o' mighty! Did y'ever see anythin' like it?" gasped Jim Borum,
+trying to mount a ten-year-old boy's wheel instead of his own.
+
+"I'd like to have anybody tell me there ain't no sech things as ghosts,"
+faltered Uncle Jimmy Borton, who had always said there wasn't. "Let go,
+there! Ouch!" The command and subsequent exclamation were the inevitable
+results of his unsuccessful attempt to mount with Elon Jones the same
+wheel.
+
+"What'd I tell you, Anderson?" exclaimed Isaac Porter. "Didn't I say it
+was ghosts? Tramps nothin'! A tramp wouldn't last a second up in that
+house. It's been ha'nted fer thirty years an' it gits worse all the
+time. What air we goin' to do next?"
+
+Even the valiant Mr. Crow approved of an immediate return to Tinkletown,
+and the posse was trying to disentangle its collection of bicycles when
+an interruption came from an unsuspected quarter--a deep, masculine
+voice arose from the ice-covered river hard by, almost directly below
+that section of the bank on which Anderson and his friends were herded.
+The result was startling. Every man leaped a foot in the air and every
+hair stood on end; bicycles rattled and clashed together, and Ed
+Higgins, hopelessly bewildered, started to run in the direction of the
+haunted house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+Wicker Bonner, Harvard
+
+
+"Hello, up there!" was what the deep, masculine voice shouted from the
+river. Anderson Crow was the first to distinguish the form of the
+speaker, and he was not long in deciding that it was far from
+ghost-like. With a word of command he brought his disorganised forces
+out of chaos and huddled them together as if to resist attack.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" he demanded, addressing his men in a loud
+tone. "Don't get rattled!"
+
+"Are you speaking to me?" called the fresh voice from below.
+
+"Who are you?" demanded Mr. Crow in return.
+
+"Nobody in particular. What's going on up there? What's the fuss?"
+
+"Come up an' find out." Then Mr. Crow, observing that the man below was
+preparing to comply, turned and addressed his squad in low, earnest
+tones. "This feller will bear watchin'. He's mixed up in this thing
+somehow. Else why is he wanderin' around here close to the house? I'll
+question him."
+
+"By gosh, he ain't no ghost!" murmured Ed Higgins, eyeing the newcomer
+as he crawled up the bank. "Say, did y' see me a minute ago? If you
+fellers had come on, I was goin' right up to search that house from top
+to bottom. Was you all askeered to come?"
+
+"Aw, you!" said Anderson Crow in deep scorn.
+
+The next instant a stalwart young fellow stood before the marshal, who
+was eyeing him keenly, even imperiously. The newcomer's good-looking,
+strong-featured face was lighted up by a smile of surpassing
+friendliness.
+
+"It's lonesome as thunder down here, isn't it? Glad to see you,
+gentlemen. What's up--a bicycle race?"
+
+"No, sir; we got a little business up here, that's all," responded
+Anderson Crow diplomatically. "What air you doin' here?"
+
+"Skating. My name is Wicker Bonner, and I'm visiting my uncle,
+Congressman Bonner, across the river. You know him, I dare say. I've
+been hanging around here for a week's hunting, and haven't had an ounce
+of luck in all that time. It's rotten! Aha, I see that you are an
+officer, sir--a detective, too. By George, can it be possible that you
+are searching for some one? If you are, let me in on it. I'm dying for
+excitement."
+
+The young man's face was eager and his voice rang true. Besides, he was
+a tall, athletic chap, with brawny arms and a broad back. Altogether, he
+would make a splendid recruit, thought Anderson Crow. He was dressed in
+rough corduroy knickerbockers, the thick coat buttoned up close to his
+muffled neck. A woollen cap came down over his ears and a pair of skates
+dangled from his arm.
+
+"Yes, sir; I'm a detective, and we are up here doin' a little
+investigatin'. You are from Chicago, I see."
+
+"What makes you think so?"
+
+"Can't fool me. I c'n always tell. You said, 'I've _bean_ hangin','
+instead of 'I've _ben_ hangin'.' See? They say _bean_ in Chicago. Ha!
+ha! You didn't think I could deduce that, did you?"
+
+"I'll confess that I didn't," said Mr. Bonner with a dry smile. "I'm
+from Boston, however."
+
+"Sure," interposed Isaac Porter; "that's where the beans come from,
+Anderson."
+
+"Well, that's neither here nor there," said Mr. Crow, hastily changing
+the subject. "We're wastin' time."
+
+"Stayin' here, you mean?" asked Ed Higgins, quite ready to start.
+Involuntarily the eyes of the posse turned toward the house among the
+willows. The stranger saw the concerted glance and made inquiry.
+Whereupon Mr. Crow, assisted by seven men and five small boys, told Mr.
+Wicker Bonner, late of Harvard, what had brought them from Tinkletown to
+the haunted house, and what they had seen upon their arrival. Young
+Bonner's face glowed with the joy of excitement.
+
+"Great!" he cried, fastening his happy eyes upon the hated thing among
+the trees. "Let's search the place. By George, this is glorious!"
+
+"Not on your life!" said Ed Higgins. "You can't get me inside that
+house. Like as not a feller'd never come out alive."
+
+"Well, better men than we have died," said Mr. Bonner tranquilly. "Come
+on; I'll go in first. It's all tommy-rot about the place being haunted.
+In any event, ghosts don't monkey around at this time of day. It's
+hardly dusk."
+
+"But, gosh dern it," exploded Anderson Crow, "we seen it!"
+
+"I seen it first," said Isaac Porter proudly.
+
+"But I heerd it first," peeped up Master Bud.
+
+"You've all been drinking hard cider or pop or something like that,"
+said the brawny scoffer.
+
+"Now, see here, you're gittin' fresh, an--" began the marshal, swelling
+up like a pigeon.
+
+"Look out behind!" sang out Mr. Bonner, and Anderson jumped almost out
+of his shoes, besides ripping his shirt in the back, he turned so
+suddenly.
+
+"Jeemses River!" he gasped.
+
+"Never turn your back on an unknown danger," cautioned the young man
+serenely. "Be ready to meet it."
+
+"If you're turned t'other way you c'n git a quicker start if you want to
+run," suggested Jim Borum, bracing himself with a fresh chew of tobacco.
+
+"What time is it?" asked Wicker Bonner.
+
+Anderson Crow squinted up through the leafless treetops toward the
+setting sun; then he looked at the shadow of a sapling down on the bank.
+
+"It's about seven minutes past five--in the evenin'," he said
+conclusively. Bonner was impolite enough to pull out his watch for
+verification.
+
+"You're a minute fast," he observed; but he looked at Anderson with a
+new and respectful admiration.
+
+"He c'n detect anything under the sun," said Porter with a feeble laugh
+at his own joke.
+
+"Well, let's go up and ransack that old cabin," announced Bonner,
+starting toward the willows. The crowd held back. "I'll go alone if
+you're afraid to come," he went on. "It's my firm belief that you didn't
+see anything and the noise you boys heard was the wind whistling through
+the trees. Now, tell the truth, how many of you saw it?"
+
+"I did," came from every throat so unanimously that Jim Borum's
+supplemental oath stood out alone and forceful as a climax.
+
+"Then it's worth investigating," announced the Boston man. "It is
+certainly a very mysterious affair, and you, at least, Mr. Town Marshal,
+should back me up in the effort to unravel it. Tell me again just what
+it was you saw and what it looked like."
+
+"I won't let no man tell me what my duties are," snorted Anderson, his
+stars trembling with injured pride. "Of course I'm going to solve the
+mystery. We've got to see what's inside that house. I thought it was
+tramps at first."
+
+"Well, lead on, then; I'll follow!" said Bonner with a grin.
+
+"I thought you was so anxious to go first!" exclaimed Anderson with fine
+tact. "Go ahead yourself, ef you're so derned brave. I dare you to."
+
+Bonner laughed loud enough to awaken every ghost in Bramble County and
+then strode rapidly toward the house. Anderson Crow followed slowly and
+the rest straggled after, all alert for the first sign of resistance.
+
+"I wish I could find that derned lantern," said Anderson, searching
+diligently in the deep grass as he walked along, in the meantime
+permitting Bonner to reach the grim old doorway far in advance of him.
+
+"Come on!" called back the intrepid leader, seeing that all save the
+marshal had halted. "You don't need the lantern. It's still daylight,
+old chap. We'll find out what it was you all saw in the window."
+
+"That's the last of him," muttered Isaac Porter, as the broad back
+disappeared through the low aperture that was called a doorway. There
+were no window sashes or panes in the house, and the door had long since
+rotted from the hinges.
+
+"He'll never come out. Let's go home," added Ed Higgins conclusively.
+
+"Are you coming?" sang out Bonner from the interior of the house. His
+voice sounded prophetically sepulchral.
+
+"Consarn it, cain't you wait a minute?" replied Anderson Crow, still
+bravely but consistently looking for the much-needed dark lantern.
+
+"It's all right in here. There hasn't been a human being in the house
+for years. Come on in; it's fine!"
+
+Anderson Crow finally ventured up to the doorway and peeped in. Bonner
+was standing near the tumbledown fireplace, placidly lighting a
+cigarette.
+
+"This is a fine job you've put up on me," he growled. "I thought there
+would be something doing. There isn't a soul here, and there hasn't
+been, either."
+
+"Thunderation, man, you cain't see ghosts when they don't want you to!"
+said Anderson Crow. "It was a ghost, that's settled. I knowed it all
+the time. Nothin' human ever looked like it, and nothin' alive ever
+moaned like it did."
+
+By this time the rest of the party had reached the cabin door. The less
+timorous ventured inside, while others contented themselves by looking
+through the small windows.
+
+"Well, if you're sure you really saw something, we'd better make a
+thorough search of the house and the grounds," said Bonner, and
+forthwith began nosing about the two rooms.
+
+The floors were shaky and the place had the odour of decayed wood. Mould
+clung to the half-plastered walls, cobwebs matted the ceilings, and
+rotted fungi covered the filth in the corners. Altogether it was a most
+uninviting hole, in which no self-respecting ghost would have made its
+home. When the time came to climb up to the little garret Bonner's
+followers rebelled. He was compelled to go alone, carrying the lantern,
+which one of the small boys had found. This part of the house was even
+more loathsome than below, and it would be impossible to describe its
+condition. He saw no sign of life, and retired in utter disgust. Then
+came the trip to the cellar. Again he had no followers, the Tinkletown
+men emphatically refusing to go down where old Mrs. Rank's body had been
+buried. Bonner laughed at them and went down alone. It was nauseous with
+age and the smell of damp earth, but it was cleaner there than above
+stairs. The cellar was smaller than either of the living rooms, and was
+to be reached only through the kitchen. There was no exit leading
+directly to the exterior of the house, but there was one small window at
+the south end. Bonner examined the room carefully and then rejoined the
+party. For some reason the posse had retired to the open air as soon as
+he left them to go below. No one knew exactly why, but when one started
+to go forth the others followed with more or less alacrity.
+
+"Did you see anything?" demanded the marshal.
+
+"What did old Mrs. Rank look like when she was alive?" asked Bonner with
+a beautifully mysterious air. No one answered; but there was a sudden
+shifting of feet backward, while an expression of alarmed inquiry came
+into every face. "Don't back into that open well," warned the amused
+young man in the doorway. Anderson Crow looked sharply behind, and
+flushed indignantly when he saw that the well was at least fifty feet
+away. "I saw something down there that looked like a woman's toe," went
+on Bonner very soberly.
+
+"Good Lord! What did I tell you?" cried the marshal, turning to his
+friends. To the best of their ability they could not remember that
+Anderson had told them anything, but with one accord the whole party
+nodded approval.
+
+"I fancy it was the ghost of a toe, however, for when I tried to pick it
+up it wriggled away, and I think it chuckled. It disappear--what's the
+matter? Where are you going?"
+
+It is only necessary to state that the marshal and his posse retreated
+in good order to a distant spot where it was not quite so dark, there
+to await the approach of Wicker Bonner, who leisurely but laughingly
+inspected the exterior of the house and the grounds adjoining. Finding
+nothing out of the ordinary, except as to dilapidation, he rejoined the
+party with palpable displeasure in his face.
+
+"Well, I think I'll go back to the ice," he said; "that place is as
+quiet as the grave. You are a fine lot of jokers, and I'll admit that
+the laugh is on me."
+
+But Bonner was mystified, uncertain. He had searched the house
+thoroughly from top to bottom, and he had seen nothing unusual, but
+these men and boys were so positive that he could not believe the eyes
+of all had been deceived.
+
+"This interests me," he said at last. "I'll tell you what we'll do, Mr.
+Crow. You and I will come down here to-night, rig up a tent of some sort
+and divide watch until morning. If there is anything to be seen we'll
+find out what it is. I'll get a couple of straw mattresses from our
+boathouse and--"
+
+"I've got rheumatiz, Mr. Bonner, an' it would be the death o' me to
+sleep in this swamp," objected Anderson hastily.
+
+"Well, I'll come alone, then. I'm not afraid. I don't mean to say I'll
+sleep in that old shack, but I'll bunk out here in the woods. No human
+being could sleep in that place. Will any one volunteer to keep me
+company?"
+
+Silence.
+
+"I don't blame you. It does take nerve, I'll confess. My only
+stipulation is that you shall come down here from the village early
+to-morrow morning. I may have something of importance to tell you, Mr.
+Crow."
+
+"We'll find his dead body," groaned old Mr. Borton.
+
+"Say, mister," piped up a shrill voice, "I'll stay with you." It was Bud
+who spoke, and all Tinkletown was afterward to resound with stories of
+his bravery. The boy had been silently admiring the bold sportsman from
+Boston town, and he was ready to cast his lot with him in this
+adventure. He thrilled with pleasure when the big hero slapped him on
+the back and called him the only man in the crowd.
+
+At eight o'clock that night Bonner and the determined but trembling Bud
+came up the bank from the river and pitched a tent among the trees near
+the haunted house. From the sledge on the river below they trundled up
+their bedding and their stores. Bud had an old single-barrel shotgun, a
+knife and a pipe, which he was just learning to smoke; Bonner brought a
+Navajo blanket, a revolver and a heavy walking stick. He also had a
+large flask of whiskey and the pipe that had graduated from Harvard with
+him.
+
+At nine o'clock he put to bed in one of the chilly nests a very sick
+boy, who hated to admit that the pipe was too strong for him, but who
+felt very much relieved when he found himself wrapped snugly in the
+blankets with his head tucked entirely out of sight. Bud had spent the
+hour in regaling Bonner with the story of Rosalie Gray's abduction and
+his own heroic conduct in connection with the case. He confessed that he
+had knocked one of the villains down, but they were too many for him.
+Bonner listened politely and then--put the hero to bed.
+
+Bonner dozed off at midnight. An hour or so later he suddenly sat bolt
+upright, wide awake and alert. He had the vague impression that he was
+deathly cold and that his hair was standing on end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+The Men in the Sleigh
+
+
+Let us go back to the night on which Rosalie was seized and carried away
+from Mrs. Luce's front gate, despite the valiant resistance of her
+youthful defenders.
+
+Rosalie had drooned Thackeray to the old lady until both of them were
+dozing, and it was indeed a welcome relief that came with Roscoe's
+resounding thumps on the front door. Mrs. Luce was too old to be
+frightened out of a year's growth, but it is perfectly safe to agree
+with her that the noise cost her at least three months.
+
+Desperately blue over the defection of Elsie Banks, Rosalie had found
+little to make her evening cheerful indoors, but the fresh, crisp air
+set her spirits bounding the instant she closed Mrs. Luce's door from
+the outside. We have only to refer to Roscoe's lively narrative for
+proof of what followed almost instantly. She was seized, her head
+tightly wrapped in a thick cloak or blanket; then she was thrown into a
+sleigh, and knew nothing more except a smothering sensation and the
+odour of chloroform.
+
+When she regained consciousness she was lying on the ground in the open
+air, dark night about her. Three men were standing nearby, but there was
+no vehicle in sight. She tried to rise, but on account of her bonds was
+powerless to do so. Speech was prevented by the cloth which closed her
+lips tightly. After a time she began to grasp the meaning of the
+muttered words that passed between the men.
+
+"You got the rig in all right, Bill--you're sure that no one heard or
+saw you?" were the first questions she could make out, evidently arising
+from a previous report or explanation.
+
+"Sure. Everybody in these parts goes to bed at sundown. They ain't got
+nothing to do but sleep up 'ere."
+
+"Nobody knows we had that feller's sleigh an' horses out--nobody ever
+will know," said the big man, evidently the leader. She noticed they
+called him Sam.
+
+"Next thing is to git her across the river without leavin' any tracks.
+We ain't on a travelled road now, pals; we got to be careful. I'll carry
+her down to the bank; but be sure to step squarely in my
+footprints--it'll look like they were made by one man. See?"
+
+"The river's froze over an' we can't be tracked on the ice. It's too
+dark, too, for any one to see us. Go ahead, Sammy; it's d---- cold
+here."
+
+The big man lifted her from the ground as if she were a feather, and she
+was conscious of being borne swiftly through a stretch of sloping
+woodland down to the river bank, a journey of two or three hundred
+yards, it seemed. Here the party paused for many minutes before
+venturing out upon the wide expanse of frozen river, evidently making
+sure that the way was clear. Rosalie, her senses quite fully restored by
+this time, began to analyse the situation with a clearness and calmness
+that afterward was the object of considerable surprise to her. Instead
+of being hysterical with fear, she was actually experiencing the thrill
+of a real emotion. She had no doubt but that her abductors were persons
+hired by those connected with her early history, and, strange as it may
+seem, she could not believe that bodily harm was to be her fate after
+all these years of secret attention on the part of those so deeply,
+though remotely, interested.
+
+Somehow there raced through her brain the exhilarating conviction that
+at last the mystery of her origin was to be cleared away, and with it
+all that had been as a closed book. No thought of death entered her mind
+at that time. Afterward she was to feel that death would be most
+welcome, no matter how it came.
+
+Her captors made the trip across the river in dead silence. There was no
+moon and the night was inky black. The exposed portions of her face
+tingled with cold, but she was so heavily wrapped in the blanket that
+her body did not feel the effects of the zero weather.
+
+At length the icy stretch was passed, and after resting a few minutes,
+Sam proceeded to ascend the steep bank with her in his arms. Why she was
+not permitted to walk she did not know then or afterward. It is
+possible, even likely, that the men thought their charge was
+unconscious. She did nothing to cause them to think otherwise. Again
+they passed among trees, Sam's companions following in his footprints as
+before. Another halt and a brief command for Davy to go ahead and see
+that the coast was clear came after a long and tortuous struggle through
+the underbrush. Twice they seemed to have lost their bearings in the
+darkness, but eventually they came into the open.
+
+"Here we are!" grunted Sam as they hurried across the clearing. "A hard
+night's work, pals, but I guess we're in Easy Street now. Go ahead,
+Davy, an' open the trap!"
+
+Davy swore a mighty but sibilant oath and urged his thick, ugly figure
+ahead of the others.
+
+A moment later the desperadoes and their victim passed through a door
+and into a darkness even blacker than that outside. Davy was pounding
+carefully upon the floor of the room in which they stood. Suddenly a
+faint light spread throughout the room and a hoarse, raucous voice
+whispered:
+
+"Have you got her?"
+
+"Get out of the way--we're near froze," responded Davy gruffly.
+
+"Get down there, Bill, and take her; I'm tired carryin' this hundred and
+twenty pounder," growled Sam.
+
+The next instant Rosalie was conscious of being lowered through a trap
+door in the floor, and then of being borne rapidly through a long,
+narrow passage, lighted fitfully by the rays of a lantern in the hands
+of a fourth and as yet unseen member of the band.
+
+"There!" said Bill, impolitely dropping his burden upon a pile of straw
+in the corner of the rather extensive cave at the end of the passage;
+"wonder if the little fool is dead. She ought to be coming to by this
+time."
+
+"She's got her eyes wide open," uttered the raucous voice on the
+opposite side; and Rosalie turned her eyes in that direction. She looked
+for a full minute as if spellbound with terror, her gaze centred at the
+most repulsive human face she ever had seen--the face of Davy's mother.
+
+The woman was a giantess, a huge, hideous creature with the face of a
+man, hairy and bloated. Her unkempt hair was grey almost to whiteness,
+her teeth were snags, and her eyes were almost hidden beneath the shaggy
+brow. There was a glare of brutal satisfaction in them that appalled the
+girl.
+
+For the first time since the adventure began her heart failed her, and
+she shuddered perceptibly as her lids fell.
+
+"What the h---- are you skeering her fer like that, ma," growled Davy.
+"Don't look at her like that, or--"
+
+"See here, my boy, don't talk like that to me if you don't want me to
+kick your head off right where you stand. I'm your mother, Davy, an'--"
+
+"That'll do. This ain't no time to chew the rag," muttered Sam. "We're
+done fer. Get us something to eat an' something to drink, old woman;
+give the girl a nifter, too. She's fainted, I reckon. Hurry up; I want
+to turn in."
+
+"Better untie her hands--see if she's froze," added Bill savagely.
+
+Roughly the old woman slashed the bonds from the girl's hands and feet
+and then looked askance at Sam, who stood warming his hands over a
+kerosene stove not far away. He nodded his head, and she instantly
+untied the cloth that covered Rosalie's mouth.
+
+"It won't do no good to scream, girl. Nobody'll hear ye but us--and
+we're your friends," snarled the old woman.
+
+"Let her yell if she wants to, Maude. It may relieve her a bit," said
+Sam, meaning to be kind. Instinctively Rosalie looked about for the
+person addressed as Maude. There was but one woman in the gang. Maude!
+That was the creature's name. Instead of crying or shrieking, Rosalie
+laughed outright.
+
+At the sound of the laugh the woman drew back hastily.
+
+"By gor!" she gasped; "the--she's gone daffy!"
+
+The men turned toward them with wonder in their faces. Bill was the
+first to comprehend. He saw the girl's face grow sober with an effort,
+and realised that she was checking her amusement because it was sure to
+offend.
+
+"Aw," he grinned, "I don't blame her fer laughin'! Say what ye will,
+Maude, your name don't fit you."
+
+"It's as good as any name--" began the old hag, glaring at him; but Sam
+interposed with a command to her to get them some hot coffee while he
+had a talk with the girl. "Set up!" he said roughly, addressing Rosalie.
+"We ain't goin' to hurt you."
+
+Rosalie struggled to a sitting posture, her limbs and back stiff from
+the cold and inaction. "Don't ask questions, because they won't be
+answered. I jest want to give you some advice as to how you must act
+while you are our guest. You must be like one of the family. Maybe we'll
+be here a day, maybe a week, but it won't be any longer than that."
+
+"Would you mind telling me where I am and what this all means? Why have
+you committed this outrage? What have I done--" she found voice to say.
+He held up his hand.
+
+"You forget what I said about askin' questions. There ain't nothin' to
+tell you, that's all. You're here and that's enough."
+
+"Well, who is it that has the power to answer questions, sir? I have
+some right to ask them. You have--"
+
+"That'll do, now!" he growled. "I'll put the gag back on you if you
+keep it up. So's you won't worry, I want to say this to you: Your
+friends don't know where you are, and they couldn't find you if they
+tried. You are to stay right here in this cave until we get orders to
+move you. When the time comes we'll take you to wherever we're ordered,
+and then we're through with you. Somebody else will have the say. You
+won't be hurt here unless you try to escape--it won't do you any good to
+yell. It ain't a palace, but it's better than the grave. So be wise. All
+we got to do is to turn you over to the proper parties at the proper
+time. That's all."
+
+"Is the person you speak of my--my mother or my father?" Rosalie asked
+with bated breath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+With the Kidnapers
+
+
+Sam stared at her, and there was something like real amazement in his
+eyes.
+
+"Yer mother or father?" he repeated interrogatively. "Wha--what the
+devil can they have to do with this affair? I guess they're askin' a lot
+of questions themselves about this time."
+
+"Mr. and Mrs. Crow are not my parents," she said; and then shrewdly
+added, "and you know it, sir."
+
+"I've heard that sayin' 'bout a child never knowin' its own father, but
+this business of both the father and mother is a new one on me. I guess
+it's the chloroform. Give us that booze, Bill. She's dippy yet."
+
+He tried to induce her to swallow some of the whiskey, but steadfastly
+she refused, until finally, with an evil snarl, Sam commanded the
+giantess to hold her while he forced the burning liquor down her throat.
+There was a brief struggle, but Rosalie was no match for the huge woman,
+whose enormous arms encircled her; and as the liquid trickled in upon
+her tongue she heard above the brutal laughter of the would-be doctors
+the hoarse voice of Bill crying:
+
+"Don't hurt her, Sam! Let 'er alone!"
+
+"Close yer face! Don't you monkey in this thing, Bill Briggs.
+I'll--well, you know. Drink this, damn you!"
+
+Sputtering and choking, her heart beating wildly with fear and rage,
+Rosalie was thrown back upon the straw by the woman. Her throat was
+burning from the effects of the whiskey and her eyes were blinded by the
+tears of anger and helplessness.
+
+"Don't come any of your highfalutin' airs with me, you little cat,"
+shrieked the old woman, rubbing a knee that Rosalie had kicked in her
+struggles.
+
+"Lay still there," added Sam. "We don't want to hurt you, but you got to
+do as I tell you. Understand? Not a word, now! Gimme that coffee-pot,
+Davy. Go an' see that everything's locked up an' we'll turn in fer the
+night. Maude, you set up an' keep watch. If she makes a crack, soak her
+one."
+
+"You bet I will. She'll find she ain't attendin' no Sunday-school
+picnic."
+
+"No boozin'!" was Sam's order as he told out small portions of whiskey.
+Then the gang ate ravenously of the bacon and beans and drank cup after
+cup of coffee. Later the men threw themselves upon the piles of straw
+and soon all were snoring. The big woman refilled the lantern and hung
+it on a peg in the wall of the cave; then she took up her post near the
+square door leading to the underground passage, her throne an upturned
+whiskey barrel, her back against the wall of the cave. She glared at
+Rosalie through the semi-darkness, frequently addressing her with the
+vilest invectives cautiously uttered--and all because her victim had
+beautiful eyes and was unable to close them in sleep.
+
+[Illustration: "Rosalie was no match for the huge woman"]
+
+Rosalie's heart sank as she surveyed the surroundings with her mind
+once more clear and composed. After her recovery from the shock of
+contact with the old woman and Sam she shrank into a state of mental
+lassitude that foretold the despair which was to come later on. She did
+not sleep that night. Her brain was full of whirling thoughts of escape,
+speculations as to what was to become of her, miserable fears that the
+end would not be what the first impressions had made it, and, over all,
+a most intense horror of the old woman, who dozed, but guarded her as no
+dragon ever watched in the days of long ago.
+
+The cave in which they were housed was thirty or forty feet from side to
+side, almost circular in shape, a low roof slanting to the rocky floor.
+Here and there were niches in the walls, and in the side opposite to the
+entrance to the passageway there was a small, black opening, leading
+without doubt to the outer world. The fact that it was not used at any
+time during her stay in the cave led her to believe it was not of
+practical use. Two or three coal-oil stoves were used to heat the cave
+and for cooking purposes. There were several lanterns, a number of
+implements (such as spades, axes, crowbars, sledges, and so forth),
+stool-kegs, a rough table, which was used for all purposes known to the
+dining-room, kitchen, scullery and even bedchamber. Sam slept on the
+table. Horse blankets were thrown about the floor in confusion. They
+served as bedclothes when the gang slept. At other times they might as
+well have been called doormats. One of the niches in the wall was used
+as the resting place for such bones or remnants as might strike it when
+hurled in that direction by the occupants. No one took the trouble to
+carefully bestow anything in the garbage hole, and no one pretended to
+clean up after the other. The place was foul smelling, hot and almost
+suffocating with the fumes from the stoves, for which there seemed no
+avenue of escape.
+
+Hours afterward, although they seemed drawn out into years, the men
+began to breathe naturally, and a weird silence reigned in the cave.
+They were awake. The venerable Maude emerged from her doze, looked
+apprehensively at Sam, prodded the corner to see that the prize had not
+faded away, and then began ponderously to make preparations for a meal,
+supposedly breakfast. Meagre ablutions, such as they were, were
+performed in the "living room," a bucket of water serving as a general
+wash-basin. No one had removed his clothing during the night, not even
+his shoes. It seemed to her that the gang was in an ever-ready condition
+to evacuate the place at a moment's notice.
+
+Rosalie would not eat, nor would she bathe her face in the water that
+had been used by the quartette before her. Bill Briggs, with some sense
+of delicacy in his nature, brought some fresh water from the far end of
+the passageway. For this act he was reviled by his companions.
+
+"It's no easy job to get water here, Briggs," roared Sam. "We got to be
+savin' with it."
+
+"Well, don't let it hurt you," retorted Bill. "I'll carry it up from the
+river to-night. You won't have to do it."
+
+"She ain't any better'n I am," snorted Maude, "and nobody goes out to
+bring me a private bath, I take notice. Get up here and eat something,
+you rat! Do you want us to force it down you--"
+
+"If she don't want to eat don't coax her," said Sam. "She'll soon get
+over that. We was only hired to get her here and get her away again, and
+not to make her eat or even wash. That's nothing to us."
+
+"Well, she's got to eat or she'll die, and you know, Sam Welch, that
+ain't to be," retorted the old woman.
+
+"She'll eat before she'll die, Maudie; don't worry."
+
+"I'll never eat a mouthful!" cried Rosalie, a brave, stubborn light in
+her eyes. She was standing in the far corner drying her face with her
+handkerchief.
+
+"Oho, you can talk again, eh? Hooray! Now we'll hear the story of her
+life," laughed big Sam, his mouth full of bacon and bread. Rosalie
+flushed and the tears welled to her eyes.
+
+All day long she suffered taunts and gibes from the gang. She grew to
+fear Davy's ugly leers more than the brutal words of the others. When
+he came near she shrank back against the wall; when he spoke she
+cringed; when he attempted to touch her person she screamed. It was this
+act that brought Sam's wrath upon Davy's head. He won something like
+gratitude from the girl by profanely commanding Davy to confine his love
+to looks and not to acts.
+
+"She ain't to be harmed," was Sam's edict. "That goes, too."
+
+"Aw, you go to--" began Davy belligerently.
+
+"What's that?" snarled Sam, whirling upon him with a glare. Davy slunk
+behind his mother and glared back. Bill moved over to Sam's side. For a
+moment the air was heavy with signs of an affray. Rosalie crouched in
+her corner, her hand over her ears, her eyes closed. There was murder in
+Davy's face. "I'll break every bone in your body!" added Sam; but Bill
+laconically stayed him with a word.
+
+"Rats!" It was brief, but it brought the irate Sam to his senses.
+Trouble was averted for the time being.
+
+"Davy ain't afraid of him," cried that worthy's mother shrilly.
+
+"You bet I ain't!" added Davy after a long string of oaths. Sam grinned
+viciously.
+
+"There ain't nothin' to fight about, I guess," he said, although he did
+not look it. "We'd be fools to scrap. Everything to lose and nothin' to
+gain. All I got to say, Davy, is that you ain't to touch that girl."
+
+"Who's goin' to touch her?" roared Davy, bristling bravely. "An' you
+ain't to touch her nuther," he added.
+
+The day wore away, although it was always night in the windowless cave,
+and again the trio of men slept, with Maude as guard. Exhausted and
+faint, Rosalie fell into a sound sleep. The next morning she ate
+sparingly of the bacon and bread and drank some steaming coffee, much to
+the derisive delight of the hag.
+
+"You had to come to it, eh?" she croaked. "Had to feed that purty face,
+after all. I guess we're all alike. We're all flesh and blood, my lady."
+
+The old woman never openly offered personal violence to the girl. She
+stood in some fear of the leader--not physical fear, but the strange
+homage that a brute pays to its master. Secretly she took savage delight
+in treading on the girl's toes or in pinching her arms and legs,
+twisting her hair, spilling hot coffee on her hands, cursing her softly
+and perpetrating all sorts of little indignities that could not be
+resented, for the simple reason that they could not be proved against
+her. Her word was as good as Rosalie's.
+
+Hourly the strain grew worse and worse. The girl became ill and feverish
+with fear, loathing and uncertainty. Her ears rang with the horrors of
+their lewdness, her eyes came to see but little, for she kept them
+closed for the very pain of what they were likely to witness. In her
+heart there grew a constant prayer for deliverance from their clutches.
+She was much too strong-minded and healthy to pray for death, but her
+mind fairly reeled with the thoughts of the vengeance she would exact.
+
+The third day found the gang morose and ugly. The confinement was as
+irksome to them as it was to her. They fretted and worried, swore and
+growled. At nightfall of each day Sam ventured forth through the passage
+and out into the night. Each time he was gone for two or three hours,
+and each succeeding return to the vile cave threw the gang into deeper
+wrath. The word they were expecting was not forthcoming, the command
+from the real master was not given. They played cards all day, and at
+last began to drink more deeply than was wise. Two desperate fights
+occurred between Davy and Sam on the third day. Bill and the old woman
+pulled them apart after both had been battered savagely.
+
+"She's sick, Sam," growled Bill, standing over the cowering, white-faced
+prisoner near the close of the fourth day. Sam had been away nearly all
+of the previous night, returning gloomily without news from
+headquarters. "She'll die in this d---- place and so will we if we don't
+get out soon. Look at her! Why, she's as white as a sheet. Let's give
+her some fresh air, Sammy. It's safe. Take her up in the cabin for a
+while. To-night we can take her outside the place. Good Lord, Sammy,
+I've got a bit of heart! I can't see her die in this hole. Look at her!
+Can't you see she's nearly done for?"
+
+After considerable argument, pro and con, it was decided that it would
+be safe and certainly wise to let the girl breathe the fresh air once in
+a while. That morning Sam took her into the cabin through the passage.
+The half hour in the cold, fresh air revived her, strengthened her
+perceptibly. Her spirits took an upward bound. She began to ask
+questions, and for some reason he began to take notice of them. It may
+have been the irksomeness of the situation, his own longing to be away,
+his anger toward the person who had failed to keep the promise made
+before the abduction, that led him to talk quite freely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+In the Cave
+
+
+"It's not my fault that we're still here," he growled in answer to her
+pathetic appeal. "I've heard you prayin' for Daddy Crow to come and take
+you away. Well, it's lucky for him that he don't know where you are.
+We'd make mincemeat of that old jay in three minutes. Don't do any more
+prayin'. Prayers are like dreams--you have 'em at night and wonder why
+the next day. Now, look 'ere, Miss Gray, we didn't do this rotten job
+for the love of excitement. We're just as anxious to get out of it as
+you are."
+
+"I only ask why I am held here and what is to become of me?" said
+Rosalie resignedly. She was standing across the table from where he sat
+smoking his great, black pipe. The other members of the gang were
+lounging about, surly and black-browed, chafing inwardly over the delay
+in getting away from the cave.
+
+"I don't know why you've been held here. I only know it's d---- slow.
+I'd chuck the job, if there wasn't so much dust in it for me."
+
+"But what is to become of me? I cannot endure this much longer. It is
+killing me. Look! I am black and blue from pinches. The old woman never
+misses an opportunity to hurt me."
+
+"She's jealous of you because you're purty, that's all. Women are all
+alike, hang 'em! I wouldn't be in this sort of work if it hadn't been
+for a jealous wife."
+
+He puffed at his pipe moodily for a long time, evidently turning some
+problem over and over in his mind. At last, heaving a deep sigh, and
+prefacing his remarks with an oath, he let light in upon the mystery.
+"I'll put you next to the job. Can't give any names; it wouldn't be
+square. You see, it's this way: you ain't wanted in this country. I
+don't know why, but you ain't."
+
+"Not wanted in this country?" she cried blankly. "I don't stand in any
+one's way. My life and my love are for the peaceful home that you have
+taken me from. I don't ask for anything else. Won't you tell your
+employer as much for me? If I am released, I shall never interfere with
+the plans of--"
+
+"'Tain't that, I reckon. You must be mighty important to somebody, or
+all this trouble wouldn't be gone through with. The funny part of it is
+that we ain't to hurt you. You ain't to be killed, you know. That's the
+queer part of it, ain't it?"
+
+"I'll admit it has an agreeable sound to me," said Rosalie, with a
+shadow of a smile on her trembling lips. "It seems ghastly, though."
+
+"Well, anyhow, it's part of somebody's scheme to get you out of this
+country altogether. You are to be taken away on a ship, across the
+ocean, I think. Paris or London, mebby, and you are never to come
+back to the United States. Never, that's what I'm told."
+
+[Illustration: "She shrank back from another blow which seemed
+impending"]
+
+Rosalie was speechless, stunned. Her eyes grew wide with the misery of
+doubt and horror, her lips moved as if forming the words which would not
+come. Before she could bring a sound from the contracted throat the
+raucous voice of old Maude broke in:
+
+"What are you tellin' her, Sam Welch? Can't you keep your face closed?"
+she called, advancing upon him with a menacing look.
+
+"Aw, it's nothin' to you," he retorted, but an uncomfortable expression
+suddenly crept into his face. A loud, angry discussion ensued, the whole
+gang engaging. Three to one was the way it stood against the leader, who
+was forced to admit, secretly if not publicly, that he had no right to
+talk freely of the matter to the girl. In vain she pleaded and promised.
+Her tears were of no avail, once Sam had concluded to hold his tongue.
+Angry with himself for having to submit to the demands of the others,
+furious because she saw his surrender, Sam, without a word of warning,
+suddenly struck her on the side of the head with the flat of his broad
+hand, sending her reeling into the corner. Dazed, hurt and half stunned,
+she dropped to her knees, unable to stand. With a piteous look in her
+eyes she shrank back from another blow which seemed impending. Bill
+Briggs grasped his leader's arm and drew him away, cursing and snarling.
+
+Late in the afternoon, Bill was permitted to conduct her into the cabin
+above, for a few minutes in the air, and for a glimpse of the failing
+sunlight. She had scarcely taken her stand before the little window when
+she was hastily jerked away, but not before she thought she had
+perceived a crowd of men, huddling among the trees not far away. A
+scream for help started to her lips; but Bill's heavy hand checked it
+effectually. His burly arm sent her scuttling toward the trap-door; and
+a second later she was below, bruised from the fall and half fainting
+with disappointment and despair.
+
+Brief as the glimpse had been, she was positive she recognised two faces
+in the crowd of men--Anderson Crow's and Ed Higgins's. It meant, if her
+eyes did not deceive her, that the searchers were near at hand, and that
+dear, old Daddy Crow was leading them. Her hopes flew upward and she
+could not subdue the triumphant glance that swept the startled crowd
+when Bill breathlessly broke the news.
+
+Absolute quiet reigned in the cave after that. Maude cowed the prisoner
+into silence with the threat to cut out her tongue if she uttered a cry.
+Later, the tramp of feet could be heard on the floor of the cabin.
+There was a sound of voices, loud peals of laughter, and then the noise
+made by some one in the cellar that served as a blind at one end of the
+cabin. After that, dead silence. At nightfall, Sam stealthily ventured
+forth to reconnoitre. He came back with the report that the woods and
+swamps were clear and that the searchers, if such they were, had gone
+away.
+
+"The house, since Davy's grandma's bones were stored away in that cellar
+for several moons, has always been thought to be haunted. The fools
+probably thought they saw a ghost--an' they're runnin' yet."
+
+Then for the first time Rosalie realised that she was in the haunted
+cabin in the swamp, the most fearsome of all places in the world to
+Tinkletown, large and small. Not more than three miles from her own
+fireside! Not more than half an hour's walk from Daddy Crow and others
+in the warmth of whose love she had lived so long!
+
+"It's gettin' too hot here for us," growled Sam at supper. "We've just
+got to do something. I'm going out to-night to see if there's any word
+from the--from the party. These guys ain't all fools. Somebody is liable
+to nose out the trap-door before long and there'll be hell to pay. They
+won't come back before to-morrow, I reckon. By thunder, there ought to
+be word from the--the boss by this time. Lay low, everybody; I'll be
+back before daybreak. This time I'm a-goin' to find out something sure
+or know the reason why. I'm gettin' tired of this business. Never know
+what minute the jig's up, nor when the balloon busts."
+
+Again he stole forth into the night, leaving his companions more or less
+uneasy as to the result, after the startling events of the afternoon.
+Hour after hour passed, and with every minute therein, Rosalie's ears
+strained themselves to catch the first sound of approaching rescuers.
+Her spirits fell, but her hopes were high. She felt sure that the men
+outside had seen her face and that at last they had discovered the place
+in which she was kept. It would only be a question of time until they
+learned the baffling secret of the trap-door. Her only fear lay in the
+possibility that she might be removed by her captors before the rescuers
+could accomplish her delivery. Her bright, feverish, eager eyes,
+gleaming from the sunken white cheeks, appealed to Bill Briggs more than
+he cared to admit. The ruffian, less hardened than his fellows, began to
+feel sorry for her.
+
+Eleven o'clock found the trio anxious and ugly in their restlessness.
+There was no sleep for them. Davy visited the trap over a hundred times
+that night. His mother, breaking over the traces of restraint, hugged
+the jug of whiskey, taking swig after swig as the vigil wore on. At last
+Davy, driven to it, insisted upon having his share. Bill drank but
+little, and it was not long before Rosalie observed the shifty, nervous
+look in his eyes. From time to time he slyly appropriated certain
+articles, dropping them into his coat pocket. His ear muffs, muffler,
+gloves, matches, tobacco and many chunks of bread and bacon were stowed
+stealthily in the pockets of his coat. At last it dawned upon her that
+Bill was preparing to desert. Hope lay with him, then. If he could only
+be induced to give her an equal chance to escape!
+
+Mother and son became maudlin in their--not cups, but jug; but Davy had
+the sense to imbibe more cautiously, a fact which seemed to annoy the
+nervous Bill.
+
+"I must have air--fresh air," suddenly moaned Rosalie from her corner,
+the strain proving too great for her nerves. Bill strode over and looked
+down upon the trembling form for a full minute. "Take me outside for
+just a minute--just a minute, please. I am dying in here."
+
+"Lemme take her out," cackled old Maude. "I'll give her all the air she
+wants. Want so--some air myself. Lemme give her air, Bill. Have some air
+on me, pardner. Lemme--"
+
+"Shut up, Maude!" growled Bill, glancing uneasily about the cave. "I'll
+take her up in the cabin fer a couple of minutes. There ain't no
+danger."
+
+Davy protested, but Bill carried his point, simply because he was sober
+and knew his power over the half-stupefied pair. Davy let them out
+through the trap, promising to wait below until they were ready to
+return.
+
+"Are you going away?" whispered Rosalie, as they passed out into the
+cold, black night.
+
+"Sh! Don't talk, damn you!" he hissed.
+
+"Let me go too. I know the way home and you need have no fear of me. I
+like you, but I hate the others. Please, please! For God's sake, let me
+go! They can't catch me if I have a little start."
+
+"I'd like to, but I--I dassent. Sam would hunt me down and kill me--he
+would sure. I am goin' myself--I can't stand it no longer."
+
+"Have pity! Don't leave me alone with them. Oh, God, if you--"
+
+Moaning piteously, she pleaded with him; but he was obdurate, chiefly
+through fear of the consequences. In his heart he might have been
+willing to give her the chance, but his head saw the danger to itself
+and it was firm.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do," he whispered in the end. "I'll take you
+back there and then I'll go and tell your friends where you are and how
+to help you. Honest! Honest, I will. I know it's as broad as it is
+long, but I'd rather do it that way. They'll be here in a couple of
+hours and you'll be free. Nobody will be the wiser. Curse your whining!
+Shut up! Damn you, get back in there! Don't give me away to Davy, and
+I'll swear to help you out of this."
+
+A minute or two later, he dragged her back into the cabin,
+moaning, pleading, and crying from the pain of a sudden blow. Ten
+minutes afterward he went forth again, this time ostensibly to meet Sam;
+but Rosalie knew that he was gone forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+The Trap-Door
+
+
+A sickly new moon threw vague ghostly beams across the willow-lined
+swamp, out beyond the little cabin that stood on its border. Through the
+dense undergrowth and high among the skeleton treetops ugly shadows
+played with each other, while a sepulchral orchestra of wind and bough
+shrieked a dirge that flattened in Bonner's ears; but it was not the
+weird music of the swamp that sent the shudder of actual terror through
+the frame of the big athlete.
+
+A series of muffled, heartbreaking moans, like those of a woman in dire
+pain, came to his ears. He felt the cold perspiration start over his
+body. His nerves grew tense with trepidation, his eyes wide with horror.
+Instinctively, his fingers clutched the revolver at his side and his
+gaze went toward the black, square thing which marked the presence of
+the haunted house. The orchestra of the night seemed to bring its dirge
+to a close; a chill interlude of silence ensued. The moans died away
+into choking sobs, and Bonner's ears could hear nothing else. A sudden
+thought striking him, he rolled out of his bed and made his way to Bud's
+pile of blankets. But the solution was not there. The lad was sound
+asleep and no sound issued from his lips. The moans came from another
+source, human or otherwise, out there in the crinkling night.
+
+Carefully making his way from the tent, his courage once more restored
+but his flesh still quivering, Bonner looked intently for manifestations
+in the black home of Johanna Rank. He half expected to see a ghostly
+light flit past a window. It was intensely dark in the thicket, but the
+shadowy marsh beyond silhouetted the house into a black relief. He was
+on all fours behind a thick pile of brush, nervously drawing his pipe
+from his pocket, conscious that he needed it to steady his nerves, when
+a fresh sound, rising above the faint sobs, reached his ears. Then the
+low voice of a man came from some place in the darkness, and these words
+rang out distinctly:
+
+"Damn you!"
+
+He drew back involuntarily, for the voice seemed to be at his elbow. The
+sobs ceased suddenly, as if choked by a mighty hand.
+
+The listener's inclination was to follow the example of Anderson Crow
+and run madly off into the night. But beneath this natural panic was the
+soul of chivalry. Something told him that a woman out there in the
+solitude needed the arms of a man; and his blood began to grow hot
+again. Presently the silence was broken by a sharp cry of despair:
+
+"Have pity! Oh, God--" moaned the voice that sent thrills through his
+body--the voice of a woman, tender, refined, crushed. His fingers
+gripped the revolver with fresh vigor, but almost instantly the rustling
+of dead leaves reached his ears: the man and his victim were making
+their way toward the house.
+
+Bonner crouched among the bushes as if paralysed. He began to comprehend
+the situation. In a vague sort of way he remembered hearing of
+Tinkletown's sensation over at his uncle's house, where he was living
+with a couple of servants for a month's shooting. The atmosphere had
+been full of the sensational abduction story for several days--the
+abduction of a beautiful young woman and the helpless attitude of the
+relatives and friends. Like a whirlwind the whole situation spread
+itself before him; it left him weak. He had come upon the gang and their
+victim in this out-of-the-way corner of the world, far from the city
+toward which they were supposed to have fled. He had the solution in his
+hands and he was filled with the fire of the ancients.
+
+A light appeared in the low doorway and the squat figure of a man held a
+lantern on high. An instant later, another man dragged the helpless girl
+across the threshold and into the house. Even as Bonner squared himself
+to rush down upon them the light disappeared and darkness fell over the
+cabin. There was a sound of footsteps on the floor, a creaking of hinges
+and the stealthy closing of a door. Then there was absolute quiet.
+
+Bonner was wise as well as brave. He saw that to rush down upon the
+house now might prove his own as well as her undoing. In the darkness,
+the bandits would have every advantage. For a moment he glared at the
+black shadow ahead, his brain working like lightning.
+
+"That poor girl!" he muttered vaguely. "Damn beasts! But I'll fix 'em,
+by heaven! It won't be long, my boys."
+
+His pondering brought quick results. Crawling to Bud's cot, he aroused
+him from a deep sleep. Inside of two minutes the lad was streaking off
+through the woods toward town, with instructions to bring Anderson Crow
+and a large force of men to the spot as quickly as possible.
+
+"I'll stand guard," said Wicker Bonner.
+
+As the minutes went by Bonner's thoughts dwelt more and more intently
+upon the poor, imprisoned girl in the cabin. His blood charged his
+reason and he could scarce control the impulse to dash in upon the
+wretches. Then he brought himself up with a jerk. Where was he to find
+them? Had he not searched the house that morning and was there a sign of
+life to be found? He was stunned by this memory. For many minutes he
+stood with his perplexed eyes upon the house before a solution came to
+him.
+
+He now knew that there was a secret apartment in the old house and a
+secret means of entrance and exit. With this explanation firmly
+impressed upon his mind, Wicker Bonner decided to begin his own campaign
+for the liberation of Rosalie Gray. It would be hours before the
+sluggish Anderson Crow appeared; and Bonner was not the sort to leave a
+woman in jeopardy if it was in his power to help her. Besides, the
+country people had filled him with stories of Miss Gray's beauty, and
+they found him at an impressionable and heart-free age. The thrill of
+romance seized him and he was ready to dare.
+
+He crept up to the doorway and listened. Reason told him that the coast
+was clear; the necessity for a sentinel did not exist, so cleverly were
+the desperadoes under cover. After a few moments, he crawled into the
+room, holding his breath, as he made his way toward the cellar
+staircase. He had gone but a few feet when the sound of voices came to
+him. Slinking into a corner, he awaited developments. The sounds came
+from below, but not from the cellar room, as he had located it. A moment
+later, a man crawled into the room, coming through a hole in the floor,
+just as he had suspected. A faint light from below revealed the sinister
+figure plainly, but Bonner felt himself to be quite thoroughly hidden.
+The man in the room spoke to some one below.
+
+"I'll be back in half an hour, Davy. I'll wait fer Sam out there on the
+Point. He ought to have some news from headquarters by this time. I
+don't see why we have to hang around this place forever. She ought to be
+half way to Paris by now."
+
+"They don't want to take chances, Bill, till the excitement blows over."
+
+"Well, you an' your mother just keep your hands off of her while I'm
+out, that's all," warned Bill Briggs.
+
+The trap-door was closed, and Bonner heard the other occupant of the
+room shuffle out into the night. He was not long in deciding what to do.
+Here was the chance to dispose of one of the bandits, and he was not
+slow to seize it. There was a meeting in the thicket a few minutes
+later, and Bill was "out of the way" for the time being. Wicker Bonner
+dropped him with a sledge-hammer blow, and when he returned to the cabin
+Bill was lying bound and gagged in the tent, a helpless captive.
+
+His conqueror, immensely satisfied, supplied himself with the surplus
+ends of "guy ropes" from the tent and calmly sat down to await the
+approach of the one called Sam, he who had doubtless gone to a
+rendezvous "for news." He could well afford to bide his time. With two
+of the desperadoes disposed of in ambuscade, he could have a fairly even
+chance with the man called Davy.
+
+It seemed hours before he heard the stealthy approach of some one moving
+through the bushes. He was stiff with cold, and chafing at the
+interminable delay, but the approach of real danger quickened his blood
+once more. There was another short, sharp, silent struggle near the
+doorway, and once more Wicker Bonner stood victorious over an
+unsuspecting and now unconscious bandit. Sam, a big, powerful man, was
+soon bound and gagged and his bulk dragged off to the tent among the
+bushes.
+
+"Now for Davy," muttered Bonner, stretching his great arms in the pure
+relish of power. "There will be something doing around your heart, Miss
+Babe-in-the-Woods, in a very few minutes."
+
+He chuckled as he crept into the cabin, first having listened intently
+for sounds. For some minutes he lay quietly with his ear to the floor.
+In that time he solved one of the problems confronting him. The man Davy
+was a son of old Mrs. Rank's murderer, and the "old woman" who kept
+watch with him was his mother, wife of the historic David. It was she
+who had held the lantern, no doubt, while David Wolfe chopped her own
+mother to mincemeat. This accounted for the presence of the gang in the
+haunted house and for their knowledge of the underground room.
+
+Bonner's inspiration began to wear off. Pure luck had aided him up to
+this stage, but the bearding of David in his lair was another
+proposition altogether. His only hope was that he might find the man
+asleep. He was not taking the old woman into consideration at all. Had
+he but known it, she was the most dangerous of all.
+
+His chance, he thought, lay in strategy. It was impossible to open the
+trap-door from above, he had found by investigation. There was but one
+way to get to Miss Gray, and that was by means of a daring ruse.
+Trusting to luck, he tapped gently on the floor at the spot where memory
+told him the trap-door was situated. His heart was thumping violently.
+
+There was a movement below him, and then the sound of some one handling
+the bolts in the door. Bonner drew back, hoping against hope that a
+light would not be shown. In one hand he held his revolver ready for
+use; in the other his heavy walking stick. His plans were fully
+developed. After a moment the trap was lifted partially and a draft of
+warm air came out upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Jack, the Giant Killer
+
+
+"That you, Sam?" half whispered a man's voice. There was no light.
+
+"Sh!" hissed Bonner, muffling his voice. "Is everybody in?"
+
+"Bill's waitin' fer you outside. Ma an' me are here. Come on down.
+What's up?"
+
+"How's the girl?"
+
+"Bellerin' like a baby. Ma's with her in the cave. Hurry up! This
+thing's heavy."
+
+For reply Bonner seized the edge of the door with his left hand, first
+pushing his revolver in his trousers' pocket. Then he silently swung the
+heavy cane through the air and downward, a very faint light from below
+revealing the shock head of Davy in the aperture. It was a mighty blow
+and true. Davy's body fell away from the trap, and a second later
+Bonner's dropped through the hole. He left the trap wide open in case
+retreat were necessary. Pausing long enough to assure himself that the
+man was unconscious and bleeding profusely, and to snatch the big
+revolver from Davy's person, Bonner turned his attention to the
+surroundings.
+
+Perhaps a hundred feet away, at the end of a long, low passage, he saw
+the glimmer of a light. Without a second's hesitation he started toward
+it, feeling that the worst of the adventure was past. A shadow coming
+between him and the light, he paused in his approach. This shadow
+resolved itself into the form of a woman, a gigantic creature, who
+peered intently up the passage.
+
+"What's the matter, Davy?" she called in raucous tones. "You damn fool,
+can't you do anything without breaking your neck? I reckon you fell down
+the steps? That you, Sam?"
+
+Receiving no answer, the woman clutched the lantern and advanced boldly
+upon Bonner, who stood far down the passage, amazed and irresolute. She
+looked more formidable to him than any of the men, so he prepared for a
+struggle.
+
+"Halt!" he cried, when she was within ten feet of him. "Don't resist;
+you are surrounded!"
+
+The woman stopped like one shot, glared ahead as if she saw him for the
+first time, and then uttered a frightful shriek of rage. Dashing the
+lantern to the ground, she raised her arm and fired a revolver point
+blank at Bonner, despite the fact that his pistol was covering her. He
+heard the bullet crash into the rotten timbers near his ear. Contrary to
+her design, the lantern was not extinguished. Instead, it lay sputtering
+but effective upon the floor.
+
+Before Bonner could make up his mind to shoot at the woman she was upon
+him, firing again as she came. He did not have time to retaliate. The
+huge frame crushed down upon him and his pistol flew from his hand. As
+luck would have it, his free hand clutched her revolver, and she was
+prevented from blowing his brains out with the succeeding shots, all of
+which went wild.
+
+Then came a desperate struggle. Bonner, a trained athlete, realised that
+she was even stronger than he, more desperate in her frenzy, and with
+murder in her heart. As they lunged to and fro, her curses and shrieks
+in his ear, he began to feel the despair of defeat. She was beating him
+down with one mighty arm, crushing blows, every one of them. Then came
+the sound which turned the tide of battle, for it filled him with a
+frenzy equal to her own. The scream of a woman came down through the
+passage, piteous, terror-stricken.
+
+He knew the fate of that poor girl if his adversary overcame him. The
+thought sent his blood hot and cold at once. Infuriatedly, he exerted
+his fine strength, and the tide turned. Panting and snarling, the big
+woman was battered down. He flung her heavily to the ground and then
+leaped back to pick up his revolver, expecting a renewal of the attack.
+For the first time he was conscious of intense pain in his left leg. The
+woman made a violent effort to rise, and then fell back, groaning and
+cursing.
+
+"You've done it! You've got me!" she yelled. "My leg's broke!" Then she
+shrieked for Davy and Bill and Sam, raining curses upon the law and upon
+the traitor who had been their undoing.
+
+Bonner, his own leg wobbling and covered with blood, tried to quiet her,
+but without success. He saw that she was utterly helpless, her leg
+twisted under her heavy body. Her screams of pain as he turned her over
+proved conclusively that she was not shamming. Her hip was dislocated.
+The young man had sense enough left to return to Davy before venturing
+into the cave where Miss Gray was doubtless in a dead faint. The man was
+breathing, but still unconscious from the blow on the head. Bonner
+quickly tied his hands and feet, guarding against emergencies in case
+of his own incapacitation as the result of the bullet wound in his leg;
+then he hobbled off with the lantern past the groaning Amazon in quest
+of Rosalie Gray. It did not occur to him until afterward that single
+handed he had overcome a most desperate band of criminals, so simply had
+it all worked out up to the time of the encounter with the woman.
+
+A few yards beyond where the old woman lay moaning he came upon the cave
+in which the bandits made their home. Holding the lantern above his
+head, Bonner peered eagerly into the cavern. In the farthest corner
+crouched a girl, her terror-struck eyes fastened upon the stranger.
+
+"How do you do, Miss Gray," came the cheery greeting from his lips. She
+gasped, swept her hand over her eyes, and tried piteously to speak. The
+words would not come. "The long-prayed-for rescue has come. You are
+free--that is, as soon as we find our way out of this place. Let me
+introduce myself as Jack, the Giant Killer--hello! Don't do that! Oh,
+the devil!" She had toppled over in a dead faint.
+
+How Wicker Bonner, with his wounded leg, weak from loss of blood, and
+faint from the reaction, carried her from the cave through the passage
+and the trap-door and into the tent can only be imagined, not described.
+He only knew that it was necessary to remove her from the place, and
+that his strength would soon be gone. The sun was tinting the east
+before she opened her eyes and shuddered. In the meantime he had
+stanched the flow of blood in the fleshy part of his leg, binding the
+limb tightly with a piece of rope. It was an ugly, glancing cut made by
+a bullet of large calibre, and it was sure to put him on crutches for
+some time to come. Even now he was scarcely able to move the member. For
+an hour he had been venting his wrath upon the sluggish Anderson Crow,
+who should have been on the scene long before this. Two of his captives,
+now fully conscious, were glaring at their companions in the tent with
+hate in their eyes.
+
+Rosalie Gray, wan, dishevelled, but more beautiful than the reports had
+foretold, could not at first believe herself to be free from the
+clutches of the bandits. It took him many minutes--many painful
+minutes--to convince her that it was not a dream, and that in truth he
+was Wicker Bonner, gentleman. Sitting with his back against a tent pole,
+facing the cabin through the flap, with a revolver in his trembling
+hand, he told her of the night's adventures, and was repaid tenfold by
+the gratitude which shone from her eyes and trembled in her voice. In
+return she told him of her capture, of the awful experiences in the
+cave, and of the threats which had driven her almost to the end of
+endurance.
+
+"Oh, oh, I could love you forever for this!" she cried in the fulness of
+her joy. A rapturous smile flew to Bonner's eyes.
+
+"Forever begins with this instant, Miss Gray," he said; and without any
+apparent reason the two shook hands. Afterward they were to think of
+this trivial act and vow that it was truly the beginning. They were
+young, heart-free, and full of the romance of life.
+
+"And those awful men are really captured--and the woman?" she cried,
+after another exciting recital from him. Sam and Bill fairly snarled.
+"Suppose they should get loose?" Her eyes grew wide with the thought of
+it.
+
+"They can't," he said laconically. "I wish the marshal and his bicycle
+army would hurry along. That woman and Davy need attention. I'd hate
+like the mischief to have either of them die. One doesn't want to kill
+people, you know, Miss Gray."
+
+"But they were killing me by inches," she protested.
+
+"Ouch!" he groaned, his leg giving him a mighty twinge.
+
+"What is it?" she cried in alarm. "Why should we wait for those men?
+Come, Mr. Bonner, take me to the village--please do. I am crazy,
+absolutely crazy, to see Daddy Crow and mother. I can walk there--how
+far is it?--please come." She was running on eagerly in this strain
+until she saw the look of pain in his face--the look he tried so hard to
+conceal. She was standing straight and strong and eager before him, and
+he was very pale under the tan.
+
+"I can't, Miss Gray. I'm sorry, you know. See! Where there's smoke
+there's fire--I mean, where there's blood there's a wound. I'm done for,
+in other words."
+
+"Done for? Oh, you're not--not going to die! Are you hurt? Why didn't
+you tell me?" Whereupon she dropped to her knees at his side, her dark
+eyes searching his intently, despair in them until the winning smile
+struggled back into his. The captives chuckled audibly. "What can
+I--what shall I do? Oh, why don't those men come! It must be noon or--"
+
+"It's barely six A.M., Miss Gray. Don't worry. I'm all right. A cut in
+my leg; the old woman plugged me. I can't walk, you know--but--"
+
+"And you carried me out here and did all that and never said a word
+about--oh, how good and brave and noble you are!"
+
+When Anderson Crow and half of Tinkletown, routed out _en masse_ by Bud,
+appeared on the scene an hour or two later, they found Wicker Bonner
+stretched out on a mattress, his head in Rosalie's lap. The young woman
+held his revolver in her hand, and there was a look in her face which
+said that she would shoot any one who came to molest her charge. Two
+helpless desperadoes lay cursing in the corner of the tent.
+
+Anderson Crow, after an hour of deliberation and explanation, fell upon
+the bound and helpless bandits and bravely carted the whole lot to the
+town "calaboose." Wicker Bonner and his nurse were taken into town, and
+the news of the rescue went flying over the county, and eventually to
+the four corners of the land, for Congressman Bonner's nephew was a
+person of prominence.
+
+Bonner, as he passed up the main street in Peabody's sleigh on the way
+to Anderson Crow's home, was the centre of attraction. He was the hero
+of the hour, for was not Rosalie Gray herself, pale and ill with
+torture, his most devoted slave? What else could Tinkletown do but pay
+homage when it saw Bonner's head against her shoulder and Anderson Crow
+shouting approval from the bob-sled that carried the kidnapers. The four
+bandits, two of them much the worse for the night's contact with Wicker
+Bonner, were bundled into the lock-up, a sadly morose gang of ghosts.
+
+"I owe you a thousand dollars," said Anderson to Bonner as they drew up
+in front of the marshal's home. All Tinkletown was there to see how Mrs.
+Crow and the family would act when Rosalie was restored to them. The
+yard was full of gaping villagers, and there was a diffident cheer when
+Mrs. Crow rushed forth and fairly dragged Rosalie from the sleigh.
+"Blootch" Peabody gallantly interposed and undertook to hand the girl
+forth with the grace of a Chesterfield. But Mrs. Crow had her way.
+
+"I'll take it out in board and lodging," grinned Wicker Bonner to
+Anderson as two strong men lifted him from the sleigh.
+
+"Where's Bud?" demanded Anderson after the others had entered the house.
+
+"He stayed down to the 'calaboose' to guard the prisoners," said
+"Blootch." "Nobody could find the key to the door and nobody else would
+stay. They ain't locked in, but Bud's got two revolvers, and he says
+they can only escape over his dead body."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+Tinkletown's Convulsion
+
+
+Anderson Crow was himself once more. He was twenty years younger than
+when he went to bed the night before. His joy and pride had reached the
+bursting point--dignity alone prevented the catastrophe.
+
+"What do you expect to do with the gang, Mr. Crow?" asked Bonner,
+reclining with amiable ease in the marshal's Morris chair. He was
+feeling very comfortable, despite "Doc" Smith's stitches; and he could
+not help acknowledging, with more or less of a glow in his heart, that
+it was nice to play hero to such a heroine.
+
+"Well, I'll protect 'em, of course. Nobody c'n lynch 'em while I'm
+marshal of this town," Anderson said, forgetful of the fact that he had
+not been near the jail, where Master Bud still had full charge of
+affairs, keyless but determined. "I'll have to turn them over to the
+county sheriff to-day er to-morrow, I reckon. This derned old calaboose
+of ourn ain't any too safe. That's a mighty desperit gang we've
+captured. I cain't remember havin' took sech a mob before."
+
+"Has it occurred to you, Mr. Crow, that we have captured only the
+hirelings? Their employer, whoever he or she may be, is at large and
+probably laughing at us. Isn't there some way in which we can follow
+the case up and land the leader?"
+
+"'y Gosh, you're right," said Anderson. "I thought of that this mornin',
+but it clean skipped my mind since then. There's where the mistake was
+made, Mr. Bonner. It's probably too late now. You'd oughter thought
+about the leader. Seems to me--"
+
+"Why, Daddy Crow," cried Rosalie, a warm flush in her cheeks once more,
+"hasn't Mr. Bonner done his part? Hasn't he taken them single-handed and
+hasn't he saved me from worse than death?"
+
+"I ain't castin' any insinyations at him, Rosalie," retorted Anderson,
+very sternly for him. "How _can_ you talk like that?"
+
+"I'm not offended, Miss Gray," laughed Bonner. "We all make mistakes. It
+has just occurred to me, however, that Mr. Crow may still be able to
+find out who the leader is. The prisoners can be pumped, I dare say."
+
+"You're right ag'in, Mr. Bonner. It's funny how you c'n read my
+thoughts. I was jest goin' down to the jail to put 'em through the sweat
+cell."
+
+"Sweat cell? You mean sweat box, Mr. Crow," said Bonner, laughing in
+spite of himself.
+
+"No, sir; it's a cell. We couldn't find a box big enough. I use the cell
+reserved fer women prisoners. Mebby some day the town board will put in
+a reg'lar box, but, so far, the cell has done all right. I'll be back
+'bout supper-time, Eva. You take keer o' Rosalie. Make her sleep a while
+an' I guess you'd better dose her up a bit with quinine an'--"
+
+"I guess I know what to give her, Anderson Crow," resented his wife. "Go
+'long with you. You'd oughter been lookin' after them kidnapers three
+hours ago. I bet Bud's purty nigh wore out guardin' them. He's been
+there ever sence nine o'clock, an' it's half-past two now."
+
+"Roscoe's helpin' him," muttered Anderson, abashed.
+
+At that instant there came a rush of footsteps across the front porch
+and in burst Ed Higgins and "Blootch" Peabody, fairly gasping with
+excitement.
+
+"Hurry up, Anderson--down to the jail," sputtered the former; and then
+he was gone like the wind. "Blootch," determined to miss nothing,
+whirled to follow, or pass him if possible. He had time to shout over
+his shoulder as he went forth without closing the door:
+
+"The old woman has lynched herself!"
+
+It would now be superfluous to remark, after all the convulsions
+Tinkletown had experienced inside of twenty-four hours, that the
+populace went completely to pieces in face of this last trying
+experiment of Fate. With one accord the village toppled over as if
+struck by a broadside and lay, figuratively speaking, writhing in its
+own gore. Stupefaction assailed the town. Then one by one the minds of
+the people scrambled up from the ashes, slowly but surely, only to
+wonder where lightning would strike next. Not since the days of the
+American Revolution had the town experienced such an incessant rush of
+incident. The Judgment Day itself, with Gabriel's clarion blasts, could
+not be expected to surpass this productive hour in thrills.
+
+It was true that old Maude had committed suicide in the calaboose. She
+had been placed on a cot in the office of the prison and Dr. Smith had
+been sent for, immediately after her arrival; but he was making a call
+in the country. Bud Long, supported by half a dozen boys armed with
+Revolutionary muskets, which would not go off unless carried, stood in
+front of the little jail with its wooden walls and iron bars, guarding
+the prisoners zealously. The calaboose was built to hold tramps and
+drunken men, but not for the purpose of housing desperadoes. Even as the
+heroic Bud watched with persevering faithfulness, his charges were
+planning to knock their prison to smithereens and at the proper moment
+escape to the woods and hills. They knew the grated door was unlocked,
+but they imagined the place to be completely surrounded by vengeful
+villagers, who would cut them down like rats if they ventured forth. Had
+they but known that Bud was alone, it is quite likely they would have
+sallied forth and relieved him of his guns, spanked him soundly and then
+ambled off unmolested to the country.
+
+All the morning old Maude had been groaning and swearing in the office,
+where she lay unattended. Bud was telling his friends how he had knocked
+her down twice in the cave, after she had shot six times and slashed at
+him with her dagger, when a sudden cessation of groans from the interior
+attracted the attention of all. "Doc" Smith arrived at that juncture
+and found the boys listening intently for a resumption of the
+picturesque profanity. It was some time before the crowd became large
+enough to inspire a visit to the interior of the calaboose. As became
+his dignity, Bud led the way.
+
+The old woman, unable to endure the pain any longer, and knowing full
+well that her days were bound to end in prison, had managed, in some
+way, to hang herself from a window bar beside her bed, using a twisted
+bed sheet. She was quite dead when "Doc" made the examination. A
+committee of the whole started at once to notify Anderson Crow. For a
+minute it looked as though the jail would be left entirely unguarded,
+but Bud loyally returned to his post, reinforced by Roscoe and the
+doctor.
+
+Upon Mr. Crow's arrival at the jail, affairs assumed some aspect of
+order. He first locked the grate doors, thereby keeping the fiery David
+from coming out to see his mother before they cut her down. A messenger
+was sent for the coroner at Boggs City, and then the big body was
+released from its last hanging place.
+
+"Doggone, but this is a busy day fer me!" said Anderson. "I won't have
+time to pump them fellers till this evenin'. But I guess they'll keep.
+'What's that, Blootch?"
+
+"I was just goin' to ask Bud if they're still in there," said Blootch.
+
+"Are they, Bud?" asked Anderson in quick alarm.
+
+"Sure," replied Bud with a mighty swelling of the chest. Even Blootch
+envied him.
+
+"She's been dead jest an hour an' seven minutes," observed Anderson,
+gingerly touching the dead woman's wrist. "Doggone, I'm glad o' one
+thing!"
+
+"What's that, Anderson?"
+
+"We won't have to set her hip. Saved expense."
+
+"But we'll have to bury her, like as not," said Isaac Porter.
+
+"Yes," said Anderson reflectively. "She'll have to be buried.
+But--but--" and here his face lightened up in relief--"not fer a day er
+two; so what's the use worryin'."
+
+When the coroner arrived, soon after six o'clock, a jury was empanelled
+and witnesses sworn. In ten minutes a verdict of suicide was returned
+and the coroner was on his way back to Boggs City. He did not even know
+that a hip had been dislocated. Anderson insisted upon a post-mortem
+examination, but was laughed out of countenance by the officious M.D.
+
+"I voted fer that fool last November," said Anderson wrathfully, as the
+coroner drove off, "but you c'n kick the daylights out of me if I ever
+do it ag'in. Look out there, Bud! What in thunder are you doin' with
+them pistols? Doggone, ain't you got no sense? Pointin' 'em around that
+way. Why, you're liable to shoot somebody--"
+
+"Aw, them ain't pistols," scoffed Bud, his mouth full of something.
+"They're bologny sausages. I ain't had nothin' to eat sence last night
+and I'm hungry."
+
+"Well, it's dark out here," explained Anderson, suddenly shuffling into
+the jail. "I guess I'll put them fellers through the sweat box."
+
+"The _what?_" demanded George Ray.
+
+"The sweat-box--b-o-x, box. Cain't you hear?"
+
+"I thought you used a cell."
+
+"Thunderation, no! Nobody but country jakes call it a cell," said
+Anderson in fine scorn.
+
+The three prisoners scowled at him so fiercely and snarled so
+vindictively when they asked him if they were to be starved to death,
+that poor Anderson hurried home and commanded his wife to pack "a baskit
+of bread and butter an' things fer the prisoners." It was nine o'clock
+before he could make up his mind to venture back to the calaboose with
+his basket. He spent the intervening hours in telling Rosalie and Bonner
+about the shocking incident at the jail and in absorbing advice from the
+clear-headed young man from Boston.
+
+"I'd like to go with you to see those fellows, Mr. Crow," was Bonner's
+rueful lament. "But the doctor says I must be quiet until this
+confounded thing heals a bit. Together, I think we could bluff the whole
+story out of those scoundrels."
+
+"Oh, never you fear," said the marshal; "I'll learn all there is to be
+learnt. You jest ask Alf Reesling what kind of a pumper I am."
+
+"Who is Alf Reesling?"
+
+"Ain't you heerd of him in Boston? Why, every temperance lecturer that
+comes here says he's the biggest drunkard in the world. I supposed his
+reputation had got to Boston by this time. He's been sober only once in
+twenty-five years."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"That was when his wife died. He said he felt so good it wasn't
+necessary to get drunk. Well, I'll tell you all about it when I come
+back. Don't worry no more, Rosalie. I'll find out who's back of this
+business an' then we'll know all about you. It's a long lane that has no
+turn."
+
+"Them prisoners must be mighty near starved to death by this time,
+Anderson," warned Mrs. Crow.
+
+"Doggone, that's so!" he cried, and hustled out into the night.
+
+The calaboose was almost totally dark--quite so, had it not been for the
+single lamp that burned in the office where the body of the old woman
+was lying. Two or three timid citizens stood afar off, in front of
+Thompson's feed yard, looking with awe upon the dungeon keep. Anderson's
+footsteps grew slower and more halting as they approached the entrance
+to the forbidding square of black. The snow creaked resoundingly under
+his heels and the chill wind nipped his muffless ears with a
+spitefulness that annoyed. In fact, he became so incensed, that he set
+his basket down and slapped his ears vigorously for some minutes before
+resuming his slow progress. He hated the thought of going in where the
+dead woman lay.
+
+Suddenly he made up his mind that a confession from the men would be
+worthless unless he had ear witnesses to substantiate it in court.
+Without further deliberation, he retraced his steps hurriedly to
+Lamson's store, where, after half an hour's conversation on the topics
+of the day, he deputised the entire crowd to accompany him to the jail.
+
+"Where's Bud?" he demanded sharply.
+
+"Home in bed, poor child," said old Mr. Borton.
+
+"Well, doggone his ornery hide, why ain't he here to--" began Anderson,
+but checked himself in time to prevent the crowd from seeing that he
+expected Bud to act as leader in the expedition. "I wanted him to jot
+down notes," he substituted. Editor Squires volunteered to act as
+secretary, prompter, interpreter, and everything else that his scoffing
+tongue could utter.
+
+"Well, go ahead, then," said Anderson, pushing him forward. Harry led
+the party down the dark street with more rapidity than seemed necessary;
+few in the crowd could keep pace with him. A majority fell hopelessly
+behind, in fact.
+
+Straight into the office walked Harry, closely followed by Blootch and
+the marshal. Maude, looking like a monument of sheets, still occupied
+the centre of the floor. Without a word, the party filed past the
+gruesome, silent thing and into the jail corridor. It was as dark as
+Erebus in the barred section of the prison; a cold draft of air flew
+into the faces of the visitors.
+
+"Come here, you fellers!" called Anderson bravely into the darkness; but
+there was no response from the prisoners.
+
+For the very good reason that some hours earlier they had calmly removed
+a window from its moorings and by this time were much too far away to
+answer questions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+The Flight of the Kidnapers
+
+
+Searching parties were organised and sent out to scour the country, late
+as it was. Swift riders gave the alarm along every roadway, and the
+station agent telegraphed the news into every section of the land. At
+Boggs City, the sheriff, berating Anderson Crow for a fool and
+Tinkletown for an open-air lunatic asylum, sent his deputies down to
+assist in the pursuit. The marshal himself undertook to lead each
+separate and distinct posse. He was so overwhelmed by the magnitude of
+his misfortune that it is no wonder his brain whirled widely enough to
+encompass the whole enterprise.
+
+Be it said to the credit of Tinkletown, her citizens made every
+reasonable effort to recapture the men. The few hundred able-bodied men
+of the town rallied to the support of their marshal and the law, and
+there was not one who refused to turn out in the cold night air for a
+sweeping search of the woods and fields.
+
+Rosalie, who had been awakened early in the evening by Mr. Crow's noisy
+preparations for the pursuit, came downstairs, and instantly lost all
+desire to sleep. Bonner was lying on a couch in the "sitting-room,"
+which now served as a temporary bedchamber.
+
+"If you'll just hand me those revolvers, Mr. Crow," said he, indicating
+the two big automatics he had taken from Davy and Bill, "I'll stand
+guard over the house as best I can while you're away."
+
+"Stand guard? What fer? Nobody's goin' to steal the house."
+
+"We should not forget that these same rascals may take it into their
+heads to double on their tracks and try to carry Miss Gray away again.
+With her in their possession they'll receive their pay; without her
+their work will have been for nothing. It is a desperate crowd, and they
+may think the plan at least worth trying."
+
+Rosalie's grateful, beaming glance sent a quiver that was not of pain
+through Bonner's frame.
+
+"Don't worry about that," said the marshal. "We'll have 'em shot to
+pieces inside of an hour an' a half."
+
+"Anderson, I want you to be very careful with that horse pistol," said
+his wife nervously. "It ain't been shot off sence the war, an' like as
+not it'll kill you from behind."
+
+"Gosh blast it, Eva!" roared Anderson, "don't you suppose I know which
+end to shoot with?" And away he rushed in great dudgeon.
+
+Edna Crow sat at the front window, keeping watch for hours. She reported
+to the other members of the household as each scurrying band of
+searchers passed the place. Bonner commanded Rosalie to keep away from
+the windows, fearing a shot from the outside. From time to time Roscoe
+replenished the big blaze in the fireplace. It was cosey in the
+old-fashioned sitting-room, even though the strain upon its occupants
+was trying in the extreme.
+
+Great excitement came to them when the figure of a man was seen to drop
+to the walk near the front gate. At first it was feared that one of the
+bandits, injured by pursuers, had fallen to die, but the mournful calls
+for help that soon came from the sidewalk were more or less reassuring.
+The prostrate figure had a queer habit from time to time of raising
+itself high enough to peer between the pickets of the fence, and each
+succeeding shout seemed more vigorous than the others. Finally they
+became impatient, and then full of wrath. It was evident that the
+stranger resented the inhospitality of the house.
+
+"Who are you?" called Edna, opening the window ever so slightly.
+Whereupon the man at the gate sank to the ground and groaned with
+splendid misery.
+
+"It's me," he replied.
+
+"Who's me?"
+
+"'Rast--'Rast Little. I think I'm dyin'."
+
+There was a hurried consultation indoors, and then Roscoe bravely
+ventured out to the sidewalk.
+
+"Are you shot, 'Rast?" he asked in trembling tones.
+
+"No; I'm just wounded. Is Rosalie in there?"
+
+"Yep. She's--"
+
+"I guess I'll go in, then. Dern it! It's a long walk from our house over
+here. I guess I'll stay all night. If I don't get better to-morrow I'll
+have to stay longer. I ought to be nursed, too."
+
+"Rosalie's playin' nurse fer Mr. Bonner," volunteered Roscoe, still
+blocking the gate through which 'Rast was trying to wedge himself.
+
+"Mr. who?"
+
+"Bonner."
+
+"Well," said 'Rast after a moment's consideration, "he ought to be moved
+to a hospital. Lemme lean on you, Roscoe. I can't hardly walk, my arm
+hurts so."
+
+Mr. Little, with his bandages and his hobble, had joined in the
+expedition, and was not to be deterred until faintness overcame him and
+he dropped by the wayside. He was taken in and given a warm chair before
+the fire. One long look at Bonner and the newcomer lapsed into a
+stubborn pout. He groaned occasionally and made much ado over his
+condition, but sourly resented any approach at sympathy. Finally he fell
+asleep in the chair, his last speech being to the effect that he was
+going home early in the morning if he had to drag himself every foot of
+the way. Plainly, 'Rast had forgotten Miss Banks in the sudden revival
+of affection for Rosalie Gray. The course of true love did not run
+smoothly in Tinkletown.
+
+The searchers straggled in empty handed. Early morning found most of
+them asleep at their homes, tucked away by thankful wives, and with the
+promises of late breakfasts. The next day business was slow in asserting
+its claim upon public attention. Masculine Tinkletown dozed while
+femininity chattered to its heart's content. There was much to talk
+about and more to anticipate. The officials in all counties contiguous
+had out their dragnets, and word was expected at any time that the
+fugitives had fallen into their hands.
+
+But not that day, nor the next, nor any day, in fact, did news come of
+their capture, so Tinkletown was obliged to settle back into a state of
+tranquility. Some little interest was aroused when the town board
+ordered the calaboose repaired, and there was a ripple of excitement
+attached to the funeral of the only kidnaper in captivity. It was
+necessary to postpone the oyster supper at the Methodist Church, but
+there was some consolation in the knowledge that it would soon be
+summer-time and the benighted Africans would not need the money for
+winter clothes. The reception at the minister's house was a fizzle. He
+was warned in time, however, and it was his own fault that he received
+no more than a jug of vinegar, two loaves of bread and a pound of honey
+as the result of his expectations. It was the first time that a "pound"
+party had proven a losing enterprise.
+
+Anderson Crow maintained a relentless search for the desperadoes. He
+refused to accept Wicker Bonner's theory that they were safe in the city
+of New York. It was his own opinion that they were still in the
+neighbourhood, waiting for a chance to exhume the body of Davy's mother
+and make off with it.
+
+"Don't try to tell me, Mr. Bonner, that even a raskil like him hasn't
+any love fer his mother," he contended. "Davy may not be much of a
+model, but he had a feelin' fer the woman who bore him, an' don't you
+fergit it."
+
+"Why, Daddy Crow, he was the most heartless brute in the world!" cried
+Rosalie. "I've seen him knock her down more than once--and kick her,
+too."
+
+"A slip of the memory, that's all. He was probably thinkin' of his wife,
+if he has one."
+
+At a public meeting the town board was condemned for its failure to
+strengthen the jail at the time Anderson made his demand three years
+before.
+
+"What's the use in me catchin' thieves, and so forth, if the jail won't
+hold 'em?" Anderson declared. "I cain't afford to waste time in runnin'
+desperite characters down if the town board ain't goin' to obstruct 'em
+from gittin' away as soon as the sun sits. What's the use, I'd like to
+know? Where's the justice? I don't want it to git noised aroun' that the
+on'y way we c'n hold a prisoner is to have him commit suicide as soon as
+he's arrested. Fer two cents I'd resign right now."
+
+Of course no one would hear to that. As a result, nearly five hundred
+dollars was voted from the corporation funds to strengthen and modernise
+the "calaboose." It was the sense of the meeting that a "sweat box"
+should be installed under Mr. Crow's supervision, and that the marshal's
+salary should be increased fifty dollars a year. After the adoption of
+this popular resolution Mr. Crow arose and solemnly informed the people
+that their faith in him was not misplaced. He threw the meeting into a
+state of great excitement by announcing that the kidnapers would soon be
+in the toils once more. In response to eager queries he merely stated
+that he had a valuable clew, which could not be divulged without
+detriment to the cause. Everybody went home that night with the
+assurance that the fugitives would soon be taken. Anderson promised the
+town board that he would not take them until the jail was repaired.
+
+It was almost a fortnight before Wicker Bonner was able to walk about
+with crutches. The wound in his leg was an ugly one and healed slowly.
+His uncle, the Congressman, sent up a surgeon from New York, but that
+worthy approved of "Doc" Smith's methods, and abruptly left the young
+man to the care of an excellent nurse, Rosalie Gray. Congressman
+Bonner's servants came over every day or two with books, newspapers,
+sweetmeats, and fresh supplies from the city, but it was impossible for
+them to get any satisfaction from the young man in reply to their
+inquiries as to when he expected to return to the big house across the
+river. Bonner was beginning to hate the thought of giving up Rosalie's
+readings, her ministrations, and the no uncertain development of his own
+opinions as to her personal attractiveness.
+
+"I don't know when I'll be able to walk, Watkins," he said to the
+caretaker. "I'm afraid my heart is affected."
+
+Bonner's enforced presence at Anderson Crow's home was the source of
+extreme annoyance to the young men of the town. "Blootch" Peabody
+created a frightful scandal by getting boiling drunk toward the end of
+the week, so great was his dejection. As it was his first real spree, he
+did not recover from the effect for three days. He then took the pledge,
+and talked about the evils of strong drink with so much feeling at
+prayer meeting that the women of the town inaugurated a movement to stop
+the sale of liquor in the town. As Peabody's drug store was the only
+place where whiskey could be obtained, "Blootch" soon saw the error of
+his ways and came down from his pedestal to mend them.
+
+Bonner was a friend in need to Anderson Crow. The two were in
+consultation half of the time, and the young man's opinions were not to
+be disregarded. He advanced a theory concerning the motives of the
+leader in the plot to send Rosalie into an exile from which she was not
+expected to return. It was his belief that the person who abandoned her
+as a babe was actuated by the desire to possess a fortune which should
+have been the child's. The conditions attending the final disposition of
+this fortune doubtless were such as to make it unwise to destroy the
+girl's life. The plotter, whatever his or her relation to the child may
+have been, must have felt that a time might come when the existence of
+the real heiress would be necessary. Either such a fear was the
+inspiration or the relationship was so dear that the heart of the
+arch-plotter was full of love for the innocent victim.
+
+"Who is to say, Miss Gray," said Bonner one night as they sat before the
+fire, "that the woman who left you with Mr. Crow was not your own
+mother? Suppose that a vast estate was to be yours in trust after the
+death of some rich relative, say grandparent. It would naturally mean
+that some one else resented this bequest, and probably with some
+justice. The property was to become your own when you attained a certain
+age, let us say. Don't you see that the day would rob the disinherited
+person of every hope to retain the fortune? Even a mother might be
+tempted, for ambitious reasons, to go to extreme measures to secure the
+fortune for herself. Or she might have been influenced by a will
+stronger than her own--the will of an unscrupulous man. There are many
+contingencies, all probable, as you choose to analyse them."
+
+"But why should this person wish to banish me from the country
+altogether? I am no more dangerous here than I would be anywhere in
+Europe. And then think of the means they would have employed to get me
+away from Tinkletown. Have I not been lost to the world for years?
+Why--"
+
+"True; but I am quite convinced, and I think Mr. Crow agrees with me,
+that the recent move was made necessary by the demands of one whose
+heart is not interested, but whose hand wields the sceptre of power
+over the love which tries to shield you. Any other would have cut off
+your life at the beginning."
+
+"That's my idee," agreed Anderson solemnly.
+
+"I don't want the fortune!" cried Rosalie. "I am happy here! Why can't
+they let me alone?"
+
+"I tell you, Miss Gray, unless something happens to prevent it, that
+woman will some day give you back your own--your fortune and your name."
+
+"I can't believe it, Mr. Bonner. It is too much like a dream to me."
+
+"Well, doggone it, Rosalie, dreams don't last forever!" broke in
+Anderson Crow. "You've got to wake up some time, don't you see?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+As the Heart Grows Older
+
+
+Bonner's eagerness to begin probing into the mystery grew as his
+strength came back to him. He volunteered to interest his uncle in the
+matter, and through him to begin a systematic effort to unravel the
+tangled ends of Rosalie's life. Money was not to be spared; time and
+intelligence were to be devoted to the cause. He knew that Rosalie was
+in reality a creature of good birth and worthy of the name that any man
+might seek to bestow upon her--a name given in love by a man to the
+woman who would share it with him forever.
+
+The days and nights were teaching him the sacredness of a growing
+attachment. He was not closing his eyes to the truth. It was quite as
+impossible for big, worldly Wick Bonner to be near her and not fall a
+victim, as it was for the crude, humble youth of Tinkletown. His heart
+was just as fragile as theirs when it bared itself to her attack. Her
+beauty attracted him, her natural refinement of character appealed to
+him; her pureness, her tenderness, her goodness, wrought havoc with his
+impressions. Fresh, bright, as clear-headed as the June sunshine, she
+was a revelation to him--to Bonner, who had known her sex in all its
+environments. His heart was full of her, day and night; for day and
+night he was wondering whether she could care for him as he knew he was
+coming to care for her.
+
+One day he received a telegram. It was from his mother and his sister,
+who had just reached Boston from Bermuda, and it carried the brief
+though emphatic information that they were starting to Tinkletown to
+nurse and care for him. Bonner was thrown into a panic. He realised in
+the instant that it would be impossible for them to come to Mr. Crow's
+home, and he knew they could not be deceived as to his real condition.
+His mother would naturally insist upon his going at once to Bonner
+Place, across the river, and on to Boston as soon as he was able; his
+clever sister would see through his motives like a flash of lightning.
+Young Mr. Bonner loved them, but he was distinctly bored by the prospect
+of their coming. In some haste and confusion, he sent for "Doc" Smith.
+
+"Doctor, how soon will I be able to navigate?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"Right now."
+
+"You don't say so! I don't feel strong, you know."
+
+"Well, your leg's doing well and all danger is past. Of course, you
+won't be as spry as usual for some time, and you can't walk without
+crutches, but I don't see any sense in your loafing around here on that
+account. You'd be safe to go at any time, Mr. Bonner."
+
+"Look here, doctor, I'm afraid to change doctors. You've handled this
+case mighty well, and if I went to some other chap, he might undo it
+all. I've made up my mind to have you look out for me until this wound
+is completely healed. That's all right, now. I know what I'm talking
+about. I'll take no chances. How long will it be until it is completely
+healed?"
+
+"A couple of weeks, I suppose."
+
+"Well, I'll stay right here and have you look at it every day. It's too
+serious a matter for me to trifle with. By the way, my mother is coming
+up, and I dare say she'll want me to go to Boston. Our family doctor is
+an old fossil and I don't like to trust him with this thing. You'll be
+doing me a favour, doctor, if you keep me here until I'm thoroughly
+well. I intend to tell my mother that it will not be wise to move me
+until all danger of blood poisoning is past."
+
+"Blood poisoning? There's no danger now, sir."
+
+"You never can tell," said Bonner sagely.
+
+"But I'd be a perfect fool, Mr. Bonner, if there were still danger of
+that," complained the doctor. "What sort of a doctor would they consider
+me?"
+
+"They'd certainly give you credit for being careful, and that's what
+appeals to a mother, you know," said Bonner still more sagely. "Besides,
+it's _my_ leg, doctor, and I'll have it treated my way. I think a couple
+of weeks more under your care will put me straight. Mother has to
+consider me, that's all. I wish you'd stop in to-morrow and change these
+bandages, doctor; if you don't mind--"
+
+"Doc" Smith was not slow. He saw more than Bonner thought, so he winked
+to himself as he crossed over to his office. At the corner he met
+Anderson Crow.
+
+"Say, Anderson," he said, half chuckling, "that young Bonner has had a
+relapse."
+
+"Thunderation!"
+
+"He can't be moved for a week or two."
+
+"Will you have to cut it off?"
+
+"The leg?"
+
+"Certainly. That's the only thing that pains him, ain't it?"
+
+"I think not. I'm going to put his heart in a sling," said Smith,
+laughing heartily at what he thought would be taken as a brilliant piece
+of jesting. But he erred. Anderson went home in a great flurry and
+privately cautioned every member of the household, including Rosalie, to
+treat Bonner with every consideration, as his heart was weak and liable
+to give him great trouble. Above all, he cautioned them to keep the
+distressing news from Bonner. It would discourage him mightily. For a
+full week Anderson watched Bonner with anxious eyes, writhing every
+time the big fellow exerted himself, groaning when he gave vent to his
+hearty laugh.
+
+"Have you heard anything?" asked Bonner with faithful regularity when
+Anderson came home each night. He referred to the chase for the
+fugitives.
+
+"Nothin' worth while," replied Anderson dismally. "Uncle Jimmy Borton
+had a letter from Albany to-day, an' his son-in-law said three strange
+men had been seen in the Albany depot the other day. I had Uncle Jimmy
+write an' ast him if he had seen anybody answerin' the description, you
+know. But the three men he spoke of took a train for New York, so I
+suppose they're lost by this time. It's the most bafflin' case I ever
+worked on."
+
+"Has it occurred to you that the real leader was in this neighbourhood
+at the time? In Boggs City, let us say. According to Rosa--Miss Gray's
+story, the man Sam went out nightly for instructions. Well, he either
+went to Boggs City or to a meeting place agreed upon between him and his
+superior. It is possible that he saw this person on the very night of my
+own adventure. Now, the thing for us to do is to find out if a stranger
+was seen in these parts on that night. The hotel registers in Boggs City
+may give us a clew. If you don't mind, Mr. Crow, I'll have this New York
+detective, who is coming up to-morrow, take a look into this phase of
+the case. It won't interfere with your plans, will it?" asked Bonner,
+always considerate of the feelings of the good-hearted, simple-minded
+old marshal.
+
+"Not at all, an' I'll help him all I can, sir," responded Anderson
+magnanimously. "Here, Eva, here's a letter fer Rosalie. It's the second
+she's had from New York in three days."
+
+"It's from Miss Banks. They correspond, Anderson," said Mrs. Crow.
+
+"And say, Eva, I've decided on one thing. We've got to calculate on
+gittin' along without that thousand dollars after this."
+
+"Why, An--der--son Crow!"
+
+"Yep. We're goin' to find her folks, no matter if we do have to give up
+the thousand. It's no more'n right. She'll be twenty-one in March, an'
+I'll have to settle the guardeenship business anyhow. But, doggone it,
+Mr. Bonner, she says she won't take the money we've saved fer her."
+
+"She has told me as much, Mr. Crow. I think she's partly right. If she
+takes my advice she will divide it with you. You are entitled to all of
+it, you know--it was to be your pay--and she will not listen to your
+plan to give all of it to her. Still, I feel that she should not be
+penniless at this time. She may never need it--she certainly will not as
+long as you are alive--but it seems a wise thing for her to be protected
+against emergencies. But I dare say you can arrange that between
+yourselves. I have no right to interfere. Was there any mail for me?"
+
+"Yep. I almost fergot to fork it over. Here's one from your mother, I
+figger. This is from your sister, an' here's one from your--your
+sweetheart, I reckon. I deduce all this by sizin' up the--" and he went
+on to tell how he reached his conclusions, all of which were wrong.
+They were invitations to social affairs in Boston. "But I got somethin'
+important to tell you, Mr. Bonner. I think a trap is bein' set fer me by
+the desperadoes we're after. I guess I'm gittin' too hot on their trail.
+I had an ananymous letter to-day."
+
+"A what?"
+
+"Ananymous letter. Didn't you ever hear of one? This one was writ fer
+the express purpose of lurin' me into a trap. They want to git me out of
+the way. But I'll fool 'em. I'll not pay any attention to it."
+
+"Goodness, Anderson, I bet you'll be assassinated yet!" cried his poor
+wife. "I wish you'd give up chasin' people down."
+
+"May I have a look at the letter, Mr. Crow?" asked Bonner. Anderson
+stealthily drew the square envelope from his inside pocket and passed it
+over.
+
+"They've got to git up purty early to ketch me asleep," he said proudly.
+Bonner drew the enclosure from the envelope. As he read, his eyes
+twinkled and the corners of his mouth twitched, but his face was
+politely sober as he handed the missive back to the marshal. "Looks like
+a trap, don't it?" said Anderson. "You see there ain't no signature.
+The raskils were afraid to sign a name."
+
+"I wouldn't say anything to Miss Gray about this if I were you, Mr.
+Crow. It might disturb her, you know," said Bonner.
+
+"That means you, too, Eva," commanded Anderson in turn. "Don't worry the
+girl. She mustn't know anything about this."
+
+"I don't think it's a trap," remarked Eva as she finished reading the
+missive. Bonner took this opportunity to laugh heartily. He had held it
+back as long as possible. What Anderson described as an "ananymous"
+letter was nothing more than a polite, formal invitation to attend a
+"house warming" at Colonel Randall's on the opposite side of the river.
+It read:
+
+     "Mr. and Mrs. D.F. Randall request the honour of your presence at a
+     house warming, Friday evening, January 30, 190--, at eight o'clock.
+     Rockden-of-the-Hills."
+
+"It is addressed to me, too, Anderson," said his wife, pointing to the
+envelope. "It's the new house they finished last fall. Anonymous letter!
+Fiddlesticks! I bet there's one at the post-office fer each one of the
+girls."
+
+"Roscoe got some of the mail," murmured the marshal sheepishly. "Where
+is that infernal boy? He'd oughter be strapped good and hard fer holdin'
+back letters like this," growled he, eager to run the subject into
+another channel. After pondering all evening, he screwed up the courage
+and asked Bonner not to tell any one of his error in regard to the
+invitation. Roscoe produced invitations for his sister and Rosalie. He
+furthermore announced that half the people in town had received them.
+
+"There's a telegram comin' up fer you after a while, Mr. Bonner," he
+said. "Bud's out delivering one to Mr. Grimes, and he's going to stop
+here on the way back. I was at the station when it come in. It's from
+your ma, and it says she'll be over from Boggs City early in the
+morning."
+
+"Thanks, Roscoe," said Bonner with an amused glance at Rosalie; "you've
+saved me the trouble of reading it."
+
+"They are coming to-morrow," said Rosalie long afterward, as the last of
+the Crows straggled off to bed. "You will have to go away with them,
+won't you?"
+
+"I'm an awful nuisance about here, I fancy, and you'll be glad to be rid
+of me," he said softly, his gaze on the blazing "back-log."
+
+"No more so than you will be to go," she said so coolly that his pride
+suffered a distinct shock. He stole a shy glance at the face of the girl
+opposite. It was as calm and serene as a May morning. Her eyes likewise
+were gazing into the blaze, and her fingers were idly toying with the
+fringe on the arm of the chair.
+
+"By George!" he thought, a weakness assailing his heart suddenly; "I
+don't believe she cares a rap!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+The Left Ventricle
+
+
+The next day Mrs. Bonner and Miss Bonner descended upon Tinkletown. They
+were driven over from Boggs City in an automobile, and their advent
+caused a new thrill of excitement in town. Half of the women in
+Tinkletown found excuse to walk past Mr. Crow's home some time during
+the day, and not a few of them called to pay their respects to Mrs.
+Crow, whether they owed them or not, much to that estimable lady's
+discomfiture.
+
+Wicker's mother was a handsome, aristocratic woman with a pedigree
+reaching back to Babylon or some other historic starting place. Her
+ancestors were Tories at the time of the American Revolution, and she
+was proud of it. Her husband's forefathers had shot a few British in
+those days, it is true, and had successfully chased some of her own
+ancestors over to Long Island, but that did not matter in these
+twentieth century days. Mr. Bonner long since had gone to the tomb; and
+his widow at fifty was quite the queen of all she surveyed, which was
+not inconsiderable. The Bonners were rich in worldly possessions, rich
+in social position, rich in traditions. The daughter, just out in
+society, was a pretty girl, several years younger than Wicker. She was
+the idol of his heart. This slip of a girl had been to him the
+brightest, wittiest and prettiest girl in all the world. Now, he was
+wondering how the other girl, who was not his sister, would compare with
+her when they stood together before him.
+
+Naturally, Mrs. Crow and her daughters sank into a nervous panic as soon
+as these fashionable women from Boston set foot inside the humble home.
+They lost what little self-possession they had managed to acquire and
+floundered miserably through the preliminaries.
+
+But calm, sweet and composed as the most fastidious would require,
+Rosalie greeted the visitors without a shadow of confusion or a sign of
+gaucherie. Bonner felt a thrill of joy and pride as he took note of the
+look of surprise that crept into his mother's face--a surprise that did
+not diminish as the girl went through her unconscious test.
+
+"By George!" he cried jubilantly to himself, "she's something to be
+proud of--she's a queen!"
+
+Later in the day, after the humble though imposing lunch (the paradox
+was permissible in Tinkletown), Mrs. Bonner found time and opportunity
+to express her surprise and her approval to him. With the insight of the
+real aristocrat, she was not blind to the charms of the girl, who
+blossomed like a rose in this out-of-the-way patch of nature. The tact
+which impelled Rosalie to withdraw herself and all of the Crows from the
+house, giving the Bonners an opportunity to be together undisturbed, did
+not escape the clever woman of the world.
+
+"She is remarkable, Wicker. Tell me about her. Why does she happen to
+be living in this wretched town and among such people?"
+
+Whereupon Bonner rushed into a detailed and somewhat lengthy history of
+the mysterious Miss Gray, repeating it as it had come to him from her
+own frank lips, but with embellishments of his own that would have
+brought the red to her cheeks, could she have heard them. His mother's
+interest was not assumed; his sister was fascinated by the recital.
+
+"Who knows," she cried, her dark eyes sparkling, "she may be an heiress
+to millions!"
+
+"Or a princess of the royal blood!" amended her mother with an
+enthusiasm that was uncommon. "Blood alone has made this girl what she
+is. Heaven knows that billions or trillions could not have overcome the
+influences of a lifetime spent in--in Winkletown--or is that the name?
+It doesn't matter, Wicker--any name will satisfy. Frankly, I am
+interested in the girl. It is a crime to permit her to vegetate and die
+in a place like this."
+
+"But, mother, she loves these people," protested Bonner lifelessly.
+"They have been kind to her all these years. They have been parents,
+protectors--"
+
+"And they have been well paid for it, my son. Please do not
+misunderstand me, I am not planning to take her off their hands. I am
+not going to reconstruct her sphere in life. Not by any means. I am
+merely saying that it is a crime for her to be penned up for life in
+this--this desert. I doubt very much whether her parentage will ever be
+known, and perhaps it is just as well that it isn't to be. Still, I am
+interested."
+
+"Mamma, I think it would be very nice to ask her to come to Boston for a
+week or two, don't you?" suggested Edith Bonner, warmly but doubtfully.
+
+"Bully!" exclaimed Wicker, forgetting in his excitement that he was a
+cripple. "Have her come on to stop a while with you, Ede. It will be a
+great treat for her and, by George, I'm inclined to think it maybe
+somewhat beneficial to us."
+
+"Your enthusiasm is beautiful, Wicker," said his mother, perfectly
+unruffled. "I have no doubt you think Boston would be benefited, too."
+
+"Now, you know, mother, it's not just like you to be snippish," said he
+easily. "Besides, after living a while in other parts of the world, I'm
+beginning to feel that population is not the only thing about Boston
+that can be enlarged. It's all very nice to pave our streets with
+intellect so that we can't stray from our own footsteps, but I rather
+like the idea of losing my way, once in a while, even if I have to look
+at the same common, old sky up there that the rest of the world looks
+at, don't you know. I've learned recently that the same sun that shines
+on Boston also radiates for the rest of the world."
+
+"Yes, it shines in Tinkletown," agreed his mother serenely. "But, my
+dear--" turning to her daughter--"I think you would better wait a while
+before extending the invitation. There is no excuse for rushing into the
+unknown. Let time have a chance."
+
+"By Jove, mother, you talk sometimes like Anderson Crow. He often says
+things like that," cried Wicker delightedly.
+
+"Dear me! How can you say such a thing, Wicker?"
+
+"Well, you'd like old Anderson. He's a jewel!"
+
+"I dare say--an emerald. No, no--that was not fair or kind, Wicker. I
+unsay it. Mr. Crow and all of them have been good to you. Forgive me the
+sarcasm. Mr. Crow is perfectly impossible, but I like him. He has a
+heart, and that is more than most of us can say. And now let us return
+to earth once more. When will you be ready to start for Boston?
+To-morrow?"
+
+"Heavens, no! I'm not to be moved for quite a long time--danger of
+gangrene or something of the sort. It's astonishing, mother, what
+capable men these country doctors are. Dr. Smith is something of a
+marvel. He--he--saved my leg."
+
+"My boy--you don't mean that--" his mother was saying, her voice
+trembling.
+
+"Yes; that's what I mean. I'm all right now, but, of course, I shall be
+very careful for a couple of weeks. One can't tell, you know. Blood
+poisoning and all that sort of thing. But let's not talk of it--it's
+gruesome."
+
+"Indeed it is. You must be extremely careful, Wicker. Promise me that
+you will do nothing foolish. Don't use your leg until the doctor--but I
+have something better. We will send for Dr. J----. He can run up from
+Boston two or three times--"
+
+"Nothing of the sort, mother! Nonsense! Smith knows more in a minute
+than J---- does in a month. He's handling the case exactly as I want him
+to. Let well enough alone, say I. You know J---- always wants to
+amputate everything that can be cut or sawed off. For heaven's sake,
+don't let him try it on me. I need my legs."
+
+It is not necessary to say that Mrs. Bonner was completely won over by
+this argument. She commanded him to stay where he was until it was
+perfectly safe to be moved across the river, where he could recuperate
+before venturing into the city of his birth. Moreover, she announced
+that Edith and she would remain in Boggs City until he was quite out of
+danger, driving over every day in their chartered automobile. It
+suddenly struck Bonner that it would be necessary to bribe "Doc" Smith
+and the entire Crow family, if he was to maintain his position as an
+invalid.
+
+"Doc" Smith when put to the test lied ably in behalf of his client (he
+refused to call him his patient), and Mrs. Bonner was convinced. Mr.
+Crow and Eva vigorously protested that the young man would not be a
+"mite of trouble," and that he could stay as long as he liked.
+
+"He's a gentleman, Mrs. Bonner," announced the marshal, as if the mother
+was being made aware of the fact for the first time. "Mrs. Crow an' me
+have talked it over, an' I know what I'm talkin' about. He's a perfect
+gentleman."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Crow. I am happy to hear you say that," said Mrs.
+Bonner, with fine tact. "You will not mind if he stops here a while
+longer then?"
+
+"I should say not. If he'll take the job, I'll app'int him deputy
+marshal."
+
+"I'd like a picture of you with the badge and uniform, Wick," said Edith
+with good-natured banter.
+
+Just before the two ladies left for Boggs City that evening Bonner
+managed to say something to Edith.
+
+"Say, Ede, I think it would be uncommonly decent of you to ask Miss Gray
+down to Boston this spring. You'll like her."
+
+"Wicker, if it were not so awfully common, I'd laugh in my sleeve," said
+she, surveying him with a calm scrutiny that disconcerted. "I wasn't
+born yesterday, you know. Mother was, perhaps, but not your dear little
+sister. Cheer up, brother. You'll get over it, just like all the rest.
+I'll ask her to come, but--Please don't frown like that. I'll suspect
+something."
+
+During the many little automobile excursions that the two girls enjoyed
+during those few days in Tinkletown, Miss Bonner found much to love in
+Rosalie, much to esteem and a great deal to anticipate. Purposely, she
+set about to learn by "deduction" just what Rosalie's feelings were for
+the big brother. She would not have been surprised to discover the
+telltale signs of a real but secret affection on Rosalie's part, but she
+was, on the contrary, amazed and not a little chagrined to have the
+young girl meet every advance with a joyous candour, that definitely set
+aside any possibility of love for the supposedly irresistible brother.
+Miss Edith's mind was quite at rest, but with the arrogant pride of a
+sister, she resented the fact that any one could know this cherished
+brother and not fall a victim. Perversely, she would have hated Rosalie
+had she caught her, in a single moment of unguardedness, revealing a
+feeling more tender than friendly interest for him.
+
+Sophisticated and world-wise, the gay, careless Miss Bonner read her
+pages quickly--she skimmed them--but she saw a great deal between the
+lines. If her mother had been equally discerning, that very estimable
+lady might have found herself immensely relieved along certain lines.
+
+Bonner was having a hard time of it these days. It was worse than misery
+to stay indoors, and it was utterly out of the question for him to
+venture out. His leg was healing with disgusting rashness, but his heart
+was going into an illness that was to scoff at the cures of man. And if
+his parting with his mother and the rosy-faced young woman savoured of
+relief, he must he forgiven. A sore breast is no respecter of persons.
+
+They were returning to the Hub by the early morning train from Boggs
+City, and it was understood that Rosalie was to come to them in June.
+Let it be said in good truth that both Mrs. Bonner and her daughter were
+delighted to have her promise. If they felt any uneasiness as to the
+possibility of unwholesome revelations in connection with her birth,
+they purposely blindfolded themselves and indulged in the game of
+consequences.
+
+Mrs. Bonner was waiting in the automobile, having said good-bye to
+Wicker.
+
+"I'll keep close watch on him, Mrs. Bonner," promised Anderson, "and
+telegraph you if his condition changes a mite. I ast 'Doc' Smith to-day
+to tell me the real truth 'bout him, an'--"
+
+"The real truth? What do you mean?" she cried, in fresh alarm.
+
+"Don't worry, ma'am. He's improvin' fine, 'doc' says. He told me he'd be
+out o' danger when he got back to Boston. His heart's worryin' 'doc' a
+little. I ast 'im to speak plain an' tell me jest how bad it's affected.
+He said: 'At present, only the left ventricle--whatever that be--only
+the left one is punctured, but the right one seems to need a change of
+air.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+The Grin Derisive
+
+
+"I like your ma," said Anderson to Wicker, later in the evening. "She's
+a perfect lady. Doggone, it's a relief to see a rich woman that knows
+how to be a lady. She ain't a bit stuck up an' yet she's a reg'lar
+aristocrat. Did I ever tell you about what happened to Judge
+Courtwright's wife? No? Well, it was a long time ago, right here in
+Tinkletown. The judge concluded this would be a good place fer a summer
+home--so him an' her put up a grand residence down there on the river
+bluff. It was the only summer place on this side of the river. Well, of
+course Mrs. Courtwright had to turn in an' be the leader of the women in
+this place. She lorded it over 'em an' she give 'em to understand that
+she was a queen er somethin' like that an' they was nothin' but
+peasants. An' the derned fool women 'lowed her to do it, too. Seems as
+though her great-grandfather was a 'squire over in England, an' she had
+a right to be swell. Well, she ruled the roost fer two summers an'
+nobody could get near her without a special dispensation from the
+Almighty. She wouldn't look at anybody with her eyes; her chin was so
+high in the air that she had to look through her nose.
+
+"Her husband was as old as Methoosalum--that is, he was as old as
+Methoosalum was when he was a boy, so to speak--an' she had him skeered
+of his life. But I fixed her. At the end of the second summer she was
+ready to git up an' git, duke er no duke. Lemme me give you a tip, Wick.
+If you want to fetch a queen down to your level, jest let her know
+you're laughin' at her. Well, sir, the judge's wife used to turn up her
+nose at me until I got to feelin' too small to be seen. My pride was
+wallerin' in the dust. Finally, I thought of a scheme to fix her. Every
+time I saw her, I'd grin at her--not sayin' a word, mind you, but jest
+lookin' at her as if she struck me as bein' funny. Well, sir, I kept it
+up good an' strong. First thing I knowed, she was beginnin' to look as
+though a bee had stung her an' she couldn't find the place. I'd ketch
+her stealin' sly glances at me an' she allus found me with a grin on my
+face--a good, healthy grin, too.
+
+"There wasn't anything to laugh at, mind you, but she didn't know that.
+She got to fixin' her back hair and lookin' worried about her clothes.
+'Nen she'd wipe her face to see if the powder was on straight, all the
+time wonderin' what in thunder I was laughin' at. If she passed in her
+kerridge she'd peep back to see if I was laughin'; and I allus was. I
+never failed. All this time I wasn't sayin' a word-jest grinnin' as
+though she tickled me half to death. Gradually I begin to be scientific
+about it. I got so that when she caught me laughin', I'd try my best to
+hide the grin. Course that made it all the worse. She fidgeted an'
+squirmed an' got red in the face till it looked like she was pickled.
+Doggone, ef she didn't begin to neglect her business as a
+great-granddaughter! She didn't have time to lord it over her peasants.
+She was too blame busy wonderin' what I was laughin' at.
+
+[Illustration: "It was a wise, discreet old oak"]
+
+"'Nen she begin to look peaked an' thin. She looked like she was seem'
+ghosts all the time. That blamed grin of mine pursued her every minute.
+Course, she couldn't kick about it. That wouldn't do at all. She jest
+had to bear it without grinnin'. There wasn't anything to say. Finally,
+she got to stayin' away from the meetin's an' almost quit drivin'
+through the town. Everybody noticed the change in her. People said she
+was goin' crazy about her back hair. She lost thirty pounds worryin'
+before August, and when September come, the judge had to take her to a
+rest cure. They never come back to Tinkletown, an' the judge had to sell
+the place fer half what it cost him. Fer two years she almost went into
+hysterics when anybody laughed. But it done her good. It changed her
+idees. She got over her high an' mighty ways, they say, an' I hear she's
+one of the nicest, sweetest old ladies in Boggs City nowadays. But
+Blootch Peabody says that to this day she looks flustered when anybody
+notices her back hair. The Lord knows I wa'n't laughin' at her hair. I
+don't see why she thought so, do you?"
+
+Bonner laughed long and heartily over the experiment; but Rosalie
+vigorously expressed her disapproval of the marshal's methods.
+
+"It's the only real mean thing I ever heard of you doing, daddy Crow!"
+she cried. "It was cruel!"
+
+"Course you'd take her part, bein' a woman," said he serenely. "Mrs.
+Crow did, too, when I told her about it twenty years ago. Women ain't
+got much sense of humour, have they, Wick?" He was calling him Wick
+nowadays; and the young man enjoyed the familiarity.
+
+The days came when Bonner could walk about with his cane, and he was not
+slow to avail himself of the privilege this afforded. It meant enjoyable
+strolls with Rosalie, and it meant the elevation of his spirits to such
+heights that the skies formed no bounds for them. The town was not slow
+to draw conclusions. Every one said it would be a "match." It was
+certain that the interesting Boston man had acquired a clear field.
+Tinkletown's beaux gave up in despair and dropped out of the contest
+with the hope that complete recovery from his injuries might not only
+banish Bonner from the village, but also from the thoughts of Rosalie
+Gray. Most of the young men took their medicine philosophically. They
+had known from the first that their chances were small. Blootch Peabody
+and Ed Higgins, because of the personal rivalry between themselves,
+hoped on and on and grew more bitter between themselves, instead of
+toward Bonner.
+
+[Illustration: "'I beg your pardon,' he said humbly"]
+
+Anderson Crow and Eva were delighted and the Misses Crow, after futile
+efforts to interest the young man in their own wares, fell in with the
+old folks and exuberantly whispered to the world that "it would be
+perfectly glorious." Roscoe was not so charitable. He was soundly
+disgusted with the thought of losing his friend Bonner in the hated
+bonds of matrimony. From his juvenile point of view, it was a fate
+that a good fellow like Bonner did not deserve. Even Rosalie was not
+good enough for him, so he told Bud Long; but Bud, who had worshipped
+Rosalie with a hopeless devotion through most of his short life, took
+strong though sheepish exceptions to the remark. It seemed quite settled
+in the minds of every one but Bonner and Rosalie themselves. They went
+along evenly, happily, perhaps dreamily, letting the present and the
+future take care of themselves as best they could, making mountains of
+the past--mountains so high and sheer that they could not be surmounted
+in retreat.
+
+Bonner was helplessly in love--so much so, indeed, that in the face of
+it, he lost the courage that had carried him through trivial affairs of
+the past, and left him floundering vaguely in seas that looked old and
+yet were new. Hourly, he sought for the first sign of love in her eyes,
+for the first touch of sentiment; but if there was a point of weakness
+in her defence, it was not revealed to the hungry perception of the
+would-be conqueror. And so they drifted on through the February chill,
+that seemed warm to them, through the light hours and the dark ones,
+quickly and surely to the day which was to call him cured of one ill and
+yet sorely afflicted by another.
+
+Through it all he was saying to himself that it did not matter what her
+birth may have been, so long as she lived at this hour in his life, and
+yet a still, cool voice was whispering procrastination with ding-dong
+persistency through every avenue of his brain. "Wait!" said the cool
+voice of prejudice. His heart did not hear, but his brain did. One look
+of submission from her tender eyes and his brain would have turned deaf
+to the small, cool voice--but her eyes stood their ground and the voice
+survived.
+
+The day was fast approaching when it would be necessary for him to leave
+the home of Mr. Crow. He could no longer encroach upon the hospitality
+and good nature of the marshal--especially as he had declined the
+proffered appointment to become deputy town marshal. Together they had
+discussed every possible side to the abduction mystery and had laid the
+groundwork for a systematic attempt at a solution. There was nothing
+more for them to do. True to his promise, Bonner had put the case in the
+hands of one of the greatest detectives in the land, together with every
+known point in the girl's history. Tinkletown was not to provide the
+solution, although it contained the mystery. On that point there could
+be no doubt; so, Mr. Bonner was reluctantly compelled to admit to
+himself that he had no plausible excuse for staying on. The great
+detective from New York had come to town, gathered all of the facts
+under cover of strictest secrecy, run down every possible shadow of a
+clew in Boggs City, and had returned to the metropolis, there to begin
+the search twenty-one years back.
+
+"Four weeks," Bonner was saying to her reflectively, as they came
+homeward from their last visit to the abandoned mill on Turnip Creek. It
+was a bright, warm February morning, suggestive of spring and fraught
+with the fragrance of something far sweeter. "Four weeks of idleness and
+joy to me--almost a lifetime in the waste of years. Does it seem long to
+you, Miss Gray--oh, I remember, I am to call you Rosalie."
+
+"It seems that I have known you always instead of for four weeks," she
+said gently. "They have been happy weeks, haven't they? My--our only
+fear is that you haven't been comfortable in our poor little home. It's
+not what you are accustomed--"
+
+"Home is what the home folks make it," he said, striving to quote a
+vague old saying. He was dimly conscious of a subdued smile on her part
+and he felt the fool. "At any rate, I was more than comfortable. I was
+happy--never so happy. All my life shall be built about this single
+month--my past ends with it, my future begins. You, Rosalie," he went on
+swiftly, his eyes gleaming with the love that would not be denied, "are
+the spirit of life as I shall know it from this day forth. It is you who
+have made Tinkletown a kingdom, one of its homes a palace. Don't turn
+your face away, Rosalie."
+
+But she turned her face toward him and her dark eyes did not flinch as
+they met his, out there in the bleak old wood.
+
+"Don't, please don't, Wicker," she said softly, firmly. Her hand touched
+his arm for an instant. "You will understand, won't you? Please don't!"
+There was a world of meaning in it.
+
+His heart turned cold as ice, the blood left his face. He understood.
+She did not love him.
+
+"Yes," he said, his voice dead and hoarse, "I think I understand,
+Rosalie. I have taken too much for granted, fool that I am. Bah! The
+egotism of a fool!"
+
+"You must not speak like that," she said, her face contracted by pain
+and pity. "You are the most wonderful man I've ever known--the best and
+the truest. But--" and she paused, with a wan, drear smile on her lips.
+
+"I understand," he interrupted. "Don't say it. I want to think that some
+day you will feel like saying something else, and I want to hope,
+Rosalie, that it won't always be like this. Let us talk about something
+else." But neither cared to speak for what seemed an hour. They were in
+sight of home before the stony silence was broken. "I may come over from
+Bonner Place to see you?" he asked at last. He was to cross the river
+the next day for a stay of a week or two at his uncle's place.
+
+"Yes--often, Wicker. I shall want to see you every day. Yes, every day;
+I'm sure of it," she said wistfully, a hungry look in her eyes that he
+did not see, for he was staring straight ahead. Had he seen that look or
+caught the true tone in her voice, the world might not have looked so
+dark to him. When he did look at her again, her face was calm almost to
+sereneness.
+
+"And you will come to Boston in June just the same?"
+
+"If your sister and--and your mother still want me to come."
+
+[Illustration: "'I think I understand, Rosalie'"]
+
+She was thinking of herself, the nameless one, in the house of his
+people; she was thinking of the doubts, the speculations--even the fears
+that would form the background of her welcome in that proud house. No
+longer was Rosalie Gray regarding herself as the happy, careless
+foster-child of Anderson Crow; she was seeing herself only as the
+castaway, the unwanted, and the world was growing bitter for her. But
+Bonner was blind to all this; he could not, should not know.
+
+"You know they want you to come. Why do you say that?" he asked quickly,
+a strange, dim perspective rising before him for an instant, only to
+fade away before it could be analysed.
+
+"One always says that," she replied with a smile. "It is the penalty of
+being invited. Your sister has written the dearest letter to me, and I
+have answered it. We love one another, she and I."
+
+"Rosalie, I am going to write to you," said he suddenly; "you will
+answer?"
+
+"Yes," she told him simply. His heart quickened, but faltered, and was
+lost. "I had a long letter from Elsie Banks to-day," she went on with an
+indifference that chilled.
+
+"Oh," he said; "she is your friend who was or is to marry Tom Reddon, I
+believe. I knew him at Harvard. Tell me, are they married?"
+
+"No. It was not to take place until March, but now she writes that her
+mother is ill and must go to California for several months. Mr. Reddon
+wants to be married at once, or before they go West, at least; but she
+says she cannot consent while her mother requires so much of her. I
+don't know how it will end, but I presume they will be married and all
+go to California. That seems the simple and just way, doesn't it?"
+
+"Any way seems just, I'd say," he said. "They love one another, so
+what's the odds? Do you know Reddon well?"
+
+"I have seen him many times," she replied with apparent evasiveness.
+
+"He is a--" but here he stopped as if paralysis had seized him suddenly.
+The truth shot into his brain like a deadly bolt. Everything was as
+plain as day to him now. She stooped to pick up a slim, broken reed that
+crossed her path, and her face was averted. "God!" was the cry that
+almost escaped his lips. "She loves Reddon, and he is going to marry her
+best friend!" Cold perspiration started from every pore in his body. He
+had met the doom of love--the end of hope.
+
+"He has always loved her," said Rosalie so calmly that he was shocked by
+her courage. "I hope she will not ask him to wait."
+
+Rosalie never understood why Bonner looked at her in amazement and said:
+
+"By Jove, you are a--a marvel, Rosalie!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+The Blind Man's Eyes
+
+
+Bonner went away without another word of love to her. He saw the
+futility of hoping, and he was noble enough to respect her plea for
+silence on the subject that seemed distasteful to her. He went as one
+conquered and subdued; he went with the iron in his heart for the first
+time--deeply imbedded and racking.
+
+Bonner came twice from the place across the river. Anderson observed
+that he looked "peaked," and Rosalie mistook the hungry, wan look in his
+face for the emaciation natural to confinement indoors. He was whiter
+than was his wont, and there was a dogged, stubborn look growing about
+his eyes and mouth that would have been understood by the sophisticated.
+It was the first indication of the battle his love was to wage in days
+to come. He saw no sign of weakening in Rosalie. She would not let him
+look into her brave little heart, and so he turned his back upon the
+field and fled to Boston, half beaten, but unconsciously collecting his
+forces for the strife of another day. He did not know it then, nor did
+she, but his love was not vanquished; it had met its first rebuff, that
+was all.
+
+Tinkletown was sorry to see him depart, but it thrived on his promise to
+return. Every one winked slyly behind his back, for, of course,
+Tinkletown understood it all. He would come back often and then not at
+all--for the magnet would go away with him in the end. The busybodies,
+good-natured but garrulous, did not have to rehearse the story to its
+end; it would have been superfluous. Be it said here, however, that
+Rosalie was not long in settling many of the speculators straight in
+their minds. It seemed improbable that it should not be as they had
+thought and hoped. The news soon reached Blootch Peabody and Ed Higgins,
+and, both eager to revive a blighted hope, in high spirits, called to
+see Rosalie on the same night. It is on record that neither of them
+uttered two dozen words between eight o'clock and ten, so bitterly was
+the presence of the other resented.
+
+March came, and with it, to the intense amazement of Anderson Crow, the
+ever-mysterious thousand dollars, a few weeks late. On a certain day the
+old marshal took Rosalie to Boggs City, and the guardianship proceedings
+were legally closed. Listlessly she accepted half of the money he had
+saved, having refused to take all of it. She was now her own mistress,
+much to her regret if not to his.
+
+"I may go on living with you, Daddy Crow, may I not?" she asked
+wistfully as they drove home through the March blizzard. "This doesn't
+mean that I cannot be your own little girl after to-day, does it?"
+
+"Don't talk like that, Rosalie Gray, er I'll put you to bed 'thout a
+speck o' supper," growled he in his most threatening tones, but the
+tears were rolling down his cheeks at the time.
+
+"Do you know, daddy, I honestly hope that the big city detective won't
+find out who I am," she said after a long period of reflection.
+
+"Cause why?"
+
+"Because, if he doesn't, you won't have any excuse for turning me out."
+
+"I'll not only send you to bed, but I'll give you a tarnation good
+lickin' besides if you talk like--"
+
+"But I'm twenty-one. You have no right," said she so brightly that he
+cracked his whip over the horse's back and blew his nose twice for full
+measure of gratitude.
+
+"Well, I ain't heerd anything from that fly detective lately, an' I'm
+beginnin' to think he ain't sech a long sight better'n I am," said he
+proudly.
+
+"He isn't half as good!" she cried.
+
+"I mean as a detective," he supplemented apologetically.
+
+"So do I," she agreed earnestly; but it was lost on him.
+
+There was a letter at home for her from Edith Bonner. It brought the
+news that Wicker was going South to recuperate. His system had "gone
+off" since the accident, and the March winds were driving him away
+temporarily. Rosalie's heart ached that night, and there was a still,
+cold dread in its depths that drove sleep away. He had not written to
+her, and she had begun to fear that their month had been a trifle to
+him, after all. Now she was troubled and grieved that she should have
+entertained the fear. Edith went on to say that her brother had seen the
+New York detective, who was still hopelessly in the dark, but struggling
+on in the belief that chance would open the way for him.
+
+Rosalie, strive as she would to prevent it, grew pale and the roundness
+left her cheek as the weeks went by. Her every thought was with the man
+who had gone to the Southland. She loved him as she loved life, but she
+could not confess to him then or thereafter unless Providence made clear
+the purity of her birth to her and to all the world. When finally there
+came to her a long, friendly, even dignified letter from the far South,
+the roses began to struggle back to her cheeks and the warmth to her
+heart. Her response brought a prompt answer from him, and the roses grew
+faster than the spring itself. Friendship, sweet and loyal, marked every
+word that passed between them, but there was a dear world in each
+epistle--for her, at least, a world of comfort and hope. She was
+praying, hungering, longing for June to come--sweet June and its tender
+touch--June with its bitter-sweet and sun clouds. Now she was forgetting
+the wish which had been expressed to Anderson Crow on the drive home
+from Boggs City. In its place grew the fierce hope that the once
+despised detective might clear away the mystery and give her the right
+to stand among others without shame and despair.
+
+"Hear from Wick purty reg'lar, don't you, Rosalie?" asked Anderson
+wickedly, one night while Blootch was there. The suitor moved uneasily,
+and Rosalie shot a reproachful glance at Anderson, a glance full of
+mischief as well.
+
+"He writes occasionally, daddy."
+
+"I didn't know you corresponded reg'larly," said Blootch.
+
+"I did not say regularly, Blucher."
+
+"He writes sweet things to beat the band, I bet," said Blootch with a
+disdain he did not feel.
+
+"What a good guesser you are!" she cried tormentingly.
+
+"Well, I guess I'll be goin'," exploded Blootch wrathfully; "it's
+gittin' late."
+
+"He won't sleep much to-night," said Anderson, with a twinkle in his
+eye, as the gate slammed viciously behind the caller. "Say, Rosalie,
+there's somethin' been fidgetin' me fer quite a while. I'll blurt it
+right out an' have it over with. Air you in love with Wick Bonner?"
+
+She started, and for an instant looked at him with wide open eyes; then
+they faltered and fell. Her breath came in a frightened, surprised gasp
+and her cheeks grew warm. When she looked up again, her eyes were soft
+and pleading, and her lips trembled ever so slightly.
+
+"Yes, Daddy Crow, I love him," she almost whispered.
+
+"An' him? How about him?"
+
+"I can't answer that, daddy. He has not told me."
+
+"Well, he ought to, doggone him!"
+
+"I could not permit him to do so if he tried."
+
+"What! You wouldn't permit? What in tarnation do you mean?"
+
+"You forget, daddy, I have no right to his love. It would be wrong--all
+wrong. Good-night, daddy," she cried, impulsively kissing him and
+dashing away before he could check her, but not before he caught the
+sound of a half sob. For a long time he sat and stared at the fire in
+the grate. Then he slapped his knee vigorously, squared his shoulders
+and set his jaw like a vise. Arising, he stalked upstairs and tapped on
+her door. She opened it an inch or two and peered forth at him--a
+pathetic figure in white.
+
+"Don't you worry, Rosalie," he gulped. "It will be all right and hunky
+dory. I've just took a solemn oath down stairs."
+
+"An oath, daddy?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I swore by all that's good and holy I'd find out who your
+parents are ef it took till doomsday. You shall be set right in the eyes
+of everybody. Now, if I was you, I'd go right to sleep. There ain't
+nothin' to worry about. I've got another clew."
+
+She smiled lovingly as he ambled away. Poor old Anderson's confidence in
+himself was only exceeded by his great love for her.
+
+At last June smiled upon Rosalie and she was off for Boston. Her gowns
+were from Albany and her happiness from heaven--according to a
+reverential Tinkletown impression. For two weeks after her departure,
+Anderson Crow talked himself hoarse into willing ears, always extolling
+the beauty of his erstwhile ward as she appeared before the family
+circle in each and every one of those wonderful gowns.
+
+This humble narrative has not to do with the glories and foibles of
+Boston social life. It has to deal with the adventures of Anderson Crow
+and Rosalie Gray in so far as they pertain to a place called Tinkletown.
+The joys and pleasures that Rosalie experienced during that month of
+June were not unusual in character. The loneliness of Anderson Crow was
+not a novelty, if one stops to consider how the world revolves for every
+one else. Suffice to say that the Bonners, _mere, fils_ and _fille_,
+exerted themselves to make the month an unforgetable one to the
+girl--and they succeeded. The usual gaiety, the same old whirl of
+experiences, came to her that come to any other mortal who is being
+entertained, feted and admired. She was a success--a pleasure in every
+way--not only to her hosts but to herself. If there was a cloud hanging
+over her head through all these days and nights, the world was none the
+wiser; the silver lining was always visible.
+
+Once while she was driving with the Bonners she saw a man whom she knew,
+but did not expect to ever look upon again. She could not be mistaken in
+him. It was Sam Welch, chief of the kidnapers. He was gazing at her from
+a crowded street corner, but disappeared completely before Bonner could
+set the police on his trail.
+
+Commencement Day at Cambridge brought back hundreds of the old men--the
+men famous in every branch of study and athletics. Among them was
+handsome Tom Reddon. He came to see her at the Bonner home. Elsie Banks
+was to return in September from Honolulu, and they were to be married in
+the fall. Wicker Bonner eagerly looked for the confusion of love in her
+eyes, but none appeared. That night she told him, in reply to an
+impulsive demand, that she did not care for Reddon, that she never had
+known the slightest feeling of tenderness for him.
+
+"Have you ever been in love, Rosalie?" he asked ruthlessly.
+
+"Yes," she said after a moment, looking him bravely in the eyes.
+
+"And could you never learn to love any one else?"
+
+"I think not, Wicker," she said ever so softly.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said humbly, his face white and his lips drawn.
+"I should not have asked."
+
+And so he remained the blind man, with the light shining full into his
+eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+The Mysterious Questioner
+
+
+July brought Rosalie's visit to an end, and once more Tinkletown basked
+in her smiles and yet wondered why they were so sad and wistful. She and
+Bonner were much nearer, far dearer to one another than ever, and yet
+not one effort had been made to bridge the chasm of silence concerning
+the thing that lay uppermost in their minds. She only knew that Anderson
+Crow had not "run down" his clew, nor had the New York sleuth reported
+for weeks. Undoubtedly, the latter had given up the search, for the last
+heard of him was when he left for Europe with his wife for a pleasure
+trip of unknown duration. It looked so dark and hopeless to her, all of
+it. Had Bonner pressed his demands upon her at the end of the visit in
+Boston, it is possible--more than possible--that she would have faltered
+in her resolution. After all, why should she deprive herself of
+happiness if it was held out to her with the promise that it should
+never end?
+
+The summer turned steaming hot in the lowlands about Tinkletown, but in
+the great hills across the river the air was cool, bright, and
+invigorating. People began to hurry to their country homes from the
+distant cities. Before the month was old, a score or more of beautiful
+places were opened and filled with the sons and daughters of the rich.
+Lazily they drifted and drove and walked through the wonderful hills,
+famed throughout the world, and lazily they wondered why the rest of the
+world lived. In the hills now were the Randalls, the Farnsworths, the
+Brackens, the Brewsters, the Van Wagenens, the Rolfes and a host of
+others. Tinkletown saw them occasionally as they came jaunting by in
+their traps and brakes and automobiles--but it is extremely doubtful if
+they saw Tinkletown in passing.
+
+Anderson Crow swelled and blossomed in the radiance of his own
+importance. In his old age he was becoming fastidious. Only in the
+privacy of his own back yard did he go without the black alpaca coat; he
+was beginning to despise the other days, when he had gone coatless from
+dawn till dark, on the street or off. His badges were pinned neatly to
+his lapel and not to his suspenders, as in the days of yore. His dignity
+was the same, but the old sense of irritation was very much modified. In
+these new days he was considerate--and patronising. Was he not one of
+the wealthiest men in town--with his six thousand dollars laid by? Was
+he not its most honoured citizen, not excepting the mayor and selectmen?
+Was he not, above all, a close friend of the Bonners?
+
+The Bonners were to spend August in the Congressman's home across the
+big river. This fact alone was enough to stir the Crow establishment to
+its most infinitesimal roots. Rosalie was to be one of the guests at the
+house party, but her foster-sisters were not the kind to be envious.
+They revelled with her in the preparations for that new season of
+delight.
+
+With the coming of the Bonners, Anderson once more revived his
+resolution to unravel the mystery attending Rosalie's birth. For some
+months this ambition had lain dormant, but now, with the approach of the
+man she loved, the old marshal's devotion took fire and he swore daily
+that the mystery should be cleared "whether it wanted to be or not."
+
+He put poor old Alf Reesling through the "sweat box" time and again, and
+worthless Tom Folly had many an unhappy night, wondering why the marshal
+was shadowing him so persistently.
+
+"Alf," demanded Anderson during one of the sessions, "where were you on
+the night of February 18, 1883? Don't hesitate. Speak up. Where were
+you? Aha, you cain't answer. That looks suspicious."
+
+"You bet I c'n answer," said Alf bravely, blinking his blear eyes. "I
+was in Tinkletown."
+
+"What were you doin' that night?"
+
+"I was sleepin'."
+
+"At what time? Keerful now, don't lie."
+
+"What time o' night did they leave her on your porch?" demanded Alf in
+turn.
+
+"It was jest half past 'leven."
+
+"You're right, Anderson. That's jest the time I was asleep."
+
+"C'n you prove it? Got witnesses?"
+
+"Yes, but they don't remember the night."
+
+"Then it may go hard with you. Alf, I still believe you had somethin' to
+do with that case."
+
+"I didn't, Anderson, so help me."
+
+"Well, doggone it, somebody did," roared the marshal. "If it wasn't you,
+who was it? Answer that, sir."
+
+"Why, consarn you, Anderson Crow, I didn't have any spare children to
+leave around on doorsteps. I've allus had trouble to keep from leavin'
+myself there. Besides, it was a woman that left her, wasn't it? Well,
+consarn it, I'm not a woman, am I? Look at my whiskers, gee whiz! I--"
+
+"I didn't say you left the baskit, Alf; I only said you'd somethin' to
+do with it. I remember that there was a strong smell of liquor around
+the place that night." In an instant Anderson was sniffing the air.
+"Consarn ye, the same smell as now--yer drunk."
+
+"Tom Folly drinks, too," protested Alf. "He drinks Martini cocktails."
+
+"Don't you?"
+
+"Not any more. The last time I ordered one was in a Dutch eatin' house
+up to Boggs City. The waiter couldn't speak a word of English, an'
+that's the reason I got so full. Every time I ordered 'dry Martini' he
+brought me three. He didn't know how to spell it. No, sir, Anderson; I'm
+not the woman you want. I was at home asleep that night. I remember jest
+as well as anything, that I said before goin' to bed that it was a good
+night to sleep. I remember lookin' at the kitchen clock an' seein' it
+was jest eighteen minutes after eleven. 'Nen I said--"
+
+"That'll be all for to-day, Alf," interrupted the questioner, his gaze
+suddenly centering on something down the street. "You've told me that
+six hundred times in the last twenty years. Come on, I see the boys
+pitchin' horseshoes up by the blacksmith shop. I'll pitch you a game fer
+the seegars."
+
+"I cain't pay if I lose," protested Alf.
+
+"I know it," said Anderson; "I don't expect you to."
+
+The first day that Bonner drove over in the automobile, to transplant
+Rosalie in the place across the river, found Anderson full of a new and
+startling sensation. He stealthily drew the big sunburnt young man into
+the stable, far from the house. Somehow, in spite of his smiles, Bonner
+was looking older and more serious. There was a set, determined
+expression about his mouth and eyes that struck Anderson as new.
+
+"Say, Wick," began the marshal mysteriously, "I'm up a stump."
+
+"What? Another?"
+
+"No; jest the same one. I almost got track of somethin' to-day--not two
+hours ago. I met a man out yander near the cross-roads that I'm sure I
+seen aroun' here about the time Rosalie was left on the porch. An' the
+funny part of it was, he stopped me an' ast me about her. Doggone, I
+wish I'd ast him his name."
+
+"You don't mean it!" cried Bonner, all interest. "Asked about her? Was
+he a stranger?"
+
+"I think he was. Leastwise, he said he hadn't been aroun' here fer
+more'n twenty year. Y'see, it was this way. I was over to Lem Hudlow's
+to ask if he had any hogs stole last night--Lem lives nigh the
+poorhouse, you know. He said he hadn't missed any an' ast me if any hogs
+had been found. I tole him no, not that I knowed of, but I jest thought
+I'd ask; I thought mebby he'd had some stole. You never c'n tell, you
+know, an' it pays to be attendin' to business all the time. Well, I was
+drivin' back slow when up rode a feller on horseback. He was a
+fine-lookin' man 'bout fifty year old, I reckon, an' was dressed in all
+them new-fangled ridin' togs. 'Ain't this Mr. Crow, my old friend, the
+detective?' said he. 'Yes, sir,' said I. 'I guess you don't remember
+me,' says he. I told him I did, but I lied. It wouldn't do fer him to
+think I didn't know him an' me a detective, don't y'see?
+
+"We chatted about the weather an' the crops, him ridin' longside the
+buckboard. Doggone, his face was familiar, but I couldn't place it.
+Finally, he leaned over an' said, solemn-like: 'Have you still got the
+little girl that was left on your porch?' You bet I jumped when he said
+that. 'Yes,' says I, 'but she ain't a little girl now. She's growed
+up.' 'Is she purty?' he ast. 'Yes,' says I, 'purty as a speckled pup!'
+'I'd like to see her,' he said. 'I hear she was a beautiful baby. I hope
+she is very, very happy.' 'What's that to you?' says I, sharp-like. 'I
+am very much interested in her, Mr. Crow,' he answered. 'Poor child, I
+have had her in mind for a long time,' he went on very solemn. I begin
+to suspect right away that he had a lot to do with her affairs. Somehow,
+I couldn't help thinkin' I'd seen him in Tinkletown about the time she
+was dropped--left, I mean.
+
+"'You have given her a good eddication, I hope,' said he. 'Yes, she's
+got the best in town,' said I. 'The thousand dollars came all right
+every year?' 'Every February.' 'I should like to see her sometime, if I
+may, without her knowin' it, Mr. Crow.' 'An' why that way, sir?'
+demanded I. 'It would probably annoy her if she thought I was regardin'
+her as an object of curiosity,' said he. 'Tell her fer me,' he went on'
+gittin' ready to whip up, 'that she has an unknown friend who would give
+anything he has to help her.' Goshed, if he didn't put the gad to his
+horse an' gallop off 'fore I could say another word. I was goin' to ask
+him a lot of questions, too."
+
+"Can't you remember where and under what circumstances you saw him
+before?" cried Bonner, very much excited.
+
+"I'm goin' to try to think it up to-night. He was a rich-lookin' feller
+an' he had a heavy black band aroun' one of his coat sleeves. Wick, I
+bet he's the man we want. I've made up my mind 'at he's her father!"
+
+Bonner impatiently wormed all the information possible out of the
+marshal, especially as to the stranger's looks, voice, the direction
+taken when they parted company and then dismally concluded that an
+excellent opportunity had been hopelessly lost. Anderson said, in
+cross-examination, that the stranger had told him he "was leavin' at
+once fer New York and then going to Europe." His mother had died
+recently.
+
+"I'll try to head him off at Boggs City," said Bonner; and half an hour
+later he was off at full speed in the big machine for the county seat, a
+roundabout way to Bonner Place. The New York train had gone, but no one
+had seen a man answering the description of Anderson's interviewer.
+
+"I'm sorry, Rosalie," said Bonner some time later. He was taking her for
+a spin in the automobile. "It was a forlorn hope, and it is also quite
+probable that Mr. Crow's impressions are wrong. The man may have
+absolutely no connection with the matter. I'll admit it looks
+interesting, his manner and his questions, and there is a chance that he
+knows the true story. In any event, he did not go to New York to-day and
+he can't get another train until to-morrow. I'll pick up Mr. Crow in the
+morning and we'll run up here to have a look at him if he appears."
+
+"I think it is a wild goose chase, Wicker," Rosalie said despairingly.
+"Daddy Crow has done such things before."
+
+"But this seems different. The man's actions were curious. He must have
+had some reason for being interested in you. I am absolutely wild with
+eagerness to solve this mystery, Rosalie. It means life to me."
+
+"Oh, if you only could do it," she cried so fervently, that his heart
+leaped with pity for her.
+
+"I love you, Rosalie. I would give my whole life to make you happy.
+Listen, dearest--don't turn away from me! Are you afraid of me?" He was
+almost wailing it into her ear.
+
+"I--I was only thinking of the danger, Wicker. You are not watching the
+road," she said, flushing a deep red. He laughed gaily for the first
+time in months.
+
+"It is a wide road and clear," he said jubilantly. "We are alone and we
+are merely drifting. The machine is alive with happiness.
+Rosalie--Rosalie, I could shout for joy! You _do_ love me? You will be
+my wife?"
+
+She was white and silent and faint with the joy of it all and the pain
+of it all. Joy in the full knowledge that he loved her and had spoken in
+spite of the cloud that enveloped her, pain in the certainty that she
+could not accept the sacrifice. For a long time she sat staring straight
+down the broad road over which they were rolling.
+
+"Wicker, you must not ask me now," she said at last, bravely and
+earnestly. "It is sweet to know that you love me. It is life to me--yes,
+life, Wicker. But, don't you see? No, no! You must not expect it. You
+must not ask it. Don't, don't, dear!" she cried, drawing away as he
+leaned toward her, passion in his eyes, triumph in his face.
+
+"But we love each other!" he cried. "What matters the rest? I want
+you--_you!_"
+
+"Have you considered? Have you thought? I have, a thousand times, a
+thousand bitter thoughts. I cannot, I will not be your--your wife,
+Wicker, until--"
+
+In vain he argued, pleaded, commanded. She was firm and she felt she was
+right if not just. Underneath it all lurked the fear, the dreadful fear
+that she may have been a child of love, the illegitimate offspring of
+passion. It was the weight that crushed her almost to lifelessness; it
+was the bar sinister.
+
+"No, Wicker, I mean it," she said in the end resolutely. "Not until I
+can give you a name in exchange for your own."
+
+"Your name shall one day be Bonner if I have to wreck the social system
+of the whole universe to uncover another one for you."
+
+The automobile had been standing, by some extraordinary chance, in the
+cool shade of a great oak for ten minutes or more, but it was a wise,
+discreet old oak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+The Hemisphere Train Robbery
+
+
+Anderson Crow lived at the extreme south end of Tinkletown's principal
+thoroughfare. The "calaboose" was situated at the far end of Main
+Street, at least half a mile separating the home of the law and the home
+of the lawless. Marshal Crow's innate love for the spectacular alone
+explains the unneighbourliness of the two establishments. He felt an
+inward glory in riding or walking the full length of the street, and he
+certainly had no reason to suspect the populace of disregarding the
+outward glory he presented.
+
+The original plan of the merchantry comprehended the erection of the
+jail in close proximity to the home of its chief official, but Mr. Crow
+put his foot flatly and ponderously upon the scheme. With the dignity
+which made him noticeable, he said he'd "be doggoned ef he wanted to
+have people come to his own dooryard to be arrested." By which, it may
+be inferred, that he expected the evil-doer to choose his own arresting
+place.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Crow were becoming thrifty, in view of the prospect that
+confronted them, to wit: The possible marriage of Rosalie and the
+cutting off of the yearly payments. As she was to be absent for a full
+month or more, Anderson conceived the idea of advertising for a lodger
+and boarder. By turning Roscoe out of his bed, they obtained a spare
+room that looked down upon the peony beds beyond the side "portico."
+
+Mr. Crow was lazily twisting his meagre chin whiskers one morning soon
+after Rosalie's departure. He was leaning against the town pump in front
+of the post-office, the sun glancing impotently off the bright badge on
+the lapel of his alpaca coat. A stranger came forth from the post-office
+and approached the marshal.
+
+"Is this Mr. Crow?" he asked, with considerable deference.
+
+"It is, sir."
+
+"They tell me you take lodgers."
+
+"Depends."
+
+"My name is Gregory, Andrew Gregory, and I am here to canvass the
+neighbourhood in the interest of the Human Life Insurance Company of
+Penobscot. If you need references, I can procure them from New York or
+Boston."
+
+The stranger was a tall, lean-faced man of forty or forty-five, well
+dressed, with a brusque yet pleasant manner of speech. His moustache and
+beard were black and quite heavy. Mr. Crow eyed him quietly for a
+moment.
+
+"I don't reckon I'll ask fer references. Our rates are six dollars a
+week, board an' room. Childern bother you?"
+
+"Not at all. Have you any?"
+
+"Some, more or less. They're mostly grown."
+
+"I will take board and room for two weeks, at least," said Mr. Gregory,
+who seemed to be a man of action.
+
+For almost a week the insurance agent plied his vocation assiduously but
+fruitlessly. The farmers and the citizens of Tinkletown were slow to
+take up insurance. They would talk crops and politics with the obliging
+Mr. Gregory, but that was all. And yet, his suavity won for him many
+admirers. There were not a few who promised to give him their insurance
+if they concluded to "take any out." Only one man in town was willing to
+be insured, and he was too old to be comforting. Mr. Calligan was
+reputed to be one hundred and three years of age; and he wanted the
+twenty-year endowment plan. Gregory popularised himself at the Crow home
+by paying for his room in advance. Moreover, he was an affable chap with
+a fund of good stories straight from Broadway. At the post-office and
+in Lamson's store he was soon established as a mighty favourite. Even
+the women who came to make purchases in the evening,--a hitherto unknown
+custom,--lingered outside the circle on the porch, revelling in the
+second edition of the "Arabian Nights."
+
+"Our friend, the detective here," he said, one night at the close of the
+first week, "tells me that we are to have a show in town next week. I
+haven't seen any posters."
+
+"Mark Riley's been goin' to put up them bills sence day 'fore
+yesterday," said Anderson Crow, with exasperation in his voice, "an he
+ain't done it yet. The agent fer the troupe left 'em here an' hired
+Mark, but he's so thunderation slow that he won't paste 'em up 'til
+after the show's been an' gone. I'll give him a talkin' to to-morrer."
+
+"What-fer show is it?" asked Jim Borum.
+
+"Somethin' like a circus on'y 'tain't one," said Anderson. "They don't
+pertend to have animals."
+
+"Don't carry a menagerie, I see," remarked Gregory.
+
+"'Pears that way," said Anderson, slowly analysing the word.
+
+"I understand it is a stage performance under a tent," volunteered the
+postmaster.
+
+"That's what it is," said Harry Squires, the editor, with a superior
+air. "They play 'As You Like It,' by Shakespeare. It's a swell show. We
+got out the hand bills over at the office. They'll be distributed in
+town to-morrow, and a big batch of them will be sent over to the summer
+places across the river. The advance agent says it is a high-class
+performance and will appeal particularly to the rich city people up in
+the mountains. It's a sort of open-air affair, you know." And then Mr.
+Squires was obliged to explain to his fellow-townsmen all the known
+details in connection with the approaching performance of "As You Like
+It" by the Boothby Company, set for Tinkletown on the following Thursday
+night. Hapgood's Grove had been selected by the agent as the place in
+which the performance should be given.
+
+"Don't they give an afternoon show?" asked Mrs. Williams.
+
+"Sure not," said Harry curtly. "It isn't a museum."
+
+"Of course not," added Anderson Crow reflectively. "It's a troupe."
+
+The next morning, bright and early, Mark Riley fared forth with paste
+and brush. Before noon, the board fences, barns and blank walls of
+Tinkletown flamed with great red and blue letters, twining in and about
+the portraits of Shakespeare, Manager Boothby, Rosalind, Orlando, and an
+extra king or two in royal robes. A dozen small boys spread the hand
+bills from the _Banner_ presses, and Tinkletown was stirred by the
+excitement of a sensation that had not been experienced since
+Forepaugh's circus visited the county seat three years before. It went
+without saying that Manager Boothby would present "As You Like It" with
+an "unrivalled cast." He had "an all-star production," direct from "the
+leading theatres of the universe."
+
+When Mark Riley started out again in the afternoon for a second
+excursion with paste and brush, "slapping up" small posters with a
+celerity that bespoke extreme interest on his part, the astonished
+populace feared that he was announcing a postponement of the
+performance. Instead of that, however, he was heralding the fact that
+the Hemisphere Trunk Line and Express Company would gladly pay ten
+thousand dollars reward for the "apprehension and capture" of the men
+who robbed one of its richest trains a few nights before, seizing as
+booty over sixty thousand dollars in money, besides killing two
+messengers in cold blood. The great train robbery occurred in the
+western part of the State, hundreds of miles from Tinkletown, but nearly
+all of its citizens had read accounts of the deed in the weekly paper
+from Boggs City.
+
+"I seen the item about it in Mr. Gregory's New York paper," said
+Anderson Crow to the crowd at Lamson's.
+
+"Gee whiz, it must 'a' been a peach!" said Isaac Porter, open-mouthed
+and eager for details. Whereupon Marshal Crow related the story of the
+crime which stupefied the world on the morning of July 31st. The express
+had been held up in an isolated spot by a half-dozen masked men. A safe
+had been shattered and the contents confiscated, the perpetrators
+vanishing as completely as if aided by Satan himself. The authorities
+were baffled. A huge reward was offered in the hope that it might induce
+some discontented underling in the band to expose his comrades.
+
+"Are you goin' after 'em, Anderson?" asked old Mr. Borton, with
+unfailing faith in the town's chief officer.
+
+"Them fellers is in Asia by this time," vouchsafed Mr. Crow scornfully,
+forgetting that less than a week had elapsed since the robbery. He
+flecked a fly from his detective's badge and then struck viciously at
+the same insect when it straightway attacked his G.A.R. emblem.
+
+"I doubt it," said Mr. Lamson. "Like as not they're right here in this
+State, mebby in this county. You can't tell about them slick
+desperadoes. Hello, Harry! Has anything more been heard from the train
+robbers?" Harry Squires approached the group with something like news in
+his face.
+
+"I should say so," he said. "The darned cusses robbed the State Express
+last night at Vanderskoop and got away with thirteen hundred dollars.
+Say, they're wonders! The engineer says they're only five of them."
+
+"Why, gosh dern it, Vanderskoop's only the fourth station west of Boggs
+City!" exclaimed Anderson Crow, pricking up his official ear. "How in
+thunder do you reckon they got up here in such a short time?"
+
+"They probably stopped off on their way back from Asia," drily remarked
+Mr. Lamson; but it passed unnoticed.
+
+"Have you heard anything more about the show, Harry?" asked Jim Borum.
+"Is she sure to be here?" What did Tinkletown care about the train
+robbers when a "show" was headed that way?
+
+"Sure. The press comments are very favourable," said Harry. "They all
+say that Miss Marmaduke, who plays Rosalind, is great. We've got a cut
+of her and, say, she's a beauty. I can see myself sitting in the front
+row next Thursday night, good and proper."
+
+"Say, Anderson, I think it's a dern shame fer Mark Riley to go 'round
+pastin' them reward bills over the show pictures," growled Isaac Porter.
+"He ain't got a bit o' sense."
+
+With one accord the crowd turned to inspect two adjacent bill boards.
+Mark had either malignantly or insanely pasted the reward notices over
+the nether extremities of Rosalind as she was expected to appear in the
+Forest of Arden. There was a period of reflection on the part of an
+outraged constituency.
+
+"I don't see how he's goin' to remove off them reward bills without
+scraping off her legs at the same time," mused Anderson Crow in
+perplexity. Two housewives of Tinkletown suddenly deserted the group and
+entered the store. And so it was that the train robbers were forgotten
+for the time being.
+
+But Marshal Crow's reputation as a horse-thief taker and general
+suppressor of crime constantly upbraided him. It seemed to call upon him
+to take steps toward the capture of the train robbers. All that
+afternoon he reflected. Tinkletown, seeing his mood, refrained from
+breaking in upon it. He was allowed to stroke his whiskers in peace and
+to think to his heart's content. By nightfall his face had become an
+inscrutable mask, and then it was known that the President of Bramble
+County's Horse-Thief Detective Association was determined to fathom the
+great problem. Stealthily he went up to the great attic in his home and
+inspected his "disguises." In some far-off period of his official career
+he had purchased the most amazing collection of false beards, wigs and
+garments that any stranded comedian ever disposed of at a sacrifice. He
+tried each separate article, seeking for the best individual effect;
+then he tried them collectively. It would certainly have been
+impossible to recognise him as Anderson Crow. In truth, no one could
+safely have identified him as a human being.
+
+"I'm goin' after them raskils," he announced to Andrew Gregory and the
+whole family, as he came down late to take his place at the head of the
+supper table.
+
+"Ain't you goin' to let 'em show here, pop?" asked Roscoe in distress.
+
+"Show here? What air you talkin' about?"
+
+"He means the train robbers, Roscoe," explained the lad's mother. The
+boy breathed again.
+
+"They are a dangerous lot," volunteered Gregory, who had been in Albany
+for two days. "The papers are full of their deeds. Cutthroats of the
+worst character."
+
+"I'd let them alone, Anderson," pleaded his wife. "If you corner them,
+they'll shoot, and it would be jest like you to follow them right into
+their lair."
+
+"Consarn it, Eva, don't you s'pose that I c'n shoot, too?" snorted
+Anderson. "What you reckon I've been keepin' them loaded revolvers out
+in the barn all these years fer? Jest fer ornaments? Not much! They're
+to shoot with, ef anybody asks you. Thunderation, Mr. Gregory, you ain't
+no idee how a feller can be handicapped by a timid wife an' a lot o'
+fool childern. I'm almost afeard to turn 'round fer fear they'll be
+skeered to death fer my safety."
+
+"You cut yourself with a razor once when ma told you not to try to shave
+the back of your neck by yourself," said one of the girls. "She wanted
+you to let Mr. Beck shave it for you, but you wouldn't have it that
+way."
+
+"Do you suppose I want an undertaker shavin' my neck? I'm not that
+anxious to be shaved. Beck's the undertaker, Mr. Gregory."
+
+"Well, he runs the barber shop, too," insisted the girl.
+
+During the next three days Tinkletown saw but little of its marshal,
+fire chief and street commissioner. That triple personage was off on
+business of great import. Early, each morning, he mysteriously stole
+away to the woods, either up or down the river, carrying a queer bundle
+under the seat of his "buckboard." Two revolvers, neither of which had
+been discharged for ten years, reposed in a box fastened to the
+dashboard. Anderson solemnly but positively refused to allow any one to
+accompany him, nor would he permit any one to question him. Farmers
+coming to town spoke of seeing him in the lanes and in the woods, but he
+had winked genially when they had asked what he was trailing.
+
+"He's after the train robbers," explained all Tinkletown soberly.
+Whereupon the farmers and their wives did not begrudge Anderson Crow the
+chicken dinners he had eaten with them, nor did they blame him for
+bothering the men in the fields. It was sufficient that he found excuse
+to sleep in the shade of their trees during his still hunt.
+
+"Got any track of 'em?" asked George Ray one evening, stopping at
+Anderson's back gate to watch the marshal unhitch his thankful nag.
+Patience had ceased to be a virtue with George.
+
+"Any track of who?" asked Mr. Crow with a fine show of innocence.
+
+"The robbers."
+
+"I ain't been trackin' robbers, George."
+
+"What in thunder have you been trackin' all over the country every day,
+then?"
+
+"I'm breakin' this colt," calmly replied the marshal, with a mighty wink
+at old Betty, whom he had driven to the same buckboard for twenty years.
+As George departed with an insulted snort, Andrew Gregory came from the
+barn, where he had been awaiting the return of Mr. Crow."
+
+"I'm next to something big," he announced in a low tone, first looking
+in all directions to see that no one was listening.
+
+"Gosh! Did you land Mr. Farnsworth?"
+
+"It has nothing to do with insurance," hastily explained the agent.
+"I've heard something of vast importance to you."
+
+"You don't mean to say the troupe has busted?"
+
+"No--no; it is in connection with--with--" and here Mr. Gregory leaned
+forward and whispered something in Anderson's ear. Mr. Crow promptly
+stopped dead still in his tracks, his eyes bulging. Betty, who was being
+led to the water trough, being blind and having no command to halt,
+proceeded to bump forcibly against her master's frame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+"As You Like It"
+
+
+"You--don't--say--so! Whoa! dang ye! Cain't you see where you're goin',
+you old rip?" Betty was jerked to a standstill. "What have you heerd?"
+asked Anderson, his voice shaking with interest.
+
+"I can't tell you out here," said the other cautiously. "Put up the nag
+and then meet me in the pasture out there. We can sit down and talk and
+not be overheard."
+
+"I won't be a minute. Here, you Roscoe! Feed Betty and water her first.
+Step lively, now. Tell your ma we'll be in to supper when we git good
+an' ready."
+
+Anderson and Andrew Gregory strode through the pasture gate and far out
+into the green meadow. Once entirely out of hearing, Gregory stopped and
+both sat down upon a little hillock. The agent was evidently suppressing
+considerable excitement.
+
+"Those train robbers are in this neighbourhood," he said, breaking a
+long silence. Anderson looked behind involuntarily. "I don't mean that
+they are in this pasture, Mr. Crow. You've been a good friend to me, and
+I'm inclined to share the secret with you. If we go together, we may
+divide the ten-thousand-dollar reward, because I'm quite sure we can
+land those chaps."
+
+"What's your plan?" asked Anderson, turning a little pale at the
+thought. Before going any further into the matter, Gregory asked
+Anderson if he would sign a paper agreeing to divide the reward equally
+with him. This point was easily settled, and then the insurance man
+unfolded his secret.
+
+"I have a straight tip from a friend in New York and he wouldn't steer
+me wrong. The truth about him is this: He used to work for our company,
+but took some money that didn't belong to him. It got him a sentence in
+the pen. He's just out, and he knows a whole lot about these robbers.
+Some of them were in Sing Sing with him. The leader wanted him to join
+the gang and he half-way consented. His duty is to keep the gang posted
+on what the officers in New York are doing. See?"
+
+"Of course," breathed Anderson.
+
+"Well, my friend wants to reform. All he asks is a slice of the reward.
+If we capture the gang, we can afford to give him a thousand or so,
+can't we?"
+
+"Of course," was the dignified response.
+
+"Here's his letter to me. I'll read it to you." In the gathering dusk
+Gregory read the letter to the marshal of Tinkletown. "Now, you see," he
+said, at the close of the astounding epistle, "this means that if we
+observe strict secrecy, we may have the game in our hands. No one must
+hear a word of this. They may have spies right here in Tinkletown. We
+can succeed only by keeping our mouths sealed."
+
+"Tighter'n beeswax," promised Anderson Crow.
+
+Briefly, the letter to Andrew Gregory was an exposure of the plans of
+the great train-robber gang, together with their whereabouts on a
+certain day to come. They were to swoop down on Tinkletown on the night
+of the open-air performance of "As You Like It," and their most
+desperate coup was to be the result. The scheme was to hold up and rob
+the entire audience while the performance was going on. Anderson Crow
+was in a cold perspiration. The performance was but three days off, and
+he felt that he required three months for preparation.
+
+"How in thunder are we goin' to capture that awful gang, jest you an'
+me?" he asked, voicing his doubts and fears.
+
+"We'll have to engage help, that's all."
+
+"We'll need a regiment."
+
+"Don't you think it. Buck up, old fellow, don't be afraid."
+
+"Afeerd? Me? I don't know what it is to be skeered. Didn't you ever hear
+about how I landed them fellers that kidnaped my daughter Rosalie? Well,
+you jest ast some one 'at knows about it. Umph! I guess that was a
+recommend fer bravery. But these fellers will be ready fer us, won't
+they?"
+
+"We can trick them easily. I've been thinking of a plan all afternoon.
+We don't know just where they are now, so we can't rake them in
+to-night. We'll have to wait until they come to us. My plan is to have a
+half-dozen competent private detectives up from New York. We can scatter
+them through the audience next Thursday night, and when the right time
+comes we can land on every one of those fellows like hawks on spring
+chickens. I know the chief of a big private agency in New York, and I
+think the best plan is to have him send up some good men. It won't cost
+much, and I'd rather have those fearless practical men here than all the
+rubes you could deputise. One of 'em is worth ten of your
+fellow-citizens, Mr. Crow, begging your pardon for the remark. You and I
+can keep the secret and we can do the right thing, but we would be asses
+to take more Tinkletown asses into our confidence. If you'll agree, I'll
+write to Mr. Pinkerton this evening. He can have his men here, disguised
+and ready for work, by Thursday afternoon. If you don't mind, I'd like
+to have you take charge of the affair, because you know just how to
+handle thieves, and I don't. What say you?"
+
+Anderson was ready and eager to agree to anything, but he hesitated a
+long time before concluding to take supreme charge of the undertaking.
+Mr. Gregory at once implored him to take command. It meant the success
+of the venture; anything else meant failure.
+
+"But how'n thunder am I to know the robbers when I see 'em?" demanded
+the marshal, nervously pulling bluegrass up by the roots.
+
+"You'll know 'em all right," said Andrew Gregory. Thursday came and with
+it the "troupe." Anderson Crow had not slept for three nights, he was so
+full of thrills and responsibility. Bright and early that morning he was
+on the lookout for suspicious characters. Gregory was to meet the
+detectives from New York at half-past seven in the evening. By previous
+arrangement, these strangers were to congregate casually at Tinkletown
+Inn, perfectly diguised as gentlemen, ready for instructions. The two
+arch-plotters had carefully devised a plan of action. Gregory chuckled
+secretly when he thought of the sensation Tinkletown was to
+experience--and he thought of it often, too.
+
+The leading members of Boothby's All Star Company "put up" at the Inn,
+which was so humble that it staggered beneath this unaccustomed weight
+of dignity. The beautiful Miss Marmaduke (in reality, Miss Cora Miller)
+was there, and so were Miss Trevanian, Miss Gladys Fitzmaurice, Richmond
+Barrett (privately Jackie Blake), Thomas J. Booth, Francisco Irving, Ben
+Jefferson and others. The Inn was glorified. All Tinkletown looked upon
+the despised old "eating house" with a reverence that was not reluctant.
+
+The manager, a busy and preoccupied person, who looked to be the
+lowliest hireling in the party, came to the Inn at noon and spread the
+news that the reserved seats were sold out and there was promise of a
+fine crowd. Whereupon there was rejoicing among the All Star Cast, for
+the last legs of the enterprise were to be materially strengthened.
+
+"We won't have to walk back home," announced Mr. Jackie Blake, that
+good-looking young chap who played Orlando.
+
+"Glorious Shakespeare, thou art come to life again," said Ben Jefferson,
+a barn-stormer for fifty years. "I was beginning to think you were a
+dead one."
+
+"And no one will seize our trunks for board," added Miss Marmaduke
+cheerfully. She was a very pretty young woman and desperately in love
+with Mr. Orlando.
+
+"If any one seized Orlando's trunks, I couldn't appear in public
+to-night," said Mr. Blake. "Orlando possesses but one pair of trunks."
+
+"You might wear a mackintosh," suggested Mr. Booth.
+
+"Or borrow trunks of the trees," added Mr. Irving.
+
+"They're off," growled Mr. Jefferson, who hated the puns he did not
+make.
+
+"Let's dazzle the town, Cora," said Jackie Blake; and before Tinkletown
+could take its second gasp for breath, the leading man and woman were
+slowly promenading the chief and only thoroughfare.
+
+"By ginger! she's a purty one, ain't she?" murmured Ed Higgins, sole
+clerk at Lamson's. He stood in the doorway until she was out of sight
+and remained there for nearly an hour awaiting her return. The men of
+Tinkletown took but one look at the pretty young woman, but that one
+look was continuous and unbroken.
+
+"If this jay town can turn up enough money to-night to keep us from
+stranding, I'll take off my hat to it for ever more," said Jackie Blake.
+
+"Boothby says the house is sold out," said
+
+Miss Marmaduke, a shade of anxiety in her dark eyes. "Oh, how I wish we
+were at home again."
+
+"I'd rather starve in New York than feast in the high hills," said he
+wistfully. The idols to whom Tinkletown was paying homage were but
+human, after all. For two months the Boothby Company had been buffeted
+from pillar to post, struggling hard to keep its head above water,
+always expecting the crash. The "all-stars" were no more than striving
+young Thespians, who were kept playing throughout the heated term with
+this uncertain enterprise, solely because necessity was in command of
+their destinies. It was not for them to enjoy a summer in ease and
+indolence.
+
+"Never mind, dear," said she, turning her green parasol so that it
+obstructed the intense but complimentary gaze of no less than a dozen
+men; "our luck will change. We won't be barn-storming for ever."
+
+"We've one thing to be thankful for, little woman," said Jackie, his
+face brightening. "We go out again this fall in the same company. That's
+luck, isn't it? We'll be married as soon as we get back to New York and
+we won't have to be separated for a whole season, at least."
+
+"Isn't it dear to think of, Jackie sweetheart? A whole season and then
+another, and then all of them after that? Oh, dear, won't it be sweet?"
+It was love's young dream for both of them.
+
+"Hello, what's this?" exclaimed Orlando the Thousandth, pausing before a
+placard which covered the lower limbs of his pictorial partner. "Ten
+Thousand Dollars reward! Great Scott, Cora, wouldn't I like to catch
+those fellows? Great, eh? But it's a desperate gang! The worst ever!"
+
+Just then both became conscious of the fact that some one was
+scrutinising them intently from behind. They turned and beheld Anderson
+Crow, his badges glistening.
+
+"How are you, officer?" said Jackie cheerily. Miss Marmaduke, in her
+happiness, beamed a smile upon the austere man with the chin whiskers.
+Anderson was past seventy, but that smile caused the intake of his
+breath to almost lift him from the ground.
+
+"First rate, thanks; how's yourself? Readin' the reward notice? Lemme
+tell you something. There's goin' to be somethin' happen tarnation soon
+that will astonish them fellers ef--" but here Anderson pulled up with a
+jerk, realising that he was on the point of betraying a great secret.
+Afraid to trust himself in continued conversation, he abruptly said:
+"Good afternoon," and started off down the street, his ears tingling.
+
+"Queer old chap, isn't he?" observed Jackie, and immediately forgot him
+as they strolled onward.
+
+That evening Tinkletown swarmed with strangers. The weather was fine,
+and scores of the summer dwellers in the hills across the river came
+over to see the performance, as the advance agent had predicted. Bluff
+Top Hotel sent a large delegation of people seeking the variety of life.
+There were automobiles, traps, victorias, hay-racks, and "sundowns"
+standing all along the street in the vicinity of Hapgood's Grove. It was
+to be, in the expansive language of the press agent, "a cultured
+audience made up of the elite of the community."
+
+Late in the afternoon, a paralysing thought struck in upon the marshal's
+brain. It occurred to him that this band of robbers might also be
+engaged to carry off Rosalie Gray. After all, it might be the great
+dominant reason for their descent upon the community. Covered with a
+perspiration that was not caused by heat, he accosted Wicker Bonner, the
+minute that gentleman arrived in town. Rosalie went, of course, to the
+Crow home for a short visit with the family.
+
+"Say, Wick, I want you to do me a favour," said Anderson eagerly, taking
+the young man aside. "I cain't tell you all about it, 'cause I'm bound
+by a deathless oath. But, listen, I'm afraid somethin's goin' to happen
+to-night. There's a lot o' strangers here, an' I'm nervous about
+Rosalie. Somebody might try to steal her in the excitement. Now I want
+you to take good keer of her. Don't let 'er out o' your sight, an' don't
+let anybody git 'er away from you. I'll keep my eye on her, too. Promise
+me."
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Crow. I'll look out for her. That's what I hope to do
+all the rest of--'
+
+"Somethin's liable to happen," Mr. Crow broke in, and then quietly
+slipped away.
+
+Bonner laughed easily at the old man's fears and set them down as a part
+of his whimsical nature. Later, he saw the old man near the entrance as
+the party passed inside the inclosure. The Bonner party occupied
+prominent seats in front, reserved by the marshal. There were ten in the
+group, a half-dozen young Boston people completing the house party.
+
+The side walls of a pavilion inclosed the most beautiful section of the
+grove. In one end were the seats, rapidly filling with people. At the
+opposite end, upon Mother Earth's green carpet, was the stage, lighted
+dimly by means of subdued spot lights and a few auxiliary stars on high.
+There was no scenery save that provided by Nature herself. An orchestra
+of violins broke through the constant hum of eager voices.
+
+Anderson Crow's heart was inside the charmed inclosure, but his person
+was elsewhere. Simultaneously, with the beginning of the performance of
+"As You like It," he was in his own barn-loft confronting Andrew Gregory
+and the five bewhiskered assistants from New York City. Gregory had met
+the detectives at the Inn and had guided them to the marshal's barn,
+where final instructions were to be given. For half an hour the party
+discussed plans with Anderson Crow, speaking in low, mysterious tones
+that rang in the marshal's ears to his dying day.
+
+"We've located those fellows," asserted Mr. Gregory firmly. "There can
+be no mistake. They are already in the audience over there, and at a
+signal will set to work to hold up the whole crowd. We must get the
+drop on them, Mr. Crow. Don't do that! You don't need a disguise. Keep
+those yellow whiskers in your pocket. The rest of us will wear
+disguises. These men came here disguised because the robbers would be
+onto them in a minute if they didn't. They know every detective's face
+in the land. If it were not for these beards and wigs they'd have
+spotted Pinkerton's men long ago. Now, you know your part in the affair,
+don't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," respectfully responded Anderson, his chin whisker wobbling
+pathetically.
+
+"Then we're ready to proceed. It takes a little nerve, that's all, but
+we'll soon have those robbers just where we want them," said Andrew
+Gregory.
+
+The second act of the play was fairly well under way when Orlando, in
+the "green room," remarked to the stage director:
+
+"What's that old rube doing back here, Ramsay? Why, hang it, man, he's
+carrying a couple of guns. Is this a hold-up?" At the same instant
+Rosalind and two of the women came rushing from their dressing tent,
+alarmed and indignant. Miss Marmaduke, her eyes blazing, confronted the
+stage director.
+
+"What does this mean, Mr. Ramsay?" she cried. "That old man ordered us
+out of our dressing-room at the point of a revolver, and--see! There he
+is now doing the same to the men."
+
+It was true. Anderson Crow, with a brace of horse pistols, was driving
+the players toward the centre of the stage. In a tremulous voice he
+commanded them to remain there and take the consequences. A moment later
+the marshal of Tinkletown strode into the limelight with his arsenal,
+facing an astonished and temporarily amused audience. His voice, pitched
+high with excitement, reached to the remotest corners of the inclosure.
+Behind him the players were looking on, open-mouthed and bewildered. To
+them he loomed up as the long-dreaded constable detailed to attach their
+personal effects. The audience, if at first it laughed at him as a joke,
+soon changed its view. Commotion followed his opening speech.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+The Luck of Anderson Crow
+
+
+"Don't anybody attempt to leave this tent!" commanded Mr. Crow, standing
+bravely forth with his levelled revolvers. The orchestra made itself as
+small as possible, for one of the guns wavered dangerously. "Don't be
+alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. The train robbers are among you."
+
+There were a few feminine shrieks, a volume of masculine "Whats!" a
+half-hearted and uncertain snigger, and a general turning of heads.
+
+"Keep your seats!" commanded Anderson. "They can't escape. I have them
+surrounded. I now call upon all robbers present to surrender in the name
+of the law. Surrender peaceful and you will not he damaged; resist and
+we'll blow you to hell an' gone, even at the risk of injurin' the women
+and childern. The law is no respecter of persons. Throw up your hands!"
+
+He waited impressively, but either through stupefaction or obstinacy the
+robbers failed to lift their hands.
+
+"You're cornered, you golderned scamps!" shouted Anderson Crow, "an' you
+might jest as well give up! Twenty Pinkerton men are here from New York
+City, an' you can't escape! Throw up your hands!"
+
+"The damned old fool is in earnest," gasped Judge Brewster, from across
+the river.
+
+"He's crazy!" cried Congressman Bonner.
+
+"Let everybody in this crowd throw up their hands!" called a firm, clear
+voice from the entrance. At the same instant five bewhiskered
+individuals appeared as if by magic with drawn revolvers, dominating the
+situation completely. The speaker was Andrew Gregory, the insurance
+agent.
+
+"Now, what have you got to say?" cried Anderson gaily. "I guess me an'
+the detectives have you cornered all right, ain't we?"
+
+The audience sat stupefied, paralysed. While all this was going on upon
+the inside, a single detective on the outside was stealthily puncturing
+the tires of every automobile in the collection, Mr. Bracken's huge
+touring car being excepted for reasons to be seen later on.
+
+"Good heavens!" groaned old Judge Brewster. A half dozen women fainted
+and a hundred men broke into a cold perspiration.
+
+"Hands up, everybody!" commanded Andrew Gregory. "We can take no
+chances. The train robbers are in this audience. They came to hold up
+the entire crowd, but we are too quick for you, my fine birds. The place
+is surrounded!"
+
+"Mr. Gregory, the insurance--" began Anderson Crow, but he was cut
+short.
+
+"Mr. Crow deserves great credit for this piece of detective work. His
+mere presence is a guaranty of safety to those of you who are not
+thieves. You all have your hands up? Thanks. Mr. Crow, please keep those
+actors quiet. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is not always an easy matter
+to distinguish thieves from honest men. I will first give the
+desperadoes a chance to surrender peaceably. No one steps forward? Very
+well. Keep your hands up, all of you. The man who lowers his hands will
+be instantly regarded as a desperado and may get a bullet in his body
+for his folly. The innocent must suffer with the guilty. Mr. Crow, shall
+we proceed with the search?"
+
+"Yes, sir; go right ahead, and be quick," replied Anderson Crow.
+
+"Very well, then, in the name of the law, my men will begin the search.
+They will pass among you, ladies and gentlemen, and any effort to retard
+their progress will be met with instant--well, you know."
+
+Before the petrified audience could fully realise what was taking place,
+three of the detectives were swiftly passing from person to person,
+stripping the women of their jewels, the men of their money and their
+watches. A half-hearted protest went up to Anderson Crow, but it was
+checked summarily by the "searching party." It was well for the poor
+marshal that he never knew what the audience thought of him at that
+ghastly moment.
+
+It was all over in five minutes. The detectives had searched every
+prosperous-looking person in the audience, under the very nose and guns
+of Marshal Crow, and they were sardonically bidding the assemblage a
+fond good-bye from the flapping doorway in the side wall. Andrew Gregory
+addressed the crowd, smiling broadly.
+
+"We found a good many more robbers in the crowd than we could
+conveniently handle, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, I never came across
+such a rare collection of hold-up men outside of Wall Street. The only
+perfectly honest man in Tinkletown to-night is Anderson Crow, your
+esteemed marshal. Believe me, he is ridiculously honest. He may be a
+damn fool, but he is honest. Don't blame him. Thanking you, one and all,
+for your generous help in our search for the train robbers, we bid you
+an affectionate farewell. We may meet again if you travel extensively on
+express trains. Good-night!"
+
+With a taunting laugh, Andrew Gregory dropped the flap and leaped after
+his companions. Bracken's chauffeur lay senseless by the roadside, and
+one of the "detectives" sat in his seat. Even as the audience opened
+its collective mouth to shout its wrath and surprise, the big touring
+car, with six armed men aboard, leaped away with a rush. Down the dark
+road it flew like an express train, its own noise drowning the shouts of
+the multitude, far behind.
+
+Bonner, recovering from his stupefaction and rage, led the pursuit,
+first commanding Rosalie to hurry home with the women and lock herself
+safely indoors.
+
+Anderson Crow, realising what a dupe he had been in the hands of the
+clever scoundrels, was covered with fear and shame. The outraged crowd
+might have killed him had not his escape been made under cover of
+darkness. Shivering and moaning in abject misery, the pride of
+Tinkletown fled unseeing, unthinking into the forest along the river. He
+was not to know until afterward that his "detectives" had stripped the
+rich sojourners of at least ten thousand dollars in money and jewels. It
+is not necessary to say that the performance of "As You Like It" came to
+an abrupt end, because it was not as they liked it. Everybody knew by
+this time that they had seen the celebrated "train robbers."
+
+Jackie Blake was half dressed when he leaped to his feet with an
+exclamation so loud that those preceding it were whispers.
+
+"Holy smoke!" fell from his lips; and then he dashed across the green to
+the women's dressing tent. "Cora! Cora! Come out!"
+
+"I can't," came back in muffled tones.
+
+"Then good-bye; I'm off!" he shouted. That brought her, partially
+dressed, from the tent. "Say, do you remember the river road we walked
+over to-day? Well, those fellows went in that direction, didn't they?
+Don't you see? Aren't you on? The washout! If they don't know about it
+the whole bunch is at the bottom of the ravine or in the river by this
+time! Mum's the word! There's a chance, darling; the reward said 'dead
+or alive!' I'm off!"
+
+She tried to call him back, but it was too late. With his own revolver
+in his hand, the half Orlando, half Blake, tore down the rarely
+travelled river road south. Behind him Tinkletown raved and wailed over
+the great calamity, but generally stood impotent in the face of it all.
+But few felt inclined to pursue the robbers. Blake soon had the race to
+himself. It was a mile or more to the washout in the road, but the
+excitement made him keen for the test. The road ran through the woods
+and along the high bluff that overlooked the river. He did not know it,
+but this same road was a "short cut" to the macadam pike farther south.
+By taking this route the robbers gave Boggs City a wide berth.
+
+Blake's mind was full of the possibilities of disaster to the
+over-confident fugitives. The washout was fresh, and he was counting on
+the chance that they were not aware of its existence. If they struck it
+even at half speed the whole party would be hurled a hundred feet down
+to the edge of the river or into the current itself. In that event,
+some, if not all, would be seriously injured.
+
+As he neared the turn in the road, his course pointed out to him by the
+stars above, he was startled half out of his boots by the sudden
+appearance of a man, who staggered from the roadside and wobbled
+painfully away, pleading for mercy.
+
+"Halt, or I'll shoot!" called Jackie Blake, and the pathetic figure not
+only halted, but sat down in the middle of the road.
+
+"For the Lord's sake, don't shoot!" groaned a hoarse voice. "I wasn't in
+cahoots with them. They fooled me--they fooled me." It was Anderson
+Crow, and he would have gone on interminably had not Jackie Blake
+stopped him short.
+
+"You're the marshal, eh? The darned rube--"
+
+"Yes, I'm him. Call me anything, only don't shoot. Who are you?" groaned
+Anderson, rising to his knees. He was holding his revolvers by the
+muzzles. "Never mind who I am. I haven't time. Say, you'd better come
+with me. Maybe we can head off those villains. They came this way and--"
+
+"Show 'em to me," roared Anderson, recognising a friend. Rage surged up
+and drove out the shame in his soul. "I'll tackle the hull caboodle,
+dang 'em!" And he meant it, too.
+
+Blake did not stop to explain, but started on, commanding Mr. Crow to
+follow. With rare fore-thought the marshal donned his yellow beard as he
+panted in the trail of the lithe young actor. The latter remembered that
+the odds were heavily against him. The marshal might prove a valuable
+aid in case of resistance, provided, of course, that they came upon the
+robbers in the plight he was hoping for.
+
+"Where the dickens are you a-goin'?" wheezed the marshal, kicking up a
+great dust in the rear. The other did not answer. His whole soul was
+enveloped in the hope that the washout had trapped the robbers. He was
+almost praying that it might be so. The reward could be divided with the
+poor old marshal if--
+
+He gave a yell of delight, an instant later, and then began jumping
+straight up and down like one demented. Anderson Crow stopped so
+abruptly that his knees were stiff for weeks. Jackie Blake's wild dream
+had come true. The huge automobile had struck the washout, and it was
+now lying at the base of the bluff, smashed to pieces on the rocks! By
+the dim light from the heavens, Blake could see the black hulk down
+there, but it was too dark to distinguish other objects. He was about to
+descend to the river bank when Anderson Crow came up.
+
+"What's the matter, man?" panted he.
+
+"They're down there, don't you see it? They went over the bluff right
+here--come on. We've got 'em!"
+
+"Hold on!" exclaimed Anderson, grasping his arm. "Don't rush down there
+like a danged fool. If they're alive they can plug you full of bullets
+in no time. Let's be careful."
+
+"By thunder, you're right. You're a wise old owl, after all. I never
+thought of that. Let's reconnoitre."
+
+Tingling with excitement, the two oddly mated pursuers descended
+stealthily by a roundabout way. They climbed over rocks and crept
+through underbrush until finally they came to a clear spot not twenty
+feet from where the great machine was lying, at the very edge of the
+swift, deep current. They heard groans and faint cries, with now and
+then a piteous oath. From their hiding place they counted the forms of
+four men lying upon the rocks, as if dead. The two held a whispered
+consultation of war, a plan of action resulting.
+
+"Surrender!" shouted Jackie Blake, standing forth. He and Anderson had
+their pistols levelled upon the prostrate robbers. For answer there were
+louder groans, a fiercer oath or two and then a weak, pain-struck voice
+came out to them:
+
+"For God's sake, get this machine off my legs. I'm dying. Help! Help! We
+surrender!"
+
+Ten minutes later, the jubilant captors had released the miserable
+Andrew Gregory from his position beneath the machine, and had
+successfully bound the hands and feet of five half-unconscious men.
+Gregory's legs were crushed and one other's skull was cracked. The sixth
+man was nowhere to be found. The disaster had been complete, the
+downfall of the great train robbers inglorious. Looking up into the face
+of Anderson Crow, Gregory smiled through his pain and said hoarsely:
+
+"Damned rotten luck; but if we had to be taken, I'm glad you did it,
+Crow. You're a good fool, anyway. But for God's sake, get me to a
+doctor."
+
+"Dang it! I'm sorry fer you, Mr. Gregory--" began Anderson, ready to
+cry.
+
+"Don't waste your time, old man. I need the doctor. Are the others
+dead?" he groaned.
+
+"I don't know," replied Jackie Blake. "Some of them look like it. We
+can't carry you up that hill, but we'll do the next best thing. Marshal,
+I'll stay here and guard the prisoners while you run to the village for
+help--and doctors."
+
+"And run fast, Anderson," added Gregory. "You always were so devilish
+slow. Don't walk-trot."
+
+Soon afterward, when Anderson, fagged but overjoyed, hobbled into the
+village, the excited crowd was ready to lynch him, but with his first
+words the atmosphere changed.
+
+"Where is Jackie Blake?" sobbed a pretty young woman, grasping the proud
+marshal's arm and shaking him violently.
+
+"Derned if I know, ma'am. Was he stole?"
+
+She made him understand, and together, followed by the actors, the
+audience and the whole town, they led the way to the washout, the fair
+Rosalind dragging the overworked hero of the hour along at a gait which
+threatened to be his undoing.
+
+Later on, after the five bandits had been carried to the village, Jackie
+Blake gladly informed his sweetheart that they could have easy sailing
+with the seven thousand dollars he expected. Anderson Crow had agreed to
+take but three thousand dollars for his share in the capture. One of the
+robbers was dead. The body of the sixth was found in the river weeks
+afterward.
+
+"I'm glad I was the first on the ground," said Blake, in anticipation of
+the reward which was eventually to be handed over to him. "But Anderson
+Crow turned out to be a regular trump, after all. He's a corker!" He was
+speaking to Wicker Bonner and a crowd of New Yorkers.
+
+Tinkletown began to talk of a monument to Anderson Crow, even while he
+lived. The general opinion was that it should be erected while he was
+still able to enjoy it and not after his death, when he would not know
+anything about its size and cost.
+
+"By gosh! 'Twas a great capture!" swelling perceptibly. "I knowed they
+couldn't escape me. Dang 'em! they didn't figger on me, did they? Pshaw!
+it was reediculus of 'em to think they c'd fool me entirely, although
+I'll have to confess they did fool me at first. It was a desprit gang
+an' mighty slick."
+
+"You worked it great, Anderson," said George Ray. "Did you know about
+the washout?"
+
+"Did I know about it?" snorted Anderson witheringly. "Why, good Gosh
+a'mighty, didn't I purty near run my legs off to git there in time to
+throw down the barricade before they could get there with Mr. Bracken's
+automobile? Thunderation! What a fool question!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+Bill Briggs Tells a Tale
+
+
+Tinkletown fairly bubbled with excitement. At last the eyes of the world
+were upon it. News of the great sensation was flashed to the end of the
+earth; every detail was gone into with harrowing minuteness. The
+Hemisphere Company announced by telegraph that it stood ready to hand
+over the ten thousand dollars; and the sheriff of Bramble County with
+all the United States deputy marshals within reach raced at once to
+Tinkletown to stick a finger in the pie.
+
+The morning after the "great pavilion robbery," as it was called in the
+_Banner_, Anderson Crow and Bonner fared forth early to have a look at
+the injured desperadoes, all of whom were safely under guard at the
+reincarnated calaboose. Fifty armed men had stood guard all night long,
+notwithstanding the fact that one robber was dead and the others so
+badly injured that they were not expected to survive the day.
+
+A horseman passed the marshal and his friend near the post-office,
+riding rapidly to the north. He waved his crop pleasantly to them and
+Bonner responded. Anderson stopped stock still and tried to speak, but
+did not succeed for a full minute; he was dumb with excitement.
+
+"That's him!" he managed to gasp. "The feller I saw the other day--the
+man on horseback!"
+
+"That?" cried Bonner, laughing heartily. "Why, that is John E. Barnes,
+the lawyer and probably a United States Senator some day. Good heavens,
+Mr. Crow, you've made a bad guess of it this time! He is staying with
+Judge Brewster, his father-in-law."
+
+"What! Well, by Geminy! I thought I knowed him," cried Anderson. "They
+cain't fool me long, Wick--none of 'em. He's the same feller 'at run
+away with Judge Brewster's daughter more'n twenty year ago. 'y Gosh, I
+was standin' right on this very spot the first time I ever see him. He
+sold me a hoss and buggy--but I got the money back. I arrested him the
+same day."
+
+"Arrested John Barnes?" in amazement.
+
+"Yep--fer murder--only he wasn't the murderer. We follered him down the
+river--him an' the girl--to Bracken's place, but they were married afore
+we got there. Doggone, that was a busy day! Some blamed good detective
+work was did, too. I--"
+
+"And Mr. Barnes was interested in Rosalie?" asked Bonner suddenly. "How
+could he have known anything about her?"
+
+"That's what puzzles me. She came here about two years after the
+elopement more er less, but I don't remember ever seein' him after that
+time."
+
+"It's very strange, Mr. Crow," reflected Bonner soberly. "He has a son,
+I know. His wife died a year or so after the boy's birth. Young Barnes
+is about twenty-one, I think at this time. By George! I've heard it said
+that Barnes and his wife were not hitting it off very well. They say she
+died of a broken heart. I've heard mother speak of it often. I
+wonder--great heavens, it isn't possible that Rosalie can be
+connected in any way with John Barnes? Anderson Crow, I--I wonder if
+there is a possibility?" Bonner was quivering with excitement,
+wonder--and--unbelief.
+
+"I'm workin' on that clew," said Anderson as calmly as his tremors would
+permit. He was thrilled by the mere suggestion, but it was second nature
+for him to act as if every discovery were his own. "Ever sence I saw him
+on the road up there, I've been trackin' him. I tell you, Wick, he's my
+man. I've got it almost worked out. Just as soon as these blamed robbers
+are moved to Boggs City, er buried, I'm goin' over an' git the truth out
+of Mr. Barnes. I've been huntin' him fer twenty-one years." Anderson, of
+course, was forgetting that Barnes had slipped from his mind completely
+until Bonner nudged his memory into life.
+
+"It's a delicate matter, Mr. Crow. We must go about it carefully," said
+Bonner severely. "If Mr. Barnes is really interested in her, we can't
+find it out by blundering; if he is not interested, we can't afford to
+drag him into it. It will require tact--"
+
+"Thunderation, don't you suppose I know that?" exploded Anderson.
+"Detectives are allers tackin'. They got to, y' see, ef they're goin' to
+foller half a dozen clews at oncet. Gee whiz, Wick, leave this thing to
+me! I'll git at the bottom of it inside o' no time."
+
+"Wait a few days, Mr. Crow," argued Bonner, playing for time. "Don't
+hurry. We've got all we can do now to take care of the fellows you and
+that young actor captured last night." The young man's plan was to keep
+Anderson off the trail entirely and give the seemingly impossible clew
+into the possession of the New York bureau.
+
+"I don't know what I'd 'a' done ef it hadn't been fer that young
+feller," said the marshal. "He was right smart help to me last night."
+Bonner, who knew the true story, suppressed a smile and loved the old
+man none the less for his mild deception.
+
+They entered the "calaboose," which now had all the looks and odours of
+a hospital. A half-dozen doctors had made the four injured men as
+comfortable as possible. They were stretched on mattresses in the jail
+dining-room, guarded by a curious horde of citizens.
+
+"That's Gregory!" whispered Anderson, as they neared the suffering
+group. He pointed to the most distant cot. "That's jest the way he swore
+last night. He must 'a' shaved in the automobile last night," though
+Gregory had merely discarded the false whiskers he had worn for days.
+
+"Wait!" exclaimed Bonner, stopping short beside the first cot. He
+stooped and peered intently into the face of the wounded bandit. "By
+George!"
+
+"What's up?"
+
+"As I live, Mr. Crow, this fellow was one of the gang that abducted
+Rosalie Gray last winter. I can swear to it. Don't you remember the one
+she tried to intercede for? Briggs! That's it! Briggs!"
+
+The injured man slowly opened his eyes as the name was half shouted. A
+sickly grin spread slowly over his pain-racked face.
+
+"She tried to intercede fer me, did she?" he murmured weakly. "She said
+she would. She was square."
+
+"You were half decent to her," said Bonner. "How do you happen to be
+with this gang? Another kidnaping scheme afloat?"
+
+"No--not that I know of. Ain't you the guy that fixed us? Say, on the
+dead, I was goin' to do the right thing by her that night. I was duckin'
+the gang when you slugged me. Honest, mister, I was goin' to put her
+friends next. Say, I don't know how bad I'm hurt, but if I ever git to
+trial, do what you can fer me, boss. On the dead, I was her friend."
+
+Bonner saw pity in Anderson's face and rudely dragged him away, although
+Bill's plea was not addressed to the old marshal.
+
+"Wait for me out here, Mr. Crow," said he when they reached the office.
+"You are overcome. I'll talk to him." He returned at once to the injured
+man's cot.
+
+"Look here, Briggs, I'll do what I can for you, but I'm afraid it won't
+help much. What do the doctors say?"
+
+"If they ain't lyin', I'll be up an' about in a few weeks. Shoulder and
+some ribs cracked and my legs stove up. I can't move. God, that was an
+awful tumble!" He shuddered in memory of the auto's leap.
+
+"Is Sam or Davy in this gang?"
+
+"No; Davy's at Blackwell's Island, an' Sam told me he was goin' to
+Canada fer his health. Jim Courtney is the leader of this gang. He
+sailed under the name of Gregory. That's him swearin' at the rubes."
+
+"The thing for you to do is to make a clean breast of it, Briggs. It
+will go easier with you."
+
+"Turn State's evidence? What good will that do when we was all caught
+with the goods?"
+
+"If you will tell us all of the inside facts concerning the abduction
+I'll guarantee that something can be done to lighten your sentence. I am
+Congressman Bonner's nephew."
+
+"So? I thought you was the swellest hold-up man I ever met, that night
+out in the woods. You'd do credit to Sam Welch himself. I'll tell you
+all I know, pardner, but it ain't a great deal. It won't do me any good
+to keep my mouth shut now, an', if you say so, it may help me to squeal.
+But, fer the Lord's sake, have one of these rotten doctors give me
+something to make me sleep. Don't they know what morphine is for?"
+
+Growling and cursing at the doctors, Bill was moved into the office.
+Anderson came in from the dining-room at that juncture, visibly excited.
+
+"I've got a confession from Gregory," he said. "He confesses that he
+oughter be hung."
+
+"What!"
+
+"That's what he said--'y ginger. Here's his very words, plain as day: 'I
+oughter be hung half a dozen times.' 'What fer?' says I. 'Fer bein' sech
+a damned ass,' said he. 'But that ain't a hangable offence,' said I.
+You know, I kinder like Gregory, spite of all. 'It's the worst crime in
+the world,' said he. 'Then you confess you've committed it?' said I,
+anxious to pin him right down to it, y' see.' 'ou bet I do. Ef they hang
+me it'll be because I'm a drivelling idiot, an' not because I've shot
+one er two in my time. Nobody but an ass could be caught at it, an'
+that's why I feel so infernal guilty. Look here, Mr. Crow, ever' time
+you see a feller that's proved himself a downright ass, jest take him
+out an' lynch him. He deserves it, that's all I've got to say. The
+greatest crime in the world is criminal neglect.' Don't bother me now,
+Wick; I'm going to write that down an' have him sign it."
+
+"Look here, pard," said Bill Briggs, laboriously breaking in upon their
+conversation; "I want to do the right thing by you an' her as fer as I
+can. You've been good to me, an' I won't fergit it. Besides, you said
+you'd make things easy fer me if I told you what I knowed about that job
+last winter. Well, I'd better tell it now, 'cause I'm liable to pass in
+my checks before these doctors git through with me. An' besides, they'll
+be haulin' me off to the county seat in a day or two. Now, this is dead
+straight, I'm goin' to give you. Maybe it won't help you none, but 'll
+give you a lead."
+
+"Go on," cried Bonner breathlessly.
+
+"Well, Sam Welch come to me in Branigan's place one night--that's in
+Fourt' Avenue--an' says he's got a big job on. We went over to Davy
+Wolfe's house an' found him an' his mother--the old fairy, you remember.
+Well, to make it short, Sam said it was a kidnaping job an' the Wolfes
+was to be in on it because they used to live in this neighbourhood an'
+done a lot of work here way back in the seventies. There was to be five
+thousand dollars in the job if we got that girl safe on board a ship
+bound fer Europe. Sam told us that the guy what engineered the game was
+a swell party an' a big boy in politics, finance, society an' ever'thin'
+else. He could afford to pay, but he didn't want to be seen in the job.
+Nobody but Sam ever seen his face. Sam used to be in politics some. Jest
+before we left New York to come up here, the swell guy comes around to
+Davy's with another guy fer final orders. See? It was as cold as h----
+as the dickens--an' the two of 'em was all muffled up so's we couldn't
+get a pipe at their mugs. One of 'em was old--over fifty, I guess--an'
+the other was a young chap. I'm sure of that.
+
+"They said that one or the other of 'em would be in this neighbourhood
+when the job was pulled off; that one thousand dollars would be paid
+down when we started; another thousand when we got 'er into the cave;
+and the rest when we had 'er at the dock in New York--alive an' unhurt.
+See? We was given to understand that she was to travel all the rest of
+'er life fer 'er health. I remember one thing plain: The old man said to
+the young 'un: 'She must not know a thing of this, or it will ruin
+everything.' He wasn't referrin' to the girl either. There was another
+woman in the case. They seemed mighty anxious to pull the job off
+without this woman gettin' next.
+
+"Well, we got ready to start, and the two parties coughed up the
+thousand plunks--that is, the young 'un handed it over to Sam when the
+old 'un told him to. Sam took three hundred and the rest of us two
+hundred a piece. When they were lookin' from the winder to see that
+nobody on the streets was watchin' the house, I asked Sam if he knowed
+either of them by name. He swore he didn't, but I think he lied. But
+jest before they left the house, I happened to look inside of the old
+boy's hat--he had a stiff dicer. There was a big gilt letter in the top
+of it."
+
+"What was that letter?" demanded Bonner eagerly.
+
+"It was a B."
+
+Bonner looked at Anderson as if the floor were being drawn from under
+his feet.
+
+"The young chap said somethin' low to the old 'un about takin' the night
+train back to the University an' comin' down again Saturday."
+
+"To the University? Which one? Did he mention the name?" cried Bonner.
+
+"No. That's all he said."
+
+"Good heavens, if it should be!" said Bonner as if to himself.
+
+"Well, we come up here an' done the job. You know about that, I guess.
+Sam saw the young feller one night up at Boggs City, an' got
+instructions from him. He was to help us git 'er away from here in an
+automobile, an' the old man was to go across the ocean with 'er. That's
+all I know. It didn't turn out their way that time, but Sam says it's
+bound to happen."
+
+Bonner, all eagerness and excitement, quickly looked around for
+Anderson, but the marshal had surreptitiously left the room. Then,
+going over to the door, he called for Anderson Crow. Bud Long was there.
+
+"Anderson left five minutes ago, Mr. Bonner, hurryin' like the dickens,
+too," he said. "He's gone to hunt up a feller named Barnes. He told me
+to tell you when you came out."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+Elsie Banks Returns
+
+
+Bonner, considerably annoyed and alarmed by the marshal's actions, made
+every effort to turn him back before he could ruin everything by an
+encounter with Mr. Barnes. He sent men on bicycles and horseback to
+overtake him; but the effort was unsuccessful. Mr. Crow had secured a
+"ride" in an automobile which had brought two newspaper correspondents
+over from Boggs City. They speeded furiously in order to catch a train
+for New York, but agreed to drop the marshal at the big bridge, not more
+than a mile from Judge Brewster's place.
+
+Chagrined beyond expression, he made ready to follow Anderson with all
+haste in his own machine. Rosalie hurriedly perfected preparations to
+accompany him. She was rejoining the house party that day, was consumed
+by excitement over the situation, and just as eager as Bonner to
+checkmate the untimely operations of poor old Anderson Crow.
+
+The marshal had more than half an hour's start of them. Bonner was his
+own chauffeur and he was a reckless one to-day. Luck was against him at
+the outset. The vigorous old detective inspired to real speed, for the
+first time in his lackadaisacal life, left the newspaper men at the
+bridge nearly three-quarters of an hour before Bonner passed the same
+spot, driving furiously up the hill toward Judge Brewster's.
+
+"If your bothersome old daddy gets his eyes on Barnes before I can head
+him off, dearest, the jig will be up," groaned Bonner, the first words
+he had spoken in miles. "Barnes will be on his guard and ready for
+anything. The old--pardon me, for saying it--the old jay ought to know
+the value of discretion in a case like this."
+
+"Poor old daddy," she sighed, compassion in her heart. "He thinks he is
+doing it for the best. Wicker, I hope it is--it is not Mr. Barnes," she
+added, voicing a thought which had been struggling in her mind for a
+long time.
+
+"Why not, dearest?"
+
+"It would mean one of two things. Either he does not want to recognise
+me as his child--or cannot, which is even worse. Wicker, I don't want to
+know the truth. I am afraid--I am afraid."
+
+She was trembling like a leaf and there was positive distress in her
+eyes, eyes half covered by lids tense with alarm.
+
+"Don't feel that way about it, dear," cried he, recovering from his
+astonishment and instantly grasping the situation as it must have
+appeared to her. "To tell you the truth, I do not believe that Mr.
+Barnes is related to you in any way. If he is connected with the case at
+all, it is in the capacity of attorney."
+
+"But he is supposed to be an honourable man."
+
+"True, and I still believe him to be. It does not seem possible that he
+can be engaged in such work as this. We are going altogether on
+supposition--putting two and two together, don't you know, and hoping
+they will stick. But, in any event, we must not let any chance slip by.
+If he is interested, we must bring him to time. It may mean the
+unravelling of the whole skein, dear. Don't look so distressed. Be
+brave. It doesn't matter what we learn in the end, I love you just the
+same. You shall be my wife."
+
+"I _do_ love you, Wicker. I will always love you."
+
+"Dear little sweetheart!"
+
+They whirled up to the lodge gate at Judge Brewster's place at last, the
+throbbing machine coming to a quick stop. Before he called out to the
+lodge keeper, Bonner impulsively drew her gloveless hand to his lips.
+
+"Nothing can make any difference now," he said.
+
+The lodge keeper, in reply to Bonner's eager query, informed them that
+Mr. Barnes had gone away ten or fifteen minutes before with an old man
+who claimed to be a detective, and who had placed the great lawyer under
+arrest.
+
+"Good Lord!" gasped Bonner with a sinking heart.
+
+"It's an outrage, sir! Mr. Barnes is the best man in the world. He never
+wronged no one, sir. There's an 'orrible mistake, sir," groaned the
+lodge keeper. "Judge Brewster is in Boggs City, and the man wouldn't
+wait for his return. He didn't even want to tell Mr. Barnes what 'e was
+charged with."
+
+"Did you ever hear of anything so idiotic?" roared Bonner. Rosalie was
+white and red by turn. "What direction did they take?"
+
+"The constable told Mr. Barnes he'd 'ave to go to Tinkletown with 'im at
+once, sir, even if he 'ad to walk all the way. The old chap said
+something, sir, about a man being there who could identify him on sight.
+Mr. Barnes 'ad to laugh, sir, and appeared to take it all in good
+humour. He said he'd go along of 'im, but he wouldn't walk. So he got
+his own auto out, sir, and they went off together. They took the short
+cut, sir, by the ferry road, 'eaded for Tinkletown. Mr. Barnes said he'd
+be back before noon, sir--if he wasn't lynched."
+
+"It's all over," groaned Bonner dejectedly. Something had slipped from
+under his feet and he was dangling in space, figuratively speaking.
+"There's nothing to do, Rosalie, except to chase them down. Mr. Crow has
+ruined everything. I'll leave you at Bonner Place with mother and Edith,
+and I'll hurry back to Tinkletown."
+
+The excitement was too much for Rosalie's nerves. She was in a state of
+physical collapse when he set her down at his uncle's summer home half
+an hour later. Leaving her to explain the situation to the curious
+friends, he set speed again for Tinkletown, inwardly cursing Anderson
+Crow for a meddling old fool.
+
+In the meantime Tinkletown was staring open-mouthed upon a new
+sensation. The race between Anderson and Bonner was hardly under way
+when down the main street of the town came a jaded team and surrey.
+Behind the driver sat a pretty young woman with an eager expression on
+her pale face, her gaze bent intently on the turn in the street which
+hid Anderson Crow's home from view. Beside the young woman lounged
+another of her sex, much older, and to all appearances, in a precarious
+state of health. The young men along the street gasped in amazement and
+then ventured to doff their timid hats to the young woman, very much as
+if they were saluting a ghost. Few of them received a nod of recognition
+from Elsie Banks, one-time queen of all their hearts.
+
+Roscoe Crow bounded out to the gate when he saw who was in the carriage,
+first shouting to his mother and sisters, who were indoors receiving
+congratulations and condolences from their neighbours.
+
+Miss Banks immediately inquired if she could see Rosalie.
+
+"She ain't here," said Roscoe. "She's away fer a month--over at the
+Bonners'. He's her feller, you know. Ma! Here's Miss Banks! Edner! Sue!"
+Mrs. Crow and the girls flew out to the gate, babbling their surprise
+and greetings.
+
+"This is my mother," introduced the young lady. "We have just come from
+New York, Mrs. Crow. We sail for England this week, and I must see
+Rosalie before we go. How can we get to Mr. Bonner's place?"
+
+"It's across the river, about twelve miles from here," said Mrs. Crow.
+"Come in and rest yourselves. You don't have to go back to-day, do you?
+Ain't you married yet?"
+
+"No, Mrs. Crow," responded Elsie, with a stiff, perfunctory smile.
+"Thank you, we cannot stop. It is necessary that we return to New York
+to-night, but I must see Rosalie before going. You see, Mrs. Crow, I do
+not expect to return to America. We are to live in London forever, I
+fear. It may be the last chance I'll have to see Rosalie. I must go on
+to Bonner Place to-day. But, dear me, I am so tired and hot, and it is
+so far to drive," she cried ruefully. "Do you know the way, driver?" The
+driver gruffly admitted that he did not. Roscoe eagerly bridged the
+difficulty by offering to act as pathfinder.
+
+At first Mrs. Banks tried to dissuade her daughter from undertaking the
+long trip, but the girl was obstinate. Her mother then flatly refused to
+accompany her, complaining of her head and heart. In the end the elder
+lady decided to accept Mrs. Crow's invitation to remain at the house
+until Elsie's return.
+
+"I shall bring Rosalie back with me, mother," said Elsie as she prepared
+to drive away. Mrs. Banks, frail and wan, bowed her head listlessly and
+turned to follow her hostess indoors. With Roscoe in the seat with the
+driver, the carriage started briskly off down the shady street, headed
+for the ferry road and Bonner Place.
+
+To return to Anderson Crow and his precipitancy. Just as the lodge
+keeper had said, the marshal, afoot and dusty, descended upon Mr. Barnes
+without ceremony. The great lawyer was strolling about the grounds when
+his old enemy arrived. He recognised the odd figure as it approached
+among the trees.
+
+"Hello, Mr. Crow!" he called cheerily. "Are you going to arrest me
+again?" He advanced to shake hands.
+
+"Yes, sir; you are my prisoner," said Anderson, panting, but stern. "I
+know you, Mr. Barnes. It won't do you any good to deny it."
+
+"Come in and sit down. You look tired," said Barnes genially, regarding
+his words as a jest; but Anderson proudly stood his ground.
+
+"You can't come any game with me. It won't do you no good to be perlite,
+my man. This time you don't git away."
+
+"You don't mean to say you are in earnest?" cried Barnes.
+
+"I never joke when on duty. Come along with me. You c'n talk afterward.
+Your hirelin' is in jail an' he c'n identify you; so don't resist."
+
+"Wait a moment, sir. What is the charge?"
+
+"I don't know yet. You know better'n I do what it is."
+
+"Look here, Mr. Crow. You arrested me the first time I ever saw you, and
+now you yank me up again, after all these years. Haven't you anything
+else to do but arrest me by mistake? Is that your only occupation?"
+
+Anderson sputtered indignantly. Driven to it, he informed John Barnes
+that he was charged with kidnaping, attempted murder, polygamy, child
+desertion, and nearly everything else under the sun. Barnes, at first
+indignant, finally broke into a hearty laugh. He magnanimously agreed to
+accompany his captor to Tinkletown. Not only that, but he provided the
+means of transportation. To the intense dismay of the servants, he
+merrily departed with Mr. Crow, a prisoner operating his own patrol
+wagon. The two were smoking the captive's best cigars.
+
+"It's mighty nice of you, Mr. Barnes, to let us use your autermobile,"
+said Anderson, benignly puffing away as they bowled off through the
+dust. "It would 'a' been a long walk. I'll speak a good word fer you fer
+this."
+
+"Don't mention it, old chap. I rather enjoy it. It's been uncommonly
+dull up here. I did not get away as soon as I expected, you see. So I am
+charged with being Rosalie's father, eh? And deserting her? And
+kidnaping her? By jove, I ought to be hung for all this!"
+
+"'Tain't nothin' to laugh at, my friend. You ought to be ashamed of
+yourself. I was onto you the day you stopped me in the road an' ast
+about her. What a fool you was. Reg'lar dead give-away."
+
+"See here, Mr. Crow, I don't like to upset your hopes and calculations,"
+said Barnes soberly. "I did that once before, you remember. That was
+years ago. You were wrong then, and you are wrong now. Shall I tell you
+why I am interested in this pretty waif of yours?"
+
+"It ain't necessary," protested the marshal.
+
+"I'll tell you just the same. My son met her in New York while he was at
+school. He heard her story from mutual friends and repeated it to me. I
+was naturally interested, and questioned you. He said she was very
+pretty. That is the whole story, my dear sir."
+
+"That's all very purty, but how about the B in your hat?"
+
+"I don't understand. Oh, you mean the political bee?"
+
+"Politics, your granny! I mean the 'nitial that Briggs saw. No; hold on!
+Don't answer. Don't say anything that'll incriminate yourself."
+
+"I never had an initial in my hat, and I don't know Briggs. Mr. Crow,
+you are as crazy as a loon." He prepared to bring the machine to a
+standstill. "I'm going home. You can ride back with me or get out and
+walk on, just as you please."
+
+"Hold on! Don't do that! I'll see that you're paid fer the use of the
+machine. Besides, consarn ye, you're my prisoner." This was too much for
+Barnes. He laughed long and loud, and he did not turn back.
+
+Just beyond the ferry they turned aside to permit a carriage to pass. A
+boy on the box with the driver shouted frantically after them, and
+Anderson tried to stop the machine himself.
+
+"Stop her!" he cried; "that's Roscoe, my boy. Hold on! Who's that with
+him? Why, by cracky, it's Miss Banks! Gee whiz, has she come back here
+to teach again? Whoa! Turn her around, Mr. Barnes. They are motionin'
+fer us to come back. 'Pears to be important, too."
+
+Barnes obligingly turned around and ran back to where the carriage was
+standing. An hour later the automobile rolled into the driveway at
+Bonner Place, and Anderson Crow, a glorious triumph in his face, handed
+Miss Banks from the tonneau and into the arms of Rosalie Gray, who at
+first had mistaken the automobile for another. Pompous to the point of
+explosion, Anderson waved his hand to the party assembled on the
+veranda, strolled around to Mr. Barnes's seat and acquired a light for
+his cigar with a nonchalance that almost overcame his one-time prisoner,
+and then said, apparently to the whole world, for he addressed no one in
+particular:
+
+"I knowed I could solve the blamed thing if they'd jest give me time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+The Story is Told
+
+
+Elsie Banks had a small and select audience in Mrs. Bonner's room
+upstairs. She had come from New York--or from California, strictly
+speaking--to furnish the narrative which was to set Rosalie Gray's mind
+at rest forever-more. It was not a pleasant task; it was not an easy
+sacrifice for this spirited girl who had known luxury all her life. Her
+spellbound hearers were Mrs. Bonner and Edith, Wicker Bonner, Anderson
+Crow, Rosalie, and John E. Barnes, who, far from being a captive of the
+law, was now Miss Gray's attorney, retained some hours before by his
+former captor.
+
+"I discharge you, sir," Anderson had said, after hearing Miss Bank's
+statement in the roadway. "You are no longer a prisoner. Have you
+anything to say, sir?"
+
+"Nothing, Mr. Crow, except to offer my legal services to you and your
+ward in this extraordinary matter. Put the matter in my hands, sir, and
+she shall soon come into her own, thanks to this young lady. I may add
+that, as I am not in the habit of soliciting clients, it is not my
+intention in this instance to exact a fee from your ward. My services
+are quite free, given in return, Mr. Crow, for the magnanimous way in
+which you have taken me into your confidence ever since I have known
+you. It is an honour to have been arrested by you; truthfully it is no
+disgrace."
+
+In the privacy of Mrs. Bonner's sitting-room, Elsie Banks, dry-eyed and
+bitter, told the story of her life. I cannot tell it as she did, for she
+was able to bring tears to the eyes of her listeners. It is only for me
+to relate the bare facts, putting them into her words as closely as
+possible. Rosalie Gray, faint with astonishment and incredulity, a lump
+in her throat that would not go down, and tears in her eyes, leaned back
+in an easy-chair and watched her unhappy friend.
+
+"I shall provide Mr. Barnes with proof of everything I say," said Miss
+Banks. "There can be no difficulty, Rosalie dear, in confirming all that
+I have to tell. If you will permit me to relate the story without
+interruption and afterward let me go my way without either pity or
+contempt, I shall be, oh, so grateful to you all--especially to you,
+dear Rosalie. Believe me I love you with my whole soul.
+
+"I have come to you voluntarily, and my mother, who is in Tinkletown, in
+resigning herself to the calls of conscience, is now happier than she
+has ever been before. A more powerful influence than her own will or her
+own honour, an influence that was evil to the core, inspired her to
+countenance this awful wrong. It also checkmated every good impulse she
+may have had to undo it in after years. That influence came from Oswald
+Banks, a base monster to whom my mother was married when I was a year
+old. My mother was the daughter of Lord Abbott Brace, but married my own
+father, George Stuart, who was a brilliant but radical newspaper writer
+in London, against her father's wish. For this he cast her off and
+disinherited her. Grandfather hated him and his views, and he could not
+forgive my mother even after my father died, which was two years after
+their marriage.
+
+"Lord Richard Brace, my mother's only brother, married the daughter of
+the Duchess of B----. You, Rosalie, are Lady Rosalie Brace of Brace
+Hall, W--shire, England, the true granddaughter of General Lord Abbott
+Brace, one of the noblest and richest men of his day. Please let me go
+on; I cannot endure the interruptions. The absolute, unalterable proof
+of what I say shall be established through the confession of my own
+mother, in whose possession lies every document necessary to give back
+to you that which she would have given to me.
+
+"Your mother died a few weeks after you were born, and Sir Richard, who
+loved my mother in the face of his father's displeasure, placed you in
+her care, while he rushed off, heart-broken, to find solace in Egypt. It
+is said that he hated you because you were the cause of her death. On
+the day after your birth, old Lord Brace changed his will and bequeathed
+a vast amount of unentailed property to you, to be held in trust by your
+father until you were twenty-one years of age. I was almost two years
+old at the time, and the old man, unexpectedly compassionate, inserted a
+provision which, in the event that you were to die before that time,
+gave all this money to me on my twenty-first birthday. The interest on
+this money, amounting to five thousand pounds annually, was to go to
+you regularly, in one case, or to me, in the other. Oswald Banks was an
+American, whom my mother had met in London several years prior to her
+first marriage. He was the London representative of a big Pennsylvania
+manufacturing concern. He was ambitious, unscrupulous and clever beyond
+conception. He still is all of these and more, for he is now a coward.
+
+"Well, it was he who concocted the diabolical scheme to one day get
+possession of your inheritance. He coerced my poor mother into
+acquiescense, and she became his wretched tool instead of an honoured
+wife and helpmate. One night, when you were three weeks old, the house
+in which we lived was burned to the ground, the inmates narrowly
+escaping. So narrow was the escape, in fact, that you were said to have
+been left behind in the confusion, and the world was told, the next day,
+that the granddaughter of Lord Brace had been destroyed by the flames.
+
+"The truth, however, was not told. My stepfather did not dare to go so
+far as to kill you. It was he who caused the fire, but he had you
+removed to a small hotel in another part of the city some hours earlier,
+secretly, of course, but in charge of a trusted maid. My mother was
+responsible for this. She would not listen to his awful plan to leave
+you in the house. But you might just as well have died. No one was the
+wiser and you were given up as lost. A week later, my mother and Mr.
+Banks started for America. You and I were with them, but you went as the
+daughter of a maid-servant--Ellen Hayes.
+
+"This is the story as my mother has told it to me after all these years.
+My stepfather's plan, of course, was to place you where you could never
+be found, and then to see to it that our grandfather did not succeed in
+changing his will. Moreover, he was bound and determined that he himself
+should be named as trustee--when the fortune came over at Lord Brace's
+death. That part of it turned out precisely as he had calculated. Let me
+go on a few months in advance of my story. Lord Brace died, and the will
+was properly probated and the provisions carried out. Brace Hall and the
+estates went to your father and the bequest came to me, for you were
+considered dead. My stepfather was made trustee. He gave bond in England
+and America, I believe. In any event, the fortune was to be mine when I
+reached the age of twenty-one, but each year the income, nearly
+twenty-five thousand dollars, was to be paid to my stepfather as
+trustee, to be safely invested by him. My mother's name was not
+mentioned in the document, except once, to identify me as the
+beneficiary. I can only add to this phase of the hateful conspiracy,
+that for nineteen years my stepfather received this income, and that he
+used it to establish his own fortune. By investing what was supposed to
+be my money, he has won his own way to wealth.
+
+"Mr. Banks decided that the operations were safest from this side of the
+Atlantic. He and my mother took up their residence in New York, and it
+has been their home ever since. He spent the first half year after your
+suspected death in London, solely for the purpose of establishing
+himself in Lord Brace's favour. Within a year after the death of Lord
+Brace your father was killed by a poacher on the estate. He had but
+lately returned from Egypt, and was in full control of the lands and
+property attached to Brace Hall. If my stepfather had designs upon Brace
+Hall, they failed, for the lands and the title went at once to your
+father's cousin, Sir Harry Brace, the present lord.
+
+"So much for the conditions in England then and now. I now return to
+that part of the story which most interests and concerns you. My poor
+mother was compelled, within a fortnight after we landed in New York, to
+give up the dangerous infant who was always to hang like a cloud between
+fortune and honour. The maid-servant was paid well for her silence. By
+the way, she died mysteriously soon after coming to America, but not
+before giving to my mother a signed paper setting forth clearly every
+detail in so far as it bore upon her connection with the hateful
+transaction. Conscience was forever at work in my mother's heart; honour
+was constantly struggling to the surface, only to be held back by fear
+of and loyalty to the man she loved.
+
+"It was decided that the most humane way to put you out of existence was
+to leave you on the doorstep of some kindly disposed person, far from
+New York. My stepfather and my mother deliberately set forth on this
+so-called mission of mercy. They came north, and by chance, fell in with
+a resident of Boggs City while in the station at Albany. They were
+debating which way to turn for the next step. My mother was firm in the
+resolve that you should be left in the care of honest, reliable,
+tender-hearted people, who would not abuse the trust she was to impose.
+The Boggs City man said he had been in Albany to see about a bill in the
+legislature, which was to provide for the erection of a monument in
+Tinkletown--where a Revolutionary battle had been fought. It was he who
+spoke of Anderson Crow, and it was his stories of your goodness and
+generosity, Mr. Crow, that caused them to select you as the man who was
+to have Rosalie, and, with her, the sum of one thousand dollars a year
+for your trouble and her needs.
+
+"My mother's description of that stormy night in February, more than
+twenty-one years ago, is the most pitiful thing I have ever listened to.
+Together they made their way to Tinkletown, hiring a vehicle in Boggs
+City for the purpose. Mr. Banks left the basket on your porch while
+mother stood far down the street and waited for him, half frozen and
+heartsick. Then they hurried out of town and were soon safely on their
+way to New York. It was while my stepfather was in London, later on,
+that mother came up to see Rosalie and make that memorable first payment
+to Mr. Crow. How it went on for years, you all know. It was my
+stepfather's cleverness that made it so impossible to learn the source
+from which the mysterious money came.
+
+"We travelled constantly, always finding new places of interest in which
+my mother's conscience could be eased by contact with beauty and
+excitement. Gradually she became hardened to the conditions, for, after
+all, was it not her own child who was to be enriched by the theft and
+the deception? Mr. Banks constantly forced that fact in upon her
+mother-love and her vanity. Through it all, however, you were never
+neglected nor forgotten. My mother had your welfare always in mind. It
+was she who saw that you and I were placed at the same school in New
+York, and it was she who saw that your training in a way was as good as
+it could possibly be without exciting risk.
+
+"Of course, I knew nothing of all this. I was rolling in wealth and
+luxury, but not in happiness. Instinctively I loathed my stepfather. He
+was hard, cruel, unreasonable. It was because of him that I left school
+and afterward sought to earn my own living. You know, Rosalie, how Tom
+Reddon came into my life. He was the son of William Reddon, my
+stepfather's business partner, who had charge of the Western branch of
+the concern in Chicago. We lived in Chicago for several years,
+establishing the business. Mr. Banks was until recently president of the
+Banks & Reddon Iron Works. Last year, you doubtless know, the plant was
+sold to the great combine and the old company passed out of existence.
+This act was the result of a demand from England that the trust under
+which he served be closed and struck from the records. It was his plan
+to settle the matter, turn the inheritance over to me according to law,
+and then impose upon my inexperience for all time to come. The money,
+while mine literally, was to be his in point of possession.
+
+"But he had reckoned without the son of his partner. Tom Reddon in some
+way learned the secret, and he was compelled to admit the young man into
+all of his plans. This came about some three years ago, while I was in
+school. I had known Tom Reddon in Chicago. He won my love. I cannot deny
+it, although I despise him to-day more deeply than I ever expect to hate
+again. He was even more despicable than my stepfather. Without the
+faintest touch of pity, he set about to obliterate every chance Rosalie
+could have had for restitution. Time began to prove to me that he was
+not the man I thought him to be. His nature revealed itself; and I found
+I could not marry him. Besides, my mother was beginning to repent. She
+awoke from her stupor of indifference and strove in every way to
+circumvent the plot of the two conspirators, so far as I was concerned.
+The strain told on her at last, and we went to California soon after my
+ridiculous flight from Tinkletown last winter. It was not until after
+that adventure that I began to see deep into the wretched soul of Tom
+Reddon.
+
+"Then came the most villainous part of the whole conspiracy. Reddon,
+knowing full well that exposure was possible at any time, urged my
+stepfather to have you kidnaped and hurried off to some part of the
+world where you could never be found. Even Reddon did not have the
+courage to kill you. Neither had the heart to commit actual murder. It
+was while we were at Colonel Randall's place that the abduction took
+place, you remember. Mr. Banks and Tom Reddon had engaged their men in
+New York. These desperadoes came to Boggs City while Tom was here to
+watch their operations. All the time Mr. Crow was chasing us down
+Reddon was laughing in his sleeve, for he knew what was to happen during
+the marshal's absence. You know how successfully he managed the job. It
+was my stepfather's fault that it did not succeed.
+
+"My mother, down in New York, driven to the last extreme, had finally
+turned on him and demanded that he make restitution to Rosalie Gray, as
+we had come to know her. Of course, there was a scene and almost a
+catastrophe. He was so worried over the position she was taking, that he
+failed to carry out his part of the plans, which were to banish Rosalie
+forever from this country. You were to have been taken to Paris, dear,
+and kept forever in one of those awful sanitoriums. They are worse than
+the grave. In the meantime, the delay gave Mr. Bonner a chance to rescue
+you from the kidnapers.
+
+"Shortly after reaching New York I quarrelled with Thomas Reddon, and my
+mother and I fled to California. He followed us and sought a
+reconciliation. I loathed him so much by this time, that I appealed to
+my mother. It was then that she told me this miserable story, and that
+is why we are in Tinkletown to-day. We learned in some way of the plot
+to kidnap you and to place you where you could not be found. The inhuman
+scheme of my stepfather and his adviser was to have my mother declared
+insane and confined in an asylum, where her truthful utterances could
+never be heard by the world, or if they were, as the ravings of a mad
+woman.
+
+"The day that we reached New York my mother _placed_ the documents and
+every particle of proof in her possession in the hands of the British
+Consul. The story was told to him and also to certain attorneys. A
+member of his firm visited my stepfather and confronted him with the
+charges. That very night Mr. Banks disappeared, leaving behind him a
+note, in which he said we should never see his face again. Tom Reddon
+has gone to Europe. My mother and I expect to sail this week for
+England, and I have come to ask Rosalie to accompany us. I want her to
+stand at last on the soil which knows her to be Rosalie Brace. The
+fortune which was mine last week is hers to-day. We are not poor,
+Rosalie dear, but we are not as rich as we were when we had all that
+belonged to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+Anderson Crow's Resignation
+
+
+Some days later Anderson Crow returned to Tinkletown from New York,
+where he had seen Rosalie Bonner and her husband off for England,
+accompanied by Mrs. Banks and Elsie, who had taken passage on the same
+steamer. He was attired in a brand-new suit of blue serge, a panama hat,
+and patent-leather shoes which hurt his feet. Moreover, he carried a new
+walking stick with a great gold head and there was a huge pearl
+scarf-pin in his necktie Besides all this, his hair and beard had been
+trimmed to perfection by a Holland House barber. Every morning his wife
+was obliged to run a flatiron over his trousers to perpetuate the
+crease. Altogether Anderson was a revelation not only to his family and
+to the town at large, but to himself as well. He fairly staggered every
+time he got a glimpse of himself in the shop windows.
+
+All day long he strolled about the street, from store to store, or
+leaned imposingly against every post that presented itself conveniently.
+Naturally he was the talk of the town.
+
+"Gee-mi-nently!" ejaculated Alf Reesling, catching sight of him late in
+the day. "Is that the president?"
+
+"It's Anderson Crow," explained Blootch Peabody.
+
+"Who's dead?" demanded Alf.
+
+"What's that got to do with it?"
+
+"Why, whose clothes is he wearin'?" pursued Alf, utterly overcome by the
+picture.
+
+"You'd better not let him hear you say that," cautioned Isaac Porter.
+"He got 'em in New York. He says young Mr. Bonner give 'em to him fer a
+weddin' present. Rosalie give him a pearl dingus to wear in his cravat,
+an' derned ef he don't have to wear a collar all the time now. That
+lawyer Barnes give him the cane. Gee whiz! he looks like a king, don't
+he?"
+
+At that moment Anderson approached the group in front of Lamson's store.
+He walked with a stateliness that seemed to signify pain in his lower
+extremities more than it did dignity higher up.
+
+"How fer out do you reckon they are by this time, Blootch?" he asked
+earnestly.
+
+"'Bout ten miles further than when you asked while ago," responded
+Blootch, consulting his watch.
+
+"Well, that ought to get 'em to Liverpool sometime soon then. They took
+a powerful fast ship. Makes it in less 'n six days, they say. Let's see.
+They sailed day before yesterday. They must be out sight o' land by this
+time."
+
+"Yes, unless they're passin' some islands," agreed Blootch.
+
+"Thunderation! What air you talkin' about?" said Anderson scornfully.
+"Cuby an' Porty Rico's been passed long ago. Them islands ain't far from
+Boston. Don't you remember how skeered the Boston people were durin' the
+war with Spain? Feared the Spanish shells might go a little high an'
+smash up the town? Islands nothin'! They've got away out into deep
+water by this time, boys. 'y Gosh, I'm anxious about Rosalie. S'posin'
+that derned boat struck a rock er upset er somethin'! They never could
+swim ashore."
+
+"Oh, there's no danger, Anderson," said Mr. Lamson. "Those boats are
+perfectly safe. I suppose they're going to telegraph you when they
+land."
+
+"No, they're goin' to cable, Wick says. Doggone, I'm glad it's all
+settled. You don't know how hard I've worked all these years to find out
+who her parents was. Course I knowed they were foreigners all the time,
+but Rosalie never had no brogue, so you c'n see how I was threw off the
+track. She talked jest as good American as we do. I was mighty glad when
+I finally run Miss Banks to earth." The crowd was in no position to
+argue the point with him. "That Miss Banks is a fine girl, boys. She
+done the right thing. An' so did my Rosalie--I mean Lady Rosalie. She
+made Elsie keep some of the money. Mr. Barnes is goin' to England next
+week to help settle the matter for Lady Rosalie. He says she's got
+nearly a million dollars tied up some'eres. It's easy sailin', though,
+'cause Mrs. Banks says so. Did you hear what Rosalie said when she got
+convinced about bein' an English lady?"
+
+"No; what did she say?"
+
+"She jest stuck up that derned little nose o' hern an' said: 'I am an
+American as long as I live.'"
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Alf Reesling, throwing Isaac Porter's new hat into the
+air. The crowd joined in the cheering.
+
+"Did I ever tell you how I knowed all along that it was a man who left
+Rosalie on the porch?" asked Anderson.
+
+"Why, you allus told me it was a woman," said Alf. "You accused me of
+bein' her."
+
+"Shucks! Woman nothin'! I knowed it was a man. Here's somethin' you
+don't know, Alf. I sized up the foot-prints on my front steps jest after
+she--I mean he--dropped the basket. The toes turned outward, plain as
+day, right there in the snow." He paused to let the statement settle in
+their puzzled brains. "Don't you know that one hunderd percent of the
+women turn their toes in when they go upstairs? To keep from hookin'
+into their skirts? Thunder, you oughter of thought of that, too!"
+
+Some one had posted Anderson on this peculiarly feminine trait, and he
+was making the best of it. Incidentally, it may be said that every man
+in Tinkletown took personal observations in order to satisfy himself.
+
+"Any one seen Pastor MacFarlane?" went on Anderson. "Wick Bonner give me
+a hunderd dollar bill to give him fer performin' the ceremony up to our
+house that night. G'way, Ed Higgins! I'm not goin' 'round showin' that
+bill to people. If robbers got onto the fact I have it, they'd probably
+try to steal it. I don't keer if you ain't seen that much money in one
+piece. That's none of my lookout. Say, are you comin' to the town
+meetin' to-night?"
+
+They were all at the meeting of the town board that night. It was held,
+as usual, in Odd Fellows' Hall, above Peterson's dry-goods store, and
+there was not so much as standing room in the place when the clerk read
+the minutes of the last meeting. Word had gone forth that something
+unusual was to happen. It was not idle rumour, for soon after the
+session began, Anderson Crow arose to address the board.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "I have come
+before you as I notified you I would. I hereby tender my resignation as
+marshal of Tinkletown, street commissioner and chief of the fire
+department--an' any other job I may have that has slipped my mind. I now
+suggest that you app'int Mr. Ed Higgins in my place. He has wanted the
+job fer some time, an' says it won't interfere with his business any
+more than it did with mine. I have worked hard all these years an' I
+feel that I ought to have a rest. Besides, it has got to be so that
+thieves an' other criminals won't visit Tinkletown on account o' me, an'
+I think the town is bein' held back considerable in that way. What's the
+use havin' a marshal an' a jail ef nobody comes here to commit crimes?
+They have to commit 'em in New York City er Chicago nowadays, jest
+because it's safer there than it is here. Look at this last case I had.
+Wasn't that arranged in New York? Well, it shouldn't be that way. Even
+the train robbers put up their job in New York. I feel that the best
+interests of the town would be served ef I resign an' give the criminals
+a chance. You all know Ed Higgins. He will ketch 'em if anybody kin. I
+move that he be app'inted."
+
+The motion prevailed, as did the vote of thanks, which was vociferously
+called for in behalf of Anderson Crow.
+
+"You honour me," said the ex-marshal, when the "ayes" died away. "I
+promise to help Marshal Higgins in ever' way possible. I'll tell him
+jest what to do in everything. I wish to say that I am not goin' out of
+the detective business, however. I'm goin' to open an agency of my own
+here. All sorts of detective business will be done at reasonable prices.
+I had these cards printed at the _Banner_ office to-day, an' Mr. Squires
+is goin' to run an ad. fer me fer a year in the paper."
+
+He proudly handed a card to the president of the board and then told the
+crowd that each person present could have one by applying to his son
+Roscoe, who would be waiting in the hallway after the meeting. The card
+read:
+
+           "Anderson Crow, Detective.
+     All kinds of cases Taken and Satisfaction
+                    Guaranteed.
+           Berth mysteries a Specialty."
+
+Mrs. Bonner, upon hearing of his resignation the next day, just as she
+was leaving for Boston, drily remarked to the Congressman:
+
+"I still maintain that Anderson Crow is utterly impossible."
+
+No doubt the entire world, aside from the village of Tinkletown, agrees
+with her in that opinion.
+
+
+
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