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.
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