He stopped with an
oath.
"Another hound trying to steal from a girl," he exclaimed. "But it's
likely he thinks if he gets anything it will be from a woman who can
afford it, as I did."
He went on, but beside the fences, and very cautiously.
"Swamp seems to be alive to-night," he muttered. "That's three of us
out."
He entered a deep place at the northwest corner, sat on the ground and
taking a pencil from his pocket, he tore a leaf from a little notebook,
and laboriously wrote a few lines by the light he carried. Then he went
back to the region of the case and waited. Before his eyes swept the
vision of the slender white creature with tossing hair. He smiled, and
worshipped it, until a distant rooster faintly announced dawn.
Then he unlocked the case again, and replaced the money, laid the note
upon it, and went back to concealment, where he remained until Elnora
came down the trail in the morning, appearing very lovely in her new
dress and hat.
CHAPTER V
WHEREIN ELNORA RECEIVES A WARNING, AND BILLY APPEARS ON THE SCENE
It would be difficult to describe how happy Elnora was that morning as
she hurried through her work, bathed and put on the neat, dainty gingham
dress, and the tan shoes. She had a struggle with her hair. It crinkled,
billowed, and shone, and she could not avoid seeing the becoming frame
it made around her face. But in deference to her mother's feelings
the girl set her teeth, and bound her hair closely to her head with a
shoe-string.
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