Part 2 (2/2)

Her brother and another man--a tall, lantern-jawed stranger--were on the point of entering.

Jack led the way. ”Halloa, Dot!” he said. ”Have you seen anything of our man? He's broken cover in this direction in spite of us. You haven't shot him by any chance, I suppose?”

Dot looked from him to the man behind him.

”Inspector Hill,” said Jack. ”Eh? What's the matter?”

”Nothing--nothing!” said Dot. Yet she had gone back a step as if she had been struck. She held out her hand to the policeman. ”How do you do?

I--I--am very pleased to meet you. So you haven't caught him after all?”

Inspector Hill was looking at her keenly. He wore a sardonic expression, as of one who knows that he has been outwitted. ”I have not, madam,”

he said. ”Neither, I presume, have you?”

She shook her head, looking him straight in the face. ”No, I haven't.

I am afraid I have been asleep. Are you sure he pa.s.sed this way?”

Her eyes were clear and candid as the eyes of a boy. Inspector Hill turned his own away.

”Yes. Quite sure,” he said, with brevity.

”He's a slippery devil,” declared Jack Burton. ”Sit down, man! My sister is a 'new chum.' She probably wouldn't have known him from a man on the farm if she'd seen him. In fact, if you'd turned up here by yourself she might have shot you--on suspicion.”

”I probably should,” said Dot, coldly.

She did not like Inspector Hill, and her manner plainly said so.

At her brother's behest she set food before them, for they were hot and jaded after their fruitless day; but she left the duties of host entirely to him, and as soon as possible she went away with Robin to feed the lambs.

A wonderful glow lay upon the gra.s.slands. It was as if she moved through a magic atmosphere upon which some enchantment had been laid. Since that wonderful sleep of hers all things seemed to have changed. Had it all been a dream? she asked herself. Then, shuddering, she turned up her sleeve to find that small red patch upon her arm.

She found it. It tingled to her touch. Yet she continued to finger it with a curious feeling that was almost awe. She thought it must be the memory of his kiss that made it throb so hard.

Some one came softly up behind her. An arm encircled her. She turned with the day-dream still in her eyes and saw her brother.

She pulled down her sleeve quickly, for though his face was kind, he seemed to look at her oddly, almost with suspicion.

”Had a quiet day?” he questioned, gently.

She leaned against his shoulder, feeling small and rather uncomfortable.

”I--I was very busy all the morning,” she said, evasively.

”And in the afternoon?” he said.

She nestled to him with a little coaxing movement. ”In the afternoon,”

she told him softly, ”I went to sleep.”

<script>