Part 21 (1/2)

”Tolerably well,” and I surveyed her critically. ”It is a trifle large, but if you don't draw it in too much at the waist it wouldn't fit you badly. Are you going to turn police trooper, Sally?”

Miss Steel was not generally bashful, but she looked a trifle confused as she answered: ”Don't ask any more fool questions.”

I went out soon afterwards to overhaul a plow under a shed, and had spent considerable time over it, when Steel approached with a lantern.

”Have you seen anything of Sally?” he asked.

”No,” I answered carelessly. ”What mischief has she been contriving now?”

”That's just what I'm anxious to know; that, and where the corporal's horse is,” he said. ”They're both missing, and Cotton's fast asleep.

I”--and Steel used a few illegal expletives before he continued--”I can't find his uniform either.”

”It must be somewhere. You can't have looked properly,” I said; and Steel restrained himself with an effort.

”You can try yourself, and I'd give a hundred dollars, if I had it, to see you find it,” he said.

I hurriedly left the plow, but though we hunted everywhere could discover no trace of the missing uniform. ”I didn't think we would,”

said the hara.s.sed brother, with a groan of dismay. ”She's--well, the Lord only knows what Sally would do if she took the notion, and there's no s.h.i.+rking the trouble. I've got to find out if she has the whole blame outfit on.”

”I'll leave you to settle that point,” I said; and hearing the locked door of Sally's portion of the house wrenched open and garments being hurled about, I surmised that Steel was prosecuting his inquiries. He flung the split door to with a crash when he came out, leaving, as I saw by a brief glimpse, ruin behind him, and he grew very red in the face as he looked at me.

”It will be a mighty relief when she marries somebody,” he said gloomily. ”The only comfort is that you're a sensible man, and one could trust you, Ormesby. You will never breathe a word of this. There's no use trying to catch her, for she can get as much out of a beast as any man.”

I pledged myself willingly, smothering a wild desire to laugh; and, as it happened, it was I who met the truant riding home very wearily two days later. Her mount was a chestnut, while Cotton's horse was gray, and there was a bundle strapped before her. Still, except for a spattering of mire, she was dressed in a manner befitting a young lady, and actually blushed crimson when I accosted her.

”Where have you been, Sally, and where did you get the horse?”

”In to the railroad; and I borrowed him from Carsley's wife. They'll send the corporal's over,” she said. ”I'm very tired, Harry Ormesby.

Won't you get me supper instead of worrying me?”

Silence seemed best, and I could not resist the appeal, and so hurried back to set about the supper; while what pa.s.sed between brother and sister I do not know, though when they came in together Sally appeared triumphant and Steel in a very bad humor.

”I'm going to see whether you have let the patient starve. You'll come along with me,” she said, when she came out of her own quarters, with no trace of the journey about her. We entered the lean-to shed, which Steel and I occupied together, and found Cotton better in health, though as depressed as he had been all day. Sally held out a bag and a handful of doc.u.ments towards him.

”There are your papers and money. Now all you have to do is to get well again,” she said demurely.

There was no mistaking the relief in the corporal's face, and he positively clutched at the articles she handed him. ”You don't know what this has saved me from. But how did you get them?”

A flush of tell-tale color crept into Sally's cheeks, and I noticed that her voice was not quite steady as she answered him. ”You must solemnly promise never to ask that again, or to tell anyone you were not at the depot yourself. n.o.body will ask you, we fixed it up so well. Now promise, before I take them back again.”

The lad did so, and Sally glanced at me. ”If Harry Ormesby ever tells you I'll poison him.”

I do not think Corporal Cotton ever discovered Sally's part, or who personated him, though he apparently suspected both Steel and myself; but when we went out together I turned to the girl: ”Just one question, and then we'll forget it. How did you manage at the depot, Sally?”

Miss Steel avoided my glance, but she laughed. ”It was very dark, there was only a half-trimmed lamp, and the agent was 'most asleep. It's pretty easy, anyway, to fool a man,” she said.

CHAPTER XVI