a ragged, barefoot urchin came up the road
turning somersaults with surprising agility. He righted himself up at
the gate, then entered and sidled rather doubtfully toward the group.

"Here's somethin' fur Miss Lee. Be you her?"

"Yes," said Netta, receiving a dirty note from the boy's dusty fingers.
"Where did you get this?"

"He gave it to me--he did," nodding his head down the road, "an' he
gimme this, too!" he added triumphantly, holding up a shining coin,
as he darted away again at his evolutions.

Netta deciphered the following lines from Richard:

"We are encamped in Dry Thicket with the horses, all safe thus far.
Do not attempt to come; you could not find us. Keep a brave heart.
We will soon entrap the rascals. (Messenger best I can find).

"Faithfully,

"R.T."

About nine o'clock one morning a party of ten men, headed by the
notorious Baywater, rode up the single street of Villula, sending terror
to the hearts of unprotected women. Not apprehending an attack in
daytime, the two young men were on duty elsewhere, and the negroes were
in the cotton fields.

Passing through the town amid a great dust and clatter, they drew rein
at the villa. The ladies came to the door in response to the captain's
imperious halloo.

"We've come to find out where the Lester horses are, madam--and what's
more," he added with a brutal oath, "we intend to know!"

"I have no information to give you," calmly returned Mrs. Lee.

"Perhaps you won't tell us where that box of diamonds is, either,"
he sneered.

To this there was no reply. The three girls were pallid from
apprehension of the next move. Apparently a proposition was made. The
leader shook his head. After a brief parley he dismounted, and with five
of his men, strode across the lawn to the negro quarters. An old negress
sat at the door, smoking her pipe, and knitting a coarse yarn sock.
A bright mulatto boy was crossing the back yard with a water bucket.

In vain the outlaws sought to extract from the old woman the whereabouts
of her master with the horses and jewels. She was in reality as ignorant
as they.

"Come now, Auntie," said the captain in wheedling tones, "tell us and we
will make you free. You won't have to work any more."

"Oh, go 'long!" was her contemptuous rejoinder, "I'se free as I want
to be."

"Why, you old fool!" he roughly retorted, "you don't know what freedom
means. You shall wear a silk dress and ride in a carriage and have