ws. The three stood awaiting the
colonel's reappearance.

If they could have seen within the tent, they might have beheld Colonel
Witham, seated at a table upon which a light was thrown, its object
being not so much to illuminate the occupant of the seat as to obscure
his vision. It served to render more shadowy a vague figure that
occupied a little booth across which a gauze curtain hung, and from
which a voice now issued:

"I see a dusty road, with fields running back from it," droned the
voice, with mysterious monotony, while the person behind the veil
scrutinized keenly the figure and dress of her visitor. "I see a great
house a little way back from the road, with--with what seems to be a
porch in front."

"Yes, yes," said Colonel Witham, beginning to be impressed, ignoring the
fact that his person indicated his occupation and that the description
would answer almost every farmhouse along the road from Benton.

"I see a figure sitting on the porch, and it resembles--yes, it is
yourself. You are thinking. There is something that you want to know.
You do not seem to be in love--"

Colonel Witham snorted--and the hint to the sorceress was sufficient.

"The stars are very clear on that point," continued the voice. "Your
mind is bent on more serious things. You have a business matter that
troubles you."

"Wonderful!" ejaculated Colonel Witham, under his breath. "What else do
you see?" he inquired, eagerly.

"Let me read the stars," continued the voice. "I see what looks like
another man."

"Yes, yes," said Witham, forgetting in his eagerness that he had come
in, half skeptical, and meant to reveal nothing on his own part. "Is he
hiding anything?"

"Wait--not so fast," replied the voice. Then, after a pause, "No, he is
not hiding anything."

Colonel Witham's jaw dropped.

"But," continued the sorceress, "there is something strange about him.
Wait, until I ask the spirits. They will tell something. Yes, he has
something already hidden. It is secreted. He has hidden something away.
Let me see, are they papers? They look like papers, but it is vague--"

"And where are they hidden?" cried Colonel Witham, rising from his seat
eagerly.

"The spirits will not say," answered the voice. "They seem to be angry
at something. Ah, they say they must have more money."

"But I paid at the door," protested Colonel Witham.

"Yes, but they are angry," said the voice. "They are angry at me for
taking so little for all