an' I don't want ye to scare her."

Without waiting for further parley, Burnett, like an enraged lion,
bounded to the shanty threshold and one long stride took him well on his
way across the kitchen. Suddenly he stopped, staring straight ahead of
him, as if some shining spectre from another world had appeared in his
path.

CHAPTER XV

THE SEARCH

Burnett wiped his hand across his eyes to efface the vision which so
unexpectedly impeded his official progress. It was the sight of a girl,
nestled on a cot, and over the pillow upon which her head rested was
strewn in a wild, magnificent disarray, a profusion of tawny curls, such
as he never had seen. For a moment the corpulent deputy from Auburn, the
terror of all the criminals in the country around, forgot his delegated
obligation to the state. Tessibel Skinner's two slender arms huddled a
small, speckled hoot owl; and as in a dream, Burnett noted the girl's
red lips touched the bird affectionately in a hasty little caress.
Another thing he noted was the unflinching and prolonged questioning
glance with which the red-brown eyes met his. Tess couldn't speak a word
at first, now that she was actually face to face with the man after
Andy. He was even sterner than she had imagined he would be.

Quite gravely she considered his big frame from head to foot, took hasty
account of the firm setting of his jaw, and the deep, clean-cut lines
from his eyes to his chin. Then, she smiled a rare, enchanting smile,
the deepening dimples around the red moist lips suffusing the deputy
warden with a warm, welcoming glow.

"I heard ye talkin' to Daddy, mister," she said, gulping. "I air awful
glad ye came in to see me too. I'd a been hurt if ye'd gone without my
gettin' a peep at ye."

During each infinitesimal space of time, Burnett stood in the sunshine
of Tessibel's smile, his austere churlishness was slipping from him like
a loosened garment. As if forced by an unseen hand, he took one step
nearer her.

"Set down, sir," invited Tess, clutching the owl with one hand, and
making an elaborate sweep with the other. "That air Daddy's chair--ye
air awful handsome and big, but the chair'll hold ye all right."

Burnett caught his breath and sank into the indicated seat. He'd
intended to turn that shanty over from top to bottom, to rip it almost
to the ground. But the sight of the red-headed sprite on the cot
fondling a woodland owl, and the effect of her smile upon the beating o