ng.

Mrs. Westfall found Christopher at once in the green shawl of Anna
Maria Dow, but all was not achieved thus in the twinkling of an eye. Mr.
McLean had, it appeared, as James Westfall lugubriously pointed out, not
merely "swapped the duds; he had shuffled the whole doggone deck;" and
they cursed this Satanic invention. The fathers were but of moderate
assistance; it was the mothers who did the heavy work; and by ten
o'clock some unsolved problems grew so delicate that a ladies' caucus
was organized in a private room,--no admittance for men,--and what was
done there I can only surmise.

During its progress the search party returned. It had not found Mr.
McLean. It had found a tree with a notice pegged upon it, reading, "God
bless our home!" This was captured.

But success attended the caucus; each mother emerged, satisfied that
she had received her own, and each sire, now that his family was itself
again, began to look at his neighbor sideways. After a man has been
angry enough to kill another man, after the fire of righteous slaughter
has raged in his heart as it had certainly raged for several hours in
the hearts of these fathers, the flame will usually burn itself out.
This will be so in a generous nature, unless the cause of the anger is
still unchanged. But the children had been identified; none had taken
hurt. All had been humanely given their nourishment. The thing was over.
The day was beautiful. A tempting feast remained from the barbecue.
These Bear Creek fathers could not keep their ire at red heat. Most
of them, being as yet more their wives' lovers than their children's
parents, began to see the mirthful side of the adventure; and they
ceased to feel very severely toward Lin McLean.

Not so the women. They cried for vengeance; but they cried in vain, and
were met with smiles.

Mrs. Westfall argued long that punishment should be dealt the offender.
"Anyway," she persisted, "it was real defiant of him putting that up on
the tree. I might forgive him but for that."

"Yes," spoke the Virginian in their midst, "that wasn't sort o' right.
Especially as I am the man you're huntin'."

They sat dumb at his assurance.

"Come and kill me," he continued, round upon the party. "I'll not
resist."

But they could not resist the way in which he had looked round upon
them. He had chosen the right moment for his confession, as a captain
of a horse awaits the proper time for a charge. Some rebukes he did
receiv