ssured her hostess, who had gently answered:

"We'll hope it's only that. But she'd scarcely look for wild flowers at
night, nor do anything to make us anxious by her delay. Our Dorothy is
a very considerate girl and I wish--they would come."

Linking her arm within Helena's, the lady set her steps to suit the
girl's and resumed the pacing up and down the long piazza. The house was
a one-storied building, stretching along the roadway to a size that was
unusual for such a locality. It had been added to at different periods,
as need arose; each addition being either a little lower or higher than
its neighbor, according to the cash in hand, but invariably with the
continuance of the comfortable piazza. This now afforded a long
promenade, and all the people gathered at the wayside inn that night,
were using it to walk off their impatience at the delay of "Tenderfoot
Sorrel" to bring in his team.

Supper had been put back till it was spoiled, and having been
telegraphed for beforehand, good Mrs. Roderick had wasted her best
efforts upon it. But, at last, seeing Monty and Molly peering through
the kitchen windows in a hungry sort of way, Mr. Ford ordered it served
and all repaired to the dining room, feeling that the meal would be a
farce, yet something with which to kill time.

However, the long ride in the keen air had given all a fine appetite and
despite the landlady's laments over the "dried-up stuff," the table was
nearly cleared of its food when they left it. Moreover, everyone felt
better and brighter for the refreshment and so hopeful now for the
speedy arrival of the laggards, that Mr. Ford suggested to the waitress:

"Just have a few things kept warm for the others. There'll be four of
them. If they aren't here within a half-hour, now, I'll go back in
search of them. Something may have happened to the wagon and they left
to come on a-foot."

"Dear, did you ask the man you call Silent Pete if he passed them
anywhere along the road?"

"Surely, I did that the first thing. He had neither passed nor seen
them, he said."

"Well, I'm going to interview him again. Come on, Miss Molly, to the
stable with me," cried Leslie.

"'Molly,' without the 'Miss,' please, and I'm ready enough! It seems as
if I must be doing something, for everybody is looking so worried," she
answered, catching his outstretched hand and racing with him down the
long porch and around to the stables in the rear.

Silent Pete had not gone to