at the elbow as
she skipped up the step. I could have bitten myself. I was the person
who should have helped her in. I was a lummox, a lunkhead, a lubber, a
fool, a saphead--I was everything that was awkward and clumsy and
thumb-hand-sided! To let an old married man get ahead of me in that way
was a crime. I slouched down into the seat, and the judge drove off,
after handing me a revolver. I slipped it into my pocket.

"Jake's my body-guard to-night, Miss Royall," said the judge. "We've got
the county's money here. Did you hear it jingle?"

"No, Judge, I didn't," said she, and she never could remember any jingle
afterward.

"Aren't you afraid, Teunis?"

"What of?" I inquired, looking around at her, just as she was spreading
a beautiful Paisley shawl about her shoulders. I dared now take a long
look at her. A silk dress and a Paisley shawl, even to my eyes, and I
knew nothing about their value or rarity at that time and place, struck
me all of a heap with their gorgeousness. They reminded me of the fine
ladies I had seen in Albany and Buffalo.

"Of the Bunker boys," said she. "If they knew that we were out with all
this money, don't you suppose they would be after it? And what could you
and Mr. Stone do against such robbers?"

"I've seen rougher customers than they are," said I; and then I wondered
if the man I had seen with the Bushyagers back in our Grove of Destiny
had not been one of the Bunker boys. They certainly had had a bunch of
stolen horses. If he was a member of the Bunker gang, weren't the
Bushyagers members of it also? And was it not likely that they, being
neighbors of ours, and acquainted with everything that went on in
Monterey Centre, would know that we were out with the money, and be
ready to pounce upon us? I secretly drew my Colt from my pocket and
looked to see that each of the five chambers was loaded, and that each
tube had its percussion cap. I wished, too, that I had had a little more
practise in pistol shooting.

"What do you think of Virginia's dress and shawl?" asked Mrs. Stone, as
we drove along the trail which wound over the prairie, in disregard of
section lines, as all roads did then. The judge and I both looked at
Virginia again.

"They're old persimmons," commented the judge. "You'll be the belle of
the ball, Virginia."

"They're awful purty," said I, "especially the dress. Where did you get
'em, Virginia?"

"They were found in Miss Royall's bedroom," said Mrs. Stone empha