l in my dreams ever since, and now I faced the wrench of
giving her up; for I repeated in my own mind over and over again that
she would never think of me with such big bugs as Bob Wade shining
around her.

The Judge and Mrs. Stone were talking together now, and I heard
references to the money. Then I began to turn over in my slow mind the
fact, known to me alone, that there was a man at the Wade farm who was
one of a band of thieves, and who knew about our having the money. If he
really was connected with the Bunker boys, what was more likely than
that he had ways of passing the word along to some of them who might be
waiting to rob us on our way home? But the crime that I was sure had
been committed back along the road the spring before had been
horse-stealing. I wondered whether or not the business of outlawry was
not specialized, so that some stole horses, others robbed banks, others
were highwaymen, and the like.

All this time Virginia seemed to be snuggling up a little closer. Maybe
Pitt Bushyager and his brothers were just plain horse-thieves, and
nothing else. Perhaps they were just hired to help drive in the horses;
but why, then, did Pitt have two animals in Monterey Centre when I saw
him there the morning I arrived?

6

Jim Boyd's light buggy had got far ahead of us, out of hearing, and the
lumber wagons, with the bulk of the crowd, were far in the rear. We were
alone. As we came to a road which wound off to the south toward where
there was a settlement of Hoosiers who had made a trail to the Wade
place, I turned off and followed it, knowing that when I got to the
Hoosier settlement, I should find a road into the Centre. It was a
mistake made a-purpose, done on that instinct which protects the man who
feels that he may be trailed. I was on an unexpected path to any one
waiting for us. Finally Virginia spoke to me.

"How is our farm?" she asked.

Now I had not forgotten how she had been kissed by Bob Wade, and
probably, while I was outside sulking, by a dozen others. By instinct
again--the instinct of a jealous boy--I started in to punish her.

"All right," I said surlily.

"What crops have you planted?" she went on.

"About ten acres of wheat," I said, "and the rest of my breaking in corn
and oats. You see, I have to put in all the time I can in breaking."

"How is the white heifer?" she asked, inquiring as to one of my cattle
that she had petted a lot.

"She has a calf," said I.

"Oh, has sh