r, leaped on
the stolen horse, and swept away with his kinsman.

But that note lay for a week undisturbed on the table in full view of
the open door. The house was invaded by leaves, pine cones, birds,
and squirrels during the hot, silent, empty days, and at night by shy,
stealthy creatures, but never again, day or night, by any of the Clay
family. It was known in the district that Clay had flown across the
state line, his daughter was believed to have joined him the next day,
and the house was supposed to be locked up. It lay off the main road,
and few passed that way. The starving cattle in the corral at last
broke bounds and spread over the woods. And one night a stronger blast
than usual swept through the house, carried the note from the table
to the floor, where, whirled into a crack in the flooring, it slowly
rotted.

But though the sting of her father's reproach was spared her, Salomy
Jane had no need of the letter to know what had happened. For as she
entered the woods in the dim light of that morning she saw the figure
of Dart gliding from the shadow of a pine towards her. The unaffected
cry of joy that rose from her lips died there as she caught sight of
his face in the open light.

"You are hurt," she said, clutching his arm passionately.

"No," he said. "But I wouldn't mind that if"--

"You're thinkin' I was afeard to come back last night when I heard the
shootin', but I _did_ come," she went on feverishly. "I ran back here
when I heard the two shots, but you were gone. I went to the corral,
but your hoss wasn't there, and I thought you'd got away."

"I _did_ get away," said Dart gloomily. "I killed the man, thinkin'
he was huntin' _me_, and forgettin' I was disguised. He thought I was
your father."

"Yes," said the girl joyfully, "he was after dad, and _you_--you
killed him." She again caught his hand admiringly.

But he did not respond. Possibly there were points of honor which this
horse-thief felt vaguely with her father. "Listen," he said grimly.
"Others think it was your father killed him. When _I_ did it--for
he fired at me first--I ran to the corral again and took my hoss,
thinkin' I might be follered. I made a clear circuit of the house,
and when I found he was the only one, and no one was follerin', I come
back here and took off my disguise. Then I heard his friends find him
in the wood, and I know they suspected your father. And then another
man come through the woods while I was hidin'