out
troubling anybody."

"Then it is of moment?"

"Yes. That is, we want him to know, though there's really nothing in it
that need worry anybody."

"Then, it is unfortunate that my father is away," said Hetty.

Allonby sat silent a moment or two, apparently reflecting, and then looked
up suddenly, as though he had found the solution of the difficulty.

"I could write him."

Hetty laughed. "That was an inspiration! You can be positively brilliant,
Chris. You will find paper and special envelopes in the office, as well as
a big stick of sealing-wax."

Allonby, who appeared unable to find a neat rejoinder, went out; and when
he left Flora Schuyler smiled as she saw the carefully fastened envelope
lying on Torrance's desk, as well as something else. Torrance was
fastidiously neat, and the blotting pad from which the soiled sheets had
been removed bore the impress of Christopher Allonby's big, legible
writing. It was, however, a little blurred, and Miss Schuyler, who had her
scruples, made no attempt to read it then. It was the next afternoon, and
Torrance had not yet returned, when a mounted man rode up to the Range,
and was shown into the room where the girls sat together.

"Mr. Clavering will be kind of sorry Mr. Torrance wasn't here, but he has
got it fixed quite straight," he said.

"What has he fixed?" said Hetty.

"Well," said the man, "your father knows, and I don't, though I've a kind
of notion we are after one of the homestead-boys. Any way, what I had to
tell him was this. He could ride over to the Cedar Bluff at about six this
evening with two or three of the boys, if it suited him, but if it didn't,
Mr. Clavering would put the thing through."

Hetty asked one or two leading questions, but the man had evidently
nothing more to tell, and when he went out, the two girls looked at one
another in silence. Hetty's eyes were anxious and her face more colourless
than usual.

"Flo," she said sharply, "are we thinking the same thing?"

"I don't know," said Miss Schuyler. "You have not told me your notions
yet. Still, this is clear to both of us, Mr. Clavering expects to meet
somebody at the Cedar Bluff, and your father is to bring two or three men
with him. The question is, what could they be wanted for?"

"No," said Hetty, with a little quiver in her voice, "it is who they
expect to meet. You know what day this is?"

"Wednesday."

Once more there was silence for a few seconds, but the thoughts of the