rit.

"Miss Cullen," I said, gravely, "you have those letters, and must
give them to me."

"But I told you--" she began.

To spare her a second untruth, I interrupted her by saying, "I
trapped your brother into acknowledging that you have them."

"You must have misunderstood him," she replied, calmly, "or else
he didn't know that the arrangement was changed."

Her steadiness rather shook my conviction, but I said, "You must
give me those letters, or I must search you."

"You never would!" she cried, rising and looking me in the face.

On impulse I tried a big bluff. I took hold of the lapel of her
waist, intending to undo just one button. I let go in fright when
I found there was no button,--only an awful complication of hooks
or some other feminine method for keeping things together,--and I
grew red and trembled, thinking what might have happened had I,
by bad luck, made anything come undone. If Miss Cullen had been
noticing me, she would have seen a terribly scared man.

But she wasn't, luckily, for the moment my hand touched her
dress, and before she could realize that I snatched it away, she
collapsed on the rock, and burst into tears. "Oh! oh!" she
sobbed, "I begged papa not to, but he insisted they were safest
with me. I'll give them to you, if you'll only go away and not--"
Her tears made her inarticulate, and without waiting for more I
ran into the hut, feeling as near like a murderer as a guiltless
man could.

Lord Ralles by this time was making almost as much noise as an
engine pulling a heavy freight up grade under forced draft,
swearing over his trousers, and was offering the cowboy and Hance
money to recover them. When they told him this was impossible he
tried to get them to sell or hire a pair, but they didn't like
the idea of riding into camp minus those essentials any better
than he did. While I waited they settled the difficulty by
strapping a blanket round him, and by splitting it up the middle
and using plenty of cord they rigged him out after a fashion; but
I think if he could have seen himself and been given an option he
would have preferred to wait till it was dark enough to creep
into camp unnoticed.

Before long Miss Cullen called, and when I went to her she handed
me, without a word, three letters. As she did so she crimsoned
violently, and looked down in her mortification. I was so sorry
for her that, though a moment before I had been judging her
harshly, I now couldn't help say