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' and found the clothes
and took them away." He stopped and stared at her gloomily.
But all this was unintelligible to the girl. "Dad would have got
the better of him ef you hadn't," she said eagerly, "so what's the
difference?"
"All the same," he said gloomily, "I must take his place."
She did not understand, but turned her head to her master. "Then
you'll go back with me and tell him _all_?" she said obediently.
"Yes," he said.
She put her hand in his, and they crept out of the wood together. She
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