company may have confounded you with your neighbors, who are believed
to be friendly to the gang; or you may have made some injudicious
acquaintances. Perhaps"--
He was stopped by a suppressed but not unmusical giggle, which appeared
to come from the woman in the corner who had not yet spoken, and whose
face and figure in the shadow he had previously overlooked. But he could
now see that her outline was slim and graceful, and the contour of her
head charming,--facts that had evidently not escaped the observation of
the expressman and Mr. Heckshill, and that might have accounted for
the cautious reticence of the one and the comfortable moralizing of the
other.
The old woman cast an uneasy glance on the fair giggler, but replied to
Frenshaw:
"That's it! 'injerdishus acquaintances!' But just because we might
happen to have friends, or even be sorter related to folks in another
line o' business that ain't none o' ours, the kempany hain't no call to
persecute US for it! S'pose we do happen to know some one like"--
"Spit it out, aunty, now you've started in! I don't mind," said the
fair giggler, now apparently casting off all restraint in an outburst of
laughter.
"Well," said the old woman, with dogged desperation, "suppose, then,
that that young girl thar is the niece of Snapshot Harry, who stopped
the coach the last time"--
"And ain't ashamed of it, either!" interrupted the young girl, rising
and disclosing in the firelight an audacious but wonderfully pretty
face; "and supposing he IS my uncle, that ain't any cause for their
bedevilin' my poor old cousins Hiram and Sophy thar!" For all the
indignation of her words, her little white teeth flashed mischievously
in the dancing light, as if she rather enjoyed the embarrassment of
her audience, not excluding her own relatives. Evidently cousin Sophy
thought so too.
"It's all very well for you to laugh, Flo, you limb!" she retorted
querulously, yet with an admiring glance at the girl, "for ye know thar
ain't a man dare touch ye even with a word; but it's mighty hard on me
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