not dispute the statement. He had dropped down on a
log, after the discovery of the dictionary, as if his knees were too
weak to sustain him. He looked at Guard, and then at me, studying us
both for a full minute.

"You make quite a pair of detectives, you and the dog," he said. Then,
suddenly, he rose to his feet, his bunched up figure straightened, he
lifted his head, as one might who had inwardly made some strong
resolve, and I felt, with a curious kind of thrill, that a new
atmosphere enveloped us both.

Quite irrelevantly, as it then seemed to me, some words that father
had spoken many weeks ago, came into my mind: "They all tell me," he
had said, "that Horton's as good a friend as one need ask for, once
let him be fairly beaten at his own game." Could that be true? Surely,
if ever a man was fairly and very badly beaten, this one was. The
result had been brought about, in a measure, by his own blundering,
but it was none the less effective for that. If he would but
acknowledge it--if he would cease to persecute us! At the very thought
of such a thing as that the world seemed suddenly to grow radiant. I
had not seemed to realize before how much of our trouble, our unspoken
apprehension and dread of impending calamity was due to this man.

"Say," Mr. Horton suddenly exclaimed, looking squarely in my face for
the first time, "I reckon I've been making an everlastin' fool of
myself long enough!"

CHAPTER XXVI

MR. HORTON CAPITULATES

I had not been very polite to Mr. Horton before that morning, but when
he made the abrupt declaration that he had made a fool of himself long
enough, I was civil enough to refrain from contradicting him.

"I ain't had no breakfast," he went on, presently, glancing at his
torn dress. "I'm a pretty tough-looking subject, too, I reckon." Again
I did not dispute the statement. Looking away from me, he took a step
or two toward the spot where his horse awaited him, then turned
resolutely back again. "Say, I'm going to own up while I've got
courage to do it!" he exclaimed, speaking rapidly and with suppressed
excitement: "I ain't treated you and your folks right, Miss Leslie;
I've knowed it all along; but, you see, I'd got my mind set on that
bit of land that your father took up--not that I needed it, or
anything of that kind--a claim would 'a' been more bother than good to
me as a general thing; but I'd said to folks that I meant to have it
and I'd managed to get up a kind of