"Oh, I'm so glad they've gone!" Betty watched the retreating backs
till they disappeared around a bend in the road. "Did you see how the
older man stared at you, Bob? Do you suppose he remembers seeing you
on the train?"

"Certainly not!" Bob openly scoffed at the suggestion. "They were
stumped because they couldn't see my aunts, that's all. I only hope
they forget to come around here until I've had a chance to warn my
relatives--get that, Betty? My relatives sounds pretty good, doesn't
it?--against their crooked ways. If they don't believe there is oil
on this farm, I'll eat my hat. No client with a delicate daughter
could explain their eagerness. I'll bet they've thoroughly prospected
the fields before they even approached the house."

Betty could not share Bob's light-heartedness. The look in the older
man's eyes as he studied Bob would persist in sticking in her mind,
and she was unable to rid herself of the feeling that he would do the
boy actual harm if a chance presented. What he hoped to gain by
injuring Bob, Betty could not thoroughly understand, but added to her
anxiety for her uncle and the responsibility she felt for the sick
women, was now added a fear for Bob's safety. She tried to tell him
something of this, but he laughed at her.

"If you have a vision of me kidnapped by the cruel sharpers," he
teased her, "forget it. What were my voice and my two trusty arms and
legs given me for? I can take care of myself and you, too, Betsey."

Nevertheless, Betty's tranquillity was sorely shaken, and though she
gradually became calmer as the day wore on, she insisted on going out
with Bob to do the chores at the barn that night, and extracted a
promise from him that he would call her when he got up in the morning
so that she might make the morning rounds with him. Luckily Miss Hope
passed a quiet night, for if she had called for her lost sister
again it is difficult to say what the effect might have been on
Betty's already tried nerves.

One of her anxieties was removed to some extent the next morning when
Doctor Morrison came out in his car and brought her word that her
uncle had telephoned the Watterbys and sent Betty a message.

"The connection was very faulty," said the doctor, "and Will Watterby
says he doesn't believe he made your uncle understand where you and
Bob were. But he made out that Mr. Gordon was safe and the fire
slackening up a bit. He doesn't expect to be able to get away under a
week. O