anley did not
intend to shoot Good Indian in the back, as he might have done easily
enough, and followed so quickly that she soon came up with him. Good
Indian turned at the rustling of the skirts immediately behind him, and
looked down at her somberly. Then he caught sight of something she was
carrying in her hand, and he gave a short laugh.

"What are you doing with that thing?" he asked peremptorily.

Miss Georgie blushed very red, and slid the thing into her pocket.

"Well, every little helps," she retorted, with a miserable attempt at
her old breeziness of manner. "I thought for a minute I'd have to shoot
that man Stanley--when you turned your back on him."

Good Indian stopped, looked at her queerly, and went on again without
saying a word.

CHAPTER XXVI. "WHEN THE SUN GOES AWAY"

"I wish," said Phoebe, putting her two hands on Miss Georgie's shoulders
at the gate and looking up at her with haggard eyes, "you'd see what
you can do with Vadnie. The poor child's near crazy; she ain't used to
seeing such things happen--"

"Where is she?" Good Indian asked tersely, and was answered immediately
by the sound of sobbing on the east porch. The three went together, but
it was Grant who reached her first.

"Don't cry, Goldilocks," he said tenderly, bending over her. "It's all
right now. There isn't going to be any more--"

"Oh! Don't TOUCH me!" She sprang up and backed from him, horror plain in
her wide eyes. "Make him keep away, Aunt Phoebe!"

Good Indian straightened, and stood perfectly still, looking at her in a
stunned, incredulous way.

"Chicken, don't be silly!" Miss Georgie's sane tones were like a breath
of clean air. "You've simply gone all to pieces. I know what nerves can
do to a woman--I've had 'em myself. Grant isn't going to bite you, and
you're not afraid of him. You're proud of him, and you know it. He's
acted the man, chicken!--the man we knew he was, all along. So pull
yourself together, and let's not have any nonsense."

"He--KILLED a man! I saw him do it. And he's going to kill some more. I
might have known he was like that! I might have KNOWN when he tried to
shoot me that night in the orchard when I was trying to scare Gene! I
can show you the mark--where he grazed my arm! And he LAUGHED about it!
I called him a savage then--and I was RIGHT--only he can be so nice when
he wants to be--and I forgot about the Indian in him--and then he killed
Mr. Baumberger! He's lying out there now! I