efore; thought
it very unbecoming, and regretted that she had not worn her best gown
on her visit to Red Pete's cottage. On such an occasion she really
might have been more impressive.

THE KISS REPEATED

[Illustration]

III

When her father came home that night she asked him the news. No, they
had _not_ captured the second horse-thief, who was still at large.
Judge Boompointer talked of invoking the aid of the despised law. It
remained, then, to see whether the horse-thief was fool enough to try
to get rid of the animal. Red Pete's body had been delivered to his
widow. Perhaps it would only be neighborly for Salomy Jane to ride
over to the funeral. But Salomy Jane did not take to the suggestion
kindly, nor yet did she explain to her father that, as the other man
was still living, she did not care to undergo a second disciplining
at the widow's hands. Nevertheless, she contrasted her situation with
that of the widow with a new and singular satisfaction. It might have
been Red Pete who had escaped. But he had not the grit of the nameless
one. She had already settled his heroic quality.

"Ye ain't harkenin' to me, Salomy."

Salomy Jane started.

"Here I'm askin' ye if ye've see that hound Phil Larrabee sneaking by
yer to-day?"

Salomy Jane had not. But she became interested and self-reproachful
for she knew that Phil Larrabee was one of her father's enemies. "He
wouldn't dare to go by here unless he knew you were out," she said
quickly.

"That's what gets me," he said, scratching his grizzled head. "I've
been kind o' thinkin' o' him all day, and one of them Chinamen said he
saw him at Sawyer's Crossing. He was a kind of friend o' Pete's wife.
That's why I thought yer might find out ef he'd been there." Salomy
Jane grew more self-reproachful at her father's self-interest in her
"neighborliness." "But that ain't all," continued Mr. Clay. "Thar was
tracks over the far pasture that warn't mine. I followed them, and
they went round and round the house two or three times, ez ef they
mout hev bin prowlin', and then I lost 'em in the woods again. It's
just like that sneakin' hound Larrabee to hev bin lyin' in wait for me
and afraid to meet a man fair and square in the open."

"You just lie low, dad, for a day or two more, and let me do a little
prowlin'," said the girl, with sympathetic indignation in her dark
eyes. "Ef it's that skunk, I'll spot him soon enough and let you know
whar he's hiding."