"Keep up your grit, Miss, they won't capture August. He is innocent, and the guilty one will ere long be brought to justice."
Thus whispered the peddler in the ear of the young girl.
Rose manifested her surprise with a short and half-smothered exclamation.
"Get down, Tige. Go away, you bad dog," cried out the peddler suddenly, to hide the emotion expressed by Miss Alstine. His ruse was a success, the maid and Miss Williams failing to notice the agitation of Rose.
A little later dog and peddler left the house, he having disposed of a few simple articles to the maid and Miss Williams.
"What a queer looking man," remarked the maid, as she stood at the window watching the movements of the one-eyed peddler and his dog team.
"Queer indeed," murmured Rose.
That evening Rose Alstine received a caller whom she little expected—the woman she had seen in the summer-house in the arms of August Bordine.
"Can I see you alone for a moment, Miss Alstine?"
"Certainly."