For a moment she clung to him. "I'm awfully silly. But somehow it seemed real—to-night. I wonder if it ever did happen?"
"Of course not."
"Well, it's funny. I was just making it up. And then suddenly I felt that instead of making it up I was recollecting."
As she paused, Angus' ear caught a faint sound from without. To him it resembled the faint creak of a board beneath a stealthy footstep. For an instant his body tensed.
"What's the matter?" Faith asked. "Have you nerves, too?"
"Not that I know of. Turn in now and get a good rest, and don't dream of things."
But when she had gone to her room he yawned, stretched himself, wound the clock and passed into the hall leading to the kitchen. There hung his belt with holster and gun. He took the gun, went swiftly through the kitchen and outside. He circled the house, but neither saw nor heard anything, and so he went in again. But when he turned in, having extinguished the light, he laid the gun on the floor beside the bed, and in the morning smuggled it out without Faith's knowledge. Before she had risen he examined the ground around the house, but found no footprints other than their own. And so he came to the conclusion that whatever he had heard had not been a footstep.
He pottered around all morning, and in the afternoon decided to ride in to town and see Judge Riley. The latter might have some news.
"Well, I won't go," Faith decided. "I have bread to bake, and it's too far, anyway. I'll have supper ready when you get back."
But when Angus reached the judge's office it was closed. In the post office he found a note from him, consisting of four words: "Want to see you," and upon inquiry he learned that the lawyer had driven out with Dr. Wilkes to see a rancher named McLatchie who being taken suddenly ill had sent for legal as well as medical assistance. Angus decided to wait. As he strolled down the street he met Rennie emerging from Dr. Wilkes' office.