THE SHERIFF FLASHED A LIGHT
When she stopped at last, all out of breath, Mr. Cane, the sheriff and several of the deputies took advantage of the lull to explain the situation to her, each one telling the others to listen a minute while he told her all about it. The confusion finally became so great that the sheriff ordered them all to be taken to his office some three blocks away, where he hoped in a loud voice that he should be able to hear them one at a time.
The boys dropped excitedly from the tree and followed, forgetting for the moment that there was any such thing as a foundling.
Sube's heart went out to his father. "I know jus' how he felt," he declared. "She bawled me out like that once before the whole Sunday School."
"What do you s'pose he done to her?" asked Gizzard.
"Dern'd if I know," replied Sube. "But maybe if we hurry up we'll find out all about it."
And they did. They arrived as the sheriff was explaining that he and his deputies and Mr. Cane went to the church in answer to an anonymous letter, and he'd like very much to have Miss Lester tell just what she was doing there at that time of night.
Miss Lester's explanation was tense but straightforward. She had gone in answer to a note she had found pinned on her front door that morning.
"You don't happen to have that note along with you, I suppose," suggested the ever-skeptical sheriff.