Anne saw her cousin flush; the rude manner of the men was enough to bring an indignant color to her cheeks.
Mrs. Osborne hesitated a minute, then said quietly: “That is the way pigeons are trained. They are taken away hungry, and they fly back to the place where——�
Andrews cut short her explanation. “How fast do they fly?�
“My husband had a bird come six hundred miles last week,� she said. “It made that flight in fifteen hours.�
“H’m! What made you think so—that it came in that time?�
“Oh! my husband knows all his birds. And there is always a note fastened to the leg, telling where it came from and where it is going, so if any one catches it he will turn it loose to finish its flight.�
“Ah!� said Andrews. “If a pigeon was coming from Richmond, it would be here now. We’ll see if any of them have notes fastened to their legs, to prove what you say.�
Mrs. Osborne’s eyes blazed in her white face. “What have you to do with my husband’s birds?� she demanded.
“What I please, with him and them,� answered Andrews, throwing back his coat and showing a badge. “I’m an officer of the law, I am. And I’m dog-tired of the old ’ristocrats that been running Charleburg County, and ain’t no better than other folks—and friends with Germans, in all sorts of meanness. Now, ma’am, are you ready to prove what you said about them pigeons?�
There was a brief silence. Mrs. Osborne’s face went from white to red and back again. At last she said quietly: “You need not wait, gentlemen. No birds will come home to Larkland to-day. There are none to come. My husband did not take them with him.�