“What’s the matter, Herbert?”
“Do you suppose he showed them with this, or gave them this piece?”
“No,” said Elizabeth. “I prefer to think that some one cut that out to hide or destroy it. They might not have been able to destroy the whole map quickly. It signifies nothing whatever.”
Herbert looked at her white face and shook his head.
After two days of rain the sky cleared. Brother and sister rested on the doorstep at the end of a long day. They had not spoken again of the writing or of the old map. Herbert wondered whether Elizabeth was now convinced. Elizabeth sat silently, drinking in the beauty of the evening. A faint gold showed where the moon would rise.
“Elizabeth!”
“What is it?”
“That man is watching us again with his dog and his gun. I can see him quite plainly.”
Elizabeth lifted her voice. All her depression and anxiety were transmuted into anger against these disturbers of her peace.
“I told Colonel Thomas in Gettysburg about the men who are prowling about,” said she loudly and distinctly. “He said the State police would be up here the minute I complained. From what I hear, there are enough crimes in the past to put these men where they won’t bother us. They can be punished for these even if they don’t do anything now.”