Larkin kissed her swiftly and hurried back to the underbrush, where Sims was awaiting him in an access of temper.
“Great Michaeljohn, boss!” he growled as they rode along the bank, “ain’t yuh got no consideration fer me? From the way yuh go on a person’d think yuh were in love with the girl.”
CHAPTER XVI
A MESSAGE BY A STRANGE HAND
What were the feelings of Mr. Mike Stelton that dawn had better be imagined than described. The first he knew of any calamity was when Mrs. Bissell, unable to find her husband near the house, shook him frantically by the shoulder.
“Get up, Mike,” she cried into his ear. “Somethin’s wrong here. Henry’s nowhere around.”
Dazed with sleep, unable to get the proper focus on events, the foreman blundered stupidly about the place searching cursorily, and cursing the helplessness of Beef Bissell.
Presently he got awake, however, and perceived that dawn was coming up in the east. Then he reveled in the delightful anticipation of what was to occur out under the old cottonwood along the river bank. Mentally he licked his chops at the prospect of this rare treat. He intended if possible to make Juliet witness her lover’s degradation.