“You’re absolutely sure of this?” he said at last.
“Jist as sure as the sun’s sure, and the mountains, and the seasons come and go,” said Katy with finality. “Watch him and you’ll see it stickin’ out all over him. I have picked him for me boss, and it’s jist adorin’ that man crature I am.”
“What about Miss Linda?” inquired Snow. “Is she adoring him?”
“She ain’t nothing but a ganglin’ school kid, adorin’ the spade with which she can shoot around that Bear-cat of hers, and race the canyons, and the raly lovely things she can strike on paper with her pencil and light up with her joyous colours. Her day and her hour ain’t come, and the Pater man’s that fine he won’t lay a finger on her to wake her up when she has a year yet of her schoolin’ before her. But in the manetime it’s my job to stand guard as I’m standin’ right now. I’m tellin’ ye frank and fair. Ye go on and take Marian Thorne because ye ought to have her. If she’s got any idea in her head that she’s goin’ to have Pater Morrison, she’ll have to get it out.”
Eugene Snow held out his hand and started to the front door in answer to the growl of the Bear-cat. As he came down the steps and advanced to the car, Linda, with the quick eye that had been one of her special gifts as a birthright, noted a change in him. He seemed to have been keyed up and toned up. There was a different expression on his face. There was buoyancy in his step. There was a visible determination in his eye. He took the seat beside her and Linda started the car. She looked at him interrogatively.
“Can you connect a heavy wind with the date of the lost plan?” he inquired.
“There was a crack-a-jack a few days before,” said Linda. “It blew over some trees in the lot next to us.”
“Exactly,” said Snow; “and it plucked a screen from your guest-room window. Katy thinks that the cheque to the carpenter and the cost of the repairs will be in your sister’s account books.”
“Um hm,” nodded Linda. “Well, that simplifies matters, because Peter Morrison is going to tell you about a trip Henry Anderson made around our house the morning Marian left.”
“I think that is about all we need to know,” said Mr. Snow conclusively.