He then told what they had seen, ending with, “We’re afraid that old Ute came to life, and that he will continue to blackmail Meg.”
The mountaineer shook his head, saying: “No, Danny, Slinkin’ Coyote’ll never more be seen in these parts, lest be it’s his ghost. Arter Meg tol’ me what had happened, I went down to put the sheriff wise. He reckoned ’twouldn’t do, no-how, to leave the body unburied, and that the county’d have to tend to it.”
The girls uttered sighs of relief. Jane rose, when the mountaineer had departed, saying, “Well, now, I guess we can all sleep without fear of a visit from Slinking Coyote.”
CHAPTER XXXIII.
JANE’S BIRTHDAY
For the next two days the boys searched high and low, far and near, without finding the box. On the morning of the third, which was Saturday, Jane announced at breakfast that, as it was her birthday, she wished to go down to the inn and get the mail. The stage would not come up that way until the following Monday. Instantly there was an uproar. Julie, whose foot was nearly well again, hopped around the table and threw her arms about her big sister’s neck without fear of being rebuked because the fresh muslin collar might be crushed. The older girl slipped an arm lovingly about the child, who stood with her cheek pressed against the soft dark hair.
Dan reached a hand across the table. “Jane, so it is! This is the wonderful day on which you are eighteen. I congratulate you!”
Gerry, with a whoop, had pounced upon her, even as Julie had done, without fear of rebuke. The older girl had been so consistently loving during the past few days that, childlike, they had accepted the change as being natural and permanent. Dan smiled happily at the group and in his eyes there was a tenderness that his sister rejoiced to see. But the lad who had been her chum since little childhood also knew that Jane’s heart held a sorrow which she was not sharing with him. That it had something to do with Jean Sawyer he surmised, but believed that it was because Jane still thought Mr. Packard’s overseer liked Merry especially well.
“Let’s have a party!” Gerald shouted as he capered about the room unable, it would seem, to otherwise express his enthusiasm. “That would be sport!” Dan agreed. Julie slipped from Jane’s encircling arm. Clapping her hands, she sang out: “Goodie! We’re going to have a party and maybe there’ll be ice-cream.”
“There probably isn’t any to be had nearer than Scarsburg,” Dan remarked. Then he grew thoughtful, wondering how long the girl he loved would be detained at the county seat, “along of school-work.”
As though voicing his thought, Gerald ceased his antics to say earnestly: “It won’t be a party unless Meg is at it.”