Goodbye, dear cow-girls! You’ll see me in two months and one week. Lovingly, your Babs.
“Wasn’t that an interesting letter?” Virg said. “Good! Here comes Malcolm. Now we can tell him about Tom Wentworth.”
CHAPTER XXXVIII—A SUDDEN REALIZATION.
When Malcolm entered the ranch living-room, his sister Virginia told him of the newspaper article which they had discovered. “That’s great news!” he exclaimed, “We must convey it to the one most interested as soon as we can. Let me see. This is Tuesday. Perhaps by day after tomorrow I can arrange things here so that I can ride into Douglas. There I can telephone to the postoffice at Red Riverton and possibly get in touch with some one from the Wilson ranch.”
“Oh brother! Two whole days! I could send a letter in less time than that,” Virginia protested.
“But, of what use would a letter be if it were left lying in the postoffice for no one knows how long?” Margaret remarked. “Tom wrote, you remember, that their mail is not often called for.”
“You are right,” Virginia agreed as she returned to her sewing, “but I am so impatient to have Tom learn this glorious news.”
“But Sis, why are you so sure that the article refers to our Tom?” Malcolm asked as he glanced from the paper which he had been reading.
“True, it does describe him and yet this same description would fit a dozen other fair young men. There is nothing unusual about it, and we have no reason to think that his last name is Wentworth, have we?”
“Oh, Virg, we never told Malcolm about that letter, did we?” Margaret exclaimed, and then, turning to the curious lad, she explained about the scratched out name, the first initial of which had been faintly visible.