The Lizard and his father looked at each other. The old mother answered:
“What’s the matter, come up missin’, has she?”
Edwards told them in a few words.
The old woman spat in the fire and laughed.
“She’s most likely out in the brush somewheres with some no-account feller like herself. Sarves her right if she gits caught by the creek. Sich triflin’ hussies ought ter git drowned, I say—allus a-tryin’ t’ coax decent folks inter meanness. Best not waste yer time a-huntin’ sich as her, young man.”
Edwards spoke sharply to the Lizard, who was grinning with satisfaction.
“Did you see Miss Hillgrove this afternoon, anywhere on the trail between here and Oracle?”
The father answered in a voice shrill with vicious anger.
“Wal, an’ what ef he did—who be you to be a-comin’ here at this time o’ the night wantin’ t’ know ef my boy has or hain’t seed nobody?”
Hugh Edwards forced himself to speak calmly.