“Mr. Clavering will be kind of sorry Mr. Torrance wasn’t here, but he has got it fixed quite straight,” he said.
“What has he fixed?” said Hetty.
“Well,” said the man, “your father knows, and I don’t, though I’ve a kind of notion we are after one of the homestead-boys. Any way, what I had to tell him was this. He could ride over to the Cedar Bluff at about six this evening with two or three of the boys, if it suited him, but if it didn’t, Mr. Clavering would put the thing through.”
Hetty asked one or two leading questions, but the man had evidently nothing more to tell, and when he went out, the two girls looked at one another in silence. Hetty’s eyes were anxious and her face more colourless than usual.
“Flo,” she said sharply, “are we thinking the same thing?”
“I don’t know,” said Miss Schuyler. “You have not told me your notions yet. Still, this is clear to both of us, Mr. Clavering expects to meet somebody at the Cedar Bluff, and your father is to bring two or three men with him. The question is, what could they be wanted for?”
“No,” said Hetty, with a little quiver in her voice, “it is who they expect to meet. You know what day this is?”
“Wednesday.”
Once more there was silence for a few seconds, but the thoughts of the two girls were unconcealed now, and when she spoke Hetty closed her hand.
“Think, Flo. There must be no uncertainty.” Miss Schuyler slipped out of the room and when she came back she brought an envelope, splashed with red wax, on a blotting-pad.