There was no mistaking the relief in the corporal's face, and he positively clutched at the articles she handed him. "You don't know what this has saved me from. But how did you get them?"
A flush of tell-tale color crept into Sally's cheeks, and I noticed that her voice was not quite steady as she answered him. "You must solemnly promise never to ask that again, or to tell anyone you were not at the depot yourself. Nobody will ask you, we fixed it up so well. Now promise, before I take them back again."
The lad did so, and Sally glanced at me. "If Harry Ormesby ever tells you I'll poison him."
I do not think Corporal Cotton ever discovered Sally's part, or who personated him, though he apparently suspected both Steel and myself; but when we went out together I turned to the girl: "Just one question, and then we'll forget it. How did you manage at the depot, Sally?"
Miss Steel avoided my glance, but she laughed. "It was very dark, there was only a half-trimmed lamp, and the agent was 'most asleep. It's pretty easy, anyway, to fool a man," she said.
CHAPTER XVI
THE DEFENSE OF CRANE VALLEY
It was two days before Cotton could be sent to the police outpost in a wagon, but, so far as we could gather, the officer temporarily in charge took it for granted he had been injured on his homeward ride around by the Indian reserve which would have led him through Crane Valley. Some time, however, passed before he was fit for the saddle. Meanwhile Steel and I discussed Lane's latest move, and the best means of counteracting it.
"If we knew just what he wanted it would give us a better show, but we don't, and Lane doesn't tell anybody," my comrade observed gloomily.
"It's tolerably clear that he wants Crane Valley," said I. And Steel proceeded: "Then why doesn't he sail in and take all he's entitled to?"