“There were horsemen along the river last night,” Clay suggested.
“That would be them.”
“And I heard horses champing their bits just as I came up to the fence,” Clay went on.
“Sho’!” answered the woman. “My men always have fresh hosses near the house. What did you hear on the river last night?” she added.
“It seemed rather quiet,” Clay replied, “except that a whiskey steamer got wrecked some distance up.”
“That’s too bad, now!” declared the woman.
“There’s one thing peculiar I noticed about the river last night,” Clay went on, “and that was something which looked to me like a signal. We saw three blue lights resting on the surface of the water. Then there came an explosion and they disappeared.”
The woman almost staggered back in the doorway. Her ruddy face became slightly pale, and Clay saw that the work-worn hands were trembling.
Clay sprang to a pail of water which stood near, dipped up a liberal supply in a gourd which hung on a wall, and approached the woman with it in his hand.
“Sho’, now!” the woman almost gasped, placing her hands at her sides, “here I be havin’ another spell with my heart. Seems like I was always havin’ trouble with that pesky organ.”