“Ros,” said the captain, suddenly, “you ain't backin' water, are you?”
“Backing water? What do you mean by that?”
“In this Lane business. You ain't cal'latin' to sell out to Colton, after all?”
“Well, hardly. Why do you say that?”
“Nothin', maybe. But they tell me you're kind of thick with the R'yal family lately. Beriah Holt says he see you and the Colton girl come out of the woods back of his place one afternoon a spell ago. She was on horseback and you was walkin', but Beriah says you and she was mighty friendly.”
I might have expected this. In Denboro one does few things unnoticed.
“She had lost her way in the woods and I helped her to find the road home,” I said, “that was all.”
“Hum! You helped her to find the road the night of the strawberry festival, too, didn't you?”
“How in the world did you find that out?”
“Oh, it just sort of drifted around. I've got pretty big ears—maybe you've noticed 'em—and they gen'rally catch some of what's blowin' past. There was a coachman mixed up in that night's work and he talked some, I shouldn't wonder; most of his kind do.”