She halted near the cabin, and then hurried on, dreading to enter it yet, lest she should meet the man she was trying to avoid.
Overton watched her until she reached the tent. The moon had just escaped the horizon, and threw its soft misty light over all the place. He pulled his hat low over his eyes, and, turning, took the opposite direction.
Only a few minutes elapsed when Lyster remembered he had promised Dan to look after Harris, and rose to go to the cabin.
“I will go, too,” said ’Tana, filled with nervous dread lest he encounter some one on her threshold, though she had all reason to expect that her disguised visitor had come and gone ere that.
“Well, well, ’Tana, you are a restless mortal,” said Mrs. Huzzard. “You’ve only just come, and now you must be off again. What did you do that you wanted to be all alone for this evening? Read verses, I’ll go bail.”
“No, I didn’t read verses,” answered ’Tana. “But you needn’t go along to the cabin.”
“Well, I will then. You are not fit to sleep alone. And, if it wasn’t for the beastly snakes!—”
“We will go and see Harris,” said the girl, and so they entered his cabin, where he sat alone with a bright light burning.
Some newspapers, brought by the captain, were spread before him on a rough reading stand rigged up by one of the miners.
He looked pale and tired, as though the effort of perusing them had been rather too much for him.