“We’ll ’tend to that,” returned Ned, quickly. “But Miss Dale is very anxious to meet you.”
“Meet me?” asked Tom Moran, for it was he. “About that runaway the other day? I’m mighty sorry the steers ran——”
“That’s not it,” said Tavia, briskly. “It’s about your sister Celia, and Miss Olaine, and——”
Tom Moran’s face changed instantly. He forgot all about Poke, who would have crept away had not Bob taken a turn in his jacket collar and held the fellow prisoner.
“I guess you’re saying something now, Miss,” said Moran, gravely. “What do you know about my little sister? I’ve been hunting for her a long time. And the other person you speak of——”
Then Dorothy arrived and, as Tavia said, “the court of inquiry went into executive session.”
CHAPTER XXVII
THE RING ON MISS OLAINE’S FINGER
Tom Moran read the besmirched letter Dorothy had received through her advertisement in the paper. Then he made Poke Daggett give up the reply he had taken addressed to “John Smith.”
“Explanation’s easy,” he said, bluntly. “These Daggetts knew me. Why, I fed ’em for a whole month this winter when Jane Daggett was sick. Ain’t that so, Poke?”