“Representatives of this paper, investigating this curious situation, found the farmhouse which Officer Flinn described as being the den of the kidnappers and which he stated he had left in a state of siege, the bandits and their victim within and the young man who had accompanied the officer, without. Needless to say, nothing bore out his story. A young married couple, named Culver, who are spending their honeymoon there, knew nothing of the circumstances, although stating that they believed that a neighboring family possessed a belligerent bull.
“It is a regrettable fact that the only scandal which marred a fine and patriotic outburst of national feeling yesterday should have involved the city organization. Is it not time that loyal citizens demand an investigation into——”
“Never mind the rest, Lizzie,” Tish said wearily. “I suppose I’ll have to get him something to do, but I don’t know what, unless I employ him to follow me around and arrest me when I act like a dratted fool.”
She sighed, and rocked slowly.
“Another thing, Lizzie,” she said. “I don’t know but what Aggie was right about Charlie Sands. I’ve been thinking it over, and I guess it was evening, for I remember seeing a new moon just before he came, and wishing he would be a girl. But I guess I was too late. If I’d known about this war, I’d have wished it sooner. I’m a broken woman, Lizzie,” she finished.
She put on her hat wrong side before, but I had not the heart to tell her, and went away.
However, late that evening she called me up, and her voice was not the voice of a broken creature.
“I thought you might like to come over, Lizzie,” she said. “That woman below has told the janitor she is going to pour ammonia water down on my tomato plants tonight, and I am making a few small preparations.”