Another Eavesdropper.
Jerry Rook and his guest had scarce closed the door behind them, when a man, who had been skulking behind the cottonwood, came out into the front, and paused upon the spot they had abandoned.
He had been on the other side of the tree, from the time they had commenced their conversation, and heard it all.
The man was Alfred Brandon!
What had brought Alfred Brandon back to the cottonwood?
The explanation is easy enough.
The six resurrectionists did not go to Helena, as Jerry Rook had hinted they might do.
On getting out of Jerry’s clearing, only five of them turned towards the town, Brandon going off towards his own home, which was not far off, in the opposite direction.
The planter, on parting with the others, instead of continuing homewards, sat down upon a stump by the side of the path, and taking out a cigar, commenced smoking it.
He had no particular reason for thus stopping on his way, only that after such a disappointment he knew he could not sleep, and the cigar might do something to compose his exasperated spirit.