The delightful party broke up in a whirl of excitement. More than half the young men went away with the squad that guarded the prisoner, anxious to see him placed in safe custody.
Others hurried home to carry their friends the welcome news of the dreaded horse-thief's capture.
Walter Earle drove Jaquelina home in his mother's pretty little basket phaeton.
Mr. Meredith was awake, and in answer to his question his niece told him it had been a pleasant party, but she did not tell him what he would have been delighted to hear, namely, that the outlaw chief had been captured.
She went to her room, laid aside her mother's wedding-dress, and put away with the ring and locket the withered passion-flowers that Ronald Valchester had gathered for her.
"I will keep the flowers in remembrance of to-night," she said, artlessly. "It would have been the happiest night of my life," she added, "if only——" a vague sigh followed the broken sentence.
[CHAPTER IX.]
Jaquelina was lying at ease under her favorite apple tree the next afternoon when the murmur of voices roused her.