“I reckon you must be pretty strong to throw the old man,” she continued, with a chuckle. “He is forever bragging about how good he can rastle, and this will take him down a peg or two. He’s forever blowing about how strong he is, and how he used to win all the matches at the corner store. I am fur you, if you go at him again.”
CHAPTER XLII.
SALLIE AND HER COUSIN.
Nick Carter looked at the woman in silence for a few minutes, and then he asked:
“What was the object of your father trying to hold me down on the ground? I have no money, and he would not get anything of value from the few papers that I have in my clothes?”
“First of all, let me tell you that he ain’t my father, nor my husband; he is just an ordinary fourth cousin. He did not want to rob you at all, but I suppose that he wanted to stop you robbin’ somebody else.”
“Oh, he took me for a robber?” asked Nick. “Do you think that I am a robber?”
“No, I don’t think that you are a robber. I think that you are one of them fellers that goes around looking fur robbers,” was the woman’s startling reply.
“What makes you think that?” asked Nick.
“Oh, that was easy. I knew that as soon as I saw you.”
“But how did you know that I was an officer?”