“Yes—yes—don't you see, Bill? That's where Harper was—he stayed behind with some yarn about his shoe—had a stone in it.”
“Keep quiet, Bert! don't get worked up—”
“But think of it, Bill! What you going to do now?”
“I'm going to find the man that hit you.”
“Not with those two, Smiley and Harper?”
“Why, certainly.”
“But don't you see, Bill? That's just what they want. They've got rid of me—now they 'll draw you off into the woods—why, you're putting yourself right in their hands!”
“You'd better try to think of something else, Bert. Mrs. van Deelen here is going to take good care of you. I 'll stop in on the way back.” And Beveridge slipped out the door without giving Wilson further opportunity to protest.
The others were waiting impatiently at the steps. Smiley and Harper at once started off toward the creek below the barn; and Beveridge set out on a run for the bridge, telling the farmer to follow.
When he reached the creek, Beveridge searched through the trees for some distance down-stream and then up-stream, but found no sign of a man. “Well,” he said, joining Van Deelen at the end of the bridge, “he got away all right.”