The note read as follows:
"Dear Father: I have gone away with the man I love—Tom Walden. Do not pursue us, for we will not be brought back alive. By the time you receive this we will be married.
"GRACE."
The farmer handed the note to his wife, his face expressing the astonishment he felt.
"It is not true," said Mrs. Raynor. "Grace told me only this noon that she loved Jack Woodson, and that they intended to be married in the fall, but that they did not want it generally known just yet."
"Then this scoundrel Walden has carried her off!" cried the farmer.
"Grace never wrote that letter," said the wife. "She is a truthful girl, and has told me often that she never loved any one but Jack, and to-day, as I told you, she said that she and Jack had fixed on the day for their wedding."
The farmer took the note, put on his glasses, and read it again, more carefully.
"It's her handwriting, as sure as I sit here," he said; "but that scoundrel has made her write it, and has carried her off."
"Grace would die sooner than write a lie," said the mother.
At that moment Jack Woodson entered the room.