"By no means! It is not to be thought of!" cried the Major, impulsively. "I hope you understand, Grigsby, how plaguedly disagreeable this whole proceeding is to me—to us. I am so sick of it that I would not go a step further were I the only party that has been robbed. As to having the poor little girl up, it is all nonsense. I pledge myself for that."
"Even should her guilt be proved?" Mr. Tayloe jerked in the question, his horse-shoe smile sinking the roots of his nose into his face. "Would there be law or equity in such a course?"
"Pooh, pooh!" retorted the Major, impatiently. "We don't put the law upon babies in this part of the world. Mr. Grigsby, if you will ride along with us as far as my office, we will make out the necessary papers, and also send for a couple of constables. Dan Fogg is an ugly customer to handle."
The river mists were unfolding over the landscape as a cool evening crept stealthily upon the heels of a warm day. They lay low upon the meadows, and sagged over the banks of the sunken road beyond the school-house. The three men had gained higher ground where the carriage road was level with the surrounding country, when the eye of the horseman, who rode behind the gig, was attracted by a gleam of light twinkling across a wide field. It was like the glimmer of a fire-fly, but his quick wits told him it had no right to be there. He watched it keenly while it flashed and vanished, always at the same height from the ground. Hiding on a stone's-throw further, he caught sight of it again. It was stationary, and he had fixed the location in his mind. He rode up to the side of the gig.
"Major Duncombe, it is well at this time not to overlook anything suspicious. And a light in that old cabin over yonder is suspicious. If you please, I will alight when we get nearer, and go on foot across the fields to see what it means."
"Better pull down a panel of fence, and let us drive into the field," suggested the Major. "I'll go with you, leaving the horses with Mr. Tayloe."
About a hundred yards from the haunted house they alighted, and approached it cautiously from the back. The light twinkled at intervals through a crevice at the side of the chimney. Guiding their course by it, the men trod lightly upon the withered herbage until they stood at the front and only door. Here all was dark, but by laying their ears against the door they could detect muffled movements within, as of some one walking about and dragging something on the floor. The Major knocked loudly with his loaded whip. All was instantly still.
"Who is in here?" he called. "Open the door! I am Major Duncombe."
No answer.
"Do you hear me?" he said again. "Open the door, or we will break it down."