Still smiling, he dusted himself, put up his revolver, and returned to the house.
CHAPTER XII
THE TENDERFOOT MAKES A PROPOSITION
Melissy waited in dread expectancy to see what would happen. Of quick, warm sympathies, always ready to bear with courage her own and others’ burdens, she had none of that passive endurance which age and experience bring. She was keyed to the heroism of an occasion, but not yet to that which life lays as a daily burden upon many without dramatic emphasis.
All next day nothing took place. On the succeeding one her father returned with the news that the “Monte Cristo” contest had been continued to another term of court. Otherwise nothing unusual occurred. It was after mail time that she stepped to the porch for a breath of fresh air and noticed that the reward placard had been taken down.
“Who did that?” she asked of Alan McKinstra, who was sitting on the steps, reading a newspaper and munching an apple.
“Jack Flatray took it down. He said the offer of a reward had been withdrawn.”
“When did he do that?”