searchingly, "she will surely be here shortly"
"Oh," he answered carelessly, "Clarence can get her up something if she comes."
"If she comes?"
The cook would have given much to have heard Spiser's answer to the sharp interrogation, but he dared not loiter, and already he had heard enough to strengthen Ben Evans's assertion that there was something wrong—that the girl who had been in his mind day and night since he had glimpsed her on the bench under the cottonwood-tree, and Spiser's usual women guests, were not of an ilk.
Nan's appetite was gone. Dismay, apprehension, angry resentment had taken it entirely. She felt that she had been tricked, but for what purpose she, as yet, could not clearly see. She was too accustomed to respect and deference to believe that Spiser or any other person would dare to offer her serious offense.
The unresponsive coolness with which she met his gaiety seemed to disturb Spiser not at all as he ate and drank with keen enjoy-
