"
Jack leaned forward, sneering, savage.
"Then I suppose you put the hitch that's on that pack outside?"
"No."
Jack was dumbfounded.
"Then you admit--"
"That first night when I went to sleep I felt as if there were
something near me. When I woke up there was a bright fire burning in
front of me and the pack had been lashed and placed on one of the
horses. At first I thought that it was Dick, who had come back. But
Dick didn't appear all day. The next night--" "Wait!" said Jack.
"This is gettin' sort of creepy. If you was the drinking kind I'd say
you'd been hitting up the red-eye."
"The next evening," continued Mary steadily, "I came about dark on a
camp-fire with a bed of twigs near it. I stayed by the fire, but no
one appeared. Once I thought I heard a horse whinny far away, and once
I thought that I saw a streak of white disappear over the top of
a hill."
The boy sprang up, shuddering with panic.
"You saw what?"
"Nothing. I thought for a minute that it was a bit of something white,
but it was gone all at once.
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