The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1907-02-28
CHAPTER xIv.--(continued).


Betty Siggs threw a long cloak
round her, noiselessly lit a candle, and
crept out of the room. There was nc
sound anywhere, save the quick pat
ter of her own feet on the stairs and
the rapid scurry of a mou flying
from the light. Betty reached the par
Tor, set down her candle, and faced
the window, over which the curtain
had been drawn again.
Now, under all the circumstances, II
is probable that nine y-nine people
out of a hundred would have hesitated
at that hour to draw back that cur
tain; and the hundredth would have
lone tiff at all-out of sheer bravo
do. But the curious thing vas that
Betty had no fear of il at all; so com.
pletely was she dominated by her
dream, and so much did she seem TO
be dreaming still. that she walked up
to the curtain and softly drew 1t aside.
Nor did she think it strange, under
the circumstances, that there was a
face upon the other side; for, although
she believed she looked upon Dandy
Chatter, somehow the dream-face had
got mixed up with It; the dream-eyes
of the child she believed dead smiled
at her out OF the face Of the man. Still
keeping her eyes upon the window,
she slipped along to the door and soft.
ly drew the bolt and opened it; and
, then, for no known reason, and yet for
some reason which seemed strong
within her, began to tremble very
much, as though she faced something
uncanny.
A figure moved toward the door,
slipped into the room, and took her in
his arms. Not Dandy Chatter; not the
man with a price on his head and
blood on his cruel hands; not yhe man
whose name was a byWprd and a re
proach in all hat countryside; but
her boy, her dear lad, back from his
grave thousands Of miles away! You
couldn't have tried to deceive old Bet
ty Siggs at hat nloment; she Knew
that no other arms could hold her like
that.
Then, when he called her-as he
had done all those long years before
little mother"-when he whispered,
did she remember T~allapoona Farm,
and the mare with the ~rat-tail, and
Peter. the sheepdog, and a dozen other
things that would have stamped him
as her boy, II nothing else could have
done, old Betty woke from her dream
and burst into a food of tears, and
laid her old gray head down on his
shoulder.
Perhaps it was well that TOBY was
sleeping soundly above. For, if he
had happened to dream, and had wan
dered, in his night apparel, down to
that same parlor, he would have been
very properly scandalized. For here
was the supposed Dandy Chatter, sit
ting on the table, with Betty Siggs
(hugging him mighty tight round the
neck) on his knee, the while he rapid
" sketched out all that had happened
in those eighteen years.
"Ah, little mother, little mother!" he
said, drawing her face down that he
might kiss 1t. You didn't know to
whom you were talking when | stroll
ed in here the Other day, and you
read nue. a lecture on the sins Of a
DIV Chatter. It's beer a long time, lit
tie mother: picked up, more dead
than alive, by an exploring party In
the bush: taken with them miles into
the interior; then more miles by a
party bound for the west with whom
they came in contact. Then, live or
six years OF life with a dear old couple
who had no chicks Of their own, and
were fond of the friendless boy
thrown on their hands. Then, when |
could. l went back to T~aliapoona. only
70 find hat you had gone to England,
no one exactly knew where"
AN you KEEP a thought OF me all
those years, did you. Phil?' whispered
the old woman. proudly.
Eyes, and came back to you as o
as | could. At least, not to you, be-
cause didn't know where you We're.
But I remembered the story o had
told me: and I knew I had the right to
the place which had been my fathers.
But | would not have turned out my
brother; my idea was that we might
live together peaceably, sharing what
there was. But he is dead"
She looked round at him, with a
startled face; and he realized. In a.
moment, that he had given her the
clue to the whole mystery. Therefore.
with much pains, and many pauses to
.uorr bar m fuity digest the eXtraOr-
binary story. he told her Of the whole
business: of his arrival in England;
j bis discovery OF the strange like
ness between himself and the real
Dandy Chatter; and Of his determine
ton, on discovering that his brother
was dead, to trade upon 1t. OF his GER
tainty that his brother had been MUIR
dered: and Of the impossibility OF tx
ing the crime upon N ones shout
derr.
Bot Betty Siggs say only with the
-. -. 49, IL. kAaA