He swung up with a rush.

“Stick right alongside me,” he told her.  “We’ll trot at first till we get behind the li’l hill out yonder.  After that we can hit the landscape lively.”

She spoke no word till they had rounded the little hill and were galloping south.  Then she said in her normal voice, “This isn’t the way home.”

“I know it ain’t.  We’ve got to lose whoever follows us before we skip for home.”

“Of course,” she told him, humbly.  “I might have known.  You always think of the right thing, Racey.”

All of which was balm to a hitherto tortured soul.

“That’s all right,” he said, modestly.

“And how strong you are—­carrying me and that heavy sack all that distance.”  Both admiration and appreciation were in her tone.  Any man would have been made happy thereby.  Racey was overjoyed.  And the daughter of Eve at his side knew that he was overjoyed and was made glad herself.  She did not realize that Eve invariably employed the same method with our grandfather Adam.

He reached across and patted her arm.

“Yo’re all right,” he told her.  “When we get out of this yo’re going to marry me.”

Her free hand turned under his and clasped his fingers.  S6 they rode for a space hand-in-hand.  And Racey’s heart was full.  And so was hers.  If they forgot for the moment what dread possibilities the future held who can blame them?

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE LETTERS

“But what was yore idea in coming to Marysville a-tall?”

“To get that release Father signed—­I thought it might be in his safe.”

“Anybody give you the idea it might be?”

She shook her head.  “Nobody.”

“You’ve got more brains than I have, for a fact.  But how were you figuring on getting into the safe?”

“Oh, I brought a bunch of keys along.  What are you laughing at?  I thought one might fit.”

“Keys for a safe!  Say, don’t you know you don’t open safes with keys?  They’ve got combinations, safes have.”

“I didn’t know it.  How could I?  I never saw a safe in my life till I saw this one to-night.  I thought they had locks like any other ordinary—­Oh, I think you’re horrid to laugh!”

“I’m not laughing.  Lean over, and I’ll show you....  There, I ain’t laughing, am I?”

“Not now, but you were....  Not another one, Racey.  Sit back where you belong, will you?  You can hold my hand if you like.  But I wasn’t such a fool as you seem to think, Racey.  I brought an extra key along in case the others didn’t fit.”

“Extra key?”

“Surely—­seven sticks of dynamite, caps, and fuse.  Chuck had a lot he was using for blowing stumps, so I borrowed some from his barn.  He didn’t know I took it.”

“I should hope not,” Racey declared, fervently.  “You leave dynamite alone, do you hear?  Where is it now?”