“Good morning,” answered Tavia, “but I am not alone, I just ran away from my friends; they are over there.”

“But not over here.  It’s all the same.  I want to speak to you, and this is the best opportunity I could have wished for.”

Tavia unconsciously picked up a stick.  She felt queer, and he looked queer, so that altogether it was a very queer proceeding.

“I have news for you,” the man resumed.  “Is not your name Tavia Travers?”

“Yes.”

“Then you must follow my advice closely and you will come into your own.  Are you not from the town of Dalton?”

“I am.”

“Then I am right, as I was sure I was from the start.  Your father is a—­is an officer in Dalton?”

“A squire,” replied Tavia, bewildered now at his knowledge of her and her family.

“The same.  I want to tell you”—­he stepped up uncomfortably near to her so that his sleeve touched her—­“I want to tell you there is a fortune coming to your family, and I can put you on the track to secure it.  My uncle Abe”—­he seemed to chuckle—­“knew about it, he told me, and I had to swear on a Bible covered with blood, that I would never betray his secret!”

“Oh, my!” shuddered Tavia stepping away.  “I don’t think I can wait now.”  She was thoroughly frightened.  “Couldn’t you come down to the camp, and tell me?  Then we could talk comfortably.  The sun is very hot up here.”

“But what I have to say is best said in the open,” he answered vaguely.  “I prefer this to all spots on earth.”  He paused and Tavia’s first impulse was to run, but then——­

“I won’t ask you to believe me now,” he said, his voice softening, “but if you will come to where I say I can prove my assertion.”

“That there is a fortune left to my family?  That is too absurd,” and Tavia smiled.  “Money does not run in our family.”

“Exactly.  That is why it has to be run into it—­put on the track, so to speak.  Well, I know what I am talking about.  But if you are not interested——­”

He turned as if to go.  What if it could be true, and Tavia was throwing away the only chance she would ever have of learning the truth?

“Where did you want me to go?” she stammered.

“Meet me at the old stone bridge to-morrow at three, and I will convince you of the actuality of this wonderful inheritance—­this inheritance which you so long have been deprived of—­which you have been fleeced out of by my scheming Uncle Abe!”

His eyes flashed, and his voice trembled.  Tavia thought she had never before seen such glassy eyes, and the way he fastened them on her gave her a most uncomfortable feeling.  She even felt compelled to promise what he asked, and she did so.

He sauntered off, leaving the girl’s head in a whirl.  Who was he, and what did he know about her family?

He was right in his assertions about Dalton, also about her father.  Surely there could be no harm in listening to his story, and the stone bridge was not far from camp.