“Wa’al, I’m not much good at talk,” was the embarrassed, almost halting reply.  “I saw the gal and I remember just how she looked, but I couldn’t put it into words to save my soul.  She was pretty and chipper and walked along as if she was part of the mornin’; but that don’t tell you much, does it?  Yet I don’t know what else to say.  P’raps you could help me by asking questions.”

“We’ll see.  Was she light-complexioned?  Yellow hair, you know, and blue eyes?”

“No; I don’t think she was.  Not what I call light.  My Sal’s light; this gal wasn’t like my Sal.”

“Dark, then, very dark, with a gipsy color and snapping black eyes?”

“No, not that either.  What I should call betweens.  But more dark than light.”

Harper flashed a glance at Ransom before putting his next question.

“What did she have on her head?”

“Bless me if I can tell!  It wasn’t a sun-bonnet, nor was it slapped all over with ribbons and flowers like my darter’s.”

“But she had some sort of hat on?”

“Sartain.  Did you think she was just running to the neighbors?”

“But she wore no coat?”

“I don’t remember any coat.”

“Do you remember her frock?”

“No, not exactly.”

“Don’t you remember its color?”

“No.”

“Wasn’t it black? the skirt of it, at least?”

“Black?  Wa’al, I guess not.  A gal of her age in black!  No, she was as bright as the flowers in my wife’s garden.  Not a black thing on her.  I should sooner think her clothes were red than black.”

Harper showed his surprise.

“Not a black skirt?” he persisted.

“No, sir’ee.  I haven’t much eye for fixin’s but I’ve eye enough to know when a gal’s dressed like a gal and not like some old woman.”

Harper’s eye stole again towards Ransom.

“Checkmate in four moves,” he muttered.  “The person we are interested in could have worn no such clothing as Mr. Goodenough describes.  Yet clothing can be changed.  How, I cannot see in this instance; but I will risk no mistake.  The trail we followed led too surely in the direction of the highway for us to drop all inquiries because of a colored skirt and a hat we cannot quite account for.  If the face is one we know (and I really believe it was), we can leave the other discrepancies to future explanation.”  And turning back to the patient countryman, he composedly remarked:  “You are positive in your recollections of the young lady’s features.  You would have no difficulty in recognizing her if you saw her again?”

“Not a bit.  Once I get a picter in my mind of a man or a woman I see it always.  And I can see her as plain as plain the moment I stop to think.  She was pretty, you see, and just a little scared to speak to a stranger.  But that went as she saw my face, and she asked me very perlite if she was on the right road to the Ferry.”