"You have been waiting some time to see me?" she asked.
"Ever since along about noon."
"You were afraid to come to the house?"
"I didn't want to be seen there."
"And yet you knew I was alone."
"Alone--but how do you know who's watching the place?"
"Do you think there was reason to be afraid of that?" asked
Betty.
Again the girl stamped her foot with angry impatience.
"You're just wastin' time--just foolin' it away--and you ain't
got none to spare!"
"You must tell me what I have to fear--I must know more or I
shall stay just where I am!"
"Well, then, stay!" The girl turned away, and then as quickly
turned back and faced Betty once more. "I reckon he'd kill me if
he knew--I reckon I've earned that already--"
"Of whom are you speaking?"
"He'll have you away from here to-night!"
"He? . . . who? . . . and what if I refuse to go?"
"Did they ask Charley Norton whether he wanted to live or die?"
came the sinister question.
A shiver passed through Betty. She was seeing it all again
--Charley as he groped among the graves with the hand of death
heavy upon him.
A moment later she was alone. The girl had disappeared. There
was only the shifting shadows as the wind tossed the branches of
the trees, and the bands of golden light that slanted along the
empty path. The fear of the unknown leaped up afresh in Betty's
soul, in an instant her flying feet had borne her to the boy's
side.
"Come--come quick, Hannibal!" she gasped out, and seized his
hand.
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