"
There were quick steps on the hall floor, steps I thought I recognized.
"Hello, girls!" sounded out Wright's voice, minus its usual gaiety. Then
ensued a pause that made me bring to mind a picture of Wright's glum
face.
"George, what's the matter?" asked Diane presently. "I never saw papa as
he is to-night, nor you so--so worried. Tell me, what has happened?"
"Well, Diane, we had a jar to-day," replied Wright, with a blunt,
expressive laugh.
"Jar?" echoed both the girls curiously.
"Jar? We had to submit to a damnable outrage," added Wright
passionately, as if the sound of his voice augmented his feeling.
"Listen, girls. I'll tell you all about it."
He coughed, clearing his throat in a way that betrayed he had been
drinking.
I sunk deeper in the shadow of my covert, and stiffening my muscles for
a protracted spell of rigidity, prepared to listen with all acuteness
and intensity.
Just one word from this Wright, inadvertently uttered in a moment of
passion, might be the word Steele needed for his clue.
"It happened at the town hall," began Wright rapidly. "Your father and
Judge Owens and I were there in consultation with three ranchers from
out of town.
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