The old woman had apparently met with some accident;
her head and shoulders were bound up, and she seemed in pain.
Barrett talked with her considerably and once when I caught sight
of his face, it was devilish with some black passion I did not
recognize. Although I felt sure the girl was now all right for the
night, there was something about this meeting I didn't like; so I
lay around until just daylight when Jackson and Lige Smith came
through the bush as pre-arranged should I not return to Jake's.
It was not long before Elizabeth and Tom came out again and entered
a thick little bush behind the shanty. Lige lifted the axe off the
woodpile with a knowing look, and we all three followed silently.
I was surprised to find it a well beaten and equally well concealed
trail. All my suspicions returned. I knew now that Barrett was a
bad lot all round, and as soon as I had quit using him and his
coat, I made up my mind to rid my quarters of him; fortunately I
knew enough about him to use that knowledge as a whip-lash.
We followed them for something over a mile, when--heaven and hell!
The trail opened abruptly on the clearing where lay my recently
acquired cordwood with my five barrels of whiskey concealed in its
midst.
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