"Leon didn't take your money!He didn't!He didn't!I just know he didn't!He does tricks because they are so funny,or he thinks they'll be,but he doesn't steal!He doesn't touch a single thing that is not his,only melons,or chicken out of the skillet,or bread from the cellar;but not money and things.I take gizzards and bread myself,but I don't steal,and Leon or none of us do!Oh father,we don't!Not one of us do!Don't you remember about `Thou shalt not,'and the Crusaders?Leon's the best fighter of any of us.I'm not sure that he couldn't even whip Laddie,if he got mad enough!Maybe he can't whip the traveller if he has the gun,but,father,Leon simply couldn't take the money.Laddie will stay home and work,and all of us.
We can help get it back.We can sell a lot of things.Laddie will sell Flos before he'll see you suffer so;and all of us will give up Christmas,and we'll work!We'll work as hard as ever we can,and maybe you could spare the little piece Joe Risdell wants to build his cabin on.We can manage about the money,father,indeed we can.But you don't dare think Leon took it!He never did!Why,he's yours!Yours and mother's!"Father lifted his head and reached out his arms.
"You blessing!"he said."You blessing from the Lord!"Then he gave me a cold,stiff kiss on the forehead,went to mother,took her arm,and said:"Come,mommy,let's go and tell the Lord about it,and then we'll try to make some plan.Perhaps Laddie will be back with word soon."But he almost had to carry her.Then we could hear him praying,and he was so anxious,and he made it so earnest it sounded exactly like the Lord was in our room and father was talking right to His face.I tried to think,and this is what I thought:
as father left the room,he looked exactly as I had seen Mr.
Pryor more than once,and my mother had both hands gripped over her heart,and she said we must not let any one know.Now if something could happen to us to make my father look like the Princess'and my mother hold her heart with both hands,and if no one were to know about it like they had said,how were we any different from Pryors?We might be of the Lord's anointed,but we could get into the same kind of trouble the infidels could,and have secrets ourselves,or at least it seemed as if it might be very nearly the same,when it made father and mother look and act the way they did.I wondered if we'd have to leave our lovely,lovely home,cross a sea and be strangers in a strange land,as Laddie said;and if people would talk about us,and make us feel that being a stranger was the loneliest,hardest thing in all the world.Well,if mysteries are like this,and we have to live with one days and years,the Lord have mercy on us!Then I saw the money lying on the table,so I took it and put it in the Bible.Then I went out and climbed the catalpa tree to watch for Laddie.
Soon I saw a funny thing,such as I never before had seen.
Coming across the fields,straight toward our house,sailing over the fences like a bird,came the Princess on one of her horses.
Its legs stretched out so far its body almost touched the ground,and it lifted up and swept over the rails.She took our meadow fence length wise like,and at the hitching rack she threw the bridle over the post,dismounted,and then I saw she had been riding astride,like a man.I ran before her and opened the sitting-room door,but no one was there,so I went on to the dining-room.Father had come in,and mother was sitting in her chair.Both of them looked at the Princess and never said a word.
She stopped inside the dining-room door and spoke breathlessly,as if she as well as the horse had raced.
"I hope I'm not intruding,"she said,"but a man north of us told our Thomas in the village that robbers had taken quite a large sum of hidden money you held for the county,and church,and of your own,and your gun,and got away while you were at church last night.Is it true?""Practically,"said my father.
Then my mother motioned toward a chair.
"You are kind to come,"she said."Won't you be seated?"The Princess stepped to the chair,but she gripped the back in both hands and stood straight,breathing fast,her eyes shining with excitement,her lips and cheeks red,so lovely you just had to look,and look.
"No,"she said."I'll tell you why I came,and then if there is nothing I can do here,and no errand I can ride for you,I'll go.
Mother has heart trouble,the worst in all the world,the kind no doctor can ever hope to cure,and sometimes,mostly at night,she is driven to have outside air.Last night she was unusually ill,and I heard her leave the house,after I'd gone to my room.I watched from my window and saw her take a seat on a bench under the nearest tree.I was moving around and often I looked to see if she were still there.Then the dogs began to rave,and I hurried down.They used to run free,but lately,on account of her going out,father has been forced to tie them at night.They were straining at their chains,and barking dreadfully.I met her at the door,but she would only say some one passed and gave her a fright.When Thomas came in and told what he had heard,she said instantly that she had seen the man.
"She said he was about the size of Thomas,that he came from your direction,that he ran when our dogs barked,but he kept beside the fences,and climbed over where there were trees.He crossed our barnyard and went toward the northwest.Mother saw him distinctly as he reached the road,and she said he was not a large man,he stooped when he ran,and she thought he moved like a slinking,city thief.She is sure he's the man who took your money;she says he acted exactly as if he were trying to escape pursuit;but I was to be SURE to tell you that he didn't carry a gun.If your gun is gone,there must have been two,and the other man took that and went a different way.Did two men stop here?""No,"said father."Only one."
The Princess looked at him thoughtfully.
