Page:MacLeod Raine - The Sheriff's Son.djvu/141

 at difficulties. She had never been the kind to be put off with anything less than the truth.

"I did n't. Did you?" he retorted.

"How about the boys—and Uncle Buck—and Brad Charlton?" she demanded.

"Better ask them if you want to know." With a flare of temper he contradicted himself. "No, you'd better mind your own business, girl. Forget your foolishness and 'tend to your knitting."

"I suppose it is n't my business if my kin go to the penitentiary for train robbery."

"They 're not going any such place. If you want to know, I give you my word that none of us Rutherfords have got the gold stolen from the Western Express Company."

"And don't know where it is?"

"Have n't the least idea—not one of us."

She drew a deep breath of relief. More than once her father had kept from her secrets of the family activities, but he had never lied to her.

"Then it does n't matter about this detective. He can find out nothing against us," she reflected aloud.

"I'm not so sure about that. We 've had our troubles and we don't want them aired. There was that shooting scrape Hal got into down at