Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/109

WE FIND THE COURIER partially opened door, but I could perceive no signs of previous occupancy excepting a rude table, and a single overturned chair. Daniels glanced up at me, his face expressionless.

"It's one o' ther Farley boys," he announced quietly, "an' he was shot in ther back o' ther head."

"You knew him, then?"

"Wal, I reckon; he was a cousin o' mine," grimly "He was hidin' out over Bald Mountin way, an' I wonder whut ther hell he was doin' yere."

He stooped down suddenly, and pressed one one of the dead man's tightly clinched hands. I caught the flutter of a white slip of paper as it fell to the floor. The scout picked it up, gazing at it blankly.

"Thar's some writin', thar, sir, but it don't do me no good, 'cause I can't read."

I took the paper, and leaned back to where the light revealed the writing. The paper was an irregular strip, evidently torn from off a larger sheet.

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