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RV 99 "I did?" Rader looked distressed. "I haven't said anything!"

Carron realized his slip, but there was nothing now for it but to brazen the thing out. "Not in so many words. But you did say last night, don't you remember? that Ferrier hadn't given away your confidence. From which I inferred that he had given away some one else's; from which I now infer that he had given away Miss Rader's, and therefore that she must have told him something in the first place—you see?"

"Lord," said Rader, "you infer a good deal, don't you?" Both of them were at broad grin, but the scholar's was a little sheepish. "I did let go of it there, didn't I?" he admitted. He mused. "All the same, I don't think she told Bert Ferrier about it." He turned, and looked thoughtfully down into the dark mouth of the well as if he hoped to see truth lurking in it. Then, putting his pipe back in his mouth and getting gradually into his long slipshod stride, he began to saunter away across the clearing toward the trees, following the direction his daughter had taken a little while before.

Carron caught step with him. He was afraid by that unlucky remark of his that he had startled his man to caution; and indeed, striding on through sun and shadow, Rader kept silence for some minutes.