Where had we been? Where was Jack?
and how cruel we were to leave her alone. She said that at one o'clock
three masked men had come to the house and searched it and the
premises, and had not molested her or the children, only asking where
Jack was, very sternly and sharply.
At noon Jack, Harry, the sheriff, and a party of armed men from Denver
rode up, stopping only a moment to tell me they would be back at night.
I dared not tell Mary, and she worried all the afternoon at their
strange conduct. At night Jack and Harry came home, looking tired but
happy. Then Jack told Mary, and she clung to him as though she could
never let him go.
It seemed the pleasing ranchman from Chicago was one of a band of cattle
thieves. He sold the hides to Harry, who, honest and open himself, was
slow to suspect wrong dealings in others. The sheriff had caught the men
skinning a cow that belonged to Mead, and had captured the gang and
taken them to Denver.
The men concerned in the attempt to lynch Jack were sincerely sorry.
Their regrets would not have availed much, however, if they had
succeeded in their purpose.
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