'It was the dead image of a man on horseback holding out a pistol.
I'll come down here to-morrow and examine the place, to find out how I
could have been so silly, but in the daylight, of course, it will look
quite different. I shan't ever dare to tell the story, however, for
they'll laugh at me from the Red River to the Mississippi, and say I'm
getting to be an old fool, and ought to have somebody to look after me!'
"I saw that Louis was ashamed of the mistake he had made, but I was so
thankful to be safe that I paid little heed to what he said. The next
day he rode down to the Big Sugar Creek, sure enough, to identify the
slain, as he said. When he came back, a couple of hours later, he was in
high good-humour.
"'I shall not be afraid to tell the story against myself now,' he said.
'What do you think I found in the stump?'
"'What did you find?' asked I, full of interest in this, the only
highwayman I ever met.
[Sidenote: The Last Laugh]
"'_Sixteen bullet-holes!_ You see, there have been other fools as great
as myself, but they were ashamed of their folly and kept it dark. I
shall tell mine abroad and have the last laugh at all events.'"
[Sidenote: Dorothy played a highly important part at a critical period
in the life of her father. She begins in disgrace and ends in triumph.]
Dorothy's Day
BY
M. E. LONGMORE
"My costume!" said Dorothy Graham, jumping up from the breakfast-table.
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