Suddenly stooping forward she said in a low voice:
"Mr. Barnes, you may confide in me. Do you carry much money?"
He answered in a tone of assumed ease, "Paper to the value of nearly a
thousand pounds."
"Then look you, Mr. Barnes," said Betty in her natural voice, "I have a
proposal to make to you. Give the valuables you have to us--to Miss Mary
Jones and to myself. Wild Jack, all say, is a gentleman--should he, by
any unfortunate chance, be on the road to-night, he will not rob women.
Your money will be safe."
"No, no, no, no!" cried Mary. "Betty, how can you propose anything so
impossible, so unfeminine! Are not men our natural protectors?" and she
threw a languishing glance at the cattle-breeder. "Shall we usurp their
rights?"
"It is quite true; it is impossible," said Barnes.
"You are foolish to throw away the chance," said Betty calmly.
"I cannot see why you should not accept her offer," said the parson
restlessly; he was accustomed to yield to his daughter's judgment in
everything. "Betty is a bold girl, and she is generally in the right."
"Come, yield the point, Mr. Barnes," said Betty, with a light laugh,
holding out her hand for the pocket-book.
"Remember I have no part or parcel in it," cried Mary, shrinking farther
and farther away. "I would not for the whole world! Why, Betty," she
whimpered, "they might even search you.
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