"
"How silly!"
There was no further opportunity for words, as the woman
reappeared at that instant; but a little later Alaire went in
search of Blaze, still considerably mystified. As she neared the
farm buildings she glimpsed a man's figure hastily disappearing
into the barn. The figure bore a suspicious resemblance to Blaze
Jones, yet when she followed he was nowhere to be seen. Now this
was curious, for Texas barns are less pretentious than those of
the North, and this one was little more than a carriage-house and
a shelter for agricultural implements.
"Mr. Jones!" Alaire called. She repeated Blaze's name several
times; then something stirred. The door of a harness closet opened
cautiously, and out of the blackness peered Paloma's father. He
looked more owlish than ever behind his big, gold-rimmed
spectacles. "What in the world are you doing in there?" she cried.
Blaze emerged, blinking. He was dusty and perspiring.
"Hello, Miz Austin!" he saluted her with a poor assumption of
breeziness. "I was fixin' some harness, but I'm right glad to see
you."
Alaire regarded him quizzically. "What made you hide?" she asked.
"Hide? Who, me?"
"I saw you dodge in here like a--gopher.
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