Then it was that the major heard what others had
earlier conjectured--that there had been clandestine meetings, whispered
conferences and the like, within the first week of the lovely niece's
coming to Fort Frayne. That notes had been fetched and carried by
"Crappo" as well as Pete; that Miss Flower was either a somnambulist or
a good imitation of one, as on two occasions the maid had "peeked" and
seen her down-stairs at the back door in the dead hours of the night, or
the very early morning. That was when she first came. Then, since the
recapture, Miss McGrath felt confident that though never again detected
down stairs, Miss Flower had been out at night, as Miss McGrath believed
her to have been the night, when was it? "when little Kennedy had his
scrap wid the Sioux the boys do be all talkin' about"--the night, in
fact, that Stabber's band slipped away from the Platte, Ray's troop
following at dawn. Questioned as to how it was possible for Miss Flower
to get out without coming down stairs, Miss McGrath said she wasn't good
at monkeyshines herself, but "wimmen that could ride sthraddle-wise"
were capable of climbs more difficult than that which the vine trellis
afforded from the porch floor to the porch roof.
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