CHAPTER VI


WHEREIN MRS. COMSTOCK INDULGES IN "FRILLS," AND BILLY REAPPEARS


It was Wesley Sinton who really wrestled with Elnora's problem while
he drove about his business. He was not forced to ask himself what it
meant; he knew. The old Corson gang was still holding together. Elder
members who had escaped the law had been joined by a younger brother of
Jack's, and they met in the thickest of the few remaining fast places
of the swamp to drink, gamble, and loaf. Then suddenly, there would be a
robbery in some country house where a farmer that day had sold his
wheat or corn and not paid a visit to the bank; or in some neighbouring
village.

The home of Mrs. Comstock and Elnora adjoined the swamp. Sinton's land
lay next, and not another residence or man easy to reach in case of
trouble. Whoever wrote that note had some human kindness in his breast,
but the fact stood revealed that he feared his strength if Elnora were
delivered into his hands. Where had he been the previous night when
he heard that prayer? Was that the first time he had been in such
proximity? Sinton drove fast, for he wished to reach the swamp before
Elnora and the Bird Woman would go there.

At almost four he came to the case, and dropping on his knees studied