toward the stranger.

"Please step this way."

She always hated her own childish treble. But just at that moment she
thought she had put force and dignity into it, and was correspondingly
satisfied. The deputy sheriff was equally pleased, and came towards the
upright little figure with open admiration.

"Your name is Dodd--James Dodd?"

"Yes, miss."

"You are the deputy sheriff of the county? Don't look round--there is no
one here!"

"Well, miss--if you say so--yes!"

"My father--Mr. Mayfield--understood so. I regret he is not here. I
regret still more I could not have seen you before you saw Mr. Briggs,
as he wished me to."

"Yes, miss."

"My father is a friend of Mr. Briggs, and knows something of his
affairs. There was a debt to a Mr. Parker" (here Miss Mayfield
apparently consulted an entry in her tablets) "of one hundred and twelve
dollars and seventy-five cents--am I right?"

The deputy, with great respect: "That is the figgers."