She had scarce made the discovery when she saw a figure in the doorway, that, after standing a moment as if to reconnoitre and listen, stole out into the porch, and then, stealthily descending the steps, glided crouchingly towards the cover of the orchard. Only for a moment was it under the moonlight; but the young girl had no difficulty in recognising the form of her father! Something in his hands glistened in the moonlight. It appeared to be a gun. Pierre's attention is called to it by a significant pressure on his arm. Pierre also saw the flitting figure and knew whose it was. The weasel, as Alf Brandon termed him, had not been asleep! And just like a weasel he had acted; in sight only for six seconds, as he shot across the open space between the porch and the peach trees. Once among these, he was invisible to the only eyes that had seen him, those of his daughter and Pierre Robideau. But both expected soon to see him again. He had not gone into the orchard for nothing, and his cat-like movements told that he had suspicion of something astir under the cottonwood, and was stealing round by the creek to approach it unobserved. Whether he yet saw the excavators could not be known, but he must have heard the clinking of their tools as he stood in the doorway. Not one of them either heard or saw him, as, without pausing, they continued their work, Brandon having once again counselled them to silence. "Darned if 'taint the bottom! I told you so," said Bill Buck, striking his spade point against the ground under his feet. "Thar's been neyther pick nor spade into this not since the days of old Noah, I reckon. There! try for yourself, Alf Brandon!" Brandon took the implement offered, and struck it upon the space already stripped, and sunk some eighteen inches below the surface. The ring was that of solid earth that had never been disturbed by a spade. He tried it in several places, all of which gave back the same sound! "Clear out the loose mould!" commanded he. This was done, and once more was the test applied. "There's no grave there," remarked Randall. "Nor body," said Spence. "Not so much as a bone," added Buck; "no, nor never has been. Dog-gone my cats, if old Rook hasn't been humbuggin' us!" "Ha-ha! He--he--he--he!" The sounds thus represented were intended for a laugh, that came from the other side of the tree, and in a voice that did not belong to any of the excavating party. Whatever mirth may have been in the man who uttered them, it failed to communicate itself to any of the six grave-diggers, all of whom, startled at the strange noise, stood staring wildly around them. If the body for which they had been searching had suddenly appeared in their midst, and given utterance to that unearthly cachination, they could not have been more astonished. And their astonishment lasted until a man, well known to them, stepped from behind the tree, and discovered himself in the clear moonlight.