"He's a regular old miser, that's what he is!" said Zara, her eyes
flashing.

"There's a motive for him, you see. Someone might have a reason for
wanting to keep Zara where they could get her easily, and if they
offered Weeks a little money to get hold of her, I judge he'd do it fast
enough."

"But why shouldn't they try to get hold of her themselves, if that's
what they want?"

"There might be lots of reasons for that. They might want to keep out of
it, so that no one would know they were doing it, you see. That would be
one reason. And then this Weeks is a bit of a politician. He's got a
good, strong pull in that county, I guess. Lots of men who have a little
money saved up can get a pull. They lend money, and then they can make
the men to whom they lend it do about as they like, by threatening to
take their land away from them if they don't pay up their mortgages as
soon as they're due. It's pretty bad business, but that's the way things
are. I'm afraid we're going to have a lot of trouble, and until I know
just what's what, I've got to do a lot of my work in the dark. But I'm
going to do my best."

"I know how Jake Hoover found I was here, I bet," said Bessie, who had
been thinking hard.

"How, Bessie?"

"Well, you know General Seeley thought I'd frightened his pheasants and