CHAPTER IX.

AUNTIE SUE'S PROPOSITION.


During the next few days, Brian Kent rapidly regained his strength. No
one seeing the tall, self-possessed gentleman who sat with Auntie Sue on
the porch overlooking the river, or strolled about the place, could have
imagined him the wretchedly repulsive creature that Judy had dragged
from the eddy so short a time before. And no one,--exempting, perhaps,
detective Ross,--would have identified this bearded guest of Auntie
Sue's as the absconding bank clerk for whose arrest a substantial reward
was offered.

But Mr. Ross had departed from the Ozarks, to report to the Empire
Consolidated Savings Bank that, to the best of his knowledge and belief,
Brian Kent had been drowned. Homer T. Ward, himself, wrote Auntie Sue
about the case, for the detective had told the bank president about his
visit to the little log house by the river, and the banker knew that his
old teacher would wish to hear the conclusion of the affair.

The facts upon which the detective based his conclusion that Brian Kent
was dead, were, first of all, the man's general character, temperament,
habits, and ambitions,--aside from his thefts from the bank,--prior to
the time of his exposure and flight, and his known mental and physical
condition at the time he disappeared from the hotel in the little river
town of Borden.