The Illegal Marriage — page 214: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

206 THE ILLEGAL MARRIAGE, in those parts, walked by him on the opposite side of the way. He sprang into the pines, and a deathly sickness came over him. “That man!” he said to himself—“I have seen him before. They are on the track at last.” Hastily mounting, he rode rapidly up the road, nor did he stop until some miles away. “T’m on the right track, at last,” said Appling to himself, as he looked over the brow of the hill and saw Alfred galloping along the sandy road. “IT knew it was somewhere here,” the detective thought, “and J shall soon have my birds.” Selecting a place for a lookout, Appling walked back to Stannard’s house, well satisfied with his night’s work. It was near daylight when Alfred Guerry reached his father’s house, and putting his jaded horse in the stable, he sat down on the porch to wait until some one was stirring within. At length he heard a sound, and ventured to rap atthe door. His father came to it. The old man started back in alarm as he saw the pale, haggard face, and disordered dress of his son. “Why, Alfred!” he exclaimed, “is it you? My son, what is the matter with you?” “Nothing is the matter with me.” “But why—Alfred, you look as if you had been out all night.” “And so I have, father, and you’d look so too, if you had ridden from Perry, asI have. Let me go to my room before they all get up.” “Have you seen Miss Morgan?” “J left her last night,” he answered, petulantly. “Let me go now, and I’ll answer questions when I get up.” “Heaven grant, my son, that you may have done nothing wrong,” the white-haired old man said to himself, as his wayward son went up the stairs. It was late in the day when Alfred came down to meet his family, and little satisfaction could they get in questioning him about Cecy. He was silent and moody. As he again mounted his horse to go back to Perry, as they supposed, the little family comicbook