II-XV

Late in August the Cutters went to Omaha
for a few days, leaving Antonia in charge of
the house. Since the scandal about the Swed-
ish girl, Wick Cutter could never get his wife
to stir out of Black Hawk without him.

The day after the Cutters left, Antonia
came over to see us. Grandmother noticed
that she seemed troubled and distracted.
"You've got something on your mind, An-
tonia," she said anxiously.

"Yes, Mrs. Burden. I couldn't sleep much
last night." She hesitated, and then told us
how strangely Mr. Cutter had behaved before
he went away. He put all the silver in a basket
and placed it under her bed, and with it a box
of papers which he told her were valuable. He
made her promise that she would not sleep
away from the house, or be out late in the eve-
ning, while he was gone. He strictly forbade
her to ask any of the girls she knew to stay
with her at night. She would be perfectly safe,
he said, as he had just put a new Yale lock on
the front door.

[[280]]

p279 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p280w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p281

v?