The Prairie Detective: Secret Service Series No. 24 — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE. 55 “Well, then,’’ she continued, looking him firmly in the eye, “I was wondering who you are, and why you are taking up this rough life on the plains. Doubtless you have some good reason for not telling me the truth about yourself. But before you are found out by some person who is not so lenient as I am, go and get your hands hardened and sunburned. You must also be more careful not to lapse from the dialect you have assumed. You should exhibit greater caution.’”’ For the first time in his life Dan Burdette felt guilty, and for the first time in his life he blushed and looked away. Yet he experienced no sensation of shame. In fact, the feeling he underwent at that moment was considerably out of his line, and he failed to understand it altogether. His tongue, usually so voluble, came near failing him utterly, and it was only after a moment of thought that he managed to stammer out something about ‘‘not in- tending any deceit.” That brought a laugh to Esther’s lips. “Oh, don’t bother yourself to explain. I was only warning you for your own good——”’ “But I choose to explain,’’ said Dan, resolutely, with some of his own bearing. ‘‘You have found me out. Well, lam glad it was you and no one else, for I can trust you to keep the matter secret. You are right. Ido not belong to this rough life, nor it to me. I am here with a mission—an important one. I am sorry that I cannot tell you what it is, nor why I have come. Of that you will learn when the object of my presence here is achieved. But 1 can tell you, without violation of my pledges, that I am thrown among you by nothing that can bring you the slight- est harm, and that behind all my assumed charac- Gomicboo Ss) (ele)