Virginia's presence reminded me of those days of happiness wher we drove into Iowa alone together; but I was not happy I had lived with this girl in my dreams ever since, and now I faced the wrench of giving her up; for I repeated in my own mind over and over again that she would never think of me with such big bugs as Bob Wade shining around her.
The Judge and Mrs.Stone were talking together now, and I heard references to the money.

Then I began to turn over in my slow mind the fact, known to me alone, that there was a man at the Wade farm who was one of a band of thieves, and who knew about our having the money.

If he really was connected with the Bunker boys, what was more likely than that he had ways of passing the word along to some of them who might be waiting to rob us on our way home?
But the crime that I was sure had been committed back along the road the spring before had been horse-stealing.

I wondered whether or not the business of outlawry was not specialized, so that some stole horses, others robbed banks, others were highwaymen, and the like.
All this time Virginia seemed to be snuggling up a little closer.

Maybe Pitt Bushyager and his brothers were just plain horse-thieves, and nothing else.