Melissy of the Bar Double G - Chapter 12 The Tenderfoot Makes a Proposition

Melissy waited in dread expectancy to see what would happen. Of quick,
warm sympathies, always ready to bear with courage her own and others'
burdens, she had none of that passive endurance which age and experience
bring. She was keyed to the heroism of an occasion, but not yet to that
which life lays as a daily burden upon many without dramatic emphasis.

All next day nothing took place. On the succeeding one her father returned
with the news that the "Monte Cristo" contest had been continued to
another term of court. Otherwise nothing unusual occurred. It was after
mail time that she stepped to the porch for a breath of fresh air and
noticed that the reward placard had been taken down.

"Who did that?" she asked of Alan McKinstra, who was sitting on the steps,
reading a newspaper and munching an apple.

"Jack Flatray took it down. He said the offer of a reward had been
withdrawn."

"When did he do that?"

"About an hour ago. Just before he rode off."

"Rode off! Where did he go?"

"Heard him say he was going to Mesa. He told your father that when he
settled the bill."

"He's gone for good, then?"

"That's the way I took it. Say, Melissy, Farnum says Jack told him the
gold had been found and turned back to Morse. Is that right?"