It read as follows: "DEAR ALICE: I have a suspicion that the villainous scamps, headed by Harney, mean to steal horses from Spring Bank to-night, hoping by that means to engage you in a bit of a fight.

In short, Harney was heard to say, 'I'll have every horse from Spring Bank before to-morrow morning; and if that Yankee miss appears to dispute my claim, as I trust she will, I'll have her, too;' and then the bully laid a wager that 'Major Alice,' as he called you, would be his prisoner in less than forty-eight hours.
"I hope it is not true, but if he does come, please keep quietly in the house, and let him take every mother's son of a horse.

I shall be around watching, but hanged if it will do to identify myself with you as I wish to do.

They'd shoot me like a dog." To say that Alice felt no fear would be false.

There was a paling of the cheek and a sinking of the heart as she thought of what the fast-falling night might bring.