mistaken, Janet. I've said before that I feared you were,
but the prosecuting attorney has witnesses to the gun-play that he's
dug up. Martinez saw nothing; how could he from inside the office? And
remember that you're only a girl, Janet; in the darkness and with the
excitement you were confused. I haven't a doubt this scoundrel Weir
made you believe you saw what never occurred, when you appeared in
Martinez' office. When you've thought it over, you'll realize that
yourself. These new witnesses tell just the reverse of what you
fancied happened. I'm going to see that you're away from San Mateo
when the man's tried, as he will be."

No reply coming from her, he continued:

"He deceived you then and he'll endeavor to poison your mind right
along. You're too trustful. Now, I was angry at first, but if there
was anything in this meeting to-night that was out of the way, it was
his doing, I know. If he got familiar with you, as Burkhardt
hinted----"

"Well?"

"I'll kill the dog with my own hands!"

"You may rest easy. His conduct was irreproachable, Mr. Burkhardt to
the contrary."

Sorenson regarded her in perplexity, divided between anger and doubts.
Too, a new feeling unaccountably sprang into his breast--jealousy. In
the end apprehension all at once filled his mind, darkening his face
and bringing down his brows.

Uneasy as at first he had been after the row in the restaurant, he had
eventually dismissed the matter from his mind, for no rumor of it had
reached San Mateo. Neither Weir nor Johnson, the girl's father, had
blabbed of it, so his alarm passed; they didn't want to talk of it for
the girl's sake, any more than he wished it known, was his grinning
conclusion. The deuce would have been to pay if Janet had got wind of
the business. But now his fears came winging back a hundred-fold as he
stared at her.

"What did he say to you?" he asked, in a tense voice.

"Not that tone with me, if you please."

Sorenson, however, was past observation of her mood or temper.

"He told you a lot of lies about me, didn't he?" he went on, not
hiding the sneer. "And you believed them."

"He didn't say much, but what he did say was to the point. I don't
recall that there were any lies."

"There were, of course. It would be just his chance to give you his
made-up story about me and that Johnson girl. That was what so
interested you."

"No, he didn't say anything about you and any girl except me. Then
he only said he w