it carried that day
in San Mateo."

Weir sprang up and crossed to the nail where hung the weapon. The
latter he drew from the holster and broke open, so that the cartridges
were ejected into his hand. For an instant he stared at them, but at
length walked to the bed before which he extended his palm.

"Look--look for yourself!" he exclaimed hoarsely. "You never killed
Jim Dent; drunk or sober, you never killed any one. You're not a
murderer. You're the innocent victim of those four infamous
scoundrels; they deceived you, they ruined your life; and their
damnable fraud not only killed my mother in her youth, as I guess, by
grief and despair, but has brought you now to your death too."

His father had raised himself on an arm to gaze incredulously at the
six unfired cartridges lying in Weir's palm. Then all at once his
bearded lips trembled and a great light of joy flashed upon his face.

"Innocent--innocent!" he whispered. "Steele, my son,--Helen, my wife!
No stain on my soul!"

As he sank back Steele's arms caught him. He did not speak again, but
his eyes rested radiantly on his boy's before they glazed in death.
Fear had passed from them, forever.

CHAPTER XXXIII

UNDER THE MOON

Lights still were burning at headquarters when Steele Weir slowly
drove his runabout up the hillside slope to the dam camp. The men who
had acted as guards about the jail, except those who went with Madden,
were somewhere on the road behind him, returning home in the wagons. A
reaction of mind and body had set in for Weir; after the previous
night's loss of sleep and prolonged exertions, after the swift
succession of dramatic events, after the tremendous call that had been
made upon his brain power, nervous force and will, he experienced a
strange unrest of spirit. His triumph seemed yet incomplete, somehow
unsatisfying.

It was as he approached the camp that he saw a slender girlish figure
sitting on a rock in the moonlight. He swung his car off the road
beside the spot where Janet Hosmer sat.

"What, you are still awake?" he asked, with a smile.

"Could I sleep while not knowing what was happening or what danger you
might be in?" she returned. "Mr. Pollock said we must not think of
returning home until quiet was restored in San Mateo. One of the
engineer's houses was given to us by Mr. Meyers before he left, where
Mary and I could sleep. But I could not close my eyes. So much had
happened, so much was yet going on! So