wanted me to know so that in case he could not get the work
done on it before I came, I would be careful. On top of that would he
go and run his car into such danger as that? Oh, I know!" she cried
again, her hands hard upon her rifle. "I know, I tell you! From the
first I suspected. I knew that Chris Quinnion had threatened a dozen
times to 'get' father; I knew that soon or late he would try. I wrote
Emmet Sawyer, our county sheriff, and told him what I believed, asked
him to go to the spot and see what the signs told. A square man is
Emmet Sawyer and as sharp as tacks."

"And he told you that you were mistaken?"

"He did nothing of the kind! He reported that the tracks of the car
showed that it had kept well away from the bank, that evidently it had
stopped there, that again it had gone on, swerving so as to run close
to the edge! I know what happened: Father got out to look at the
dangerous spot and to put up the sign he had brought with him and that
was found in the road. Chris Quinnion had followed him, perhaps to
shoot him down from behind, Chris Quinnion's way! Then he saw a safer
way. He came up behind poor old dad and struck him in the head with
something, rifle-barrel or revolver. He started the car up and let it
run over the bank. He--"

She broke off then. Bud Lee felt that he knew what she would say if
she could bring herself to go on; that she would tell how crooked Chris
Quinnion had thrown the unconscious man down over the bank to lie,
bruised and broken, by the wrecked car.

"You've got to be almighty sure before you make a charge like that," he
reminded her. "If Quinnion had done it, why didn't Emmet Sawyer get
the dead-wood on him?"

"Because," she whispered quickly, "a man fooled Sawyer! Yes, and
fooled me! Quinnion established an alibi. A man whose word there was
no reason to doubt said that Quinnion was with him at the time of the
murder. And that man was--Bayne Trevors!"

"Trevors?" muttered Lee. He shook his head. "Trevors is a hard man,
Judith. And he's a scoundrel, if you want to know! But frame up a
murder deal--plan to murder Luke Sanford--No. I don't believe it!"

"Is he the man to miss a chance that lay at his hand? The main chance
for him? The chance to hold a man like Chris Quinnion in the hollow of
his hand, to make him do his bidding, to set him just such work as he
is doing now? Answer me! Is Bayne Trevors above a deal like that?"

Bud Lee's answer