al costly pieces of machinery I had brought out from
England, and can hardly replace, were smashed to pieces."

"Ah!" responded Millicent, staring straight before her. "What a pity!
Still accidents of that description must be fairly common where the
mountain roads are bad?"

"They are; but this was not an accident. We found that somebody had
pulled out the cotter or iron pin which held the wagon wheel on."

"Did any of your own men do it?" Millicent inquired, concealing her
eagerness, and Thurston answered with pride in his tone:

"My own men risk their lives almost every day in my service. There is
not one among them capable of treachery--now. We made tolerably
certain it was the work of two strangers, who hung about the
neighboring settlement and disappeared immediately after the accident."

Millicent's eyes flashed, her white teeth were set together, and,
filled with hot indignation against her husband, she lashed the ponies
viciously. There were several reasons for what she had done, including
a dislike to Miss Savine, but perhaps the greatest was the sordid fear
of poverty. Now she saw that her husband had tricked her. She had
stooped to save his position and not to enable him to work further
injury for Thurston. The innocent ponies were Leslie's gift, and the
smart of the lash she drew across their sleek backs appeared vicarious
punishment.

"Have I displeased you?" Geoffrey asked.

"No," replied Millicent. "Displeased me! How could I resent anything
you might either say or do? Have I not heaped injury upon you?"

She turned to gaze straight at him with a curious glitter in her eyes.
Thurston, bewildered by it and by the traces of ill-suppressed passion
in her voice, grew distinctly uneasy. He was glad that one of the
ponies showed signs of growing restive under its punishment.

"Steady, Millicent! They're a handsome pair, but not far off bolting,
and there's no parapet to yonder bridge," he cautioned.

In place of an answer the woman again flicked one of the beasts
viciously with the whip, and, next moment, the light vehicle lurched
forward with a whir of gravel hurled up by the wheels. The team had
certainly shied, and the road curved sharply to the unguarded bridge
over a little creek.

"This is my business," declared Geoffrey, wrenching the reins from her
grasp. "Sit well back, throw the whip down and clutch the rail fast."
Then he stood upright grasping the lines in his hard hands.