alf cringing, wholly subservient manner of
Hawkins when he listened to his master.

"They're fiends!" she cried aloud once, while she urged Snake up the
slope of Granite Ridge. "I believe they'd kill me if they were sure they
could get away with it. But they could frame an insanity charge and put
me--my God, what fiends they are!"

At the Sawtooth, Senator Warfield was talking with Mrs. Hawkins while
her husband saddled two horses. Mrs. Hawkins lived within her four walls
and called that, her "spere," and spoke of her husband as "he." You know
the type of woman. That Senator Warfield was anything less than a
godlike man who stood very high on the ladder of Fame, she would never
believe. So she related garrulously certain incoherent, aimless
utterances of Lorraine's, and cried a little, and thought it was
perfectly awful that a sweet, pretty girl like that should be crazy. She
would have made an ideal witness against Lorraine, her very sympathy
carrying conviction of Lorraine's need of it. That she did not convince
Senator Warfield of Lorraine's mental derangement was a mere detail.
Senator Warfield had reasons for knowing that Lorraine was merely
afflicted with a dangerous amount of knowledge and was using it without
discretion.

"You mustn't let her run loose and maybe kill herself or somebody else!"
Mrs. Hawkins exclaimed. "Oh, Senator, it's awful to think of! When she
went past the house I knew the poor thing wasn't right----"

"We'll overtake her," Senator Warfield assured her comfortingly. "She
can't go very far on that horse. She'd ridden him half to death, getting
here. He won't hold out--he can't. She came here, I suppose, because she
had been here before. A sanitarium may be able to restore her to a
normal condition. I can't believe it's anything more than some nervous
disorder. Now don't worry, my good woman. Just have a room ready, so
that she will be comfortable here until we can get her to a sanitarium.
It isn't hopeless, I assure you--but I'm mighty glad I happened to be
here so that I can take charge of the case. Now here comes Hawkins.
We'll bring her back--don't you worry."

"Well, take her away as quick as you can, Senator. I'm scared of crazy
people. His brother went crazy in our house and----"

"Yes, yes--we'll take care of her. Poor girl, I wish that I had been
here when she first came," said the senator, as he went to meet Hawkins,
who was riding up from the corrals leading two horses--one fo