They couldn't figure
I'd be at your house when they showed up there to tell the story. That's
where Mr. Elliot slipped up."

Peter was of different stuff from Selfridge. He had something to say. So
he said it.

"Times have changed, Mac. You can't shoot down this young fellow without
making all kinds of trouble. First thing we'd lose the claims. The
Administration would drop you like a hot potato if you did a thing like
that. Sheba would never speak to you again. Your friends would know in
their hearts it was murder. You can't do it."

Macdonald's jaw clamped. "Then let him get out. That's my last word to
him."

CHAPTER XVI

AMBUSHED

Colby Macdonald, in miner's boots and corduroy working suit, stood
beside his horse with one arm thrown carelessly across its rump. He was
about to start for Seven-Mile Creek Camp with twenty-seven hundred
dollars in the saddlebags to pay the men there.

Diane was talking with him. "She's young and fine and spirited. Of
course it was a great shock to her. She had been idealizing you. But I
think she is beginning to understand things better. At any rate, she
does not hate you any more. Give the girl time."

"You think she will--be reasonable?"

Mrs. Paget finished the pattern she was punching in the soft ground
beside the board walk with the ferrule of her umbrella. Her eyes met his
frankly.

"I don't know. But I'm sure of one thing. She'll not be reasonable, as
you call it, unless you are reasonable."

"You mean--Elliot?"

"Yes. She likes him very much. Do you know that when the Indian woman
came he urged Sheba not to listen to her story?"

"Sounds likely--after he had spent his good money bringing her here,"
sneered the mine-owner.

"He didn't. Gordon is a splendid fellow. He wouldn't lie," answered
Diane hotly. "And one thing is sure--if you lay a finger on him for
this, it will be fatal with Sheba. She will be through with you."

Macdonald had thought of this before. It had been coming to him from
several different angles that he could not afford to gratify his desire
to wipe this meddlesome young official from his path. He made a slow,
sulky promise.

"All right. I'll let him alone. Peter can tell him."

Swinging to the saddle, he spurred his horse and cantered away. With a
little smile Diane watched his flat, muscular back and the arrogant set
of his strong shoulders. There was not his match in the territory, she
thought, but sometimes a clever woman co