dawn, locking the door of the
shanty behind him and not looking back.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE ASHES

Rosalind Benham got up with the dawn and looked out of a window toward
Manti. She had not slept. She stood at the window for some time and then
returned to the bed and sat on its edge, staring thoughtfully downward.
She could not get Trevison out of her mind. It seemed to her that a crisis
had come and that it was imperative for her to reach a decision--to
pronounce judgment. She was trying to do this calmly; she was trying to
keep sentiment from prejudicing her. She found it difficult when
considering Trevison, but when she arrayed Hester Harvey against her
longing for the man she found that her scorn helped her to achieve a
mental balance that permitted her to think of him almost dispassionately.
She became a mere onlooker, with a calm, clear vision. In this role she
weighed him. His deeds, his manner, his claims, she arrayed against
Corrigan and his counter-claims and ambitions, and was surprised to
discover that were she to be called upon to pass judgment on the basis of
this surface evidence she would have decided in favor of Trevison. She had
fought against that, for it was a tacit admission that her father was in
some way connected with Corrigan's scheme, but she admitted it finally,
with a pulse of repugnance, and when she placed Levins' story on the
mental balance, with the knowledge that she had seen the record which
seemed to prove the contention of fraud in the land transaction, the
evidence favored Trevison overwhelmingly.

She got up and began to dress, her lips set with determination. Corrigan
had held her off once with plausible explanations, but she would not
permit him to do so again. She intended to place the matter before her
father. Justice must be done. Before she had half finished dressing she
heard a rustle and turned to see Agatha standing in the doorway connecting
their rooms.

"What is it, dear?"

"I can't stand the suspense any longer, Aunty. There is something very
wrong about that land business. I am going to telegraph to father about
it."

"I was going to ask you to do that, dear. It seems to me that that young
Trevison is too much in earnest to be fighting for something that does not
belong to him. If ever there was honesty in a man's face it was in his
face last night. I don't believe for a minute that your father is
concerned in Corrigan's schemes--if there are schemes. But i