f here before
you are subpoenaed."

"And leave you to fight it out alone?" exclaimed his wife. "I shall do
nothing of the kind. Berrie and Mr. Norcross can go."

"That won't do," retorted McFarlane, quickly. "That won't do at all. You
must go with them. I can take care of myself. I will not have you dragged
into this muck-hole. We've got to think quick and act quick. There won't
be any delay about their side of the game. I don't think they'll do
anything to-day; but you've got to fade out of the valley. You all get
ready and I'll have one of the boys hook up the surrey as if for a little
drive, and you can pull out over the old stage-road to Flume and catch
the narrow-gage morning train for Denver. You've been wanting for some
time to go down the line. Now here's a good time to start."

Berrie now argued against running away. Her blood was up. She joined her
mother. "We won't leave you to inherit all this trouble. Who will look
after the ranch? Who will keep house for you?"

McFarlane remained firm. "I'll manage. Don't worry about me. Just get out
of reach. The more I consider this thing, the more worrisome it gets.
Suppose Cliff should come back to testify?"

"He won't. If he does I'll have him arrested for trying to kill Wayland,"
retorted Berrie.

"And make the whole thing worse! No. You are all going to cross the
range. You can start out as if for a little turn round the valley, and
just naturally keep going. It can't do any harm, and it may save a nasty
time in court."

"One would think we were a lot of criminals," remarked Wayland.

"That's the way you'll be treated," retorted McFarlane. "Belden has
retained old Whitby, the foulest old brute in the business, and he'll
bring you all into it if he can."

"But running away from it will not prevent talk," argued his wife.

"Not entirely; but talk and testimony are two different things. Suppose
they call daughter to the stand? Do you want her cross-examined as to
what basis there was for this gossip? They know something of Cliff's
being let out, and that will inflame them. He may be at the mill this
minute."

"I guess you're right," said Norcross, sadly. "Our delightful excursion
into the forest has led us into a predicament from which there is only
one way of escape, and that is flight."

Back of all this talk, this argument, there remained still unanswered the
most vital, most important question: "Shall I speak of marriage at this
time? Would it be a s