. It's wusser'n that. I got to tell you-all su'thin' I
hearn yore paw say."

The girl looked up quickly at him. "What do you mean, Jim?"

"That Mistah Norris he come back whilst you wus away, and him and yore paw
wus in that back room a-talkin' mighty confidential."

"Yes, and you listened. Well?"

Jim swelled with offended dignity. "No'm, I didn't listen neither. I des
natcherally hearn, 'count of that hole fer the stovepipe what comes
through the floor of my room."

"But what was it you heard?" she interrupted impatiently.

"I wus a-comin' to that. Plum proverdenshul, I draps into my room des as
yore paw wus sayin', 'Twenty thousand dollars goin' down to the Fort on
the stage to-day?' 'Cose I pricks up my ears then and tuk it all in. This
yere Norris had foun' out that Mistah Morse was shippin' gold from his
mine to-day on the Fort Allison stage, and he gits yore paw to go in with
him an' hold it up. Yore paw cussed and said as how 't wus his gold anyhow
by rights."

The girl went white and gave a little broken cry. "Oh, Jim! Are you
sure?"

"Yas'm, 'cose I'm suah. Them's his ve'y words. Hope to die if they ain't.
They wus drinkin', and when 't wus all fixed up that 't wus to be at the
mouth of the Box canyon they done tore an old black shirt you got for a
dust-rag and made masks out of it and then rode away."

"Which way did they go?"

"Tow'ds the Box canyon Miss M'lissy."

A slender, pallid figure of despair, she leaned against the wall to
support the faintness that had so suddenly stolen the strength from her
limbs, trying desperately to think of some way to save her father from
this madness. She was sure he would bungle it and be caught eventually,
and she was equally sure he would never let himself be taken alive. Her
helplessness groped for some way out. There must be some road of escape
from this horrible situation, and as she sought blindly for it the path
opened before her.

"Where is Hop?" she asked quickly.

"A-sleepin' in his room, ma'am."

"Go to the store and tend it till I come back, Jim. I may be an hour, or
mebbe two, but don't you move out of it for a moment. And don't ever speak
of any of this, not a word, Jim."

"No'm, 'cose I won't."

His loyalty she did not doubt an instant, though she knew his simple wits
might easily be led to indiscretion. But she did not stay to say more now,
but flew upstairs to the room that had been her brother's before he left
home. Scarce five minute