mind. She could not quite make
up her mind about Claybrook. She felt momentarily sorry for him,
regretted that their friendship had come to its abrupt close. And yet
there was no reason why she should feel sorry for him, he had so much
of everything. But he and his world were woven out of different
fabric from this world about her. She could not keep one and still
have the other. Anyway, she had made up her mind. She had escaped; her
feeling was one of definite escape. She banished the thought of him.

She got her trunk and Zeke loaded it upon the car where it threatened
to crush its way through bottom, springs, frame, and all. She observed
it skeptically but Zeke was quite brisk and cheerful about it. She
bought a "Courier" from the station agent and with it in her hand
climbed back into her seat and felt content, now that she had her
goods about her and was about to go home again.

Zeke started to crank the car when he took one reassuring look about
to see if everything was all right. Not being quite satisfied with the
way the trunk was riding, he departed to look for a bit of rope with
which to lash it into place. While she waited, she opened up the paper
in her lap and looked idly at the first page.

Instantly something caught her eye; she started and then felt suddenly
weak. She read on for a moment and then closed the paper and let it
fall into her lap and stared off at the blue hills that rimmed the
horizon. The station at Guests was about a half mile from the town and
the road was quite deserted, with only the sound of someone moving a
trunk around in the baggage room behind her. A flock of birds went
winging across the sky and dipped down into a patch of red-and-gold
woodland. She picked up the paper again and read some more.

The "Courier" made no specialty of scare headlines or red type. Its
most sensational news rarely ever rated more than single-column type,
or at most two columns. The article that caught her attention was the
usual one concerning misappropriation of public funds, malfeasance of
office, bribery, and the like--a drab sort of story. The public had
been "bilked" again. It sounded quite matter of fact. Involved were
the city engineer and one J. K. Thompson, Contractor, and J. F.
Claybrook, lumber man and dealer, all in collusion. All this was in
the headlines--in neat, modest type. Below came the bald facts stating
the amounts of money involved which somehow she did not notice and a
somewh