er's stock and--he must have known what was coming. I guess he
saw the bills. Anyway, he told me then that he had always loved my
father, and that he wanted to protect us from you; and so, he said, he
was just holding my Father's stock to keep you from getting it away from
us. And then he called in some friends of his; and oh, they all became
so indignant that I thought I couldn't be wrong! Why, they showed me
that you would make millions by the deal, and all at our expense; and
then--I don't know, something came over me. We'd been poor so long, and
it would make you so rich; and, like a fool, I went and did it."

"Well, that's all right," said Wiley. "I forgive you, and all that; but
don't let your father know. He's got old-fashioned ideas about keeping a
trust and--say, do you know what he thinks? I happened to mention, the
first night I got in, that a woman had thrown me down; and he just now
took me aside and told me not to worry because he'd never mention the
lady to you. He thinks it was somebody else."

"Oh," breathed Virginia, and then she sat silent while he kicked a hole
in the dirt and waited. He was willing to concede anything, agree to
anything, look pleasant at anything, until the ordeal was over; and then
he intended to depart. Where he would go was a detail to be considered
later when he felt the need of something to occupy his mind; right now
he was only thinking that she looked very pale--and there was a tired,
hunted look in her eyes. She had nerves, of course, the same as he had,
and the trip across Death Valley had been hard on her; but if she
suffered now, he had suffered also, and he failed to be as sorry as he
should.

"You'll be all right now," he said at last, when it seemed she would
never speak up, "and I'm glad you found your father. He'll go back with
you now and take a fall out of Blount and--well, you won't feel so poor,
any more."

"Yes, I will," returned Virginia, suddenly rousing up and looking at him
with haggard eyes. "I'll always feel poor, because if I gave you back
all I had it wouldn't be a tenth of what you lost."

"Oh, that's all right," grumbled Wiley. "I don't care about the money.
Are they hunting me for murder, or what?"

"Oh, no; not for anything!" she answered eagerly. "You'll come back,
won't you, Wiley? Mother was watching you through her glasses, and she
says George fired first. They aren't trying to arrest you; all they want
you to do is to give up and stand a b