Suddenly Johnson's face flamed. He reached from his saddle to clutch
Jed's shoulder, nearly pulling the foreman from his pony.

"You lie!" he cried. "You're lying to me! It ain't SO!"

Parker made no effort to extricate himself from the painful grasp. His
cool eyes met the blazing eyes of his chief.

"I wisht I did lie, Buck," he said sadly. "I wisht it wasn't so. But
it is."

Johnson's head snapped back to the front with a groan. The pony
snorted as the steel bit his flanks, leaped forward, and with head
outstretched, nostrils wide, the wicked white of the bronco flickering
in the corner of his eye, struck the bee line for the home ranch. Jed
followed as fast as he was able.

On his arrival he found his chief raging about the house like a wild
beast. Sang trembled from a quick and stormy interrogatory in the
kitchen. Chairs had been upset and let lie. Estrella's belongings had
been tumbled over. Senor Johnson there found only too sure proof, in
the various lacks, of a premeditated and permanent flight. Still he
hoped; and as long as he hoped, he doubted, and the demons of doubt
tore him to a frenzy. Jed stood near the door, his arms folded, his
weight shifted to his sound foot, waiting and wondering what the next
move was to be.

Finally, Senor Johnson, struck with a new idea, ran to his desk to
rummage in a pigeon-hole. But he found no need to do so, for lying on
the desk was what he sought--the check book from which Estrella was to
draw on Goodrich for the money she might need. He fairly snatched it
open. Two of the checks had been torn out, stub and all. And then his
eye caught a crumpled bit of blue paper under the edge of the desk.

He smoothed it out. The check was made out to bearer and signed
Estrella Johnson. It called for fifteen thousand dollars. Across the
middle was a great ink blot, reason for its rejection.

At once Senor Johnson became singularly and dangerously cool.

"I reckon you're right, Jed," he cried in his natural voice. "She's
gone with him. She's got all her traps with her, and she's drawn on
Goodrich for fifteen thousand. And SHE never thought of going just
this time of month when the miners are in with their dust, and Goodrich
would be sure to have that much. That's friend Palmer. Been going on
a month, you say?"

"I couldn't say anything, Buck," said Parker anxiously. "A man's never
sure enough about them things till afterwards."

"I know," agreed Bu