f she
was some rare untrained genius. Nothing gave me an idea that she would
turn out this way."

"'This way' has not damaged you much so far," remarked Mr. Seldon, dryly.
"And as she is not likely to be much of a charge on your hands, you had
better not borrow trouble on that score."

"All very well--all very well for you to be indifferent," returned Mr.
Haydon, with some impatience. "You have no family to consider, no matter
what wild escapade she would be guilty of, you would not be touched by the
disgrace of it, because she doesn't belong in any way to your family."

"Maybe she will, though," suggested Seldon.

Mr. Haydon shrugged his shoulders significantly.

"You mean through Max, don't you?" he asked. "Yes, I was simple enough to
build on that myself--thought what a nice, quiet way it would be of
arranging the whole affair; but after a talk with this ranger, Overton,
whom you and Max unite in admiring, I concluded he might be in the way."

"Overton? Nonsense!"

"Well, maybe; but he made himself very autocratic when I attempted to
discuss her future. He seemed to show a good deal of authority concerning
her affairs."

"Not a bit more than he does over the affairs of their paralyzed partner
in there," answered Seldon. "If she always makes as square friends as Dan
Overton, I shan't quarrel with her judgment."

When 'Tana left them and went into the other cabin, she stood looking at
Harris a long time in a curious, scrutinizing way, and his face changed
from doubt to dread before she spoke.

"I am hardly able to think any more, Joe," she said at last, and her tired
eyes accented the truth of her words; "but something like a thought keeps
hammering in my head about you--about you and--" She pointed to the next
room. "If you could walk, I should know you did it. If you could talk, I
should know you had it done. I wouldn't tell on you; but I'd be glad I was
going where I would not see you, for I never could touch your hand again.
I am going away, Joe; won't you tell me true whether you know who did it?
Do you?"

He shook his head with his eyes closed. He, too, looked pale and worn, and
noticing it, she asked if he would not rather move to some other dwelling,
since--

He nodded his head with a sort of eagerness. All of the two days and the
night he had sat there, with only the folds of a blanket to separate him
from the room where his dead foe lay.

"I will speak to them about it right away." She lifted