ce. The quicker we reach your father, the quicker he
will arrive here."

When they were in his car he wrapped a robe about her against the
sharp chill.

"I am cold; my teeth are chattering," she said.

"You've been under a great strain. Just lie back and rest and think of
something else than what has happened, if you can," he urged.

"I'll try to."

The lamps blazed out at his touch of the switch and the car began to
move. She closed her eyes. She did not wish to see the scene of the
smash, with the leaping fire and the horrible pile of crushed metal.
Indeed, she drew the robe before her face, where she kept it for some
time.

"Are we past the place?" she asked, finally.

"A long way past."

"Thank heaven! Nothing shall ever drag me up this road again!"

"It will not take us long to reach Johnson's and be off this trail
altogether, for it's down-hill going all the way."

"You said nothing about the paper? Did you get it?"

"No; it wasn't on him. I'll return for another look, but it fell in
the fire, I think, and burned."

"Do you know what was in it, Mr. Weir?"

"No. But I can guess."

"I know a little of its contents, from what he said before you
entered. It was a statement, something about his father and others
doing dishonest acts, I think. He didn't seem to be quite clear what
it was about either, but he spoke of your father and declared he
hoped the others had swindled him, which he inferred had happened. I
didn't know your father ever had been in this country. That's the
reason you hate those men, Mr. Sorenson and Mr. Vorse and Mr.
Burkhardt; because of some injury they worked your father."

"That's the reason. And that too is why they're trying to get rid of
me one way or another. But they didn't hire the Mexican to attempt to
shoot me; Ed Sorenson employed him. Martinez, when you told me the
man's name, telegraphed around the country from Bowenville till he got
track of the fellow. He also secured evidence that a white man
resembling Ed Sorenson had been seen talking with him at the place he
came from. So we can draw our conclusions."

"Then he hired the man to assassinate you!"

"Looks like it. Because I took Mary Johnson away from him, and from
fear. He was afraid you might learn of the matter, I suppose, and
decided to get rid of me. He's a coward at heart, but none the less a
criminal by instinct, so he hired another to do what he dared not
attempt himself. A crook like his father, but