and going, forty miles of driving a rough
mountain road had given him a laborer's appetite.

"It's late, one o'clock," Mary said to Janet. "Why don't you stay
with us the rest of the night? I wish you would."

Janet put up an arm and drew down the face of the girl at her side and
kissed her.

"You're a good friend, Mary, to be so thoughtful," she answered. "But
father will be terribly anxious every minute I'm away. I must reach
home as quickly as possible to ease his mind."

Of Sorenson nothing had been spoken, though a repressed curiosity on
the part of the ranchman and his daughter had been evident from the
instant of Weir's and Janet's return.

At this point Johnson jerked his head in the direction of the creek.

"What did you do to him, Weir?" he growled.

"Not as much as I intended at first. But he made up for it himself.
Ran his car against that granite ledge before the cabin while trying
to get away, and smashed himself up badly. I carried him into the hut
and left him there; he was alive when we drove off, but he may be dead
by now. Bad eggs like him are hard to kill, however. I'll start a
doctor up there when I arrive in San Mateo; probably one from
Bowenville."

"Father won't attend him now, so long as there's another physician who
can, I know," Janet stated.

"I should say not!" Johnson asseverated. "If that young hound Sorenson
had his deserts, we'd just leave him there and forget all about him."

"That's where our civilized notions handicap us," Steele Weir said,
with a slight smile. "But at that, if he were the only person
concerned, I'd do no more than inform a doctor where he was and what
had happened to him, and wash my hands of the affair. There are other
things, though, to consider. Janet's position, primarily. Her case is
similar to that of Mary's awhile ago, and we must prevent talk."

"Yes, of course."

"The worst of the doings of a scoundrel like him that involve innocent
people is the talk. There are always some people low enough to ascribe
evil to the girl as well as the man in such a circumstance as this. I
propose to see that Janet doesn't suffer that. We avoided it in Mary's
case and we'll do so in this, though the situation is more difficult.
I've been thinking the matter over on the way down and have a plan
that will work out, I believe, but it requires your help, Johnson."

"I reckon you know you'll not have to ask me twice for anything," the
rancher remarked.

"And we ma