nk me. I must know," she cried impetuously, "and I shall
know! Mr. Sorenson is one of the men you referred to, or he would
never seek to direct suspicion at you. I saw the look on your face,
sir, as he spoke. But why should you two be enemies! You come here a
stranger to San Mateo, or have you been here before sometime? Did you
know him before?"

Again he could feel her eyes straining at him.

"It seems mad to think of him and Mr. Burkhardt, and perhaps others,
hiring some one to shoot you down from a dark doorway. It is utterly
mad--crazy. But why should they want to convict you, in the crowd's
opinion at least, of murdering the man. It would not be just trouble
about the dam--oh, no. But I can't see through it at all. Why won't
you tell me? You can trust me--and I want to help you as well as help
myself. You certainly don't hold against me my silly nonsense and
unkind words of the day you brought me home from the ford."

"I didn't think them silly; they delighted me," he responded. "I
hadn't had anything happen to me so refreshing in years."

"We must be friends. Something tells me they're going to make you
trouble over this shooting, and you'll need friends."

"Something tells me you're right in both respects," he laughed.

"And friends must stick together."

"That's what they should do."

In the dusk of the vine-clad, flower-scented place where they sat he
experienced the subtle power of this intimacy. Not a soul stirred in
the empty moonlit street before the house. No sounds disturbed the
warm peace of the night. In this secluded spot only there ran the
murmur of their voices.

"I could never stand by and see any man unjustly accused and defamed
if I knew he was innocent, without lifting up my word in defense," she
proceeded. "But let me ask if on your side you're treating me
fairly?"

Weir could have groaned.

"You have a noble spirit, Miss Hosmer. You're more courageous and kind
than any girl I've ever known. Would you have me reveal what my best
judgment tells me should remain untold?"

"But what of me? Would you keep it to yourself if my future happiness
might turn on it?"

The appeal in her words shook Steele's heart.

"How does this business affect your happiness? How?" he asked, in
perplexity.

Now it was her turn to hesitate. Why should she pause, indeed, before
telling to this man what every one else knew. Yet hesitate she did,
from a feeling she could but partly analyze. Of her fiance