an offer of
assistance. But my spirit was dead. I reached for her hands, but they
eluded mine, slipped up my arms as she came sliding out of the saddle,
and then her face was very close to mine. "Russ!" she whispered. It was
torment, wistfulness, uncertainty, and yet tenderness all in one little
whisper. It caught me off guard or indifferent to consequences. So I
kissed her, without passion, with all regret and sadness. She uttered a
little cry that might have been mingled exultation and remorse for her
victory and her broken faith. Certainly the instant I kissed her she
remembered the latter. She trembled against me, and leaving unsaid
something she had meant to say, she slipped out of my arms and ran. She
assuredly was frightened, and I thought it just as well that she was.

Presently she disappeared in the darkness and then the swift little
clinks of her spurs ceased. I laughed somewhat ruefully and hoped she
would be satisfied. Then I put away the horses and went in for my
supper.

After supper I noisily bustled around my room, and soon stole out for my
usual evening's spying. The night was dark, without starlight, and the
stiff wind rustled the leaves and tore through the vines on the old
house. The fact that I had seen and heard so little during my constant
vigilance did not make me careless or the task monotonous. I had so much
to think about that sometimes I sat in one place for hours and never
knew where the time went.

This night, the very first thing, I heard Wright's well-known footsteps,
and I saw Sampson's door open, flashing a broad bar of light into the
darkness. Wright crossed the threshold, the door closed, and all was
dark again outside. Not a ray of light escaped from the window. This was
the first visit of Wright for a considerable stretch of time. Little
doubt there was that his talk with Sampson would be interesting to me.

I tiptoed to the door and listened, but I could hear only a murmur of
voices. Besides, that position was too risky. I went round the corner of
the house. Some time before I had made a discovery that I imagined would
be valuable to me. This side of the big adobe house was of much older
construction than the back and larger part. There was a narrow passage
about a foot wide between the old and new walls, and this ran from the
outside through to the patio. I had discovered the entrance by accident,
as it was concealed by vines and shrubbery. I crawled in there, upon an
opport