given him his hat, he found Patricia still
sitting in the car, with the motor purring softly under the hood.

"Must you go back?" she queried, when he had descended the steps to
climb stiffly into the seat beside her.

He nodded.

"Your duty is clear?"

"Perfectly clear--now."

"And the consequences?" she asked.

"I can only guess," he muttered. "Ruin and disgrace for all of us, I
suppose. Of course, you understand that I have resigned from the
railroad service and shall stand with my father when--when the thing is
done."

She was backing the little roadster into the circling driveway to turn
for the start. At the reversing moment she made her final plea.

"Don't do it, Evan--_don't do it!_ I have no more than a woman's reason
to offer, but I am sure you are opening the door to a lifelong sorrow
for yourself and--and--for me!"

It was the last two words that steeled him suddenly. Not even at her
beseeching would he turn aside from the plain path of the oath-bound
obligation. It struck him like a blow that the turning aside would make
him forever unworthy of her.

"Take me back to the city as quickly as you can!" he said. "Or, better
still, stay here and let me have the car. That is my last word."

"You're not fit to drive a car!" she snapped; and for further answer she
threw the speed lever into the intermediate gear and released the
clutch. Like a projectile hurled from a catapult, the swift little
roadster shot away down the cottonwood avenue, and with a jerk of the
lever into the "high" the second race against time was begun.

For the first few miles Patricia's passenger had all he could do to keep
his seat. On its upper mesa windings the Quaretaro road follows the
course of the stream which has been robbed of its waters for the
cultivated lands, and though the roadway was good the hazards were
plentiful when taken at speed. More than once Blount caught himself in
the act of reaching for the steering-wheel, but as often he desisted. As
on the outward race, Patricia was staring straight ahead, and giving
the little car every throb of speed there was in its machinery. None the
less, he could see that she had it under perfect control.

What finally happened came with the suddenness of the thunder-clap
following a bolt which strikes near at hand. They were on the down-grade
approach to the mouth of Shonoho Canyon, and they could not see beyond
the gentle curve to the left, where the smaller gulch found i