Three miles, four, five, while Anita Richmond held close to Fairchild
as the speed became greater and the sparks from the wire above threw
their green, vicious light over the yawning stretch before them. A
last spurt, slightly down-grade, with the motor pushing the wheels at
their greatest velocity; then the crackling of electricity suddenly
ceased, the motor slowed in its progress, finally to stop. The driver
pointed to the right.

"Over there, sheriff--about fifty feet; that's the Reunion opening."

"Thanks!" They ran across the spur tracks in the faint light of a
dirty incandescent, gleaming from above. A greasy being faced them and
Bardwell, the sheriff, shouted his mission.

"Got to catch some people that are making a get-away through Center
City. Can you send us up in the skip?"

"Yes, two at a time."

"All right!" The sheriff turned to Harry. "You and I 'll go on the
first trip and hurry for the Ohadi road. Fairchild and Miss Richmond
will wait for the second and go to Sheriff Mason's office and tell him
what's up. Meet us there," he said to Fairchild, as he went forward.
Already the hoist was working; from far above came the grinding of
wheels on rails as the skip was lowered. A wave of the hand, then
Bardwell and Harry entered the big, steel receptacle. At the wall the
greasy workman pulled three times on the electric signal; a moment more
and the skip with its two occupants had passed out of sight.

A long wait followed while Fairchild strove to talk of many
things,--and failed in all of them. Things were happening too swiftly
for them to be put into crisp sentences by a man whose thoughts were
muddled by the fact that beside him waited a girl in a whipcord riding
suit--the same girl who had leaped from an automobile on the Denver
highway and--

It crystallized things for him momentarily.

"I 'm going to ask you something after a while--something that I 've
wondered and wondered about. I know it was n't anything--but--"

She laughed up at him.

"It did look terrible, didn't it?"

"Well, it would n't have been so mysterious if you had n't hurried away
so quick. And then--"

"You really did n't think I was the Smelter bandit, did you?" the laugh
still was on her lips. Fairchild scratched his head.

"Darned if I know what I thought. And I don't know what I think yet."

"But you 've managed to live through it."

"Yes--but--"

She touched his arm and put on a scowl.

"It's ver