?"

"I suppose you read Maggie Donaldson's confession."

"I came to see you before that came out."

"Then I don't know, I'm afraid."

"I suppose you would stake your life on the fact that Beverly Carlysle
knows nothing of what happened that night at the ranch?"

Dick's face twitched, but he returned Bassett's gaze steadily.

"She has no criminal knowledge, if that is what you mean."

"I am not so sure of it."

"I think you'd better explain that."

At the cold anger in Dick's voice Bassett stared at him. So that was
how the wind lay. Poor devil! And out of the smug complacence of his
bachelor peace Bassett thanked his stars for no women in his life.

"I'm afraid you misunderstand me, Livingstone," he said easily. "I don't
think that she shot Lucas. But I don't think she has ever told all she
knows. I've got the coroner's inquest here, and we'll go over it
later. I'll tell you how I got onto your trail. Do you remember taking
Elizabeth Wheeler to see 'The Valley?'"

"I had forgotten it. I remember now."

"Well, Gregory, the brother, saw you and recognized you. I was with him.
He tried to deny you later, but I was on. Of course he told her, and
I think she sent him to warn David Livingstone. They knew I was on the
trail of a big story. Then I think Gregory stayed here to watch me when
the company made its next jump. He knew I'd started, for he sent David
Livingstone the letter you got. By the way, that letter nearly got me
jailed in Norada."

"I'm not hiding behind her skirts," Dick said shortly. "And there's
nothing incriminating in what you say. She saw me as a fugitive, and she
sent me a warning. That's all."

"Easy, easy, old man. I'm not pinning anything on her. But I want, if
you don't mind, to carry this through. I have every reason to believe
that, some time before you got to Norada, the Thorwald woman was on my
trail. I know that I was followed to the cabin the night I stayed there,
and that she got a saddle horse from her son that night, her son by
Thorwald, either for herself or some one else."

"All right. I accept that, tentatively."

"That means that she knew I was coming to Norada. Think a minute; I'd
kept my movements quiet, but Beverly Carlysle knew, and her brother.
When they warned David they warned her."

"I don't believe it."

"If you had killed Lucas," Bassett asserted positively, "the Thorwald
woman would have let the sheriff get you, and be damned to you. She had
no reason to