e has never guessed, or suspected,
and I could almost hope she never will. It didn't take me long to make
up my mind. This was about the time Charlie came to the valley," she
sighed. "Well, I quickly contrived to get at the men I wanted. I
talked to them carefully, and finally unfolded to them a plan I had
worked out to smuggle whisky on a large and profitable scale. It
doesn't matter about the details. They all came in at once. It pleased
their sense of humor to be run by a woman. I was to disguise myself as
a man, which nature made easy for me, and my real personality was to
be our chief safeguard. No one would suspect unless we were caught
red-handed. And that--well, that was not a great chance, anyway, in
those days. I was responsible. I was to purchase cargoes across the
border. The others were only my helpers, under my absolute orders. And
I ruled them sharply."

The man nodded without other comment.

"But Charlie had arrived, and very soon his coming began to complicate
matters," Kate went on, after the briefest of pauses. "He came out
here to ranch. He was turned out of his home. And I--I just pitied
him, and strove to turn him from his drunken habits. This is where the
mischief was done. I liked him. I sort of felt like a mother to him.
He was so gentle and kind-hearted. He was clever, too--very clever.
Yes, I looked upon him as a son, or brother--but he didn't look on me
in the same way. I don't know. I suppose I didn't think. I was
foolish. Anyway, Charlie asked me to marry him. I refused him, and he
drank himself into delirium tremens."

Again came a long-drawn sigh at the memory of that poor, wasted life.

"Well, I nursed him, and finally he got better, and again I went on
with my work. Then, one day, I received a shock. Charlie came to me
and told me he'd found a mysterious old corral, away up, hidden in
the higher reaches of the valley. He begged me to let him show it me.
Feeling that I owed him something, I consented to go with him. So we
rode out. You know the place. But maybe you don't know its secret."

Fyles nodded.

"Yes--you mean the--cupboard in the lining of the wall."

"You know it?" Kate's surprise was marked. However, she went on
rapidly. "Well, while we were there he showed it to me, and then,
looking me straight in the eyes, he said, 'Wouldn't it be a dandy
hiding place for things? Suppose I was a big whisky smuggler. Suppose
I wanted to disguise myself. I could keep my disguise here