that she should turn over to him the stolen money?

He had found her dumb and stricken with many hours of brooding over his
guilt. At least he left her quick with questionings. She divined again
the hint of a mystery. Something deeper than reason told her that the
unraveling of it would prove him no villain.

One immediate duty alone confronted her. She must confess to Lady
Farquhar that she had met and talked with him again. It was likely that
she would be well scolded, but it was characteristic of her that she
preferred to walk straight to punishment and get it over with. No doubt
she had been too free with this engaging scamp. The rules of her set
prescribed a straight and narrow road in which she must walk. The open
fields beyond the hedges might blossom with flowers, but there could be
no dalliance in them for her. She was to know only such people as had
the password, only those trimmed and trained till there was no
individuality left in them. From birth she had been a rebel, but an
impotent one. Each revolt had ended in submission to the silken chains
of her environment. Fret as she might, none the less she was as much a
caged creature as Lady Jim's canary.

CHAPTER IX

"AN OUT AND OUT ROTTER"

Jack strode through the young alders to his horse, swung to the saddle
without touching the stirrups, and was off instantly at a canter. He
rode fast, evidently with a direct driving purpose to reach a particular
destination. The trail was a rough and rocky one, but he took it
recklessly. His surefooted broncho scrambled catlike up steep inclines
and slid in clouds of dust down breakneck hillsides of loose rubble. In
and out he wound, across gulches and over passes, following always as
nearly a bee line as was possible.

An hour of rapid travel brought him to the Gunnison road. He swung to
the ground and examined the dusty roadbed. Apparently he was satisfied,
for he took his sweat-stained horse back into the brush and tied it to a
cottonwood. From its case beside the saddle he drew a rifle. He retraced
his own steps and selected carefully a place among the thick bushes by
the roadside. With his pocketknife he cut eye-holes in the bandanna
handkerchief that had been round his neck and tied it over his face in
such a way as to conceal his features entirely. Then he carefully
emptied from the rifle all the cartridges it contained and dropped them
into his pocket.

These preparations made, he sat down and wait