en back, swapped them for their own, and hit the trail. Mosby's
idea had been to throw suspicion on us for an hour or two until they
could make their getaway. We rode back to the crowd, learned the
particulars, and followed the boys. My thought was that if we could get
the money from them we might make terms with the association."

"That's why you were in a hurry when you passed us."

"That's why."

"And of course the sheriff thought you were running away from him."

"He couldn't think anything else, could he?"

"How blind I was--how lacking in faith! And all the time I knew in my
heart you couldn't have done it," she reproached herself.

His masterful eyes fastened on her. "Did your friends know it? Did Miss
Joyce think I couldn't have done it?"

"You'll have to ask her what she thought. I didn't hear Joyce give an
opinion."

"Is she going to marry that fellow Verinder?"

"I don't know."

"He'll ask her, won't he?"

She smiled at his blunt question a little wanly. "You'll have to ask
Mr. Verinder that. I'm not in his confidence."

"You're quibbling. You know well enough."

"I think he will."

"Will she take him?"

"It's hard to tell what Joyce will do. I'd rather not discuss the
subject, please. Tell me, did you find your friends?"

"We ran them down in the hills at last. I knew pretty well about where
they would be and one morning I dropped in on them. We talked it all
over and I put it up to them that if they would turn the loot over to me
I'd try to call off the officers. Curly was sick and ashamed of the
whole business and was willing to do whatever I thought best. Mosby had
different notions, but I persuaded him to see the light. They told me
where they had hidden the money in the river. I was on my way back to
get it when I found little Bess Landor lost in the hills. Gill nabbed me
as I took her to the ranch."

"And after you were taken back to Gunnison--Did you break prison?"

"I proved an alibi--one the sheriff couldn't get away from. We had
gilt-edged proof we weren't near the scene of the robbery. The president
of the bank had been talking to us about ten minutes when the treasurer
of the association drove up at a gallop to say he had just been
robbed."

"So they freed you."

"I made a proposition to the district attorney and the directors of the
association--that if I got the money back all prosecutions would be
dropped. They agreed. I came back for the money and found it gone."