her dusky eyes, a shining hope newborn in her eager
heart. "Are you telling me that you are innocent?"

"You've been thinking me guilty, then," he countered swiftly.

"What else could I think?"

"You might have waited to hear the defense."

"If you had stayed to make one, but you ran away."

"How do you know I did?"

"You were gone when the officers reached your camp."

His smile was grim and his voice defiant. "There was a man up in the
hills I wanted to see in a hurry."

By the look in her eyes it was as if he had struck her. With fine
contempt her answer came. "Was there another man up there in the rocks
just now that you had to see until the deputy left?"

"Anyhow, there was a young woman down by the banks of Sunbeam I wanted
to see after he was gone," the fugitive claimed boldly.

A faint angry flush glowed delicately beneath the olive of her cheeks.
"Evasions--nothing but evasions."

She turned away, sick at heart. He had treated with flippancy the chance
she had given him. Would an innocent man have done that?

Swift as an arrow his hand shot out, caught her shoulder, and held her
firmly. The eyes that lifted to his flamed with proud resentment.

"I'm not going to let you go like this. Don't think it."

"Sir."

"You'll do me justice first." His hand dropped from her shoulder, but
the masterful look of him stayed her steps. "You'll tell me what
evidence you've got against me."

Again an insurgent hope warmed her heart. Wild he might be, but surely
no criminal--if there was any truth in faces.

What she had heard against him she told. "The robbers were riding
horses like yours. You left the fair grounds early. You and your friend
were seen going into the corral where you had stabled the animals. This
was less than half an hour before the robbery. When you passed us on the
road you were anxious about something. You looked back two or three
times. Both you and Mr. Colter showed you were in a hurry. Then you ran
away before the sheriff reached your camp. Does an innocent man do
that?" She put her question as an accusation, but in the voice was a
little tremble that asked to be refuted.

"Sometimes he does. Now listen to me. The horses ridden by the robbers
were Colter's and mine. We certainly were worried about the time we met
you. And we did break camp in a hurry so as to miss the sheriff. Does
this prove me guilty?"

She brushed away the soft waves of dark hair that had fallen over her
foreh