She who had always been
so sure of motives, so contented with things as they were, had been
struck by an absurd fancy that haunted because it was fiercely
repudiated and scorned, that would give her no rest until it was proven
false. But suppose it were true!

A succeeding blankness of mind awoke to the clip-clop of hoofs and her
father's cheery halloo.

Anderson dismounted and, throwing his bridle, he sat down heavily beside
her.

"You can ride back home," he said.

Lenore knew she had been reproved for her wandering out there, and she
made a motion to rise. His big hand held her down.

"No hurry, now I'm here. Grand day, ain't it? An' I see the barley's
goin'. Them sacks look good to me."

Lenore waited with some perturbation. She had a guilty conscience and
she feared he meant to quiz her about her sudden change of front
regarding the Bend trip. So she could not look up and she could not say
a word.

"Jake says that Nash has been tryin' to make up to you. Any sense in
what he says?" asked her father, bluntly.

"Why, hardly. Oh, I've noticed Nash is--is rather fresh, as Rose calls
it," replied Lenore, somewhat relieved at this unexpected query.

"Yes, he's been makin' eyes at Rose. She told me," replied Anderson.

"Discharge him," said Lenore, forcibly.

"So I ought. But let me tell you, Lenore. I've been hopin' to get Nash
dead to rights."

"What more do you want?" she demanded.

"I mean regardin' his relation to the I.W.W.... Listen. Here's the
point. Nash has been tracked an' caught in secret talks with prominent
men in this country. Men of foreign blood an' mebbe foreign sympathies.
We're at the start of big an' bad times in the good old U.S. No one can
tell how bad. Well, you know my position in the Golden Valley. I'm
looked to. Reckon this I.W.W. has got me a marked man. I'm packin' two
guns right now. An' you bet Jake is packin' the same. We don't travel
far apart any more this summer."

Lenore had started shudderingly and her look showed her voiceless fear.

"You needn't tell your mother," he went on, more intimately. "I can
trust you an' ... To come back to Nash. He an' this Glidden--you
remember, one of those men at Dorn's house--they are usin' gold. They
must have barrels of it. If I could find out where that gold comes from!
Probably they don't know. But I might find out if men here in our own
country are hatchin' plots with the I.W.W."

"Plots! What for?" queried Lenore, breathlessly