Craig shook his head sadly.

“Little girl,” he said, “I should like to go with you along that valley and over the hills and forget that I had ever lived in any other world.  But I can’t do it.  There’s a child there now, on the ocean, nearer to New York every day, my sister’s own child and no one to meet her.  And—­there are the other things.  I have sinned and I must pay....  My God!”

The room suddenly rang with Marta’s shriek.  Through the open window by which they were sitting, an arm wrapped in a serape had suddenly hovered over them.  Craig, in starting back, had just escaped the downward blow of the knife, which had buried itself in Marta’s arm.  She fell back, screaming.

“It’s Jose!” she cried.  “The brute!  The beast!”

Craig swung to his feet, furious.  Long Jim, cursing fiercely, drew his gun.  At that moment the door of the saloon was thrown open.  Jose came reeling in, his serape over his shoulder, a drunken grin on his face.  He staggered towards them.

“Jose, you beast!” the girl called out, and fell back, fainting.

There was the sound of a revolver shot and Jose reeled backwards and fell with a cry across the sanded floor.  Jim thrust his smoking gun into his belt and caught Craig by the arm.

“Say, we’d better get out of this, cookie!” he muttered.

They were hustled out.  Apparently Jose was unpopular, for every one seemed only anxious to have them clear away.

“I’ll get you into the camp quietly,” Long Jim muttered.  “You’ll be safer there for the night.  Then you can make that eighty-thirty in the morning.”

* * * * *

Lenora, with her bed dragged to the opening of the tent, eagerly greeted the little party on their return.  Quest at once came and sat by her side.

“Where’s Laura,” he asked, “and the Inspector?”

She smiled and pointed to the rising ground behind them.  In the faint moonlight two forms were just visible.

“The Inspector isn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer,” Lenora remarked cheerfully, “and honestly, if you ask me, I believe that Laura is weakening a little.  She pretended she didn’t want to go out for a walk, and mumbled something about leaving me, but she soon changed her mind when the Inspector pressed her.  They have been up there for an hour or more.”

Quest smiled.

“French has got it bad,” he declared, “almost as badly as I have, Lenora.”

She laughed at him.  Her face was a little drawn with pain but her eyes were very soft.

“I wonder if you have it very badly,” she murmured.

He held her hand for a moment.

“I think you know,” he said.

As they talked they heard the coyotes barking in the distance.  Presently Laura and the Inspector returned.

“Nice sort of nurse I am,” the former grumbled.  “It’s all the fault of this man.  He would keep me out there talking rubbish.”