"You"ve been here some time, then?"
""Bout a month altogether, but not here in Haskell all that time. When did you leave New York?"
"Oh, more than a week ago," she lied gracefully.
He stroked his moustache.
"Then I suppose you haven"t much late New York news? Nothing startling, I mean?"
"No; only what has been reported in the Western papers. I do not recall anything particularly interesting." She dropped her eyes to her plate and busied herself with a piece of tough beef. "The usual murders, of course, and things of that kind."
There was a moment"s silence, then the man laughed as though slightly ill at ease.
"These fellows out here think they are a pretty tough lot," he said grimly, "but there are plenty of boys back on the East Side who could show them a few tricks. You know that part of the old town?"
"Not very well," she admitted with apparent regret, "but of course I read a good bit about it in the papers--the desperate characters, gunmen, and all those the police have so much trouble with. Are those stories really true?"
"There ain"t a third of them ever told," and he leaned forward, quite at his ease again. "I have some business interests down that way, and so hear a good deal of what is going on at first hand. A New York gunman is so much worse than these amateurs out here there ain"t no comparison. Why, I know a case----"
He stopped suddenly and took a sip of coffee.
"Tell me about it."
""Tisn"t anything to interest you, and, besides, it wouldn"t sound well here at the table; some other time, maybe, when you and I get better acquainted. What ever brought a girl like you down in here?"
She smiled.
"I"m a feature writer; I"m doing a series on the West for _Scribbler"s_," she told him. "I visit New Mexico next, but I"m after something else besides a description of mountains and men; I"m also going to hunt up an old friend interested in mining, who told me if I ever got out this way I must look him up.
"I haven"t seen him for years. He was continually singing this valley"s charms, and so here I am. And I"m planning a great surprise on him. And, of course, I"m literally drinking in atmosphere--to say nothing of local colour, which seems mostly to be men and revolvers."
The man opposite wet his lips with his tongue in an effort to speak, but the girl was busy eating and apparently paid no attention. Her calm indifference convinced him that her words were entirely innocent, and his audacity returned.
"Well," he ventured, "do you agree with this prospector friend?"
"The scenery, you mean?" glancing up brightly. "Why, it is wonderful, of course, and I am not at all sorry having made the journey, although it hardly compares with Tennessee Pa.s.s or Silver Plume. Still, you know, it will be pleasant to tell Mr. Cavendish when I go back that I was here."
He choked and his face seemed to whiten suddenly.
"Mr. Cavendish?" he gasped. "Of New York? Not the one that was killed?"
It was her turn to stare across the table, her eyes wide with horror, which she simulated excellently.
"Killed! Has a man by that name been killed lately in New York? It was Frederick Cavendish I referred to." Her pretence was admirable.
He was silent, realising lie had already said too much; the red had come back into his cheeks, but his hand shook as it rested clenched on the table.
"Tell me," she insisted, "has he been killed? How do you know?"
Her earnestness, her perfect acting, convinced him. It was a mere coincidence, he thought, that this name should have cropped up between them, but, now that it had, he must explain the whole affair so as not to arouse suspicion. He cleared his throat and compelled his eyes to meet those across the table.
"Well, I don"t know much about it, only what I read," he began, feeling for words. "But that was the name; I remembered it as soon as you spoke, and that the papers said he had been mining in Colorado before he came into money. He was found dead in his apartments, apparently killed by a burglar who had rifled his safe."
"Is this true? Why have I never heard? When did it happen?"
"It must have been a month ago."
"But how did you learn these particulars? You have been West that length of time."
"I read about it in a New York paper," he answered a trifle sullenly.
"It was sent to me."
She sat with her chin in the palm of one hand, watching him from beneath the shadow of lowered lashes, but his eyes were bent downward at his plate.
"Are you through?" he questioned suddenly.
"Yes; this--this awful news has robbed me of all appet.i.te."
Neither had noticed Westcott as he entered the room, but his first glance about revealed their presence, and without an instant of hesitancy the big miner crossed the room and approached the table where the two were sitting.
Beaton, as though antic.i.p.ating trouble, arose to his feet, but Westcott merely drew back a vacant chair and seated himself, his eyes ignoring the presence of the man and seeking the uplifted face of the girl questioningly.
"I hope I do not interrupt," he said pleasantly. "I had reason to suppose you were unacquainted with Mr. Beaton here."
"What reason?" her surprised tone slightly indignant.
"I believe the gentleman so informed me. It chanced that we had a slight controversy last night."
"Over me?"
"Over his curiosity regarding you--who you were; your presence here."
She pushed back her chair and stood up.
"A natural curiosity enough, surely. And you felt important enough to rebuke him on my behalf? Is that what I am to understand?"
"Why," he explained, startled by her strange manner, "I informed him that it was none of his business, and that if he mentioned your name in my presence again there was liable to be trouble. We sc.r.a.pped it out."
"You--you sc.r.a.pped it out? You mean there was a fight over me--a barroom squabble over me?"
"Not in the barroom; in the hotel office. Beaton drew a gun, and I had to slug him."
"But the affair originated over me--my name was brought into it?" she insisted. "You actually threatened him because he asked about me?"
"I reckon that was about how it started," he admitted slowly. "You see, I rather thought I was a sorter friend of yours, and that I ought to stand up for you."
"Did--did this man say anything against me?"