You are beside yourself, Shirley. Please--please do not wound me so--
so horribly. You do not--you cannot realize what a desperate fight I
have been putting up for both our sakes. I am surrounded by enemies--
the most implacable enemies. They force me to fight the devil with
fire--and here you are, giving them aid and comfort."

"I want you to defeat Bryce Cardigan, if you can do it fairly."

"At another time and in a calmer mood we will discuss that villain,"
he said authoritatively. "If we argue the matter now, we are liable
to misunderstandings; we may quarrel, and that is something neither
of us can afford. Get into the car, and we will go home. There is
nothing more to be done to-night."

"Your sophistry does not alter my opinion," she replied firmly.
"However, as you say, this is neither the time nor the place to
discuss it."

They drove home in silence. Shirley went at once to her room. For the
Colonel, however, the night's work had scarcely begun. The instant he
heard the door to his niece's room shut, he went to the telephone and
called up the Laguna Grande roundhouse. Sexton, his manager,
answered.

"Have you sent the switch-engine to the woods for Rondeau and his
men?"

"Just left."

"Good! Now, then, Sexton, listen to me: As you know, this raid of