Again Ned remembered Steve's words, "She'll only trust you because she has lost her heart to you."
"Did you ever give anyone a hint as to where the creek was, Lilla?"
"No, never. At least no, I didn't tell him, but one man nearly guessed once."
"Nearly guessed once?"
"Yes. He said he knew more than I thought and I had better trust him, and wasn't the creek at the head of the Chilcotin? And I said, 'Well, which side of the Chilcotin?' And then he smiled, and I felt angry. And when he said on the right bank I was glad, and I cried 'No, it isn't, I knew you didn't know.' And then he smiled more, and I saw that I had told him what he wanted to know. But after all that is not much, is it?"
"Who was the man, Lilla?"
"Colonel—Colonel—ach, I forget, there are so many colonels in America."
"True, but what was he like?" Ned had a queer fancy to know who this clever cross-examiner might be.
"A thick dark man, stout and smooth."
"With a lot of rings on his fingers?"