"No, if it were really he who attempted to murder Stephen I hope he will be caught and punished. All the same I do not think he killed Colonel Carr."
"What can be your reason for saying so?"
Bess hesitated. "Some time ago I promised to tell you something about the Colonel," she said. "I will do so in a week from to-day."
"Why not now?"
She shook her head. "Please do not ask me, but as far as this assault on Stephen goes, I am quite with you about Frisco. I hope he will be caught and punished."
"You are a strange girl," said Dr. Jim, "and a mystery like the rest."
"Who are the rest?" asked Bess smiling.
"Well," replied Jim after a pause, "Mrs. Marsh was one, you are another and Pentland Corn is a third--"
"Pentland Corn!" she echoed turning pale, "you don't suspect him of--"
"I don't suspect him of anything, but I do not understand why he is so intimate with that Mexican."