“Father won’t attend him now, so long as there’s another physician who can, I know,” Janet stated.
“I should say not!” Johnson asseverated. “If that young hound Sorenson had his deserts, we’d just leave him there and forget all about him.”
“That’s where our civilized notions handicap us,” Steele Weir said, with a slight smile. “But at that, if he were the only person concerned, I’d do no more than inform a doctor where he was and what had happened to him, and wash my hands of the affair. There are other things, though, to consider. Janet’s position, primarily. 179 Her case is similar to that of Mary’s awhile ago, and we must prevent talk.”
“Yes, of course.”
“The worst of the doings of a scoundrel like him that involve innocent people is the talk. There are always some people low enough to ascribe evil to the girl as well as the man in such a circumstance as this. I propose to see that Janet doesn’t suffer that. We avoided it in Mary’s case and we’ll do so in this, though the situation is more difficult. I’ve been thinking the matter over on the way down and have a plan that will work out, I believe, but it requires your help, Johnson.”
“I reckon you know you’ll not have to ask me twice for anything,” the rancher remarked.
“And we may have to shuffle the facts a bit.”
“All right. I’ll do all the lying necessary and never bat an eye.”
“It won’t require much decorating, the story. But you will have to go up and get him, starting at once.” Then he concluded, “I hate to have to ask you to make that drive late at night and in the darkness.”
“Never mind that. Glad to do it, if that’s what you want.”