“Do you think they would dare try to intimidate me in my own home and with father to protect me?” she cried, incredulously.
“Not there, perhaps. But if they could inveigle you away, yes. They wouldn’t use hot irons in your case, of course, and I can’t guess just what they would do, but they would do––something. Those men think I have the ‘goods’ on them; I repeat, they would stop at nothing to save themselves if worst came to worst; their fear will make them fiends. One couldn’t suppose they would dare seize Martinez in all defiance of law––but they did. One can’t believe they would dream of torturing him for information––but I haven’t a doubt that’s what they’ve done. So you see why I’m worried about you. If anything happened, if any harm came to you now, Janet––”
His voice was unsteady as he spoke her name and ceased abruptly. She thrilled to this betrayal of his feeling.
“I wish I could just stick at your side, then I know I should be safe,” she said.
And for answer she felt his hand grope and press her own for an instant.
“You can count on me being somewhere around.”
“I know that,” she said, confidently.
San Mateo was asleep, buried in gloom when they entered it, and quiet except for the barking of a dog 183 or two that their passage stirred to activity. But in Dr. Hosmer’s cottage a light was burning and as the car came to a stop at its gate the door was flung open and the doctor himself appeared framed in the doorway. He ran hastily down the walk to meet them.
“Janet!” he cried. And the girl flung her arms about him.
“Juanita told you? Oh, it was dreadful! But Mr. Weir has brought me home safe.”