The man cowered terrified against the wall, stammering in broken phrases,
“I no savvy! How I savvy? She go with a bag. She say, ‘Give him the letter’ and I give him. You read him. I no savvy any more.”
The Colonel’s hand on his chest forcing him back against the door-post cut short his words:
“When did she go? How long ago? Answer honestly, or, by God, I’ll kill you!”
His face added to the man’s terror, but it also steadied his shaking nerves:
“She go not one hour; thlee-quarters. She come to me with bag and say, ‘Good-by, Sing, I go for long time.’ She give me the letter and say give him to you Tuesday, Wednesday. Then she go.”
“Which way?”
“I don’t see. I don’t look. I go down stairs. I go sleep on my bed. I hear bell and wake. That’s all.”
The Colonel released him and turned to the door. The man evidently knew no more than he said. She had been gone less than an hour. That was all there was to tell.
As he ran down the long stairs he had no definite idea in his mind. She had left to run away with Jerry three-quarters of an hour earlier. That was all he thought of for the moment. Then the frosty sharpness of the night air began to act with tonic force upon him. His brain cleared and he remembered Rion’s words. Half an hour ago Barclay was still in the mine. There had evidently been some delay in his coming up. No trains left the town as late as that. June had gone somewhere to meet him, to some place of rendezvous whence they would probably drive into Reno. If Barclay had not yet left the mine he could be caught, and then——