Just then, as it happened, Mrs. Devine came into the verandah with a packet in her hand.
"These are the papers the man tried to steal," she said. "Since you insist upon going back to the cañon to-day I wonder if you would take care of them?"
Brooke gasped, and felt the veins swell on his forehead as he looked at her. "You wish me to take them away?"
"Of course! My nerves are really horribly unsettled, and I was sent to the mountains for quietness. How could any one expect me to get it when I couldn't even sleep for fear of that man or some one else coming back for these documents?"
"They are, I think, of considerable importance to your husband," said Brooke.
"That is precisely why I would like to feel that they were safe in your tent. Nobody would expect you to have them there."
Brooke turned his head a little so that he could see Barbara's face.
"I appreciate your confidence," he said, and the girl noticed that his voice was a trifle hoarse. "Still, I must point out that I am almost a stranger to Mr. Devine and you."
Barbara smiled a little, but there was something that set the man's heart beating in her eyes.
"I am not sure that everybody would be so willing to make the most of the fact, but I feel quite sure my sister's confidence is warranted," she said. "That, of course, does not sound very nice, but you have made it necessary."