On that, Bayard's unexplained warning occurred to the girl and she felt her heart leap.
"Not that!" she said, dully. "Oh, Ned, not that. Something awful ... will happen if you go back there."
He looked at her, suspecting that this was a ruse.
"What makes you think that?"
"I was warned never to let you go back there."
"Did Bayard warn you?"—leaning low in his saddle that he might see her face better. She answered with a nod. "And why didn't he want me to go back there?"
"I don't know, Ned. But—Take my word, I beg of you!"
He rose in his stirrups and shook his fist at her.
"He steals my wife and tries to frighten me away from my property, does he? What's his interest in the Sunset mine? Do you know? No? Well, we'll find out by to-morrow night, damn him!"
He slapped his coat pocket where the automatic rested and lifted his quirt to cut the hindquarters of the slow moving stallion.