“Crosbie Traynor.” A pause, then: “Crosbie Traynor. I’ve got the tracks cleared now! I’ll see the Injuns first; but if I’m stopped there, I’m goin’ on, even if it’s clear to Flagstaff!”
CHAPTER XII
MOLLY EXPLAINS
Two o’clock found Johnny mounting the stairs to the Eldorado’s parlor. Molly awaited him, but the boy found her cast down. Her appearance prompted him to plain speaking.
“Listen, girl,” he said. “There’s somethin’ wrong. Now, tell me what it is. I felt it this mornin’. It ain’t your way to steal off, and that’s what you did this trip. You’re worried, and I know it.”
“I am, Johnny,” Molly answered readily. “I’d have told you without your asking. I did come here hurriedly and without a word to any one. Maybe I’ve been foolish, but it sounded so genuine that I had to do as I have. I won’t talk in riddles any longer. Hughie brought me this letter night before last. It rather upset me, and then, too, I was curious. I want you to read it.”
Johnny’s face whitened as he obeyed her, for without question it was a communication from Crosbie Traynor.
The letter ran:
“Miss Molly Kent, Diamond-Bar Ranch:
“Please do not be alarmed by this letter. One who wishes you well writes it. Although I am a stranger, I have traveled many hundred miles to see you.
“I am an old man—old beyond my time. Seeing you is one of the two ambitions I have left me. Let the fact that I have loved your mother, living and dead, these forty years, explain my interest in you. It is of her that I want to talk to you.