It never reached Pen who was busy with her own thoughts. She knew in her heart without reason, without arguments that the charge was false, but she was searching for reasons that would convince a man. Her instinct led her unerringly to the weak spots of the case against Counsell.
"Why should he leave his pistol behind to convict him?" she asked. "Why should he introduce himself to us under his right name?"
Pendleton waved this impatiently aside. "Oh, they always make some slips. That's how they're caught. From the first I felt there was something funny about him."
"It was you who first asked him to stay," said Pen indignantly.
"Yes. But I didn't expect the house to be turned upside down to entertain him," he retorted. "Something funny about him, skulking down the Bay like that. You remember how he said he preferred to be alone."
"There's nothing criminal in that!"
"I don't know. Very strange he should slink out of the house without saying good-night to me. Perhaps he saw me reading the paper."
Pen all but wrung her hands. This was men's boasted logic. How could an intelligent person cope with it?
The little man got up with an important air.
"Don't act in haste, Dad," Pen pleaded earnestly. "Something tells me you will regret it. At least sleep on it!"