There was, indeed, quite an audience. Daniel Moore, leaning on a cane, his other arm clasped in Evelyn’s, stood close at hand; also the four Motor Maids, Pasquale chuckling with joy and Lucia smiling broadly.
“Evelyn, my dear, you have given us such a fright. Where did you come from,” exclaimed Miss Campbell, almost in hysterics. “And Daniel Moore, too.”
“It’s a good ending to what might have been a very tragic affair, Miss Campbell,” replied Daniel. “Evelyn was kidnapped last night by Ebenezer Stone but as luck would have it, Mr. Stone and I were making the trip from Sacramento to catch you here and we met them on the road last night. They had an accident, in fact, and stopped our car for assistance without knowing whom we were. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fight that scoundrel, Ebenezer,” he continued, clenching his fist and growing very white.
“Have you been ill?”
“He has been very ill,” put in Evelyn, clasping his arm and leaning on him.
“Too ill even to know that Evelyn was not married,” went on Daniel. “That little wretch of a mare when she dragged me around by my leg, injured my hip. I owe my life to Miss Billie, and I ought to be thankful that the injury was no worse. The worry about Evelyn and the arrest in Salt Lake City precipitated matters, I suppose and I have been in the hospital ever since, until the day before yesterday. It didn’t seem to matter much with Evelyn married to that—to that——”
“Never mind,” said Evelyn soothingly. “Father and I never really did like him. Did we father?”
This was rather straining a point but Mr. John James Stone was quite equal to it. The truth is the stony old Mormon had suffered a change of heart.
“Ebenezer is a cold blooded scoundrel,” he observed in a tone of conviction which brought covert smiles even to the lips of his long suffering daughter.
“But, please, tell me quickly how you and Mr. Stone came to meet?” demanded Miss Campbell, the answer of which question they were all burning to know.