"Yes, she's an inveterate eavesdropper, I know. But we have no secrets to discuss, so I haven't minded. She has the mother-instinct to purvey for her helpless young,--gossip or food or anything else she may think will be acceptable. She wants to keep Ben interested, that's all."
"Perhaps that's all. But she has so much to do with Selby that it makes me uncomfortable for her to hear my casual remarks about him. I couldn't get what I wanted from Ben. He shied off at once when I asked if Selby had learned Indian weaving. I have decided to go up to the Reservation to find out."
"Really?" exclaimed the doctor, in obvious surprise. "You attach so much importance to this--idea of yours?"
"It is the only definite and positive clue I have found yet, and I am going to follow it out. I am satisfied that Selby hates your son. So does the mysterious unknown. The Unknown unconsciously ties his knots in a very peculiar manner which he must have learned among the Indians. Selby has had the opportunity to learn from the Indians. There are two steps taken."
"Yes," mused the doctor thoughtfully.
"Is there any one else more likely?" asked Burton. "Have you any enemies? Discharged servants, for instance?"
"No."
"Professional rivals?"
"If there is any poor devil of a doctor so unfortunate as to envy my degree of success, let him go ahead with his revenge. He needs all the barren consolation he can get."
"Then you really have no suspicion to better my own?"