"I ought to tell you——" Walter detained him. "That money—Miss Durant has drawn it, every penny."
"Eh!" exclaimed Durant. "Are you sure?"
"It was that which set me thinking about coming up here myself. I heard her telling the cashier. You haven't paid her a visit for three years; accordingly, she intends coming to visit you as a surprise."
"A surprise! My God!" gasped the unhappy man.
"She has invested in the most costly outfit," continued Walter. "She is traveling with a princely retinue. You see, she thinks you live in regal style—palaces and all that."
"And when——" Durant moistened his dry lips. "How soon——?"
Pierce shrugged his shoulders. "I fell in with her party to-day, though as I was stone broke and hoofing it I didn't care to make myself known to her. She was inquiring your whereabouts. She is coming by the stage. She'll be here any minute now."
The tooting of a horn echoed through the hills, mingled with bursts of girlish laughter, as, with a crack of the driver's whip and the jingling of bells, in a cloud of dust the stage was seen approaching. With a groan Durant buried his face in his hands. "My God!" he muttered. "Evelyn!"