"I don't know why."
"We could start in to-night, just as easily as to-morrow, and it will be over a day sooner. What do you say?"
"I am ready when you are, Mr. Auld."
"Right! Now, I am going to leave the conversation to you. You must work it round to fit in. I shall do the rest,—the dirty work, as the villain says in the dime novel."
"What do you know about dime novels?" I laughed.
"I am a minister of the gospel now, but ... I was a boy once."
The Rev. William Auld had dinner with me, then he started out in his launch for Clark's ranch. It was arranged that I follow immediately in a rowing boat, which would take me longer to get there and would thus disarm any suspicion of complicity.
When I arrived at Clark's, I could hear the minister talking and Andrew Clark laughing heartily. Mr. Auld was telling some interesting story and he had the old man in the best of humours.
I was welcomed with cheerfulness, and the minister shook hands with me as if he had not seen me for a month of Sundays.
Rita was a-missing. Mrs. Clark seemed nervous and ill-at-ease. Andrew, however, was in his happiest of moods.