Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/241

Rh her eyes were bright and her parted lips were crimson.

"Why didn't you stay in the cave?" he asked.

"I thought," she answered, "you might be glad to have me out here. Peggy is crazy to tell all about it and so she wouldn't have to wait until you came I offered to split the information with you."

"You seemed to have dropped from the skies," said Stone. "I'll leave thanks for afterward. You said you came to warn us and ran the gauntlet of the same trap. It was very brave of you."

"I haven't forgotten the fight at Castro's," she said. Their eyes met for a moment and not all the gray ash of the mesa could hide the flush that mounted in her cheeks. "I got your postcard," she went on, half shyly. "This is the answer. I told you I suspected something between Healy and Castro. And that I would try and find out more. I wanted to write to you but I knew it would not reach you. Then I managed to get Peggy's letter. You haven't told her about what I was doing at Castro's. That was kind of you."

"It was splendid of you to do it. Go on."

"I would have got away before, but I was practically a prisoner at the Casa. Castro wouldn't pay me my money. I stole it at last when he was drunk one night and I got away. The driver of the auto—you remember?—helped me."

"Yes," said Stone. "I remember the auto." She flushed again then continued: "Padilla lost his job. You made a joke of him. But Castro expected