Even the ready smile faded from Mrs. Baxter's lips as she replied
hesitatingly and submissively: "I thought you knew already that Spencer
had given this ranch to me. I sold it to Don Jose to get the money for
us to go away with. It was Spencer's idea--"
"You lie!" said Mrs. Tucker.
There was a dead silence. The wrathful blood that had quickly mounted
to Mrs. Baxter's cheek, to Patterson's additional bewilderment, faded as
quickly. She did not lift her eyes again to Mrs. Tucker's, but, slowly
raising herself from her seat, said, "I wish to God I did lie; but it's
true. And it's true that I never touched a cent of the money, but gave
it all to him!" She laid her hand on Patterson's arm, and said, "Come!
let us go," and led him a few steps towards the gateway. But here
Patterson paused, and again passed his hand over his melancholy brow.
The necessity of coherently and logically closing the conversation
impressed itself upon his darkening mind. "Then you don't happen to have
heard anything of Spencer?" he said sadly, and vanished with Mrs.
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