"Yes; and to escape from the tiresome business of trying to remember
people's names."

"Then you reverse the usual fashionable process--you go south to meet the
rising mercury."

"I hadn't thought of it, but that is so. I dearly love a hillside, with
pines and cedars, and sloping meadows with sheep--and rides over mountain
roads to the gate of dreams, where Spottswood's golden horseshoe knights
ride out at you with a grand sweep of their plumed hats. Now what have
you to say to that?"

"Nothing, but my entire approval," he said.

He dimly understood, as he left her in this gay mood, at the Claiborne
house, that she had sought to make him forget the lurking figure in the
park thicket and the dark deed thwarted there. It was her way of
conveying to him her dismissal of the incident, and it implied a greater
kindness than any pledge of secrecy. He rode away with grave eyes, and a
new hope filled his heart.




CHAPTER X

JOHN ARMITAGE IS SHADOWED

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,