convicts, escaped from their prison, two days free--and desperate."

She was suddenly very pale. Her eyes were blazing.

"Convicts! Out of prison?"

"A good long way out," he told her watching, "and clever enough to hike
for the mines, with the camps all full of strangers. They learn to be
good mixers, when they're trying to escape."

Beth gazed at him searchingly.

"You--knew they were out--and waiting on the road?"

"Everyone knew they were out--and I certainly thought big Matt would do
precisely what you see he has done."

"Matt?" she echoed.

"The leader," he explained, "a clever brute as ever worried a sheriff."

She was not in the least interested in the personality of the convict
thus described. Her mind had flown to another aspect of the case--the
case involving herself.

"And this was why you wouldn't let us go in the auto?" she said. "You
expected this?"

He looked at her quickly.