"Searle wouldn't take my advice, you know." His eyes were once more
merry. "What could I do?"

"But Mr. Bostwick wouldn't have gone if you had told him!" she said.
"Oh, I'm surprised you'd do it--let him go and be captured like that!"
She was looking down upon the silent drama intently as she added: "I
don't see why you ever did it!"

He was still amused.

"Oh, I thought perhaps Searle deserved it."

She blazed a little.

"You told him you hoped he'd meet congenial company on the road. You
didn't mean----"

"Guilty as charged in the indictment. I guess I did."

"Oh! I wouldn't have thought----" she started, then she shivered in
horror, reflecting swiftly on the fate that might have befallen herself
and Elsa had they too been captured with Searle. It was all explained
at last--the horseman's earnest talk with Dave, his quiet but grim
refusal to permit herself and Elsa to remain with the car, and the
hazardous ride he had since dared compel them to take at such peril to
his life! And now, his persistent advance on foot, when perhaps he was
painfully injured! He had done then such a service as she could never
in her life forget. His treatment of Searle had perhaps, even as he
said, been deserved. Nevertheless, Searle was much to her, very much,
indeed--or had been--up to this morning--and she was worried.