"Do you mean"--

"Oh, I haven't the strength, to mean anything," she said. "But I thank
you, thank you very much," she added. She turned her head away.

"Confound Maynard!" cried the young man. "I don't see why he does n't
come. He must have started four days ago. He ought to have' had sense
enough to telegraph when he did start. I did n't tell his partner to ask
him. You can't think of everything. I've been trying to find out
something. I'm going over to Leyden, now, to try to wake up somebody in
Cheyenne who knows Maynard." He looked ruefully at Grace, who listened
with anxious unintelligence. "You're getting worn out, Miss Breen," he
said. "I wish I could ask you to go with me to Leyden. It would do you
good. But my mare's fallen lame; I've just been to see her. Is there
anything I can do for you over there?"

"Why, how are you going?" she asked.

"In my boat," he answered consciously.

"The same boat?"

"Yes. I've had her put to rights. She was n't much damaged."

She was silent a moment, while he stood looking down at her in the chair
into which she had sunk. "Does it take you long?"

"Oh, no. It's shorter than it is by land. I shall have the tide with me
both ways. I can make the run there and back in a couple of hours."