She tiptoed along the ledge and slipped into the trough at the farther end that led to the top. It was a climb she had taken several times, but never in the dark. The ascent was almost perpendicular, and it had to be made by clinging to projecting rocks and vegetation. Moreover, if she were to escape undetected it had to be done in silence. She was a daughter of the hills, as surefooted as a mountain goat. Handily she went up, making the most of the footholds that offered. In spite of the best she could do the rustling of bushes betrayed her. Jack came to the foot of the trough and looked up. "So you're there, are you?" he asked. Her foot loosened a stone and sent it rolling down. "If I were you I wouldn't try that at night, 'Liss," he advised. She made sure of the steadiness of her voice before she answered. "You don't need to try it." "I said if I were you, girl." "But you are not. Don't let me detain you here, Mr. Flatray," she told him in a manner of icy precision. The deputy began the climb too. "What's the use of being so hostile, little girl?" he drawled. "Me, I came as soon as I could, burning the wind, too." She set her teeth, determined to reach the top in time to get away before he could join her. In her eagerness she took a chance that proved her undoing. A rock gave beneath her foot and clattered down. Clinging by one hand and foot, she felt her body swing around. From her throat a little cry leaped. She knew herself slipping. "Jack!" In time, and just in time, he reached her, braced himself, and gave her his knee for a foot rest. "All right?" he asked, and "All right!" she answered promptly. "We'll go back," he told her. She made no protest. Indeed, she displayed a caution in lowering herself that surprised him. Every foothold she tested carefully with her weight. Once she asked him to place her shoe in the crevice for her. He had never seen her take so much time in making sure or be so fussy about her personal safety. Safely on the ledge again, she attempted a second time to dismiss him. "Thank you, Mr. Flatray. I won't take any more of your time." He looked at her steadily before he spoke. "You're mighty high-heeled, 'Lissie. You know my name ain't Mr. Flatray to you. What's it all about? I've told you twice I couldn't get here any sooner." She flamed out at him in an upblaze of feminine ferocity. "And I tell _you_, that I don't care if you had never come. I don't want to see you or have anything to do with you." "Why not?" He asked it quietly, though he began to know that her charge against him was a serious one. "Because I know what you are now, because you have made us believe in you while all the time you were living a lie." "Meaning what?" "I was gathering poppies on the other side of Antelope Pass this afternoon." "What has that got to do with me being a liar and a scoundrel," he wanted to know. "Oh, you pretend," she scoffed. "But you know as well as I do."