Half an hour later the visitors had departed, the rancher going with the physician and his charge to Bowenville, Weir returning to San Mateo. Mary had driven the wagon up from the mouth of the canyon, unharnessed the horses, watered and fed them, and now was seated in the kitchen staring absently out the open door. After so much excitement she felt distrait, depressed. Finally she produced and dried the papers over the stove, in which she had re-kindled a fire. "Funny how anybody should want to talk or write anything but English," she remarked to herself, gazing at the pages. She attempted to extract some sense from the strange words. At the bottom of the last sheet she deciphered, Felipe Martinez' name under the notorial acknowledgment. All at once in scanning certain lines she came on names that were plain enough--Sorenson, Vorse, Burkhardt, Gordon. The last must mean Judge Gordon. Then presently she found two more names that excited her curiosity--James Dent's and Joseph Weir's. Springing to her feet she stared at the sheets in her hand. For some reason or other her blood was beating with an odd sensation of impending discovery. "Why--why----" she stammered. "Why, those are the men father told about being shot, and him looking on as a boy! This is a queer paper! I wish he were here." Possession of it gave her a feeling of uneasiness. Her father had warned her never to speak of the matter to any one--and here was something about it in writing, or so she guessed. He had said Sorenson and the other men would kill him at once if they learned he had been a witness. That meant they would kill her too if they found out that she not only knew about their crime but had this paper as well. She looked about. Finally she retied the document in a tea-towel, tight and secure, and buried it deep in the flour barrel. They would not think of looking in the flour. But she went to the door just the same and gazed anxiously down the canyon as if enemies might put their heads in sight that very minute. CHAPTER XX ANXIETIES "My dear doctor, your talents are wasted in San Mateo. They should be employed in the larger field of diplomacy," said Steele Weir, when on his arrival from Terry Creek he was apprised of what had occurred during his absence. "From all indications I shall have full opportunity for their use hereafter, whatever they may be, in our own bailiwick," Doctor Hosmer replied, smiling. "There's more going on in our village, apparently, than in many a small kingdom. I merely had Janet use the truth with certain limitations, and there's no wiser course when part of the facts are known. Sorenson seemed quite satisfied with her explanation."