"Wouldn't it be best if you took your mind off the whole thing, by a book or something else? I'll go." "As if I could take my mind off! There are matters in this I must know. You may wonder when I say it, Mr. Weir, but this happening concerns me more than you dream." Her dark glowing gaze brooded on him with a sort of intense determination. Then she went on, "It--it involves my whole future as well as your own, though in a different way. So come inside, if you please." Weir in silence accompanied her upon the dark, broad, vine-clad porch. In the half-gloom he found chairs for them. "I'm going to the point at once," she declared. "Why did Mr. Sorenson talk in such a fashion?" And he could feel her bending forward as if hanging on his answer. "That's the one thing I can't discuss," said he. "I must know, I must know." "And unhappily I must refuse." "Oh, Mr. Weir, if you could but understand what this involves for me, you wouldn't hesitate! I was shocked at the shooting, but I saw its necessity on your part; you're not one to run from a foe, a cowardly foe least of all. But what I heard there in the street horrified me. I couldn't believe it; I can scarcely credit my ears yet. Mr. Sorenson and Mr. Burkhardt were not near when you were attacked; they are not acquainted with the circumstances or facts as you, Mr. Martinez and I know them; they apparently didn't appear until the crowd started away with the dead man. Yet at once----" "Ay, at once," Steele Weir let slip. "At once, immediately, when they had barely heard the story, they began to tear it to pieces and suggest another, making you out a villain. You're only an acquaintance, sir, scarcely more than a stranger, but as I listened it outraged all my sense of justice. Mr. Sorenson, of all men! My brain was in a whirl. But it's steady now." The engineer failed to open his lips at her pause. "I'm no fool, Mr. Weir; I think of other things besides dressing my hair and using a powder puff. I can sometimes put two and two together--when I see the 'twos' clearly. Now, tell me why Mr. Sorenson talked as he did, for I must have my eyes clear." "Ask me anything but that, Miss Hosmer." He sat distressed and uneasy at her prolonged muteness. Suddenly she questioned quietly: "Are those two men the enemies you spoke of?" "It will save me embarrassment if I go," he remarked, starting to rise. "I don't want you to hate me, you know, and still I can't say anything." Her grasp pulled him imperatively back. "You shall not go yet." "Then I can only continue to decline making answers. I frankly say that I regret having uttered a word of explanation."