"Yep. So it does. But he got to asking for you. So I just lit out to give you a chance to go if you want to. It's up to you. Do just as you please." "Of course I'll go. Is he--is he as bad as he says?" "Pretty bad, the doc says. But I reckon he's good for a day or two. My advice would be to start right away, though, if you want to see him alive." "Yes. That would be best. I'll see mother now." She stopped at the door and leaned against the jamb a little faintly, then turned toward him. "It was fine of you to come, Chad. I know you don't like him. But--I won't forget." "Oh, tha's all right," he mumbled. "Have you seen Mr. Threewit yet?" she asked. "Threewit--no." He was for a moment puzzled at her question. "No--he's out getting a set somewheres in the hills." Ruth came back and took the note from Harrison's reluctant fingers. "He ought to get this at once. I'll send Billie Brown out with it. He'll explain to Mr. Threewit about us going on ahead and not waiting for him." The prizefighter did not quite like the idea. He would rather have kept the note himself and burnt it later. But it was out of his charge now. Without stirring doubts he could not make any objection. Anyhow, he would be in Sonora and safely married to Ruth long before the deception was discovered. Mrs. Seymour made her protest against such an unconventional trip, but Ruth rode her objections down after the fashion of American girls. "Why can't I go for a ride with the man to whom I'm engaged? What's wrong with it? I'll stay with the lady that keeps house for General Pasquale. In two or three days I'll be back. Don't say no, mommsie." Her voice broke a little as she pleaded the cause. "He's dying--Mr. Yeager is--and he wants to see me. I'd always blame myself if I didn't go. I've just got to go." "I don't see why you have to go riding all over the country to see one man when you're engaged to another. In my time--" "If Chad doesn't object, why should you?" "Oh, I know you'll go. I suppose it's all right, but I wish Phil could go with you too." "So do I, but of course he can't. Chad says that affairs are so disturbed across the line that probably the Government won't make Phil any trouble, but that if he showed himself in Sonora some of the friends of that man Mendoza would be sure to kill him." "I suppose so." Mrs. Seymour sighed. Her harum-scarum young son was on her mind a good deal. "Now, don't you fret, honey, about Steve Yeager. He's the kind of man that will take a lot of killing. A man who has lived outdoors in the saddle for a dozen years is liable to get over a wound that would finish some one else." In his haste to reach Los Robles before Yeager the prizefighter had ruined the horse he rode. He picked up another one cheap and got for Ruth her brother's pony. Within an hour of his arrival the two animals were brought round for the start. The mother, still a little troubled in her mind, took Harrison aside for a last word.