Conrad's face glowed with satisfaction as he finished the letter. "The birds won't get a chance to make any nests in my hair this trip! I'll sashay up the line this very night and I'll find out who Delafield is from Jenkins, if I have to choke the life out of him to do it. God!" His vengeful desire glowed like a blue flame in his eyes. He jumped to his feet, stretched out his arms, and clenched his fists. "Sumner L. Delafield, it's getting time for you to say your prayers!" CHAPTER II THE EVIL THAT MEN DO Lucy Bancroft and her father were unusually silent as they drove toward home. After an effort to chatter gayly she grew quiet--to her father's surprise, for she was ordinarily a vivacious companion. Speculating uneasily whether or not she had heard Conrad's story, and reassuring himself that it could mean nothing to her in any event, he made several efforts to draw her into speech. But she answered with her mind so evidently intent elsewhere that he gave up the attempt. The fear grew on him that she had overheard the conversation and that it had left an undue impression on her mind. A mirage of singularly perfect illusion lay across the plain to their left, and he drew her attention to its silvery surface, the trees bordering its unreal banks, the cattle standing knee-deep in its waters, and the steamboat puffing across its breast. Lucy admired and wondered for a moment, then turned the other way and looked back at the green tree clusters and white buildings of the ranch they had left. Her gaze lingered there until they crossed the hill, and its summit hid the scene from view. Bancroft sought to reassure himself. Did she not say she had been asleep? And the door was shut. Surely she could not have heard! Even if she had why should she care about it? Nevertheless, her silence made him anxious. It annoyed him to think that her mind was intent upon Conrad's story. He made another effort to draw her out of her abstraction by asking how soon she expected their friend, Louise Dent, who was coming to spend the Summer with them. Lucy showed interest in this and they discussed plans for her entertainment. But presently she fell silent again, looking straight ahead with a little frown on her brow. The conviction gripped Bancroft's mind that she had overheard the cattleman's recital of his wrongs. Alarm stirred in his heart as he tried to imagine what impression it had made upon her. Would she sympathize with Conrad? For the moment he forgot everything else--business deals and political contests, friendships and enmities, in his desire to know what had been the effect upon the girl beside him of Conrad's outburst. But much as he wished to know, he feared still more the surety of what her feeling might be, and he could not bring himself to ask the questions that would draw her out.