She asked no more questions, being unwilling to tempt him to break confidence with Kent. But she was thinking of all the desperate things a determined man with temperamental unbalancings might do when the touring car rolled noiselessly down the final hill into the single street of Megilp. There was but one vehicle in the street at the moment; a freighter's ore-wagon drawn by a team of mules, meekest and most shambling-prosaic of their tribe. The motor-car was running on the spent velocity of the descent, and Ormsby thought to edge past without stopping. But at the critical instant the mules gave way to terror, snatched the heavy wagon into the opposite plank walk, and tried to climb a near-by telephone pole. Ormsby put his foot on the brake and something snapped under the car. "What was that?" Elinor asked; and Ormsby got down to investigate. "It is our brake connection," he announced, after a brief inspection. "And we are five good miles from Hudgins and his repair kit." A ring of town idlers was beginning to form about them. An automobile was still enough of a rarity in the mining-camp to draw a crowd. "Busted?" inquired one of the onlookers. Ormsby nodded, and asked if there were a machinist in the camp. "Yep," said the spokesman; "up at the Blue Jay mine." "Somebody go after him," suggested Ormsby, flipping a coin; and a boy started on a run. The waiting was a little awkward. The ringing idlers were good-natured but curious. Ormsby stood by and answered questions multiform, diverting curiosity from the lady to the machine. Presently the spokesman said: "Is this here the steam-buggy that helped a crowd of you fellers to get away from Jud Byers and his posse one day a spell back?" "No," said Ormsby. Then he remembered the evening of small surprises--the racing tally-ho with the Inn auto-car to help; and, more pointedly now, the singular mirage effect in the lengthening perspective as the east-bound train shot away from Agua Caliente. "What was the trouble that day?" he asked, putting in a question on his side. "A little ruction up at the Twin Sisters. There was a furss, an' a gun went off, accidintally on purpose killin' Jim Harkins," was the reply. The machinist was come from the Blue Jay, and Ormsby helped Elinor out of her seat while the repairs were making. The town office of the Blue Jay was just across the street, and he took her there and begged house-room and a chair for her, making an excuse that he must go and see to the brake-mending. But once outside he promptly stultified himself, letting the repairs take care of themselves while he went in search of one Jud Byers. The deputy sheriff was not hard to find. Normally and in private life he was the weigher for the Blue Jay; and Ormsby was directed to the scale shanty which served as the weigher's office.