"Mr. Clifford, before you go, I want to know the truth about the rescue of Ross from that fall. I know you told me about Mr. Bauer, but I wasn't clear about it. Mr. Van Shaw would never forgive me if I didn't get the thing straight. He is very particular. And of course, I naturally am deeply interested in knowing what occurred." "There is Mr. Bauer, madam," said Clifford gravely. "You had better ask him about it." Bauer was in the same wagon with Mr. and Mrs. Douglas and Helen. On the return trip, in the absence of Mr. Masters, Paul was driving the chuck wagon which had been reloaded so as to allow room for Helen's cot in the rear end of it. Mrs. Van Shaw went over to the wagon and began to ask Bauer questions. "Is it true that you went down after my son before Mr. Clifford came?" "Yes, ma'am." "In the dark?" "There are no lights on the edge of the rock." "Did you see him lying there below?" "I saw something that looked like a body." "How far below was it?" "I don't know. I hadn't time to measure." "Mr. Clifford said something to me about finding you clinging to Ross's arm. Why were you doing that if he was lying on the ledge?" "He had turned over and was rolling off." "Then you were holding his arm------" "Until help came. Then Mr. Clifford pulled him back over the edge." Mrs. Van Shaw paused. Then she said abruptly: "My son says you pushed him over the cliff." "How dreadful!" a voice broke in and there was Helen, Her cheeks on fire, sitting up confronting Mrs. Van Shaw. "I know, Miss Douglas, he spoke in his delirium. But what were you doing out there together? Why should you and Ross be there?" she said, turning again to Bauer, who, when confronted with Van Shaw's charge, had turned pale and clenched his fingers deep into his palms. "I cannot tell you why we were there. I did not push him over the cliff. The edge of it where he stood, crumbled and he went down." "Why were you there with him? Can't you tell me that?" "I would rather not." Mrs. Van Shaw looked uncertainly from one to another. There was a mystery here. She was too much of a woman of the world not to know, and indeed, her son had plainly told her that he was infatuated with Miss Douglas, but what had this obscure German invalid to do with it? In the midst of all her questions, Helen broke in. "Mrs. Van Shaw, do you realise that Mr. Bauer risked his life to save your son? What he said about being pushed over the cliff is a fearful thing to say even in delirium. Surely you can't believe that, after knowing that Mr. Bauer went down the cliff to save him." She spoke with a passionate eagerness that was an expression of one of the splendid traits of her personality,--a genuine love of justice. Poor Bauer hardly realised that she was defending him, but he said to himself even then that he had never seen her beauty flame out so magnificently. And then before Mrs. Van Shaw could reply to Helen, he said to the astonishment of all in the breathless group: