"You knew me!" said he, triumphantly glad, as they entered the garden's comparative gloom. "At the first word," said she. "I came here in the hope that you would know me, and you alone--I came with my heart full of that hope, and you knew me at the first word!" There was not so much marvel as satisfaction, even pride for her penetration, in it. "Somebody else may have recognized you, too--that man who brushed against you--" "He's one of your officers." "I know--Major King. Do you know him?" "No, and he doesn't know me. He can have no interest in me at all." "Very well; set your beautiful red wig straight and then tell me why you wanted to come here among your enemies. It seems to me a hardy challenge, a most unnecessary risk." "No risk is unnecessary that brings me to you," he said, his voice trembling in earnestness. "I dared to come because I hoped to meet you on equal ground." "You're a bold man--in more ways than one." She shook her head as in rebuke of his temerity. "But you don't believe I'm a thief," said he, conclusively. "No; I have made public denial of it." She laughed lightly, but a little nervously, an uneasiness over her that she could not define. "An angel has risen to plead for Alan Macdonald, then!" "Why should you need anybody to plead for you if there's no truth in their charges? What is a man like you doing in this wild place, wasting his life in a land where he isn't wanted?" They had turned into a path that branched beyond the lanterns. The white gravel from the river bars with which it was paved glimmered among the shadowy shrubs. Macdonald unclasped his plaid from his shoulders and transferred it to hers. She drew it round her, wrapping her arms in it like a squaw, for the wind was coming chill from the mountains now. "It is soon said," he answered, quite willingly. "I am not hiding under any other man's name--the one they call me by here is my own. I was a 'son of a family,' as they say in Mexico, and looked for distinction, if not glory, in the diplomatic service. Four years I grubbed, an under secretary in the legation at Mexico City, then served three more as consul at Valparaiso. An engineer who helped put the railroad through this country told me about it down there when the rust of my inactive life was beginning to canker my body and brain. I threw up my chance for diplomatic distinction and came off up here looking for life and adventure, and maybe a copper mine. I didn't find the mine, but I've had some fun with the other two. Sometimes I'd like to lose the adventure part of it now--it gets tiresome to be hunted, after a while." "What else?" she asked, after a little, seeing that he walked slowly, his head up, his eyes far away on the purple distances of the night, as if he read a dream. "I settled in this valley quite innocently, as others have done, before and after me, not knowing conditions. You've heard it said that I'm a rustler--" "King of the rustlers," she corrected.