Just now she could do neither. The atmosphere of the ranch seemed to stifle her. When she rode out into a brave, clean world of sunshine, the girl carried her shame along. Ever since she could remember, outlaws and miscreants had slipped furtively about the suburbs of her life. The Rutherfords themselves were a hard and savage breed. To their door had come more than one night rider flying for his life, and Beulah had accepted the family tradition of hospitality to those at odds with society. A fierce, untamed girl of primitive instincts, she was the heritor of the family temperament. But like threads of gold there ran through the warp of her being a fineness that was her salvation. She hated passionately cruelty and falsehood and deceit. All her life she had walked near pitch and had never been defiled. Hal Rutherford was too close to her not to feel the estrangement of her spirit. He watched her anxiously, and at last one morning he spoke. She was standing on the porch waiting for Jeff to bring Blacky when Rutherford came out and put his arm around her shoulder. "What is it, honey?" he asked timidly. "It's--everything," she answered, her gaze still on the distant hills. "You haven't quarreled with Brad?" "No--and I'm not likely to if he'll let me alone." Her father did not press the point. If Brad and she had fallen out, the young man would have to make his own _amende_. "None of the boys been deviling you?" "No." "Aren't you going to tell dad about it, Boots?" Presently her dark eyes swept round to his. "Why did you say that you didn't know anything about the Western Express robbery?" He looked steadily at her. "I didn't say that, Beulah. What I said was that I didn't know where the stolen gold was hidden--and I didn't." "That was just an evasion. You meant me to think that we had had nothing to do with the--the robbery." "That's right. I did." "And all the time--" She broke off, a sob choking her throat. "I knew who did it. That's correct. But I wasn't a party to the robbery. I knew nothing about it till afterward." "I've always believed everything you've told me, dad. And now--" He felt doubt in her shaken voice. She did not know what to think now. Rutherford set himself to clear away her suspicions. He chose to do it by telling the exact truth. "Now you may still believe me, honey. The robbery was planned by Tighe. I'll not mention the names of those in it. The day after it was pulled off, I heard of it for the first time. Dave Dingwell knew too much. To protect my friends I had to bring him up here. Legally I'm guilty of abduction and of the train robbery, too, because I butted in after the hold-up and protected the guilty ones. I even tried to save for them the gold they had taken." "Were--any of the boys in it, dad?" she quavered. "One of them. I won't tell you which." "And Brad?" "We're not giving names, Boots."