In a few words, the girl explained to her friend, that she was on her way over the trail from Lone Cabin, and had accidentally met Mr. Rutlidge who had accompanied her as far as the camp.  James Rutlidge had little to say beyond assuring the Ranger of his welcome; and very soon, the officer and the girl set out on their way down the Laurel trail to Clear Creek canyon.  As they went, Sibyl’s old friend asked not a few questions about her meeting with James Rutlidge; but the girl, walking ahead in the narrow trail, evaded him, and was glad that he could not see her face.

Sibyl had spoken the literal truth when she said to Rutlidge, that she did not want any one to know of the incident.  She felt ashamed and humiliated at the thought of telling even her father’s old comrade and friend.  She knew Brian Oakley too well to have any doubts as to what would happen if he knew how the man had approached her, and she shrank from the inevitable outcome.  She wished only to forget the whole affair, and, as quickly as possible, turned the conversation into other and safer channels.

The Ranger could not stop at the house with her, but must go on down the canyon, to the Station.  So the girl returned to Myra Willard, alone; and, to the woman’s surprise, for the second time, with an empty creel.

Sibyl explained her failure to bring home a catch of trout, with the simple statement that she had not fished; and then—­to her companion’s amazement—­burst into tears; begging to return at once to their little home in Fairlands.

Myra Willard thought that she understood, better than the girl herself, why, for the first time in her life, Sibyl wished to leave the mountains.  Perhaps the woman with the disfigured face was right.

Chapter XXV

On the Pipe-Line Trail

James Rutlidge spent the day following his experience with Sibyl Andres, in camp.  His companions very quickly felt his sullen, ugly mood, and left him to his own thoughts.

The manner in which Sibyl received his advances had in no way changed the man’s mind as to the nature of her relation to Aaron King.  To one of James Rutlidge’s type,—­schooled in the intellectual moral and esthetic tenets of his class,—­it was impossible to think of the companionship of the artist and the girl in any other light.  If he had even considered the possibility of a clean, pure comradeship existing between them—­under all the circumstances of their friendship as he had seen them in the studio, on the trail at dusk, and in the artist’s camp—­he would have answered himself that Aaron King was not such a fool as to fail to take advantage of his opportunities.  The humiliation of his pride, and his rage at being so ignominiously checked by the girl whom he had so long endeavored to win, served only to increase his desire for her.  Sibyl’s resolute spirit, and vigorous beauty, when aroused by him, together with her unexpected opposition to his advances, were as fuel to the flame of his passion.