In all the cruel tangle of her emotions, in all her confused and bewildering thoughts, in all her suffering one thing was clear; she must get away from the world that could see only evil—­she must go at once.  Conrad Lagrange and Aaron King might come at any moment.  She could not face them; now that she knew.  She wished Myra was home.  But she would leave a little note and Myra—­dear Myra with her disfigured face—­would understand.

Quickly, the girl wrote her letter.  Hurriedly, she dressed in her mountain costume.  Still acting under her blind impulse to escape, she made no explanations to the neighbors, when she went for the horse.  In her desire to avoid coming face to face with any one, she even chose the more unfrequented streets through the orange groves.  In her humiliation and shame, she wished for the kindly darkness of the night.  Not until she had left the city far behind, and, in the soft dusk, drew near the mouth of the canyon, did she regain some measure of her self-control.

As she was overtaking the Power Company’s team and wagon of supplies, she turned in her saddle, for the first time, to look back.  A mile away, on the road, she could see a cloud of dust and a dark, moving spot which she knew to be an automobile.  One of the Company machines, she thought; and drew a breath of relief that Fairlands was so far away.

It was quite dark as she entered the canyon; but, as she drew near, she could see against the sky, those great gates, opening silently, majestically to receive her.  From within the canyon, she watched, as she rode, to see them slowly close again.  The sight of the encircling peaks and ridges, rising in solemn grandeur out of the darkness into the light of the stars, comforted her.  The night wind, drawing down the canyon, was sweet and bracing with the odor of the hills.  The roar of the tumbling Clear Creek, filling the night with its deep-toned music, soothed and calmed her troubled mind.  Presently, she would be with her friends, and, somehow, all would be well.

The girl had ridden half the distance, perhaps, from the canyon gates to the Ranger Station when, above the roar of the mountain stream, her quick ear caught the sound of an automobile, behind her.  Looking back, she saw the gleam of the lights, like two great eyes in the darkness.  A Company machine, going up to the Head-Work, she thought.  Or, perhaps the Doctor, to see some one of the mountain folk.

As the automobile drew nearer, she reined her horse out of the road, and halted in the thick chaparral to let it pass.  The blazing lights, as her horse turned to face the approaching machine, blinded her.  The animal restive under the ordeal, demanded all her attention.  She scarcely noticed that the automobile had slowed down, when within a few feet of her, until a man, suddenly, stood at her horse’s head; his hand on the bridle-rein as though to assist her.  At the same instant, the machine moved past them, and stopped; its engine still running.