Ford’s face was very white, and his lips were drawn into thin lines when he opened them to reply.  But the restraining hand was on his arm again, and he obeyed it.

“I don’t care to talk with you, about this matter or any other, here and now.  Later on, perhaps, when you can speak without being abusive, I shall take the liberty of telling you what I think of you.”  And at that, he gave his horses the rein and drove on, swiftly, abruptly, leaving the president and his guests to follow as they would.

For some minutes neither of the two in the flying buckboard could find words wherewith to bridge the miserable chasm so suddenly opened between them.  Miss Alicia’s eyes were tear-brightened and unfathomable; Ford’s were hard, and there was a steely light in them.  It was Alicia who spoke first.

“I know it is not true, of course—­what Uncle Sidney accused you of,” she offered.  “But tell me how it happened?”

“I don’t know—­unless the devil planned it,” said Ford bitterly.  “I bought the mine one day last summer when I was in Copah, without premeditation, without seeing it—­without knowing where it was situated, just as I have told you.  Some little time afterward, Frisbie came to me with the plan for the change of route.  I had considered it before, but had made no estimates.  Frisbie had made the estimates, and we decided upon it at once.  I haven’t been over here since:  it wasn’t necessary, and I had other things to do.”

“Did Mr. Frisbie know about your purchase of the mine?”

“No.  I don’t think he knows of it yet.  To tell the truth, I was a little ashamed:  it was a touch of the mining fever that everybody gets now and then in a mining country.  Dick would have guyed me.”

“But Mr. Frisbie must have been over the line a great many times:  how could he miss seeing that enormous sign?” she persisted.

Ford shook his head.

“I venture to say that the paint isn’t yet dry on that sign.  It was put there for a purpose, and your uncle was told to look for it.  Grigsby is just the sort of fool to jump at the chance to advertise the mine, and somebody suggested it and gave him the tip that the president of the railroad was coming in this way.  Mr. North is a very careful man.  He doesn’t neglect any of the little details.”

The high valley was falling away into a broken gulch, and the railway-grade driving-path clung closer to the hillsides.  At the next turn the town of Copah came into view, and the road became a shelf on the slope two hundred feet above the main street and paralleling it.  Alicia was looking down upon the town when she said: 

“What shall you do?”

Ford’s laugh was not mirthful.

“I have already done it.  I shall perhaps be permitted to see you all safely back to the Nadia, and over the rough track to Saint’s Rest.  More than that I fancy Mr. Colbrith will not allow—­and possibly not that much.”