“Sit down, Uncle Sidney, and let me tell you what happened at Horse Creek camp a week ago last night,” he said evenly; and then he told the story of the attempt upon Ford’s life, of the siege of the Nadia, of the terrible catastrophe which had involved all three of the MacMorroghs, the commissary staff, Eckstein, and the headquarters camp.  When he finished, the president was shaking as if from a chill.  Yet one thread of the strong strand of loyalty still held.

“It was horrible—­fiendish!” he shuddered.  “But it was the MacMorroghs’ fight.  It does not necessarily incriminate North.”

“It does,” said Adair, in the same even tone.  “I told you that we left a few men at the wrecked camp to warn the incoming material trains.  They found a single survivor of the thirteen men who tried to destroy us and the Nadia.  It was Eckstein, North’s secretary, and before he died he amply confirmed all of our guesses.  They had plotted to have you quarrel with Ford.  Ford had bought his half of the Little Alicia without any prompting, but from that as a starting point the entire scheme was worked up.  The MacMorroghs’ bookkeeper, a man named Merriam—­who is at present in Copah, and whose deposition I have had taken before a justice of the peace—­was detailed to win Frisbie over to the change of route—­no difficult thing, since the change was for the better.  But Merriam’s part was chiefly to keep Frisbie from finding out anything about Ford’s mine; which he did.  Am I making it clear?”

The president bowed his head.

“Then, when you came West on your inspection trip, the trap was sprung.  You were told that Ford had been doing a dishonorable thing, and you were urged to come over here and see for yourself.  To make sure that there should be no slips, Penfield was sent with you, ostensibly as your acting secretary, but really as a spy—­”

“Oh, no; I can’t think that of young Penfield,” protested the president.

“I say yes; and the proof is that Penfield has confessed.  He was scared into it when I told him what had happened at Horse Creek and gave him his choice of telling me what he knew, or going to jail.  Then I came on the scene at the inopportune moment, and after North had carefully issued instructions intended to delay me as much as possible, he sent Eckstein in post-haste by way of Jack’s Canyon and the stage trail to get ahead of me.  You see, he was afraid to trust matters to Penfield, who would most certainly have stopped short of the desperate measures Eckstein and the MacMorroghs finally took.  It was decided at a council in which Penfield was present, that Ford’s elimination must go through.  If you didn’t quarrel with him and drop him, he was to be murdered.”

Mr. Colbrith was silent for a long minute after Adair ceased speaking.  Then he looked up to say:  “What was Ford doing at Horse Creek that night?  He had left me only a few hours before; and, as I have said, we had—­we had some words.”