I once heard a rumor--but perhaps it is
unfair to mention it in this connection. Yet it cannot hurt any one if
I state that Isobel Baring and he were--well--how shall I put it?--at
any rate, there was a lively summer-hotel sort of attachment between
them."
"Isobel has never told me that," said Elsie, nerving herself for a
personal disclosure which was obviously disagreeable. "I own a small
ranch near Quillota, and, as there was a chance of copper being located
there, Mr. Baring advised me to employ Ventana as an expert prospector.
Indeed, Mr. Baring himself sent Ventana to examine the property and
report on it. He came to see me. He told me there were no minerals of
value on my land, but I could never free myself from him afterwards.
Indeed, I am running away from him now."
She uttered the concluding words with a genuine indignation which
forthwith evaporated in its unconscious humor. Everybody laughed, even
the girl herself, and Boyle grunted:
"Huh, shows the beggar's good taste, anyhow."
Courtenay, perhaps, thought that if he encountered Ventana again he
would take the opportunity to reason with him in the approved manner of
the high seas.
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