"
There was his chance to say, "_Must_ they come to an end?" But Kate was
near; and besides, a snub from Angela might stop the "journeyings" then
and there. So he answered with a mere compliment, as any man may, meaning
nothing at all or a great deal. To save her from danger, it was worth
while to have been born, he said. And he remembered, as he had remembered
many times, how clear had been the call he had heard to go East; a call
like a voice in his ears, crying, "Nick, I want you. Come." He was tempted
to be superstitious, and to believe that unconsciously, in some mysterious
way, Angela had summoned him to be her knight. To be even more, perhaps,
in the end. Who could tell--yet?
It was a good sign, at all events, that she was reluctant to give up the
trip; and Nick decided not to risk confiding in the police. Put the affair
of the poison-oak into their hands, and they would lasso every one
concerned, with yards of red tape! In that case, he and Mrs. May might be
detained in San Francisco. No! A private detective would do the trick; and
Nick had the name of one pigeon-holed in his brain: Max Wisler, a shrewd
fellow, once employed with success by "old Grizzly Gaylor" when there had
been a leakage of money and vanishing of cattle on the ranch.
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