James Rutlidge had little to say beyond assuring the Ranger of his welcome; and very soon, the officer and the girl set out on their way down the Laurel trail to Clear Creek canyon.
As they went, Sibyl's old friend asked not a few questions about her meeting with James Rutlidge; but the girl, walking ahead in the narrow trail, evaded him, and was glad that he could not see her face.
Sibyl had spoken the literal truth when she said to Rutlidge, that she did not want any one to know of the incident.

She felt ashamed and humiliated at the thought of telling even her father's old comrade and friend.

She knew Brian Oakley too well to have any doubts as to what would happen if he knew how the man had approached her, and she shrank from the inevitable outcome.

She wished only to forget the whole affair, and, as quickly as possible, turned the conversation into other and safer channels.
The Ranger could not stop at the house with her, but must go on down the canyon, to the Station.

So the girl returned to Myra Willard, alone; and, to the woman's surprise, for the second time, with an empty creel.
Sibyl explained her failure to bring home a catch of trout, with the simple statement that she had not fished; and then--to her companion's amazement--burst into tears; begging to return at once to their little home in Fairlands.
Myra Willard thought that she understood, better than the girl herself, why, for the first time in her life, Sibyl wished to leave the mountains.
Perhaps the woman with the disfigured face was right..