Here he determined to wait and intercept her before she reached the hotel.

He knew that many of the guests were aware of his wife's speculations with Van Loo, and that he was her broker.

He wished to spare her running the gauntlet of their curious stares and comments as she drove up alone.

As he was climbing the slope the coach from Sacramento dashed past him on the road below, but he knew that it had changed horses at Boomville at four o'clock, and that his tired wife would not have availed herself of it at that hour, particularly as she could not have yet received the fateful news.

He threw himself under a large pine, and watched the stagecoach disappear as it swept round into the courtyard of the hotel.
He sat there for some moments with his eyes bent upon the two forks of the red road that diverged below him, but which appeared to become whiter and more dazzling as he searched their distance.