"
"Chief Justice Hemingway?" she queried. "Why, he--" she broke off
suddenly and sprang from her chair. "I have the little car here in the
street. It was Mrs. Blount's proposal; she said you would change your
mind if I came after you and offered to drive you. Come! I'll promise to
bring you back before five o'clock. I know the time is awfully short,
but I can do it!"
If Blount hesitated it was only because her beauty and her eagerness
thrilled him until, for the moment, he could think of nothing else. Then
he closed his desk quickly and struggled into his overcoat, saying: "It
shall be as you wish. Let's go."
XXVII
IN WHICH PATRICIA DRIVES
For fifteen miles north of the capital the Quaretaro road is a
well-kept, level speedway, and Miss Anners amply proved the worth of her
summer's training by showing herself a fearless driver. Half an hour
after the small roadster had left the curb in front of the Temple Court
Building it was among the hills and climbing to the upper mesa level.
Nearing the mouth of Shonoho Canyon, they overtook and passed a horseman
turning into the canyon road. The man's horse shied and threatened to
bolt at sight of the storming car, but Patricia was looking straight
ahead, and she made no movement to slacken speed. At the passing
glimpse, Blount's mind went shuttling backward to the homecoming night
in the Lost Hills, and he made sure he recognized the rider as
Hathaway's morose henchman, the man Barto.
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