Then I met Taggart an' his dad.

They reckoned they didn't like my company overmuch an' they walked home.

Didn't even wait to take their horses." She drew a breath which sounded strangely like relief.
"Well," she said; "it was fortunate that you happened to be there to get the idol." "Yes," he drawled, with a suspicious grin; "I reckon you feel a whole lot like congratulatin' me." "I do," she said.

"Of course you were not to have the idol just yet, but it is better for you to have it before the time than that the Taggarts should get hold of it." "Do you know where the idol is hid ?" he asked.
She told him no, that she had never consulted the diagram.
"I reckon," he said, looking into her steady eyes, "that you're tellin' the truth.

In that case it will be safe where it is, for a while.
I'll be lookin' it up when I get hold of the money." Her chin raised triumphantly.