George Summerland's Night

George begins to realize just how narrow is his value to his hosts. If he leaves now, he probably won't get far. He figures his best chance is to go with them, and look for an opportunity to slip away in the pleated and rumpled folds of the canyons.
Beale breaks his reverie. "So, it's settled. You can change upstairs. I'll have the horses saddled and ready."
They would ride all afternoon of the 18th, southwest, to the Rancho La Liebre. Beale and Vineyard would know the trails, but they would not recognize the landmarks that George had haunted with Walker.
As they rode down the ridge south of Crescent Peak, George would have been looking for a deep cleft in the overhanging rock, the place where the outcropping should have been. He would not have found it. They would have spent the night at the main house of the Tejon, and ridden out again on the morning of the 19th--still looking for the split rock that George remembered. Vineyard would have been on slow burn, sure that George was lost, a fraud. He would have suggested to Beale that it might be a good idea to have a little "accident" happen to George. And Beale would have replied--
"Forget about it, that's Raymond Quicksilver's mission."