I love, or that I ever have loved."

He held out his hand. With the recollection of their previous parting,
she tremblingly advanced her own. He took it, but did not raise it to
his lips. And it was she who found herself half confusedly retaining his
hand in hers, until she dropped it with a blush.

"Then is this the reason you give for deserting us as you have deserted
Devil's Ford?" she said coldly.

He lifted his eyes to her with a strange smile, and said, "Yes," wheeled
his horse, and disappeared in the forest.

He had left her thus abruptly once before, kissed, blushing, and
indignant. He was leaving her now, unkissed, but white and indignant.
Yet she was so self-possessed when the party joined her, that the
singular rencontre and her explanation of the stranger's sudden
departure excited no further comment. Only Jessie managed to whisper in
her ear,--

"I hope you are satisfied now that it wasn't me he meant?"

"Not at all," said Christie coldly.

CHAPTER VII

A few days after the girls had returned to San Francisco, they received
a letter from their father. His business, he wrote, would detain him in
Sacramento some days longer. There was no reason why they should return
to Devil's Ford in the heat of the summer; their host had written to
beg him to allow them a more extended visit, and, if they were enjoying
themselves, he thought it would be well not to disoblige an old friend.
He had heard they had a pleasant visit to Mr. Prince's place, and that a
certain young banker had been very attentive to Christie.

"Do you know what all this means, dear?" asked Jessie, who had been
watching her sister with an unusually grave face.

Christie whose thoughts had wandered from the letter, replied
carelessly,--

"I suppose it means that we are to wait here until father sends for us."

"It means a good deal more. It means that papa has had another reverse;
it means that the assay has turned out badly for the mine--that the
further they go from the flat the worse it gets--that all the gold they
will probably ever see at Devil's Ford is what they have already found
or will find on the flat; it means that all Devil's Ford is only a
'pocket,' and not a 'lead.'" She stopped, with unexpected tears in her
eyes.

"Who told you this?" asked Christie breathlessly.

"Fairfax--Mr. Munroe," stammered her sister, "writes to me as if we
already knew it--tells me not to be alarmed, that it isn't so bad--and
all tha