in a
cleft among the brush. There's a little hollow and an old waterway from
a spring above which makes a trail through the brush. It's as good as
the trail you took from the stage road this mornin', but it's not as
safe comin' down. Keep along it to the spring, and it will land ye jest
the other side of uncle Hiram's cabin. Go quick! I'll wait here until
ye've reached the cleft."

"But you," he said, turning toward her, "how can I ever thank you?"

As if anticipating a leave-taking, the girl had already withdrawn
herself a few yards away, and simply made an upward gesture with her
hand. "Quick! Up with you! Every minute now is a risk to me."

Thus appealed to, Brice could only comply. Perhaps he was a little hurt
at the girl's evident desire to avoid a gentler parting. Securing his
prized envelope within his breast, he began to ascend the tree. Its
inclination, and the aid offered by the broken stumps of branches, made
this comparatively easy, and in a few moments he reached its top,
and stood upon a little ledge in the wall. A swift glance around
him revealed the whole waterway or fissure slanting upward along the
mountain face. Then he turned quickly to look down the dizzy height. At
first he could distinguish nothing but the top of the buckeyes and their
white clustering blossoms. Then something fluttered,--the torn white
handkerchief of his that she had kept. And then he caught a single
glimpse of the flower-plumed hat receding rapidly among the trees, and
Flora Dimwood was gone.

III

In twenty-four hours Edward Brice was in San Francisco. But although
successful and the bearer of the treasure, it is doubtful if he
approached this end of his journey with the temerity he had shown on
entering the robbers' valley. A consciousness that the methods he
had employed might excite the ridicule, if not the censure, of his
principals, or that he might have compromised them in his meeting with
Snapshot Harry, considerably modified his youthful exultation. It is
possible that Flora's reproach, which still rankled in his mind, may
have quickened his sensitiveness on that point. However, he had resolved
to tell the whole truth, except his episode with Flora, and to place the
conduct of Snapshot Harry and the Tarboxes in as favorable a light as
possible. But first he had recourse to the manager, a man of shrewd
worldly experience, who had recommended him to his place. When he had
finished and handed him the treasured env