once you would know what she's
like; the most wonderful creature in the whole world. Heaven and earth
must have combined in bestowing upon her their choicest graces."

"When did ye see her like that?" and Samson again motioned to the
sketch.

"Yesterday; out in the hills."

"On horseback?"

"Yes, and face to face with a grizzly."

"A grizzly!"

"It certainly was, and a monster, too. My! you should have seen the
way she handled her horse when the brute was coming toward her. Some
day I am going to sketch her as she looked when the horse was rearing
backward. This drawing merely shows her in repose when last I saw her."

"An' what happened to the grizzly?" the old man queried.

"Oh, a bullet hit him, that was all, and he took a header into the
ravine below."

"It did! An' whar did the bullet come from? Jist dropped down by
accident at the right moment, I s'pose."

Reynolds merely smiled at the prospector's words, and offered no
explanation.

"Modest, eh?" and Samson chuckled. "No more trouble to knock over a
grizzly than it was to smash three whiskey bottles without winkin'. I
like yer coolness, young man. Now, some fellers 'ud have blatted it
all over camp in no time. An' that happened yesterday, so ye say?"

"Yes; toward evening."

"An' the gal was thar all alone?"

"It seems so. I wanted to go home with her, but she would not let me."

"She wouldn't! An' why not?"

"She said it wasn't safe for me to go beyond the Golden Crest."

"Did she give any reason?"

"None at all, and that's what makes me curious."

"About what?"

"What lies beyond the Golden Crest. The spirit of adventure is on me,
and I intend to make the attempt to find out for myself about the
mystery surrounding that place."

"Ye do! Didn't the gal say it wasn't safe?"

"All the greater reason, then, why I should go. If that girl will not
come to me, I am going to her. Death is the worst that can happen to
me, and I would rather die than live without Glen Weston."

"Ye've got it bad, haven't ye?" and Samson smiled. "But mebbe she's
got the fever, too, since yesterday, an' has been back to the ravine to
see if you was thar."

"Perhaps she did, but I was too late. I was there this afternoon, and
saw no one except an Indian on horseback. The bear, too, was gone."

"Ye saw an Injun, ye say? What was he doin'?"

"Merely sitting upon his horse at the top of the trail. But he
vanished just as soon as I glimpse