said. "Ef you let that snake in the grass argy you
into sellin', you're a bigger fool 'n I take you to be. An' what's
more," his voice lowered and the girls leaned forward eagerly, "if Peter
wants that there property of yourn there's gold on it, you can bet your
last dollar onto it. Pete ain't no angel, an' he don't work for
nothing."

Burning with excitement themselves, the girls marveled that Allen could
take this statement so calmly.

"Thanks for the tip," he said, in his ordinary voice. "I had some such
idea myself, but it certainly helps to have my judgment backed by
somebody who knows the people in the case."

CHAPTER XVII

THE NET TIGHTENS

Allen learned much about Peter Levine and his associates and about Gold
Run itself in the following conversation, and when he and the girls
finally said good-by to the old man and his daughter and started off
down the trail again, he was more than satisfied.

As for the girls, they could hardly wait to get out of earshot of the
mine before letting loose a flood of excited comment.

"Well, I don't see anything to get so excited about," said Allen, after
they had rattled on for several minutes. "Dan Higgins didn't tell us
anything we didn't already know--or suspect, anyway. He simply confirmed
our suspicions, that's all."

"Seems to me that's enough," retorted Mollie. "It's one thing to think a
thing yourself and an entirely different thing to find out somebody else
thinks it too."

"Don't be an old granddaddy, Allen," Betty said, adding threateningly:
"If you don't look out we won't let you have any of that wonderful gold
we are going to find--not one little tiny nugget."

"That's gratitude for you," said Allen reproachfully. "Not one little
nugget for a fellow who finds her a fortune."

"You haven't found it yet," Amy reminded him.

"No," said Allen suddenly animated, "I haven't found it--not yet--but
I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track. Look here," he appealed to them:
"It seems reasonable to me to suppose that if Peter Levine and the
people above him are so anxious to get the property they know pretty
well where they stand. They don't want the ranch simply because they
_think_ there is gold on it."

"Then you think----" Betty was beginning breathlessly, when Allen
interrupted her with a rush of words.

"Yes, that's just what I think," he said. "I've been pretty well over
the whole of this ranch since I came, and I've noticed that this extreme
n