they had reached
Dan Higgins with the glad tidings in time for him to secure the best
location.

All day long the girls were in the saddle, hovering about the new gold
diggings, fascinated at the way new mines seemed to spring up over
night.

Next to those on their own property, they were most interested in Dan
Higgins' mine and in their hearts they would really rather have had him
find gold than to find it themselves.

"They need it so much more than we do," Betty said anxiously. "If Dan
Higgins and Meggy have drawn another blank I don't know what they will
do."

In the midst of all this confusion and excitement, Amy received the
program of the benefit concert given at the Hostess House for which she
had sent home some time before. They had almost forgotten the hermit and
it was with a shock of surprise that they remembered they had not seen
him since the new mining operations. Before that they had run across him
quite often attempting to help Meggy and Dan in his rather eccentric
way.

"Guess he must have been scared off by the crowd," said Mollie. "Too
much excitement for the old boy."

The four of them were sitting on the large front porch of the house,
still in their riding habits, while their horses, at the foot of the
steps, stamped their impatience to be off again. Nothing but the arrival
of the mail could have drawn the girls from the fascination of the new
gold diggings. They hardly took time to eat; and as for sleep, well,
they took that in between times!

Now Grace called to Amy, making room on the step beside her.

"Come over here and show us your program," she said, extracting a bit of
candy from some hidden recess somewhere about her person and popping it
into her mouth. "I'm anxious to see what that violinist's name was."

Amy obeyed, and as Grace opened the program Mollie and Betty drew closer
and peeped over her shoulder.

"Concerto--Liszt," read Grace, her finger pointing down the page. "No,
that isn't it. That's for the piano. Hold on, here we are.
Chopin--Nocturne--Paul Loup, violinist. There he is. Now will you please
tell me how that helps us to find out anything about the hermit?" She
paused with her finger still pointing to the name and looked up at them
inquiringly.

"We-el," said Betty thoughtfully, "it doesn't help very much, I must
admit. It doesn't prove that Paul Loup is our Hermit of Gold Run. Only
that funny feeling I have of having seen him before and heard him
play----"