e often near to a quarrel, but somehow it was always averted.

"Quit your fighting, girls," laughed Enid. "What's to hinder us from
finding our mine and letting Joy dream of romantic brown eyes at the
same time?"

"I'm for the mine! I've always had a secret passion to locate claims,
myself, and see them develop into a big mine." Kit caught some of
Bet's enthusiasm and wanted to start out at once. She continued: "It's
lots of fun to locate a claim. Once I followed an outcropping of ore
up over a high hill, but when I got to the top I found it already
located."

"Oh, what a shame!" cried Bet. "And did you give up then?" Bet looked
her disappointment at Kit's lack of enthusiasm.

"I did for a while but I've never really given up wanting to and had a
feeling that I _would_ sooner or later. Guess I was waiting for you to
help me. Say, girls, let's follow this stream."

"What for?" asked Shirley. She was looking about her in a bewildered
way, which set Kit into peals of laughter.

"Well, you see the stream carries bits of ore and if we follow it, we
may find the place the ore comes from. Watch for copper stain on the
rocks."

"But it's such a tiny stream!" protested Joy.

Kit had already guided her horse to the right and led through a narrow
passage between the high canyon walls. "This is the Iron Gate, girls.
It's a landmark around here."

Bet looked up at the high cliffs. They towered above her.

"The Iron Gate! Doesn't that sound romantic?"

Suddenly Enid called excitedly, "Oh, Kit, is that greenish color on the
rock copper stain?"

"That's it," said Kit, "but here there is hardly more than a tint.
Let's go on farther," and Kit urged her pony ahead.

After half an hour of slow travel through the creek, the girls were
rewarded. The tiny canyon had widened out, the stream was larger and
they found sufficient emerald green stain to suggest that there might
be a large deposit of copper nearby. They also found more fragments of
ore.

Dismounting, the girls left their horses standing with trailing
bridles. Bet suggested unfastening the rope she had brought for
practising, to tie her pony to a tree. Kit laughed.

"The very idea! Don't insult a mountain horse in that way. He'd never
forgive you. Never! Look, here's a small outcrop!"

Kit led the way up over the hill, following an exposed vein of copper
ore that appeared at intervals. Bet squealed with delight.

"Just look at it! Isn't