y
on Nan. How she overcame them was a source of surprise to de Spain,
who marvelled at her innocent resource in escaping the demands at
home and making her way, despite an array of obstacles, to his distant
impatience.

Midway between Music Mountain and Sleepy Cat a low-lying wall of lava
rock, in part sand-covered and in part exposed, parallels and
sometimes crosses the principal trail. This undulating ridge was a
favorite with de Spain and Nan, because they could ride in and out of
hiding-places without more than just leaving the trail itself. To the
west of this ridge, and commanding it, rose rather more than a mile
away the cone called Black Cap.

"Suppose," said Nan one afternoon, looking from de Spain's side toward
the mountains, "some one should be spying on us from Black Cap?" She
pointed to the solitary rock.

"If any one has been, Nan, with a good glass he must have seen
exchanges of confidence over here that would make him gnash his teeth.
I know if I ever saw anything like it I'd go hang. But the country
around there is too rough for a horse. Nobody even hides around Black
Cap, except some tramp hold-up man that's crowded in his get-away. Bob
Scott says there are dozens of mountain-lions over there."

But Sassoon had the unpleasant patience of a mountain-lion and its
dogged persistence, and, hiding himself on Black Cap, he made certain
one day of what he had long been convinced--that Nan was meeting de
Spain.

The day after she had mentioned Black Cap to her lover, Nan rode over
to Calabasas to get a bridle mended. Galloping back, she encountered
Sassoon just inside the Gap. Nan so detested him that she never spoke
when she could avoid it. On his part he pretended not to see her as
she passed. When she reached home she found her Uncle Duke and Gale
standing in front of the fireplace in the living-room. The two
appeared from their manner to have been in a heated discussion, one
that had stopped suddenly on her appearance. Both looked at Nan. The
expression on their faces forewarned her. She threw her quirt on the
table, drew off her riding-gloves, and began to unpin her hat; but she
knew a storm was impending.

Gale had been made for a long time to know that he was an unwelcome
visitor, and Nan's greeting of him was the merest contemptuous nod.
"Well, uncle," she said, glancing at Duke, "I'm late again. Have you
had supper?"

Duke always spoke curtly; to-night his heavy voice was as sharp as an
axe