EW COMPLICATION

Faith rode homeward at an unwonted pace. She had always regarded that
mountain, supposed to be worthless, as part of her property. Godfrey
French, she now remembered more clearly, had once indicated it as within
her boundaries. Now that it was valuable, it appeared that Braden
claimed it. It might be true, but it was strange.

Her husband met her as she clattered up to the corrals. It was his habit
to lift her from the saddle. For a moment he held her above his head as
if she had been a child, kissed her and set her on her feet gently. His
eyes went to the pony's sweating coat.

"Just finding out that old Doughnuts can travel when he has to?" The
pony owed his name to that far-off episode of their first meeting.

"I was in a hurry. Did I ride him too hard?"

"No, did him good." He loosened the cinches, stripped off saddle and
bridle and dismissed Doughnuts with a friendly slap for a luxurious
roll. "What was the hurry, old girl? Has somebody been breaking into Dry
Lodge?"

"No, no; all right there. But Angus, such a strange thing has happened.
They've found coal in that round mountain!"

"Coal!" he exclaimed.

Swiftly, words tumbling over one another so that much had to be
repeated, she related her experiences. As she spoke, mentioning the
names of Garland, of Poole, and finally of Braden, she saw his face
cloud and darken. The frank, genial lights of love and laughter left his
eyes; they became hard, brooding, watchful.

"Well," she asked, "what do you think? Isn't that my property--_our_
property?"

"I supposed so from what you told me, but I never knew where your lines
ran. How did you know your boundaries?"

"I didn't really know them, I'm afraid. Uncle Godfrey just generally
indicated where they were, from the house. But I know he said that hill
was inside them."

"Your deeds would show; but Judge Riley has sent them away to be
registered. I don't remember the description in them."

"But couldn't we find the corner-posts if the land was surveyed?"

"Perhaps it wasn't surveyed. Surveys are usually up to the purchaser.
Your land is part of a larger block owned by Braden. I think he owns
land on both sides of it. He got it for about fifty cents an acre, and
he got the Tetreau place for next to nothing. The description in the
deed would give a starting point, then so many chains that way and so
many another, and it would work out to the acreage, but no actual survey
may have been ma