rather stiff work for the sheriff. They
say the valley near Long Canyon's chock full o' rock and slumgullion
that's slipped down."

"What do you mean by the big shake?" asked Key in surprise.

"Great Scott! you didn't hear of it? Didn't hear of the 'arthquake
that shook us up all along Galloper's the other night? Well," he added
disgustedly, "that's jist the conceit of them folks in the bay, that
can't allow that ANYTHIN' happens in the mountains!"

The urgent telegrams of his foreman now flashed across Key's
preoccupied mind. Possibly Skinner saw his concern, "I reckon your
mine is all right, Mr. Key. One of your men was over yere last night,
and didn't say nothin'."

But this did not satisfy Key; and in a few minutes he had mounted his
horse and was speeding towards the Hollow, with a remorseful
consciousness of having neglected his colleagues' interests. For
himself, in the utter prepossession of his passion for Alice, he cared
nothing. As he dashed down the slope to the Hollow, he thought only of
the two momentous days that she had passed there, and the fate that had
brought them so nearly together. There was nothing to recall its
sylvan beauty in the hideous works that now possessed it, or the
substantial dwelling-house that had taken the place of the old cabin.
A few hurried questions to the foreman satisfied him of the integrity
of the property. There had been some alarm in the shaft, but there was
no subsidence of the "seam," nor any difficulty in the working. "What
I telegraphed you for, Mr. Key, was about something that has cropped up
way back o' the earthquake. We were served here the other day with a
legal notice of a claim to the mine, on account of previous work done
on the ledge by the last occupant."

"But the cabin was built by a gang of thieves, who used it as a hoard
for their booty," returned Key hotly, "and every one of them are
outlaws, and have no standing before the law." He stopped with a pang
as he thought of Alice. And the blood rushed to his cheeks as the
foreman quietly continued:--

"But the claim ain't in any o' their names. It's allowed to be the
gift of their leader to his young sister, afore the outlawry, and it's
in HER name--Alice Riggs or something."

Of the half-dozen tumultuous thoughts that passed through Key's mind,
only one remained. It was purely an act of the brother's to secure
some possible future benefit for his sister. And of this she was
perfectly