e, against your will. If you think
it best to keep your little secret, do it; but perhaps later on you may
be changing your mind. If we just happened to meet up with that
gentleman while we knocked around old Rattlesnake Mountain, perhaps
you'd be glad to get back that tin box again."

"Sure I would, Paul. Please don't think I'm not wantin' to trust you,
because I hold back. I want to think it all over by myself to-night.
Perhaps in the mornin' I might tell you about it."

"Then I won't say anything more now, Joe. Only believe that I'm ready to
do everything I can to help you. That man came all the way up here."

"How d'ye know that?"

"Why, even a tenderfoot could tell that much," observed the patrol
leader, calmly; "his horse left marks all the way. If you went out on
the road now, and lit a match, you'd see the print of shod hoofs, and
the lines made by the wheels. So you see, Joe, it wouldn't be so
strange if we _did_ happen to run across him some fine day."

"Oh! I wonder what I ought to do? What would dad say if he knew?" and
muttering half to himself in this way, Joe wandered back to his seat
beside the big fire that was making all outdoors look bright with color
and warmth.

Paul was more mystified than ever. Who could that man be, and why should
poor Joe feel so badly over having set eyes on him? If he were an
ordinary person, and suspicion pointed his way, one would think that the
son of the feed-man would welcome his detention, which might result in
the finding of the stolen property.

But on the contrary Joe seemed to be dreadfully alarmed over something.

"Oh! well," Paul finally said to himself as he left the rock and turned
to go back to the camp; "it may be a family secret of some sort, and I
have no business to be poking into it. I'll just keep my hands off, and
wait for Joe to speak, if he cares to. Besides, I've got plenty of other
things to keep me hustling."

He happened to glance up at the frowning mountain while walking away
from the river bank. Suddenly there flashed a little light away up
yonder. Once, twice it seemed to flash up, and then was gone.

"Now, I wonder what that could be?" said a voice close beside him.

"Why, hello, Wallace, is that you?" laughed Paul; "and I guess you must
have made the same discovery I did?"

"Meaning that queer little light up there, eh, Paul?" remarked the
other, who had been walking about uneasily, and just chanced to face
upward at the time the