pt the valley and
came to rest upon a deep notch in the hills that flanked it upon the
west. A coulee sloped upward to the notch, and mounting, the girl
crossed the creek and headed for the gap. It was slow and laborious
work, picking her way among the loose rocks and fallen trees of the
deep ravine that narrowed and grew steeper as she advanced. Loose
rocks, disturbed by her horse's feet, clattered noisily behind her,
and marks here and there in the soil told her that she was not the
first to pass that way. "I wonder who it was?" she speculated. "Either
Monk Bethune, or Vil Holland, or Lord Clendenning, I suppose. They all
seem to be forever riding back and forth through the hills." At last
she gained the summit, and pulled up to enjoy the view. Judging by
the trampled buffalo grass that capped the divide, the rider who
preceded her had also stopped. She glanced backward, and there,
showing above the tops of the trees that covered the slope, stood her
own cabin, looking tiny and far away, but with its every detail
standing out with startling clearness. She could even see the ax
standing where she had left it beside the door, and the box she had
placed at the end of the log wall to take the place of the cupboard as
a home for the pack rats. "Whoever it was could certainly keep track
of my movements from here without the least risk of being discovered,"
she thought, "and if he had field glasses!" She blushed, and turned
her eyes to survey the endless succession of peaks and passes and
valleys that lay spread out over the sea of hills. "How in the world
am I ever going to find one tiny little valley among all these?" she
wondered. Her heart sank at the vastness of it all, and at her own
helplessness, and the utter hopelessness of her stupendous task. "Oh,
I can never, never do it," she faltered, "--never." And, instantly
ashamed of herself, clenched her small, gloved fist. "I will do it! My
daddy found his mine, and he didn't have any pictures to go by either.
He just delved and worked for years and years--and at last he found
it. I'd find it if there were twice as many hills and valleys. It may
take me years--and I may find it to-day--just think! This very day I
may ride into that little valley--or to-morrow, or the next day. It
can't be far away. Mrs. Watts said daddy was always to be found within
ten miles of the ranch."

She headed her horse down the opposite slope that slanted at a much
easier gradient than the one