dangerous than this, and have gotten along very well,
too. You men are conceited. You think there can be no possible safety
unless members of your own sex are at the helm of every undertaking or
enterprise. But you are wrong."

Bethune shook his head: "But I have reason to believe that there is at
least one person in these hills who believes you possess the secret of
your father's strike--and who would stop at nothing to obtain that
secret."

"I suppose you mean Vil Holland. I agree that he does seem to take
more than a passing interest in my comings and goings. But he doesn't
seem very fierce. Anyhow, I am not in the least afraid of him."

"What do you mean that he seems to take an interest in your comings
and goings?" The question seemed a bit eager. "Surely he has not been
following you!"

"Hasn't he? Then possibly you can tell me who has?"

"The scoundrel! And when you discover the lode he'll wait 'til you
have set your stakes and posted your notice, and have gotten out of
sight, and then he'll drive in his own stakes, stick up his own notice
beside them and beat you to the register."

Patty laughed: "Race me, you mean. He won't beat me. Remember, I shall
have at least a half-hour's start."

"A half-hour!" exclaimed Bethune. "And what is a half-hour in a
fifty-mile race against that buckskin. Why, my dear girl, with all due
respect for that horse of yours, Vil Holland's horse could give you
two hours' start and beat you to the railroad."

"Maybe," smiled the girl. "But he's going to have to do it--that is,
if I ever locate the lode."

"Ah, that is the point, exactly. It is that that brings me here. Not
that alone," he hastened to add. "For I would ride far any day to
spend a few moments with so charming a lady--and indeed, I should not
have delayed my visit this long but for some urgent business to the
northward. At all events, I'm here, and here I shall stay until,
together, we have solved our mystery of the hills."

The girl glanced into the face alight with boyish enthusiasm, and felt
irresistibly impelled to take this man into her confidence--to enlist
his help in the working out of her unintelligible map, and to admit
him to full partnership in her undertaking. There would be enough for
both if they succeeded in uncovering the lode. Her father had
intended that he should share in his mine. She recalled his eulogy of
her father, and his frank admission that there had been no agreement
of partnershi