ll kill
me."

"Mr. Bethune? What has Mr. Bethune got to do with it?"

The girl leaped to her feet and faced Patty in a rage: "An' he'll kill
yo', too--an' I'll be glad! An' he says he's gonna By God git that
pitcher ef he's gotta kill yo', an' Vil Holland, an' everyone in these
damn hills--an' I'm glad of hit! I don't like yo' no more--an' pitcher
shows _hain't_ as good as circusts--an' I don't like towns--an' I
hain't a-gonna wear no shoes an' stockin's--an' I'm a-gonna tell ma
yo' shuck me--an' she'll larrup yo' good--an' pa'll make yo' git out
o' ar sheep camp--an' I'm glad of hit!" She rushed from the cabin, and
mounting her pony, headed him down the creek, turning in the saddle
every few steps to make hateful mouths at the girl who stood watching
from the doorway.

CHAPTER XIV

THE SAMUELSONS

Patty retired that night with her thoughts in a whirl. So, it was Monk
Bethune who, all along, had been plotting to steal the secret of her
father's strike? Monk Bethune, with his suave, oily manner, his
professed regard for her father, and his burning words of love! Fool
that she couldn't have penetrated his thin mask of deceit! It all
seemed so ridiculously plain, now. She remembered the flash of
distrust that her first meeting with him engendered. And, step, by
step, she followed the course of his insidious campaign to instill
himself into her good graces. She thought of the blunt warning of Vil
Holland when he told her that her father always played a lone hand,
and his almost scornful question as to whether her father had told her
of his partnership with Bethune. And she remembered her defiance of
Holland, and her defense of Bethune. And, with a shudder, she
recollected the moments when, in the hopelessness of her repeated
failures, she had trembled upon the point of surrendering to his
persuasive eloquence.

With the villainous scheming of Bethune exposed, her thoughts turned
to the other, to her "guardian devil of the hills." What of Vil
Holland? Had she misjudged this man, even as she had so nearly become
the dupe of Bethune? She realized now, that nearly everyone with whom
she had come into contact, distrusted Bethune, and that they trusted
Vil Holland. She realized that her own distrust of him rested to a
great extent upon the open accusations of Bethune, and the fact that
he was blunt to rudeness in his conversations with her. If he were to
be taken at his neighbors' valuation, why was it that he wa