When Helen finished reading the letter, her heart was suffused with pity
for this lonely man who had come thus strangely and unexpectedly into
her life. Her good impulses had always prompted her strongly. Miss
Scovill was away, so Helen left her a note of explanation, telling
everything in detail. "I know, dear foster mother," wrote the girl,
"that you are going to rejoice with me, now that I have found my
stepfather. I'll be looking forward to the time when you can visit us at
the Greek Letter Ranch."

Making ready for the journey took only a short time. In a few hours
Helen was on her way, little knowing that Miss Scovill, on her return,
was frantically sending out telegrams which indicated anything but a
peaceful acceptance of conditions. One of these telegrams, sent to an
address which Helen would not have recognized, read:

The dove has been lured to the serpent's nest. Take what action you
deem best, but quickly.

Helen enjoyed her trip through California and then eastward through the
Northwest country to the end of the spur which pointed toward the
reservation. From the railroad's end she went to White Lodge by stage.
From White Lodge she was told she had better take a private conveyance
to her destination. She hired a rig of a livery-stable keeper, who said
he could not possibly take her beyond the Indian agency.

"Mebbe some one there'll take you the rest of the way," said the
liveryman; and, accepting his hopeful view of the situation, the girl
consented to go on in such indefinite fashion.

Thus it happened that a slender, white-clad young woman, with a suitcase
at her feet, stood on the agency office porch, undergoing the steady
scrutiny of four or five blanketed Indian matrons when Walter Lowell
came back from lunch. In a few words Helen had explained matters, and
Lowell picked up her suitcase, and, after ascertaining that she had had
no lunch, escorted her up the street to the dining-hall.

"We have a little lunch club of employees, and guests often sit in with
us," said the agent cordially. "After you eat, and have rested up a bit,
I'll see that you are driven over to the--to the Greek Letter Ranch."

As a matter of fact, Lowell had to think several times before he could
get the Greek Letter Ranch placed in his mind. He had fallen into the
habit--in common with others in the neighborhood--of calling it Mystery
Ranch. Also Willis Morgan's name was mentioned so seldom that the
agent's me