rider, and so at last he came upon Al Woodruff loping along
the crest of Juniper Ridge. Al at first displayed no intention of
stopping, but pulled up when he saw John Doe slowing down
significantly. Lone would have preferred a chat with some one else,
for this was a sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued man; but Al Woodruff stayed at
the ranch and would know all the news, and even though he might give it
an ill-natured twist, Lone would at least know what was going on. Al
hailed him with a laughing epithet.

"Say, you sure enough played hell all around, bringin' Brit Hunter's
girl to the Sawtooth!" he began, chuckling as if he had some secret
joke. "Where'd you pick her up, Lone? She claims you found her at
Rock City. That right?"

"No, it ain't right," Lone denied promptly, his dark eyes meeting Al's
glance steadily. "I found her in that gulch away this side. She was
in amongst the rocks where she was trying to keep outa the rain. Brit
Hunter's girl, is she? She told me she was going to the Sawtooth.
She'd have made it, too, if it hadn't been for the storm. She got as
far as the gulch, and the lightning scared her from going any farther."
He offered Al his tobacco sack and fumbled for a match. "I never knew
Brit Hunter had a girl."

"Nor me," Al said and sifted tobacco into a cigarette paper. "Bob, he
drove her over there yesterday. Took him close to all day to make the
trip--and Bob, he claims to hate women!"

"So would I, if I'd got stung for fifty thousand. She ain't that kind.
She's a nice girl, far as I could tell. She got well, all right, did
she?"

"Yeah--only she was still coughing some when she left the ranch. She
like to of had pneumonia, I guess. Queer how she claimed she spent the
night in Rock City, ain't it?"

"No," Lone answered judicially, "I don't know as it's so queer. She
never realised how far she'd walked, I reckon. She was plumb crazy
when I found her. You couldn't take any stock in what she said. Say,
you didn't see that bay I was halter-breaking, did yuh, Al? He jumped
the fence and got away on me, day before yesterday. I'd like to catch
him up again. He'll make a good horse."

Al had not seen the bay, and the talk tapered off desultorily to a
final "So-long, see yuh later." Lone rode on, careful not to look
back. So she was Brit Hunter's girl! Lone whistled softly to himself
while he studied this new angle of the problem,--for a problem he was
beginning to consider it.