ing De Luxe 258
XX A Breach and a Confession 273
XXI A Maiden, a Lover and a Heathen Chinee 302
XXII Fire Begets Hot Air 320
XXIII So Deep in Love am I 338
XXIV The Landslide 355
XXV The Bank Robbery 372
XXVI The Dawn of a New Day 382

The Spoilers of the Valley

THE SPOILERS OF THE VALLEY

CHAPTER I

The Man Hunt

Up on the hill, high above the twinkling lights of the busy little
ranching town of Vernock, at the open dining-room window of a pretty,
leafy-bowered, six-roomed bungalow, a girl, just blossoming into
womanhood, stood in her night robes and dressing gown, braiding her
dark hair. She was slight of form, but health glowed from her
expressive face.

She was dreamily contemplating the beauties of the night.

Below her, stretching like a fan, was the Valley upon which was built
the merry, happy-go-lucky, scattered little town she loved. Everywhere
around were the eternal, undulating hills, enclosing the Valley in a
world by itself. The night had just lately closed in. The sky was
clear and presented a wall and a dome of almost inky blue. Away due
south, right over the peak of a hill, on the wall of blue hung a great
star, bright and scintillating like a floating soap bubble, while a
handspan straight above that again a thin, crescent moon lay coldly
on its back sending up a reflection of its own streaky, ghostly light
from the distant lake which was no more than visible through a rift in
the hills.

As the girl drank in the delights of the peaceful panorama spreading
away right from her very feet, she was aroused sharply from her
meditation. She heard, or fancied she heard, a distant shot, followed
by the sound of excited voices and the barking of dogs. She went to
the door, threw it open fearlessly and peered down the hill; but all
was silent again save for this barking which travelled farther and
farther away all the time, being caught up and carried along in a
desultory fashion by the dogs of all the neighbouring houses and
ranches.

She stood for a moment, looking about her, then, shivering slightly
with the cold, she threw a kiss to the Valley, closed the door aga