cognized her----"

"From the picture?" asked Ruth.

"Well! you look at it. That drawing of the girl on horseback looks more
like her than the photographic half-tone," said Tom. "She looks just
that wild and harum-scarum!"

Ruth laughed. "There _is_ a resemblance," she admitted. "But I don't
understand why Crab should have any interest in the girl, anyway."

"Neither do I. Let's keep still about it. Of course, we'll tell
Nell," said Tom. "But nobody else. If that old ranchman is her uncle he
ought to be told where she is."

"Maybe she was not happy with him, after all," said Ruth, thoughtfully.

"My goodness!" Tom cried, preparing to go back to the other boys who
were calling him. "I don't see how anybody could be unhappy under such
conditions."

"That's all very well for a boy," returned the girl, with a superior
air. "But think! she had no girls to associate with, and the only women
were squaws and a Mexican cook!"

Ruth watched Nita, but did not see the assistant lighthouse keeper
speak to the runaway during the passage home, and from the dock to the
bungalow Ruth walked by Nita's side. She was tempted to show the page of
the newspaper to the other girl, but hesitated. What if Nita really
_was_ Jane Hicks? Ruth asked herself how _she_ would feel if she were
burdened with that practical but unromantic name, and had to live on
a lonely cattle ranch without a girl to speak to.

"Maybe I'd run away myself," thought Ruth. "I was almost tempted to
run away from Uncle Jabez when I first went to live at the Red Mill."

She had come to pity the strange girl since reading about the one who
had run away from Silver Ranch. Whether Nita had any connection with
the newspaper article or not, Ruth had begun to see that there might be
situations which a girl couldn't stand another hour, and from which
she was fairly forced to flee.

The fishing party arrived home in a very gay mood, despite the incident
of Ruth's involuntary bath. Mary Cox kept away from the victim of the
accident and when the others chaffed Ruth, and asked her how she came
to topple over the rock, The Fox did not even change color.

Tom scolded in secret to Ruth about Mary. "She ought to be sent home.
I'll not feel that you're safe any time she is in your company. I've
a mind to tell Miss Kate Stone," he said.

"I'll be dreadfully angry if you do such a thing, Tom," Ruth assured
him, and that promise was sufficient to keep the boy quiet.

They were a