where he went?"

"No, ma'am, I don't. But you can always track a--well some critters by
their scent. Wherever that scoundrel goes he'll leave a trail. I've
a keen nose for the hunt."

"Don't judge him too harshly, Ephraim. Perhaps he considered that he
was doing all for the best; and if Sobrante is his, he's welcome to it."

"Whew!" was the ranchman's astonished comment.

"Don't you understand, dear Ephraim? Losing a home is nothing to losing
honor," said Jessica, earnestly. "We don't care half so much about
Sobrante as that other thing."

"You shall keep both. Your home and our master's honor," cried the
old man, fiercely.

"Yes, that we will!" echoed Jessica, clasping his hand again.

So doing she dropped the canvas bag on the floor, and, picking it up,
Mrs. Trent would have restored it to its owner, as she so considered the
sharpshooter. But he would have none of it.

"I've heard the little tackers call one another 'Indian giver.' I
couldn't, ma'am, you know. It's Jessie's, now."

The mistress' face grew serious. She had not expected to find the man so
obstinate. But she hated to wound him and turned the matter aside with
the remark:

"Let it rest so, then, for the present. I will keep it in the safe
till you come back--if I can. Though I begin to feel as if nothing were
secure at Sobrante, nowadays."

Ephraim pondered for a moment, then looked up with a relieved expression.

"Asking pardon, ma'am, I'm sure; have you got any--I mean much money
handy by you?"

"No. I have not. Fortunately, beyond the wages of the men, not much
ready cash is needed at Sobrante, where we produce so much."

"Yes'm. Yet I wouldn't like to set out on a journey that might be
long, or even delayed for a spell, without considerable loose change.
Better let the captain pay all expenses of the trip out of that little
handful, and call it square."

"Square! That is even greater generosity than the first. Lying in the
safe you might have found it again; but spent--Ephraim, I fear I'll
never be able to repay such an amount. I must think out some other way."

"Don't you trust me, Mrs. Trent?"

"Am I not trusting you with the most precious thing in life--my
daughter?"

"Then, mother, trust him about the money. It's good sense. We haven't
any and we need it. Besides, it hurts him to refuse. Yes, we'll use it,
Ephraim dear."

So it was settled; but it was not in Jessica's nature to keep the
story from the rest of her "boys."