r patient that the
full result of the cruel blow on her head was realized. Then it was found
that she had no recollection of any past. She knew not who she was, her
name, her age, even her nationality. She had a hazy idea of Indians,
which, as she grew stronger, became more pronounced, until she declared
that she must have lived among Indians all her life.

It was this last that roused Seth to a sense of what he conceived to be
his duty. And with that deliberateness which always characterized him, he
set about it at once. From the beginning, after his first great burst of
pitying sorrow for the little waif, when he had clasped her in his arms
and almost fiercely claimed her for his own, his treasure trove, he had
realized that she belonged to some other world than his own. This thought
stayed with him. It slumbered during the child's long illness, but roused
to active life when he discovered that she had no knowledge of herself.
Therefore he set about inquiries. He must find out to whom she belonged
and restore her to her people.

There was no one missing for two hundred miles round Beacon Crossing
except the Jasons. It was impossible that the Indians could have gone
farther afield, for they had not been out twenty-four hours when Rosebud
was rescued. So his search for the child's friends proved unavailing.

Still, from that day on he remained loyal to her. Any clue, however frail,
was never too slight for him to hunt to its source. He owed it to her to
restore her to her own, whatever regret it might cost him to lose her. He
was not the man to shirk a painful duty, certainly not where his
affections were concerned.

During the six years, while Rosebud was growing to womanhood, Seth's hands
were very full. Those wonderful violet eyes belonged to no milk and water
"miss." From the very beginning the girl proved herself spirited and
wilful. Not in any vicious way. A "madcap" best describes her. She had no
thought of consequences; only the delight of the moment, the excitement
and risk. These were the things that plunged her into girlish scrapes
from which it fell to the lot of Seth to extricate her. All her little
escapades were in themselves healthy enough, but they were rarely without
a smack of physical danger.

She began when she learned to ride, a matter which of course devolved upon
Seth.

Once she could sit a wild, half-tamed broncho her career in the direction
of accident became checkered. Once, after a day'