safe and happy all
the rest of her life."

Before Lennon could reply, the girl gently freed herself from Elsie and
turned to go.

"Pardon me--one moment, Miss Farley," appealed Lennon. "There is
something I must tell you. I happened to overhear Slade speak to your
father. He insists that the lost mine is a gold lode and proposes to
take possession when I have led him to it."

The girl smiled a bit mockingly.

"What else could you expect?" she asked. "If he hadn't believed it a
gold lode he wouldn't have made the deal with you. When you show him the
copper, it will be up to you to hold him to his bargain. We have no
chance unless he splits with Cochise."

"Why not persuade your father to slip out of the Hole with us--start
immediately? The Apaches have gone off. I'll engage to tie up Slade. We
would have an all-night lead."

"No," refused Carmena. "The Hole belongs to Dad. He will not leave it.
Besides, there are at least three Apaches on watch in Hell Canon."

Lennon realized the uselessness of arguing with the girl. If, as he
still half suspected, she was scheming with Slade, the less said about
her father's share in the stock stealing the better.

"Very well," he acquiesced. "I shall try to manage Slade. If he is
unreasonable, I will do as I think best."

"So will I," replied Carmena, her eyes sombre.

"Come on, Blossom. Slade said he would leave at daybreak."

She abruptly turned away, and made no remonstrance when Elsie offered
her lips to Lennon for a good-night kiss.

Left alone, he sat down in one of the big chairs and fell to planning
how, after the relocation of the copper lode, he would make his escape.
He would bring a sheriff's posse to arrest Slade and his fellow
criminals. Elsie would then be freed from all danger, and the mine could
be developed.

CHAPTER XIV

THE PROWLER

From his plans for the breaking up of the criminal gang Lennon's
thoughts drifted into pleasant reveries about his adorable little
wife-to-be. Drowsiness crept upon him. When the lone candle on the table
burned down, flickered, and went out, he was too sound asleep to waken.
But his sleep was troubled with uneasy dreams.

In the midst of a nightmare that lived over his flight from the bronchos
across the desert, he was roused with a start to alert wakefulness. Some
heavy-breathing creature was stealthily shuffling about in the black
night of the unlighted room. A thump, followed by a muttered curse,
betraye