ly after Frank Kent and Jack left him, on the day of the
round-up, Jim Colter had gone to the Indian village, but he could find
no trace of Olive there. Curiously enough old Laska had disappeared from
her hut several days before, so she could scarcely be held responsible
for the lost girl. She had said nothing of where she was going nor when
she expected to return. In Indian fashion, she had departed silently,
carrying only a bundle strapped across her back.

Josef would give no information. Jim tried him with threats and bribes,
but the boy insisted he knew nothing of Olive. He had not seen her in
many weeks. It was useless to try to make an Indian betray a secret he
meant to keep and Jim Colter knew better than to waste his time. The
Indian is as suspicious and reticent to-day as he was in the old days,
when no kind of torture ever wrung a sound from him.

Advertisements were inserted in the papers in the nearby towns, but no
girl answering to the description of Olive was ever reported. She had
vanished as completely as though she were dead. By and by Jim Colter
gave up the search. He did not believe that they would ever see the
Indian girl again.

Frank Kent kept quietly at work. He was very rich, and without a word to
anyone, offered a reward for Olive's return, so large that had Laska
seen it and had she had Olive in her possession, she must surely have
given her up. Frank came often to Rainbow Lodge. The girls no longer
thought of him as the guest and relative of their bitterest enemy, and
the name of the Nortons was never mentioned between them. He used to
take Jean and Frieda and Cousin Ruth off on long excursions to keep them
amused, but Jack would rarely go with them. She seldom left the ranch
and spent the greater part of the time alone, refusing to talk either of
Olive or the prospect of losing Rainbow Ranch, which loomed nearer with
each passing day. Jack was polite to Cousin Ruth, but she never
expressed any penitence to her or to Jim for her wilfulness, which
seemed to be responsible for Olive's loss. But daily Jack grew paler and
thinner. She seemed much older and quieter than the radiant beautiful
girl who had been the ruling spirit of the entire ranch. Everyone who
knew her worried over the change in her, and most of all Ruth, who
wondered if she were not somehow to blame for the whole disaster. If she
had not opposed Jack's going to the round-up, Jim would have taken Jack
with him and Olive would no