, sure. Any man would have done the same as Redmond did. Thar
was nuthin' else fer him to do. But after the miners came, he had a
great longin' to meet 'em, an' talk to 'em in a friendly way. At first
he didn't know how to manage this without bein' found out. But by a
lucky chance he came across an old Injun, who had once been a great
medicine-man, an' was a mighty good hand at makin' disguises. So he
fixed up Redmond in sich a way that no one could tell but what he was a
real old sourdough prospector who had spent most of his life lookin'
fer gold."

A half suppressed exclamation from Reynolds caused Samson to turn
quickly in his direction.

"Hey, anything wrong?" he asked. "Ye seem to be somewhat excited.
Nuthin' serious, I hope?"

"Yes, there is," was the emphatic reply. "But go on. Never mind me."

"I s'pose I might as well git along with me yarn," the old man
continued. "Yes, Redmond got all fixed up as a prospector, an' then he
visited the minin' camps fer miles around. No one suspected who he
was, an' so he used to come an' go in a most mysterious manner, to
their way of thinkin'."

"What did he call himself?" Reynolds asked.

"I'll come to that later, young man," and Samson slyly tipped him a
warning wink. "We'll jist call him Redmond fer the present. He
sartinly did have a great time of it, an' no one was the wiser. An' he
uster travel to the outside, too, an' everybody put him down as an old
prospector hardly worth considering Say, it was great fun fer Redmond."

"But where was his child all this time?" Reynolds questioned.

"Oh, she jist stayed at home with a housekeeper Redmond got, an' grew
up to be a fine slip of a gal. Then when she was old enough, her dad
decided to send her outside to school. But when she came home fer the
holidays she was somewhat unsettled, an' didn't want to stay in the
north. She longed fer society, fine dresses, an' sich things. This
worried her dad a great deal. But one day she happened to come across
a chap who took her fancy, an' that made all the difference in the
world. He saved her from a grizzly on Crooked----"

Samson never finished the sentence, for with a startled cry, Glen was
on her feet, her body trembling with emotion, and her eyes wide with
wonder.

"Are you Henry Redmond?" she demanded. "Are you my father?"

For an instant only did the old man look at the girl, then with a
swift, deft movement he swept the long beard from his face,