as not the only one who was uneasy, and it might have
been observed that the girls glanced often into the shadows of the
underbrush on either side of the narrow trail.

There were wild animals in that forest, as they had good reason to know,
and though they seldom ventured this close to civilization, still there
was no use in tempting fate!

"I didn't know it was as far in as this," said Grace, after they had
ridden some distance in silence. "Are you sure we haven't passed the
cabin, Betty?"

"Why, we aren't nearly there yet," was Betty's discomforting reply.
"It's quite a way beyond that next turn in the trail."

Grace said nothing, but she gripped the reins harder in her hands. She
had made up her mind that at the first sign of danger she would turn
Nabob and make a dash back down the trail for safety.

After that the silence became so pronounced that Mollie noticed it and
laughed nervously.

"Why all the noise?" she asked jocosely. "It nearly breaks my ear
drums."

"Hush," cried Amy warningly. "I thought I heard something."

"That was your own heart hammering against the tree trunks," retorted
Mollie dryly, at which the girls giggled and the tension relaxed.

"Let's talk about something nice," Betty suggested. "Gold, for
instance."

"Or Allen," teased Grace. "I reckon you won't be glad or anything when
he gets here."

"I guess mother will be gladder than any of us," replied Betty promptly,
trying to shift the spotlight from herself. "She was so excited when I
told her what Dan Higgins said about the possibility of there being gold
on the ranch that she hardly closed her eyes all night. I told her she
was getting to be a regular adventuress."

"Like her daughter," said Mollie, with a chuckle.

"Just think of the story we can tell the boys when we get home," said
Amy rapturously, adding apologetically as the girls glanced at her: "If
we find the gold, I mean."

"Listen to the child!" cried Betty gayly, while the other girls laughed.
"And we haven't begun to dig yet. Hold your horses, Amy dear, hold your
horses."

They did this very thing literally the next moment, for they came in
sight of the queer little cabin of the man whom the natives called the
Hermit of Gold Run.

Quickly they jumped down, tethered the horses as they had done before on
the day when they had first made the acquaintance of this remarkable
man, and started rather hesitantly down the path toward the house.

As they came nearer