iates in jail."

"Well, you'd better look out you don't get landed yourself," said Mollie
sagely. "I imagine these particular gentlemen are pretty handy with
their guns--like most of the other people around here--and I reckon they
wouldn't be very backward about using them."

"It would be fifty-fifty, at that," said Allen, adding grimly: "I'm not
so very unhandy with a gun myself. But the war's over and I haven't any
idea of staging a tragedy," he added lightly, anxious to banish the
cloud that had come over Betty's bright face. "I shall keep out of sight
till I have them just where I want them, and when they find themselves
caught I don't think they'll do much fighting. All crooks are more or
less cowards, you know."

"But what are you going to do in the meantime--while you are waiting for
a chance to show them up?" Betty persisted. She did not half like the
way things were going--even if there was a chance of finding a fortune
on the ranch. It seemed to her that Allen was putting himself into too
great danger. And if anything happened to him, what would all the gold
in the world be worth?

"'In the meantime?'" Allen was answering her question lightly. "Why, in
the meantime I intend to keep my eyes and ears wide open and do a little
scouting around Gold Run until I get a line on the doings of Peter
Levine and his crowd--if he has a crowd. He may just be in partnership
with one other rascal like himself, for all I know. That's one of the
first things I want to find out. After the information of our friend,
back there at the mine," he added, "there is no longer any doubt in my
mind that this Levine is a crook."

"Humph," said Betty, "I was sure of that the first time I laid eyes on
him."

"And yet you said you could almost love him for making your mother
decide to come out here," Allen reminded her quizzically.

"And you said you were on your way to kill him," said Betty, adding with
a chuckle: "What made you change your mind?"

"I didn't change my mind," retorted Allen, with a grin. "I just didn't
happen to meet him, that's all."

They had nearly reached the ranch house before Betty thought to ask
Allen if he had talked his plans over with her mother.

"No, I haven't," he admitted. "As a matter of fact, I hadn't made any
definite plans until I had this confab with Dan Higgins. He made me see
the whole thing straight, so to speak. I'll have a talk with your mother
and father to-night," he promised.

He kept