ving away his
whereabouts. There, how's that for a brilliant idea?" she finished
proudly.

"I had already thought of that," admitted Betty, while the girls turned
amused eyes upon her. "But I was almost afraid to suggest it."

"Maybe Allen would agree with your father that we, ought to turn him
over to justice," said Mollie, but Betty shook her head vigorously.

"Never! Not Allen!" she declared fervently. "He believes the other
fellow innocent until he is proved guilty."

"So does the law," said Amy wisely.

"Yes, but the law has sent many an innocent man to prison nevertheless,"
retorted Mollie. "We don't always find justice in the courts."

"Hear, hear," cried Grace. "Get a soap box, Mollie."

"Then it is settled that we are to tell Allen, is it?" said Betty
eagerly. "I'm sure he will find some way to help us."

"If we can pry him loose from the mining outfit," laughed Mollie. "He
seems to have gold fever worse than any of them."

But Allen had been busy, during the intervals when he could tear himself
away from the fascination of the mining operations, on some legal
matters.

Mrs. Nelson, and her husband also, had feared that these numerous
relatives of her great uncle, of whose existence she herself had
scarcely been aware, might see fit to contest the old man's will
especially when it became apparent that his property at this time was
far more valuable than it had been at the time of his death.

Allen, after considerable investigation, was able to set their fears at
rest upon this point, however, by asserting that the old gentleman had
made only one will and that he thought it very doubtful under the
circumstances that the relatives would take the case into the courts.
They were not Mr. Barcolm's children and grandchildren, as Lizzie had
supposed, but distant relatives whom at one time and another the old man
had befriended and gathered about him, but who had later quarreled with
their benefactor.

"Anyway," Mrs. Nelson decided happily, "if we really do find some gold I
will give each one of them a share of it, even to the littlest."

On this particular afternoon the girls found Allen, not at the mines as
they supposed they would, but at the ranch house busy with some papers.

When they besought him to come out for a ride, he hesitated at first,
saying that he ought to get his work done before night. But they finally
persuaded him not to let duty interfere with pleasure.

"All right," he surrender