men stood still.

"Now Kit, you hold the gun on them and I'll get the money. That's one
thing Dad has always insisted on that I keep a little money fastened to
me, when I'm away from home." She fumbled in her dress and brought
forth a small roll of bills.

With Kit protecting her, Bet walked toward the cliff, and when she got
to within ten feet from the men she put the money on the ground, and
made a second trip, hauling their packs to the same spot.

When her gun was once more levelled at the ruffians, she ordered: "Turn
around!"

The men wasted no time in obeying. They turned.

"Now walk slowly and get your money and belongings. If you run, you
drop!"

The men grabbed their money and hastened back to their position on the
cliff, as if they were anxious to put distance between themselves and
the shotguns.

"Now go, and go quickly! Kie Wicks is due over this way in half an
hour and if he finds you gone and us in charge, he's going to send a
posse after you!"

The men hastened down the trail. They saddled and mounted their
horses, with the shotguns pointed in their direction.

From the opposite end of the canyon two riders were coming nearer, and
the ruffians galloped their horses to get out of the way.

Kit and Bet recognized Seedy Saunders and Billy Patten, who had gone
out by themselves to search for the professor.

They answered Kit's hail and raced their horses up the grade.

By the time they reached the summit, Bet and Kit were almost hysterical
from laughing. Bet put the gun down gingerly. "I wonder what I would
have done, if they had called my bluff!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, boys, if you could only have heard her," shrieked Kit, at last
getting her breath. "You'd have thought she had just stepped out of a
western two-gun story, the way she threatened those men, it's a wonder
they didn't see through her. And she hardly knows how to hold the gun.
It was a scream!"

"I don't believe I'd enjoy that sort of thing for regular work,"
laughed Bet. "I guess I don't like to give orders that much."

But the two ruffians, hastening toward the railroad station thirty
miles away, never dreamed that the girl who menaced them so daringly,
had never pulled a trigger.

"We're lucky to be out of it," they agreed. "Girls have a way of
always making trouble and getting their own way!"

CHAPTER XVII

_INDIAN TRADING_

Much to the disgust of Tommy Sharpe, Kie Wicks was a guest at the
Judge's ta