one straight in the eye." Kit dropped into a chair, shrieking
with laughter as she visualized Ramon Salazar trying to look anyone
straight in the eye, for he was the most weirdly cross-eyed person she
had ever seen.

"Maybe that's why he could look at me and lie like a pirate," replied
Tommy. "I paid him five good dollars for that map."

"You must have been crazy, Tommy."

"I wasn't. Ramon knew I had that five dollars, and if I hadn't given
it to him, he would have stolen it."

"There's something fishy about the whole story, Tommy. There must have
been some other reason for Ramon Salazar wishing that old map off on
you." Kit knew the dwellers in the hills. "I can bet a nickel on it
that he thought you might get interested and dig for the treasure and
maybe find it." Suddenly Kit jumped up, "And I bet a dime on top of
that that Kie Wicks was back of it."

"And I have reason to think you are right, Kit. Kie came in one day,
saw the map and claimed that Ramon had stolen it from him, but when I
offered it to him for nothing, he refused. Said that would be taking
advantage of me."

Kit gave a boisterous shout of laughter. "Oh girls, if you only knew
Kie Wicks, you'd see the joke of that. Why that man lives by taking
advantage of people, and he never puts through a deal of any kind
without cheating. He's notorious. That's his business in life, to
take advantage of people."

Tommy smiled. "I think Kie had a lot to do with it. I think he put
Ramon up to selling it to me. But I don't know why."

"I wonder why Kie didn't take back the map when you offered it to him?
That surprised me. Usually he doesn't turn down any kind of a gift."

"He didn't need this map," said Tommy quietly.

"How do you know?"

"Because the map had been copied before I got it. The tracing marks
were on it for a full day, then disappeared. I don't pretend to know
why," Tommy turned away from the map, and one could see that he was not
interested.

"It's a mystery," exclaimed Enid. "Get to work, Bet Baxter. The
mystery of the treasure map! We'll give you a week to solve the
problem."

"Don't do it, Bet, please don't! If you go mooning away about
treasures and all that sort of thing, we'll miss half the fun of the
ranch. When you hunt for treasure, it's work, work, work! And a big
disappointment in the end," advised Kit Patten.

"I've always had a yearning to dig for something. Once when I was a
little girl, Uncle