m any day in the week she trotted 'em along.
Easiest way to make a fortune I know."

Tressa eased herself away to look gravely in his face. "Did you ever
think those horses might be stolen ones?"

"Not more'n I could help," he grinned. "It wasn't any of my business;
she offered them at a reasonable price--"

"You set the price."

"The buyer always does, my dear--when he can. Ten dollars was only a
starter; I'd have given five times as much. They've been the best
horses I've had." He stopped with a sudden inspiration. "Say, come to
think of it, they're the very ones we've been losing lately. Looks as
if some one else is a good judge of horseflesh."

"I hope they don't touch Doll and Prince. Surely nobody would come
right up here to our own stable!"

"Not while Big Jim Torrance and booze don't get mixing company too
free. You didn't used to think so much of Doll--but that was before
she was broke. You're getting your riding legs pretty quick, I say.
We'll sell them before we pull out. They're real prairie horses; they
wouldn't be happy down East. Just the same," he murmured, after a long
pause, "I'd give a week's pay to know who got them horses. Perhaps the
camps out west needed brightening up their horse-power, and they've
done it at my expense. If we could have got on the trail of the last
lot that nearly went over the rapids--but there's nobody can trail in
this camp." He smote his knee with a loud smack. "By hickory! Why
didn't I think of the Indian before?"

"Peter Maverick?"

"Sure. The only Indian we got. He did me a good turn to-day on that
trestle. Never saw an Indian couldn't follow a trail, if there was
whisky or a horse at the end of it . . . and I never saw a likelier one
than Mavy. Might be worth my while to get in ahead of the Mounted
Police. They had to be told, you know."

"Did you tell them how you got the horses, daddy?"

The big man looked grieved. "Do you think your dad has lost all his
senses? But this smashing of things was getting too common, and they'd
have found out about the horses and wondered why I hadn't called them
in. I don't think they'd favour buying strange horses at ten dollars a
head and trying to look innocent about it. It isn't any use arguing
with them--but you got common sense. You wouldn't suspect your old dad
of receiving stolen property--at ten per; but them Mounted Police will
ask for a birth certificate for every blessed one. I haven't t