ure was evident, as she spent many Spanish gold coins of ancient
date as months rolled on, and this induced Grim, a farm hand, to marry
her. She elevated him from a menial position, to overseer of her
ranch. She gave him money, which he recklessly spent at the faro
tables at the Garrison. When she refused to further indulge him in his
reckless expenditures, he, like Mercer, attempted to follow her on her
journey to the Grand River hills one night. He was missed by his
companions who went in numbers to search for him, taking an Indian
guide. They were led in an opposite direction from the way he went and
his fate remained a mystery, until many months later his body was
found in the Grand River, with a bullet in the brain.

Two years after the death of Grim, Carson and a negro were hunting in
the Grand River country and were encamped one night in the hills.
While seated beside their campfire, they heard a cry of distress.
Upon going to the spot, they found a lone Indian woman pinioned
beneath her pony, which had stepped into a wolf hole and broke its
leg. The woman was badly injured and they carried her to their
campfire and made her comfortable. The next day they constructed a
rude litter and carried her twenty miles to a place where she could
receive medical attention.

The woman was Mary Greenwater, and this was, perhaps, the first act of
kindness she had ever received.

A certain escapade at the close of Carson's college days had caused
him to migrate to the West, where, like many others, he became a
soldier of fortune, drifting whither the strongest tide wind blew.
When Mary Greenwater recovered she sought him, and in her gratitude
made him the overseer of her ranch at a princely salary.

In course of time they were married by the ancient Indian ceremony of
the Fastest Horse. When the days of feasting were over, and Mary
Greenwater's relatives had returned to their cabins richer by a
number of ponies, Mary told Carson a wondrous story of how, many
summers ago, when her grandfather was a boy, a Spanish caravan came
from Santa Fe and was besieged in the Grand river hills for many days,
and of how, finding that they would eventually be starved to death if
they remained, the travelers had hidden their possessions among the
lime rocks and undertaken to cut their way through the Indian hordes
to a place of safety. Her grandfather had found the hiding place of
the treasure and had kept it a profound secret from all exce