t now until I have an escort."

"Ah--my name is Carson--Jack Carson. I was going to Saguache to see
Mr. Amos, the assayer, to have him test a jug handle,--er, that is, to
have the jug handle test him. I don't mean that; I mean our mine is
named the Jug Handle, I will get it right after awhile, and I want him
to make a test of the ore."

"Confound it," he thought as he turned the horse, "I haven't the sense
of a jackrabbit to make a break like that."

One of the lions lay pawing the snow in its death struggle and as
Carson came near, it reared itself as if to make one last leap. Its
eyes gleamed in savage yellow, foam fell in flecks from its mouth,
while a tiny stream of crimson stained the snow. Carson's weapon spit
fire and the creature rolled over motionless. He dragged the carcass
to the end of the sleigh and, lifting it upon the edge of the box,
made it fast.

"If you are going to Saguache to see my uncle, I fear you will be
disappointed as he left this morning for an absence of several days."

"That does not matter as I have other business anyway. Most any time
will do, as I am in town quite often. We would better not drive so
fast. Your horse is in a foam."

Carson was fast becoming interested in the girl at his side. Her calm
poise, after the exciting adventures with the mountain lions,
surprised him. Other women would have been hysterical, but here by his
side sat a girl not yet out of her teens, as calm and collected as a
veteran soldier after the battle. And Amos, the man he was going to
see and intended to kill if he proved to be the villain he suspected
him to be, was her uncle.

The white billows rose rank on rank on the distant mountains, while
the snow of the valley shrunk visibly away, leaving the grey rocks
naked and protuberant.

The newly-made acquaintances chatted gaily as the horse jogged along.

"I was thinking of your remark awhile ago," said Carson, "that you
would go to Del Norte tomorrow if you had an escort, and as I have
some time to idle away it would give me pleasure to drive you over."

"It would give me equal pleasure to have you do so," she replied with
admirable frankness, "that is, if you are going there anyway."

"I may need to purchase some new implements with which to work the
Aberdeen--I mean the Jug Handle mine," he explained. "I have heard of
a new drill they are working over there and it may be just the thing
for the formation we are now in."

"I see," said the gi