ess, I oughtn't hev told you boys what I did." As
they rode rapidly away he took occasion to add, when Key had reined in
slightly, with a feeling of relief at being out of the hollow, "I was
thinkin', too, of what you'd asked about any one livin' here
unbeknownst to me."

"Well," said Key, with a new nervousness.

"Well; I only had an idea o' proposin' that you and me just took a look
around that holler whar you thought you saw suthin'!" said Collinson
tentatively.

"Nonsense," said Key hurriedly. "We really saw nothing--it was all a
fancy; and Uncle Dick was joking me because I said I thought I saw a
woman's face," he added with a forced laugh.

Collinson glanced at him, half sadly. "Oh! You were only funnin',
then. I oughter guessed that. I oughter have knowed it from Uncle
Dick's talk!" They rode for some moments in silence; Key preoccupied
and feverish, and eager only to reach Skinner's. Skinner was not only
postmaster but "registrar" of the district, and the new discoverer did
not feel entirely safe until he had put his formal notification and
claims "on record." This was no publication of his actual secret, nor
any indication of success, but was only a record that would in all
probability remain unnoticed and unchallenged amidst the many other
hopeful dreams of sanguine prospectors. But he was suddenly startled
from his preoccupation.

"Ye said ye war straightenin' up yer pack just now," said Collinson
slowly.

"Yes!" said Key almost angrily, "and I was."

"Ye didn't stop to straighten it up down at the forks of the trail, did
ye?"

"I may have," said Key nervously. "But why?"

"Ye won't mind my axin' ye another question, will ye? Ye ain't
carryin' round with ye no woman's shoe?"

Key felt the blood drop from his cheeks. "What do you mean?" he
stammered, scarcely daring to lift his conscious eyelids to his
companion's glance. But when he did so he was amazed to find that
Collinson's face was almost as much disturbed as his own.

"I know it ain't the square thing to ask ye, but this is how it is,"
said Collinson hesitatingly. "Ye see just down by the fork of the
trail where you came I picked up a woman's shoe. It sorter got me!
For I sez to myself, 'Thar ain't no one bin by my shanty, comin' or
goin', for weeks but you boys, and that shoe, from the looks of it,
ain't bin there as many hours.' I knew there wasn't any wimin
hereabouts. I reckoned it couldn't hev bin dropped by Uncle Di