Miss Ralston," he
protested. "I am about as much interested in raising cattle as I am in
the North Pole, but if you find any odd gold mines on your way to the
Yellowstone, I'm the man for you. I make a specialty of gold mining
stock on Wall Street."

Having safely arrived once more at Mrs. Peterson's boarding house, the
three ranch girls retired to their bedrooms as soon as dinner was over.
After several hours of animated discussion, the decision was reached
that on the whole the Harmons had not made an agreeable impression. Jack
liked Elizabeth, and Jean and Olive thought Mrs. Harmon very attractive
and the son fairly so. But their new acquaintances did not strike the
girls as a happy or united family. Certainly there were grave
differences of opinion between them and they seemed to be divided among
themselves.

Among them, Jack, Olive and Jean managed to eat three pounds of candy
before they went to sleep. Jack wondered next morning if it were the
candy or the experiences of the day that made her sleep such a queer
jumble of dreams. She dreamed that the Harmons were trying to get Olive
away from her and that she was holding to her skirts with all her might.
Then Frank Kent appeared, but instead of helping her save Olive he
seemed to be on the Harmons' side. Jack felt herself slipping down, down
into a great, dark abyss. She awakened finally to find the tears running
down her cheeks, Jean punching her in the ribs to bring her back to her
senses and Olive imploring her to tell them what was the trouble.

"Come out of that nightmare, for heaven's sake, Jack Ralston," Jean
insisted. "You were weeping as though some terrible thing had happened.
As I was dreaming sweetly of our caravan trip I thought you were some
wild animal wailing, away off in the wilderness."

CHAPTER VII

"A LITTLE HOUSE ON WHEELS"

"Our caravan looks like the real thing, doesn't it, Jim?" Jean
exclaimed, balancing herself insecurely on the front wheel of a mammoth
wagon and peering over inside it at a tall figure under the cover. "Do
you think we will be able to get off this afternoon?"

Jim Colter climbed wearily out and sat on the driver's seat, surveying
his questioner gloomily. "Don't you think you might go in the house and
dress or fix your hair or something?" he asked. "You have asked me
twenty questions in the last ten minutes, and I might be working in the
time it takes to answer you. We are going to get away from this ranch
t