e, creepy sensation stole over her. She knew that the room
had been searched.

CHAPTER IX

PATTY TAKES PRECAUTIONS

During the next few days Patty Sinclair paid scant attention to rock
ledges. Each morning she saddled her cayuse and rode into the hills to
the southward, crossing divides and following creeks and valleys from
their sources down their winding, twisting lengths. After the first
two or three trips she left her gun at home. It was heavy and
cumbersome, and she realized, in her unskilled hand, useless. Always
she felt that she was being followed, but, try as she would, never
could catch so much as a fleeting glimpse of the rider who lurked on
her trail. Nevertheless, during these long rides which she made for
the sole purpose of familiarizing herself with all the short cuts
through the hills, she derived satisfaction from the fact that, while
the trips were of immense value to her, Vil Holland was having his
trouble for his pains.

Ascertaining at length that, after crossing the high divide at the
head of Monte's Creek, any valley leading southward would prove a
direct outlet onto the bench and thereby furnish a short cut to town,
she returned once more to her prospecting--to the exploration of
little valleys, and the examination of innumerable rock ledges.

Accepting as part of the game the fact that her cabin was searched
almost daily during her absence she derived grim enjoyment in
contemplation of the searcher's repeated disappointment. Several
attempts to surprise the marauder at his work proved futile, and she
was forced to admit that in the matter of shrewdness and persistence,
his ability exceeded her own. "The real test will come when I locate
the mine," she told herself one evening, as she sat alone in her
little cabin. "Then the prize will go to the fastest horse." She drew
a small folding check-book from her pocket and frowningly regarded its
latest stub. "A thousand dollars isn't very much, and--it's half
gone."

Next day she rode out of the hills and, following the trail for town,
dismounted at Thompson's ranch which nestled in its coulee well out
upon the bench, and waited for the rancher, who drove up beside a huge
stack with a load of alfalfa, to unhitch his team.

"Have you a good saddle horse for sale?" she asked, abruptly.

Thompson released the tug chains, and hung the bridles upon the hames,
whereupon the horses of their own accord started toward the stable,
followed by