d approvingly at the neatly bandaged
arm. "Anyhow, this is nothin' but a scratch an' it'll be all healed
up, chances are, before we could get to Samuelson's."

"No, it won't be all healed up before you get to Samuelson's either!
Run along, now, and I'll stay here while you finish dressing, and when
you're through, you call me. I've had breakfast but I can drink a cup
of coffee, if you'll ask me."

"You're asked," the man replied, gravely, "and while I go to the tent,
you might take that outfit an' jerk a couple more trout out of the
creek." He pointed to a light fishing pole with hook and line attached
that leaned against a tree. "It ain't as fancy as the outfit Len
Christie packs, but it works just as good, an' ain't any bother to
take care of."

A few minutes later Vil Holland emerged from the tent. "Sorry I ain't
got a table," he apologized, "but a fryin' pan outfit's always suited
me best--makes a fellow feel kind of free to pull stakes an' drift
when the notion hits him."

"But, you've camped here for a long time."

The man glanced about him: "Yes, a long time. I guess I know every
place in the hills for a hundred miles round an' this is the pick of
'em all, accordin' to my notions. Plenty of natural pasture, plenty of
timber, an' this little creek's the coldest, an' it always seems to
me, its water is the sparklin'est of 'em all. An' then, away off there
towards the big mountains, early in the mornin' an' late in the
evenin', when it's all kind of dim down here, you can see the sunlight
on the snow--purple, an' pink, an' sometimes it shines like silver an'
gold. It lays fine for a ranch. Sometime, maybe, I'm goin' to
homestead it. I'll build the cabin right there, close by the big rock,
an' I'll build a porch on it so in the evenin's we could watch the
lights way up there on the snow."

Patty smiled: "Who is 'we'?" she asked, mischievously.

The man regarded her gravely: "Things like that works themselves out.
If there ain't any 'we', there won't be any cabin--so there's nothin'
to worry about."

"Did you catch the horse-thieves?"

Vil Holland's face clouded. "Part of 'em. Not the main ones, though."

Patty shuddered. "I saw one of them lying back there by the trail. It
was horrible."

"Yes, an' a couple of more went the same way, further on. We'd rather
have got 'em alive, but they'd had their orders, an' they took their
medicine. We got the horses, though."

"I suppose you're wondering how I came