n prison almost ever since you were born." And on top of his last
statement Bucky's eyes began to open with a new light. "Good heavens! It
can't be possible. You're not Webb Mackenzie's little girl, are you?"

She did not answer him in words, but from her neck she slipped a chain
and handed it to him. On the chain hung a locket.

The ranger struck a match and examined the trinket. "It's the very
missing locket. See! Here's the other one. Compare them together." He
touched the spring and it opened, but the match was burned out and he
had to light another. "Here's the mine map that has been lost all these
years. How did you get this? Have you always had it? And how long have
you known that you were Frances Mackenzie?"

His questions tumbled out one upon another in his excitement.

She laughed, answering him categorically. "I don't know, for sure. Yes,
at least a great many years. Less than a week."

"But--I don't understand--"

"And won't until you give me a chance to do some of the talking," she
interrupted dryly.

"That's right. I reckon I am getting off left foot first. It's your
powwow now," he conceded.

"So long as I can remember exactly I have always lived with the man
Hardman and his wife. But before that I can vaguely recall something
different. It has always seemed like a kind of fairyland, for I was a
very little tot then. But one of the things I seem to remember was a
sweet, kind-eyed mother and a big, laughing father. Then, too, there
were horses and lots of cows. That is about all, except that the chain
around my neck seemed to have some connection with my early life. That's
why I always kept it very carefully, and, after one of the lockets
broke, I still kept it and the funny-looking paper inside of it."

"I don't understand why Hardman didn't take the paper," he interrupted.

"I suppose he did, and when he discovered that it held only half the
secret of the mine he probably put it back in the locket. I see you have
the other part."

"It was lost at the place where the robbers waited to hold up the T. P.
Limited. Probably you lost it first and one of the robbers found it."

"Probably," she said, in a queer voice.

"What was the first clue your father had had for many years about his
little girl. He happened to be at Aravaipa the day you and I first met.
I guess he took a fancy to me, for he asked me to take this case up for
him and see if I couldn't locate you. I ran Hardman down and made him