Half an hour afterward as she, Van, and Elsa rode forward as before,
she saw the man in affection pat the broncho on the neck. And the
horse pricked his ears in a newfound gladness in service and friendship
that his nature could not yet comprehend.




CHAPTER VII

AN EXCHANGE OF QUESTIONS

Youth is elastic, and Van was young. An hour of quiet riding restored
him astoundingly. He bore no signs of fatigue that Beth could detect
upon his face. Once more, as he had in the morning, he was riding ahead
in the trail, apparently all but oblivious of the two anxious women in
his charge.

They had wound far downward through a canyon, and now at length were
emerging on a sagebrush slope that lowered to the valley. Van halted for
Beth to ride to his side, and onward they continued together.

"I suppose you have friends to whom you are going in Goldite," he said,
"--or at least there's someone you know."

"Yes," she answered, "my brother."

Van looked at her in his quizzical way, observing: