Page:J Allan Dunn--The Girl of Ghost Mountain.djvu/240

222 But he had his riddles to figure out. Why would she stay until she knew how the gold hunt came out? Just for friendly interest, and suiting her own convenience or feminine curiosity? If—and his heart leaped—they found the gold, her fortune would set no barrier between them. Would she accept him on equal terms and leave him if he was still a plodding rancher, with a dream he could not turn to reality? If so, he had misjudged her. He did misjudge her. And he mentally apologized. If she went, it was because she did not love him, did not want to share his life.

But he made up his mind to find the gold, if it was in the canyon, if he had to blast down all the cliff and sift the dust with his hands. Almost at the ranch Jackson piped up, with a reckless note,

"There's times, once in a while," he said as he and Sheridan off-saddled in the home corral, "when I have grave an' genuine doubts about the real valley of prohibition."