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160 she'd fell out o' sight there the minute she'd landed. Denver's some city, ma'am. I finds that out when I lit out arter Jane Ann and struck that place myself.

"Wall 'twould be teejious to you, ma'am, if I told whar I have chased arter that gal these endurin' two months. Had to let the ranch an' ev'rythin' else go to loose ends while I follered news of her all over. My gosh, ma'am! how many gals there is runs away from their homes! Ye wouldn't believe the number 'nless ye was huntin' for a pertic'lar one an' got yer rope on many that warn't her!"

"You have had many disappointments, sir?" said Miss Kate, beginning to feel a great sympathy for this uncouth man.

He nodded his great, bald, shining head. "I hope you ain't going to tell me thar's another in store for me right yere," he said, in a much milder voice.

"I cannot tell you where Nita—if she is your niece—is now," said Miss Kate, firmly.

"She's left you?"

"She went away some time during the night—night before last."

"What for?" he asked, suspiciously.

"I don't know. We none of us knew. We made her welcome and said nothing about sending her away, or looking for her friends. I did