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 sweeps of the country at a time, but even so it was slow work and very much like looking for a needle in a hay mow.

The first day he followed the most likely valley for ten miles back into the mountains, and then crossed over the ridge and worked back along another valley to this starting place in the foothills. He saw plenty of deer tracks, and rabbit tracks, and several bevies of mountain quail, but not a sign of sheep. The second day was a repetition of the first.

A long twenty-mile tramp, many deer signs, but no sheep tracks. He had now covered the four most likely intervals and was getting discouraged, but he did not give up. He was not that sort.

The third day bade fair to be a repetition of the other two. Richard tramped and tramped, starting as soon as daylight and never stopping to rest. By noon he was tired and rather discouraged. His father and the farmer had been right. Looking for the sheep in these endless mountains