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Newspaper Page Text
venirs for Mollie. As the change for a gold piece was handed to him by the Indian girl he thrust it back, with the words: "I'll take one of your photographs for that, young lady," and thrust the card into his pocket with a adden dum: "If you won't get jealous, Mol lie." ' , Before daylight next morning Dan was mounted on his horse, bound for Tinker's creek. Mollie looked anx ious and 'her father troubled, as with his usual buoyancy Dan predicted his speedy return. "Look out for the Wenatchees, Dan," warned the old man. "Word has come that they are restless and making war dances over beyond the reservation. You know what that means." "I do," nodded Dan carelessly, "and none of them will get me," and he meaningly touched the belt that bore two sturdy-looking seven-shooters. It took Dan six days' hard travel to cross the country to Tinker's creek. To line this safely for some thirty miles meant a safe arrival at the point where the hidden hoard of his dead partner had been buried. The trouble was, however, for that half of the stretch he was on reser vation ground and further, as he well knew, a strip where the most mischievous and sanguinary section of the tribe of Wenatchees made their headquarters. Dan had proceeded about ten miles when, turning a great mass Of rocks, he came directly into a nest of sav ages. In a flash he realized that they had been lying in wait for any unsus pecting traveler who might come along. They made a collective dash. Under ordinary circumstances Dan "would have remained quiescent and bave let them deprive him of the small stock of money he carried with him. As one of the half-intoxicated savages seized his foot and half pull ed him 'from his horse, however, anl another struck him with the butt of a revolver, the fighting spirit was aroused in the sturly miner. Whack whack! his fist shot jout, then seven shots of flame, and heed--ing not who met the onslaught, Dan drove through the shrieking mob and, followed by a harmless fusillade, made good his escape. t Dan reached the end of his journey withont further obstruction or delay.' It was daylight when he came to the' spot where his dead partner had hid- den the golden results of six months; grubbing over a placer field. Within an hour Dan gloomily realized that someone had anticipated him. He had precisely located the bur row under a flat stone where the gold had rested. There was the outline of the abstracted bag in the soft dirt underneath, and one or two loose nuggets. , , "Gone robbed!" gasped Dan, in sheer stupefaction, and it took him several hours to comprehend that to search for the lost bundle would be like looking for a needle 'in a hay stack. If Dan had really secured the treas ure he would have sought a new, roundabout way of reaching home, for he knew that the Indian crowd he had outwitted would seek revenge. Crushed by his loss, dejected, Dan reckjessly retraced the river trail, to get into new trouble. He ran into his foes at an ambus cade, and, one to ten, was overmas tered. He fought hard, and was gen erally mauled tip, taken captive and hurried to a copse, where he was ar raigned before a stern-faced chief of the tribe. Dan had disabled three of his assailants of the night previous, it seemed, and revenge was demand ed. It was while they were searching him that a strange episodetranspired. The chief was a morose, sullen fel low, but he evinced interest as Dan's possessions were removed from his pockets. He gave a great start ahd uttered a sharp cry as one of his minions removed from Dan's pocket mmmmmmmMm