"Dan," he said, "you have. When you leave here in three months you'll be as well as I am, and that's saying a good deal." Then the lad surprised Jane by exclaiming: "Perhaps I won't want to leave. There's a fascination to me about all this." He waved his free arm out toward the mountains. "And your native characters, Mr. Packard, interest me exceedingly. You see," Dan smilingly confessed, "my ambition is to become a writer. I would like to put 'Gabby' into a story." Mr. Packard's eyes brightened. "Do it, Dan! Do it!" he said with real enthusiasm. "Personally I can't write a line, not easily, but I have real admiration for men who can, and I am a great reader. Come over soon and see my library." Then he cautioned: "I told you to write, but don't begin yet. Not until you are stronger. Stay outdoors for a time, boy. Climb to the rim rock, take notes, and then later, when you are strong, you will find them of value." While they had been talking, the stage had started down a steep, narrow canon. The mountain walls on both sides were almost perpendicular, and for a time nothing else was to be seen. It was more than a mile in length, and they could soon see the valley opening below them. "Redfords proper," Mr. Packard smilingly told them as he nodded in that direction. "It is not much of a metropolis." The young Abbotts looked curiously ahead, wondering what the town would be like. CHAPTER XI. REDFORDS "Is that all there is to the town of Redfords?" Jane gasped when the stage, leaving Toboggan Grade, reached a small circular valley which was apparently surrounded on all sides by towering timber-covered mountains. A stream of clear, sparkling water rushed and swirled on its way through the narrow, barren, rock-strewn lowland. The rocks, the very dust of the road, were of a reddish cast. "That road yonder climbs your mountain in a zig-zag fashion, and then circles around it to the old abandoned mining camp." Then to Gerald, he said: "Youngster, if you're pining for mystery, that's where you ought to find one. That deserted mining camp always looks to me as though it must have a secret, perhaps more than one, that it could tell and will not." "Ohee!" squealed Julie. "How interesting! Gerry and I are wild to find a mystery to unravel. Why do you think that old mining camp has secrets, Mr. Packard?"