"Oh, boy!" Gerald leaped to a position where he could see the road as it wound under the pines. "There are two horsemen. Gee! One of 'em is Dan." "And the other is Jean Sawyer!" his companion told him. Julie had wanted to see what was going on, so hopping on one foot, she appeared in the doorway, supported by Jane. The two lads uttered whoops of joy when they saw the group awaiting them. Dan at once caught Gerald in his arms and then glanced tenderly toward the two in the doorway. Little did Jane guess that in that moment, white and worn as she was, she had never looked so beautiful to her brother. And as for Jean Sawyer, he saw in the face which had charmed him, a softer expression, and he knew that some great transformation had taken place in the soul of the girl. Leaping forward, he said with deep solicitude: "Oh, Miss Jane, how you have suffered!" Dan lifted Julie most carefully to the back of his horse as he said: "Meg, can you ride in front of this little miss and I will walk at your side?" Then he smiled, and Jane, glancing at him anxiously, rejoiced to note he was not ill as she had feared he would be, though he did look very tired. The lad continued: "You see, Jean and I expected to find you all here. Intuitive knowledge, if you wish to call it that, and so we planned what we would do. Jane is to ride on Silver, which Mr. Packard loaned us, and Jean will lead the way." "But where are we going?" his older sister inquired. "Down to the ranch," Jean replied. "I had strict orders to bring you back with me, all of you, for that visit that you were to have paid at the weekend." Meg was about to demur, but the lad hastened to say: "I told your father that I would telephone the forest ranger as soon as you all were located. He is waiting there for a message, and I cannot until I get you to the ranch." Still Meg thought she ought to climb back to her own home, but Jane implored: "Oh, don't leave me! I do _so_ want you to go with us." That settled it and though the girl from the East little dreamed it, there was a warm glow of joy in the heart of the mountain girl who had so wanted a friend of her own age. Jane shuddered as they rode down the old trail of the deserted mining camp. Shacks in all degrees of ruin stood about, machinery was rusting where it had been left. The beauty of the mountain had been marred by dark tunnels, outside of which stood heaps of orange and blue-gray refuse. Even in the more substantial log huts, made of aspen poles, windows were broken and doors hung on one hinge. "The desolation of the place will haunt my dreams forever," the girl from the East said.