For just an instant she hesitated, then, blushing, rode boldly across the open space toward the little patch of white that showed through the scrub timber. Pulling up before the tent door the girl glanced about her. Everything was in its place. Her eyes rested approvingly upon the well-scoured cooking utensils that hung in an orderly row. Evidently the camp had not been used the night before. She drew off her glove and, leaning over, felt the blankets that were thrown over the ridgepole. They were still wet with the heavy dew, and the dampened ashes showed that no fire had been built that morning. "Oh, where is he?" whispered the girl, glancing wildly about, "Surely, he has had time to reach here--if he's--all right." After a few moments of silence she laughed nervously: "He's all right," she assured herself with forced cheerfulness. "Of course, he wouldn't return here right away. He probably had to help drive those horses back, or--or help bury that man, or something. I wonder what he thinks of me? Pierce will tell him his suspicions, and then--finding me mixed in with those horses--he'll think I've 'thrown in' with Bethune, as he would say. I must see him. I must!" Deciding to return later in the day, Patty headed her horse for the divide and soon found herself at the much trampled notch in the hills. For some moments she sat staring down at the ground. She glanced toward the cabin that showed so distinctly in the valley below. "He certainly watches from here," she mused. "And not just occasionally either." Suddenly, she straightened in her saddle, and her eyes glowed: "I wonder if--if he has been watching--Monk Bethune? Watching to see that no harm comes to--me? Oh, if I only knew--if I only knew the real meaning of this trampled grass!" Resolutely, she gathered up her reins. "I _will know_!" she muttered. "And I'll know before very long, too. That is, I _hope_ I will," she qualified, as the bay cayuse began to pick his way carefully down the steep descent to Monte's Creek. CHAPTER XVI PATTY FINDS A GLOVE