"Anyway, I know how to make a map, now, and that is just exactly what
I needed to know in order to set my trap for the prowler who is
continually searching this cabin. It's all ready but the map, and I
may as well finish up the job to-day as any time." From the pocket of
her shirt she drew a photograph and examined it critically. "It looks
a good deal like the close-up of one of daddy's," she said
approvingly, "and it certainly looks as if it might have been carried
for a year." Returning the picture to her pocket, she folded the
preacher's map with her father's and replaced them in the envelope,
then making her way to the coulee, extracted from the tin can two or
three of her father's ore samples. These, together with a light
miner's pick, she placed in an empty flour sack which she secured to
her saddle and struck out northwestward into the hills.
At the top of the first divide she stopped, carefully studied the back
trail, and producing paper and pencil made a rough sketch which she
marked 1 NW. She rode on, mapping her trail and adding letters and
figures to denote distance and direction.
Her continued scrutiny of the back trail satisfied her that she was
not followed. Two hours brought her to her journey's end, a rock wall
some seven miles from her cabin. Producing the photograph, she
verified the exact location, and with her pick, proceeded to stir up
the ground and loose rocks at the base of the ledge. For an hour she
worked steadily, then carefully replaced the dirt and small fragments,
taking care to leave the samples from her sack where they would appear
to have been tossed with the other fragments. Indicating the spot by a
dot on the photograph she rode back to her cabin and spent the entire
afternoon covering sheets of paper with trail maps, and letters, and
figures, in an endeavor to produce a sketch that would pass as a
prospector's hastily prepared field map. At last she produced several
that compared favorably with her father's and taking a blank leaf from
an old notebook she found in the pack sack, drew a very creditable
rough sketch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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