"Hit--wu-wu-wus--V-V-Vil Hol-Holland!" she sniffled readily--all too readily to be convincing, thought Patty, as she released her grip on the girl's shoulder. "Oh, it was Vil Holland, was it? And what does he want with it?" "He--he--s-says h-how h-him an' m-me'd g-git r-r-rich!" "Who told you to say it was Vil Holland?" "Hit wus Vil Holland--an' that's whut I gotta say," she repeated, between sobs. "An' now yo' mad--an'--an' Mr. Bethune he'll--he'll kill me." "Mr. Bethune? What has Mr. Bethune got to do with it?" The girl leaped to her feet and faced Patty in a rage: "An' he'll kill yo', too--an' I'll be glad! An' he says he's gonna By God git that pitcher ef he's gotta kill yo', an' Vil Holland, an' everyone in these damn hills--an' I'm glad of hit! I don't like yo' no more--an' pitcher shows _hain't_ as good as circusts--an' I don't like towns--an' I hain't a-gonna wear no shoes an' stockin's--an' I'm a-gonna tell ma yo' shuck me--an' she'll larrup yo' good--an' pa'll make yo' git out o' ar sheep camp--an' I'm glad of hit!" She rushed from the cabin, and mounting her pony, headed him down the creek, turning in the saddle every few steps to make hateful mouths at the girl who stood watching from the doorway. CHAPTER XIV THE SAMUELSONS Patty retired that night with her thoughts in a whirl. So, it was Monk Bethune who, all along, had been plotting to steal the secret of her father's strike? Monk Bethune, with his suave, oily manner, his professed regard for her father, and his burning words of love! Fool that she couldn't have penetrated his thin mask of deceit! It all seemed so ridiculously plain, now. She remembered the flash of distrust that her first meeting with him engendered. And, step, by step, she followed the course of his insidious campaign to instill himself into her good graces. She thought of the blunt warning of Vil Holland when he told her that her father always played a lone hand, and his almost scornful question as to whether her father had told her of his partnership with Bethune. And she remembered her defiance of Holland, and her defense of Bethune. And, with a shudder, she recollected the moments when, in the hopelessness of her repeated failures, she had trembled upon the point of surrendering to his persuasive eloquence.