"I bet those fellows will try to get the silver--if they _did_ hide it away somewhere," Teddy said, as he and Oriole wiped the dishes. "They are ready to beat it away from the Three-bar." "Oh, dear me, can't we stop them somehow?" Oriole said. "How can we?" "Let's tell Mr. Langdon." "And he'd thank us for that, wouldn't he?" scoffed Teddy. "We don't really _know_ that Hank Ridley and those others are the thieves." "Well----" "It would be just as bad for him to pounce on them without any evidence as it was for him to jump me that time," complained Teddy. "No, it won't do." "But we just _can't_ let them get away with Mr. Langdon's silver." "We've got to be sure first that they stole it," grumbled Teddy. "That's all there is to that." This did not satisfy Oriole at all. She seemed even more eager to discover the real thieves than Teddy himself. But the boy had less hope of making the discovery in question than Oriole had, that was all. He was by no means of so sanguine a temperament. They had ridden a long way and were really tired on this evening, and both Oriole and Teddy were willing to retire early. But before Oriole retreated to the shack and her boy friend rolled up in his blanket, feet to the fire (for the air was chill in these upland places), they enjoyed a novel sight which increased Oriole's doubt at least of Sadie Brown's sincerity when she so cruelly criticized George Belden. The twins being safely disposed of, their nurse had reappeared from the shack. Oriole and Teddy were out of sight at the moment, and feeling that she was unobserved "Brownie," as the woman liked to be called by her friends, deliberately approached the foreman smoking on his lonely bowlder by the stream. She stood for some moments behind the man, unobserved. Then she deliberately cleared her throat to call his attention to her presence! "Shucks!" muttered Teddy in Oriole's ear, "I thought she had it in for poor George. And look at her now." Belden had turned sharply, almost letting his pipe fall in his surprise. He got up awkwardly, but Miss Brown put out a hand and gestured for him to be seated again. "Lovely evening, George," she observed in a voice so honeyed that there was some doubt if George recognized it as belonging to the nurse. "Oh--ah--yes, 'tis so," the foreman stammeringly agreed. "Do sit down, George," said Nurse Brown, edging nearer. "But you might scrouge over a little. That rock's big enough for two to sit on, ain't it?" "Gee!" gasped Teddy, "did you get that? And there isn't any scarcity of bowlders along that river bank. What do you know about that, Oriole?" "It's awfully funny, _I_ think," giggled the girl. "Either she hasn't meant this talk she's been giving him right along or for some reason she's had a sudden change of heart," grimly said the boy. "Maybe it's the moon," whispered Oriole shyly. "Did you ever see such a beautiful moon, Teddy?"