I heerd it was somethin' worth while to
see him sling a sledge.... Wal, I never seen him do it, but mebbe I
will yet.
"A few days back I met him gettin' off a train at Roarin' City.
Lord! I hardly knowed him! He stood like an Injun, with the big
muscles bulgin', an' his face was clean an' dark, his eye like
fire.... He nearly shook the daylights out of me. 'Slingerland, I
want you!' he kept yellin' at me. An' I said, 'So it 'pears, but
what fer?' Then he told me he was goin' after the gold thet Horn had
buried along the old Laramie Trail. Wal, I took my outfit, an' we
rode back into the hills. You remember them. Wal, we found the gold,
easy enough, an' we packed it back to Roarin' City. Thar Neale sent
me off on a train to fetch the gold to you. An' hyar I I am an'
thar's the gold."
Allie stared at the pack, bewildered by Slingerland's story.
Suddenly she sat up and she felt the blood rush to her cheeks.
"Gold! Horn's gold! But it's not mine! Did Neale send it to me?"
"Every ounce," replied the trapper, soberly. "I reckon it's yours.
Thar was no one else left--an' you recollect what Horn said. Lass,
it's yours--an' I'm goin' to make you keep it."
"How much is there?" queried Allie, with thrills of curiosity. How
well she remembered Horn! He had told her he had no relatives.
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