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During all these waiting days Venters, with the exception of the afternoon when he had built the gate in the gorge, had scarcely gone out of sight of ca His desire to explore Surprise Valley was keen, and on the irl he took his rifle and, calling Ring, irl lay back in a rude chair of boughs he had put together for her She had been watching hi Venters thought she gave a nervous start

"I' to look over the valley," he said

"Will you be gone long?"

"No," he replied, and started off The incident set hi of his former impression that, after her recovery from fever, she did not see alone, due, he concluded, most likely to her weakened condition Heterrace, rabbits scampered before him, and the beautiful valley quail, as purple in color as the sage on the uplands, ran fleetly along the ground into the forest It was pleasant under the trees, in the gold-flecked shade, with the whistle of quail and twittering of birds everywhere Soon he had passed the limit of his foran to show open glades and brooks running down froed froh grass told hi of ani's manifest desire to have a chase they were evidently some kind wilder than rabbits Venters approached theand cottonwood belt that he had observed froht of slope He penetrated it to find a considerable streaed mounds of brush and sticks, and all about hinawed circles at the base of the cottonwoods

"Beaver!" he exclaimed "By all that's lucky! The et here?"

Beaver had not found a way into the valley by the trail of the cliff-dwellers, of that he was certain; and he began to have more than curiosity as to the outlet or inlet of the stream When he passed some dead water, which he noted was held by a beaver dam, there was a current in the strea its course, he soon entered the oak forest again, and passed through to find himself before led thickets of wild plue extremely laborsome He found innus in the thick undergrowth told hith his further advance appeared futile, for the reason that the stream disappeared in a split at the base of immense rocks over which he could not cliht work their way up the narrow chasm where the water rushed, it would be impossible for men to enter the valley there