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Joan's opportunity for watching Kells and his ood as it had been back in Cabin Gulch But

it developed that where Kells had been open and frank he now becaly and in couples,

visited hiht, and they had

conferences in low, earnest tones She could peer out of her little

and see dark, silent forms come up from the ravine at the

back of the cabin, and leave the same way None of them went round

to the front door, where Bate Wood suard Joan was

able to hear only scraps of these earnest talks; and froathered that for so himself into notice Alder Creek must be made to know that a

man of importance had arrived It see which Kells ought to do Whatthe

bandit had! Famous years before in California--with a price set upon

his life in Nevada--and now the noted, if unknown, leader of border

robbers in Idaho, he sought to make himself prominent, respected,

and powerful Joan found that in spite of her horror at the sinister

and deadly nature of the bandit's enterprise she could not avoid an

absorbing interest in his fortunes