Livingston saw her quite plainly; from that distance there was no mistaking her. Then he proceeded to do a very unwise thing. He put his horses to their full speed, reached his stables in a few moments, threw his saddle on his best horse and set out in the direction the girl had taken.
Hope made her way quickly up to the top of the divide, then skirmished from brush patch to brush patch, keeping well out of sight until she reached the brush-covered entrance of Peter's basin. There she had a plain view of the small cabin, the rude stable, and corral, without herself being observed by the occupants of the place, and there she settled herself to wait the appearance of the cow, whose queer actions had been reviewed to her.
It was difficult to believe that she was actually in the midst of cattle thieves, though the suspicion had more than once crossed her mind.
She held that class of men in the utmost loathing, and felt herself to be, now, in the actual discovery of the crime, a righteous instrument in the arm of justice.
The unmistakable figure of Long Bill loafed serenely in the doorway; old Peter hobbled about, in and out of the house, while back near the corral a man was carrying an armful of wood. This man the girl watched with particular interest. He took the sticks to one side of the corral, and getting down upon his knees proceeded to arrange them on the ground in methodical order, into the shape of a small pyramid. That done to his satisfaction, he lounged back to the cabin and took a seat beside Long Bill in the doorway.
Presently all three men went back to the corral, and looked over the rails at several small creatures which were running about the enclosure.
"Them ain't bad-lookin' fellers," Long Bill was saying.
Hope, from her position in the brush, tried to imagine what they were talking about, for the distance was too great to carry the sound of their voices.
"I reckon we might as well git 'em branded an' have it over with," suggested Shorty Smith, the third man of the party.
"I reckon we might as well," replied Long Bill. Old Peter shook his head doubtfully.