But still they had not found it, after a week of search.
Someone else was anxious to accompany the old man on his trips. It was
Kie Wicks.
And while Professor Gillette enjoyed the daily visits of the girls and the occasional calls from Judge Breckenridge or Dad Patten, he found the storekeeper very trying. Kie arrived at the tent early and stayed late.
"That man acts as if he were spying on me. I wonder what he's afraid of. There is nothing here to steal that I can see."
This continued for a week and then ended abruptly. After that Kie
Wicks came only once in a long time. This had been Maude's doing.
"You ain't getting no where at all, Kie. You keep that old book-worm from hunting or doing whatever he wants to do. Now if I were you, I'd let old Booky do his searching, then cook up a plan to do him out of whatever he finds."
"Maude, you're a wonder! Why didn't I think of that myself? I couldn't have found a better wife anywhere than you."
So Kie did not appear the next morning.
But it was not until noon that the professor knew that he had been deserted. His patience was at an end so he had risen before dawn and left the tent, striking off over the hills where Mrs. Patten had indicated. He returned at noon with arrowheads and a stone axe but there was no sign of ruins.
But the old man was not discouraged. These signs of Indians merely gave him the necessary urge to investigate.