“May!” he cried, and he kissed her.
“Ben!” she said, and nestled in his arms.
“You haven’t been here for two whole days,” she added reprovingly.
“Right you are, sweetheart,” he acknowledged; “but it wasn’t my fault. Work is rushing at the ranch just now, and I couldn’t get away. No one knows I’m here now. I was sent in this direction to hunt for stray cattle.”
“I’ve got something to show you,” she cried. “And it’s the strangest thing!”
He followed her into the house, permitting his horse to stand near the door, where at once it set to work nibbling the grass that grew there.
When she showed him the gold, and the letter, and the envelope, he was ready to acknowledge that the manner in which the gold had come to her was the strangest thing he had ever heard of.
“It’s the pure stuff, too!” he cried, as he hefted it. “Pure gold. I wonder what those lines and marks on it mean?”
“I’m sure I don’t know.”
“You say the fellow was a soldier from the fort?” he asked.