Then everything got dark, and I let go.”

“Where were you going?” asked the young man.

“Going? I wasn’t going anywhere,” said the girl. “The horse was doing that. He was running away, I suppose. He ran miles and miles with me, and I couldn’t stop him. I lost the reins, you see, and he had ideas about what he wanted to do. I was almost frightened to death, and there wasn’t a soul in sight all day. I never saw such an empty place in my life. This can’t still be Arizona—we came so far.”

“When did you start?” the man asked seriously.

“Why, this morning—that is—why, it must have been yesterday. I’m sure I don’t know when. We left the car on horseback Wednesday morning about eleven o’clock to visit a mine Papa had heard about. It seems about a year since we started.”

“How many were in your party?”

“Just Papa and my brother, and Mr. Hamar, a friend of my father’s,” answered the girl, her cheeks reddening at the name.

“But wasn’t there a guide, a native, with you?” The young man’s tone was anxious. He envisioned other lost people needing to be looked after.

“Oh yes, the man my father wrote to, who brought the horses, and two or three men with him, some of them Indians, I think. His name was Bunce, Mr. Bunce. He was an odd man with a lot of wild-looking hair.”

“Shag Bunce,” said the missionary thoughtfully. “But if Shag was along I can’t understand how you got separated from your party. He rides the fastest horse in this region. No horse in his outfit, no matter how fast, could get far ahead of Shag Bunce. He’d have caught you within a few minutes. What happened? Was there an accident?”

He looked at her keenly, feeling sure some mystery lay behind her wanderings that he should unravel for the sake of the girl and her friends. Hazel’s cheeks grew pink.

“Why, nothing really happened,” she said evasively. “Mr. Bunce was ahead with my father. In fact he was out of sight when my horse started to run. I was riding with Mr. Hamar, and as we didn’t care anything about the mine we didn’t hurry. Before we realized it, the others were far ahead over a hill or something. I forget what was ahead; only they couldn’t be seen.

“Then we—I—that is—well, I must have touched my horse pretty hard with my whip, and he wheeled around and started to run. I might have touched Mr.