第227页 / 共439页

Teddy said "Yes" after the manner of a horse, as plain as words

could say it.

From their feet the trail dropped again to another gorge, beyond

which the ranger could make out a stretch of valley through which

ran the gleam of a silvery thread.

"We're going down now into Mantrap Gulch. The patch of green you

see beyond is Lost Valley," she told him.

"Lost Valley," he repeated, in amazement. "Are we going to Lost

Valley?"

"You've named our destination."

"But--you don't live in Lost Valley."

"Don't I?"

"Do you?"

"Yes," she answered, amused at his consternation, if it were

that.

"I wish I had known," he said, as if to himself.

"You know now. Isn't that soon enough? Are you afraid of the

place, because people make a mystery of it?" she demanded

impatiently.

"No. It isn't that." He looked across at the valley again, and

asked abruptly: "Is this the only way in?"

"No. There is another, but this is the quickest."

"Is the other as difficult as this?"