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quality. Large, too. Probably worth several hundred dollars. He put it back. He had not come to steal gold.
    Disappointed, for he had searched the rest of the shanty and not found anything significant, he was about to turn away when a piece of paper caught his eye. He dared think it might be the map but saw it was only a telegram.
    Curious as to why Opal would bother to hide it, he began to read, and, once more, hope surged within him like a mountain stream in a flash flood.
    It was from Wade Parrish’s niece. She was on her way to Arizona and would arrive in only a few weeks.
    And she was bringing her half of the map with her.

Chapter Three
    Kitty ached from head to toe and had never felt so tired in her life. Sleeping on a stagecoach, she had quickly discovered, was next to impossible.
    In the past three weeks, the only time she’d had any rest was stretched out on the floor of a home station. Normally, the stagecoach did not stop overnight, but there had been times when bad weather forced them to do so. Passengers, however, were not given the luxury of the bunk beds reserved for stage drivers, conductors, and express messengers changing runs.
    Kitty kept to herself. When she did talk to anyone, she was careful to make her voice deep, lest she sound like a girl. The name she was using was Kit, a masculine abbreviation of her own.
    As it turned out, everyone mostly ignored her, not only because of her surly manner but also her unkempt appearance. Her hair was long, deliberately unruly, and fell across her face. She wore frayed overalls and a tattered shirt, with a gun and holster strapped about her waist. Big, masculine boots were laced on her feet, and she kept her felt hat pulled down over her eyes.
    Kitty did not really mind being somewhat ostracized. She was still grieving over her mother and did not want to be bothered. Other than that, she was concerned only with reaching Tombstone, Arizona, without incident. There she would find Opal Grimes, who would, hopefully, provide her with a place to stay till she could find work…or Daddy Wade’s gold mine. Her intent was to offer Miss Grimes half if she would help her find it. As for any kin of Dan McCloud that might have a claim, Kitty would share with them, as well. After all, they needed her half of the map—as she needed theirs.
    “Get off of me, damn it.”
    Kitty jumped as the passenger seated across from her in the coach, Seth Barlow, yelled at another passenger, Sarah Humphries. She had dozed off and slumped against his shoulder. In the past few days, Seth had become increasingly irritable, constantly griping and grumbling and getting angry at the slightest irritation.
    Sarah, face red and embarrassed, straightened herself and squeezed as far away from him as she could. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
    Seth growled, “Just keep away from me. I know what you’re after—a husband, and I wouldn’t have a bony old bag like you. So leave me alone.”
    “But I wasn’t…” She fell silent, blinking back humiliated tears.
    The man sitting next to her, Lloyd Pendergrass, said, “Pay no attention to him. Mr. Barlow has a touch of stage craziness , I’m afraid.”
    Seth angrily demanded, “Who are you calling crazy, mister? I got a right to ride this stage without some husband-hunting old maid throwing herself at me.”
    Sarah gasped. “Oh, Mr. Barlow, I’m not doing that, believe me. And I’m not an old maid. I’m a widow. I told you that. I’m going to El Paso to teach on the reservation and make a new life for myself. I still grieve for my late husband, and—”
    “And don’t waste your breath,” Violet Proby, the woman next to Kitty, said with a sneer. “He’s just hoping you are after him. Hell, he’s been trying to feel of me ever since we left Waco.”
    “I most certainly have not.”
    “Oh, yes, you have.”
    “Oh, no, I haven’t. You’re nothing but a painted-up hussy, and—”
    Lloyd Pendergrass yelled, “Stop it. Both of you.