astern tastes-the young folks were g

ked crazy-quilt covered the bed-for though the days are hot on the desert, the nights are quite sharp. The floor, like the walls, was bare, and when the girls peered at themselves in the tiny mirror they gav

st," said Peggy decidedly, and beginning to unpack her silver-fitt

r chum; "but it's hard to get used to it all at once. Stepping right

was, in fact, the roof of the one below. On it flourished quite a little grove of scraggly plants of variou

s, large and luminous and beaming with a softer, stronger light than in the North. A brooding silence hung over the town-the silence of the desert. The hush was broken only by the

ended the feeling of awe that the "Great Alkali" c

length, "I'm-I'm the

ver run through the girl a

girlie? Frigh

the sense of all that loneliness out beyond there that upsets me. It feels almos

"you're tired and overwrought. Come, let us get to bed,

over the light-shrouded desert once more. Arising she tiptoed to the window, and drawing the shade without making more than the mer

ng window. They brought chairs with them and sat there smok

etly," said one of them, as they sat down. "Yo

ng to 'em talking arter supper," struck in another

ing to travel fast. He's got the best horses and mule

with an unpleasant laugh; "but he won't go far with ther stock.

re cr

sensible in

l we know some of them may be awake and

s. But Peggy, as she crept back to bed with her heart throbbing a little bit fast, felt va

with the immense spurs and that picturesque red sash, who was eyeing us so at supper. Jess and I thought

ust in her nostrils and her feet crunching its crusty surface. She was lost, and would have cried out had she been able to open her lips. Then she was dying of thirst. Her lips were parched and cracked and the sun beat pitilessly d

d be absurd. After all, the men might merely have been chatting about the party, whose expedition was surely an adventurous and interesting one. It might

arted. The girls uttered delighted exclamations as their little animals were led up to the hotel steps by a long-legged Mexican who was to accompany the pa

s mount was a rather raw-boned gray of sedate appearance. In her youth Miss Prescott had done a good deal of horseback riding, and the manner in which she sat her mount showed that she had not forgotten her horsemanship. Mr. Bell and his brother bestrode rather

animals carried the wooden cases in which the three monoplanes were packed, and the boxes containing mining instruments and too

," remarked Jimsy, "and if he ever runs away

tuff was packed in such a manner that even

't experiment,

ney. The girls looked very natty in corduroy skirts, neat riding boots, with plain linen waists and jaunty sombreros. The boys, like Mr. Bell and his brother, were in khaki, and each carried a fine rifle, the

Bell, with a gallant bow, which brought t

ou, when you know I am trying to grow o

a watchful eye over the entire o

s took up, came ringing

!" they

from his porch, and several i

ng limbs of a seventeen-year locust, he dashed to the head of the procession. T

ckly round she encountered the penetrating glance of the tall, dark young man who had formed one of the group on the porch the previous evening. He turned his

hem, and in front there lay, glittering under the blinding sun, the far-reaching expanse of the desert. Off to the southwest hovered what seem

hem. Rising in his stirrups Mr. Bell pointed into the distance. "Yonder

th the pot of gold," laughed Jess, indicat

a wistful note underlying her light tone. The spell of