t kill with the first operation he was dead
sure to cure with the next."

When the chuck wagons were all ready Bauer found to his pleasure that he
was assigned to the light platform spring wagon in which Esther and
Helen, together with Clifford and Mrs. Masters, were going. Mr. Masters,
Miss Gray, Walter and Miss Clifford were assigned to one of the chuck
wagons and Peshlekietsetti with two of the older pupils in the school
and one of the younger Indians had charge of a third wagon containing
the tents and the water.

The party was on the way shortly after sunrise and reached the place of
the ford in about an hour. The river was very low and as the wagons went
over on the rock ledge, only a few inches of water were trickling
through the wheels.

"You wouldn't believe, would you, Miss Douglas, that Mr. Bauer and I had
a good swim right about here a few weeks ago?"

"Oh, tell me about that," cried Helen, who with all the rest of the
visitors had of course heard of Bauer's rescue, and in her heart was
envious of Miss Gray for her physical prowess. But she had never been
able to prevail on her to give any but the most unsatisfactory account
of the rescue.

So Clifford launched into a glowing account of the affair, obliterating
himself entirely and making it seem that Miss Gray was the only person
present, so that Bauer had to give Helen the full account as near as he
could of Clifford's part in the rescue.

"It's a wonderful land! I wish such things would happen in Milton! And,
oh, look at those colours! Was anything ever like them!" Helen exclaimed
as the wagons came up out of the river bed and in full view of the
painted desert as it stretched out in its weird, fascinating beauty.
"Oh, I just can't contain it all!"

"You remind me," said Clifford who was driving, and now gave the horses
a free rein on a hard 'dobe stretch, "of a young lady who was writing
letters home from her first trip abroad for the use of the county paper.
She said, when she was in Venice, 'Last night I lay in a gondola in the
Grand Canal, drinking it all in, and life never seemed so full before.'"
Clifford winked at Bauer who was on the front seat with him, and Helen,
who was not yet used to Elijah Clifford's ways, at first turned red and
looked vexed, but afterwards laughed with the rest.

"Well, if your young lady was here she would have to say the same thing
about all this. I never had any thought that a desert was like this. I
supposed