esa is where Herrick's place is," said
Scott, as they drew rein and waited for Hard to come along. Polly gazed in
silence. It was the first view she had had of the wilder part of the
country and it thrilled her.

Hard came up with them. "Don't you think we'd better make a little speed
when we hit the level?" he said.

"We've only crossed one stream since we started," observed Polly.

"We cross another just before we get to Herrick's," said Hard, "but it
never has much water in it except in the rainy season."

"I've seen plenty in it then," said Scott, laughing. "I was caught on the
wrong side once when they'd had a cloudburst in the mountains. Oh boy, you
should have seen her come down! Swept away a wagon with two horses and the
Mexican who was driving it in just two minutes."

"Oh, how could it--in two minutes?"

"Well, it could and did. Before that there wasn't a foot of water in the
river bed. When the water came thundering down there was eight or ten.
Picked up trees, bushes, chicken coops, greasers--anything in its way, and
whirled 'em down the canyon."

It was the middle of the afternoon when they crossed the second range,
which they did by means of a trail which went through a gap, thus cutting
off the worst of the ascent. Once through the gap, they came out upon a
huge mesa from which they looked down upon the valley in which Casa Grande
was located. On the mesa, the tired horses broke into the little
easy-going jog which mountain ponies love.

Scott watched Polly's sparkling eyes with real gratification. He had
chosen to go by trail rather than by road very largely that she might have
this experience. He wanted her to see more of the country before she went
back to the city and its ways.

"She's a natural out-of-doors woman, and she's never had the chance to
find it out," he mused. "Better than a golf course?" he asked, as they
trotted across the broad mesa.

"Oh!" she cried, reproachfully. "It's like the happy hunting grounds! I
never understood before why the Indians called their Heaven that. It was
because they were thinking of space and openness and freedom. I think it
beats our kind of Heaven all hollow," finished the cheerful product of
1920.

Finally they came out on the other side of the little river bed, which lay
below the mesa and was entered by means of a rocky staircase, crossed a
round-topped hill, and there, in a flat little valley surrounded by hills,
the rear view of the Casa Grand