ht--among
strange young men!

"Bo, which bag is it?" asked Dale, as if she were his sister. And when
she indicated the one, he picked it up. "Come off the road."

Bo followed him, and Helen found herself mechanically at their heels.
Dale led them a few paces off the road behind some low bushes.

"Hurry an' change here," he said. "We'll make a pack of your outfit an'
leave room for this bag."

Then he stalked away and in a few strides disappeared.

Bo sat down to begin unlacing her shoes. Helen could just see her pale,
pretty face and big, gleaming eyes by the light of the stars. It struck
her then that Bo was going to make eminently more of a success of
Western life than she was.

"Nell, those fellows are n-nice," said Bo, reflectively. "Aren't you
c-cold? Say, he said hurry!"

It was beyond Helen's comprehension how she ever began to disrobe out
there in that open, windy desert, but after she had gotten launched on
the task she found that it required more fortitude than courage. The
cold wind pierced right through her. Almost she could have laughed at
the way Bo made things fly.

"G-g-g-gee!" chattered Bo. "I n-never w-was so c-c-cold in all my life.
Nell Rayner, m-may the g-good Lord forgive y-you!"

Helen was too intent on her own troubles to take breath to talk. She was
a strong, healthy girl, swift and efficient with her hands, yet this,
the hardest physical ordeal she had ever experienced, almost overcame
her. Bo outdistanced her by moments, helped her with buttons, and laced
one whole boot for her. Then, with hands that stung, Helen packed the
traveling-suits in the bag.

"There! But what an awful mess!" exclaimed Helen. "Oh, Bo, our pretty
traveling-dresses!"

"We'll press them t-to-morrow--on a l-log," replied Bo, and she giggled.

They started for the road. Bo, strange to note, did not carry her share
of the burden, and she seemed unsteady on her feet.

The men were waiting beside a group of horses, one of which carried a
pack.

"Nothin' slow about you," said Dale, relieving Helen of the grip. "Roy,
put them up while I sling on this bag."

Roy led out two of the horses.

"Get up," he said, indicating Bo. "The stirrups are short on this
saddle."

Bo was an adept at mounting, but she made such awkward and slow work of
it in this instance that Helen could not believe her eyes.

"Haw 're the stirrups?" asked Roy. "Stand in them. Guess they're about
right.... Careful now! Thet hoss is skitti