sh. Hold him in."

Bo was not living up to the reputation with which Helen had credited
her.

"Now, miss, you get up," said Roy to Helen. And in another instant she
found herself astride a black, spirited horse. Numb with cold as she
was, she yet felt the coursing thrills along her veins.

Roy was at the stirrups with swift hands.

"You're taller 'n I guessed," he said. "Stay up, but lift your foot....
Shore now, I'm glad you have them thick, soft boots. Mebbe we'll ride
all over the White Mountains."

"Bo, do you hear that?" called Helen.

But Bo did not answer. She was leaning rather unnaturally in her saddle.
Helen became anxious. Just then Dale strode back to them.

"All cinched up, Roy?"

"Jest ready," replied Roy.

Then Dale stood beside Helen. How tall he was! His wide shoulders seemed
on a level with the pommel of her saddle. He put an affectionate hand on
the horse.

"His name's Ranger an' he's the fastest an' finest horse in this
country."

"I reckon he shore is--along with my bay," corroborated Roy.

"Roy, if you rode Ranger he'd beat your pet," said Dale. "We can start
now. Roy, you drive the pack-horses."

He took another look at Helen's saddle and then moved to do likewise
with Bo's.

"Are you--all right?" he asked, quickly.

Bo reeled in her seat.

"I'm n-near froze," she replied, in a faint voice. Her face shone white
in the starlight. Helen recognized that Bo was more than cold.

"Oh, Bo!" she called, in distress.

"Nell, don't you worry, now."

"Let me carry you," suggested Dale.

"No. I'll s-s-stick on this horse or d-die," fiercely retorted Bo.

The two men looked up at her white face and then at each other. Then Roy
walked away toward the dark bunch of horses off the road and Dale swung
astride the one horse left.

"Keep close to me," he said.

Bo fell in line and Helen brought up the rear.

Helen imagined she was near the end of a dream. Presently she would
awaken with a start and see the pale walls of her little room at
home, and hear the cherry branches brushing her window, and the old
clarion-voiced cock proclaim the hour of dawn.

CHAPTER VI

The horses trotted. And the exercise soon warmed Helen, until she was
fairly comfortable except in her fingers. In mind, however, she grew
more miserable as she more fully realized her situation. The night now
became so dark that, although the head of her horse was alongside the
flank of Bo's, she could scarcely see