timber,
which fact seemed strange to Helen. The air lost something of its cold,
cutting edge as the sun rose higher, and it gained sweeter tang of
forest-land. The first faint suggestion of that fragrance was utterly
new to Helen, yet it brought a vague sensation of familiarity and
with it an emotion as strange. It was as if she had smelled that keen,
pungent tang long ago, and her physical sense caught it before her
memory.

The yellow plain had only appeared to be level. Roy led down into a
shallow ravine, where a tiny stream meandered, and he followed this
around to the left, coming at length to a point where cedars and
dwarf pines formed a little grove. Here, as the others rode up, he sat
cross-legged in his saddle, and waited.

"We'll hang up awhile," he said. "Reckon you're tired?"

"I'm hungry, but not tired yet," replied Bo.

Helen dismounted, to find that walking was something she had apparently
lost the power to do. Bo laughed at her, but she, too, was awkward when
once more upon the ground.

Then Roy got down. Helen was surprised to find him lame. He caught her
quick glance.

"A hoss threw me once an' rolled on me. Only broke my collar-bone, five
ribs, one arm, an' my bow-legs in two places!"

Notwithstanding this evidence that he was a cripple, as he stood there
tall and lithe in his homespun, ragged garments, he looked singularly
powerful and capable.

"Reckon walkin' around would be good for you girls," advised Dale. "If
you ain't stiff yet, you'll be soon. An' walkin' will help. Don't go
far. I'll call when breakfast's ready."

A little while later the girls were whistled in from their walk and
found camp-fire and meal awaiting them. Roy was sitting cross-legged,
like an Indian, in front of a tarpaulin, upon which was spread a homely
but substantial fare. Helen's quick eye detected a cleanliness and
thoroughness she had scarcely expected to find in the camp cooking of
men of the wilds. Moreover, the fare was good. She ate heartily, and
as for Bo's appetite, she was inclined to be as much ashamed of that as
amused at it. The young men were all eyes, assiduous in their service
to the girls, but speaking seldom. It was not lost upon Helen how
Dale's gray gaze went often down across the open country. She divined
apprehension from it rather than saw much expression in it.

"I--declare," burst out Bo, when she could not eat any more, "this
isn't believable. I'm dreaming.... Nell, the black horse