recognizable. From head to foot she was
dripping black ooze.

"Oh, Bo! Are you hurt?" cried Helen.

Evidently Bo's mouth was full of mud.

"Pp--su--tt! Ough! Whew!" she sputtered. "Hurt? No! Can't you see what I
lit in? Dale, the sun-of-a-gun didn't throw me. He fell, and I went over
his head."

"Right. You sure rode him. An' he tripped an' slung you a mile," replied
Dale. "It's lucky you lit in that bog."

"Lucky! With eyes and nose stopped up? Oooo! I'm full of mud. And my
nice--new riding-suit!"

Bo's tones indicated that she was ready to cry. Helen, realizing Bo
had not been hurt, began to laugh. Her sister was the funniest-looking
object that had ever come before her eyes.

"Nell Rayner--are you--laughing--at me?" demanded Bo, in most righteous
amaze and anger.

"Me laugh-ing? N-never, Bo," replied Helen. "Can't you see I'm
just--just--"

"See? You idiot! my eyes are full of mud!" flashed Bo. "But I hear you.
I'll--I'll get even."

Dale was laughing, too, but noiselessly, and Bo, being blind for the
moment, could not be aware of that. By this time they had reached camp.
Helen fell flat and laughed as she had never laughed before. When Helen
forgot herself so far as to roll on the ground it was indeed a laughing
matter. Dale's big frame shook as he possessed himself of a towel and,
wetting it at the spring, began to wipe the mud off Bo's face. But that
did not serve. Bo asked to be led to the water, where she knelt and,
with splashing, washed out her eyes, and then her face, and then the
bedraggled strands of hair.

"That mustang didn't break my neck, but he rooted my face in the mud.
I'll fix him," she muttered, as she got up. "Please let me have the
towel, now.... Well! Milt Dale, you're laughing!"

"Ex-cuse me, Bo. I--Haw! haw! haw!" Then Dale lurched off, holding his
sides.

Bo gazed after him and then back at Helen.

"I suppose if I'd been kicked and smashed and killed you'd laugh," she
said. And then she melted. "Oh, my pretty riding-suit! What a mess! I
must be a sight.... Nell, I rode that wild pony--the sun-of-a-gun! I
rode him! That's enough for me. YOU try it. Laugh all you want. It was
funny. But if you want to square yourself with me, help me clean my
clothes."

Late in the night Helen heard Dale sternly calling Pedro. She felt some
little alarm. However, nothing happened, and she soon went to sleep
again. At the morning meal Dale explained.

"Pedro an' Tom were uneasy last nig