just had one too many, that's all."

"Oh, Mollie!" Betty drew in a labored breath that caught on a sob.
"Please don't give up--please! I've counted on you----" she paused,
jerked her head up, her attention turned on the spot where her hand
still automatically dug at the earth.

She sniffed, experimentally, sniffed again, stilling the wild throb of
hope that was almost a pain at her heart.

"What is it, Betty, what is it?" cried Mollie, sensing something
strange. Amy and Grace fought off the dizziness that was stealing over
them and leaned forward.

But Betty had jumped to her feet, had dropped the stone and was tearing
with her bare hands at that thin place--that thin place---- It gave
under her mad onslaught, and suddenly her hand slipped through into the
air--the air---- A breath of it swept into her tortured lungs, and she
leaned there, laughing, crying, the tears of sheer weakness running down
her dirt-stained face.

"Girls!" she babbled, "out there is the air--the good old air--enough of
it for all of us! We're saved, do you hear? We're saved!"

Exhausted as they were, the girls tore at the tiny hole that Betty had
made until there was an opening big enough for them to crawl through.

And oh! the indescribable ecstasy of it, the joy of it, just to lie
there, trembling with weakness, and drink in great drafts of that
life-giving air, thinking of nothing, caring for nothing but that they
were alive there in their great out-of-doors. One never comes really to
appreciate life until one has been close to death.

It was a long time before they ventured to go on. They had not realized
how near exhaustion they had been until the tension had relaxed. When at
last they did start for home, on foot, they were still trembling and
they dared not glance down the canyon at their right for fear of
becoming dizzy.

They had been long hours in the cave, and when they finally left the
trail and cut across the plain toward the ranch it was nearly dark. They
did not realize the startling sight they must present to any one who
might not know of their plight until they met Andy Rawlinson and some
other boys from the ranch starting out to search for them.

At sight of the mud-stained, blood-stained Outdoor Girls, Andy Rawlinson
fairly tumbled from his pony and came running toward them while the
other boys stood agape.

"What in the world----" began Andy, but Betty stopped him with a weary
gesture. As briefly as she could she