hem. At last they swung down into the
beautiful valley of the Bonito, and thence in the night far to the
southward, until at length they reached the defiles of the Sacramentos.
They pulled up after more than a day and a night of travel, weary but
not hopelessly the worse for wear, at the end of the steep trail up the
mountains to the Sky Top hotel.

Curly, a trifle gaunt, gave his first attention to his horse, which he
unsaddled with a slap of approval, and turned loose to feed as best it
might on the coarse herbage of the upper heights. His next thought was
for himself, and he realized that he was hungry. Immediately there
dawned upon his mind another great conviction. He was scared!

He looked about at the long galleries of the ornate modern log house,
wherein civilization sought to ape the wilderness; but it was not the
arrogant pretentiousness of the building itself which caused him to
shift his glance and stand dubiously upon one foot. It was the thought
of what the edifice might contain. There, as he began too late to
reflect, was the queen! He, the trusted henchman, was bearing to her a
missive regarding whose nature he now experienced sudden misgivings.
Suppose Willie, the sheepherder, had not, after all, been able to meet
the requirements of a situation so delicate and so important! Curly
had known the plains and the mountains all his life. He had ridden in
the press of the buffalo herd in the Panhandle, had headed cattle
stampedes in the breaks of the Pecos, had met the long-toed cinnamon
bear all over these mountains that lay about him--had even heard the
whisper of hostile lead as part of his own day's work,--but never
before had his heart failed him.

Nevertheless, his face puckered into a frown of determination, he
stumbled, a trifle pigeon-toed in his high-heeled boots, across the
floor of one gallery after another, and knocked at one door after
another, until finally, by aid of lingering Mexican servants, he found
himself in the presence of the beautiful queen whom he had sought.

He ratified her title when she came toward him where he stood, twirling
his hat in his hands; so tall was she, so grave and dignified, yet so
very sweet and simple. Curly was a man, and he felt the spell of
smooth brown hair and wide brows, and straight, sincere eyes; not to
speak of a queen's figure clad in such raiment as had not often been
given Curly to look upon. He gazed in a frank admiration which
lessened