t doubtfully.

"Oh, one is liable to mooch along the desert any time."

"Are they good workmen?" Roger's voice was absentminded as he scowled at
the well.

"Some of them are wonders, but they are no good, unless you get a bunch
of them under a chief. Then they're O. K."

Roger groaned. Ernest laughed. "Remember, Rog," he said, "what Austin
told us about the unexpected problems in the building of a desert
plant."

"You'll get plenty of those," agreed Dick. "Well, I'll be going back. If
I see an Indian, I'll send him to you. In the meantime, remember that
I'm your first purchaser of water, though my well's a regular gusher and
will take care of more than the twenty-five acres I can get in this
winter."

"Don't be so sure," Roger chuckled. "You may come and apologize to our
well and ask for a drink yet."

Dick joined in the laugh at this suggestion and started homeward and the
two Sun Planters went to bed.

As if the desert were determined to show them early in the game a fair
sample of its lesser annoyances, when Ernest entered the cook tent the
next morning he found it fairly wrecked. All the canned goods had been
rolled off the shelves and the labels had disappeared. Flour, sugar,
crackers were knocked about in the sand. Ernest roared for Roger, who
came on a run.

"Looks as if a burro had been here from the tracks," exclaimed Roger.

"Two or three burros, I should judge," said Ernest. "Why, Rog, the
beggars have eaten all the can labels! We'll never know whether we're
opening tomatoes or beans. That flour's useless, and so's the sugar.
Look at the coffee! I told you not to leave it in a sack. Oh, hang it
all! What a country!"

"Let's see where the little devils went." Roger started out of the tent.
The small hoof tracks were not difficult to find. Beyond the confines of
the camp, the sand lay like untracked snow. When they picked up the
trail, it led directly to the Coyote Range.

Ernest suddenly spoke cheerfully. "We'll have to go up and ask Charley
for some breakfast. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good!"

"We'll have to shave if we're going up there and that takes time,"
protested Roger.

"What are you going to eat? No sugar, no flour, no coffee!"

"Let's be quick about it, then," said Roger, hurrying into the living
tent.

The Prebles laughed, but they were very sympathetic and blamed
themselves for not warning the boys that stray burros and coyotes were a
menace to any stores left unp