sinewy and strong and fit
for any adventure.

CHAPTER VI

THE HUNCHBACK

The shadows were already falling on that side of the range as the boys
rode slowly into a narrow pass. The shade was a decided relief from the
glare of the California sun that they had encountered all day.

"Gosh, but I should like to have a cool breath from the Rockies,"
declared Juarez with emphasis, "This sort of a climate makes me tired.
Nothing but the sun staring at you all the time. It goes down clear and
comes up with the same kind of a grin on its face."

"It will be cooler when we get on the other side," said Jim,
encouragingly, "and it won't be long now."

"I hope we will strike water on the other side," remarked Jo. "I'm tired
of looking at that bald-headed stream down there," indicating the dry
blistered bed of a former water-course.

Nothing more was said until of a sudden they rode to the top of the
Pass, and saw a new landscape spread out before them.

It was a broad and beautiful view, with the sun striking the wide
Pacific, with a blazing glare of silver and below the wooded slope of
the mountains, stretched an apparently level plain, where roamed
countless cattle, and innumerable sheep. It had all the breadth
characteristic of the Californian landscape.

"That's a pretty good looking view," remarked Jim admiringly. He would
have been still more interested if he could have seen a trim-looking
black vessel in a small cove directly west but a good many miles
distant.

"I wonder if it isn't going to rain," said Tom. "See those clouds
rolling in over the ocean."

"Rain!" ejaculated Jim with superior wisdom, a wisdom that appertains
particularly to older brothers, "I guess not. Those are fog clouds.
That's a sure sign in this country that it won't rain."

"Well, I'm glad to see them, anyway," said Juarez. "It looks sort of
stormy even if it isn't."

It was restful, there was no question about that, the change from the
constant glare of a white sun in a blue sky, to the soft damp grayness
of the fog. It was already rolling over the level plain towards the
mountains and, in a short time, a high fog was spread over the whole
sky.

The boys had ridden down the western side of the range for a distance of
a half mile, when Jim suddenly waved his hand backward in a sign of
caution for the column to halt. He leaned forward, looking intently in a
northwesterly direction to a point on the opposite side of the mountain