t radiator surface and kept
the "kittle" at a simmer.

He judged grades, rushed them, conquered them, sometimes at a crawl,
slid and skipped and jumped down slopes, negotiated curves on two wheels
and brought them triumphantly through White Cliff Canyon, over the
malpais belt, up and across a mesa and so to the far brink of it an hour
before dawn without puncture, without a broken leaf in the springs, with
shock absorbers still on duty and the cylinders performing full service.

Cold and raw as it was, the engine was hot and they halted to cool it.
They could see a light or two glimmering at the foot of the mesa,
something that had not shown in the deserted mining camp for many years.
Miranda Bailey shivered as she got stiffly from the car.

"I've got some powdered coffee an' some solid alcohol," she announced.
"We can all have somethin' hot to drink anyway. It won't take but a
minute. Here's some cold biscuits we can warm up on that radiator. It's
nigh as good as a stove."

The trio watched interestedly the capable way in which she got together
the meal, adding sugar and evaporated milk to her coffee. Sam picked up
the tin of solid alcohol after it had cooled off.

"It's too bad they can't fix up the real stuff that way," he said. "It
'ud sure make a hit. Canned Tom-and-Jerry, all ready for heatin'."

"And you called Soda-Water Sam," said Miranda Bailey.

"That title was give me in derision," replied Sam. "Me, I don't
hesitate to say I like my licker. Likewise I can do 'thout it. They
claim that I used to leave nothin' but the sody-water inter a saloon
once I'd entered it. Which same is a calummy. Gittin' light in the east,
ain't it, folks?"

Coffee-comforted, they made the down-road as the sun rose above the rim
of the eastern range, so jagged it seemed trying to claw back the
mounting sun. Ever in view below them lay the intermountain valley in
which the camp had been located. Its floor was jumbled with hard-cored
hills. There was little greenery. A few cottonwoods, fewer willows along
the deep bed of a scanty stream. Under the sunrise the whole scene was
theatrical with vivid light and shade. The crumpled ground, the
deep-ridged hills, all seemed unreal, made up of papier-mache, crudely
modeled and painted, garish, unfinished. The effect was enhanced by the
appearance of the one main street of the camp and the few scattering
cabins on the hills, the ancient dumps in front of the lateral shafts
where the wea