I," said Hinpoha.

"Let's do it," said Katherine suddenly. "We have all the props. Here's
the mule, and the rocky shore--that low wedge around the base of the
cliff will do beautifully for the Paso del Mar. And 'gusty and raw is
the morning,' just the way the poem says, and if there isn't enough fog
to 'tear its skirts on the mountain trees,' we can pretend this light
mist is a real fog. Everything is here, even the bell on the mule. I'll
be Pablo of San Diego and, Hinpoha, you be Bernal."

"Migwan would make a better Bernal," said Hinpoha modestly. "No," said
Katherine decidedly, "you'll make a better splash when you fall into the
lake, and anyway, Migwan always wanted to see it done, not do it. Hurry
up and get your blanket, and get it wrapped gloomily around you.
Sandhelo and I will start out from the hills behind."

Hinpoha fetched a blanket and strode across the beach, her fair forehead
puckered into what she fondly believed to be a ferocious scowl, while
the bathers ranged themselves into an audience. Katherine, between
clucks and commands, designed to keep Sandhelo's feet in the straight
and narrow path, i.e., the low-jutting ledge of the cliff just above the
water line, raised her cracked voice in a three-part harmony and "sang
through the fog and wind." Sandhelo moved forward willingly enough.
Since Katherine had taken him seriously in hand that summer he had
learned to carry a rider without the accompaniment of music. If he
hadn't, Katherine would never have been able to make him stir, for he
certainly would not have classed her husky, bleating tones as music.

Bernal advanced cautiously onto the Paso del Mar, taking care not to
slip on the wet stones, and encountered the blithe Pablo midway on the
pass, holding tight to his mule's bridle strap with one hand and
covering up a rent in the waist of his bathing suit with the other.

"Back!" shouted Bernal full fiercely.

And "Back!" shouted Pablo in wrath, and then things happened. Sandhelo,
with the sensitiveness of his artistic temperament, thought that all
remarks made in his presence were intended to be personal. So when
Hinpoha looked him in the eye and shouted "Back!" and Katherine jerked
his bridle and screamed "Back!" he cannot be blamed if he did what any
gentleman would have done when commanded by a lady. He backed.

"Whoa!" shouted Katherine, taken unawares and nearly falling off his
small saddle area. But Sandhelo considered that his first order