t was sense packin' all that
salt!"

Then he turned to face his comrades.

"That's little grub for six starvin' people corralled in the desert.
But the grub end ain't worryin' me. Yaqui can get sheep up the slopes.
Water! That's the beginnin' and middle an' end of our case."

"Laddy, I reckon the waterhole here never goes dry," replied Jim.

"Ask the Indian."

Upon being questioned, Yaqui repeated what he had said about the
dreaded ano seco of the Mexicans. In a dry year this waterhole failed.

"Dick, take a rope an' see how much water's in the hole."

Gale could not find bottom with a thirty foot lasso. The water was as
cool, clear, sweet as if it had been kept in a shaded iron receptacle.

Ladd welcomed this information with surprise and gladness.

"Let's see. Last year was shore pretty dry. Mebbe this summer won't
be. Mebbe our wonderful good luck'll hold. Ask Yaqui if he thinks it
'll rain."

Mercedes questioned the Indian.

"He says no man can tell surely. But he thinks the rain will come,"
she replied.

"Shore it 'll rain, you can gamble on that now," continued Ladd. "If
there's only grass for the hosses! We can't get out of here without
hosses. Dick, take the Indian an' scout down the arroyo. To-day I seen
the hosses were gettin' fat. Gettin' fat in this desert! But mebbe
they've about grazed up all the grass. Go an' see, Dick. An' may you
come back with more good news!"

Gale, upon the few occasions when he had wandered down the arroyo, had
never gone far. The Yaqui said there was grass for the horses, and
until now no one had given the question more consideration. Gale found
that the arroyo widened as it opened. Near the head, where it was
narrow, the grass lined the course of the dry stream bed. But farther
down this stream bed spread out. There was every indication that at
flood seasons the water covered the floor of the arroyo. The farther
Gale went the thicker and larger grew the gnarled mesquites and palo
verdes, the more cactus and greasewood there were, and other desert
growths. Patches of gray grass grew everywhere. Gale began to wonder
where the horses were. Finally the trees and brush thinned out, and a
mile-wide gray plain stretched down to reddish sand dunes. Over to one
side were the white horses, and even as Gale saw them both Blanco
Diablo and Sol lifted their heads and, with white manes tossing in the
wind, whistled clarion calls. Here was grass enough fo