n in the West for nearly a year,
and wrote Mr. Bostwick to come."

"Mr. Bostwick is doubtless a very particular friend of your family."

"Why, yes, he's my---- That is, he _was_--he always has been a very
particular friend--for several years," she faltered suddenly turning red.
"We haven't any family, Glen and I--and he's my half brother only--but
we're just like chums---and that was why I wanted to come. I expect to
surprise him. He doesn't know I'm here."

Van was silent and she presently added:

"I hope you and Glen will be friends. I know how much he'll wish to
thank you."

He looked at her gravely.

"I hope he won't. It's up to me to thank him."

They had come to a road at the level of the valley--a desert valley,
treeless, grassless, gray, and desolate. The sun was rapidly nearing the
rim of the mountains, as if to escape pursuit of a monstrous bank of
clouds.

Van spurred his chestnut to a gallop, and the horses bearing the women
responded with no further need of urging.

CHAPTER VIII

A NIGHT'S EXPENSES

From Karrish to Goldite by the road was twenty-seven miles. There were
fifteen mile of bottles by the way--all of them empty. A blind man
with a nose for glass could have smelled out the trail unerringly
across that desert stretch. Karrish was the nearest town for a very
great distance around.

Over the road innumerable caravans were passing. Everything was
rushing to Goldite. There were horsemen, hurried persons on foot, men
in carriages and autos, twenty-horse freight teams, and men on tiny
burros. Nearly all were shedding bottles as they went. A waterless
land is not necessarily devoid of all manner of moisture.

A dozen of the slowly laboring freight outfits were passed by Van and
his two companions. What engines of toil they represented! The ten
pairs of sweating, straining animals seemed almost like some giant
caterpillar, harnessed to a burden on wheels. They always dragged
three wagons, two of which were huge gray hulks, incredibly heavy with
giant-powder, canned goods, bottled goods, picks, shovels, bedding,
hay, great mining machinery, and house-hold articles. These wagons
were hitched entrain. The third wagon, termed a "trailer," was small
and loaded merely with provisions for the teamster and the team. The
whole thing, from end to end, beat up a stifling cloud of dust.

The sun went down while Beth, Van, and Elsa were still five miles from
their goal. They