l equal to the climb?" he asked her.

She gave eager assent, and, after lingering a few minutes for the
others and finding them too slow for the pace she liked, Blue Bonnet
followed Knight up a steep winding path that circled the hill.

He carried a "twenty-two" rifle swung across his shoulders, and in his
belt a rather formidable looking knife.

"For use or ornament?" she asked, indicating the weapons. "You look
like Dick Danger."

"Strictly for use," he assured her. "The gun has brought down many a
toothsome 'possum, and the knife serves to cut anything from firewood
to alpenstocks. Shall I cut you one to assist your feeble steps?"

They halted while he selected a sapling for the purpose, trimmed and
sharpened it at the end.

"Alpine travellers put sharp iron points on their staffs, Uncle says,"
he explained, "so that by thrusting them in the ice and snow they keep
from slipping. We don't need them for just that purpose, but they are
handy on steep paths--and to kill bugs with!"

She accepted the "alpenstock" gratefully and soon found it useful for
both purposes.

"When we get back to camp I'll get Sandy to carve your initials in
it--he's quite a genius at carving," Knight said.

"Is Sandy the--sandy one?"

"Precisely."

"Then I don't think I like him."

"Oh, but you will when you know him better," Knight protested. "He's
tremendously clever,--a born orator. He won a medal last year in a
debate."

"That accounts for his talking so much," Blue Bonnet laughed. "He's
always at it."

"But unlike most incessant talkers, he says something," Knight urged
for his friend. "We'll get him to recite some evening, then you can
judge how talented he is."

"Does he do 'Curfew shall not--?'" she asked mischievously.

"Grief, no!" Knight's disgusted tone sent Blue Bonnet off in a fit of
laughter. To her surprise the ripple of her laugh came back in a
gleeful "ha, ha!" that had something witchlike about it. She turned a
startled face to her companion.

"We've reached the 'Whispering Grotto,'" he explained. "The echo is
famous." He pushed aside a low-growing bough, and brushing by it Blue
Bonnet found herself in a lovely little cave-like spot, in the centre
of which was a tiny spring. It bubbled up somewhere back in the hill
and had made a long tunnel, coming to the light just here.

"Oh, for a cup. I'm thirsty as--as Tantalus!" sighed Blue Bonnet.

"A Texas girl crying for a cup?" Knight asked teasingly.

"Th