that they should be pleased. They left the city at last, and toiled
along the limestone road to the Palms, rocking from side to side and
sinking in ruts filled with rushing water. When they opened the flap
of the hood the rain beat in on them, and when they closed it they
stewed in a damp, warm atmosphere of wet leather and horse-hair.

"This is worse than a Turkish bath," said Hope, faintly. "Don't you
live anywhere, Ted?"

"Oh, it's not far now," said the younger brother, dismally; but even as
he spoke the carriage lurched forward and plunged to one side and came
to a halt, and they could hear the streams rushing past the wheels like
the water at the bow of a boat. A wet, black face appeared at the
opening of the hood, and a man spoke despondently in Spanish.

"He says we're stuck in the mud," explained Langham. He looked at them
so beseechingly and so pitifully, with the perspiration streaming down
his face, and his clothes damp and bedraggled, that Hope leaned back
and laughed, and his father patted him on the knee. "It can't be any
worse," he said, cheerfully; "it must mend now. It is not your fault,
Ted, that we're starving and lost in the mud."

Langham looked out to find Clay and MacWilliams knee-deep in the
running water, with their shoulders against the muddy wheels, and the
driver lashing at the horses and dragging at their bridles. He sprang
out to their assistance, and Hope, shaking off her sister's detaining
hands, jumped out after him, laughing. She splashed up the hill to the
horses' heads, motioning to the driver to release his hold on their
bridles.

"That is not the way to treat a horse," she said. "Let me have them.
Are you men all ready down there?" she called. Each of the three men
glued a shoulder to a wheel, and clenched his teeth and nodded. "All
right, then," Hope called back. She took hold of the huge Mexican bits
close to the mouth, where the pressure was not so cruel, and then
coaxing and tugging by turns, and slipping as often as the horses
themselves, she drew them out of the mud, and with the help of the men
back of the carriage pulled it clear until it stood free again at the
top of the hill. Then she released her hold on the bridles and looked
down, in dismay, at her frock and hands, and then up at the three men.
They appeared so utterly miserable and forlorn in their muddy garments,
and with their faces washed with the rain and perspiration, that the
girl gave way sudd