te empty,--look!"

Frieda's breath gave out. She stared and stared, clutching at her cousin
and her sister. The three girls were spellbound!

Gazing at them from out the black darkness, was what Frieda had feared
at the first moment of her discovery of the mysterious cavity, a pair of
burning, glowing eyes. They might belong to some wild animal, though
they were not fierce, only timid and pleading.

The ranch girls were not cowards, but not one of them wished to enter
the obscurity of that strange hiding place.

The figure stirred. The girls were now more used to the darkness.

"Why it's the Indian girl!" Frieda cried. "Do come out, please. We won't
hurt you and the Indian woman has been gone a long time."

But the girl seemed to be afraid to move. Frieda crawled fearlessly into
the hole and gave her little, white hand into the girl's thin, dark one.

As the Indian maid came out into the bright, invigorating air, she tried
to stand up, but she swayed in the wind, like a scarlet poppy that is
trying to oppose its frail strength to the blast of a storm.

Before Jack and Jean could get to her and in spite of Frieda's efforts,
the girl took a step forward, staggered and fell at their feet.

As they picked her up, they discovered that she was flushed with fever.
But while Jean washed her face with cool water and Jack held her in her
arms, she opened her mournful black eyes. "I am sorry to have troubled
you," she said, without a trace of an Indian accent. "I have run away
and I am tired. If you will please give me some water and let me stay
here for a few minutes I am sure I will be all right."

But she was not all right, even though the ranch girls persuaded her to
eat something, as well as to drink a cup of hot tea. She did not seem to
be able to move, but sat perfectly still with her lovely dark head
resting between her slender hands. She did not try to explain to them
why she had run away from home or when she expected to return.

Jack glanced anxiously upward. They had solemnly promised Jim to be back
at the ranch house before dark and the ranch girls could tell the time
of day from the position of the sun in the sky. This was one of the
things they knew instead of French or drawing. Unless they left the
canyon pretty soon, Jack knew they would never get home in time; yet what
could they do with Frieda's Indian girl? They could not leave her in the
gorge alone, and yet she did not seem to have the strength or t