ngth--wonder of wonders!--Vivian, her hair flying in the wind, her eyes
filled with triumph, actually _cantered_ with Donald at her side toward
the others, who to a rider turned in their saddles and cheered her
approach. And pride filled every one's eyes--even the critical ones of
Carver Standish III.

So now that the worst was over, no one enjoyed the trip more than Vivian.
She kept wondering what her timid mother would say could she see her
daughter in the suit which hours of pleading had with difficulty procured,
and on a real Western horse, riding past the grain-fields, up the canyon,
and on into the trail that led up the mountain-side.

Only three of the nine had ever ridden through a canyon or followed a
mountain trail, and those three experienced the keenest delight in
pointing out every object of interest to the others--the blue lupines and
pink cranesbill, which made the occasional open spaces riotous with color,
the forget-me-nots growing in shady places, and the rare orchids, which
they discovered after they had penetrated to the heart of the mountain
forest.

It was beautiful in among the timber. Great spruces and pines towered
above them like masts to the journeying earth. The sunlight fell in
shimmering, golden patches upon the moss-grown and leaf-covered ground. In
the more open places grew buck-brush and the service-berry, Oregon grape
with its holly-shaped leaves, blue lupines, Indian paint-brush and great
mountain ferns. It was very still when they stopped their horses to rest.
Only the wind in the great trees above them, the chatter of a squirrel
remonstrating against this intrusion into his solitude, a strange sad
bird-note farther up the mountain, and the occasional fall of a leaf or
creak of a limb as it rubbed shoulders with its neighbor, broke the
silence. Once in a clearing a deer and her fawn gazed at them with
wondering eyes before leaping through the ferns into the safe shelter of
the timber.

Up--up--up they went. The trail wound in and out around the mountain-side,
and their sure-footed horses followed it, never daunted by fallen trees or
by rocky and precipitous places. More than once every Vigilante save one
held her breath as she was carried up a dangerous, almost obliterated path
to heights beyond. But Virginia's Pedro, who was far-famed as a trailer,
led the way, and his rider called back reassuring words to those behind.

By noon the air was cold. They were near snow, Malcolm said