is for
a mile or so down to where it flowed into the larger stream. A dim trail
overgrown with grass showed at this point.

"Here's where we part," said Dale. "You'll beat me into my camp, but
I'll get there sometime after dark."

"Hey, Milt, I forgot about thet darned pet cougar of yours an' the rest
of your menagerie. Reckon they won't scare the girls? Especially old
Tom?"

"You won't see Tom till I get home," replied Dale.

"Ain't he corralled or tied up?"

"No. He has the run of the place."

"Wal, good-by, then, an' rustle along."

Dale nodded to the girls, and, turning his horse, he drove the
pack-train before him up the open space between the stream and the
wooded slope.

Roy stepped off his horse with that single action which appeared such a
feat to Helen.

"Guess I'd better cinch up," he said, as he threw a stirrup up over the
pommel of his saddle. "You girls are goin' to see wild country."

"Who's old Tom?" queried Bo, curiously.

"Why, he's Milt's pet cougar."

"Cougar? That's a panther--a mountain-lion, didn't he say?"

"Shore is. Tom is a beauty. An' if he takes a likin' to you he'll love
you, play with you, maul you half to death."

Bo was all eyes.

"Dale has other pets, too?" she questioned, eagerly.

"I never was up to his camp but what it was overrun with birds an'
squirrels an' vermin of all kinds, as tame as tame as cows. Too darn
tame, Milt says. But I can't figger thet. You girls will never want to
leave thet senaca of his."

"What's a senaca?" asked Helen, as she shifted her foot to let him
tighten the cinches on her saddle.

"Thet's Mexican for park, I guess," he replied. "These mountains are
full of parks; an', say, I don't ever want to see no prettier place till
I get to heaven.... There, Ranger, old boy, thet's tight."

He slapped the horse affectionately, and, turning to his own, he stepped
and swung his long length up.

"It ain't deep crossin' here. Come on," he called, and spurred his bay.

The stream here was wide and it looked deep, but turned out to be
deceptive.

"Wal, girls, here beginneth the second lesson," he drawled, cheerily.
"Ride one behind the other--stick close to me--do what I do--an' holler
when you want to rest or if somethin' goes bad."

With that he spurred into the thicket. Bo went next and Helen followed.
The willows dragged at her so hard that she was unable to watch Roy, and
the result was that a low-sweeping branch of a tree knocked her