ever guess.'

'Water?' suggested the girl, coming on.

Something of the man's excitement had gone from his voice when he
answered. He was like a child who has propounded a riddle that has
been too readily guessed.

'How did you know?'

'I didn't know. But the horses must be thirsty. Of course they would
go straight to water. Animals can smell it, can't they?'

'Can they?' He looked to her inquiringly when she stood at his side.
'It is amazing, nevertheless. Positively, my dear,' he added with a
touch of dignity.

The two horses, side by side, were drinking noisily from a small
depression into which the water oozed slowly. The girl watched them a
moment abstractedly, sighed and sat down in the sand, her hands in her
lap.

'Tired, Helen?' asked the man solicitously.

'Aren't you?' she returned. 'It has been a hard day, papa.'

'I am afraid it has been hard on you, my dear,' he admitted, as his
eyes took stock of the drooping figure. 'But,' he added more
cheerfully, 'we are getting somewhere, my girl; we are getting
somewhere.'

'Are we?' she murmured to herself rather than for his ears. And when
he demanded 'Eh?' she said hastily: 'Anyway, we are doing something.
That is more fun than growing moss, even if we never succeed.'

'I tell you,' he declared forensically, lifting his hand for a gesture,
'I know! Haven't I demonstrated the infallibility of my line of
action? If a man wants to--to gather cherries, let him go to a cherry
tree; if he seeks pearls, let him find out the favourite habitat of the
pearl oyster; if he desires a--a hat, let him go to the hatter's. It
is the simplest thing in the world, though fools have woven mystery and
difficulty about it. Now----'

'Yes, pops.' Helen sighed again and saw wisdom in rising to her feet.
'If you will begin unpacking I'll make our beds. And I'll get the fire
started.'

'We can dispense with the fire,' he told her, setting to work with the
first knot to come under his fingers. 'There is coffee in the thermos
bottle and we can open a tin of potted chicken.'

'The fire makes it cosier,' Helen said, beginning to gather twigs.
Last night coyotes had howled fearsomely, and even dwellers of the
cities know that the surest safeguard against a ravening beast is a
camp-fire. For a little while the man strove with his tangled rope;
she was lost to him through the mesquite. Suddenly she came running
back.

'Papa,' she whispered excitedly. 'There'