nced.

"I'll never be able to do it! If they only had a change of scenery, I
wouldn't be so bored. And those tall, smokestack cactus make me sick."

"Smokestack cactus!" snapped Kit with contempt. "If you'd only take
enough interest to learn the names of the trees and things you see, you
wouldn't be so bored."

"Well, what are they called?"

"Sahuara. And if that word is too big for you to remember, call them
Giant Cactus."

Suddenly Bet shook Joy by the arm. "Keep quiet and watch that road
runner. Isn't he a beauty?"

The bird had risen and poised above the mesa, then with fluttering
wings darted downward. There was a rattling brr, and the girls knew
what was happening. The road runner was attacking a rattlesnake.

"That bird isn't much of a sport," declared Bet, watching the little
drama with eager eyes. "It doesn't give the snake a fighting chance.
I feel sorry for it."

Kit laughed. "Don't waste your sympathy on rattlesnakes. Take
something worthy of your respect."

Kit watched the struggle with little emotion but the other girls turned
away not wanting to see the end of the uneven fight.

"Let's go," said Enid, jumping to her feet. "I've seen enough."

An hour later when the girls were entering the little desert town of
Saugus, and just as they came to the first adobe houses, they saw a
horseback rider coming toward them. As he rode nearer the man waved
them a greeting.

"It's Kie Wicks! And he's good-natured," grunted Kit suspiciously.
"Wonder what he's doing over here today? Up to some meanness, I know,
otherwise he wouldn't be so cordial to us."

"Well his meanness doesn't concern us," answered Bet.

"You can't be sure of that. He's probably bought up some second hand
food stuff that he plans to work off on the ranchers during the summer."

"And what's your errand over this way?" inquired Kie Wicks bluntly.

"I came to visit an ice cream parlor and go to a movie," chuckled Joy.

But Kit did not deign to answer the man. She dug her spurs into
Powder's sides and he leaped past the rider and raced toward the town.

"That fellow looks as if he had been taking advantage of someone.
Wasn't he feeling good? On top of the world! The old cheat!"
blustered Kit, as she dismounted at the stables where they were to
leave their horses for a rest and a good feed.

The girls took their time, went leisurely about the town, ate their
lunch at the Grand Palace Hotel and later went to the C