girl to keep quiet.

Bet took the stick, which seemed like a hollow tube, and tapped it
gently on the ground. A strange, buzzing started, continued for a few
moments, then quieted. And Bet raised the stick once more.

Billy put forth his hand to capture the rod, but before he could
interfere, Bet had brought it down with a thud on the ground. A wasp
flew from the hole with an angry buzz and lighted fair and square on
Billy's nose, burying its stinger deep into the flesh.

The boy gave a howl, then choked back the tears. He was too much of a
sport to make a fuss, especially as the joke was on him. The hollow
stem was the insect's nest.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Billy! Please forgive me," pleaded Bet contritely. "I
didn't know there was a wasp inside that stick. I really thought it
was a strange Arizona plant."

Kit was chuckling. Never before had retribution come so quickly to her
young brother who delighted in playing tricks on a newcomer to the
desert.

But she only smiled at the boy. She wanted to say, "It serves you
right," but she had only been back for ten minutes and decided that it
was too soon to plague the child. But Billy saw her gleam of triumph
and decided he would get even with Kit at some later date.

"Let's get started, girls! Everybody pile in!" commanded the Judge.
"You girls go in that car with Matt Larkin. I want Tommy Sharpe with
me."

There wasn't a prouder boy in the whole world at that moment than
Tommy. Judge Breckenridge wanted him, and maybe someday he would be
his right-hand man, as the Judge playfully called him. To himself
Tommy promised that it would not be his own fault if he did not measure
up to the Judge's estimate of what a right hand man should be. Bet was
amused to notice the slight swagger that Tommy assumed as he took his
place beside his friend in the car. She exchanged a smile of
understanding with Enid.

A shower of sand hit the chassis of the car as the driver started along
the road. The girls gave a cry of alarm as they saw a jack rabbit that
had been startled, bound ahead of them for a few yards, then with a
wild jump it landed in the shelter of the sage brush.

"Doesn't everything smell good?" Shirley sniffed the air in long
indrawn breaths.

"Didn't I tell you it was wonderful!" said Kit. "I used to get so
lonesome just for a whiff of the desert. And you girls could never
understand it."

"Of course we didn't understand. How could we? We'd neve