at ain't no desert man," said Matt quietly.

"How can you tell from here?" asked Bet.

"You can always tell a desert man by his walk. That fellow looks as if
he were used to walking on city streets," Matt returned.

"And he hasn't even a burro," exclaimed Kit contemptuously. "Let's
give him a lift and see what he's doing here so far from civilization."

The man ahead had turned at the sound of the automobile, deposited his
bundle on the ground and stood waiting expectantly.

The girls smiled as they greeted him. His clothes, a neat business
suit and light colored shirt, were soiled, his face was streaked with
dust but in his eyes there was that indefinable gleam that marks the
soul of an adventurer. He was offered a lift.

"I'm very dusty," said the traveller.

"We don't mind at all," answered the girls. They liked the little man
with his far-away look as if he belonged to another world and were
seeing sights that no one around him was seeing.

"Isn't he a dear!" whispered Bet. "I like him!"

Little did the girls dream that most of their summer adventures would
center around this shabby figure; adventures that would thrill them and
at times almost overcome them.

If they had guessed it, they could not have been more cordial in their
greeting and more eager to help him. Although none of them realized
it, a problem to solve was already presenting itself.

CHAPTER V

_A SOLITARY EXPLORER_

As Matt Larkin brought his car to a stop, the traveller greeted them as
if he were an old acquaintance and had made an appointment for them to
meet him at this very spot in the desert and had been waiting and
expecting them to come along. He took it as a matter of course that he
would be invited to ride and the moment the door of the car was opened
he scrambled in with quick, nervous movements.

He was a thin faced little man, stoop shouldered as if he had spent his
life bent over books, but there was a charm in his twinkling eyes that
made friends at once for him, no matter what society he entered. He
was equally at home with people of wealth as he was with the poorest of
his friends.

So eager was the old man to be seated, out of the scorching rays of the
sun, that he left his bundle lying at the side of the road.

"Your pack!" called Kit, as Matt was about to start the car. "You've
forgotten your pack!"

The man gave her a grateful smile. "That's just like me to leave it.
Alicia said I was sure to