't apt to be due for a
cordial welcome, not when strangers to you are lookin' for hold-ups."

He had tossed the saddles an' bridles on the hosses by this time, an'
we left our outfit lyin' on the rocks. We hit the saddles in the same
tick an' settled into a swing. Big an' heavy as ol' Monody was, he was
a light rider, an' the bald-face hung at my cinch for the best part of
an hour an' then we slowly oozed away from him. The stars were all full
power that night, an' a feller could see most as plain as if the'd been
a moon.

It smelt good to be back at the old place again, an' my blood was
racin' through my veins till I fair tingled. Finally I reached the
canon an' began to ride careful. It was only about eleven; but I didn't
want any o' Brophy's gang to take a pot shot at me. All of a sudden
something moved on a little grassy shelf on the side of the cliff.
Starlight shied off to the left an' my gun flew up over my head, ready
to drop on whatever it happened to be. My eyes were drillin' into the
gloom when a mite of a creature with her hands clasped rose up an'
said, "Oh, Happy, Happy! is it really you? an' ridin' on the black hoss
with the silver trimmed leather!"

"Barbie, child!" I cried, "what on earth you doin' out here this time
o' night an' all by your lone?"

"I just couldn't sleep, Happy," she said, comin' to the edge o' the
shelf an' sittin' down with her little bare feet swingin' over; "I got
to wonderin' how it would feel just when the birthday was a-comin' on;
so I sneaked out here, an' I was just beginnin' to feel it when you
hove into sight. I been thinkin' o' you lots lately, Happy."

"You little minx, you," sez I, "I doubt if you've thought of me twice
since I been away, while I've been thinkin' of you every minute. But
come, jump down behind me an' we'll hurry on. I want you to go in an'
wake Daddy up an' tell him I've got something mighty important to say
to him, while I scurry over an' wake up the home gang."

"The home gang ain't here," sez Barbie. "The ponies vamoosed this
afternoon--they nearly always do the days I turn Mr. H. Hawkins with
them,--that's what I call the pinto. He's an awful scamp; but the best
pony on the place."

"Then I reckon they'll bring 'em around the twist an' down this canon.
Now you get down here an' sneak into the house while I stake out
Starlight in the big cathedral--see how well I remember everything."

I set the child down, rode Starlight into a big open nook