d Arizona. It appeared to be a different sky stretching in
dark, star-spangled dome over him--closer, vaster, bluer. The strong
fragrance of sage and cedar floated over him with the camp-fire smoke,
and all seemed drowsily to subdue his thoughts.

At dawn he rolled out of his blankets and, pulling on his boots, began
the day with a zest for the work that must bring closer his calling
future. White, crackling frost and cold, nipping air were the same
keen spurs to action that he had known in the uplands of Oregon, yet
they were not wholly the same. He sensed an exhilaration similar to
the effect of a strong, sweet wine. His horse and mule had fared well
during the night, having been much refreshed by the grass and water of
the little canyon. Jean mounted and rode into the cedars with gladness
that at last he had put the endless leagues of barren land behind him.

The trail he followed appeared to be seldom traveled. It led,
according to the meager information obtainable at the last settlement,
directly to what was called the Rim, and from there Grass Valley could
be seen down in the Basin. The ascent of the ground was so gradual
that only in long, open stretches could it be seen. But the nature of
the vegetation showed Jean how he was climbing. Scant, low, scraggy
cedars gave place to more numerous, darker, greener, bushier ones, and
these to high, full-foliaged, green-berried trees. Sage and grass in
the open flats grew more luxuriously. Then came the pinyons, and
presently among them the checker-barked junipers. Jean hailed the
first pine tree with a hearty slap on the brown, rugged bark. It was a
small dwarf pine struggling to live. The next one was larger, and
after that came several, and beyond them pines stood up everywhere
above the lower trees. Odor of pine needles mingled with the other dry
smells that made the wind pleasant to Jean. In an hour from the first
line of pines he had ridden beyond the cedars and pinyons into a slowly
thickening and deepening forest. Underbrush appeared scarce except in
ravines, and the ground in open patches held a bleached grass. Jean's
eye roved for sight of squirrels, birds, deer, or any moving creature.
It appeared to be a dry, uninhabited forest. About midday Jean halted
at a pond of surface water, evidently melted snow, and gave his animals
a drink. He saw a few old deer tracks in the mud and several huge bird
tracks new to him which he concluded must have