alk?"

"Adaptability to environment," piped the girl, glibly. "You can't get
along by speaking New York in Montana, any easier than you can with
English in Cincinnati."

Endicott turned away with a sniff of disgust, and the girl's lips drew
into a smile which she meant to be an exact replica of the Texan's as
she proceeded to slice strips of bacon into the frying-pan.

The meal was a silent affair, and during its progress the moon rose
clear of the divide and hung, a great orange ball, above the high-flung
peaks. Almost simultaneously with the rising of the moon, the wind
rose, and scuds of cloud-vapour passed, low down, blurring the higher
peaks.

"We got to get a move on," opined the Texan, with an eye on the clouds.
"Throw them dishes into the pack the way they are, an' we'll clean 'em
when we've got more time. There's a storm brewin' west of here an' we
want to get as far as we can before she hits."

By the time the others were in the saddle, Bat was throwing the final
hitch on his pack outfit, and with the Texan in the lead, the little
cavalcade headed southward.

An hour's climb, during which they skirted patches of scrub pine,
clattered over the loose rocks of ridges, and followed narrow,
brush-choked coulees to their sources, found them on the crest of the
Cow Creek divide.

The wind, blowing half a gale from the south-east, whipped about their
faces and roared and whistled among the rocks and scrub timber.
Alice's eyes followed the Texan's glance toward the west and there, low
down on the serried horizon she could see the black mass of a cloud
bank.

"You can't tell nothin' about those thunderheads. They might hold off
'til along towards mornin', they might pile up on us in an hour, and
they might not break at all," vouchsafed the man, as Alice reined in
her horse close beside his.

"But the wind is from the other direction!"

"Yes, it generally is when the thunder-storms get in their work. If we
can get past the Johnson fences we can take it easy an' camp most
anywhere when the storm hits, but if we get caught on this side without
no moonlight to travel by an' have to camp over tomorrow in some
coulee, there's no tellin' who'll run onto us. This south slope's
infested some plentiful by the riders of three or four outfits." He
headed his horse down the steep descent, the others following in single
file.

As the coulee widened Alice found herself riding by the Texan's side.
"Oh, don't you