down this vale of tears, unsight an' unsung, as the poet says, or
off comes your hind legs. Amen."

The half-breed grinned his understanding and handed over the lead-rope
with a bit of homely advice. "You no lak' you git find, dat better you
don' talk mooch. You ain' got to sing no mor', neider, or ba Goss!
A'm tak' you down an' stick you mout' full of rags, lak' I done down to
Chinook dat tam'. Dat _hooch_ she mak' noise 'nough for wan night,
_sabe_?"

"That's right, Bat. Tombstones and oysters is plumb raucous
institutions to what I'll be from now on." He turned to the others
with the utmost gravity. "You folks will pardon any seemin' reticence
on my part, I hope. But there's times when Bat takes holt an' runs the
outfit--an' this is one of 'em."

CHAPTER XIV

ON ANTELOPE BUTTE

After the departure of Bat it was a very silent little cavalcade that
made its way down the valley. Tex, with the lead-horse in tow, rode
ahead, his attention fixed on the trail, and the others followed,
single file.

Alice's eyes strayed from the backs of her two companions to the
mountains that rolled upward from the little valley, their massive
peaks and buttresses converted by the wizardry of moonlight into a
fairyland of wondrous grandeur. The cool night air was fragrant with
the breath of growing things, and the feel of her horse beneath her
caused the red blood to surge through her veins.

"Oh, it's grand!" she whispered, "the mountains, and the moonlight, and
the spring. I love it all--and yet--" She frowned at the jarring note
that crept in, to mar the fulness of her joy. "It's the most wonderful
adventure I ever had--and romantic. And it's _real_, and I ought to be
enjoying it more than I ever enjoyed anything in all my life. But, I'm
not, and it's all because--I don't see why he had to go and drink!"
The soft sound of the horses' feet in the mud changed to a series of
sharp clicks as their iron shoes encountered the bare rocks of the
floor of the canyon whose precipitous rock walls towered far above,
shutting off the flood of moonlight and plunging the trail into
darkness. The figures of the two men were hardly discernible, and the
girl started nervously as her horse splashed into the water of the
creek that foamed noisily over the canyon floor. She shivered slightly
in the wind that sucked chill through the winding passage, although
back there in the moonlight the night had been still. Gradually th