ken, but I saw those same things this afternoon."

"What?" went up in a perfect roar of incredulity.

"Say, is this some kind of a josh?" asked Coyote Pete suspiciously.

"Never more serious in my life," Jack assured him, and then went on to
relate the strange experience that had befallen him when he had poked
his head out from under the saddle in the sand-storm.

"If they weren't so enormous, I should say they was horses," said Pete;
"but the biggest horses that ever growed never even approached them
critters--spooks, er whatever they are."

"There are giants among men," suggested Walt, "why shouldn't there be
giants among spooks, too?"

"You get to Halifax with that spook talk," said Coyote Pete scornfully.
"I'll bet my Sunday sombrero that whatever them things is, there's some
sore of human mischief back uv it. But what is it? Who put it up?"

"Yes, and what for, and why?" laughed Jack. "I tell you, fellows," he
went on, "it's no use of our racking our brains to-night over this.
The best thing we can do is to set a watch. Then, if they come again,
we can try a shot at them. If not, why then in the morning we'll make
an investigation; eh?"

"Durn good advice," grunted Coyote Pete. "Now, I'd suggest that ther
perfusser takes ther fust watch, and----"

"No, no, my dear sir; really, I--I have a cold already. A-hem--ach-oo!"

The man of science, it seemed, had really developed serious bronchial
trouble in record time.

"Why, professor," said Jack mischievously, "haven't I heard you say
that you'd like a chance to investigate such a phenomenon as this?"

"Hum, yes--yes, my young friend. I may have said so, yes. And any
other time I should be only too pleased to--Good Land! what's that?"

With the agility of a grasshopper, the professor had jumped fully three
feet, as one of the pack-burros, nosing about behind him, accidentally
butted him in the small of his back. The others burst into a roar of
laughter, which they could not check. The professor, however, adjusted
his spectacles solemnly and looked about him with much dignity.

"I thought I saw a book I had dropped, almost in the fire," he
explained glibly, "so I jumped to get it before a hot ember fell on it."

"I had no idea you could jump like that, professor," laughed Jack.
"You should have gone in for athletics at Stonefell."

It was finally decided that Walt and Ralph should stand the first
watch, and Coyote Pete and Jack the last part of