ceremony.

"No need to tell me to rustle," said Helen. "I am simply ravenous. This
air makes me hungry."

For that matter, Madeline observed Helen did not show any marked
contrast to the others. The hurry order, however, did not interfere with
the meal being somewhat in the nature of a picnic. While they ate
and talked and laughed the cowboys were packing horses and burros and
throwing the diamond-hitch, a procedure so interesting to Castleton that
he got up with coffee-cup in hand and tramped from one place to another.

"Heard of that diamond-hitch-up," he observed to a cowboy. "Bally nice
little job!"

As soon as the pack-train was in readiness Stewart started it off in the
lead to break trail. A heavy growth of shrub interspersed with rock and
cactus covered the slopes; and now all the trail appeared to be uphill.
It was not a question of comfort for Madeline and her party, for comfort
was impossible; it was a matter of making the travel possible for him.
Florence wore corduroy breeches and high-top boots, and the advantage
of this masculine garb was at once in evidence. The riding-habits of the
other ladies suffered considerably from the sharp spikes. It took all
Madeline's watchfulness to save her horse's legs, to pick the best bits
of open ground, to make cut-offs from the trail, and to protect herself
from outreaching thorny branches, so that the time sped by without her
knowing it. The pack-train forged ahead, and the trailing couples grew
farther apart. At noon they got out of the foothills to face the real
ascent of the mountains. The sun beat down hot. There was little breeze,
and the dust rose thick and hung in a pall. The view was restricted, and
what scenery lay open to the eye was dreary and drab, a barren monotony
of slow-mounting slopes ridged by rocky canyons.

Once Stewart waited for Madeline, and as she came up he said:

"We're going to have a storm."

"That will be a relief. It's so hot and dusty," replied Madeline.

"Shall I call a halt and make camp?"

"Here? Oh no! What do you think best?"

"Well, if we have a good healthy thunder-storm it will be something new
for your friends. I think we'd be wise to keep on the go. There's no
place to make a good camp. The wind would blow us off this slope if
the rain didn't wash us off. It'll take all-day travel to reach a good
camp-site, and I don't promise that. We're making slow time. If it
rains, let it rain. The pack outfit is well covered. We