The ranch house was astir early the next morning. The girls dashed about in mad last minute haste. Horses were saddled and waiting. The few necessities the girls were taking were rolled in slickers and strapped behind their saddles. Tents, cooking utensils, and eating supplies were loaded on two pack horses which Tom was to lead behind his own mount. As the girls were about to mount, Mr. Wilson called Gale and Phyllis over to where he was giving some last minute instructions to Tom and Jim.

Mr. Wilson handed a small caliber revolver each to Gale and Phyllis.

“What----” Phyllis began wonderingly.

“I think you ought to have them for protection,” Mr. Wilson explained. “Against rattlesnakes--and jack rabbits. I’m trusting you two with these because I think you are the steadiest ones.”

“Gale knows about the rattlesnakes,” Tom said smiling. “I’ll bet she would have given a fortune for a gun yesterday.”

“I’ll say I would,” Gale said with a shudder. “But we will have to have some target practice, so we know which end of the gun to aim.”

“Tom can take care of that,” Jim interposed, “he’s right handy with a gun.”

“I don’t like this,” Phyllis said to Gale as the girls walked back to their horses. “Why should we need guns for protection? We are going on a peaceful trip.”

“What with bank robbers running loose,” Gale smiled. “We might be glad we have them.”

The guns were stored in the girls’ slickers and soon the party was ready to start. They waved gay farewells to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson as their horses trotted down the trail. Jim rode in front to guide them and directly behind him came Gale, Virginia, and Valerie. The other three Adventure Girls followed and Tom brought up the rear with the pack horses.

The sun was slowly creeping higher in the sky pouring its warm rays on the world below. Three hours after their start the party halted for luncheon which they ate cold from their saddle bags, pushing on immediately. Jim had a camping place in mind and he wanted to make it in plenty of time to pitch their tents by the light of day.

Gale and Virginia watched Valerie with growing alarm. The girl was looking paler and more tired with the passing of the minutes. But Valerie was too plucky to call a halt on her own account. Once she swayed visibly in her saddle. Gale, reining her horse in beside Valerie’s, put an anxious arm about her friend.

“Too tired to go on, Val? Just say so. Jim won’t mind camping right here.”

“No, don’t stop because of me,” Valerie pleaded. “I’ll stick it out.”

She would stick it out, Gale agreed admiringly, but it would take all her courage to do so. Certainly Valerie deserved to conquer the ill health that was robbing her of so much of the zest of living.

The horses mounted to the ridge of a hill and there Jim called a halt. He gestured with his arm to the valley below where a cool stream of water dashed over rocks on its way to join a bigger tributary.

“There’s our camp site,” he said, beaming, “and we’ve made it with a good hour of daylight left.” “Thank goodness we made it at all!” Janet said vigorously, voicing the relief most of them felt. “I’ll be as stiff as a board tomorrow.”

“I was going to suggest that we camp all day tomorrow,” Virginia added. “It looks like a nice spot, water and everything.”

“As you say,” Tom said cheerily. “Let’s get going, Jim, down to our camp site. I want to get settled and smell something cooking over the fire.”

It took them about ten minutes to work their way down to the little stream and when they descended from their horses there was a chorus of groans. All of them were stiff from their positions in the saddle. It was worse because it was the first time most of them had ever ridden all day.

“Get the tents up first,” Virginia proposed. “You and Jim can do that, Tom, while we gather some wood for a fire.”

After Tom and Jim had unsaddled the horses they set about erecting the girls’ tents. It was not long before a fire was crackling cheerily and bacon was spitting in a frying pan over the blaze.

Directly the tents were erected and the girls’ beds made with a blanket spread over pine boughs, Valerie lay down utterly worn out. Gale brought her supper and then left her alone to fall asleep early and get as much rest as she could. The others gathered about the campfire, despite their weariness, to talk and to sing songs. Tom had his harmonica and it seemed the fire gave him inspiration for he played until the others begged for mercy.

As Gale and Phyllis lay down on their bed of boughs in the tent with Valerie, a coyote howled dismally in the distance. From afar came an answering cry.

“I’ll never get used to that noise if I stay here a hundred years,” declared Phyllis. “It will keep me awake all night.”

But five minutes after she had spoken Gale heard her regular breathing and knew she was asleep.

The next morning the girls were awakened by the aroma of coffee and by Tom banging on the frying pan.

“Wake up, sleepy-heads!” he roared.

The girls tumbled from their tents stiff and only half awake. The cold creek water, dashed in their faces, though, served to put life into them with its tingling properties. Breakfast was more delicious than they had ever remembered that meal to be. Perhaps it was the invigorating air, the exercise of the day before, or the excitement prevailing over this trip, but they all had big appetites.

“What are we going to do today?” Virginia asked.

“I am going to rest, rest, and rest some more,” Janet said loudly, as if daring someone to contradict her. “I shall never, never forget that ride yesterday.”

“I’m going to do the same,” Valerie declared. She was looking a little weary this morning, but she seemed in good spirits.

“Me likewise!” vouchsafed Carol.

“Well, I think I’d like to take a walk,” Madge said. “How about it, Virginia?”

“Just the thing,” Virginia declared.

“Jim and I are going to follow the creek a ways and see if there could possibly be any fish in it,” Tom said.

The latter two started off and Madge and Virginia started to walk along the creek in the opposite direction.

“Let’s cross the creek and see what’s over the hill on the other side,” proposed Phyllis to Gale.

The two crossed the creek on a series of stones placed just right for the purpose. From the other side they waved gayly at their remaining camp mates and started forward. Here the undergrowth was thick. In her hand Gale held the gun Mr. Wilson had given her. It was not her intention to be confronted unprepared by any more rattlesnakes. Jim had explained the working mechanism of the little gun and Gale was sure she knew enough about it not to hurt herself at least.

“Oh!” Phyllis jumped as something darted across in front of them.

“Only a jack rabbit,” Gale laughed.

“You never can tell,” Phyllis murmured, treading through the grass more warily. “I knew of a man once who tread on a snake.”

“That’s not as bad as finding one wound around your leg,” Gale declared. “Look, what’s that up there?”

Half hidden by a growth of cactus and tangled vines, yawned a dark cavernous hole.

“Let’s investigate,” proposed Phyllis. “It rather looks like a cave. I didn’t know they had caves in Arizona.”

“I know there were a lot of huge subterranean caves discovered in 1909,” Gale answered. “But I don’t know in what part of the state they were. Phyllis, look!” The last words had come with a gasp of incredulity.

They were closer to the cave now and could clearly see the man who stood in the opening. He was gazing away from them, toward the other side of the valley.

“One of the bank robbers!” Phyllis gasped.

The man, as though he had heard her, turned and looked in their direction. The next minute he had turned and disappeared into the cave.

“C’mon,” Phyllis said excitedly, “let’s see where he goes.”

The girls covered the few remaining yards to the cave in a run. Once at the cave, caution overtook them. The desperado might be lying in wait for them, and it would be well for them to proceed slowly and carefully.

As they entered the mouth of the cave, darkness, black and impenetrable, dropped on them like a cloak.