“Did you kill him, I hope?” Janet asked with keen excitement.

Valerie was in her tent asleep while Gale, after a substantial supper, told the others of what had happened to them. She had come to the part in their escape when she stopped and fired at the bandit when Janet voiced her opinion.

Gale shivered. “I hope I didn’t,” she declared. “I wouldn’t care to be a murderess.”

“I think there is not much danger of that,” Tom reassured her. “Those fellows are pretty hard to kill.”

“We were all nearly frantic,” Virginia said, a fond arm about Gale’s shoulders. “First we saw the rock fall and then when you didn’t come back--we didn’t know what to think or do!”

“That’s something else,” Gale said, “that rock didn’t fall of its own accord. It was pushed.”

“Are you sure?” Carol demanded.

“I saw the man,” Gale said positively. “Something, I don’t know what, made me look up just as we were walking under it.”

“That something saved you from being smashed flatter than a pancake,” Janet said wisely.

“But who would push the rock?” Madge asked wonderingly. “Those men didn’t actually want to--murder you, did they?”

Gale laughed nervously. “Let’s hope they didn’t; they might try again.”

“Hereafter none of you go wandering away by yourselves from camp,” Jim said sternly. “To-morrow Tom and I will go see those fellows, since they didn’t come to see us,” he added grimly.

“But you----” Virginia was beginning when her voice died away into silence.

The thunder of hoofs echoed down into the valley to them. All eyes turned up to where the rim of the mountain was silhouetted against the moonlit sky. Three black mounted figures were picking their way slowly across the trail. In a moment they were swallowed up in the blackness of a forest as they made their way down to the valley some distance from the Adventure Girls’ camp.

“Three of them,” Tom murmured. “Evidently you didn’t kill that fellow after all, Gale.” “And I’m afraid we won’t be able to get a look at them tomorrow,” Jim added. “We’ll follow their trail of course to see in what direction they are heading. I think, Virginia, you had better lead the girls back to the K Bar O. There is too much danger in these hills.”

“Nothing doing,” Janet interrupted, flatly. “We like danger and we don’t want to go home. If you follow the bandits, so do we!”

“I’m afraid we’re all agreed on that,” Gale nodded.

“So you see it is useless for you to argue,” Virginia added, as Jim opened his mouth to protest.

“But Dad wouldn’t like it, Virginia,” Tom said with a frown. “Jim and I are responsible for you girls. If anything happens----”

“Nothing will,” Carol assured him. “We all bear charmed lives. We shall return to the K Bar O when our trip is over just as we started out,” she declared.

“But what about Valerie?” Madge put in. “Do you think she can stand a lot of hard riding?”

Gale grew thoughtful. “She came through tonight with never a protest. I believe Val can stand a lot more than we give her credit for.”

Later, lying on her bed of pine boughs beside Phyllis, Gale thought of Valerie again. It had been strenuous, climbing down from the roof and later fleeing through the underbrush and over that huge boulder had been particularly wearying, without considering that they did it all on top of a day’s riding. Val had borne up marvelously well. True she had been near collapse at the end, but then she herself had not had much vitality left and she had always been stronger than Valerie. Yes sir, Val was in a much better physical condition than when they had started for the West.

The morning, however, found Valerie not as robust as Gale’s optimistic thoughts had pictured her. Breaking camp was delayed until lunch time in order to give Val the benefit of a few more hours rest. After luncheon, the party saddled and mounted their horses. After a while, Jim picked up the trail of the outlaws and they followed it a short distance. But the bandits had evidently suspected a chase and rode their horses into a stream. From there all trace of trail was wiped out.

Sunset found them miles from the scene of the girls’ adventure. Supper was prepared and after it had disappeared they sat about the campfire telling stories or singing songs. They retired early and were up with the first rays of the sun.

Day after day they followed the same procedure. Their skins were getting tanned and their appetites were enormous.

“I never thought I could eat so much,” wailed Janet, after a particularly hearty meal.

“You’ll look like a baby elephant when we get back home,” prophesied Carol encouragingly.

They rode like regular westerners now, and every day they appreciated more and more the beauty of the country through which they rode. If Jim had planned on showing them the loveliest scenery, he was running true to plan. The girls had never realized before that nature, untamed by man, could be so lovely. They never realized that just to sit and gaze at a sunset could bring such a thrill. In every way the country was affecting them. Physically they were healthier than they had ever been. Their mental outlook was brighter, more cheerful. Here in limitless space, mid tall mountains, they felt more drawn to one another. Their friendships grew and flourished.

One day they camped close to the mighty Colorado River that flows through the Grand Canyon. The cliffs of sandstone and limestone, almost a mile high, were so rugged and majestic as to fill the girls with awe. All the colors of the rainbow were in the rocks and under the influence of the sun and the shadows cast by it, formed pictures of entrancing beauty, pictures too beautiful to ever be put down on canvas. Rain and wind had sculptured the cliffs into bewildering and fantastic forms which added to their brilliant coloring.

“Doesn’t it make you feel tiny?” murmured Janet, scarcely above a whisper, afraid to disturb the great hush that hung over the Canyon.

“The Canyon was first seen by white men in 1541,” Tom told them. “The Colorado River where it runs through the Canyon there is three hundred feet wide, and in times of freshets it’s a mighty torrent.”

“You sound like a traditional guide book,” Janet told him.

“It’s wonderful,” Valerie murmured, voicing the feelings of all of them.

Another day found the Adventure Girls and their friends examining the colossal stone tree trunks of the Petrified Forest. Here they found more to awe and surprise them. Still another day found them at the rim of the Painted Desert, the desert with its multi-colored plains alive with somber, purple shadows.

“I’m overwhelmed!” Carol declared. “From now on I shall be a strong advocate of See America First!”

Valerie had out the little sketching block she always carried with her. With a strong talent for sketching and limitless subjects on which to try her skill, Val rode with her pencil and pad in her hands nearly all day. She wanted to take back home sketches of the spots that interested her most on this trip.

“I’ll never be able to make it look as beautiful on paper as it really is,” she sighed. “No one could really hope to.”

“I’d like to have one of the sketches you made of the Canyon the other day,” Gale said. “I intend to frame it and keep it as a memento.”

“Isn’t it funny, Gale,” Val mused aloud, “how you never miss anything until you’ve seen it.”

“You might feel as though you miss something,” Gale agreed, “but you don’t know what it is.”

“I shall miss all this a lot when we go back East,” Val declared, looking about at the Arizona sunset. “Everything is so--big out here. I feel awf’ly small. When I think of the silly things we quarrel over in school and the things we think we can’t get along without in the city, it makes me ashamed of myself.”

Gale laughed. “If you lived out here long enough, I’m afraid you would have a bad inferiority complex.”

“No, but don’t you feel that way?” Val demanded. “Tomorrow we start for Monument Valley near Kayenta. That’s one hundred and seventy-five miles from the nearest telephone. Imagine what that means! Back home we don’t think anything of a telephone because nearly everybody has one.”

“Yes, and just think, I haven’t had a chocolate soda since I came out here,” chimed in Janet, coming up behind them. “I hope I shall survive.”

“You look as though you might pull through,” Valerie laughed.

“Come and get it!” Tom called and there was a concerted rush for the makeshift supper table.

Day after day they rode through caÑons and winding intermittent gullies, shallow basins, and dry washes. They followed trails through thick sagebrush and cottonwoods, over dry beds of streams and sunken deserts, marveling how the dull gray and olive of the sagebrush and trees mingled. They learned that many of the mountains were extinct volcanoes and admired the brilliant colored sandstone and shale formations. Once or twice they ran into heavy thunderstorms that turned dried-up streams into rushing torrents of muddy swirling waters.

They explored with keen interest Monument Valley with the spire-like rock of El Capitan at its head, and its fantastic flat topped pillars rising thousands of feet into the air. A day’s ride from Kayenta the riders came upon Betatakin, one of the most interesting, although least known, of the cliff dwellings, standing silent within its mammoth cave.

“Just think, hundreds of people lived and died here a thousand years ago,” Virginia commented.

“I’m glad we don’t live in houses like these,” Janet said, as she climbed up the worn stone steps to the next level. “I’ve no desire to climb all these steps every time I want to go home.”

“If you walked in your sleep it was just too bad,” added Carol, looking back down at the stones over which they had come.

“It gives me an appetite,” Madge complained. “When do we eat?” “The sooner the better,” put in Phyllis.

For hours the girls prowled around in the dark houses of the cliff dwellers, taking their time to examine everything of interest. The next day they resumed their riding, heading south toward the K Bar O.

During the days Gale and Phyllis had a lot of practice with their revolvers and now could succeed in coming fairly close to the bull’s eye every time they tried. Gale, too, was becoming proficient with her rope. Jim spent hours teaching her and she proved an apt pupil.

Riding with Virginia behind Jim as they swung along the trail, Gale was looking up at the trees and the blue sky, thinking how she would hate to leave all this when it came time for the Adventure Girls to go back East.

“Look out, Jim!” Virginia screamed suddenly.

There was a snarl and a streak of yellow leaped from the low-hanging limb of a tree. Jim’s horse reared wildly and plunged away as its rider was dragged from the saddle by the impact of the cougar’s weight.

For a second none of the riders could do anything but check their mounts. All the horses threatened to run away and careened wildly, almost unseating their riders. Meanwhile, Jim was thrashing about on the ground, struggling for his life while his companions watched helplessly.

“Quiet, boy,” Gale said, a soothing hand on her trembling pony’s neck. With her other hand she unfastened her rope.

“Look out, I’m going to shoot,” Tom said, raising his rifle to his shoulder.

“Don’t!” Carol cried. “You might hit Jim.”

“But the beast is killing him,” Janet said with a shudder. “Somebody do something!”

Despite Carol’s warning, Tom discharged his gun and succeeded only in frightening the ponies more. Jim was fighting madly to keep the sharp claws and teeth away from his face and throat.

Once more Gale spoke to her pony and patted him reassuringly. He jerked nervously under her hand, but he was by far the quietest one of the beasts. During the days in the saddle Gale had learned the tricks and tendencies of her mount and she had instilled a trust in him for his rider. Now, though he longed to flee from this spot with its danger, he stood quietly obedient to her voice and touch. In her hand Gale held her coiled rope. Tom had dismounted and handed the reins of his horse and of the pack horses to Carol and was edging nearer to those thrashing figures on the ground. Virginia, too, had dismounted.

At the first opportune moment, Gale’s rope slithered out and fell over the two. The loop caught a hind leg of the cougar. Immediately it tightened and the snapping teeth were diverted from Jim to the rope about its leg.

“Go it, boy!” Gale urged her horse.

The horse darted forward. Behind her the rope pulled the cougar clear from Jim. The pony sped down the trail, its rider bent low in the saddle, the rope dragging the squirming, struggling mountain lion over the stony ground. Gale did not slow her mount till she was sure that the animal was dead. Then she turned her horse and trotted him slowly back to the group.

Tom and Virginia were busy with Jim. The cowboy’s shirt hung in ribbons, and the flesh of his shoulders and arms was streaming with blood. He had a long scratch along his cheek, but otherwise he was safe and sound.

“Never thought that rope trainin’ would come in so handy,” he grinned at her. “Reckon I owe you a heap for pullin’ that fella offa me, Miss Gale.”

“Is he dead?” Janet asked tremulously with a glance for the dust covered thing at the end of Gale’s rope.

“If he isn’t, he ought to be,” Gale replied, dismounting. “Are you hurt much, Jim?”

The cowboy insisted that they should not stop their day’s ride on his account. After Tom’s first aid treatment had been administered and Jim remounted his horse, they started forward again. Tom had cut the cougar loose from Gale’s rope and pulled him to one side of the trail.

“That’s what I like about the country out here,” Janet said to no one in particular. “Always something doing. Any time at all you might step on a rattlesnake or get jumped on by a ferocious animal. Nice country!” she declared with a grin.

“Pleasant thoughts you have,” Carol laughed. “It’s no worse than back home. There we have to dodge street cars and taxi cabs.”

“Give me the taxi cabs,” Madge murmured. “They at least give you a warning.”

It was late when they stopped for their camp. Riding and excitement had whetted their appetites and while they ate, Tom and Jim told them of other experiences each had had with animals in the surrounding country. Jim took the whole affair as all part of the day, and refused to declare himself a bit thrilled over it.

“At least we’ll have something to talk about when we get home,” Phyllis smiled.

“We’ve got a lot to talk about,” Valerie declared. “We’ve met nearly everything the West can produce, haven’t we?”

“Nearly,” Virginia laughed. “Do you feel like going home now?”

“No!” came unanimously from all the girls.

“Well, whether you like it or not, we are,” Tom declared. “Tomorrow we get back on K Bar O soil. Two more days and we’ll be at the ranch house.”

“We’ve got to go home, our supplies are running low,” Virginia explained.

“Can we go on another trip then?” Carol asked immediately.

“If we have enough time,” Valerie commented. “The days have gone so quickly. We’ll be going home soon.”

“We’ll refuse to think of that,” Phyllis said firmly. “Let’s hear some more of your experiences,” she suggested to Jim and Tom.

For another hour while the fire crackled and shadows danced over the tents and figures around it, Jim entertained them with memories of the range lands. Valerie and Phyllis retired first. After them went the other four girls. Gale alone remained beside the fire with her cousin and the cowboy.

“Tom----” Gale began hesitantly.

“Yes?” Tom encouraged, tossing another log on the fire.

“That trail we passed just before we camped--was it the bandits’?” she asked.

Tom and Jim exchanged a fleeting glance.

“What made you think of them?” Tom asked.

“Before we started on this trip,” Gale said, “Valerie and I overheard you and your dad talking about rustlers. We didn’t mean to listen, but we did. Had that trail today anything to do with them? I thought you both looked worried when you saw it.”

“We were worried,” Jim admitted. “It was a fresh trail and the same men who held you prisoner that night in the hills, made that trail. We thought we had lost them sure, but it doesn’t look that way.”

“What are you going to do?” Gale wanted to know.

“Nothing,” Tom said promptly. “We are going to take you girls safely back to the K Bar O.”

“The bandits are probably making for the border into Mexico,” Jim murmured. “The Sheriff and his men will catch ’em.”

Tom laughed. “They haven’t done much catching so far. I’ll bet the bandits get clean away.”

“Then there is nothing to worry about,” Gale said.

“No, nothing to worry about,” agreed Tom.

When Gale had entered the tent she shared with Valerie and Phyllis, she went immediately to sleep and did not know that long after she retired, Tom and Jim talked seriously and long about the possibility of meeting the rustlers before they reached the ranch safely.