a long distance.

The girls and Walter had agreed to ride that way, stop over night
with Steve's outfit, and then work down to the old bear den from
the other direction--that is, from the north.

They entered the foothills through a pleasant, winding valley
which, had it not been for the marks of the recent cloudburst,
would have been a beautiful trail. But it was considerably torn up
by the water that had swept through it, a raging torrent.

They found Steve's outfit with the cattle--nearly a thousand head
of them--feeding in two cup-shaped hollows chained by a narrow
path. The hills were steep and rocky all around these hollows, and
a dozen steers abreast would have choked the path between the two
pastures. About half of the cattle were grazing in one hollow, and
the other half in the second cup.

The outfit gave the party a noisy welcome. These herders of cattle,
working sometimes for weeks at a stretch without getting to the
ranch house, and seeing only each other's faces, certainly get
lonely. A newcomer is hailed with joy. And of course the daughter
of the Rose Ranch owner and her friends were doubly welcome to this
outfit.

The tent was set up for the girls; but, as before, Walter roughed
it with the cowpunchers. He was enjoying every minute of his
experience on the ranch, whether his timid sister did or not!

A soft, balmy evening dropped down about the camp, which was