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"I' near froze hat ailed me Nell, how 're you?"

"I'm warm, too, but--" Helen answered

"If you had your choice of being here or back ho in bed--which would you take?" asked Bo

"Bo!" exclaiht here on this horse," rejoined Bo

Dale heard her, for he turned an instant, then slapped his horse and started on

Helen now rode beside Bo, and for a long time they climbed steadily in silence Helen knehen that dark hour before dawn had passed, and she welco in the east Then the stars paled Gradually a grayness absorbed all but the larger stars The great whitestar, wonderful as Helen had never seen it, lost its brilliance and life and seeradually, so that the gray desert beca bare hills, half obscured by the gray lifting ray space, slowly taking for of pale rose and silver that lengthened and brightened along a horizon growing visibly rugged

"Reckon we'd better catch up with Roy," said Dale, and he spurred his horse

Ranger and Bo'sinto a canter Far ahead the pack-ani them The cold as so keen in Helen's face that tears blurred her eyes and froze her cheeks And riding Ranger at that pace was like riding in a rocking-chair That ride, invigorating and exciting, seemed all too short

"Oh, Nell, I don't care--what becomes of--me!" exclaimed Bo, breathlessly

Her face hite and red, fresh as a rose, her eyes glanced darkly blue, her hair blew out in bright, unruly strands Helen knew she felt some of the physical stimulation that had so roused Bo, and seeht was not deflected thereby

It was clear daylight when Roy led off round a knoll from which patches of scrubby trees--cedars, Dale called therow on the north slopes, where the snow stays longest," said Dale

They descended into a valley that looked shallow, but proved to be deep and wide, and then began to cli sun, and so glorious a view confronted her that she was unable to answer Bo's wild exclamations