you, Betsy,” she said, “but it would be impossible for us to ride that far unless we were prepared for a hard journey and were accompanied by Malcolm or Uncle Tex.”

They paused at the foot of the group of hills and Betsy shuddered as she said, “I don’t know why they seem so uncanny to me. Did anything ever happen here, Virg, anything spooky?”

“Why, nothing that I know about.” The Western girl laughed at the eager expression on the face of their youngest. “What, for instance?”

“Oh, some famous bandit might have been captured and bound to that giant yucca that stands all alone on the highest hill, and the masked men who had captured him might have stood down here and shot him, then silently ridden away while the vultures came with their weird cries to—”

Megsy put her hands over her ears. “Betsy,” she remonstrated, “you’re telling the story of that moving picture we saw at Vine Haven. My, but it was gruesome!”

Betsy laughed mischievously but Virg said seriously, “Those popular pictures give a very wrong impression of our desert life, as it really is. Now, if the rest of you would like to climb to the top of Yucca Hill, I’ll stay here with the ponies. It might be hard to catch them if they strayed in search of grass, and I do want to get home before Malcolm can miss us and be worried.”

Betsy was scrambling down from the back of her patient mount as she replied, “I’m going to climb up there, and stand right where the bandit stood—and—”

“Well, go on then.” It was Barbara who spoke. “We’ll wait for you down here. I, for one, am not pining for such a hard climb before breakfast.”

“Do you dare me?” the twinkling eyed Betsy asked, her arms akimbo.

“Double dare!” Babs retorted. Then they all laughed to see the speed with which Betsy began the ascent, but she soon found that she slipped back about as far as she progressed. However, in time, she reached the top and holding to the giant yucca she waved her other hand to the watching group. Then, shading her eyes, she looked long and intently in the direction of the Burning Acres. Suddenly she began to beckon wildly. Virginia was puzzled. “I wonder if she is doing that to tease or if she has really seen something of interest.”

“It seems to be all wings, and it’s white, isn’t it?”

Virg was the 

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