CHAPTER IX--IN THE SADDLE AT LAST

"The matter can be arranged in one, two, three order!" Ruth cried.

She had already seen just the way to go about it. Give Min Peters the chance to make money and she would jump at it.

"You see, _we_ don't mind having a girl for cook and guide. We will rather like it," she said, laughing into Min's delighted face. "Poor old Tom is our only male companion. And unless we find a man to take care of the horses and burros he'll have to put on overalls himself and do that work."

"That'll be all right. I can get a Mexican boy--a good one," Min said quickly. "The hosses is all in Jeb's corral and you can hire of him. I tell you pop expected a big crowd of you and he was disappointed."

"You will make the money he would have made," Ruth told her cheerfully. "We will pay you man's wages and we shall want you at least a month. Eighty dollars and 'found.' How is that?"

"Looks like heaven," said Min bluntly. "I ain't never seen so much money in my life!"

"And the Mexican boy?"

"Pedro Morales. Twenty-two fifty is all he'll expect. We don't pay Greasers like we do white men in this country," said the girl with some bruskness. "But, say, Miss----"

"I am Ruth Fielding."

"Miss Fielding, then. You're the boss of this outfit?"

"I suppose so. I shall pay the bills at any rate. Until Mr. Hammond and the moving picture people arrive."

"Well! what will them other girls say to me--dressed this here way?"

"If you had plenty of dresses and were starting into the range for a trip like this, you'd put on these same clothes, wouldn't you?"

"Oh, sure."

"All right then. You're hired to do a man's work, so I presume a man's clothing will the better become you while you are so engaged," said Ruth, smiling at her frankly.

"All right. Though they've got some calico dresses at the store. I could buy one and wear it--that is, if you'd advance me that much money. But I got a catalog from a Chicago store---- Gee! it's full of the purtiest dresses. I _dreamed_ about gettin' hold of some money some time and buyin' one o' them--everything to go with it. But to tell you honest, when pop gits any loose change, he spends it for red liquor."

"I'll see that you have the money you are going to earn, for yourself," Ruth assured her. "Now tell Mr. Cameron just what to buy. He will do the purchasing at the store. And introduce him to the Mexican boy, Pedro, too. I'll run to tell the other girls how lucky we are to get you to help us, Min."

She hurried away, in reality to prepare her friends for the appearance of the girl who had never worn proper feminine habiliments. She knew that Min would not put up with any giggling on the part of the "tenderfoot" girls. As for Miss Cullam, that good woman said:

"I'm sure I can stand overalls on a girl as well as I can stand these divided skirts and bloomers that some of you are going to wear."

"Just think of a girl never having worn a pretty frock!" gasped Helen. "Isn't that outrageous!"

"The poor thing," said Rebecca. "But she must be awfully coarse and rough."

"Don't let her see that you think so, Rebecca," commanded Ruth quickly. "She has keener perceptions than the average, believe me! We must not hurt her feelings."

"Trust _you_ not to hurt anybody's feelings, Ruthie," drawled Jennie Stone. "But I might find a dress in my trunk that will fit her."

"Oh, girls! let's dress her up--let's give her enough of our own finery out of the trunks to make her feel like a real girl." This from Helen.

"Not now," Ruth said quickly. "She would not thank you. She is an independent thing--you'll see. Let her earn her new clothes--and get acquainted with us."

"Ruth possesses the 'wisdom of serpents,'" Miss Cullam said, smiling. "Are the trunks going to remain here all the time we are absent in the hills?"

"Mr. Hammond is going to have several wagons to transport his goods to Freezeout; and if there is room he will bring along our trunks too. By that time we shall probably be glad to get into something besides our riding habits."

Miss Cullam sighed. "I can see that this roughing it is going to be a much more serious matter than I thought."

However, they all looked eagerly forward to the start into the hills. The hotelkeeper returned with his horse-load of beef, and he was able to give Ruth and Miss Cullam certain information regarding the two girls who had departed with Flapjack Peters on the trail to Freezeout.

"What can Edith Phelps mean by such actions?" the Ardmore teacher demanded in private of Ruth. "You should have told me about that letter and Edith's presence on the train. I should have gone to her and asked her what it meant."

"Perhaps that would have been well," Ruth admitted. "But, dear Miss Cullam! how was I to know that Edith was coming here to Yucca?"

"Yes. I presume that the blame can be attached to nobody in particular. But how could Edith Phelps have gained the confidence of your friend, Miss Hicks?"

"That certainly puzzles me. Edith made all the arrangements with Min's father, so Min says. Ann Hicks must have been misled in some way."

"It looks very strange to me," observed Miss Cullam. "I have my suspicions of Edith Phelps, and always have had. There! you see that we instructors at college cannot help being biased in our opinions of the girls."

"Dear me, Miss Cullam!" laughed Ruth. "Isn't that merely human nature? It is not alone the nature of members of the college faculty."

The hotel was a very plainly furnished place; but the girls and Miss Cullam managed to spend the night comfortably. At eight o'clock in the morning Tom and a half-grown Mexican boy were at the hotel door with a cavalcade of ten ponies and four burros.

Tom had learned the diamond hitch while he was at Silver Ranch and he helped fasten the necessary baggage upon the four little gray beasts. Each rider was obliged to pack a blanket-roll and certain personal articles. But the bulk of the provisions, and a small shelter tent for Miss Cullam, were distributed among the pack animals.

The Briarwood girls and Trix Davenport rode in men's saddles; as did Min Peters; but Sally Blanchard and Rebecca and Miss Cullam had insisted upon sidesaddles.

"And the mildest mannered pony in the lot, please," the teacher said to Tom. "I am just as afraid of the little beasts as I can be. Ugh!"

"And they are so cunning!" drawled Jennie. She stepped quickly aside to escape the teeth of her own mount, who apparently considered the possibility of eating her so as not to bear her weight.

"And can you blame him?" demanded Helen. "It would look better if you shouldered the pony instead of riding on his back."

"Is that so? Just for that I'll bear down as heavily as I can on him," declared Jennie. "I'm not going to let any little cowpony nibble at me!"

The party started away from Yucca with Min Peters ahead and Pedro bringing up the rear with his burros. Although the ponies could travel at a much faster pace than the pack animals, the latter at their steady pace would overtake the cavalcade of riders before the day was done.

The road they struck into after leaving town was a pretty good wagon trail and the riding was easy. There was an occasional ranch-house at which the occupants showed considerable interest in the tourists. But before noon they had ridden into the foothills and Min told them that thereafter dwellings would be few and far between.

"'Ceptin' where there's a town. There are some regular gold washin's we pass. Hydraulic minin', you know. But they are all on this side of the Range. Nothin' doin' on t'other side. All the pay streaks petered out years an' years ago. Even a Chink couldn't make a day's wages at them old diggin's like Freezeout."

"Well, we are not gold hunting," laughed Ruth. "We are going to mine for a better output--moving pictures."

"I've heard tell of them," said Min, curiously. "There was a feller worked for the Lazy C that went to California and worked for them picture fellers. He got three dollars a day and his pony's keep an' says he never worked so hard in his life. That is, when the sun shone; and it most never does rain in that part o' California, he says."

The prospect of camping out of doors, even in this warm and beautiful weather, was what most troubled Miss Cullam and some of the girls.

"With the sky for a canopy!" sighed Sally Blanchard. "Suppose there are wolves?"

"There are coyotes," Helen explained. "But they only howl at you."

"That's enough I should hope," Rebecca Frayne said. "Can't we keep on to the next house and hire beds?"

This was along toward supper time and the burros were in sight and the sun was going down.

"The nearest ranch is Littell's," explained Min Peters. "And it's most thirty mile ahead. We couldn't make it."

"Of course it will be _fun_ to camp out, Rebecca," declared Ruth cheerfully. "Wait and see."

"I'm likely to know more about it by morning," admitted Rebecca. "I only hope the experience will not be too awful."

Ruth and her chum, as well as Jennie and Tom, laughed at the girl. They expected nothing unusual to happen. However----