Chapter 12

IN THE CANYON

The next day was Saturday, and the morning dawned so hot and sultry that almost before the old kitchen clock struck five, the restless eaglets were stirring once more.

"Now's the time I wish we didn't live so far up the mountain," sighed Mercedes, mopping her perspiring face on her sleeve as she struggled to button the dress she had just donned.

"Yes, summer's an awful trial here in this house," agreed Susie, trying to decide whether to put on her shoes and stockings and suffer from the heat in that manner, or to go bare-footed and burn her tender soles on the hot sands.

"Le's do down to the river to-day," lisped Janie, lifting eager eyes to scan the dark face bending over, as Tabitha patiently brushed the tangled curls into smooth ringlets.

"Oh, let's!" seconded the twins.

"You know we had to stay at home yesterday when the rest of you went," wheedled Inez.

"And 'twould have been awful lonesome," began Irene, "if it hadn't been for that----"

"Ice-cream," hastily interposed Susie, giving the little blunderbus a warning glance. "Can't we go, Tabitha? It would be so much cooler there."

"I don't see how we can manage it," answered the flushed housekeeper, glancing longingly out of the window down the yellow ribbon of a road which wound its way in and out among the rocks and yuccas on its way to the muddy Colorado, seven miles away. "The assayer will be wanting his horses to-day and it's too far to walk."

"Can't we hire a team from the stables?" proposed Inez.

"And pay ten dollars a day for it?" scoffed Mercedes. "Where are you going to get your money to foot the bill?"

"Then let's catch enough burros to lug us all," suggested the resourceful Susie. "No one would care. They run loose on the desert all the time."

Tabitha shook her head slowly, although her eyes gleamed appreciatively at the plan. If only Rosslyn and Janie were older! How she would enjoy such a frolic as Susie's suggestion would mean.

Only Gloriana remained discreetly silent.

She shuddered whenever she recalled her first and only ride on one of the wicked little beasts,--that wild New Years Even when she and Tabitha had tried to keep Mr. McKittrick's claims from being jumped,--and she drew an audible sigh of relief at Tabitha's decision. But the next instant her heart sank within her, for with a scurry of feet in the narrow hallway, the door of the room was unceremoniously flung open, and two eager, boyish faces peered in.

"I say, Tab," began Billiard, so excited he could hardly refrain from shouting his news, "your Uncle Decker is out here----"

"And he's brung a whole--flock--of burros," broke in Toady, so anxious to tell part of the good news that he could not stop for choice of words.

"Saddled," Billiard hurried on, trying to beat Toady to the climax.

"For us!" cried the smaller boy.

"To ride to the canyon on!" bellowed the two as with one voice.

"Really?" gasped Tabitha.

"How perfectly scrumptious!" squealed the tribe of McKittrick.

"But Janie and Rosslyn," faltered Gloriana faintly. "Aren't they too small----"

"Oh, he's got a buckboard, too," grinned Billiard, who had recently discovered the red-haired maid's poor little secret; but forbore to make unkind remarks about it because he himself stood somewhat in awe of the sleepy-eyed demons of the desert, since one had unexpectedly kicked him when he was trying to mount. "He drove in for some provisions, and your father told him to bring us all back with him, and we're to _camp_ at the mines until Monday. Won't that be great? Whoop-ee!" He leaped into the air, cracked his heels together and came down with a resounding thump which shook the whole house and made the dishes in the pantry rattle.

But no word of reproof was uttered, for Tabitha had seized the half-dressed, half-combed Janie in her arms, and rushed from the room. It seemed impossible that anyone could have come up that narrow, rocky trail to the Eagles' Nest with a half dozen or more burros and a buckboard without her having heard them, but there they were lined up by the kitchen steps,--seven sleepy-eyed, wicked little burros, saddled and bridled, and a pair of small, wiry mustangs hitched to a light wagon, and driven by Decker Simmons, Mr. Catt's partner.

"Why, Uncle Decker!" Tabitha began.

"Didn't we tell you he was here?" exulted the two boys who had followed her.

"But--but--" she stammered.

"But she didn't b'lieve us," crowed Toady.

"I thought you must be mistaken," she confessed, "for I could not imagine anyone so crazy as to want _ten_ children under foot at a mine. Whatever possessed Dad, Uncle Decker?"

The man laughed good-naturedly. "Thought we all needed a vacation, I reckon," he answered. "Are you anywhere near ready? Better hurry. Sun will soon be unmercifully hot, and the canyon isn't exactly within walking distance. Can't I help?"

"No, thanks. It won't take us long----"

"We're ready now," announced the procession of girls crowded around her.

"Mercy finished Janie's hair while you stood here gabbing. Glory packed up what duds we'd need, and Billiard's got the house all locked up. Who's to take which burro?"

"Makes no difference," answered the man, chuckling at the despatch with which preparations for the outing were made. "Put the little tikes in here with me, and any of the rest of you who perfer the buckboard can pile in. That red--the girl with the game hip--you better ride with us, too."

This suited Gloriana perfectly, and she lost no time in making herself comfortable among the leather cushions with Rosslyn and Janie beside her; but the rest of the party declined that method of transportation, and mounted the animals standing patiently in the scant shade of the porch. In less time than it takes to tell, the hilarious procession was on its way to the canyon, and the baking town was left behind.

"Let's race," cried Billiard, who was mounted on an innocent-looking, lazy beast.

"Come on!" cried Susie, giving her animal a prod with a sharp stick she had snatched from the woodpile as they clattered out of the yard; and away they flew, shouting and flapping reins, urging the stolid little burros out of their poky gait into a surprised run.

But the race came to an abrupt and unexpected end. Susie's mount seemed more ambitious than its mates, or else the youthful rider goaded it to desperation; for, with a mighty spurt, it took the lead, and shot three lengths ahead of the rest, cantering off across the desert as if racing were its daily delight. Rosy-cheeked Susie glanced back over her shoulder, waved the sharp stick triumphantly in the air, and jeered, "Yah, yah! Why don't you come along? Has you burro gone to sleep?"

This was too much for Billiard, and grabbing a needle-pointed Spanish bayonet frond from the hands of his brother, he gave the brown-coated beast beneath him a vicious stab, as he yelled in disgust, "Giddap, you old demon! Wake up and stretch your legs a lit----"

Brownie awoke into surprising activity, leaped forward with unseating suddenness, planted his forefeet firmly among the rocks, and with one deliberate, energetic kick, sent Billiard flying through the air. The watchers behind held their breath in terror. Would the boy be killed for his folly? Then a wild shout of laughter rose from eight throats. But who could have resisted it? For the luckless Billiard, after turning a summersault high in the air, fell astraddle the neck of Toady's burro, and slipped to the ground in a sprawling heap, while the second startled beast bolted across the desert with its plucky rider still clinging to its back.

The dazed Billiard picked himself up from the ground considerably shaken but not hurt, and gazing ruefully first after his own fleeing burro, and then after Toady's, now far in advance of Susie's little animal, remarked, "Well, the old thing has got _some_ ginger in him after all! Do you suppose I can ever catch him?"

"I'll help," quickly volunteered Tabitha, trying hard to suppress her mirth, so meek and woebegone was the tumbled figure standing in the roadway; and with a nimble spring she landed beside him, tethering her burro to a yucca, growing close at hand. Mercedes and the twins followed her example, but it was a lively chase they had before the unruly animal was finally captured, and the party continued its journey, reaching their destination without further mishap.

Gloriana was disappointed at first, as she looked about her while her companions were dismounting, for she had expected to see a canyon like those lovely spots hidden among the San Bernardino hills; but this place was no different from the rocky, barren mountains surrounding Silver Bow. However, there was little time for lamentations, for with surprising ingenuity, Mr. Catt had arranged a delightful program for the two days the young folks were in camp, and not a moment of the brief holiday was dull even for Rosslyn and Janie. So it was with reluctant hearts that the party mounted their burros Monday morning for their return trip.

"Where are the boys?" inquired Mercedes curiously, as she sprang nimbly into her saddle and gathered up the reins ready to start.

"Susie isn't here, either," said Tabitha, pausing in her task of packing to count noses. "They must be in the tent. I saw them not very long ago. Dad, are the boys ready?"

"Haven't seen them," he answered emerging from one of the tents with a light grip and dumping it into the back of the buckboard.

"I saw Billiard and Toady whispering something to Susie just as the wagon drove up," tattled Inez, provoked to think she had not been included in the secret, "and they all ran off that way." She pointed up the mountainside, where the mesquite and cacti grew thickest, and huge boulders made climbing difficult.

"What in the world possessed them to go off like that?" fretted Tabitha, impatient at the unexpected delay.

"Bet I know," Irene piped up. "They prob'ly went for a last look at the puppies."

"Puppies!" cried the others in amazement. "Where are there any puppies about here?"

"Quite a piece up there on the other side,--they weren't going to tell the rest of us, but I happened to find them myself."

"Here they come now," Rosslyn excitedly interrupted; and sure enough, the trio had appeared on the hillcrest, each tugging something which squirmed and twisted, and snarled and yapped until their flushed, panting owners could scarcely hold them.

"Holy snakes!" ejaculated Decker Simmons.

Mr. Catt whistled. The rest of the party stared.

"What in creation have you got, Susie McKittrick?" demanded Mercedes, with all the severity her gentle nature could muster, as the three children came within speaking distance, Susie in advance.

"A pup," gasped the red-faced girl, taking a fresh grip on the wriggling, sharp-nosed little animal, half hidden in the torn skirt of her dress. "Isn't he cute? See what bright eyes he's got."

"And see how you've snagged your clothes," said Irene reprovingly.

"And scratched your face," added Inez, glad now that she had not been a party in the expedition.

"That's nothing to what Billiard's did to him," Susie retorted sharply, nettled at her reception. "He picked out the prettiest of the bunch for Tabitha. We told him how much you used to want a dog all your own, Kitty. But it's the wildest thing I ever saw. Here he comes now. Billiard, didn't you choose your pup for Tabitha?"

"Would you accept it?" he panted somewhat shyly, embarrassed and a little provoked that Susie should have announced his intentions the first thing. "I--I got the handsomest fellow of them all, but I pretty near had to club it to death before it would come along peaceably."

"But Billiard," gasped Tabitha, finding her tongue at last, "that isn't a pup!"

"What is it then?" Susie bristled so aggressively that she forgot to keep a tight hold on her unwilling prisoner, and with a final scratch and yap of exultation, it freed itself from her arms, and darted away among the sagebrush.

"A coyote."

"No!" Toady dropped his as if it were poison, and lifted startled eyes to Tabitha's face.

"You're fooling!" cried Susie in exasperation over her loss.

"Dad, Uncle Decker, isn't that a baby coyote?"

Both men nodded silently, a look of amusement flickering about their lips.

"But--but--" spluttered Billiard, still hugging his half-smothered treasure to his bosom. "It--they _look_ like pups."

"Yes, they do, but you found them pretty frisky for pups, didn't you?"

"They _were_ pretty lively," admitted the older boy slowly.

"And as scratchy as--" began Toady.

"As _cats_," finished Susie, angry at Tabitha for calling the animals coyotes, angry at her sisters for laughing, and angry at herself for not knowing the truth of the matter without being told.

"That's so, too," agreed Mr. Catt amiably. "It beats me how you ever managed to catch them."

"It was a job," sighed Billiard regretfully, freeing the pretty little ball wrapped so snugly in his coat, and watching it skulk away after its two brothers. "We had some empty sacks----"

"But they weren't much good," Susie broke in contemptuously. "If it hadn't been for that can of meat we swiped, we'd never have caught 'em. They bite like everything, as well as scratch."

"Yes," said Billiard mournfully, taking the reins from Tabitha's hands and mounting his burro, "and we had all our pains for nothing."

"Not quite," whispered Tabitha sympathetically. "I understand, and I'm glad you took such trouble for me. But hurry. It's late already, and will be terribly hot before we reach home."

So the party said good-bye to the canyon and set out briskly on their long ride back to Silver Bow, but Tabitha was exultant, for Billiard, unruly, rebellious Billiard was at last completely won.