It was the nineteenth of December and the morning was bright and sparkling. Margaret Selover stood on the wide veranda of the ranch house, her eyes glowing with appreciation as she gazed across the shimmering white desert and toward the mountains over which hung a blaze of blue and gold.
“Ho, Virginia,” she called to the girl, who, hatless, came up from the chicken yard, where she had been to scatter a breakfast to her feathered pets, “it is hard for me to realize that it is nearly Christmas and not a snow flake to be seen.”
“When we go up in the mountains after our Christmas tree, you will see plenty of snow,” Virginia assured her. “Slim tells me that when he rode over the Seven Peak range yesterday, it was snowing and blowing a regular blizzard.”
“Oh, Virg, how nice! Are we going to have a truly Christmas tree? I haven’t had one since mother and dad and I were all together.”
The other girl nodded. “Yes, indeed. We have a big tree every Christmas for our own family and for the Slaters. One year we have it here and the next to the Bar S Ranch. That makes quite a party, for they have four cow-boys and we have two.” Then after a thoughtful moment, Virginia added, “How I do wish that some kiddies lived nearby. It would be heaps more fun to have children to skip around a Christmas tree wouldn’t it, but there isn’t a chick or child for ten miles around.”
At that moment Malcolm appeared. “Sis,” he said, “I have an important letter to send. Would you and Margaret be willing to ride over to the junction and mail it for me? I had planned going myself, but Mr. Slater just phoned that he saw several of our prize yearlings headed for the Mexican border, and so Rusty and I are going at once to search for them and turn them back, for, if they cross the line, we will never see them again. If we aren’t home tonight, don’t worry, girls, for we will camp down that way until we find them all.”
“Goodbye and good luck!” Margaret and Virginia called, as arm in arm they stood watching the good looking boy as he swung into his saddle and galloped away. Near the corral he was joined by Rusty Pete and the two boys turned and waved their wide sombreros while Malcolm’s horse reared and then plunged ahead, to the delight of the eastern girl. “How I do hope Babs will see Malcolm ride some day,” she said as they turned into the house.
Several weeks had passed since Margaret had attempted to ride Comrade, and Malcolm had taken every opportunity that presented since then to teach his ward to ride, and at last both gracefully and fearlessly she rode every day with Virginia.
Half an hour after Malcolm had departed, the two girls in their khaki riding habits (Margaret with a red handkerchief knotted about her neck and Virginia with a blue) started riding along the trail which led over the mesa, down into the dry creek and over toward the mountains. They were about a quarter of a mile away from the Seven Peak range when Virginia suddenly drew rein and gazed intently ahead. Margaret looked wonderingly in the same direction but saw nothing unusual.
“What is it, Virginia?” the eastern girl asked anxiously as she drew rein by the side of her friend and gazed across the shimmering desert.
“Has something startled you? What do you see?”
Margaret knew that Virginia’s desert trained eyes could perceive things that were invisible to her. “It may be nothing at all to be startled about,” Virginia replied, “but I overheard two cow-boys talking yesterday. One of them had just ridden in from Douglas and he said that an outlaw from Texas is hiding in the mountains. I did not mention this to brother, for, had I done so, he would not permit me to ride far from the house, and I am very sure that we can protect ourselves. However, I do not wish to run into trouble needlessly.”
“But what did you see that made you think this outlaw might be near?” Margaret inquired.
Virginia turned toward her. “You, too, must train your eyes,” she said. “Now look intently just to the left of the giant cactus, and close to the foot of the mountains; then tell me what you see.”
Margaret shaded her eyes and gazed for a long time before she spoke. “I think that I can see an old adobe hut,” she said softly. Then she asked, “Is that what you wished me to see?”
Virginia nodded. “Yes, but what do you notice about it?”
“There might be smoke coming from the chimney,” Margaret replied, “but it is so faint that at first I did not notice it.”
“When I tell you that the old crumbling adobe has been vacant for many years and that it is absolutely unsafe as a habitation for human beings of any kind, you will understand why I was so puzzled to see signs of an occupant. The last family to live there was a mountain lioness and her young, but I am sure that some human being must be there now, for a lion could not start a fire.”
Virginia, fearing that she might have frightened the eastern girl, said this merrily as she whirled her horse’s head away from the mountains.
“We will take the sand hill trail,” she announced. “It is a mile farther to the junction, but perhaps we would be unwise to ride alone too close to the old adobe.”
“You really think that the outlaw might be hiding there?” Margaret asked anxiously.
Virginia nodded. “It is a very lonely spot,” she said, “and so it is quite possible.”
“What is an outlaw?” the eastern girl inquired as they rode side by side toward the sand-hills.
“An outlaw is a man who has done something displeasing to his fellow citizens. He is driven from his home state and it would not be safe for him to return. Sometimes an outlaw is innocent of the charges against him and is just a victim of unfortunate circumstances, but one never knows, of course.”
Virginia, as she spoke, glanced back toward the old adobe which was hardly visible from that distance; then, to Margaret’s surprise, she drew rein, whirled about and once more gazed intently in that direction.
“Virg, what do you see now?” Margaret inquired, for she herself could see nothing.
For answer Virginia beckoned the eastern girl to follow, and then, urging Comrade to top speed, she again galloped toward the mountains and the old adobe hut.
Much puzzled, Margaret followed on Star.
What had Virginia seen, she wondered.