Gus shifted uneasily.
"You'd better have a bath and a shave. And if you need clothes and can get them here," continued Ned, "I'll advance more to-morrow—if you show up all right."
"I kin work widdout a shave," the man said, "ain't der nuttin' doin' to-day?"
Assured that to-morrow was when he was wanted the tramp slowly and apparently reluctantly turned and slouched away toward the stores.
"What do you make of him, Ned?" asked Alan as the two toys resumed work.
"Too slangy, I think," commented Ned.
But the final stowing of the acid soon drove the tramp from the minds of the boys.
When the young aeronauts finally closed the corral and returned to the car, the sun a great red ball, was just dropping behind the serrated mountains of the western horizon. On the car steps, Ned turned and pointed to the north. Far away the dusky gray of the plains deepened into darker and darker shadows that ended in a low black mass. But here and there from the black wall rose irregular spires, their tops pink-tipped by the red sun.
"Yes," exclaimed Alan, "the Tunit Chas—our mountains."
And even though the vigilant Elmer called from within, the boys stood and gazed in silence until the last glow had died away and the land of their hopes was lost under the stars.