Stacy sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“What did you wake me up for?” he demanded. “Hulloa, Tom!”
“I awakened you by transmigration of thought,” answered Emma. “Oh, girls, girls, wake up! Tom is here,” she cried.
The camp was instantly aroused. Tom was discovered sitting calmly by a little fire that he had built, waiting for the sleepers to awaken. Tom had done exactly what Grace said he would. When he lost his bearings in the darkness, he lay down to wait for daylight. When daylight came he found no difficulty in picking up his trail and returning to camp.
“Did you find water?” demanded Hippy.
“Not a drop. For that reason, we must take a quick breakfast and hurry on. I think we shall find water beyond the next low range, and it is necessary that we do so before the sun gets high and hot. We can stand it for some time longer, but the horses cannot.”
The start was made soon after that, Tom and Hippy packing their belongings while Woo and the girls were getting breakfast. The trail they followed took them up a gradual slope for several miles and then pitched giddily into a deep canyon, a canyon that covered all of fifty acres, from which the hills rose in great swells into the far distance. The climb down the side of the mountain was tiresome and difficult, but they forgot their discomfort when finally they came upon a stream of cold, sparkling water that came down from the snow-capped tips of the High Sierras.
“Oh, look!” cried Emma. “Cows! Now we can have some milk.”
“Cows!” groaned Stacy. “Those aren’t cows, they are cattle.”
There were loud exclamations of wonder when the Overlanders saw a lot of cattle, in charge of several herders, grazing less than a mile away. After permitting the horses to drink all that was good for them, and after the Overlanders themselves had drunk and filled their water bottles, they galloped on towards the herd. From the herders they learned that the cattle belonged to the “Lazy J” ranch. The animals were on their summer grazing grounds, having come up into the hills for the summer months.