"All right. We'll allow that we had," agreed Miss Hardy. "Betty, get around here, and get up this hill! I know every step is taking us farther from the ranch, but this seems the only direction in which a trail leads. Jim, how far do you suppose we are from home?"
"'Bout fifteen miles, I guess," said the boy, looking blue.
"And we haven't found the lost sheep?"
"No, we haven't."
"And we have got lost?"
"Yes."
"Jim, I don't believe we are a howling success as sheep farmers."
"I don't care a darn about the sheep just now," declared Jim. "What I want to know is where we are to sleep to-night."
"Oh, you want too much," she answered briskly; "I am content to sit up all night, if I only can find a dry place to stay in—do you hear that?" as the thunder that had grumbled in the distance now sounded its threats close above them.
"Yes, I hear it, and it means business, too. I wish we were at the end of this trail," he said, urging his horse up through the scrubby growth of laurel.