"It is," agreed Peggy, heartily. She stepped to the window and
gazed out on an uncovered porch outside. It was, in fact, the roof
of the one below. On it flourished quite a little grove of scraggly
plants of various kinds, which were carefully tended by Cash's wife.
They were, perhaps, the only green things in Blue Creek.

But Peggy had little eye for all this. Her lips parted in a quick
gasp of admiration as she gazed upon the night spell of the desert.
The dark sky was sprinkled with countless stars, large and luminous
and beaming with a softer, stronger light than in the North. A
brooding silence hung over the town--the silence of the desert. The
hush was broken only by the droning notes of a song, accompanied on
a guitar, which came from off in the distance on the outskirts of
the little settlement. The music emphasized rather than broke the
silence.

Jess came to Peggy's side, and upon her, too, descended the feeling
of awe that the "Great Alkali" casts over all who encounter it for
the first time.

"Peggy," she said at length, "I'm--I'm the least bit frightened."

Her chum felt a slight shiver run through the girl as she pressed
against her.

"Frightened, girlie? Frightened of what?"

"I don't just know. That's what makes it feel so bad. I guess it's
the silence, the sense of all that loneliness out beyond there that