accompany the party, there would be no risk of their running wild.

But while the youngsters had all been so eager for the time to come
for starting on their long journey that they could hardly eat, much
less sleep, Miss Prescott had viewed with alarm the prospects ahead
of her. In her mind the West was a vague jumble of rough cowboys,
Indians, highwaymen and desperate characters in general. But there
was no help for it. In addition to feeling it was her duty to
accompany her young charges, her physician had also recommended her
to seek the dry, rarefied air of the great Nevada plateau.

"It will be the very thing for your lungs, my dear madame," he had
said; "they are by no means as strong as I could wish."

"Oh, but doctor, the Indians, the--the--" Miss Prescott had begun,
when the physician cut her short.

"The only Indians left in the West now are all busy working for Wild
West shows," he said, with a laugh; "and as for any other fancied
cause of alarm, I dare say you will find the Western men quite as
chivalrous and courteous as their Eastern brethren."

And so it happened that the dust-covered train was rolling across
the arid solitudes at the edge of the great alkali desert with our
party of friends on board. All were looking forward to adventures,
but how strange and unexpected some of the happenings that befell
them were to be not one of the party even dreamed.

The only member of the adventurous little band not now accounted for
is Peter Bell, the former recluse. Peter was forward in the smoking