“Oh, yes, it was—funny,” Jane said quietly. “Let’s hurry. Dad will be too late for his telephoning. I feel guilty to have detained him for all that nonsense. Aunt Mary, I am to be beautiful. I have a lotion guaranteed to make me so,” and she indicated the little bottle she held rather gingerly. Mr. Allen hurried to the old shack for the buckboard, and only the chatter of the two happy young girls marked the mileage of the home-going journey through the afternoon shadows of the Montana hills. CHAPTER V—ON THEIR WAY “But I am sort of perplexed,” Jane admitted to Judith. “It was lovely, of course, for the boys to serenade us, and I think Fedario quite a sport to give us the ukelele, but how can we return the—compliment? I feel we ought to thank them, somehow.” “Couldn’t we give them a straw ride?” Jane burst out laughing. “Oh, Judy, you poor pale-face! Can you fancy giving cowboys a straw ride?” “Now, Jane Allen, I did not mean to pack them all into one hay-rick or anything as grotesque as that,” answered Judith in pique. “But couldn’t we give them the picnic that goes at the end of the ride, and eliminate the ride?” Another gale of laughter followed this suggestion. Judith plainly knew very little of the joys of ranch life. “I really think,” said Jane, “if we want to give them a good time we would have to make it a good game of poker, and that is altogether out of the question. Most of the ranch men think joy and gambling synonymous, and dad has all he can do to keep the sporting tendency within bounds. No, I guess we will just have to let them know somehow, how much we appreciated their concert. Then we must start seriously to prepare for our journey.” Judith’s face darkened. She had had a wonderful time at El Capitan, and the thought of leaving was not a signal of joy. “I shall hate to go,” she sighed. “It has been divine, Janie.” “And glorious for me to have you, Judy.” Jane twined her arm around the good friend. “I am not going to forget Woo Nah’s prophecy. My good friend for always has the midnight hair.” She touched Judith’s dark tresses softly. “Now, wasn’t it the skylight eyes?” teased Judith. “At any rate, I lined up Marian Seaton with the corn-silk hair,” recalled Jane. “And we are to be beautiful if we make a tea of the wild cinnamon and wash in it! Don’t forget that.” “Oh, no,” Jane corrected. “We wash in the silver solution. Old lady Woo Nah must know a little about chemistry, for that liquid is a solution of silver, and it certainly would bleach. I have tried it on Fliver and his nice brown coat has now a whitish patch. Fancy trying that on the skin of natural girls!”