The horses plodded slowly through the sand. Dick pulled up before the living tent. "She's come! Here she is!" shouted Ernest, as if the watching group in the burning western sun could doubt its eyes. Roger lifted Elsa down from the wheel. "Never knew I could be so glad to see you, Elsa," he said. "And you're prettier than ever even if your nose is peeling. Look! Here's Charley Preble and Felicia and Dick and Gustav." Elsa, freshly burned, but with her silk traveling suit smart in spite of the dust, shook hands all round. She turned back from Gustav to Charley again, and looked at her with frank interest. "You know, Ernest never told me what to wear, so I didn't bring a bit of khaki. Wasn't I foolish? It looks just right down here." "I've some extra skirts you can wear till you can send back for some," said Charley. "Let's go into the living tent out of this heat while the boys unload." They went alone, for Felicia, after standing in an agony of indecision for a moment or two, decided in favor of the tantalizing packages in the wagon box. The girls were not in the tent long. When they came out, they had their arms about each other. "Elsa's going up to the house with me and get a bath and change her clothes. We'll be down for supper," said Charley. There was a flush of happiness on her face that made Dick say, "I hope you stay forever, Elsa! Come along! I'll take the team up and your trunk. What do you want done with the cot and things, Ernest?" "Never mind those," said Elsa, serenely. "I'm going to stay with Charley." The men looked at each other speechlessly. As the wagon rattled off, Roger said to Ernest: "They were in that tent less than five minutes. What do you suppose happened?" Ernest shook his head. "I've given up trying to understand women. Look at that cot and the lumber--a whole darned outfit, and I nearly killed the horses getting the mess up in one load because Elsa insisted she'd have to have it to-night. Women!" CHAPTER XI DICK'S SICKNESS All day Monday, Roger and his two helpers sweated to prepare for the plant's first trial. Roger would let no one touch the engine but himself, but Ernest and Gustav puttered with the condenser and the pump and at dawn started the oil circulating through the absorber. All day long the burning desert sun poured its heat through the glass into the oil which caught and imprisoned it for Roger's purpose, until the storage pit was full. Roger had set the time of trial as nine o'clock in the evening in order to prove the night as well as the day power of his plant. The Prebles appeared shortly before the hour. "Everything O. K.?" asked Dick, with a creditable effort at being off-hand. "One never knows till afterward," replied Roger. "Come into the engine house. No room for you, Peter, old man."