The house faced the west. It had been carefully placed on a broad ledge of the mountain, a few feet above the desert level, yet the few feet were enough to give a complete view of the valley that swept forty miles to the west into the range that held the Colorado within bounds. The sandy levels of the desert swept to the very foot of the mountain, and Dick had fenced in about twenty-five acres. It was not yet under cultivation, but a scraper half-filled with sand near the corral fence testified to Dick's intentions. There were practically no farm buildings: just the cow-shed, with a sheet-iron roof and a canvas covered shelter in a corner of the corral. Shed and corral were on the desert level and a good two hundred feet from the house. As they stood in silence, Dick came up with his pail of milk. "Great view, isn't it? I'm going to have twenty-five acres of alfalfa here by June." "I thought you were mining," said Ernest. "I came to the desert to dry-farm but I got sidetracked with turquoise mining up the mountain yonder. Nothing in that, but alfalfa is thirty dollars a ton and we get five crops a year." "Which way does the government land lie?" asked Roger. Dick grinned. "Look in any direction! You'll have no trouble locating yourselves. Let's go in to breakfast." Charley and Felicia were sitting at the breakfast table and the meal was quickly eaten. "What do you two do first?" asked Charley as Ernest finished his second cup of coffee. "Locate the camp site and set up housekeeping, so as not to intrude on you any longer," replied Ernest. "Shucks! You wouldn't talk that way if you'd lived here a few years," exclaimed Dick. "You're the first human beings," remarked Charley, "except Dick and a few Indians and old Von Minden that I've seen in six months." "But don't you ever go to town?" asked Roger. "Not often. It's a hard trip and some one has to stay with the stock." Dick looked at Charley with quick reproach. "You know it's always something urgent that takes me in, Charley. And you nearly always refuse to go." "Nearly always, yes, Dick," replied Charley. Dick shrugged his shoulders and there was a moment's silence which Ernest broke. "When are you coming to see us, Felicia?" "Every day, Ernest," replied the child. "Mr. Ernest," corrected Charley. "No! No! We're old friends," protested Ernest. "And Roger's a friend too," added Felicia. "A dearest friend." Ernest grinned. "Felicia! How can you forsake me so! Here's Roger, a notorious woman-hater, and you wasting your young affections on him, when you might have me with a turn of your finger." "You shut up, Ernest!" exclaimed Roger. "Don't pay any attention to him, Felicia." "I won't," replied the child. "But I'll keep right on liking him, next to you." "I see some work ahead for me!" ejaculated Dick. Charley refilled Dick's coffee cup and smiled at him. "I'll bet on you, Dicky," she said. "We'll have supper at six, Roger. I've put up a lunch for you two men."