The scene was indeed beautiful. The _mesa_ seemed to be suffused by a purple glow, while, farther off, the foothills, from which it was separated by a level expanse, were in a golden haze. The _mesa_ stood up boldly, almost like some giant toadstool, save that the stem was thicker. There was an overhang to the top, or table part, though, that carried out the resemblance. "I should think that would be difficult of access," observed Mr. DeVere. "There's an easy way up on the other side," returned Baldy. "The Indians always use that side. It's a narrow path to the top." The cowboys, their work over for the day, were indulging in some of their pastimes--rough riding, feats in throwing the lariat, jumping, wrestling and the like. "Don't you want to go with them?" asked Alice of their escort. "No, Miss, I--I'd rather be with you," Baldy replied, simply, but he blushed even under his coat of tan. "Now who's to blame?" asked Ruth in a low voice of her sister, as she regarded her with a quizzical smile. "I can't help it if he likes me," murmured the younger girl. In fact both Ruth and Alice were favorites with all the cowboys, who were always willing to perform any little service for them. The other members of the moving picture company, too, were well liked; but Ruth and Alice seemed to come first. Perhaps it was because they were both so natural and girlish, and took such an interest in the life and doings at Rocky Ranch. Ruth and Alice were fast becoming adepts in the saddle. The other members of the company, too, soon felt more at home on the back of a horse, and Mr. Pertell allowed them to rehearse in the scenes where mounted action was necessary. Mr. Bunn had one rather unlucky experience on a horse, and for some time after that he refused to mount a steed, even going to the length of threatening to resign if compelled to. The "old school" actor was rather supercilious in his manner, and this was resented by some of the cowboys, who thought him "stuck up." They therefore planned a little joke on him. At least, it was a joke to them. The horse Mr. Bunn had learned to ride was a steady-going beast that had outlived its frisky days, and plodded along just the pace that suited the actor. But there was, among the ranch animals, a "bucking bronco," who looked so much like Mr. Bunn's horse that even some of the cowboys had difficulty in telling them apart. A bucking bronco, it might be explained, is a steed who by nature or training uses every means in its power to unseat its rider. The bucking consists in the horse leaping into the air, with all four feet off the ground, and coming down stiff-legged, jarring to a considerable degree the person in the saddle.