Toby made a jesting remark to Biron about the revolver hanging at his belt, not from fear but as a pleasantry. Misunderstanding, he unslung it instantly, and tossed it into his car. “I don’t want that thing,” he elaborated, “it gets in my way.” They got to work in earnest, with great speed and skill. Twice the rope which they hitched to their car broke as we turned on our power. Meanwhile the old lady churned herself deeper into the mud, skulls, and shin-bones of the pool. After an hour’s work, with much racing of the engine, and a Niagara of splashing mud which covered us all from head to foot, she stirred, heaved over on one side, and groaning like seven devils commanded to come out, lumbered to terra firma, looming beside the pert wrecking car like Leviathan dug out with an hook. After all, it was a glorious Thirteenth. No sensation is more exhilarating than to be rescued from a mud-hole which seemed likely to envelop one for life. Even the slender arc of the young moon, in that clear air, poured a silver flood over the desert, now a mysterious veil of luminous blue. The vibrant heat waves of day had risen and twisted into the thin air, and frosty currents swept and freshened the simmering earth. The elder, a slow-speaking chap from Tucson, gravely filled our radiator from the reservoir, filled his canteen and offered us a drink, and then asked us if we had eaten supper. We bravely fibbed, with hunger gnawing within, not wishing to put ourselves further in their debt. As they prepared to leave I was uncomfortably reminded we had no breakfast for next morning, and no water, owing to our canteenless state. They were our food and drink--and we were letting them depart! But I wanted to make sure what they would do next. In businesslike fashion they started their car, then bade us a cordial good-by. They made no hint toward continuing our acquaintance, nor asked our plans, and even the merry Biron showed only an impersonal twinkle as he shook hands. So I spoke, choosing between apple jelly for breakfast, and ham, eggs, coffee and impropriety. “Would you mind if we followed you and camped somewhere near?” They accepted our company with the same jovial enthusiasm with which they had met us,--Biron I thought a trifle too jovial, but Tucson steady as a Christian Endeavorer. They jumped in their car, took the lead, and in the dark we streaked after their red lantern, over thirty miles of “malpais.”