Donald hung his head, ashamed of the suggestion.
"No," continued Mr. Clark less severely, "I have left no one on guard over Thornton but himself. I am really trusting him."
"You will never find out what he does, then."
"He never will tell you, father!" announced the boy positively.
"Wait and see. Now let us think no more of Thornton, for it is of Sandy that we are to talk. He has a great surprise for you."
Mr. Clark studied the lad's mystified expression with pleasure.
"A surprise for me!" repeated Donald. "What can it be!"
"No, not a word. It would spoil Sandy's fun."
"A surprise!" reiterated Donald over and over.
As they rode from the central camp up over the rough trail Don speculated constantly as to what could be in store for him. It seemed a long journey for he was impatient to solve the waiting enigma. What surprise could Sandy have concocted? At the border of the Reserve they met the ranger who chanced to be patrolling that portion of the government line. He remembered Donald very well and greeted him kindly; he also had a cordial word for Mr. Clark. Donald, however, begrudged even this brief delay and was glad when they plunged into the woods and were on their way through the National Forest.
Pete, the Mexican camp-tender who had come with them as guide, knew the country as an American boy knows his A B C's. He hunted out sheltered nooks where they could camp at night, taking great care to build the fire on a rocky base that it might not set ablaze the brush and litter of pine-needles about them.
"Many a careless shepherd sets a forest fire through being thoughtless," he said. "Acres of timber will be burned off a hillside by one person who did not put out his fire, or scattered sparks in the dried underbrush. Old Angus trained us Crescent men always to build our fires on a flat rock if we could; then there is no danger of our doing damage in the reserve or elsewhere."
"It is a wise plan," Mr. Clark said heartily. "I wish all herders were as careful."
So they journeyed on--now in the sunlight of the plateaus, now in the shadows of the forest. Then one morning they suddenly emerged into an emerald meadow glowing with sunshine. There a beautiful sight met Donald's eye.