“Sure thing,” returned their host, “and they’re only a few of them.  It would take a cowboy the better part of a day to start at one end of the ranch and circle around it.  And there’s plenty of ranches in the State bigger than mine.”

Now the going was steadily uphill and the horses subsided to a walk.  They were in the foothills of the Rockies.  In the gathering dusk they could see ahead of them the mighty peaks in the background rising to a height of many thousand feet.  Higher and higher they went, until they were as much as six hundred feet above sea level.  If they had had no other proof they would have found it in the increasing rarity of the air and the slightly greater difficulty in breathing.

“You’ll soon get used to that,” said Melton.  “After a day or two you won’t notice any difference.  I could of course have built on a lower level, and in some ways that would have been an advantage.  But when I settled here I made up my mind that I wanted air that was washed clean by the mountain breezes, and I planted my stakes according.”

Soon they reached a broad, level plateau, and, a little way off, could see the lights coming from a low-lying group of buildings.  Several dogs came rushing down with barks of welcome, and a couple of men lounging near one of the corrals removed the bars of a huge gate, from which the path led up to the largest of the buildings.  It was a rambling structure only two stories in height, but covering a vast extent of ground and suggestive of homely comfort and hospitality.  A broad veranda extended along three sides of the house, and in front a well-kept flower garden bordered the path that led to the door.

As they approached, heralded by the noisy greeting of the dogs, the door was thrown wide open and Mrs. Melton appeared in the flood of light that streamed from within.

She was a pleasant-faced, motherly-looking woman, and she welcomed the boys with open arms.  There was no mistaking the warmth and sincerity of her greeting.  They felt at home at once and in a few minutes were chatting and laughing as easily as though they had known her for years.  Perhaps the memory of her own two boys, dead long since, but who would have been just about the age of the newcomers had they lived, added to the hearty cordiality with which she took them under her wing.

“We oughtn’t to need any introduction at all,” she beamed, “because Mr. Melton has done nothing but talk about you ever since he came back from that last trip to Mexico.  I wouldn’t dare to tell you all he said, for fear of making you conceited.  I really think the last trip he made East was more to see you than anything else.  He said he was going on business, but I have my own opinion about that.”

“Well, if it hadn’t been for him we wouldn’t have been there to see,” said Bert warmly.  “The vultures would have had us long ago, if he hadn’t risked his own life to help us out of trouble.”