r
broken English was oddly attractive. "Poof! los Americanos not all
find me so ver' ter'ble."

Stutter Brown ground his white teeth together savagely, his short red
moustache bristling. He was quite young, never greatly accustomed to
companionship with the gentler sex, and of a disposition strongly
opposed to being laughed at. Besides, he felt seriously his grave
deficiencies of speech.

"I-I-I was s-sorter expectin' a-a-another kind of c-c-caller," he
stuttered desperately, in explanation, every freckle standing out in
prominence, "an' th-th-thought m-m-maybe somebody 'd g-g-got the d-drop
on me."

The girl only laughed again, her black eyes sparkling. Yet beneath his
steady, questioning gaze her face slightly sobered, a faint flush
becoming apparent in either cheek.

"You talk so ver' funny, senor; you so big like de tree, an' say vords
dat vay; it make me forget an' laf. You moost not care just for me.
Pah! but it vas fight all de time vid you, was n't it, senor? Biff,
bang, kill; ver' bad," and she clapped her gauntleted hands together
sharply. "But not me; I vas only girl; no gun, no knife--see. I just
like know more 'bout mine--Americano's mine; you show me how it vork.
_Sabe_?"

Stutter appeared puzzled, doubtful.

"Mexicana?" he questioned, kicking a piece of rock with his heavy boot.

"Si, senor, but I speak de English ver' good. I Mercedes Morales, an'
I like ver' much de brav' Americanos. I like de red hair, too,
senor--in Mexico it all de same color like dis," and she shook out her
own curling ebon locks in sudden shower. "I tink de red hair vas more
beautiful."

Mr. Brown was not greatly accustomed to having his rather fiery
top-knot thus openly referred to in tones of evident admiration. It
was a subject he naturally felt somewhat sensitive about, and in spite
of the open honesty of the young girl's face, he could not help
doubting for a moment the sincerity of her speech.

"L-l-like f-fun yer do," he growled uneasily. "A-a-anyhow, whut are
yer d-d-doin' yere?"

For answer she very promptly swung one neatly booted foot over and
dropped lightly to the ground, thus revealing her slender figure. Her
most notable beauty was the liquid blackness of her eyes.

"Si, I tell you all dat ver' quick, senor," she explained frankly,
nipping the rock-pile with her riding whip, and bending over to peer,
with undisguised curiosity, into the yawning shaft-hole. "I ride out
from San Juan for