"Yes, yes, I was over to her place two, tree times," began Juan,
brightening with each word. "I drive en to many horse to her ranch.
You bet I sell some damn good horse to Queen Victorie. I can tell you
myself Queen Victorie is a fine little woman I ever seen on my life.
She make big a dance for me when I never seen so much supper on my
life. I dance with her myself an' she ata me an' say, 'Juanie, I never
dance lika this en my life till I dance with you,' yes, that's sure
what she tell me to my own face an' eyes."

Pan was the only one of Juan's listeners who had power of speech left,
and he asked: "Juan, did you play any monte or poker with the queen?"

"You bet. She playa best game of poker I ever seen on my life an' she
won tree hunred dollars from me."

Whereupon Pan succumbed to the riotous mirth. This laughter tickled
Lying Juan's supreme vanity. He was a veritable child in mentality,
though he spoke English better than most Mexican laborers. Blinky was
the only one who ever tried to match wits with Lying Juan.

"Juan, thet shore reminds me of somethin'," began Blinky impressively.
"Yea, hit shore does. Onct I almost got hitched up with Victorie. I
was sort of figgerin' on marryin' her, but she got leary o' my little
desert farm back in Missourie. She got sorter skeered o' coyotes an'
Injins. Now, I ain't got no use fer a woman like her an' thet's why me
an' Queen Victorie ain't no longer friends."

Most of the talk, however, invariably switched back to the burning
question of the hour--wild horses. Pan had to attempt to answer a
hundred queries, many of which were not explicit to his companions or
satisfactory to himself. Finally he lost patience.

"Say, you long-eared jackasses," he exploded. "I tell you it all
depends on the lay of the land. I mean the success of a big drive. If
round the corner here there's good running ground--well, it'll be great
for us. We'll look the ground over and size up the valley for horses.
Find where they water and graze. If we decide to use this place as a
trap to drive into we'll throw up two blind corrals just inside that
gateway out there. Then we'll throw a fence of cedars as far across
the valley as we can drag cedars. The farther the better. It'll have
to be a fence too thick and high for horses to break through or jump
over. That means work, my buckaroos, _work_! When that's done we'll
go up the valley, get behind the wild horses and drive th