more quickly she could cross that wide
plain, so, with a grateful glance of her black eyes and a "_muchas
gracias, senor_," she climbed up and sat down in the seat beside him.
He asked her how far she was going, and she answered, to the other
side of the Hermosa mountains. He replied that he was going to his
mining camp in the mountains, but that he would drive her to the top
of the pass, as the road was rocky and steep up the mountain side. He
had some water in a canteen, from which she drank gratefully, and as
midday approached, he shared with her his luncheon of bread and
cheese, while she divided with him what remained of her _tamales_ and
_enchiladas_.

The man's kindly manner gave her confidence and the innate coquetry of
her nature unconsciously began to assert itself. She talked gaily with
him, her eyes by turns sparkled, invited and repelled, her mantilla
almost covered her face one moment and the next was shaken gracefully
down to her shoulders, leaving the coils of her hair shining black as
a crow's wing in the sun. Her little, rosebud mouth pouted and smiled,
and altogether she was so sweet and dainty and graceful that the
middle-aged, gray-bearded Americano began to beam upon her with
admiring eyes and to hover over her with jerky, heavy attempts at
gallantry. He asked her name, but she took sudden alarm and answered
only with a shrug of her shoulders and a swooning glance of her great
black eyes. He put his arm about her waist and stooped to kiss her
smiling mouth. She struggled away from him with a terrified, appealing
cry, "No, no, senor!" of whose meaning there could be no mistake.

The man looked at her with wide, surprised eyes and exclaimed, "Well,
I'll be damned!" and whipped up his horses. He glanced at her
curiously several times and saw that she had edged away from him as
far as she could and drawn the black folds of her mantilla well over
her face. Presently he said, in her own tongue:

"Pardon me, senorita! I thought you would not care."

Her only answer was a little shiver, and they drove on in silence up
the winding mountain road to the top of the pass. There she climbed
out of the wagon and smiled back at the man with a grateful "_muchas,
muchas gracias, senor_," and started down the road toward Las Plumas.
He looked after her contemplatively for a moment and said to himself:

"Well, I'll be damned! But you never can tell how a Greaser's going to
break out next!" Then he turned his team