did not mention the stealing of any horses at
Sinkhole. He seemed to take it for granted that they were going to work
the range to get horses for breaking, and Mary V wondered if perhaps her
dad had not thought it best to confine the knowledge of horse-stealing to
himself and Bill--at least until he had made an investigation. That would
be like dad--and also like Bill Hayden. Mary V was glad that she had not
said anything about it. She thought she would try Tex out first on the
subject of airplanes. None of the boys knew that Johnny had one, and she
was perfectly sure that she would detect any guilty knowledge of it in
the mind of Tex. She had just read a long article in a magazine about
"How our Faces Betray our Thoughts," and this seemed a splendid chance
to put it to the test.

"Bill says an aeroplane came and stampeded all you boys yesterday," she
began with much innocence.

"Yeah. One did fly over our haids. I didn't git to see much of it. My
fool hawse, he started in pitchin' right away, soon as he seen it."

Mary V paused, meditating upon the significance of his words, his tone,
his profile. That there was no particular significance did not in the
least affect her deliberate intention.

"I wonder who it could have been!" she said, stealing a glance from under
her lashes.

"Hunh? Who? The flyin' machine? Search me!" This time his tone was surely
significant. It signified, more than anything else, that the mind of Tex
was busy with other matters. Contrary to the magazine article, his face
did not betray his thoughts. "Yore dad buy Jake off'n Bill for yo' all to
ride?" he asked suddenly.

"No. Bill just lent him to me."

"Hnh! Bill, he shore is generous-hearted to lend yuh Jake."

"Yes," said Mary V, smiling at Tex innocently. "Yes, isn't he?"

But Tex did not reiterate, as pleasant converse demanded. He went off
again into meditation so deep that it quite excluded Mary V.

"Yo' all going to help round up?" Tex asked her suddenly. "You shore can
ride the ridges, with that hawse. I guess yo' all can bring in more
hawses than what any two of us kin."

"That's exactly what I mean to do," Mary V assured him promptly. "You'll
see me riding the ridges almost exclusively."

Tex looked at her and grinned, which did not enhance his good looks,
because his teeth were badly stained with tobacco.

"Yo' all don't want to ride away over in them breaks toward the southeast
corner," he advised. "That's a long, hard r