Granados."

"Oh! Pike did, did he? Nice and sympathetic of Pike. I reckon he's the
old-time ranger I heard about out at the Junction, reading a red-fire
riot to some native sons who were not keen for the cactus trail of the
Villistas. That old captain must be a live wire, but he thinks I can't
stick?"

"No-o, that wasn't Cap Pike, that was my own hunch. Say, are you
married?"

"O senorita! this is so sudden!" he spoke in shy reproof, twisting his
neckerchief in mock embarrassment, and again Merced looked toward the
house because of peals of laughter there.

"You are certainly funny when you do that," she said after her
laughter had quieted down to giggles, "but I wasn't joking, honest
Indian I wasn't! But how did you come to strike Granados?"

"Me? Well, I ranged over from California to sell a patch of ground I
owned in Yuma. Then I hiked over to Nogales on a little _pasear_ and
offered to pack a gun and wear a uniform for this Mexican squabble,
and the powers that be turned me down because one of my eyes could see
farther than the other--that's no joke--it's a calamity! I spent all
the _dinero_ I had recovering from the shock, and about the time I was
getting my sympathetic friends sobered up, Singleton, of Granados, saw
us trying out some raw cavalry stock, and bid for my valuable services
and I rode over. Any other little detail you'd like to know?"

"N-no, only needed to know it wasn't Conrad the manager hired you, and
I asked if you were married because married men need the work more
than single strays. Adolf Conrad got rid of two good American men
lately, and fetches over Mexicans from away down Hermosillo way."

"'Cause why?" asked the man who had ceased pretense of mending the
saddle, and was standing with back against the adobe.

"'Cause I don't know," came petulant response. "I only had the hunch
when I saw you tame that outlaw in the corral. If he pulls wires to
lose _you_, I'll stop guessing; I'll know!"

"Very interesting, senorita," agreed the stranger reflectively. "But
if I have a good job, I can't see how it will give me aid or comfort
to know that you've acquired knowledge, and stopped guessing. When's
your time up behind the bars?"

"Whenever my clothes get dry enough to fool the dear home folks."

"You must be a joy to the bosom of your family," he observed, "also a
blessing."

He heard again the girlish laughter and concluded she could not be
over sixteen. There was silence for a spac