ut I can't place him."

"They'll place you all right, all right!" prophesied Pike darkly, "you
and your interesting family won't need a brand."

Rhodes stared at him a moment and then grinned.

"Right you are, Cap. Wouldn't it be pie for the gossips to slice up
for home consumption?"

He kept on grinning as he looked at the poor bit of human flotsam whom
he had dubbed "the owl" because of her silence and her eyes. She
aroused Miguel without words, watching him keenly for faintest sign of
recovery. The food and sleep had refreshed him in body, but the mind
was far away. To the girl he gave no notice, and after a long
bewildered stare at Rhodes he smiled in a deprecating way.

"Your pardon, Don Jose, that I outsleep the camp," he muttered
haltingly. "It is a much sickness of the head to me."

"For that reason must you ride slowly today," stated Rhodes with quick
comprehension of the groping mind, though the "Don Jose" puzzled him,
and at first chance he loitered behind with the girl and questioned
her.

"How makes itself that I must know all the people in the world before
I was here on earth?" she asked morosely? "Me he does not know, Don
Jose is of Soledad and is of your tallness, so----"

"Know you the man who came for water at the canon well?" he asked, and
she looked at him quickly and away.

"The name of the man was not spoke by him, also he said a true word of
brands on herds--these days."

"In these days?" reflected Rhodes, amazed at the ungirlish logic. "You
know what he meant when he said that?"

"We try that we know--all we, for the Deliverer is he named, and by
that name only he is spoke in the prayers we make."

Rhodes stared at her, incredulous, yet wondering if the dusty vaquero
looking rider of brief words could be the man who was called outlaw,
heathen, and bandit by Calendria, and "Deliverer" by these people of
bondage.

"You think that is true;--he will be the deliverer?"

"I not so much think, I am only remembering what the fathers say and
the mothers. Their word is that he will be the man, if--if----"

"Well, if what?" he asked as she crossed herself, and dropped her
head.

"I am not wanting to say that thing. It is a scare on the heart when
it is said."

"I'd rather be prepared for the scare if it strikes me," he announced,
and after a thoughtful silence while she padded along beside him, she
lowered her voice as though to hide her words from the evil fates.

"Then will I tell