ng the latter part of May. Cotton,
though, seemed reticent, and though Theodore cross-questioned him
rather severely, was non-committal and dumb as an oyster; but before we
recrossed the Nueces that evening, John and I having fallen far to the
rear of the other two, he admitted to me that his wedding would occur
within a month after Lent. It was to be a confidence between us, but I
advised him to take Uncle Lance into the secret at once.

But on reaching the ranch we learned that the hunting party had not
returned, nor had the mistress. The next morning we resumed our work,
Quayle and Cotton at corral building and I at the rock quarry. The work
had progressed during my absence, and the number of pieces desired was
nearing completion, and with but one team hauling the work-shop was
already congested with cut building stone. By noon the quarry was so
cluttered with blocks that I ordered half the help to take axes and
go to the encinal to cut dry oak wood for burning the lime. With the
remainder of my outfit we cleaned out and sealed off the walls of an old
lime kiln, which had served ever since the first rock buildings rose on
Las Palomas. The oven was cut in the same porous formation, the interior
resembling an immense jug, possibly twelve feet in diameter and fifteen
feet in height to the surface of the ledge. By locating the kiln near
the abrupt wall of an abandoned quarry, ventilation was given from below
by a connecting tunnel some twenty feet in length. Layers of wood and
limestone were placed within until the interior was filled, when it was
fired, and after burning for a few hours the draft was cut off below and
above, and the heat retained until the limestone was properly burned.

Near the middle of the afternoon, the drivers hauling the blocks drove
near the kiln and shouted that the hunters had returned. Scaling off the
burnt rock in the interior and removing the debris made it late before
our job was finished; then one of the vaqueros working on the outside
told us that the ambulance had crossed the river over an hour before,
and was then in the ranch. This was good news, and mounting our horses
we galloped into headquarters and found the corral outfit already there.
Miss Jean soon had our _segundo_ an unwilling prisoner in a corner, and
from his impatient manner and her low tones it was plain to be seen
that her two days' visit with Mrs. Annear had resulted in some word
for Deweese. Not wishing to intrude, I