ying, she tucked the letter inside her
blouse and spoke to her pony, which turned leisurely down the road.

"I'm trying to get acquainted with your country to-day," returned de
Spain, managing with his knee to keep his own horse moving alongside
Nan as she edged away.

She seemed disinclined to answer, but the silence and the awkwardness
of his presence drew at length a dry disclaimer: "This is not my
country."

"I understood," exclaimed de Spain, following his doubtful advantage,
"you lived out this way."

"I live near Music Mountain," returned Nan somewhat ungraciously,
using her own skill at the same time to walk her horse away from her
unwelcome companion.

"I've heard of Music Mountain," continued de Spain, urging his lagging
steed. "I've often wanted to get over there to hunt."

Nan, without speaking, ruthlessly widened the distance between the
two. De Spain unobtrusively spurred his steed to greater activity.
"You must have a great deal of game around you. Do you hunt?" he
asked.

He knew she was famed as a huntress, but he could make no headway
whatever against her studied reserve. He watched her hands, graceful
even in heavy gloves; he noticed the neck-piece of her tan blouse, and
liked the brown throat and the chin set so resolutely against him. He
surmised that she perhaps felt some contempt for him because she had
outshot him, and he continued to ask about game, hoping for a chance
in some far-off time to redeem his marksmanship before her and giving
her every possible chance to invite him to try the hunting around
Music Mountain.

She was deaf to the broadest hints; and when at length she excused
herself and turned her pony from the Sleepy Cat road into the Morgan
Gap trail, de Spain had been defeated in every attempt to arouse the
slightest interest in anything he had said. But, watching with regret,
at the parting, the trim lines of her figure as she dashed away on the
desert trail, seated as if a part of her spirited horse, he felt only
a fast-rising resolution to attempt again to break through her
stubborn reticence and know her better.

CHAPTER IV

FIRST BLOOD AT CALABASAS

Nothing more than de Spain's announcement that he would sustain his
stage-guards was necessary to arouse a violent resentment at Calabasas
and among the Morgan following. Some of the numerous disaffected were
baiting the stages most of the time. They bullied the guards, fought
the passengers, and fomented dis