y caught it,
as one catches any suddenly thrown object. For an instant he remained
transfixed, incredulous, astounded, then the blood flamed in his face
and he cast the coin back at its donor.

"No Mexican can throw money to me!" he exclaimed.

For answer he received an angry look and snarled word from the driver.
Beyond the man Bryant beheld the startled, embarrassed, and yet
interested face of the girl with the veil, her lips a little parted,
her eyes intent on him. Then the car lurched out of the sand, splashed
through the rivulet, ascended the inclined roadway of the creek bank,
and sped from view.

The sudden spark of antagonism flashing between the engineer and the
young Mexican made the two girls by the ponies acutely aware that the
horseman after all was a stranger, a man of whom they knew nothing, an
unknown quantity. And so the two exchanged a glance and drew on their
gauntlets and said they must be riding home. Thereupon Bryant assisted
them to mount.

As he separated from them to follow the trail up the creek to the
ranch house by the three cottonwoods, Ruth Gardner called to him not
to forget his promised visit to their cabins. He assured them he
should remember. When the girls were some distance off, they waved
across the sagebrush at him and he swung his hat in reply. Off then
the pair went at a gallop, with the automobile on the road far south
of them leaving a hazy streamer of dust above the earth; the riders
going farther and farther away, becoming smaller and smaller on the
mesa, until at last they were but bobbing specks in the golden
sunshine.

CHAPTER II

As Lee Bryant reined his horse to a stop before the small ranch house,
a man seated on a stool just within the open doorway rose and came out
to join him. He was a man of thin, stooped body; his sandy hair
streaked with gray formed a fringe about his bald crown; and on his
lined, sunburnt face there rested a shadow of worry that appeared to
be habitual. Bryant dismounted and shook hands with the ranchman.

"Well, how are you making it, Mr. Stevenson?" he greeted. "As I
promised if I should be riding by this way again, I've stopped to say
'howdy.' Doesn't seem a month has passed since I stayed over night
with you? How's Mrs. Stevenson? Hope you're both well."

"Just feeling fair, just fair. Glad you stopped, Bryant," was the
answer. "My wife was wondering only the other day what had become of
you. Bring your horse around to the c