oxy." At which she smiled, and in departing blessed him in her
sincere and simple manner, assuring him in turn that should the sheep
and cattle ever come to an understanding--the Spanish for which
embraced the larger aspect of the problem--there was nothing she
desired or prayed for more than the friendship and presence of Corliss
at the Loring hacienda. Corliss drew his own inference from this,
which was a pleasant one. He felt that he had a friend at court, yet
explained humorously that sheep and cattle were not by nature fitted to
occupy the same territory. He was alive to sentiment, but more keen
than ever to maintain his position unalterably so far as business was
concerned. The Senora liked him none the less for this. To her he was
a man who stood straight, on both feet, and faced the sun. Her
daughter Nell . . . Ah, the big Juan Corliss has such a fine way with
him . . . what a husband for any woman! In the mean time . . . only
thoughts, hopes were possible . . . yet . . . manana . . . manana . . .
there was always to-morrow that would be a brighter day.

To say that Sundown was proud of his unaccustomed regalia from the
crown of his lofty Stetson to the soles of his high-heeled
riding-boots, would be putting it mildly. To say that he was
especially useful in his new calling as vaquero would not be to put it
so mildly. Under the more or less profane tutelage of his companions,
he learned to throw a rope after a fashion, taking the laughing sallies
of his comrades good-naturedly. He persevered. He was forever
stealing upon some maternal and unsuspicious cow and launching his rope
at her with a wild shout--possibly as an anticipatory expression of
fear in case his rope should fall true. More than once he had been
yanked bodily from the saddle and had arisen to find himself minus
rope, cow, and pony, for no self-respecting cow-horse could watch
Sundown's unprecedented evolutions and not depart thitherward, feeling
ashamed and grieved to think that he had ever lived to be a horse. And
Sundown, despite his length of limb, seemed unbreakable. "He's the
most durable rider on the range," remarked Hi Wingle, incident to one
of his late assistant's meteoric departures from the saddle. "He wears
good."

One morning as Sundown was jogging along, engaged chiefly in watching
his shadow bob up and down across the wavering bunch-grass, he saw that
which appeared to be the back of a cow just over a rise. He wal