t required no sophistication
on her part to realize that this caballero was not as the vaqueros she
had heretofore known. He made no boorish jests; his eyes were not as
the eyes of many that had gazed at her in a way that had tinged her
dusky cheeks with warm resentment. She felt that he was endeavoring to
interest her, to please her rather than to woo. And more than that--he
seemed intensely interested in his own brave eloquence. A child could
have told that Sundown was single-hearted. And with the instinct of a
child--albeit eighteen, and quite a woman in her way--Anita approved of
this adventurer as she had never approved of men, or man, before. His
great height, his long, sweeping arms, moving expansively as he
illustrated this or that incident, his silver spurs, his loose-jointed
"tout ensemble," so to speak, combined with an eloquent though puzzling
manner of speech, fascinated her. Warmed to his work, and forgetful of
his employer's caution in regard to certain plans having to do with the
water-hole ranch, Sundown elaborated, drawing heavily on future
possibilities, among which he towered in imagination monarch of rich
mellow acres and placid herds. He intimated delicately that a
rancher's life was lonely at best, and enriched the tender intimation
with the assurance that he was more than fond of enchiladas, frijoles,
carne-con-chile, tamales, adding as an afterthought that he was
somewhat of an expert himself in "wrastlin' out" pies and doughnuts and
various other gastronomical delicacies.

A delicate frown touched the gentle Anita's smooth forehead when her
mother interrupted Sundown with a steaming cup of coffee and a plate of
frijoles, yet Anita realized, as she saw his ardent expression when the
aroma of the coffee reached him, that this was a most sensible and
fitting climax to his glowing discourse. Her frown vanished together
with the coffee and beans.

Fortified by the strong black coffee and the nourishing frijoles,
Sundown rose from his seat on the doorstep and betook himself to the
back of the house where he labored with an axe until he had accumulated
quite a pile of firewood. Then he rolled up his sleeves, washed his
hands, and asked permission to prepare the evening meal. Although a
little astonished, the Senora consented, and watched Sundown, at first
with a smile of indulgence, then with awakening curiosity, and finally
with frank and complimentary amazement as he deftly kneaded and r