ingo vaqueros--with the clay of the mines on their boots,
and their red shirts to call the bulls!"

"I shall do what it pleases me to do," declared the don sternly.
"Advice from my vaqueros I do not seek. And you," he said haughtily,
"have choice of two things; you may crave pardon for your insolence to
my guest, who is also my friend, and who will henceforth have charge
of my vaqueros and my cattle, or you may go whither you will; to Don
Jose Pacheco, I doubt not."

He leaned his white-crowned head against the high chair-back, and
while he waited for Manuel's decision he gazed calmly at the border
of red tiles which showed at the low eaves of the porch--calmly as to
features only, for his eyes held the blaze of anger.

"Senors, I go." The brim of Manuel's sombrero flicked the dust of the
patio.

"Come, then, and I will reckon your wage," invited the don, coldly
courteous as to a stranger. "You will excuse me, Senor? I shall not be
long."

Dade's impulse was to protest, to intercede, to say that he and Jack
would go immediately, rather than stir up strife. But he had served a
stern apprenticeship in life, and he knew it was too late now to
put out the fires of wrath burning hotly in the hearts of those two;
however completely he might efface himself, the resentment was too
keen, the quarrel too fresh to be so easily forgotten.

He was standing irresolutely on the steps when Jack came hack from the
rose garden, whistling softly an old love-song and smiling fatuously
to himself.

"We're going to take that ride, after all," he announced gleefully.
"Want to come along? She's going to ask her father to come, too--says
it would be terribly improper for us two to ride alone. What's the
matter? Got the toothache?"

Dade straightened himself automatically after the slap on the back
that was like a cuff from a she-bear, and grunted an uncivil sentence.

"Come over to the saddle-house," he commanded afterward. "And take
that truck off the senora's front steps before she sees it and has a
fit. I want to talk to you."

"Oh, Lord!" wailed Jack, under his breath, but he shouldered the heavy
saddle obediently, leaving Dade to bring what remained. "Cut it short,
then; she's gone to dress and ask her dad; and I'm supposed to order
the horses and get you started. What's the trouble?"

Dade first went over to the steps before their sleeping-room and
deposited Jack's personal belongings; and Jack seized the minute of
grace to