"

CHAPTER IX

JERRY SIMPSON, SQUATTER

The senorita, it would seem, had lost interest in the white horse
as well as in his master. That was the construction which Dade
pessimistically put upon her smiling assurance that she could never be
so selfish as to take Senor Hunter's wonderful Surry and condemn him
to some commonplace caballo; though she gave also a better reason than
that, which was that her own horse was already saddled--witness the
peon leading the animal into the patio at that very moment--and that
an exchange would mean delay. Dade took both reasons smilingly, and
mentally made a vow with a fearsome penalty attached to the breaking
of it. After which he felt a little more of a man, with his pride to
bear him company.

Manuel came out from the room which Don Andres used for an office,
saluted the senorita with the air of a permanent leave-taking, as
well as a greeting, and passed the gringos with face averted. A moment
later the don followed him with the look of one who would dismiss
a distasteful business from his mind; and entered amiably into the
pleasure-seeking spirit of the ride.

With the March sun warm upon them when they rode out from the wide
shade of the oaks, they faced the cooling little breeze which blew out
of the south.

"Valencia tells me that the prairie schooner which Jose spoke of
has of a truth cast anchor upon my land," observed the don to Dade,
reining in beside him where he rode a little in advance of the others.
"Since we are riding that way, we may as well see the fellow and make
him aware of the fact that he is trespassing upon land which belongs
to another; though if he has halted but to rest his cattle and
himself, he is welcome. But Valencia tells me that the fellow is
cutting down trees for a house, and that I do not like."

"Some emigrants seem to think, because they have traveled over so much
wilderness, there is no land west of the Mississippi that they haven't
a perfect right to take, if it suits them. They are a little like your
countryman Columbus, I suppose. Every man who crosses the desert feels
as if he's out on a voyage of discovery to a new world; and when he
does strike California, it's hard for him to realize that he can't
take what he wants of it."

"I think you are right," admitted Don Andres after a minute. "And
your government also seems to believe it has come into possession of a
wilderness, peopled only by savages who must give way to the