he night, blowing straight out of the north; a wind
so chill that the senora unpacked extra blankets and distributed them
lavishly amongst the beds of her household, and the oldest peon at the
hacienda (who was Gustavo and a prophet more infallible than Elijah)
stared into the heavens until his neck went lame; and predicted much
cold, so that the frost would surely kill the fruit blossoms on the
slope behind the house; and after that much rain.

Don Andres, believing him implicitly, repeated the warning to Dade;
and Dade, because that was now his business, rode here and there,
giving orders to the peons and making sure that all would be snug when
the storm broke.

The Senorita Teresa, bethinking her of the "pretty senora" who would
have scant shelter in that canvas-topped wagon-box, even though it
had been set under the thickest branches of a great live oak, called
guardedly to Diego who was passing, and ordered Tejon, her swiftest
little mustang, saddled and held ready for her behind the last hut,
where it could not be seen from the house.

Tejon, so named by his mistress because he was gray like a badger,
hated wind, which the senorita knew well. Also, when the hatred grew
into rebellion, it needed a strong hand indeed to control him, if the
mood seized him to run. But the senorita was in a perverse mood, and
none but Tejon would she ride; even though--or perhaps because--she
knew that his temper would be uncertain.

She wanted to beg the pretty Senora Simpson to come and stay with them
until the weather cleared and the cabin was finished. But more than
that she wanted to punish Senor Jack Allen for laughing when she tried
to speak the Americano sentence he had taught her the night before,
and got it all backwards. Senor Jack would be frightened, perhaps,
when he learned that she had ridden away alone upon Tejon; he would
ride after her--perhaps. And she would not talk to him when he found
her, but would be absolutely implacable in her displeasure, so that he
would be speedily reduced to the most abject humility.

Diego, when she ran stealthily across the patio, her riding-habit
flapping about her feet in the wind, looked at her uneasily as if he
would like to remonstrate; but being a mere peon, he bent silently
and held his calloused, brown palm for the senorita's foot; reverently
straightened the flapping skirt when she was mounted, and sent a hasty
prayer to whatever saint might be counted upon to watch most c