and after the dawn the sky was a
heavenly blue, so brilliant that it could not be overlooked. In the
early morning the mimosa trees threw cool shadows to westward, and
little parakeets, making their flights from bough to bough, screamed
overhead. On the estancia work began early; some one had to lasso a
novillo for the pot, and the rodeo looked like a seething, bubbling
cauldron, with its moving mass of cattle. The easy paces of the horses
on which all the work of the place was done made riding a matter not of
exercise at all; and the only thing necessary was to duck heads to
avoid the mimosa boughs, and to guide the horses round the holes and
stumps in the ground at a gentle canter. The novillo was lassoed, and
the sun began to be sultry when the three men rode back to breakfast,
congratulating themselves that, as the day seemed likely to be as hot
as usual, there was not a great deal of work to be done, at least until
the cool of the evening.

'Is that Purvis?' asked Toffy, as they approached the house and
tethered their horses by the simple expedient of throwing their reins
over their heads and letting them trail upon the ground. 'When, in the
name of the Prophet, does that fellow sleep?' It was barely ten
o'clock when they rode back to breakfast, and Purvis must have started
on his ride almost at dawn.

'Hallo!' said Ross, greeting him with a certain kindliness which a very
big man will show to one who is small and weak, even if he has growled
at his appearance a moment before. 'Hallo, Purvis, where have you come
from, and when do you get any sleep?'

'I don't think that sleep is very necessary to me,' said Purvis; 'and I
generally find that I work just as well when I have only two or three
hours' rest.'

'That's very odd,' said Toffy amicably.

'I came back about my little boy,' said Purvis; 'I have to go down to
Buenos Ayres, and I want to know if I may leave him here with you.'

Ross assented, and Toffy remarked that he believed with training he
himself might make a very fair nursery-maid.

'Things are a little bit disturbed at my place,' said Purvis. 'I have
so many mixed nationalities down there, and they don't get on well
together, and are difficult to manage. I would rather not leave Dick,
if you could have him--Dick will be a good boy--no?' he said, speaking
in the questioning negative so common in Argentine, and addressing the
pale-faced little boy in a manner far too babyish for his years