guing with
me."

Don Mike knew it. "Well, let me have a set of the plans," he concluded
sulkily.

Bill Conway handed him out a roll of blue-prints and Farrel mounted
Panchito and returned to the hacienda. The blue-prints he hid in the
barn before presenting himself at the house. He knew his absence from
the breakfast-table would not be commented upon, because for a week,
during the round-up of the cattle, he and Pablo and the latter's male
relatives who helped in the riding, had left the hacienda at daylight
after partaking of a four o'clock breakfast.

CHAPTER XXIX

"We've been waiting for you, Miguel, to motor with us to El Toro," Kay
greeted him as he entered the patio.

"So sorry to have delayed you, Kay. I'm ready to start now, if you
are."

"Father and mother are coming also. Where have you been? I asked
Pablo, but he didn't know."

"I've been over to Bill Conway's camp to tell him to quit work on that
dam."

The girl paled slightly and a look of apprehension crept into her eyes.
"And--and--he's--ceasing operations?" she almost quavered.

"He is not. He defied me, confound him, and in the end I had to let
him have his way."

El Mono, the butler, interrupted them by appearing on the porch to
announce that William waited in the car without. Mrs. Parker presently
appeared, followed by her husband, and the four entered the waiting
car. Don Mike, satisfied that his old riding breeches and coat were
clean and presentable, had not bothered to change his clothes, an
evidence of the democracy of his _ranchero_ caste, which was not lost
upon his guests.

"I know another route to El Toro," he confided to the Parkers as the
car sped down the valley. "It's about twelve miles out of our way, but
it is an inspiring drive. The road runs along the side of the high
hills, with a parallel range of mountains to the east and the low
foothills and flat farming lands sloping gradually west to the Pacific
Ocean. At one point we can look down into La Questa Valley and it's
beautiful."

"Let us try that route, by all means," John Parker suggested. "I have
been curious to see La Questa Valley and observe the agricultural
methods of the Japanese farmers there."

"I am desirous of seeing it again for the same reason, sir," Farrel
replied. "Five years ago there wasn't a Jap in that valley and now I
understand it is a little Japan."

"I understand," Kay struck in demurely, "that La Questa Valley suffered