peared on the premises, were early ahorse,
driving to El Toro the three hundred-odd head of cattle of all ages and
sizes rounded up on the Palomar. The cattle were corraled at a ranch
half-way to El Toro the first night, and there watered and fed; the
following night they were in the cattle pens at El Toro, and the
following day Farrel loaded them aboard the cars and shipped them out
to Los Angeles, accompanying the shipment personally. Two days later
he was back on the ranch, and the Parkers noticed that his exuberant
spirits had not in the least subsided.

"I'd give a ripe peach to know what that fellow is up to," John Parker
complained. "Confidentially, I've had him shadowed from the moment he
arrived in Los Angeles until the moment he returned to El Toro and
started back for the ranch. He has conferred with nobody except the
stock-yard people. Nevertheless, he has a hen on."

"Yes, and that hen will hatch a young bald-headed eagle to scratch your
eyes out," his daughter reminded him, whereat he chuckled.

"Old Bill Conway's drilling away at his dam-site," he volunteered
presently, "and his suit against me for damages, due to breach of
contract, is set for trial so far down Judge Morton's calendar that the
old judge will have to use a telescope to find it. However, I
shouldn't charge the judge with a lack of interest in my affairs, for
he has rendered a judgment in my favor in the matter of that mortgage
foreclosure and announced from the bench that if this judgment doesn't
stick he'll throw the case out of court the next time it is presented
for trial. I wonder what Farrel's next move will be?"

"I heard him announce that he was going to get ready for the _fiesta_,"
Kay replied.

For two weeks he was busy harrowing, disking and rolling the old
race-track; he repainted the weather-beaten poles and reshingled the
judge's stand; he repaired the fence and installed an Australian
starting-gate, dug a pit for the barbecue and brought forth, repaired
and set up under the oaks close to the race-tracks, thirty long wooden
tables at which, in an elder and more romantic day, the entire
countryside, as guests of the Farrels and Noriagas, had gathered to
feast. Farrel worked hard and saw but little of his guests, except at
meal-times; he retired somewhat early each night and, insofar as his
guests could note, he presented a most commendable example of a young
man whose sole interest in life lay in his work.

"When