Palmas," Blaze said,
cautiously.

Paloma broke out, impatiently: "Why don't you say what you think?" Then
to Dave: "Tad Lewis is a bad neighbor, and always has been. There's a
ford on his place, and we think he knows more about 'wet' cattle than
he cares to tell."

"It's a good place to cross stock at low water," her father agreed,
"and Lewis's land runs back from the Rio Grande in its old Spanish
form. It's a natural outlet for those brush-country ranchos. But I
haven't anything against Tad except a natural dislike. He stands well
with some of our best people, so I'm probably wrong. I usually am."

"You can't call Ed Austin one of our best people," sharply objected
Paloma. "They claim that arms are being smuggled across to the Rebels,
Dave, and, if it's true, Ed Austin--"

"Now, Paloma," her father remonstrated mildly. "The Regulars and the
River Guards watched Lewis's ranch till the embargo was lifted, and
they never saw anything."

"I believe Austin is a strong Rebel sympathizer," Law ventured.

"Sure! And him and the Lewis outfit are amigos. If you go pirootin'
around Tad's place you're more'n apt to make yourself unpopular, Dave.
I'd grieve some to see you in a wooden kimono. Tad's too well fixed to
steal cattle, and if he runs arms it's because of his sympathy for
those noble, dark-skinned patriots we hear so much about in Washington.
Tad's a 'galvanized Gringo' himself--married a Mexican, you know."

"Nobody pays much attention to the embargo," Law agreed. "I ran arms
myself, before I joined the Force."

When meal-time drew near, both Jones and his daughter urged their guest
to stay and dine with them, and Dave was glad to accept.

"After supper I'm going to show you our town," Blaze declared. "It's
the finest city in South Texas, and growing like a weed. All we need is
good farmers. Those we've got are mostly back-to-nature students who
leaped a drug-counter expecting to 'light in the lap of luxury. In the
last outfit we sold there wasn't three men that knew which end of a
mule to put the collar on. But they'll learn. Nature's with 'em, and so
am I. God supplies 'em with all the fresh air and sunshine they need,
and when they want anything else they come to Old Blaze. Ain't that
right, Paloma?"

"Yes, father."

Paloma Jones had developed wonderfully since Dave Law had last seen
her. She had grown into a most wholesome and attractive young woman,
with an unusually capable manner, and an honest, humo