a certain garishness about her rich
colouring? And was all the brown of her skin on the outside? Both her
hair and eyes were dark, and there was her Spanish name--Carmena. Was
she not, in part, of Mexican blood?

Some hint of Lennon's thoughts may have shown in his expression.
Otherwise the girl's next remark was pure coincidence:

"Ever since Slade added tizwin to the business, I've had to be pretty
much the man of the family. He persuaded us that Dad would die without a
lot of stimulant. That's how he got hold of Dad. Once the habit was
fixed, I couldn't break Dad of it. With you here, I'm hoping he may
remember his old grit and pride, and brace up."

"But about your--foster-sister," said Lennon.

"Isn't she just too sweet for anything!" broke in Carmena. "I've tried
to be the cactus fence to guard her against the trampling beasts."

"Such as this Cochise. You say he claims her?"

"For the last three years. Indian girls marry young. He'd have kicked a
way through the cactus fence before this, if it hadn't been for Slade.
You know, Slade has his own bunch of Navaho punchers. So, you see,
Cochise has to----"

Carmena stopped to point across the upper end of the valley.

"Talk of the devil----" she exclaimed.

Over below the cliff house Lennon saw a small group of mounted men
waiting for the basket that was being lowered to them on the hoist rope.

"If it's only Elsie's pies; if only they haven't bluffed Dad into
sending down a jug of tizwin!" murmured Carmena.

"We've been outplayed. We can't get back," said Lennon. "Shall I drive
them off again with my rifle?"

"No. Cochise agreed to wait for Slade. I'm going to make him stick to
it. We'll ride on around. Maybe they'll not wait."

The two had loped along under the precipices on the northwest side of
the valley and were already near Hell Canon, at the upper end. The mouth
of the canon belied its name. The bed, though rocky, was neither steep
nor broken. Along the ledges of the cliff foot a canal had been chiseled
in the solid rock by the cliff-dwellers. A small stream was flowing
through it, down around the left corner of the canon mouth.

Carmena noticed the look of professional interest that Lennon fixed upon
the ancient water way.

"You're an engineer," she said. "Pretty good piece of irrigation work
for those old mummies, isn't it? All we had to do was rebuild the intake
dam and clean out the ditch. Here's the tank."

The ponies slowed to a walk