for the
"pleaza."

Everything he saw--every appointment of the house--showed wealth, and
good taste in the use of it. The old ranchman furnished the former, of
course; but nobody but Frances, Pratt thought, could have arranged the
furnishings and adornments of the house.

The room he was to occupy as a guest was large, square, grey-walled, was
hung with bright pictures, a few handsome Navajo blankets, and had heavy
soft rugs on the floor. There was a gay drapery in one corner, behind
which was a canvas curtain masking a shower bath with nickel fittings.

The water ran off from the shallow marble basin through an open drain
under the wall. The bed was of brass and looked comfortable. There was a
big steamer chair drawn invitingly near the window which opened into the
court, or garden, around which the house was built.

The style of the building was Spanish, or Mexican. A fountain played in
the court and there were trees growing there, among the branches of
which a few lanterns were lit, like huge fireflies.

In passing back to the front porch of the ranch-house (farther south it
would have been called _hacienda_) Pratt noted Spanish and Aztec
armor hanging on the walls; high-backed, carven chairs of black oak,
mahogany, and other heavy woods; weapons of both modern and ancient
Indian manufacture, and those of the style used by Cortez and his
cohorts when they marched on the capital city of the great Montezuma.

In a glass-fronted case, too, hung a brilliant cloak of parakeet
feathers such as were worn by the Aztec nobles. Lights had been lit in
the hall since he had arrived and the treasures were now revealed for
the first time to the startled eye of the visitor.

The sight of these things partially prepared him for the change in
Frances' appearance. Her smooth brown skin and her veiled eyes were the
same. She still wore her hair in girlish plaits. She was quite the
simple, unaffected girl of sixteen. But her dress was white, of some
soft and filmy material which looked to the young fellow like spider's
web in the moonlight. It was cut a little low at the throat; her arms
were bared to the elbow. She wore a heavy, glittering belt of alternate
red-gold links and green stones, and on one arm a massive, wrought-gold
bracelet--a serpent with turquoise eyes.

"Frances is out in her warpaint," chuckled Captain Rugley's mellow voice
from the shadow, where he was tipped back in his chair again.

"You gave me these thin