m!

Their magnetism had caught the attention of Don Jose,--a distinguished
and illustrious person in the eyes of the barefoot mountaineers. No
one knew what Jocasta thought of the exalted padrone of the wide
lands, whose very spurs were of gold, but she knew there was scarce
wealth enough in all the village to keep a candle burning on the
Virgin's shrine, and her feet had never known a shoe. The padre died
suddenly just as Don Jose was making a bargain with him for the girl,
so he swept Jocasta to his saddle with no bargain whatever except that
she might send back for Lucita, her little sister, and other men
envied Perez his good luck when they looked at Jocasta. For three
years she had been mistress of his house in Hermosillo, but never had
he taken her into the wilderness of Soledad,--it was a crude casket
for so rich a treasure.

Kit steeped in the luxury of a square meal, fell asleep, thinking of
the green-eyed Dona Jocasta whom no man forgot. He would not connect a
brilliant bird of the mountain with that drooping figure he and Tula
had seen stumbling towards the portal of Soledad. And the statement of
Isidro that there had been a killing, and Dona Jocasta was a lost
soul, was most puzzling of all. In a queer confused dream the killing
was done by Tula, and Billie wore the belt of gold, and had green
eyes. And he wakened himself with the apparently hopeless effort of
convincing Billie he had never forgotten her despite the feminine
witcheries of Sonora.

The shadows were growing long, and some Indian boys were jogging
across the far flats. He reached for his field glass and saw that one
of them had a deer across his saddle. Isidro explained that the boys
were planting corn in a far field, and often brought a deer when they
came in for more seed or provisions. They had a hut and _ramada_ at
the edge of the planted land six miles away. They were good boys,
Benito and Mariano Bravo, and seldom both left the fields at the same
time. He called to Valencia that there would be deer for supper, then
watched the two riders as they approached, and smiled as they
perceptibly slowed up their broncos at sight of the bearded stranger
on the rawhide cot against the wall.

"See you!" he pointed out to Kit. "These are the days of changes. Each
day we looking for another enemy, maybe that army of the south, and
the boys they think that way too."

The boys, on being hailed, came to the house with their offering, and
bunkered d