tice it, and after the first mile dropped into an easy volunteer walk.
I never noticed the passing of time until we reached the river, and the
black stopped to drink. Here I unsaddled for several hours; then went
on again in no cheerful mood. Before I came within sight of Las Palomas
near evening, my horse turned his head and nickered, and in a few
minutes Uncle Lance and June Deweese galloped up and overtook me. I had
figured out several very plausible versions of my adventure, but this
sudden meeting threw me off my guard--and Lance Lovelace was a hard man
to tell an undetected, white-faced lie. I put on a bold front, but his
salutation penetrated it at a glance.

"What's the matter, Tom; any of your folks dead?"

"No."

"Sick?"

"No."

"Girl gone back on you?"

"I don't think."

"It's the old woman, then?"

"How do you know?"

"Because I know that old dame. I used to go over there occasionally when
old man Donald was living, but the old lady--excuse me! I ought to
have posted you, Tom, but I don't suppose it would have done any good.
Brought your fiddle with you, I see. That's good. I expect the old lady
read my title clear to you."

My brain must have been under a haze, for I repeated every charge she
had made against him, not even sparing the accusation that he had
remained out of the army and added to his brand by mavericking cattle.

"Did she say that?" inquired Uncle Lance, laughing. "Why, the old
hellion! She must have been feeling in fine fettle!"

CHAPTER V

A PIGEON HUNT

The new year dawned on Las Palomas rich in promise of future content.
Uncle Lance and I had had a long talk the evening before, and under
the reasoning of the old optimist the gloom gradually lifted from my
spirits. I was glad I had been so brutally blunt that evening, regarding
what Mrs. McLeod had said about him; for it had a tendency to increase
the rancher's aggressiveness in my behalf. "Hell, Tom," said the old
man, as we walked from the corrals to the house, "don't let a little
thing like this disturb you. Of course she'll four-flush and bluff you
if she can, but you don't want to pay any more attention to the old lady
than if she was some _pelado_. To be sure, it would be better to have
her consent, but then"--

Glenn Gallup also arrived at the ranch on New Year's eve. He brought
the report that wild pigeons were again roosting at the big bend of the
river. It was a well-known pigeon roost, but the birds