t--how do we know they don't all carry her word? An easy matter,
if only the signal is prearranged."

"The fine craft of the Latin mind," muttered Bruce.

"Rather the subtlety of the old Aztecs," suggested Kendric.

"But all this could have been done as well, and taking no chances, by
one of the Montezuma riders."

"Of course. Hence, the one thing clear is that it was desired that I
should see you. Since it was obvious that I'd tell you what I knew,
that's the odd part of it."

"Why, it's madness, man! It gives us the chance, if no other, to get
word back home about the little Gordon girl."

"I'd thought of that. Just how would we do it? A letter in the
nearest postoffice?"

"You mean that the postmaster would be on the watch for it? And would
play into her hands? Well, suppose we took the trouble to send a
cowboy to some other, further postoffice? Or, by golly, to send him
all the way to the border? Or, if I should go with the word myself?"

"Answer: If you sent an Indian, how much would you bet that he did not
circle back to the Montezuma ranch with the letter? If you went
yourself, how far do you suppose you'd ever get?"

Bruce's eyes widened.

"Do you suppose they're going that strong, Jim?"

"I don't know, Bruce. But tell me: if it seemed the wise thing to do,
could you drop everything here and make a try to get through with the
word?"

Bruce looked worried.

"It's my hunch," he answered, "that it would be a cheaper play for me
to pay the twenty-five thousand dollar ransom and be done with it! You
don't know how bad things are here, Jim; if I went and came back it
would be to find that I'd been cleaned. No, I'm not exaggerating. And
with the mortgage on the place, the next thing I would know was that it
was foreclosed and in the end I'd lose everything I've got."

"From which I gather you don't put a whole lot of confidence in your
cowboys?"

"That's the plain hell of it! Not only have I got to sleep with one
eye on my stock; I've got to keep the other peeled on the men that are
taking my pay. I never know what other man's pay they're taking at the
same time."

"Or what woman's. Well, I imagine Miss Castlemar knows conditions as
well as we do, if not a good deal better. So it looks as though she
were taking no chances in letting me ride over to see you; and it
remains possible that by so doing I am furthering her purpose. Though
just how, is another thing I don't know."