don't misunderstand; no one will ever
attempt to advise or suggest anything concerning the disposal of your
fortune, it is only that you must have, as your father said, the best
of everything; all that you have missed."

"Oh, don't talk of the money, please!" She stopped him with a swift
gesture. "I do understand, but I--I don't want to say anything now.
Maybe you'll change your mind. You were shocked, you remember, when I
told you Dad ran the Blue Chip, and you might be sorry you--you tried
to make your sister friends with a gambler's daughter, without a family
name. Besides, I've got a trust to perform, don't forget that. When
it's finished, perhaps--but let's wait until then."

He was well content to acquiesce, relieved that she had taken his
suggestion in good faith without impugning his motive. Had he dreamed
of the meaning she had read into his offer, his awakening would have
been illuminating.

On the following day Billie put her newly acquired wealth to its first
use. She cantered away from the Casa de Limas on her pinto without
taking the Baileys into her confidence, and at sundown careened in at
the gate in a battered touring car, the bewildered pony following on a
rope behind.

"Land alive!" Sallie ran out in the yard with Chevalita, the criada,
at her heels. "I didn't know you could run an automobile, Billie!"

"I couldn't this morning," Billie responded through set lips as she
grazed the hitching-post and came to a stop with a grinding jerk which
all but precipitated her through the cracked wind shield. "I've got to
get the hang of this in a couple of days or die trying. I'm going on a
little trip."

"Where to?" Sallie circled slowly around the dilapidated vehicle.
"Don't look as if this would carry you very far. Where on earth did
you get it?"

"It was poor Rufe Terwilliger's." The girl answered the last question
first. "I bought it from Mrs. Terwilliger for three hundred dollars.
Ben Hallock has got some tires to fit it that he'll let me have and if
the engine will only last for about four hundred miles I don't care
what happens to it after that."

"'Four hundred miles!'" repeated Sallie. "What have you taken into
your head now? There's nothing within four hundred miles o' Limasito!"

Billie regarded her with an enigmatic smile.

"There's a dream to bring true!" she said slowly. "That is Tia
Juana's; she's going with me. And there's a start to be made on
something I've set