w long. Perhaps she
wouldn't come back after all and he would wish that he hadn't given the
old life a chance to call her and keep her. Then he thought of the
parents--never having had any of his own as far as memory went, Scott felt
their claims strongly. He wanted the girl; wanted her so badly that his
whole being ached to take advantage of her youth and impulsiveness; to
make the wedding in the morning a double one.

But Scott had not lived a hard life without learning to do without a thing
if he chose to do without it; the thing might be a drink, it might be a
horse, it might be a woman. Still, Polly might have stayed down and walked
with him a while in the moonlight--it wasn't much to ask. Hard and Clara
had come out, the latter muffled in her long cloak, and were walking down
Chula Vista's main artery toward the Padre's church. With a muttered
exclamation, Scott dug his hands into his pockets and went inside.

"I suppose I can sit in the office and gab with Sam," he growled, but Sam
had disappeared. Scott picked up a newspaper and lit another cigarette.
Suddenly, the door opened and Clara, visibly excited, appeared, followed
by Hard.

"Mr. Scott, what do you think? We've just seen Juan Pachuca," declared
Clara.

"Sure enough? I suppose he could slide over the border if he wanted to.
Where'd you see him?"

"He was one of those three Mexicans who had dinner at that other small
table--so Clara says," replied Hard.

"Your back was toward them," went on Clara. "Henry's never seen him, so of
course he wouldn't notice. I thought at the time that the man looked like
Pachuca but I didn't get a good view of him. We were going past that
little saloon down near the church and they came out and rode off. He
pretended not to see us."

"Where'd they go?" demanded Scott, with the dryness in his tone which
always appeared when Pachuca was mentioned.

"Out of town--past the church. I'm going up to tell Polly what she's
missed," said Clara, as she ran up the narrow little stairway. "Girls have
changed--not a doubt about it," she thought, whimsically. "Fancy spending
the last evening they have together moping upstairs with a headache!
Wonder if anything's gone wrong?"

A few moments later she was back in the office with the two men.

"I can't find Polly," she said, in alarm. "I've been to my room and to
hers and she isn't in either. Her hat and coat are gone, too."

Scott came out of his chair with a bound. "I knew that