erican, though with
a slightly Latin arrangement of phrase.

"Oh, I see," Polly replied blankly. The young man had been rather sudden,
and he continued to stand in a disconcerting way, hat in hand, in the
aisle. He appeared to be very young, hardly more than nineteen, Polly
thought, and handsome in a dark way. He had large dark eyes, very white
teeth, a smooth olive skin without the mustache which so many Spaniards
wear, and a rather prominent under jaw and chin.

"You see," he continued, "they take the first car over to Conejo and then
come back for us."

"Do you mean to say that they'll leave us here, perched on the side of
this hill, while they run off with the engine?" demanded Polly, eyeing the
trainmen indignantly. In fact, she was so busy being indignant with them
that she omitted to notice that the young man had slipped into the seat
opposite her. That fact, however, had not escaped the fat ladies in the
rear, one of whom said to the other in shocked Spanish:

"It is Juan Pachuca!"

"So it is," replied the other. "I had thought him in the South."

"Who knows where he is? A wicked person, my dear, a very wicked person. My
sister's husband says he will get himself shot before he finishes."

"Undoubtedly," said the other, placidly. "So many young men are being shot
these days. I thought that young woman was an actress--now I am sure of
it."

"Yes," replied Juan Pachuca to Polly's question. "But do not be alarmed.
They will come back in a couple of hours."

"A couple of hours!" The girl's voice was horrified. "But I expected to be
in Conejo in a couple of hours. I'm in a hurry."

"One should never be in a hurry in Mexico, senorita, it does not--what is
it you say--it does not pay."

"Apparently." Polly replied coolly, realizing suddenly that this
good-looking boy was regarding the conversation as a thing established.

The stranger was correct in his guess. Uncoupled from the rest of the
train, their coach remained poised uncomfortably half-way up the hill,
while the engine, still puffing and wheezing like a stout man going
upstairs, pulled the open cars and the baggage car up the grade and,
disappearing through a gap in the hill, became only a faint noise and a
trail of thin smoke. Polly laughed in spite of herself and the young man
responded with a smile that revealed two dazzling rows of teeth.

"_Manana_!" he laughed. "So we say down here and so we do. You find it
amusing, senorita, after your coun