disgrace a pirate. Take 'em
all around as they go, I guess Pachuca stacks up pretty well. He's
educated and comes of good folks. But how the deuce did you happen----"

"Oh, I suppose it does sound awful!" Polly said, in a rush. "But he was on
the train and when the horrid little thing stopped on the side of a hill
for two hours, he came along and explained what was the matter."

"He talks English like a Bostonese," said Scott.

"Doesn't he? And anything that sounds like Boston just naturally puts
confidence in a Chicagoan, don't you know? Then when I landed at Conejo in
that wild sand-storm with no one to meet me and the Morgans out of town,
he offered to drive me over, and I let him. It didn't seem far; why, at
home we often drive that far in an evening."

"Well, driving around the boulevard with your friends is one thing, and
around this sort of country with a strange Mexican is another." Scott
paused at the sight of the girl's penitent face, and changed the subject.
"As for your brother, we had a letter from him to-night saying that he and
the bride had gone East. The directors sent for him, so they started
pronto. I reckon Miss Emma's folks coaxed them to stay in Douglas a few
days after the wedding--we had expected them here before this."

"But how did you know----"

Scott cleared his throat nervously. "Well, you see, he wrote me to read
all his mail----" he stopped, abruptly. "Go on, Romeo!"

"I see. You opened my letter and found out that I was coming, and came to
meet me. I am very much obliged to you." The words were pleasant enough
but the tone was cool.

"She's on the trail," Scott thought, disconsolately. "She's running over
in her mind what she said in that letter, and when she remembers, it's
going to be a good idea to get home as soon as possible."

After this, the silence was extremely marked. Scott, feeling the
discomfort of it, continued:

"It's too bad for you to have had this long trip and then miss your
brother after all, but I guess he'll be back soon, the way things are
looking."

More silence, but Scott was not going to be scared out of his good
intentions.

"I reckon we can make you pretty comfortable till he comes. We've got a
mighty pleasant lady running the boarding-house just now and she'll be
glad enough to have another white woman on the place."

The silence still continuing, he gave up. "Hang it, if she won't talk, she
won't," he thought. Then as he turned to tuck in a fly