sombrero_ peeped the knot of
the yellow silken kerchief which he wore bound about his head and under
which lay coiled his long black hair.

Captain Forest was unusually tall and stalwart, deep chested and robust
in appearance, with not a superfluous ounce of flesh on his body,
hardened by the rigors of long months of camp-life. His head was large
and shapely, well poised and carried high on a full neck that sprang
from the great breadth of his shoulders. His face, smooth and sensitive,
and large and regular in feature with high cheek-bones and slightly
hollowed cheeks, was bronzed by long exposure to the sun and weather,
adding to the ruggedness of his appearance. The high arching forehead,
acquiline nose and firm set mouth and chin denoted alertness, action and
decision, while from his eyes, large and dark and piercing, shone that
strange light so characteristic of the dreamer and genius. And yet, in
spite of this alertness of mind and body and general appearance of
strength and power which his presence inspired, there lurked about him
an air of repose indicative of confidence in self and the full knowledge
of his powers. Sensitive to a degree, keen and alive at all times, the
strength of his personality, suggestive of his mastery over men,
impressed the most unobservant. Yet owing to his poise and self-control
those about him did not realize wholly his power until such moments when
justice was violated. Then the latent force within him asserted itself
and he became as inexorable as a law of nature in his demands. An
intense spirit of democracy oddly combined with fastidiousness made an
unusual and attractive personality in which the mundane and the
spiritual were strangely blended. Outwardly he was a man of the world,
yet inwardly he had advanced so far into the domain of sheer
spirituality he scarcely realized that others groped their way among the
most obvious material modes of expression.

Having removed their saddles and turned their horses loose to find what
scant cropping the desert afforded, the two sought the shelter of the
narrow strip of shade beside the spring at the foot of the _mesa_. Here
they would rest until the heat of the day had passed, resuming their
journey that evening. Jose unwound his _zerape_ from his shoulders and
spreading it on the ground between them, deposited two tin cups and a
package of sandwiches upon it which, with the addition of a flask of
_aguardiente_ which the Captain drew from