orn't c'n ride 'im."

"You were leading him?"

"No, just thought I was," he said grimly. "He drug me."

"When was that?"

"This morning--about seven miles back."

"Where did he come from?"

"San Luis."

"Where is that, please?"

"Over yander," he answered, nodding toward the western mountains.

Marion stared.

"You haven't brought him over the mountains!"

"'Round by Pinto Pass, an' up through the canyon."

"I've never seen a horse like that before," she said, after a brief
silence.

"Nor anybody else has," he replied, with a note of pride.

"But he's no cow pony--surely."

"You ain't never heard o' Sunnysides?"

"No."

He looked at her curiously.

"Of course not," he said apologetically. "You're f'm the city. East,
maybe?"

"Yes, I'm from New York."

"Then it's natch'ral. Everybody in these parts has heard o'
Sunnysides, though it's not many that's seen him."

"Please tell me about him."

The man's eyes brightened a little.

"He's got some strange blood in him," he began. "Nobody knows what it
is, but th' ain't another one o' that color, nor his devil spirit, in
the whole bunch. The rest of 'em's just ordinary wild horses runnin'
up an' down the sandhills of the San Luis. There's people't say he's a
ghost horse. Fact! An' they say't he'll never stay caught. I don't
know. It's certain't he's been caught three times,--not countin' the
times cow-punchers an' others has thought they'd caught him, but
hadn't. The first time he was caught actual he broke out o' the
strongest corral in the San Luis--at night--an' nobody sees hide nor
hair of 'im--not so much as a flicker o' yellow in the moonlight. An'
back he was, headin' the herd again.

"Nex' time Thad Brinker ropes him. Thad's the topnotch cow-puncher
between the Black Hills an' the Rio Grande, an' he comes all the way
f'm Dakoty when he hears the yarn about Sunnysides. Thad gits
fourteen men to help him round up the bunch, an' then he ropes the
gold feller after a fight that's talked about yit in the San Luis. He
ropes him. An' then what does Brinker do?"

He looked at Marion as if he dared her to make as many guesses as she
wished. She shook her head.

"You ain't the only one that'd never hit it," he went on with
satisfaction. "Thad ropes him, an' while they lay there restin',
Sunnysides all tied up so he can't move, an' Brinker rubbin' some
bumps he'd come by in the fracas, just then the red comes up onto
Sangre de Cristo. Brinker