't you, Gabriell', and well you may
be. In the midst of life we are in the hands of them Bernals, and no
knowin'. That son John of mine may try to hoodwink me that 'twasn't no
ghost I saw last night, but ghost it was if ever one walked this
earth. It wasn't, so to speak, a spooky ghost, neither; it was an
avaricious one, and it wasn't after no folks, but 'twas after that
money, sharp. Ain't disappeared, for good, neither. Liable to spring
up and out anywhere happens; and you do well, Gabriell', not to trust
our girl off alone again. Not right to once. Where's she hankerin' to
travel now? She'd ought to be learnt to sew patchwork, instead of
riding all over the country, hitherty-yender, a bareback on a broncho
or a burro. If she was my girl----"

"If she was your girl, dear Aunt Sally, you couldn't have been more
anxious than you were while she was lost. And the life is good for
her. It's right for all women to understand sewing and household arts,
but the captain isn't a woman yet, and I have faith she'll acquire all
fitting knowledge in due time. She's anxious to ride to Pedro's. She
says there was something different in his manner, last night, from
ordinary, and, indeed, I fancied so myself. She's gone to find which
one of the boys can best leave his work to ride with her."

"It'll be John Benton, Gabriella Trent. You see if it ain't. That man
just sees the world through Jessica's eyes, and he's never got over
being jealous 'at he wasn't the one took her to Los Angeles that
time. If he had all the work in creation piled up before him, and she
happened to say 'Come,' some other whither, whither, 'twould be, and
not a minute's hesitation. Anyhow, it's Marty's day for mailridin',
and there he lopes this instant."

The ranchmen took turns in riding to the post, each esteeming it a
privilege, and finding nothing but pleasure in the sixty miles' gallop
to Marion and back. At that moment, indeed, Marty was swinging out of
sight on his own fine mount, the mailbag before him on his heavy
Mexican saddle, the wind created by the swift motion of the beast
raising the brim of his broad hat and thrilling him with that sense of
abounding life and freedom which comes so forcibly to men in the wide
spaces of the earth.

He was the youngest of the "boys," even though past his first youth,
and the "life" of the ranchmen's quarters, where all liked and some
loved him.

The women on the porch watched him till he became a mere speck