is Navidad he will remain. There's enough to
keep him busy and happy here."

"I'll try, mistress. But he'll not be persuaded. Old Pedro wouldn't
think he could breathe down here in the valley, for long at a time.
Well, good-by. Ready, captain?"

"Ready, John, as soon as mother gets the basket. Quiet, Buster. I
believe you're more eager for a canter than I am, even."

Then when the basket had been handed up to John, the pair merrily
saluted the women on the porch and rode away; but Mrs. Benton called
shrilly after them:

"Turn back and start over again! Turn back, I say! Both your horses
set off left feet first. That means bad luck as sure as you are
born!"

But nobody paid any heed to Aunt Sally's forecasts of evil, save to
laugh at them. Only Mrs. Trent again felt that nervous shiver seize
her, and but for shame's sake would have begged her daughter to defer
her ride until another day.

However, shame prevailed; or common sense, which is far better; and
well it was--or ill--that the riders kept serenely on their way,
indifferent to "signs" and ignorant of what lay before them.

CHAPTER X.

ON THE ROAD HOME

The train from Los Angeles rolled slowly up to the little station at
Marion and the asthmatic engine seemed to wheeze its relief that its
labor was ended, as an old man stepped from the last car and looked
eagerly along the platform. Then a certain degree of disappointment
overspread his fine face, and shouldering a heavy parcel, strapped
round with leather to give a holding place, he strode rather
unsteadily forward over the same sandy road, or street, which had
tried Ninian Sharp's patience on his first visit to the post town.

Yet, after a little, the man grew accustomed to his own stiffness of
limb and moved with a sort of halting swiftness which soon brought him
to the little hostelry of one Aleck McLeod, where a group of ranchmen
were sunning themselves while they waited the distribution of the
mail.

It was noticeable that the porch was spotlessly clean and that none of
the idlers profaned its cleanliness by so much as one expectoration of
tobacco juice, though all were either smoking or chewing that weed.
They had far too great respect for Janet, Aleck's wife, and for the
labor that cleanliness meant in that waterless region. They were all
deep in the discussion of the late events at Sobrante and none heard
the old traveler's approach over the soft ground, till he stood close
beside t