but failed.

"How queer! Why should this be locked? I didn't know it ever was. Where
can the key be?"

"In Antonio Bernal's pocket," said Joe quietly.

"Then even before I found this feather he must have suspected somebody
and taken care of the others. But it's dreadful if we have come to
turning keys on one another, here, at dear Sobrante. Well, I'm off to
mother, now; and, Joe, Antonio said you should go to help John. Will
you?"

"For you, fast enough, Lady Jess, though I'm about quit of Top-Lofty's
orders."

"Grumbler!" laughed the girl, hurrying away, with her gayety quite
restored by this few minutes' chat with the beloved "boys" who had
petted her all her life.

They did not laugh, however, as they watched her going, and Joe, rising
to do her bidding, slapped his thigh emphatically and remarked:

"I call it the time has come. The longer we put it off the worse it
is. Poor little missy! Getting our wages due! That little angel 'd
cry the blue out of her pretty eyes if she knew how long 'twas since
we'd seen the color of our money. Pass the word along, boys, and let's
confab, to-night, and settle it. Time, about moon-up, in John's shop.
How's that?"

"Count me a mutineer," said the ex-sailor, Samson, as he strolled
toward his cattle sheds.

"I'm with you," echoed Marty, departing for his orange grove.
"Mutiny's an ugly word aboard ship, I'm told, but when psalm-singing
Samson takes to using it right here on dry land I reckon the case
differs. Anyhow, if it's a bid 'twixt the little one and Top-Lofty,
I'm for the little one every time."

Scruff knew the road home as well as another, and doubtless reasoned in
his burro mind that the sooner he reached there the sooner he would be
rid of his awkward rider. So he made all speed over the steep descent,
though Mr. Hale used his own feet, now and then, as human brakes to
check the creature's pace; and, whimsically, remonstrated when the jolts
became too frequent.

"Here, you beast! Hold on! If ever I ride a donkey again just let me
know about it, will you? Keep that front end of yours up, please. I've
a notion of sliding over your head, just to accommodate. Steady, there,
steady. I flatter myself I can stick if I can't ride. And we're getting
along. We're getting along."

Indeed, much earlier than he had hoped for, they were on level ground
and had struck out upon that road where Jessica had met the manager, and
which for some distance followed the tree-bor