w it was all settled.
If the stranger whipped Pedro, the boy would kill him unless he used
magic to prevent it. If he did use it, they must contrive to nullify his
magic. There was, too, Don Manuel, who would surely strike soon, and
however the encounter might terminate, it was a thing to dread
miserably.

But, though her misery was acute, she was of a temperament too hopeful
and impulsive to give up to despair so long as action was possible.
While she did not yet know what she could do, she was not one to sit
idle while events hurried to a crisis.

Meantime she had her majordomo order a horse saddled for her to ride
over to Corbett's for the mail.

CHAPTER X

MR. AINSA DELIVERS A MESSAGE

Back to Davis, who had stopped to tighten his saddle-girth, came Dick
Gordon's rather uncertain tenor in rollicking song:

"Bloomin' idol made o' mud--
Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd--
Plucky lot she cared for idols when I
Kissed 'er where she stud!"

"There he goes, advertising himself for a target to every greaser in the
county. Pity he can't ride along decent, if he's got to ride at all in
these hills, where every gulch may be a trap," grumbled the old miner.

He jerked the leather strap down with a final tug, pulled himself to the
saddle, and cantered after his friend.

"Elephints a pilin' teak
In the sludgy, squdgy creek,
Where the silence 'ung that 'eavy you
Was 'arf afraid to speak!"

"No danger of the silence hanging heavy here while you're around trying
to be a whole opery troupe all by your lonesome," suggested Davis.
"Seems to me if you got to trapse round this here country hunting for
that permanent residence, it ain't necessary to disturb the Sabbath calm
so on-feelin'. I don't seem to remember hearing any great demand for an
encore after the rendering of the first verse."

"You do ce'tainly remind me of a lien with one chick, Steve," laughed
Dick.

"I ain't worrying about you none. It's my own scalp kinder hangs loose
every time you make one of your fool-plays," explained the other.

"Go pipe that up to your granny. Think I ain't learned my ABC's about
my dry-nurse yet?"

"I'm going back to the gold camp to-morrow."

"You been saying that ever since you came here. Why don't you go, old
Calamity Prophet?"

"Well, I am. Going to-morrow."

"You've hollered wolf too often, Steve. I'll believe it when I see it."

"Well, why don't you behave? What's the use of making a