ashing smile because they sensed the strength
behind it.

Kate Underwood could have given a dozen reasons why she liked him. There
were for instance the superficial ones. She liked the way he tossed back
the tawny sun-kissed hair from his eyes, the easy pantherish stride with
which he covered ground so lightly, the set of his fine shoulders, the
peculiar tint of his lean, bronzed cheeks. His laugh was joyous as the
song of a bird in early spring. It made one want to shout with him.
Then, too, she tremendously admired his efficiency. To look at the hard,
clear eye, at the clean, well-packed build of the man, told the story.
The movements of his strong, brown hands were sure and economical. They
dissipated no energy. Every detail of his personality expressed a mind
that did its own thinking swiftly and incisively.

"It's curious about these documents of the old Valdes and Moreno claims.
They have lain here in the vaults--that is, here and at the old
Governor's Palace--for twenty years and more untouched. Then all at once
twenty people get interested in them. Scarce a day passes that lawyers
are not up to look over some of the copies. You have certainly stirred
things up with your suit, Mr. Gordon."

Dick looked out of the window at the white adobe-lined streets resting
in a placid coma of sun-beat.

"Don't you reckon Santa Fe can stand a little stirring up, Miss
Underwood?"

"Goodness, yes. We all get to be three hundred years old if we live in
this atmosphere long enough."

The man's gaze shifted. "You'd have to live here a right long time, I
reckon."

A quick slant of her gay eyes reproached him. "You don't have to be so
gallant, Mr. Gordon. The State pays me fifteen hundred dollars a year to
wait on you, anyhow."

"You don't say. As much as that? My, we're liable to go bankrupt in New
Mexico, ain't we? And, if you want to know, I don't say nice things to
you because I have to, but because I want to."

She laughed with a pretense at incredulity. "In another day or two I'll
find out just what special favor I'm able to do Mr. Gordon. The regular
thing is to bring flowers or candy, you know. Generally they say, too,
that there never has been a clerk holding this job as fit for it as I
am."

"You're some clerk, all right. Say, where can I find the original of
this _Agua Caliente_ grant, Miss Kate?"

She smiled to herself as she went to get him a certified copy. "Only two
days, and he's using my first name. In