he Basque explained in a whisper, leaning low over the gray's neck.
"His father had an old judgment against me. When I thought young
Farrel dead, I dared do business--in my own name--understand? Now, if
he collects, you've lost the Rancho Palomar--help me, for God's sake,
Parker!"

Parker's hand fell away from the reins.

"I have no sympathy for you, Loustalot," he replied, coldly. "If you
have stolen this horse, you must pay the penalty. I shall not help
you. This is no affair of mine." And he stepped aside and waved
Loustalot back into Pablo's possession, who thanked him politely and
rode away round the hacienda wall. Three minutes later, Loustalot, his
hands unbound, was safe under lock and key in the settlement-room, and
Pablo, rifle in lap, sat on a box outside the door and rolled a
brown-paper cigarette.

Throughout the preceding colloquy, Mrs. Parker had said nothing. When
Pablo and his prisoner had disappeared, she asked her husband:

"What did that man say to you? He spoke in such a low tone I couldn't
hear him."

Parker, without hesitation, related to her, in the presence of Okada,
the astonishing news which Loustalot had given him.

"Good!" the lady declared, emphatically. "I hope that delightful Don
Mike collects every penny."

"Very poor business, I zink," Mr. Okada opined, thoughtfully.

"At any rate," Parker observed, "our host isn't letting the grass grow
under his feet. I wonder if he'll attach Loustalot's automobile. It's
new, and worth about eight thousand dollars. Well, we shall see what
we shall see."

"I zink I take little walk. 'Scuse me, please," said Okada, and bowed
to Parker and his wife. He gave both the impression that he had been
an unwilling witness to an unhappy and distressing incident and wished
to efface himself from the scene. Mrs. Parker excused him with a brief
and somewhat wintry smile, and the little Oriental started strolling
down the palm-lined avenue. No sooner had the gate closed behind them,
however, than he hastened back to Loustalot's car, and at the end of
ten minutes of furious labor had succeeded in exchanging the deflated
tire for one of the inflated spare tires at the rear of the car. This
matter attended to, he strolled over to the ranch blacksmith shop and
searched through it until he found that which he sought--a long, heavy
pair of bolt-clippers such as stockmen use for dehorning young cattle.
Armed with this tool, he slipped quietly ro