But he did laugh, his blue eyes twinkling at her recital.

"You poor kid! You have a hard time with the disreputables you pick up. Sure they didn't warn you against speaking to this reprobate?"

"Sure nothing!" was the boyish reply. "I was to be docked a month's spending money if I dared go near Pedro Vijil's adobe again while you were there, which was very foolish of Papa Phil!" she added judicially. "I reckon he forgot they tried that before."

"And what happened?"

"I went down and borrowed double the amount from old Estevan, the trader at the Junction, and gave him an order against the ranch. Then Cap and I sneaked out a couple of three-year-olds and raced them down in the cottonwood flats against some colts brought down by an old Sierra Blanca Apache. We backed our nags with every peso, and that old brown murderer won! But Cap and I had a wonderful day while our coin lasted, and--and you were going away without saying good-bye!"

Kit Rhodes, who had blankly stated that he owned his horse and saddle and little beyond, looked at the spoiled plucky heiress of Granados ranches, and the laughter went out of his eyes.

She was beyond reason loveable even in her boyish disdain of restriction, and some day she would come back from the schools a very finished product, and thank the powers that be for having sent her out of knowledge of happy-go-lucky chums of the ranges.

Granados ranches had been originally an old Spanish grant reaching from a branch of the intermittent Rio Altar north into what is now Arizona, and originally was about double the size of Rhode Island. It was roughly divided into the home or hacienda ranch in Arizona, and La Partida, the cattle range portion, reaching far south into Sonora.

Even the remnant of the grant, if intelligently managed, would earn an income satisfactory for a most extravagant princess royal such as its present chatelaine seemed to Rhodes.

But he had noted dubiously that the management was neither intelligent nor, he feared, square. The little rancherias scattered over it in the fertile valleys, were worked on the scratch gravel, ineffective Mexic method by the Juans and Pedros whose family could always count on mesquite beans, and _camotes_ if the fields failed. There was seed to buy each year instead of raising it. There was money invested in farming machinery, and a bolt taken at will from a thresher to mend a plow or a buggy as temporarily required. The flocks of sheep on the Arizona hills were low grade. The cattle and horse outfits were south in La Partida, and the leakage was beyond reason, even in a danger zone of the border land.

All this Kit had milled around and around many times in the brief while he had ranged La Partida. A new deal was needed and needed badly, else Wilfreda Bernard would have debts instead of revenue if Singleton let things drift much longer. Her impish jest that she was a damsel in distress in need of a valiant knight was nearer to truth than she suspected. He had an idiotic hungry desire to be that knight, but his equipment of one horse, one saddle, and one sore head appeared inadequate for the office.

Thus Kit Rhodes sat his horse and looked at her, and saw things other than the red lips of the girl, and the chiding gray eyes, and the frank regret at his going.

It was more profitable not to see that regret, or let it thrill a man in that sweet warm way, especially not if the man chanced to be a drifting ranger. She was only a gallant little girl with a genius for friendships, and her loyalty to Pike extended to Pike's chum--that was what Rhodes told himself!

"Yes," he agreed, "I was going without any tooting of horns. No use in Cap Pike and me hanging around, and getting you in bad with your outfit."

"As if I care!" she retorted.

"You might some day," he said quietly. "School may make a lot of difference; that, and changed surroundings for a year or two. But some day you will be your own manager, and if I'm still on the footstool and can be of service--just whistle, senorita."

"Sure!" she agreed cheerfully. "I'll whistle the lark call, and you'll know I need you, so that's settled, and we'll always be--be friends, Trail-hunter."

"We'll always be friends, Lark-child."

"I wanted Cap Pike to let me in on this prospecting trip, wanted to put in money," she said rather hesitant, "and he turned me down cold, except for a measly ten dollars, 'smoke money' he called it. I reckon he only took that to get rid of me, which I don't call friendly, do you? And if things should go crooked with him, and he--well--sort of needs help to get out, you'll let me know, won't you?"

"Yes, if it seems best," he agreed, "but you won't be here; you'll be shipped to a school, _p.r.o.nto_!"

"I won't be so far off the map that a letter can't reach me. Cap Pike won't ever write, but I thought maybe you----"

"Sure," agreed Rhodes easily. "We'll send out a long yell for help whenever we get stuck."

She eyed him darkly and without faith.

"Wish I knew how to make that certain," she confessed. "You're only dodging me with any kind of a promise to keep me quiet, just as Cap did. I know! I'm jealous, too, because you're taking a trail I've always wanted to take with Cap, and they won't let me because I'm a girl."

"Cheer up! When you are boss of the range you can outfit any little _pasear_ you want to take, but you and I won't be in the same cla.s.s then, Lark-child."

"Are you really going it blind, trailing with Cap into the Painted Hills after that fascinating gold legend?" she demanded. "Or have you some inside trail blazed for yourself? Daddy Pike is the best ever, but he always goes broke, and if he isn't broke, he has a jug at his saddle horn, so----"

"Oh it's only a little jug this time, and he's had a fare-you-well drink out of it with everyone in sight, so there's only one hilarious evening left in the jug now. Just enough for a gladsome memory of civilization."

"Are you in deep on this prospect plan?" she persisted.

"Well, not that you could notice. That is, I've got a three months'

job offered me down at Whitely's; that will serve the captain as headquarters to range from until we add to our stake. Whitely is rounding up stock for the Allies down Mesa Blanca way, and Pike will feel at home there. Don't you worry, I'll keep an eye on Pike. He is hilariously happy to get into that region with a partner."

"I don't like it," she grumbled at him with sulky gray eyes. "Pedro Vijil just came back from the south, and brought his sister's family from San Rafael. They're refugees from the Federals because their men joined Ramon Rotil, the rebel leader, and Merced is crying herself crazy over the tales of war they tell. One of their girls was stolen, and the mother and Tia Luz are both crying over that. So Papa Phil says he's going to send me away where I won't hear such horrors. I wish I was a man, and I'd join the army and get a chance to go over and fight."

"Huh!" grunted Rhodes skeptically, "some more of us had hopes! Our army officers are both praying and cursing to get a chance to do the same thing, but they are not getting it! So you and I, little girl, will wait till some one pitches a bomb into that dovery on the Potomac. Then we'll join the volunteers and swarm over after our people."

"Oh, yes, _you_ can! Men can do anything they like. I told you I was jealous."

"Never mind, Lark-child," he returned soothingly. "If I get over with a gun, you can come along and toot a horn. There now, that's a bargain, and you can practice tooting the lark's call until the time comes."

"I reckon I'll have plenty of time to toot myself black in the face before you show up again at Granados," she prophesied ruefully, and he laughed.

"Whistle an' I'll come to you, La.s.sie," he said with sudden recklessness, "and that's for _adios_, Billie."

He held out his hand.

"That's enough, Rhodes," said a voice back of them, and Singleton walked forward. "When you got your time, you were supposed to leave Granados. Is this what you've been hanging around for during the past week?"

Rhodes flamed red to his hair as he stared down at the elder man.

"I reckon I'll not answer that now, Mr. Singleton," he said quietly.

"You may live to see you made a mistake. I hope you do, but you're traveling with a rotten bunch, and they are likely to use a knife or a rope on you any time you've played the goat long enough for them to get their innings. I'm going without any grudge, but if I was an insurance agent, trying to save money for my company, I'd sure pa.s.s you by as an unsafe bet! Keep on this side of the line, Singleton, while the revolution is whirling, and whatever you forget, don't forget I said it! _Adios_, senorita, and--good luck!"

"Good luck, Kit," she half whispered, "and _adios_!"

She watched him as he rode away, watched him as he halted at the turn of the trail and waved his hand, and Singleton was quietly observing her the while. She frowned as she turned and caught him at it.

"You thought he waited here, or planned to--to meet me," she flared.

"He was too square to tell you the truth, but it was I rode out here to say good-bye, rode out and held him up! But I did not reckon anyone would try to insult him for it!"

Her stepfather regarded her grimly. She was angry, and very near to tears.

"Time you had your breakfast," he observed, "and all signs indicate I should have sent you East last year, and kept you out of the promiscuous mixups along the border. It's the dumping ground for all sorts of stray adventurers, and no place for a girl to ride alone."

"He seemed to think I am as able to look after myself as you," she retorted. "You aren't fair to him because you take the word of Conrad, but Conrad lies, and I'm glad he got thrashed good and plenty! Now I've got that off my mind, I'll go eat a cheerful breakfast."

Singleton walked silent beside her back to where his horse was grazing by the roadside.

"Huh!" grunted the girl with frank scorn. "So you got out of the saddle to spy? Haven't you some black-and-tan around the ranch to do your dirty work?"

"It's just as well to be civil till you know what you are talking about," he reminded her with a sort of trained patience. "I came out without my breakfast just to keep the ranchmen from thinking what Tia Luz thinks. She told me I'd find that fellow waiting for you. I didn't believe it, but I see she is not so far wrong."

He spoke without heat or feeling, and his tone was that of quiet discussion with a man or boy, not at all that of a guardian to a girl.