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Had Haydon seen the defiant gleam of her eyes when she gazed westward in the direction of the Star he might have realized that each day he stayed away from the Rancho Seco would make it that much more difficult for him to explain.
On the return trip, we got the ambulance off before sunrise, expecting to halt and breakfast again at the Arroyo Seco. Aaron Scales and Dan Happersett acted as couriers to Miss Jean's conveyance, while the rest dallied behind, for there was quite a cavalcade of young folks going a distance our way. This gave Uncle Lance a splendid chance to quiz the girls in the party.
The white plume, the coppery tint of his broad face, the blue-black of the moustaches under the curved beak, the mass of gold on sleeves and breast, the high shining boots with enormous spurs, the working nostrils, the imbecile and domineering stare of the glorious victor of Rio Seco had in them something ominous and incredible; the exaggeration of a cruel caricature, the fatuity of solemn masquerading, the atrocious grotesqueness of some military idol of Aztec conception and European bedecking, awaiting the homage of worshippers.
I was a-ridin' up the river this afternoon when I see the old man cuttin' down a palo verde tree, and about forty head of cattle lingerin' around to eat the top off as soon as she hit the ground; and he says to me, kinder solemn and fatherly: "'Jeff, he says, 'cut trees for your cattle this is an año seco." "'Yes, I've heard that before, says I. 'But my cows is learnin' to climb."
Rogers' laugh was hollow, mirthless. And again Deveny shot a glance at him. "But you didn't bother her Barbara?" questioned Rogers in a dry, light voice. "No," grinned Deveny; "that time hasn't come yet. It's coming soon. I told Lolly to keep an eye on her; I've got Engle and Barthman and Kelmer watching at the doors so Barbara can't light out for the Rancho Seco.
Only on the ground where the feed should be were there signs of the imminent drought; and where the sheep had crossed the ground lay hard and baked or scuffled into dust. In the presence of those swift destroyers the dreaded año seco had crept in upon them unnoticed, but soon it would scourge the land with heat and dust and failing waters, and cattle lowing to be fed.
And gradually she began to think about him, to wonder why he had protected her from the man, Higgins, and why he was going with her to the Rancho Seco. She provided after a while an answer to her first question: He had protected her because she had run into his arms in her effort to escape the clutches of the man who had pursued her Higgins.
Don Juan Creagh did the same with his men. But as the French commandant reported that some of the enemy were still lurking about the place, our General-in-Chief directed Captain Don Santiago Madan, second adjutant of the same corps, to reconnoitre once more the Valle Seco with 120 Rozadores. This duty was well performed, despite the roughness of the paths and the excessive heat of the sun.
"That you should be on your way to the Rancho Seco and that you should encounter father that you should happen to reach Sentinel Rock about the time he was murdered." He looked straight at her, noting the suspicion in her eyes. His low laugh had a hint of irony in it. "I've heard of such things," he said. "What?"
Into Harlan's heart as he rode toward the Star flamed that ancient loathing, paling his face and bringing a gleam to his eyes that had been in them often of late a lust for the lives of the men whose evil deeds and sinister influence had kept Barbara a virtual prisoner at the Rancho Seco.
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