Chapter III

Payment in Raw Gold

'You were merely speaking by way of jest, I take it, Mr. Howard,'
remarked Longstreet, after he had interestedly watched the rancher put
a third and fourth heaping spoonful of sugar in his tin cup of coffee.
'I refer, you understand, to your hinting a moment ago at there being
any truth in the old Indian superstitions. I am not to suppose, am I,
that you actually give any credence to tales of supernatural influences
manifested hereabouts?'

Alan Howard stirred his coffee meditatively, and after so leisurely a
fashion that Longstreet began to fidget. The reply, when finally it
came, was sufficiently non-committal.

'I said "_Quién sabe_?" to the question just now,' he said, a twinkle
in the regard bestowed upon the scientist. 'They are two pretty good
little old words and fit in first-rate lots of times.'

'Spanish for "Who knows?" aren't they?'

Howard nodded. 'They used to be Spanish; I guess they're Mex by now.'

Longstreet frowned and returned to the issue.

'If you were merely jesting, as I supposed----'

'But was I?' demanded Howard. 'What do I know about it? I know horses