keep up with the now fast-moving stage. Then, all of a sudden, as the
silence between them was beginning to grow embarrassing, the Girl made
out the figure of a man on horseback a short distance ahead, and uttered
an exclamation of surprise. The stranger followed the direction of the
Girl's eyes and, almost instantly, it was borne in upon them that the
horseman awaited their coming. The Girl turned to speak, but the tender,
sorrowful expression that she saw on the young man's face kept her
silent.

"That is one of my father's men," he said, somewhat solemnly. "His
presence here may mean that I must leave you. The road to our ranch
begins there. I fear that something may be wrong."

The Girl shot him a look of sympathetic inquiry, though she said
nothing. To tell the truth, the first thought that entered her mind
at his words was one of concern that their companionship was likely
to cease abruptly. During the silence that preceded his outspoken
premonition of trouble, she had been studying him closely. She found
herself admiring his aquiline features, his olive-coloured skin with its
healthful pallor, the lazy, black Spanish eyes behind which, however
tranquil they generally were, it was easy for her to discern, when he
smiled, that reckless and indomitable spirit which appeals to women all
the world over.

As the stage approached the motionless horseman, the young man cried out
to the _vaquero_, for such he was, and asked in Spanish whether he had a
message for him; an answer came back in the same language, the meaning
of which the Girl failed to comprehend. A moment later her companion
turned to her and said: