supposed the snakes had eaten them all. She had let Tango stop often to
breathe, and whenever he did so she had looked south, scanning as much of
the lower level as she could see, which was not the proper way to go
about hunting snake dens, I assure you. But at the top she permitted
Tango to walk into the shade of a boulder that radiated heat like a stove
but was still preferable to the blistering sunlight, and there she left
him while she walked a little nearer the edge of the rimrock that topped
the ridge on its southern side.

Once more she scanned the sweltering expanse of sagebrush, scant grass,
many rock patches and much sand. She saw a rider moving along a shallow
watercourse, and immediately she focused her glasses upon him. She gave
an ejaculation of surprise when the powerful lenses annihilated nine
tenths of the distance between them. One would judge from her manner and
her tone that, while she had not been surprised to see a rider, that
rider's identity was wholly unexpected.

She watched him until, having reached a certain place where a group of
cottonwoods shaded the gully, he stopped and dismounted to fuss with his
cinches. Mary V could not be sure whether he was merely killing time, or
whether he really needed to tighten the saddle; but when another rider
appeared suddenly from the eastward, she did know that the first rider
showed no symptoms of surprise.

She did not know the second arrival at the cottonwoods. She could see
that he was Mexican, and that was all. The two talked together with much
gesturing on the part of the Mexican, and sundry affirmative nods on the
part of the first rider. The Mexican frequently waved a hand toward the
south--toward Sinkhole Camp, perhaps. They seemed to be in a hurry, Mary
V thought. They did not tarry more than five minutes before they parted,