unconscious. But the cowboy, Miss Langham noted out of the
corner of her eye, after a look of polite surprise, beamed with
amusement and continued to stare up and down the table as though
he had discovered a new trait in a peculiar and interesting
animal. For some reason, she could not tell why, she felt
annoyed with herself and with her friends, and resented the
attitude which the new-comer assumed toward them.

``Mrs. Porter tells me that you know her son George?'' she said.
He did not answer her at once, but bowed his head in assent, with
a look of interrogation, as though, so it seemed to her, he had
expected her, when she did speak, to say something less
conventional.

``Yes,'' he replied, after a pause, ``he joined us at Ayutla. It
was the terminus of the Jalisco and Mexican Railroad then. He
came out over the road and went in from there with an outfit
after mountain lions. I believe he had very good sport.''

``That is a very wonderful road, I am told,'' said King, bending
forward and introducing himself into the conversation with a nod
of the head toward Clay; ``quite a remarkable feat of
engineering.''

``It will open up the country, I believe,'' assented the other,
indifferently.

``I know something of it,'' continued King, ``because I met the
men who were putting it through at Pariqua, when we touched there
in the yacht. They shipped most of their plant to that port, and