When the two, still arguing, had closed the door to their room Gale and Valerie prepared for bed.
“I shall probably dream of Pedro,” Valerie said as she jumped between the covers. “That fellow haunts me!”
“Nonsense,” Gale laughed. “Don’t let your mind dwell on it. Anyway,” she sighed, “we’ll be going home in three days and then you can get all the sleep you like.”
“Just the same,” Val murmured, “I won’t ever forget that knife.”
When the lights were out and sleep had come to the girls, Gale slept dreamlessly, peacefully. But Valerie tossed and fretted, pursued in her dreams by Pedro and his knife, which, with the fantasy of dreams, had grown to new and large proportions.
Chapter XVII
REVENGE
Their horses were fresh and eager and the girls had a hard time holding them into a leisurely walk on the way back from town. Gale and Valerie--the other girls had remained at the ranch house to pack some of their things, for they were to leave for the East day after tomorrow--were the only ones who had felt eager for an early morning ride. Tom had saddled their horses for them and the girls had ridden into Coxton to get a last look at the little western town. They made some trifling purchases in the general store and now were on their way back to the ranch.
The sun shone down, its brilliance sending little dust eddies up from the road. At the roadside a bird twittered.
“Funny,” Valerie said, “I never thought of them as having birds in Arizona.”
Gale laughed. “Why shouldn’t they?”