“Has he a mine of his own?” asked the settler’s wife, with almost pitiful eagerness.
“No, indeed! He doesn’t wish one. It’s just his business to—to location them. I’d better ask Carlos, or you would. He knows more about it than I do.”
Then, as the rumble of an approaching train startled her, she sprang up and frantically waved her hand to Carlos and Jack, who were hunting gophers on the plain beyond the track.
“Oh! they’ll be rolled on and killed! The train—the cars—my brother!”
Mrs. Burnham rose and took the little girl’s hand.
“There, there, child! No trains can hurt you or anybody if you keep away from the rails. Try to look upon them as the pleasantest things of our days, and you’ll soon get over your fear. Now, you and Teddy play by yourselves. I see that Mr. Burnham wishes to speak with me, before this train arrives.”
CHAPTER XVIII
A ROUGH KNIGHT ERRANT
“Letitia, that woman we owe was on the train that stopped here last night. She was one of those who spoke to these Manuel children and the sight of her clinched my anxiety to get away.”
“That—woman? Are you sure?”
“I reckon I can’t be mistaken in the face of the person who has held a mortgage on my life so long. The queer thing is, I overheard her say she’d ‘crossed the continent a dozen times’—that I never chanced to see her before. Now—shall I send word ahead that the new man can have my place?”