"Not right away. Whew! It is getting hot."
"Goin' up to the hotel?" queried the constable.
Winthrop glanced along the street. The hotel did not look inviting. "I don't know. I'd like to get in the shade somewhere."
"There's old Fernando's 'dobe down the track under them pepper trees. He's a friend of mine. He ain't to home to-day. Mebby you'd like to set down there and wait for your friend."
"My friend?"
"Why, ain't you waitin' for anybody? You ain't goin' to tackle that bug-huntin' trip alone, be you? It's dangerous out there for a tenderfoot. Now I have took folks out, and brought 'em back all right,—gone as far as them hills over there, and that's a good jag from here,—and I only charge four dollars a day and grub."
"I thought you said you were constable?"
"So I be. Takin' parties across the desert is on the side. How far you figurin' on goin'?"
"I haven't made up my mind yet. Say we go down as far as the adobe you spoke about, as a beginning. Perhaps we can arrange terms."
"I'm on, pard," said the constable.