The girl's dark face flushed and her eyes sparkled. "Lots! Perhaps you and Dad could agree to stop growling altogether. But we won't talk about it. I'd like to know what you are doing up here afoot?"
"Wouldn't tell you for a dollar," he replied, smiling. "My horse is over there—near the timber. The rest of the band are at the waterhole."
"Oh, but you will tell me!" she said. "And before we get back to the cañon."
"I wasn't headed that way—" he began; but she interrupted quickly.
"Of course. I'm not, either." Then she glanced at him with mischief scintillating in her dark eyes. "Fernando told me you were talking with him this morning. I don't see that it has done you much good."
His perplexity was apparent in his silence.
"Fernando is—is polite," she asserted, wheeling her horse.
Corliss stood gazing at her unsmilingly. "I want to be," he said presently.
"Oh, John! I—you always take things so seriously. I was just 'joshing' you, as Fernando says. Of course you do! Won't you shake hands?"
He strode forward. The girl drew off her gauntlet and extended her hand. "Let's begin over again," she said as he shook hands with her. "We've both been acting."