“It’s up to me to quit,” he muttered. “I’d be a blooming jackass to waste any more time here. I’ll have to work it naturally, though, or Lynch will smell a rat.” 158
At that moment the trail dipped down into a gully—the very one, in fact, where he had passed Tex that first day he had ridden out to the ranch. Thinking of the encounter, Buck recalled his own emotions with a curious feeling of remoteness. The grotesque mental picture he had formed of Mary Thorne contrasted so amusingly with the reality that he grinned and might have broken into a laugh had he not caught sight at that moment of a figure riding toward him from the other end of the gully.
The high-crowned sombrero, abnormally broad of brim, the gaudy saddle-trappings and touches of bright color about the stranger’s equipment, brought a slight frown to Stratton’s face. Apart even from is recent unpleasant associations with them, he had never had any great fondness for Mexicans, whom he considered slick and slippery beyond the average. He watched this one’s approach warily, and when the fellow pulled up with a glistening smile and a polite “Buenas tardes,” Stratton responded with some curtness.
“Fine day, señor,” remarked the stranger pleasantly.
“You’ve said it,” returned Buck drily. “We haven’t had rain in as much as three weeks.”
“Tha’s right,” agreed the other. His glance strayed to the brand on Buck’s cayuse, and his swarthy face took on an expression of pleased surprise. “You come from Shoe-Bar?” he questioned. 159
“You’re some mind-reader,” commented Stratton briefly. “What of it?”
“Mebbe yo’ do me favor,” pursued the Mexican eagerly. “Save me plenty hot ride.” He pulled an envelope from the pocket of his elaborately silver-conchoed chaps. “Rocking-R boss, he tell me take thees to Mister Leench at Shoe-Bar. Eef yo’ take heem, I am save mooch trouble, eh?”
Buck eyed the extended envelope doubtfully. Then, ashamed of his momentary hesitation to perform this simple service, he took it and tucked it away in one pocket.
“All right,” he agreed. “I’ll take it over for you. I’ve got to go in to town first, though.”