“He was so handsome, Señorita,” said the girl, “to be so hardly dealt with.”
“Paula,” said the mistress bitingly, “will you remember who you’re talkin’ to? Do you want to go back to th’ Pomos under th’ Rockface?”
“Saints forbid!” cried Paula instantly.
“Then keep your sighs for José an’ mind your manners. Pick up that bundle.”
Swiftly and obediently the girl did as she was told, unrolling the wrapper from the package.
She brought to light the meal-sack which Tharon had dropped that day on Baston’s porch.
A slow flush stained Tharon’s cheeks at the sight, and she went abruptly into the house.
When the riders came in at night she told them in detail about the whole affair, for Last’s and its men were one, their interests the same.
They held counsel around the long table in the dining room under the hanging lamp, and Conford at her right was spokesman for the rest. 95
“He’s somethin’ official, all right, I make no doubt, Tharon,” he said when he had listened attentively, “but what or who I don’t know. I heard from Dixon about him comin’ into Corvan that day, an’ that he had rode far. No one knows his business, or what he’s in Lost Valley for. He’s some mysterious.”