The lad was always expecting the Mexican to bid him adieu, but as time passed on he showed no inclination to do so.
“It’s mighty odd,” muttered Tom, “that my direction should be exactly the same as his direction. It’s another thing I don’t quite understand!”
At last, growing tired of speculations and deductions, which he reflected would certainly never solve the matter, he thrust them all from his mind, becoming more conscious from that moment of the heat and the glare of light which enveloped the landscape.
Reaching the heights of a ridge the two looked down upon a valley, to see far-off herds of grazing cattle. At the right a faint bluish smudge rising above the low chain of hills attracted Tom’s attention.
“Hello!” he exclaimed, “I’ll bet that’s a cowboys’ camp.” He turned quickly and discovered the Mexican eying him with a most peculiar smile. It instantly faded, however, when the latter observed his action. Once more Tom became impressed with the idea that for some reason he was an object of special interest to this man whom he had so unexpectedly encountered.
“By George! It’s about the queerest thing I ever ran up against!” he muttered. “I’ll steer straight for that camp, and, if there are any cow-punchers among the bunch who speak a few words of the Spanish lingo, maybe they can put me wise.”
A sweep of his hand told the Mexican of his resolve, at which an expression of undisguised astonishment, so plain as to admit of no mistake, flashed for a second over the other’s face.
Tom saw his keen searching eyes fixed full upon him; they seemed to travel slowly from the soles of his shoes to the high peaked crown of his sombrero. Then with a slight shrug of his shoulders, the man’s benevolent smile returned and cracking his whip he galloped down the slope.
Not long after the two horsemen were riding among Colonel Brookes Sylvester’s great herds of cattle. Hundreds of them were contentedly browsing over the hillsides or along the rich pasture lands of the valley.
It was not always an easy matter to keep that thin column of smoke in view, for many times ridges or thick clumps of vegetation came between.