"She's no more of his people than she is of mine. Her mother was an American girl. She was educated in Washington. New Mexico is in America, not in Spain. Don't forget that, you old croaker."
"Well, she's engaged, ain't she? And to a good man. It ain't your put in."
"A good one, but the wrong one. It's a woman's privilege to change her mind. I'm here to help her change it," announced the young man calmly. "Say, look at Jimmie Corbett hitting the high spots this way."
Jimmie, not yet recovered from a severe fright, stopped to explain the adventure that had befallen him while he had been night fishing.
"I seen spooks, Mr. Gordon—hundreds of 'em—coming down the river bank on horseback—honest to goodness, I did."
"Jimmie, if I had your imagination——"
But Davis cut into Dick's smiling incredulity:
"Did you say on horseback, Jimmie?"
"Yes, sir, on horseback. Hope to die if they weren't—'bout fifty of them."
"You better run along home before they catch you, Jimmie," advised the old miner gravely.