THE MAN WITH THE CHIHUAHUA HAT
A little dust cloud was traveling up the trail toward the Bar Double G, the center of which presently defined itself as a rider moving at a road gait. He wore a Chihuahua hat and with it the picturesque trappings the Southwest borrows on occasion from across the border. Vanity disclosed itself in the gold-laced hat, in the silver conchos of the fringed chaps, in the fine workmanship of the saddle and bit. The man’s finery was overdone, carried with it the suggestion of being on exhibition. But one look at the man himself, sleek and graceful, black-haired and white-toothed, exuding an effect of cold wariness in spite of the masked smiling face, would have been enough to give the lie to any charge of weakness. His fopperies could not conceal the silken strength of him. One meeting with the chill, deep-set eyes was certificate enough for most people.
Melissy, sitting on the porch with her foot resting on a second chair, knew a slight quickening of the blood as she watched him approach.
“Good evenin’, Miss M’lissy,” he cried, sweeping his sombrero as low as the stirrup. 50
“Buenos tardes, Señor Norris,” she flung back gayly.
Sitting at ease in the saddle, he leisurely looked her over with eyes that smoldered behind half-shuttered lids. To most of her world she was in spirit still more boy than woman, but before his bold, possessive gaze her long lashes wavered to the cheeks into which the warm blood was beating. Her long, free lines were still slender with the immaturity of youth, her soul still hesitating reluctantly to cross the border to womanhood toward which Nature was pushing her so relentlessly. From a fund of experience Philip Norris read her shrewdly, knew how to evoke the latent impulses which brought her eagerly to the sex duel.
“Playing off for sick,” he scoffed.
“I’m not,” she protested. “Never get sick. It’s just a sprained ankle.”
“Sho! I guess you’re Miss Make Believe; just harrowing the feelings of your beaux.”
“The way you talk! I haven’t got any beaux. The boys are just my friends.”