CHAPTER V—At La Siesta
SOON after one o’clock Dick Willoughby and Chester Munson were again in the saddle. They galloped along the foothills for some time in silence. But coming to the boulder-strewn wash of a mountain stream, they had perforce to rein their horses to a walk. Conversation was now possible.
“Dick, will you give me a job as a cowboy if I quit the army?” asked Munson abruptly.
“Surest thing you know,” replied Dick. “But why try to kid me like that?”
“Oh,” laughed the other, “I am not jesting.”
“Well, by gad, if you feel that way already, the chances are you will write out your resignation when you get back to the shack tonight.”
“You mean by that—”
“I mean,” said Dick, smiling benignly at his friend, “that when you have once seen Grace Darlington you will feel like browsing on the California range until you have learned to throw a riata.”
“Oh, it is not the thought of any mere girl that will influence my decision. I feel like getting back to Nature—back to the soil—back to a life of untrammeled freedom.”
“Back to unspoiled womanhood,” added Dick sententiously.