THE WINDOW OF THE SPHINX
ranch. What he found out was more cheering than he had expected. Sanguine himself, he always forgot that Morgan was a blue devil. He decided to wire the foreman to keep the new "Buster" on, and modified some of the expressions in his letter before he took it to the post-office. There remained his stuff to look after. It was safer not to appear himself in connection with that heap of stakes, ropes and canvas, for he knew the curiosity of a village, how fast it can travel and how far. He sent Esmeralda Charley on this errand, and waited in the wretched bar, fretted with the false position of secrecy in which he found himself. His actions were those of a thief, though he was not taking property which belonged to another, or to any one in fact. But the girl held the whip-hand over them all, her father, through his loyalty, a little weak in point of practice, but theoretically sincere enough; the man on the road, through his fear of losing her, and Carron himself, through his fear of losing the horse. Woman she might be, and fanciful, but he had had some experience in the strength of women's will. Should she find out what he was doing before his plans materialized, he knew her capable of frightening the stallion away for ever.
The half-breed, returning, reported the stuff too bulky to be stored in the baggage-room, but he had
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