He rolled a cigarette with smiling lips as he spoke, but all the time his black eyes burned at the chestnut.  He seemed to Marianne half child and half old man, and both parts of him were evil now that she could guess the whole story.  Cordova campaigned through the country, racing his horse at fairs or for side bets.  For two reasons he kept the animal systematically undernourished:  one was that he was thereby able to get better odds; the other was that only on a weakened Alcatraz would he trust himself.  At this she did not wonder for never had she seen such almost human viciousness of temper in a dumb beast.

“As for running, senorita,” continued Cordova, “sometimes he does very well—­yes, very well.  But when he is dull the spurs are nothing to him.”

He indicated a criss-crossing of scars on the flank of the stallion and Marianne, biting her lips, realized that she must leave at once if she wished to avoid showing her contempt, and her anger.

She was a mile down the road and entering the main street of Glosterville before her temper cooled.  She decided that it was best to forget both Alcatraz and his master:  they were equally matched in devilishness.  Her last hope of seeing the mares beaten was gone, and with it all chance of buying them at a reasonable figure; for no matter what the potentialities of Alcatraz in his present starved condition he could not compare with the bays.  She thought of Lady Mary with the sunlight rippling over her shoulder muscles.  Certainly Alcatraz would never come within whisking distance of her tail!

CHAPTER II

THE COMING OF DAVID

Having reached this conclusion, the logical thing, of course, was for Marianne to pack and go without waiting to see the race or hear the bidding for the Coles horses; but she could not leave.  Hope is as blind as love.  She had left the ranch saying to her father and to the foreman, Lew Hervey:  “The bank account is shrinking, but ideals are worth more than facts and I shall improve the horses on this place.”  It was a rather too philosophical speech for one of her years, but Oliver Jordan had merely shrugged his shoulders and rolled another cigarette; the crushed leg which, for the past three years, had made him a cripple, had taught him patience.

Only the foreman had ventured to smile openly.  It was no secret that Lew Hervey disliked the girl heartily.  The fall of the horse which made Jordan a semi-invalid, killed his ambition and self-reliance at the same instant.  Not only was it impossible for him to ride since the accident, but the freeswinging self-confidence which had made him prosperous disappeared at the same time; his very thoughts walked slowly on foot since his fall.  Hervey gathered the reins of the ranch affairs more and more into his own hands and had grown to an almost independent power when Marianne came home from school.  Having studied