from the effect her presence had upon the first woman she encountered.  While Florence exercised what little Spanish she had command of, trying to get the women to talk, Madeline looked about the miserable little rooms.  And there grew upon her a feeling of sickness, which increased as she passed from one house to another.  She had not believed such squalor could exist anywhere in America.  The huts reeked with filth; vermin crawled over the dirt floors.  There was absolutely no evidence of water, and she believed what Florence told her—­ that these people never bathed.  There was little evidence of labor.  Idle men and women smoking cigarettes lolled about, some silent, others jabbering.  They did not resent the visit of the American women, nor did they show hospitality.  They appeared stupid.  Disease was rampant in these houses; when the doors were shut there was no ventilation, and even with the doors open Madeline felt choked and stifled.  A powerful penetrating odor pervaded the rooms that were less stifling than others, and this odor Florence explained came from a liquor the Mexicans distilled from a cactus plant.  Here drunkenness was manifest, a terrible inert drunkenness that made its victims deathlike.

Madeline could not extend her visit to the little mission-house.  She saw a padre, a starved, sad-faced man who, she instinctively felt, was good.  She managed to mount her horse and ride up to the house; but, once there, she weakened and Florence had almost to carry her in-doors.  She fought off a faintness, only to succumb to it when alone in her room.  Still, she did not entirely lose consciousness, and soon recovered to the extent that she did not require assistance.

Upon the morning after the end of the round-up, when she went out on the porch, her brother and Stillwell appeared to be arguing about the identity of a horse.

“Wal, I reckon it’s my old roan,” said Stillwell, shading his eves with his hand.

“Bill, if that isn’t Stewart’s horse my eyes are going back on me,” replied Al.  “It’s not the color or shape—­the distance is too far to judge by that.  It’s the motion—­the swing.”

“Al, mebbe you’re right.  But they ain’t no rider up on thet hoss.  Flo, fetch my glass.”

Florence went into the house, while Madeline tried to discover the object of attention.  Presently far up the gray hollow along a foothill she saw dust, and then the dark, moving figure of a horse.  She was watching when Florence returned with the glass.  Bill took a long look, adjusted the glasses carefully, and tried again.

“Wal, I hate to admit my eyes are gettin’ pore.  But I guess I’ll hev to.  Thet’s Gene Stewart’s hoss, saddled, an’ comin’ at a fast clip without a rider.  It’s amazin’ strange, an’ some in keepin’ with other things concernin’ Gene.”

“Give me the glass,” said Al.  “Yes, I was right.  Bill, the horse is not frightened.  He’s coming steadily; he’s got something on his mind.”