“Well, what do you want?”

“I am afraid you have the advantage of me in being able to transact business through bars,” said Clarence, with slow but malevolent distinctness, “and as mine is important, I think you had better open the gate to me.”

The slight laugh that his speech had evoked from the bystanders was checked as the leader retorted angrily:—­

“That’s all very well; but how do I know that you’re the man represented in that letter?  Pancho Robles may know you, but I don’t.”

“That you can find out very easily,” said Clarence.  “There is a man among your party who knows me,—­Mr. Hooker.  Ask him.”

The man turned, with a quick mingling of surprise and suspicion, to the gloomy, imperturbable Hooker.  Clarence could not hear the reply of that young gentleman, but it was evidently not wanting in his usual dark, enigmatical exaggeration.  The man surlily opened the gate.

“All the same,” he said, still glancing suspiciously at Hooker, “I don’t see what he’s got to do with you.”

“A great deal,” said Clarence, entering the courtyard, and stepping into the veranda; “He’s one of my tenants.”

“Your what?” said the man, with a coarse laugh of incredulity.

“My tenants,” repeated Clarence, glancing around the courtyard carelessly.  Nevertheless, he was relieved to notice that the three or four Mexicans of the party did not seem to be old retainers of the rancho.  There was no evidence of the internal treachery he had feared.

“Your tenants!” echoed the man, with an uneasy glance at the faces of the others.

“Yes,” said Clarence, with business brevity; “and, for the matter of that, although I have no reason to be particularly proud of it, so are you all.  You ask my business here.  It seems to be the same as yours,—­to hold possession of this house!  With this difference, however,” he continued, taking a document from his pocket.  “Here is the certificate, signed by the County Clerk, of the bill of sale of the entire Sisters’ title to me.  It includes the whole two leagues from Fair Plains to the old boundary line of this rancho, which you forcibly entered this morning.  There is the document; examine it if you like.  The only shadow of a claim you could have to this property you would have to derive from me.  The only excuse you could have for this act of lawlessness would be orders from me.  And all that you have done this morning is only the assertion of my legal right to this house.  If I disavow your act, as I might, I leave you as helpless as any tramp that was ever kicked from a doorstep,—­as any burglar that was ever collared on the fence by a constable.”