“i never want to hear even a baby’s rattle again,” sobbed tavia, after she and dorothy were alone in their room at the ranch house. “anything from the rattle of a dry seed in a pod to a load of bricks being dumped on a cement walk, will remind me of that dreadful snake.

“why, i had a little stick in my hand, and i poked it into that crack in the rock to see if there was anything there, and up darted that rattler’s head!

“oh, dear, me, doro! if you hadn’t come as you did, i would have been bitten all to pieces!”

“nonsense!” laughed dorothy. “a snake isn’t a bulldog. it wouldn’t have chewed you up. but they are dangerous.”

“poisonous! and i didn’t have the strength to move, i was so frightened. you’ve always helped me out of messes, doro doodlebug! but this time you saved my life,” and tavia seized her chum in her arms. “i hope i’ll be able to do something big for you some day to pay you up a little, wee mite!”

“you poor child!” dorothy said, tenderly. “don’t talk such perfectly nonsensical stuff. i did no more for you than you would have done for me in like circumstances.”

“i know all about that,” said tavia, wiping her eyes. “but you’d never get into such a silly scrape, and so give me a chance. i do get into such perfect bunches of trouble, doro. life, for me, seems to be just one silly scrape after another!”

by morning, however, tavia had put the lesson of her adventure into the background. there was so much to do and see on the ranch that she could not really spend the time in thinking of a rattlesnake that was already dead!

the four young folk rode hard with one of the mexicans that day. dorothy and tavia were rather shy of the long, wicked looking horns and the tossing heads and flashing eyes of the cattle, so gave them a wide berth. ned and nat began practising throwing the rope, and displayed a deeper interest in the cattle business than the girls could possibly feel.

dorothy and tavia thought the mexican rather a villainous looking fellow, too—not at all like the handsome josé morale, who had driven them over from dugonne, so after a while they rode back toward the home corral, leaving ned and nat to go on to the second herd without them.

the girls had, by this time, no fear of the ponies they bestrode. both were well broken steeds without any vicious characteristics. as they drew near the end of the first shed, dorothy’s mount “side-stepped” unexpectedly and the girl was almost thrown.

“did you see it?” demanded tavia, hastily.

“i didn’t see anything, but the pony evidently did,” laughed dorothy, fearlessly. “what was it, tavia?”

“that mexican girl popped right out from behind that shed, and then popped back again. no wonder your pony jumped. she dresses like a fourth of july celebration. i never did see such gay colors combined in a girl’s dress in all my life.”

“flores, you mean?”

“is that her name?” asked tavia.

“so mrs. ledger told me,” said dorothy. “flores helps the foreman’s wife. she is an orphan. her parents died of smallpox in a squatter’s cabin a few miles out in the desert, last year.”

“goodness, doro! how much you know about her already. is she going to be your next protégée?” demanded tavia.

“well,” confessed dorothy, “i was interested in her at once. and do you know why?”

“just because you are always interested in everybody and everything, doro doodlekins. i never did see such a girl,” repeated tavia.

“oh! i had a real reason,” rejoined dorothy, laughing. “you see, she is not as old as you and i, tavia, yet i saw her talking very confidentially with that mexican driver, josé.”

“oh, him? do you blame her?” chuckled tavia. “what wonderfully white teeth he has—and just a love of a mustache!”

dorothy made a little face at her. “you are incorrigible, tavia,” she groaned. “i am interested in flores, not in that driver.”

“well, you spoke of him,” insisted tavia. “i didn’t bring him—and his mustache—into the conversation.”

“i wondered if flores’ folks—if she had any—approved of her talking with the man,” continued dorothy, ignoring her chum’s flippancy. “and what do you think?”

“she is going to run away with him like molly crater did with her young man!” ejaculated the romantic tavia.

“do be sensible!” exclaimed dorothy, with disgust. “molly crater is nineteen—she was of age in this state. i wish you’d listen——”

“officer! she’s in again!” interrupted tavia. “see! that mex. girl is beckoning to you, doro.”

“no! she can’t mean me?”

“i’m sure she isn’t after me,” said tavia.158 “i’ve never said ten words to her, for she can’t speak english. i found that out.”

flores had appeared again at the far corner of the long shed they were passing. she did gesture for dorothy to come to her.

“i’m going!” declared dorothy. “you take my pony on to the corral, tavia.”

she was out of the saddle as soon as she had spoken and tossed the bridle-reins to her friend. flores popped out of sight again, but dorothy followed her around the corner of the shed.

at this corner dorothy saw the mexican girl dodging around the next corner, but quickly flores led her to an empty shed and there turned, waiting for her. all the sheds appeared to be empty, for the horse wrangler had driven all the ponies out to pasture, and there was no cattle here save a few calves bawling their heads off in a pen.

“you wish to talk to me?” asked dorothy, puzzled, but smiling at the younger girl.

“i no sp’ak mooch inglese,” said flores, softly. “you come?”

she seized dorothy’s hand and drew her gently away. “come where?” asked the eastern girl.

“wiz me,” and flores pointed to herself. “i no sp’ak, but i leeston. you leeston, too.”

“listen?”

flores nodded her head vigorously. “they talk—you leeston.”

she still dragged at dorothy’s hand. the fact that the mexican girl wished her to play eavesdropper did not at first enter dorothy’s mind. she went with flores wonderingly.

her guide led the way surely between the rows of sheds. keeping well away from the bunkhouse and paddock, where there were likely to be loiterers, flores skillfully chose a way in which mrs. ledger could not possibly see them from her doorway.

when colonel hardin had really made cattle raising a business, there were often ten thousand steers at the home corral, besides hundreds of ponies. corrals and sheds occupied several hundred acres.

with a finger on her lip, flores looked back to see that the american girl was following closely. dorothy heard voices—men’s voices. at first she did not recognize them.

the mexican girl led her close behind a slab wall and silently pointed to a crevice. at the moment there was not a sound beyond the wall, and dorothy tiptoed to it and peered through the crack.

there sat hank ledger, the foreman of the ranch, and philo marsh. both were smoking and they were evidently having an earnest conference.

dorothy looked back at flores questioningly, and the mexican girl nodded with emphasis. she had brought dorothy here that the latter might “leeston” to these two men. but dorothy had no intention of doing such a thing.

of course, flores knew no better. the puzzling fact that flores wished dorothy to listen to hank and marsh was a secondary consideration in the glenwood girl’s mind in the first flush of her discovery. she turned swiftly again to shake her head angrily at the girl, when philo marsh spoke:

“why, you know very well what will happen here, hank. this woman is just a plain fool. she’ll get to sticking her nose into everything, and you’ll soon be hunting another job. and it won’t be at a hundred a month, neither!

“you might as well pad your pocket a little against your fall. it’s comin’ tuh yuh—and a good, hard bump it will be, too.”

“i dunno that,” growled hank.

“then you’re the only one around here who don’t know it. it’s comin’ tuh yuh,” he repeated.

“i kalkerlate this mrs. white is a mighty able lady,” said hank, slowly.

“pah!” sneered philo marsh. “she’s nawthin’ of the kind. and her brother-in-law is all161 crippled up and can’t git out yere. anyway, no two ways about it, we’re goin’ to beat ’em. you better come in with us, pronto. you don’t have to do nawthin’ but keep your mouth shut. we want the water, and we’re goin’ to have it—that’s all.”

before philo marsh had spoken a dozen words dorothy had a change of heart! the scoundrel’s coarse remark about aunt winnie was sufficient to hold the girl at her post and fix her attention, and her anger and interest both grew exceedingly as the talk between the two men continued.

just what philo marsh meant—why he should speak as he did—what advantage he proposed to take of her father and aunt winnie—dorothy did not know. but she proposed to stay right there until she heard all that they said upon the subject, hoping that such eavesdropping would repay her—and believing that it was excusable in such a cause.