Yes! it was Sue's vanity pinching her, if the truth were known. Her diatribes about Frances and the old Captain were not to be easily forgotten by the girl from Boston. Not so much was she smitten because of her unkindness; but she felt that she had played the fool! Her friends from Amarillo must be quietly laughing in secret over what Sue had said regarding the uncouthness of the Captain and the lack of breeding of the "Cattle Queen." Sue felt that she had laid herself open to ridicule, and it did hurt Sue Latrop to think that her young friends were laughing at her. As for the dinner, that was a revelation to the girl from Boston. The service, if a bit odd, was very good. And the silver, cut glass, napery, and all were as rich as Sue had ever seen. After the dinner, and the other guests began to arrive, and the band struck up behind the palms in the inner court of the _hacienda_, Sue continued to be surprised, though she failed to admit it to her friends. It was true the boys came up from the bunk-house without evening dress. But their black clothes were clean and well brushed, and those who wore the usual kerchief about their necks sported silk ones and carried their bullion-loaded sombreros in their hands. And they could all dance. Sue refused the first few dances and tried to sit and look on in a superior way; but she presently failed to make good at this. When the kindly old ranchman considered her a wall-flower and came and begged her to "give him a whirl," Sue had to break through her "icy reserve." Although they did not dance the more modern dances, she found that Captain Rugley knew his steps and was as light on his feet as a man half his age. "I have given Mr. Rheumatism the time of his life to-night!" declared the owner of the Bar-T brand. "That's what I told Frances I would do." And Captain Rugley suffered no ill effects from the dance, as was shown by his appearance here at the Jackleg schoolhouse to-night, when the canvas curtain slowly rolled up to reveal first the painted curtain behind it, on which was a picture of the meeting of Cortez and the Aztec princes soon after the Conqueror's arrival in Mexico. The school teacher read the prologue, and the spectators settled down to listen and to see. His explanation of what was to follow was both concise and well written, and the whisper went around: "And she's only a girl! Yes, Miss Rugley wrote it all." Sue sniffed. The teacher stepped back into the shadow and the painted curtain rolled up. There was a gasp of amazement when the audience saw what was revealed behind the painted sheet. One of the moving picture machines was already running, and on the great screen was thrown a representation of the staked plains of the Panhandle as they were in the days before the white man ever saw them.