When he looked at Ranse’s face he stopped, and the hand that held his newspaper shook slightly. “Boy,” he said slowly, “how did you find it out?” “It’s all right,” said Ranse, with a smile. “I made Tia Juana tell me. It was kind of by accident, but it’s all right.” “You’ve been like a son to me,” said old “Kiowa,” trembling. “Tia Juana told me all about it,” said Ranse. “She told me how you adopted me when I was knee-high to a puddle duck out of a wagon train of prospectors that was bound West. And she told me how the kid—your own kid, you know—got lost or was run away with. And she said it was the same day that the sheep-shearers got on a bender and left the ranch.” “Our boy strayed from the house when he was two years old,” said the old man. “And then along came those emigrant wagons with a youngster they didn’t want; and we took you. I never intended you to know, Ranse. We never heard of our boy again.” “He’s right outside, unless I’m mighty mistaken,” said Ranse, opening the door and beckoning. Curly walked in. No one could have doubted. The old man and the young had the same sweep of hair, the same nose, chin, line of face, and prominent light-blue eyes. Old “Kiowa” rose eagerly. Curly looked about the room curiously. A puzzled expression came over his face. He pointed to the wall opposite. “Where’s the tick-tock?” he asked, absent-mindedly. “The clock,” cried old “Kiowa” loudly. “The eight-day clock used to stand there. Why—” He turned to Ranse, but Ranse was not there. Already a hundred yards away, Vaminos, the good flea-bitten dun, was bearing him eastward like a racer through dust and chaparral towards the Rancho de los Olmos. X CUPID À LA CARTE “The dispositions of woman,” said Jeff Peters, after various opinions on the subject had been advanced, “run, regular, to diversions. What a woman wants is what you’re out of. She wants more of a thing when it’s scarce. She likes to have souvenirs of things that never happened. She likes to be reminded of things she never heard of. A one-sided view of objects is disjointing to the female composition.