"Then even before I found this feather he must have suspected somebody and taken care of the others. But it's dreadful if we have come to turning keys on one another, here, at dear Sobrante. Well, I'm off to mother, now; and, Joe, Antonio said you should go to help John. Will you?" "For you, fast enough, Lady Jess, though I'm about quit of Top-Lofty's orders." "Grumbler!" laughed the girl, hurrying away, with her gayety quite restored by this few minutes' chat with the beloved "boys" who had petted her all her life. They did not laugh, however, as they watched her going, and Joe, rising to do her bidding, slapped his thigh emphatically and remarked: "I call it the time has come. The longer we put it off the worse it is. Poor little missy! Getting our wages due! That little angel 'd cry the blue out of her pretty eyes if she knew how long 'twas since we'd seen the color of our money. Pass the word along, boys, and let's confab, to-night, and settle it. Time, about moon-up, in John's shop. How's that?" "Count me a mutineer," said the ex-sailor, Samson, as he strolled toward his cattle sheds. "I'm with you," echoed Marty, departing for his orange grove. "Mutiny's an ugly word aboard ship, I'm told, but when psalm-singing Samson takes to using it right here on dry land I reckon the case differs. Anyhow, if it's a bid 'twixt the little one and Top-Lofty, I'm for the little one every time." Scruff knew the road home as well as another, and doubtless reasoned in his burro mind that the sooner he reached there the sooner he would be rid of his awkward rider. So he made all speed over the steep descent, though Mr. Hale used his own feet, now and then, as human brakes to check the creature's pace; and, whimsically, remonstrated when the jolts became too frequent. "Here, you beast! Hold on! If ever I ride a donkey again just let me know about it, will you? Keep that front end of yours up, please. I've a notion of sliding over your head, just to accommodate. Steady, there, steady. I flatter myself I can stick if I can't ride. And we're getting along. We're getting along." Indeed, much earlier than he had hoped for, they were on level ground and had struck out upon that road where Jessica had met the manager, and which for some distance followed the tree-bordered arroyo--just then a river of sand only--leading straight toward a group of buildings and an oasis of greenery most welcome to the stranger's sun-blinded eyes. "Sobrante ranch, that must be, and the home of my little ostrich rider. I hope she'll be there to greet me, for a tempting spot it looks." The nearer he approached the more charming it appeared, with its one modern, vine-covered cottage, and its long stretches of low adobe structures--enough to form a village in themselves--and as dingily ancient as the other was freshly modern.