The girl did not answer, and the car sped on to the ranch house while the two horses cantered along after them, but the joyous freedom of the ride had vanished, lost back there on the ranges when the other minds met them in a clash.
"Say," observed Rhodes, "I said nothing about Yaqui slave traders. Where did you get that?"
"I heard Conrad and his man Brehman talking of the profits,--sixty pesos a head I think it was. I wonder how they knew?"
Singleton was waiting for them at the entrance to the ranch house, great adobe with a patio eighty feet square in the center. In the old old days it had housed all the vaqueros, but now the ranchmen were divided up on different outlying rancherias and the many rooms of Granados were mostly empty. Conrad, his secretary Brehman, and their cook occupied one corner, while Singleton and Billie and Tia Luz with her brood of helpers occupied the other.
Singleton was not equal to the large hospitality of the old days when the owner of a hacienda was a sort of king, dispensing favors and duties to a small army of retainers. A companionable individual he was glad to meet and chat or smoke with, but if the property had been his own he would have sold every acre and spent the proceeds in some city of the East where a gentleman could get something for his money.
Conrad had halted a moment after Singleton climbed out of the car.
"I sent word to Rhodes to come up from La Partida because of the horse shipment," he said looking across the level where the two riders were just entering the palm avenue. "Because of that it would seem he is to be my guest, and I have room."
"Oh, we all have room, more room than anything else," answered Singleton drearily, "but it will be as Billie says. I see Pike's nag here, and she always wants Pike."
The milky blue eyes of Conrad slanted towards Singleton in discreet contempt of the man who allowed a wayward girl to decide the guests or the housing of them. But he turned away.
"The telephone will reach me if there is anything I can do," he said.
Singleton did not reply. He knew Conrad absolutely disapproved of the range boss being accepted as a family guest. Between Billie and Captain Pike, who was a privileged character, he did not quite see how he could prevent it in the case of Rhodes, although he was honestly so glad to see the girl ride home safe that he would have accepted any guest of the range she suggested.