"Didn't I tell you to take the colts down to the long pasture?"

"_Si, señor,_" answered the trembling native.

Weaver's great fist rose and fell once. The Mexican sank limply down.
Without another glance at him, the cattleman flung him aside, and strode
to the house.

As the owner of the Twin Star had said, so it was. Thereafter Phyllis
sat at the table with him and his sister, while Josephine, the Mexican
woman, waited upon them. The girl came and went at his bidding. But she
held herself with such a quiet aloofness that his victory was a barren
one.

"Do you want to go home?" he taunted her one morning, while at
breakfast.

"Is it likely I would want to stay here?" she retorted.

"Why not? What have you to complain of? Aren't you treated well?"

"Yes."

"What, then? Are you afraid?"

"No!" she answered, with a flash of her fine eyes.

"That's good, because you've got to stay here--or go to the pen. You may
take your choice."