with the license of an old and trusted servant, the sage of Palomar
favored her with a knowing wink.

"He knows--he knows!" the girl thought. "What must he think of me!
Oh, dear, oh, dear! if he mentions the subject to me I shall die."
Tears of mortification were in her eyes as she turned angrily upon the
amazed Pablo. "You--you--old sky-blue idiot!" she charged and fled to
her room.




CHAPTER XXVIII

Kay's first coherent thought was to claim the privilege of her sex--a
headache--and refrain from joining Don Mike and her parents at dinner.
Upon consideration, however, she decided that since she would have to
face the issue sooner or later, she might as well be brave and not try
to evade it. For she knew now the fate of the promissory note Bill
Conway had given her and which she had thrust into the pocket of her
riding coat. It had worked out of her pocket and dropped beside the
trail to Agua Caliente Basin, and fate had ordained that it should be
found by the one person in the world not entitled to that privilege.
Kay would have given fifty thousand dollars for some miraculous philter
which, administered surreptitiously to Miguel Farrel, would cause him
to forget what the girl now realized he knew of her secret negotiations
with Bill Conway for the salvation of the ranch. Nevertheless, despite
her overwhelming embarrassment and distress, the question occurred to
her again and again: What would Don Miguel Farrel do about it? She
hadn't the slightest doubt but that his tremendous pride would lead him