"It will last all day and night and we are to have a Wild West show,"
Kay added eagerly.

"Where will it be held, Miguel?"

"Down at our old abandoned race-track, about a mile from here."

Mrs. Parker nodded approval. "John, you old dud," she decided, "you
always liked horse-races and athletics. You're stuck for some prizes."

Her indulgent husband good-naturedly agreed, and at Kay's suggestion,
Carolina brought a pencil and a large writing-tablet, whereupon the
girl constituted herself secretary of the carnival committee and wrote
the program, as arranged by Don Mike and her father. She thrilled when
Farrel announced a race of six furlongs for ladies' saddle-horses, to
be ridden by their owners.

"You ought to win that with Panchito," he suggested to Kay.

Kay's heart beat happily. In Farrel's suggestion that she ride
Panchito in this race she decided that here was evidence that her host
did not contemplate any action that would tend to render the ranch
untenable for her prior to the _fiesta_; indeed, there was nothing in
his speech or bearing that indicated the slightest mental perturbation
now that he had discovered the compact existing between her and Bill
Conway. Perhaps his pride was not so high as she had rated it; what if
her action had been secretly pleasing to him?

Somehow, Kay found this latter thought disturbing and distasteful. It
was long past midnight before she could dismiss the enigma from her