“Better bring a nurse and a ladies’ maid for her,” he muttered to Esmeralda, confidentially.  “Hairpins in your saddle pocket?  Well, you are a sensible girl,” and he rode forward with the little packet, giving it to the lawyer to pass to the unfortunate young woman.  But here arose a little difficulty.  The space between the lawyer’s horse and the beauty’s as they stood was too wide to allow him to lay the parcel in her outstretched fingers.  The Texan, on her right hand, had enough to do to keep her horse and his own absolutely motionless that she might not be thrown by any unexpected motion of either animal.  Versatilia exclaimed in remonstrance, “Don’t leave me,” when the cavalryman said, “Wait a second, I’ll come and give them to her;” the master sat quiet and smiling.

“Why don’t you dismount and give them to her?” cried Theodore, and was out of his saddle, had placed the parcel in her hand, and was back in his place again before either of the other three men could speak.

“Very well done,” said the master, approvingly, “but not the right thing to do.  Never leave your saddle without good cause, and never leave your horse loose for a moment.  Yes, I saw that you retained your hold of the reins; I was talking at Miss Esmeralda.”

“Why didn’t you make your horse step sideways?” he asked the lawyer.

“I can’t.  He won’t.  See there!”

Sundry pulls, precisely like those which he might have used had he intended the horse to turn, a pair of absolutely motionless legs, and an unused whip were accepted as evidence that the lawyer’s “I can’t” was perfectly true, and the master and the cavalryman exchanged comprehending glances as the latter said:  “Well, don’t mind.  An eminent authority announced after the Boston horse show of 1889 that high-school airs were of no use on the road.  To make a horse move a step sideways is the veriest little zephyr of an air, but it would have been of some use to you, then.  Are we ready now?  What’s that?  Dropped your whip?”

Up went the Texan’s left heel, catching cleverly on the saddle as he dropped lightly to the right, after the fashion of the Arab, the Moor, the Apache, of all the nations which ride for speed and for fighting rather than for leaping and hunting, and he caught the whip from the ground and was back in his place in a twinkling.  The ladies were unmoved, because inappreciative; the lawyer looked savagely envious, the cavalryman and the master approving, and Theodore, frankly admiring, but no one said anything, the little cavalcade rearranged itself, and once more moved on at a footpace until an electric car appeared.

“Ronald is like a rock,” said the master, “and you need not be afraid, but I’ll take this beast along in advance.  He will shy, or do some outrageous thing, and he has a mouth as sensitive as the Mississippi’s, and no more.”

The “beast” did indeed sidle and fret and prance, and manifest a disposition to hasten to drown himself in the reservoir, beyond the reach of self-propelling vehicles, and he repeated the performance a the sight of two other cars, although evidently less alarmed than at first, but the fourth car was in charge of a kindly-disposed driver, who came to a dead stop, out of pure amiability.