Longstreet smiled brightly.

‘Haven’t I told you, my dear.’ he explained, ’that when in Rome one should learn from the Romans?’

He led the way to the counter.  It was heaped high with all sorts of merchandise, dry goods and groceries, and hardware—­anything the purchaser might desire from ham and bacon and tinned goods to shirts and overalls, spurs and guns.  Behind it stood the proprietor, a slant-eyed, thievish-looking Mexican, while behind him were his untidy shelves—­a further jumble of commodities.  He looked his approval at the girl, his professional interest at the father.

Longstreet frankly turned out the contents of his purse upon the counter, his ready way of computing their resources and judging the proper cash outlay for the present.  The slant eyes grew narrower with speculation.

‘One hundred and eighty-odd dollars,’ he computed approximately.  ‘We’ll spend about a hundred with you to-day, my friend.’

‘Bueno, senor,’ agreed the Mexican.  And he waved to his shelves.

Helen, who knew only too well her father’s carelessness in money matters, was not satisfied with an approximate estimate of their resources.  She counted carefully.

‘You should have had nearer two hundred dollars, pops,’ she told him gently.  ’Have you felt in all your pockets?  I am afraid that you have lost a five or ten-dollar piece.’

He evaded.  ‘It’s of no moment.’ he said hastily.  ’A few bucks one way or the other won’t plug a hole in a ’dobe wall.  And this hombre is waiting.’

This time Helen did not even gasp.  Something had occurred to work havoc with her father’s accustomed fine academic speech.  This smacked, she thought, of the influence of Barbee.

But soon she forgot this and with it the discrepancy in cash; she had begun to purchase, to barter with the storekeeper, to fairly revel in delights of camp preparations.  For, after all, life was not all seriousness, and here, offering itself for the morrow, was a rare lark.  A spice of recklessness entered the moment; the dollars went skipping across the counter, and packages and boxes came heaped up in their places.

Howard looked in on them once; they did not see him.  He went his way, and still Longstreet made new suggestions and Helen and the Mexican bargained.  The first coolness of the late afternoon was stirring, the broad sun had gone down, leaving the land in soft, grateful shadow, something over a hundred dollars had been spent, when with a sigh Helen put the residue of the family fortune into the old purse, and the purse, though reluctantly, into her father’s pocket.  She did not want to hurt his feelings now; but she really thought that once they were settled in their new home, she ought to employ some tactful method of acquiring custody.

They went down the dusty street arm in arm and in gay spirits.  Tod Barstow had driven off to a stable somewhere; the goods were to be called for to-morrow morning; now they could go down to the hotel, to the chairs on the shady porch, and then to dinner.  And, thought Helen, with more than a flicker of interest, she would see the ‘widow.’