“Thrown from his horse and struck his head on a rock,” Parker replied glibly.

Kay saw the doctor’s eyebrows lift slightly.  “Did he tell you that was what happened?”

Parker hesitated a moment and nodded an affirmative.

“Wound’s too clean for that story to impress me,” the doctor whispered.  “Not a speck of foreign matter in it.  Moreover, the wound is almost on top of his head.  Now, if he had been thrown from a horse and had struck on top of his head on a rock with sufficient force to lacerate his scalp and produce a minor fracture, he would, undoubtedly, have crushed his skull more thoroughly or broken his neck.  Also, his face would have been marred more or less!  And if that isn’t good reasoning, I might add that Miguel Farrel is one of the two or three men in this world who have ridden Cyclone, the most famous outlaw horse in America.”

Parker shrugged and, by displaying no interest in the doctor’s deductions, brought the conversation to a close.

That the return trip to the ranch, in Don Mike’s present condition, was not to be thought of, was apparent from the patient’s condition.  He was, therefore, removed to the single small hospital which El Toro boasted, and after seeing him in charge of a nurse the Parker family returned to the ranch.  Conversation languished during the trip; a disturbed conscience on the part of the father, and on the part of Kay and her mother an intuition, peculiar to their sex and aroused by the doctor’s comments, that events of more than ordinary portent had occurred that day, were responsible for this.

At the ranch Parker found his attorney who had motored out from El Toro, waiting to confer with him regarding Bill Conway’s adroit manoeuver of the morning.  Mrs. Parker busied herself with some fancy work while her daughter sought the Farrel library and pretended to read.  An atmosphere of depression appeared to have settled over the rancho; Kay observed that even Pablo moved about in a furtive manner; he cleaned and oiled his rifle and tested the sights with shots at varying ranges.  Carolina’s face was grave and her sweet falsetto voice was not raised in song once during the afternoon.

About four o’clock when the shadows began to lengthen, Kay observed Pablo riding forth on his old pinto pony.  Before him on the saddle he carried a pick and shovel and in reply to her query as to what he purposed doing, he replied that he had to clean out a spring where the cattle were accustomed to drink.  So she returned to the library and Pablo repaired to a willow thicket in the sandy wash of the San Gregorio and dug a grave.  That night, at twilight, while the family and servants were at dinner, Pablo dragged his problem down to this grave, with the aid of the pinto pony, and hid it forever from the sight of men.  Neither directly nor indirectly was his exploit ever referred to again and no inquiry was ever instituted to fathom the mystery of the abrupt disappearance of Kano Ugichi.  Indeed, the sole regret at his untimely passing was borne by Pablo, who, shrinking from the task of removing his riata from his victim (for he had a primitive man’s horror of touching the dead), was forced to bury his dearest possession with the adventurer from La Questa—­a circumstance which served still further to strengthen his prejudice against the Japanese race.