Bryant, descending from the mesa into the river bottom and riding into the street, had he not known otherwise, might have supposed the population vanished in a body.  But he was aware that it only slept; and he had no consideration for a siesta that retarded his affairs.  He dismounted before the courthouse and entered the building, whose corridor and chambers appeared as silent, as lifeless, as forsaken as the street itself.  Coming into the Recorder’s office, he halted for a look about, then pushed through the wicket of the counter and stepped into an inner room, where he stirred by a thumb in the ribs a thin, dusky-skinned youth reclining in a swivel chair with feet in repose on a window-sill, who slept with head fallen back, arms hanging, and mouth open.

“Come, amigo, your dinner’s settled by this time,” the engineer stated.  “Grab a pen and record this deed.”

The clerk sleepily shifted his feet into a more comfortable position.

“We’re behind in our work,” said he.  “Just leave your deed, and the fee, and we’ll get around to it in a few days.”

“So you’re too busy now, eh?”

“Yes.  We’ve had a good many papers to record this month.”

“Where’s the Recorder?”

“Not back from dinner yet,” was the answer.

The speaker once again prepared to rest.  From the outer office the slow ticking of a clock sounded with lulling effect, while the grassy yard beyond the window, shaded by the boughs of the cottonwoods, diffused peace and drowsiness.  The clerk closed his eyes.

“Just leave the deed and fee on the desk here,” he murmured.

“And tip-toe out, too, I suppose.”

“If you feel like it,” the young Mexican remarked, with a faint insolence in his voice, the insolence of a subordinate who believes himself protected by his place.

Bryant’s hand shot swiftly out to the speaker’s shoulder.  With a snap that brought him up standing the clerk was jerked from his seat, and before his startled wits gathered what was happening he was propelled into the outer office.

“Record this deed, you forty-dollar-a-month penpusher, before I grow peevish and rearrange your face,” Bryant ordered, with his fingers tightening their grasp on the youth’s collar.  “You’re receiving your pay from the county, and are presumed to give value received.  Anyway, value received is what I’m going to have now.”

“Let go my neck!”

“Let go nothing.  When I see you settle down to this big book, then I let go.  No ‘manana’ with me, boy; right here and now you’re going to give me an exhibition of rapid penmanship.  Savey?  Take up your pen; that’s the stuff.  Now dip deep in the ink and draw a full breath and go to it.”

Bryant released his hold on the cowed clerk, but remained by his side, where his presence exerted an amazingly energizing effect upon the scribe.  The pen scratched industriously to and fro across the page, over which the youth humped himself as if enamoured of the tome, only at intervals risking a glance at the lean-faced, vigilant American.  When he had finished the transcription, stamped the deed and closed the book, Bryant handed him the amount of the fee.