Jimmy could hardly wait to serve him.  He was like a busy and important bird, hopping about on a bough and, literally, he twittered with excitement.

“Well,” he exclaimed, “where you been keeping yourself, and why wasn’t you down to see ’em off?”

A cold chill ran over Hanson.  His impulse was to cry, “Who?  What do you mean?” But with an effort he resisted the inclination.  Resolutely, he held himself in check, and, although the hand with which he lifted the glass to his lips trembled a little, he drank off the whisky before he spoke.

“Couldn’t make it,” he said.  “Who went beside—­” he paused inviting Jimmy’s further confidence.

“Just Pearl and her father,” returned Jimmy volubly.  “I guess that was the reason Bob went to Colina last week to kind of arrange for Pearl going up to make a visit to the old man.  But shucks!” he broke off, “what am I telling you this for, when you know more than I do?” His bright, beady eyes rested on Hanson’s with pleased and eager anticipation as he awaited further revelations.

“Nothing more to tell,” replied the other disappointedly.  “It’s all just as you say.  Well, I got to go up and see Mrs. Gallito.  I’m off myself early to-morrow morning.  See you before that though.  So long.”

He walked away, feeling dazed for the moment and beaten.  Not at once did he turn his steps in the direction of the Gallito home, but continued to tramp up and down the road, and presently, as the cool, fresh air restored his spirit, he was able to think clearly again.  His world was in chaos, but, even so, he still held some winning cards.  He had no intention, he gritted his teeth as he made this vow, of dropping out of the game.  He meant to play it to a finish.  Those cards!  He ran over his hand mentally.  There was that commanding trump—­his knowledge, his unsuspected knowledge of the whereabouts of Crop-eared Jose.  Then his next biggest trump—­and here his heart lifted with a thrill—­was the fact that Pearl loved him.  Yes, in spite of her anger, in spite of the fact that she had rushed off to Colina, where she knew he could not follow her, she loved him; and his desire for her was but increased by the dangers and difficulties with which she surrounded herself.  But he must keep in touch with her, and the question as to how this might best be accomplished rose in his mind.  Mrs. Gallito was the almost immediate answer, and he determined, no matter what objections might be raised, to communicate with Pearl through that available source.  Of one thing was he convinced and that was that not for long would Pearl linger in the gloomy mountains which he knew she abhorred.  She belonged to the desert or to the world of men and admiration, the world of light and color and music.  He couldn’t see her in the mountains, he shivered a little at the thought of her among them; the cold, silent, austere mountains, so alien to this flower of the cactus.