Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/53

 as was evidenced by the clean shirts and increased business of the bar.

Mandolins tinkled gaily, and there was the hum of many voices in the street. The sweet scent of burning piñon filled the air like an incense-permeated cathedral and the dark-blue threads of smoke rose straight to the turquoise sky.

Nan's magazine lay in her lap while she looked on dreamily at the kaleidoscopic scene, yet it might have been observed that she turned her head quickly at the sound of galloping hoofs and scanned the face of each new rider with a certain intentness.

An incident of the afternoon was the arrival of a four-wheeled cart which pounded up the street drawn by two galloping ponies. The man who held the lines plied a long switch ceaselessly and then pulled them sharply to their haunches in front of the hotel.

He called peremptorily to a Mexican to come and stand at their heads, and Nan noted that the Mexican scrambled to his feet with an alacrity which was noteworthy.

The driver sprang lightly over the wheel