Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/75

 of sendin' back East and gittin' me a kit of mackerel."

That was it, then—the prospect of losing a boarder was the cause of the genial landlord's lack of enthusiasm over the proposed visit. She hastened to assure him

"I haven't a single complaint. You are all too kind; it's only that I want to see a real ranch—a big one like the L.X., and this seems like such an opportunity."

Mr. Poth said nothing further, but the sour expression of his face did not alter, and Nan felt sorry to have discovered in her amiable landlord this sordid trait.

A Mexican teamster, grumbling at being obliged to rush off at only twelve or fourteen hours' notice, arrived at eleven for Nan's trunk. A few minutes later Spiser himself rattled up in his cart.

"Sorry I'm late," he explained in apparent annoyance, "but I've been hangin' around for Mary and finally come off without her. You and me will go on ahead, because I've got some things out there on the ranch that's got to be tended to and I've arranged for her to start in an hour or so.