As he passed the dairy-house, he saw Hilma standing in the doorway, holding out her hand to the rain, her face turned upward toward the grey sky, amused and interested at this first shower of the wet season.

She was so absorbed that she did not see Annixter, and his clumsy nod in her direction passed unnoticed.
"She did it on purpose," Annixter told himself, chewing fiercely on his cigar.

"Cuts me now, hey?
Well, this DOES settle it.

She leaves this ranch before I'm a day older." He decided that he would put off his tour of inspection till the next day.

Travelling in the buggy as he did, he must keep to the road which led to Derrick's, in very roundabout fashion, by way of Guadalajara.
This rain would reduce the thick dust of the road to two feet of viscid mud.