Charlie Menocal, who after his sleep had read a few chapters in a novel, went out of the shaded room where he had reposed and into the garden.

There he discovered his father in talk with Joe Garcia.
"What's going on ?" he exclaimed.

"Lost a horse, or a wife or something, Joe ?" "No, Charlie; this is business," Garcia said, with a grin.
Menocal continued to give his instructions to the latter.

They had to do with bringing a few hundred sheep from one of the bands feeding in the hills.

They were to be driven down on the mesa to graze, and kept moving about near the Stevenson ranch house; Garcia was to observe what the young man there did, all he did, whom he saw, and as far as possible where he went.