What he had to say must be
said briefly.
"My work is done," he said quickly. "I have put in my resignation this
afternoon. They can get a new sheriff. I am going to be a rancher, my
dear. And, Virginia . . ."
He was whispering to her, his lips close to her hair. And Virginia,
though her face was suddenly hot with the flush mounting to her brow,
gave him steadily for answer:
"Whenever you wish, Rod Norton!"
So it was only twenty-four hours later that Ignacio Chavez stood in the
old Mission garden and made his bells talk, just the three upon the
western arch, the Little One, La Golondrina, and Ignacio Chavez, the
golden-throated trio that tinkled to the touch of his cunning hand and
seemed to laugh and sing and proclaim the gladdest of glad tidings.
Then Ignacio drew his enrapt gaze earthward from the full moon and made
out a man and a girl riding out into the night, riding toward the Ranch
of the Flowers. And he made the bells laugh again.
"And to-morrow," vowed Ignacio solemnly, "not later than to-morrow or
the day thereafter, you shall have your reward, _amigos_. You have
told the world of heavy doings; you have rung for Jim Galloway dead;
you have made the music for the wedding of _el_ Senor Nortone. And it
shall be I who will make a little roof like a house over you.
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