But as morning came and the east began to glow Dave
told the priest:
"We've got to hide out during the day or we'll get into trouble.
Besides, these women must be getting hungry."
"I fear there is something feminine about me," confessed the
little man. "I'm famished, too."
At the next rancho they came to they applied for shelter, but were
denied; in fact, the owner cursed them so roundly for being
Americans that they were glad to ride onward. A mile or two
farther along they met a cart the driver of which refused to
answer their greetings. As they passed out of his sight they saw
that he had halted his lean oxen and was staring after them
curiously. Later, when the sun was well up and the world had fully
awakened, they descried a mounted man, evidently a cowboy, riding
through the chaparral. He saw them, too, and came toward the road,
but after a brief scrutiny he whirled his horse and galloped off
through the cactus, shouting something over his shoulder.
"This won't do," O'Malley declared, uneasily. "I don't like the
actions of these people. Let me appeal to the next person we meet.
I can't believe they all hate us."
Soon they came to a rise in the road, and from the crest of this
elevation beheld ahead of them a small village of white houses
shining from the shelter of a grove.
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