Sixes and Sevens

Inexorably Sam Galloway saddled his pony. He was going away from the Rancho Altito at the end of a three-months' visit.

It is not to be expected that a guest should put up with wheat coffee and biscuits yellow-streaked with saleratus for longer than that.

Nick Napoleon, the big Negro man cook, had never been able to make good biscuits.

Once before, when Nick was cooking at the Willow Ranch, Sam had been forced to fly from his cuisine, after only a six-weeks' sojourn.