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diff --git a/12139-0.txt b/12139-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f1903f --- /dev/null +++ b/12139-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8281 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12139 *** + +THE GRINGOS + + +A STORY OF THE OLD CALIFORNIA DAYS IN 1849 + + +BY B.M. BOWER + +1913 + +WIth Illustrations By Anton Otto Fischer + + +[Illustration: "Gringos are savages and worse than savages."] + + + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + +I wish to make public acknowledgment of the assistance I have received +from George W. Lee, a "Forty-niner" who has furnished me with data, +material, and color which have been invaluable in the writing of this +story. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE BEGINNING OF IT + +II. THE VIGILANTES + +III. THE THING THEY CALLED JUSTICE + +IV. WHAT HAPPENED AT THE OAK + +V. HOSPITALITY + +VI. THE VALLEY + +VII. THE LORD OF THE VALLEY + +VIII. DON ANDRES WANTS A MAJORDOMO + +IX. JERRY SIMPSON, SQUATTER + +X. THE FINEST LITTLE WOMAN IN THE WORLD + +XI. AN ILL WIND + +XII. POTENTIAL MOODS + +XIII. BILL WILSON GOES VISITING + +XIV. RODEO TIME + +XV. WHEN CAMP-FIRES BLINK + +XVI. "FOR WEAPONS I CHOOSE RIATAS" + +XVII. A FIESTA WE SHALL HAVE + +XVIII. WHAT IS LOVE WORTH? + +XIX. ANTICIPATION + +XX. LOST! TWO HASTY TEMPERS + +XXI. FIESTA DAY + +XXII. THE BATTLE OF BEASTS + +XXIII. THE DUEL OF RIATAS + +XXIV. FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL + +XXV. ADIOS + + + + +_List of Illustrations_ + + +"Gringos are savages and worse than savages" + +He twisted in the saddle and sent leaden answer to the spiteful +barking of the guns + +Mrs. Jerry took the señorita's hand and smiled up at her + +"An accident it must appear to those who watch" + + + + +_The Gringos_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BEGINNING OF IT + + +If you would glimpse the savage which normally lies asleep, thank God, +in most of us, you have only to do this thing of which I shall tell +you, and from some safe sanctuary where leaden couriers may not bear +prematurely the tidings of man's debasement, watch the world below. +You may see civilization swing back with a snap to savagery and +worse--because savagery enlightened by the civilization of centuries +is a deadly thing to let loose among men. Our savage forebears were +but superior animals groping laboriously after economic security and +a social condition that would yield most prolifically the fruit of all +the world's desire, happiness; to-day, when we swing back to something +akin to savagery, we do it for lust of gain, like our forebears, but +we do it wittingly. So, if you would look upon the unlovely spectacle +of civilized men turned savage, and see them toil painfully back to +lawful living, you have but to do this: + +Seek a spot remote from the great centers of our vaunted civilization, +where Nature, in a wanton gold-revel of her own, has sprinkled her +river beds with the shining dust, hidden it away under ledges, buried +it in deep canyons in playful miserliness and salved with its potent +glow the time-scars upon the cheeks of her gaunt mountains. You have +but to find a tiny bit of Nature's gold, fling it in the face of +civilization and raise the hunting cry. Then, from that safe sanctuary +which you have chosen, you may look your fill upon the awakening of +the primitive in man; see him throw off civilization as a sleeper +flings aside the cloak that has covered him; watch the savages fight, +whom your gold has conjured. + +They will come, those savages; straight as the arrow flies they will +come, though mountains and deserts and hurrying rivers bar their way. +And the plodding, law-abiding citizens who kiss their wives and +hold close their babies and fling hasty, comforting words over their +shoulders to tottering old mothers when they go to answer the hunting +call--they will be your savages when the gold lust grips them. And +the towns they build of their greed will be but the nucleus of all the +crime let loose upon the land. There will be men among your savages; +men in whom the finer stuff outweighs the grossness and the greed. But +to save their lives and that thing they prize more than life or gold, +and call by the name of honor or friendship or justice--that thing +which is the essence of all the fineness in their natures--to save +that and their lives they also must fight, like savages who would +destroy them. + + * * * * * + +There was a little, straggling hamlet born of the Mission which the +padres founded among the sand hills beside a great, uneasy stretch of +water which a dreamer might liken to a naughty child that had run away +from its mother, the ocean, through a little gateway which the land +left open by chance and was hiding there among the hills, listening to +the calling of the surf voice by night, out there beyond the gate, and +lying sullen and still when mother ocean sent the fog and the tides +a-seeking; a truant child that played by itself and danced little wave +dances which it had learned of its mother ages agone, and laughed up +at the hills that smiled down upon it. + +The padres thought mostly of the savages who lived upon the land, and +strove earnestly to teach them the lessons which, sandal-shod, with +crucifix to point the way, they had marched up from the south to set +before these children of the wild. Also came ships, searching for that +truant ocean-child, the bay, of which men had heard; and so the hamlet +was born of civilization. + +Came afterwards noblemen from Spain, with parchments upon which the +king himself had set his seal. Mile upon mile, they chose the land +that pleased them best; and by virtue of the king's word called it +their own. They drove cattle up from the south to feed upon the +hills and in the valleys. They brought beautiful wives and set them +a-queening it over spacious homes which they built of clay and native +wood and furnished with the luxuries they brought with them in the +ships. They reared lovely daughters and strong, hot-blooded sons; and +they grew rich in cattle and in contentment, in this paradise which +Nature had set apart for her own playground and which the zeal of the +padres had found and claimed in the name of God and their king. + +The hamlet beside the bay was small, but it received the ships and the +goods they brought and bartered for tallow and hides; and although +the place numbered less than a thousand souls, it was large enough to +please the dons who dwelt like the patriarchs of old in the valleys. + +Then Chance, that sardonic jester who loves best to thwart the dearest +desires of men and warp the destiny of nations, became piqued at the +peace and the plenty in the land which lay around the bay. Chance, +knowing well how best and quickest to let savagery loose upon the +land, plucked a handful of gold from the breast of Nature, held it +aloft that all the world might be made mad by the gleam of it, and +raised the hunting call. + +Chance also it was that took the trails of two adventurous young +fellows whose ears had caught her cry of "Good hunting" and set their +faces westward from the plains of Texas; but here her jest was kindly. +The young fellows took the trail together and were content. Together +they heard the hunting call and went seeking the gold that was luring +thousands across the deserts; together they dug for it, found it, +shared it when all was done. Together they heeded the warning +of falling leaf and chilling night winds, and with buckskin bags +comfortably heavy went down the mountain trail to San Francisco, that +ugly, moiling center of the savagery, to idle through the winter. + +Here, because of certain traits which led each man to seek the thing +that pleased him best, the trail forked for a time. One was caught in +the turgid whirlpool which was the sporting element of the town, and +would not leave it. Him the games and the women and the fighting drew +irresistibly. The other sickened of the place, and one day when all +the grassy hillsides shone with the golden glow of poppies to prove +that spring was near, almost emptied a bag of gold because he had +seen and fancied a white horse which a drunken Spaniard from the San +Joaquin was riding up and down the narrow strip of sand which was a +street, showing off alike his horsemanship and his drunkenness. The +horse he bought, and the outfit, from the silver-trimmed saddle and +bridle to the rawhide riata hanging coiled upon one side of the +narrow fork and the ivory-handled Colt's revolver tucked snugly in +its holster upon the other side. Pleased as a child over a Christmas +stocking, he straightway mounted the beautiful beast and galloped away +to the south, still led by Chance, the jester. + +He returned in a week, enamored alike of his horse and of the ranch he +had discovered. He was going back, he said. There were cattle by the +thousands--and he was a cattleman, from the top of his white sombrero +to the tips of his calfskin boots, for all he had bent his back +laboriously all summer over a hole in the ground, and had idled in +town since Thanksgiving. He was a cowboy (vaquero was the name they +used in those pleasant valleys) and so was his friend. And he had +found a cowboy's paradise, and a welcome which a king could not cavil +at. Would Jack stake himself to a horse and outfit, and come to Palo +Alto till the snow was well out of the mountains and they could go +back to their mine? + +Jack blew three small smoke-rings with nice precision, watched them +float and fade while he thought of a certain girl who had lately +smiled upon him--and in return had got smile for smile--and said he +guessed he'd stick to town life for a while. + +"Old Don Andres Picardo's a prince," argued Dade, "and he's got a +rancho that's a paradise on earth. Likes us gringos--which is more +than most of 'em do--and said his house and all he's got is half mine, +and nothing but the honor's all his. You know the Spaniards; seems +like Texas, down there. I told him I had a partner, and he said he'd +be doubly honored if it pleased my partner to sleep under his poor +roof--red tiles, by the way, and not so poor!--and sit at his table. +One of the 'fine old families,' they are, Jack. I came back after you +and my traps." + +"That fellow you bought the white caballo from got shot that same +night," Jack observed irrelevantly. "He was weeping all over me part +of the evening, because he'd sold the horse and you had pulled out so +he couldn't buy him back. Then he came into Billy Wilson's place and +sat into a game at the table next to mine; and some kind of a quarrel +started. He'd overlooked that gun on the saddle, it seems, and so he +only had a knife. He whipped it out, first pass, but a bullet got him +in the heart. The fellow that did it--" Jack blew two more rings and +watched them absently--"the Committee rounded him up and took him out +to the oak, next morning. Trial took about fifteen minutes, all +told. They had him hung, in their own minds, before the greaser quit +kicking. I _know_ the man shot in self-defense; I saw the Spaniard +pull his knife and start for him with blood in his eye. But some of +the Committee had it in for Sandy, and so--it was adios for him, poor +devil. They murdered him in cold blood. I told them so, too. I told +them--" + +"Yes, I haven't the slightest doubt of that!" Dade flung away a +half-smoked cigarette and agitatedly began to roll another one. +"That's one reason why I want you to come down to Palo Alto, Jack. You +know how things are going here, lately; and Perkins hates you since +you took the part of that peon he was beating up,--and, by the way, +I saw that same Injun at Don Andres' rancho. Now that Perkins is +Captain, you'll get into trouble if you hang around this burg without +some one to hold you down. This ain't any place for a man that's got +your temper and tongue. Say, I heard of a horse--" + +"No, you don't! You can't lead me out like that, old boy. I'm all +right; Bill Wilson and I are pretty good friends; and Bill's almost as +high a card as the Committee, if it ever came to a show-down. But it +won't. I'm not a fool; I didn't quarrel with them, honest. They had +me up for a witness and I told the truth--which didn't happen to jibe +with the verdict they meant to give. The Captain as good as said so, +and I just pleasantly and kindly told him that in my opinion Sandy +was a better man than any one of 'em. That's all there was to it. The +Captain excused me from the witness chair, and I walked out of the +tent. And we're friendly enough when we meet; so you needn't worry +about me." + +"Better come, anyway," urged Dade, though he was not hopeful of +winning his way. + +Jack shook his head. "No, I don't want anything of country life +just yet. I had all the splendid solitude my system needs, this last +summer. You like it; you're a kind of a lone rider anyway. You never +did mix well. You go back and honor Don Andres with your presence--and +he is honored. If the old devil only knew it! Maybe, later on--So you +like your new horse, huh? What you going to call him?" + +Dade grinned a little. "Remember that picture in Shakespeare of 'White +Surry'? Or it was in Shakespeare till you tore it out to start a fire, +that wet night; remember? The arch in his neck, and all? I hadn't +gone a mile on him till I was calling him Surry; and say, Jack, he's a +wonder! Come out and take a look at him. Can't be more than four +years old, and gentle as a kitten. That poor devil knew how to train +a horse, even if he didn't have any sense about whisky. I'll bet money +couldn't have touched him if the man had been sober." + +He stopped in the doorway and looked up and down the street with open +disgust. "Come on down to Picardo's, Jack; what the deuce is there +here to hold you? How a man that knows horses and the range, can +stand for this--" he waved a gloved hand at the squalid street--"is +something I can't understand. To me, it's like hell with the lid off. +What's holding you anyway? Another señorita?" + +"I'm making more money here lately than I did in the mine." Jack +evaded smoothly. "I won a lot last night. Whee-ee! Say, you played in +some luck yourself, old man, when you bought that outfit. That saddle +and bridle's worth all you paid for the whole thing. White Surry, eh? +He has got a neck--and, Lord, look at those legs!" + +"Climb on and try him out once!" invited Dade guilefully. If he could +stir the horseman's blood in Jack's veins, he thought he might get him +away from town. + +"Haven't time right now, Dade. I promised to meet a friend--" + +Dade shrugged his shoulders and painstakingly smoothed the hair tassel +which dangled from the browband. The Spaniard had owned a fine eye for +effect when he chose jet black trappings for Surry, who was white to +his shining hoofs. + +"All right; I'll put him in somewhere till after dinner. Then I'm +going to pull out again. I can't stand this hell-pot of a town--not +after the Picardo hacienda." + +"I wonder," grinned Jack slyly, "if there isn't a señorita at Palo +Alto?" + +He got no answer of any sort. Dade was combing with his fingers the +crinkled mane which fell to the very chest of his new horse, and if he +heard he made no betraying sign. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE VIGILANTES + + +Bill Wilson came to the door of his saloon and stood with his hands +on his hips, looking out upon the heterogeneous assembly of virile +manhood that formed the bulk of San Francisco's population a year or +two after the first gold cry had been raised. Above his head flapped +the great cloth sign tacked quite across the rough building, heralding +to all who could read the words that this was BILL WILSON'S PLACE. +A flaunting bit of information it was, and quite superfluous; since +practically every man in San Francisco drifted towards it, soon or +late, as the place where the most whisky was drunk and the most gold +lost and won, with the most beautiful women to smile or frown upon the +lucky, in all the town. + +The trade wind knew that Bill Wilson's place needed no sign save its +presence there, and was loosening a corner in the hope of carrying it +quite away as a trophy. Bill glanced up, promised the resisting cloth +an extra nail or two, and let his thoughts and his eyes wander +again to the sweeping tide of humanity that flowed up and down the +straggling street of sand and threatened to engulf the store which men +spoke of simply as "Smith's." + +A shipload of supplies had lately been carted there, and miners +were feverishly buying bacon, beans, "self-rising" flour, matches, +tea--everything within the limits of their gold dust and their +carrying capacity--which they needed for hurried trips to the hills +where was hidden the gold they dreamed of night and day. + +To Bill that tide meant so much business; and he was not the man to +grudge his friend Smith a share of it. When the fog crept in through +the Golden Gate--a gate which might never be closed against it--the +tide of business would set towards his place, just as surely as the +ocean tide would clamor at the rocky wall out there to the west. In +the meantime, he was not loath to spend a quiet hour or two with an +empty gaming hall at his back. + +His eyes went incuriously over the familiar crowd to the little forest +of flag-foliaged masts that told where lay the ships in the bay below +the town. Bill could not name the nationality of them all; for the +hunting call had reached to the far corners of the earth, and +strange flags came fluttering across strange seas, with pirate-faced +adventurers on the decks below, chattering in strange tongues of +California gold. Bill could not name all the flags, but he could name +two of the bonds that bind all nations into one common humanity. He +could produce one of them, and he was each night gaining more of the +other; for, be they white men or brown, spoke they his language or +one he had never heard until they passed through the Golden Gate, they +would give good gold for very bad whisky. + +Even the Digger Indians, squatting in the sun beside his door and +gazing stolidly at the town and the bay beyond, would sell their +souls--for which the gray-gowned padres prayed ineffectively in the +chapel at Dolores--their wives or their other, dearer possessions for +a very little bottle of the stuff that was fast undoing the civilizing +work of the Mission. The padres had come long before the hunting cry +was raised, and they had labored earnestly; but their prayers and +their preaching were like reeds beneath the tread of elephants, when +gold came down from the mountains, and whisky came in through the +Golden Gate. + +Jack Allen, coming lazily down through the long, deserted room, edged +past Bill in the doorway. + +"Hello," Bill greeted with a carefully casual manner, as if he had +been waiting for the meeting, but did not want Jack to suspect the +fact. "Up for all day? Where you headed for?" + +"Breakfast--or dinner, whichever you want to call it. Then I'm going +to take a walk and get the kinks out of my legs. Say, old man, I'm +going to knock a board off the foot of that bunk, to-night, or else +sleep on the floor. Was wood scarce, Bill, when you built that bed?" + +"Carpenter was a little feller," chuckled Bill, "and I guess he +measured it by himself. Charged a full length price, though, I +remember! I meant to tell you when you hired that room, Jack, that +you better take the axe to bed with you. Sure, knock a board off; +two boards, if you like. Take _all_ the boards off!" urged Bill, in +a burst of generosity. "You might better be making that bunk over, +m'son, than trying to take the whole blamed town apart and put it +together again, like you was doing last night." In this way Bill +tactfully swung to the subject that lay heavy on his mind. + +Jack borrowed a match, cupped his fingers around his lips that wanted +to part in a smile, and lighted his before-breakfast cigarette--though +the sun hung almost straight overhead. + +"So that's it," he observed, when the smoke took on the sweet aroma +of a very mild tobacco. "I saw by the back of your neck that you had +something on your mind. What's the matter, Bill? Don't you think the +old town needs taking apart?" + +"Oh, it needs it, all right. But it's too big a job for one man to +tackle. You leave that to Daddy Time; he's the only reformer--" + +"Say, Bill, I never attempted to reform anybody or anything in my +life; I'd hate to begin with a job the size of this." He waved his +cigarette toward the shifting crowd. "But I do think--" + +"And right there's where you make a big mistake. You don't want to +think! Or if you do, don't think out loud; not where such men as Swift +and Rawhide and the Captain can hear you. That's what I mean, Jack." + +Jack eyed him with a smile in his eyes. "Some men might think you were +afraid of that bunch," he observed with characteristic bluntness. "I +know you aren't, and so I don't see why you want me to be. You know, +and I know, that the Vigilance Committee has turned rotten to the +core; every decent man in San Francisco knows it. You know that Sandy +killed that Spaniard in self-defense--or if you didn't see the fracas, +I tell you now that he did; I saw the whole thing. You know, at any +rate, that the Vigilantes took him out and hung him because they +wanted to get rid of him, and that came the nearest to an excuse they +could find. You know--" + +"Oh, I know!" Bill's voice was sardonic. "I know they'll be going +around with a spy-glass looking for an excuse to hang you, too, if you +don't quit talking about 'em." + +Jack smiled and so let a thin ribbon of smoke float up and away from +his lips. + +Bill saw the smile and flushed a little; but he was not to be laughed +down, once he was fairly started. He laid two well-kept fingers upon +the other's arm and spoke soberly, refusing to treat the thing as +lightly as the other was minded to do. + +"Oh, you'll laugh, but it's a fact, and you know it. Why, ain't +Sandy's case proof enough that I'm right? I heard you telling a crowd +in there last night--" Bill tilted his head backward towards the room +behind them--"that this law-and-order talk is all a farce. What if it +is? It don't do any good for you to bawl it out in public and get the +worst men in the Committee down on you, does it? + +"What you'd better do, Jack, is go on down to Palo Alto where your +pardner is. He's got some sense. I wouldn't stay in the darned town +overnight, the way they're running things now, if it wasn't for my +business. Ever since they made Tom Perkins captain there's been hell +to pay all round. I can hold my own; I'm up where they don't dare +tackle me; but you take a fool's advice and pull out before the +Captain gets his eagle eye on you. Talk like you was slinging around +last night is about as good a trouble-raiser as if you emptied both +them guns of yours into that crowd out there." + +"You're asking me to run before there's anything to run away from." +Jack's lips began to show the line of stubbornness. "I haven't +quarreled with the Captain, except that little fuss a month ago, when +he was hammering that peon because he couldn't talk English; I'm +not going to. And if they did try any funny work with me, old-timer, +why--as you say, these guns--" + +"Oh, all right, m'son! Have it your own way," Bill retorted grimly. +"I know you've got a brace of guns; and I know you can plant a bullet +where you want it to land, about as quick as the next one. I haven't +a doubt but what you're equal to the Vigilantes, with both hands tied! +Of course," he went on with heavy irony, "I have known of some mighty +able men swinging from the oak, lately. There'll likely be more, +before the town wakes up and weeds out some of the cutthroat element +that's running things now to suit themselves." + +Jack looked at him quickly, struck by something in Bill's voice that +betrayed his real concern. "Don't take it to heart, Bill," he said, +dropping his bantering and his stubbornness together. "I won't air my +views quite so publicly, after this. I know I was a fool to talk quite +as straight as I did last night; but some one else brought up the +subject of Sandy; and Swift called him a name Sandy'd have smashed him +in the face for, if he'd been alive and heard it. I always liked the +fellow, and it made me hot to see them hustle him out of town and hang +him like they'd shoot a dog that had bitten some one, when I _knew_ he +didn't deserve it. You or I would have shot, just as quick as he did, +if a drunken Spaniard made for us with a knife. So would the Captain, +or Swift, or any of the others. + +"I know--I've got a nasty tongue when something riles me, and I lash +out without stopping to think. Dade has given me the devil for that, +more times than I can count. He went after me about this very thing, +too, the other day. I'll try and forget about Sandy; it doesn't make +pleasant remembering, anyway. And I'll promise to count a hundred +before I mention the Committee above a whisper, after this--nine +hundred and ninety-nine before I take the name of Swift or the Captain +in vain!" He smiled full at Bill--a smile to make men love him for the +big-hearted boy he was. + +But Bill did not grin back. "Well, it won't hurt you any; they're bad +men to fuss with, both of 'em," he warned somberly. + +"Come on out and climb a hill or two with me," Jack urged. "You've +got worse kinks in your system, to-day, than I've got in my legs. You +won't? Well, better go back and take another sleep, then; it may put +you in a more optimistic mood." He went off up the street towards the +hills to the south, turning in at the door of a tented eating-place +for his belated breakfast. + +"Optimistic hell!" grunted Bill. "You can't tell a man anything he +don't think he knows better than you do, till he's past thirty. I was +a fool to try, I reckon." + +He glowered at the vanishing figure, noting anew how tall and straight +Jack was in his close-fitting buckskin jacket, with the crimson sash +knotted about his middle in the Spanish style, his trousers tucked +into his boots like the miners, and to crown all, a white sombrero +such as the vaqueros wore. Handsome and headstrong he was; and Bill +shook his head over the combination which made for trouble in that +land where the primal instincts lay all on the surface; where men +looked askance at the one who drew oftenest the glances of the women +and who walked erect and unafraid in the midst of the lawlessness. +Jack Allen was fast making enemies, and no one knew it better than +Bill. + +When the young fellow disappeared, Bill looked again at the shifting +crowd upon which his eyes were wont to rest with the speculative gaze +of a farmer who leans upon the fence that bounds his land, and regards +his wheat-fields ripening for the sickle. He liked Jack, and the soul +of him was bitter with the bitterness that is the portion of maturity, +when it must stand by and see youth learn by the pangs of experience +that fire will burn most agonizingly if you hold your hand in the +blaze. + +One of his night bartenders came up; and Bill, dismissing Jack from +his mind, with a grunt of disgust, went in to talk over certain +changes which he meant to make in the bar as soon as he could get +material and carpenter together upon the spot. + +He was still fussing with certain of the petty details that make or +mar the smooth running of an establishment like his, when his ear, +trained to detect the first note of discord in the babble which filled +his big room by night, caught an ominous note in the hum of the street +crowd outside. He lifted his head from examining a rickety table-leg. + +"Go see what's happened, Jim," he suggested to the man, who had just +come up with a hammer and some nails; and went back to dreaming of the +time when his place should be a palace, and he would not have to nail +the legs on his tables every few days because of the ebullitions of +excitement in his customers. He had strengthened the legs, and was +testing them by rocking the table slightly with a broad palm upon it, +when Jim came back. + +"Some shooting scrape, back on the flat," Jim announced indifferently. +"Some say it was a hold-up. Two or three of the Committee have gone +out to investigate." + +"Yeah--I'll bet the Committee went out!" snorted Bill. "They'll be +lynching the Diggers' dogs for fighting, when the supply of humans +runs out. They've just about played that buckskin out, packing men +out to the oak to hang 'em lately," he went on glumly, sliding the +rejuvenated table into its place in the long row that filled that +side of the room. "I never saw such an enthusiastic bunch as they're +getting to be!" + +"That's right," Jim agreed perfunctorily, as a man is wont to agree +with his employer. "Somebody'll hang, all right." + +"There's plenty that need it--if the Committee only had sense enough +to pick 'em out and leave the rest alone," growled Bill, going from +table to table, tipping and testing for other legs that wobbled. + +Jim sensed the rebuff in his tone and went back to the door, around +which a knot of men engaged in desultory conjectures while they waited +expectantly. A large tent that Perkins had found convenient as a +temporary jail for those unfortunates upon whom his heavy hand fell +swiftly, stood next to Bill's place; and it spoke eloquently of the +manner in which the Committee then worked, that men gathered there +instinctively at the first sign of trouble. For when the Committee +went out after culprits, it did not return empty-handed, as the +populace knew well. Zealous custodians of the law were they, as Bill +had said; and though they might have exchanged much of their zeal for +a little of Bill's sense of justice (to the betterment of the town), +few of the waiting crowd had the temerity to say so. + +Up the street, necks (whose owners had not thought it worth while to +wade through the sand to the scene of the shooting) were being craned +towards the flat behind the town, where the Captain and a few of his +men had hurried at the first shot. + +"They're comin'," Jim announced, thrusting his head into the gambling +hall and raising his voice above the sound of the boss's nail-driving. + +"Well--what of it?" snapped Bill. "Why don't you yell at me that the +sun is going to set in the west to-night?" Bill drove the head of a +four-cornered, iron nail clean out of sight in a table top. And Jim +prudently withdrew his head and turned his face and his attention +towards the little procession that was just coming into sight at the +end of the rambling street, with the crowd closing in behind it as the +water comes surging together behind an ocean liner. + +Jim worshiped his boss, but he knew better than to argue with him when +Bill happened to be in that particular mood, which, to tell the truth, +was not often. But in five minutes or less he had forgotten the snub. +His head popped in again. + +"Bill!" + +There may be much meaning in a tone, though it utters but one +unmeaning word. Bill dropped a handful of nails upon a table and came +striding down the long room to the door; pushed Jim unceremoniously +aside and stood upon the step. He was just in time to look into the +rageful, blue eyes of Jack Allen, walking with a very straight back +and a contemptuous smile on his lips, between the Captain and one of +his trusted lieutenants. + +Bill's fingers clenched suggestively upon the handle of the hammer. +His jaw slackened and then pushed itself forward to a fighting angle +while he stared, and he named in his amazement that place which the +padres had taught the Indians to fear. + +The Captain heard him and grinned sourly as he passed on. Jack heard +him, and his smile grew twisted at the tone in which the word was +uttered; but he still smiled, which was more than many a man would +have done in his place. + +Bill stood while the rest of that grim procession passed his place. +There was another, a young fellow who looked ready to cry, walking +unsteadily behind Jack, both his arms gripped by others of the +Vigilance Committee. There were two crude stretchers, borne by +stolid-faced miners in red flannel shirts and clay-stained boots. +On the first a dead man lay grinning up at the sun, his teeth just +showing under his bushy mustache, a trickle of red running down from +his temple. On the next a man groaned and mumbled blasphemy between +his groanings. + +Bill took it all in, a single glance for each,--a glance trained by +gambling to see a great deal between the flicker of his lashes. He +did not seem to look once at the Captain, yet he knew that Jack's +ivory-handled pistols hung at the Captain's rocking hips as he went +striding past; and he knew that malice lurked under the grizzled hair +which hid the Captain's cruel lips; and that satisfaction glowed in +the hard, sidelong glance he gave his prisoner. + +He stood until he saw Jack duck his head under the tent flaps of the +jail and the white-faced youth follow shrinking after. He stood while +the armed guards took up their stations on the four sides of the +tent and began pacing up and down the paths worn deep in tragic +significance. He saw the wounded man carried into Pete's place across +the way, and the dead man taken farther down the street. He saw the +crowd split into uneasy groups which spoke a common tongue, that they +might exchange unasked opinions upon this, the biggest sensation since +Sandy left town with his ankles tied under the vicious-eyed buckskin +whose riders rode always toward the west and whose saddle was always +empty when he came back to his stall at the end of the town. Bill saw +it all, to the last detail; but after his one explosive oath, he was +apparently the most indifferent of them all. + +When the Captain ended his curt instructions to the guard and came +towards him, Bill showed a disposition to speak. + +"Who's the kid?" he drawled companionably, while his fingers itched +upon the hammer, and the soul of him lusted for sight of the hole it +could make in the skull of the Captain. "I don't recollect seeing him +around town--and there ain't many faces I forget, either." + +The Captain shot him a surprised look that was an unconscious tribute +to Bill's diplomatic art. But Bill's level glance would have disarmed +a keener man than Tom Perkins. + +Perkins stopped. "Stranger, from what he said--though I've got my +doubts. Some crony of Allen's, I expect. It was him done the shooting; +the kid didn't have any gun on him. Allen didn't deny it, either." + +"No--he's just bull-headed enough to tough it out," commented Bill. +"What was the row about--do yuh know?" + +Perkins stiffened. "That," he said with some dignity, "will come out +at the trial. He killed Rawhide outright, and Texas Bill will die, +I reckon. The trial will show what kinda excuse he thought he had." +Having delivered himself, thus impartially and with malice towards +none, Perkins started on. + +"Oh, say! You don't mind if I talk to 'em?" Bill gritted his teeth at +having to put the sentence in that favor-seeking tone, but he did it, +nevertheless. + +The Captain scowled under his black, slouch hat. "I've give strict +orders not to let anybody inside the tent till after the trial," he +said shortly. + +"Oh, that's all right. I'll talk to 'em through the door," Bill agreed +equably. "Jack owes me some money." + +The Captain muttered unintelligibly and passed on, and Bill chose to +interpret the mutter as consent. He strolled over to the tent, joked +condescendingly with the guard who stood before it, and announced that +the Captain had said he might talk to the prisoners. + +"I did not," said the Captain unexpectedly at his shoulder. "I said +you couldn't. After the trial, you can collect what's coming to you, +Mr. Wilson. That is," he added hastily, "in case Allen should be +convicted. If he ain't, you can do as you please." He looked full at +the guard. "Shoot any man that attempts to enter that tent or talk to +the prisoners without my permission, Shorty," he directed, and turned +his back on Bill. + +Bill did not permit one muscle of his face to twitch. "All right," he +drawled, "I guess I won't go broke if I don't get it. You mind what +your Captain tells you, Shorty! He's running this show, and what he +says goes. You've got a good man over yuh, Shorty. A fine man. He'll +weed out the town till it'll look like grandpa's onion bed--if the +supply of rope don't give out!" Whereupon he strolled carelessly back +to his place, and went in as if the incident were squeezed dry of +interest for him. He walked to the far end of the big room, sat +deliberately down upon a little table, and rewarded himself for his +forbearance by cursing methodically the Captain, the Committee of +which he was the leader, the men who had witlessly given him the +power he used so ruthlessly as pleased him best, and Jack Allen, whose +ill-timed criticisms and hot-headed freedom of speech had brought upon +himself the weight of the Committee's dread hand. + +"Damn him, I tried to tell him!" groaned Bill, his face hidden behind +his palms. "They'll hang him--and darn my oldest sister's cat's eyes, +somebody'll sweat blood for it, too!" (Bill, you will observe, had +reached the end of real blasphemy and was forced to improvise milder +expletives as he went along.) "There ought to be enough decent men in +this town to--" + +"Did you git to see Jack?" ventured Jim, coming anxiously up to his +boss. + +The tone of him, which was that hushed tone which we employ in the +presence of the dead, so incensed Bill that for answer he threw the +hammer viciously in his direction. Jim took the hint and retreated +hastily. + +"No, damn 'em, they won't let me near him," said Bill, ashamed of his +violence. "I knew they'd get him; but I didn't think they'd get him so +quick. I sent a letter down by an Injun this morning to his pardner to +come up and get him outa town before he--But it's too late now. That +talk he made last night--" + +"Say, he shot Swift in the arm, too," said Jim. "Pity he didn't kill +him. They're getting a jury together already. Say! Ain't it hell?" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE THING THEY CALLED JUSTICE + + +Jack stared meditatively across at the young fellow sitting hunched +upon another of the boxes that were the seats in this tent-jail, which +was also the courtroom of the Vigilance Committee, and mechanically +counted the slow tears that trickled down between the third and fourth +fingers of each hand. A half-hour spent so would have rasped the +nerves of the most phlegmatic man in the town, and Jack was not +phlegmatic; fifteen minutes of watching that silent weeping sufficed +to bring a muffled explosion. + +"Ah, for God's sake, brace up!" he gritted. "There's some hope for +you--if you don't spoil what chance you have got, by crying around +like a baby. Brace up and be a man, anyway. It won't hurt any worse if +you grin about it." + +The young fellow felt gropingly for a red-figured bandanna, found it +and wiped his face and his eyes dejectedly. "I beg your pardon for +seeming a coward," he apologized huskily. "I got to thinking about +my--m-mother and sisters, and--" + +Jack winced. Mother and sisters he had longed for all his life. "Well, +you better be thinking how you'll get out of the scrape you're in," he +advised, with a little of Bill Wilson's grimness. "I'm afraid I'm to +blame, in a way; and yet, if I hadn't mixed into the fight, you'd +be dead by now. Maybe that would have been just as well, seeing how +things have turned out," he grinned. "Still--have a smoke?" + +"I never used tobacco in my life," declined the youth somewhat primly. + +"No, I don't reckon you ever did!" Jack eyed him with a certain amount +of pitying amusement. "A fellow that will come gold-hunting without a +gun to his name, would not use tobacco, or swear, or do anything that +a perfect lady couldn't do! However, you put up a good fight with your +fists, old man, and that's something." + +"I'd have been killed, though, if you hadn't shot when you did. They +were too much for me. I haven't tried to thank you--" + +"No, I shouldn't think you would," grinned Jack. "I don't see yet +where I've done you any particular favor: from robbers to Vigilance +Committee might be called an up-to-date version of 'Out of the +frying-pan into the fire.'" + +The boy glanced fearfully toward the closed tent-flaps. "Ssh!" he +whispered. "The guard can hear--" + +"Oh, that's all right," returned Jack, urged perhaps to a conscious +bravado by the very weakness of the other. "It's all day with me, +anyway. I may as well say what I think. + +"And so--" He paused to blow one of his favorite little smoke rings +and watch it float to the dingy ridge-pole, where it flickered and +faded into a blue haze "--and so, I'm going to say right out in +meeting what I think of this town and the Committee they let measure +out justice. Justice!" He laughed sardonically. "Poor old lady, she +couldn't stop within forty miles of Perkins' Committee if she had +forty bandages over her eyes, and both ears plugged with cotton! +You wait till their farce of a trial is over. You may get off, by a +scratch--I hope so. But unless Bill Wilson--" + +"Aw, yuh needn't pin no hopes on Bill Wilson!" came a heavy, malicious +voice through the tent wall. "All hell can't save yuh, Jack Allen! +You've had a ride out to the oak comin' to yuh for quite a while, and +before sundown you'll get it." + +"Oh! Is that so, Shorty? Say, you're breaking the rules, you old +pirate; you're talking to the prisoners without permission. As the +Captain's most faithful dog Tray, you'd better shoot yourself; it'll +save the town the trouble of hanging you later on!" He smoked calmly +while Shorty, on guard without, growled a vilifying retort, and the +other guards snickered. + +"Ah, brace up!" he advised his quaking companion again. "If my company +doesn't damn you beyond all hope, you may get out of the scrape. You +didn't have a gun, and you're a stranger and haven't said naughty +things about your neighbors. Cheer up. Life looks just as good to me +as it does to you. I love this old world just as well as any man that +ever lived in it, and I'm not a bit pleased over leaving it--any more +than you are. But I can't see where I could better matters by letting +myself get wobbly in the knees. I'm sorry I didn't make a bigger fight +to keep my guns, though. I'd like to have perforated a few more of our +most worthy Committee before I quit; our friend Shorty, for instance," +he stipulated wickedly and clearly, "and the Captain." + +If he were deliberately trying to goad Shorty to further profanity, +the result should have satisfied him. The huge shadow of Shorty moving +back and forth upon the front wall of the tent, became violently +agitated and developed a gigantic arm that waved threateningly over +the ridge pole. The other guards laughed and checked their laughter +with a suddenness which made Jack's eyes leave the dancing shadow and +seek questioningly the closed tent flaps. + +"If I'm any good at reading signs, we are now about to be tried by our +peers--twelve good men and true," he announced ironically. "Brace up, +old man! The chances are you'll soon be out of this mess and headed +for home. Don't be afraid to tell the truth--and don't act scared; +they'll take that as a sure sign you've got a guilty conscience. Just +keep a stiff upper lip; it won't take long; we do things in a hurry, +out here!" + +"Say, you're a brick, Mr. Allen!" the boy burst out, impulsively +gripping the hand of his champion. + +Jack jerked his hand away--not unkindly, but rather as if he feared to +drop, even for an instant, his flippant defiance of the trick fate had +played him. The jerk sent a small, shining thing sliding down to the +floor; where it stood upright and quivered in the soft sand. + +"Lord!" he ejaculated under his breath, snatching it up as a thief +would snatch at his spoils. He looked fearfully at the closed flaps, +outside which the trampling of many feet sounded closer and closer; +and with a warning shake of his head at the other, slid the dagger +into his sleeve again, carefully fastening the point in the stout hem +of the buckskin. + +"You never can tell," he muttered, smiling queerly as he made sure the +weapon was not noticeable. + +He was rolling another cigarette when the Captain parted the tent +flaps and came stooping in, followed by twelve men of the Committee +who were to be the jury, and as many spectators as could crowd after +them. + +"Gentlemen, be seated," the Captain invited formally, and motioned the +jury to the crude bunks that lined one side of the large tent. Jack +and the boy he moved farther from the entrance, and took up his own +position where his sharp eyes commanded every inch of the interior and +where the gun which he drew from its holster and rested upon his knee +could speak its deadly rebuke to any man there if, in the upholding of +justice, the Captain deemed it necessary. + +The jury shuffled to their places, perched in a row upon the edge of +the bunks and waited silently, their eyes fixed expectantly upon their +Captain. The crowd edged into the corners and along the sides, their +hat crowns scraping the canvas roof as they were forced closer to the +low wall. + +The Captain waited until the silence was a palpable thing made alive +by the rhythmic breathing of the men who were to look upon this new +travesty of justice. + +"Gentlemen," he said at last, his sonorous voice carrying his words +distinctly to the crowd without, "we are now ready to proceed with the +investigation. I wish to state, for the information of those present, +that after the prisoners were placed here under guard, I went to get a +statement from the wounded man, Mr. Texas Bill. I found him dying +from a wound inflicted upon his person by a pistol ball which passed +through his left lung, above and to the right of his heart. I did not +take a written statement, for lack of time and writing materials. But +Texas swore--" + +"Yeah--I'll bet he swore!" commented Bill Wilson under his breath. +Every one looked toward Bill, standing just inside the flaps, and the +Captain scowled while he waited for attention. + +"Texas swore that he was shot by one of the prisoners, Jack Allen by +name, who fired upon him without due provocation, while he was talking +to this other prisoner, whose name we have yet to learn. Texas stated +that Allen, appearing suddenly from behind some bushes, began shooting +with deadly intent and without warning, wantonly murdering Rawhide +Jack, who lies dead in Smith's back room, and shooting him, Texas, +through the lung. He also stated that Mr. Dick Swift was with him and +Rawhide Jack, and was also shot by the prisoner, Jack Allen, without +cause or provocation. + +"They had met the stranger and were standing talking to him about his +luck in the diggin's. This stranger, who is the other prisoner, +was inclined to be sassy, and made a pass at Rawhide with his fist, +telling him to mind his own business and not ask so many questions. +Rawhide struck back; and Allen, coming out from behind some bushes, +began shooting." + +The Captain stopped and looked calmly and judicially from face to face +in the crowd. + +"That, gentlemen, is the statement made to me by Texas Bill, who +now lies dead in Pete's Place as a result of the wound inflicted by +Allen." + +"That's a lot of swearing for a man to do that's been shot through the +lungs," commented Bill Wilson skeptically. + +The Captain gave him a malevolent look and continued. "We will ask +Mr. Swift to come forward and tell us what he knows of this deplorable +and, if I may be permitted the term, disgraceful affair." + +Mr. Swift edged his way carefully through the crowd with his left arm +thrust out to protect the right, which was bandaged and rested in a +blood-stained sling. He asked permission to sit down; kicked a box +into the small, open space between the Captain, the jury, and the +prisoners, and seated himself with the air of a man about to perform +an extremely painful duty. + +"Hold up your right hand," commanded the Captain. + +Swift apologetically raised his left hand and gazed steadfastly into +the cold, impartial eyes of his Captain. + +"You swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing +but the truth, so-help-you-God?" + +Swift, his purplish eyes wide and clear and honest as the gaze of a +baby, calmly affirmed that he did. + +Jack grinned and lazily fanned the smoke of his cigarette away, so +that he might the better gaze upon this man who was about to tell +the whole truth and nothing else. He caught Swift's eye and added +a sneering lift to the smile; and Swift's eyes changed from bland +innocence to hate triumphant. + +"Mr. Swift, you will now relate to us the circumstances of this +affair, truthfully, in the order of their happening," directed the +deep voice of the Captain. + +Mr. Swift carefully eased his wounded arm in its sling, turned his +innocent gaze upon the crowd, and began: + +"Texas, Rawhide, and myself were crossing the sandy stretch south of +town about noon, when we met this chap--the stranger there." He nodded +slightly toward the boy. "I was walking behind the other two, but I +heard Rawhide say: 'Hello, son, any luck in the diggin's?' The kid +said: 'None of your damn business!' That made Rawhide kinda mad, being +spoke to that way when he just meant to be friendly, and he told the +kid he better keep a civil tongue in his head if he wanted to get +along smooth--or words to that effect. I don't," explained Mr. Swift +virtuously, "remember the exact words, because I was looking at the +fellow and wondering what made him so surly. He sassed Rawhide again, +and told him to mind his own business and give advice when it was +asked for, and struck at him. Rawhide hit back, and then I heard a +shot, and Rawhide fell over. I looked around quick, and started +to pull my gun, but a bullet hit me here--" Mr. Swift laid gentle +finger-tips upon his arm near the shoulder--"so I couldn't. I saw it +was Jack Allen shooting and coming towards us from a clump of bushes +off to the right of us. He shot again, and Texas Bill fell. I ducked +behind a bush and started for help, when I met the Captain and a few +others coming out to see what was the matter. That," finished Mr. +Swift, "is the facts of the case, just as they happened." + +The Captain waited a minute or two, that the "facts" might sink deep +into the minds of the listeners. + +"Were any shots fired by any one except Allen?" he asked coldly, when +the silence was sufficiently emphasized. + +"There were not. Nobody," Swift flashed with a very human resentment, +"had a chance after he commenced!" He flushed at the involuntary +tribute to the prowess of his enemy, when he saw that maddening +grin appear again on Jack's lips; a grin which called him liar and +scoundrel and in the same flicker defied him. + +The investigation took on the color of a sensation at that point, +when the stranger sprang suddenly to his feet and stood glaring at the +witness. There were no signs now of tears or weakness; he was a man +fighting for what he believed to be right and just. + +"Captain, that man is a dirty liar!" he cried hotly. "He and his +precious cronies tried to rob me, out there. I was coming into town +from across the bay; I had hired a Spaniard to bring me across in a +small sailboat, and the tide carried us down too far, so I told him to +land and I'd walk back to town, rather than tack back. And these men +met me, and tried to rob me! This man," he accused excitedly, pointing +a rageful finger at Swift, "was going to stab me in the throat when +he saw I resisted. I was fighting the three, and they were getting +the best of me. I never owned a gun, and I just had my fists. The two +others had grabbed me, and this man Swift pulled a knife. I remember +one of them saying: 'Don't shoot--it'll bring the whole town out!' +And just as this one raised his knife to drive it into my throat--they +were bending me backwards, the other two--I heard a shot, and this one +dropped his knife and gave a yell. There were two other shots, and +the two who were holding me dropped. This one ran off. Then--" The boy +turned and looked down at Jack, smoking his cigarette and trying to +read what lay behind the stolid stare of the twelve men who sat in +a solemn row on the bunks opposite him. "This young man--" His lips +trembled, and he stopped, to bite them into a more manlike firmness. + +"Gentlemen, do what you like with me, but you've got to let this man +go! He's the coolest, bravest man I ever saw! He saved my life. You +can't hang him for protecting a man from murder and robbery!" + +"Young man," interrupted the Captain after a surprised silence, "we +admire your generosity in trying to clear your fellow prisoner, but +you must let this jury try his case. What's your name?" + +"John Belden, of Cambridge, Massachusetts." The young fellow's rage +faded to a sullen calm under the cold voice. + +The Captain made a startled movement and looked at him sharply. "And +what was your hurry to get to town?" he asked, after a minute. + +"I wanted to get a ticket on the boat, the _Mary Elizabeth_, that is +going to leave for New York to-morrow. I wanted to go--home. I've had +enough of gold-hunting!" Youthful bitterness was in his tone and in +the look he turned on the jury. + +The Captain cleared his throat. When he spoke again, he addressed the +twelve before him: + +"Gentlemen of the jury, I have reasons for feeling convinced that +this young man is in part telling the truth. I am acquainted with his +father, unless he has given a name he does not own--and his face is +a pretty good witness for him; he looks like his dad. While he has +undoubtedly glossed and warped the story of the shooting in a mistaken +effort to make things look better for the man who did the killing, I +can see no sufficient reason for holding him. This Committee stands +for justice and is not backward about tempering it with mercy. +Gentlemen of the jury, I recommend that John Belden be released from +custody and permitted to go home. He was unarmed when I took him, and +there is no evidence of his having dealt anything but hard words to +the victims of the shooting. Gentlemen, you will give your verdict; +after which we will proceed with the investigation." + +The jury looked at one another and nodded to the man on the end of +the first bunk; and he, shifting a quid of tobacco to the slack of his +right cheek, expectorated gravely into the sand and spoke solemnly: + +"The verdict of the jury is all in favor of turnin' the kid loose." + +"John Belden, you are released. And we'd advise you to be a little +careful how you sass men in this country. Also, you better see about +that ticket on the _Mary Elizabeth_. Jack Allen, you may come forward +and take the oath." + +"This box is just as comfortable as that one," said Jack, "and you +needn't worry but what I'll tell the truth!" He took a last pull at +his cigarette, pinched out the fire, and ground the stub under his +heel. He could feel the silence grow tense with expectancy; and when +he lifted his eyes, he knew that every man in that tent was staring +into his face. + +"I used to believe," he began clearly, "in the Vigilantes. If I had +been here when the first Committee was formed, I'd have worked for it +myself. I believe it cleared the town of some of the worst scoundrels +in the country, and that's saying a good deal. But--" + +"The Committee," interrupted the Captain, "would like to hear your +story of the shooting. Your private opinions can wait until the +investigation of that affair is ended." + +"You're right. I beg your pardon for forgetting that it is not settled +yet!" Jack's voice was politely scornful. "Well, then, this kid told +the truth in every particular, even when he declared that Dick Swift +is a dirty liar. Swift is a liar. He's also a thief, and he's also a +murderer--and a few other things not as decent! + +"As to the row, I was walking out that way, when I saw this kid coming +up from the bay toward the town. The three, Swift, Rawhide Jack, and +Texas Bill, met him where the--er--trouble took place. I was too far +off to hear what was said; in fact, I didn't pay any attention much, +till I saw the kid struggling to get away. I walked towards them then. +It was easy enough to see that it was a hold-up, pure and simple. I +was about fifty yards from them when I saw Swift, here, raise a knife +to jab it into the boy's throat. Texas and Rawhide were both holding +the kid's arms and bending him backwards so he couldn't do anything. +When I saw the knife, I began to shoot." His eyes sought those of Bill +Wilson, standing in the crowd near the door. "That's the truth of the +whole matter," he said, speaking directly to Bill. "I didn't try to +make trouble; but I couldn't stand by and see a man murdered, no more +than any decent man could." He paused; and still looking toward Bill, +added: "I didn't even notice particularly who the men were, until I +went up to the boy. It all happened so sudden that I--" + +The Captain cleared his throat. "You admit, then, that you killed +Rawhide Jack and Texas Bill this morning?" + +"I surely do," retorted Jack. "And if you want to know, I'm kinda +proud of it; it was a long shot--to clean the town of two such +blackguards. And right here I want to apologize to the town for making +a bungle of killing Swift!" + +"We have two witnesses who also swear that you killed Tex' and +Rawhide, though they give a very different version of the trouble with +the boy. Would you ask us to believe that Texas Bill lied with his +last breath?" + +"If he told the story you say he did, he certainly lied most sinfully +with his last breath; but I'd hate to take your word for anything, so +I don't know whether he lied or not." + +"Mr. Swift, here, tells the same story that Texas Bill told." The +Captain chose to ignore the insults. "I think their testimony should +carry more weight with the Committee than yours, or the boy's. You are +trying to save your neck; and the boy probably feels that he owes you +some gratitude for taking his part. But the Committee's business is to +weed out the dangerous element which is altogether too large in this +town; and the Committee feels that you are one of the most dangerous. +However, we will call another witness. Shorty, you may come forward." + +Shorty came scowling up and sat down upon the box Swift had occupied. +He took the oath and afterwards declared that he had overheard Jack +coaching the boy about what he should tell the Committee. The Captain, +having brought out that point, promptly excused him. + +"Gentlemen of the jury, you have heard the evidence, and your duty is +plain. We are waiting for the verdict." + +The man with the cud looked a question at the Captain; turned +and glanced down the row at the eleven, who nodded their heads in +unanimous approval of his thoughts. He once more shifted the wad +of tobacco, as a preliminary to expectorating gravely into the sand +floor, and pronounced his sentence with a promptness that savored of +relish: + +"The verdict of the jury is that we hang Jack Allen for killin' Texas +and Rawhide, and for bein' a mean, ornery cuss, anyway." + +The Captain turned coldly to the prisoner. "You hear the verdict. The +Committee believes it to be just." + +He looked at the group near the door. "Mr. Wilson," he called +maliciously, "you will now be given an opportunity to collect from the +prisoner what he owes you." + +"Jack Allen don't owe me a cent!" cried Bill Wilson hotly, shouldering +his way to the open space before the Captain. "But there's a heavy +debt hanging over this damned Committee--a debt they'll have to pay +themselves one day at the end of a rope, if there's as many honest men +in this town as I think there is. + +"I helped form the first Vigilance Committee, boys. We did it to +protect the town from just such men as are running the Committee right +now. When crimes like this can be done right before our eyes, in broad +daylight, I say it's time another Committee was formed, to hang this +one! Here they've got a man that they know, and we all know, ain't +done a thing but what any brave, honest man would do. They've gone +through a farce trial that'd make the Digger Injuns ashamed of +themselves; and they've condemned Jack Allen, that's got more real +manhood in his little finger than there is in the dirty, lying +carcasses of the whole damned outfit--they've condemned him to be +hung! + +"And why! I can tell yuh why--and it ain't for killing Texas and +Rawhide--two as measly, ornery cusses as there was in town--it ain't +for that. It's for daring to say, last night in my place, that the +Committee is rotten to the core, and that they murdered Sandy McTavish +in cold blood when they took him out and hung him for killing that +greaser in self-defense. It's for speaking his mind, the mind of an +honest man, that they're going to hang him. That is, they'll hang him +if you'll stand by and let 'em do it. I believe both these boys told a +straight story. I believe them three was trying to pull off a daylight +robbery, and Jack shot to save the kid. + +"Now, men, see here! I for one have stood about all I'm going to stand +from this bunch of cutthroats that've taken the place of the Committee +we organized to protect the town. To-night I want every man that calls +himself honest to come to my place and hold a mass meeting, to elect a +Committee like we had in the first place. I want every man--" + +"Bill, you're crazy!" It was Jack, white to the lips in sheer terror +for Wilson, Jack who refused to blench at his own dire strait, who +sprang up and clapped a hand over the mouth that was sealing the doom +of the owner. "Take him out, Jim, for God's sake! Take him--Bill, +listen to me, you fool! What was it you were telling me, there in your +own doorway, to-day? About not thinking out loud? You can't save me by +talking like that! These men--those that don't hate me--are so scared +of their own necks that they wouldn't lift a finger to save a twin +brother. Take him out, boys! Bill doesn't mean any harm." He tried to +smile and failed utterly. "He likes me, and he's--he's--" + +Shorty it was who jerked him away from Bill. The Captain, on his feet, +was dominating the uneasy crowd with his cold stare more than with the +gun he held in his hand. + +"This Committee," he stated in his calm, judicial tone, which chilled +the growing fire of excitement and held the men silent that they might +listen, "this Committee regrets that in the course of its unpleasant +duties it must now and then rouse the antagonism of a bad man's +friends. But this Committee must perform the duties for which it was +elected. This Committee is sorry to see Mr. Wilson take the stand he +takes, but it realizes that friendship for the condemned man leads +him to make statements and threats for which he should not be held +responsible. Gentlemen, this court of inquiry is dismissed, and it +may not be amiss to point out the necessity for order being maintained +among you. The Committee would deeply regret any trouble arising at +this time." + +"Oh, damn you and your Committee!" gritted Bill Wilson, out of the +bitterness that filled him. He gave Jack one glance; one, and with his +jaws set hard together, turned his back. + +The crowd pushed and parted to make way for him. Jim, his face the +color of a pork rind, followed dog-like at the heels of his boss. And +when they had passed, the tent began to belch forth men who walked +with heads and shoulders a little bent, talking together under their +breaths of this man who dared defy the Committee to its face, and +whose daring was as impotent as the breeze that still pulled at the +flapping corner of the cloth sign over the door of his place. + +Bill glanced dully up at the sign before he opened his door. "Better +get the hammer and nail that corner down, Jim," he said morosely, +and went in. He poured a whisky glass two-thirds full of liquor and +emptied it with one long swallow--and Bill was not a drinking man. + +"God! This thing they call justice!" he groaned, as he set down the +glass; and went out to make an attempt at organizing a rescue party, +though he had little hope of succeeding. Jack was a stranger to the +better class of business men, and those who did know him were either +friends of the Committee or in deadly fear of it. Still, Bill was +a gambler. He was probably putting the mark of the next victim on +himself; but he did not stop for that. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WHAT HAPPENED AT THE OAK + + +Jack sat looking after the crowd that shuffled through the doorway +into the sunlight. He thought he had believed that he would receive +the sentence which the juryman had spoken so baldly; yet, after the +words had been actually spoken, he stared blankly after Bill and the +others, and incredulously at the Captain, who seated himself upon a +bunk opposite to watch his prisoner, his pistol resting suggestively +upon his knee. The boy lingered to shake Jack's unresponsive hand and +mutter a broken sentence or two of gratitude and sympathy. But Jack +scarcely grasped his meaning, and his answer sounded chillingly calm; +so that the boy, wincing under the cold stare of the Captain and the +seeming indifference of the prisoner, turned away with downy chin +a-tremble and in his eyes the look of horrified awe which sometimes +comes to a youth who has seen death hesitate just over his head, pass +him by, and choose another. In the doorway he stopped and looked back +bewildered. Jack had said that he loved life and would hate to leave +it; and yet he sat there calmly, scraping idly with his boot-toe a +little furrow in the loose sand, his elbows resting on his knees, his +face unlined by frown or bitterness, his eyes bent abstractedly upon +the shallow trench he was desultorily digging. He did not look as the +boy believed a man should look who has just been condemned to die the +ignominious death of hanging. The boy shuddered and went out into +the sunlight, dazed with this glimpse he had got of the inexorable +hardness of life. + +Jack did not even know when the boy left. He, also, was looking upon +the hardness of life, but he was looking with the eyes of the fighter. +So long as Jack Allen had breath in his body, he would fight to keep +it there. His incredulity against the verdict swung to a tenacious +disbelief that it would really come to the worst. So long as he +was alive, so long as he could feel the weight of the dagger in his +sleeve, it was temperamentally impossible for him to believe that he +was going to die that day. + +Plans he made and smoothed them in the dirt with his toe. If they did +not bind his arms... They had not tied Sandy's arms, he remembered; +and he wondered if a dagger concealed in Sandy's sleeve would have +made any essential difference in the result of that particular crime +of the Committee. He sickened at a vivid memory of how Sandy had +ridden away, just a week or so before; and of the appealing glance +which he had sent toward Bill's place when Shorty started to lead the +buckskin from before the prison tent with six men walking upon either +side and a curious crowd straggling after. Would a dagger in Sandy's +sleeve have made any difference? + +Then his thoughts swung to the Mexican who had told him of the trick, +only the night before. It had amused Jack to experiment with his own +knife; and the very novelty of the thing had impelled him to slip his +dagger into the new hiding-place that morning when he dressed. The +Captain had not discovered it there--but would it make any difference? +It occurred to him that he need not die the death of dangling and +strangling at the end of the rope, at any rate; if it came to dying... +Jack became acutely conscious of the steady beat in his chest, and +immediately afterward felt the same throb in his throat; he could stop +that beating whenever he chose, if they did not bind his arms. + +"Horse's ready, Captain," announced Shorty succinctly, thrusting his +head through the closed flaps; and the Captain rose instantly and made +a commanding gesture to his prisoner. + +Jack swept the loose dirt back into the furrow with one swing of his +foot and stood up. He went out quietly, two steps in advance of the +Captain and the Captain's drawn pistol, and advanced unflinchingly +towards the horse that stood saddled in the midst of the group of +executioners, with the same curious crowd looking on greedily at the +spectacle. + +"Ever been on a horse?" asked the Captain, his deep voice little more +than a growl. + +"Once or twice," Jack answered indifferently. + +"Climb on, then!" + +Jack was young and he was very human. It might be his last hour on +earth, but there rose up in him a prideful desire to show them whether +he had ever been on a horse; he caught the saddle-horn with one hand +and vaulted vaingloriously into the saddle without touching a toe to +the stirrup. The buckskin ducked and danced sidewise at the end of the +rope in Shorty's hand, and more than one gun flashed into sight at the +unexpectedness of the move. + +The Captain scowled at the exclamations of admiration from the crowd. +"You needn't try any funny work, young man, or I'll tie you hand as +well as foot!" he threatened sternly. "Give me that rope, Davis." + +Then Jack paid in pain for his vanity, and paid in full. The Captain +did not bind his arms--perhaps because of the crowd and a desire to +seem merciful. But though he merely tied the prisoner's ankle after +the usual manner, he knotted the small rope with a vicious yank, +pulled it as tight as he could and passed the rope under the flinching +belly of the buckskin to Davis, on the other side. Also he sent a +glance of meaning which the other read unerringly and obeyed most +willingly. Davis drew the rope taut under the cinch and tied Jack's +other ankle as if he were putting the diamond hitch on a pack mule. +The two stepped back and eyed him sharply for some sign of pain, when +all was done. + +"Thanks," drawled Jack. "Sorry I can't do as much for you." Whereupon +he set his teeth against the growing agony of strained muscles and +congesting arteries, and began to roll a cigarette with fingers which +he held rigidly from trembling. + +Bill Wilson, returning gloomily to the doorway of his place, grated an +oath and turned away his head. + +Some day, he promised himself vengefully, those two--yes, and the +whole group of murderers moving briskly away from the tent--would pay +for that outrage; and he prayed that the day might come soon. + +He went heavily into the big room where men were already foregathering +to gossip between drinks of the trial and of the man who was to die. +Bill bethought him of the young stranger; made some inquiries of +certain inoffensive individuals among the crowd, and sent Jim out with +instructions to find the kid and bring him back with him. + +Bill was standing in the door waiting for Jim to return, when, in a +swirl of dust, came Dade galloping around a corner and to the +very doorstep before he showed any desire to slow up. At the first +tightening of the reins, the white horse stiffened his front legs, dug +two foot-long furrows and stopped still. Bill had no enthusiasm for +the perfect accomplishment of the trick. He stood with his hands +thrust deep into his pockets and regarded the rider glumly. + +"Well, you got here," he grunted, with the brevity of utter misery. + +"You bet I did! I was away from the hacienda when the peon came, or +I'd have got here sooner," Dade explained cheerfully, swinging to the +ground with a jingle of his big, Mexican spurs that had little silver +bells to swell the tinkly chimes when he moved. "Where's Jack?" + +Big Bill Wilson's jaw trembled with an impulse towards tears which +the long, harsh years behind him would not let him shed. "They've got +him," he said in a choked tone, and waved a hand toward the west. + +"Who's got him?" Dade clanked a step closer and peered sharply into +Bill's face, with all the easy good humor wiped out of his own. + +"The Committee. You're too late; they're taking him out to the oak. +Been gone about ten minutes. They had it in for him, and--I couldn't +do a thing! The men in this town--" Epithets rushed incoherently from +Bill's lips, just as violent weeping marks the reaction from a woman's +first silence in the face of tragedy. + +Dade did not hear a word he was saying, after those first jerky +sentences. He stood looking past Bill at a drunken Irishman who was +making erratic progress up the street; and he was no more conscious of +the Irishman than he was of Bill's scorching condemnation of the town +which could permit such outrages. + +"Watch Surry a minute!" he said abruptly, and hurried into the +gambling hall. In a minute he was back again and lifting foot to the +stirrup. + +"How long did you say they've been gone?" he asked, without looking at +Bill. + +"Ten or fifteen minutes. Say, you can't do anything!" + +Dade was already half-way up the block, a swirl of sand-dust marking +his flight. Bill stared after him distressfully. + +"He'll go and get his light put out--and he won't help Jack a damn +bit," he told himself miserably, and went in. Life that day looked +very hard to big-hearted Bill Wilson, and scarcely worth the trouble +of living it. + +It broke the heart of Dade Hunter to see how near the sinister +procession was to the live oak that had come to be looked upon as the +gallows of the Vigilance Committee; a gallows whose broad branches +sheltered from rain and sun alike the unmarked graves of the men +who had come there shuddering and looked upon it, and shuddering had +looked no more upon anything in this world. + +Until he was near enough to risk betraying his haste by the hoof-beats +of his horse, Dade kept Surry at a run. Upon the crest of the slope +which the procession was leisurely descending, he slowed to a lope; +and so overtook the crowd that straggled always out to the hangings, +came they ever so frequent. Reeling in the saddle, he came up with +the stragglers, singing and marking time with a half-empty bottle of +whisky. + +The few who knew him looked at one another askance. + +"Say, Hunter, ain't yuh got any feelin's? That there's your pardner on +the hoss," one loose-jointed miner expostulated. + +"Sure, I got feelin's! Have a d-drink?" Dade leered drunkenly at the +speaker. "Jack's--no good anyway. Tol' 'im he'd get hung if he--have a +d-drink?" + +The loose-jointed one would, and so would his neighbors. The Captain +glanced back at them, gave a contemptuous lift to his upper lip and +faced again to the front. + +Dade uncoiled his riata with aimless, fumbling fingers and swung the +noose facetiously toward the bottle, uptilted over the eager mouth of +a weazened little Irishman. He caught bottle and hand together, let +them go with a quick flip of the rawhide and waggled his head in +apology. + +"_Excuse_ me, Mike," he mumbled, while the Irishman stopped and +glared. "Go awn! Have a drink. Mighta spilled it--shame!" + +Jack looked back, his heart thumping heavily at sound of the voice, +thick though it was and maudlin. Dade drunk and full of coarse foolery +was a sight he had never before looked upon; but Dade's presence, +drunk or sober, made his own plight seem a shade less hopeless. He did +not dare a second glance, with Davis and the Captain walking at either +stirrup; but he listened anxiously--listened and caught a drunken +mumble from the rear, and a chorus of chuckling laughs coming after. + +He looked ahead. The great oak was close, so close that he might have +counted the narrow little ridges of red soil beneath; the ridges which +he knew were the graves of those who had died before him. The great +bough that reached out over the spot where the earth was trampled +smooth in horrible significance--the branch from which a noosed +rope dangled sinuously in the breeze that came straight off the +ocean--swayed with majestic deliberation as if Fate herself were +beckoning. + +He clasped his hands upon the saddle-horn and, stealthily loosening +the dagger-point from the hem of his sleeve, slid the weapon +cautiously into his hand. When he felt the handle against his palm, +he knew that he had been holding his breath, and that the sigh he gave +was an involuntary relief that the others had not glimpsed the blade +under his clasped fingers. He would not have to dangle from that +swinging rope, at any rate. + +"Hello, pard!" Dade's voice called thickly from close behind. "Looking +for some rope?" + +Jack turned his head just as the looped rawhide slithered past him and +settled taut over the head of the startled buckskin. Like a lightning +gleam slashing through the dark he saw Dade's plan, and played his own +part unhesitatingly. + +Two movements he made while the buckskin sat back upon his haunches +and gathered his muscles for a forward spring. The first was to lean +and send a downward sweep of the dagger across the rope by which +Shorty was leading the horse, and the second was a backward lunge that +drove the knife deep into the bared throat of the Captain, stunned +into momentary inaction by the suddenness of Dade's assault. + +The buckskin gave a mighty leap that caught Shorty unawares and +sent him into a crumpled heap in the sand. Dade's riata, tight as a +fiddle-string at first, slackened as the buckskin, his breath coming +in snorts, surged alongside. Jack leaned again--this time to snatch +the ivory-handled revolver from the holster on Dade's saddle. As well +as he could with his legs held rigid by the rope that tied his ankles, +he twisted in the saddle and sent leaden answer to the spiteful +barking of the guns that called upon them to halt. + +[Illustration: He twisted in the saddle and sent leaden answer to the +spiteful barking of the guns.] + +Davis he shot, and saw him sway and fall flat, with a smoking gun in +his hand. Another crumpled forward; and Shorty, just getting painfully +upon his feet, he sent into the sand again to stay; for his skill with +small arms was something uncanny to witness, and his temper was up and +turning him into a savage like the rest. + +But the range was rapidly growing to rifle-length, and death fell +short of his enemies after Shorty went down. When he saw his fourth +bullet kick up a harmless little geyser of sand two rods in advance of +the agitated crowd, he left off and turned to his friend. + +"I thought you were drunk," he observed inanely, as is common to men +who have just come through situations for which no words have been +coined. + +"You ain't the only one who made that mistake," Dade retorted grimly, +and looked back. "Good thing those hombres are afoot. We'll get on a +little farther and then we'll fix a hackamore so you can do your own +riding," + +"I can't stand it to ride any farther--" + +"Are you shot?" Dade pulled in a little and looked anxiously into his +face. + +"It's the rope. They tied it so tight it's torture. I'd never have +believed it could hurt so--but they gave me an extra twist or two to +show their friendship, I reckon." + +Dade rode on beyond a little, wooded knoll before he stopped, lest +the crowd, seeing them halt, might think it worth while to follow them +afoot. + +"They surely didn't intend you to fall off," he said whimsically, when +his knife released the strain. But his lips tightened at the outrage; +and his eyes, bent upon Jack's left ankle, wore the look of one who +could kill without pity. + +"They'll never do it to another man," declared Jack, with vindictive +relish. "It was Davis and the Captain; I killed 'em both." He rolled +stiffly from the saddle, found his feet like dead things and stumbled +to a little hillock, where he sat down. + +Dade, kneeling awkwardly in his heavy, bearskin chaparejos, picked at +the bonds with the point of his knife. "Lucky you had on boots," he +remarked. "Even as it is, you're likely to carry creases for a while. +How the deuce did you manage to get into this particular scrape?--if I +might ask!" + +"I didn't get into it. This particular scrape got me. Say, it's lucky +you happened along just when you did." + +To this very obvious statement the other made no reply. He cut the +last strand of the rope that bound Jack's ankles so mercilessly, and +stood up. "You better take off your boots and rub some feeling into +your feet while I make a hackamore for that horse. The sooner we get +out of this, the better. What's left of the Committee will probably be +pretty anxious to see you." + +"Oh, damn the Committee!--as Bill remarked after the trial." Jack made +an attempt to remove one of his boots, found the pain intolerable and +desisted with a groan. "I wish they would show up," he declared. "I'd +like to give them a taste of this foot-tying business!" + +Dade went on tying the hackamore with a haste that might be called +anxious. With just two bullets left in the pistol and with no powder +upon his person for further reloading, he could not share Jack's +eagerness to meet the Committee again. When Surry gave over rolling +with his tongue the little wheel in his bit, and with lifted head +and eyes alert perked his ears forward towards the hill they had just +crossed, he slipped the hackamore hurriedly into place and turned to +his friend. + +"You climb on to Surry, and we'll pull out," he said shortly. "I +wouldn't give two pesos for this buckskin, but we're going to add +horse-stealing to our other crimes; and while it's all right to damn +the Committee, it's just as well to do it at a distance, just now, old +man." + +The caution fell flat, for Jack was wholly absorbed by the pain in +his feet and ankles, as the blood was being forced into the congested +veins. Dade led the white horse close, to save him the discomfort +of hobbling to it, and waited until Jack was in the saddle before +he vaulted upon the tricky-eyed buckskin. He led the way down into a +shallow depression which wound aimlessly towards the ocean; and later, +when trees and bushes and precipitous bluffs threatened to bar their +way, he swung abruptly to the east and south. + +"Maybe you won't object so hard to Palo Alto now," he bantered at +last, when at dusk he ventured out upon "El Camino Real" (which is +pure Spanish for "The King's Highway"), that had linked Mission to +Mission all down the fertile length of California when the land was +wilderness. "Solitude ought to feel good, after to-day." When he got +no answer, Dade looked around at the other. + +Jack's face showed vaguely through the night fog creeping in from the +clamorous ocean off to the west. His legs were hanging free of the +stirrups, and his hands rested upon the high saddle-horn. + +"Say, Dade," he asked irrelevantly and with a mystifying earnestness, +"which do you think would kill a man quickest--a slash across the +throat, or a stab in the heart?" + +"I wouldn't call either one healthy. Why?" + +"I was just wondering," Jack returned ambiguously. "If you hadn't +happened along--say, how did you happen to come? Was that another +sample of my fool's luck?" Since the coincidence had not struck him +before, one might guess that he was accustomed to having Dade at his +elbow when he was most needed. + +"Bill Wilson sent word that you were making seven kinds of a fool of +yourself--Bill named a few of them--and advised me to get you out +of town. I've more respect for Bill's judgment than ever. I took his +advice as it stood--and therefore, you're headed for safer territory +than you were awhile ago. It ain't heaven," he added, "but it's next +thing to it." + +"I'm not hankering after heaven, right now," averred Jack. "Most any +other place looks good to me; I'm not feeling a hit critical, Dade. +And if I didn't say it before, old man, you're worth a whole regiment +to a fellow in a fix." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HOSPITALITY + + +If you would enjoy that fine hospitality which gives gladly to +strangers and to friends alike of its poverty or plenty, and for the +giving asks nothing in return, you should seek the far frontiers; +but if you would see hospitality glorified into something more than a +simple virtue, then you should find, if you can, one of the old-time +haciendas that were the pride of early California. + +Time was when the wild-eyed cattle which bore upon their fat-cushioned +haunches the seared crescent that proclaimed them the property of old +Don Andres Picardo (who owned, by grant of the king, all the upper +half of the valley of Santa Clara) were free to any who hungered. Time +was when a traveler might shoot a fat yearling and feast his fill, +unquestioned by the don or the don's dark-eyed vaqueros. + +Don Andres Picardo was a large-hearted gentleman; and to deny any man +meat would bring to his cheeks a blush for his niggardliness. That was +in the beginning, when he reigned in peace over the peninsula. When +the vaqueros, jingling indignantly into the patio of his home, first +told of carcasses slaughtered wantonly and left to rot upon the range +with only the loin and perhaps a juicy haunch missing, their master +smiled deprecatingly and waved them back whence they came. There were +cattle in plenty. What mattered one steer, or even a fat cow, slain +wastefully? Were not thousands left? + +But when tales reached him of cattle butchered by the hundred, and of +beef that was being sold for an atrocious price in San Francisco, the +old Spaniard was shocked into laying aside the traditions and placing +some check upon the unmannerly "gringos" who so abused his generosity. + +He established a camp just within the northern boundary of his land; +and there he stationed his most efficient watch-dog, Manuel Sepulveda, +with two vaqueros whose business it was to stop the depredations. + +Meat for all who asked for meat, paid they in gold or in +gratitude--that was their "patron's" order. But they must ask. And +the vaqueros rode diligently from bay to mountain slopes, and each day +their hatred of the Americanos grew deeper, as they watched over the +herds of their loved patron, that the gringos might not steal that +which they might, if they were not wolves, have for the asking. + +The firelight in the tule-thatched hut of Manuel Sepulveda winked +facetiously at the black fog that peered in at the open door. A night +wind from the north crept up, parted the fog like a black curtain and +whispered something which set the flames a-dancing as they listened. +The fog swung back jealously to hear what it was, and the wind went +away to whisper its wonder-tale to the trees that rustled astonishment +and nodded afterward to one another in approval, like the arrant +gossips they were. The chill curtain fell straight and heavy again +before the door, so that the firelight shone dimly through its folds; +but not before Dade, riding at random save for the trust he put in the +sure homing instinct of his horse, caught the brief gleam of light and +sighed thankfully. + +"We'll stop with old Manuel to-night," he announced cheerfully. +"Here's his cabin, just ahead." + +"And who's old Manuel?" asked Jack petulantly, because of the pain in +his feet and his own unpleasant memories of that day. + +"Don Andres Picardo's head vaquero. He camps here to keep an eye on +the cattle. Some fellows from town have been butchering them right +and left and doing a big business in beef, according to all accounts. +Manuel hates gringos like centipedes, but I happened to get on the +good side of him--partly because my Spanish is as good as his own. An +Americano who has black hair and can talk Spanish like the don himself +isn't an Americano, in Manuel's eyes." + +While they were unsaddling under the oak tree, where the vaqueros kept +their riding gear in front of the cabin, Manuel himself came to the +door and stood squinting into the fog, while he flapped a tortilla +dexterously between his brown palms. + +"Is it you, Valencia??" he called out in Spanish, giving the tortilla +a deft, whirling motion to even its edges. + +Dade led the way into the zone of light, and Manuel stepped back with +a series of welcoming nods. His black eyes darted curiously to the +stranger, who, in Manuel's opinion, looked unpleasantly like a gringo, +with his coppery hair waving crisply under his sombrero, and his +eyes that were blue as the bay over there to the east. But when Dade +introduced him, Jack greeted his squat host with a smile that was +disarming in its boyish good humor, and with language as liquidly +Spanish as Manuel's best Castilian, which he reserved for his talks +with the patron on the porch when the señora and the young señorita +were by. + +The distrust left Manuel's eyes as he trotted across the hard-trodden +dirt floor and laid the tortilla carefully upon a hot rock, where +three others crisped and curled their edges in delectable promise of +future toothsomeness. + +He stood up and turned to Dade amiably, his knuckles pressing lightly +upon his hips that his palms might be saved immaculate for the next +little corn cake which he would presently slap into thin symmetry. + +"Madre de Dios!" he cried suddenly, quite forgetting the hospitable +thing he had meant to say about his supper. "You are hurt, Señor! The +blood is on your sleeve and your hand." + +Dade looked down at his hand and laughed. "I did get a scratch. I'll +let you see what it's like." + +"You never told me you got shot!" accused Jack sharply, from where he +had thrown himself down on a bundle of blankets covered over with a +bullock hide dressed soft as chamois. + +"Never thought of it," retorted Dade in Spanish, out of regard for his +host. + +"We had some trouble with the gringos," he explained to Manuel. "There +was a little shooting, and a bullet grazed my arm. It doesn't amount +to much, but I'll let you look at it." + +"Ah, the gringos!" Manuel spat after the hated name. "The patron is +too good, too generous! They steal the cattle of the patron, though +they might have all they need for the asking. Like the green worms +upon the live oaks, they would strip the patron's herds to the last, +lean old bull that is too tough even for their wolf teeth! Me, I +should like to lasso and drag to the death every gringo who comes +sneaking in the night for the meat which tastes sweeter when it is +stolen. To-day Valencia rode down to the bayou--" + +While he told indignantly the tale of the latest pillage, he bared the +wounded arm. Jack got stiffly upon his swollen feet to look. It was +not a serious wound, as wounds go; a deep gash in the bicep, where a +bullet meant for Dade's heart had plowed under his upraised arm four +inches wide of its mark. It must have been painful, though he had +not once mentioned it; and a shamed flush stung Jack's cheeks when he +remembered his own complaints because of his feet. + +"You never told me!" he accused again, this time in the language of +his host. + +"The Señor Hunter has the brave heart of a Spaniard, though his blood +is light," said Manuel rebukingly. "The Señor Hunter would not cry +over a bigger hurt than this!" + +Jack sat down again upon the bull-hide seat and dropped his face +between his palms. Old Manuel spoke truer than he knew. Dade Hunter +was made of the stuff that will suffer much for a friend and say +nothing about it, and to-day was not the first time when Jack had all +unwittingly given that friendship the test supreme. + +Manuel carefully inspected the wound and murmured his sympathy. He +pulled a bouquet of dry herbs from where it hung in a corner, under +the low ceiling, and set a handful brewing in water, where the coals +were golden-yellow with heat. He tore a strip of linen off Valencia's +best shirt which he was saving for fiestas, and prepared a bandage, +interrupting himself now and then to dart over and inspect the +tortillas baking on the hot rock. For a fat man he moved with +extraordinary briskness, and so managed to do three things at one time +and do them all thoroughly; he washed and dressed the wound with the +herbs squeezed into a poultice, rescued the tortillas from scorching, +and spake his mind concerning the gringos who, he declared, were +despoiling this his native land. Then he lifted certain pots and +platters to the center of the hut and cheerfully announced supper; and +squatted on the floor, facing his guests over the food. + +"There's another thing that bothers me, Manuel," Dade announced +humorously, when they three were seated around the pot of frijoles, +the earthen pan of smoking carne-seco (which is meat flavored hotly +after the Spanish style) and a stack of the tortillas Manuel's fat +hands had created while he talked. + +Manuel, bending a tortilla into a scoop wherewith to help himself +to the brown beans, raised his black eyes anxiously. "But is there +further hurt?" he asked, and glanced wistfully at the tortilla before +laying it down that he might minister further to the señor. + +"No--go on with your supper. There's a buckskin horse out there +that the gringos may say I stole. I don't want the beast; he's about +fourteen years old and he's got a Roman nose to beat Caesar himself, +and a bad eye and a wicked heart." + +"Dios!" murmured Manuel over the list of equine shortcomings and took +a large, relieved bite of tortilla and beans. The señor was pleased +to jest with a poor vaquero, but the señor would doubtless explain. He +chewed luxuriously and waited, his black eyes darting from this face +which he knew and liked, to that strange one of the blue eyes and the +hair that was like the dullest of dull California gold. + +"I don't like that caballo," went on Dade, helping himself to meat, +"and so I'd hate like the deuce to be hung for stealing him; sabe?" + +Manuel licked a finger before he spread his hands to show how +completely he failed to understand. "But if the caballo does not +please the señor, why then did the señor steal--" + +"You see, I wanted to bring my partner--Señor Jack Allen--down here +with me. And he was riding the caballo, and he couldn't get off--" + +Manuel swore a Spanish oath politely, to please his guest who wished +to amaze him. + +"Because he was tied on." Dade failed just there to keep a betraying +hardness out of his voice. "The Viligantes were--going to--hang him." +The last two words were cut short off with the click of his jaws +coming together. + +Manuel thereupon swore more sincerely and spilled beans from his +tortilla scoop. He knew the ways of the Committee. Four months +ago--when the Committee was newer and more just--they had hanged the +third cousin of his half-sister's husband. It is true, the man had +killed a woman with a knife; yet Manuel's black beard bristled when he +thought of the affront to his hypothetical kinship. + +"I had to take the two together," Dade explained, trying with better +success to speak lightly. "And now, if I turn the buckskin loose, he +may go back--and he may not. I was wondering--" + +Manuel cut him short. "To-morrow I ride to town," he said. "I will +take the caballo back with me, if that pleases the señors. I will turn +him loose near the Mission, and he will go to his stable. + +"The señor," he added, "was very brave. _Madre de Dios!_ To run away +with a prisoner of the Vigilantes! But they will surely kill the señor +for that; the taking of the horse, that is nothing." His teeth shone +briefly under his black mustache. "One can die but once," he pointed +out, and emphasized his meaning by a swift glance at Jack, moodily +nibbling the edge of a corn cake. "But if the horse does not please +the señor--" + +Dade caught his meaning and laughed a little over it. "The horse," he +said, "belongs to the Committee; my friend does not." + +"Sí, Señor--but surely that is true. Only--" he stroked his crisp +beard thoughtfully--"the señors would better go to-morrow to the +patron. There the gringos dare not come. In this poor hut the señors +may not be safe--for we are but three poor vaqueros when all are here. +We will do our best--" + +"Three vaqueros," declared Dade with fine diplomacy, "as brave as the +three who live here, would equal twenty of the Committee. But we will +not let it come to that." + +Manuel took the flattery with a glimpse of white teeth and a +deprecatory wave of the hand, and himself qualified it modestly +afterward. + +"With the knife--perhaps. But the gringos have guns which speak fast. +Still, we would do our best--" + +"Say, if he's going back to town to-morrow," spake Jack suddenly, +from where he reclined in the shadow "why can't I write a note to Bill +Wilson and have him send down my guns? The Captain took them away, +you know; but he won't object to giving them back now!" His voice was +bitter. + +"The rest of them might. You seem to think that when you killed +Perkins you wiped out the whole delegation--which you didn't. What was +the row about; if you don't mind telling me?" + +"I thought you knew," said Jack quite sincerely, which proved more +than anything how absorbed he was in his own part in the affair. He +shifted his head upon his clasped hands so that his eyes might rest +upon the waning firelight, where the pot of frijoles, set back from +supper, was still steaming languidly in the hot ashes. + +"You started it yourself, two weeks ago," he announced whimsically, +to lighten a little the somber tale. "If you hadn't bought that white +horse from that drunken Spaniard, I'd be holding a handful of aces +and kings to-night, most likely, in Bill Wilson's place. And my legs +wouldn't be aching like the devil," he added, reminded anew of his +troubles, when he shifted his position. "It's all your fault, bought +the horse." + +Dade grinned and bent to hold a twig in the coals, that he might +light a cigarette. "All right, I'm the guilty party. Let's have the +consequences of my evil deed," he advised, settling back on his heels +and lowering an eyelid at Manuel in behalf of this humorous partner of +his. + +"You bought the horse and broke the Spaniard's heart and ruined his +temper. And he and Sandy had a fight, and--So," he went on, after +a two-minute break in the argument, "when I heard Swift sneering +something about Sandy, last night, I rose up in meeting and told +him and some others what I thought of 'em. I was not," he explained, +"thinking nice thoughts at the time. You see, Perkins, since he got +the lead, has gathered a mighty scaly bunch around him, and they've +been running things to suit themselves. + +"Then, Swift and two or three others held up a boy from the mines +to-day, and I happened to see it. I interfered; fact is, I killed +a couple of them. So they arrested both of us, went through a farce +trial, and were trying to hurry me into Kingdom Come before Bill +Wilson got a rescue party together, when you come along. That's all. +They let the kid go--which was a good thing. I don't think they'll be +down here after me. In fact, I've been thinking maybe I'd go back, in +a day or so, and have it out with them." + +"Yes, that's about what you'd be thinking, all right," retorted Dade +unemotionally. "Sounds perfectly natural." The tone of him, being +unsympathetic, precipitated an argument which flung crisp English +sentences back and forth across the cabin. Manuel, when the words +grew strange and took on a harsh tang which to his ear meant anger, +diplomatically sought his blankets and merged into the shadow of the +corner farthest from the fire and nearest the door. The señors were +pleased to disagree; if they fought, he had but to dodge out into +the night and neutrality. The duties of hospitality weighed hard upon +Manuel during that half-hour or so. + +Dade's cigarette stub, flung violently into the heart of the fire +glow, seemed to Manuel a crucial point in the quarrel; he slipped back +the blankets, ready to retreat at the first lunge of open warfare. He +breathed relief, however, when Dade got up and stretched his arms +to the dried tules overhead, and laughed a lazy surrender of the +argument, if not of his opinion upon the subject. + +"You're surely the most ambitious trouble-hunter I ever saw," he said, +returning to his habitual humorous drawl, with the twinkle in his eyes +that went with it. "Just the same, we'll not go back to the mine just +yet. Till the dust settles, we're both better off down here with +Don Andres Picardo. I don't want to be hung for the company I keep. +Besides--" + +"I'll bet ten ounces there's a señorita," hazarded. Jack maliciously. +"You're like Bill Wilson; but you can preach caution till your jaws +ache; you can't fool me into believing you're afraid to go back to the +mine. Is there a señorita?" + +"You shut up and go to sleep," snapped Dade, and afterward would not +speak at all. + +Manuel, in the shadow, frowned over the only words he understood--Don +Andres Picardo and señorita. The señors were agreeable companions, and +they were his guests. But they were gringos, after all. And if +they should presume to lift desireful eyes to the little Señorita +Teresa--Teresita, they called her fondly who knew her--Manuel's +mustache lifted suddenly at one side at the bare possibility. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE VALLEY + + +In the valley of Santa Clara, which lies cradled easily between +mountains and smiles up at the sun nearly the whole year through, +Spring has a winter home, wherein she dwells contentedly while the +northern land is locked in the chill embrace of the Snow King. In +February, unless the north wind sweeps down jealously and stays her +hand, she flings a golden brocade of poppies over the green hillsides +and the lower slopes which the forest has left her. Time was when she +spread a deep-piled carpet of mustard over the floor of the valley +as well, and watched smiling while it grew thicker and higher and the +lemon-yellow blossoms vied with the orange of the poppies, until the +two set all the valley aglow. + +Now it was March, and the hillsides were ablaze with the poppies, +and the valley floor was soft green and yellow to the knees; with +the great live oaks standing grouped in stately calm, like a herd +of gigantic, green elephants scattered over their feeding-ground and +finding the peace of repletion with the coming of the sun. + +The cabin of Manuel squatted upon a little rise of ground at the head +of the valley. When Jack stood in the doorway and looked down upon the +green sweep of grazing ground with the hills behind, and farther away +another range facing him, he owned to himself that it was good to be +there. The squalidness of the town he had left so tumultuously struck +upon his memory nauseatingly. + +Spring was here in the valley, even though the mountains shone white +beyond. A wind had come out of the south and driven the fog back to +the bay, and the sun shone warmly down upon the land. Two robins +sang exultantly in the higher branches of the oak, where they had +breakfasted satisfyingly upon the first of the little, green worms +that gave early promise of being a pest until such time as they +stiffened and clung inertly, waiting for the dainty, gray wings to +grow and set them aflutter over the tree upon which they had fed. +One of them dropped upon Jack's arm while he stood there and crawled +aimlessly from the barren buckskin to his wrist. He flung it off +mechanically. Spring was here of a truth; in the town he had not +noticed her coming. + +"You're right, Dade," he declared suddenly, over his shoulder. "This +beats getting up at noon and going through the motions of living for +twelve or fourteen hours in town. I believe I'll have Manuel get me +a riding outfit, if he will. Maybe I'll take you up on that rodeo +proposition. Reckon your old don will give me a job?" + +"Won't cost a peso to find out," said Dade, coming out and standing +beside him in the sun. "I've been talking to Manuel, and he thinks +we'd better pull out right away. Valencia's got an extra saddle here, +and Manuel says he'll catch a horse for you." + +"I believe I'll send a letter to Bill," proposed Jack. "He'll give +Manuel enough dust to buy what I need; and I ought to let him know how +we made out, anyway." + +A blank leaf from the little memorandum book he always carried, and a +bullet for pencil--perforce, the note was brief; but it told what he +wanted: gold to buy a riding outfit, his pistols which Perkins had +taken from him, and news of Bill's well-being. When the paper would +hold no more and hold it legibly, he folded it carefully so that it +would not smudge, and gave it to his host. + +"What if the Committee catches you with that buckskin, Manuel?" he +asked abruptly. The risk Manuel would run had not before occurred to +him. "Dade he's liable to get into trouble, if they catch him with +that horse; let's turn the darned thing loose." + +"Me, I shall not ride where the gringos will see me," broke in Manuel +briskly. "The señors need not be alarmed. I shall keep away from El +Camino Real. At the Mission I will buy what the señor desires, and I +will bring it to him at the hacienda." + +"Get the best they've got," Jack adjured him. "An outfit better than +Dade's, if you can find one. Bill Wilson has got about twelve hundred +dollars of mine; get the best if it cleans the sack." He grinned at +Dade. "If you're going to bully me into turning vaquero again, I'm +going to have the fun of riding in style, anyway. You've set the pace, +you know. I never saw you so gaudy. Er--what did you say her name is?" + +"I didn't say." + +"Must be serious. Too bad." Jack shook his head dolefully. "Say, +Manuel, do you know a good riata, when you see one lying around +loose?" + +"Sí, Señor. Me, I have braided the riatas and bridles since I was +so high." From the height of his measuring hand from the beaten clay +beneath the oak, he proclaimed himself an infant prodigy; but Jack did +not happen to be looking at him and so remained unamazed. + +"Well, you ought to know something about them. Get the best riata you +can find. I leave it to your judgment." + +"Sí, Señor. To-morrow I will bring them to you." He hesitated, his +eyes dwelling curiously upon the coppery hair of this stranger, whose +presence he was not quite sure that he did not resent vaguely. Dade he +had come to accept as a man whose innate kindliness, which was as much +a part of him as the blood in his veins, wiped out any stain of alien +birth; but this blue-eyed one--"The señor himself is perhaps a judge +of riatas?" he insinuated, politely veiling the quick jealousy of his +nature. + +"We-el-l--you bring me one ready to fall all to pieces, and I reckon I +could tell it was poor, after it had stranded." + +Dade laughed. "Judge of riatas? You wait till you see him with one in +his hand!" + +Manuel's teeth shone briefly, but the smile did not come from his +heart. "Me, I shall surely bring the señor a riata worthy even of his +skill," he declared sententiously, as he walked away with his bridle +slung over his arm and his back very straight. + +"That sounded sarcastic," commented Jack, looking after him. "What's +the matter? Is the old fellow jealous?" Dade flicked his cigarette +against the trunk of the oak to remove the white crown of ashes, and +shook his head. "What of?" he asked bluntly. "Half your trouble, Jack, +comes from looking for it. Manuel's a fine old fellow. I stayed a few +days with him here when I first left town, and rode around with him. +He's straight as the road to heaven, and I never heard him brag about +anything, except the goodness of his 'patron,' and the things some of +his friends can do. I'll have to ask you to saddle up for me, Jack; +this arm of mine's pretty stiff and sore this morning. Watch how +Surry's trained! You wouldn't believe some of the things he'll do." + +He turned towards the horse, feeding knee-deep in grass and young +mustard in the opening farther down the slope, and whistled a long, +high note. The white head went up with a fling of the heavy mane, to +perk ears forward at the sound. Then he turned and came towards them +at a long, swinging walk that was a joy to behold. + +"Do you know, I hate the way nature's trimmed down the life of a horse +to a few measly years," said Dade. "A good horse you can love like a +human--and fifteen years is about as long as he can expect to live and +amount to anything. Surry's four now, by his teeth. In fifteen years +I'll still be at my best; I'll want that horse like the very devil; +and he'll be dead of old age, if he lasts that long. And a turtle," +he added resentfully after a pause, "lives hundreds of years, just +because the darned things aren't any good on earth!" + +"Trade him for a camel," drawled Jack unsympathetically. "They're more +durable." + +"Watch him come, now!" Dade gave three short, shrill whistles, and +with a toss of head by way of answer, Surry came tearing up the slope, +straight for his master. The shadow of the oak was all about him when +he planted his front feet stiffly and stopped; flared his nostrils in +a snort and, because Dade waved his hand to the right, wheeled that +way, circled the oak at a pace which set his body aslant and stopped +again quite as suddenly as before. Dade held out his hand, and Surry +came up and rubbed the palm playfully with his soft muzzle. + +"For a camel, did you say?" Dade grinned triumphantly at the other +over the sleek back of his pet. + +"What'll you take for him?" + +Dade pulled the heavy forelock straight with fingers that caressed +with every touch. "José Pacheco asked me that, and I came pretty near +hitting him. I don't reckon I'll ever be drunk enough to name a price. +But I might--" + +Jack glanced at him, and saw that his lips were half parted in a smile +born of some fancy of his own, and that his eyes were seeing dreams. +Jack stared for a full minute before Dade's thoughts jerked back to +his surroundings. Dade was not a dreamer; or if he were, Jack had +never had occasion to suspect him of it, and he wondered a little what +it was that had sent Dade into dreams at that hour of the morning. +But Manuel was returning, riding one pony and leading another; so Jack +threw away his cigarette stub and picked up the saddle blanket. + +Manuel came up and saddled his mount silently, his deft fingers +working mechanically while his black eyes stole sidelong looks at +Jack saddling Surry, as if he would measure the man anew. While he was +anathematizing the buckskin in language for which he would need to do +a penance later on, if he confessed the blasphemy to the padre, Jack +threw Valencia's saddle upon the little sorrel pony Manuel had led up +for him to ride. + +"Truly one would not like to die for having stolen such a beast," +stated Manuel earnestly, knotting a macarte around the neck of the +buckskin. "He is only fit to carry men to hangings. Come, accursed +one! The Vigilantes are weeping for one so like themselves. Adios, +Señors!" + +He rode away, still heaping opprobrium upon the reluctant buckskin, +and speedily he disappeared behind a clump of willows clothed in the +pale green of new leaves. + +Dade dropped the bullock hide which served for a door, to signify that +the master of the house was absent. Though the old don's cattle might +be butchered under his very nose, Manuel's few belongings would not be +molested, though only the dingy brown hide of a bull long since gone +the way of all flesh barred the way; a week, one month or six the hut +would stand inviolate from despoliation; for such was the unwritten +law of a land where life was held cheaper than the things necessary to +preserve life. + +On such a morning, when the air was like summer and all the birds were +rehearsing most industriously their parts in the opening chorus with +which Spring meant to celebrate her return to the northern land, a +ride down the valley was pure joy to any man whose soul was tuned in +harmony with the great outdoors; and trouble lagged and could not keep +pace with the riders. + +Half-way down, they met Valencia, a slim young Spaniard with one of +those amazing smiles that was like a flash of sunlight, what with his +perfect teeth, his eyes that could almost laugh out loud, and a sunny +soul behind them. Valencia, having an appetite for acquiring wisdom of +various kinds and qualities, knew some English and was not averse to +making strangers aware of the accomplishment. + +Therefore, when the two greeted him in Spanish, he calmly replied: +"Hello, pardner," and pulled up for a smoke. + +"How you feel for my dam-close call to-morrow?" he wanted to know of +Jack, when he learned his name. + +"Pretty well. How did you know--?" began Jack, but the other cut him +short. + +"José, she heard on town. The patron, she's worry leetle. She's 'fraid +for Señor Hunter be keel. Me, I ride to find for-sure." Valencia +dropped his match, and leaned negligently from the saddle and picked +it out of the grass, his eyes stealing a look at the stranger as he +came up. + +"Good work," commented Jack under his breath to Dade. But Valencia's +ears were keen for praise; he heard, and from that moment he was +Jack's friend. + +"I borrowed your saddle, Valencia," Jack announced, meaning to promise +a speedy return of it. + +"Not my saddle; yours and mine, amigo," amended Valencia quite simply +and sincerely. "Mine, she's yours also. You keep him." While he +smoked the little, corn-husk cigarette, he eyed with admiration the +copper-red hair upon which Manuel had looked with disfavor. + +Before they rode on and left him, his friendliness had stamped +an agreeable impression upon Jack's consciousness. He looked back +approvingly at the sombreroed head bobbing along behind a clump of +young manzanita just making ready to bloom daintily. + +"I like that vaquero," he stated emphatically. "He's worth two of +Manuel, to my notion." + +"Valencia? He's not half the man old Manuel is. He gambles worse than +an Injun, and never has anything more than his riding outfit and the +clothes on his back, they tell me. And he fights like a catamount when +the notion strikes him; and it doesn't seem to make much difference +whether he's got an excuse or not. He's a good deal like you, in that +respect," he added, with that perfect frankness which true friendship +affects as a special privilege earned by its loyalty. + +"Manuel's got tricky eyes," countered Jack. "He's the kind of Spaniard +that will 'Sí, Señor,' while he's hitching his knife loose to get you +in the back. I know the breed; I lived amongst 'em before I ever saw +you. Valencia's the kind I'd tie to." + +"And I was working with 'em when you were saying 'pitty horsey!' My +first job was with a Spanish outfit. A Mexican majordomo licked me +into shape when I was sweet sixteen. And," he clinched the argument +mercilessly, "I was sixteen and drawing a man's pay on rodeo when you +wore your pants buttoned on to your waist!" + +"And you don't know anything yet!" Jack came back at him. Whereat they +laughed and called a truce, which was the way of them. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE LORD OF THE VALLEY + + +Scattered, grazing herds of wild, long-horned cattle that ran from +their approach gave place to feeding mustangs with the mark of the +saddle upon them. Later, an adobe wall confronted them; and this they +followed through a grove of great live oaks and up a grassy slope +beyond, to where the long, low adobe house sat solidly upon a natural +terrace, with the valley lying before and the hills at its back; +a wide-armed, wide-porched, red-roofed adobe such as the Spanish +aristocracy loved to build for themselves. The sun shone warmly upon +the great, latticed porch, screened by the passion vines that hid +one end completely from view. To the left, a wing stretched out +generously, with windows curtained primly with some white stuff that +flapped desultorily in the fitful breeze from the south. At the right, +so close that they came near being a part of the main structure and +helped to give the general effect of a hollow, open-sided square, +stood a row of small adobe huts; two of them were tiled like the +house, and the last, at the outer end, was thatched with tules. + +Into the immaculate patio thus formed before the porch, Dade led the +way boldly, as one sure of his welcome. Behind the vines a girl's +voice, speaking rapidly and softly with a laugh running all through +the tones, hushed as suddenly as does a wild bird's twitter when +strange steps approach. And just as suddenly did Dade's nostrils +flare with the quick breath he drew; for tones, if one listens +understandingly, may tell a great deal. Even Jack knew instinctively +that a young man sat with the girl behind the vines. + +After the hush they heard the faint swish of feminine movement. She +came and stood demurely at the top of the wide steps, a little hoop +overflowing soft, white embroidered stuff in her hands. + +"Welcome home, Señor Hunter," she said, and made him a courtesy that +was one-third politeness and the rest pure mockery. "My father will +be relieved in his mind when he sees you. I think he slept badly last +night on your account." + +Wistfulness was in Dade's eyes when he looked at her; as though he +wanted to ask if she also were relieved at seeing him. But there was +the man behind the lattice where the vines were thickest; the man who +was young and whom she had found a pleasant companion. Also there was +Jack, who was staring with perfect frankness, his eyes a full +shade darker as he looked at her. And there was the peon scampering +barefooted across from one of the huts to take their horses. Dade +therefore confined himself to conventional phrases. + +"Señorita, let me present to you my friend, Jack Allen," he said. +"Jack, this is the Señorita Teresa Picardo." + +His nostrils widened again when he looked casually at Jack; for Jack's +sombrero was swept down to his knees in salute--though it was not +that; it was the look in his face that sent Dade's glance seeking +Teresita's eyes for answer. + +But Teresita only showed him how effectively black lashes contrast +with the faint flush of cheeks just hinting at dimples, and he got no +answer there. + +She made another little courtesy, lifting her lashes unexpectedly +for a swift glance at Jack, as he dismounted hastily and went up two +steps, his hand outstretched to her. + +"We Americanos like to shake hands upon a new friendship," he said +boldly. + +The señorita laughed a little, changed her embroidery hoop from her +right hand to her left, laid her fingers in his palm, blushed when his +hand closed upon them eagerly, and laughed again when her gold thimble +slipped and rolled tinkling down the steps. + +Dade picked the thimble out of a matted corner of a violet bed, and +returned it to her unsmilingly; got a flash of her eyes and a little +nod for his reward, and stood back, waiting her further pleasure. + +"You have had adventures, Señor, since yesterday morning," she said +to him lightly. "Truly, you Americanos do very wonderful things! +José, here is Señor Hunter and his friend whom he stole away from the +Vigilantes yesterday! Did you have the invisible cap, Señor? It was +truly a miracle such as the padres tell of, that the blessed saints +performed in the books. José told us what he heard--but when I have +called my mother, you yourself must tell us every little bit of it." + +While she was talking she was also pulling forward two of the easiest +chairs, playing the hostess prettily and stealing a lash-hidden glance +now and then at the tall señor with such blue eyes and hair the like +of which she had never seen, and the mouth curved like the lips of a +woman. + +The young man whom she addressed as José rose negligently and greeted +them punctiliously; seated himself again, picked up a guitar and +strummed a minor chord lazily. + +"Don Andres is busy at the corrals," José volunteered, when the girl +had gone. "He will return soon. You had a disagreeable experience, +Señor? One of my vaqueros heard the story in town. There was a rumor +that the Vigilantes were sending out parties to search for you when +Carlos started home. Señor Allen is lucky to get off so easily." + +Jack held a match unlighted in his fingers while he studied the face +of José. The tone of him had jarred, but his features were wiped clean +of any expression save faint boredom; and his fingers, plucking a +plaintive fragment of a fandango from the strings, belied the sarcasm +Jack had suspected. Don Andres himself, at that moment coming eagerly +across from the hut at the end of the row, saved the necessity of +replying. + +"Welcome home, amigo mio!" cried the don, hurrying up the steps, +sombrero in hand. "Never has sight of a horse pleased me as when Diego +led yours to the stable. Thrice welcome--since you bring your friend +to honor my poor household with his presence." + +No need to measure guardedly those tones, or that manner. Don Andres +Picardo was as clean, as honest, and as kindly as the sunshine that +mellowed the dim distances behind him. The two came to their feet +unconsciously and received his handclasp with inner humility. +Don Andres held Dade's hand a shade longer than the most gracious +hospitality demanded, while his eyes dwelt solicitously upon his face, +browned near to the shade of a native son of those western slopes. + +"I heard of your brave deed, Señor--of how you rode into the midst of +the Vigilantes and snatched your friend from under the very shadow of +the oak. I did not hear that you escaped their vengeance afterwards, +and I feared greatly lest harm had befallen you. Dios! It was +gallantly done, like a knight of olden times--" + +"Oh, no. I didn't rescue any lady, Don Andres. Just Jack--and he was +in a fair way to rescue himself, by the way. It wasn't anything much, +but I suppose the story did grow pretty big by the time it got to +you." + +"And does your friend also call it a little thing?" The don turned +quizzically to Jack. + +"He does not," Jack returned promptly, although his ears were +listening attentively for a nearer approach of the girl-voice he heard +within the house. "He calls it one of the big things Dade is always +doing for his friends." He dropped a hand on Dade's shoulder and +shook him with an affectionate make-believe of disfavor. "He's always +risking his valuable neck to save my worthless one, Don Andres. He +means well, but he doesn't know any better. He packed me out of a nest +of Indians once, just as foolishly; we were coming out from Texas at +the time. You'd be amazed at some of the things I could tell you about +him--" + +"And about himself, if he would," drawled Dade. "If he ever tells you +about the Indian scrape, Don Andres, ask him how he happened to get +into the nest. As to yesterday, perhaps you heard how it came that +Jack got so close to the oak!" + +"No--I heard merely of the danger you were in. José's head vaquero +was in town when the Vigilantes returned with their Captain and those +others, and there were many rumors. This morning I sent Valencia to +learn the truth, and if you were in danger--Perhaps I could have done +little, but I should have tried to save you," he added simply. "I +should not like a clash with the gringos--pardon, Señors; I speak of +the class whom you also despise." + +José laughed and swept the strings harshly with his thumb. "The clash +will come, Don Andres, whether you like it or not," he said. "This +morning I saw one more unasked tenant on your meadow, near the grove +of alders. What they call a 'prairie schooner.' A big, red-topped +hombre, and his woman--gringos of the class I despise; which +includes"--again he flung his thumb across the guitar string--"all +gringos!" + +Jack's lips opened for hot answer, but Don Andres forestalled him +quietly. + +"One more tenant does not harm me, José. When the American government +puts its seal upon the seal of Spain and restores my land to me, these +unasked tenants will go the way they came. There will be no clash." +But he sighed even while he made the statement, as if the subject were +neither new nor pleasant to dwell upon. + +"Why," demanded José bitterly, "should the Americanos presume to +question our right to our land? You and my father made the valley what +it is; your shiploads of hides and tallow that you sent from Yerba +Buena made the town prosper, and called adventurers this way; and now +they steal your cattle and lands, and their government is the biggest +thief of all, for it tells them to steal more. They will make you +poor, Don Andres, while you wait for them to be just. No, I permit +no 'prairie schooner' to stop, even that their oxen may drink. My +vaqueros ride beside them till they have crossed the boundary. You, +Don Andres, if you would permit your vaqueros to do likewise, instead +of shaking hands with the gringos and bidding them welcome--" + +"But I do not permit it; nor do I seek counsel from the children I +have tossed on my foot to the tune of a nursery rhyme." He shook +his white-crowned head reprovingly. "He was always screaming at his +duenna, one child that I recollect," he smiled. + +"Art thou scolding José again, my Andres? He loves to play that thou +and Teresita are children still, José; it serves to beguile him into +forgetting the years upon his head! Welcome, Señors. Teresita but told +me this moment that you had come. She is bringing the wine--" + +On their feet they greeted the Señora Picardo. Like the don, her +husband, honest friendliness was in her voice, her smile, the warm +clasp of her plump hand. The sort of woman who will mother you at +sight, was the señora. Purple silk--hastily put on for the guests, one +might suspect--clothed her royally. Golden hoops hung from her ears, +a diamond brooch held together the lace beneath her cushiony chin; a +comfortable woman who smiled much, talked much and worried more lest +she leave some little thing undone for those about her. + +"And this is the poor señor who was in such dreadful danger!" she +went on commiseratingly. "Ah, the wicked times that have come upon us! +Presently we shall fear to sleep in our beds--Señor Hunter, you have +been hurt! The mark of blood is on your sleeve, the stain is on your +side! A-ah, my poor friend! Come instantly and I will--" + +"Gracias, Señora; it is nothing. Besides, Manuel put on a poultice of +herbs. It's only a scratch, but it bled a little while I rode to the +hut of Manuel." If blushes could have shown through the tan, Dade +might have looked as uncomfortable as he felt at that moment. + +The señorita was already in the doorway, convoying a sloe-eyed maid +who bore wine and glasses upon a tray of beaten silver; and the smile +of the señorita was disturbing to a degree, brief though it was. + +Behind the wine came cakes, and the señorita pointed tragically to +the silver dish that held them. "Madre mia, those terrible children +of Margarita have stolen half the cakes! I ran after them in the +orchard--but they swallow fast, those niños! Now the señors must +starve!" + +Up went the hand of the señora in dismay, and down went the head of +the señorita to hide how she was biting the laughter from her lips. +"I ran," she murmured pathetically, "and I caught Angelo--but at that +moment he popped the cake into his mouth and it was gone! Then I ran +after Maria--and she swallowed--" + +"Teresita mia! The señors will think--" What they would think she +did not stipulate, but her eyes implored them to judge leniently the +irrepressibility of her beautiful one. There were cakes sufficient--a +hasty glance reassured her upon that point--and Teresita was in one of +her mischievous moods. The mother who had reared her sighed resignedly +and poured the wine into the small glasses with a quaint design +cut into their sides, perfectly unconscious of the good the little +diversion had done. + +For a half-hour there was peaceful converse; of the adventure which +had brought the two gringos to the ranch as to a sanctuary, of the +land which lay before them, and of the unsettled conditions that +filled the days with violence. + +José still strummed softly upon the guitar, a pleasant undertone to +the voices. And because he said very little, he saw and thought the +more; seeing glances and smiles between a strange man and the maid +whom he loved desirefully, bred the thought which culminated in a +sudden burst of speech against the gringos who had come into the +peaceful land and brought with them strife. Who stole the cattle of +the natives, calmly appropriated the choicest bits of valley land +without so much as a by-your-leave, and who treated the rightful +owners with contempt and as though they had no right to live in the +valley where they were born. + +"Last week," he went on hotly, "an evil gringo with the clay of his +burrowings still upon his garments cursed me and called me greaser +because I did not give him all the road for his burro. I, José +Pacheco! They had better have a care, or the 'greasers' will drive +them back whence they came, like the cattle they are. When I, a don, +must give the road to a gringo lower than the peons whom I flog for +less impertinence, it is time we ceased taking them by the hand as +though they were our equals!" His eyes went accusingly to the face of +the girl. + +She flung up her head and met the challenge in her own way, which was +with the knife-thrust of her light laughter. "Ah, the poor Americanos! +Not the prayers of all the padres can save them from the blackness of +their fate, since Don José Pacheco frowns and will not take their +hand in friendship! How they will gnash the teeth when they hear the +terrible tidings--José Pacheco, don and son of a don, will have none +of them, nor will he give way to their poor burros on the highway!" +She shook her head as she had done over the tragedy of the little +cakes. "Pobre gringos! Pobre gringos!" she murmured mockingly. + +"Children, have done!" The hand of the señora went chidingly to +the shoulder of her incorrigible daughter. "This is foolish and +unseemly--though all thy quarreling is that, the saints know well. Our +guests are Americanos; our guests, who are our friends," she stated +gently, looking at José. "Not all Spaniards are good, José; not all +gringos are bad. They are as we are, good and bad together. Speak not +like a child, amigo mio." + +The guitar which José flung down upon a broad stool beside him hummed +resonant accompaniment to his footsteps as he left the veranda. "Thy +house, Señora, has been as my mother's house since I can remember. +Until thy gringo guests have made room for me, I leave it!" + +"Señor Allen, would you like to see my birds?" invited Teresita +wickedly, her glance flicking scornfully the reproachful face of José, +as he turned it towards her, and dwelling with a smile upon Jack. + +"Wicked one!" murmured the señora, in her heart more than half +approving the discipline. + +José had humiliation as well as much bitterness to carry away with +him; for he saw the señor with the bright blue eyes follow gladly the +laughing Teresita to her rose garden, and as he went jingling across +the patio without waiting to summon a peon to bring him his horse, he +heard the voice of Don Andres making apology to Dade for the rudeness +of him, José. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +DON ANDRES WANTS A MAJORDOMO + + +"Señor, those things which you desired that I should bring, I have +brought. All is of the best. Also have I brought a letter from the +Señor Weelson, and what remains of the gold the señor will find laid +carefully in the midst of his clothing. So I have done all as it +would have been done for the patron himself." In the downward sweep of +Manuel's sombrero one might read that peculiar quality of irony which +dislike loves to inject into formal courtesy. + +Behind Manuel waited a peon burdened with elegant riding gear and a +bundle of clothing, and a gesture brought him forward to deposit his +load upon the porch before the gringo guest, whose "Gracias" Manuel +waved into nothingness; as did the quick shrug disdain the little +bag of gold which Jack drew from his pocket and would have tossed to +Manuel for reward. + +"It was nothing," he smiled remotely; and went his way to find the +patron and deliver to him a message from a friend. + +Behind Jack came the click of slipper-heels upon the hardwood; and he +turned from staring, puzzled, after the stiff-necked Manuel, and gave +the girl a smile such as a man reserves for the woman who has entered +into his dreams. + +"Santa Maria, what elegance! Now will the señor ride in splendor +that will dazzle the eyes to look upon!" Teresita bantered, poking a +slipper-toe tentatively towards the saddle, and clasping her hands in +mock rapture. "On every corner, silver crescents; on the tapideros, +silver stars bigger than Venus; riding behind the cantle, a whole +milky way; José will surely go mad with rage when he sees. Stars has +José, but no moon to bear him company when he rides. Surely the cattle +will fall upon their knees when the señor draws near!" + +"Shall we ride out and put them to the test?" he asked wishfully, +shaking out the bridle to show the beautiful design of silver inlaid +upon the leather cheek-piece, and stooping to adjust a big-roweled, +silver-incrusted spur upon his boot-heel. "Manuel does exactly as he +is told. I said he was to get the best he could find--" + +"And so no vaquero in the valley will be so gorgeous--" She broke off +suddenly to sing in lilting Spanish a fragment of some old song that +told of the lilies of the field that "Toil not, neither do they spin." + +"That is not kind. I may not spin, but I toil--I leave it to Dade if I +don't." This last, because he caught sight of Dade coming across from +the row of huts, which was a short cut up from the corrals. "And I can +show you the remains of blisters--" He held out a very nice appearing +palm towards her, and looked his fill at her pretty face, while she +bent her brows and inspected the hand with the gravity that threatened +to break at any instant into laughter. + +That sickening grip in the chest which is a real, physical pain, +though the hurt be given to the soul of a man, slowed Dade's steps to +a lagging advance towards the tableau the two made on the steps. So +had the señorita sent him dizzy with desire (and with hope to brighten +it) in the two weeks and more that he had been the honored guest. So +had she laughed and teased him and mocked him; and he had believed +that to him alone would she show the sweet whimsies of her nature. But +from the moment when he laid her gold thimble in her waiting hand and +got no reward save an absent little nod of thanks, the dull ache had +been growing in his heart. He knew what it was that had sent José off +in that headlong rage against all gringos; though two days before +he would have said that José's jealousy was for him, and with good +reason. There had been glances between those two who stood now so +close together--swift measuring of the weapons which sex uses against +sex, with quick smiles when the glances chanced to meet. José also had +seen the byplay; and the fire had smoldered in his eyes until at last +it kindled into flame and drove him cursing from the place. In his +heart Dade could not blame José. + +Forgotten while Teresita held back with one hand a black lock which +the wind was trying to fling across her eyes, and murmured mocking +commiseration over the half obliterated callouses on Jack's hand, +Dade loitered across the patio, remembering many things whose very +sweetness made the present hurt more bitter. He might have known it +would be like this, he told himself sternly; but life during the past +two weeks had been too sweet for forebodings or for precaution. He +had wanted Jack to see and admire Teresita, with the same impulse that +would have made him want to show Jack any other treasure which Chance +held out to him while Hope smiled over her shoulder and whispered that +it was his. + +Well, Jack had seen her, and Jack surely admired her; and the grim +humor of Dade's plight struck through the ache and made him laugh, +even though his jaws immediately went together with a click of teeth +and cut the laugh short. He might have known--but he was not the sort +of man who stands guard against friend and foe alike. + +And, he owned to himself, Jack was unconscious of any hurt for his +friend in this rather transparent wooing. A little thought would have +enlightened him, perhaps, or a little observation; but Dade could +not blame Jack for not seeking for some obstacle in the path of his +desires. + +"She says I'm lazy and got these callouses grabbing the soft snaps +last summer in the mines," Jack called lightly, when finally it +occurred to him that the world held more than two persons. "I'm always +getting the worst of it when you and I are compared. But I believe +I've got the best of you on riding outfit, old man. Take a look at +that saddle, will you! And these spurs! And this bridle! The señorita +says the cattle will fall on their knees when I ride past; we're going +to take a gallop and find out. Want to come along?" + +"Arrogant one! The señorita did not agree to that ride! The señorita +has something better to do than bask in the glory of so gorgeous a +señor while he indulges his vanity--and frightens the poor cattle so +that, if they yield their hides at killing time, there will be little +tallow for the ships to carry away!" + +The Señorita Teresita would surely never be guilty of a conscious +lowering of one eyelid to point her raillery, but the little twist she +gave to her lips when she looked at Dade offered a fair substitute; +and the flirt of her silken skirts as she turned to run back into the +house was sufficient excuse for any imbecility in a man. + +Jack looked after her with some chagrin. "The little minx! A man might +as well put up his hands when he hears her coming--huh? Unless he's +absolutely woman-proof, like you. How do you manage it, anyway?" + +"By taking a squint at myself in the looking-glass every morning." +Dade's face managed to wrinkle humorously. "H-m. You are pretty +gorgeous, for a fact. Where's the riata?" + +Jack had forgotten that he had ever wanted one. He lifted the heavy, +high-cantled saddle, flung it down upon the other side and untied the +new coil of braided rawhide from its place on the right fork. + +"A six-strand, eh? I could tell Manuel a few things about riatas, if +he calls that the best! Four strands are stronger than six, any time. +I've seen too many stranded--" + +"The señor is not pleased with the riata?" + +Manuel, following Don Andres across to the veranda, had caught the +gesture and tone; and while his knowledge of English was extremely +sketchy, he knew six and four when he heard those numerals mentioned, +and the rest was easy guessing. + +"The four strands are good, but the six are better--when Joaquin +Murieta lays the strands. From the hide of a very old bull was this +riata cut; perhaps the señor is aware that the hide is thus of the +same thickness throughout and strong as the bull that grew it. Not one +strand is laid tighter than the other strand; the wildest bull in the +valley could not break it--if the señor should please to catch him! +Me, I could have bought three riatas for the gold I gave for this one; +but the señor told me to get the best." His shoulders went up an inch, +though Don Andres was frowning at the tone of him. "The señor can +return it to the Mission and get the three, or he can exchange it with +any vaquero in the valley for one which has four strands. I am very +sorry that the señor is not pleased with my choice." + +"You needn't be sorry. It's a very pretty riata, and I have no doubt +it will do all I ask of it. The saddle's a beauty, and the bridle and +spurs--I'm a thousand times obliged." + +"It is nothing and less than nothing," disclaimed Manuel once more; +and went in to ask the señora for a most palatable decoction whose +chief ingredient was blackberry wine, which the señora recommended to +all and sundry for various ailments. Though Manuel, the deceitful one, +had no ailment, he did have a keen appreciation of the flavour of the +cordial, and his medicine bottle was never long empty--or full--if he +could help it. + +A moment later Jack, hearing a human, feminine twitter from the +direction of the rose garden, left off examining pridefully his +belongings, and bolted without apology, after his usual headlong +fashion. + +Don Andres sat him down in an easy-chair in the sun, and sighed as he +did so. "He is hot-tempered, that vaquero," he said regretfully, his +mind upon Manuel. "Something has stirred his blood; surely your friend +has done nothing to offend him?" + +"Nothing except remark that he has always liked a four-strand riata +better than six. At the hut he was friendly enough." + +"He is not the only one whose anger is easily stirred against the +gringos," remarked the don, reaching mechanically for his tobacco +pouch, while he watched Dade absently examining the new riata. + +"Señor Hunter," Don Andres began suddenly, "have you decided what +you will do? Your mine in the mountains--it will be foolish to return +there while the hands of the Vigilantes are reaching out to clutch +you; do you not think so? More of the tale I have heard from Valencia, +who returned with Manuel. Those men who died at the hand of your +friend--and died justly, I am convinced--had friends who would give +much for close sight of you both." + +"I know; I told Jack we'd have to keep away from town or the mine for +a while. He wanted to go right back and finish up the fight!" Dade +grinned at the absurdity. "I sat down hard on that proposition." +Not that phrase, exactly, did he use. One may be pardoned a free +translation, since, though he spoke in excellent Spanish, he did not +twist his sentences like a native, and he was not averse to making +use of certain idioms quite as striking in their way as our own +Americanisms. + +Don Andres rolled a cigarette and smoked it thoughtfully. "You were +wise. Also, I bear in mind your statement that you could not long be +content to remain my guest. Terribly independent and energetic are +you Americanos." He smoked through another pause, while Dade's puzzled +glance dwelt secretly upon his face and tried to read what lay in his +mind. It seemed to him that the don was working his way carefully up +to a polite hint that the visit might be agreeably terminated; and his +uneasy thoughts went to the girl. Did her father resent-- + +"My majordomo," the don continued, just in time to hold back Dade's +hasty assurance that they would leave immediately, "my majordomo does +not please me. Many faults might I name, sufficient to make plain my +need for another." A longer wait, as if time were indeed infinite, and +he owned it all. "Also I might name reasons for my choice of another, +who is yourself, Señor Hunter. Perhaps in you I recognize simply +the qualities which I desire my majordomo to possess. Perhaps also +I desire that some prejudiced countrymen of mine shall be taught a +lesson and made to see that not all Americanos are unworthy. However +that may be, I shall be truly glad if you will accept. The salary we +will arrange as pleases you, and your friend will, I hope, remain in +whatever capacity you may desire. Further, when your government has +given some legal assurance that my land is mine," he smiled wrily at +the necessity for such assurance, "as much land as you Americanos call +a 'section,' choose it where you will--except that it shall not take +my house or my cultivated land--shall be yours for the taking." + +"But--" + +"Not so much the offer of a position would I have you consider it," +interrupted the other with the first hint of haste he had shown, "as +a favor that I would ask. Times are changing, and we natives are +high-chested and must learn to make room for others who are coming +amongst us. To speak praises to the face of a friend is not my habit, +yet I will say that I would teach my people to respect good men, +whatever the race; and especially Americanos, who will be our +neighbors henceforth. I shall be greatly pleased when you tell me +that you will be my majordomo; more than ever one needs a man of +intelligence and tact--" + +"And are none of our own people tactful or intelligent, Don Andres +Picardo?" demanded Manuel, having overheard the last sentence or two +from the doorway. He came out and stood before his beloved "patron," +his whole fat body quivering with amazed indignation, so that the +bottle which the señora had filled for him shook in his hand. "Amongst +the gringos must you go to find one worthy? Truly it is as Don José +tells me; these gringos have come but to make trouble where all was +peace. To-day he told me all his thoughts, and me, I hardly believed +it was as he said. Would the patron have a majordomo who knows nothing +of rodeos, nothing of the cattle--" + +"You're mistaken there, Manuel," Dade broke in calmly. "Whether I +become majordomo or not, I know cattle. They have a few in Texas, +where I came from. I can qualify in cowology any time. And," he added +loyally, "so can Jack. You thought he didn't know what he was talking +about, when he was looking at that riata; but I'll back him against +any man in California when it comes to riding and roping. + +"But that needn't make us bad friends, Manuel. I didn't come to make +trouble, and I won't stay to make any. We've been friends; let's +stay that way. I'm a gringo, all right, but I've lived more with your +people than my own, and if you want the truth, I don't know but what +I feel more at home with them. And the same with Jack. We've eaten and +slept with Spaniards and worked with them and played with them, half +our lives." + +"Still it is as José says," reiterated Manuel stubbornly. "Till the +gringos came all was well; when they came, trouble came also. Till +the gringos came, no watch was put over the cattle, for only those +who hungered killed and ate. Now they steal the patron's cattle by +hundreds, they steal his land, and if José speaks truly, they would +steal also--" He hesitated to speak what was on his tongue, and +finished lamely: "what is more precious still. + +"And the patron will have a gringo for majordomo?" He returned to the +issue. "Then I, Manuel, must leave the patron's employ. I and half the +vaqueros. The patron," he added with what came close to a sneer, "had +best seek gringo vaqueros--with the clay of the mines on their boots, +and their red shirts to call the bulls!" + +"I shall do what it pleases me to do," declared the don sternly. +"Advice from my vaqueros I do not seek. And you," he said haughtily, +"have choice of two things; you may crave pardon for your insolence to +my guest, who is also my friend, and who will henceforth have charge +of my vaqueros and my cattle, or you may go whither you will; to Don +José Pacheco, I doubt not." + +He leaned his white-crowned head against the high chair-back, and +while he waited for Manuel's decision he gazed calmly at the border +of red tiles which showed at the low eaves of the porch--calmly as to +features only, for his eyes held the blaze of anger. + +"Señors, I go." The brim of Manuel's sombrero flicked the dust of the +patio. + +"Come, then, and I will reckon your wage," invited the don, coldly +courteous as to a stranger. "You will excuse me, Señor? I shall not be +long." + +Dade's impulse was to protest, to intercede, to say that he and Jack +would go immediately, rather than stir up strife. But he had served a +stern apprenticeship in life, and he knew it was too late now to +put out the fires of wrath burning hotly in the hearts of those two; +however completely he might efface himself, the resentment was too +keen, the quarrel too fresh to be so easily forgotten. + +He was standing irresolutely on the steps when Jack came hack from the +rose garden, whistling softly an old love-song and smiling fatuously +to himself. + +"We're going to take that ride, after all," he announced gleefully. +"Want to come along? She's going to ask her father to come, too--says +it would be terribly improper for us two to ride alone. What's the +matter? Got the toothache?" + +Dade straightened himself automatically after the slap on the back +that was like a cuff from a she-bear, and grunted an uncivil sentence. + +"Come over to the saddle-house," he commanded afterward. "And take +that truck off the señora's front steps before she sees it and has a +fit. I want to talk to you." + +"Oh, Lord!" wailed Jack, under his breath, but he shouldered the heavy +saddle obediently, leaving Dade to bring what remained. "Cut it short, +then; she's gone to dress and ask her dad; and I'm supposed to order +the horses and get you started. What's the trouble?" + +Dade first went over to the steps before their sleeping-room and +deposited Jack's personal belongings; and Jack seized the minute of +grace to call a peon and order the horses saddled. + +He turned from watching proudly the glitter of the trimmings on his +new saddle as the peon bore it away on his shoulder, and confronted +Dade with a tinge of defiance in his manner. + +"Well, what have I done now?" he challenged. "Anything particularly +damnable about talking five minutes to a girl in plain sight of her--" + +Dade threw out both hands in a gesture of impatience. "That isn't the +only important thing in the world," he pointed out sarcastically. If +the inner hurt served to sharpen his voice, he did not know it. "Don +Andres wants to make me his majordomo." + +Jack's eyes bulged a little; and if Dade had not wisely side-stepped +he would have received another one of Jack's muscle-tingling slaps on +the shoulder. "Whee-ee! Say, you're getting appreciated, at last, old +man. Good for you! Give me a job?" + +"I'm not going to take it," said Dade. "I was going to ask you if you +want to pull out with me to-morrow." + +Jack's jaw went slack. "Not going to take it!" He leaned against the +adobe wall behind him and stuck both hands savagely into his pockets. +"Why, you darned chump, how long ago was it that you talked yourself +black in the face, trying to make me say I'd stay? Argued like a man +trying to sell shaving soap; swore that nobody but a born idiot would +think of passing up such a chance; badgered me into giving in; and now +when you've got a chance like this, you--Say, you're loco!" + +"Maybe." Dade's eyes went involuntarily toward the veranda, where +Teresita appeared for an instant, looking questioningly towards them. +"Maybe I am loco. But Manuel's mad because the don offered me the +place, and has quit; and he says half the vaqueros will leave, that +they won't work under a gringo." + +Jack's indignant eyes changed to a queer, curious stare. "Dade Hunter! +If I didn't know you, if I hadn't seen you in more tight places than +I've got fingers and toes, I'd say--But you aren't scared; you never +had sense enough to be afraid of anything in your life. You can't +choke that down me, old man. What's the real reason why you want to +leave?" + +The real reason came again to the doorway sixty feet away and looked +out impatiently to where the señors were talking so earnestly and +privately; but Dade would have died several different and unpleasant +deaths before he would name that reason. Instead: + +"It will be mighty disagreeable for Don Andres, trying to keep things +smooth," he said. "And it isn't as if he were stuck for a majordomo. +Manuel has turned against me from pure jealousy. He opened his heart, +one night when we were alone together, and told me that when Carlos +Pacorra went--and Manuel said the patron would not keep him long, for +his insolence--he, Manuel, would be majordomo. He's mad as the deuce, +and I don't blame him; and he's a good man for the place; the vaqueros +like him." + +"You say he's quit?" + +"Yes. He got pretty nasty, and the don has gone to pay him off." + +"Well, what good would it do for you to turn down the offer, then? +Manuel wouldn't get it, would he?" + +"No-o, he wouldn't." + +"Well, then--oh, thunder! Something ought to be done for that +ingrowing modesty of yours! Dade, if you pass up that place, +I'll--I'll swear you're crazy. I know you like it, here. You worked +hard enough to convert me to that belief!" + +A sudden thought made him draw a long breath; he reached out and +caught Dade by both shoulders. + +"Say, you can't fool me a little bit! You're backing up because you're +afraid I may be jealous or something. You're afraid you're standing +in my light. Darn you, I've had enough of that blamed unselfishness +of yours, old man." The endearing smile lighted his face then and his +eyes. "You go ahead and take the job, Dade. I don't want it. I'll be +more than content to have you boss me around." He hesitated, looking +at the other a bit wistfully. "Of course, you know that if you go, old +boy, I'll go with you. But--" The look he sent towards Teresita, +who appeared definitely upon the porch and stood waiting openly and +impatiently, amply finished the sentence. + +Dade's eyes followed Jack's understandingly, and the thing he had +meant to do seemed all at once contemptible, selfish, and weak. He had +meant to leave and take Jack with him, because it hurt him mightily to +see those two falling in love with each other. The trouble his staying +might bring to Don Andres was nothing more nor less than a subterfuge. +If Teresita's smiles had continued to be given to him as they had +been before Jack came, he told himself bitterly, he would never +have thought of going. And Jack thought he hesitated from pure +unselfishness! The fingers that groped mechanically for his tobacco, +though he had no intention of smoking just then, trembled noticeably. + +"All right," he said quietly. "I'll stay, then." And a moment after: +"Go ask her if she wants to ride Surry. I promised her she could, next +time she rode." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +JERRY SIMPSON, SQUATTER + + +The señorita, it would seem, had lost interest in the white horse +as well as in his master. That was the construction which Dade +pessimistically put upon her smiling assurance that she could never be +so selfish as to take Señor Hunter's wonderful Surry and condemn him +to some commonplace caballo; though she gave also a better reason than +that, which was that her own horse was already saddled--witness the +peon leading the animal into the patio at that very moment--and that +an exchange would mean delay. Dade took both reasons smilingly, and +mentally made a vow with a fearsome penalty attached to the breaking +of it. After which he felt a little more of a man, with his pride to +bear him company. + +Manuel came out from the room which Don Andres used for an office, +saluted the señorita with the air of a permanent leave-taking, as +well as a greeting, and passed the gringos with face averted. A moment +later the don followed him with the look of one who would dismiss +a distasteful business from his mind; and entered amiably into the +pleasure-seeking spirit of the ride. + +With the March sun warm upon them when they rode out from the wide +shade of the oaks, they faced the cooling little breeze which blew out +of the south. + +"Valencia tells me that the prairie schooner which José spoke of +has of a truth cast anchor upon my land," observed the don to Dade, +reining in beside him where he rode a little in advance of the others. +"Since we are riding that way, we may as well see the fellow and make +him aware of the fact that he is trespassing upon land which belongs +to another; though if he has halted but to rest his cattle and +himself, he is welcome. But Valencia tells me that the fellow is +cutting down trees for a house, and that I do not like." + +"Some emigrants seem to think, because they have traveled over so much +wilderness, there is no land west of the Mississippi that they haven't +a perfect right to take, if it suits them. They are a little like your +countryman Columbus, I suppose. Every man who crosses the desert feels +as if he's out on a voyage of discovery to a new world; and when he +does strike California, it's hard for him to realize that he can't +take what he wants of it." + +"I think you are right," admitted Don Andres after a minute. "And +your government also seems to believe it has come into possession of a +wilderness, peopled only by savages who must give way to the march +of civilization. Whereas we Spaniards were in possession of the land +while yet your colonies paid tribute to their king in England, and we +ourselves have brought the savages to the ways of Christian people, +and have for our reward the homes which we have built with much toil +and some hardships, like yourselves when your colonies were young. +Twenty-one years have I looked upon this valley and called it mine, +with the word of his Majesty for my authority! And surely my right to +it is as the right of your people to their haciendas in Virginia or +Vermont. Yet men will drive their prairie schooners to a spot which +pleases them and say: 'Here, I will have this place for my home.' That +is not lawful, or right." + +Ten steps in the rear of them Teresita was laughing her mocking little +laugh that still had in it a maddening note of tenderness. Dade tried +not to hear it; for so had she laughed at him, a week ago, and set +his blood leaping towards his heart. He was not skilled in the ways of +women, yet he did not accuse her of deliberate coquetry, as a man is +prone to do under the smart of a hurt like his; for he sensed dimly +that it was but the seeking sex-instinct of healthy youth that +brightened her eyes and sent the laugh to her lips when she faced +a man who pleased her; and if she were fickle, it was with the +instinctive fickleness of one who has not made final choice of a mate. +Hope lifted its head at that, but he crushed it sternly into the dust +again; for the man who rode behind was his friend, whom he loved. + +It is to be feared that the voice of the girl held more of his +attention than the complaint of the don, just then, and that the sting +of injustice under which Don Andres squirmed seemed less poignant and +vital than the hurt he himself was bearing. He answered him at random; +and he might have betrayed his inattention if they had not at that +moment caught sight of the interlopers. + +Valencia had not borne false witness against them; the emigrants were +indeed cutting down trees. More, they were industriously hauling the +logs to the immediate vicinity of their camp, which was chosen with an +eye to many advantages; shade, water, a broad view of the valley and +plenty of open grass land already fit for the plow, if to plow were +their intention. + +A loose-jointed giant of a man seated upon the load of logs which two +yoke of great, meek-eyed oxen had just drawn up beside a waiting pile +of their fellows, waited phlegmatically their approach. A woman, all +personality hidden beneath flapping calico and slat sunbonnet, climbed +hastily down upon the farther side of the wagon and disappeared +into the little tent that was simply the wagon-box with its canvas +covering, placed upon the ground. + +"Valencia told me truly. Señor Hunter, will you speak for me? Tell the +big hombre that the land is mine." + +To do his bidding, Dade flicked the reins upon Surry's neck and rode +ahead, the others closely following. Thirty feet from the wagon +a great dog of the color called brindle disputed his advance with +bristling hair and throaty grumble. + +"Lay down, Tige! Wait till you're asked to take a holt," advised +the man on the wagon, regarding the group with an air of perfect +neutrality. Tige obeying sullenly, to the extent that he crouched +where he was and still growled; his master rested his elbows on his +great, bony knees, sucked at a short-stemmed clay pipe and waited +developments. + +"How d'yuh do?" Dade, holding Surry as close to the belligerent Tige +as was wise, tried to make his greeting as neutral as the attitude of +the other. + +"Tol'ble, thank yuh, how's y'self? Shet your trap, Tige! Tige thought +you was all greasers, and he ain't made up his mind yet whether he +likes 'em mixed--whites and greasers. I dunno's I blame 'im, either. +We ain't either of us had much call to hanker after the dark meat. +T'other day a bunch come boilin' up outa the dim distance like they +was sent fur and didn't have much time to git here. Tied their tongues +into hard knots tryin' to tell me somethin' I didn't have time to +listen to, and looked like they wanted to see my hide hangin' on a +fence. + +"Tige, he didn't take to 'em much. He kept walkin' back and forth +between me and them, talking as sensible as they did, I must say, and +makin' his meanin' full as clear. I dunno how we'd all 'a' come out, +if I hadn't brought Jemimy and the twins out and let 'em into the +argument. Them greasers didn't like the looks of old Jemimy, and they +backed off. Tige, he follered 'em right up, and soon's they got outa +reach of Jemimy, they took down their lariats an' tried to hitch onto +him. + +"They didn't know Tige. That thar dawg's the quickest dawg on earth. +He hopped through their loops like they was playin' jump-the-rope +with him. Fact is, he'd learned jump-the-rope when he was a purp. He +wouldn't 'a' minded that, only they didn't do it friendly. One feller +whipped out his knife and throwed it at Tige--and he come mighty nigh +makin' dawg-meat outa him, too. Slit his ear, it come that close. +Tige ain't got no likin' fer greasers sence then. He thought you was +another bunch--and so did I. Mary, she put inside after Jemimy and the +twins. + +"Know anything about them greasers? I see yuh got a sample along. T' +other crowd was headed by a slim feller all tricked up in velvet +and silver braid and red sash; called himself Don José Pacheco, and +claimed to own all Ameriky from the ocean over there, back to the +Allegheny Mountains, near as I could make out. I don't talk that kinda +talk much; but I been thinkin' mebby I better get m' tongue split, so +I can. Might come handy, some time; only Tige, he hates the sound of +it like he hates porkypines--or badgers. + +"Mary and me and Tige laid up in Los Angeles fer a spell, resting +the cattle. All greasers, down there--and fleas--and take the two +t'gether, they jest about wore out the hull kit and b'ilin' of us. + +"What's pesterin' the ole feller? Pears like he's gittin' his tongue +twisted up ready to talk--if they call it talkin'." + +"What is the hombre saying?--" asked the don at that moment, seeing +the glance and sensing that at last his presence was noticed. + +Dade grinned and winked at Jack, who, by the way, was neither looking +nor listening; for Teresita was once more tenderly ridiculing his +star-incrusted saddle and so claimed his whole attention. + +"He says José Pacheco and some others came and ordered him off. They +were pretty ugly, but he called out a lady--the Señora Jemima and dos +niños--and--" + +"Sa-ay, mister," interrupted the giant Jerry Simpson from the load of +logs. "D'you say Senory Jemimy?" + +"Why, yes. Señora means madame, or--" + +"Ya'as, I know what it means. Jemimy, mister, ain't no senory, nor no +madame. Jemimy's my old Kentucky rifle, mister. And the twins ain't no +neenos, but a brace uh pistols that can shoot fur as it's respectable +fer a pistol to shoot, and hit all it's lawful to hit. You tell him +who Jemimy is, mister; and tell 'im she's a derned good talker, and +most convincin' in a argyment." + +"He says Jemima is not a señora," translated Dade, his eyes twinkling, +"but his rifle; and the niños are his pistols." + +Don Andres hid a smile under his white mustache. "Very good. Yet I +think your language must lack expression, Señor Hunter. It required +much speech to say so little." There was a twinkle in his own eyes. +"Also, José acts like a fool. You may tell the big señor that the +land is mine, but that I do not desire to use harsh methods, nor have +ill-feeling between us. It is my wish to live in harmony with all +men; my choice of a majordomo should bear witness that I look upon +Americanos with a friendly eye. I think the big hombre is honest and +intelligent; his face rather pleases me. So you may tell him that José +shall not trouble him again, and that I shall not dispute with him +about his remaining here, if to remain should be his purpose when he +knows the land belongs to me. But I shall look upon him as a guest. As +a guest, he will be welcome until such time as he may find some free +land upon which to build his casa." + +Because the speech was kindly and just, and because he was in the +service of the don, Dade translated as nearly verbatim as the two +languages would permit. And Jerry Simpson, while he listened, gave +several hard pulls with his lips upon the short stem of his pipe, +discovered that there was no fire there, straightened his long leg +and felt gropingly for a match in the depth of a great pocket in his +trousers. His eyes, of that indeterminate color which may be either +gray, hazel, or green, as the light and his mood may affect them, +measured the don calmly, dispassionately, unawed; measured also Dade +and the beautiful white horse he rode; and finally went twinkling +over Jack and the girl, standing a little apart, wholly absorbed in +trivialities that could interest no one save themselves. + +"How much land does he say belongs to him? And whar did he git his +title to it?" Jerry Simpson asked, when Dade was waiting for his +answer. + +Out of his own knowledge Dade told him. + +Jerry Simpson brought two matches from his pocket, inspected them +gravely and returned one carefully; lighted the other with the same +care, applied the flame to his tobacco, made sure that the pipe was +going to "draw" well, blew out the match, and tucked the stub down out +of sight in a crease in the bark of the log upon which he was sitting. +After that he rested his elbows upon his great, bony knees and smoked +meditatively. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE FINEST LITTLE WOMAN IN THE WORLD + + +"You tell Mr. Picardy that I ain't visitin' nobody, so he needn't +consider that I'm company," announced Jerry, after a wait that was +beginning to rasp the nerves of his visitors. "I come here to live! +He's called this land hisn, by authority uh the king uh Spain, you +say, for over twenty year. Wall, in twenty year he ain't set so much +as a fence-post fur as the eye can see. I been five mile from here on +every side, and I don't see no signs of his ever usin' the land fer +nothin'. Now, mebby the king uh Spain knew what he was talkin' about +when he give this land away, and then agin mebby he didn't. 'T any +rate, I don't know as I think much of a king that'll give away a hull +great gob uh land he never seen, and give it to one feller--more 'n +that feller could use in a hull lifetime; more 'n he would ever need +fer his young 'uns, even s'posin' he had a couple uh dozen--which +ain't skurcely respectable fer one man, nohow. How many's he got, +mister?" + +"One--his daughter, over there." + +"Hum-mh! Wall, she ain't goin' to need so derned much. You tell Mr. +Picardy I've come a long ways to find a home fer Mary and me; a long +road and a hard road. I can't go no further without I swim fer it, and +that I don't calc'late on doin'. I ain't the kind to hog more land +'n what I can use--not mentionin' no names; but I calc'late on havin' +what I need, if I can get it honest. My old mother used to read outa +the Bible that the earth was the Lord's and the fullness thereof; and +I ain't never heard of him handin' over two-thirds of it to any king +uh Spain. What he's snoopin' around in Ameriky fur, givin' away +great big patches uh country he never seen, I ain't askin'. Californy +belongs to the United States of Ameriky, and the United States of +Ameriky lets her citizens make homes for themselves and their families +on land that ain't already in use. If Mr. Picardy can show me a deed +from Gawd Almighty, signed, sealed, and delivered along about the time +Moses got hisn fer the Land uh Canyan, or if he can show a paper from +Uncle Sam, sayin' this place belongs to him, I'll throw off these +logs, h'ist the box back on the wagon and look further; but I ain't +goin' to move on the say-so uh no furrin' king, which I don't believe +in nohow." + +He took the pipe from his mouth, and with it pointed to a spot twenty +feet away, so that they all looked towards the place. + +"Right thar," he stated slowly, "is whar I'm goin' to build my cabin, +fer me and Mary. And right over thar I'm goin' to plow me up a truck +patch. I'm a peaceable man, mister. I don't aim to have no fussin' +with my neighbors. But you tell Mr. Picardy that thar'll be loopholes +cut on all four sides uh that thar cabin, and Jemimy and the twins'll +be ready to argy with anybody that comes moochin' around unfriendly. +I'm the peaceablest man you ever seen, but when I make up my mind to +a thing, I'm firm! Pur-ty tol'able firm!" he added with complacent +emphasis. + +He waited expectantly while Dade put a revised version of this speech +into Spanish, and placidly smoked his little black pipe while the don +made answer. + +"Already I find that I have done well to choose an Americano for my +majordomo," Don Andres observed, a smile in his eyes. "With a few more +such as this great hombre, who is firm and peaceful together, I should +find my days full of trouble with a hot-blooded Manuel to deal with +them. But with you, Señor, I have no fear. Something there is in the +face of this Señor Seem'son which pleases me; we shall be friends, +and he shall stay and plant his garden and build his house where it +pleases him to do. You may tell him that I say so, and that I shall +rely upon his honor to pay me for the land a reasonable price when the +American government places its seal beside the seal on his Majesty's +grant. For that it will be done I am very sure. The land is mine, even +though I have no tablet of stone to proclaim from the Creator my right +to call it so. But he shall have his home if he is honest, without +swimming across the ocean to find it." + +"Wall, now, that's fair enough fer anybody. Hey, Mary! Come on out and +git acquainted with yer neighbor's girl. Likely-lookin' young woman," +he passed judgment, nodding towards Teresita. "Skittish, mebby--young +blood most gen'rally is, when there's any ginger in it. What's yer +name, mister? I want yuh all to meet the finest little woman in the +world--Mrs. Jerry Simpson. We've pulled in the harness together fer +twelve year, now, so I guess I know! Come out, Mary." + +She came shyly from the makeshift tent, her dingy brown sunbonnet +in her hand, and the redoubtable Tige walking close to her shapeless +brown skirt. And although her face was tanned nearly as brown as +her bonnet, with the desert sun and desert winds of that long, weary +journey in search of a home, it was as delicately modeled as that of +the girl who rode forward to greet her; and sweet with the sweetness +of soul which made that big man worship her. Her hair was a soft gold +such as one sees sometimes upon the head of a child or in the pictures +of angels, and it was cut short and curled in distracting little rings +about her head, and framed softly her smooth forehead. Her eyes +were brown and soft and wistful--with a twinkle at the corners, +nevertheless, which brightened them wonderfully; and although her +mouth drooped slightly with the same wistfulness, a little smile +lurked there also, as though her life had been spent largely in +longing for the unattainable, and in laughing at herself because she +knew the futility of the longing. + +"I hope you've taken a good look at Jerry's face," she said, "and seen +that he ain't half as bad as he tries to make out. Jerry'll make a +fine neighbor for any man if he's let be; and we do want a home of +our own, awful bad! We was ten years paying for a little farm back +in Illinois, and then we lost it at the last minute because there was +something wrong with the deed, and we didn't have any money to go to +law about it. Jerry didn't tell you that; but it's that makes him talk +kinda bitter, sometimes. He was terrible disappointed about losing the +farm. And when we took what we had left and struck out, he said he +was going as far as he could get and be away from lawyers and law, and +make us a home on land that nobody but the Lord laid any claim to. So +he picked out this place; and then along come that Spaniard and a lot +of fellows with him and said we hadn't no right here. So I hope you +won't blame Jerry for being a little mite uppish. That Spaniard got +him kinda wrought up." + +Her voice was as soft as her eyes, and winsome as her wistful little +smile. She had those four smiling with her in sheer sympathy before +she had spoken three sentences; and the two who did not understand her +words smiled just as sympathetically as the two who knew what she was +talking about. + +"Tell the señora I am sorry, and she shall stay; and my mother will +give her hens and a bottle of her very good medicine, which Manuel +drinks so greedily," Teresita cried, when Dade told her what the woman +said, and leaned impulsively and held out her hand. "I would do as +the Americanos do, and shake the hands for a new friendship," she +explained, blushing a little. "We shall be friends. Señor Hunter, tell +the pretty señora that I say we shall be friends. Amiga mia, I shall +call her, and I shall learn the Americano language, that we may talk +together." + +She meant every word of it, Dade knew; and with a troublesome, +squeezed feeling in his throat he interpreted her speech with +painstaking exactness. + +Mrs. Jerry took the señorita's hand and smiled up at her with the +brightness of tears in her eyes. "You've got lots of friends, honey," +she said simply, "and I've left all of mine so far behind me they +might as well be dead, as far as ever seeing 'em again is concerned; +so it's like finding gold to find a woman friend away out here. I +ain't casting no reflections on Jerry, mind," she hastened to +warn them, blinking the tears away and leaving the twinkle in full +possession; "but good as he is, and satisfying as his company is, he +ain't a woman. And, my dear, a woman does get awful hungry sometimes +for woman-talk!" + +[Illustration: Mrs. Jerry took the señorita's hand and smiled up at +her.] + +"Santa Maria! that must be true. She shall come and let my mother be +her friend also. I will send a carriage, or if she can ride--ask the +big señor if he has no horses!" + +Jack it was who took up right willingly the burden of translation, for +the pure pleasure of repeating the señorita's words and doing her a +service; and Dade dropped back beside the don, where he thought he +belonged, and stayed there. + +"Wall, I ain't got any horses, but I got two of the derndest mules you +ever seen, mister. Moll and Poll's good as any mustang in this valley. +Mary and me can ride 'em anywheres; that's why I brung 'em along, to +ride in case we had to eat the cattle." + +"Then they must surely ride Moll and Poll to visit my mother!" the +señorita declared with her customary decisiveness. "Padre mio!" + +Obediently the don accepted the responsibility laid upon him by +his sole-born who ruled him without question, and made official the +invitation. It was not what he had expected to do; he was not quite +sure that it was what he wanted to do; but he did it, and did it +with the courtliness which would have flowered his invitation to +the governor to honor his poor household by his presence; he did it +because his daughter had glanced at him and said "My father?" in a +certain tone which he knew well. + +Something else was done, which no one had expected to do when the four +galloped up to the trespassers. Jack and Dade dismounted and helped +Jerry unload the logs from the wagon, for one thing; while Teresita +inspected Mrs. Jerry's ingenious domestic makeshifts and managed +somehow, with Mrs. Jerry's help, to make the bond of mutual liking +serve very well in the place of intelligible speech. For another, the +don fairly committed himself to the promise of a peon or two to help +in the further devastation of the trees upon the Picardo mountain +slope behind the little, natural meadow, which Jerry Simpson had so +calmly appropriated to his own use. + +"He is honest," Don Andres asserted more than once on the ride home, +perhaps in self-justification for his soft dealing. "He is honest; +and when he sees that the land is mine, he will pay; or if he does +not pay, he will go--and tilled acres and a cabin will not harm me. +Valencia, if he marries the daughter of Carlos (as the señora says +will come to pass), will be glad to have a cabin to live in apart from +the mother of his wife, who is a shrew and will be disquieting in any +man's household. Therefore, Señor Hunter, you may order the peons to +assist the big hombre and his beautiful señora, that they may soon +have a hut to shelter them from the rains. It is not good to see so +gentle a woman endure hardship within my boundary. Many tules, they +will need," he added after a minute, "and it is unlikely that the +Señor Seem'son understands the making of a thatch. Diego and Juan are +skillful; and the tules they lay upon a roof will let no drop of rain +fall within the room. Order them to assist." + +"I shall tell Margarita to bake many little cakes," cried Teresita, +riding up between her father and Dade, that she might assist in the +planning. "And madre mia will give me coffee and sugar for the pretty +señora. So soft is her voice, like one of my pigeons! And her hair is +more beautiful than the golden hair of our Blessed Lady at Dolores. +Oh, if the Blessed Virgin would make me as beautiful as she, and as +gentle, I should--I should finish the altar cloth immediately, which I +began two years ago!" + +"Thou art well enough as thou art," comforted her father, trying +to hide his pride in her under frowning brows, and to sterilize the +praise with a tone of belittlement. + +"I love that pretty señora," sighed Teresita, turning in the saddle to +glance wistfully back at the meager little camp. "She shall have the +black puppy Rosa gave me when last I was at the Mission San José. But +I hope," she added plaintively, like the child she was at heart, "she +will make that big, ugly beast they called Tige be kind to her; and +the milk must be warm to the finger when Chico is fed. To-night, Señor +Allen, you shall teach me Americano words that I may say to the señora +what is necessary, for the happiness of my black puppy. I must learn +to say that her name is Chico, and that the milk must be warm to the +finger, and that the big dog must be kind." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AN ILL WIND + + +A wind rose in the night, blowing straight out of the north; a wind +so chill that the señora unpacked extra blankets and distributed them +lavishly amongst the beds of her household, and the oldest peon at the +hacienda (who was Gustavo and a prophet more infallible than Elijah) +stared into the heavens until his neck went lame; and predicted much +cold, so that the frost would surely kill the fruit blossoms on the +slope behind the house; and after that much rain. + +Don Andres, believing him implicitly, repeated the warning to Dade; +and Dade, because that was now his business, rode here and there, +giving orders to the peons and making sure that all would be snug when +the storm broke. + +The Señorita Teresa, bethinking her of the "pretty señora" who would +have scant shelter in that canvas-topped wagon-box, even though it +had been set under the thickest branches of a great live oak, called +guardedly to Diego who was passing, and ordered Tejon, her swiftest +little mustang, saddled and held ready for her behind the last hut, +where it could not be seen from the house. + +Tejon, so named by his mistress because he was gray like a badger, +hated wind, which the señorita knew well. Also, when the hatred grew +into rebellion, it needed a strong hand indeed to control him, if the +mood seized him to run. But the señorita was in a perverse mood, and +none but Tejon would she ride; even though--or perhaps because--she +knew that his temper would be uncertain. + +She wanted to beg the pretty Señora Simpson to come and stay with them +until the weather cleared and the cabin was finished. But more than +that she wanted to punish Señor Jack Allen for laughing when she tried +to speak the Americano sentence he had taught her the night before, +and got it all backwards. Señor Jack would be frightened, perhaps, +when he learned that she had ridden away alone upon Tejon; he would +ride after her--perhaps. And she would not talk to him when he found +her, but would be absolutely implacable in her displeasure, so that he +would be speedily reduced to the most abject humility. + +Diego, when she ran stealthily across the patio, her riding-habit +flapping about her feet in the wind, looked at her uneasily as if he +would like to remonstrate; but being a mere peon, he bent silently +and held his calloused, brown palm for the señorita's foot; reverently +straightened the flapping skirt when she was mounted, and sent a hasty +prayer to whatever saint might be counted upon to watch most carefully +over a foolish little Spanish girl. + +"An evil spirit is in the caballo to-day," Diego finally ventured to +inform his mistress gravely. "For a week he has not felt the weight +of saddle, and he loves not the trees which sway and sing, or the wind +whistling in his ears." + +"And for that he pleases me much," retorted the señorita, and touched +Tejon with her spurred heel, so that he came near upsetting Diego with +the lunge he gave. + +When the peon recovered his balance, he stood braced against the wind, +and with both hands held his hat upon his head while he watched her +flying down the slope and out of sight amongst the trees. No girl in +all the valley rode better than the Señorita Teresa Picardo, and Diego +knew it well and boasted of it to the peons of other hacendados; but +for all that he was ill-at-ease, and when, ten minutes later, he +came upon Valencia at the stable, he told him of the madness of the +señorita. + +"Tejon she would ride, and none other; and to-day he is a devil. Twice +he would have bitten my shoulder while I was saddling, and that is the +sign that his heart is full of wickedness. Me, I would have put the +freno Chilene (Chilian bit) in his mouth--but that would start him +bucking; for he hates it because then he cannot run." + +Valencia, a little later, met the new majordomo and repeated what +Diego had said; and Dade, catching a little of the uneasiness and yet +not wanting to frighten the girl's father with the tale, made it his +immediate business to find Jack and tell him that Teresita had ridden +away alone upon a horse that neither Diego nor Valencia considered +safe. + +Jack, at first declaring that he wouldn't go where he plainly was +not wanted, at the end of an uncomfortable half-hour borrowed Surry, +because he was fleet as any mustang in the valley, and rode after her. + +In this wise did circumstances and Jack obey the piqued desire of the +señorita. + +After the first headlong half mile, Tejon became the perfect little +saddle-pony which fair weather found him; and Teresita, cheated of her +battle of wills and yet too honest to provoke him deliberately, +began to think a little less of her own whims and more of the Señora +Simpson, housed miserably beneath the canvas covering of the prairie +schooner. + +She found Mrs. Jerry sitting inside, with a patchwork quilt over +her shoulders, her eyes holding a shade more of wistfulness and less +twinkle, perhaps, but with her lips quite ready to smile upon her +visitor. Teresita sat down upon a box and curiously watched the pretty +señora try to make a small, triangular piece of cloth cover a large, +irregular hole in the elbow of the big señor's coat sleeve. Sometimes, +when she turned it so, the hole was nearly covered--except that there +was the frayed rent at the bottom still grinning maliciously up at the +mender. + +"'Patch beside patch is neighborly, but patch upon patch is +beggarly!'" quoted Mrs. Jerry, at the moment forgetting that the girl +could not understand. + +Whereupon Teresita bethought her of her last night's lesson, +and replied slowly and solemnly: "My dear Mrs. Seem'son, +how--do--you--_do_?" + +"Mrs. Seem'son," realizing the underlying friendliness of the +carefully enunciated greeting, flushed with pleasure and for a minute +forgot all about the patch problem. + +"Why, honey, you've been learnin' English jest so's you can talk to +me!" She leaned and kissed the girl where the red blood of youth dyed +brightest the Latin duskiness of the cheek. "I wish't you could say +some more. Can't you?" + +Teresita could; but her further store of American words related +chiefly to the diet and general well-being of one very small and +very black pup, which was at that moment sleeping luxuriously in the +chimney corner at home; and without the pup the words would be no more +than parrot-chattering. So the señorita shook her head and smiled, and +Mrs. Jerry went back to the problem of the small patch and the large +hole. + +Hampered thus by having no common language between them, Teresita +failed absolutely to accomplish her mission. + +Mrs. Jerry, hazily guessing at the invitation without realizing any +urgent need of immediate acceptance, shook her head and pointed to her +pitifully few household appurtenances, and tried to make it plain +that she had duties which kept her there in the little camp which she +pathetically called home. + +Teresita gathered that the pretty señora did not wish to leave that +great, gaunt hombre who was her husband. So, when she could no longer +conceal her shiverings, and having no hope that the big señor would +understand her any better when he returned with the load of logs he +and the peons were after, she rose and prepared to depart. Surely the +Señor Jack, if he were going to follow, would by this time be coming, +and the hope rather hastened her adieu. + +"Adios, amiga mia," she said, her eyes innocently turning from the +Señora Simpson to scan stealthily the northern slope. + +"Good-by, honey. Come again and see me. Jerry knows a few Spanish +words, and I'll make him learn 'em to me so I can talk a little of +your kind, next time. And tell your mother I'm obliged for the wine; +and them dried peaches tasted fine, after being without so long. +Shan't I hold your horse while you git on? Seems to me he's pretty +frisky for a girl to be riding; but I guess you're equal to him!" + +Teresita smiled vaguely. She had no idea of what the woman was saying, +and she was beginning to wish that she had not tried in just this +way to punish the Señor Jack; if he were here now, he could make the +Señora Simpson understand that the storm would be a very dreadful +one--else Gustavo was a liar, and whom should one believe? + +Even while she was coaxing Tejon alongside a log and persuading him to +stand so until she was in the saddle, she was generously forswearing +Señor Jack's punishment that she might serve the pretty señora who had +Tejon by the bit and was talking to him softly in words he had never +heard before in his life. She resolved that if she met Señor Jack, she +would ask him to come back with her and explain to the señora about +the cold and the rain, and urge her to accept the hospitality of her +neighbors. + +For that reason she looked more anxiously than before for some sign +of him riding towards her through the fields of flowering mustard that +heaved in the wind like the waves on some strange, lemon-colored sea +tossing between high, green islands of oak and willow. Surely that +fool Diego would never keep the still tongue! He would tell, when some +one missed her. If he did not, or if Señor Allen was an obstinate pig +of a man and would not come, then she would tell Señor Hunter, who was +always so kind, though not so handsome as the other, perhaps. + +Señor Hunter's eyes were brown--and she had looked into brown eyes +all her life. But the blue! The blue eyes that could so quickly change +lighter or darker that they bewildered one; and could smile, or light +flames that could wither the soul of one. + +Even the best rider among the Spanish girls as far south as Paso +Robles should not meditate so deeply upon the color of a señor's eyes +that she forgets the horse she is riding, especially when the horse is +Tejon, whose heart is full of wickedness. + +A coyote, stalking the new-made nest of a quail, leaped out of the +mustard and gave Tejon the excuse he wanted, and the dreaming señorita +was nearly unseated when he ducked and whirled in his tracks. He ran, +and she could not stop him, pull hard as she might. If he had only +run towards home! But instead, he ran down the valley, because then he +need not face the wind; and he tried to outstrip the wind as he went. + +It was when they topped a low knoll and darted under the wide, +writhing branches of a live oak, that Jack glimpsed them and gave +chase; and his heart forgot to beat until he saw them in the open +beyond, and knew that she had not been swept from the saddle by a +low branch. He leaned lower over Surry's neck and felt gratefully the +instant response of the horse; he had thought that Surry was running +his best on such uneven ground; but even a horse may call up an +unsuspected reserve of speed or endurance, if his whole heart is given +to the service of his master; there was a perceptible quickening and a +lengthening of stride, and Jack knew then that Surry could do no +more and keep his feet. Indeed, if he held that pace for long without +stumbling, he would prove himself a more remarkable horse than even +Dade declared him to be. + +He hoped to overtake the girl soon, for in the glimpses he got of her +now and then, as she flew across an open space, he saw that she +was putting her whole weight upon the reins; and that should make a +sufficient handicap to the gray to wipe out the three-hundred-yard +distance between them. It did not seem possible that Tejon could be +running as fast as Surry; and yet, after a half-mile or so of that +killing pace, Jack could not see that he was gaining much. Perhaps it +was his anxiety to overtake her that made the chase seem interminable; +for presently they emerged upon the highway which led south to Santa +Clara and so on down the valley, and he saw, on a straight, open +stretch, that he was much nearer; so near he could see that her hair +was down and blowing about her face in a way that must have blinded +her at times. + +Tejon showed no disposition to stop, however; and Jack, bethinking him +of the trick Dade had played upon the Vigilantes with his riata, threw +off the loop that held it. If he could get close enough, he meant +to lasso the horse unless she managed by that time to get him under +control. Now that they were in the road, Surry's stride was more even, +and although his breathing was becoming audible, he held his pace +wonderfully well--though for that matter, Tejon also seemed to be +running just as fast as at first, in spite of that steady pull; +indeed, Tejon knew the trick of curling his chin down close to his +chest, so that the girl's strength upon the reins was as nothing. + +Jack was almost close enough to make it seem worth while to call +encouragement, when a horseman appeared suddenly from behind a willow +clump and pulled up in astonishment, as he saw Teresita bearing down +upon him like a small whirlwind. Whereupon Tejon, recognizing horse +and rider and knowing of old that they meant leisurely riding and much +chatter, with little laughs for punctuation, slowed of his own accord +and so came up to the man at his usual easy lope, and stopped before +him. + +So quickly did it happen that a witness might easily have sworn in +perfect good faith that the girl was fleeing from Jack Allen and +pulled up thankfully when she met José Pacheco. One could not blame +José for so interpreting the race, or for the anger that blazed in +his eyes for the pursuer, even while his lips parted in a smile at +the coming of the girl. He reined in protectingly between her and the +approaching Jack, and spoke soothingly because of her apparent need. + +"Be not frightened, querida mia. Thou art safe with me--and the +accursed gringo will get a lesson he will not soon forget, for +daring--" + +Teresita, looking back, discovered Jack behind her. He was pulling +Surry in, now, and he held his riata in one hand as though he were +ready to use it at a moment's notice, and blank astonishment was +on his face. That, perhaps, was because of José and José's hostile +attitude, standing crosswise of the trail like that, and scowling +while he waited, with the fingers of his right hand fumbling inside +his sash--for his dagger, perchance! Teresita smiled wickedly, in +appreciation of the joke on them both. + +"Do not kill him, José," she begged caressingly. "Truly he did not +harm me! I but ran from him because--" She sent a smile straight to +the leaping heart of José, and fumbled with her tossing banner of +hair, and turned eyes of innocent surprise on the Señor Allen, who +needed some punishment--and was in fair way to get it. + +"What is the pleasure of the señor?" José's voice was as smooth and as +keen as the dagger-blade under his sash. "His message must indeed +be urgent to warrant such haste! You would do well to ride back as +hastily as you came; for truly a blind man could see that the señorita +has not the smallest desire for your presence. As for me--" As for +him, he smiled a sneer and a threat together. + +Jack looked to the girl for a rebuke of the man's insult; but +Teresita's head was drooped and tilted sidewise while she made shift +to braid her hair, and if she heard she surely did not seem to heed. + +"As for you, it wouldn't be a bad idea for you to mind your own +business," Jack retorted bluntly. "The señorita doesn't need any +interpreter. The señorita is perfectly well-qualified to speak for +herself. She knows--" + +"The señorita knows whom she can trust--and it is not a low dog of +a gringo, who would be rotting now with a neck stretched by the +hangman's rope, if he had but received his deserts; murderer of five +men in one day, men of his own race at that! Gambler! loafer--" + +At the press of silver rowels against his sides, Surry lunged forward. +But Teresita's horse sidled suddenly between the two men. + +"Señor Jack, we will go now, if this wicked caballo of mine will +consent to do his running towards home. Thank you, José, for stopping +him for me; truly, I think he was minded to carry me to Santa Clara, +whether I wished to go or not! But doubtless Señor Jack would have +overtaken him soon. Adios, José. Gracias, amigo mio!" Having put her +hair into some sort of confinement, she picked up her reins and smiled +at José and then at Jack in a way to tie the tongues of them both; +though their brows were black with the hatred which must, if they met +again, bear fruit of violence. + +Fifty yards away, Teresita looked back and waved a hand at the gay +horseman who still stood fair across the highway and stared blankly +after them. + +"Poor José!" she murmured mischievously. "Very puzzled and unhappy he +looks. I wonder if the privilege of tearing you in pieces would not +bring the smile to his lips? Señor Jack, if so be you should ever +desire death, will you let José do the killing? To serve you thus +would give him great pleasure, I am sure." + +Jack, usually so headlong in his speech and actions, rode a moody +three minutes without replying. He was not a fool, even though he was +rather deeply in love; he felt in her that feline instinct to torment +which wise men believe they can detect in all women; and angry as he +was at José's deliberate insults, he knew quite well in his heart that +Teresita had purposely provoked them. + +"I've heard," he said at last, looking at her with the hard glint in +his eyes that thrilled her pleasurably, "that all women are either +angels or devils. I believe you're both, Señorita!" + +Teresita laughed and pouted her lips at him. "Such injustice! Am I +then to be blamed because José has a bad temper and speech hotter than +the enchilladas of Margarita? I could love him for his rages! When +the Blessed Mary sends me a lover--" She looked over her shoulder and +sighed romantically, hiding the laughter in her eyes and the telltale +twist of her lips as best she could, with lashes downcast and face +averted. + +Even a kitten the size of your two fists knows how to paw a mouse, +even though it lacks the appetite for devouring it after the torture. +One cannot logically blame Teresita. She merely used the weapons which +nature put into her pink palms. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +POTENTIAL MOODS + + +So engrossed was the señorita in her truly feminine game of +cat-and-mouse that she quite forgot her worry over Mrs. Jerry until +she was in her own room and smiling impishly at herself in the mirror, +while she brushed the wind-tangles from her hair and planned fresh +torment for the Señor Jack. The señorita liked to see his eyes +darken and then light with the flames that thrilled her; and it was +exceedingly pleasant to know that she could produce that effect almost +whenever she chose. Also, her lips would curve of themselves whenever +she thought of José's rage and subsequent bafflement when she rode off +with Señor Jack; and of Señor Jack's black looks when she praised +José afterwards. Truly they hated each other very much--those two +caballeros! She was woman enough to know the reason why, and to find a +great deal of pleasure in the knowledge. + +Still smiling, she lifted a heavy lock of hair to the light and +speculated upon the mystery of coloring. Black it was, except when +the sun lighted it and brought a sheen that was almost blue; and Señor +Jack's was neither red, as was the hair of the big Señor Simpson, nor +brown nor gold, but a tantalizing mixture of all; especially where +it waved it had many different shades, just as the light gold and the +dark of the pretty señora's--It was then that remembrance came to the +señorita and made her glance a self-accusing one, when she looked at +her reflected face. + +"Selfish, thoughtless one that thou art to forget that sweet señora!" +she cried. And for punishment she pulled the lock of hair so that +it hurt--a little. "I shall ask Señor Hunter if he will not send the +carriage for her--and perhaps I shall go with him to bring her; though +truly she will never leave the big hombre who speaks so many words +over such slight matters. I am glad I did not yet carry Chico to live +there in that small camp. Till the house is finished, he shall stay +with me. Truly the storm would kill him if he were there. But perhaps +the storm will not be so great, after all--not so great as is the +storm in the hearts of those two who met and would have fought, had +I not so skillfully prevented it! Santa Maria, I truly must have been +inspired, to act like the dove with the branch of the olive when +I flew between them; and the eyes of José were blazing; and Señor +Jack--" There came the smile again, and the dawdling of the brush +while she thought of those two. So the pretty señora was forgotten, +after all, and left to shiver over her mending in the prairie schooner +because Teresita was a spoiled child with more hearts than it is good +for a girl to play with. + +As a matter of fact, however, the pretty señora was quite accustomed +to discomfort in varying degrees, and gave less thought to the weather +than did the more tenderly sheltered women of the valley, so that no +harm came of the forgetfulness; especially since the storm fell far +short of Gustavo's expectations and caused that particular prophet the +inconvenience of searching his soul and the heavens for an explanation +of the sunshine that reprehensibly bathed the valley next day in its +soft glow. + +Also, no immediate harm resulted from the rage of the two caballeros, +although not even the most partial judge could give the credit to +Teresita's "olive branch." Chance herself stepped in, and sent a +heavy, dead branch crashing down from a swaying oak upon the head +and right shoulder of José, while he was riding into his own patio. +Whereupon José, who had been promising himself vengefully that he +would send Manuel immediately with a challenge to the gringo who had +dared lift eyes to the Señorita Teresa Picardo, instantly forgot both +his love and his hate in the oblivion that held him until nightfall. + +After that his stiffened muscles and the gash in his scalp gave him +time for meditation; and meditation counseled patience. The gringo +would doubtless go to the rodeo, and he would meet him there without +the spectacular flavor of a formal challenge. For José was a decent +sort of a fellow and had no desire to cheapen his passion or cause +the señorita the pain of public gossip. It was that same quality of +dignity in his love that had restrained him from seeking a deliberate +quarrel with Jack before now; and though he fumed inwardly while his +outer hurts healed, he resolved to wait. The rodeo would give him his +chance. + +Because it is not in the nature of the normal human to keep his soul +always under the lock and key of utter silence, a little of his +hate and a little of his hope seeped into the ears of Manuel, whose +poultices of herbs were doing their work upon the bruised muscles of +José's shoulder, and whose epithets against the two gringos who were +responsible for his exile from the Picardo hacienda had the peculiar +flavor of absolute sincerity. Frequently he cursed them while he +changed the poultices; and Don José, listening approvingly, added now +and then a curse of his own, and a vague prediction of how he meant +to teach the blue-eyed one a lesson which he would weep at +remembering--if he lived to remember anything. + +Manuel did not mean to tattle; he merely let fall a word or two to +Valencia, whom he met occasionally in the open and accused bitterly of +having a treacherous friendship for the gringos, and particularly for +the blue-eyed one. + +"Because that mongrel whose hair is neither red nor yellow nor black +speaks praise to you of your skill, perchance, and because he makes +you laugh with the foolish tales he tells, you would turn against your +own kind, Valencia. No honest Spaniard can be a friend of the gringos. +Of the patron," he added rather sorrowfully, "I do not speak, for +truly he is in his dotage and therefore not to be judged too harshly. +But you, Valencia--you should think twice before you choose a gringo +for your friend; a gringo who speaks fair to the father that he may +cover his love-making to the daughter, who is easily fooled, like all +younglings. + +"The young Don José will deal with that blue-eyed one, Valencia. Every +day he swears it by all the saints. He but waits for the rodeo and +until I have healed his shoulder--and then you shall see! There will +be no love-making then for the gringo. José will have the señorita +yet for his bride, just as the saints have desired since they played +together in the patio and I watched them that they did not run into +the corrals to be kicked in the head, perchance, by the mustangs we +had there. José, I tell you, has loved her too long to stand now with +the sombrero in hand while that arrogant hombre steals her away. When +the shoulder is well--and truly, it was near broken--and when they +meet at the rodeo, then you shall see what will happen to your new +gringo friend." + +Valencia did not quarrel with Manuel. He merely listened and smiled +his startlingly sunny smile, and afterwards repeated Manuel's words +almost verbatim to Jack. Later, he recounted as much as he considered +politic to Don Andres himself, just to show how bitter Manuel had +become and how unjust. Valencia, it must be admitted, was not in any +sense working in the interests of peace. He looked forward with a good +deal of eagerness to that meeting of which Manuel prated. He had all +the faith of your true hero-worshiper in his new friend, and with the +story of that last eventful day which Jack had spent in San Francisco +to build his faith upon, he confidently expected to see José learn a +much-needed lesson in humility--aye, and Manuel also. + +Since even the best-natured gossip is like a breeze to fan the flames +of dissension, Don Andres spent an anxious hour in devising a plan +that would preserve the peace he loved better even than prosperity. +While he smoked behind the passion vines on the veranda, he thought +his way slowly from frowns to a smile of satisfaction, and finally +called a peon scurrying across the patio to stand humbly before him +while he gave a calm order. His majordomo he would see, as speedily as +was convenient to a man as full of ranch business as Dade Hunter found +himself. + +Dade, tired and hot from a forenoon in the saddle inspecting the +horses that were to bear the burden of rodeo work, presently +came clanking up to the porch and lifted the sombrero off his +sweat-dampened forehead thankfully, when the shade of the vines +enveloped him. + +The eyes of the don dwelt pleasedly upon the tanned face of his +foreman. More and more Don Andres was coming to value the keen +common-sense which is so rare, and which distinguished Dade's +character almost as much as did the kindliness that made nearly every +man his friend. + +The don had already fallen into the habit of presenting his orders +under the guise of ideas that needed the confirmation of the +majordomo, before they became definite plans; and it speaks much for +those two that neither of them suspected that it was so. Thus, Don +Andres' solution of the problem of preserving peace became the subject +for a conference that lasted more than an hour. The don was absolutely +candid; so candid that he spoke upon a delicate subject, and one that +carried a sting of which he little dreamed. + +"One factor I cannot help recognizing," he said slowly. "I am not +blind, nor is the señora blind, to the--the--friendship that is +growing between Señor Jack and our daughter. We had hoped--but we have +long been resolved that in matters of the heart, our daughter shall +choose for herself so long as she does not choose one altogether +unworthy; which we do not fear, for to that extent we can protect her +by admitting to our friendship only those in whose characters we have +some confidence. Now that we understand each other so well, amigo, +I will say that I have had some correspondence with friends in San +Francisco, who have been so good as to make some investigations in +my behalf. Their Vigilance Committee," he said, smiling, "was not the +only tribunal which weighed evidence for and against your friend, nor +was it the only vindication he has received. + +"I am assured that in the trouble which brought him to my house +he played the part of an honest gentleman fighting to uphold the +principles which all honest men espouse; and while he is hot-tempered +at times, and perhaps more thoughtless than we could wish, I hear no +ill of him save the natural follies of high-stomached youth. + +"Therefore I am willing to abide by the choice of my daughter, whose +happiness is more dear to her parents than any hope they may have +cherished of the welding of two families who have long been friends. +I myself," he added reminiscently, "fled to the priest with my +sweetheart as if all the fiends of hell pursued us, because her +parents had chosen for her a husband whom she could not love. Since +we know the pain of choosing between a parent's wishes and the call of +the heart, we are resolved that our child shall be left free to choose +for herself. Therefore, I think our plan is a wise one; and the result +must be as the saints decree." + +Dade, because he was engrossed with stifling the ache he had begun +to think was dead because it had grown numb, bowed his head without +speaking his assent and rose to his feet. + +"I'll tell Jack," he said, as he started for the stables. "I guess +he'll do it, all right." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BILL WILSON GOES VISITING + + +"I Don't know what you've been doing to José Pacheco, lately," was +Dade's way of broaching the subject, "but Don Andres asked me to +'persuade' you not to go on rodeo, on account of some trouble between +you and José." + +"He wants my scalp, is all," Jack explained easily, picking burrs from +the fringe of his sash--burrs he had gotten when he ran a race with +Teresita from the farther side of the orchard to the spring, a short +time before. "Valencia told me--and he got it from Manuel--that José is +right on the warpath. If it wasn't for his being laid up--" + +"Oh, I know. You'd like to go over and have it out with him. But you +can't. The Pachecos and the Picardos are almost like one family. I don't +suppose José ever stayed away from here so long since he was a baby, as +he has since we came. It's bad enough to keep old friends away, without +mixing up a quarrel. Have you seen José lately? Don Andres seemed to +think so, but I told him you'd have said something about it to me if +you had." + +"I met him in the trail, a week or so ago," Jack admitted with manifest +reluctance. "He wasn't overly friendly, but there wasn't any real +trouble, if that's what you're afraid of." He looked sidelong at the +other, saw the hurt in Dade's eyes at this evidence of the constraint +growing intangibly between them, and laughed defiantly. + +"Upon my soul!" he exclaimed, "one would think I was simple-minded, the +way you act! D'you think a man never scowled my way before? D'you think +I'm afraid of José? D'you think I don't know enough to take care of +myself? What the devil do you think? Can't go on rodeo--you're afraid I +might get hurt! I ain't crazy to go, for that matter; but I don't know +as I relish this guardian-angel stunt you're playing. You've got your +hands full without that. You needn't worry about me; I've managed to +squeak along so far without getting my light put out--" + +"By being a tolerably fair shot, yes," Dade assented, his face hardening +a little under the injustice. "But since I'm hired to look after Don +Andres' interests, you're going to do what I tell you. You'll stay here +and boss the peons while I'm gone. A friendship between two families +that has lasted as many years as you are old, ain't going to be busted +up now, if I can help it. It's strained to the snapping-point right now, +just because the don is friendly with us gringos. Of course, we can't +help that. He had his ideas on the subject before he ever saw me or you. +Just the same, it's up to us not to do the snapping; and I know one +gringo that's going to behave himself if I have to take him down and set +on him!" + +"Whee-ee! Somebody else is hitting the war-post, if I know the signs!" +Dade stirred to anger always tickled Jack immensely, perhaps because of +its very novelty, and restored him to good humor. "Have it your own way, +then, darn you! I don't want to go on rodeo, nohow." + +"I know that, all right," snapped Dade, and started off with his hat +tilted over his eyes. No one, he reminded himself, would want to spend a +month or so riding the range when he could stay and philander with as +pretty a Spanish girl as ever played the game of cat-and-mouse with a +man. And Jack never had been the kind to go looking for trouble; truth +to tell, he had never found it necessary, for trouble usually flew to +meet him as a needle flies to the magnet. + +But, a wound is not necessarily a deadly one because it sends +excruciating pain-signals to a man's heart and brain; and love seldom is +fatal, however painful it may be. Dade was slowly recovering, under the +rather heroic treatment of watching his successor writhe and exult by +turns, as the mood of the maiden might decree. Strong medicine, that, to +be swallowed with a wry face, if you will; but it is guaranteed to cure +if the sufferer is not a mental and moral weakling. + +Dade was quite ready to go out to rodeo work; indeed, he was anxious to +go. But, not being a morbid young man, he did not contemplate carrying a +broken heart with him. Teresita was sweet and winsome and maddeningly +alluring; he knew it, he felt it still. Indeed, he was made to realize +it every time the whim seized her to punish Jack by smiling upon Dade. +But she was as capricious as beauty usually is, and he knew that also; +and after being used several times as a club with which to beat Jack +into proper humility (and always seeing very clearly that he was merely +the club and nothing more) he had almost reached the point where he +could shrug shoulders philosophically at her coquetry; and what is +better, do it without bitterness. At least, he could do it when he had +not seen her for several hours, which made rodeo time a relief for which +he was grateful. + +What hurt him most, just now, was the constraint between him and Jack; +time was when Jack would have told him immediately of any unpleasant +meeting with José. It never occurred to Dade that he himself had +fostered the constraint by his moody aloofness when he was fighting the +first jealous resentment he had ever felt against the other in the years +of their constant companionship. An unexpected slap on the shoulder +almost sent him headlong. + +"Say, old man, I didn't mean it," Jack began contritely, referring +perhaps to his petulant speech, rather than to his mode of making his +presence known. "But--come over here in the shade, and let's have it out +once for all. I know you aren't stuck up over being majordomo, but all +the same you're not the old Dade, whether you know it or not. You go +around as if--well--you know how you've been. What I wanted to say is, +what's the matter? Is it anything I've said or done?" + +He sat down on the stone steps of a hut used for a storehouse and +reached moodily for his smoking material. "I know I didn't say anything +about running up against José--but it wasn't anything beyond a few +words; and, Dade, you've been almighty hard to talk to lately. If you've +got anything against me--" + +"Oh, quit it!" Dade's face glowed darkly with the blood which shame +brought there. He opened his lips to say more, took a long breath +instead, closed them, and looked at Jack queerly. For one reckless +moment he meditated a plunge into that perfect candor which may be +either the wisest or the most foolish thing a man may do in all his +life. + +"I didn't think you noticed it," he said, his voice lowered +instinctively because of the temptation to tell the truth, and his +glance wandering absently over to the corral opposite, where Surry stood +waiting placidly until his master should have need of him. "There has +been a regular brick wall between us lately. I felt it myself and I +blamed you for it. I--" + +"It wasn't my building," Jack cut in eagerly. "It's you, you old pirate. +Why, you'd hardly talk when we happened to be alone, and when I tried to +act as if nothing was wrong, you'd look so darned sour I just had to +close my sweet lips like the petals of a--" + +"Cabbage," supplied Dade dryly, and placed his cigarette between lips +that twitched. + +Former relations having thus been established after their own fashion, +Dade began to wonder how he had ever been fool enough to think of +confessing his hurt. It would have built that wall higher and thicker; +he saw it now, and with the lighting of his cigarette he swung back to a +more normal state of mind than he had been in for a month. + +"I'm going up toward Manuel's camp, pretty soon," he observed lazily, +eying Jack meditatively through a thin haze of smoke. "Want to take a +ride up that way and let the sun shine on your nice new saddle?" Though +he called it Manuel's camp from force of habit, that hot-blooded +gentleman had not set foot over its unhewn doorsill for three weeks and +more. + +Jack hesitated, having in mind the possibility of persuading Teresita +that she ought to pay a visit to the Simpson cabin that day to display +her latest accomplishment by asking in real, understandable English, how +the pup was getting along; and to show the pretty señora the proper way +to pat tortillas out thin and smooth, as Margarita had been bribed to +teach Teresita herself to do. + +"Sure, I'll go," he responded, before the hesitation had become +pronounced, and managed to inject a good deal of his old heartiness into +the words. + +"I'm going to have the cattle pushed down this way," Dade explained, "so +you can keep an eye on them from here and we won't have to keep up that +camp. Since they made Bill Wilson captain of the Vigilantes, there isn't +quite so much wholesale stealing as there was, anyway, and enough +vaqueros went with Manuel so I'll need every one that's left. I'll leave +you Pedro, because he can't do any hard riding, after that fall he got +the other day. The two of you can keep the cattle pretty well down this +way." + +"All right. Say, what was it made you act so glum since we came down +here?" Jack, as occasionally happens with a friend, was not content to +forget a grievance while the cause of it remained clouded with mystery. + +"Are you sore over that trouble I had in town? I know how you feel +about--well, about killings; but, Dade, I had to. I hate it myself. You +needn't think I like the idea, just because I haven't talked about it. A +fellow feels different," he added slowly, "when it's white men. When we +fought Injuns, I don't believe it worried either one of us to think we'd +killed some. We were generally glad of it. But these others--they were +mean enough and ornery enough; but they were humans. I was glad at the +time, but that wore off. And I've caught you looking at me kinda queer, +lately, as if you hated me, almost. You ought to know--" + +"I know you're always going off half-cocked," chuckled Dade, quite +himself again. "No, now you mention it, I don't like the idea of +shooting first and finding out afterwards what it was all about, the way +so many fellows have got in the habit of doing. Guns are all right in +their place. And when you get away out where the law doesn't reach, and +you have to look out for yourself, they come in mighty handy. But like +every other kind of power, most men don't know when and how to use the +gun argument; and they make more trouble than they settle, half the +time. You had a right to shoot, that day, and shoot to kill. Why, didn't +the Committee investigate you, first thing after Bill was elected, and +find that you were justified? Didn't they wipe your reputation clean +with their official document, that Bill sent you a copy of? No, that +never bothered me at all, old man. You want to forget about it. You only +saved the Committee the trouble of hanging 'em, according to Bill. Say, +Valencia was telling me yesterday--" + +"Well, what the dickens did ail you, then?" + +Dade threw out both hands helplessly and gave a rueful laugh. "You're +harder to dodge than an old cow when you've got her calf on the saddle," +he complained. + +"The trouble was," he explained gravely, "that these last boots of mine +pinched like the devil, and I've been mad for a month because my feet +are half a size bigger than yours. I wanted to stump you for a trade, +only I knew yours would cripple me up worse than these did. But I've got +'em broke in now, so I can walk without tying my face into a hard knot. +There's nothing on earth," he declared earnestly, "will put me on the +fight as quick as a pair of boots that don't fit." + +Jack paid tribute to Dade's mendaciousness by looking at him doubtfully, +not quite sure whether to believe him; and Dade chuckled again, well +pleased with himself. Even when Jack finally told him quite frankly that +he was a liar, he only laughed and went over to where Surry stood +rolling the wheel in his bit. He would not answer Jack's chagrined +vilifications, except with an occasional amused invitation to go to the +devil. + +So the wall of constraint crumbled to the nothingness out of which it +was built, and the two came close together again in that perfect +companionship that may choose whatever medium the mood of man may +direct, and still hold taut the bond of their friendship. + +While they rode together up the valley, Jack told the details of the +encounter with José, and declared that he was doing all that even Dade +could demand of him by resisting the desire to ride down to Santa Clara +and make José swallow his words. + +"I'd have done it anyway, as soon as I brought Teresita home," he added, +with a hint of apology for his seeming weakness. "But, darn it, I knew +all the time that she made him think she was running away from me. It +did look that way, when she stopped as soon as she met him; I can't +swear right now whether Tejon was running away, or whether he was just +simply running!" He laughed ruefully. "She's an awful little tease--just +plumb full of the old Nick, even if she does look as innocent and as +meek as their pictures of the Virgin Mary. She had us both guessing, +let me tell you! He was pretty blamed insulting, though, and I'd have +licked the stuffing out of him right then and there, if she hadn't swung +in and played the joker the way she did. Made José look as if he'd been +doused with cold water--and him breathing fire and brimstone the minute +before. + +"It was funny, I reckon--to Teresita; we didn't see the joke. Every time +I bring up the subject of that runaway, she laughs; but she won't say +whether it was a runaway, no matter how I sneak the question in. So I +just let it go, seeing José is laid up now; only, next time I bump into +José Pacheco, he's going to act pretty, or there's liable to be a little +excitement. + +"I wish I had my pistols. I wrote to Bill Wilson about them again, the +other day; if he doesn't send them down pretty soon, I'm going after +them." He stopped, his attention arrested by the peculiar behavior of a +herd of a hundred or more cattle, a little distance from the road. + +"Now, what do you suppose is the excitement over there?" he asked; and +for answer Dade turned from the trail to investigate. + +"Maybe they've run across the carcass of a critter that's been killed," +he hazarded, "though this is pretty close home for beef thieves to get +in their work. Most of the stock is killed north and east of Manuel's +camp." + +The cattle, moving restlessly about and jabbing their long, wicked horns +at any animal that got in the way, lifted heads to stare at them +suspiciously, before they turned tail and scampered off through the +mustard. From the live oak under which they had been gathered came a +welcoming shout, and the two, riding under the tent-like branches, +craned necks in astonishment. + +"Hello, Jack," spoke the voice again. "I'm almighty glad to see yuh! +Hello, Dade, how are yuh?" + +"Bill Wilson, by thunder!" Jack's tone was incredulous. + +Bill, roosting a good ten feet from the ground on a great, horizontal +limb, flicked the ashes from the cigar he was smoking and grinned down +at them unabashed. + +"You sure took your time about getting here," he remarked, hitching +himself into a more comfortable posture on the rough bark. "I've been +praying for you, two hours and more. Say, don't ever talk to me about +hungry wolf-packs, boys. I'll take 'em in preference to the meek-eyed +cow-bossies, any time." + +They besought him for details and got them in Bill's own fashion of +telling. Briefly, he had long had in mind a trip down to the Picardo +ranch, just to see the boys and the country and have a talk over the +stirring events of the past month; and, he added, he wanted to bring +Jack his pistols himself, because it was not reasonable to expect any +greaser to withstand the temptation of keeping them, once he got them in +his hands. + +Therefore, having plenty of excuses for venturing so far from his place, +and having "tied the dove of peace to the ridge-pole" of town by means +of some thorough work on the part of the new Committee, he had boldly +set forth that morning, soon after sunrise, upon a horse which somebody +had sworn that a lady could ride. + +Bill confessed frankly that he wasn't any lady, however; and so, when +the horse ducked unexpectedly to one side of the trail, because of +something he saw in the long grass, Bill surprised himself very much by +getting his next clear impression of the situation from the ground. + +"I dunno how I got there, but I was there, all right, and it didn't feel +good, either. But I'd been making up my mind to get off and try walking +though, so I done it. Say, I don't see nothing so damned attractive +about riding horseback, anyway!" + +He yelled at the horse to stop, but it appeared that his whoas were so +terrifying that the horse ran for its life. So Bill started to walk, +beguiling the time, by soliloquizing upon--well, Bill put it this way: +"I walked and I cussed, and I cussed and I walked, for about four hours +and a half. Say! How do you make out it's only twenty miles?" + +"Nearer thirty" corrected Dade, and Bill grunted and went on with the +story of his misfortunes. Walking became monotonous, and he wearied of +soliloquy before the cattle discovered him. + +"Met quite a band, all of a sudden," said Bill. "They throned up their +heads and looked at me like I was wild Injuns, and I shooed 'em off--or +tried to. They did run a little piece, and then they all turned and +looked a minute, and commenced coming again, heads up and tails +a-rising. And," he added naïvely, "I commenced going!" He said he +thought that he could go faster than they could come; but the faster he +departed, the more eager was their arrival. "Till we was all of us on +the gallop and tongues a-hanging." + +Bill was big, and he was inclined to flesh because of no exercise more +strenuous than quelling incipient riots in his place, or weighing the +dust that passed into his hands and ownership. He must have run for some +distance, since he swore by several forbidden things that the chase +lasted for five miles--"And if you don't believe it, you can ride back +up the trail till you come to the dent I made with my toes when I +started in." + +Other cattle came up and joined in the race, until Bill had quite a +following; and when he was gasping for breath and losing hope of seeing +another day, he came upon a live oak, whose branches started almost from +the roots and inclined upward so gently that even a fat man who has lost +his breath need not hesitate over the climbing. + +"Thank the good Lord he don't cut all his trees after the same pattern," +finished Bill fervently, "and that live oaks ain't built like redwoods. +If they was, you'd be wiping off my coat-buttons right now, trying to +identify my remains!" + +Being polite young men, and having a sincere liking for Bill, they hid +certain exchanges of grins and glances under their hat-brims (Bill being +above them and the brims being wide) and did not by a single word +belittle the escape he had had from man-eating cows. Instead, Dade +coaxed him down from the tree and onto Surry, swearing solemnly that the +horse was quite as safe as the limb to which Bill showed a disposition +to cling. Bill was hard to persuade, but since Dade was a man who +inspired faith instinctively, the exchange was finally accomplished, +Bill still showing that strange, clinging disposition that made him grip +the saddle-horn as a drowning man is said to grasp at a straw. + +So they got him to the house, the two riding Jack's peppery palimeno +with some difficulty; while Surry stepped softly that he might not +dislodge that burden in the saddle, whose body lurched insecurely and +made the horse feel at every step the ignorance of the man. They got him +and themselves to the house; and his presence there did its part towards +strengthening Don Andres' liking for gringos, while Bill himself gained +a broader outlook, a keener perception of the rights of the native-born +Californians. + +Up in San Francisco there was a tendency to make light of those rights. +It was commonly accepted that the old land grants were outrageous, and +that the dons who prated of their rights were but land pirates who would +be justly compelled by the government to disgorge their holdings. Bill +had been in the habit of calling all Spaniards "greasers," just as the +average Spaniard spoke of all Americans as "gringos," or heathenish +foreigners. + +But on the porch of Don Andres, his saddle-galled person reclining at +ease in a great armchair behind the passion vines, with the fragile stem +of a wine-glass twirling between his white, sensitive, gambler-fingers +while he listened to the don's courtly utterances as translated +faithfully by Dade (Jack being absent on some philandering mission of +his own), big Bill Wilson opened his eyes to the other side of the +question and frankly owned himself puzzled to choose. + +"Seems like the men that came here when there wasn't anything but Injuns +and animals, and built up the country outa raw material, ought to have +some say now about who's going to reap the harvest," he admitted to +Dade. "Don't look so much like gobbling, when you get right down to +cases, does it? But at the same time, all these men that leave the east +and come out here to make homes--seems like they've got a right to +settle down and plow up a garden patch if they want to. They're going to +do it, anyway. Looks like these grandees'll have to cash in their chips +and quit, but it's a darned shame." + +As to the town, Bill told them much that had happened. Politics were +still turbulent; but Perkins' gang of hoodlums was fairly wiped out, and +the Committee was working systematically and openly for the best +interests of the town. There had been a hanging the week before; a +public hanging in the square, after a trial as fair as any court +properly authorized could give. + +"Not much like that farce they pulled off that day with Jack," asserted +Bill. "Real lawyers, we had, and real evidence for and against the +feller, and tried him for real murder. Things are cooling down fast, up +there, and you can walk the streets now without hanging onto your money +with one hand and your gun with the other. Jack and you can come back +any time. And say, Jack!" Having heard his voice beyond the vines, Bill +made bold to call him somewhat peremptorily. + +"There's some gold left, you know, that belongs to you. I didn't send it +all down; didn't like the looks of that--er--" He checked himself on the +point of saying greaser. "And seeing you're located down here for the +summer, and don't need it, why don't you put it into lots? You two can +pick up a couple of lots that will grow into good money, one of these +days. Fact is, I've got a couple in mind. I'd like to see you fellows +get some money to workin' for you. This horseback riding is too blamed +risky." + +"That looks reasonable to me," said Dade. "We've got the mine, of +course, but the town ought to go on growing, and lots should be a good +place to sink a thousand or two. I've got a little that ain't working." +Then seeing the inquiring look in the eyes of Don Andres, he explained +to him what Bill had suggested. + +Don Andres nodded his white head approvingly. "The Señor Weelson is +right," he said. "You would do well, amigos, to heed his advice." + +"Just as Jack says," Dade concluded; and Jack amended that statement by +saying it was just as Bill said. If Bill knew of a lot or two and +thought it would be a good investment, he could buy them in their names. +And Bill snorted at their absolute lack of business instinct and let the +subject drop into the background with the remark that, for men that had +come west with the gold fever, they surely did seem to care very little +about the gold they came after. + +"The fun of finding it is good enough," declared Jack, unashamed, "so +long as we have all we need. And when we need more than we've got, +there's the mine; we can always find more. Just now--" + +He waved his cigarette towards the darkening hills; and in the little +silence that followed they heard the sweet, high tenor of a vaquero +somewhere, singing plaintively a Spanish love-song. When the voice +trailed into a mournful, minor "Adios, adios," a robin down in the +orchard added a brief, throaty note of his own. + +Bill sighed and eased his stiffened muscles in the big chair. "Well, I +don't blame either one of you," he drawled somewhat wistfully. "If I was +fifteen years limberer and fifty pounds slimmer, I dunno but what I'd +set into this ranch game myself. It's sure peaceful." + +Foolishly they agreed that it was. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +RODEO TIME + + +In those days of large leisure and cyclonic bursts of excitement and +activity; of midday siestas and moonlight serenades--and a duel, +perchance, at sunrise--the spring rodeo was one of the year's events, to +be looked forward to all winter by the vaqueros; and when it was over, +to be talked of afterwards for months. A mark from which to measure the +passing of time, it was; a date for the fixing of incidents in the +memory of men. + +In the valley of Santa Clara, rodeo time really began when the Picardo +vaqueros cinched saddles upon restive mustangs some misty morning, and +with shouts and laughter and sombreros waving high over black heads in +adieu to those who remained behind, swept down the slope like a charge +of gayly caparisoned cavalry, driving the loose saddle horses before +them. Past the stone and adobe wall of the home pasture, past the fences +where the rails were held to their posts with rawhide thongs, which the +coyotes sometimes chewed to pulp and so made extra work for the peons, +they raced, exultant with life. Slim young Spaniards they were, clothed +picturesquely in velvet and braid and gay sashes; with cumbersome, hairy +chaparejos, high-crowned sombreros and big-roweled, silver spurs to mark +their calling; caballeros to flutter the heart of a languorous-eyed +señorita, and to tingle the pulse of the man who could command and see +them ride gallantly to do his bidding. + +Fairly in the midst of them, quite as gaudy to look upon and every whit +as reckless in their horsemanship, rode Dade and Jack. If their hearts +were not as light, their faces gave no sign; and their tongues flung +back the good-humored jibes of their fellows in Spanish as fluent as any +they heard. + +When they left the highway and rode straight down the valley through the +mustard that swept the chests of their plunging horses with dainty +yellow and green, the two fell behind and slowing their horses to an +easy lope, separated themselves from their exuberant fellows. + +"I wish you were going along," Dade observed tritely. "If José Pacheco +changes his mind and stays at home, I'll send you word and you can come +on, if you want to." + +"Thanks." Jack's tone, however, did not sound thankful. "If I wanted to +go, do you think I'd hang back because he's going?" + +"No, I don't. I think the prospect of a fine, large row would be a +temptation; and I must say I'm kinda surprised that you've been able to +resist it. Still, I realize there's compensations." + +"Sure, there are. I never denied it, did I?" + +"Never. I reckon you've sent by Bill Wilson for a trumpet to proclaim--" + +"Oh, shut up. I think," Jack decided suddenly and without any visible +cause, "I'll turn off here and ride around by Jerry Simpson's. Adios, +old man, and heaps of good luck to you." He swung abruptly off to the +right and galloped away, looking back over his shoulder when he had +ridden a hundred paces, to wave his sombrero and shout a last word or +two of farewell. + +"Truly, José will be disappointed when he does not see Señor Jack +amongst us," smiled Valencia, reining in beside Dade and looking after +the departing horseman with friendly eyes. "Though if he had good sense, +he would be thankful. Me, I should not like to have trouble with that +friend of yours, Señor. In San Francisco they talk yet of that day when +he fired three times from a galloping horse and killed three men. Dios! +That was pretty shooting. I would have given much to see it. There will +be few men so bold now as to make war with that blue-eyed hombre; but +José is a fool, when his will is crossed. Me, I fight--yes, and love the +heat of fighting in my blood; but I do not bellow threats before, as +José has been doing. Carramba! To hear him, one would think he believed +that men may die of curses; if they did, the Señor Jack would be lying +now with candles burning at his head and his feet! Truly, love takes the +sense out of a man quicker than wine." + +Dade agreed with him, though his lips did not open to form any words +upon the subject. + +Their first stopping place was José's ranch down near Santa Clara, and +he wondered just how far José's hatred of him would interfere with the +traditions of hospitality. It was not likely that José's vaqueros would +be ready to start that day; and although he carried his own camp +equipment on pack-horses, and, guided by Valencia, ordered the camp set +up in its accustomed place beside a little stream half a mile from the +house, he sent many a questioning glance that way. + +If he feared a hostile reception, he was soon reassured. José and Manuel +speedily appeared, galloping side-by-side through the lush yellow and +green. José's manner was irreproachable, his speech carefully +considered. If his eyes lacked their usual warm glow of friendliness, +it was because he could not bring that look at will to beam upon the +guest whom his heart failed to welcome. He invited Dade to dinner with +him; and Dade, hoping to establish a better understanding between them, +accepted. + +Dade had not lived half his life amongst the dark-skinned race for +nothing. He sipped the home-made wine with José, talked of many things +in his soft, easy-natured drawl, and by letting his inner friendliness +with the whole world look out of his eyes when they dwelt upon his host, +went José one better in courtesy. And José, sauntering afterward across +the patio to the porch, met Manuel face to face and paid tribute to Don +Andres' new majordomo in a single sentence. + +"If all gringos were like this Señor Hunter, one could tolerate their +coming to live amongst us," he said frankly. + +"Sí," grudged Manuel. "But then, he is not all gringo. Many years he +dwelt with our people in Texas, so that he has the Spanish ways; but me, +I want none of him." + +José laughed without much mirth to lighten the sound. "The blue-eyed +one--did you find from the vaqueros why he did not come? He need not +have been afraid of me--not if his fame was earned honestly." If his +tone were patronizing, José perhaps had some excuse, since Fame had not +altogether passed him by with face averted. + +"Part of the way he came, and turned back. The vaqueros do not know why, +except Valencia. And Valencia--he is growing a gringo heart, like the +patron. He will speak nothing but boasts of what that blue-eyed one can +do. Me, I came near fighting with Valencia; only he would not do +anything but smile foolishly, when I told him what I think of traitors +like himself." + +"Let him smile," advised José, "while he may." Which was not a threat, +in spite of its resemblance to one, but rather a vague reference to the +specter of trouble that stalks all men as a fox stalks a quail, and +might some day wipe that broad smile from the face of Valencia, as it +had swept all the gladness from his own. + +He went back and smoked a final cigarette in Dade's company; and if he +said little, his silences held no hint of antagonism. It was not until +Dade rose to return to camp for the night that José put the question +that had tickled the tongue of him ever since the arrival on his ranch +of the Picardo vaqueros. + +"Your friend, the Señor Allen--he is to join you later, perhaps?" + +"Jack was left to look after the ranch." Dade's eyes were level in +their glance, his voice quiet with the convincing ring of truth. "He +won't be on rodeo at all." + +José went paler than he had been two weeks before with his hurt, but a +simple word of polite surprise held all his answer. For Jack to stay at +home, to be near Teresita every day, to have nothing in the way of his +love-making--nothing, since those doting two, her parents, would but +smile at whatever she might choose to do--there was acid enough in that +thought to eat away all the warmth, all the generosity José possessed. +He let Dade go without even the perfunctory phrases of regret, which +custom had made almost compulsory; and Manuel, sitting in silent wrath +upon the porch, listened to the steady footfalls moving up and down the +room behind him until the moon, that had been shining in his smoldering +eyes, slipped over the red tiles of the roof and left all but the +tree-tops in black shade. + +"Dios! There will be one gringo the less when those two meet," he +muttered, staring at the tiny glow of his cigarette; and afterward +folded his arms tightly over a chest that heaved with the impatience +within. When those two met, Manuel meant to be there also to see. "Me, I +should like to drag him to death with the six-strand riata he despised!" +was the beautiful thought he took to bed with him. + +Sunshine was lifting the morning fog high above the tree-tops when the +old, gray mare, whose every movement tinkled the bell hung around her +neck, shook her rough coat vigorously to free it from the moisture which +the fog had left; and so jangled a peremptory summons to the herd of +saddle horses that bore the brand of Don Andres Picardo upon their right +thighs. At the camp upon the bank of the Guadalupe, the embaladors were +shouting curses, commands, jokes, and civilities to one another while +they brought orderly packs out of the chaos of camp-equipment that +littered the ground. + +The vaqueros were saddling their mounts and fairly bubbling with a +purely animal joy in the open; and Dade, his cigarette sending up a tiny +ribbon of aromatic smoke as if he were burning incense before the altar +of the soul of him that looked steadfastly out of his eyes, walked among +them with that intangible air of good-fellowship which is so hard to +describe, but which carries more weight among men than any degree of +imperious superiority. Valencia looked up and flashed him a smile as he +came near; and Pancho, the lean vaquero with the high beak and the +tender heart, turned to see what Valencia was smiling at and gave +instant glimpse of his own white teeth when he saw Dade behind him. + +"To-day will be hot, Señor," he said. "Me, I wish we were already at +Tres Pinos." + +"No, you don't," grinned Dade, "for then you would not have the Sunal +rancho before you, to build hopes upon, but behind you--and hope, they +say, is sweeter than memory, Pancho." + +Pancho, being ugly to look upon, liked to be rallied upon the one +señorita in the valley whose eyes brightened at sight of him. He grinned +gratifiedly and said no more. + +A faint medley of sounds blended by distance turned heads towards the +east; and presently, breasting the mustard field that lay level and +yellow to the hills, came José's squad of vaqueros, with José himself +leading the group at a pace that was recklessly headlong, his crimson +sash floating like a pennant in the breeze he stirred to life as he +charged down upon them. + +"Only for the silver trimmings, you looked like a band of warlike Injuns +coming down on us with the sun at your back," laughed Dade, as José +swung down near him. "They're riders--the Indians back there on the +plains; and when they pop over a ridge and come down on you like a tidal +wave, your backbone squirms a little in spite of you. The way your +vaqueros parted and galloped around our camp was a pretty good imitation +of their preliminary flourishes." + +"Still, I do not come in war," José returned, and looked full at the +other. "I hope that we shall have peace, Señor Hunter; though one day I +shall meet that friend of yours in war, if the saints permit. And may +the day come soon." + +"Whatever quarrel you may have with Jack, I hope it will not hinder us +from working together without bad feeling between us." Dade threw away +his cigarette and took a step nearer, so that the vaqueros could not +hear. + +"Don José, I know you don't like a gringo major domo to lead Don Andres' +vaqueros on rodeo. I don't blame you Californians for being prejudiced +against Americans, because you've been treated pretty shabbily by a +certain class of them. But you're not so narrow you can't see that we're +not all alike. I'd like to be friends, if you will, but I'm not going to +apologize for being a gringo, nor for being here in charge of this camp. +I didn't choose my nationality, and I didn't ask for my job. I'll give +you a square deal, and I want you to know that if there's any grudge +between us, it's all on your side." + +José's fingers fumbled the little corn-husk wrapping for the cigarette +he meant to make. "Señor, I repeat what I said to Manuel last night," he +said, after a pause. "If all gringos were like you, we Californians +would like the name better. But I thought you would stand by your +friend--" + +"And so I will, to the last--" Not being of a theatrical temperament, +Dade balked at protestations of his loyalty. "Jack and I have worked and +fought and played elbow to elbow for a long time, Don José. But I don't +mix into his personal quarrels, unless I see him getting a crooked deal. +I believe you'll fight fair. The rest lies between you two." + +"But is it not your boast that the Señor Allen is the supreme caballero +of California?" José was frank, at least, and Dade liked him the better +for it. "For three years I have held the medalla oro [gold medal] for +riding and for riata throwing; if it is true that you boast--" + +Dade, as was the way of him when disgust or chagrin seized him, flung +out both hands impatiently. "I did say he couldn't be beat. I said it to +Manuel, when Manuel was sneering that Jack didn't know a good riata from +a bad one. I won't take it back. I haven't seen your work in the saddle, +Don José. I have seen Jack's, and I never saw any better. So, until I +do, I can believe he's the best, can't I?" + +"Sí." José smiled without effort. "You are honest, Señor Hunter, and +that pleases me well. I do not like you less because you are loyal to +your friend; but that friend I hope one day to kill." He looked at the +other questioningly. "Now I am honest also," his eyes said plainly. + +"That's your affair and Jack's, as long as you don't try to get him when +he isn't looking." + +"I am not an assassin, Señor Hunter," José retorted stiffly. + +"Then we understand each other, I guess. Let's get these fellows +started. It's going to be hot, they say, and the horses are soft yet--at +least, ours are. We took them off pasture yesterday, most of them." + +"Mine are the same, Señor. But to-day's marcha will be an easy one. To +Sunal Rancho is not far." He turned to remount and give the signal for +starting. And with a little of the pride that had impelled Jack to show +off his skill that day when the Captain of the Committee commanded him +to mount the buckskin, José also vaulted into the saddle without +deigning to touch the stirrup. + +There was doubt in the señor's mind about his horsemanship being the +best in all California? Very good. The señor would have the opportunity +to judge for himself. Still, José had put to sleep most of his +antagonism towards Dade, and his attitude of friendliness was not so +deliberately forced as Manuel, watching eagerly for the first sign of a +clash, believed it to be. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +WHEN CAMP-FIRES BLINK + + +Down the valley they rode, gathering numbers to swell the cavalcade at +each ranch they passed. La Laguna Seca, San Vincente, Las Uvas sent +their quota of vaqueros, each headed by a majordomo and accompanied by +embaladors with the camp equipment and supplies packed upon steady-going +little mustangs. The bell-mares of the various herds jangled a chorus of +pleasant discords with their little, iron bells. The scent of the +mustard rose pungently under the trampling hoofs. At dusk, the +camp-fires blinked at one another through the purpling shadows; and the +vaqueros, stretched lazily upon their saddle blankets in the glow, +stilled the night noises beneath the pleasant murmur of their voices +while they talked. From the camp of the San Vincente riders rose a voice +beautifully clear and sweet, above the subdued clamor. + +Dade was listening to the song and dreaming a little while he listened, +with his head lying cradled in his clasped hands and his face to the +stars, when the group around the next camp-fire tittered and broke into +an occasional laugh. Then a question was called to whoever might be +within hearing: + +"Who's the best vaquero in California?" + +"Jack Allen, the gringo!" shouted a dozen voices, so that every camp +must hear. Then came jeering laughter from every camp save one, the camp +of the Picardo vaqueros. + +Valencia's dark head lifted from the red and green blanket beyond the +blaze; and Dade, watching, could see his profile sharply defined in the +yellow light of the fire, as he stared toward the offending camp. The +lips that smiled so often were drawn tight and thin; the nostrils flared +like a frightened horse. While the laughs were still cackling derision, +Valencia jumped up and ran; and Dade, even before he sat up to look, +knew where he was going. + +At the fire where the question was put, a young fellow, whose heavy, +black mustache prudently hid lips coarse and sneering, came to his feet +like a dummy of a man and glared dazedly at his companions, as if their +faces should tell him whose hand it was that gripped the braided collar +of his jacket. He was not long in doubt, however. The voice of Valencia +grated vitriolic sentences in his ear, and the free hand of Valencia was +lifted to deal him a blow fair upon the blank face of him. The circle +of faces watched, motionless, above crouched bodies as quiet as the +stars overhead. + +A hand grasped Valencia's wrist while his arm was lifted to strike, so +that the three men stood, taut-muscled and still, like a shadowy, +sculptured group that pictured some mythological conflict. + +"Let go, Valencia. This is nothing to fight over. Let go." + +Valencia's angry eyes questioned the unreadable ones of his majordomo; +but he did not let go, and so the three stood for a moment longer. + +"But they insult the Señor Allen with their jeers," he protested. "Me, I +fight always for my friends who are not present to fight for themselves. +Would not the Señor Allen fight this fool who flouts him so?" + +"No!" Dade's eyes flicked the circle of faces upon which the firelight +danced. "If the Señor Allen were here, there would be no jeering." + +"And for that will I fight them all!" Valencia twisted his arm a little, +in the hope that Dade would let go his wrist. "Ah, Señor! Shall a man +not be true to his friends?" + +"Sí, he shall be true, and he shall be sensible. Is the Señor Jack a +weakling, that he cannot fight for himself?" + +"But he is not here! If he were--" The tone of him gloated over the +picture of what would happen in that case. + +"There shall be no fighting." If Dade's voice was quiet, it did not +carry the impression of weakness, or indecision. "Come to your own fire, +Valencia. If it is necessary to fight for the Señor Allen--I am also his +friend." + +"You are right. There shall be no fighting." Dade started and glanced at +José, standing beside him. "If the Señor Allen thinks himself the best, +surely it is I, who hold the medalla that calls me el vaquero supremo, +who have the right to question his boast; not you, amigos!" + +"Who's the best vaquero, the bravest and the best in California?" +queried a voice--the voice of the singer, who had come up with others to +see what was going on here. And at his elbow another made answer boldly: + +"Don José Pacheco!" + +José smiled and lifted his shoulders deprecatingly at the tribute, while +fifty voices shouted loyally his name. Dade, pressing his hand upon +Valencia's shoulder, led him back into the dancing shadows that lay +between the fires. + +"Let it go," he urged. "Don José holds the medal, and he's entitled to +the glory. We must keep peace, Valencia, or else I must leave the rodeo. +Personal quarrels must wait." + +"Sí, Señor, personal quarrels must wait," assented José, again coming up +unexpectedly behind them. "I but wish to say that I regret the bad +manners of those caballeros, whose best excuse is that they are my +friends. I hope the señor does not accuse me of spreading the news of +the señor's boast. There are others, as the señor well knows, who heard +it before even it came to my ears." + +"It doesn't matter," Dade repeated. "They'll have their joke, and I +don't blame them for putting the joke on a stranger, especially when +he's a gringo--and absent." + +"The señor is wise as he is loyal," stated José and bowed himself into +the shadows. "Buenos noches, Señor." + +"Good-night," answered Dade, speaking English to show he was not ashamed +of it; and rolled himself in his blankets as a deliberate hint to +Valencia that he did not want to discuss the incident, much to that +one's disappointment. + +It is to be feared that Valencia did not share in Dade's determination +to keep the peace; for, before he slept, he promised himself that he +would yet tell that pig-faced vaquero from Las Uvas what he thought of +him. But outwardly the incident was closed, and closed permanently. + +The sun was not risen above the mountains before they were hurriedly +drinking their black coffee, and making ready to break camp; the flurry +of emotions seemed to have died with the evening fire. If the men of the +other camps were cool in their manner towards Dade when they met him, at +least they were civil; except Manuel, who passed him by with lowered +brows, and of him Dade took no notice. If he were watched curiously, in +hope of detecting the awkwardness which would betray unfamiliarity with +his work, Dade took no notice of that, either, except to grin now and +then when he rode away. Altogether, he was well pleased with his +reception and inclined to laugh at the forebodings he had felt; +forebodings born of the knowledge that, unless these natives of +California were minded to tolerate the presence of a gringo majordomo, +it would be absolutely useless for him to attempt to work with them. + +If he had only known it, his own men had done much towards lessening the +prejudice of those who joined the main outfit. Valencia was not the only +one of the Picardo vaqueros whose friendship might be counted upon. Like +Manuel before he became jealous, they forgot that Dade was not of +Spanish birth; for his eyes and his hair were dark as many of the +native-born Californians, and his speech was as their own; he was +good-humored, just in his judgments, reasonable in his demands. He could +tell a good story well if he liked, or he could keep silent and listen +with that sympathetic attention that never fails to flatter the teller +of a tale. To a man they liked him, and they were not slow to show their +liking after the manner of their kind. + +By the time they reached Tres Pinos, which was the rendezvous of all the +vaqueros from the Picardo ranch on the north to San Miguel on the south, +Dade had quite lost the constraint that comes of feeling that one is +disliked and only tolerated for the moment. He whistled while he rode +along the creek bank looking for a comfortable camp site; and when +Valencia loped up to him, as he was hesitating over a broad, shaded +strip under a clump of willows, he turned and smiled upon his head +vaquero. + +"See, Señor, how well we Californians work together!" cried Valencia, +pointing pridefully. "Here they come, the vaqueros from Agua Amargo, +Durasno, Corral de Terre, Salinas--not yet have our embaladors thrown +off the ropes from our packs, before they are here, these others whom we +came to meet! Not one hour late, even! And the word was given weeks ago +that we would meet this day." + +From the mouth of the canyon trotted a band of saddle horses, kicking up +a dust cloud that filmed the picture made by the gay caballeros who +galloped behind. A gallant company were they; and when they met and +mingled with those who came down from the north, it was as though a +small army was giving itself a holiday in that vivid valley, with the +Tres Pinos gurgling at the fun. + +Having had experience in these matters, Dade was able to do his part and +do it like a veteran, although he tactfully left to the other majordomos +all those little details that would make of the various camps one +orderly company. Two men he chose from his outfit and sent to the +captain, as the Picardo contribution to the detail told off to herd the +horses, but beyond that he confined himself chiefly to making himself as +unobtrusive as was consistent with dignity. + +Six men were sent out after beef; and although Dade had many times in +Texas done exactly what they were doing, he watched interestedly these +Californians at their work. + +Cattle were everywhere except in the immediate vicinity of the camp. +Half a mile or so the vaqueros galloped; then two of the leaders singled +out a fat, young steer and made after him with their riatas hissing as +the rawhide circled over their heads. + +A loop dropped neatly over the wide horns, and a moment later the second +settled upon the first. The first man turned and headed towards camp +with the steer at his heels, ready at the slightest opportunity to make +use of those long, sharp-pointed horns which nature had given him for +just such need as this. The steer quite forgot the man behind, until he +made a vicious lunge and was checked by the rope that had hung slack and +unnoticed over his back. Furious, the steer turned and charged +resentfully at the caballero who was following him and shouting taunts. +But there again he was checked by the first. + +So, charging this way and that; galloping wildly in pursuit of the man +who seemed to be fleeing for his life, or wheeling to do battle with the +rider who kept just so far in his rear, he was decoyed to the very +outskirts of the camp. + +If he had been qualified to weigh motives, the heart that brindle-roan +steer would surely have burst at; the pure effrontery of the thing: not +only must he yield his life and give his body for meat, that those +yearning stomachs might be filled with his flesh; he must deliver that +meat at the most convenient spot, as a butcher brings our chops to the +kitchen door. For that purpose alone they were cunningly luring him +closer and closer, that they need not carry the meat far when they had +slaughtered him. + +At least his last moments were lighted with hope. He made one grand, +final dash, tripped in a noose that had somehow dropped neatly in the +way of his front feet, and went down with a crash and a bellow of +dismay. Some one ran lightly in--he did not see that it was the vaquero +he had been pursuing all this time--and drove a dagger into the brain +just back of the horns. Thus that particular gust of rage was wiped out +of existence forever. + +Later, when the camp-fires burned low, the pleasant odor of meat +broiling upon the forked ends of long, willow branches over the red +coals, proved how even a brindle steer may, at the last, in every savory +morsel have justified his existence. + +Life in those days was painted upon a big canvas, with broad sweep of +brushes dipped in vivid colors. Although the branding of the season's +calves was a matter of pure business, the manner in which that work was +accomplished was a spectacle upon which we of the present generation +would give much to look. + +When the sun parted the fog and looked down inquisitively, the whole +valley was pulsing with life, alight with color. The first real work of +the rodeo was beginning, like the ensemble of some vast, spectacular +play; and the stage was managed by Nature herself, creator of the +harmony of colors. The dark, glossy green of live oak, the tender green +of new willow leaves, the pale green of the mustard half buried in the +paler yellow of its blossoms, had here and there a splash of orange and +blue, where the poppies were refusing to give place to the lupines which +April wished to leave for May, when she came smiling to dwell for one +sweet month in the valley. The poppies had had their day. March had +brought them, and then had gone away and left them for the April showers +to pelt and play with; and now, when the redwoods on the mountainsides +were singing that May was almost here, a whole slope of poppies lingered +rebelliously to nod and peer and preen over the delights of the valley +just below. The lupines were shaking their blue heads distressfully at +the impertinence; and then here came the vaqueros galloping, and even +the lupines and poppies forgot their dispute in the excitement of +watching the fun. + +As the roundups of our modern cattlemen "ride circle," so did those +velvet-jacketed, silver-braided horsemen gallop forth in pairs from a +common center that was the chosen rodeo ground. As if they were tracing +the invisible spokes of a huge wheel laid flat and filling the valley +from mountain range to mountain range, they rode out until they had +reached the approximate rim of the circle. Then, turning, they rode more +slowly back to the rodeo ground, driving before them the cattle they +found there. + +Not cattle only; here and there an antelope herd was caught in the +circle and ran bewilderedly toward the common center; beautiful +creatures with great eyes beseeching the human things to be kind, even +while riatas were hissing over their trembling backs. Many a rider rode +into camp with an antelope haunch tied to his gorgeous red and black +saddle; and the wooden spits held delicious bits of antelope steak that +night, broiling over the coals while the vaqueros sang old Spanish +love-songs to lighten the time of waiting. + +A gallant company, they. A care-free, laughter-loving, brave company, +with every man a rider to make his womenfolk prate of his skill to all +who would listen; with every man a lover of love and of life and the +primitive joys of life. They worked, that company, and they made of +their work a game that every man of them loved to play. And Dade, loving +the things they loved and living the life they lived, speedily forgot +that there was still an undercurrent of antagonism beneath that surface +of work and play and jokes and songs and impromptu riding and roping +contests (from which José Pacheco was laughingly barred because of his +skill and in which Dade himself was, somehow, never invited to join). He +forgot that the antagonism was there--except when he came face to face +with Manuel, perhaps, or when he chanced to see on the face of José a +brooding look of dissatisfaction, and guessed that he was thinking of +Jack and Teresita. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"FOR WEAPONS I CHOOSE RIATAS" + + +There must have been a good deal of gossip amongst the vaqueros of the +various ranches, as they rode on circle or lay upon their saddle +blankets around the evening camp-fires. As is ever the case when a man +is young, handsome, rich, and holds proudly the gold medal which +proclaims him the champion of the whole State--the golden disk which +many a young vaquero longed to wrest from him in a fair test of +skill--there were those who would rather like to see José humbled. True, +they would never choose an alien to do the humbling, and the possibility +was discussed with various head-shakings amongst themselves. + +But there were the Picardo vaqueros stanchly swearing by all the saints +they knew that these two gringos were not as other gringos; that these +two were worthy a place amongst true Californians. Could they not see +that this Señor Hunter was as themselves? And he was not more Spanish in +his speech and his ways than was the Señor Allen, albeit the Señor +Allen's eyes were blue as the lupines, and his hair the color of the +madrona bark when it grows dark with age--or nearly the color. And he +could shoot, that blue-eyed one! + +Valencia, having an audience of a dozen or more one night, grew eloquent +upon the prowess of the blue-eyed one. And the audience, listening, +vowed that they would like to see him matched against José, who thought +himself supreme in everything. + +"Not in fighting," amended Valencia, his teeth gleaming white in the +fire-glow, as he leaned to pull a brand from the blaze that he might +relight the cigarette which had gone out while he told the tale of that +running fight, when the two Americanos had shamed a whole crowd of +gringos--for so did Valencia make nice distinction of names. + +"Not in fighting, amigos, nor yet in love! And because he knows that it +is so, the cheeks of Don José hang slack, and he rides with chin upon +his breast, when he thinks no one is looking. The medalla oro is his, +yes. But he would gladly give it for that which the Señor Allen +possesses. Me, I think that the Señor Allen could as easily win also the +medalla oro as he has won the other prize." There was a certain fineness +in Valencia that would never permit his tongue to fling the name of the +Señorita Teresa amongst these vaqueros; but he was sure that they caught +his meaning. + +"Dios! me, I should like to see him try," cried a tall San Vincente +rider, shifting his position to ease a cramp in his long leg; and his +tone was neither contemptuous nor even doubtful, but merely eager for +the excitement there would be in the spectacle. + +Some one in the shadows turned and walked quickly away to another +fire-glow with its ring of Rembrandt figures and faces, and none save +Valencia knew that it was Manuel gone to tell his master what had been +said. Valencia smiled while he smoked. + +Presently José was listening unwillingly to Manuel's spite-tinged +version of the talk at the San Vincente camp. "The vaqueros are making a +mock of thy bravery and thy skill!" Manuel declared, with more passion +than truth. "They would see thee beaten, in fight as well as in love--" + +The stiffening of José's whole figure stopped Manuel short but not +dissatisfied, for he saw there was no need that he should speak a single +word more upon the subject. + +"They shall see him try, unless he is a coward." The voice of José was +muffled by the rage that filled him. + +So it came to pass that Manuel saddled his best mustang within an hour +and rode away to the north. And when Valencia strolled artlessly to the +Pacheco fire and asked for him, José hesitated perceptibly before he +replied that Manuel had gone home with a message to the foreman there. + +Valencia grinned his widest when he heard that, and over two cigarettes +he pondered the matter. Being a shrewd young man with an instinct for +nosing out mysteries, he flung all uncertainty away with the stub of his +second cigarette and sought Dade. + +He found him standing alone beside a deep, still pool, staring at the +shadows and the moon-painted picture in the middle, and looking as if +his thoughts were gone on far journeys. Valencia was too full of his +news to heed the air of absolute detachment that surrounded Dade. He +went straight to the heart of his subject and as a precaution against +eavesdropping he put his meaning into the best English he knew. + +"José, she's dam-mad on Señor Jack," he began eagerly. "She's hear talk +lak she's no good vaquero. Me, I hear San Vincente vaqueros talk, and +Manuel she's hear also and run queeck for tella José. José she's lak for +keela Señor Jack. Manuel, she's ride lak hell for say José, she lak for +fight Señor Jack. Me, I theenk Señor Jack keela José pretty dam-queeck!" + +Dade had come to know Valencia very well; he turned now and eyed him +with some suspicion. + +"Are you sure?" he asked, in the tone that demanded a truthful answer. +He had seen Manuel ride away in the white light of the moon, and he had +wondered a little and then had forgotten all about it in the spell of +utter loneliness which the moon brings to those who are cheated by Fate +from holding what they most desire. + +"Sure, me." Valencia's tone was convincingly positive. "Manuel, she's go +lak hell for tella Señor Jack, José, she's lak for fight duelo. Sure. +That's right." + +Dade swung back and stared moodily at the moon-painted pool where the +trout, deceived by the brightness into thinking it was day, started +widening ripple-rings here and there, where they flicked the surface +with slaty noses; and the wavering rings were gold-tipped until they +slid into the shadows and were lost. Dade watched three rings start in +the center and ripple the whole pool. + +"How quick could you get to the rancho?" he asked abruptly, just as +Valencia's spirits were growing heavy with disappointment. "Could you +overtake Manuel, do you think?" + +"Me, I could with the caballo which I have in mind--Noches--I could +pass Manuel upon the way, though he had two more hours the start of me!" +English was too slow now for Valencia's eagerness. "Manuel is fat, and +he is not young, and he will not ride too fast for his fat to endure. +Also he will stop at the Pacheco hacienda for breakfast, and to rest his +bones. Me, I can be at the rancho two hours before Manuel, Señor." + +Valencia was not a deceitful young man, as deceit goes; but he wanted +very much to be sent in haste to the ranch, for he was itching with +curiosity to know the truth of this matter and if he were indeed right. +If Manuel had gone bearing a challenge from José to the Señor Jack, then +he wanted to know the answer as soon as possible. Also there was Felice, +the daughter of Carlos, whose lips lured him with their sweetness. +Truly, Valencia would promise any miracle of speed. + +The pool lay calm as the face of a dead child. Dade stooped and tossed a +pebble into it as if that stillness troubled him. He took his cigarette +from his lips, looked at the glowing tip, and over it at the eager face +of Valencia. + +"We mustn't let them fight. Take Noches and ride like the devil was at +your heels. Get there ahead of Manuel and tell Jack--" He stopped there +and bit his lips to hurry his slow thoughts. "Tell Jack he must go to +town right away, because--well, tell him Bill Wilson--" + +Valencia's face had been lengthening comically, but hope began to live +again in his eyes. "If the señor would write what he wishes to say while +I am making ready for the start, he will then have more time to think of +what is best. The moon will ride clear to-night; and the sun will find +me at the rancho, Señor. Me, I have ridden Noches one hundred miles +without rest, before now; these sixty will be play for us both." + +"Gracias, Valencia." Dade dropped a hand gratefully upon the shoulder of +the other. "I'll write a note, but you must do your part also. You know +your people, and I know Jack; if those two fight, the trouble will +spread like fire in the grass; for Don José has many friends to take up +the quarrel. You've had a long day in the saddle, amigo, and the sixty +miles will not be play. I would not ask it if the need were less +urgent--but you must beat Manuel. If you don't, Jack will accept the +challenge; and once he does that--" he flung out both hands in his +characteristic gesture of impatience or helplessness. + +"Sí, Señor. If the saints permit, Manuel shall not see him first." It +was like Valencia to shift the responsibility from his own conscience to +the shoulders of the saints, for now he could ride with a lighter heart. +Perhaps he was even sincere when he made the promise; but there were +sixty miles of moonlight in which his desire could ride with him and +tempt him; and of a truth, Valencia did greatly desire to see those two +come together in combat! + +The saints were kind to Valencia, but they were also grimly just. +Because he so greatly desired an excuse for delay, they tricked Noches +with a broken willow branch that in the deceptive moonlight appeared to +be but the shadow of the branch above it. It caught him just under an +outflung knee as he galloped and flipped him neatly, heels to the stars. +He did not struggle to his feet even when Valencia himself, a bit dazed +by the fall, pulled upon the reins and called to him to rise. The horse +lay inert, a steaming, black mass in the road. The moon was sliding down +behind the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the chill breeze whispered that +dawn was coming fast upon the trail of the moonbeams. + +Valencia, when he saw that Noches would never gallop again, because he +had managed to break his sweat-lathered neck in the fall, sat down +beside the trail and rolled a corn-husk cigarette. His mood swung from +regret over the passing of as fleet and true a horse as ever he +bestrode, to gratitude to the saints for their timely hindrance of his +prompt delivery of the note. Truly it was now no fault of his that he +could never reach the hacienda before Manuel! He would have to walk and +carry his saddle, heavy with silver and wide skirts of stamped leather; +and he was a long way from the end of his journey, when he must cover +the distance with his own feet. Eight or ten miles, he estimated it +roughly; for he had passed José's hacienda some time before, and had +resisted the temptation to turn aside and find out if Manuel were there +or had gone on. He had not passed Manuel in the trail as he had boasted +that he would do, and not once had he glimpsed him anywhere, though +there had been places where the road lay straight, and he could see it +clear in the moonlight for a mile or more. + +When he had finished the cigarette and his thanks to Fate--or whatever +power had delayed him--he removed his saddle and bridle from the horse +and went on; and it was then that he began to understand that he must do +a penance for desiring war rather than peace amongst his fellows. +Valencia, after the first hour of tramping with his saddle on his +shoulders, had lost a good deal of his enthusiasm for the duel he felt +sure was already a certainty. + +When he left the road for a straight cut to the hacienda, the wild range +cattle hindered him with their curiosity, so that, using all the methods +known to a seasoned vaquero for driving them back, his progress had been +slow. But he finally came out into the road again and was plodding along +the stone wall within half a mile of the house, his face very +disconsolate because of his protesting feet and the emptiness in his +stomach, when Manuel himself confronted him suddenly coming from the +house. + +Manuel was looking well pleased with himself, in spite of his night +ride. He pulled up and stared wide-eyed at Valencia, who had no smile +with which to greet him but swore instead a pensive oath. + +"Dios! Is it for a wager that you travel thus?" grinned Manuel, +abominably comfortable upon a great, sorrel horse that pranced all round +Valencia in its anxiety to be upon its way home. "Look you, Valencia! +Since you are travelling, you had best go and tell the padres to make +ready the sacrament for your gringo friend, that blue-eyed one; for +truly his time on earth is short!" + +Valencia, at that, looked up into Manuel's face and smiled in spite of +the pain in his feet and the emptiness in his stomach. + +"Does it please you, then, Valencia? All night I rode to bear a message +to that blue-eyed one who thinks himself supremo in all things; a +challenge from Don José, to fight a duelo if he is not a coward; so did +José write. 'Unless you are afraid to meet me'--and the vanity of that +blue-eyed one is great, Valencia. Of a truth, the man is loco. What +think you, Valencia? He had the right to choose the weapons--and José +believed that he would choose those pistols of which you make so much +talk. Madre de Dios! What says the blue-eyed one, then?--and laughed in +my face while he spoke the words! 'Go tell Don José I will fight him +whenever and wherever he likes; and for weapons I choose riatas.' Heard +you anything--" + +"Riatas!" Valencia's jaw dropped an inch before he remembered that +Manuel's eyes were sharp and eager to read the thoughts of a man in the +twitching muscles of his face. + +"Sí, riatas!" Manuel's whole fat body shook with laughter. "Even you, +who are wholly bewitched by those gringos, even you are dismayed! Tell +me, Valencia, have you seen him lasso anything?" + +But Valencia, having pulled himself together, merely lifted his +shoulders and smiled wisely, so that even Manuel was almost deceived +into believing that Valencia's faith was great because it was built upon +a secret knowledge of what the blue-eyed one could do. + +"Me, I heard you boasting to those San Vincente vaqueros," Manuel +accused, shifting the talk to generalities. "And the Señor Hunter boasts +also that the blue-eyed one is supremo with the riata, as he is with +everything else!" The tone of Manuel was exceeding bitter. "Well, he +will have the chance to prove what he can do. No gringo can come among +us Californians and flap the wings and crow upon the tule thatch for +naught. There has been overmuch crowing, Valencia. Me, I am glad that +boaster must do something more than crow upon the thatch, Valencia!" + +"Sí, there has been overmuch crowing," Valencia retorted, giving to his +smile the lift that made it a sneer, "but the thatch has not been of +Picardo tules. Me, I think they grew within hearing of the mission bells +of Santa Clara! And the gallo [rooster] which crows is old and fat, and +feeds too much upon the grapes that are sour! Adios! I must haste to +give congratulations to the Señor Jack, that he will have opportunity to +wring the necks of those loud-crowing gallos of the Pacheco thatches." + +Whereupon he picked up his saddle and walked on, very straight in the +back and patently unashamed of the injustice of his charge; for it was +the crowing of Valencia himself beside the San Vincente camp-fire that +had brought Manuel with the message, and Valencia knew that perfectly +well. + +The family of Don Andres had been breakfasting upon the wide veranda +when Manuel strode grimly across the patio and confronted them. They +were still seated there when Valencia, having deposited his riding gear +at the saddle-hut, limped to the steps and stood with his sunny smile +upon his face and his sombrero brim trailing the dust. It seemed to +Valencia that the don was displeased; he read it in the set of his head, +in the hardness that was in his glance, in a certain inflexible quality +of his voice. + +"Ah, Valencia," he said, rising as if the interruption was to put an end +to his lingering there, "you also seem to have ridden in haste from the +rodeo. Truly, I think that same rodeo has been but the breeding-ground +of gossip and ill-feeling, and is like to bear bitter fruit. Well, you +have a message, I'll warrant. What is it?" + +Valencia's mien was respectful almost to the point of humility. "The +majordomo sent me with a letter, which I was to deliver into the hands +of the Señor Allen," he said simply. "My hope was that I might arrive +before Manuel"--he caught a flicker of wrath in the eyes of the don at +the name and smiled inwardly--"but the moonlight played tricks upon the +trail, and my caballo tripped upon a willow-branch and fell upon his +head so that his neck was twisted. I was forced to walk and carry the +saddle, and there were times when the cattle interrupted with their +foolish curiosity, and I must stop and set the riata hissing to frighten +them back, else they would perchance have trampled me. So I fear that I +arrive too late, Don Andres. But truly I did my best; a full hour behind +Manuel I started, and have walked ten miles of the sixty. The saints +know well--" + +Don Andres checked his apologies with a wave of the hand, and sat down +somewhat heavily in his favorite chair, as if he were tired, though the +day was but fairly begun. + +"We do not doubt your zeal," he observed dryly. "Give the letter to the +señor and begone to your breakfast. And," he added impressively, "wait +you and rest well until the answer is ready; for perchance there will be +further need to test the kindness of the saints--and the speed of a +horse." + +Valencia fumbled within his sash and brought forth the small, folded +square of paper, went up two steps and placed it in Jack's upturned +palm, gave Jack also a glance more kindly and loyal than ever he had +received from that minx, Teresita, and went away to the vaqueros' +quarters. Valencia had learned nothing from the meeting, except that the +don was in one of his rare fits of ill-temper. + +"Yet I know that there will be a duelo," he comforted himself with +thinking, as he limped wearily across the patio. "The face of the patron +is black because of it, and a little devil-flame burns in the eyes of +the señorita because for love of her men would fight--(Such is the way +of women, to joy in those things which should give them, fear!)--and +the señora's face is sagged with worry, and Señor Jack--ah, there is the +fighting look in those eyes! Never have I seen them so dark: like the +bay when a storm is riding upon the wind. And it will be riatas--for so +Manuel told me. Me, I will wager my saddle upon the Señor Jack, even +though riatas be the weapons. For he is wily, that blue-eyed one; never +would he choose the rawhide unless he knew its hiss as he knows his own +heartbeats. Let it be riatas, then, if so the señor chooses!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A FIESTA WE SHALL HAVE + + +Jack, unfolding the crumpled paper, read twice the note from Dade, and +at each reading gave a little snort. He folded the paper, unfolded it +and read again: + + "Dear Jack, + + "If José wants to fight, take a fool's advice and don't. Better + quit the ranch and go back to town for a while--Valencia will + get there ahead of Manuel, he says, and you can pull out before + Manuel shows up. A licking might do José good, but it would stir + up a lot of trouble and raise hell all around, so crawl into any hole + you come to. I'll quit as soon as rodeo is over, and meet you in + town. Now don't be bull-headed. Let your own feelings go into + the discard for once, and do what's best for the whole valley. + Everything's going smooth here. Noah's dove ain't got any the best of + me and José, and the boys are working fine. + + "Dade." + +"At least your majordomo agrees with you, Don Andres," he said, twisting +the note unthinkingly in his fingers. "Dade wants me to sneak off to +town and hide in Bill Wilson's cellar." There was more resentment in his +tone than the note itself had put there; for the argument which Valencia +had unwittingly interrupted had been threatening to become acrimonious. + +"My majordomo," replied Don Andres, his habitual courtesy just saving +the words from becoming a retort, "continues to show that rare good +sense which first attracted me to him." + +The señora moved uneasily in her chair and smiled deprecatingly at Jack, +then imploringly at her husband. This was washing day, and those +shiftless ones within would overlook half the linen unless she was on +the spot to watch and direct. But these two had come to their first +clash of wills, and her husband had little liking for such firm defiance +of his wishes. Well she knew the little weather-signs in his face. When +his eyebrows took just that tilt, and when the nostrils were drawn in +and quivered with his breathing, then was it wise that she should remain +by his side. The señora knew well that words are never so harsh between +the male of our species when their women are beside them. So, suffering +mental torment because of the careless peonas, she, nevertheless, sent +Teresita after the fine, linen apron from which she meant to remove a +whole two inches of woof for the new pattern of drawnwork which the +Donna Lucia had sent her. She would remain as a buffer between these two +whose eyes were too hard when they looked at each other. + +"It seems a pity that young men nowadays cannot contain themselves +without quarreling," sighed the señora, acting upon the theory that +anger is most dangerous when it is silent, and so giving the +conversational ball a push. + +"Is there no way, Señor, in which you might avert this trouble? Truly it +saddens me to think of it, for José has been as my own son. His mother +and I were as twin sisters, Señor, and his mother prayed me to watch +over him when she had gone. 'Sí, madre mia' would he tell me, when I +gave him the good counsel. And now he comes no more, and he wants to +fight the duelo! Is there no way, Señor?" + +The hardness left Jack's lips but not his eyes, while he looked from her +to the don, smoking imperturbably his cigar beside her. + +"There is no way, Señora, except for a coward. I have done what I could; +I know that José's skill is great with riatas, and the choice was mine. +I might have said pistols," he reminded her gently, but with meaning. + +The plump hands of the señora went betrayingly into the air and her +earrings tinkled with the horror that shook her cushiony person. "Not +pistols! No, no--for then José would surely be killed! Gracias, Señor! +With riatas my José can surely give good account of himself. Three times +has he won the medalla oro in fair contest. He is a wizard with the +rawhide. Myself, I have wept with pride to see him throw it at the +fiestas--" + +"Mother mine, Margarita would have you come at once," the señorita +interrupted her. "Little Francisco has burned his legs with hot water, +and Margarita thinks that your poultice--" + +With twittering exclamations of dismay over the, accident the two women +hurried away to minister to the burned legs of Francisco, and Jack rose +and flung away his cigarette. His mouth had again the stubborn look +which Dade knew so well, and dreaded also. + +"I am sorry for this unpleasantness," he said perfunctorily, stopping +before Don Andres. "But as I told the señora, I have done all that I can +do. I have named riatas. I don't think even you, Don Andres, could ask +more of me. Surely you wouldn't want to know that your roof had +sheltered a coward?" + +Don Andres waved away the challenge which the question carried. "Still, +it seems a pity that my family must be made the subject of gossip +because of the foolishness of two young men," he said doggedly, +returning to his argument. "They will say that it is because of my +daughter that you fight; and the friendship of years must be set aside +while two hot-heads vent their silly spite--" + +"It need not." Jack's head went up an inch. "I can leave your employ, +Don Andres, at any moment. There is no need for you to be caught between +the duties of hospitality and those of friendship. I can do anything--I +am willing to do anything--except crawl into a hole, as Dade wrote for +me to do." A fine, spirited picture he made, standing there with the +flames of wrath in his eyes and with neck stiff and his jaws set hard +together. + +Don Andres looked up at him with secret approval. He did not love a +coward, and truly, this young fellow was brave. And José had +deliberately sought the quarrel from the first; justice compelled him to +remember that. + +"If it might be arranged--" The don was studying the situation and the +man together. "Almost have I grasped the thread that will unravel the +whole. No, no! I do not mean your going, Señor. That would but limber +the tongue of scandal; and besides, I do not mean that I withdraw my +friendship from you. A man must be narrow, indeed, if he cannot carry +more than one friendship in his soul. + +"Sit you down, Señor, while I think a moment," he urged. "Surely it can +be arranged without hurt to the fair name of--of any. Riatas--ah, now I +have it, Señor! Dullard, not to have thought of it at once! Truly must I +be in my dotage!" He did not mean that, of course, and he was quite +openly pleased when Jack smiled and shook his head. + +"Listen, Señor, and tell me if the plan is not a good one! To-morrow +Valencia shall ride back to the rodeo, with a message to all from me, +Don Andres Picardo. I shall proclaim a fiesta, Señor--such a fiesta as +even Monterey never rivaled in the good old days when we were subject to +his Majesty, the King. A fiesta we shall have, as soon as may be after +the rodeo is over. There will be sports such as you Americanos know +nothing of, Señor. And there openly, before all the people, you shall +contest with José for a prize which I shall give, and for the medalla +oro if you will; for you shall have the privilege of challenging José, +the champion, to contest for the medalla. And there will be a prize--and +I doubt not--" He was thinking that there would probably be two prizes, +though only one which he could proclaim publicly. + +"Myself, I shall write to José and beg him to consider the honor of his +father's name and of the name of his father's friend, and consent that +the duelo shall take place under the guise of sport. It must not be to +the death, Señor. Myself, I shall insist that it shall not be to the +death. Before all the people, and women, and niños--and besides, I do +not wish that José should--" There again he checked himself, and Jack's +lips twitched at the meaning he read into the break. + +"But if there should be an accident?" Jack's eyes probed for the soul of +the old man; the real soul of the Spanish grandee under the +broad-minded, easy-natured, Californian gentleman. He probed, and he +thought he found what he was seeking; he thought it showed for just an +instant in his eyes and in the upward lift of his white mustache. + +"An accident would be deplorable, Señor," he said. "We will hope that +there will be no accident. Still, José is a very devil when the riata is +hissing over his head, and he rides recklessly. Señor, permit me to warn +you that José is a demon in the saddle. Not for nothing does he hold the +medalla oro." + +"Gracias, Don Andres. I shall remember," said Jack, and walked away to +the stables. + +He felt that the heart of Don Andres Picardo was warring with his +intelligence. That although his wide outlook and his tolerance would +make friends of the gringos and of the new government--and quite +sincerely--still, the heart of him was true Spanish; and the fortunes of +his own blood-kin would send it beating fast or slow in sympathy, while +his brain weighed nicely the ethics of the struggle. Jack was not much +given to analyzing the inner workings of a man's mind and heart, but he +carried with him a conviction that it was so. + +He hunted up Diego, and found him putting a deal of gratuitous labor +upon the silver trimmings of the new saddle. Diego being the peon in +whose behalf Jack had last winter interfered with Perkins, his gratitude +took the form of secret polishings upon the splendid riding-gear, the +cleaning of Jack's boots and such voluntary services. Now the silver +crescents which Teresita ridiculed were winking up at him to show they +could grow no brighter, and he was attacking vigorously the "milky way" +that rode behind the high cantle. Diego grinned bashfully when Jack's +shadow flung itself across the saddle and so announced his coming, and +stood up and waited humbly before the white señor who had fought for +him, a mere peon, born to kicks and cursings rather than to kindness, +and so had won the very soul of him. + +"Bueno," praised Jack patronizingly. "Now I have some real work for you, +Diego, and it must be done quickly and well." + +"Gracias, Señor," murmured Diego, abashed by such favor, and bowed low +before his god. + +"The riata must be dressed now, Diego, and dressed until it is soft as a +silken cord, sinuous as the green snakes that live in the streams, and +not one strand must be frayed and weakened. Sabe? Too long have I +neglected to have it done, and now it must be done in haste--and done +well. Can you dress it so that it will be the most perfect riata in +California, Diego?" A twinkle was in Jack's eyes, but Diego was too +dazzled by the graciousness of his god to see it there. He made +obeisance more humble than before. + +"Sí, Señor," he promised breathlessly. "Never has riata been dressed as +this riata shall be. By the Holy Mother I swear it." + +"Bueno. For listen! Much may hang upon the strength and the softness of +it." He fixed his eyes sternly upon the abject one. "It may mean my life +or my death, Diego. For in a contest with Don José Pacheco will I use +it." + +"Sí, Señor," gasped Diego, awed into trembling. "By my soul I swear--" + +"You needn't. Save some of your energy for the rawhide. You'll want all +you've got before you're through." Jack, having made an impression deep +enough to satisfy the most exacting of masters, dropped to his natural +tone and speech. "Get some one to help, and come with me to the +orchard." + +From the saddle-house he brought the six-strand, rawhide riata which +Manuel had bought for him and which his carelessness had left still +stiff and unwieldy, and walked slowly into the orchard, examining +critically each braided strand as he went. Manuel, he decided, was +right; the riata was perfect. + +Diego, trailing two horsehair ropes and carrying a stout, smooth stick +of oak that had evidently been used before for the work, came running +after Jack as if he were going to put out a fire. Behind him trotted a +big, muscular peon who saw not half the reason for haste that blazoned +itself across the soul of Diego. + +Thus the three reached the orchard, where Jack selected two pear trees +that happened to stand a few feet more than the riata length apart; and +Diego, slipping a hair rope through the hondo of the riata, made fast +the rope to a pear tree. The other end he tied to the second hair rope, +drew the riata taut and tied the rope securely to the second tree. He +picked up the oaken stick, examined it critically for the last time, +although he knew well that it was polished smooth as glass from its work +on other riatas, twisted the riata once around it and signed to the +other peon. + +Each grasping an end of the stick and throwing all their weight against +it, they pushed it before them along the stretched riata. As they +strained toward the distant pear tree the rawhide smoked with the +friction of the stick in the twist. It was killing work, that first trip +from tree to tree, but Diego joyed in thus serving his blue-eyed god. +As for the other, Roberto, he strained stolidly along the line, using +the strength that belonged to his master the patron just as +matter-of-factly as he had used it since he was old enough to be called +a man. + +Jack, leaning against a convenient tree in the next row, smoked a +cigarette and watched their slow, toilsome progress. Killing work it +was, but the next trip would be easier after that rendering of the stiff +tissue. When the stick touched the hondo, the two stopped and panted for +a minute; then Diego grasped his end of the stick and signaled the +return trip. Again it took practically every ounce of strength they had +in their muscular bodies, but they could move steadily now, instead of +in straining, spasmodic jerks. The rawhide sizzled where it curled +around the stick. They reached the end and stopped, and Jack commanded +them to sit down and have a smoke before they did more. + +"It is nothing, Señor. We can continue, since the señor has need of +haste," panted Diego, brushing from his eyes the sweat that dripped from +his eyebrows. + +"Not such haste that you need to kill yourselves at it," grinned Jack, +and went to examine the riata. Those two trips had accomplished much +towards making it a pliable, live thing in the hands of one skilled to +direct its snaky dartings here and there, wherever one willed it to go. +Many trips it would require before the riata was perfect, and then-- + +"The señor is early at his prayers," observed a soft, mocking voice +behind him. + +Jack dropped the riata and turned, his whole face smiling a welcome. But +Teresita was in one of her perverse moods and the mockery was not all in +her voice; her eyes were maddeningly full of it as she looked from him +to the stretched riata. + +"The señor is wise to tell the twists in his riata as I tell my beads--a +prayer for each," she cooed. "For truly he will need the prayers, and a +riata that will perform miracles of its own accord, if he would fight +José with rawhide." There was the little twist of her lips afterward +which Jack had come to know well and to recognize as a bull recognizes +the red serape of the matador. + +"Señor," she added impressively, holding back her hair from blowing +across her face and gazing at him wide-eyed, with a wicked assumption of +guileless innocence, "at the Mission San José there is a very old and +very wise woman. She lives in a tule hut behind the very walls of the +Mission, and the Indians go to her by night when dreams have warned them +that death threatens. She is a terribly wise old woman, Señor, for she +can look into the past and part the curtain which hides the future. For +gold will she part it. And for gold will she put the curse or the +blessing where curse or blessing is needed most. Go you to the old woman +and have her put a blessing upon the riata when it is dressed and you +have prayed your prayers upon it, Señor! For five pesos will she bless +it and command it to fly straight wherever the señor desires that it +shall fly. Then can you meet José and not tremble so that the spur-bells +tinkle." + +Jack went hot inside of him, but he made his lips smile at the jest; for +so do brave men try to make light of torment, whether it be fire or +flood or the tongue of the woman they love. + +"All right," he said. "And I think I'll have the judges rule that the +fight shall be at fifty paces, as I would if we were to fight with +pistols." He tried to keep his irritation out of his voice, but there +must have been enough to betray him. + +For Teresita smiled pleasedly and sent another barb. "It would be wise. +For truly, José's equal has never been seen, and caballeros I have known +who would swear that José's riata can stretch to fifty paces and more to +find its mark." + +"Is it anxiety for me that makes you so solicitous?" demanded Jack, +speaking low so that the peons could not overhear. + +"Perhaps--and perhaps it is pride; for I know well the skill and the +bravery of my José." Again the twist of her pretty, pouting lips, +blood-red and tempting. + +Her José! For just a minute the face of Teresita showed vague to him +before his wrathful eyes. + +"When you tell your beads again, Señorita," he advised her crisply, "say +a prayer or two for your José also. For I promise you now that I will +shame him before your face, and if he lives afterward to seek your +sympathy, it will be by grace of my mercy!" + +"Santa Maria, what a fierce señor!" Her laughter mocked him. "Till the +fiesta I shall pray--for you!" Then she turned and ran, looking over her +shoulder now and again to laugh at him. + +Always before, when she had teased and flouted and fled laughing, Jack +had pursued her with long strides, and in the first sequestered nook had +made her lips pay a penalty. But this time he stood still and let her +go--which must have puzzled the señorita very much, and perhaps piqued +her pride as well. For the girl who flouts and then flees laughing +surely invites pursuit and an inexorable exaction of the penalty. And if +she is left to flee in safety, then must the flouted one pay for his +stupidity, and pay high in the coin of love. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +WHAT IS LOVE WORTH? + + +Valencia swung down from his belathered horse as lightly as though he +had not spent seven hours in the saddle and during those seven hours had +covered more miles than he would have years to live. His smile was wide +and went as deep as his emotions had thus far plumbed his nature, and +his voice had the exultant note of a child who has wonderful news to +tell. He gave Dade a letter, and his very gesture was triumphant; and +the eyes were eager that watched his majordomo read. He bubbled with +words that he would like to say, but he waited. + +"So you didn't get there in time, after all," Dade observed, looking up +from Jack's characteristic signature, in which the tail of the "k" +curled around the whole like a mouse lying asleep. "Manuel came back +this morning, and the whole camp is talking nothing but duelo. I thought +you said--" + +"Señor, the saints would not permit that I should arrive first," +Valencia explained virtuously. "A stick tripped Noches and he fell, and +broke his neck in the fall. The señor knows well the saints had a hand +in that, for hundreds of horses fall every day thus without hurt. Never +before in my life have I seen a horse die thus, Señor! I was compelled +to walk and carry the saddle, yet such haste I made that Manuel met me +by the stone wall as he was leaving. And at least twelve miles I +walked--" + +"Oh, all right," Dade waved away further apology. "I reckon you did your +best; it can't be helped now. They're going to fight with riatas, Manuel +says. Is that right?" + +"But not the duelo, Señor--no, but in the contest. For sport, that all +may witness, and choose who is champion, after the bull-fighting, and +the--" + +"What are you talking about, man?" Dade's hand fell heavily upon the +shoulder of Valencia, swaying his whole body with the impact. "Are you +loco, to talk of bull-fightings?" + +"It is the fiesta, Señor! The patron himself has proclaimed the grand +fiesta, such as they have in Monterey, only this will be greater; and +then those two will fight their duelo with riatas, yes; but not to the +death, Señor. The patron himself has declared it. For the medalla oro +and also for a prize will they fight; and the prize--what think you, +Señor?" + +Valencia, a-quiver with eagerness, laid a slim hand upon the braided +front of Dade's close-fitting buckskin jacket. + +"The prize will be Solano! That beautiful caballo--beautiful even as thy +Surry--which the patron has not permitted rawhide to touch, except for +the branding. Like the sunshine he is, with his hair of gold; and the +tail that waves to his heels is like the ripples on the bay at sunrise. +Who wins the duelo shall have Solano for his own, and shall ride him +before all the people; for such is the patron's word. From his own lips +I heard it! Me, I think that will be the greatest sport of all, for he +is wild as the deer on the mountain slopes--that yellow caballo, and +strong as the bull which the patron will choose to fight the grizzly he +will bring from the mountains. + +"Listen, Señor! The mother of Solano was a she-devil under the saddle, +and killed two men by throwing herself upon them; and the sire was +Satanas, of whom stories are told around the camp-fires as far south as +San Luis Obispo. + +"Ah, he is wise, the patron! 'Then let them also prove their courage in +other ways. Let the victor pray to the saints and ride Solano, who is +five years old and has never felt the riata since he left his mother's +side--who was a devil.' Me, I heard the soul of the patron speak thus, +while the lips of the patron said to me: + +"'Go back to the rodeo, Valencia, and proclaim to all that I will give +the grand fiesta with sports to please all. Tell them that already two +have agreed to contest with riatas for a prize--' Look you, Señor, how +wily is the patron!--'And for the prize I name the gelding, Solano, who +has never known weight of saddle. Tell them, Valencia, that the victor +shall ride his prize for all the crowd to see. And if he is thrown, then +Solano will be forfeit to the other, who must ride him also. There will +be other sports and other prizes, Valencia, and others may contest in +riding, in the lassoing and tying of wild steers, in running. But say +that Don José Pacheco and the Señor Jack Allen will contest with riatas +for the possession of Solano.' Ah, Señor--" + +"Ah, Valencia, why not scatter some of your enthusiasm over the other +camp-fires?" Dade broke in quizzically. "Go and proclaim it, then. Tell +the San Vincente men, and the Las Uvas, and all the other vaqueros." + +Valencia, grinned and departed, leaving behind him in the loose sand +tracks more than three feet apart to show how eager was his obedience; +and Dade sat down upon a dead log that had been dragged to the Picardo +camp-fire, to consider how this new phase of the affair would affect the +temper of the people who owned such warm hearts and such hot heads. + +A fiesta, with the duelo fought openly under the guise of a contest for +the medal and a prize which was well worth any man's best +efforts--surely, Don Andres was wily, as Valencia said. But with all the +people of the valley there to see, their partisanship inflamed by the +wine of festivity and the excitement of the sports themselves--what +then? + +Dade thoughtfully rolled a corn-husk cigarette, and tried to peer into +the future. As it looked to him, he and Jack were rather between the +devil and the deep sea. If Jack were beaten, they would be scorned and +crowed over and humiliated beyond endurance. Neither was made of the +stuff to stand much of that, and they would probably wind up with both +hands and their hats full of trouble. And to himself he admitted that +there was a fair chance of that very result. He had not been blind, and +José had not shrunk into the background when there was riata-work and +riding to be done on the rodeo ground. Dade had watched him as jealously +as it was in his nature to do, and the eyes of jealousy are keen indeed; +and he had seen José make many throws, and never a miss. Which, if you +know anything of rope-work, was a remarkable record for any man. So +there was a good chance of José winning that fight. In his heart Dade +knew it, even if his lips never would admit it. + +Well, supposing José was beaten; suppose Jack won! What then? Dade blew +a mouthful of smoke towards the camp-fire, deserted except for himself, +while his vaqueros disported themselves with their neighbors, and shook +his head. He had a little imagination; perhaps he had more than most men +of his type. He could see a glorious row, if José were beaten. It would, +on the whole, be more disastrous than if he won. + +"And she's just fickle-minded enough to turn up her nose at Jack if he +got beat," Dade grumbled, thinking of a certain señorita. "And if he +don't, the whole bunch will pile onto us. Looks to me like a worse +combination than that Vigilance row, for Jack. If he wins, he gets +knifed; if he don't, he gets hell. And me the only one to back him up! +I'll wish I was about forty men seven foot high and armed with--" + +"Pardon, Señor. The señor has of course heard the news?" José came out +of the shadows and stood with the firelight dancing on his face and +picking out the glittery places on his jacket, where was the braid. "I +have a letter from Don Andres. Would the señor care to read it? No? The +señor is welcome to read. I have no wish to keep anything hidden which +concerns this matter. I have brought the letter, and I want to say +that the wishes of my friend, Don Andres, shall be granted. Except," he +added, coming closer, "that I shall fight to the death. I wish the Señor +Allen to understand this, though it must he held a secret between us +three. An accident it must appear to those who watch, because the duelo +will be proclaimed a sport; but to the death I will fight, and I trust +that the Señor Allen will fight as I fight. Does the señor understand?" + +"Yes, but I can't promise anything for Jack." Dade studied José quietly +through the smoke of his cigarette. "Jack will fight to please himself, +and nobody can tell how that will be, except that it won't be tricky. He +may want to kill you, and he may not. I don't know. If he does, he'll +try his damnedest, you can bank on that." + +"But you, Señor--do you not see that to fight for a prize merely is to +belittle--" José waved a hand eloquently. + +"I see you're taking life pretty serious," Dade retorted, moving farther +along the log. "Sit down, José, and be sociable. Nothing like seeing the +point of a joke, if there is one. Do you reckon anything's worth all the +heart-burnings you're indulging in? Some things are tough; I've waded +kinda deep, myself, so I know. But there's nothing you can't get over, +with time and lots of common sense, except being a sneak--and being +dead. To me, one's as bad as the other, with maybe first choice on +death. You aren't a sneak, and I don't see why you hanker to be dead. +What do you want to fight to the death for?" + +[Illustration: "An accident it must appear to those who watch"] + +José did not sit down beside Dade, but he came a little closer, "Why do +I want to fight to the death? I will tell you, Señor; I am not ashamed. +Since I was a child I have loved that señorita whom I will not name to +you. Only last Christmas time the señora, her mother, said I must wait +but a year longer till she was a little older. They would keep their +child a little longer, and truly her heart is the heart of a child. But +she knew; and I think she waited also and was happy. But look you, +Señor! Then comes a stranger and steals-- + +"Ah, you ask me why must I fight to the death? Señor, you are a man; +perchance you have loved--for of a truth I see sometimes the sadness in +your eyes. You know that I must fight thus. You know that to kill that +blue-eyed one is all there is left to do. Me, I could have put him out +of the way before now, for there are many knives ready to do me the +service. Kill him I shall, Señor; but it shall be in fight; and if the +señorita sees--good. She shall know then that at least it is not a +coward or a weakling who loves her. Do you ask why--" + +Dade's hands went out, dismissing the question. "No, I don't ask another +blamed thing. Go ahead and fight. Fight to kill, if that's the only +thing that will satisfy you. You two aren't the first to lock horns over +a woman. Jack seems just as keen for it as you are, so I don't reckon +there's any stopping either one of you. But it does seem a pity!" + +"Why does it seem a pity?" José's tone was insistent. + +"It seems a pity," Dade explained doggedly, "to see two fine fellows +like you and Jack trying to kill each other for a girl--that isn't worth +the life of either one of you!" + +In two steps José confronted him, his hand lifted to strike. Dade, +looking up at him, flicked the ashes from his cigarette with his +forefinger, but that was the only move he made. José's hand trembled and +came down harmlessly by his side. + +"I was mistaken," he said, smiling queerly. "You have never loved any +woman, Señor; and I think the sadness I have seen in your eyes is for +yourself, that life has cheated you so. If you had known love, you could +never have said that. Love, Señor, is worth everything a man has to +give--even his life. You would know that, if you had ever loved." He +waited a moment, closed his teeth upon further words, turned abruptly on +his heel and went away into the fog-darkened night. + +Dade, with a slight curl to his lips that did not look quite like a +smile, stared into the fire, where the embers were growing charred for +half their length, and the flames were waving wearily and shrinking back +to the coals, and the coals themselves were filmed with gray. The +cigarette went cold and clammy in his fingers, and in his eyes was that +sadness of which José had spoken; and something else besides. + +They would fight, those two, and fight to kill. Since the world was +first peopled, men had fought as they would fight--for love; for the +possession of a pretty thing--warm, capricious, endearing, with possibly +a heart and a soul beneath; possibly. And love--what was love, after +all? What is love worth? He had loved her, too; at least, he had felt +all the emotions that either of them had felt for her. He was not sure +that he did not still feel them, or would if he let himself go. He did +not believe, however, that those emotions were worth more than +everything else in the world; more than his life, or honor, or +friendship. He had choked love, strangled it, starved it for sake of +friendship; and, sitting there staring abstractedly into the filming +coals, he wondered if he had done wrong; if those two were right, and +love was worth fighting for. + +The man who fought the hardest, he felt, would in this case win that for +which he fought. For he felt in his heart, that Teresita was only a +pretty little animal, the primitive woman who would surrender to +strength; and that he would win in the end who simply refused to yield +before her coquetries. + +With a quick, impatient gesture he threw his cigarette into the coals, +kicked viciously a lazily smoking brand which sent up a little blaze and +a spurt of sparks that died almost immediately to dull coals again. + +"Love's like that," he muttered pessimistically, standing up and +stretching his arms mechanically. "And the winner loses in the end; +maybe not always, but he will in this case. Poor old Jack! After all, +she ain't worth it. If she was--" His chin went down for a minute or +two, while he stared again at the fire. "If she was, I'd--But she ain't. +Love's worth--what is love worth, anyway?" + +He did not answer the question with any degree of positiveness, and he +went to bed wishing that he had never seen the valley of Santa Clara. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ANTICIPATION + + +To give a clear picture of the preparations for that fiesta, one should +be able to draw with strokes as swift as the horses that galloped up and +down the valley at the behest of riders whose minds titillated with +whatever phase of the fiesta appealed to them most; and paint with +colors as vivid as were the dreams of the women, from the peonas in the +huts to the señoritas and señoras murmuring behind the shelter of their +vines. + +One would need tell of those who went boldly into the mountains to find +a grizzly bear and bring it alive and unhurt to the pen, which the +peons, with feverish zeal and much chattering amongst themselves, were +building close beside the smallest corral. + +A great story it would make--the tale of that hunt! A man came back from +it with a forearm torn sickeningly, to show how brave he had been. And +the bear came also--a great, gaunt she-bear with two cubs whimpering +beside her in the cage, and in her eyes a sullen hunger for the giant +redwoods that stood so straight and strong together upon the steep +slopes while they sang crooningly the songs she knew of old, and a +glowing hatred for her captors. + +A story that would make! A story in which Jerry Simpson and Tige played +valiant part and bore more than their share of the danger, and became +heroes to those who went with them. + +One would need to picture somehow the bubbling excitement of Teresita, +while she planned and replanned her festal garments, and tell how often +she found it necessary to ride with Jack across the valley to talk the +matter over with the "pretty Señora" Simpson, or to the Mission San José +to see what Rosa had at last decided to wear. + +Then, there would be the solemn conferences in the kitchen, between +Margarita and the señora herself; conferences that had to do with cakes +and preserves and the like, with the niños getting in every one's way, +while they listened and smacked lips over the very naming of so many +good things to eat. + +One would need see the adobe corral that was to be transformed into an +amphitheater where were hammering and clatter from sunrise till dark, +without even a pause for midday siesta amongst those lazy peons who +would sleep over their cigarettes, though the padres stood over them +predicting the end of the world the next moment. + +Well in the foreground of the picture would be Jack, to be sure; Jack +riding far afield upon Surry, whom he had found the best horse for his +purpose upon the whole ranch; lassoing cattle to get his hand in, +practising certain little twists of his own invention, and teaching +Surry to know without fail just what certain signals meant, and obey +instantly and implicitly when they were given. + +Sometimes, when the señorita was not in a perverse mood, she would ride +with him and applaud his dexterity; at other times she would boast of +José's marvelous skill, and pity Jack in advance for the defeat which +she pretended was inevitable. Whether she pitied or praised, she seemed +always sincere for the moment, so that Jack gave up any lingering hope +of knowing how she really felt about it, and contented himself with the +determination to deflect all the pity towards José when the time came, +and keep the praise for himself. + +There would be other contests; and scarce a day passed wherein no horse +loped heavily up the slope and stopped with heaving flanks in the patio, +while its rider dismounted and bowed low before Don Andres, giving news +of some vaquero who wished his name to be listed as a contestant in the +riding, or the lassoing and tying of steers, or in the bull-fight, +perchance. + +But there was no third name offered in the riata contest for which +Solano was announced as a prize. All up and down the valley; at the +ranches, on the trails when men met and stopped to talk awhile, and +around the camp-fires of the rodeo they talked of it; and many bets +would have been laid upon the outcome, had not all men been of one mind. +When José was not present, or Dade, or the more outspoken of the Picardo +vaqueros, always they spoke of it as the duelo riata, and took it for +granted that it would be fought to the death. Thus are secrets kept from +men who can read from their own natures the truth! The men of Santa +Clara lowered lids and smiled whenever they spoke of it as a contest, +for as a duel had the word first gone forth from the exultant lips of +Manuel; as a duel would it still remain among themselves, spite of the +fiesta and the prize that was offered, and the reiteration that it was +but sport. + +One should picture the whole valley for the background; a sunken +paradise of greenery, splotched with color, made alive with bird-songs +and racing cloud-shadows on the grass; with the wooded slopes of the +Santa Cruz mountains closing in upon the west and sheltering it from the +sweeping winds from off the ocean, and the grassy hills rising high and +rugged on the east, giving rich pasturage to the cattle and all the wild +things that fed there. + +When it was complete--that picture--then might one weep to be there in +the midst of it all! For there would be much laughter, and the +love-making would make young pulses beat fast to think upon. There would +be dancing, and the tinkle of guitars and mandolins, and a harp or two +to beat a harmonious surf-song beneath the waves of melody. There would +be feasting, with whole beeves roasted over pits which the peons were +already digging in their dreams; with casks of wine from the don's own +vineyard to wash down the juicy morsels. There would be all that +throughout one long, moonlit night, with the day of sports to think back +upon. And through the night they would talk of the duelo riata between +two men who loved one little señorita who laughed much and cared little, +said certain wise señoras, and nodded their heads while they said it. + +What if some hearts were bitter over the prospect? From Santa Barbara, +even, were they coming to the fiesta! (Gustavo had the news from a peon +who came straight through from Paso Robles on an errand for his master.) + +What if Dade, thinking and thinking until his brain was dizzy, lay long +hours awake in his blankets and stared up at the star-sprinkle in the +purple night-sky, trying to find a path that would lead to peace? The +señorita lay awake also, thinking smilingly that she had nearly finished +the embroidery upon the bodice she meant to wear, and that the pretty +señora had promised to do her black hair in a new and wonderful way that +should smart with envy the eyes of all the other señoritas when they +saw; and that the señora her mother had reluctantly promised that she +should wear the gold chain with the rubies glowing along every little +thumb-length of it; thinking also, perhaps, of how she had made the +Señor Jack's eyes grow dark and then flash anger-lights, when she +taunted him again about going to the wise old woman at the Mission San +José for a charm to make the riata fly true! + +What if the old don, seeing also that trouble hung like a vulture over +the feast, paced uneasily up and down the vine-hidden veranda, while he +meditated upon the follies of youth? The young steers that had been +driven in for the roasting-pits were trampling uneasily about the little +corral where they had been put to fatten; and Gustavo walked with his +head thrown back upon his shoulders that he might read that open page +which was the sky, and to any anxious ones who asked, he had but one +answer and that a comforting one: + +"The day will be a day of sunshine, with linnets singing in the trees +and the smallest breeze to cool the cheek." The anxious ones, hearing so +good an augury, would pass on, their thoughts upon the day-of-days and +on their lips a little smile. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +LOST! TWO HASTY TEMPERS + + +"One more throw, and then no more until the contest," Jack announced +placatingly, when he spied a lone bull standing just before a thicket of +chaparral and staring at them with stupid resentment that his siesta had +been disturbed. "A kiss for luck, little one!" + +Riata coiled in his hand, Jack rode closer and leaned to the girl, his +eyes and his voice caressing, his lips quivering for the kiss he craved. +It had come to kisses long before then, and to half promises, when her +mood was tender, that she would marry her blue-eyed one--sometime. + +Just now her mood was not tender. Jack was not to blame, nor was the +pretty Señora Simpson, although Mrs. Jerry was quite innocently and +unconsciously the cause. Mrs. Jerry had a headache, that day, and a fit +of the blues; and from the first moment when Teresita had entered the +cabin she had felt a lack of warmth in the pretty señora's manner that +had piqued her, who had lived upon adoration all her life. Mrs. Jerry +had even shown a disposition to shirk keeping her promise anent the new +way of doing Teresita's hair. + +She said that she didn't think she'd go to the fiesta, after all--which +was like calmly telling a priest that one does not, after all, feel as +if heaven is worth striving for. + +Teresita failed to see how the wistfulness was quite submerging the +twinkle in Mrs. Jerry's eyes, and if she had seen, she would never have +guessed what put it there; nor would she have understood why Mrs. Jerry +might shrink from attending that magnificent festival, perhaps the only +gringo woman in all the crowd, and a pitifully shabby gringo woman at +that. To her mind, Mrs. Jerry was beautiful and perfect, even in her +shapeless brown dress that was always clean. Teresita herself would +never have worn that dress at all, yet it did not occur to her that Mrs. +Jerry might have some very feminine quality of pride crowded down into +some corner of her sweet nature. So Teresita was mightily offended at +what she considered a slight from the only gringo woman she had ever +known; and she was also bitterly disappointed over the abandonment of +the new coiffure. + +"Why don't you wear it just the way it is, honey?" Mrs. Jerry had +suggested--and very sensibly, too. "I wouldn't go and twist it all up +and stick pins through it, if I was you. It's prettier just that way." + +Teresita had understood enough of that, thanks to the teachings of her +blue-eyed one, to know that the pretty señora did not mean to keep her +promise. She had gone almost immediately to the cabin door to tell Jack +that she was ready to go home. And Jack, deep in one of those +interminable conversations with Jerry himself, over on the pile of logs +that would one day be a stable if Jerry's hopes reached fruition, had +merely waved his hand carelessly when he saw her, and had given all his +attention to Jerry again. + +Of course, Teresita could not know that they were discussing a brief but +rancorous encounter which Jerry had had with Manuel that morning, when +the two happened to meet farther down the valley while Manuel was riding +his share of the rodeo circle. Two of José's men had been with Manuel, +and their attitude had been "purty derned upstropolus," according to +Jerry. (Jack decided after a puzzled minute that the strange word which +Jerry spoke with such relish must be Simpsonese for obstreperous.) They +had, in fact, attempted to drive off three of Jerry's oxen to the rodeo +ground, and only the characteristic "firmness" of Jerry had prevented +them from doing it. Jemina, he said, had helped some when pointed at +Manuel's scowling face; but Jerry opined that he would hereafter take +the twins along too when he rode out anywhere, and that he guessed he'd +cut another loophole or two in his cabin walls. + +All of these various influences had created an atmosphere which Teresita +felt and resented without attempting to understand. The big señor had +not given her the smiles and the funny attempts at conversation which +she had come to accept as a matter of course. The pretty señora had not +been as enthusiastic as she should have been, when Teresita showed her +the ruby chain which, like a child, she had brought over for the pretty +señora to admire. + +Therefore, Jack's lips found reason to tighten and cease their eager +quivering for a kiss. For Teresita twitched her shoulders pettishly and +her reins dexterously, and so removed herself some distance from the +kissing zone. + +"No? Well, I'll have to depend on my good riata, then. I'll take that +gentleman at twenty-five feet, and if I can get him to run right, I'll +heel him. Don't ride any closer, Teresita." + +He had not called her dulce corazon (sweetheart) as she had expected him +to call her; he had not even insisted upon the kiss, but had given up +altogether too tamely; and for that she rode closer to the bull in +spite. She even had some notion of getting in Jack's way, and of making +him miss if she could. She was seventeen, you see, and she was terribly +spoiled. + +Jack had never made any attempt to study the psychological twists of a +woman's nature. He contented himself with loving, and with being +straightforward and selfish and a bit arrogant in his love, after the +manner of the normal man. It would never occur to him that Teresita was +piqued because he had not called her sweetheart, and he straightway +sinned more grievously still. + +"Go back, the other way! He's liable to start in your direction," he +cried, intent upon her safety and his own whim to rope the beast. + +Teresita deliberately kicked her horse and loped forward. + +It would not be nice to say that bulls are like some humans, but it is a +fact that they are extremely illogical animals, full of impulses and +whims that have absolutely no relation to cause or effect. This bull had +not moved except to roll his eyes from one to the other of the riders. +If he meditated war he should, by all the bovine traditions of warfare, +have bellowed a warning and sent up a whiff or two of dirt over his +back, as one has a right to expect a pessimistic bull to do. Instead of +which he flung down his head and made an unexpected rush at +Teresita--and Jack had left his pistols at home. + +Jack's riata was coiled in his hand and his head was turned towards the +girl, his brain busy with his thoughts of her and her wilfulness. From +the tail of his eye he caught the first lunge of the bull, and that +automatic mental adjustment to unexpected situations, which we call +presence of mind, sent a knee-signal to Surry which that intelligent +animal obeyed implicitly. + +Surry rushed straight at the bull, but the triangle was a short one, and +there was much to do in that quarter of a minute. Teresita was stubborn +and would not turn and run; but she happened to be riding Tejon, who +knew something about bulls and was capable of acting upon his knowledge. +He whirled with hind feet for a pivot and ducked away from the horns +coming at him, and it was not one second too soon. The bull swept by, so +close that a slaver of foam was flung against Teresita's skirt as he +passed. + +He whirled to come back at the girl--and that time he seemed sure to +give that vicious, ripping jab he had so narrowly missed giving before; +even the girl saw that he would, and turned a little pale, and Tejon's +eyes glazed with terror. + +But Jack had gained the second he needed--the second that divided +adventure from tragedy. The riata loop shot from his upflung hand and +sped whimperingly on its errand, even as Tejon tried to swing away, +tripped, and tumbled to his knees. The riata caught the lifted forefeet +of the bull just as he stiffened his neck for the lunge. Surry braced +himself automatically when Jack drew tight the loop, and the bull went +down with a thud and lay with his forefeet held high in air, so close to +his quarry that the tip of one horn struck Tejon upon the knee and +flicked a raw, red spot there. + +Then Jack, in the revulsion from deadly fear to relief, was possessed by +one of those gusts of nervous rage that seized him sometimes; such a +brief fit of rage as made him kill lustfully three men in the space of +three heart-beats, almost, and feel regret because he could not keep on +killing. + +He did not run to Teresita and comfort her for her fright, as a lover +ought to have done. Instead he gave her one look as he went by, and that +a look of indignation for her foolishness. He ran to the bull, drew his +knife from his sash and tried to stab it in the brain; but his hand +shook so that he missed and only gave it a glancing gash that let much +blood flow. He swore and struck again, snapping the dagger blade short +off against the horns. Whereupon he threw the dagger violently from him +and gave an angry kick at the animal, as if he would kill it that way. + +"Savage!" cried Teresita, hysterically shrill. "Brute! Leave the poor +thing alone! It has done nothing, that you should beat it while it +cannot fight back." + +Jack, lifting his spurred foot for another kick, set it down and turned +to her dazedly. + +In her way as shaken by her narrow escape as he was himself, she +straightway called him brute and savage again, and sentimentally pitied +the bull because he lay upon his back with his front feet in the air, +and because the gash on his head was bleeding. + +Jack's rage passed as quickly as it came; but it left him stubborn under +her recriminations. + +"You are very soft-hearted, all of a sudden, señorita," he said, with a +fairly well-defined sneer, when he could bear no more. "You won't enjoy +the bull-fighting, then, to-morrow--for all you have been looking +forward to it so anxiously, and have robbed yourself of ribbons to +decorate the darts. It's not half so brutal to kill a bull that tries to +kill you, as it is to fill it with flag-trimmed arrows for fun, and only +put it out of its misery when you're tired of seeing it suffer! This +bull came near killing you! That's why I'm going to kill it." + +"You are not! Santa Maria, what a savage beast you are! Let him go +instantly! Let him go, I say!" + +If she had been on the ground, she would have stamped her foot. As it +was, she shook an adorably tiny fist at Jack, and blinked her long +lashes upon the tears of real, sincere anger that stood in her black +eyes, and gritted her teeth at him; for the señorita had a temper quite +as hot as Jack's, when it was roused, and all her life she had been +given her own way in everything. + +"Let him go this moment, or I shall never speak to you again!" she +threatened rashly. + +For answer, Jack walked deliberately past her to where Surry stood with +his feet braced still against the pull of the riata and his neck arched +knowingly, while he rolled the little wheel in the bit with his tongue. +Jack made himself a cigarette, lay down in the shade of his horse, and +smoked just as calmly as though his heart was not thumping so that he +could hear it quite plainly. She had gone the wrong way about making him +yield; threats had always acted like a goad upon Jack's anger, just as +they do upon most of us. + +Teresita looked at him in silence for a minute. And Jack, his head upon +his arm in a position that would give him a fair view of her from the +brim of his sombrero while he seemed to be taking no notice of her, +wondered how soon she would change her mood to coaxing, and so melt that +lump of obstinacy in his throat that would not let him so much as answer +her vixenish upbraidings. A very little coaxing would have freed the +bull then, and he would have kissed the red mouth that had reviled him, +and would have called her "dulce corazon," as she loved to have him do. +Such a very little coaxing would have been enough! + +"Dios! How I hate a gringo!" she cried passionately, just when Jack +believed she was going to cry "Señor Jack?" in that pretty, cooing tone +she had that could make the words as tender as a kiss. "José is right. +Gringos are savages and worse than savages. Stay and torture your bull, +then! I hate you! Never have I known hate, till now! I shall be glad +when José drags you from your horse to-morrow. I shall laugh and clap my +hands, and cry, 'Bravo, bravo, querido mio!' [my beloved] when you are +flung into the dirt where you belong. And when he kills you, I shall +kiss him for his reward, before all the people, and I shall laugh when +they fling you to the coyotes!" Yes, she said that; for she had a +temper--had the Señorita Teresita--and she had a tongue that could speak +words that burned like vitriol. + +She said more than has been quoted; epithets she hurled upon the +recumbent form that seemed a man asleep save for the little drift of +smoke from his cigarette; epithets which she had heard the vaqueros use +at the corrals upon certain occasions when they did not know that she +was near; epithets of which she did not know the meaning at all. + +"Bravo!" applauded some one, and she turned to see that Manuel and +Carlos, José's head vaquero, had ridden up to the group very quietly, +and had been listening for no one knew how long. + +The señorita was so angry that she was not in the least abashed by the +eavesdropping. She smiled wickedly, drew off a glove and tossed it to +Manuel, who caught it dexterously without waiting to see why she wanted +him to have it. + +"Take that to José, for a token," she cried recklessly. "Tell him I have +put a wish upon it; and if he wears it next his heart in the duelo +to-morrow he will win without fail. Tell José I shall ask the Blessed +Virgin to-night to let no accident befall him, and that I shall save the +first two dances for him and none other!" + +She was not a finished actress, because of her youth. She betrayed by a +glance his way that she spoke for Jack's benefit. And Jack, in the +hardening of his stubborn anger, blew a mouthful of smoke upward into a +ring which the breeze broke almost immediately, and laughed aloud. + +Teresita heard, bit her lips cruelly at failing to bring that stubborn +gringo to his feet--and to hers!--and wheeled Tejon close to Manuel and +Carlos. She rode away between the two towards home, and she did not +once look behind her until she had gone so far she feared she could not +see what her blue-eyed one was doing. Then she turned, and her teeth +went together with a click. For Jack was lying just as she had left him, +with his head upon his arm as if he might be asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +FIESTA DAY + + +Dade, rolling over in bed and at the same moment opening his eyes +reluctantly upon the new day, that he hated, beheld Jack half-dressed +and shaving his left jaw, and looking as if he were committing murder +upon an enemy. Dade watched him idly; he could afford the luxury of +idleness that morning; for rodeo was over, and he was lying between +linen sheets on a real bed, under a roof other than the branches of a +tree; and if his mind had rested as easily as his body, he would have +been almost happy. + +But this was the day of the fiesta; and with the remembrance of that +vital fact came a realization that on this day the Picardo ranch would +be the Mecca toward which all California was making pilgrimage; and, he +feared, the battle-ground of the warring interests and prejudices of the +pilgrims themselves. + +Dade listened to the voices shouting orders and greetings without as the +vaqueros hurried here and there in excited preparations for the event. +He judged that not another man in the valley was in bed at that moment, +unless sickness held him there; and for that very reason he pulled a +blanket snugger about his ears and tried to make himself believe that he +was enjoying to the full his laziness. He had earned it; and last night +had been the first one of deep, unbroken sleep that he had had since +that moonlit night when Manuel and Valencia rode in haste to meet this +surly-browed fellow before him. + +Jack did not wipe off the scowl with the lather, and Dade began to +observe him more critically; which he had not before had an opportunity +to do, for the reason that Jack had not returned to the ranch the night +before until Dade was in bed and asleep. + +"Say, you don't want to let the fellows outside see you looking like +that," he remarked, when Jack had yanked a horn comb through his +red-brown mop of hair as if he were hoeing corn. + +"Why?" Jack turned on him truculently. + +"Well, you look a whole lot like a man that expects a licking. And I +don't see any excuse for that; you're sure to win, old man. I'd bet my +last shirt on that." Which was Dade's method of wiping off the scowl. + +"Say, Dade," Jack began irrelevantly, "I'm going to use Surry. You don't +mind, do you? He's the best horse I ever threw a rope off from, without +any exceptions. I've been training him up a little, and I tell you +what, Surry's going to have a lot to do with that duel." + +Dade sat up in bed as if he had been pulled up. "Jack, are you going to +make it a sure-enough duel?" he asked anxiously. + +"Why?" Jack's eyes hardened perceptibly. "That's what José wants." + +"Do you want it?" Dade scowled absent-mindedly at the wall, felt the +prick of an unpleasant thought, and glanced sharply at Jack. + +"Say, I feel sorry for José," he began straightforwardly. "As a man, I'd +like him fine, if he'd let me. And, Jack, you've got everything coming +your way, and--well, seems like you might go easy on this fight, no +matter what José wants. He's crazy jealous, of course--but you want to +recollect that he has plenty of cause. You've stepped in between him and +a girl he's known all his life. They were practically engaged, before--" + +"I don't know as José's love affairs interest me," put in Jack harshly. +"Do you care if I use Surry? I kinda took it for granted it would be all +right, so I went ahead and trained him so I can bank on him in a pinch." + +"Of course you can use him." That Dade's hesitation did not cover more +than a few seconds was proof of his absolute loyalty to Jack. Not +another man living could have used Surry in a struggle such as that +would be; a struggle where the danger was not all for the rider, but +must be shared equally by the horse. Indeed, Dade himself would not have +ridden him in such a contest, because his anxiety lest Surry should be +hurt would have crippled his own dexterity. But Jack wanted to ride +Surry, and Dade's lips smiled consent to the sacrifice. + +"All right, then. That horse is sure a wonder, Dade. Sensible? You never +saw anything like it! I never saw a horse so sensitive to--well, I +suppose it's muscular reactions that I'm unconscious of. I've tried him +out without a bridle on him; and, Dade, I can sit perfectly still in the +saddle, and he'll turn wherever I make up my mind to go! Fact. You try +it yourself, next time you ride him. So I've cultivated that faculty of +his, this last month. + +"And besides, I've got him trained to dodge a rope every time. Had Diego +go out with me and try to lasso me, you know. I had one devil of a time +with the Injun, too, to make him disrespectful enough to throw a rope at +me. But Surry took to it like a she-bear to honey, and he's got so he +can gauge distances to a hair, now, and dodge it every pass. I'm going +to ride him to-day with a hackamore; and you watch him perform, old +man! I can turn him on a tin plate, just with pressing my knees. That +horse will--" + +"Say, you're stealing my thunder," drawled Dade, grinning. "That's my +privilege, to sing Surry's praises. Haven't I told you, right along, +that he's a wonder?" + +"Well, you told the truth for once in your life, anyway. Get up, you +lazy devil, and come out and take a look at him. I'm going to have Diego +give him a bath, soon as the sun gets hot enough. I've got a color +scheme that will make these natives bug their eyes out! And Surry's got +to be considerably whiter than snow--" + +"Huh!" Dade was watching him closely while he listened. For all Jack's +exuberance of speech, there was the hard look in his eyes still; and +there was a line between his eyebrows which Dade had never noticed there +before, except as a temporary symptom of anger. He had, Dade remembered, +failed to make any statement of his intentions toward José; which was +not like Jack, who was prone to speak impulsively and bluntly his mind. +Also, it occurred to Dade that he had not once mentioned Teresita, +although, before the rodeo his talk had been colored with references to +the girl. + +"Oh, how's the señorita, by the way?" Dade asked deliberately. + +"All right," returned Jack promptly, with a rising inflection, "Are you +going to get up, or shall I haul you out by the heels?" + +Dade, observing an evasion of that subject also, did some hard thinking +while he obediently pulled on his clothes. But he said not a word more +about the duel, or José's love-tragedy, or Teresita. + +Since the first flush of dawn the dismal squeal of wooden-wheeled +ox-carts had hushed the bird songs all up and down El Camino Real, and +the popping of the drivers' lashes, which punctuated their objurgations +to the shambling oxen, told eloquently of haste. Within canopies formed +of gay, patchwork quilts and gayer serapes, heavy-jowled, swarthy +señoras lurched resignedly with the jolting of the carts, and between +whiles counseled restive señoritas upon the subject of deportment or +gossiped idly of those whom they expected to meet at the fiesta. + +The Picardo hacienda was fairly wiped clean of its, comfortable +home-atmosphere, so immaculate was it and so plainly held ready for +ceremonious festivities. The señora herself went about with a linen +dust-cloth in her hand, and scolded because the smoke from the fires +which the peons had tended all night in the barbecue pits was borne +straight toward the house by the tricksy west wind, and left cinders and +grime upon windows closed against it. The patio was swept clean of dust +and footprints, and the peons scarce dared to cross it in their +scurrying errands hither and thither. + +In the orchard many caballeros fresh from the rodeo were camped, their +waiting-time spent chiefly in talking of the thing they meant to do or +hoped to see, while they polished spur-shanks and bridle trimmings. + +Horses were being groomed painstakingly at the corrals, and there was +always a group around the bear-pen where the two cubs whimpered, and the +gaunt mother rolled wicked, little, bloodshot eyes at those who watched +and dropped pebbles upon her outraged nose and like cowards remained +always beyond her reach. + +In the small corral near by, the bulls bellowed hoarsely at the scent of +their grizzly neighbor and tossed dirt menacingly over their backs; +while above them the rude tiers of seats waited emptily for the yelling +humans who would crowd them later. Beyond, under a great, wide-spreading +live oak near the roasting pits, three fat young steers swung by their +heels from a horizontal limb, ready for the huge gridirons that stood +leaning against the trunk behind them. Indeed, the heads of those same +steers were even then roasting in their hide in the smaller pit of their +own, where the ashes were still warm, though the fire had been drawn +over-night. + +The sun was not more than two hours high when Don Andres himself +appeared in his gala dress upon the veranda, to greet in flowery Spanish +the first arrivals among his guests. The señora, he explained +courteously, was still occupied, and the señorita, he averred fondly, +was sleeping still, because there would be no further opportunity to +sleep for many hours; but his house and all that he had was half theirs, +and they would honor him most by entering into their possessions. + +Whereupon the señoras and the señoritas settled themselves in +comfortable chairs and waited, and inspected the house of this lord of +the valley, whose luxury was something to envy. Some of those señoras +walked upon bare, earthen floors when they were at home, and their black +eyes rested hungrily upon the polished, dark wood beneath their feet, +and upon the rugs that had come from Spain along with the paintings upon +the walls. They looked, and craned, and murmured comments until the +señora appeared, a little breathless and warm from her last conference +with Margarita in the kitchen, and turned their tongues upon the +festival. + +Dade was just finishing the rite of shaving, and thinking the while that +he would give all that he possessed, including Surry, if he could whisk +Jack and himself to the cool, pine slope in the Sierras where was their +mine. Every day of waiting and gossiping over the duel had but fostered +the feeling of antagonism among the men of the valley, and whatever +might be the outcome of that encounter, Dade could see no hope of +avoiding an open clash between the partisans of the two combatants. +Valencia and Pancho and two or three others of the Picardo vaqueros, who +hated Manuel--and therefore had no love for José--would be more than +likely to side with him and Jack, though he honestly wished that they +would not; for the more friends they had when the test was made, the +greater would be the disturbance, especially since there would be wine +for all; and wine never yet served to cool a temper or lull excitement. + +Without in the least realizing it, Dade's face while he shaved wore a +scowl quite as pronounced as the one that had called his attention to +Jack's mood. And, more significant, he had no sooner finished than he +looked into his little box of pistol caps to see how many he had left, +and inspected the pistol as well; for the law of self-preservation +strikes deeper than most emotions, and his life had mostly been lived +where men must frequently fight for the right to live; and in such +surroundings the fighting instinct wakes at the first hint of +antagonism. + +"My riata's gone!" announced Jack breathlessly, bursting into the room +at that moment as if he expected to find the thief there. "I left it on +my saddle last night, and now--" + +"And that was a fool thing to do, I must say!" commented Dade, startled +into harshness. He slid the pistol into its holster and buckled the belt +around his muscular body with fingers that moved briskly. "Well, my +riata's no slouch--you can use it. You've used it before." + +"I don't want yours. I've got used to my own. I know to an inch just +where it will land--oh, damn the luck--It was some of those fellows +camped by the orchard, and when I find out which--" + +"Keep your head on, anyway," advised Dade more equably. "Your nerves +must be pretty well frazzled. If you let a little thing like this upset +you, how do you expect--" + +"It ain't a little thing!" gritted Jack, loading his pistols hurriedly. +"That six-strand riata has got a different feel, a different weight--oh, +you know it's going to make all the difference in the world when I get +out there with José. Whoever took it knew what it meant, all right! Some +one--" + +"Where's Surry?" A sudden fear sent Dade hurrying to the door. "By the +Lord Harry, if they've hurt Surry--" He jerked the door open and went +out, Jack hard upon his heels. + +"I didn't think of that," Jack confessed on the way to the stable, and +got a look of intense disgust from Dade, which he mitigated somewhat by +his next remark. "Diego was to sleep in the stall last night." + +"Oh." Dade slackened his pace a bit. "Why didn't you say so?" + +"I think," retorted Jack, grinning a little, "somebody else's nerves are +kinda frazzled, too. I don't want you to begin worrying over my affairs, +Dade. I'm not," he asserted with unconvincing emphasis. "But all the +same, I'd like to get my fingers on the fellow that took my riata!" + +Since he formulated that wish after he reached the doorway of the roomy +box-stall where Surry was housed, he faced a badly scared peon as the +door swung open. + +"Señor--I--pardon, Señor! But I feared that harm might come to the riata +in the night. There are many guests, Señor, who speak ill of gringos, +and I heard a whisper--" + +Jack, gripping Diego by the shoulders, halted his nervous explanations. +"What about the riata?" he cried. "Do you know where it is?" + +"Sí, Señor. Me, I took it from the señor's saddle, for I feared harm +would be done if it were left there to tempt those who would laugh to +see the señor dragged to the death to-day. Señor, that is José's +purpose; from a San Vincente vaquero I heard--and he had it from the +lips of Manuel. José will lasso the señor, and the horse will run away +with José, and the señor will be killed. Ah, Señor!--José's skill is +great; and Manuel swears that now he will truly fight like a demon, +because the prayers of the señorita go with José. Her glove she sent him +for a token--Manuel swears that it is so, and a message that he is to +kill thee, Señor!" + +"But my riata?" To Diego's amazement, his blue-eyed god seemed not in +the least disturbed, either by plot or gossip. + +"Ah, the riata! Last night I greased it well, Señor, so that to-day it +would be soft. And this morning at daybreak I stretched it here in the +stall and rubbed it until it shone. Now it is here, Señor, where no +knife-point can steal into it and cunningly cut the strands that are +hidden, so that the señor would not observe and would place faith upon +it and be betrayed." Diego lifted his loose, linen shirt and disclosed +the riata coiled about his middle. + +The eyes of his god, when they rested upon the brown body wrapped round +and round with the rawhide on which his life would later hang, were +softer than they had been since he had craved the kiss that had been +denied him, many hours before. It was only the blind worship and the +loyalty of a peon whose feet were bare, whose hands were calloused with +labor, whose face was seamed with the harshness of his serfdom. Only a +peon's loyalty; but something hard and bitter and reckless, something +that might have proved a more serious handicap than a strange riata, +dropped away from Jack's mood and left him very nearly his normal self. +It was as if the warmth of the rawhide struck through the chill which +Teresita's unreasoning spite had brought to the heart of him, and left +there a little glow. + +"Gracias, Diego," he said, and smiled in the way that made one love him. +"Let it stay until I have need of it. It will surely fly true, to-day, +since it has been warmed thus by thy friendship." + +From an impulse of careless kindness he said it, even though he had been +touched by the peon's anxiety for his welfare. But Diego's heart was +near to bursting with gratitude and pride; those last two words--he +would not have exchanged the memory of them for the gold medal itself. +That his blue-eyed god should address him, a mere peon, as "thy," the +endearing, intimate pronoun kept for one's friends! The tears stood in +Diego's black eyes when he heard; and Diego was no weakling, but a +straight-backed stoic of an Indian, who stood almost as tall as the +Señor Jack himself and who could throw a full-grown steer to the ground +by twisting its head. He bowed low and turned to fumble the sweet, dried +grasses in Surry's manger; and beneath his coarse shirt the feel of the +rawhide was sweeter than the embrace of a loved woman. + +"You want to take mighty good care of this little nag of mine," Dade +observed irrelevantly, his fingers combing wistfully the crinkly mane. +"There'll never be another like him in this world. And if there was, it +wouldn't be him." + +"I reckon it's asking a good deal of you, to think of using him at all." +For the first time Jack became conscious of his selfishness. "I won't, +Dade, if you'd rather I didn't." + +"Don't be a blamed idiot. You know I want you to go ahead and use him; +only--I'd hate to see him hurt." + +To Dade the words seemed to be wrenched from the very fibers of his +friendship. He loved that horse more than he had ever believed he could +love an animal; and he was mentally sacrificing him to Jack's need. + +Jack went up and rubbed Surry's nose playfully; and it cost Dade a +jealous twinge to see how the horse responded to the touch. + +"He won't get hurt. I've taught him how to take care of himself; haven't +I, Diego?" And he put the statement into Spanish, so that the peon +could understand. + +"Sí, he will never let the riata touch him, Señor. Truly, it is well +that he will come at the call, for otherwise he would never again he +caught!" Diego grinned, checked himself on the verge of venturing +another comment, and tilted his head sidewise instead, his ears perked +toward the medley of fiesta sounds outside. + +"Listen, Señors! That is not the squeal of carts alone, which I hear. It +is the carriage that has wheels made of little sticks, that chatters +much when it moves. Americanos are coming, Señors." + +"Americanos!" Dade glanced quickly at Jack, mutely questioning. "I +wonder if--" He gave Surry a hasty, farewell slap on the shoulder and +went out into the sunshine and the clamor of voices and laughter, with +the creaking of carts threaded through it all. The faint, unmistakable +rattle of a wagon driven rapidly, came towards them. While they stood +listening, came also a confused jumble of voices emitting sounds which +the two guessed were intended for a song. A little later, above the +high-pitched rattle of the wagon wheels, they heard the raucous, +long-drawn "Yank-ee doo-oo-dle da-a-andy!" which confirmed their +suspicions and identified the comers as gringos beyond a doubt. + +"Must be a crowd from San Francisco," said Jack needlessly. "I wrote +and told Bill about the fiesta, when I sent up after some clothes. I +told him to come down and take it in--and I guess he's coming." + +Bill was; and he was coming largely, emphatically, and vaingloriously. +He had a wagon well loaded with his more intimate friends, including +Jim. He had a following of half his Committee of Vigilance and all the +men of like caliber who could find a horse or a mule to straddle. Even +the Roman-nosed buckskin of sinister history was in the van of the +procession that came charging up the slope with all the speed it could +muster after the journey from the town on the tip of the peninsula. + +In the wagon were a drum, two fifes, a cornet, and much confusion of +voices. Bill, enthroned upon the front seat beside the driver of the +four-horse team, waved both arms exuberantly and started the song all +over again, so that they had to sing very fast indeed in order to finish +by the time they swung up to the patio and stopped. + +Bill scrambled awkwardly down over the wheel and gripped the hands of +those two whose faces welcomed him without words. "Well, we got here," +he announced, including the whole cavalcade with one sweeping gesture. +"Started before daylight, too, so we wouldn't miss none of the +doings." He tilted his head toward Dade's ear and jerked his thumb +towards the wagon. "Say! I brought the boys along, in case--" His left +eyelid lowered lazily and flew up again into its normal position as Don +Andres, his sombrero in his hand, came towards them across the patio, +smiling a dignified welcome. + +Dade spoke not a word in reply, but his eyes brightened wonderfully. +There was still the element of danger, and on a larger scale than ever. +But it was heartening to have Bill Wilson's capable self to stand beside +him. Bill could handle turbulent crowds better than any man Dade had +ever seen. + +They lingered, greeting acquaintances here and there among the arrivals, +until Bill was at liberty again. + +"Got any greaser here that can talk white man's talk, and you can +trust?" was Bill's mild way of indicating his need of an interpreter, +when the fiesta crowd had grown to the proportions of a multitude that +buzzed like giant bees in a tree of ripe figs. + +"Why? What do you want of one? Valencia will help you out, I guess." +Dade's hesitation was born of inattention rather than reluctance. He was +watching the gesticulating groups of Californians as a gambler watches +the faces of his opponents, and the little weather-signs did not +reassure him. + +"Well, there's good money to be picked out of this crowd," said Bill, +pushing his hands deep into his pockets. "I can't understand their +lingo, but faces talk one language; and I don't care what's the color of +the skin. I've been reading what's wrote in their eyes and around their +mouths. I can get big odds on Jack, here, if I can find somebody to talk +for me. How about it, Jack? I've heard some say there's more than the +gold medal and a horse up on this lariat game. I've heard some say you +two have put your necks in the jack-pot. On the quiet, what do you +reckon you're going to do to the greaser?" + +Jack shifted his glance to Dade's face, tense with anxiety while he +waited. He looked out over the slope dotted thickly with people, laughed +briefly and mirthlessly, and then looked full at Bill. + +"I reckon I'm going to kill him," he said very quietly. + +Big Bill stared. "Say! I'm glad I ain't the greaser," he said dryly, +answering a certain something in Jack's eyes and around his lips. Bill +had heard men threaten death, before now; but he did not think of this +as a threat. To him it seemed a sentence of death. + +"Jack, you'll be sorry for it," warned Dade under his breath. "Don't go +and--" + +"I don't want to hear any remarks on the subject." Never in all the +years of their friendship had Jack spoken to him in so harsh a tone. +"God Almighty couldn't talk me out of it. I'm going to kill him. Let it +go at that." He turned abruptly and walked away to the stable, and the +two stood perfectly still and watched him out of sight. + +"He'll do it, too," said Dade distressfully. "There's something in this +I don't understand--but he'll do it." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE BATTLE OF BEASTS + + +Sweating, impatient humans wedged tight upon the seats around the rim of +the great adobe corral, waited for the bulls to dash in through the gate +and be goaded into the frenzy that would thrill the spectators +pleasurably. Meantime, those spectators munched sweets and gossiped, +smoked cigarettes and gossiped; sweltered under the glare of the sun and +gossiped; and always they talked of the gringos, who had come one +hundred strong and never a woman among them; one hundred strong, and +every man of them dangling pistols at his hips--pistols that could shoot +six times before they must be reloaded, and shoot with marvelous +exactness of aim at that; one hundred strong, and every one of the +hundred making bets that the gringo with the red-brown hair would win +the medalla oro from Don José, who three times had fought and kept it +flashing on his breast, so that now no vaquero dared lift eyes to it! + +Truly, those gringos were a mad people, said the gossips. They would +see the blue-eyed one flung dead upon the ground, and then--would the +gringos want to fight? Knives were instinctively loosened under sashes +when the owners talked of the possibility. Knives are swift and keen, +but those guns that could shoot six times with one loading--Gossip +preferred to dwell greedily upon the details of the quarrel between the +young Don José and his gringo rival. + +There were whispers also of a quarrel between the señorita and her +gringo lover, and it was said that the young señorita prayed last night +that José would win. But there were other whispers than that: One, that +the maid of the señorita had been seen to give a rose and a written +message into the hands of the Señor Allen, not an hour ago; and had gone +singing to her mistress again, and smiling while she sang. Truly, that +did not look as if the señorita had prayed for José! The Señor Allen had +kept the rose. Look you! It was a token, and he would doubtless wear it +upon his breast in the fight, where he hoped later to wear the medalla +oro--but where the hands would be folded instead while the padres said +mass for him; if indeed mass could be said over a dead gringo! There was +laughter to follow that conceit. And so they talked, and made the +tedious time of waiting seem shorter than it was. + +Late comers looked for seats, found none, and were forced to content +themselves with such perches as neighboring trees and the roofs of the +outbuildings might afford. Peons who had early scrambled to the insecure +vantage-point of the nearest stable roof, were hustled off to make room +for a group of Salinas caballeros who arrived late. This was merely the +bull-fighting coming now; but bull-fighting never palls, even though +bigger things are yet in store. For there is always the chance that a +horse may be gored to death--even that a man may die horribly. Such +things have been and may be again; so the tardy ones climbed and +scurried and attained breathlessness and a final resting-place together. + +Came a season of frenzied yelling, breathless moments of suspense, and +stamping that threatened disaster to the seats. Two bulls in succession +had been let into the corral, bellowed under the shower of be-ribboned +barbs and went down, fighting valiantly to the last. + +Blood-lusting, the great crowd screamed importunities for more. "Bring +out the bear!" was their demand. "Let us see that she-bear fight the big +bull which has been reserved for the combat!" + +Now, this was ticklish work for the Picardo vaqueros who were +stage-managing the sport. From the top of the corral above the +bear-cage they made shift to slide the oaken gate built across an +opening into the adobe corral. Through the barred ceiling of the pen +they prodded the bear from her sulking and sent her, malevolent and +sullen, into the arena. (Señoras tucked vivid skirts closer about stocky +ankles and sent murmurous appeals to their patron saints, and señoritas +squealed in trepidation that was at least half sincere. It was a very +big bear, and she truly looked very fierce and as if she would think +nothing of climbing the adobe wall and devouring a whole front seat full +of fluttering femininity! Rosa screamed and was immediately reassured, +when Teresita reminded her that those fierce gringos across the corral +had many guns.) + +The bear did not give more than one look of hatred at the flutter above. +Loose-skinned and loose-jointed she shambled across the corral; lifted +her pointed nose to sniff disgustedly the air tainted with the odor of +enemies whom she could not reach with her huge paws, and went on. Clear +around the corral she walked, her great, hand-like feet falling as +silently as the leaf shadows that splashed one whole corner and danced +all over her back when she passed that way; back to the pen where her +two cubs whimpered against the bars, and watched her wishfully with pert +little tiltings of their heads. (Teresita was confiding to Rosa, beside +her, that they would each have a cub for a pet when the mother bear was +killed). + +Valencia and Pancho and one other were straining to shift the gate of +another pen. It was awkward, since they must work from the top; for the +adobe corral was as the jaws of a lion while the bear circled watchfully +there, and the pen they were striving to open was no safer, with the +big, black bull rolling bloodshot eyes at them from below. He had been +teased with clods of dirt and small stones flung at him. He had shaken +the very posts in their sockets with the impact of his huge body while +he tried to reach his tormentors, until they desisted in the fear that +he would break his horns off in his rage and so would cheat them of the +sight of the good, red blood of the she-bear. Now he was in a fine, +fighting mood, and he had both horns with which to fight. From his +muzzle dribbled the froth of his anger, as he stiffened his great neck +and rumbled a challenge to all the world. Twice, when the gate moved an +inch or two and creaked with straining, he came at it so viciously that +it jammed again; indeed, it was the batterings of the bull that had made +it so hard to open. + +Valencia, catching a timbered crosspiece, gave it a lift and a heave. +The gate came suddenly free and slid back as they strained at the +crosspiece. The bull, from the far side of the pen where he had backed +for another rush, shot clear through the opening and half-way across the +adobe corral before he realized that he was free. + +The bear, at pause in her circlings while she snuffed at the bars that +now separated her from her cubs, whirled and lifted herself awkwardly +upon her haunches, her narrow head thrust forward sinisterly as she +faced this fresh annoyance. Midway, the bull stopped with two or three +stiff-legged jumps and glared at her, a little chagrined, perhaps, at +the sudden transformation from human foe to this grizzled hill-giant +whom instinct had taught him to fear. In his calf-hood he had fled many +times before the menace of grizzly, and perhaps he remembered. At any +rate he stiffened his forelegs, stopped short, and glared. + +Up above, the breaths that had been held came in a shout together. +Everyone who saw the pause yelled to the bull to go on and prove his +courage. And the bull, when the first shock of surprise and distaste had +passed, backed ominously, head lowered, tail switching in spasmodic +jerks from side to side. The bear stood a little straighter in her +defiance; her head went forward an inch; beyond that she did not move, +for her tactics were not to rush but to wait, and to put every ounce of +her terrible strength into the meeting. + +The neck of the bull swelled and curved, his eyeballs showed glassy. +His back humped; like a bowlder hurled down a mountain slope he made his +rush, and nothing could swerve him. + +The bear might have dodged, and sent him crashing against the wall. Men +hoped that she would, and so prolong the excitement. But she did not. +She stood there and waited, her forepaws outspread as if for an embrace. + +Like a bullet sent true to the target, the head of the bull met the +gaunt, ungainly, gray shape; met and went down, the tip of one sharp +horn showing in the rough hair of her back, her body collapsing limply +across the neck she had broken with one tremendous side-blow as he +struck. A moment she struggled and clawed futilely to free herself, then +lay as quiet as the bull himself. And so that spectacle ended swiftly +and suddenly. + +In the reaction which followed that ten-seconds' suspense, men grumbled +because it had ended so soon. But, upon second thoughts, its very +brevity brought the duel just that much closer, and so they heaved great +sighs of relaxation and began craning and looking for the two to enter +who would fight to the death with riatas. + +Instead, entered the gringo whom Don Andres had foolishly chosen for +majordomo, and stood in the middle of the corral, quietly waiting while +the vaqueros with their horses and riatas dragged away the carcasses of +the bull and the bear. + +When the main gate slammed shut behind them Dade lifted his eyes to that +side of the corral where the Californians were massed clannishly +together, and raised his hands for silence; got it by degrees, as a +clamoring breaker subsides and dwindles to little, whispering ripple +sounds; and straightway began in the sonorous melody of the Castilian +tongue which had been brought, pure and undefiled, from Spain and had +not yet been greatly corrupted into the dialect spoken to-day among the +descendants and called Spanish. + +"Señors, and Señoras" (so he began), "the hour is now midday, and there +are many who have come far and are wearied. In the orchard you will find +refreshment for all; and your host, Don Andres Picardo, desires me to +say for him that he will be greatly honored if you will consider that +all things are yours to be used for your comfort and pleasure. + +"In two hours, further sports will take place, in the open beyond this +corral, so that the seats which you now occupy will serve also to give a +fair view of the field. There will be riding contests, free for all +caballeros to enter who so desire, and the prize will be a beautiful +silver-trimmed bridle that may be seen at the saddle house. After the +riding, there will be a contest in the lassoing and tying down of wild +steers, for which a prize of a silver hatband and spurs will be given by +Don Andres Picardo, your host. Also there will be the riding of bulls; +and the prize for the most skillful rider will be a silver-mounted +quirto of beautiful design. + +"Immediately after these various contests"--Dade could see the tensing +of interest among his listeners then--"there will be a contest with +riatas between Don José Pacheco and Señor Jack Allen, an Americano +vaquero from Texas. As the prize for this contest, Don Andres offers +Solano, a gelding, four years of age and unbroken. But Don Andres makes +this condition: that the winner shall lasso his prize in this corral, +and ride him before you all. If he should chance to be thrown, then the +prize shall be forfeited to the other contestant, who will also be +required to ride the horse before you all. If he also shall fail to ride +the caballo, then will the horse revert to Don Andres, who will keep him +for his own saddle horse!" He waited while the applause at this sly bit +of humor gradually diminished into the occasional pistol-popping of +enthusiastic palms, and gestured for silence that he might speak again. + +"I am also instructed to inform you that not alone for the prize which +Don Andres offers will the contest be fought. I am requested to announce +that the Texas vaquero, Señor Jack Allen, hereby publicly challenges Don +José Pacheco to contest for the gold medal which now rests in the +possession of Don José. Señors and Señoras, I thank you for attending so +graciously to my words, and I wish to ask for continued attention while +I announce the sports to these Americanos who do not understand the +Spanish, and who are also the guests of Don Andres Picardo, your host." + +He bowed low before them, turned and told Bill Wilson's solemnly +attentive crowd what was to take place after the feast. Not so +elaborate; terse, that he might not try the politeness of that other +crowd too far. And when he was done he stopped himself on the verge of +saying more, reconsidered and, trusting to the fact that scarce a +Spaniard there spoke English, added a warning. + +"I hope you all realize," he said, "that we're anxious to have +everything go off peaceably. We look to you men to see that, whatever +may happen, there shall be no disturbance. Such things are easier +started than stopped; and, just as a hint of what will do the most to +keep the peace, I want to announce that the water on this rancho can't +be beat, and can safely be used for drinking purposes!" + +"Water goes, m' son, or I'll know the reason why," called Bill Wilson, +and the palms of his crowd clapped vigorous assent. + +"That thar's the sensiblest thing you've said, so fur," approved Jerry +Simpson, beside Bill. "Me an' the twins'll stand guard, if necessary, +and see't that thar hint is took." Whereat Bill Wilson clapped him on +the shoulder approvingly. + +There was the hum of confusion while the hungry sought the barbecue +pits. Dade, his face settled into gloomy foreboding in spite of certain +heartening circumstances, went slowly away to his room; where Jack, +refusing to take any interest in the sports, lay sprawled upon the bed +with a cigarette gone cold between his lips and his eyes fixed hardly +upon the ceiling. + +Dade gave him a look to measure the degree of his unapproachable mood, +sighed wearily and flung his silver-spangled sombrero petulantly into a +corner. + +"Damn!" he said viciously, as if his vocabulary was so inadequate to +voice his emotions that the one expletive would do as well as any to +cover his meaning; and sat down heavily in a cushioned chair. + +Two minutes, perhaps, of silence, while from sheer force of habit he +rolled a cigarette he did not want. + +Then Jack moved his head on the pillow so that he could look at Dade. + +"I wish you wouldn't take my affairs so to heart," he said, apathy +fighting his understanding and his appreciation of a friend like this. +"I'd he a whole lot easier in my mind if I didn't know you were worried +half to death. And it's no good worrying, Dade. Some' things just come +at a fellow, head down; and they have to be met, if we expect to look +anybody in the face again." He shifted his head impatiently and stared +again at the ceiling. "I'd rather be dead than a coward," he said, +speaking low. + +"Oh, I know. But--men are just beasts with clothes on their backs. Did +you hear them yelling, awhile ago? That was when beasts just as human as +they are under the skin, fought and killed each other, so those yelling +maniacs could get a thrill or two." He searched his pockets for a match, +found one and drew it glumly along the sole of his high-heeled, calfskin +boot with its embroidered top of yellow silk on red morocco. + +"That's what makes me sick to the stomach," he went on. "They'll sit and +watch you two, and they'll gloat over the spectacle--" + +A brisk tattoo of knuckles on the oaken door stopped him. Bill came in, +grinning with satisfaction over something. + +"Say, I've been getting bets laid down five and six to one, on the +greaser," he exulted. "You go in and clean him up, Jack, and we'll skin +this outfit down to their shirts! All the boys have been taking every +bet that was offered; and the old don, I guess, is about the only +greaser on the place that ain't bet all he's got. Three-to-one that José +gets you the third pass, m' son! Now, I don't know a damned thing about +this here lasso business, but I took 'em on that, and so did a lot of +the boys; and from that up to six-to-one that he'll get you! Want to lay +a few bets yourself, you and Dade? That's what I come to find out." + +Dade threw out both hands in disgust with the idea; revolted +unexpectedly at the thought of being accused of failing to back his +friendship with money as well as with every fiber of his loyal being, +and turned sourly to Bill. "I've got something like six or eight +hundred, in dust," he said. "Lend me enough to make it a thousand, and +put 'er up. Take any odds they offer, damn 'em. It'll be blood money, +win or lose, but--put 'er up. They can't yowl around that I'm afraid to +back him down to my boots." + +"That's the kinda talk!" approved Bill. "Make 'em take water all around, +the swine! And the boys'll see they cough up afterwards, too. I guess--" +He checked himself and went out, still grinning. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DUEL OF RIATAS + + +"They're riding the last bull," announced Dade, coming into the room +again where Jack was dressing for the supreme test of the day. "I've got +your plan for the ground explained to Valencia and Pancho, and Diego's +shining Surry up till you can see your face in him. You ought to be +thankful there's somebody on the lookout as faithful as that Injun. I +just discovered he hasn't had a bite to eat since last night, because he +wouldn't leave Surry long enough to get anything. I hope you're +grateful." + +"I am," said Jack shortly. "But I've no business to be. Right now I +don't believe much in the sloppy whine of gratitude or the limber-backed +prayer for mercy. Thankful or not, we get what we get. Fate hands it out +to us; and we may as well take it and keep our mouths shut." + +"That's the result of cooping yourself in here all day, just thinking +and smoking cigarettes," grumbled Dade, himself worried to the point of +nervous petulance. If he could have taken his own riata and fought +also, he would have been much nearer his usual calm, humorous self. + +"Say, I told José the rules you suggested, and he agreed to every one +like a gentleman. He just came, and Manuel with him leading the horse +José means to use; a big, black brute with a chest on him like a lion. +His crowd stood on their hind legs and yelled themselves purple when +they saw him come riding up." + +"Well, that's what they've come for--to yell over José." Jack held three +new neckties to the light, trying to choose the one he would wear. + +"Say--" Dade hesitated, looking doubtfully at the other. + +"Well? Say it." Jack chose a deep crimson and flung the loop over his +head as if he were arraying himself for a ball. + +"It may be some advantage to know ... I've watched José lasso cattle; he +always uses--" + +"Step right there!" Jack swung to face him. "I don't want to know how +José works with his riata. He don't know any of my little kinks, don't +you see? I never," he added, after a little silence, "started out with +the deliberate intention of killing a man, before. I can't take any +advantage, Dade; you know that, just as well as I do." He tried to +smile, to soften the rebuff--and he failed. + +Dade went up and laid a contrite hand upon his shoulder. "You're a +better man than I am, Jack," he asserted humbly. "But it's hell for me +to stand back and let you go into this thing alone. I've got piles of +confidence in you, old boy--but José never got that medal by saying +'pretty, please' and holding out his hand. The best lassoer in +California means something. And he means to kill you--" + +"If I'll let him," put in Jack, stretching his lips in what passed for a +grin. + +"I know--but you've been off the range for two years, just about; and +you've had a little over three weeks to make up for that lost practice." +His eyes caught their two reflections in the glass, and something in +Jack's made him smile ruefully. "Kick me good," he advised. "I need it. +I've got nerves worse than any old woman. I know you'll come out on top. +You always do. But--what'n hell made you say riatas?" + +"What'n hell made you brag about me to Manuel?" Jack came back +instantly, and was sorry for it when he saw how Dade winced. "Honest, +I'm not a bit scared. I know what I can do, and I'm not worrying." + +"You are. I never saw you so queer as you have been since I came back. +You're no more like yourself than--" + +"Well--but it ain't the duel altogether." Jack hesitated. "Say, Dade! +Did--er--did Teresita take in all the sports? Bull fight and all?" + +"Yes. She and that friend of hers from the Mission were in the front row +having the time of their lives. Is that talk true about--" Dade eyed him +sharply. + +"You go on and get things ready. In five minutes I'll expect to make my +little bow to Fate." + +Outside in the sunshine, men waited and clamored greedily for more +excitement. All day they had waited for the duel, at most merely +appeased by the other sports; and now, with José actually among them, +and with the wine they had drunk to heat their blood and the +mob-psychology working its will of them, they were scarce human, but +rather a tremendous battle beast personified by dark, eager faces and +tongues that wagged continually and with prejudice. + +A group of spur-jingling vaqueros, chosen because of their well-broken +mounts, rode out in front of the adobe corral and the expectant +audience, halted and dispersed to their various stations as directed by +Dade, clear-voiced, steady of glance, unemotional, as if he were in +charge of a bit of work from habit gone stale. + +He might confess to "nerves" in private; in public, there were men who +marveled at his calm. + +Riatas uncoiled and with each end fastened to a saddle horn, the +vaqueros filed out from the corral in two straight lines, with Dade and +Valencia to lead the way. When they were placed to Dade's liking, the +riatas fenced in a rectangle two hundred yards long, and one-third that +distance across. At each riata length, all down the line, a vaquero sat +quiet upon his horse, a living fence-post holding the riata fence tight +and straight. Down the middle of the arena thus formed easily with +definite boundaries, peons were stretching, upon forked stakes, a rope +spliced to reach the whole six hundred feet--save that a space of fifty +feet was left open at each end so that the combatants might, upon +occasion, change sides easily. + +Twice Dade paced the width of the area to make sure that the dividing +line marked the exact center. When the last stake was driven deep and +the rope was knotted securely in place, he rode straight to the corral +and pulled up before the judges' stand for his final announcement. + +It was a quiet crowd now that he faced. A mass of men and women, tense, +silent, ears and eyes strained to miss no smallest detail. He had no +need to lift his hand for their attention; he had it--had it to the +extent that every man there was unconscious of his neighbor. That roped +area was something new, something they had not been expecting. Also the +thing Dade told them sounded strange to these hot-blooded ones, who had +looked forward to a whirlwind battle, with dust and swirling riatas and +no law except the law of chance and superior skill and cunning. + +"The two who will fight with riatas for the medalla oro and for the +prize which Don Andres offers to the victor," he began, "have agreed +upon certain rules which each has promised to observe faithfully, that +skill rather than luck may be the chief factor in the fight. These are +the rules of the contest: + +"None but those two, Don José Pacheco and Señor Allen, will be permitted +within the square we have marked off for them after the first signal +shot is fired. They will toss a coin for first position and will start +from opposite ends of the ground. At the signal, which will be a pistol +shot, they will mount and ride with the center rope between them. Upon +meeting"--he stopped long enough for a quick smile--"they will try what +they can do. If both miss, they will coil their riatas and hang them +from the horn, and ride on to the end; there they will dismount and wait +for the second signal for starting. + +"They will repeat these maneuvers until the contest is decided, one way +or the other, but at no time will they start before the signal is given. + +"Remember, no one else will be permitted inside the line, at any time; +also, neither of the contestants may pass the dividing line unless he +has the other at his mercy--when--he may cross if he chooses." It cost +Dade something, that last sentence, but he said it firmly; repeated the +rules more briefly in English and rode out of the square, a vaquero +slackening the first riata of the line to leave a space for him to pass. +And as he went, there was nothing in his manner to show how ticklish he +felt the situation to be. + +Only, when he came upon Jack, just riding out from the stable upon +Surry, his lips drew tight and thin. But he merely waved his hand and +went on to tell José that he wanted Manuel to give the signals, for then +all would be sure that there would be no unfairness. + +He was gone perhaps two minutes; yet when he returned with Manuel +glowering beside him, that fenced area was lined four deep with horsemen +all around; and so had they segregated themselves instinctively, friend +with friend, that the northern side was a mass of bright colors to show +that there stood the Spanish caballeros; and opposite them, a more +motley showing and yet a more sinister one, stood the Americanos, with +Bill Wilson pressed against the rope half-way down the line, and beside +him big Jerry Simpson, lounging upon Moll, his black mule. + +Instinctively, Dade rode around to them, beckoning Manuel to follow; and +placed him between Jerry and Bill; explained that Manuel was to fire the +starting signals, and smiled his thanks when Jerry promptly produced one +of his "twins" and placed it in Manuel's hands. + +"P'int her nose in the air, mister, when you turn her loose," he advised +solemnly. "She's loaded fur b'ar!" + +"Keep your eyes open," Dade warned Bill Wilson when he turned to ride +back; and Bill nodded understandingly. Bill, for that matter, usually +did keep his eyes open, and to such purpose that nothing escaped them. + +Back at the corral, Dade saw Jack waiting upon Surry in the shade of the +adobe wall until the moment came for entering the arena. Near to him, +José calmed his big, black horse and waited also, cold hauteur the +keynote of his whole attitude. Dade waved his hand to them, and they +followed him into the empty rectangle. From the crowd came a rustle as +of a gust of wind through tree-tops; then they were still again, watching +and waiting and listening. + +Those for whom they had watched all day at last stood side by side +before them; and the picture they made must have pleased the most +exacting eye that looked down upon them. + +For José was all black and silver, from the tasseled, silver cord upon +his embroidered sombrero to the great silver rowels of his spurs. Black +velvet jacket, black velvet breeches with silver braid glistening in +heavy, intricate pattern; black hair, black eyes--and a black frown, +withal, and for good reason, perhaps. For, thinking to win a smile from +her who had sent the glove and the message, José looked towards the +nearest and most comfortable seat, where Teresita sat, smiling and +resplendent, between her mother and Rosa. He had looked, had José, and +had seen her smile; but he saw that it was not at him she smiled, but at +Jack. It is true, the smile may have been merely scornful; but José was +in no mood for nice analysis, and the hurt was keen enough because she +smiled at all, and it made his mood a savage one. + +Jack was all white and red save for the saddle, which was black with +silver trimmings; and Surry, milk white from ears to heel, served to +complete the picture satisfyingly. Diego must have put an extra crimp in +mane and tail, for the waves were beautiful to behold; he had surely +polished the hoofs so that they shone; and nature had done the rest, +when she made Surry the proud, gentle, high-stepping animal he was. Jack +wore breeches and jacket of soft, white leather--and none but Bill +Wilson knew what they had cost in time, trouble, and money. A red, silk +sash was knotted about his middle; the flaming, crimson tie fluttered +under his chin; and he was bareheaded, so that his coppery hair lifted +from his untanned forehead in the breeze, and made many a señorita's +pulse quicken admiringly. For Jack, think what you will of him +otherwise, was extremely good to look upon. + +"Heads for Don José!" A Mexican dollar, spun high in air from Dade's +fingers, glittered and fell straight. Three heads bent to see which side +came uppermost, and thousands of necks craned futilely. + +"Don José will choose his starting-point," Dade called out. "But first +the two will lead their horses over the ground, so that they may make +sure that there are no holes or stones to trip them." + +Even in that preliminary, they showed how differently two persons will +go about doing the same thing. José, trailing immense, silver +spur-rowels, walked with the bridle reins looped over his arm, his eyes +examining critically every foot of the ground as he passed. + +Jack, loosening his riata as he dismounted, caught the loop over the +high horn and let the rope drop to the ground. He wore no spurs; and as +for Surry, he had no bridle and bit, but a hackamore instead. + +Jack threw the reins over the neck of the horse. "Come, old fellow," he +said, quite as if he were speaking to a person, and started off. And +Surry, his neck arched, his ears perked knowingly, stepped out after him +with that peculiar, springy gait that speaks eloquently of perfect +muscles and a body fairly vibrating with energy; the riata trailed after +him, every little tendency towards a kink taken out of it. + +"Dios! What a caballo is that white one!" Dade heard a Salinas man +exclaim, and flushed at the praise. + +Back they came, Jack and Surry, with Jack ten feet in advance of the +horse; for José had chosen to remain at the southern end, with the sun +at his left shoulder. Jack, for all his eagerness to begin, found time +to shake hands with Bill and say a word to some others as he passed--and +those eyes up there that watched did not miss one single movement. + +"Look, you! The gringo is telling his friends adios while he may!" some +one shouted loudly from across the arena; and a great laugh roared from +the throats that were dark, and handclapping at the witticism made the +speaker a self-conscious caballero indeed. + +At the corral, which was his starting-point, Jack took up the dragging +riata, and with his handkerchief wiped off the dust while he coiled it +again; hung it over the saddle horn and waited for the signal. + +He was scowling now at certain remarks that came to his ears from the +seats, with titters and chuckles to point their wit. But he sent a +cheering eye-signal to Dade, whose face was strained and noticeably +white under the tan. + +Half-way down the line, among the Americans, there was a little stir, +and then a pistol barked with that loud crash which black powder makes. +Jack, on the instant when the smoke curled up in a little, balloon-like +puff, turned and leaped into the saddle. The duel of riatas was begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL + + +Down the roped lane thundered José, whirling his riata over his head +till the loop had taken full twenty of the sixty feet of rawhide. + +Galloping to meet him, Jack gave his rope a forward, downward fling and +formed a little loop--a loop not one-third the size of José's--and held +it dangling beside Surry's shoulder. So, at the very start, they showed +themselves different in method, even though they might be the same in +skill. + +They met, with fifteen feet between them as they flashed past. José +flung out his lifted hand. The loop hissed and shot straight for Jack's +head. + +Jack flung out his little loop, struck the big one fairly, and threw it +aside. Even so, the end might have caught him, but for the lengthening +lunge which Surry made in mid-air. The loop flecked Surry's crinkled +tail and he fled on to the far end and stopped in two short, +stiff-legged jumps. + +As Jack coiled his riata and slid off he heard the caballeros yelling +praise of José. But he did not mind that in the least. In that one throw +he had learned José's method; the big loop, the overhead swirl--direct, +bullet-swift, deadly in its aim. He knew now what Dade had wanted to +tell him--what it was vital that he should know. And--he hugged the +thought--José did not know his method; not yet. + +A shot, and he was off again with his little loop. José, like a great, +black bird, flew towards him with the big loop. As they neared he saw +José's teeth show in the smile of hate. He waited, his little loop ready +for the fling should his chance come. + +José was over-eager. The great, rawhide hoop whistled and shot down +aslant like the swoop of a nighthawk. Surry's eye was upon it +unwinkingly. He saw where the next leap would bring him within its +terrible grip, and he made that leap to one side instead, so that the +rawhide thudded into the dust alongside his nose. He swerved again lest +José in jerking it up should catch his feet, and went on with an +exultant toss of his white head. It was the game he knew--the game Diego +had played with him many times, to the discomfiture of the peon. + +"He is a devil--that white caballo!" cried a chagrined voice from among +the vaqueros crowding the ropes so that they bulged inward. + +"Hah! devil or no, they will go down, those two white ones! Saw you the +look of José as he passed? He has been playing with them for the sport +of the people. Look you! I have gold on that third throw. The next +time--it is as José chooses--" + +The bark of the pistol cut short the boastings of that vaquero. This was +the third pass, and much Spanish gold would be lost upon that throw if +José missed. + +"Three to one, m' son," bawled Bill Wilson remindingly, as Jack loped +past with his little loop hanging beside him, ready but scarcely seeming +so. José was coming swiftly, the big horse lunging against the Spanish +bit, his knees flung high with every jump he made, like a deer leaping +through brush. And there was the great, rawhide loop singing its +battle-song over his head, with the soft _who-oo-oo_ before he released +it for the flight. + +He aimed true--but Surry had also a nice eye for distance. He did not +swerve; he simply stiffened every muscle and stopped short. Even as he +did so the black horse plunged past; and Jack, lifting his hand, whirled +his loop swiftly once to open it, and gave it a backward fling. + +Straight past his shoulder it shot, whimpering, following, reaching--the +force of the fling carrying it far, far ... José heard it whining behind +him, glanced quickly, thought to beat it to the end of its leash. He +leaned far over--farther, so that his cheek touched the flying black +mane of his horse. He dug deep with his spurs--but he dug too late. + +The little loop narrowed--it had reached as far as sixty feet of rawhide +could reach and have any loop at all. It sank, and caught the outflung +head of the black horse; slid back swiftly and caught José as the horse +lunged and swung short around; tightened and pressed José's cheek hard +against the black mane as the rawhide drew tight across the back of his +neck. + +The black horse plunged and tried to back away; the white one stiffened +against the pull of the rope. Between the two of them, they came near +finishing José once for all. And from the side where stood the white men +came the vicious sound of a pistol shot. + +"Slack, Surry!" Jack, on the ground, glimpsed the purpling face of his +foe. "Slack, you devil!" + +Near sixty feet he had to run--and José was strangling before his eyes; +strangling, because Surry's instant obedience was offset by José's +horse, who, facing the other at the first jerk of the riata, backed +involuntarily with the pull of the pinioned reins. The Spanish bit was +cutting his mouth cruelly, and José's frenzied clawing could not ease +the cruel strain upon either of them. + +A few terrible seconds, and then Jack overtook them, eaught the horse +by the bridle, and stopped him; and the blood which the cruel bit had +brought when the spade cut deep, stained Jack's white clothes red where +it fell. + +"Slack, Surry! Come on!" he cried, his voice harsh with the stress of +that moment. And when the rawhide hung loose between the two horses he +freed José of the deadly noose, and saw where it had burnt raw the skin +of his neck on the side where it touched. A snaky, six-strand riata can +be a rather terrible weapon, he decided, while he loosed it and flung it +from him. + +José, for the first time getting breath enough to gasp, tried to +straighten himself in the saddle; lurched, and would have gone off on +his head if Jack had not put up a hand to steady him. So he led him, a +shaken, gasping, disarmed antagonist, across the little space that +separated them from where Don Andres and four other Spanish gentlemen +sat before the middle gate of the corral. + +"Bravo!" cried a sweet, girl voice; and a rose, blood-red and heavy with +perfume, fell at Jack's feet. He gave it one cold glance and let it lie. +In another moment the black horse crushed it heedlessly beneath his +hoof, as Jack turned to the judges. + +"Señors, I bring you Don José Pacheco." + +So suddenly had the contest ended that those riders who helped to form +the riata fence stood still in their places, as if another round had yet +to be fought. Beyond the pistol shot and the girl voice crying well +done, the audience was quiet, waiting. + +Then José, sitting spent upon his horse, lifted a hand that shook +weakly. His fingers fumbled at his breast, and he held out the shining +medal of gold--the medal with diamonds prisoning the sunlight so that +the trinket flashed in his hand. + +"Señor," he said huskily, "the medalla--it is yours." + +Jack looked at him; looked at the bent faces of the frowning judges; +looked up at Teresita, watching the two with red lips parted and breath +coming quickly; looked again queerly at José, gasping still, and holding +out to him the medalla oro. Jack did a good deal of thinking in a very +short space of time. + +"I don't want your medal," he said. "Let some Californian fight you for +it, if he likes. That is not for a gringo." + +Perhaps there was a shade of the theatrical element in his speech and +his manner, but he was perfectly innocent of any such intention; and the +people before him were nothing if not dramatic. He got his response in +the bravos and the applause that followed the silence of sheer +amazement. "Gracias!" they cried, in their impulsive appreciation of his +generosity. + +"The horse which you offered for a prize, Don Andres, I will claim," +Jack went on, when he could be heard--and he did not wait long, for +short-lived indeed is the applause given to an alien. "And I will ride +him as soon as you desire." + +"Yes! Let us see him ride that caballo!" cried the fickle mass of +humanity. "By a trick of chance he won the duelo, and the medalla he +refused because he knows it was not won fairly. Where is that yellow +caballo which no man has ridden? Let him show us what he can do with +that yellow one!" + +Dade, pushing his way exultantly toward him, saw the blaze of anger at +their fickleness leap into Jack's eyes. + +"Sí, I will show you!" he called out. "It is well that you should see +some horsemanship! Bring the yellow caballo, then. Truly, I will show +you what I can do." + +"Come, Surry," called Dade, and the white horse walked up to him and +nibbled playfully his bearskin chaparejos. "Solano's in the little +corral, off this big one. I'll bring your saddle--" + +"I don't want any saddle. I'm going to ride him bareback, with a rope +over his nose. Let me have your spurs, will you? Did you hear them say +I won the duel with luck? I'll show these greasers what a gringo can do!" +He spoke in Spanish, to show his contempt of their opinion of him, and +he curled his lip at the jibes they began to fling down at him; the +jibes and the taunts--and vague threats as well, when those who had +wagered much upon the duelo began to reckon mentally their losings. + +In the adobe corral he stood with his riata coiled in his hand and +Dade's spurs upon his heels, and waited until Solano, with a fling of +heels into the air, rushed in from the pen where the big bull had waited +until he was let out to fight the grizzly. + +"Bareback he says he will ride that son of Satanas!" jeered a +wine-roughened voice. "Boaster that he is, look you how he stands! He is +afraid even to lasso that yellow one!" + +Jack was indeed deliberate in his movements. He stood still while the +horse circled him twice with head and tail held high. When Solano +brought up with a flourish on the far side of the corral, Jack turned to +Dade and Valencia standing guard at the main gate, their horses barring +the opening. + +"See that it's kept clear out in front," he told them. "I'll come out +a-flying when I do come, most likely." + +Whereat those who heard him laughed derisively. "Never to the gate will +you ride him, gringo--even so you touch his back! Not twice will the +devil give you luck," they yelled, while they scrambled for the choicest +positions. + +Jack, standing in the center quietly, smiled at them, and gave the flip +downward and forward that formed the little loop to which he seemed so +partial. He tossed that loop upward, straight over his head; a careless +little toss, it looked to those who watched. His hand began to rotate +upon his supple wrist joint--and like a live corkscrew the rawhide loop +went up, and up, and up, and grew larger while it climbed. + +Solano snorted; and the noise was like a gun in the dead silence while +those thousands watched this miracle of a rawhide riata that apparently +climbed of its own accord into the air. + +The loop, a good ten feet in diameter, swirled horizontally over his +head. The coil in his hand was paid out until there was barely enough to +give him power over the rest. His hand gave a quick motion sidewise, and +the loop dropped true, and settled over the head of Solano. + +Jack flung a foot backward and braced himself for the pull, the riata +drawn across one thigh in the "hip-hold" which cowboys use to-day when +they rope from the ground. Solano gave one frightened lunge and brought +up trembling with surprise. + +That he knew nothing of the feel of a rope worked now to Jack's +advantage, for sheer astonishment held the horse quiet. A flip, and the +riata curled in a half-hitch over Solano's nose; and Jack was edging +slowly towards him, his hands moving along the taut riata like a sailor +climbing a rope. + +Solano backed, shook his head futilely, snorted, and rolled his +eyes--mere frills of resentment that formed no real opposition to Jack's +purpose. Five minutes of maneuvering to get close, and Jack had twisted +his fingers in the taffy-colored mane; he went up, and landed fairly in +the middle of Solano's rounded back and began swiftly coiling the +trailing riata. + +"Get outa the way, there!" he yelled, and raked the big spurs backward +when Solano's forefeet struck the ground after going high in air. Like a +bullet they went out of that corral and across the open space where the +duel had been fought, with Dade and Valencia spurring desperately after. + +It took a long ten minutes to bring Solano back, chafing, but owning +Jack's mastery--for the time being, at least. He returned to a sullen +audience, save where the Americans cheered him from their side of the +corral. + +"He is a devil--that blue-eyed one!" the natives were saying grudgingly +to one another; but they were stubborn and would not cheer. "Saw you +ever a riata thrown as he threw it? Not José Pacheco himself ever did so +impossible a thing; truly the devil is in that gringo." So they muttered +amongst themselves when he came back to the corral and slipped, +laughing, from Solano's sweat-roughened back. + +"You can have your Surry!" he cried boastfully to Dade, who was the +first to reach him. "Give me a month to school him, and this yellow +horse will be mighty near as good as your white one. I'd rather have him +than forty gold medals!" + +"Señor,"--it was José, his neck wrapped in a white handkerchief, coming +forward from where he had sat with Don Andres--"Señor, I am sorry that I +did not kill you; but yet I admire your skill, and I wish to thank you +for your generosity; the medalla is not mine, even though you refuse it. +Since I have found one better than I, Don Andres shall keep the medalla +until I or some other caballero has won it fairly. For my life, which +you also refused to take, I--cannot thank you." + +Jack looked at him intently. "You will thank me," he said grimly, "later +on." + +José's face went white. "Señor, you do not mean--" + +"I do mean--just that." + +"But, Señor--" There are times when pride drops away from the proudest +man and leaves him weak to the very core of him; weak and humbled beyond +words. + +Big Jerry Simpson saved that situation from becoming intolerable. With +Moll's great ears flopping solemnly to herald his approach, Jerry rode +up, perfectly aware that he brought a murmur of curiosity from those who +saw his coming. + +For Jerry was leading Manuel by the ear; Manuel with his hands tied +behind him with Jerry's red bandanna; Manuel with his lips drawn away +from his teeth in the desire to kill, and his eyes sullen with the +impotence of that desire. + +"Sa-ay," drawled Jerry, when he came up to the little group, "what d'ye +want done with this here greaser that fired on Jack? Some of the fellers +over there wanted to take him out and hang him, but I kinda hated to +draw attention away from Jack's p'formance--which was right interesting. +Bill Wilson, he reckoned I better fetch him over here and ask you +fellers about it; Bill says this mob of greasers might make a fuss if +the agony's piled on too thick, but whatever you say will be did." With +his unoccupied hand he helped himself to a generous chew of tobacco, and +spat gravely into the dust. + +"Fer as I'm concerned," he drawled lazily, "I'm willin' to help string +him up. He done as dirty a trick as ever I seen, and he done it +deliberate. I had m' eye peeled fer him all the time, and I seen he +wasn't goin' to stand back and let Jack git the best of that greaser if +he could help it. He was cunnin'--but shucks! I see all along why he +kept that gun p'inted out front--" + +"Turn him loose," said Dade suddenly, interrupting him. "We don't want +to start any trouble, Jerry. He may need hanging, but we can't afford to +give him what he deserves. It's a ticklish crowd, right now; they've +lost a lot on the duel, and they've drunk enough wine to swim a mule. +Turn him loose. I mean it," he added, when he caught the incipient +rebellion in Jerry's weather-beaten face. "I'm bossing things here +to-day. He didn't hit anybody, and I'm beginning to think we can get +through the day without any real trouble, if we go easy." + +"Wa-al--" Jerry scratched his stubbly jaw reflectively with his free +hand, and looked down at his captive. "I'll give him a derned good +wallopin', then, just to learn him manners. I've been wantin' to lick +him since yesterday mornin' when he tried to drive off Bawley and +Lay-fayette and William Penn. I lost two hours off'n my work, argyin' +with him. I'll take that outa his hide, right now." + +He induced Moll to turn around, and led Manuel away from the presence +of the women lest they should be shocked at his deed; and on the cool +side of the farthest shed he did indeed give Manuel a "derned good +walloping." After which he took a fresh chew of tobacco, lounged over to +where Moll waited and switched desultorily at the flies, mounted, and +went placidly home to his Mary. + + * * * * * + +Bill Wilson, having collected their winnings and his own, sought Dade +and Jack, where they were lying under the shade of a sycamore just +beyond the rim of the crowd chattering shrilly of the later events. With +a grunt of relief to be rid of the buzzing, Bill flung himself down +beside them and plucked a cigar from an inner pocket. + +"Say," he began, after he had bitten off the end of the cigar and had +moistened the whole with his tongue. "Them greasers sure do hate to come +forward with their losings! Some bets I never will be able to collect; +but I got a lot--enough to pay for the trouble of coming down." He +rolled over upon his back and lay smoking and looking up into the +mottled branches of the tree; thought of something, and lifted himself +to an elbow so that he faced Jack. + +"Sa-ay, I thought you said you was going to kill that greaser," he +challenged quizzically. + +Jack shrugged his shoulders, took two long draws on his cigarette, and +blew one of his pet smoke-rings. "I did." He moistened his lips and blew +another ring. "At least, I killed the biggest part of him--and that's +his pride." + +Bill grunted, lay down again, and stared up at the wide-pronged sycamore +leaves. "Darn my oldest sister's cat's eyes if I ever seen anything like +it!" he exploded suddenly, and closed his eyes in a vast content. + +From the barbecue pits there came an appetizing odor of roasting beef; +high-keyed voices flung good-humored taunts, and once they heard a great +shout of laughter surge through the crowd gathered there. From the great +platform built under a group of live oaks near the patio they heard the +resonant plunk-plunk-plunk of a harp making ready for the dance, and the +shrill laughter of slim señoritas hovering there. Down the slope before +the three the shadows stretched longer and longer. A violin twanged in +the tuning, the harp-strings crooning the key. + +"You fellows are going to dance, ain't yuh?" Bill inquired lazily, when +his cigar was half gone to ashes and smoke. "Jack, here, can get +pardners enough to keep him going fer a week--judging by the eyes them +Spanish girls have been making at him since the duel and the +horse-breaking. + +"Say! How about that sassy-eyed Picardo girl? I ain't seen you and her +in speaking distance all day; and the way you was buzzing around her +when I was down here before--" + +"Say, Jack," Dade interrupted, diplomacy winning against politeness, "I +never dreamed you'd have the nerve to try that fancy corkscrew throw of +yours before all that crowd. Why, after two years to get out of +practice, you took an awful chance of making a fool of yourself! Y'see, +Bill," he explained with a deliberate garrulity, "that throw he made +when he caught the horse was the finest bit of rope-work that's been +done to-day. I don't believe there's another man in the crowd that could +do it; and the chances are they never saw it done before, even! I know I +never saw but one man beside Jack that could do it. Jack was always at +it, when we happened to be laying around with nothing to do, and I know +he had to keep his hand in, or he'd make a fizzle of it. Of course," he +conceded, "you didn't miss--but if you had--Wow!" He shook his head at +the bare possibility. + +Jack grinned at him. "I'm not saying how much moonlight I used up, +practicing out in the orchard when everybody else was asleep. I reckon +I've made that corkscrew five thousand times in the last three weeks!" + +"Where you belong," bantered Dade, "is on the stage. You do love to +create a sensation, better than any one I ever--" + +"Señors--" Diego came hurriedly out of the shadows behind them. "The +patron begs that you will honor his table by dining with him to-night. +In one little half-hour will he hope to see you; and Don José Pacheco +will also be happy to meet the señors, if it is the pleasure of the +señors to meet him and dine in his company. The patron," added Diego, +with the faintest suspicion of a twinkle in his pensive black eyes, +"desires also that I shall extend to you the deep regret of the señora +and the señorita because it will be impossible for them to be present." + +The three looked at one another, and in Bill's eyes dawned slowly the +light of understanding. + +"Tell the patron we are honored by the invitation, and that it gives us +much pleasure to accept," Dade replied for the three of them, after a +moment spent in swift, mental measuring of the situation. "Jack, you've +got to get them bloody clothes off, and some decent ones on. Come on, +Bill; half an hour ain't any too much time to get ready in." + +Half-way to the house they walked without saying a word. Then Dade, +walking between the two, suddenly clapped a hand down upon the shoulder +of each. + +"Say, I could holler my head off!" he exulted. "I'm going to quit +worrying about anything, after this; the nights I've laid awake and +worried myself purple over this darned fiesta--or the duel, rather! And +things are turning out smooth as a man could ask. + +"Jack, I'm proud to death of you, and that's a fact. With that temper of +yours, I kinda looked for you to get this whole outfit down on you; but +the way you acted, I don't believe there's a man here, except Manuel, +that's got any real grudge against you, even if they did lose a lot of +money on the fight. And it's all the way you behaved, old boy--like a +prince! Just--like a--blamed prince!" + +"Oh, I don't know--José acted pretty white, himself. You've got to admit +that it's José that took the fight out of the crowd. I'm glad--" He did +not finish the sentence, and they were considerate enough not to insist +that he should. + + * * * * * + +Warm sunlight, and bonfires fallen to cheerless, charred embers and +ashes gone gray; warm sunlight, and eyes grown heavy with the weariness +of surfeited pleasure. Bullock carts creaked again, their squealing +growing gradually fainter as the fat-jowled señoras lurched home to the +monotony of life, while the señoritas drowsed and dreamed, and smiled in +their dreaming. + +At the corrals, red-lidded caballeros cursed irritably the horses they +saddled. In the patio Don Andres gave dignified adieu to the guests that +still lingered. The harp was shrouded and dumb upon the platform, the +oaken floor polished and dark with the night-long slide of slippered +feet. The fiesta was slipping out of the present into the past, where it +would live still under the rose-lights of memory. + +There was a scurry of little feet in the rose-garden. A door slammed +somewhere and hushed the sound of sobbing. A señorita--a young and +lovely señorita who had all her life been given her way--fled to her +room in a great rage, because for once her smiles had not thawed the ice +which her anger had frozen. + +The señorita flung something upon the floor and trampled it with her +little slipper-heels; a rose, blood-red and withered, yet heavy with +perfume still; a rose, twin to the one upon which the black horse of +José had set his foot in the arena. A note she tore in little bits, with +fingers that tingled still from the slap she had given to Diego, who had +brought it. She flung the fragments from her, and the writing was fine +and feminine in every curve--her own, if you wish to know; the note she +had sent, twenty-four hours before, to her blue-eyed one whom she had +decided to forgive. + +"Santa Maria!" she gasped, and gritted her teeth afterwards. "This, +then, is what he meant--that insolent one! 'After the fiesta will I +send the answer'--so he told that simpering maid who took my letter and +the rose. And the answer, then, is my rose and my letter returned, and +no word else. Madre de Dios! That he should flout me thus! Now will I +tell José to kill him--and kill him quickly. For that blue-eyed gringo I +hate!" Then she flung herself across her bed and wept. + +Let the tender-hearted be reassured. The señorita slid from sobbing into +slumber, and her dreams were pleasant, so that she woke smiling. That +night she sang a love-song to José, behind the passion vines; and her +eyes were soft; and when young Don José pulled her fingers from the +guitar strings and kissed them many times, her only rebuke was such a +pursing of lips that they were kissed also for their mutiny. + +After awhile the señorita sang again, while José, his neck held a little +to one side because of his hurt, watched her worshipfully, and forgot +how much he had suffered because of her. She was seventeen, you see, and +she was lovely to look upon; and as for a heart--perhaps she would +develop one later. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +ADIOS + + +The sun was sliding past the zenith when Jack yawned himself awake. He +lay frowning at the ceiling as if he were trying to remember something, +sat up when recollection came, and discovered that Dade was already up +and getting into his jacket. + +"Dade, let's go back to the mine," he suggested abruptly, reaching for +his boots. "You aren't crazy about this job here, are you? I know you +didn't want to take it, at first." + +"And I know you bullied me into it," Dade retorted, with some acrimony. +He had danced until his feet burned with fatigue, and there was the +reaction from a month of worry to roughen his mood. Also, he had yet to +digest the amazing fact that the sight of Teresita had not hurt him so +very much--not one quarter as much as he had expected it would do. Now, +here was Jack proposing to leave, just when staying would be rather +agreeable! + +"Well--but times have changed, since then. I'm ready to go." Jack +pulled on a boot and stamped his foot snugly into it. "What's more, I'm +going!" + +"You'll eat, first, won't you?" + +Jack passed over the sarcasm. "No, sir, I won't. I'm not going to +swallow another mouthful on this ranch. I held myself down till that +damned fiesta was over, because I didn't want folks to say I was scared +off. But now--I'm going, just as quick as the Lord'll let me get a +saddle on that yellow mustang." + +"Why, you--" + +"Why, I nothing! I'm going. If you want to go along, you can; but I +won't drag you off by the heels. You can suit yourself." He stamped +himself into the other boot, went over and splashed cold water into his +eyes and upon his head, shook off the drops that clung to his hair, made +a few violent passes with towel and brush, and reached for his sombrero. + +"It's a long ways to ride on an empty stomach," Dade reminded him dryly. + +"We can stop at Jerry Simpson's and eat. That won't be more than a mile +or so out of the way." Jack's hand was on the latch. + +"And that yellow horse ain't what you can call trail-broke." + +"He will be, by the time I get to the mine!" + +Dade threw out both hands in surrender. "Oh, well--you darned donkey, +give me time to tell Don Andres good-by, anyway." + +Jack's eyes lighted with the smile Dade knew and loved to see. "Dade, +they don't make 'em any better than you," he cried, and left the door to +try and break a shoulder-blade with the flat of his hand, just to show +his appreciation of such friendship. "Bill Wilson has got enough gold +that he pulled out of the crowd for us yesterday to grub-stake us for a +good long while, and--I can't get out of this valley a minute too soon +to suit me," he confessed. "You go on and hunt up Don Andres, while I +tackle Solano. I'll wait for you--but don't ask me to stay till after +dinner, because I won't do it. + +"We don't want to go off without saying good-by to Jerry and his wife, +anyway; and we'll beg a meal from the old Turk, and listen to some more +yarns about Tige, just to show we're friendly. I'll have Surry saddled, +so all you've got to do is make your talk to the don and pack your +socks." + +Dade grinned and followed him outside. "Good thing I'm used to you," he +commented grimly, "or my head would be whirling, right now." Not a word, +you will observe, as to whether his own interests would be furthered by +this sudden departure; but that was Dade's way. Not a word about the +sudden change from last evening, when Jack had eaten at Don Andres' +table and had talked amiably with José--amiably in spite of the fact +that every one of them understood perfectly that the amiability was but +the flowers of courtesy strewn over a formal--and perhaps a +temporary--truce. But José was not a fixture upon the ranch, and the +don's friendship for the two seemed unchanged. + +Dade did not argue nor did he question. Barring details, he thought he +understood why it was that Jack wanted to go--why it was impossible for +him to stay. A girl may be only seventeen and as irresponsible as a +kitten, but for all that she may play an important part in the making +and the marring of a man's most practical plans. + +When he returned from the house, Don Andres walked beside him. The two +of them reached the corral just as Jack released Solano's foot from the +rawhide loop that had held it high while Jack cinched the saddle in +place. When Jack saw them he came forward, wiping from his face the +beads of perspiration which the tussle had brought there. + +"Señor Hunter tells me that you are going away," Don Andres began almost +at once. "That you are acting wisely I am truly convinced, Señor Allen, +though it irks me to say that it is so. For a little time would all be +well, perchance; for as long as your generosity fills the heart of José +with gratitude, so that no ill will finds room there. But his temper is +hot and hasty, as is yours; and with other considerations which one must +face--" He held out his hand for farewell. + +"Adios, Señor. I am indeed sorry that you must leave us," he said +simply. "Under other circumstance I should urge you to remain; but my +lips are sealed, as you well know. Adios, amigo mio. I have liked thee +well." He gripped Jack's hand warmly, and turned away. Dade he gave a +final handclasp, and walked slowly back to the house, his proud old head +bowed upon his chest. + +Valencia, yawning prodigiously, came forth from the vaqueros' hut and +glimpsed them just as Jack was bringing Solano to something like decent +behavior before they started down the slope. + +"Dios!" cried Valencia, and ran to see what was taking place. For while +the taming of a mustang is something which a man may undertake whenever +the mood of him impels, the somewhat bulky packages tied behind the high +cantles could mean nothing save a journey. + +When they told him, he expostulated with tears in his eyes. He had been +nursing since yesterday a secret hope that the blue-eyed one would teach +him that wonderful trick of making a riata climb upward of its own +accord as if it were a live thing. Beyond that he was genuinely +distressed to see them go, and even threatened to go with them before he +yielded finally to the inevitable--remembering Felice, perhaps, and the +emptiness of life without her. + +"Señor, should you chance to see that great hombre who whipped Manuel so +completely, you would do well to give the warning. Me, I heard from +Ronaldo last night that Manuel spoke many threats against that gringo +who had beaten him. Carlos also--and I think they mean ill towards the +Señor Seem'son. Me, I thought to ride that way to-morrow and give the +word of warning." + +"We're going there now," said Jack, with some difficulty holding the +yellow horse quiet, while he shook hands with Valencia. "Adios, +Valencia. If you ever come near our mine, remember that what we have +will be yours also." + +"Gracias, gracias--adios--" He stood staring regretfully after them when +they started erratically down the slope; erratically, because Solano +preferred going backward or sidewise, or straight up and down, to going +forward. They were not two hundred yards away from the stable when +Valencia overtook them, having saddled in haste that he might ride with +them for a way. + +"That caballo, he needs two to show him the way, Señors," grinned +Valencia, to explain his coming. "Me, I shall help to get him started, +and we will say adios farther up the valley, unless the señors desire to +ride to Señor Seem'son's cabin." + +"That's where we're headed for, believe it or not!" laughed Jack, who at +that moment was going round and round in a circle. "When he gets so +dizzy he can't tell up from down, maybe he'll do as I say about going +straight ahead." + +Eventually Solano did decide to move forward; and he did so at such a +pace that speedily they reached Jerry's claim and galloped furiously up +the slope to the cabin. + +"Must be asleep," Dade remarked carelessly, when they faced a quiet, +straight-hanging bullock hide. + +But when a loud hallo brought no sign, even from Tige, he jumped off and +went to investigate the silence. + +"There ain't a single soul here," he announced, "and that's funny, too. +They always leave Tige to watch the place, you know--or they did before +I went on rodeo." + +"They do yet," said Jack. "Only Mrs. Jerry never goes anywhere. She +stays at home to watch their garden. That's it, over there; her 'truck +patch,' she calls it." + +"Things are all upset here. Get off, Jack, and let's see what's up. I +don't like the looks of things, myself." Dade's face was growing sober. + +Valencia, on the ground, was helping Jack with Solano. But he turned +suddenly and cast an uneasy glance towards the quiet log hut. + +"Señors, for these two who live here I am afraid! It is as I told you; +that Manuel was speaking threats against the big señor, last night; and +he had drunk much wine, so that he walked not steady. And with Carlos +and perhaps one or two others--of that I am not sure--he rode away soon +after dark. Dolt, that I did not tell thee at the time! But I was +dancing much," he confessed, "and the fiesta dance makes drunken the +feet, that they must dance--" + +"Well, tie up that mustang and never mind." Dade was walking aimlessly +about, looking for something--what, he did not know. "There's tracks all +around, and--" he disappeared behind the cabin. + +In a minute he was calling them, and his tone brought them on the run. +"Now, what do you make of that?" he wanted to know, and pointed. + +Two fresh mounds of earth, narrow, long--graves, if size and shape meant +anything at all. The form of a "T" they made there in the grass; for one +was short and extended across, near one end of the larger one. + +"What do you make of that?" Dade repeated, much lower than before. + +"Señors, evil has been done here. Me, I think--" + +"Don't think! Bring that shovel, over there--see it, by the tree?--and +dig. There's one way to find out what it means." + +Valencia did not want to dig into those mounds, but the voice was that +of his majordomo, whom he had for a month obeyed implicitly. He got the +shovel and he dug. And since it seemed too bad to make him do all the +work, Jack and Dade each took their turn in opening the grave. + +And in that grave they found Mrs. Jerry, wrapped in her faded patchwork +quilt, her hands folded at peace, her wistful brown eyes closed +softly--There was no need to speculate long upon the cause of her death. +Her shapeless brown dress was stained dark from throat to waist. Dade, +shuddering a little, very gently lifted the hands that were folded; +beneath was the hole where the bullet had struck. + +"Dios!" said Valencia, in a whisper. + +They were three white-faced young men who stood there, abashed before +the tragedy they had uncovered. After a little, they filled the grave +again and stood back, trying to think the thing out and to think it out +calmly. They drew away from the spot, Dade leading. + +"We don't need to open the other one," he said. "That holds Tige, of +course. I wonder--" + +"Let's look around out there in the bushes," Jack suggested. "I can see +how the thing must have happened; somebody came and started +shooting--and that rifle he called Jemina, and the two pistols--don't +you reckon they did some good for themselves?" + +"Probably--if Jerry was here." + +"Man, he must have been here! Who else--" he tilted his head towards the +graves. Surely, no one but Jerry would have buried them so, with Tige +lying at the feet of his mistress. And, as Jack presently pointed out, +if the shooting had taken place in Jerry's absence, he would certainly +have notified them at the ranch. And Jack had a swift mental picture of +Jerry galloping furiously up to the patio on one of his mules, +brandishing his rifle, while he shouted to all around him the news of +this terrible, unbelievable thing that had befallen him. + +They did not search long before they found plenty of evidence that Jerry +had been there at the time of the trouble. They found Manuel lying on +his back, with his beard clotted and stained red, and his black eyes +staring dully at the sky. Farther along they came upon Carlos, lying +upon his face, with a blood-stained trail behind him in the grass to +show how far he had crawled before death overtook him. But they did not +find Jerry, look where they would. + +In the cabin, where they finally went to search systematically for +clews, they found places where the logs had been splintered near the +loopholes with bullets from without. A siege it had been, then. + +Jack, more familiar with the interior than either of the others because +of his frequent visits there with Teresita, missed certain articles; the +frying pan, an iron pot, a few dishes, and the bedding, to be exact. + +So, finally, they decided that Jerry, having had the worst befall him, +had buried his dead, packed a few necessary things upon one of the +mules, mounted the other, and had gone--where? There was no telling +where, in that big land. Somewhere into the wilderness, they guessed, +where he could be alone with the deadly hurt Fate and his enemies had +given him. + +The oxen, when they went outside, came shambling up the slope to the oak +tree where they were wont to spend the night near the prairie schooner +that had been their homing place for many a month. But without a doubt +the mules were gone; otherwise, Jack insisted, they would be near the +oxen, as was their gregarious habit. + +"Jerry's gone--pulled out," Jack asserted for the third or fourth time. +"And the mules, and--the pup. Where's Chico? I haven't seen or heard +anything of him; have you?" + +They had not; and they immediately began calling and looking for Chico, +who was at that stage of puppyhood that insists upon getting in front of +one and then falling down and lying, paws in the air, waiting to be +picked up and petted. But Chico did not come lumbering up like an +animated black muff, and they could not find his little, dead body. + +It occurred to Dade that he might be buried with Tige; and, once the +idea was presented to Jack, he could not content himself to leave the +place until he knew to a certainty. He would never have admitted it, but +there were certain sweet memories which made that particular pup not at +all like other black pups. He got the shovel, and he dug in the little +grave until he was certain that Tige lay there, and that he was alone. + +"Well, he's taken the pup along, then; and that proves to me that Jerry +wasn't crazy, or anything like that. He's just pulled out, because he +couldn't stand it around here any longer--and I don't blame him. But I +wish I knew where; we'd take him up to the mine with us; huh?" + +"Yes--but we're about fourteen hours too late to find out where he went. +If I'm any judge, these bodies have been dead that long. And if we +found him, the chances are he wouldn't go. If I'm any good at guessing +poor Jerry's state of mind, right now, he don't want to see or speak to +any human being on earth." + +"I guess you're right," Jack assented, after a meditative pause. "He +just worshiped that poor little woman." + +Beyond that, neither of them attempted to put into speech the tragedy; +it was beyond the poor words we have thus far coined for our needs, like +many another thing that happens in these lives we live. They waited a +little while longer, wondering what they could or should do. + +Mrs. Jerry lay easily where she had been placed by the man who loved +her. The killers had been killed by the same hand that laid her deep, in +her faded, patchwork quilt. There seemed nothing further to be done. + +But Valencia, when he had ridden a thoughtful half-mile, did think of +something. + +"Me, I shall give ten pesos of the gold I won yesterday upon the duelo," +he said, glancing back at the grim little cabin, "that mass may be said +for the repose of the Señora Seem'son's soul. For thus will sleep come +easier to me, Señors. And you?" + +"I think, Valencia, if I were going to say any prayers, they'd be said +for Jerry," Dade told him. "He needs 'em worse than she does." + +"Oh, come on, Dade; let's be getting out of this valley!" Jack urged +irritably. "And I hope," he added, "I'll never see the place again!" + +"But, Señor!" Valencia rode alongside to protest almost tearfully, "The +valley, it is not to be blame. Saw you ever a sweeter land than this?" +He flung his arm outward to include the whole beautiful expanse of it. +"The valley, it is glorious! Am I not right? Blame not the beautiful +land, Señor, for the trouble that has come; for trouble will find a man +out, though he climb the loneliest mountain peak and hide himself among +the rocks there! And the valley--Señors, the valley will hold friends +that are true to thee." + +Jack flushed at the reproach; flushed and owned himself wrong. "I'll +remember the friends," he said. "And I'll forget the things that hurt; +I'm a selfish brute--whee-ee! I should say!" He pulled up as short as +Solano would let him, and stared from Dade to Valencia with guilty eyes. + +"Diego--I forgot that Injun, Dade; and next to you, I believe he's the +best friend I've got on earth! I was so wrapped up in my own bruises +that I clean overlooked something that I ought to be mighty grateful +for. Dade, do you think he'd like to go along to the mine? You know his +wife died a few months ago, and he's kind of alone; do you think he'd +go?" + +"I think the chance to go would look like a ticket to glory," Dade +assured him sententiously. + +Whereupon Jack dismounted, that he might write a few lines as he had +written the note to Bill Wilson, a couple of months before: with a leaf +from his memorandum book and a bullet for pencil. + +"Give that to Don Andres, will you, Valencia? It's to ask how much is +Diego's debt, and to say that I'll pay it if the peon wants to come with +me. We'll wait in town until we hear; perhaps Don Andres will let you +come up with Diego--that is, if Diego wants to come. You ask him, +Valencia." + +"He will come, Señor; nothing would give him greater joy. And," he added +wishfully, "but for my sweetheart, Señors, I would ask that I might come +with you also!" + +"You stick to your sweetheart, Valencia--if she's true," Jack advised +him somberly. "Now, Dade, I guess we're ready for the long ride to +supper. Why don't you kick me for being such a selfish cuss?" + +"Maybe because I'm used to you," Dade's lips quirked humorously after +the retort. "You're just Jack--and you couldn't be any different, I +reckon, if you tried. Well, come along, then. Adios, Valencia." + +Once more they shook hands solemnly with the vaquero, who had no smile +for the parting. + +"Adios, adios," Valencia called lingeringly after them, and held his +horse quiet that he might gaze after them until a willow bend hid them +finally from his view. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gringos, by B. M. Bower + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12139 *** |