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diff --git a/old/18916-8.txt b/old/18916-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e09283 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/18916-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9163 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Daughter of the Sun, by Jackson Gregory + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Daughter of the Sun + A Tale of Adventure + + +Author: Jackson Gregory + + + +Release Date: July 27, 2006 [eBook #18916] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAUGHTER OF THE SUN*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 18916-h.htm or 18916-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/1/18916/18916-h/18916-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/1/18916/18916-h.zip) + + + + + +DAUGHTER OF THE SUN + +A Tale of Adventure + +by + +JACKSON GREGORY + +(Quién Sabe) + +Author of +Timber Wolf, The Everlasting Whisper, Desert Valley, Etc. + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Zoraida Castelmar, daughter of the Montezumas] + + + +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers -------- New York +Copyright, 1921, by +Charles Scribner's Sons +Copyright as "The Treasure of the Hills," +1920, 1921, by Street & Smith + + + + +TO + +ZINGARA + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. IN WHICH A YOUNG AMERICAN KNOWN AS "HEADLONG" PLAYS AT + DICE WITH ONE IN MAN'S CLOTHING WHO IS NOT A MAN + + II. IN WHICH A SPELL IS WORKED AND AN EXPEDITION IS BEGUN + + III. OF THE NEW MOON, A TALE OF AZTEC TREASURE AND A MYSTERY + + IV. INDICATING THAT THAT WHICH APPEARS THE EARTHLY PARADISE + MAY PROVE QUITE ANOTHER SORT OF PLACE + + V. HOW ONE NOT ACCUSTOMED TO TAKING ANOTHER MAN'S ORDERS + RECEIVES THE COMMAND OF THE QUEEN LADY + + VI. CONCERNING THAT WHICH LAY IN THE EYES OF ZORAIDA + + VII. OF A GIRL HELD FOR RANSOM AND OF A TOAST DRUNK BY ONE + INFATUATED + + VIII. HOW A MAN MAY CARRY A MESSAGE AND NOT KNOW HIMSELF TO BE A + MESSENGER + + IX. WHICH BEGINS WITH A LITTLE SONG AND ENDS WITH TROUBLE + BETWEEN FRIENDS + + X. IN WHICH A MAN KEEPS HIS WORD AND ZORAIDA DARES AND LAUGHS + + XI. IN WHICH THERE IS MORE THAN ONE LIE TOLD AND THE TRUTH + IS GLIMPSED + + XII. IN WHICH AN OVERTURE IS MADE, AN ANSWER IS POSTPONED AND + A DOOR IS LOCKED + + XIII. CONCERNING WOMAN'S WILES AND WITCHERY + + XIV. CONCERNING A DIFFICULT SITUATION, RECKLESSLY INVITED + + XV. OF THE ANCIENT GARDENS OF THE GOLDEN TEZCUCAN + + XVI. HOW TWO, IN THE LABYRINTH OF MIRRORS, WATCHED DISTANT + HAPPENINGS + + XVII. HOW ONE WHO HAS EVER COMMANDED MUST LEARN TO OBEY + + XVIII. OF FLIGHT, PURSUIT AND A LAIR IN THE CLIFFS + + XIX. HOW ONE WHO HIDES AND WATCHES MAY BE WATCHED BY ONE HIDDEN + + XX. IN WHICH A ROCK MOVES, A DISCOVERY IS MADE AND MORE THAN + ONE AVENUE IS OPENED + + XXI. HOW ONE RETURNS UNWILLINGLY WHITHER HE WOULD WILLINGLY + ENTER BY ANOTHER DOOR + + XXII. REGARDING A NECKLACE OF PEARLS AND CERTAIN PLANS OF TWO + WHO WERE MEANT TO BE ONE + + + + +DAUGHTER OF THE SUN + + +CHAPTER I + +IN WHICH A YOUNG AMERICAN KNOWN AS + "HEADLONG" PLAYS AT DICE WITH + ONE IN MAN'S CLOTHING WHO + IS NOT A MAN + +Jim Kendric had arrived and the border town knew it well. All who knew +the man foresaw that he would come with a rush, tarry briefly for a bit +of wild joy and leave with a rush for the Lord knew where and the Lord +knew why. For such was ever the way of Jim Kendric. + +A letter at the postoffice had been the means of advising the entire +community of the coming of Kendric. The letter was from Bruce West, +down in Lower California, and scrawled across the flap were +instructions to the postmaster to hold it for Jim Kendric who would +arrive within a couple of weeks. Furthermore the word URGENT was not +to be overlooked. + +Among the men drawn together in hourly expectation of the arrival of +Kendric, one remarked thoughtfully: + +"Jim's Mex friend is in town." + +"Ruiz Rios?" someone asked, a man from the outside. + +"Been here three days. Just sticking around and doing nothing but +smoke cigarettes. Looks like he was waiting." + +"What for?" + +"Waiting for Jim, maybe?" was suggested. + +Two or three laughed at that. In their estimation Ruiz Rios might be +the man to knife his way out of a hole, but not one to go out of his +way to cross the trail made wide and recklessly by Jim Kendric. + +"A half hour ago," came the supplementary information from another +quarter, "a big automobile going to beat the band pulls up in front of +the hotel. The Mex is watching and when a woman climbs down he grabs +her traps and steers her into the hotel." + +Immediately this news bringer was the man of the moment. But he had +had scant time to admit that he hadn't seen her face, that she had worn +a thick black veil, that somehow she just _seemed_ young and that he'd +bet she was too darn pretty to be wasting herself on Rios, when Jim +Kendric himself landed in their midst. + +He was powdered with alkali dust from the soles of his boots to the +crown of his black hat and he looked unusually tall because he was +unusually gaunt. He had ridden far and hard. But the eyes were the +same old eyes of the same old headlong Jim Kendric, on fire on the +instant, dancing with the joy of striking hands with the old-timers, +shining with the man's supreme joy of life. + +"I'm no drinking man and you know it," he shouted at them, his voice +booming out and down the quiet blistering street. "And I'm no gambling +man. I'm steady and sober and I'm a regular fool for conservative +investments! But there's a time when a glass in the hand is as pat as +eggs in a hen's nest and a man wants to spend his money free! Come on, +you bunch of devil-hounds; lead me to it." + +It was the rollicking arrival which they had counted on since this was +the only way Jim Kendric knew of getting back among old friends and old +surroundings. There was nothing subtle about him; in all things he was +open and forthright and tempestuous. In a man's hardened and buffeted +body he had kept the heart of a harum-scarum boy. + +"It's only a step across the line into Old Town," he reminded them. +"And the Mexico gents over there haven't got started reforming yet. +Blaze the trail, Benny. Shut up your damned old store and postoffice, +Homer, and trot along. It's close to sunset any way; I'll finance the +pilgrimage until sunup." + +When he mentioned the "postoffice" Homer Day was recalled to his +official duties as postmaster. He gave Kendric the letter from Bruce +West. Kendric ripped open the envelope, glanced at the contents, +skimming the lines impatiently. Then he jammed the letter into his +pocket. + +"Just as I supposed," he announced. "Bruce has a sure thing in the way +of the best cattle range you ever saw; he'll make money hand over fist. +But," and he chuckled his enjoyment, "he's just a trifle too busy +scaring off Mexican bandits and close-herding his stock to get any +sleep of nights. Drop him a postcard, Homer; tell him I can't come. +Let's step over to Old Town." + +"Ruiz Rios is in town, Jim," he was informed. + +"I know," he retorted lightly. "But I'm not shooting trouble nowadays. +Getting older, you know." + +"How'd _you_ know?" asked Homer. + +"Bruce said so in his letter; Rios is a neighbor down in Lower +California. Now, forget Ruiz Rios. Let's start something." + +There were six Americans in the little party by the time they had +walked the brief distance to the border and across into Old Town. +Before they reached the swing doors of the Casa Grande the red ball of +the sun went down. + +"Fat Ortega knows you're coming, Jim," Kendric was advised. "I guess +everybody in town knows by now." + +And plainly everybody was interested. When the six men, going in two +by two, snapped back the swinging doors there were a score of men in +the place. Behind the long bar running along one side of the big room +two men were busy setting forth bottles and glasses. The air was hazy +with cigarette smoke. There was a business air, an air of readiness +and expectancy about the gaming tables though no one at this early hour +had suggested playing. Ortega himself, fat and greasy and pompous, +leaned against his bar and twisted a stogie between his puffy, +pendulous lips. He merely batted his eyes at Kendric, who noticed him +not at all. + +A golden twenty dollar coin spun and winked upon the bar impelled by +Jim's big fingers and Kendric's voice called heartily: + +"I'd be happy to have every man here drink with me." + +The invitation was naturally accepted. The men ranged along the bar, +elbow to elbow; the bartenders served and, with a nod toward the man +who stood treat, poured their own red wine. Even Ortega, though he +made no attempt toward a civil response, drank. The more liquor poured +into a man's stomach here, the more money in Ortega's pocket and he was +avaricious. He'd drink in his own shop with his worst enemy provided +that enemy paid the score. + +Kendric's friends were men who were always glad to drink and play a +game of cards, but tonight they were gladder for the chance to talk +with "Old Headlong." When he had bought the house a couple of rounds +of drinks, Kendric withdrew to a corner table with a dozen of his +old-time acquaintances and for upward of an hour they sat and found +much to talk of. He had his own experiences to recount and sketched +them swiftly, telling of a venture in a new silver mining country and a +certain profit made; of a "misunderstanding," as he mirthfully +explained it, now and then, with the children of the South; of horse +swapping and a taste of the pearl fisheries of La Paz; of no end of +adventures such as men of his class and nationality find every day in +troublous Mexico. Twisty Barlow, an old-time friend with whom once he +had gone adventuring in Peru, a man who had been deep sea sailor and +near pirate, real estate juggler, miner, trapper and mule skinner, sat +at his elbow, put many an incisive question, had many a yarn of his own +to spin. + +"Headlong, old mate," said Twisty Barlow once, laying his knotty hand +on Kendric's arm, "by the livin' Gawd that made us, I'd like to go +a-journeyin' with the likes of you again. And I know the land that's +waitin' for the pair of us. Into San Diego we go and there we take a +certain warped and battered old stem-twister the owner calls a +schooner. And we beat it out into the Pacific and turn south until we +come to a certain land maybe you can remember having heard me tell +about. And there---- It's there, Headlong, old mate!" + +Kendric's eyes shone while Barlow spoke, but then they always shone +when a man hinted of such things as he knew lay in the sailorman's +mind. But at the end he shook his head. + +"You're talking about tomorrow or next day, Twisty," he laughed, +filling his deep lungs contentedly. "I've had a bellyful of +mañana-talk here of late. All I'm interested in is tonight." He +rattled some loose coins in his pocket. "I've got money in my pocket, +man!" he cried, jumping to his feet. "Come ahead. I stake every man +jack of you to ten dollars and any man who wins treats the house." + +Meanwhile Ortega's place had been doing an increasing business. Now +there was desultory playing at several tables where men were placing +their bets at poker, at seven-and-a-half and at roulette; the faro +layout would be offering its invitation in a moment; there was a game +of dice in progress. + +Kendric's companions moved about from table to table laughing, making +small bets or merely watching. But presently as half dollars were won +and lost the insidious charm of hazard touched them. Monte stuck fast +to the faro table for fifteen minutes, at the end of which time he rose +with a sigh, tempted to go back to Kendric for a "real stake" and cut +in for a man's play. But he thought better of it and strolled away, +rolling a cigarette and watching the others. Jerry bought a ten dollar +stack of chips and assayed his fortune with roulette, playing his usual +luck and his usual system; with every hazard lost he lost his temper +and doubled his bet. He was the first man to join Monte. + +For upward of an hour of play Kendric was content with looking on and +had not hazarded a cent beyond the money flung down on the table to be +played by his friends. But now at last he looked about the room +eagerly, his head up, his eyes blazing with the up-surge of the spirit +riding him. About his middle was a money belt, safely brought back +across the border; in his wild heart was the imperative desire to play. +Play high and quick and hard. It was then that for the first time he +noted Ruiz Rios. Evidently the Mexican had just now entered from the +rear. At the far end of the room where the kerosene lamp light was +none too good Rios was standing with a solitary slim-bodied companion. +The companion, to call for all due consideration later, barely caught +Jim's roving eye now; he saw Rios and he told himself that the +gamblers' goddess had whisked him in at the magic moment. For in one +essential, as in no others, was Ruiz Rios a man after Jim Kendric's own +heart: the Mexican was a man to play for any stake and do no moralizing +over the result. + +"Ortega," cried Kendric, looking all the time challengingly at Rios, +"there is only one game worth the playing. King of games? The emperor +of games! Have you a man here to shake dice with me?" + +Ortega understood and made no answer, Rios, small and sinister and +handsome, his air one of eternal well-bred insolence, kept his own +counsel. There came a quick tug at his sleeve; his companion whispered +in his ear. Thus it was that for the first time Kendric really looked +at this companion. And at the first keen glance, in spite of the male +attire, the loose coat and hat pulled low, the scarf worn high about +the neck, he knew that it was a woman who had entered with Ruiz Rios +and now whispered to him. + +"His wife," thought Kendric. "Telling him not to play. She's got her +nerve coming in here." + +The question of her relationship to the Mexican was open to +speculation; the matter of her nerve was not. That was definitely +settled by the carriage of her body which was at once defiant and +imperious; by the tilt of the chin, barely glimpsed; by the way she +stood her ground as one after another pair of eyes turned upon her +until every man in the room stared openly. It was as useless for her +to seek to disguise her sex thus as it would be for the moon to mask as +a candle. And she knew it and did not care. Kendric understood that +on the moment. + +"Between us there has been at times trouble, señor," said Rios lightly. +"I do not know if you care to play? If so, I will be most pleased for +a little game." + +"I'd shake dice with the devil himself, friend Ruiz," answered Jim +heartily. + +"I must have some money from Ortega here," said Rios carelessly. +"Unless my check will satisfy?" + +"Better get the money," returned Kendric pleasantly. + +As Rios turned away with the proprietor Kendric was impelled to look +again toward the woman. She had moved a little to one side so that now +she stood in the shadow cast by an angle of the wall. He could not see +her eyes, so low had she drawn her wide _sombrero_, nor could he make +out much of her face. He had an impression of an oval line curving +softly into the folds of her scarf; of masses of black hair. But one +thing he knew: she was looking steadily at him. It did not matter that +he could not see her eyes; he could feel them. Under that hidden gaze +there was a moment during which he was oddly stirred, vaguely agitated. +It was as though she, some strange woman, were striving to subject his +mind to the spell of her own will; as though across the room she were +seeking not only to read his thought but to mold it to the shape of her +own thought. He had the uncanny sensation that her mind was rifling +his, that it would be hard to hide from those probing mental fingers +any slightest desire or intention. Kendric shook himself savagely, +angered that even for an instant he should have submitted to such +sickish fancies. But even so, and while he strode to the nearby table +for the dice cup, he could not free himself from the impression which +she had laid upon him. + +She beckoned Rios as he came back with Ortega. He went to her side and +she whispered to him. + +"We will play here, at this end of the room, señor," Rios said to +Kendric. + +As Kendric looked quite naturally from the one who spoke to the one +from whom so obviously the order had come, he saw for the first time +the gleam of the woman's eyes. A very little she had lifted the brim +of her hat so that from beneath she could watch what went forward. +They held his gaze riveted; they seemed to glow in the shadows as +though with some inner light. He could not judge their color; they +were mere luminous pools. He started with an odd fancy; he caught +himself wondering if those eyes could see in the dark? + +Again he shrugged as though to shake physically from him these strange +fancies. He snatched up the little table and brought it to where Ruiz +Rios waited, putting it down not three feet from the Mexican's silent +companion. And all the time, though now he refused to turn his head +toward her, he was conscious of the strangely disturbing certainty that +those luminous eyes were regarding him with unshifting intensity. + +Kendric abruptly spilled the dice out of the cup so that they rolled on +the table top. + +"One die, one throw, ace high?" he asked curtly of Rios. + +The Mexican nodded. + +It was in the air that there would be big play, and men crowded around. +Briefly, the unusual presence of a woman, here at Fat Ortega's, was +forgotten. + +"Select the lucky cube," Kendric invited Rios. The Mexican's slim +brown fingers drew one of the dice toward him, choosing at random. + +Kendric opened vest and shirt and after a moment of fumbling drew forth +and slammed down on the table a money belt that bulged and struck like +a leaden bar. + +"Gold and U. S. bank notes," he announced. "Keep your eye on me, Señor +Don Ruiz Rios de Mexico, while I count 'em." + +Unbuttoning the pocket flaps, he began pouring forth the treasure which +he had brought back with him after two years in Old Mexico. Boyish and +gleeful, he enjoyed the expressions that came upon the faces about him +as he counted aloud and Rios watched with narrow, suspicious eyes. He +sorted the gold, arranging in piles of twenties and tens, all American +minted; he smoothed out the bank notes and stacked them. And at the +end, looking up smilingly, he announced: + +"An even ten thousand dollars, señor." + +"You damn fool!" cried out Twisty Barlow hysterically. "Why, man, with +that pile me an' you could sail back into San Diego like kings! Now +that dago will pick you clean an' you know it." + +No one paid any attention to Barlow and he, after that one involuntary +outburst, recognized himself for the fool and kept his mouth shut, +though with difficulty. + +Ruiz Rios's dark face was almost Oriental in its immobility. He did +not even look interested. He merely considered after a dreamy, +abstracted fashion. + +Again a quick eager hand was laid on his arm, again his companion +whispered in his ear. Rios nodded curtly and turned to Ortega. + +"Have you the money in the house?" he demanded. + +"_Seguro_," said the gambling house owner. "I expected Señor Kendric." + +"You do me proud," laughed Jim. "Let's see the color of it in American +money." + +With most men the winning or losing of ten thousand dollars, though +they played heavily, was a matter of hours and might run on into days +if luck varied tantalizingly. All of the zest of those battling hours +Jim Kendric meant to crowd into one moment. There was much of love in +the heart of Headlong Jim Kendric, but it was a love which had never +poured itself through the common channels, never identified itself with +those two passions which sway most men: he had never known love for a +woman and in him there was no money-greed. For him women did not come +even upon the rim of his most distant horizon; as for money, when he +had none of it he sallied forth joyously in its quest holding that +there was plenty of it in this good old world and that it was as rare +fun running it down as hunting any other big game. When he had plenty +of it he had no thought of other matters until he had spent it or given +it away or watched it go its merry way across a table with a green top +like a fleet of golden argosies on a fair emerald sea voyaging in +search of a port of adventure. His love was reserved for his friends +and for his adventurings, for clear dawns in solitary mountains, for +spring-times in thick woods, for sweeps of desert, for what he would +have called "Life." + +"Ready?" Ruiz Rios was asking coldly. Ortega had returned with a +drawer from his safe clasped in his fat hands; the money was counted +and piled. + +"Let her roll," cried Kendric heartily. + +Never had there been a game like this at Ortega's. Men packed closer +and closer, pushing and crowding. The Mexican slowly rattled the +single die in the cup. Then, with a quick jerk of the wrist, he turned +it out on the table. It rolled, poised, settled. The result amply +satisfied Rios and to the line of the lips under his small black +mustache came the hint of a smile; he had turned up a six. + +"The ace is high!" cried Jim. He caught up die and box, lifting the +cupped cube high above his head. His eyes were bright with excitement, +his cheeks were flushed, his voice rang out eagerly. + +"Out of six numbers there is only one ace," smiled Ruiz Rios. + +"One's all I want, señor," laughed Jim. And made his throw. + +When large ventures are made, in money or otherwise, it would seem that +the goddess of chance is no myth but a potent spirit and that she takes +a firm deciding hand. At a time like this, when two men seek to put at +naught her many methods of prolonging suspense, she in turn seeks +stubbornly to put at naught their endeavors to defeat her aims. Had +Jim Kendric thrown the ace then he would have won and the thing would +have been ended; had he shaken anything less than a six the spoils +would have been the Mexican's. That which happened was that out of the +gambler's cup Kendric turned another six. + +Ruiz Rios's impassive face masked all emotion; Kendric's displayed +frankly his sheer delight. He was playing his game; he was getting his +fun. + +"A tie, by thunder!" he cried out in huge enjoyment. "We're getting a +run for our money, Mexico. Shall I shake next?" + +"Follow your hand," said Ruiz Rios briefly. + +That which followed next would have appeared unbelievable to any who +have not over and over watched the inexplicable happenings of a gaming +table. Kendric made his second throw and lifted his eyebrows +quizzically at the result. He had turned out the deuce, the lowest +number possible. A little eagerly, while men began to mutter in their +excitement, Rios snatched up cup and die and threw. Once already he +had counted ten thousand as good as won; now he made the same mistake. +For the incredible happened and he, too, showed a deuce, making a +second tie. + +Ruiz cursed his disgust and hurled the box down. Kendric burst into +booming laughter. + +"A game for men to talk about, friend Rios!" he said. And at the +moment he came near feeling a kindly feeling for a man whom he hated +most cordially and with high reason. "Follow your hand." + +Rios received the box from a hand offering it and made his third throw +swiftly. The six again. + +"Where we began, señor," he said, grown again impassive. + +Kendric was all impatient eagerness to make his throw, looking like a +boy chafing at a moment's restraint against his anticipated pleasures. + +"A six to beat," he said. + +And beat it he did, with the odds all against him. He turned up the +ace and won ten thousand dollars. + +In the brief hush which came before the shouts and jabberings of many +voices, Ruiz Rios's companion pulled him sharply by the arm, whispering +quickly. But this time Rios shook his head. + +"I am through," he said bluntly. "Another time, maybe." + +But the fever, to which he had so eagerly surrendered, was just +gripping Kendric. That he was playing for big stakes was the thing +that counted. That he had won meant less to him than it would have +meant to any other man in the room or any other man who had ever been +in the room or any other man who would ever come into the room. He saw +that Ruiz was through. But, as his dancing eyes sped around among +other faces, he marked the twinkling lights of covetousness in Fat +Ortega's rat eyes and he knew that, long ago, Ortega himself had played +for any stake. Beside Ortega there was another man present who might +be inclined to accept a hazard, Tony Muñoz, who conducted the rival +gambling house across the street and who was Ortega's much despised +son-in-law. Long ago Ortega and Tony had quarreled and when Tony had +run away with Eloisa, Ortega's pretty daughter, men said it was as much +to spite the old man as for love of the girl's snapping eyes. Tony +might play, if Ortega refused. + +"One throw for the whole thing, Ortega?" challenged Kendric. "You and +me." + +"Have I twenty thousand _pesos_ in my pocket?" jeered Ortega. "You +make me the big gringo bluff." + +"Bluff? Call it then, man. That's what a bluff is for. And you don't +need the money in the pocket. This house is yours; your cellars are +always full of expensive liquors; there is money in your till and +something in your safe yet, I'll bet my hat. Put up the whole thing +against my wad and I'll shake you for it." + +Plainly Ortega was tempted. And why not? There lay on the green +table, winking up alluringly at him, twenty thousand dollars. His, if +simply a little cube with numbers on it turned in proper fashion. +Twenty thousand dollars! He licked his fat pendulous lips. And, to +further tempt him, he estimated that his entire holding here, bar +fixtures, tables, wines and cash, were worth not above fifteen +thousand. But then, this was all that he had in the world and though +he craved further gains until the craving was acute like a pain, still +he clung avidly to the power and the prestige and the luxury that were +his as owner of la Casa Grande. In brief, he was too much the moral +coward to be such a gambler as Kendric called for. + +"No," he snapped angrily. + +"Look," said Kendric, smiling. He shook the die and threw it, +inverting the cup over it so that it was hidden. "I do not know what I +have thrown, Ortega, and you do not know. I will bet you five thousand +dollars even money that it is a six or better." + +Here were odds and Ortega jerked up his head. Five thousand to bet---- + +"No," he said again. "No. I don't play. You have devil's luck." + +With a flourish Jim lifted the cup to see what he had thrown. Again +his utterly mirthful laughter boomed out. It was the deuce, the low +throw. Ortega strained forward, saw and flushed. Had he but been man +enough to say "Yes!" to the odds offered him he would have been five +thousand dollars richer this instant! Five thousand dollars! He ran a +flabby hand across a moist brow. + +"Where's the luck in that throw?" demanded Kendric, fully enjoying the +play of expression on Ortega's face. + +"The luck," grumbled Ortega, "was that I did not bet you. If I had bet +it would have been a six, no less." + +"Tony Muñoz," called Kendric, turning. "Will it be you?" + +"No!" shouted Ortega, already angered in his grasping soul, ready to +spew forth his wrath in any direction, always more than ready to rail +at his son-in-law. "Muñoz has no business in my house. Who is boss +here? It is me!" + +Kendric seeing that Tony Muñoz was contenting himself with sneering and +certainly would not play, began gathering up the money on the table. +It was then that for the first time he heard the voice of Ruiz Rios's +companion. + +"I will play Señor Kendric." + +The voice ran through the quiet of the room musically. The utterance +was low, gentle, the accent was the soft, tender accent of Old Spain +with some subtle flavor of other alien races. No man in the room had +ever heard such sweet, soothing music as was made by her slow words. +After the sound died away a hush remained and through men's memories +the cadences repeated themselves like lingering echoes. Kendric +himself stared at her wonderingly, not knowing why her hidden look +stirred him so, not knowing why there should be a spell worked by five +quiet words. Nor did he find the spell entirely pleasant; as her look +had done, so now her speech vaguely disturbed him. His emotion, though +not outright irritation, was akin to it. He was opening his lips to +say curtly, "I do not play dice with women, señora," when Ortega's +sudden outburst forestalled him. + +Kendric had barely had the time to register the faint impression of the +odd sensation which this companion of Ruiz Rios awoke in him, when he +was set to puzzle over Ortega's explosion. Why should the gaming-house +keeper raise so violent an objection to any sort of a game played in +his place? Perhaps Ortega himself could not have explained clearly +since it is doubtful if he felt clearly; it is likely that a childishly +blind anger had spurted up venomously in his heart when Kendric had +exposed the deuce and men had laughed and Ortega felt as though he had +lost five thousand dollars. In such a case a man's wrath explodes +readily, combustion breaking forth spontaneously like an oily rag in +the sun. At any rate, his fat face grown hectic, he lifted hand and +voice, shouting: + +"I will have no women gambling here. This is my place, a place for +men. You," and he leveled his forefinger at the slim figure, "go!" + +She ignored him. Stepping forward quickly, she whipped off her left +glove and in the bare white fingers, blazing with red and green stones +set in golden circlets, she caught up the dice cup. Even now little +was seen of her face for the other hand had drawn lower the wide hat, +higher the scarf about the throat. + +"One die, one throw for it all, Señor Kendric?" she asked. + +"I tell you, No!" shouted Ortega. "And No again!" + +Then, when she stood unmoved, her air of insolence like Ruiz Rios's, +but even more marked, Ortega burst forward between the men standing in +his way, shoving them to right and left with the powerful sweep of his +thick arms. His uplifted hand came down on her shoulder, thrusting her +backward. Her ungloved hand, the left as Kendric marked while he +watched interestedly, flashed to her bosom, and leaped out again, a +thin-bladed knife in the grip of the bejewelled fingers. Ortega saw +and feared and, grown nimble, sprang back from her. Quickly enough to +save the life in him, not so quickly as entirely to avoid the sweep of +the knife. His sleeve fell apart, slit from shoulder to wrist, and in +the opening the man's flesh showed with a thin red line marking it. + +There was tumult and confusion for a little while, hardly more than a +moment it seemed to Kendric. He only knew that at the end of it Ortega +had gone grumbling away, led by a couple of friends who no doubt would +bandage his wounded arm, and that the woman, having put her knife away, +appeared not in the least disturbed. He knew then that while men +talked and shouted about him he had not once withdrawn his eyes from +her. + +"One throw?" she was asking again, the voice as tender, as vaguely +disquieting to his senses, as full of low music as before. He shook +himself as though rousing from a trance. + +"I do not play at dice with ladies, Señora," he said bluntly. + +"Did you bluff, after all?" she asked curiously. She seemed sincere in +her question; he fancied a note of disappointment in her tone. It was +as though she had said before, "Here is a man who is not afraid of big +stakes," and as though now she were revising her estimate of him. "Men +will call you Big Mouth," she added. "And I, I will laugh in your +face." + +"Where is the money you would wager against mine?" demanded Jim, +thinking he saw the short easy way out. + +Already she was prepared for the question. In her gloved hand was a +little hand bag, a trifle in black leather the size of a man's purse. +She opened it and spilled the contents on the table. Poured out into +the mellow lamp light a long glorious string of pearls appeared, each +separate lustrous gem glowing with its silvery sheen, satiny and +tremulous with its shining loveliness. + +"Holy God!" gasped Twisty Barlow. + +"There is the worth of your money many times over," came the quiet +assurance in the low voice like liquid music. + +"If they are real pearls," muttered Kendric. "And not just imitations." + +She made no reply. He felt that from the shelter of the broad hat brim +a pair of inscrutable eyes were smiling scornfully. + +"Can't I tell real pearls like them, when I see 'em?" cried Twisty +Barlow excitedly. He leaned forward and caught the great necklace up +in his eager hands. "What would I be wantin' that steamer in San Diego +Bay for if I didn't know?" He held them up to the lamp light; he +fingered them one after the other; he put them down at the end +reverently and with a great sigh. "The worth of them, Headlong, my +boy," he said shakily, "would make your pile look sick." + +"And yet I'd bet a thousand they're phony," burst from Kendric. Then +he caught himself up short. Suppose they were or were not? A woman +was offering to play him and he was holding back; he was making +excuses, the second already; in his own ears his words, sensible though +they were, began to ring like the petty talk of a hedger. "Turn out +the die, Señora," he said abruptly. "As you say, one throw and ace +high." + +With her left hand she quietly shook the box, setting the white cube +dancing therein. "You lose, Jim," said Monte at his elbow before the +cast was made. "Look out for left-handers." Then she made her throw +and turned up an ace. + +Kendric caught up box and die and threw. And again he had turned the +deuce, the lowest number on the die. He heard her laugh as she drew +money and jewels toward her. All low music, ruining a man's blood, +thrilling him after that strange perturbing fashion. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +IN WHICH A SPELL IS WORKED AND AN EXPEDITION IS BEGUN + +For a moment she and Jim Kendric stood facing each other with only the +little table and its cargo of treasure separating them, engulfed in a +great silence. He saw her eyes; they were like pools of lambent +phosphorescence in the black shadow of her hair. He glimpsed in them +an eloquence which mystified him; it was as though through her eyes her +heart or her mind or her soul were reaching out toward his but speaking +a tongue foreign to his understanding. Her gaze was steady and +penetrating and held him motionless. Nor, though he did not at the +time notice, did any man in the room stir until she, turning swiftly, +at last broke the charm. She went out through the rear door, Ruiz Rios +at her heels. + +When the door closed after them Kendric chanced to note Twisty Barlow +at his elbow. A queer expression was stamped on the rigid features of +the sailorman. Plainly Barlow, intrigued into a profound abstraction, +was alike unconscious of his whereabouts or of the attention which he +was drawing. His eyes stared and strained after the vanished Mexican +and his companion; he, too, had been fascinated; he was like a man in a +trance. Now he started and brushed his hand across his eyes and, +moving jerkily, hurried to the door and went out. Kendric followed him +and laid a restraining hand upon his shoulder. + +"Easy, old boy," he said quietly. Barlow started at the touch of his +hand and stood frowning and fingering his forelock. "I know what's +burning hot in your fancies. Remember they may be paste, after all. +And anyway they're not treasure trove." + +"You mean those pearls might be fake?" Barlow laughed strangely. "And +you think I might be slittin' throats for them? Don't be an ass, +Headlong; I'm sober." + +"Where away, then, in such a hurry?" demanded Kendric, still aware of +something amiss in Barlow's bearing. + +"About my business," retorted the sailor. "And suppose you mind yours?" + +Kendric shrugged and went back to his friends. But at the door he +turned and saw Barlow hastening along the dim street in the wake of the +disappearing forms of Ruiz Rios and the woman. + +Inside there were some few who sought to console Kendric, thinking that +to any man the loss of ten thousand dollars must be a considerable +blow. His answer was a clap on the back and a laughing demand to know +what they were driving at and what they took him for, anyway? Those +who knew him best squandered no sympathy where they knew none was +needed. To the discerning, though they had never known another man who +won or lost with equal gusto in the game, who when he met fortune or +misfortune "treated those two impostors just the same," Jim Kendric was +exactly what he appeared to be, a devil-may-care sort of fellow who had +infinite faith in his tomorrow and who had never learned to love money. + +Kendric was relieved when, half an hour later, Twisty Barlow came back. +Kendric's mood was boisterous from the sheer joy of being among friends +and once more as good as on home soil. He went up and down among them +with his pockets turned wrong-side out and hanging eloquently, swapping +yarns, inviting recitals of wild doings, making a man here and there +join him in one of the old songs, singing mightily himself. He had +just given a brief sketch of the manner in which he had acquired his +latest stake; how down in Mexico he had done business with a man whom +he did not trust. Hence Kendric had insisted on having the whole thing +in good old U. S. money and then had ridden like the devil beating tan +bark to keep ahead of the half-dozen ragged cut-throats who, he was +sure, had been started on his trail. + +"And now that I'm rid of it," he said, "I can get a good night's sleep! +Who wants to be a millionaire anyway?" + +He saw that though Barlow had once more command of his features, there +was still a feverish gleam in his eyes. And, further, that with rising +impatience Barlow was waiting for him. + +"Come alive, Twisty, old mate," Kendric called to him. "Limber up and +give us a good old deep-sea chantey!" + +Twisty stood where he was, eyeing him curiously. + +"I want to talk to you, Jim," he said. His voice like his look told of +excitement repressed. + +"It's early," retorted Kendric, "and talk will keep. A night like this +was meant for other things than for two old fools like you and me to +sit in a corner with long faces. Strike up the chantey." + +"You're busted," said Barlow sharply; "You've had your fling and you've +shot your wad. Come along with me. You know what shore I'm headin' +to. You know I've got my hooks in that old tub down to San Diego-----" + + "There's a craft in San Diego," + +improvised Kendric lightly. + + "With no cargo in her hold, + And old Twisty Barlow's leased her + For to fill her up with Gold. + And he'd go a buccaneerin', privateerin', wildly steerin' + For the beaches where the sun shines on whole banks of + blazin' pearls----" + +But his rhythm was getting away from him and his rhymes petered out and +he stopped, laughing while around him men clamored for more. + +"Oh, there'll be a tale to tell when Twisty sails back," he conceded. +"But until he's under way there's no tale to tell and so what's the use +of talk? A song's better; walk her up, Twisty, old mate." + +Barlow's impatience flared out into irritation. + +"What's the sense of this monkey business?" he demanded. "I'm off to +San Diego by moon-rise. If you ain't with me, you ain't. Just say so, +can't you?" + +"A song first, Twisty?" countered Kendric. + +"Will you come listen to me then?" asked Barlow. "Word of honor?" + +It was plain that he was in dead earnest and Kendric cried, "Yes," +quite heartily. Then Barlow, putting up with Kendric's mood since +there was no other way that one might do for a wilful, spoiled child +over which he had no authority of the rod, allowed himself to be +dragged to the middle of the room and there, standing side by side, the +two men lifted their voices to the swing and pulse of "The Flying Fish +Catcher," through all but interminable verses, while the men about them +kept enthusiastic time by tramping heavily with their thick boots. At +the end Kendric put his arm about the shoulders of his shorter +companion, and in lock step they went out. The party was over. + +"What's on your mind, Seafarer?" asked Kendric when they were outside. + +"Loot, mostly," said Barlow. "But first, while I think of it, Ruiz +Rios's wife wants a word with you." + +"What about?" Kendric opened his eyes. And, before Barlow answered, +"You saw her then?" + +"I went up to the hotel. Tried to get a room. She saw me and sent for +you. She didn't say what for." + +"Well, I'll not go," Kendric told him. "Now spin your yarn about your +loot." + +He leaned against a lamp post while Twisty Barlow, upright and eager, +said his say. A colorful tale it was in which the reciter was lavish +with pearls and ancient gold. It appeared that one had but to sail +down the coast of Lower California, up into the gulf and get ashore +upon a certain strip of sandy beach in the shadows of the cliffs. + +"And I tell you I've already got the hull off San Diego that will take +us there," maintained Barlow. "All I'm short of is you to stand your +share of the hell we'll raise and to chip in with what coin you can +scrape. If you hadn't been a damn fool with that ten thousand," he +added bitterly. + +"Spilled milk. Forget it. It came out of Mexico and it goes back +where it belongs. But if you're counting on me for any such amount as +that, you're up a tree. I'm flat." + +"We'll go just the same if you can't raise a bean," said Barlow +positively. "But if you can dig anything, for God's sake scrape +lively. We want to get there before somebody else does. And I was +hopin' you'd come across for grub and some guns and odds and ends." + +"I've got a few oil shares," said Kendric. "If they're roosting around +par they're good for twenty-five hundred." + +Barlow brightened. + +"We'll knock 'em down in San Diego if we only get two fifty!" he +announced, considering the sale as good as made. "And we'll do the +best we can on what we get." + +Not yet had Kendric agreed to go adventuring with Twisty Barlow. But +in his soul he knew that he would go, and so did Barlow. There was +nothing to hold him here; from elsewhere the voice which seldom grew +quiet was singing in his ears. He knew something of the gulf into +which Barlow meant to lead him, and of that defiant, legend-infested +strip of little-known land which lay in a seven hundred mile strip +along its edge; he knew that if a man found nothing else he would stand +his chance of finding life running large. It was the last frontier and +as such it had the singing voice. + +"You'll go?" said Barlow. + +But first Kendric asked his few questions. When he had answers to the +last of them his own eyes were shining. His truant fancies at last had +been snared; he was going headlong into the thing, he had already come +to believe that at the end of it he would again have filled his pockets +the while he would have drunk deep of the life that satisfied. It was +long since he had smelled the sea, had known ocean sunrise and sunset, +had gone to sleep with his bunk swaying and the water lapping. So when +again Barlow said, "You'll come?" Kendric's hand shot out to be gripped +by way of signing a contract, and his voice rang out joyously, "Put her +there, old mate! I'm with you, blow high, blow low." + +For a few minutes they planned. Then Barlow hurried off to make what +few arrangements were necessary before they could be in the saddle and +riding toward a railroad. Kendric meant to get two or three hours' +sleep since he realized that even his hard body could not continue +indefinitely as he had been driving it here of late. There was nothing +to be done just now that Barlow could not do; before the saddled horses +could be brought for him he could have time for what rest he needed. + +The thought of bed was pleasant as he walked on for he realized that he +was tired in every muscle of his body. The street was deserted saving +the figure of a boy he saw coming toward him. As he was turning a +corner the boy's voice accosted him. + +"Señor Kendric," came the call. "_Un momenta_." + +Kendric waited. The boy, a half-breed in ragged clothes, came close +and peered into his face. Then, having made sure, he whipped out a +small parcel from under his torn coat. + +"_Para usted_," he announced. + +Kendric took it, wondering. + +"What is it?" he asked. "Who sent it?" + +But the boy was slouching on down the street. Kendric called sharply; +the boy hastened his pace. And when Kendric started after him the +ragamuffin broke into a run and disappeared down an alley way. Kendric +gave him up and came back to the street, tearing off the outer wrap of +the package under a street lamp. In his hand was a sheaf of bank notes +which he readily recognized as the very ones he had just now lost at +dice, together with a slip of note paper on which were a few finely +penned lines. He held them up to the light in an amazement which +sought an explanation. The words were in Spanish and said briefly: + +"To Señor Jim Kendric because under his laugh he looked sad when he +lost. From one who does not play at any game with faint hearts." + + +His face flushed hot as he read; angrily his big hand crumpled message +and bank notes together. He glanced down the empty street; then +forgetful of bed and rest, his anger rising, he strode swiftly off +toward the hotel, muttering under his breath. The hotel-keeper he +found alone in the little room which served him as office and bed +chamber. + +"I want to see Mrs. Rios," said Kendric curtly. + +"You'd be meaning the Mexican lady? Name of Castelmar." He drew his +soiled, inky guest book toward him. "Zoraida Castelmar." + +"I suppose so," answered Kendric. "Where is she?" + +"Your name would be Kendric?" persisted the hotel-keeper. And at +Kendric's short "Yes," he pointed down the hall. "Third door, left +side. She's expecting you." + +Had Kendric paused to speculate over the implication of the man's words +he would inevitably have understood the trick Ruiz Rios's companion had +played on him. But he was never given to stopping for reflection when +he had started for a definite goal and furthermore just now his wrath +was consuming him. He went furiously down the hall and struck at the +door as though it were a man who had stirred his anger by standing in +his path. "Come in," invited a woman's voice in Spanish, the +inflection distinctly that of old Mexico. In he went. + +Before him stood an old woman, her face a tangle of deep wrinkles, her +hair spotted with white, her eyes small and black and keen. He looked +at her in surprise. Somehow he had counted on finding Zoraida +Castelmar young; just why he was not certain. But the surprise was an +emotion of no duration, since a hotter emotion overrode it and crowded +it out. + +"Look here," he began angrily, his hand lifted, the bills tight +clenched. + +But she interrupted. + +"You are Señor Kendric, _no_? She awaits you. There." + +She indicated still another door and would have gone to open it for +him. But he brushed by her and threw it back himself and crossed the +threshold impatiently. And again his emotion surging uppermost briefly +was one of surprise. The room was empty; it was the unexpected and +incongruous trappings which astonished him. On all hands the walls, +from ceiling to floor, were hidden by rich silken curtains, hanging in +deep purple folds, displaying a profusion of bright hued woven +patterns, both splendid and barbaric. The floor was carpeted by a soft +thick rug, as brilliant as the wall drapes. The two chairs were hidden +under similar drapes, the small square table covered by a mantle of +deep blue and gold which fell to the floor. Beyond all of this the +solitary bit of furnishing was the object on the table whose oddity +caught and held his eye; a thin column of crystal like a ten-inch +needle, based in a red disc and supporting a hollow cap, the size of an +acorn cup, in which was a single stone or bead of glass, he knew not +which. He only knew that the thing was alive with the fire in it and +blazed red, and he fancied it was a ruby. + +He glanced hurriedly about the room, making sure that it was empty. +Again his eyes came back to the glowing jewel supported by the thin +crystal stem. Now he was conscious of a sweet heavy perfume filling +the room, a fragrance new to him and subtly exotic. Everything about +him was fantastic, extravagant, absurd, he told himself bluntly, as was +everything connected with an absurd woman who did mad things. He +looked at the bank notes in his hand. What more insane act than to +send an amount of money of this size to a stranger? + +The familiarly disturbing feeling that eyes, her eyes, were upon him, +came again. He turned short about. She stood just across the room, +her back to the motionless curtains. Whence she had come and how, he +did not know. She was smiling at him and for the first time he saw her +eyes clearly and her dark passionate face and scarlet mouth. He did +not know if she were fifteen or twenty-five. The oval face, the +curving lips were those of a young maiden; her tall, slender figure was +obscured by the loose folds of a snow white garment which fell to the +floor about her; her eyes were just now of any age or ageless, +unfathomable, and, though they smiled, filled with a sort of mockery +which baffled him, confused him, angered him. Upon one point alone +there could be no shadow of doubt; from the top of her proudly lifted +head with its abundance of black hair wherein a jewel gleamed, to the +tips of her exquisite fingers where gleamed many jewels, she was almost +unhumanly lovely. She looked foreign, but he could not guess what land +had cradled her. Mexico? Why Mexico more than another land? It +struck him that she would have seemed alien to any land under the sun. +She might have sprung from some race of beings upon another star. + +She had marked the look on his face and in her eyes the laughter +deepened and the mockery stood higher. He frowned and stepped to the +table, tossing down the pad of bank notes. + +"That is yours," he told her briefly. "I don't want it and I won't +take it." + +Then she, too, came forward to the table. Her left hand took up the +money swiftly, eagerly, it struck him, and thrust it out of sight +somewhere among the folds of her gown. Then finally her laughter +parted her lips and the low music of it filled the room. He knew in a +flash now that she had never meant to allow her winnings to escape her; +that there had been craft in the wording of the message she had sent +him; that all along she counted on his coming to her as he had come. +She sank into the chair nearest her and indicated the other to him. + +"If Señor Kendric will be seated," she said lightly, "I should like to +speak with him." + +In blazing anger had Kendric come here. Now, seeing clearly just how +she had played with him the blood grew hotter in his face and hammered +at his temples. + +"_Señora_," he said crisply, "there need be no talk between you and me +since we have no business together." + +"_Señorita_," she corrected him curiously. "I am not married." + +"Nor is that a matter for us to discuss." He meant, as he desired, to +be rude to her. "Since it does not interest me." + +"It has interested many men," she laughed at him lightly, but still +with that intense probing look filling the black depths of her eyes. +"With them it has been a vital matter." + +Before he had marked something peculiar about the eyes; now he saw just +what it was. They were Oriental, slanting upward slightly toward the +white temples. No wonder she had impressed him as foreign. He +wondered if she were Persian or Arabian; if in her blood was a strain +of Chinese, even? + +He gave no sign of having heard her but groped for the door through +which he had come. It now, like the rest of the walls, was hidden +under the silken hangings which no doubt had fallen into place when the +door had closed behind him. He did not remember having shut it; +perhaps the old woman in the outer room had done so. And locked it. +For when at last his hand found the knob the door would not open. + +"What's all this nonsense about?" he demanded. "I want to go." + +It was her turn to pretend not to have heard. She sat back idly, +looking at him fixedly, smiling at him after her strange fashion. + +"I have heard of you," she said at last. "A great deal. I have even +seen you once before tonight. I know the sort of man you are. I know +how you made your money in Mexico; how you rode with it across the +border. I have never known another man like you, Señor Jim Kendric." + +"Will you have the door unlocked?" he said. "Or shall I smash it off +its hinges?" + +"A man with your look and your reputation," she said calmly, "was worth +a woman's looking up. When that woman had need for a man." Her eyes +were glittering now; she leaned forward, suddenly rigid and tense and +breathing hard. "When I have found a man who stakes ten thousand, +twenty thousand on one throw and is not moved; who returns ten thousand +in rage because a word of pity goes with it, am I to let him go?" + +"I don't like the company you keep," said Kendric. "And I don't like +your ways of doing business. I guess you'll have to let me go." + +"You mean Ruiz Rios?" Her eyes flashed and her two hands clenched. +Then she sank back again, laughing. "When you learn to hate him as I +do, señor, then will you know what hate means!" + +He pressed a knee against the door, near the lock. The hangings +getting in his way, he tore them aside. Zoraida Castelmar watched him +half in amusement, half in mockery. + +"There is a heavy oak bar on the other side," she told him carelessly. + +"I have a notion," he flung at her, "to take that white throat of yours +in my two hands and choke you!" + +The words startled her, seemed to astound, bewilder. + +"You think that you--that any man--could do that?" It was hardly more +than a whisper full of incredulity. + +"Well, I don't suppose that I would, anyway," he admitted. "But look +here: I've got some riding ahead of me and I'm dog tired and want a +wink of sleep. Suppose we get this foolishness over with. What do you +want?" + +"I want you. To go with me to my place where there are dangers to me; +yes, even to me. I know the man you are and in what I could trust you +and in what I could not. I would make your fortune for you." Again +she looked curiously at him. "Under the hand of Zoraida Castelmar you +could rise high, Señor Kendric." + +He shook his head impatiently before she had done and again at the end. + +"I am no woman's man," he told her steadily, "and I want no place as +any woman's watchdog. Offer me what you please, a thousand dollars a +day, and I'll say no." + +From its place under his left arm pit he brought out a heavy caliber +revolver, toying with it while he spoke. Her look ran from the black +metal barrel to his face. + +"Do you think you can frighten me?" she demanded. + +"I don't mean to try. I'll shoot off the lock and the hinges and if +the door still stands up I'll keep on shooting until the hotel man +comes and lets me out." He put the muzzle of the gun at the lock. + +"Wait!" She sprang to her feet. "I will open for you." She brushed +by him and rapped with her knuckles on the door. Beyond was a sound of +a bolt being slipped, of a bar grinding in its sockets. "One thing +only and you can go: When you come before me again it may be you who +begs for favors! And it will be I who grant or withhold as it may +appear wise to me." + +"Witch, are you?" he jeered. "A professional reader of fortunes? God +knows you've got the place fixed up like it!" + +"Maybe," she returned serenely, "I am more than witch. Maybe I do read +that which is hidden. _Quién sabe_, Señor Kendric, scorner of ladies? +At least," and again her laughter tantalized him, "I knew where to find +you tonight; I knew you would win from Ruiz Rios; I knew I would win +from you; I knew you would refuse to come to me and then would come. +All this I knew when you took your ten thousand from the bank down in +Mexico and rode toward the border. Further," and he was baffled to +know whether she meant what her words implied or whether she was merely +making fun of him, "I have put a charm and a spell over your life from +which you are never going to be free. Put as many miles as it pleases +you between you and Zoraida Castelmar; she will bring you back to her +side at a time no more distant than the end of this same month." + +He gave her a contemptuous and angry silence for answer. In the street +he looked up at the stars and filled his lungs with an expanding sigh +of relief. This companion of Ruiz Rios who paid passionate claim to an +intense hatred of the man whom she allowed to escort her here and +there, impressed him as no natural woman at all but as something of +strange influences, a malign, powerful, implacable spirit incased in +the fair body of a slender girl. He told himself fervently that he was +glad to be beyond the reach of the black oblique eyes. + + +Two hours later he was in the saddle, riding knee to knee with Twisty +Barlow, headed for San Diego Bay and a man's adventure. "In which, +praise be," he muttered under his breath, "there is no room for women." +And yet, since strong emotions, like the restless sea, leave their high +water marks when they subside, the image of the girl Zoraida held its +place in his fancies, to return stubbornly when he banished it, even +her words and her laughter echoing in his memory. + +"I have put a spell and a charm over your life," she had told him. + +"Clap-trap of a charlatan," he growled under his breath. And when +Barlow asked what he had said he cried out eagerly: + +"We can't get into your old tub and out to sea any too soon for me, old +mate." + +Whereupon Barlow laughed contentedly. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +OF THE NEW MOON, A TALE OF AZTEC TREASURE AND A MYSTERY + +On board the schooner _New Moon_ standing crazily out to sea, with +first port of call a nameless, cliff-sheltered sand beach which in his +heart he christened from afar Port Adventure, Jim Kendric was richly +content. With huge satisfaction he looked upon the sparkling sea, the +little vessel which _scooned_ across it, his traveling mate, the big +negro and the half-wit Philippine cabin boy. If anything desirable +lacked Kendric could not put the name to it. + +Few days had been lost getting under way. He had gone straight up to +Los Angeles where he had sold his oil shares. They brought him +twenty-three hundred dollars and he knocked them down merrily. Now +with every step forward his lively interest increased. He bought the +rifles and ammunition, shipping them down to Barlow in San Diego. And +upon him fell the duty and delight of provisioning for the cruise. As +Barlow had put it, the Lord alone knew how long they would be gone, and +Jim Kendric meant to take no unnecessary chances. No doubt they could +get fish and some game in that land toward which their imaginings +already had set full sail, but ham by the stack and bacon by the yard +and countless tins of fruit and vegetables made a fair ballast. +Kendric spent lavishly and at the end was highly satisfied with the +result. + +As the _New Moon_ staggered out to sea under an offshore blow, he and +Twisty Barlow foregathered in the cabin over the solitary luckily +smuggled bottle of champagne. + +"The day is auspicious," said Kendric, his rumpled hair on end, his +eyes as bright as the dancing water slapping against their hull. "With +a hold full of the best in the land, treasure ahead of our bow, humdrum +lost in our wake and a seven-foot nigger hanging on to the wheel, what +more could a man ask?" + +"It's a cinch," agreed Barlow. But, drinking more slowly, he was +altogether more thoughtful. "If we get there on time," was his one +worry. "If we'd had that ten thousand of yours we'd never have sailed +in this antedeluvian raft with a list to starboard like the tower of +Pisa." + +"Don't growl at the hand that feeds you or the bottom that floats you," +grinned Kendric. "It's bad luck." + +Nor was Barlow the man to find fault, regret fleetingly though he did. +He was in luck to get his hands on any craft and he knew it. The _New +Moon_ was an unlovely affair with a bad name among seamen who knew her +and no speed or up-to-date engines to brag about; but Barlow himself +had leased her and had no doubts of her seaworthiness. She was one of +those floating relics of another epoch in shipbuilding which had +lingered on until today, undergoing infrequent alterations under many +hands. While once she had depended entirely for her headway on her two +poles, fore sail set flying, now she lurched ahead answering to the +drive of her antiquated internal combustion motor. An essential part +of her were Nigger Ben and Philippine Charlie; they knew her and her +freakish ways; they were as much a portion of her lop-sided anatomy as +were propeller and wheel. + +Barlow chuckled as he explained the unwritten terms of his lease. + +"Hank Sparley owns her," he said, "and the day Hank paid real money for +her is the first day the other man ever got up earlier than Hank, you +can gamble on it. Now Hank gets busy gettin' square and he's somehow +got her insured for more'n she'll bring in the open market in many a +day. Hank figures this deal either of two ways; either I run her nose +into the San Diego slip again with a fat fee for him; or else it's Davy +Jones for the _New Moon_ and Hank quits with the insurance money." + +"Know what barratry is, don't you?" demanded Kendric. + +"Sure I know; if I didn't Hank would have told me." Barlow sipped his +champagne pleasantly. "But we'll bring her home, never you fret, +Headlong. And we'll pay the fee and live like lords on top of it. +Hank ain't frettin'. I spun him the yarn, seein' I had to, and he'd of +come along himself if he hadn't been sick. Which would have meant a +three way split and I'm just as glad he didn't." + +Kendric went out on deck and leaned against the wind and watched the +water slip away as the schooner rose and settled and fought ahead. +Then he strolled to the stern and took a turn at the wheel, joying in +the grip of it after a long separation from the old life which it +brought surging back into his memory. And while he reaccustomed +himself to the work Nigger Ben stood by, watching him jealously and at +first with obvious suspicion. + +Nigger Ben, as Kendric had intimated, was a man to be proud of on a +cruise like this one. If not seven feet tall, at least he had passed +the half-way mark between that and six, a hulking, full-blooded African +with monster shoulders and half-naked chest and a skull showing under +his close-cropped kinks like a gorilla's. He was an anomaly, all +taken: he had a voice as high and sweet-toned as a woman singer's; he +had an air of extreme brutality and with the animals on board, a ship +cat and a canary belonging to Philippine Charlie he was all gentleness; +he had by all odds the largest, flattest feet that Kendric had ever +seen attached to a man and yet on them he moved quickly and lightly and +not without grace; he held the _New Moon_ in a sort of ghostly fear, +his eyes all whites when he vowed she was "ha'nted," and yet he loved +her with all of the heart in his big black body. + +"Sho', she's ha'nted!" he proclaimed vigorously after a while during +which he had come to have confidence in the new steersman's knowledge +and had been intrigued into conversation. "Don't I know? Black folks +knows sooner'n white folks about ha'nts, Cap'n. Ain't I heered all the +happenin's dat's done been an' gone an' transcribed on dis here deck? +Ain't I _seen_ nothin'? Ain't I _felt_ nothin'? Ain't I spectated +when the ha'r on Jezebel's back haz riz straight up an' when she's +hunched her back up an' spit when mos' folks wouldn't of saw nothin' +a-tall? Sho', she's ha'nted; mos' ships is. But dem ha'nts ain' goin' +bodder me so long's I don't bodder dem. Dat's gospel, Cap'n Jim; sho' +gospel." + +"It's a hand-picked crew, Twisty," conceded Kendric mirthfully when +Nigger Ben was again at the wheel and the two adventurers paced +forward. "The kind to have at hand on a pirate cruise!" + +For Nigger Ben offered both amusement during long hours and skilful +service and no end of muscular strength, while, in his own way, Charlie +was a jewel. A king of cooks and a man to keep his mouth shut. When +left to himself Charlie muttered incessantly under his breath, his +mutterings senseless jargon. When addressed his invariable reply was, +"Aw," properly inflected to suit the occasion. Thus, with a shake of +the head, it meant no; with a nod, yes; with his beaming smile, +anything duly enthusiastic. He was not the one to be looked to for +treasons, stratagems and spoils. His favorite diversion was whistling +sacred tunes to his canary in the galley. + +As the _New Moon_ made her brief arc to clear the coast and sagged +south through tranquil southern days and starry nights, Kendric and +Barlow did much planning and voiced countless surmises, all having to +do with what they might or might not find. Barlow got out his maps and +indicated as closely as he could the point where they would land, the +other point some miles inland where the treasure was. + +"Wild land," he said. "Wild, Jim, every foot of it. I've seen what +lies north of it and I've seen what lies south of it, and it's the +devil's own. And ours, if Escobar's fingers haven't crooked to the +feel of it. And if they have, why, then," and he looked fleetingly to +the rifles on the cabin wall, "it belongs to the man who is man enough +to walk away with it!" + +More in detail than at any time before Twisty Barlow told all that he +knew of the rumor which they were running down. Escobar was one of the +lawless captains of a revolutionary faction who, like his general, had +been keeping to the mountainous out-of-the-way places of Mexico for two +years. In Lower California, together with half a dozen of his bandit +following, he had been taking care of his own skin and at the same time +lining his own pockets. It was a time of outlawry and Fernando Escobar +was a product of his time. He was never above cutting throats for +small recompense, if he glimpsed safety to follow the deed, and knew +all of the tricks of holding wealthy citizens of his own or another +country for ransoms. Upon one of his recent excursions the bandit +captain had raided an old mission church for its candlesticks. With +one companion, a lieutenant named Juarez, he had made so thorough a job +of tearing things to pieces that the two had discovered a secret which +had lain hidden from the passing eyes of worshipful padres for a matter +of centuries. It was a secret vault in the adobe wall, masked by a +canvas of the Virgin. And in the small compartment were not only a few +minor articles which Escobar knew how to turn into money, but some +papers. And whenever a bandit, of any land under the sun, stumbles +upon papers secretly immured, it is inevitable that he should hastily +make himself master of the contents, stirred by a hope of treasure. + +"And right enough, he'd found it," said Barlow holding a forgotten +match over his pipe. "If there's any truth in it three priests, way +back in the fifteen hundreds, stumbled onto enough pagan swag to make a +man cry to think about it. Held it accursed, I guess. And didn't need +it just then in their business, any way. Just what is it? I don't +know. Juarez himself didn't know; Captain Escobar let him get just so +far and decided to hog the whole thing and slipped six inches of knife +into him. How the poor devil lived to morning, I don't know and I +don't care to think about it. But live he did and spilled me the yarn, +praying to God every other gasp that I'd beat Fernando Escobar to it. +He said he had seen names there to set any man dreaming; the name of +Montezuma and Guatomotzin; of Cortes and others. He figured that there +was Aztec gold in it; that the three old priests had somehow tumbled on +to the hiding place; that they three planned to keep the knowledge +among themselves and, when they devoutly judged the time was right, to +pass the news on to the Church in Spain. + +"I wish Juarez had had time to read the whole works," meditated Barlow. +"Anyway he read enough and guessed enough on top of it for me to guess +most of the rest while I've been millin' around, getting goin'. Two of +the three priests died in a hurry at about the same time, leavin' the +other priest the one man in on the know. There was some sort of a +plague got 'em; he was scared it was gettin' him, too. So he starts in +makin' a long report to the home church, which if he had finished would +have been as long as your arm and would of been packed off to Spain and +that would of been the last you and me ever heard of it. But it looks +like, when he'd written as far as he got, he maybe felt rotten and put +it away, intendin' to finish the job the next day. And the plague, +smallpox or whatever it was, finished him first." + +"Fishy enough, by the sound of it, isn't it?" mused Kendric. + +"Fishy, your hat! There's folks would say fishy to a man that +stampeded in sayin' he'd found a gold mine. Me, while they guyed him, +I'd go take a look-see. And it didn't read fishy to Juarez and it +didn't to Fernando Escobar, else why the six inches of knife?" + +"Well," said Kendric, "we'll know soon enough. If you can find your +way to the place all right?" + +"Juarez had a noodle on him," grunted Barlow. "And he was as full of +hate as a tick of dog's blood. From the steer he gave me I can find +the place all right." + +Days and nights went by monotonously, routine merely varying to give +place to pipe-in-mouth idleness. But the third night out came an +occurrence to break the placidity of the voyage for Kendric, and both +to startle him and set him puzzling. He was out on deck in a steamer +chair which he had had the lazy forethought to bring, his feet cocked +up on the rail, his eyes on the vague expanse about him. There was no +moon; the sky was starlit. Barlow had said "Good night" half an hour +before; Philippine Charlie was muttering over the wheel; Nigger Ben's +voice was crooning from the galley where he was making a friendly call +on the canary. The water slipped and slapped and splashed alongside, +making pleasant music in the ears of a man who gave free rein to his +fancies and let them soar across a handful of centuries, back into the +golden day of the last of the Aztec Emperors. The Montezumas _had_ had +vast hoards of gold in nuggets and dust and hammered ornaments and +vessels; history vouched for that. And it stood to reason that the +princes and nobles, fearing the ultimate result of the might of the +Spaniards, would have taken steps to secrete some of their treasure +before the end came. Why not somewhere in Lower California, hurried +away by caravan and canoe to a stronghold far from doomed Mexico City? + +He was conscious now of no step upon the deck, no sound to mar the +present serene fitness of things. But out of his dreamings he was +drawn back abruptly to the swaying, swinging deck of a crazy schooner +by the odd, vague feeling that he was not alone. + +"Barlow," he called quietly. "That you?" + +There was no answer and yet, stronger than before, was the certainty +that someone was near at hand, that a pair of eyes were regarding him +through the obscurity of the night. So strong was the emotion, and so +strongly did it recall the emotion of a few nights ago when he had felt +the influence of a strange woman's eyes, that he leaped to his feet. +On the instant he half expected to see Zoraida Castelmar standing at +his elbow. + +What he saw, or thought that he saw, was a vague figure standing +against the rail across the deck from him, beyond the corner of the +cabin wall. A luminous pair of eyes, glowing through the dark. +Kendric was across the deck in a flash. No one was there. He raced +sternward, whisked around the pile of freight cluttered about the mast, +tripped over a coil of rope and ran forward again. When he still found +no one, so strong was the impression made on him that someone had been +standing looking at him, he made a stubborn search from prow to stern. +Barlow was in bed and looked to be asleep; the Philippine was muttering +over the wheel and when Kendric demanded to know if he had seen +anything said, "Aw," negatively; Nigger Ben had given over singing and +was feeding the canary and freshening its water supply. + +Afterwards Kendric realized that all the time while he was racing madly +up and down, peering into cabin and galley and nook and corner, there +had been a clear image standing uppermost in his mind; the picture of +Zoraida Castelmar as she had stood and looked at him when she had said, +"I have put a charm and a spell over your life." Now he simply knew +that he had the mad thought that she was somewhere on board and that, +hide as she would, he would find her. But when he gave up and went +sullenly back to his toppled chair, he knew that all he had succeeded +in was in making both Nigger Ben and Philippine Charlie marvel. Nigger +Ben, he thought sullenly, had come close enough to understanding +something of what was in his mind. For the giant African rolled his +eyes whitely and said: + +"Ha'nts, Cap'n Jim? You been seein' ha'nts, too?" + +"What makes you say that, Ben?" demanded Kendric. "Did you see +anything?" + +Nigger Ben looked fairly inflated with mysterious wisdom. But, thought +Kendric, what negro who ever lived would have denied having seen +something ghostly? Kendric had searched thoroughly high and low; he +had turned over big crates below deck, he had peered up the masts. +Now, before settling himself back in his chair, he looked in on Barlow +again. Twisty was turning over; his eyes were open. + +"I don't want any funny business," said Kendric sternly. "Did you +smuggle Zoraida Castelmar on board?" + +Barlow blinked at him. + +"Who the blazes is Zoraida Castelmar?" he countered. "The cat or the +canary?" + +Kendric grunted and went out, plumping himself down in his chair. He +supposed that he had imagined the whole thing. He had not seen +anything definitely; he had merely felt that eyes were watching him; +what had seemed a figure across deck might have been the oil coat +hanging on a peg or a curtain blowing out of a window. The more he +thought over the matter the more assured was he that he had allowed his +imaginings to make a fool of him. And by the time the sun flooded the +decks next morning he was ready to forget the episode. + + +They rounded San Lucas one morning, turned north into the gulf and +steered into La Paz where Barlow said he hoped to get a line on Escobar +and where they allowed custom officials an opportunity to assure +themselves that no contraband in the way of much dreaded rifles and +ammunition were being carried into restive Sonora. "Loco Gringoes out +after burro deer," was how the officials were led to judge them. +Barlow, gone several hours, reported that Escobar had not turned up at +the waterfront dives to which, according to the murdered Juarez, he +reported now and then to keep in touch with his outlaw commander. +Steering out again through the fishing craft and harbor boats, they +pounded the _New Moon_ on toward Port Adventure. + +Then came at last the night when Barlow, looking hard mouthed and +eager, announced that in a few hours they would drop anchor and go +ashore to see what they would see. Nigger Ben and Philippine Charlie +were instructed gravely. They were to remain on board and were to +maintain a suspicious reserve toward all strangers, denying them +foothold on deck. + +"The gents who'd be apt to make you a call," Barlow told them +impressively, "would cut your throats for a side of bacon. You boys +keep watches day and night. When we get back into San Diego Bay, if +you do your duties, you both get fifty dollars on top of your wages." + +It was shortly before they hoisted the anchor overboard to wait for +dawn that for the second time Kendric felt again that oddly disturbing +sense of hidden eyes spying at him. Again he was alone, standing +forward, peering into the darkness, trying to make some sort of detail +out of the black wall ahead which Barlow had told him was a long line +of cliff. As before Charlie was at the wheel while Nigger Ben was +listening to instructions from Barlow aft of the cabin. The voices +came faint against the gulf wind to Kendric. The words he did not hear +since all of his mental force was bent to determine what it was that +gave him that uncanny feeling of eyes, the eyes of Zoraida Castelmar, +in the dark. + +This time he was guarded in his actions. He stood still a moment, his +jaw set, only his eyes turning to right and left. As he had asked +himself countless times already so now did he put the question again: +"How could a man feel a thing like that?" At his age was he developing +nerves and insane fancies? At any rate the sensation was strong, +compelling. Making no sound, he turned and stared into the darkness on +all sides. He saw no one. + +Suddenly, startling him so that his taut muscles jumped involuntarily, +came an excited shout from Nigger Ben. + +"Ha'nts, Cap'n Barlow! Oh, my Gawd, save me now! Looky dar! Looky +dar! It's a lady g-g-ghost! Oh, my Gawd, save me now!" + +Kendric ran back. Nigger Ben was clutching wildly at Barlow's arm. + +"You superstitious old fool," growled Barlow. "It's only that piece of +torn sail flappin' that Charlie was goin' to sew. Can't you see? I +thought you weren't afraid of the _New Moon's_ ha'nts, any way." + +Nigger Ben shifted his big feet uneasily and little by little crept +forward to look at the flapping bit of sail cloth. Slowly his courage +returned to him. He hadn't been afraid at all, he declared, but just +sort of shook up, seeing the thing all of a sudden that way. Kendric +passed on as though nothing had happened, as he reasoned perhaps +nothing had. But just the same he made his second quiet search, in the +end finding nothing. But as he went back to his place up deck he +turned the matter over and over in mind stubbornly. Coincidences were +all right enough, but reasonable explanations lay back of them. If a +man could only see just where the explanation lay. + +He sought to reason logically; if in truth someone had been standing +looking at him, if Nigger Ben had seen something other than the +flapping canvas, then that someone or something had gone aboard the +_New Moon_ at San Diego and had made the entire cruise with them. That +could hardly have been done without Barlow's knowledge. Two points +struck him then. First, Barlow had demanded who Zoraida Castelmar was; +had not Barlow even learned the name of the girl of the pearls? +Second, it recurred to him that Barlow had followed her to the hotel in +the border town, had even had word with her, since he had brought +Kendric a message. Why had Barlow gone to the hotel at all? His +explanation at the time had been reasonable enough; he had said that he +had gone to get a room. But now Kendric remembered how Barlow, on that +same night, had expressed his determination to be riding by moonrise! +What would he have done with a hotel room? + + +But slowly the dawn was coming, the ragged shore was revealing itself, +Barlow was calling for help with the small boat. Kendric shrugged his +shoulders and kept his mouth shut. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +INDICATING THAT THAT WHICH APPEARS THE EARTHLY + PARADISE MAY PROVE QUITE ANOTHER SORT OF PLACE + +A strip of white beach three hundred feet long, a score of paces across +at its widest, with black barren cliffs guarding it and the faint pink +dawn slowly growing a deeper rose over it, such was the port of +adventure into which nosed the row boat bringing Jim Kendric and Twisty +Barlow treasure seeking. In the stern crouched Nigger Ben, come ashore +in order to row the boat back to the _New Moon_, his eyes bulging with +wonderment that men should come all the way from San Diego to disembark +upon so solitary a spot. The dingey shoved its nose into the sand, +Kendric and Barlow carrying their small packs and rifles sprang out, +Nigger Ben shook his head and pushed off again. + +"Up the cliffs the easiest way," cried Barlow, his eyes shining with +excitement. "Up there I'll get my bearin's and we'll steer a +straight-string line for what's ahead, Headlong, old mate! Step lively +is the word now while it's cool. And by noon, if we're in luck----" + +He left the rest to any man's imagination and hastened across the sand +and to the rock wall. But more forbidding than ever rose the cliffs +against the path of men who did not know their every crevice, and it +was full day and the sun was up before they came panting to the top. +Down went packs, with two heaving-chested, bright-eyed men atop of +them, while Barlow, compass in hand, got his bearings. + +The devil's own he had named this country from afar; the devil's own it +extended itself, naked and dry and desolate before their questing eyes, +a weary land, sun-smitten, broken, looking deserted of God and man. As +far as they could see there were no trees, little growth of any kind, +no birds, no grazing beasts. Just swell after swell of arid lands, +here and there cut by ancient gorges, tumbled over by heaps of black +rocks, swept clean of dust on the high places by racing winds, piled +high with sand and small stones in the depressions. Where growing +things thrust up their heads, they were the harsh, fanged and envenomed +growth of desert places. The place had an air of unholiness in the +light of the new day. A thorn, as Barlow turned carelessly, tore the +skin on the back of his hand painfully. The parent stem had an evil +look and he cursed it as though it had been a conscious malign agent, +and struck at it with his clubbed rifle. From the place where the +branch was wrenched away exuded a slow red sticky ooze like coagulating +blood. + +"There's our course," announced Barlow, pointing, "with half a dozen +hours of damned unpleasant walking, according to poor old Juarez. See +those three peaks, standing up together? We bear a little off to the +south for a spell and then straight toward 'em. And never a spring +until we get there! Look out you don't poke a hole in your canteen." + +"Ready," said Jim. "Let's go." + +They went on. Now that a new phase had come into their quest, with the +days of distant speculation giving place to action on the ground, a +certain difference of character was manifest in the two men. A growing +taciturnity, accompanied by deep frowning thoughtfulness, locked +Barlow's lips, while Kendric, to whom any such experience was always +primarily a lark, expanded and mounted steadily to fresh stages of +lightheartedness. It mattered less to him than to his companion what +might lie at the end of their journey; the journey itself was with Jim +Kendric the golden thing. He felt alive, jubilant, keenly in sympathy +with the lure and zest of the expedition. He felt like singing, would +no doubt have sung out in some wild border ballad or bit of deep sea +melody with a piratical swing to it, had he not been half the time +fairly breathless from the pace they maintained over the broken country. + +In a couple of hours they left behind them the worst of the gorges and +cañons, flinty peaks and ridges, and dropped down into a long crooked +valley floored with dry sand ankle deep and grown over with a gray +shrub plainly akin to California sage brush. Here was some scant +evidence of animal life, a dusty jack rabbit, a circling buzzard, a +thin spotted snake, a wild pony with up-flung head staring at them from +the further ridge, gone whisking away as they drew on. And they came +to trees whose shade was grateful, oaks and, later, a few dusty +straggling piñons. Wisps of dry grass, an occasional patch of +flowering weeds or taller plants, a flock of bewildered-looking birds +that had the appearance of having strayed hitherward by mistake. No +water, no sign of water; no man-owned herds, no sign of man. The open +valley under the high, hot sun was a drearier place than the mountain +slopes. + +Then came the up-hill climb as they passed out of the western edge of +the sandy flats, a steep spur of the Cordillera, a region silent and +saturnine and unthinkably hot. Three times, though they guarded +against profligacy with their water, they unstoppered their canteens +and rested in the shade on the way up. At last they came to the crest +of the barrier of the blistering hills, having been on foot for a full +five hours. And now, for the first time, looking forward, down the +steep slopes and across the miles, they saw the Valley of Las Flores, +the place of flowers. At first it was hard for them to believe that +their eyes, which the desert lands befool so often and so readily, had +not tricked them. It was as though in a twinkling the world had +changed about them. + +The long wide valley below was one sweep of green: fresh, colorful, +cool green. Across it wandered many cows and horses and donkeys, +browsing where the herbiage was lushest, dozing in the shade of the +wide-spread oaks, standing indolent in the golden sunshine. A bright +stream of water cut the emerald sward in two, coming from the bordering +mountains at one end, gone flashing into the mountain-guarded pass at +the other. From a distance Kendric heard a bird singing away like mad +and saw the sweep and flutter of a butterfly's wing. + +"The earthly paradise!" he cried admiringly. + +But already Barlow's fixed eyes were upon the mountainous country +across the valley. + +"Come on," he said, slipping his pack-straps over his shoulders and +swinging up his rifle. "It would be three to five miles, easy going, +and we're there! There are our three peaks, straight across." + +Only when they were fairly down on the floor of the valley did they see +the ranch houses. There were several, a big, rambling adobe with +white-washed walls, barns and smaller outbuildings, all making a +sizeable group. They stood in an oak grove at the opposite side of the +valley, close to the common bases of Barlow's peaks. The two men +stopped and looked, reflecting. + +"Neighbors," said Kendric. "They'll be wanting to know what we're +about, pottering around on the rim of their holding." + +"It's anybody's land over there," growled Barlow. "They'd best keep +out of it." + +They pushed on across the fields, noting casually how they were all +leveled and ditched for irrigation, and came at last to the creek where +they rested under an oak and drank deeply and smoked. As they rose to +go on they saw four horsemen bearing down upon them from the direction +of the ranch houses. + +"_Vacqueros_," said Barlow. "They'll be wantin' to know if we're lost." + +"They look more like brigands than cow men," grunted Kendric. "Every +man jack of them wears a rifle. And they're in a rush, Twisty, old +mate. What will you bet they don't herd us back where we came from?" + +"Let 'em try it on," Barlow shot back at him, his eyes narrowing on the +oncoming riders. "I'm goin' to roll up in my blanket under those three +peaks tonight if the whole Mexican army shows up." + +The two Americans stopped and stood ready to ease their shoulders out +of their packs and start pumping lead if the newcomers turned out to be +half the desperadoes they appeared. "The way to argue with these sort +of gents," said Barlow contemptuously, "is shoot their eyes out first +and talk next." But as the foremost of the little cavalcade drew up in +front of them, with his three followers curbing their horses a few +paces in his rear, the fellow's greeting was amazingly hospitable. + +"_Buenas dias, amigos_," he called to them. But, though he hailed them +in the name of friendship, his eyes were sullen and gave the lie to his +speech. "You would be fatigued with walking across the cursed desert; +you would be parched with thirst. Yonder," and he pointed toward the +distant white walls, "is coolness and pleasant welcome awaiting you." + +His followers were out-and-out ragamuffins, wild-looking fellows with +their unshaven cheeks and tangled hair and fierce eyes. Their +spokesman stood apart in appearance as well as in position, being +somewhat extravagantly dressed, showing much ornamentation both on his +own person and that of his mount in the way of silver buckles and +spangles. He was the youngest of the crowd, not over twenty-two or +three from the look of him, with a nicely groomed black mustache. The +horse under him was a superb creature, a great savage fiery-eyed sorrel +stallion. + +"Thanks," returned Barlow. "But my friend and I are on our way over +there." He pointed. "We are students of entymology and are studyin' +certain new butterflies." All along, until the very moment, he had +fully intended explaining by saying they were on a hunting trip. But +as he spoke it struck him that the slopes about his three peaks would +not harbor a jack rabbit, and furthermore on the instant a big golden +butterfly went flapping by him, putting the idea into his head. + +The young Mexican nodded but insisted. + +"There will be time for butterfly catching tomorrow," he said +carelessly. "Today you will honor us by riding back to the Hacienda +Montezuma. You are expected, señores; everything is prepared for you. +_Oyez_, Pedro, Juanito," turning in his saddle and addressing two of +his men. "Rope two horses and let _los Americanos_ have yours." And +when both Pedro and Juanito frowned and hesitated, his eyes flashed and +he cried out angrily at them: "_Pronto_! It is commanded!" + +They rode away toward a herd of horses half a mile down the valley, +their riatas soon in their hands and widening and swinging into great +loops. Presently they were back, leading two captured ponies. +Dismounting, they made impromptu hackamores of their ropes and mounted +bareback, leaving their own saddles empty for Kendric and Barlow. + +"Look here, _amigo_," said Kendric then. "We're much obliged for the +kind invitation. But you've got the wrong guests. If your outfit was +expecting newcomers it was someone else." + +The Mexican lifted his fine black brows. + +"Then are you not Señores Kendric and Barlow?" he asked impudently. + +They stared wonderingly at him, then at each other. + +"You're some little guesser, stranger," grunted Barlow. "Who told you +all you know?" + +"Go easy, Twisty," laughed Kendric, his interest caught. Affably, to +the Mexican, he said: "You're right, señor. And, to complete the +introductions, would you mind telling us who you are?" + +"I?" He touched up his mustache and again his eyes flashed; +involuntarily, as he spoke his name, he laid his hand on the grip of +the revolver bumping at his hip, giving the perfectly correct +impression that the man who wore that name must ever stand ready to +defend himself: "I am Fernando Escobar, at your service for what you +please, señor!" + +Never a muscle of either Kendric's face or Barlow's twitched at the +information though inwardly each man started. Before now, many times +in the flood of their tumultous lives, they had lived through moments +when the thing to do was control all outward expression of emotion and +think fast. + +"I'd say, Twisty," said Kendric lightly, "that it is downright kind of +Señor Escobar to extend so hearty an invitation. It would be the +pleasant thing to rest up in the shade during the afternoon. Tomorrow, +perhaps, it could be arranged that he would let us have a couple of +horses to make our little trip into the hills butterfly-catching?" + +But Barlow, fingering his forelock, looked anything but pleased. His +eyes went swiftly to the three peaks across the valley, then frowning +up the valley to the ranch houses. Obviously, he meant to go straight +about his business, all the more eager to come to grips with the naked +situation since Escobar was on the ground and had made himself known. +He opened his lips to speak. On the instant Kendric saw a swift, +subtle change in his eyes, a look of surprise and of uncertainty. And +then, abruptly, Barlow said: + +"Oh, all right. I'm tired hoofin' it, anyway," and swung up into the +saddle on the nearest horse, pack and all. + +Escobar wheeled his horse, as though glad to have his errand done, and +rode back toward the upper end of the valley, his ragged following +close at his heels, Kendric and Barlow bringing up the rear. + +"What was it, Twisty?" demanded Kendric softly. "What did you see? +What made you change your mind all of a sudden." + +"Look at the cordillera just back of the ranch house, Jim," answered +Barlow, guardedly. + +Kendric looked and in a moment understood Barlow's perplexity. There +again were three upstanding peaks, much in general outline and height +like those across the valley. For the life of him Barlow did not know +which was the group toward which he had been directed by Juarez to +steer his course. Doubtless Escobar did know. And if Escobar were +going up valley, it would be just as well to go with him. + +As they drew near the big adobe house both men were interested. The +building had once upon a time, perhaps two or three hundreds of years +ago, been a Spanish mission; so much was told eloquently by the lines +of high adobe walls ringing the buildings and by the architecture of +the main building itself. There were columns, arches, corridors after +the old mission style. But it had all been made over, added to, so +that it was now a residence of a score or more of rooms. It spread out +covering the entire top of a knoll whereon were many large oaks. At +the back, rising sharply, was the barren slope of the mountain. + +Their gaze was drawn suddenly from the house itself to a rider darting +out through the high arched gateway in the adobe wall. A beautiful +horse, snowy, glistening white, groomed to the last hair, an animal of +fine thin racing forelegs proudly lifted and high-flung head, shot out +of the shadows like a shaft of sunlight. On its back what at first +appeared an elegantly dressed young man, a youth even fastidiously and +fancifully accoutered, with riding boots that shone and a flaunting +white plume and red lined cape floating wildly. Only when the +approaching rider came close and threw up a gauntleted hand to the wide +black hat, saluting laughingly, did they recognize this for the same +youth who had come with Ruiz Rios to Ortega's gambling house. + +"Zoraida Castelmar!" gasped Kendric. + +Turning in his amazement to his companion he caught a strange look in +Barlow's eyes, a strange flush in Barlow's cheeks. Then he saw only +the girl's dark, passionate face and scarlet lips and burning eyes as +she called softly: + +"Welcome to the Hacienda Montezuma! The gods have willed that you +come. The gods and I!" + +And into Kendric's bewildered face, ignoring Barlow, she laughed +triumphantly. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HOW ONE NOT ACCUSTOMED TO TAKING ANOTHER + MAN'S ORDERS RECEIVES THE COMMAND OF THE QUEEN LADY + +Had horse and rider been only a painting, immovable upon hung canvas, +they would have drawn to themselves the enrapt eyes of mute, admiring +artists. Endowed with the glorious attribute of pulsating life, they +fascinated. Kendric saw the white mare's neck arch, marked how the +satiny skin rippled, how the dainty ears tipped forward, how the large +intelligent eyes bespoke the proud spirit. He could fancy the mare +prancing forth from the stables of an Eastern prince, the finest pure +bred Arabian of his stud, the royal favorite, the white queen-rose of +his costly gardens. From the mare he looked to the rider, not so much +as a man may regard a woman but as he must pay tribute to animal +perfection. He told himself that as a woman Zoraida Castelmar +displeased him; that there was no place in his fancies for the bold +eyes of an adventuress. But he deemed a man might look upon her as +impersonally as upon the white mare, giving credit where credit was +due. It struck him then that all that was wrong with Zoraida Castelmar +was that she was an anachronism; that had he lived a thousand years ago +and had she then, a barbaric queen, stepped before him, he would have +seen the superb beauty of her and would have gone no further. Before +now he had felt that she was "foreign." That was on the border. Here, +deep in Old Mexico, she still remained foreign. Rightly she belonged +to another age, if not to another star. + +For the moment she sat smiling at him, her eyes dancing and yet masking +her ultimate thought. Triumph he had glimpsed and, as always, a +shadowy hint of mockery. Suddenly she turned from him and put out her +gauntleted hand to Barlow, flashing him another sort of smile, one that +made Barlow's eyes brighten and brought a hotter flush to his tanned +cheeks. + +"You have kept your promise with me," she said softly. "I shall not +forget and you will not regret!" Even while she spoke her eyes drifted +back to Kendric, laughing at him, taunting him. + +He looked sharply at Barlow. But he said nothing and Barlow, intent +upon the girl, did not note his turned head. + +Zoraida turned imperiously upon Fernando Escobar. "These men are my +guests," she said sharply, her tone filled with defiant warning. +"Remember that, _Señor el Capitan_. You will escort them to the house +where my cousin will receive them. Until we meet at table, señores +all." + +From her neck hung a tiny whistle from a thin gold chain; she lifted it +to her lips, blew a long clear note and with a last sidelong look at +Kendric touched her dainty spurs to her mare's sides and shot away. + +"You will follow me," said Escobar stiffly. "This way, _caballeros_." + +He pressed by them, dismissing his following with a glance, and rode +through the wide arched gateway. Barlow turned in after him but +hesitated when Kendric called coolly: + +"I have small hankering to accept the lady's hospitality, Barlow. Why +should we establish ourselves here instead of going on about our +business? By the lord, her invitation smacks to me too damned much of +outright command!" + +"No use startin' anything, Jim," said Barlow. "Come ahead." + +At them both Escobar smiled contemptuously. + +"Look," he said, pointing toward the adobe. "Judge if it be wise to +hesitate when _la señorita reina_ says enter." + +They saw graveled driveways and flower bordered walks under the oaks; +blossoming, fragrant shrubs welcoming countless birds; an expanse of +velvet lawn with a marble-rimmed pool and fountain. A beautiful +garden, empty one instant, then slowly filling as from about a far +corner of the house came a line of men. Young men, every one of them, +fine-looking, dark-skinned fellows dressed after the extravagant +fashion of the land which mothered them, with tall conical hats and +slashed trousers, broad sashes and glistening boots. They came on like +military squads, silent, erect, eyes full ahead. Out in the driveway +they halted, fifty of them. And like one man, they saluted. + +"Will you enter as a guest?" jeered Escobar. + +Kendric's anger flared up. + +"I'll tell you one thing, my fine friend Fernando Escobar," he said +hotly, "I don't like the cut of your sunny disposition. You and I are +not going to mix well, and you may as well know it from the start. As +for this 'guest' business, just what do you mean?" + +Escobar shrugged elaborately and half veiled his insolent eyes with the +long lashes. + +"You mean," went on Kendric stubbornly, "your 'Queen Lady' as you call +her, has instructed her rabble to bring us in, willy-nilly?" + +"Ai!" cried Escobar in mock surprise. "_El Americano_ reads the secret +thought!" + +"Come ahead, Jim," urged Barlow anxiously. "Don't I tell you there is +no sense startin' a rumpus? Suppose you weeded out half of 'em, the +other half would get you right. And haven't we got enough ahead of us +without goin' out of our way, lookin' for a row?" + +For answer Kendric gave his horse the spur and dashed through the gate. +If a man had to tie into fifty of a hard-looking lot of devils like +those saturnine henchmen of Zoraida, it would at least be a scrimmage +worth a man's going down in; but Barlow was right and there was no +doubt enough trouble coming without wandering afield for it. + +So, close behind Escobar, they rode under the oaks and to the house. +Here was a quadrangle, flanked about with white columns; through +numerous arches one saw oaken doors set into the thick walls of the +shaded building. The three men dismounted; three of the men in the +driveway took the horses. Escobar stepped to the broad double door +directly in front of them. As his spurred boot rang on the stone floor +the door opened and Ruiz Rios opened to them. He bowed deeply, +courteously, his manner cordial, his eyes inscrutable. + +At his invitation they entered. He led them through a great, +low-ceiled room where dim light hovered over luxurious appointments, +across Oriental rugs and hardwood floors to a wide hallway. Down this +for a long way, past a dozen doors at each hand and finally into a +suite looking out into the gardens from a corner of the building. As +they went in, two Mexican girls, young and pretty, with quick black +eyes and in white caps and aprons, came out. The girls dropped their +eyes, curtsied and passed on, as silent as little ghosts. + +"Your rooms, señores," said Rios, standing aside for them. "When you +are ready you will ring and a servant will show you to the _patio_, +where I will be waiting for you. If there is anything forgotten, you +have but to ring and ask." + +He left them and hurried away, obviously glad to be done with them. +They went in and closed the door and looked about them. Here were big +leather chairs, a mahogany table, cigars, smoking trays, cigarets, a +bottle of brandy and one of fine red wine standing forth hospitably. +Through one door they saw an artistically and comfortably furnished +bedroom; through another a tiled, glisteningly white bath; beyond the +bath the second bedroom. + +All this they marked at a glance. Then Kendric turned soberly to his +companion. + +"I've known you a good many years off and on, Twisty," he said bluntly, +"for the sort of man to name pardner and friend. For half a dozen +years, however, I've seen little of you. What have those half-dozen +years done to you?" + +"What do you mean?" asked Barlow. + +"I mean that for a mate on a crazy expedition like this I want a man I +can tie to. That means a man that turns off every card from the top, +straight as they come. A man that doesn't bury the ace. I haven't +held out anything on you. What have you held out on me?" + +Barlow looked troubled. He uncorked the brandy bottle and helped +himself, sipping slowly. + +"You've got in mind what she said outside?" he asked. + +"Yes. That and other things." + +"If I had told you at the beginnin'," said Barlow, "that you and me +were comin' to a place, lookin' for treasure, that was right next door +to where Zoraida Castelmar lived, would you of come?" + +"No. I don't think I would." + +"Well, that's why I didn't tell you." + +"And you promised her--just what?" + +"That I'd be showin' up down this way. And that you'd be comin' along +with me." He finished off his brandy and set his glass down hard. + +Kendric took a cigaret and wandered across the room, looking out into +the gardens. The string of men who had appeared at Zoraida's whistle, +were filing off around the house again, going toward the nearby +outbuildings. + +"I'm not going to pump questions at you, Barlow," he said without +turning. "What you do is up to you. Only, if you can't play the game +straight with me, our trails fork for good and all. Now, let's get a +bath and see the dance through." + +Five minutes later Jim Kendric, splashing mightily in a roomy tub, +began to sing under his breath. After all, matters were well enough. +Life was not dull but infinitely profligate of promise. He fancied +that Ruiz Rios was boiling inwardly with rage; the thought delighted +him. His old zest flooded back full tide into his veins. His voice +rose higher, his lively tune quickened. Barlow's face brightened at +the sound and his lungs filled to a sigh of relief. + +Within half an hour a servant ushered them into the _patio_. There, +under a grape arbor, their chairs drawn close up to the little +fountain, were Rios and Escobar, talking quietly. Both men rose as +they appeared, offering chairs. Both were all that was courteous and +yet it needed no guessing to understand that their courtesy was but +like so much thin silken sheathing over steel; they were affable only +because of a command. And that command, Zoraida's. + +"As far as they are concerned," mused Kendric, "she is absolutely the +Queen Lady. Wonder how she works it? Wouldn't judge either one of +them an easy gent to handle." + +The conversation was markedly impersonal. They spoke of stock raising, +of the best breeds of beef cattle, of what had been done with +irrigation and of what Rios planned for another year. It became clear +that Zoraida was the sole owner of several thousand fair acres here and +that Ruiz Rios stood in the position of general manager to his cousin. +That he envied her her possessions, that it galled him to be her +underling over these acres, was a fact which lay naked on top of many +mere surmises. Once, with simulated carelessness, Escobar said: + +"The rancho would have been yours, had there been no will, is it not +so, amigo Rios?" And Ruiz flashed an angry look at him, knowing that +the man taunted him. + +"It is called the Rancho Montezuma, isn't it?" put in Kendric. "Why +that name, Rios?" + +"It is the old name," said Rios lightly. "That is all I know." + +When a servant announced dinner they went to an immense dining-room +wherein a prince might have taken his state meals. But Zoraida did not +join them, sending word by one of the little Mexican maids that she +would not appear. It was significant that no reason was offered; from +the instant that they had set foot down at the hacienda it was to be +known that here Zoraida did as she pleased and accounted to none. Two +tall fellows, looking pure-bred Yaqui Indians, served perfectly, soft +voiced, softer footed, stony eyed. During the meal Kendric fell into +the way of chatting with young Escobar, seeking to draw him out and +failing, while Barlow and Rios talked together, Rios regarding Barlow +intently. When they rose from table Barlow accepted an invitation from +Rios to look over the stables, while Kendric was led by Escobar back to +the _patio_. Even then Kendric had the suspicion that the intention +was to separate him from his friend, but he saw nothing to be done. He +hardly looked for any sort of violence, and were such intended there +was scant need to waste time over such trifles as separating two men +who would have to stand against two score. + +"If you will pardon me a moment, señor?" said Escobar briefly. + +He left Kendric standing by the little fountain and disappeared. On +the instant one of the little maids stole softly forward. + +"This way, señor," she said, looking at him curiously. + +"Where?" he demanded. "And why?" + +She smiled and shook her head. + +"It is commanded," she replied. "Will _el señor Americano_ be so kind +as to follow?" + +He had asked why and got no answer. Now he demanded of himself, "Why +not?" He was playing the other fellow's game and might as well play +straight on until he saw what was what. + +"Lead on," he said. "I'm with you." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CONCERNING THAT WHICH LAY IN THE EYES OF ZORAIDA + +Jim Kendric guessed, before the last door was thrown open for him, that +he was being led before Zoraida Castelmar. The serving maid flitted on +ahead, out through a deep, shadow-filled doorway into the dusk, down a +long corridor and into the house again at an end which Kendric judged +must be close to the flank of the mountain. Down a second hallway, to +a heavy, nail-studded door which opened only when the little maid had +knocked and called. This room was lighted by a swinging lamp and its +rays showed its scanty but rich furnishings, and the one who had +opened, a tall, evil-looking Yaqui who wore in his sash a long-barreled +revolver on one side and a longer, curved knife at the other. The girl +sidled about the doorkeeper and, safe behind his back made a grimace of +distaste at him, then hurried on. Again she knocked at a locked door; +again it was swung open only when she had added her voice to her +rapping. Who opened this door Kendric did not know; for it was pitch +dark as soon as the door was shut after them and they stood in a room +either windowless or darkened by thick curtains. But the girl hastened +on before him and he followed the patter of her soft moccasins, albeit +with a hand under his left arm pit; all of this locking and unlocking +of doors and the attendant mystery struck him as clap-trap and he set +it down as further play for effect by the mistress of the place, but +none the less he was ready to strike back if a wary arm struck at him +through the dark. + +The girl had stopped before another door, Kendric close behind her. +This time she neither knocked nor called. He heard her fingers groping +along the wall; then the silvery tinkle of a bell faintly heard through +the thick oak panels. + +"You will wait," she whispered. And he knew that she was gone. + + +He was not forced to wait long. Suddenly the door was opened; he heard +it move on its hinges and made out a pale rectangle of light. A softly +modulated voice said: "_Entra, señor_." He stepped across the +threshhold and into the presence of another serving girl, taller than +the other two maidens, finer bred, a calm-eyed, serene girl of twenty +dressed in a plain white gown girdled with a smooth gold band. + +They were in a little anteroom; the curtains between them and the main +apartment had made the light dim, for just beyond he could make out the +blurred glowing of many lamps. + +The girl's great calm eyes looked at him frankly an instant, vague +shadows drifting across them. Then, abruptly, she put her lips quite +close to his ear, and whispered: "Do not anger her, señor!" Then, +stepping quickly to the curtain, she threw it back and he entered. + + +A vain, headstrong girl, deemed Kendric, given the opportunity and very +great wealth, might be looked to for absurdities of this kind. But was +all of this nothing more, nothing worse, than absurdity? Suppose +Zoraida were sincere in all that she had said to him, in all the things +she did? He had heard a rumor concerning Ruiz Rios, long ago, half +forgotten. Certain wild deeds laid to the Mexican's door had brought +forth the insinuation that he was a little mad. Zoraida had claimed +kinship with him. + +At any rate, to Kendric's matter-of-fact way of thinking, here was +further clap-trap that might well have been the result of a mad mind +working extravagantly. The room was empty. All four walls, from +ceiling to floor, were draped in gorgeously rich hangings, oriental +silks, he imagined, deep purples and yellows and greens and reds +cunningly arranged so that their glowing colors and the ornamental +designs worked upon them made no discordant clash of color. The +chamber in which he had met Zoraida at the hotel was mild hued, +colorless compared to this one. There were no chairs but a couch +against each wall, each a bright spot with its high heaped cushions. +In the middle of the room was a small square ebony stand; upon it, +glowing like red fire upon its frail crystal stem, the familiar stone. + +He had stepped a couple of paces into the room, his boots sinking +without sound into the deep carpet. In no mood for a girl's whims, mad +or sane, he waited, impatient and irritated. He regretted having come; +he should have sat tight in the _patio_ and let her come to him. No +doubt she was spying on him now from behind the hangings somewhere. +There was no comfort in the thought, no joy in imagining that while he +stood forth in the clear light of the hanging lamps she and her maidens +and attendants might all be watching him. He vastly preferred solid +walls and thick doors to silken drapes. + +While he waited, two distinct impressions slowly forced themselves upon +him. One was that of a faint perfume, coming from whence he had no way +of knowing, the unforgettable, almost sickeningly sweet fragrance he +remembered. One instant he was hardly conscious of it, it was but a +suspicion of a fragrance. And then it filled the room, strongly sweet, +strangely pleasant, a near opiate in its soothing effect. + +The other impression was no true sensation in that it was registered by +none of the five senses; a true sensation only if in truth there is in +man a subtle sixth sense, uncatalogued but vital. It was the old +uncanny certainty that at last eyes, the eyes of none other than +Zoraida Castelmar, were bent searchingly on him. So strong was the +feeling on him that he turned about and fixed his own eyes on a +particular corner where the silken folds hung graceful and loose. He +felt that she was there, exactly at that spot. + +He strode across the room and laid a sudden hand on the fabric. It +parted readily and just behind it, her eyes more brilliant, more +triumphant than he had ever seen them, stood Zoraida. + +"Can you say now, Señor Americano," she cried out, the music of her +voice rising and vibrating, "that I have not set the spell of my spirit +upon your spirit, the influence of my mind upon your mind? You stood +here and the chamber was empty about you. I came, but so that you +might not hear with your ears and might not see with your eyes. And +yet, looking at you through a pin hole in a drawn curtain, I made you +conscious of me and called voicelessly to you to come and you came!" + +There was laughter in her oblique eyes and upon her scarlet lips, and +Kendric knew that it was not merely light mirth but the deeper laughter +of a conqueror, a high rejoicing, the winged joy of victory. + +"I am no student of mental forces," said Kendric. "But to my knowledge +there is nothing unusual in one's feeling the presence of another. As +for any power which your mind can exert over mine, I don't admit it. +It's absurd." + +Contempt hardened the line of her mouth and the laughter died in her +eyes. + +"Man is an animal of little wisdom," she murmured as she passed by him +into the room, "because he has not learned to believe the simple truth." + +"If there is anything either simple or true in your establishment," he +blurted out, "I haven't found it." + +She went to the table before she turned. A flowing garment of deep +blue fell about her; on her black hair like a coronet was a crest of +many colored, tiny feathers, feathers of humming birds, he learned +later; throat and arms were bare save for many blazing red and green +stones, feet bare save for exquisitely wrought sandals which were held +in place by little golden straps which ended in plain gold bands about +the round white ankles. + +Slowly she turned and faced him. But not yet did she speak. She +clapped her hands together and the curtains at her right bellied out, +parted and a man stepped before her, bending deeply in genuflection. +No Yaqui, this time; no Mexican as Kendric knew Mexicans. The man was +short, but a few inches over five feet, and remarkably heavy-muscled, +the greater part of the body showing since his simple cotton tunic was +wide open across the deep chest, and left arms and legs bare. The +forehead was atavistically low, the cheek bones very prominent, the +nose wide and flat, the lips loose and thick. The man looked brutish, +cruel and ugly as he stood face to face with the noble beauty of +Zoraida. And yet Kendric, glancing swiftly from one to the other, saw +a peculiar resemblance. It was the eyes. This squat animal's eyes +were like Zoraida's in shape though they lacked the fire of spirit and +intellect; long eyes that sloped outward and upward toward the temples. + +Zoraida spoke briefly, imperiously. Kendric did not understand the +words though he readily recognized the tongue for one of the native +Nahua dialects. Old Aztec it might have been, or Toltec. + +The man saluted, bowed and was gone. But in a moment he returned, +another man with him who might have been his twin brother, so strongly +pronounced in each were the racial physiognomic characteristics. +Between them they bore a heavy chair of black polished wood the feet of +which were eagles' talons gripping and resting on crystal balls. They +placed it and stood waiting for orders or dismissal. She gave both, +the first in a few low words in the same ancient tongue, the latter +with a gesture. They bowed and disappeared. Zoraida, one hand resting +upon the stand near the jewel glowing upon the transparent stem, sank +gracefully into the seat. + +"All very imposing," muttered Kendric. "But if you have anything to +say to me I am waiting." + +From somewhere in the room a parrot which he had not seen until now and +which had no doubt been released by one of her low-browed henchmen +behind the curtains, flew by Kendric's head and perched balancing upon +an arm of her chair. Idly she put out her hand, stroking the bright +feathers. From somewhere else, startling the man when he saw it +gliding by him on its soft pads, a big puma, ran forward, threw up its +head, snarling, its tail jerking back and forth restlessly. Zoraida +spoke quietly; the monster cat crept close to her chair and lay down +before her, stretched out to five feet of graceful length. Zoraida set +one foot lightly upon the tawny back. The big cat lay motionless, its +eyes steady and unwinking upon Kendric. + +He felt himself strangely impressed though he sought to argue with +himself that here was but more absurdity from an empty-headed girl who +had the money and the power to unleash her extravagant desires. But +since everything about him was stamped with the barbaric, even to the +oblique-eyed woman staring boldly at him; since everything in the +exotic atmosphere was in keeping, even to the parrot at her elbow and +the heavy, honey-sweet perfume filling the room, he was unable to shake +off, as he wished to, the impression made upon him. + +"In your heart," said Zoraida gravely, "you censure me for empty +by-play, you accuse me of vain trifling. You are wrong, Señor +Americano! And soon you will know you are wrong. There is no woman +throughout the wide sweep of my country or yours who has the work to do +that I have to do; the destiny to fulfil; or the power to wrest from +the gods that which she would have. And will have!" + +Steadfast conviction, fearlessly voiced, rang through her speech. What +she said she meant with all of the fiery ardor of her being. Her +words spoke her thought. Whatever the fate which she judged was hers +to fulfil, she accepted it with a fervor not unlike some ecstatic +religious devotion. Of all this he was confident on the instant; she +might surround herself with colorful accessories but her purpose was +none the less serious. + +"Symbols, if you like," she said carelessly--she had been staring at +him profoundly and well might have glimpsed something of his train of +thought--"as are statues and pictures symbols in the Roman church. My +bright colored bird is older now than you will be, or I, when we die. +Age, bright feathers and chatter! My puma means much to me that you +would not understand, being of another race. Further, did you or +another lift a hand against his mistress he would tear out your throat." + +"You have had me brought here for some purpose?" said Kendric. + +She sat forward, straight in her chair, her two hands gripping the +carved arms. + +"Did I not tell you when first we spoke together that I had use for +you? Since then have I not sent myself into your thoughts many times? +Did I not come to you, that you should remember, on the boat that +brought you here?" + +"I am no man for mysteries," he said. "Tell me: Did you somehow get +aboard the _New Moon_ at San Diego? Or did my fancy play me a trick?" + +"You ask me questions!" she mocked. "When you would believe what +pleased you, no matter what word I spoke! If I said that across the +miles, over mountain and desert and water I sent my spirit to +you--would you believe?" + +"No. Not when there are other readier explanations." + +She raised a quick hand and pointed to the parrot. + +"Chatter! Questions put when you do not expect an answer. A hundred +years of words and only a red and yellow bundle of feathers at the end. +It is deeds we want, Señor Americano, you and I!" + +He returned her look steadily. + +"Then tell me what you want of me," he said. "And in one word I'll +give you yes or no." + +"That is man talk!" she cried. "And yet, Señor Jim Kendric, there come +times even in a man's life when the yes or no is spoken for him." She +paused for him to drink in all that her statement meant. Then, when he +remained silent, his eyes hostile upon hers, she went on, her speech +quick and passionate. "There are great happenings on foot, American. +There will be war and death; there will be tearing down and building +up. And it is I who will direct and it is you who will take my orders +and make them law. And in the end I shall be a Zoraida whom the world +shall know and you shall be a mighty man, _the_ man of Mexico." + +"Fine words!" It was his time to mock, his time to glance at the +ancient bird. + +"Yes, Jim Kendric. Fine words and more since they are great truths. +Lest you think Zoraida Castelmar a girl of mad fancies, I will speak +freely with you. Since all depends on me and it is in my mind that +much will depend on you. And why on you? Why have I put my hand out +upon you, a foreigner? Because you are such a man as I would make were +I God; a man strong and fearless and masterful; a man trustworthy to +the death when his word is given and his honor is at stake. No, I do +not judge you alone by what happened at Ortega's gambling house. But +that fitted in with all I knew of you. Where else can I find a man to +lose ten thousand, twenty thousand dollars, all that he has and think +no more of the matter than of a cigaret paper that the wind has blown +from his hands? I have heard of you, Jim Kendric, and I have said to +myself: 'Is there such a man? I know none like him!' Then I went for +myself, saw for myself, judged for myself. And now I offer you what I +offer no other man and what no other mortal can offer you." + +"You give me a pretty clean bill of health," he said quietly. "Now +what follows?" + +"This: There will be war in Mexico----" + +"No new thing," he cut in. "There is always war in Mexico." + +"And I will direct that war," she went on serenely, "from this chair in +this room and from elsewhere. Lower California will raise its own +standard and it will be my standard. Already has word stirred Sonora +into restlessness and a beginning of activity; already is Chihuahua +armed and eager. Already have the thousands of Yaquis listened and +agreed; already have I made them large promises of ancient tribal lands +restored and money. A Yaqui guards my door yonder. But you did not +know that he was the son of Chief Pima, nor that in ten days the son +will be Chief after having served in the household of Zoraida! And +Sonora and Chihuahua and the Yaqui tribes are pledged to one thing: To +an independent Lower California over which I shall rule." + +"Wild schemes," muttered Kendric. "Foredoomed, like other mad schemes +in Mexico. And if your great plannings are feasible, which I very much +doubt, has your feathered companion failed to remind you that talk with +a stranger is rash?" + +"You are no stranger," she said coolly. "Nor have I spoken a word to +you that is not known already to all about me. My cousin, Ruiz Rios, +whom I distrust and detest; the Captain Escobar who is a small man and +a murderer, the other men whom I have gathered about me, they all know, +for in this, if in nothing else, I can trust them all." + +"But if I went away," he asked, "and talked?" + +"You are not going away." + +He lifted his brows quickly at that. + +"I go where I please," he reminded her. "When I please. I am my own +man, Señorita Castelmar." + +"Large words." She smiled at him curiously. + +"You mean that my going would be interfered with?" + +"I mean that you may make yourself free of the house; that you may walk +in the gardens; that, if you sought to pass the outer wall, you would +be detained. You remain my prisoner, Señor Kendric, until you become +my trusted captain!" + +"You're a devilish hospitable hostess," he remarked. She was watching +him shrewdly, interested to see just how he would accept her ultimatum. +He returned her look with clear, untroubled eyes. + +"You will think of what I have told you," she said slowly. "My wealth +is very great; the fertile lands which I have inherited and those which +I have purchased, embrace hundreds of thousands of acres; the barren +lands which are mine, desert and mountain, stretch mile after mile. +There is no power like mine in all Mexico, though until now it has lain +hidden, giving no sign. It is in my heart to make you a rich man and, +what you like more, Jim Kendric, a man to play the biggest of all games +and for the biggest of all stakes. And further--further----" + +"Further?" He laughed. "What comes after all that, Queen Zoraida?" + +"Look into my eyes," she said softly. "Look deep." + +He looked and though to him were women unread books, at last a slow +flush crept up into his cheeks. For now neither he nor any other man +could have failed to understand the silent speech of Zoraida's eyes. +It was as though she invited him not so much to look into her eyes as +through them and on, deep into her heart; as though these were gates, +open to him, through which he might glimpse paradise. Zoraida, her +look clinging to his passionately, was seeking to offer the final +argument. The case would have not been plainer had she whispered with +her lips: "I, even I, Zoraida, love you! You shall be my master; I +your willing slave. What you will, I will also. My beauty shall be +yours; my wealth, my estate, my ambitions, my power, all those shall be +my lord's. Of a kingdom which shall be built you shall be king. You +shall go far, you shall climb high. All because I, Zoraida, love you!" + +She stood there watching him, her eyes burning into his. In her own +mind were pictures made, pictures of pride and power and, as a mirror +reflects the scene before it, so for a little did Jim Kendric's mind +hold an image of the thing in Zoraida's. He felt her influence upon +him; he felt that odd stirring of the blood; he stared back into her +eyes like a man bewildered as pictures rose and swept magnificently by. +He saw the red of her parted lips and heard her soft breathing; for a +certain length of time--long or short he had little conception--he was +motionless and speechless under her spell. + +He stirred restlessly. Those visions conjured up within him, either by +Zoraida's previous words and what had gone before or by the subtle +workings of her mind now, were not unbroken. He thought of Twisty +Barlow. Barlow had gone to her at the border town hotel; from his own +experiences with her Kendric thought that he could imagine how she +stood before the sailor, how she talked with him and looked at him, how +in the first small point she won over him. He thought of an ancient +tale of Circe and the swine. Was he a free man, a man's man or was he +a woman's plaything? . . . It flashed over him again that it might be +that Zoraida was mad. Even now, that he seemed to be reading her +inmost soul, was she but playing the siren to his imaginings? Was this +some barbaric whim of hers or was she, for the once, sincere? While +appearing to be all yielding softness, was she but playing a game? +Would she, at one instant swaying toward a man's arms, the next whip +back from him, laughing at him? + +Confused thoughts winging through his chaos of uncertainty held him +where he was, his eyes staring at hers. Zoraida might read some of his +mind but surely not all. What she realized was that she had offered +much, everything, and that he stood, seemingly unmoved and frowned at +her. Quick in all her emotions, now suddenly her cheeks flamed and the +light in her eyes altered swiftly to blazing anger. + +"Go!" she cried, pointing. She leaped to her feet, her eyes flaming. +"By the long vanished Huitzil, I swear that I am of a mind to let those +dogs, Rios and Escobar, have their way with you! What! am I Zoraida +Castelmar, of a race of kings, daughter of the Montezumas, to have a +man stand up before me weighing me in the balance of his two eyes? Go!" + +He turned to go, eager to be out in the open air. But as he moved she +called out to him: + +"Wait! At least I will say my say. You and that fool Barlow came +here, into my land, seeking gold. Escobar comes slinking in like a +desert wolf on the same errand. Oh, I know something of it as I know +something of all that goes forward from end to end of a land that will +one day all be mine. Juarez died from Escobar's knife but his last +gasp was for one of my agent's ears. When you or Barlow or Escobar lay +hand on the treasure of the Montezumas, it will be to step aside for +the last Montezuma. It will be mine!" + +Fury filled her eyes. The hands at her sides clenched until the +knuckles shone white through the blaze of her rings. The great cat +rose and yawned, showing its glistening teeth and red throat. Its eyes +were no more merciless and cruel than its mistress's. Kendric felt +queerly as though he were looking back across dead centuries into +ancient Mexico and upon the angry princess of the most cruel of all +peoples, the blood-lusting Aztecs. + +"Go!" she panted. + +With one after another of the doors thrown open before him Kendric +hurried away. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +OF A GIRL HELD FOR RANSOM AND OF A TOAST DRUNK BY ONE INFATUATED + +Jim Kendric returned straightway to the rooms allotted to him and +Barlow, hoping to find his companion there. They must talk together, +they must understand each the other; they must know, and know without +delay, just in what and to what lengths friend could count on friend. +To the uttermost, Kendric would have said a week ago. Now he only +pondered the matter, recalling that in some ways Barlow did not seem +quite the old mate. + +He found the rooms empty and threw himself into one of the big chairs +to wait. As he regarded the situation it had little enough to +recommend itself to a man of his stamp. He had not the least desire to +meddle in any way with Mexican revolutionary politics; upheavals would +come and come again, no doubt, for thus would a great country in due +time work out its own salvation. But it was no affair of his. This +fomenting nucleus into which he and Barlow had come was, he estimated, +foredoomed to failure and worse; one fine day Ruiz Rios and Fernando +Escobar and their outlaw followings would find themselves with their +backs to an adobe wall and their faces set toward a line of rifles. +And Zoraida Castelmar had best think upon that, too. For turbulent +times had borne women along with men to a quick undoing. + +All this was clear to him. But here clarity gave way to groping +uncertainty. Less than anything else did he have a stomach for being +bottled up in any house in the world, Zoraida's house least of all, and +denied the freedom of the open. It looked as though he, who had never +done another man's command, must now do a girl's. At call she had +fifty, perhaps a hundred retainers, ugly-looking devils all and no +lovers of Americans who came unbidden into their country. + +"There's always a way out of a mess like this," he told himself, +determined to find it. "But right now I don't see it." + +There was also the lodestone toward which he and Barlow had steered and +which had drawn Fernando Escobar. And that amazing creature who coolly +laid claim to the royal blood of the Montezumas, laid claim as well to +their treasure trove. Just how any of them could make a move toward it +without her knowledge baffled him. And hence, more than ever before, +did his desire mount to get his own hands on it. + +When presently Barlow entered, Kendric looked up at him thoughtfully. +Barlow bore along with him a subdued air of excitement. + +"You've just left Rios?" asked Kendric. + +"Yes." Barlow came in and closed the door, looking quickly and +questioningly at his friend. He appeared to hesitate, then said +hurriedly: "There are big things ahead, old Headlong! Big!" + +"Shoot," answered Kendric sharply. "What's the play, man?" + +Again Barlow hesitated, plainly in doubt just how far Kendric might be +in sympathy with him. + +"It wouldn't make you mad to fill your pockets, Headlong, would it?" he +asked. "Bulgin' full? And you wouldn't mind a scrap or two and a blow +or two in the job, would you?" + +"Watch your step, Twisty, old timer," said Kendric. "Rios has been +talking revolution to you, has he? Sometimes an uprising down here is +a nasty mess that it's easier to get into than out of again. And, if +we get our hooks on the loot that brought us down here, why should we +want to mix it with the federal government?" + +Barlow began tugging at his forelock. + +"I'm up a tree, Jim," he muttered at last. "Clean up a tree." + +"Then look out you light on your feet instead of on your head when you +decide to come down. It would be easy to make a mistake right now." + +"Yes, easy; dead easy.--Old Headlong counseling caution!" Barlow +laughed but with little genuine mirth. + +"I want a straight talk with you, Twisty," said Kendric soberly. "I +for one don't like the lay-out here and I'm going to break for the +open. You and I have fallen among a pack of damned thieves, to draw it +mild. It strikes me we'd better understand each other." + +"Right!" cried Barlow eagerly. "Let's talk straight from the shoulder." + +But events, or rather Zoraida Castelmar who sought to usurp destiny's +prerogatives here, ruled otherwise. There came a quiet rap at the +door, then the voice of one of the housemaids, saying: + +"La Señorita Zoraida desires immediately to speak with Señor Barlow." + +Barlow, just easing himself into a chair, jumped up. + +"Coming," he called. + +Kendric, too, sprang up, his hand locking hard upon Barlow's arm. + +"Twisty," he said, "hold on a minute. The house isn't on fire." + +"Well?" Barlow's impatience glared out of his eyes. "What is it?" + +"I've got a very large, life-sized suspicion that it would be just as +well if you sent back word you couldn't come. At least, not until +we've had our talk." + +"She said immediately," said Barlow. And then, "You don't want me to +see her? Why?" + +"Because, it you want to know, she isn't good for you. She'll seek to +draw you in on this fool scheme of hers, and if you don't look out +you'll do just what she says do. There never was a mere woman like +her. She's uncanny, man! She will give you the same line of mad talk +she gave me, she will make you the same sorts of offers----" + +"You've seen her then? Tonight? While I was out with Rios you were +with her?" + +"Yes. And not because I found any pleasure in her company, either." + +Barlow jerked free, laughing his disbelief, his look at once unpleasant +and suspicious. + +"Tell that to the marines," he jeered. He threw the door open and went +out. In the hall Kendric could hear his steps sounding quick and +eager. Kendric returned to his chair, perplexed. Then again he sprang +up, throwing out his hands, shaking his shoulders as though to rid them +of a troublesome weight. + +"Too much thinking isn't good for a man," he told himself lightly. +"The game's made; let her roll!" + +He took a cigar from the table, lighted it and passed through the bath +and adjoining room. A door opened to the outer corridor. He stepped +out upon the flagstones and strolled down the aisle flanked on one side +by the adobe wall of the house, on the other by the white columns and +arches. The night was fine, clear and starlit; the fragrance of a +thousand flowers lay heavy upon the-air; the babble of the outdoor +fountain made merry music. He left the stone floor for the graveled +driveway and put his head back to send a little puff of smoke upward +toward the flash of stars. + +"It's a good old land, at that," he mused. "Big and clean and wide +open." + +He strolled on, looking to right and left. Before him the gardens +appeared deserted. But there were patches of inpenetrable blackness +under the wider flung trees, and it seemed likely, from what Zoraida +had said, that some of her rabble were watching him. If so, he deemed +it as well to know for certain. So he kept straight on toward the +whitewashed wall glimpsed through the foliage. He came to it and +stopped; it was little higher than his head and would be no obstacle in +itself. He shot out his hands, gripped the top and went up. + +And still no one to dispute his right to do as he pleased. He sat for +a moment atop the wall, looking about him curiously. He marked that at +each of the corners of the enclosure to be seen from where he sat, was +a little square tower rising a dozen feet higher than the wall. In +each tower a lamp burned. From the nearest one came the voices of two +men. Tied near this tower and outside the wall were two horses; he saw +them vaguely and heard the clink of bridle chains. Saddled horses. +There would be saddled horses at each of the four towers; night and +day, if Zoraida's talk were not mere boasting. The temptation to know +just how strict was the guard kept moved him to drop to the ground, on +the outside of the wall. He moved quickly, but his feet had not struck +the grass when a sharp whistle cut through the still night. The +whistle came from somewhere in the shadows within the enclosure. + +Kendric stood stone still. But had he been ready for flight he knew +now that he could not have gone twenty paces before they stopped him. +Where he had heard the voices of two men he now heard an overturned +chair, jingle of spur and thud of boots, a sharp command. He saw two +figures run out on the wall and leap down into the saddles just below. +And he knew that in the other towers there had been like readiness and +like action. For already he saw four mounted men and needed no telling +that each man carried a rifle. + +He climbed back on the wall, his curiosity for the moment satisfied. +And there he sat until one of the riders galloped to him. The man came +close and said gruffly: + +"It is not permitted to cross the wall. It would be best if Señor +Americano remembered. And went back to the house." + +"Right-o!" agreed Kendric cheerily. "I just wanted to be sure, +_compadre_," and he turned and dropped back into the garden. "She +holds the cards, ace, face and trump!" he conceded sweepingly. "But +the game's to play." And, as again he strolled along the driveway, his +thoughts were not unpleasant. For what had he come adventuring into +Lower California if he weren't ready for what the day might bring? The +situation had its zest. He wondered how many men were hidden about the +garden, like the fellow who had watched him and whistled? How many +were watching him now? He reflected as he walked on, but his +conjectures were not so deep as to make him oblivious of his cigar. On +the whole, for the night, he was content. + +Just as he turned the corner of the house a rider, coming from the +double front gate, raced down the driveway and flung himself to the +ground. A figure stepped out from the shadowy corridor and Kendric was +near enough to recognize the second figure as that of Captain Escobar, +even before he heard his sharp: + +"Is that you, Ramorez? What luck?" + +"Si, Señor Capitan. It is Ramorez. And the luck is fine!" + +"You have her?" Escobar's tone was exultant. + +"Just outside. Sancho is bringing her. I am here for orders. Where +shall we take her?" + +"Here. Into the house. Señorita Castelmar knows everything and is +with us." + +Ramorez swung back up into the saddle and spurred away, gone into the +darkness under the trees toward the gate. Kendric stood where he was, +receptive for any bit of understanding which might be vouchsafed him. +He was satisfied with his position in the shadows; glad when Escobar +stepped out so that the lamp light from within streamed across his +face. Actually the man's hard eyes gloated. + +It was only a moment until Ramorez returned, another man riding knee +and knee with him, a led horse following them. It was this animal and +its rider that held Kendric's eyes. In the saddle was what appeared a +weary little figure, drooping forward, clutching miserably at the horn +of the saddle with both hands. As she came nearer and there was more +light he saw the bowed head, made out that it was hatless, even saw how +the hair was all tumbled and ready to fall about her shoulders. + +"You will get down, señorita." It was Escobar's voice, gloating like +his eyes. + +The listless figure in the saddle made no reply, seemed bereft of any +volition of its own. As Ramorez put up his hands to help her, she came +down stiffly and stood stiffly, looking about her. Kendric, to see +better, came on emerging from the shadows and stood, leaning against +the wall, drawing slowly at his cigar and awaiting the end of the +scene. So now, for the first time, he saw the girl's face as she +lifted it to look despairingly around. + +"Oh," she cried suddenly, a catch in her voice, throwing out her two +arms toward Escobar. "Please, please let me go!" + +The hair was falling about her face; she shook it back, still standing +with her arms outflung imploringly. Kendric frowned. The girl was too +fair for a Mexican; her hair in the lamp light was less dark than black +and might well be brown; her speech was the speech of one of his own +country. + +"An American girl!" he marveled. "These dirty devils have laid their +hands on an American girl! And just a kid, at that." + +With her hair down, with a trembling "Please" upon her lips, she did +not look sixteen. + +"I am so tired," she begged; "I am so frightened. Won't you let me go? +Please?" + +Kendric fully expected her to break into tears, so heartbroken was her +attitude, so halting were her few supplicating words. A spurt of anger +flared up in his heart; to be harsh with her was like hurting a child. +And yet he held resolutely back from interference. As yet no rude hand +was being laid on her and it would be better if she went into the house +quietly than if he should raise a flurry of wild hope in her frightened +breast and evoke an outpouring of terrified pleadings, all to no avail. +What he would have to say were best said to Escobar alone. + +Slowly her arms dropped to her sides. Her look went from face to face, +resting longest on Jim Kendric's. He kept his lips tight about his +cigar, shutting back any word to raise false hope just yet. The result +was that the girl turned from him with a little shudder, seeing in him +but another oppressor. She sighed wearily and, walking stiffly, passed +to the door flung open by Ramorez and into the house. Escobar was +following her when Kendric called to him. The bandit captain muttered +but came back into the yard. + +"Well, señor?" he demanded impudently. "What have you to say to me?" + +"Who is that girl?" asked Kendric. "And what are you doing with her?" + +Escobar laughed his open insolence. + +"So you are interested? Pretty, like a flower, _no_? Well, she is not +for you, Señor Americano, though she is of your own country. She is +the daughter of a rich gentleman named Gordon, if you would know. Her +papa calls her Betty and is very fond of her. Him I have let go back +to the United States. That he may send me twenty-five thousand dollars +for Señorita Betty. Are there other questions, señor?" + +"You've got a cursed high hand, Captain Escobar," muttered Kendric. +"But let me tell you something: If you touch a hair of that poor little +kid's head I'll shoot six holes square through your dirty heart." And +he passed by Escobar and went into the house. + +He meant to tell the daughter of Gordon that he, too, was an American; +that Barlow, another American, was on the job; that, somehow, they +would see her through. But he was given only a fleeting glimpse of her +as she passed out through a door across the room, escorted by the +grave-eyed young woman who an hour ago had warned him not to anger +Zoraida. He saw Betty Gordon's face distinctly now; she was fair, her +hair was brown, he thought her eyes were gray. But before he could +call to her she was gone, clinging to the arm of Zoraida's maid. + +"Poor little kid," muttered Kendric, staring after her. "I'd give my +hat to have her on a horse, scooting for the _New Moon_. All alone +among these pirates, with her dad the Lord knows where trying to dig up +twenty-five thousand dollars for her!" + +At least she was no doubt well enough off for the night. She looked +too tired to lie awake long, no matter what her distress. He returned +to his rooms and sat down to wait again for Barlow. + + +When at last Barlow came Kendric knew on the instant what success +Zoraida had had with him. Twisty's eyes were shining; his head was up; +he walked briskly like a man with his plans made and his heart in them. + +"You poor boob," muttered Kendric disgustedly. "Once you let a woman +get her knife in your heart you're done for." + +Barlow swept up the brandy bottle and filled a glass brim full. + +"To Zoraida, Queen of Lower California!" he cried ringingly. He drank +and smashed the glass upon the floor. + +Kendric sighed and shook his head hopelessly. And thanked God that he +had never been the man to go mad over a pretty face. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +HOW A MAN MAY CARRY A MESSAGE AND NOT KNOW HIMSELF TO BE A MESSENGER + +"There's no call for bad blood between you and me, Jim," said Barlow, +plainly ill at his ease. "We've always been friends; let's stay +friends. If we can't pull together in the deal that's comin', why, +let's just split our trail two ways and let it go at that." + +"Fair enough," cried Kendric heartily. His companion thrust out a +hand; Kendric took it warmly. Barlow looked relieved. + +"And," continued the sailor, "there's no sense forgettin' what we ran +into this port for in the first place. There's the loot; no matter how +or when we come at it, both together or single, we split it even?" + +"Fair again. The old-time Barlow talking." + +"All I've held out on you, Jim, is the exact location, so far as I know +it. I'll spill that to you now, best I can. Then you can play out +your string your way and I can play it out my way. As Juarez tipped me +off, you've got three peaks to sail by; whether it's the three we saw +first or the ones right off here, back of the house, I don't know any +more than you do. But it ought to be easy tellin' when a man's on the +spot. The middle peak ought to be a good fifty feet higher than the +others and flat lookin' on top. In a ravine, between the tall boy and +the one at the left, Juarez said there was a lot of scrub trees and +brush. He said plow through the brush, keepin' to the up edge when you +can get to it, until you come to about the middle of the patch. There +a man would find a lot of loose rock, boulders that looked like they'd +slid off the mountain. This rock, and the Lord knows how much of it +there is, covers the hole that the old priest's writin' said that loot +was in. And that's the yarn, every damn' word of it." + +"If it's the place back of the house," said Kendric, "it'll be a night +job, all of it. It's not a half mile off and plain sight from here. +Now, what's the likelihood of Escobar having been there ahead of us?" + +"Escobar's out of the runnin'." Barlow's eyes glinted with his +satisfaction. "He's corked up here tighter'n a fly in a bottle. He +isn't allowed to stick nose outside the walls after dark; and he isn't +allowed to ride out of sight in the daytime. Those are little +Escobar's orders. And, by cracky, I'll bet he minds 'em." + +"Who told you all that?" + +"She did." + +"What's she close-herding him for?" + +"Doesn't trust him; can you blame her? She's takin' her chances, and +she knows it, plannin' the big things ahead. And she's not missin' a +bet." + +"And more," remarked Kendric drily, "she hankers for the loot herself?" + +"She wouldn't know a thing about it," protested Barlow. "Escobar would +keep his mouth shut; he's wise hog enough for that." + +"But she does know, Twisty. She knows that Escobar knifed Juarez; she +knows why; she knows pretty nearly as much about the thing as we know." + +"She knows a lot of things," mused Barlow. But he shook his head: +"She's shootin' high, Headlong; no penny-ante game for her! Not that +what we're lookin' for sounds little; but it ain't in her path and +she's not turnin' aside for anything. And she's the richest lady in +Mexico right now. Those pearls of hers, man, are worth over a hundred +thousand dollars, or I'm a fool. I saw them again tonight; she let me +have them in my hands. And that ruby; did you see it? Why, kings +can't sport stones like that in their best Sunday crowns." + +"She contends that she is a descendent of the old Mexican kings," +offered Kendric coolly. "And any treasure, left by the Montezumas, she +claims by right of inheritance!" + +"She couldn't get across with a claim like that, could she? Not in any +law court, Jim?" + +"Not unless the jurors were all men and she could get them off alone, +one at a time, and whisper in their ears," grunted Kendric. + +Barlow laughed and they dropped the subject. Kendric told Barlow what +he had learned during the evening; how the walls were sentinelled and +how at the present moment under the same roof with them was an American +girl, held for ransom. + +"And, according to Escobar," he concluded, watching his old friend's +face, "the trick is put over with the connivance of Miss Castelmar. +This would seem to be one of the headquarters of the great national +game!" + +"Well?" snapped the sailor. "What of it? If you can get away with a +game like that it pays big and fast. And who the devil sent you and me +down this way to preach righteousness? It's their business--but, +cut-throat cur that that little bandit hop o' my thumb is, I don't +believe a word he says." + +"And if you did believe, it would be just the same?" There was a queer +note in his voice. "Well, Twisty, old mate, I guess you've said it. +Our trail forks. Good night." + +"Good night," growled Barlow. Each went into his own bedroom; the +doors closed after them. + +For a couple of hours Kendric sat in the dark by his window, staring +out into the gardens, pondering. Of two things he was certain: He was +not going to remain shut up in the Hacienda Montezuma if there was a +way to break for the open; and he was not going to leave Lower +California without his share of the buried treasure or at least without +knowing that the tale was a lie. And, little by little, a third +consideration forced itself in with its place with these matters; he +could not get out of his mind the picture of the "poor little kid of a +girl" in Escobar's hands. Like any other strong man, Kendric had a +quick sympathy and pity for the weak and abused. Never, he thought, +had he seen an individual less equipped to contend with such forces +than was the little American girl. + +"What I'd like," he thought longingly, "would be to make a break for +the border; to round up about twenty of the boys and to swoop down on +this place like a gale out of hell! Clean 'em for fair, pick the +little Gordon girl up and race back to the border with her. If it +wasn't so blamed far----" + +But he realized, even while he let his angry fancies run, that he was +dreaming impossibilities. He knew, also, that to take up the matter +through the regular diplomatic channels would be a process too +infinitely slow to suit the situation. It was either a single-handed +job for Jim Kendric, or else it was up to the girl's father to pay down +the twenty-five thousand dollars. + +"I'd give a good deal for a talk with old Bruce West," he told himself. +"His outfit lies close in to these diggings; wonder if he has any +American boys working for him? Why, a dozen of us, or a half dozen, +would stand this place on end! Yes; I'd like to see Bruce." + +A score of reasons flocked to him why it was desirable to see young +West. The boy was a friend, and it would be a joy just to grip him by +the hand again after three years; Bruce had written to him to come and +now that events had led him so near, he should grant the request; Bruce +was having his own troubles, no doubt against the lawlessness of +Escobar, Rios and the rest. And finally, he and Bruce might work +things together so that both should derive benefit. Bruce might be in +a position to befriend Gordon's little daughter. + +So much did Kendric dwell on the subject that night that it claimed his +first thoughts when he woke in the early dawn. And therefore, when +Zoraida's message was handed to him at the breakfast table, he stared +at it with puzzled eyes asking himself if the amazing creature had read +his thoughts through thick walls of adobe. + +The message was typewritten, even to the signature. It said: + +"No doubt Señor Kendric would like to see his old friend Señor West. +If he will only set his signature below what follows he will be given a +horse, permission to ride and instructions as to direction. Zoraida." + + +And below were the words, with date and a dotted line for him to sign: + +"I pledge my word, as a gentleman, to Zoraida Castelmar, that I will +return to her at Hacienda Montezuma not later than daybreak twenty-four +hours from now. . . ." + + +"A take or leave proposition, clean cut," he comprehended promptly. +And as promptly he decided to take it. The maid who had brought him +the paper was offering pen and ink. He accepted and wrote swiftly: +"Jim Kendric." + +"Has Barlow breakfasted yet?" he asked, returning to his coffee. + +"An hour ago, Señor. He has gone out." + +"Alone?" + +"No, señor. With La Señorita Zoraida." + +"Hm," said Kendric. "And Rios? And Escobar?" + +"Señor Rios went to bed late; it is his custom, señor." The girl +looked as though she could tell him more but, with a quick glance over +her shoulder, contented herself with saying only: "Señor Escobar is +with the men outside." + +"And the American girl? Miss Gordon?" + +"Asleep still, señor." + +"Has Escobar been near her?" + +"No, señor. She has been alone except for me and Rosita. _La +pobrecita_," she added, almost in a whisper. "She is so frightened." + +"Be kind to her," said Kendric. He, too, looked over his shoulder. In +his pocket were the few fifty-dollar bills left to him from his oil +shares. "What is your name?" + +"Juanita," she told him. + +"All right, Juanita; take this." He slipped a bill along the +tablecloth toward her. "Give Rosita half, you keep half. And be kind +to Miss Gordon." + +"Oh, señor!" she cried, as in protest. But she took the bank note. +Kendric felt better for the transaction; he finished his breakfast with +rare appetite. + +"Now," he cried, jumping up, "for the horse. Is it ready?" + +Juanita, the folded paper in her hands, went with him to the door. + +"The horse is ready, Señor Americano," she told him. "It remains only +for me to tell the boy that you have promised to return." + +Sure enough, pawing the gravel in front of the house, half jerking off +his feet the _mestizo_ holding it, was a tall, rangy sorrel horse +looking as fine an animal as any man in a hurry could wish. + +"Señor Kendric will ride, Pedro," called Juanita. "Give him the horse." + +Pedro gave the reins over to Kendric and turned away toward the +stables. Kendric swung up into the saddle and for a moment curbed the +big sorrel's dash toward the gates, to say meditatively to Juanita: + +"If I took that paper away from you and made a run for it, what then?" + +A look of fear leaped into the girl's dark eyes and she drew hastily +back, clutching the paper to her breast. + +"Señor!" she cried, breathless and aghast. "You would not! She--she +would kill me!" + +"She would _what_?" he scowled. + +"She would give me to her cat, her terrible, terrible cat, to play +with!" Juanita shivered, and drew still further back. "With my life I +must guard this paper until it goes from my hand into her hand." + +He laughed his disbelief and gave his horse his head at last. They +shot away through the shrubberry; the horse slid to a standstill before +the closed gate. Of the man smoking a cigaret before it Kendric said +curtly: + +"You are to let me through. And direct me to Bruce West's ranch." + +"Si, señor." The man opened the gate. "It is yonder; up the valley. +The trail will carry you up over the mountain; there are piled stones +to mark the way to the pass. In an hour, from the other side of the +ridge, you will see houses. Ten miles from there." + +Kendric rode through and as he did so his figure straightened in the +saddle, his shoulders squared, he put up his head. Free and in the +open, if only for twenty-four hours. And with a horse, a real horse, +between his knees. He looked off to the left to Barlow's three peaks; +the sun was gilding the top of the tallest and it was unquestionable +that it was flat-topped. But he did not dwell long upon buried gold +nor yet on the query which suggested itself: "Where were Barlow and +Zoraida riding so early?" The immediate present and the immediate +surroundings were all that he cared to interest himself in on a day +like this. + +The man at the gate had said it was ten miles from the far side of the +ridge to the Bruce West ranch house; the entire distance, therefore, +from the Hacienda Montezuma would be about double that distance. The +trail, once he reached the hills, was a dilatory, leisurely affair, +thoroughly Mexican; it sought out the gentlest slope always and +appeared in no haste to arrive anywhere. Well, his mood could be made +to suit the trail's; he was in no hurry, having all day for his talk +with young West. + +The higher he rose above the floor of Zoraida's grassy valley the +steeper did his trail become, flanked with cliffs, at times looking too +sheer ahead for a horse. But always the path twisted between the +boulders and found the possible way up. So he came into a splendid +solitude, a region of naked rocks, of a few windblown trees, of little +open level spaces grown up with dry brush and wiry grass; of defiles +through stone-bound ways that were so narrow two men could not have +ridden through them abreast, so crooked that a man often could not see +ten steps ahead or ten steps behind, so deep that he must throw his +head far back to see the barren cliff tops above him. Strips of sky, +seen thus, were deep, deep blue. + +It was not at all strange, he told himself during one of his meditative +moments while his horse climbed valiantly, that Zoraida should know of +his friendship with Bruce West, nor that she should understand his +natural desire to ride where he was going this morning. Everyone in +the border town had known of his letter at the postoffice; further, it +was not in the least unlikely that Señorita Castelmar would know of the +letter when it was dropped into the slot at the Mexican postoffice. +What did strike him as odd, however, was that she should consent to his +leaving the ranch, realizing that he knew much of her own plans and +would doubtless speak freely of them and of the American girl held in +her house for ransom. + +"Not only was she willing for me to see Bruce," he decided; "she wanted +me to. Why?" + +His trail led him into the last narrow defile to be encountered before +reaching the summit. So closely did the rocks press in on each side +that often his tapaderos brushed the sheer wall. He made a turn, none +too wide for the body of his horse and drew sudden rein, looking into +two rifle barrels. The men covering him lay a dozen feet above his +head upon a bare, flat rock. He could see only the hands upon their +guns, the heads under their tall hats, the shoulders. But he was near +enough to mark a business-like look in the hard black eyes. + +"You've got the drop on me, _compañeros_," he said lightly. "What's +the game?" + +A third man appeared on foot in the trail before him, stepping out from +behind a shoulder of rock. He came on until he could have put out a +hand to the sorrel's reins. + +"Where do you ride so early?" asked the man on foot, his voice quiet +but vaguely hostile. "On what errand?" + +"What business is it of yours, my friend?" returned Kendric. + +"I know the horse," called one of the figures above. "It is El Rey, +from the stables of La Señorita." + +"Then the rider must have a message. Or a sign. Or he has stolen the +horse, which would go bad with him!" + +"Curse you and your signs and messages," cried Kendric hotly. "It's a +free country and I ride where I please." + +The man before him only smiled. + +"Let me look at your saddle strings," he said. + +Kendric stared wonderingly; was the fellow insane? What in the name of +folly did he mean by a thing like this? Surely not just the +opportunity to draw close enough to strike with a knife; the rifles +above made such strategy useless. + +So he sat still and contented himself with watching. The man came a +step closer, twisted El Rey's head aside, pressed close and looked at +the rawhide strings on one side of the saddle. Then he moved to the +other side and repeated the process. Immediately he drew back, lifting +his hat widely. + +"Pass on, señor," he said courteously. "_Viva La Señorita_!" + +Kendric spurred by him and rode on, passing abruptly out of a +wilderness of tumbled boulders into a grassy flat. He turned in the +saddle; nowhere was there sign of another than himself upon the +mountain. Curiously he looked at his saddle strings; in one of them a +slit had been made through which the end of the string had been passed; +a double knot had been tied just below the slit. In no other +particular was any one of the strings in the least noteworthy. + +"As good a way to carry a message as any," he grunted. "With not even +the messenger aware of the tidings he brings!" + +The incident impressed him deeply. Zoraida, at the game she played, +was in deadly earnest. Her commands went far and through many channels +and were obeyed. The passes through the mountains were in her hands. +The sunlight fell warm and golden about him; the full morning was +serene; a stillness as of ineffable peace lay across the solitudes. +And yet he felt that the placid promise was a lie; that the laughing +loveliness of the day was but a mask covering much strife. In the full +light he moved on not unlike a man groping in absolute darkness, +uncertain of the path he trod, suspicious of pitfalls, knowing only +that his direction was in hands other than his own. Hands that looked +soft and that were relentless; hands that blazed with barbaric jewels. +There had been a knot in a rawhide string, and a bandit in the +mountains had lifted his hat and had said simply: "Long live _La +Señorita_!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WHICH BEGINS WITH A LITTLE SONG AND ENDS WITH TROUBLE BETWEEN FRIENDS + +Speculation at this stage was profitless and the day was perfect. +Kendric told himself critically that he was growing fanciful; he had +been cooped up too much. First on board the schooner _New Moon_, then +in four walls of a house. What he needed was day after day, stood on +end, like this. If he didn't look out he'd be growing nerves next. He +grinned widely at the remote possibility, pushed his hat far back and +rode on. And by the time his horse had carried him to the far edge of +the level land and to the first slope of the downward pitch, he was +singing contentedly to himself and his horse and all the world that +cared to listen. + +Far below, far ahead, he caught his first glimpse of the ranch houses +marking the Bruce West holdings. From the heights his eye ran down +into valley lands that stretched wide and far away, rolling, grassy, +with occasional clumps of trees where there were water holes. A valley +by no means so prodigally watered as Zoraida's, but none the less an +estate to put a sparkle into a man's eyes. It was large, it was +sufficiently level and fertile; above aught else it was remote. It +gave the impression of a great, calm aloofness from the outside world +of traffic and congestion; it lay, mile after mile, sufficient unto +itself, a place for a lover of the outdoors to make his home. No +wonder that young West had gone wild over it. Hills and mountains shut +it in, rising to the sky lines like walls actually sustaining the blue +cloudless void. As Jim Kendric rode on and down his old song, his own +song, found its way to his lips. + + "Where skies are blue + And the earth is wide + And it's only you + And the mountainside!" + + +"Twenty miles between shacks," he considered approvingly. "And never a +line fence to cut your way through. It's near paradise, this land, +wherever it isn't just fair hell. No half way business; no maudlin +make-believe." But all of a sudden his face darkened. "Poor little +kid," he said. "If Bruce could only loan me half a dozen ready-mixed, +rough and ready, border cowboys; Californians, Arizonans and Texans!" + +His hopes of this were not large at any time; when he came upon the +first of Bruce West's riders they vanished entirely. An Indian, or +half breed at the best, ragged as to black stringy hair, hard visaged, +stony eyed. Kendric called to him and the rider turned in his saddle +and waited. And for answer to the question: "Where's the Old Man? +Bruce West?" the answer was a hand lifted lazily to point up valley and +silence. + +"_Gracias, amigo_," laughed Kendric and rode on. + +There was not a more amazed man in all Lower California when Jim +Kendric rode up to him. Bruce West was out with two of his men driving +a herd of young, wild-looking horses down toward the corrals beyond the +house. For an instant his blue eyes stared incredulously; then they +filled with shining joy. He swept off his broad hat to wave it wildly +about his head; he came swooping down on Kendric as though he had a +suspicion that his visitor had it in his head to whirl and make a bolt +for the mountains; he whooped gleefully. + +"Old Jim Kendric!" he shouted. "Old Headlong Jim! Old r'arin', +tearin', ramblin', rovin', hell-for-leather Kendric! Oh, mama! Man, +I'm glad to see you!" + +Only a youngster, was Bruce West, but manly for all that, who wore his +heart on his sleeve, his honesty in his eyes and who would rather +frolic than fight but would rather fight than do nothing. When last +Kendric had seen him, Bruce was nursing his first mustache and glorying +in the triumphant fact that soon he would be old enough to vote; now, +barely past twenty-three, he looked a trifle thinner than his former +hundred and ninety pounds but never a second older. He was a boy with +blue eyes and yellow hair and a profound adoration for all that Jim +Kendric stood for in his eager eyes. + +"Why all the war paint, Baby Blue-eyes?" Kendric asked as they shook +hands. For under Bruce's knee was strapped a rifle and a big army +revolver rode at his saddle horn. + +Bruce laughed, his mood having no place for frowns. + +"Not just for ornament, old joy-bringer," he retorted. "Using 'em +every now and then. I'm in deep here, Jim, with every cent I've got +and every hope of big things. Times, a man has to shoot his way out +into the clear or go to the wall. Hey, Gaucho!" he called, turning in +his saddle. "You and Tony haze the ponies in to the corrals. And tell +Castro we've got the King of Spain with us for grub and to put on the +best on the ranch; we'll blow in about noon. Come ahead, Jim; I'll +show you the finest lay-out of a cow outfit you ever trailed your eye +across." + +They rode, saw everything, both acreage and water and stock, and +talked; for the most part Bruce did the talking, speaking with quick +enthusiasm of what he had, what he had done, what he meant to +accomplish yet in spite of obstacles. He had bought outright some six +thousand acres, expending for them and what low-bred stock they fed all +of his inherited capital. From the nearest bank, at El Ojo, he had +borrowed heavily, mortgaging his outfit. With the proceeds he had +leased adjoining lands so that now his stock grazed over ten thousand +acres; he had also bought and imported a finer strain of cattle. With +the market what it was he was bound to make his fortune, hand over +fist---- + +"If they'd only leave me alone!" he exclaimed hotly. + +"They?" queried Kendric. + +"Of course the country is unsettled," explained the boy. "Ever since I +came into it there has been one sort or another of unrest. When it +isn't outright revolution it's politics and that's pretty near the same +thing. There are prowling bands of outlaws, calling themselves +soldiers, that the authorities can't reach. Look at those mountains +over there! What government that has to give half its time or more to +watching its own step, can manage to ferret out every nest of +highwaymen in every cañon? Those boys are my big trouble, Jim! A raid +from them is always on the books and there are times when I'm pretty +near ready to throw up the sponge and drift. But it's a great land; a +great land. And now you're with me!" His eyes shone. "I'll make you +any sort of a proposition you call for, Jim, and together we'll make +history. Not to mention barrels of money." + +Kendric's ever-ready imagination was snared. But he was in no position +to forget that he had other fish to fry. + +"What do you know of your neighbors?" he asked. + +"Not much," admitted Bruce. "And yet enough to _sabe_ what you're +driving at. The nearest are twenty miles away, at the Montezuma ranch. +The boss of the outfit is your old friend Ruiz Rios. I told you that +in my letter. I haven't the dead wood on him but it's open and shut +that he'd as soon chip in on a cattle-stealing deal as anything else." + +"He doesn't own the Montezuma," said Kendric. + +"It's the same thing. The owner is a woman, his cousin, I believe. +But she's away most of the time, and Rios does as he pleases." + +"You don't know the lady, then?" + +"Never saw her. Don't want to, since she's got Rios blood in her." + +"Let's get down and roll a smoke and talk," offered Kendric. They were +on a grassy knoll; there were oaks and shade and grass for the horses. +Bruce looked at him sharply, catching the sober note. But he said +nothing until they were lying stretched out under the oaks, holding the +tie ropes at the ends of which their horses browsed. + +"Cut her loose, Jim," he said then. "What's the story?" + +Kendric told him: Of his quest with Twisty Barlow; of Zoraida Castlemar +and her ambitions; of his own situation in the household, a prisoner +with today granted him only in exchange for his word to return by dawn; +and finally of Betty Gordon. + +"Good God," gasped Bruce. "They're going it that strong? Out in the +open, too! And laying their paws on an American girl. Whew!" + +Kendric added briefly an account of his being stopped in the pass. + +"It's a fair bet," he concluded, "that your raiders get their word +straight from the Montezuma ranch. Which means, straight from the lips +of Zoraida Castlemar." + +Bruce fell to plucking at the dry grass, frowning. + +"Funny thing, it strikes me, Jim, that if you're right she should give +you the chance to tip me off. How do you figure that out?" + +"I haven't figured it out. Here's what we do know: When I was a dozen +miles from her place and naturally would suppose that, if I chose, I +was free to play out my own hand, up popped those three men; a +reminder, as plain as your hat, that through their eyes I was still +under the eyes of Zoraida Castlemar. Further, as innocent as a fool, I +carried a message to them in a cut and tied saddle string. A message +that was a passport for me; what other significance it carried, _quién +sabe_? There's a red tassel on my horse's bridle; that might be +another sign, as far as you and I know. The quirt at my saddle horn, +the chains in my bridle, the saddle itself or the folds of the saddle +blanket--how do we know they don't all carry her word? An easy matter, +if only the signal is prearranged." + +"The fine craft of the Latin mind," muttered Bruce. + +"Rather the subtlety of the old Aztecs," suggested Kendric. + +"But all this could have been done as well, and taking no chances, by +one of the Montezuma riders." + +"Of course. Hence, the one thing clear is that it was desired that I +should see you. Since it was obvious that I'd tell you what I knew, +that's the odd part of it." + +"Why, it's madness, man! It gives us the chance, if no other, to get +word back home about the little Gordon girl." + +"I'd thought of that. Just how would we do it? A letter in the +nearest postoffice?" + +"You mean that the postmaster would be on the watch for it? And would +play into her hands? Well, suppose we took the trouble to send a +cowboy to some other, further postoffice? Or, by golly, to send him +all the way to the border? Or, if I should go with the word myself?" + +"Answer: If you sent an Indian, how much would you bet that he did not +circle back to the Montezuma ranch with the letter? If you went +yourself, how far do you suppose you'd ever get?" + +Bruce's eyes widened. + +"Do you suppose they're going that strong, Jim?" + +"I don't know, Bruce. But tell me: if it seemed the wise thing to do, +could you drop everything here and make a try to get through with the +word?" + +Bruce looked worried. + +"It's my hunch," he answered, "that it would be a cheaper play for me +to pay the twenty-five thousand dollar ransom and be done with it! You +don't know how bad things are here, Jim; if I went and came back it +would be to find that I'd been cleaned. No, I'm not exaggerating. And +with the mortgage on the place, the next thing I would know was that it +was foreclosed and in the end I'd lose everything I've got." + +"From which I gather you don't put a whole lot of confidence in your +cowboys?" + +"That's the plain hell of it! Not only have I got to sleep with one +eye on my stock; I've got to keep the other peeled on the men that are +taking my pay. I never know what other man's pay they're taking at the +same time." + +"Or what woman's. Well, I imagine Miss Castlemar knows conditions as +well as we do, if not a good deal better. So it looks as though she +were taking no chances in letting me ride over to see you; and it +remains possible that by so doing I am furthering her purpose. Though +just how, is another thing I don't know." + +"She must be some corker of a female," muttered Bruce. "What does she +look like, Jim?" + +"Tall. Young and not bad looking. Vain as a peacock and high and +mighty." + +"That kind of a girl makes me sick," was young Bruce's quick decision. +"Let's ride back, Jim; it'll be time to eat." + +As they rode slowly down toward the ranch house Bruce pointed out how, +living in constant expectation of the operations of cattle and horse +thieves, he took what precautions he could. The pick of his saddle +horses, a dozen of them, were grazed during the day in the fields near +the house and at night were brought in and stabled. A number of the +finest cattle, including a thoroughbred Hereford bull and forty +beautiful Hereford cows, recently purchased, were driven each evening +into the nearest fields where from dark to daylight they were herded by +a night rider. + +"I've got to take it for granted," explained West, "that at least some +of my vacqueros are on the level. I pick my best men for jobs like +this. And I've always got night riders out, making their rounds from +one end of the valley to the other. On top of all that I've got my +dogs; look, here they come to meet us." + +There were ten of them, big tan and white collies, vying with one +another to come first to their master. Splendid animals all of them, +but at the fore ran the most splendid of them all, the father and +patriarch of his flock. It was his keen nostril and eye that was wont +first to know who came; his superb strength and speed carried him well +in the lead and he guarded his supremacy jealously. His sharp teeth +snapped viciously when a hardy son ran close at his side and the +youngster, though he snarled and bristled, swerved widely and thus fell +back. They barked as they swept on, the sharp, stacatto bark of their +breed. + +"They're something I can trust," said Bruce proudly. "No hand but mine +feeds them; if I catch a man carressing one of them he draws his pay +and quits. And I go to sleep of nights reasonably sure that their din +will wake me if an outsider sets foot near the home corrals. Hi! +Monarch! Jump for it." + +From his pocket he brought out a bit of dried beef, the "jerky" of the +southwest. He held it out arm's length, sending his horse racing +forward with a sudden touch of his spur. The big dog barked eagerly +and launched his sinewy body into the air; the sunlight flashed back a +moment from the bared sharp teeth; Monarch dropped softly back to earth +with the dried beef already bolted. Bruce laughed. + +At the house, like Zoraida's in the matters of age and thick, cool +walls, but much smaller, they found an excellent meal awaiting them. +They ate under a leafy grape arbor on the shady side of the house, half +a dozen of Bruce's men sitting at table with them. Kendric regarded +the men with interest, feeling that their scrutiny of him was no less +painstaking. They were swarthy Indians and half-breeds and little else +did he make of them. Their eyes met his, steady and unwinking, but +gave no clue to what thoughts might lie back of them. + +"I'll bet Bruce sleeps with a gun under his pillow," was Kendric's +thought at the end of the meal. + +By the well, under some shade trees in the yard, the two friends sat +and smoked, watching the men laze away to the stables. Thereafter they +spoke quietly of the captive in the Hacienda Montezuma. + +"It's not to be thought of," said Bruce, "that a scared little kid like +her is to be held that way and we sit like two bumps on a log. Looks +like her troubles were up to you and me, Jim." + +In the end they agreed that at least it was unthinkable that Betty +Gordon would suffer any bodily injury in the same house with Zoraida +and her girls; further, that the greatest access of terror had no doubt +passed. One grew accustomed to pretty nearly everything. Kendric, +bound by his parole to return, would seek the girl out and extend to +her what comfort he could; just to know that she was not altogether +friendless would bring hope and its own sort of gladness. Tonight, as +soon as the men came in and it was dark, they would send Manuel, +Bruce's most trustworthy man, to a forty-mile distant postoffice. He +would carry with him two letters: one would be addressed to the +governor of Lower California and one to friends in San Diego. + +"It's about the best we can do on short notice," admitted Kendric, +though he was dissatisfied. "I'm not figuring, though, that it's in +the cards for me to stick overlong under the same roof with Rios and +his crowd. There's the schooner down in the gulf and there's you for +us to count on. Never fret, old Baby Blue-eyes; we'll have her out of +that yet." + +The letters were written; a little after dusk Manuel set forth, +promised a double month's pay if he succeeded and in return promising +by all the saints he could call to tongue that he would guard the +letters with his life. From their chairs on the porch Kendric and +Bruce saw the man depart. When his figure had dimned and blurred into +the gathering night they still sat on, silent, watching the stars come +out. Bruce had brought out cigars and the red embers glowed +companionably. Presently Bruce sighed. + +"It's a great little old land," he said, and the inflection of the +quietly spoken words was that of affection. "A man could ask for no +better, Jim. Conditions right now are damnable; you've got to scrap +all along the line for what's yours. But what do you know that is +worth the having that isn't worth the fighting for? And one of these +fine days when Mexico settles down to business, sort of grows up and +gets past the schoolboy stage, we'll have the one combination now +lacking--law and order." + +Kendric, who had been reflecting upon other matters, made no immediate +reply. Bruce had the answer to his suggestion of a new order of things +but it came from the darkness beyond his barns. There was a sudden +sharp bark from one of his dogs, then a rising clamor as the whole pack +broke into excited barking. From so far away that the sound barely +reached them came a man's voice, exclaiming angrily. Then a rifle +shot, a long, shrill whistle, shouts and the sudden thud of many racing +hoofs. + +Bruce West toppled over his chair and plunged through the nearest door. +It was dark in the house and Kendric heard him strike against a second +chair, send it crashing to the floor and dash on. In a moment Bruce +was back on the porch, a rifle in each hand. One he thrust out to +Kendric, muttering between his teeth, + +"Raiders, or we're in luck. Damned rebel outlaws. Come on!" + +He ran out into the yard, Kendric at his heels pumping a shell into the +barrel. As they turned a corner of the house Bruce stopped dead in his +track and Kendric bumped into him and stopped with him. Already the +barns were on fire; two tall flames stabbed upward at the dark; the +hissing of burning wood and fodder must have reached their ears in five +minutes had the pack given no warning. In the rapidly growing light +they saw the dogs where, bunched together, they snarled and snapped and +broke into wilder baying. + +Bruce began shouting, calling to his men, three or four of whom came +running out of the house. Beyond the barns they made out vague forms, +whether of cattle or horses or riders it was at first impossible to +know. Again they ran forward; from somewhere in the direction of the +corrals came several rifle reports. With the gun shots a confusion of +shouts through the heavier notes of which rose one voice, as high +pitched as a woman's. + +In the barn lofts the flames were spreading in a thousand directions, +each dry stalk serving as a duct of destruction. The fire shot upward +and the roof blossomed in red flames. Bruce groaned and cursed and +prayed wildly for a glimpse of one of the devils who had done this for +him. Big clouds of smoke drifted upward across the stars, shot through +with flying sparks. Swiftly the lurid light spread until the white +walls of the house stood out distinctly and the forms near the corrals +were no longer vague. They were running cattle, Bruce's choice forty +cows; Kendric saw the fine bred Hereford bull's horns glint, heard the +snort of fear and rage, made out the big bulk crushing a way to the +fore among his terrified companions. There were horses, too, running +wild, the animals from the stables and the near corral. And behind +them, shouting and now and then firing into the air to hasten the +laggards, were many horsemen. How many it was impossible to estimate, +a dozen at the least, perhaps fifty. + +As the black mass of frightened beasts gathered forward headway and +shot through the area of light, Kendric saw one horseman clearly. On +the instant he threw up his rifle. Already his finger was crooking to +the trigger when, with a mutter of rage, he lowered his arm. There was +no mistaking that great white horse and he thought that there was as +little mistaking its rider, a slender, upright figure leading the rush +of the raiders, calling out sharp orders in the clear ringing voice, +sweeping on recklessly. He cursed her but he held back his fire. Of +women he knew little enough and for women there had been no place +reserved in his life; but, for all that and all that Zoraida Castlemar +might be and might do, he had not learned to lift his hand against her +sex. + +But there was nothing in what Bruce saw to restrain him. He fired +while his rifle was rising to his shoulder and again and again with the +stock against his cheek. + +"Damn the light!" he growled, and fired again. + +Through the tumult Kendric heard her laughter. None other than Zoraida +could laugh like that. Again the suspicion flashed into his quickened +brain that the girl was mad. He heard several shots behind him; +Bruce's men were taking a hand. Then, close behind the white mare came +a second horseman and Kendric thanked God for a man for a target and +fired at it. Luck if he hit it, he told himself, at that distance and +running and in that flickering light. But he fired again, ran in +closer and fired the third time. And just as the white mare passed on +through the illumed area and was lost in the dark with its rider he saw +his man pitch forward and plunge to the ground. Other forms swept by, +other shots were fired both from the outlaws and toward them. The +darkness accepted them all and no other man fell. + +Shouts floated back to them above the hammering thud of the fleeing +cows and horses. Into the darkness after them Bruce and Kendric and +Bruce's men sent many questing bullets while now and then an answering +leaden pellet screamed over their heads. Swiftly the clamor of the +receding hoof-beats lessened; no voices returned to them; no wild rider +was to be seen. The night pulsed only to the barks of the dogs and the +roar of the devastating flames. + +Bruce was calling loudly to his men to get to horse and follow. But +while he spoke he broke off hopelessly realizing that not a horse was +left to him. Before he and his herders could get into saddle they must +wait for daylight and must waste hours in driving in horses from the +distant pastures, wild brutes for the most part that a man could never +get near enough on foot to rope. He threw out his arms in a wide +gesture of despair. Thereafter he stood, silent and moody, watching +his hay-filled barns burn. + +"If I could get my hands on the man that engineered this," he said, his +voice broken, barely carrying to Kendric a few paces away. "That's all +I ask." + +Kendric, his rage scarcely less than Bruce's, called back to him: + +"I could lead you as straight as a string. It's the handiwork of your +neighbor." + +"Rios?" cried Bruce eagerly. + +"Zoraida Castelmar." + +"Damn her!" cried the boy. In the firelight Kendric saw his steady +eyes glisten and knew that they were filled with tears, the terrible +tears of rage rising above anguish. "Damn her!" + +After that he stood silent again looking at the burning buildings. +When a new flame spurted skyward, when a section of roof fell, he +twitched as though his muscles knew physical pain. At last he turned +away and Kendric saw a face that it was hard to recognize as the boyish +face of blue-eyed Bruce West. + +"This beats me," said Bruce, quietly. "Best stock gone, new barns and +hay turned to cinders. Ten thousand dollars wiped out in an hour. +Yes; done for, Jim, old man. Clean." + + +Kendric found no word of answer. He turned away and went down to the +broken corrals where the man behind Zoraida had fallen. If the man +were not dead he might be induced to talk. And in any case, thief +though he was, he was a man and not a dog. He found the huddled body +lying still. Kneeling, he turned it over so that the wavering light +shone on the face. He did not know whether the man was dead or not; he +knew only that it was Twisty Barlow. He squatted there, looking from +the white face to the sky full of stars. And his thought was less on +the instant of Twisty Barlow than of Zoraida Castlemar. + +"This is what she has done for two old friends," he said aloud. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN WHICH A MAN KEEPS HIS WORD AND ZORAIDA DARES AND LAUGHS + +Kendric called to Bruce. Together they carried the unconscious Barlow +into the house. Kendric, once satisfied that his old friend's heart +still beat, scarcely breathed until he lighted a lamp and found the +wound. It was in the shoulder and not only did not appear dangerous, +but failed to explain the man's condition of coma. There was a trickle +of blood across the pale forehead; Kendric pushed back the hair and +found a cut there, ragged and filled with dirt. Plainly the impact of +the heavy bullet had sufficed to unseat the sailor who, pitching out of +the saddle and striking on his head, had been stunned by the fall. + +Kendric bathed and bandaged both wounds while Bruce went for a bottle +of brandy. + +"He's coming around," said Kendric as Barlow's throat received the +stinging liquor. "I don't want to be on hand when he opens his eyes, +Bruce; for ten years I've called Twisty by the name of friend. He's +down and out for a little and what we two have to say to each other can +wait a spell." + +Bruce, stolidfaced now and morose, nodded. Kendric went outside and +stood watching the flames work their will with Bruce's barns, his heart +heavy within him. One friend down, a bullet hole in his shoulder, shot +as a raiding cattle thief; another friend looking to have lost his +boyish nature with the loss of his hope. And both rendered what they +were through the wickedness of a woman. Woman? As he brooded over the +devastation she had wrought he began to think of her as an evil spirit. +He recalled with a shiver the feel of her burning eyes, hidden but +potent; he thought of the nights at sea when he had felt her presence. +For the first time he allowed himself to wonder in all seriousness if +she had powers above a mere woman's as she had a character set apart. + +And, after all that happened, he must return to her! He, Jim Kendric, +must leave Twisty Barlow, wounded, and Bruce West, ruined, and return +to Zoraida Castlemar who had set her brand upon both them. His +twenty-four-hour leave would expire at daybreak. He had meant to spend +the evening with Bruce and then to ride back during the night. Now, +for the first time, he realized that the raiders had set him on foot. +The twenty miles to the Montezuma ranch would have to be walked. + +"And I'd better be on my way," he decided promptly. It did not enter +his head that he had an excuse to offer for making a tardy appearance. +He had pledged his word, and, while it was humanly possible, he would +keep it. Even were it impossible it would have been Jim Kendric's way +to try. And now he was not sorry for an excuse for leaving early. He +could do nothing for Bruce; what must be said between him and Twisty +Barlow could come later. + + +It was then, while he was returning to the house that he saw a steady +light shining out in the fields. He stopped, at first fearing that a +fresh fire was breaking out. + +"Not thieves but cursed marauders," he named the crowd to which Bruce +had already lost so heavily. "They've fired the dry grass." + +But while he watched it the light did not alter, neither flaring up nor +dying down, burning steadily like a lamp. When after two or three +minutes he observed this he left the house and walked out into the +field, keeping to the shadows when he could, watchful and suspicious. +Thus presently he came to see what it was: a lantern tied from a low +limb of a tree. Below the lantern he saw a dark object; it moved and +he heard the clink of a bridle chain. Again he went forward, puzzled +and curious. He made out that the saddle was empty; he could see no +one near. A man might be hiding behind the bole of the oak or might +even be above in the branches. Inwardly Kendric prayed that he was. +He was ready for a meeting with any loiterer of Zoraida's following. +His pulses stirred as he thought that it might even be Rios or Escobar. + +But though he circled the tree and peered long into the shadows among +the branches, he still saw no one. At last he came close to the +tethered horse. It was his own, the sorrel El Rey he had ridden here +this morning, saddled and bridled, spurs slung to the horn. The +lantern shed its rays upon the saddle and Kendric saw something else at +the horn; a bunch of little blue field flowers, held in place by a bit +of white ribbon. + +He snatched the flowers down angrily, trampled on them, ground them +under foot. They seemed to him a bit of Zoraida herself; they taunted +him, they bore the message she sent. They were her summons to come +back to her. He jerked free the tie rope and swung up into the saddle, +eager and anxious to go back to her the swiftest way in order that the +time might come the more swiftly when he could fulfil his word and be +free to leave her. He'd get a rifle from Bruce; with that and his +revolver he'd take his chance, let all of her infernal rabble bar the +way. + +From the rear of the house he called to Bruce. + +"I've found my horse; they left him behind," he said as Bruce came out. +"I've got to go back, so back I go the quickest I know how. Take +decent care of Barlow; he was a real man once and may be again, if he +can shake that damned woman off. Lend me a rifle if you can spare it. +I'll see you again as soon as the Lord lets me. So long." + +"So long, Jim," returned Bruce drearily. He brought out a rifle, +holding it out wordlessly. And Kendric rode away into the night. + +In the mountains, though in another narrow pass, he was stopped as he +had been this morning. A lantern was flashed in his face and over his +horse. Then he was allowed to go on while from the darkness a voice +cried after him: + +"_Viva La Señorita_!" + + +From afar he saw lights burning down in the valley and recognized them +as the lamps in the four wall towers. The gates were closed but at his +call a man appeared from the shadows and opened to him. He rode in; +dismounting, he let the rifle slip into a hiding place in the +shrubbery; another man at the front corridor took his horse. At about +midnight he again entered the old adobe building. The main hall into +which he stepped through the front door was still brightly lighted with +its several lamps; through open doors he saw that nowhere in the house +were lights out. Yet it was very quiet; he heard neither voice nor +step. + +He knew where Zoraida was; no doubt Rios and Escobar were with her. He +had kept his word and returned to his prison like a good dog; what +reason why he should not take advantage of what appeared an unusual +opportunity and make his attempt at escape? Zoraida would not have +counted on his returning so early; he carried a revolver under his arm +pit and hidden in the garden was a rifle. To be sure there were risks +to be run; but now, if ever, struck him as the time to run them. + +If he could only find where Betty Gordon slept. He must give her a +word of hope before he left her here among these devils; assuring her +that he would return for her and bring the law with him. Or, if she +had the nerve and the desire to attempt escape with him now, that was +her right and he would go as far as a man could to bring her through to +safety. Noiselessly he crossed the room. He would pass through the +music room and down the hall toward the living quarters of the house. +If luck were with him he would find her. + +It was only when he was about to pass out of the music room door going +to the hallway that he heard voices for the first time. They came from +a distance, dulled and deadened by the oak doors, but he knew them for +the voices of men, raised in anger. A louder word now and then brought +him recognition of Ruiz Rios's voice; a sharp answer might have been +from Escobar. He stopped and considered. If these men quarreled, how +would it affect him? Quarrel they would, soon or late, he knew. For +both were truculent and in the looks he had seen pass between them +there was no friendship. Two rebellious spirits held in check by the +will of Zoraida Castelmar. But now Zoraida was away. + +Then for the moment he forgot them and his conjectures. He had heard a +faint sound and turning quickly saw for the first time that he was not +alone in the music room. In a dim corner beyond the piano was a +cushioned seat and on it, her hands clasped in her lap, her eyes wide +with the sleeplessness and anxiety of the night, crouched Betty Gordon. +He took a quick step toward her. She drew back, pressed tight against +the wall, her look one of terror. Terror of him! + +But he came on until he stood over her, looking down into her raised +face. He felt no end of pity for her, she looked so small and helpless +and hopeless. Big gray eyes pleaded with him and he read and +understood that she asked only that he go and leave her. An impulse +which was utterly new to him surged over him now, the impulse to gather +her up into his arms as one would a child and comfort her. Not that +she was just a child. She had done her shining brown hair high up on +her head; she fought wildly for an air of serene dignity; he judged her +at the last of her teens. But she was none the less flower-like, all +that a true woman should be according to the beliefs of certain men of +the type of Jim Kendric, a true descendant of her sweet, old-fashioned +grandmothers. Her little high-heeled slippers, her dainty blue dress, +the flower which even in her distress she had tucked away in her hair, +were quite as he would have had them. + +"Betty Gordon," he said softly so that his words would not carry to +other ears, "I want to help you if you will let me. Will you?" + +Her clasped hands tightened; he saw the lips tremble before she could +command her utterance. + +"I--I don't know what to do," she faltered. Her eyes clung to his +frankly, filled with shining eagerness to read the heart under the +outer man. For the first time Jim was conscious of his several days' +growth of beard; he supposed that it was rather more than an even +chance that his face was grimy and perhaps still carried evidences of +the fight at Bruce West's ranch. To assure her of his honorable +intentions toward her he could have wished for a bath and a shave. + +"You're in the hands of a rather bad crowd," he said when he saw that +she had no further words but was waiting for him. "I thought that at +least it would be a relief to know that you had one friend on the job. +And an American at that," he concluded heartily. + +"How am I to know who is a friend?" She shivered and pressed tight +against the wall. "That terrible man named Escobar spoke to me of +friendship, and he is the one who gave orders to bring me here! And +the other man, Rios, he spoke words that did not go with the look in +his eyes. And you--you----" + +"Well? What about me?" + +"You are one of them. I find you staying in their house. You are the +lover of Señorita Castelmar and she is terrible! Oh, I don't know what +to do." + +"Who told you that?" he demanded sharply. "That I was Zoraida's lover?" + +"One of the maids, Rosita. She told me that Zoraida is mad about you. +And that you are a great adventurer and have killed many men and are a +professional gambler." + +"Rosita lied. I am just a prisoner here, like you." + +Sheer disbelief shone in Betty's eyes. + +"You rode away, alone, this morning," she said. "I saw you through my +window. You come in alone tonight. You are not a prisoner." + +"I was allowed to leave the house only when I promised to come back. +Can't you tell when a man is speaking the truth? Good Lord, why should +I want to lie to you?" + +Betty hesitated a long time, her hands nervous, her eyes unfaltering on +his. She looked at once drawn and repelled, fascinated like a little +bird fluttering under the baleful eyes of a snake. + +"What do you want me to do?" she asked finally. + +"I, for one," he retorted, "refuse to squat here like a fool because +I'm told. I'm going to make a break for it. You can take the chance +with me or you may remain here and know that I'll do what can be done +outside." + +Betty shook her head, sighing. + +"I don't know what to do," she said miserably. + +Jim pondered and frowned. Then he shrugged his shoulders. + +"It's up to you, Betty Gordon," he said. "You're old enough to think +for yourself. I can't decide for you. But if you were mine, my sister +for instance, I'd grab you up and make a bolt for it. A clean bullet +is a damned sight more to my liking than the dirty paws of such as Rios +and Escobar and their following. They've got a guard around the house +which they seem to think sufficient" Again he shrugged. "I've got my +notion we can slip through and make the mountains at the rear." + +"If I only knew I could trust you," moaned Betty. + +A glint of anger shone in Jim's eyes. + +"Suit yourself," he told her curtly. "I can promise you it will be a +lot easier for me in a scrimmage and a get-away without a woman to look +out for." + +Immediately he was ashamed of having been brusque with her. For she +was only a little slip of a girl after all and obviously one who had +never been thrown out into the current of life where it ran strongest. +More than ever she made him think of the girl of olden times, the girl +hard to find in our modern world. All of her life she had had others +to turn to, men whom she loved to lean upon. Her father, her brothers +would have done everything for her; she would have done her purely +feminine part in making home homey. That was what she was born for, +the lot of the sweet tender girl who is quite content to let other +girls wear mannish clothing and do mannish work. Kendric knew +instinctively that Betty Gordon could have made the daintiest thing +imaginable in dresses, that she would tirelessly and cheerfully nurse a +sick man, that she would fight every inch of the way for his life, that +she would stand by a father driven to the wall, broken financially, +that she would put hope into him and bear up bravely and with a tender +smile under adversity--but that she would call to a man to kill a +spider for her. God had not fashioned her to direct a military +campaign. And thinking thus of her, he thought also of Zoraida. Betty +Gordon, just as she was, was infinitely more to his liking. + +"I can only give you my word of honor, my dear," he said gently, and +again he felt as though he were addressing a poor little kid of a girl +in short dresses, "that I wouldn't harm a hair of your head for all +Mexico." + +Betty, though this was her first rude experience with outlaws, was not +without both discernment and intuition. Perhaps the maid Rosita had +lied to her, carried away by a natural relish in telling all that she +knew and more. A look of brightening hope surged up in Betty's gray +eyes; her pretty lips were parting when a rude interruption made her +forget to say the words which were just forming. + +Fitfully voices had come to them from the _patio_ where Ruiz Rios and +the rebel captain were arguing, but Jim and Betty with their own +problem occupying their minds had paid scant attention. Now a sudden +exclamation arrested both words and thought, a sharp cry of bitter +anger and more than anger; there was rage and menace in the intonation. +And then came the shot, a revolver no doubt but sounding louder as it +echoed through the rooms. Betty started up in terror, both hands +grasping Kendric's arm. His own hand had gone its swift way to the gun +slung under his coat. + +They waited a moment, both tense. Then Jim patted her hand +reassuringly, removed it from his sleeve and said quietly: + +"Wait a second. I'll see which one it was." + +But before he could cross the room the door was thrown open and Ruiz +Rios stood looking in on them queerly. + +"Señor Escobar has shot himself," he said. "Through the heart." + +Betty fell back from him, step by step, her eyes staring, her face +white. Then she looked pleadingly to Kendric. When he went to her +side, she whispered: + +"Take me away! Let's try to go now. Now!" + +Ruiz Rios's eyes glittered, his mouth hardened. He closed the door +behind him, watching them keenly. + +"It is in my mind to do you a kindness, Señor Kendric," he said, +speaking evenly and emotionlessly. + +"You are a murderous cur," rapped out Kendric. "I'd do a clean job if +I shot you dead in your tracks." + +Rios smiled. + +"Let us speak business, _amigo_," he said. "Moralizing is nice when +there is plenty of time and nothing else to be done. You are kept here +against your will. It might not fit in ill with my plans to see you +go." + +"I will have a look at Escobar first," said Kendric. Rios stepped +aside and again threw open the door. But he did not stir from the +spot, awaiting Kendric's return. Nor did Kendric tarry long. Escobar +was dead already, shot through the heart, as Rios had said. A revolver +lay on the ground, close to his right hand. + +"You ought to hang for that," said Kendric as he came back into the +room. "But from the way you're going you won't last long enough for +the law to get you. Now, what have you to say to me?" + +"A part I have said," returned Ruiz Rios. "I can guess much that my +fair cousin has said to you. I know her desires and--I know my own!" +His eyes flashed. "More, you appear interested in the charming Miss +Betty Gordon. If you would like to go yourself, if you would like to +take her with you, I think I can arrange matters. At a price, of +course." + +"Naturally. And the price?" + +"Escobar asked twenty-five thousand dollars. Surely she is worth that +and more? Ah! Well, what you came to Lower California to find may be +worth as much, may be worth nothing. The risk is mine. Tell me where +the place is and I will arrange that you and Miss Betty have horses and +an open trail." + +"Rios," began Jim, speaking slowly. + +But it was Betty who answered. + +"No!" she cried. "No and no and no! You are a terrible man, Señor +Rios, and some day God will bring you to a terrible end. Be sure I +would be happy to see the last of you and your cousin and your kind. +But the thing you ask is impossible. Why should Jim Kendric, to whom I +am only a bothersome stranger, pay you a sum like that--for me? You +are crazy!" + +Jim himself was perplexed. He had no desire to put Ruiz Rios in the +way of appropriating that which had brought both himself and Barlow +here. More than that, the secret was not solely his to give away, were +he so minded. Barlow had a claim to half and he knew there would be +nothing left for Barlow once Rios scented it. Of these matters he +thought and also of Betty. Her quick vehemence had surprised him. +Until now he would have thought her eager to consent to anything to +insure her immediate departure. + +"Fine words, señorita," said Rios, his lips twitching so that the white +teeth showed. "But you had best think. Many things might happen to a +girl, a pretty girl like you, which are not pleasant for her to +experience. You had better throw your arms about your countryman's +neck and beg him to pay the price for you." + +Betty shook her head violently, so violently that the white flower fell +from her hair. Rios was going on angrily, when there came into the +yard a clatter of hoofs. + +"It is Zoraida," he said sharply. "Now be quick; is it yes or no!" + +"No!" cried Betty. + +"Little fool!" muttered Rios. Under his glare she drew back. "Before +again such help is offered you you will wish you were dead!" + +Outside they heard Zoraida's laughter, low and rich with its music. +Then her voice as gay as though there were in all the world no such +shadows as those cast by destruction and death. And then she entered, +slender and graceful in her elaborate riding suit, her white plume +nodding, her eyes dancing, her red mouth triumphant. Behind her came +Bruce West. + +Kendric stared at him in amazement. For Bruce came of his own free +will and his own eyes were shining. There was no sign of his recent +distress upon his face. Rather it looked more joyous, more boyish and +glad than Kendric had seen it for years. The boy hardly noted anyone +in the room but Zoraida. His eyes were for her alone and they were on +fire with adoration. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IN WHICH THERE IS MORE THAN ONE LIE TOLD AND THE TRUTH IS GLIMPSED + +"You!" cried Kendric in amazement as his look went swiftly from Bruce's +radiant face to Zoraida's and back to Bruce. "With her!" + +Young Bruce West advanced eagerly. + +"It's been a mistake, Jim," he said earnestly. "A cursed mistake all +along the line. When I explain to you----" + +"Boy," cut in Kendric sternly, "where's your head? Don't you know that +she was one of the crowd raiding you? Have you forgotten all I told +you?" + +Zoraida, head held high, her cheeks flushed, stood eyeing him +defiantly. The mockery of her look disturbed him; she appeared fully +confident of herself, her destiny and her place in Bruce's estimation. +Bruce himself frowned and shook his head. + +"You've always been a fair man, Jim," he said. "Suspend judgment until +we've talked." + +While Kendric held his tongue and pondered angrily, Zoraida's eyes +flashed about the room. Only for an instant did they tarry with Betty +who, drawn away from her almost to the table against the wall, looked +back at her with unhidden distrust. Longer did they hold to Ruiz Rios. + +"My cousin," she said softly, "you have something to say to me. What +is it?" + +"Not here, señorita," urged Rios. "In another room." + +Kendric, but not Bruce, saw the deeply significant regard she shot at +Rios. Her answer puzzled Kendric for the moment, not so much the words +as the tone. She spoke to Rios as one might speak to a dreaded master. + +"I am ready," was all that she said. And when Rios threw open the door +for her, it was to Bruce that she said gently, her eyes melting into +his, "A moment only, if Señor Rios will permit that I return so soon." +And she went out, Rios at her heels. + +"Can't you see, Jim?" Bruce was all excitement and his hands were +clenched at his side; his boyish eyes blazed. "It's that damned Ruiz +Rios! He dictates to her; he has put the fear of death and worse into +her heart. She is made to suffer for all of his crimes!" + +"So that's the story?" Kendric grunted his disgust. "And you've let +her stuff you hide-full of lies?" + +"Go easy, Jim." Bruce appeared sincerely pained and troubled. "I've +called you a fair man; won't you open your mind to the truth? She has +been misrepresented, I know. Her enemies----" He clenched his hands. +"She is a wonderful creature!" he burst out. "And she has honored me +with her confidence and her friendship." + +This very night Zoraida Castelmar had ruthlessly pillaged Bruce's ranch +and from Bruce's mouth now gushed the words: "She has honored me with +her confidence and her friendship!" Was there no end to the woman's +audacity? Was there no end to the blind stupidity of mankind which +permitted of lawlessness like tonight's being glossed over, which went +to the insane extreme of worshiping when normally the logical emotion +would be hatred? Was there finally, no end to the power of Zoraida? + +What had happened between Bruce West and Zoraida? Kendric knew +something of Zoraida's bravado, no little of her supreme assurance, +much of her methods. Plainly she had gone straight to Bruce after the +raid. He could see the picture of her coming out of the lurid night +and into the experience of a boy all unnerved by his anger and grief. +He could understand how she offered her softened beauty to the hard +eyes; how her voice had caressed and distorted fact; how Zoraida had +had the wit to tell her own story, make her own impression, before +Bruce could have had time to steel himself against her. But what tale +could she have told to convince a man like Bruce who, at the least, was +not a fool? + +Somehow, decided Kendric, she had lied out of the whole thing. +Further, she had used every siren trick she knew to drug his better +judgment. She had been tender and feminine and seductive. While with +one hand she had robbed him, she had caressed him with the other. And +not too boldly; she had not overdone it. She probably wept for him; +she treated him to the flash of her eyes through spurious tears. She +employed her beauty like a lure and had little trouble in putting the +boy's suspicions to sleep. What chance would a simple, open-hearted +fellow like Bruce have against the wiles which were Zoraida's stock in +trade? Kendric recalled vividly that subtle influence which Zoraida +had cast even upon him; which he had felt even when steeled against +her, and asked himself again what chance Bruce could have with her in +the hour of her boldest triumph? The very fact of her having come +immediately on the heels of the catastrophe gave her a look of +innocence. . . . Had Zoraida the trick of hypnosis over men? It began +to look like it. + +"Poor old Baby-blue-eyes," muttered Jim. He looked at the boy +wonderingly. Then only did it occur to him that Bruce and Betty Gordon +were strangers to each other and that Bruce, when his sanity should +return to him, would make a desirable friend for Betty. So he said, +turning toward the girl: "Miss Gordon, this is an old friend of mine; +another American, too, Bruce West." + +Betty looked her frank interest upon Bruce and her speculation was +obvious: among so many men whom she feared and distrusted she wondered +if here was one of whom any girl might be sure. She put out her hand, +even smiled. But Bruce held stiffly back, his eyes full of accusing +light. + +"I have heard of Miss Gordon," he said coolly. "She is also known as +Pansy Blossom, I believe, over in Sonora." + +Kendric failed to understand and looked to Betty. Her eyes widened. +Then her cheeks crimsoned. + +"Oh!" she gasped. "Mr. West, what do you mean? I have heard of her, +everyone has. She is the most terrible creature!" She shuddered. +"What made you say that?" + +Bruce laughed his disbelief of her words and attitude. + +"Jim, here, doesn't seem to remember," he said brusquely. "If you'd +been down in Sonora lately, Jim, you'd know all about Pansy Blossom. +She sings rather well, I hear, and dances. It would seem that she has +the makings of a highly successful actress," he concluded meaningly. +Kendric stared at him. + +"You mean that Betty Gordon here is some sort of an adventuress?" he +demanded. + +For answer Bruce shrugged elaborately and returned Kendric's stare. +Jim looked to Betty again. Her face was stamped in the image of +shocked amazement, she scarcely breathed through her slightly parted +lips. + +"You're talking nonsense, Bruce," Jim said emphatically. "Sheer rot. +She's just Betty Gordon and in a peck of trouble. It's up to you and +me, being countrymen of hers, to see her through instead of hurting her +feelings." + +Bruce regarded him somberly. + +"Old Headlong," he said slowly, "you're just the man to mistake a +woman. You've judged Zoraida Castelmar wrong; you're making a mistake +with Miss Pansy Blossom." + +"You fool!" cried Jim angrily. "Where the devil have your wits gone? +You call this child an adventuress? Why, man alive, can't you see +she's just baby?" + +"Pansy Blossom's record----" began Bruce. + +"Deuce take Pansy Blossom! We're talking about Betty Gordon, this poor +little lost kid here. Who told you that she was the same as that +dancing woman?" Bruce made no answer. "Was it Zoraida Castelmar?" +demanded Kendric. "Tell me. Is that what Zoraida Castelmar had to say +about her?" + +"Well?" challenged Bruce. "Suppose it was?" + +"What else did she tell you?" Jim had him by the arm now and his eyes +were blazing. "Spit it out, boy. What other rot?" + +"It's not rot, Jim. If you'll keep your eyes open and think a little +you'll know as much as I know." + +Kendric groaned. "There's a game on foot that has a bad look to it. +Escobar is in it and Rios and--your young lady friend. If you'll give +me a few minutes presently, I'll explain." + +"Escobar and Betty Gordon! Why, there's nothing between them but fear +and hatred. Or rather that's all there was; Escobar's lying dead out +there now. Ruiz Rios plugged him square through the heart just now. +And now he's taking _your_ lady friend out to tell her about it! Betty +is their captive, held for ransom, as I told you." + +"Or appears to be?" Bruce jerked his arm away and began moving +restlessly up and down, looking always toward the door through which +Zoraida had gone. Kendric turned toward Betty. She had not stirred; +her cheeks were still burning. Apparently she had heard a very great +deal of unsavory report of the lady Bruce mistook her for. Only the +expression in her eyes and about her lips had changed; now it was one +of passionate anger. The look surprised him. He began to think of +Betty in altered terms. She wasn't just the baby he had named her and +she wasn't just the little kid of sixteen he had at first taken her to +be. During the interview with Ruiz Rios he had learned that she had a +mind of her own. To her other possessions he now saw added an American +girl's fiery temper. + +Then Zoraida and Rios returned. Before a word was spoken Kendric knew +that he was to be treated to some more play-acting. Zoraida had +elected to look frightened and uncertain; the glance she cast toward +her cousin spoke of terror as well as loathing. Rios glared and looked +important. Swiftly Zoraida crossed the room, her bejeweled fingers +finding Bruce West's arm. + +"My friend," she whispered so that they could all hear. "I don't know +which way to turn. A man has killed himself--the Captain Escobar. Or +so Ruiz Rios says. And I----" She broke off, shuddering. And then, +bewildering Jim Kendric if no one else, two big tears gathered in her +eyes and spilled down to her cheeks! + +"Señores Kendric and West," announced Rios autocratically, "you will +take all orders from me now. You will not leave the house, either of +you, unless I give the word. Señorita Zoraida, you will go to your +room and wait until I send for you. Señorita Pansy," and suddenly his +teeth showed in his quick smile, "a word with you please in the +_patio_?" + +"My cousin," said Zoraida, all soft supplication now, her two hands +held out toward Rios, "it is only a little thing I beg of you. May I +have a few words with Señor West?" + +"Go to your room," answered Rios shortly. "Señor West remains with us. +You may see him later." + +Zoraida looked lingeringly at Bruce, shook her head sorrowfully as he +appeared to be gathering himself to spring at the man who terrorized +her, murmured gently, "Wait--for my sake, señor!" and went out of the +room. Out of the corners of her oblique eyes, when her back was to +Bruce, she mocked Jim Kendric. + +Rios held the door open for Betty. + +"Will you come to the _patio_ with me, señorita?" he asked. + +"No!" cried Betty. "You terrible man. No." + +Rios, though not the actor Zoraida was, managed to appear startled that +she should speak so. Then, as he looked from her to Jim and Bruce, he +smiled as though in comprehension. + +"There is no need to pretend further, Señorita Pansy," he said. "They +know." + +"There is a great deal we know, Ruiz Rios," broke out Bruce. "You hold +the upper hand just now but there's a new deal coming!" + +"Will you come, Señorita Pansy?" Rios grew truculent. "Or shall I call +for a dozen men to escort you?" + +"Rios," snapped Kendric, "I'm getting damned tired of this foolishness. +Betty Gordon is a friend of mine and I'm going to see her through. She +goes nowhere she does not want to. If you want to take me on, I'm +ready for you. Ready and waiting!" + +"No," said Betty again. "Mr. Kendric, I will go with him as far as the +_patio_." She took a step forward, then whipped back at a sudden +thought. "He is lying out there--dead!" she whispered. + +"The unfortunate Captain Escobar," Rios told her equably, "has been +removed to another part of the house. And, if you like, we will speak +together in the dining-room." + +Betty came to Jim Kendric then. She looked up into his eyes and said +gently: + +"I do trust you. You are the only one I trust. I can look to no one +else. If I want you I will call. And you will come to me, won't you?" + +"Come to you? Why, bless your heart, I'd come running!" + +So Betty and Rios went out and for a little while Jim and Bruce were +left alone. + +"Bruce, old man," said Kendric, "let's come down to earth. Put your +sentimental heart in your pocket and use your brains a while. You know +me well enough to know that I won't lie to you. Will you listen to me?" + +"Yes. But tell me only what you know, not what you surmise. What do +you _know_ against Zoraida Castelmar?" + +"I know she is an adventuress, playing for big stakes, stakes so big +that in the end they are bound to crush her." + +"Speculation, old chap." Bruce smiled faintly. "Keep away from doping +out the future and stick to facts." + +"So you want facts? All right: She is planning a revolution; she has +the mad idea that she can rip Lower California away from the government +and make of it a separate empire, herself its queen!" + +"Why not? Wilder things have been done. And where would you find a +more likely queen?" + +"When I first saw her she came, disguised as a man, into Ortega's +gaming hell, Rios with her. She played dice with me for twenty +thousand dollars." + +Bruce's eye brightened. + +"She's wonderful!" he said eagerly. + +"She's hand and fist with Rios and Escobar and a lot of other riff-raff +I don't know. She is instrumental in Betty Gordon's being held for +ransom----" + +"How do you _know_? Or are you just guessing again? Betty Gordon! +How do you _know_ she isn't what I called her, the infamous dancing +woman with an evil record a mile long?" + +"Haven't I talked with her?" Kendric grew impatient. "Haven't I seen +her terror? Haven't I looked into her eyes?" + +"Haven't I talked with Zoraida?" countered Bruce. "Haven't I heard her +explanations? Haven't I seen her terror of Rios? Haven't I looked +into her eyes?" + +"You were burned out tonight. Have you forgotten that? Your herds +were raided. Even old Twisty Barlow, once a square man, followed +Zoraida Castelmar into that! And Zoraida, herself, was one of the +raiders!" + +"How do you _know_?" demanded Bruce. And always he laid significant +stress on the word of certainty. + +"I saw the horse she rode. I heard the whistle which she wears on a +chain about her throat. I even saw the white plume in her hat." + +"Is there only one white horse in Mexico? And only one whistle? And +only one white plume? These things, if it had been Zoraida, she would +have left behind. In the dark you guessed. I am afraid you have +guessed all along the line." + +"Then tell me how the devil it came about that Zoraida showed up at +your place? A pretty tall coincidence." + +"Nothing of the kind. The whole thing was engineered by Rios. She +overheard a little, guessed it all. Dangerous though the effort was, +she tried to be in time to warn me. She came just too late." + +Kendric stared at his friend incredulously. First Barlow, then young +Bruce West drawn from his side and to Zoraida's. She required men, men +of his stamp. And she seemed to have the way of drawing them to her. +He felt utterly baffled; he could at the moment think of no argument +which Bruce's infatuation would not thrust aside. Where he would +depict a heartless, ambitious adventuress Bruce would see a glorified +and heroic superwoman. + +Rios came to the door. + +"Señor West," he said as they turned expectantly toward him, "Señorita +Zoraida implores so eloquently for word with you that I have consented. +If you will step this way she will come to you." + +Bruce required no second invitation. With Rios's words he forgot +Kendric's arguments and Kendric's very presence. He went out, his step +eager. Before Rios followed him Kendric called: + +"Where is Miss Gordon?" + +"Gone to her room, señor. If you will look at your watch you will note +that it is time." + +It was well after midnight and Kendric thought that for all the good he +could do, he, too, might as well go to bed. But he was too stubborn a +man to give up his friend so easily and he hoped that since Bruce was +not a fool he would come in time to see the real Zoraida under the mask +she had donned for his benefit. So he waited, walking up and down. + +Zoraida entered so quietly that she was in the room and the door shut +after her before he felt her presence. + +"Bruce has gone out that way, looking for you," he said. + +"I can see him presently," she answered lightly. "I think he will +wait, don't you?" + +"I fancy he will," he returned bitterly. "What do you want with the +boy, Zoraida? What has he done to you that you should ruin him, first +financially and then every other way? Aren't you afraid of what you +are building up for yourself? Men like Barlow and Bruce West may let +you sing their souls to sleep for a little; look out when they wake up!" + +She laughed softly. + +"I think that all along you have doubted my power," she said, her eyes +steady on his. "Are you beginning to see that Zoraida Castelmar is a +girl to reckon with? You have said that the great things I attempt are +beyond me; have I failed in anything I have tried?" + +"To infatuate a man is not the same thing as to build a state!" + +"And yet infatuated men make obedient lieutenants." + +They grew silent. In each there was much which was of its nature +incomprehensible to the other and which, of necessity, must remain so. +Slowly there came a different look upon the girl's face. Her eyes +softened and were more wistful that he had ever thought they could be. +Her breast rose and fell in a profound sigh. All of the triumph and +mockery went out of her. + +"Why are you so unlike other men?" she asked. And her voice, too, had +softened and grown tender. + +"What do you mean by that?" he asked. + +"Escobar hated me but he would have followed me through fire had I +beckoned. You have seen the look in your friend Barlow's eyes when he +turns to me, and this after only a few days, a few smiles! You +glimpsed just now the love that has sprung up in Bruce West's heart +like a flower full blown. There have been many, many men, my friend, +who have looked upon Zoraida Castelmar as they look. Until you came +there has been no man who turned his head away." Again she sighed +unhiddenly. Her eyes melted into his, yearning, promising, beseeching. +"And to you I have offered what would have made any other man mad with +joy." + +He looked into her eyes and it seemed impossible that they could speak +shameless lies. For the moment at least she had the appearance of a +young girl without sophistication, without the skill to hide her +thoughts. Her eyes seemed unusually large, wide open frankly, as +innocent as spring violets. Was she always like this--was this the +real, true Zoraida-- He felt her influence upon him, pervading his +senses like heavy perfume, and spoke hurriedly. + +"You and I are different sorts of people," he answered. "Our ideas as +well as our ideals are of different orders." + +"And what if I altered?" whispered Zoraida, coming closer to him. +"What it I discarded all of my ideas and ideals. Yes, and my ambitions +with them! What then, Señor Jim Kendric?" + +He shook his head and moved restlessly. + +"I am no woman's man, you know that. And if I were, you know also that +you are not my kind of woman." + +And still no passionate outburst came from Zoraida denied! Rather she +grew more deeply meditative. Almost she seemed saddened and weary. + +"Your kind of woman," she mused. And then, in pure jest, "Like +Escobar's captive?" + +For some obscure reason after which he did not grope the half sneer of +the words stung Kendric into a sharp retort. + +"By heaven, yes!" he cried. "There's the sort of girl for any man to +put his trust in, to give the best that is in him!" + +Zoraida gasped. Utter amazement filled her eyes. Then came +incredulity: she would not believe. But when she saw the seriousness +of his eyes, her passion burst out upon him. Her two hands rose and +clenched themselves on her panting breast, her eyes lost their shadow +of amazement and grew brilliant with anger. + +"That little baby-faced doll!" she cried. "She has dared make eyes at +you. And you, blind fool that you are, have turned from _me_ to +_her_!" Her voice shook, her whole body trembled visibly, then +stiffened. In a flash all girlish softness was gone; she looked as +cold and cruel as steel. "I had thought to let her go when the ransom +came. Now I shall have other plans for her." + +Kendric stared. + +"In the first place," he said with an assumption of carelessness, "you +have overshot the mark: Betty Gordon hasn't made eyes at me at all and +I'm not in love with her and have no intentions of being. Next, I fail +to see what has happened that would alter your plans in her regard?" + +Zoraida laughed her disbelief. + +"Any girl in her place would make eyes at you," she retorted. "And as +for my plans, perhaps you may be allowed to watch the working out of +them! Would you enjoy," she taunted him, "the sight of Betty Gordon in +a steel cage into which we allowed to enter a certain pet of mine?" + +At first he did not understand. Then he stared at her speechlessly. +Words of Juanita, spoken fearfully that morning, recurred to him: "She +would give me to her cat, her terrible, terrible cat, to play with!" +He opened his mouth to lift his voice in hot protest; then he bit back +the words, savagely calling himself a fool for the mad thought. Even +to Zoraida's lawlessness there must be a limit; even the cold cruelty +looking out of her oblique eyes now could not carry her so far. And +yet the laugh with which he answered her was a trifle shaky. + +"We are talking nonsense," he said abruptly. "And Bruce is expecting +you. When you finish distorting facts for his consumption I'd like a +word with him." + +Zoraida's face went white. + +"It is in my heart," she said in a dry whisper, "to give orders that +you will never see another sun rise!" + +"Give your orders then," he snapped. "I'm sick of things as they are. +Send in a gang of your cutthroats and I'll give you my word I'd rather +fight my way through them than stand by and watch you poison honest +men's souls." + +She stepped across the room and put out her hand as though to the bell +on the table. Kendric watched her sternly. She stopped and looked at +him wonderingly. Suddenly she dropped her hand to her side and with +the gesture came a swift alteration in her expression. A strange smile +molded her lips, an inscrutable look dawned in the dark eyes. + +"I knew already that you were a brave man, Jim Kendric," she said. "I +was forgetting, losing all clear thought because a man had dismissed me +from his presence? Well, of that, more another time. But brave men I +need, brave men I must have in that which comes soon. If there is not +one way, then there will be another to draw you to my side." + +She was going out but stopped as they heard horses in the yard. She +stood still, waiting. Presently there came an unsteady step at the +front door. A hand fumbled, the door opened and Twisty Barlow entered. +His arm was in a sling, a bandage bound his forehead, his eyes shone +feverishly. He stopped on the threshold and stared at them. Kendric +spoke quickly. + +"Twisty," he said, "do you know who shot you?" + +Barlow merely shook his head. + +"I did. I was at Bruce's. I did not know you but----" + +"But you'd have shot just the same, anyway?" grunted Barlow. + +"You got yourself into damned bad company, Barlow. But that's your +affair. Just tell me one thing: Was it not at Zoraida Castelmar's +orders that you went?" + +Barlow's look shifted for an instant to Zoraida's half smiling face. +But his hesitation was brief. + +"No," he said shortly. + +An hour later Kendric gave up waiting for Bruce and went off to his +bedroom. On his table were two letters in their envelopes. They were +the letters he and Bruce had written, telling of Betty Gordon's +captivity. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +IN WHICH AN OVERTURE IS MADE, AN ANSWER IS + POSTPONED AND A DOOR IS LOCKED + +In his bedroom Jim Kendric sat for a long time pondering that night. +What had appeared to him the simplest, most straight-away errand in the +world had brought him down here, just the time-honored search for +treasure. In all particulars the adventure had seemed the usual one, +two men undertaking to share whatever lay ahead, expense, danger or +loot. And through no fault of his own Kendric saw simplicity altered +into complexity. There were Barlow's changed attitude, the desires and +ambitions of Zoraida, the absurdity of Bruce West's infatuation, the +interference of Ruiz Rios and finally the situation in which Betty +Gordon found herself. + +"I came down this way to get my hands on buried treasure, if it +exists," Kendric at last told himself irritably; "not to work out the +salvations of half the souls in Mexico! If the issue becomes complex +it is because I am getting turned away from the main thing. What +Barlow and Bruce do is up to them; Barlow, for one, ought to know +better, and Bruce has got to cut his eye-teeth sooner or later. It's +up to me to be on my way." + +Which did not entirely dispose of all matters, since it ignored Zoraida +and made no place for Betty. The latter, however, he did not bar from +his thoughts or even from his plannings: If she said the word and would +take the chance with him, he'd find the way to get her safely out of +this house of intrigue. He was constitutionally optimistic enough to +decide that. Among the bushes out in the garden a rifle was hidden; +slung under his left arm pit was a dependable friend; and in his heart +he was spoiling for a row. + +Such was his mood, an hour after he had gone to his room, when a rap +discreetly announced a soft-footed somebody at his door. He rose +eagerly, thinking it would be Bruce or perhaps Barlow. But when he +opened the door it was Ruiz Rios who slipped noiselessly into the room, +swiftly closing and locking the door after him. + +"Not in bed yet, my friend?" smiled Rios. "It is well. I have +something to say to you." + +Kendric went back to his chair from which he eyed Rios narrowly. The +Mexican's look was full of craft. + +"Let's have it, Rios. What now?" + +"What I said to you earlier in the evening came from the heart," said +Rios. "That without my help you cannot leave; that you may have that +help. For a price." + +His utterance was incisive; his voice, eager and quick, filled the +room. Evidently he had no fear of eavesdroppers. Kendric stared at +him curiously. + +"For a double-dealing gentleman you have considerable assurance," he +grunted. "You don't seem to care who hears." + +Rios waved an impatient hand. + +"I know what I am about," he retorted. "La Señorita Zoraida is in her +own rooms where she entertains one of your friends while the other +cools his heels in her anteroom. I have assurance, yes; because just +now I am the man of the hour! Your destiny and that of your +compatriot, Miss Betty, as well as the destinies of your two friends +and perchance of yet others, lies in my hand." + +"You talk big when Zoraida's eyes are not on you," said Kendric. + +Rios stared insolently, then shrugged and made for himself a tiny white +paper _cigarita_. + +"I talk big because I can, as you say north of the border, 'deliver the +goods.' Do you wish to go free?" + +"Since you ask it," said Kendric drily, "yes. I've got no stomach for +your crowd here." + +"And you would like to take with you the pretty little Betty?" Rios's +eyes were full of insinuation. Kendric felt an impulsive desire to +kick him but for the time kept his head and witheld his boot. + +"Speak on, Señor Man of the Hour," he jeered. "Somehow I'm not +particularly sleepy yet. If you've really got anything to say let's +have it." + +"It is this: The treasure you have come so far to find will never be +yours. Mine it may be; if not mine, then Zoraida's. On my honor it +will never go into your hands or those of Barlow." + +"Your honor," laughed Kendric, "fits well in your mouth, Ruiz Rios, but +rides light in the scales." + +"You mean you would want proof?" Rios was imperturbable. "It may be +given you in due time, but only when it is too late for you to make any +stock out of it. Now, for what you know, I offer you your own safety +and that of Miss Betty. Have I not marked how you look at her?" He +laughed in his turn. + +"If this is all you have to say," answered Kendric, "suppose you shut +the door from the outside?" + +For just now, while he had thought of other matters, he had pondered on +this one also. Even were he disposed to treat with Rios, the secret +was not his to give. Further, once Rios had the knowledge he sought, +he would no doubt fail to keep his word. And in any case there was +always the possibility of getting away without the Mexican's aid; and +if there was treasure, as Rios so plainly believed, it should be worth +many times the twenty-five thousand dollars which had been demanded of +Betty's father. On top of all this it was sheer nonsense to plan on +what Betty might have to say until her word was spoken. Hence Jim was +no little pleased to baffle Rios. + +"You are thinking of yourself," said Rios sharply. "Not of the girl. +Can you not imagine that it might be unpleasant for her, left here over +long?" + +Then Kendric sought to be as crafty as his visitor. + +"Am I responsible for all wandering damsels in distress?" he asked +coldly. + +"But Miss Betty----" + +"Exactly. What the devil is Miss Betty to me? I never saw her until a +few hours ago." + +"But," insisted Rios, "in some soils some flowers bloom quickly! Love +comes when it comes, in a year, in a day, in a moment." + +"Love!" Jim's surprise was not altogether feigned. Then he laughed +and remembered his craft. He was thinking that already Zoraida +suspected him of being too warmly interested; he did not know but that +Rios was here now on Zoraida's errand, making pretenses the while he +sought to ferret out real emotions. And so for Zoraida's sake should +the words be carried to her, he cried as though in high amusement: +"Love? What are you thinking of, man?" + +He saw that he had puzzled Rios. The Mexican had been convinced of his +keen interest in the girl and, further, knew from of old how lightly +Jim Kendric held such mere bagatelles as dollars. Kendric drew a +certain satisfaction from the situation. But his frank grin died away +slowly as Rios went on. + +"We are not friends, you and I, señor," he said smoothly. "But just +now that matters not, since my personal interests move me to do you a +kindness. Of what happens to you later on, I care less than that." He +snapped his fingers. "Perhaps you do not fully understand either your +own case or that of Miss Betty. You are to be held here indefinitely; +unless you decide to throw your lot in with La Señorita Zoraida's and +become her man, body and soul, there will come a time, suddenly, when +her patience will die and her wrath rise and you will die too. And for +Miss Betty--there remains always the puma." + +Rios spoke with every sign of sincerity. Kendric, with what he knew of +Zoraida to guide his thoughts to a conclusion, was more than half +convinced that the man was telling the truth. Rios himself was not +above murder; hardly now had the body of Escobar stiffened when he +seemed to have forgotten the rebel captain and the deed of violence. +And Zoraida was Rios's blood cousin. + +"You appear to be sure that there is treasure?" Kendric said. + +"Yes. There is no question." Again was Rios unusually frank. "I +could lie to you but there is no need. The treasure is beyond your +reach; it may fall to my hand. Yes, I am sure." + +"What do you know of it? What makes you so confident?" + +Rios smiled. + +"Again there is no need to lie to you. You have marked that my cousin +is a very rich woman? There is no richer in all Mexico. And why? +Because she has long been in possession of a portion of the hidden +wealth of the Montezumas. A _portion_, mark you? For there is some +sign which she has understood to tell her that there is still other +hidden treasure. Always, since she was a little girl, has she looked +for it, never content with what she has. And if I come first to +it--Think, señor!" His eyes brightened, a flush warmed his dusky skin, +he lifted his head arrogantly. "It will mean that I, even I, can +dictate in some things to Zoraida! It will mean that she must join +forces with me. It will mean that she and I together will go far, will +rise high. As she will be the one bright star in all Mexico, so will I +be the newly risen sun." + +"So," muttered Kendric, "you two are tarred with the same stick!" + +Now Rios's black eyes were deadly. + +"What you know means everything to me," he said, his voice at last sunk +to a harsh whisper. "I killed Escobar for less. Remember that, Señor +Americano!" + +Kendric ignored the threat. + +"What of my friend?" he demanded. "Even were I of a mind to talk +turkey with you, there is Barlow. Half is his." + +"Barlow is touched with madness. Have I not told you he will have none +of it? You have eyes, señor. Already my fair cousin has made of +Barlow a tame animal like her cat. When she commands, he will speak. +Think you he will remember in that dizzy moment that you have claims to +be safeguarded? All will go to Zoraida. What you are pleased to call +your share, along with his own." + +Jim hated to believe that. And yet he did believe. Tonight Barlow had +looked at him out of hard, unfriendly eyes; he, himself, had shot +Barlow out of a cattle raider's saddle.--Suddenly, startling Rios, +Kendric's fist came smashing down on his table. + +"Here I've just been deciding the whole game is simple enough," he +cried, "and along you come messing it all up again! Clear out. I'm +going to sleep." + +"And my answer?" + +"Talk to me tomorrow, if you've a mind to. Most likely I'll tell you +to go to blazes, but that can be said as well after breakfast as now." + +Rios accepted his dismissal equably. + +"For me there is gold at stake," he said, going out without protest. +"For you there is your life and Miss Betty's. I can afford to wait as +well as you. _Buenos noches, señor_." + +"Go to the devil," retorted Kendric, and banged the door shut after him. + + +Though he had not intimated his intention to his visitor, Kendric, +holding to his determination to simplify matters, had made up his mind +to have a talk with Barlow first of all. Since that could not come +until tomorrow, the thing now was to go to bed. He undressed and put +out his light. Then he flipped up his window shade. Only when he was +about to thrust his head out of the open window to inhale the fragrant +night air and have his little "look around," did he discover the bars +to any possible escape there; a heavy iron grill had been fastened +across the opening. Just how it was secured he could not tell since it +had been set in place from outside and though he thrust his hand +through the bars he could not reach far enough to locate the staples or +hooks which held it in place. He shook it tentatively; it was amply +solid. + +But the door was open from his room to the bath. He groped his way +across the smaller room and found the knob of the door which led to the +room Barlow had occupied last night. That door was locked. As he +fumbled with it he heard someone stir in Barlow's room. + +"Who's there?" he called out. "That you, Twisty?" + +There was no answer. He rapped on the door and called again. Then he +heard quick steps across the room and a door closed; whoever had been +there, listening without doubt to his talk with Rios, had gone. + +He came back and passing through his own little sitting-room tried the +door to the hall, that through which Rios had departed. Fastened by +heavy iron hooks on the other side; he could hear them grate in their +staples as he shook the door. + +"A man had better be in bed this time of night than rapping at locked +doors," he decided. And in five minutes was asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +CONCERNING WOMAN'S WILES AND WITCHERY + +When Jim woke next morning his first act was to try doors and window. +All were as he had left them last night. But since he was not the man +for worry before breakfast he went into his tub singing. When he had +splashed refreshingly in the cool water and thereafter had dressed, +breakfast was ready for him. For, while he was in his own room he +heard the door to the room Barlow had slept in the first night open. +And when he went through the bath to see who was there he saw a tray +spread on a little table by a window, the coffee steaming. No one was +there. He tried the outer door which led to the hall. Locked, of +course. So he sat down and uncovered the hot dishes and made a hearty +meal. + +"They've certainly got the big bulge on the situation," he conceded. +"They could starve a man, poison his rolls or bore a bullet into him +while he slept, and who outside to know about it?" + +Now he had the run of four rooms and could look out into the gardens. +Not so bad, he consoled himself. He had his smoke and sat back in his +chair, assuring himself that there were advantages in being shut off by +himself where he could take time to shape his plans. But as an hour +passed in silence--not a sound from any part of the big house all of +whose inmates might have been asleep or dead--and another hour dragged +by after it, he grew first impatient and then angry. He had found that +all of his planning could be done in five minutes: It resolved itself +down to a decision to have a talk with Barlow and then, with or without +help from Ruiz Rios, to make a bolt for the open. If Bruce and Barlow +would come to their senses and join him, it would all be so simple. +Three able-bodied, determined Americans against a handful of Zoraida's +hirelings. + +The time came when Jim thundered at the doors and called. When only +silence followed his echoing voice he hammered at the hardwood doors +with the butt of his revolver and shouted, demanding to be a let out. +He tried the iron gratings over the windows and found them firm in +their places and too heavy-barred to be bent. In the end he gave over +in high disgust and waited. + +Toward noon, while he was in his own room, pacing restlessly up and +down, he heard a door slam. He ran to the bathroom and found that the +door leading to Barlow's former quarters was closed and locked. +Someone was moving about just beyond the thick panel. He heard the +homely sound of dishes on a tray and waited, his hand on the doorknob, +meaning to push his way forward once the door was opened. But he heard +no other sound, though he waited minute after minute until perhaps half +an hour had dragged by. Then he sat on the edge of the tub, grown +stubborn, determined not to budge. And so another half hour passed. + +An hour was a long time for Jim Kendric to sit or stand still and at +the end of it he began pacing up and down again; at first just in the +narrow confines of the bath, presently soft-footedly upon the soft +carpet of his room. And no sooner had he stepped a dozen paces from +the bathroom door than he heard a bolt shot back. He raced to the door +that had so long baffled him and threw it open. As he did so he heard +the outer hall door slam shut. When he laid hasty hands on it it was +barred again. + +"Well, there's food, anyway," he muttered. And sat down. + +Half way through his meal a thought struck him which gave little zest +to the rest of his food. He had walked silently when he left his post; +no one waiting in the room where the tray was could have heard him, he +felt sure. Then how did that person know the instant he stepped away? +He could not have been spied on through the keyhole of the door since +no keyhole was there; the fastening on the other side was simply that +of primitive bar. But that he had been spied on he was confident. +Well, why not? The house was old and no doubt had known no end of +intrigue in its time. The walls were thick enough for passageways +within them; an eye might be upon him all the time. He did not relish +the thought but refused to grow fanciful over it. + +The afternoon he spent stoically accepting his condition. As he put it +to himself, the other fellow had the large, lovely bulge on the +situation. For the most part of the sultry afternoon he sat in +shirt-sleeved discomfort at his open window, staring out into the empty +gardens and wondering what the other dwellers of the old adobe house +were doing. Where were Bruce and Barlow and what lies was Zoraida +telling them? And where was Betty? He did not realize that his +wandering thoughts came back to Betty more often than to either of his +friends whom he had known so many years. But realization was forced +upon him that, despite all he had told both Zoraida and Ruiz Rios, he +did feel a very sincere interest in her. When repeatedly vague fears +on Betty's account disturbed him he told himself not to be a fool and +sought to dismiss them for good. What though Zoraida had indulged in +wild talk? At least she was a woman and though she held Betty for +ransom would be woman enough to hold her in safety. And yet his fears +surged back, stronger each time, and he would have given a good deal to +know just where and how Betty was spending the long hours of this +interminable day. + + +Finally came dusk, time of the first stars in the sky and lighted lamps +in men's houses. And, bringing him infinite relief, a tap at his door +and the gentle voice of Rosita saying: + +"La Señorita invites Señor Kendric, if he has rested sufficiently, to +join her and her other guests at table." + +He followed the little maid to the great dim dining-room. +Purple-shaded lamps created an atmosphere which impressed him as a +little weird; the long table was set forth elaborately with much rich +silver and sparkling glass; several men servants stood ready to place +chairs and serve; there were rare white flowers in tall vases, looking +a bluish-white under the lamps. As Kendric came to the threshold wide +double doors across the room opened and Zoraida's other "guests" +entered. They were Bruce, stiff and uncomfortable, seeming to be doing +his best to unbend toward Betty; Betty herself, flushed and excited; +Barlow, morose because of the arm he wore in a sling or because of a +day not passed to his liking; and Ruiz Rios, suave and immaculate in +white flannels. + +When they were all in the room a constraint like a tangible inhibition +against any natural spontaneity fell over them. Kendric read in +Barlow's look no joy at the sight of him but only a sullen brooding; +Betty flashed one look at him in which was nothing of last night's +friendliness but an aloofness which might have been compounded of scorn +and distrust; Bruce appeared not to notice him. + +"Oh, well," was Kendric's inward comment. "The devil take the lot of +them." + +Zoraida did not keep them waiting. One of the servants, as though he +had had some signal, threw open still another door and Zoraida, a +splendid, vivid and vital Zoraida, burst upon their sight. She was +gowned as though she had on the instant stepped from a fashionable +Paris salon. And as though, on her swift way hither, she had stopped +only an instant in some barbaric king's treasure house to snatch up and +bedeck herself with his most resplendent jewels. Her arms were bare +save for scintillating stones set in broad gold bands; long pendants, +that seemed to live and breathe with their throbbing rubies, trembled +from the tiny lobes of her shell-pink ears. Her throat was bare, her +gown so daringly low cut at breast and back that Betty stared and +flushed and turned away from the sight of her. + +At her best was Zoraida tonight. Life stood high in her blood; zest +shone like a bright fire in her eyes. A moment she poised, looking the +queen which she meant to become, which already in her heart she felt +herself. The inclination of her head as she greeted them, the +graciousness which the moment drew from her, were regal. + +Even the heavy arm-chair at the head of the table had the look of a +throne. Two men drew it back for her, moved it into place when she was +seated. Then she looked to her guests, smiled and nodded and in +silence each accepted the place given him. Thus Jim Kendric sat at the +other end of the table in a chair like Zoraida's. At his right was +Betty who, since she averted her face from both him and Zoraida, kept +her eyes on her plate. At his left was Ruiz Rios. To right and left +of Zoraida sat Bruce and Barlow. + +"I am afraid," said Zoraida lightly, embracing them all with her quick +smile, "that I have seemed to lack in courtesy to my friends today! +But here, _amigos_, when you come to know our land of the sun, you will +understand that the long hot days are for rest and solitude in shady +places while it is during the nights that one lives." A goblet of wine +as yellow as butter stood at her hand having just been poured from an +ancient misshapen earthen bottle. She lifted it and held it while the +other glasses were filled. "I drink with you, my friends, to many +golden nights!" + +She scarcely more than touched the yellow wine with her lips and looked +to the others. Barlow, still surly, tossed off his drink at a gulp. +Bruce drank slowly, a little, and set his glass down. Betty did not +lift her eyes and kept her hands in her lap. Ruiz tasted eagerly and +his eyes sparkled and widened. Kendric mechanically set his glass to +his lips, drank sparingly and marveled. For never had he tasted +vintage like this. Its fragrance in his nostrils rose with strange +pleasant sensation to his brain; a drop on his palate seemed to pass +directly into his blood and electrically thrill throughout his whole +body. The draft was like a magic brew; potent and seductive it soothed +and at the same time set a delicious unrest in the blood, like that +vaguely stirring unrest of youth in springtime. + +Barlow, the sullen, alone had drunk deeply. And in a flash Barlow was +another man. A warm color crept into his weathered cheeks, he drew +himself up in his chair, his eyes shone. Zoraida, looking from face to +face, laughed softly. + +"What say you, my guests, to Zoraida's wine?" she said happily. "Made +for Zoraida a full four hundred years ago, treasured for her in the +vaults of the ancient Montezumas, distilled from the olden moonberry +which no longer do men know where to find or how to grow! None but the +Montezumas themselves and the priests of the great god Quetzel ever +drank of it, and they only on great feast days of rejoicing. A taste, +Miss Pansy Blossom, would bring back the roses to your pale cheeks. +And see my friend Barlow!" Lightly, laughing, she laid her hand for a +fleeting instant on his arm. "Already has the moonberry made his heart +swell and blossom and filled it with dream stuff like honey!" + +Something--the golden liquor in his veins or Zoraida's touch or the +look in her eyes--emboldened the sea-faring man. He clamped his big +hairy hand down over her slim fingers and cried out, half starting from +his chair: + +"It's in my mind, Zoraida, that the old Montezumas left more than +bottled moonshine after them. To be taken by them that have the hearts +for the job. Maybe for you--Yes, and for me!" + +Zoraida drew her hand away but the laughter did not die in her eyes or +pass away from her scarlet lips. Barlow, holding himself stiff, shot a +look that was open challenge at Kendric who returned it wonderingly. +Rios touched up the ends of his black mustachios and appeared highly +good humored. + +"Who knows?" said Zoraida softly, with a sidelong look at Kendric. "At +least, spoken like a man, friend Barlow!" + +Her mood was one of intense exhilaration. The movements of her supple +body in her ample chair were quick and graceful and sinuous, like a +slender snake's; she seemed a-thrill and glowing; it was as though for +the moment life was for her as a great dynamo to which she had drawn +close so that it sent its mighty pristine and vigorous current dancing +through her. She lifted her glass and sipped while she still smiled; +she saw Barlow's empty goblet and impulsively emptied into it half of +her own. Though her back for the time was upon Bruce she seemed to +feel his quick jealous frown, for she turned swiftly from Barlow, and +her fingers fluttered to Bruce's shoulder. Kendric saw her eyes as she +gave them to Bruce in a look that was like a kiss. The boy flushed and +when she made further amends by holding to his lips her own glass, he +touched it almost reverently. + +Kendric, sickening with disgust at what he chose to consider a +competition in assininity between his two old friends, turned from them +to Betty with some trivial remark. As he spoke he was contrasting her +with the splendid Zoraida and had he voiced the comparison Zoraida must +have whitened with anger and mortification while Betty flushed up, +startled. He would have said; "One is like a poison serpent and the +other like a flower." But instead of that he merely said: + +"And how have you spent the long day, Miss Betty?" + +Betty raised her head and looked at him steadily. A flower? Quickly, +even before she spoke, he amended that. A girl, rather; a girl with a +mind of her own and a sorching [Transcriber's note: scorching?] hot +temper and her utterly human moments of unreasonableness. Her glance +meant to cut and did cut. Her voice was serene, cool and contemptuous. + +"I do not require to be amused, thank you," she said. + +"Amused?" demanded Kendric, puzzled equally by words and expression. + +"I am here against my will," she explained. "You are among your chosen +friends. To entertain me you need not deny yourself the pleasure of +their delightful conversation." + +"You know better than that," he said sharply. "If you don't care to +talk with me----" + +"I don't," said Betty. + +Kendric reddened angrily. He opened his lips for the retort he meant +to make; then instead gulped down his wine and sat back glowering. +After having been fool enough to worry over her all day long to be told +to hold his tongue now set him to forming sweeping and denunciatory +generalizations concerning her entire sex. Well, he wanted matters +simplified and here came the desired solution. Betty could forage for +herself, could go to the devil if she liked, he told himself bluntly. +Before the night passed he meant to make a break for the open and, +thank God, he'd go alone. As a man should, with no woman around his +neck. Because a girl had hurt him he chose now to pretend to himself +that he was glad to be rid of her. + +After that, during the meal, both Jim and Betty sat for the most part +silent and Rios, nursing his mustache and watching all that went +forward, had little to say. On the other hand Zoraida and Bruce and +Barlow made the dinner hour lively with their talk. Skilled in her +management of men, Zoraida had never shown greater genius for holding +two red blooded, ardent men in leash. She threw favors to each side of +her; a tumbled rose from her hair was loot for the sailorman who at the +moment was of a mood to forget other greater and more golden loot for +the scented, wilting petals; a bracelet coming undone was for Bruce's +eager fingers to fasten. And always when she looked at one man with a +kiss in her oblique eyes her head was turned so that the other man +might not see. Kendric she ignored. + +"The same old story of good men gone wrong," philosophized Kendric. +"Let a man get a woman in his head and he's no earthly good." And, in +his turn, he ignored Betty. Or at least assured himself that he did +so. But Betty, being Betty, though for the most part her eyes seemed +downcast, knew that the man at her side thought of little but her own +exasperating self. She did a good bit of speculating upon Jim Kendric; +she was perplexed and uncertain; when he was not observing she shot +many a curious sidelong look at him. + +"Miss Zoraida is about due to overreach herself," thought Kendric. +"She can't drive Barlow and Bruce tandem." + +But Zoraida appeared to feel no uneasiness. As the meal went on and +meats and fruits were served and other vintages poured and coffee set +bubbling over a tiny alcohol flame on the table, her spirits rose and +she dared anything. She was sure of herself and of her destiny and of +her dominance over the pleasureable situation. Bruce's eyes and +Barlow's clashed like knives, but when they met hers softened and +worshiped. + +At the end of the meal, when they rose, Zoraida cried: "Wait!" At her +signal her servants swiftly lifted the table and carried it out through +the double doors. Another smaller table was brought in; a man came to +Zoraida with a small steel box. She took it laughing, and laughing +spilled its contents out upon the table so that gold pieces rolled +jingling across the polished top and some fell to the floor. With her +own hands she carelessly divided the gold into four nearly equal piles. + +"For my guests!" she told them lightly. She took from the servant's +hands a deck of cards and tossed it down among the minted gold. "I +would watch such men as you four play for the whole stake. And," she +added more slowly, her burning look embracing them all but lingering +upon Jim Kendric, "I have a curiosity to know who of you in my house is +the most favored of the gods!" + +"There's a goodly pile there, Señorita," said Barlow who could never +look upon gold without hungering. "You mean it all goes to the man who +wins? And you don't play?" + +"All that," she answered him steadily, "goes to the man who wins. With +perhaps much more? Who knows?" + +Bruce stepped eagerly to the table where already Barlow was before him +with a heap of the gold drawn up to his hand. Ruiz Rios took his place +indifferently, affecting a look of ennui. Kendric held back. Betty, +aloof from them all, looked about her as though to escape. But at each +door, as though forbidding exit, stood one of Zoraida's men. + +"You yourself do not play?" Barlow asked of Zoraida. + +"This time, my friend," she replied, "I am content to watch." + +Content rather, thought Kendric, to amuse herself by stirring up more +bad blood among friends. For the look he saw on her face was one of +pure malicious mischief. It occurred to him that she had sorrowed not +at all over the taking off of Escobar at Rios's hand; he had the +suspicion that in her cleverness she discerned looming trouble as a +result of encouraging the infatuations of two men like Bruce and +Barlow, and that before she would let herself be destroyed by an +inevitable jealous rage she meant to set them at each other's throats. +Such an act he deemed entirely germane to Zoraida's dark methods. + +"Señor Jim does not care to play?" she asked quietly. + +Had not Betty chosen to look at him then Kendric's answer would have +been a blunt, "No." But Betty did look, and the glance was as eloquent +as a gush of stinging words. Without a clue to the girl's thoughts, he +merely set her down as the most illogical, impertinent and irritating +creature it had ever been his bad lot to encounter. For her eyes told +him that he was an animal of some sort of a crawling species which she +abhorred. This after he had put in long troubled hours seeking the way +to be of service to her! + +"Bah," he said in his heart, staring coldly at her until she averted +her eyes, "they're all the same." And to Zoraida, "I'll play but I +play with my own money." + +Zoraida only laughed. His open rudeness seemed unmarked. + +"Barlow," said Kendric, "I want a word with you first." + +Barlow did not turn or lift his eyes. + +"Talk fast then," he retorted. "The game's waiting." + +"In private, if you don't mind," urged Kendric. + +Now Barlow looked at him sullenly. + +"After what happened last night, Kendric," he said heavily, "you and me +have got no private business together. Am I the man to take a bullet +from another and then go chin with him?" + +"You blame me for that?" Kendric was incredulous. Barlow snorted. +"Well," continued Kendric stiffly, "at least we've unfinished business +between us. You haven't forgotten what brought us down here, have you?" + +"Treasure, you mean?" Barlow spat out the words defiantly. "Put the +name to it, man! Well, what of it?" + +"The understanding was that we stand together. That we split what we +find fifty-fifty. Does that still go?" + +Barlow pulled nervously at his forelock, his eyes wandering. For an +instant they were fixed on the smiling face of Zoraida. Then grown +dogged they came back to Kendric. + +"Hell take the understanding!" he blurted out savagely. "We stand even +tonight, one as close to the loot as the other. It's every man for +himself, whole hog or none, and the devil take the hindmost. That's +what it is!" + +"Good," snapped Kendric. "That suits me." He slammed his little pad +of bank notes down on the table and took his chair. "What's the game, +gentlemen?" + +They named it poker and played hard. Reckless men with money were they +all, men accustomed to big fast games. The most reckless of them, Jim +Kendric, was in a mood for anything provided it raced. Betty's +attitude, Betty's look, had stirred him after a strange new fashion +which he did not analyze. Barlow's unreasonable unfriendliness hurt +and angered; the jeer in Rios's hard black eyes ruffled his blood. And +even young Bruce looked at him with a defiance which Kendric had no +stomach for. From the first card played, Jim Kendric, like a pace +maker in a race, stamped his spirit upon the struggle. + +Betty, seeing that she was not to be allowed to go sat down and for a +space made a pretense of ignoring what went forward before her. But +presently as the atmosphere grew strained and intense, she forgot her +pretense and leaned forward and watched eagerly. Zoraida had a couch +drawn up for her, richly colored silken cushions placed to her taste, +and stretched out luxuriously, her chin in her two hands. + +There are isolated games wherein chance enters which make one wonder +what is this thing named chance, and from which one rises at last +touched by the superstition which holds so firm a place in the hearts +of all gamblers. From the beginning it was Jim Kendric's game. When a +jack-pot was opened he went into it with an ace high, though it cost +him a hundred dollars to call for cards, which was not playing poker +but defying mathematics and challenging his luck. And the four cards +given him by Bruce, whose blue eyes named him fool, were two more aces +and two queens. And the pot that was close to ten hundred dollars +before the sweetening was done, was his. Barlow, who had lost most, +glared at him and muttered under his breath; young Bruce merely stared +incredulously and looked again at the cards to make sure; Rios, who had +kept clear, smiled and murmured: + +"Lucky at cards, unlucky in love, señor." + +"I prefer the cards, thanks," said Kendric, stacking his winnings. And +there was enough of the boy left in him for him to look briefly for the +first time at Betty. Zoraida saw and bit her lip. + +But though it was borne in upon those who played and those who watched +that it was Jim Kendric's game there were the inevitable tense moments +when each man in turn had his own eager hope. Bruce, no cool hand at +gambling, showed his excitement in his shining blue eyes; Barlow +muttered to himself; Rios sat forward in his chair and left off +pointing the tips of his mustaches. At the end of the first half hour, +though Kendric's heap of winnings was by far the greatest, no man of +them was down to bed rock. + +And by now Kendric lost patience. + +"Make it a jack pot for table stakes," he invited. "One hand for the +whole thing!" + +"What's the hurry?" demanded Bruce. "You're doing well enough as it +is, aren't you?" + +"A quick killing is better than slow torture," returned Jim lightly. +"And you'll note that I am offering odds. Better than two to one +against the flushest of you." + +"_Bueno, señor_," said Rios. "It suits me." + +"It's a fool thing to do," growled Barlow. A fool thing for Kendric, +but not for him, since his were the biggest losses. He had always +loved money, had Twisty Barlow, and could never understand Headlong +Kendric's contempt for it and now looked at him as though at one gone +mad. Then he shrugged. "Suits me," he said. + +"Wait!" Zoraida suddenly leaped to her feet, tossed out her arms in a +wide gesture, her eyes unfathomable and shining with the mystery of a +hidden thought. "I am glad to have in my house men like you four! You +are _men_! Were it life or death, love or war or wealth, you would +play the game the same. Men like you make the blood run hot in the +heart of Zoraida who also grips life by the naked throat. Wait. And +look." + +She whirled and in another moment, as lithe as a cat, had sprung to the +top of a serving table half across the room. And there she displayed +herself in all her barbaric splendor, posing like a model in an +artist's studio, turning slowly, standing at last confronting them, +a-thrill with her own daring. + +"Would you play for such a stake as never men played for before? For +such a stake as kings would risk their crowns for? As such Zoraida +offers herself, pledging her word to make the rich gift of herself to +the man who wins!" + +For a moment all four and Betty with them and the serving men at the +doors stared at her and the room was dead still. Through the deep +silence cut Zoraida's laugh, clear and sweet as a silver bell. Under +their bewildered gaze she preened herself like a peacock, proud of her +beauty so boldly displayed before their eyes. Zoraida smiled slowly. + +"Is the stake high enough for your play?" she asked gently, in mock +humility. + +Bruce surged up from his chair only to drop back into it without having +said a word. Rios's eyes caught fire and for the first time Kendric +guessed that he, too, was in heart bond-servant to his amazing cousin. +Barlow tugged at his forelock and muttered. + +"Heap all the gold together," cried Zoraida. "Play for it and each man +of you pray his favorite god for success. For with it goes Zoraida!" + +Betty, looking at her out of round eyes, seemed once more the little +girl Kendric had first taken her to be. + +"Will you play?" said Zoraida softly. + +"Yes! By God, yes!" cried Barlow. + +Rios merely nodded and shoved his money to the middle of the table. +Bruce started like a man from a dream and with hands that shook visibly +thrust forward his own gold. Then all looked to Kendric. + +Impulse decided for him and his answer came with no measurable time of +hesitation. If he played and lost, as he looked at it, there was +nothing to regret. If he played and won, perhaps it would have been +Zoraida's own all-hazarding hands which had shown the way to break the +chains that bound his two friends to her. It would need something like +this to bring both Bruce and Barlow to their senses. It was mostly of +Bruce that he thought just then. + +"One hand of cards?" said Barlow. + +"Rather one card, my friend," said Kendric drily. "We are keeping a +lady waiting." + +"Oh!" gasped Betty. + +A shining pyramid was made of the gold pieces. Then the cards were +shuffled and one of the serving men was called forward. He dealt one +card to each of the four men, face down, and stepped back. Then the +cards were turned over. + +All were high cards, not one lower than a ten, yet with no two alike. +The one ace--the ace of hearts--lay in front of Jim Kendric. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CONCERNING A DIFFICULT SITUATION, RECKLESSLY INVITED + +For a moment in the heavy silence Jim Kendric sat appalled by what he +had done. In the grip of the game he had been swayed by emotion, not +tarrying for cold logic during an episode when time raced. He had +hoped to win. Thus, since he had discovered that Rios, too, was +enamored of his beautiful cousin, he would tease an old enemy, sober +Bruce, jolt Barlow--and vex Betty. He had not thought of himself nor +of Zoraida. + +No one spoke. The first sound was a long shuddering breath from young +Bruce; his face was a sick white save for a spot of red in each cheek; +his eyes looked like those of a man with a high fever. Kendric sat +staring in perplexity at the gold he had won, automatically gathering +it toward him. Zoraida stood motionless, displaying herself, awaiting +his eyes. And abruptly, when he lifted his head, his eyes went not to +her but to Betty. + +The girl appeared fascinated and horrified. Jim's eyes pleaded with +her. Betty began to twist her hands in an agony of bewildered +emotions. Zoraida, waiting for Jim's face to be lifted to her and not +one accustomed to waiting on a man, frowned. But swiftly and before +anyone but the always watchful Rios saw, she broke the silence with her +little cooing laughter. She put out her two white arms toward the men +at the table, saying softly: + +"Will you help me down, Señor Jim?" + +Before Kendric could answer Bruce was on his feet. The blood charged +to his face so that the red spots were merged in the crimson flood. +The boy looked ready for murder. + +"Stop this, Zoraida!" he said excitedly. "Stop it! You are mad. Have +you forgotten?--Good God!" + +"Betty--" said Kendric, hardly knowing what he would say. He wanted +her to understand-- + +"Don't speak to me!" Betty flung the words at him passionately. "You +are an unthinkable beast!" + +Bruce heard nothing that was said, saw nothing but Zoraida. He came +two steps toward her and then stopped, staring at her. + +"Zoraida," he commanded, as one who speaks with love's authority, "you +don't realize what you are doing. It is that cursed wine you have +drunk or there is just desperation in the air and it has got into you. +This hideous jest has gone far enough--too far. Tell them, tell +Kendric, that it was all a jest. Nothing more." + +"Had you won," said Zoraida sweetly, "what then, Señor Bruce? Would +you have been jesting?" + +Bruce's lips moved but no words came. Suddenly he whirled from her +upon Kendric, his face distorted with rage. + +"Damn you!" he burst out. + +No longer was it merely a case of murder in his look. The urge to kill +had swept into his heart, rushed hotly along his pounding arteries. +Before now had Kendric seen men frenzy-lashed, like Bruce, briefly +insane with the blood impulse and as Bruce cursed him he knew that he +meant to kill him. There were half a dozen paces between the two men +and already was Bruce's hand lost under the skirt of his coat. Kendric +sprang to his feet and as he did so Bruce whipped out his pistol. +There seemed no loss of time between the action and the discharge. But +Kendric had been quick and only his promptness saved the life in him +that night. As he went to his feet he swept up in his hand a heap of +the shining gold pieces and flung them straight into the boy's purpling +face. The bullet went by Kendric's head doing no harm beyond +splintering the wall behind him. Before Bruce could shake his head and +fire again Kendric was upon him, worrying him as a dog worries a cat. +Bruce, even in the desperation driving him, and with a gun in his hand, +was little more than a stripling in the hard hands at his wrist and +throat. A sudden heave and mighty jerk came close to breaking his arm +and freed the pistol from his claw-like fingers. Kendric hurled him +back so that Bruce staggered half across the room and crashed to the +floor. Before he could come to his feet the pistol had been dropped +into Kendric's coat pocket. + +During the whole time Twisty Barlow had sat like a man bereft of +volition, his face puckered queerly, his mouth a little open. He +looked at the gold on the table top and at Zoraida; when Kendric had +hurled the coins into Bruce's face he looked at the gold rolling across +the floor and again back to Zoraida. Rios, having risen quietly, stood +with one hand on the back of his chair, one hand at his mustache, +looking steadily at his cousin. Even while Kendric and Bruce battled +Rios gave them scant attention. He was watching Zoraida as though his +life itself depended on his reading her wild heart aright. + +Slowly, as though he had been half stunned, Bruce rose from the floor. +Once more his face was white and looked sick. He had in his eyes the +startled expression of a man rudely awakened from profound slumber. He +walked with dragging feet across the room and dropped wearily into a +chair. He put his elbows on his knees and his head into his hands. + +Zoraida, seeing that Kendric would not come to her, caught up her gown +and leaped lightly down, landing softly like a cat. She put into her +eyes what she pleased, a confusion of messages, a swooning passion, a +maidenly tenderness, a joy that seemed to peep forth shyly. On +tiptoes, as though she would not break the hush of the room, she went +to the hall door, smiling a little in her backward look. A moment she +whispered to the serving man at the door; then she was gone and they +heard only the light patter of her slippers. + +The man to whom Zoraida had whispered spoke in an undertone to his +fellows. One of them went out swiftly; the others threw wide the three +doors and then gathered up the fallen gold. It was replaced in its box +and gravely presented to Kendric. He threw back the lid, thrust into +his pocket without counting what he deemed equal to the amount he had +played and tossed the box back to the servant. + +"Divide with your friends," he said shortly, and turned toward Betty. +But already, with the doors open, she had sought escape. He saw the +whisk of her skirt and marked the erect carriage of her head of brown +hair as she went out. + + +Jim Kendric stood looking about him and cursed himself for a fool. +Headlong he had always been, plunging ever into deep waters that were +not over clear, but he could not recall the time he had been a greater +blunderer. He had no more than decided that the one thing for him to +do was to simplify matters than here he went already interfering in +other people's business and making a mess of the whole thing. Betty +adjudged him being desirous of becoming Zoraida's lover; Bruce sought +his death; Rios's eyes were like knives; Barlow still sent his sullen +glances from the box of gold in a servant's hands to the door through +which Zoraida had passed. Kendric went to where Bruce still sat and +put his hand gently on the slack shoulder. + +"Bruce, old man----" he said. + +But Bruce, though with little spirit in the movement, shook the hand +away. + +"There's no call for talk between you and me, Jim," he said wearily. +"Talk can't change things. Just now I wanted to kill you!" He +shuddered. + +The man with whom Zoraida had whispered was speaking quietly with Rios. +Kendric, seeing them beyond Bruce's bowed head, saw a fire of rebellion +burning in Rios's eyes. Then, surprising him when he expected an +outburst, Rios merely shrugged his shoulders and left the room. The +servant came on to Barlow. Again he whispered. Barlow heard him +through stolidly, then for the first time looked long and steadily at +Kendric. Kendric guessed from the workings of his face that he was +struggling with his own problem. Gradually the sailor closed his mouth +until at last the teeth were clamped tight, the muscles at the corners +of his jaw bulging. + +"Barlow," said Kendric then, "there's too infernally much whispering in +corners in this house. Even if we three seem to be at cross purposes +now we have been friends----" + +"You talk of friendship!" Barlow spoke with cold bitterness. "When +here I crawl around with a hole in my shoulder; when West there in his +chair has just tried to bore you and got smashed in the face for his +trouble? After what's happened tonight, man, you and me are done." He +stalked off to the door. But at the threshold he paused long enough to +turn and mutter: "We all know what we are after, I guess. Don't fool +yourself, Jim Kendric, that everything's landslidin' you [Transcriber's +note: your?] way." + +Plainly Zoraida's orders had been intended to clear the room save for +Kendric. For the servant came to Bruce when Barlow had gone and spoke +to him. Kendric tried to catch the words but could not. But he saw +Bruce suddenly jerk up his head and watched a slow return of color into +the drawn face. Then Bruce, eyeing Kendric with suspicion and in open +hostility, quitted him in a silence that was ominous. + +Kendric's anger, ever ready like his mirth, burned hot through him. He +had shot Barlow in Bruce's quarrel, not knowing Barlow in the dark, and +for this Barlow hated him. Bruce had sought to kill him, and for this +Bruce hated him. He had sought to befriend Betty, and Betty hated him. +He had played fair with them all, and now all of them were set against +him. + +"Devil take the whole outfit!" he cried out passionately. "From now +on, Jim Kendric, you feather your own nest and hit the one-man trail +for the open." + +The servingman, whom Zoraida's commands had constituted a sort of +master of ceremonies, came to Kendric, his look curious but not +unfriendly. The box with its gold was still in his hands. + +"You will follow me, señor?" he invited. "_La Señorita Reinita_ +awaits you." + +"I'll do nothing of the sort," snapped Kendric. "I am going outside +for a smoke and you can tell your lady queen so with my compliments." + +But the man stood in front of him, shaking his head dubiously. He +looked distressed. In his simple mind orders from Zoraida were orders +absolute, and yet such largesse as Jim's bought respect and something +akin to affection. + +"Later you will smoke outside, señor," he urged. "Now it would be +best--oh, surely, best, señor!--to follow me to La Señorita." + +Jim shoved by him toward the door. The fellow looked a trifle +uncertain, his small calibre brain confused by two contending impulses. +But in an instant long habit and an old fear that was greater than his +new liking, asserted themselves. He slipped between Kendric and the +door and at his glance the other servant joined him. The two glanced +at each other and then at Kendric's set and determined face and then +looked swiftly down the long hallway behind them. This look was +eloquent and Kendric guessed its meaning; that way had their companion +gone hastily when Zoraida had left; that way, perhaps, would he be +returning presently with others of her hireling pack at his heels. + +"Stand aside," commanded Jim. "I'm on my way." + +They were stalwart men and they did not stand aside. Rather they +stepped closer together, shoulder to shoulder, grim in their stubborn +obedience to the orders they had been given. Sick of waiting and words +and obstructions, Kendric bore down on them, vowing to go through +though they might raise an outcry and double their strength. They were +ready for him and stood up to him. But their impulse of obedience and +routine duty was a pale weak motive before his rage at eternal +hindrance. He charged them like a mad bull; he struck to right and +left with the mighty blows of lusty battle-joy, and though they struck +back and sought to grapple with him he hurled one of them against the +wall with a bleeding mouth and sent the other toppling backward, +crashing to the floor in the hall. And through he went, growling +savagely. But only to confront the third man returning with half a +dozen sullen-eyed half breeds at his heels, only to see beyond them the +bright interested eyes of Zoraida. + +"Call your hound dogs off," he roared at her. "I'm going through." + +Zoraida clapped her hands. + +"_Muchachos_," she commanded them, "tame me this wild man! But no +pistols or knives, mind you!" + +She drew up close to one wall and watched; she might have been an +excited child at a three-ring circus. Kendric found time to marvel at +her even as he shot by her, hurling the whole of his compact weight +into the mass of bodies defying him passageway. And as flesh struck +flesh, Zoraida clapped her hands again and watched eagerly. + +"One against six--seven," she whispered. "One against nine!" she +added, for already the two men who had sought to hold Kendric back from +the hallway were up and after him. "He is a mad fool--and yet, by the +breath of God, he is a man!" + +And a man's fight did he treat her to, carried out of himself, gone for +the moment the madman she had named him. It was Jim Kendric's way to +fight in silence, but now he shouted as he struck, defying them, +cursing them, striking as hard as God had given him strength, recking +not in the least of blows received, heart and mind centered alone on +the pulsing, throbbing prayer to feel a bone crack before him, to see a +head snap back, to feel blood gush forth from a battered face. A man +tripped him cunningly from the side and he all but fell. But he struck +back with his boot and steadied himself by hurling his toppling body +against a resisting body and crashed on. Yes, and through, though they +clutched at him and dragged after him! A man hung to his belt and he +dragged him four or five steps; then he turned and drove his fist into +the man's neck and freed himself and bore on. So he came to the end of +the hall and to a locked door and turned with his back to the wall. +And again Zoraida's hound dogs were in front of him. + +He laughed at them and taunted them and reviled them. They were nine +men and upon many of the dark faces were signs of his passing. And as +they came closer there was respect as well as caution in their look. +They meant to beat him down; in their minds was no doubt of the +ultimate outcome, for were they not nine to one? But they had felt his +fists and had no joy in the memory. So they drew on slowly. + +Kendric watched them narrowly. In the eyes of the nearest man he saw a +sudden flickering; it flashed over him that the fellow meant trickery +and no fair man-to-man fight. He stood with his back to the door; he +saw the approaching man's eyes switch to it briefly. Then it flashed +upon Kendric that he was to be attacked from behind-- + +But even as the thought came and before he could leap aside, the door +was jerked open and from behind he felt arms about him. He struggled +and strained in a tensing grip. Not just one man was there behind him; +two at the very least and maybe three. He heard them muttering. Then +the men in front came on in a flying body and with a dozen men piling +over him Jim Kendric at last went down. And once down, being the man +to know when he had played out his string, he lay still. + +"Will _el señor_ Jim come with me?" Zoraida was above him, smiling +curiously. "Or shall I have him carried along by my men?" + +"I'll come," he answered shortly. "Having no choice. Call them off +before I stifle." + +Zoraida ordered, the men fell back and Kendric rose. She made a quick +signal and they filed out through a further door. + +"Come," she said to him. She caught up a cloak which had slipped from +her shoulders, a thing of silken scarlet, and led the way down the hall. + +He followed, ready and eager for a talk with her which would be the +last. He fully meant to make a break for the open tonight. And alone. +He was assuring himself that he drew a vast pleasure from that +consideration--that he was free from now on to play out his own hand in +his own way without reference to others. What he did not admit to +himself was that he was trumping up an explanation of the fact that, +while he was following Zoraida, he was thinking of Betty. He was +wondering where Betty had gone in such a flurry, when he should have +been asking himself where Zoraida was taking him and for what purpose +of her own. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +OF THE ANCIENT GARDENS OF THE GOLDEN TEZCUCAN + +He supposed that Zoraida was conducting him to the barbaric chamber in +which she had received him the other evening. For she led, as the +little maid had done, out under the stars, along the rear corridor, +into the house again by the same door. Once more in the building they +came to that heavy door which in time was thrown open by the +evil-looking Yaqui with the sinister weapons at his belt. The man +bowed deeply as Zoraida swept by him. Another moment and Zoraida and +Jim were in the room which appeared always to be pitch black. But from +here on the way was no longer the same. + +He heard Zoraida's quiet breathing at his side. She stood a long time +without moving, apparently waiting or listening, and he stood as still. +Then she put out her hand and caught his sleeve and he followed her +again. Their footfalls were deadened by a thick carpet; Kendric could +see nothing. Never a sound came to him save that of their own quiet +progress. They went forward a dozen steps and Zoraida paused abruptly. +Another dozen steps and again a pause. Then he heard the soft jingle +of keys in her hands; lock after lock she found swiftly in the dark +until she must have shot back five or six bolts; a door opened before +them. He could not see it, since beyond was a dark no less +impenetrable, but caught the familiar creak of hinges. He heard the +door close softly when they had gone through; he heard the several +bolts shot back. Then Zoraida left him, groped a moment and thereafter +the tiny flare of a match in her upheld hand showed her to him and, +vaguely, his surroundings. They stood in a low-vaulted, narrow +passageway through what appeared to be rock. + +Set in a shallow niche in the wall was a small lamp which Zoraida +lighted. She held it high and continued along the passageway. Now +Kendric saw that a long tunnel ran ahead of them, walls and ceiling +rudely chisseled, the uneven floor pitching gently downward. Herein +two men, their elbows striking, might walk abreast; here a man as tall +as Kendric must stoop now and then. The tunnel ran straight a score of +paces, then turned abruptly to the right. Here was another door with +its reenforcement of riveted steel bars and its half dozen bolts and +padlocks. Zoraida gave him the lamp to hold, then produced a second +bunch of keys and one after the other opened the padlocks. The door +swung back noiselessly; they went through, Zoraida closed it and +dropped into place the steel bars. + +"Doors and bars and locks and keys enough," mocked Kendric, "to guard +the treasure of the Montezumas!" + +She turned upon him with her slow, mysterious smile. + +"And not alone in doors and locks has Zoraida put her faith," she said. +"If I had not prepared the way neither you nor another man, though he +held the keys, could ever have come so far! I have been before and +removed certain small obstructions. Come! I will show you others, +Zoraida's true safeguards." + +They were in a small square chamber faced with oak on all sides +excepting ceiling and floor which were of hewn rock. The panels of the +walls, each some two feet wide, had, all of them, the look of narrow +doors, each with its heavy latch. Zoraida put her hand to the nearest +latch and opened the door cautiously. Kendric saw only a long, very +narrow and dark passageway. + +"Listen," commanded Zoraida. + +He heard nothing. + +"Toss something down into the passage," said Zoraida. "Anything, a +coin if you have no other useless object upon you." + +So a coin it was. He heard it strike and roll and clink against rock. +Then he heard the other sound, a dry noise like dead leaves rattling +together. Despite him he drew back swiftly. Zoraida laughed and +closed the door. + +"You know what it is then?" + +He knew. It was the angry warning of a rattlesnake; his quickened +fancies pictured for him a dark alleyway whose floor was alive with the +deadly reptiles and he felt an unpleasant prickling of the flesh. + +"If you went on," she told him serenely, "and you chose any door but +the right one--and there are twelve doors--you would never come to the +end of a short hallway. And, even though you happened to choose the +right door, it were best for you if Zoraida went ahead. Come, my +friend." + +She opened another door and stepped into the narrow opening. Though he +had little enough liking for the expedition, Kendric followed. Once +more he heard a rustling as of thousands of dry, parched leaves, and +was at loss to know whence came the ominous sound. Again Zoraida +laughed, saying: "I have been before and prepared the way," and they +went on. Then came another door with still other bars and locks. +Zoraida unlocked one after the other, then stood back, looking at him +with the old mischief showing vaguely in her eyes. + +"Open and enter," she said. + +He threw back the door. But on the threshold he stopped and stared and +marveled. Zoraida's pleased laughter now was like a child's. + +"You are the first man, since Zoraida's father died, to come here," she +told him. "And never another man will come here until you and I are +dead. It is a place of ancient things, my friend; it is the heart of +Ancient Mexico." + +The heart of Ancient Mexico! Without her words he would have known, +would have felt. For old influences held on and the atmosphere of the +time of the Montezumas still pervaded the place. He forgot even +Zoraida as he stepped forward and stopped again, marveling. + +Here was a chamber of colossal proportions and more than a chamber in +that it gave the impression of being without walls or roof. And in a +way the impression was correct for straight overhead Kendric saw a +ragged section of the heavens, bright with stars, and at first he +failed to see the remote walls because of the shrubbery everywhere. +Here was a strange underground garden that might have been the +courtyard to an oriental monarch's palace, a region of spraying +fountains, of heavily scented flowers, of berry-bearing shrubs, of +birds of brilliant plumage. It was night; the stars cast small light +down here into the depths of earth; and yet it was some moments before +the startled Kendric asked himself the question: "Where does the full +light come from?" And it was still other moments before he located the +first of the countless lamps, lamps with green shades lost behind +foliage, lamps set in recesses, lamps everywhere but cunningly placed +so that one was bathed in their light without having the source of the +illumination thrust into notice. + +That here, at some long dead time of Mexican history, had been the +retreat of some barbaric king Kendric did not doubt from the first +sweeping glance. He knew something of the way in which the ancient +monarchs had builded pleasure palaces for their luxurious relaxation; +how whole armies of slaves, captured in war, were set at a giant task +like other captives in older days in Egypt; he knew how thousands, tens +of thousands of such poor wretches hopelessly toiled to build with +their misery places of flowers and ease; how to celebrate many a temple +or palace completed these poor artificers in a mournful procession of +hundreds or thousands as the dignity of the endeavor required, went to +the sacrifice. Now, standing here at Zoraida's side in this great +still place, these thoughts winged to him swiftly, and for the moment +he felt close to the past of Mexico. + +"What was once the country place of Nezahualcoyoti, the Golden King of +Tezcuco," said Zoraida, "is now the favorite garden of Zoraida. For +the great Nezahualcoyoti captive workmen, laboring through the days and +nights of many years, builded here as we see, my friend. Here he was +wont to come when he would have relief from royal labor and intrigue, +to shut himself up with music and feasting and those he loved. Here he +came, be sure, with the beloved princess whom he ravished away from the +old lord of Tepechpan. And here she remained awaiting him when he +returned to the royal place at Tezcotzinco. And here were placed, four +hundred and fifty years ago, the ashes of the golden king and of his +beloved princess--and here they remain until this night. Come, Señor +Americano; you shall see something of Zoraida's garden which after +Nezahualcoyoti came in due time to be Montezuma's and after him, +Guatamotzin's." + +Kendric found himself drawn out of his angry mood of a few minutes +past, charmed out of himself by his environment. Following Zoraida he +passed along a broad walk winding through low shrubs and lined on each +side with uniform stones of various colors that were like jewels. +These boundaries were no doubt of choice fragments of finely polished +chalcedony and jasper and obsidian; they were red and yellow and black +and, at regular intervals, a pale exquisite blue which in the rays of +the lamps were as beautiful as turquoises. They passed about a screen +of dwarf cedars and came upon a tiny lakelet across which a boy might +have hurled a stone; in the center, sprayed by a fountain that shone +like silver, was a life-sized statue in marble representing a slender +graceful maiden. + +"The beloved princess," whispered Zoraida. + +They went on, skirting the pool in which Kendric saw the stars +mirrored. Now and then there was a splash; he made out a tortoise +scrambling into the water; he caught the glint of a fish. They +disturbed birds that flew from their hidden places in the trees; a +little rabbit, like a tiny ball of fur, shot across their path. + +Before them the central walk lay in shadows, under a vine-covered +trellis. A hundred paces they went on, catching enchanting glimpses +through the walls of leaves. Here was a column, gleaming white, +elaborately carved with what were perhaps the triumphs of the golden +king or some later monarch; yonder the walls of a miniature temple, +more guessed than seen among the low trees; on every hand some relic of +the olden time. Suddenly and without warning amidst all of this tender +beauty of flowers and murmurous water and birds and perfumes Kendric +came upon that which lasted on as a true sign to recall the strange +nature of the ancient Aztec, a nation of refinement and culture and +hideous barbarism and cruelty; a nation of epicures who upon great +feast days ate of elaborately-served dishes of human flesh; a people +who, in a garden like this, could find no inconsistency, no clash of +discordancy, in introducing that which bespoke merciless cruelty and +death, a grim token and reminder that a king's palace was a slaughter +house as well; a strange race whose ears were attuned to ravishing +strains of music and yet found no breach of harmony if those singing +notes were pierced through with the shrieks of the tortured dying. +Just opposite the most enchanting spot in these underground groves of +pleasure was a great pyramidal heap of human skulls, thousands of them. + +"The builders," explained Zoraida calmly. "Those who obeyed the +commands of the Tezcucan king, who made his dream a reality, who were +in the end sacrificed here. Five priests, alternating with another +five, were unremitting night and day until at last the great sacrifice +was complete. The records are there," and she pointed to a remote +corner of the garden where vaguely through the greenery he made out +stone columns; "I have seen them and I have made my own tally. Not +less than ten thousand captives expired here." It struck Kendric that +there was a note of pride in her tone. "Look; yonder is the great +stone of sacrifice." + +He drew closer, at once repelled and fascinated. A few yards from the +base of the heap of skulls was a great block of jasper, polished and of +a smoothness like glass. Upon this one after another of ten thousand +human beings, strong struggling men and perhaps women and children had +lain, while priests as terrible as vultures held them, while one priest +of high skill and infinite cruelty drove his knife and made his gash +and withdrew the anguished beating heart to hold it high above his +head. Again Zoraida pointed; on the stone lay the ancient knife, a +blade of "itztli," obsidian, dark, translucent, as hard as flint, a +product of volcanic fires. + +Kendric turned from stone and knife and human relics and looked with +strange new wonder at Zoraida. She claimed kin with the royalty of +this ancient order; perhaps her claim was just. He had wondered if she +were mad; was not his answer now given him? Was she not after all that +not uncommon thing called a throw-back, a reversion to an ancestral +type? If in fact there flowed in her veins the blood of that princess +of the golden king of Tezcuco who could have smiled at the whisperings +of her lord and the tender cadences of music floating through the +gardens his love had made for her, while just here his priests made +their sacrifices and she, turning her eyes from his ardent ones, now +and then languorously watched--was Zoraida mad or was she simply +ancient Aztec or Toltec or Tezcucan, born four or five hundred years +after her time? Her slow smile now as she watched him and no doubt +read at least a portion of what lay in his mind, was baffling; he might +have been looking back through the long dead years upon the Tezcucan's +princess: in her eyes were tender passion and a glint that might have +been a reflection of light from the sacrificial knife. + +Speculation aside, here was one point which Zoraida herself had vouched +for: since girlhood she had been accustomed to coming here. It would +appear inevitable that the atmosphere of the place would have deeply +influenced young fancies; that what she was now was largely due to +these conflicting influences. What wonder that she saw nothing +unlikely in her dreamings of herself as queen of a newly created +empire? All that Zoraida was, all that she did, all that she +threatened to do, the passion and the regal manner and the look of a +naked knife in her eyes, was but to be expected. + +Zoraida led on and he followed. Their way led toward the stonework he +had glimpsed through the shrubs and vines. Here was a many-roomed +building, walls richly carved into records of ancient feasts and +glories, battles and triumphs. They passed in through a wide entrance; +within the walls were lined with satiny hardwoods, the panels chosen +with nice regard to color and grain. Doors opened to right and left +and ahead, giving views of other chambers on some walls of which still +hung ancient cloths; there were chairs and tables and benches and +chests. Zoraida went on, straight ahead and to the doorway of a much +larger, high-vaulted chamber. And again was Kendric treated to a fresh +surprise. + +As she stood in the door and he looked over her shoulder, six old men, +evidently awaiting her arrival, bent themselves almost to the floor in +a reverential posture that expressed greeting and adoration. Again +Kendric's fancies were drawn back into ancient Mexico. They wore loose +white cotton robes; their beards fell on their aged breasts; in their +sashes were long knives of itztli, like that upon the sacrificial +stone. They might have been the old priests who sacrificed for the +Tezcucan, their existences prolonged eternally here in an atmosphere of +antiquity. + +Zoraida spoke and they straightened, and one man answered. Kendric +could not understand a word. Then, shuffling their sandaled feet, the +six went out through a door at the side. + +"I thought you said," said Kendric, "that since your father's death no +man had entered here?" + +"And do these six look as though they had come here recently from the +outside world?" she retorted, smiling. "The youngest of them, Señor +Jim, first came to Nezahualcoyotl's gardens more than sixty years ago. +When he was less than a year old, hence bringing with him no knowledge +of any other place than this." + +"And you mean that they have never gone out from here?" + +"Would they thrust their heads through solid rock? Would they tread +along corridors carpeted with snakes? Would they grow wings and soar +to the stars up there? Not only have they never gone out; they do not +so much as know that there is an Outside to go to." + +"But you come to them!" + +Zoraida laughed. + +"And I am a spirit, a goddess to worship, the One who has always been, +the power that created this spot and themselves!" + +"They are captives and caretakers of a sort?" he supposed. "But when +they are dead? Who then will keep up your elaborate gardens?" + +"Wait. They are returning. There is your answer." + +The six ancients filed back. Each man of them led by the hand a little +child, the oldest not yet seven or eight. All boys, all bright and +handsome; all filled with worship for Zoraida. For they broke away +from the old men and ran forward, some of them carrying flowers, and +threw themselves on their knees and kissed Zoraida's gown. And then, +with wide, wondering eyes they looked from her to Jim Kendric. + +"Poor little kids," he muttered. And suddenly whirling wrathfully on +Zoraida: "Where do they come from? Whose children are they?" + +"There are mysteries and mysteries," she told him, coldly. + +"Stolen from their mothers by your damned brigands!" he burst out. + +She turned blazing eyes on him. + +"Be careful, Jim Kendric!" she warned. "Here you are in Zoraida's +stronghold, here you are in her hand! Is act of hers to be questioned +by you?" + +She made a sudden signal. The six little boys withdrew, walking +backward, their round worshipful eyes glued upon their goddess. Then +they were gone, the old men with them, a heavy door closing behind them. + +"Again I did not lie to you," said Zoraida. "Since though these have +come recently, they are not yet men. Follow me again." + +They went through the long room and into another. This time Zoraida +thrust aside a deep purple curtain, fringed in gold. Here was a +smaller chamber, absolutely without furnishings of any kind. But +Kendric did not miss chairs or table, his interest being entirely given +to the three young men standing before him like soldiers at attention. +Heavy limbed, muscular fellows they were, clad only in short white +tunics, each with a plain gold band about his forehead. In the hand of +each was a great, two-edged knife, horn handled, as long as a man's arm. + +"These came just before my father gave his keys to Zoraida," the girl +told him: "There are three more of them who sleep while these guard." + +Again Kendric saw in the eyes turned upon them a sheer worship of +Zoraida, a wonder at him. Zoraida lifted her hand; the three bowed +low. She spoke softly and they withdrew slowly to the further wall, +walking backward as the children had done. Then one of them lifted +down the five bars across a door, employing a rude key from his own +belt. And when he had done so and stepped aside Zoraida with her own +keys in five different heavy steel locks opened the way. She swung the +door open and Kendric followed her. As in the adobe house here was a +place where a curtain beyond the doorway hid from any chance eyes what +might lie in this room. Only when the door was again shut and locked +did Zoraida push the curtain aside. Another match, another big lamp +lighted--and Kendric needed no telling that he was in an ancient +treasure chamber. + +There were long gleaming-topped tables of hardwood; there were +exquisitely wrought and embroidered fabrics covering them; strewn +across the tables were countless objects of inestimable value. Vases +and pitchers and plates of hammered gold; golden goblets set with rich +stones; ropes of silver; vessels of many curious shapes, some as small +as walnuts, some as large as water pitchers, but all of the precious +metals; knives with blades of obsidian and handles of gold; mirrors of +selected obsidian bound around in gold; necklaces, coronets, polished +stone jars heaped with gold dust. One table appeared to be heaped high +with strange-looking books; ancient writings, Zoraida told him, +heiroglyphs on the _mauguey_ that is so like the papyrus of the Nile. + +"And look," laughed Zoraida. "Here is something that would open the +greedy eyes of your friend Barlow." + +She opened a cedar box and poured forth the contents. Pearls, pearls +by the double handful, such as she had worn that night at Ortega's +gambling house, many times in number those which Barlow had declared +would make Kendric's twenty thousand dollars "look sick." In the +lamplight their soft effulgence stirred even the blood of Jim Kendric. + +"When the great Tzin Guatamo knew that he would die a dog's death at +the hands of the conquerors," Zoraida said, "he had as much of the +royal treasury as he could lay his hands on brought here. The +Spaniards guessed and demanded to be told the hiding place. +Guatamotzin locked his lips. They tortured him; he looked calmly back +into their enraged eyes and locked his lips the tighter. They killed +him but he kept his secret." + +She had mentioned Barlow, and just now Kendric's thoughts had more to +do with the present and the immediate future than with a remote and +legendary history. + +"So," he said, "while Barlow and I made our long journey south, seeking +the treasure of the Montezumas, you already had had it safe under lock +and key for God knows how long!" + +"Choose what pleases you most, Señor Jim," she said. "That I may make +you a rich gift." + +But though for a moment the glowing pearls, the gold and silver +trinklets held his eyes, he shook his head. + +"It strikes me," he said bluntly, "that you and I are not such friends +that rich gifts need pass from one to the other of us." + +"Then not even all this," and with a quick gesture she indicated all of +the wealth that surrounded him, "can move you? Are you man, Jim +Kendric, or a mechanical thing of levers and springs set into a man's +form?" + +"I have never had the modern madness of lusting for gold; that is all," +he told her. + +"Not entirely modern," she retorted, "since here are ancient hoardings; +nor yet entirely mad, since it is pure wisdom to put out a hand for the +supreme lever of worldly power. You are a strange man, Señor Jim!" + +"I am what I am," he said simply. "And, like other men, content with +my own desires and dreamings." + +She studied him, for a while in open perplexity, then in as frank a +glowing admiration. That he should set aside with a careless hand that +which meant so much to her, but made of him in her eyes a sort of +superman. + +"The thing to do," said Kendric out of a short silence, "is to open +your doors and let me go back to the States. I came here looking for +treasure trove; your claim antedates mine and I am no highwayman." + +Zoraida seated herself in a big carved chair by the long table whereon +lay the ancient writings, folded like fans and protected between leaves +of decorated woods of various shapes and colors. + +"Let me tell you two things, my friend. Three, rather. You saw the +sky just now and thought to yourself that all of my safeguards here +would be foolish and unavailing if a man sought the way to make his +entrance from above? Be sure the way is guarded there, too. Above us +towers Little Quetzel Hill, which is a long dead volcano; the hole you +saw was in the bottom of the cone. If a man sought to come to it, +first he must climb a steep and dangerous mountain flank. The old +kings did not forget so obvious a thing. Captives toiled up there +while their fellows burrowed down here; the hazardous way through +infinite labor continuing through many years, was made infinitely more +hazardous. There are balanced rocks of a thousand tons' weight that +are secure in the outward seeming, placed to hurl to destruction the +adventurer who sets an unwary foot on them; there is a spring, and it +is death to drink of it; there are pits for a man to slide down into +and in the bottoms of these pits are countless venomous snakes; there +are traps set such as men of our time know nothing of. There have been +chance travelers up yonder at infrequent intervals and for every such +traveler there has been a death so that the mountain bears an evil +name. And, further, should a hardy spirit once win to the hole in the +bottom of the volcano's cone and find the way to lower himself hundreds +of feet into the gardens, there is always, night and day, one of +Zoraida's guards at the spot where he must descend, and that guard, +night and day, is armed and eager to grapple with a devil whom he has +been told to expect soon or late." + +"I have told you," said Kendric, "that I have no wish to steal that +which is another's." + +"One thing I have told you; here is another. I speak it frankly +because I may gain by it and am not in the least afraid of losing, +since your destiny lies in my hands! It is that only a portion of the +great treasure is here with us; another portion was hidden outside." +She put her hand on one of the tinted manuscripts. "The tale is here. +The treasure bearers were trapped in the mountains by the Spanish; they +had no time to come here. One by one they were killed. They hid much +gold where they must. That is the 'loot' of which your friend Barlow +speaks; that is the treasure which the Spanish priests knew of and held +accursed. And that, Señor Jim, I would add to what I have here!" + +She amazed him. Her eyes glittered, the fever of gold lust was in her +blood. With all this hers--his eye swept the wealth-laden tables and +chests--she still coveted gold, other gold! + +"The third thing," said Zoraida sharply, "that you may understand why I +mention to you the second, is this: You will never go free until I say +the word! And I shall never say the word until you and I have brought +the rest and placed it here!" + +So there was other treasure! Like this, rich, wrought vessels, fine +gold, pearls perhaps! And Zoraida did not yet know where it was; +Barlow had had enough sense to keep his mouth closed. Jim Kendric's +thoughts flew back and forth rapidly; the strange thing was that at a +time like this the vision which shaped itself, vivid and clear cut in +his mind, was of little Betty Gordon with a double string of pearls +around her throat! + +"Of what are you thinking?" demanded Zoraida sharply. She had been +watching him keenly. "There is a look in your eyes----" + +For an instant she almost dared think that that look was for her; Jim +flushed. Zoraida's black brows gathered, her eyes went as deadly cruel +as ever were the eyes of her ancient forebears though they watched the +priests at the sacrificial stone. + +"You think of her!" she cried angrily. She stamped upon the stone +floor, she clenched her hands and lifted them high above her head in a +sudden access and abandon of rage. "You think that, having made mock +of me, you shall turn to her? Fool! Seven times accursed fool! I +will show you the doll-faced, baby-eyed girl--and you will see, too, +what fate I have reserved for her. To cross the path of Zoraida +means---- But what are words? You shall see!" + +With a strange sick sinking of his heart Kendric followed her, +forgetting the treasure about him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +HOW TWO, IN THE LABYRINTH OF MIRRORS, WATCHED DISTANT HAPPENINGS + +An oppression such as he had never known fell upon Kendric. Nor was +the depressing emotion an emanation alone of his growing dread on +Betty's account; the atmosphere of the place through which he moved +began to weigh him down, to crush the spirit within him. They left the +treasure chamber which was six times doubly locked after them. They +went through the ancient empty rooms and out into the gardens. +Kendric, looking up, saw the small ragged patch of sky and felt as +though upon his own soul, stifling him, rested the weight of the hollow +mountain. To him who loved the fresh, wind-swept world, the open sea +with its smell of clean salt air, the wide deserts where the sunshine +lay everywhere, this pleasure grove of a long dead royalty was become +musty, foul, permeated with an aura of a great gilded tomb. His +sensation was almost that of a drowning person or of one awaking from a +trance to find himself shut in the narrow confines of a buried coffin. +The air seemed heavy and impure; he fancied it still fetid with all the +blood of sacrificial offerings which the ravening soil had drunk. + +But he knew that now was no time for sick fancies and he shook them off +and bent his mind to the present crisis. Zoraida was retracing the +steps which had led them here; she had spoken of Betty. It was likely +then that they were returning through the long passageways to the +house. Dark hallways to thread, the dark mind of his guide to seek to +read. Now, while darkness outdoors was well enough, the black gloom of +a maze at any corner of which Zoraida might have placed one or a dozen +of her hirelings, had little lure for him. She did not mean to let him +go free; she had kept him all day immured in his own room; she would no +doubt seek to lock him up again. + +"It's tonight or never to make a break for it," he decided as he +followed her. + +They were passing the block of jasper, the ancient stone of sacrifice. +Zoraida went by first; Kendric was passing when an impulse prompted him +to put out a sudden hand for the keen edged knife of obsidian. He +slipped it into his belt and hid the haft with his coat. If it came to +an ambush, to an attack in the dark, a revolver bullet might fly wild +while the wide sweep of a knife blade would somehow find a sheath in +something more palpable than thin air. + +They went on, returning along the way they had come. When the gardens +of the golden Tezcucan were behind them and a door barred Kendric +experienced a sense of relief, even though the tunnels were ahead of +him. He kept close to Zoraida, prepared for any sort of trickery and +with no desire to have her whisk suddenly through a door somewhere and +slam it in his face. His one urgent prayer was for a breath of the +open; just then the consummation of human happiness seemed to him to be +freedom on horseback somewhere out in the mountains with the whole of +the wide starry sky generously roofing the world. He thought of +Betty--and he thought, too, of the six little boys doomed to count +themselves happy back yonder where at most the sun shone down upon them +a few minutes of the day. + +Never once did Zoraida turn, not once did she speak as they hastened +on. What little he saw of her face where there was lamplight showed +him hard set muscles. At last they were again in the house which was +hushed as though untenanted or as though its occupants were asleep or +dead. He could fancy Bruce in some remote room, tricked by some false +message of Zoraida's, eagerly expecting her, hungering for her lying +explanations; he could picture Barlow, glowering, but awaiting her, +too. Well, the time had passed when he could largely concern himself +with them and what they did and thought. Tonight he must serve +himself, and Betty. If she would listen to him. + +Presently he saw where it was that Zoraida was conducting him. He +remembered the dim ante-room in which they paused a moment while +Zoraida fastened the door behind them; then, the curtain thrown aside, +they were again in that barbaric, tapestry-hung chamber in which, the +first night here, he had been brought before her. As before the ruby +upon the thin crystal stem shone like a burning red eye. + +Now, for the first time since they had turned away from the golden +Tezcucan's treasure chamber, was Kendric given a full, clear view of +Zoraida's face. During their progress many thoughts had come and gone +swiftly through his mind; now as they two stood looking steadily at +each other, he realized clearly that one matter and one alone had +occupied her. No abatement of cruelty had come into her long eyes; no +flush of color had swept away the cold whiteness of her cheek. She was +set in a merciless determination, relentlessly hard; the colorless face +resulted from a frozen heart. Before now Kendric had seen murder +staring out of a man's widened eyes; now he saw it in a woman's. + +For the instant only she had looked at him as though she were probing +into his secret thought and there swept over him the old, disquieting +sensation that each thought in his mind lay as clear to her look as a +white pebble in a sunlit pool. Then her eyes passed on, beyond him. +He turned and saw the hangings parted at that spot where Zoraida had +appeared to him that other time; one of the brutish, squat forms which +Kendric remembered, stood in the opening. + +Zoraida spoke with the man swiftly, her voice hard and sharp. A quick +change came into the heavy, thick-lipped face; the stupid eyes +brightened; the face was distorted as by some hideous anticipation. +Zoraida ended what she had to say; the man spoke gutturally, nodding +his head. Then he dropped the curtain and was gone. + +Zoraida went to her black chair with the crystal balls for feet and sat +stiffly, her ringed fingers tapping restlessly upon the wide arms. +Presently the man returned, carrying a wide flat box. Thereafter, +while Zoraida watched him impatiently, he occupied himself after a +fashion which Kendric found inexplicable. From the box the man took a +number of rectangular mirrors, fine clear glass framed with thin bands +of ebony. Deftly, into a groove made in the back of each mirror, he +slipped the end of a tall ebony rod. Then he rolled back the heavy rug +from two thirds of the floor. The floor was of stone, laid fancifully +in colored mozaic; here and there, seemingly placed utterly at random, +were smooth round holes in the stone blocks. Into each hole the haft +of one of the rods was thrust so that when the man stepped back to +survey his handiwork there was a little forest of mirrors on glistening +stems grown up in apparent lack of design, like young pines on a +tableland. + +Then Zoraida rose and went from one of the glasses to another, turning +them a little to right or left, adjusting painstakingly, seeming to +read the meaning of some fine lines scratched in the stone floor. Her +eyes were like a mad woman's. She herself moved her chair, shoving it +from the rug to the bare floor, careful that each supporting crystal +sphere rested exactly upon a chosen spot. Her retainer handed her a +small stool; she placed it and, since it was near the spot where he +stood, Kendric made out the four crosses where the four legs were to +go. Then Zoraida went swiftly back to her chair. + +As she sat down she called again sharply to the squat brute who served +her. His broad ugly teeth showed white in his animal grin; he ran +across the room and swept back the curtains draping the wall. They +were laced to rings along the upper edge and the rings ran on a long +rod. As they were whipped back they disclosed no ordinary wall but a +great expanse of mirror extending from floor to ceiling, from corner to +corner. When two other walls were exposed they too resolved themselves +into clearly reflecting surfaces. + +"Clap-trap again," muttered Kendric, beginning to feel a strange dread +in his heart and growing angry with it and determined that Zoraida +should not guess. + +"Be seated," commanded Zoraida sternly. "If you would see what +amusement is being offered a friend of yours!" + +One by one the lamps were being put out by the hasty hand of the fellow +whom Kendric began to long to strangle; he could hear a low guttural +gurgling sort of noise rising from the thick throat, issuing from the +monstrous mouth. Zoraida did not appear to hear but sat rigid, +waiting. At last, when all but one opaque shaded lamp were +extinguished and the room was cast into shadowy gloom, Kendric, +impelled by environment, a curious dread and perhaps the will of +Zoraida, sat down on the stool. + +"Clap-trap, you say!" scoffed Zoraida. "Watch the first mirror!" + +At first the mirror reflected nothing save the shadowy room and a +vague, half-seen line of other mirrors. But while Kendric watched +there came a swift change. Somewhere a lamp had been lighted--several +lamps, for there was a brilliant light. He saw reflected what appeared +to be a small room with a door in one wall. He saw the door open and a +man come in; it was either the man who just now had obeyed Zoraida's +commands or his twin-fellow. The man began hooking together what +appeared to be several frames of steel bars. Working swiftly he shaped +them into a steel cage hardly larger than to accommodate a man +standing. Kendric's heart leaped and then stood still. He remembered +words which Juanita, terrified by idle threat from him, had spoken. + +He sat like a man in a trance. The dim mirrors seemed unreal. What he +saw elsewhere--was it a reflected reality or was his mind under the +spell of Zoraida's? Was she through hypnosis projecting a lying image +into his groping consciousness? Absolutely, he did not know. He drew +his eyes away from the vision of that room and turned them +questioningly upon Zoraida. Stern she was and rigid and white, a dim +figure in that dim light save alone for her eyes; they burned +ominously, glowing like a cat's. + +A quick shifting of the image in the glass jerked back his straying +attention. The man had completed his brief labors with the steel +frames which now made a strong cage; he shook the bars with his hand as +though trying them, and they were firm in their places. He opened a +section which turned on hinges so that a narrow door swung back. Then +he drew away and across the room. And now the remarkable thing was +that though he moved several paces, still he remained in full view at +the center of the mirror. + +Plainly in a complicated series of reflectors there were mirrors which +were being turned as the man moved, cunningly and skilfully adjusted to +his slow progress; otherwise would he have passed out of the scope of +Kendric's vision. As it was, the cage slid away out of view, an +uncanny sort of thing since it had the appearance of gliding under a +will of its own. + +Presently, however, the man opened a door in the wall and was gone. +For an instant the mirror darkened; then the light flashed back and +Kendric was treated to a broken procession of images which set him +marveling. First he saw straight into the heart of the gardens of the +golden Tezcucan; he saw the sacrificial stone; he saw one of the old +men approach it and pass by; he saw the treasure chamber. Again he +stared at Zoraida, again the fear was upon him that she had mastered +his mind with hers, that what he fancied he saw was but what she willed +him to imagine. For he could not ignore the long tunneled distance +they had traversed, the dark passageways, the heavy doors with their +massive locks. And yet his reason told him that to a mind like +Zoraida's as he began to believe it, a brain filled with ancient craft +and perhaps a strain of madness, actuated by such dark impulses as +certainly must abide there, the actual physical accomplishment of this +sort of parlor magic was a thing in keeping. There would be small +tube-like holes through walls, angled with reference to other mirrors; +there would be scientific arrangement; there would be, somewhere in the +great house, a sort of operating room, a room of mirrors with a trained +hand to manipulate them. Perhaps, with modern reflectors, she but +improved on some fancy of an ancient king who sought to guard himself +against treachery or his hoardings against the hand of his treasurers. + +Again and again, as Kendric sat watching, the mirrors darkened and grew +bright again, with always a new image. He saw the room in which he had +spent a long day immured and knew then that had Zoraida been of the +mind she could have sat here in her private room and have observed +every move he made. He saw still another room and in it Bruce pacing +up and down, up and down, swinging suddenly to look eagerly at his +door; he saw Barlow's back as Barlow stared out of a window--somewhere. + +"Thus Zoraida knows what goes forward in her own house," said Zoraida, +speaking for the first time. Kendric, struck with a new thought, +looked about the room everywhere, seeking to locate the necessary +opening in the wall through which came the reflections from mirrors in +other places. But the great glasses covering three of the walls +presented what appeared to be smooth, unbroken surfaces; where the +fourth wall was tapestry-draped there was no sign of an opening; +neither floor nor ceiling, places offering no detail but blurred with +vague shadows, showed him what he sought. + +"Watch closely!" said Zoraida. + +Again it was the small room of the steel cage. The savage-looking man +in the short tunic was there again. He looked watchful, tense, not +altogether at his ease. In one hand was a heavy whip; in the other a +pistol. Kendric thought of the animal trainers he had seen at +circuses. The man's eyes were on the door through which he had come. +So vivid were old images bred now of associations of ideas that Kendric +had no doubt of what small head with fierce eyes would appear next; he +could prevision the lithe puma, in its quick nervous movements, the +lashing of the heavy tail and the glint of the teeth. And so when he +saw what it was that entered, he sat back for a moment limp and the +next sprang to his feet. It was Betty. + +Betty clothed strangely and with a face dead white, with eyes to haunt +a man. She wore a loose red robe, sleeveless, falling no lower than +her ankles; her bare feet were in sandals. Her hair was down; about +her brows was a black band that might have been ebony or velvet; into +it was thrust a large white flower. + +Betty was speaking. Kendric had dropped back into his chair, having +lost sight of her when he stood. He saw that she was speaking swiftly, +supplicatingly; her hands were clasped; all this he could see but no +slightest sound came to him. He could not tell if she were near or +far. He began to realize the exquisite torture which Zoraida might +offer a man through her mirrors. + +He saw the squat brute's wide grin that was as hideous as the puma's +could be; all of the teeth he saw and they were glistening and sharp, +unusually sharp for a human being. And then he saw Betty pushed +forward though she shrank back at first with dragging feet and though +then, suddenly galvanized, she fought wildly. But two big hands locked +tight on her arms and as powerless as a child of six she was thrust +into the steel cage, the door snapped after her. She stood looking +wildly about her; her lips opened as she must have screamed; she +dropped her face into her hands. Kendric saw the white flower fall. + +Again the man looked to the door through which he and then Betty had +entered. And now came the puma. It ran in, snarling; it was looking +back over its shoulder as though someone had whipped it into the room. +It saw another enemy armed with whip and pistol and sidled off with +still greater show of dripping fangs. All this in dead silence so far +as Kendric was concerned; never the faintest sound coming to him. The +whip was flung out and snapped, and there was no sound; the puma's +teeth clicked together on empty air, and no sound; Betty, looking up, +shrieked, and no sound. They looked to be so close to Kendric that he +felt as if with one stride he could hurl himself among them; and yet he +knew that they might be shut off from him by innumerable walls and +locked and barred doors. He saw Betty so plainly that until he +reasoned with himself he felt that she must see him. + +"A puma will not attack a human being." Kendric sought to speak as +though merely contemptuous of Zoraida's entertainment. "They are +cowardly brutes." + +"The puma," said Zoraida, "is starving. Further, he has been driven +mad by men who whipped and then appeared to run, frightened of him. +Watch." + +The man threatening the puma slipped out through the door behind him. +The door closed. Betty and the animal were alone. The great cat lay +down and looked at her with its hard, unwinking eyes, only its slow +tail moving back and forth like a bit of mechanism clock-regulated. +Presently the puma lifted its head and began a horrible sniffing; it +lifted itself gradually from the floor; it drew a step nearer Betty's +cage and sniffed again. Kendric could see Betty draw back the few +inches made possible by the narrow confines of the cage, could see that +again she screamed. + +"A little fresh blood has been sprinkled on the floor of the cage," +said Zoraida. "A little of it is on the gown she wears. It will not +be overlong to watch. Are you growing impatient?" + +"Are you mad?" he burst out. "Good God, do you mean to let this go on?" + +"Am I mad?" Her eyes, slowly turned to his, looked it. "Perhaps. Who +that is mad knows he is mad? And who, my friend, is sane? Do I mean +to let this go on?" She laughed at him, and the sound was as hard as +the tinkle of bits of jangling glass. "You have but to be patient to +know." + +The puma sniffed again, again drew closer. Betty was tight pressed +against the far bars shutting her in, and even so had the great cat +thrust a claw forward she could not withdraw beyond the reach of the +ripping talons. The cat circled her. Always Betty turned with it, her +eyes upon its eyes, her eyes that were large and fixed with terror. + +"A puma is patient, more patient than a man," said Zoraida. "It may be +an hour; it may be all night before it strikes. It may be a night and +a day, and still another night and day. Its hunger does not diminish +as time passes! Or," and she shrugged with a great showing of her +indifference, "it may strike now, at any moment. That is one of the +things that makes the moment tense for that white-faced little fool in +there. Imagine when she is worn out, if it lasts that long; when sleep +will no longer flee because of terror; and when I command that the +light shall be extinguished where she is! You see, she must be +thinking all those things." + +The sweat broke out on Kendric's forehead, he felt as though ice ran in +his veins. If he only knew where all this was going on! Was it above +him or below, to right or left? Ten steps or a hundred yards away? + +"By God----" he shouted. But only Zoraida's merciless laughter +answered him. + +"I had to choose between this and the ancient stone of sacrifice," she +told him. "Have I not chosen well?" + +The puma had been still. Now again it moved and its feet had +quickened, it glided with ever-increasing swiftness, it came close to +the steel bars, it showed more of its sharp, tearing, dripping teeth. + +"Betty!" shouted Kendric. "I----" + +He knew that Betty could not hear, that he could do nothing. Nothing? +As the thought framed he leaped to his feet and in the grip of such a +rage as even he had never known, hurled himself across the few paces +between him and Zoraida. + +"You have the way to stop this damned thing!" His hands, like claws, +were thrust before her face. "You will stop it." + +Even in his headlong rage there were cool cells in his brain. He saw +the quick significant look Zoraida shot over his shoulder and turned; +there behind him stood one of the squat brutes who did her bidding. +Kendric saw something in the man's hand but did not reck whether it was +gun or knife or club or something else. He whipped about and struck. +As the man staggered under the unexpected blow, Kendric snatched up the +heavy stool on which he had been sitting and struck again, so swift +that the blow landed while the figure was yet staggering backward. The +man fell, stunned, and then, as quick as light, before Zoraida could +lift a hand, Kendric was upon her again. + +"Call off your cat!" he shouted at her. + +She lifted her head defiantly. + +"Never has man dictated to me!" she cried angrily. "Here I dictate. +If you dared put a hand on me----" + +He saw her own hand creeping out toward the table. What it sought he +did not know; a hidden bell, perhaps. Or a dagger. He remembered her +swift attack upon Ortega. He seized her wrist, his fingers locked hard +about it; she struggled and he held her back in her chair. Suddenly +she relaxed and shrugged and laughed at him. + +"You add to the entertainment!" she mocked him. "For, mind you, while +you make large commands, the puma draws nearer and nearer. If you +will, between your great commands, but glance into the mirror----" + +"I say you can put a stop to that infernal torture," he said fiercely. +"And you will!" + +"Yes?" she sneered at him. "And you will make me, perhaps? You, a +common adventurer will dictate to Zoraida!" + +For the moment he felt powerless in face of her cold taunting. But +there was too much at stake for him to yield now to a feeling of +powerlessness. One hand was on her wrist; the gripping fingers of the +other shut about the haft of the ancient obsidian knife. The old knife +of sacrifice. His face was white and stern, his eyes no whit less +deadly than Zoraida's. + +"You threaten my life?" she gasped. "_You_?" + +He made no answer. He was beyond speech. Slowly he lifted the great +knife, slowly as in a dream he set the thin point against the soft +flesh of Zoraida's throat. As a tremor shook his hand Zoraida whipped +back. + +"You would not dare! You would not dare!" + +His hand was steady again. He held her still, and the point of the +knife crept a hair's breadth closer to the life within her. A little +more and it would have slipped into the skin it was pricking. + +"You could not do it," she whispered. + +Then he spoke. + +"I can do it." His lips were dry, his voice very harsh. "You have +said that you know me for a man of my word. Well, then, I swear to you +that little by little I'll drive that knife in unless you set that girl +free." + +Still she sought to brave it out, sought to defy him; her eyes, on his, +told him that his will was less than hers, and that this could never +be. But Kendric knew otherwise. It was given him to know that if +Betty died, he did not care to live. Like men of his stamp it was +unthinkable to him that he should lift his hand against a woman. But +woman for the moment Zoraida was not. Fiend, rather; reincarnated +savage; a thing to stamp into the earth. What he had said he meant. +He was giving her time because on her rested Betty's fate. He pressed +the knife a little deeper. So steady was his hand, so stiff Zoraida's +body, so gradual the increased pressure, that the knife point made in +the white flesh a tiny, shadow-filled dimple. + +Now came into Zoraida's eyes a swift change, a look which in all of her +life had never been there until now. A look of terror, of realization +of death, of frantic fear. She sought to speak, and words failed her. +The knife pressed steadily. A piercing scream broke from her. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +HOW ONE WHO HAS EVER COMMANDED MUST LEARN TO OBEY + +Suddenly Zoraida had become as docile as a little frightened child. +She shivered from head to foot. She put her two hands to her throat +where just now the point of the knife had been. + +"Quick!" said Kendric. + +She rose in haste. A vertigo was upon her like that dizzy weakness of +one very sick, seeking prematurely to rise from bed. She had +experienced a shock from which she could rally only gradually; she +looked broken. Her eyes appeared to see nothing about her but stared +off into the distance through a veil of abstraction. + +"We will have to go," she said tonelessly. "There is no other way." + +They passed by the inert figure on the floor and out, Kendric with his +left hand always on her arm. Again the knife was hidden under his +coat, but his fingers did not release it. + +"Quick," he said again. + +So Zoraida, obedient in this strange new mood governing her, making no +effort to shake off his hand having no thought to gainsay him, +hastened. In perhaps five minutes they were unlocking the last door, +and Kendric heard beyond the whining of the puma. Kendric had had time +for thought during this brief interval which had seemed much longer; +for the present both his safety and Betty's would undoubtedly depend +upon his keeping Zoraida with him. So now, as he flung open the door, +he carried Zoraida along into the room. + +At first he did not see the cat lying close to the cage; he saw only +Betty. A little color had come back into her cheeks; he saw the look +in her eyes before it changed and knew that to Betty had come the time +when hope is given up and when death is faced. She had passed beyond +tears and pleading and crying out. It was given Kendric then to learn +that when the crisis had come it found in the girl's heart a courage to +sustain her. Her face was set, her attitude was no longer cringing. +In such tender breasts as Betty's have beat the steady hearts of +martyrs. + +When she saw Jim Kendric and Zoraida standing before her she stared +incredulously. She was in a daze. Her first wild thought, reflecting +itself unmistakably in her wide eyes, was that they had come to taunt +her, he and she side by side. Then her faltering gaze left Zoraida and +ignored her and went, full of earnest questioning, to Jim's face. +Suddenly, at what she saw there, the red blood of joyousness ran into +Betty's cheeks. At moments like this it is with few words or none at +all that perfect understanding comes. In a flash his look had told her +all that it would require many fumbling spoken words to repeat one-half +so eloquently. + +The puma had sprung to its feet but stood its ground. The murderous +eyes were everywhere at once, on Betty, on Jim, on Zoraida, most of all +on Betty; the quivering nostrils widened and sniffed; the tawny throat +shook with a series of low growls. Jim's foot stirred; the cat's teeth +came together with a snap. + +With little wish as Kendric had to create a disturbance just now, it +was beyond his power to withhold his hand as he saw Betty draw back +against the walls of her cage. In his pocket was Bruce's weapon. +Kendric jerked it out, and before Zoraida's cry could burst from her +lips and before her hand struck his arm, he drove a bullet into the +puma's skull between the hard evil eyes. The animal dropped in its +tracks, with never another whine. + +As the puma went down, Zoraida winced as though in bodily pain, as +though it had been her flesh instead of her cat's that had known the +deep bite of hot lead. She looked from the twitching animal to Kendric +like one aghast, like one stupefied by what she had seen, who could not +altogether believe that an accomplished act had in reality taken place. +There was horror in her look; she recalled to him vividly though +fleetingly a South Sea island priest whom he had seen long ago when the +savage's idol had been overthrown and cast down into a mud puddle under +the palm trees. At that moment Zoraida might well have been sister to +the idolater of the South Seas or some ancient Egyptian priestess +stricken dumb at the sight of sacred cat violated. + +But there was Betty. Jim jerked open the door of the cage. Betty +stumbled through and somehow found herself in his arms. They closed +tight about her. The two turned to Zoraida. She, white-faced and +silent, watched them with smoldering eyes. And into those eyes, as for +a space Betty's heart fluttered against Jim Kendric's breast, came for +the first time since the knife had been withdrawn from her throat, a +quickening of purpose, a glint as of a covered fire breaking through. + +"Come, Betty," said Jim quickly. "We are going to clear out of this, +you and I. Right now!" + +He noted a slight restless stirring of Zoraida's foot and stepped to +her side, his hand again on her arm. + +"We are not through with you yet," he told her. "Miss Gordon will want +some clothes." + +"In her room," agreed Zoraida. "Come." + +Had she delayed her answer the fraction of a second he might have +followed her, suspecting nothing. But as it was he remarked on her +eagerness; Zoraida was passionately set on treachery and he sensed it. + +"No," he answered. "From here we go straight out into the open." +Zoraida had yielded to the pressure on her arm as though to continue in +her new role of implicit obedience. But now his distrust was wide +awake. There may have been a slight involuntary stiffening of her +muscles, hinting at rebellion; there was something which warned him in +the look she sought to veil. "What clothes Betty needs you can give +her. Here and now." + +"Oh!" cried Betty, with a look of abhorrence and a shudder. "I +couldn't----" + +"It can't be helped," he retorted. And to Zoraida: "She'll want shoes +and stockings." + +The look he had then from Zoraida was one of utter loathing and at last +of unhidden lust for his undoing. But after it she bestowed on him a +slow contemptuous smile and again she obeyed. Her little shoes she +kicked off; she drew off her stockings and he handed them to Betty. + +"Zoraida goes barefooted at a man's command!" A first note of laughter +was in Zoraida's voice. "What more? Am I to disrobe in a man's +presence?" + +"Your cloak," he muttered. "We'll make that do." + +The cloak Betty accepted and threw about her shoulders. The shoes and +stockings she held a moment, looking at them with repulsion in her +eyes; they were too intimate, they had come too lately from Zoraida and +in the end she threw them down. + +"My sandals will do," she said. "I can't wear her things." + +Kendric picked them up and thrust them into his pocket. + +"Later, then," he said. "God knows we can't be choosers. Now," and +again he confronted Zoraida, "you will show us the way. Clear of the +house. And we'll want horses. One thing, mind you: It is in my +thought that if we allow you to hold us here we'll both be dead inside +a few hours. I've no desire for that sort of thing. The issue is +clear cut, isn't it?" + +Zoraida merely lifted her brows at him. + +"If it becomes a question of your life or ours," he told her sternly; +"I'd naturally prefer it to be yours! Is that plain enough? For once, +young woman, it's up to you to play square. Now, go ahead." + +They went out silently through the door which had given them entrance +into this ugly room, Zoraida leading the way, Kendric holding close at +her side and allowing her the sight of the obsidian knife held under +his coat with the point within an inch of her side, Betty close behind +him. Kendric felt a crying need of haste. For a few minutes he knew +that the fear of death had been heavy on the spirit of Zoraida, +paralyzing her will, freezing up the current of her thought. But she +was still Zoraida, essentially fearless; her characteristic fortitude +would not be long in reinstating itself in her heart; the mental +confusion was swiftly being replaced by the activity of resurging +hatred. He must be watchful of every corner and door, most of all +watchful of her. + +Thus it was Kendric's hand, once bolts were shot back, that threw open +each door, as he held himself in readiness to spring forward or back. +But as appeared customary here the house seemed deserted. He thanked +his stars that the fellow he had struck down in Zoraida's room had +fallen hard. Not even the dull explosion of the pistol just now had +brought inquiry; no doubt the thick walls had deadened the sound. +After what seemed a long time they came into the wide dimly-lighted +hall. The door giving entrance to the _patio_ was open; under the +stars the little fountain played musically. + +"Out this way," commanded Kendric. "Then around to the front of the +house. And if we meet anyone, Zoraida, you'd best think back a few +minutes before you start anything." + +There was no one in the _patio_ and they went through swiftly and out +at the far side into the garden. Kendric filled his lungs with the +sweet air that was beginning to grow cool. The glitter of the stars +was to him like a hope and a promise. Never had he been so sick of +four walls and a smothering roof. Now the musty gardens of the golden +king seemed to him infinitely far away, a thousand times farther +removed than the dancing lights in the heavens. + +With his hand gripping Zoraida's forearm they skirted the house. +Presently they came to the front driveway and Zoraida must have +wondered as he forced her to go with him to a clump of bushes. He +stooped, groped about a moment, and then straightened up with a little +grunt of satisfaction; the rifle was in his hands. + +"Now the horses," he said, and the three walked out into the starlight +and toward the double gates. "Whatever you will say will go with the +men out there. And be sure you say we are to be allowed to go for a +ride." + +Zoraida did not answer and Kendric wondered, not without uneasiness, +what she would say. His grip tightened on her arm. She did not appear +to notice. + +The watch towers on either side of the gate were lighted as usual. +From one came the low drone of two men's voices; the other was silent. +No other sound save that of the rattle of bit-chains as a horse +somewhere shook its head. + +A man appeared from nowhere, with the air of having suddenly +materialized out of the atmosphere. He came close, made out that one +of the three was Zoraida and backed away, sweeping off his hat. They +came to the gates which the newly risen figure threw open; they went +through, Kendric having the air of a man lending his arm to a lady, +Betty with the cloak drawn close about her, following. They were out! +Now nearer than ever came the friendly stars, sweeter than ever was the +night air. Kendric looked swiftly about, taking note of the darkness +lying close to the earth, thanking God that there was no moon. If one +could keep for a little in the shadow of the wall, if then he could get +clear of the house and out into the fields lying at the rear, it was +but a short run to the mountains---- + +They had turned and already were under one of the watch towers, the one +whence came the men's voices. The saddled horses stood, tethered to +rings set in the wall. Zoraida turned toward Kendric and in the +starlight her eyes shone strangely, bright with mockery. But tonight +was Jim Kendric's, and he was still bent on playing out his hand. + +"_Qué hay, amigos_?" he called familiarly to the men in the square +tower, his voice sounding careless and indifferent. "La Señorita is +here. She wants horses." + +A head appeared at the little opening that served for window above, a +hat was doffed with exaggerated deference, a second uncovered head was +thrust out. Kendric stepped back half a pace so that they could see +plainly that it was Zoraida. + +"_Bueno_," said one of the two men. "_Viva la Señorita_!" + +Already Kendric was undoing the two tie ropes. He regretted the +necessity of stepping two paces from Zoraida's side, but realized that +inevitably that necessity must come soon or late and he lost no time +grieving over it. The horses were at hand, saddled and bridled; Betty +was with him; the night was too dark for eyes to watch from a distance; +the two men within Zoraida's call were still up in the tower. He was +taking his chance now and he knew it; Zoraida's period of obedience and +inactivity was no doubt near at end. Well, his luck had befriended him +thus far and for the rest it was up to Jim Kendric. And they were out +in the open! + +Thus he was ready for Zoraida's outcry. He saw her whip back so as to +be beyond the sweep of his arm, he heard her crying out wildly, +commanding her retainers to stop the flight of her prisoners, shrieking +at them to shoot, to shoot to kill! + +"Betty!" cried Jim. "Quick!" + +Then he saw that Betty, too, had been ready. Just how she managed it, +encumbered as she was with Zoraida's cloak, he did not know. But she +was already in one of the saddles. + +"Jim!" she cried wildly. "Run!" + +He went up to the back of the other horse, his rifle in his hand. And +as he struck saddle leather his horse and Betty's shot forward and +away. He heard Zoraida's scream of command, breaking with rage. He +heard men's voices shouting excitedly; there came the well-remembered +shrilling of a whistle and then drowning its silver note the popping of +rifles. + +"There'll be a dozen of them in the saddle and after us!" Jim shouted +at Betty. "Swing off to the right. We've got to make for the +mountains. Ride, girl! Ride, Betty! Ride for all that's in it!" + +He glanced over his shoulder. Only a flare here and there as a rifle +spat its red threat, that and a blur of running figures. As yet no +horseman following them. That would take another minute or two. He +looked at Betty. She rode astride and well; no need to bid her make +haste. She leaned forward in the saddle, the loose ends of her reins +whipping back and forth regularly, lashing her horse's shoulders. He +looked ahead. There the mountains rose black and without detail +against the sky. He looked up; the stars were shining. + +Abruptly, as though at a command, the rifles ceased firing after them. +And, instead of the explosions which had concerned Kendric little, came +another sound fully to be expected by now and of downright serious +import. It was the scurry and race of hoofs, how many there was no +guessing. Pursuit had started and it was certain that the numbers of +the pursuers would swell swiftly until perhaps a score of Zoraida's +riders were on their track. Kendric settled down to hard riding, +drawing in close to Betty's side. + +"We got a couple of minutes on them," he called to her. "That means +we're ahead of them between a quarter and a half mile. In the dark +that's something." + +Betty made no answer. They sped on. He tried to see her face but her +hair was flying wildly. He wondered if her terror were freezing the +heart in her. His own sensation at the moment was one of a strange +sort of leaping gladness. After prison walls, this rushing through the +night was like a zestful game. He felt that he had that even break +which was ever all that he asked. If only Betty could feel as he did. + +His horse stumbled and then steadied and plunged on. The ground +underfoot was rapidly growing steeper and more broken. The first +slopes of the mountains were beneath them. The horses, though urged +on, were not making their former speed. Now and then dry brush +snatched and whipped at the stirrups; here and there a pine tree stood +up black and still. + +And then Kendric knew that the riders behind were gaining on them. +Zoraida's men would know every trail even in the dark, would know all +of the cleared spaces, would thus avoid both brush and steeps. Kendric +turned in the saddle. He made out dimly the foremost of the pursuers +and heard the man's shout to his companions. + +"Betty," called Kendric. + +"Yes?" she answered, and it struck him that perhaps he had imagined her +terror greater than it actually was; for her voice was quite clear and +even sounded untroubled. "What is it?" + +"In ten minutes or so they'll overhaul us. They know the way and we +don't. Further, we're apt to get a spill over a pile of rocks." + +"Yes, Jim," she answered. And still her voice failed to tremble as he +had thought it must. + +"The old dodge is all that's left us," he told her. "When I say the +word, pull up a little and slide out of the saddle. Let your horse run +on and you duck into the brush." + +"And you?" + +"I'm with you, of course." And presently, when they were in the +shadows of the ever-steepening mountain side, he called softly: "Now!" + +Until then he had never done Betty's horsemanship justice. He saw her +bring her mount down from a flying gallop to a sliding standstill, he +saw her throw herself from the saddle, he saw the released animal +plunge on again under a blow from the quirt which Betty had snatched +from the horn, the whole act taking so little time that it hardly +seemed that the horse had stopped for a second's time. Kendric +duplicated her act and ran toward the spot where she had disappeared. +In another moment his hand had closed about hers, was greeted by a +little welcoming squeeze, and he and Betty slipped side by side into +the thicker dark at the mouth of a friendly cañon. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +OF FLIGHT, PURSUIT, AND A LAIR IN THE CLIFFS + +Straightway Jim Kendric began to understand the real Betty. He broke a +way through the bushes for her, confident that the noise of their +progress was lost in the increasing beat of hoofs and rattle of loose +stones. They stumbled into a rocky trail in the bottom of the cañon +and made what haste they could, climbing higher into the mountain +solitudes. The pursuit had swept by them; they could hear occasional +shouts and twice gunshots. They came to a pile of tumbled boulders +across their path and crawled up. There was a flattish place at the +top in which stunted plants were growing. Here they sat for a little +while, hiding and resting and listening. Hardly had they settled +themselves here when they heard again the clear tones of Zoraida's +whistle. Not more than fifty yards away they made out the form of +Zoraida's white horse. + +There was a little sound from where Betty sat, and Jim thought that she +was sobbing. "Poor little kid," he had it on his lips to mutter when +the sound repeated itself and, amazed, he recognized it for a giggle of +pure delight. This from Betty, sitting on a rock in the mountains with +a crowd of outlaws riding up and down seeking her! + +"You're about as logical an individual as I ever knew," was what he +said. And with a grunt, at that. + +"I never claimed to be logical," retorted Betty. "I'm just a girl." + +Even then, while they whispered and fell silent and watched and +listened, he began to understand the girl whom he was to come to know +very well before many days. She did not pretend at high fearlessness; +when she was afraid she was very much afraid, and had no thought to +hide the fact. Tonight her fright had come as near killing as fright +can. But then she was alone and there was no one but herself to make +the fight for her. Now it was different. Since Jim had come she had +allowed her own responsibility to shift to his shoulders. It was +instinctive in her to turn to some man, to have some man to trust and +to depend upon. Jim was looking out for her and right now, while +Zoraida and her men searched up and down, Betty clasped her arms about +her gathered-up knees and sat cozily at the side of the man whose sole +duty, as she saw it, was to guard her with his life. So Betty, close +enough to touch the rifle across Jim's arm, could giggle as she +pictured Zoraida rushing by the very spot where they hid. + +"You're not afraid, then?" asked Jim. + +"Not now," whispered Betty. + +They did not budge for half an hour. During that time Kendric did a +deal of hard thinking. Their plight was still far from satisfactory. +No food, no water, no horses, and in the heart of a land of which they +know nothing except that it was hard and bleak and closely patrolled by +Zoraida's riders. That they could succeed now in eluding pursuit for +the rest of the night seemed assured. But tomorrow? Where there was +one man looking for them now there would be ten tomorrow. And there +were the questions of food and water. Above all else, water. + +At last, when it was very still all about them, they moved on again. +They climbed over the rocks and further up the cañon. Here there were +more trees and thicker darkness, and their progress was painfully slow. +They skirted patches of thorny bushes; they went on hands and knees up +sharp inclines. They stopped frequently, panting and straining their +ears for some sound to tell them of a pursuer; they went on again, side +by side or with Kendric ahead, breaking trail. + +"We'll have to dig in somewhere before dawn," said Jim once while they +rested. "Where we can stick close during daylight tomorrow." + +Betty merely nodded; all such details were to be left to him. It was +his clear-cut task to take care of her; just how he did it was not +Betty's concern. So they went on, left the cañon where there was a way +out, made their toilsome way over a low ridge and slid and rolled down +into the next ravine. And here, at the bottom, they found water. A +thin trickle from a spring, wending its way down to the larger stream +in the valley. They lay down, side by side, and drank. Then they sat +back and looked at each other in the starlight. + +"Betty," said Jim impulsively, "you're a brick!" + +"Am I?" said Betty. And by her voice he knew that she was pleased. + +"We're not as far from the house as I'd like," he said presently. "But +it will take time to locate a decent hiding place, and we've got to +stick within reach of water." + +To all of this Betty agreed; personally she'd like to be a thousand +miles away from this hideous place, but they would have to make the +best of things. That willingness of hers to accept conditions without +bemoaning her fate was what had drawn from him his impulsive epithet. + +"The thing to do, then," said Kendric, getting up "is to look for a +likely place to spend a long day. And it may be more than one day." + +Then Betty made her suggestion, offering it timidly, as though she were +entering a discussion in which, rightly, she had no part: + +"Up yonder," and she pointed to the abrupt ridge cutting black across +the stars, "are cliffy places. It's not too far from water. There +ought to be hiding places among the broken boulders. And," she +concluded, "we might be able to peek out and look down and see what was +happening." + +No; he had not done her justice. He looked toward her, wondering for a +moment. Then he said briefly: "Right," and they drank again and began +climbing. + + +It was Betty who, fully an hour later, found the retreat which they +agreed to utilize. Kendric was somewhere above her, making a hazardous +way up a steep bit of cliff, when Betty's voice floated up to him. + +"I think I've got it," were her words, guarded but athrill with her +triumph. "Come see. It's a great hole, hid by bushes. I don't like +to go poking into it alone. You can't tell, there might be a bear or a +snake or something inside." + +He climbed down to where she stood at the edge of a little level space, +her gown gathered in a hand at each side, her pretty face thrust +forward as she sought to peer into the dark before her. He saw the +clump of bushes but not immediately the hole of which she spoke, so was +it covered and hidden. But at length he made out the irregular opening +and, thrusting the bushes aside with his rifle barrel, judged that +Betty had done well. Here was a perpendicular cleft in the rock, one +of those cracks which not infrequently result from the splitting of +gigantic masses of rock along a well-defined flaw. In some ancient +convulsion this fissure had developed, the two monster fragments of the +mountain had been divided, one had slipped a little, and thereafter +through the ages they had stood face to face, close together. Kendric +could barely squeeze his body through; he found the space slanting off +to the side; he groped forward half a dozen steps, encountered an +outjutting knob of stone, slipped by it, and found that the split in +the cliff now slanted off the other way and widened so that there was a +space five or six feet across. How far ahead the fissure extended he +could form no idea yet. He turned back for Betty and bumped into her +just inside the entrance. + +"It's just the place for us tonight," he said. "Though how in the +world you stumbled onto it gets me." + +"The bushes grew close to the rocks," Betty explained. "I was thinking +that we could creep back of them and find a little space where, with +the brush on one side and the cliff on the other, we'd be hidden. And +I found this hole." + +"The air gets in and it's clean and fresh," he went on. "We couldn't +hope for better." + +"The walls are so close," whispered Betty, with a little shudder. +"They give one the feeling they're going to press in and crush you." + +"They widen a bit in a minute." He groped on ahead, came again to the +outthrust knob and pressed by. "Here we turn a little to the right and +here's room for a dozen people." + +Betty hurried and stood close to him. In vain her eyes sought to +penetrate the absolute dark; no slightest detail of floor or wall was +offered save vaguely through the sense of touch. + +"It's dark enough to smother you," she whispered. "I wonder what's +ahead of us? I wish we dared have a light!" + +He was silent a moment. + +"Maybe we do dare," he said thoughtfully. "The crookedness of this +place ought to shut off any glow from the outside. Let's go on a +little further and we'll try." + +He went on slowly, feeling a cautious way with his feet, his hand on +the wall of rock at his side, Betty pressing on close behind him. Thus +they continued another dozen paces or so. Then they stopped because +they could find no means of continuing; so far as they could tell by +groping with their hands the fissure narrowed again until it was no +wider than the original entrance, and its irregularities presented +difficulties to blind progress. + +"Stand here," said Kendric. "Close to the rock. Here's a match. I'll +slip back to the mouth of the place and we'll see if there's any glow +gets that far." + +"Hurry, then," said Betty, with a little shiver, fingers finding his +and taking the match. + +Appreciating her sensations he hurried off through the dark. He +rounded the turn, called softly to her to strike the match and went on +again until he was near the entrance. So still was it that he heard +the scratching of the match against the sole of her sandal. But no +flare of light came out to him. + +"Did you light it?" he asked. + +"Yes. Couldn't you see it?" + +"Not a glimmer. Wait a minute and I'll bring in some stuff for a fire." + +The match burned down until it warmed her fingers and went out. In the +dark she waited breathlessly. A sigh of relief escaped her when she +heard him coming. + +He went down on his knees and made a very small heap of the dry leaves +and twigs he had scraped up. When he set fire to it and straightened +up they watched the flames eagerly. There was scarcely more light than +a candle casts but even that faint illumination brought something of +cheeriness with it. They looked about them curiously. They could see +dimly the passageway along which they had come; they could make out its +narrowing continuation on into the mass of the mountain. They looked +up and saw an ever dwindling space merging with darkness and finally +lost in utter obscurity. Underfoot was debris, rocky soil worn away +from the cliffs throughout the ages, here and there fallen slivers and +scale of rock. Shadows moved somberly, misshapen and grotesque, like +brooding spirits of evil stirring in nightmare. + +Kendric threw on a little more fuel and, to make doubly sure, went +outside again, standing in the open beyond the fringe of bushes. + +"Never a flicker gets through," he announced when he returned. "A man +would have to come close enough to hear the wood crackle or smell the +smoke to ever guess we had a fire going. And even the smoke is taken +care of." They tilted back their heads to see how it crept lazing up +and up until it was dissipated among the lofty shadows. "If we can +manage water and food," he went on, "I think we would be safe here a +year. The lazy devils taking Zoraida's pay can't make it up this way +on horseback, and they're not going to climb on foot up every steep bit +of mountainside hereabouts, looking for us." + +"A year?" gasped Betty. + +"I hope not." He became conscious of a sudden sense of relief after +all that the night had offered and his old joyous laughter shone in his +eyes. "But there may be wisdom in sticking close for a few days. +Until they decide we've gone clear." + +It was the time, inevitable though it may be long delayed, of relaxing +nerves and muscles. Betty sat down limply, her hands loose in her tap, +her eyes drawn to their fire, looking tired and wistful. Kendric, +looking at her, felt a hot rush of anger at Zoraida for being the cause +of their present condition. Betty lifted her head and caught the +expression molding his face. She was wrapped about with her red gown +and Zoraida's cloak; her ankles were bare; then were scratches on them; +her sandals looked already worn out; her hair was tumbled and snarled. +She shook it loose and began combing it through with her fingers, then +twisting it up into two loose brown braids. + +"If we do have to stay a while," said Betty, gathering her courage in +both hands, looking up at him an managing a smile, "I'll show you how I +can cozy the place up. Tomorrow, while you're doing the man's part and +finding us something to eat, I'll show you what a housekeeper I can be. +Why, I can make this just like home; you'll see." + +While he was doing the man's part! In her mind, then, it was all +simplified and reduced to that. His, naturally, was to be the task of +furnishing food, for nothing was clearer than that they must eat and +that filling the larder was Jim's affair and not Betty's. Where he was +to get food and how and what kind of food it might be was to be left to +him. There was Betty for you, quite content to leave such matters +where they properly belonged--in a man's hands. But he might rest +assured that whatever he brought in, be it a handful of acorns or pine +nuts or the carcass of a lean ground squirrel, would be, in Betty's +eye, splendid! + +"Somehow," he burst out, "in spite of Zoraida and all the bandits in +Mexico, we'll carry on!" + +"Of course," said Betty. + +He saw that she was leaning back against the rocks, that her whole body +drooped, that she looked wearied out. + +"I'm going out for some boughs, the softest I can find handy," he said. +"We'll have to sleep on them. And while I'm doing that I've got to +figure out a way to bring some water up here. We don't know what's +ahead and we'd be in hard luck bottled up here all day tomorrow with +nothing to drink. Lord, I'd give a lot for a tin bucket!" + +He made a little heap of dead wood close to her hand so that she could +keep her fire going, and put down on the other side of her his rifle +and the long obsidian knife, planning to use his pocket knife for the +work at hand. + +"You won't go far?" asked Betty. + +"Only a few steps," he assured her. "I'll hear if you call. And you +have the rifle handy." + +He was going out when Betty's voice arrested him. + +"It's the housekeeper's place to have the buckets ready," was what she +said. + +"What do you mean by that?" he asked. + +"I'll show you when you come back. You'll hurry, won't you?" + +"Sure thing," he answered. And went about his task. + +Now Jim Kendric knew as well as any man that there is no bed to compare +with the bed a man may make for himself in the forestlands. But here +was no forest, no thicket of young firs aromatic and springy, nothing +but the harsher vegetation of a hard land where agaves, the _maguey_ of +Mexico, and their kin thrive, where the cactus is the characteristic +growth. He'd be in luck to find some small pines or even the +dry-looking sparse cedars of the locality. These with handfuls of dry +leaves and grass, perhaps some tenderer shoots from the hillside sage, +with Zoraida's cloak spread over them, might make for Betty a couch on +which she could manage to sleep. It was too dark for picking and +choosing and his range was limited to what scant growth found root on +these uplands close by. + +When he returned with the first armful of branches he informed Betty +cheerily that outside her fire was hidden as though a sturdy oak panel +shut their door for them. Betty was bending busily over her cloak and +still thus occupied when he brought in the second and third trailing +armful of boughs. He stood with his hands on his hips, looking down at +her curiously. And as at last Betty glanced up brightly there was an +air of triumph about her. + +"The bucket is ready for the water," she said. + +He came closer and she held out something toward him, and again he +adjusted his views to fit the companion whom he was growing to know. +She had spoiled a very beautiful and expensive cloak, but of it she had +improvised something intended to hold water. Not for very long, +perhaps; but long enough for the journey here from the creek, if a man +did not loiter on the way. With the ancient sacrificial knife she had +hacked at a stringy, fibrous bit of vegetation growing near the mouth +of their den; she had managed a tough loop some eight or ten inches in +diameter. Then she had ripped a square of silk from the cloak which +she had shaped cunningly like a deep pocket, binding it securely into +the fiber rim by thrusting holes through the silk and running bits of +the green fiber through like pack thread. The final result looked +something less like a bucket than some strange oriole's hanging nest. + +"It _will_ hold water," vowed Betty, ready for argument. "I've worn +bathing caps of a lot poorer grade of silk and never a drop got +through. Besides I put a thickness of silk, then a layer of these +broad leaves, then another piece of silk, to make sure." + +"Fine," he said. "Yes, it will hold water for a while. But it's a +long time from daylight until dark, and I'm afraid----" + +"As if I hadn't thought of that!" said Betty. "I knew that if I looked +around I'd find something. I thought of your boots, of course; and I +thought of your rifle barrel. But you'll need the boots and may need +the gun. Come and I'll show you our reservoir." + +She put a handful of leaves and twigs on the fire for the sake of more +light, and led the way toward the narrowing fissure further back in +their retreat. Here she stopped before a great rudely egg-shaped +boulder five or six feet through that lay in a shallow depression in +the ground. + +"Our water bottle," said Betty. + +He supposed that she referred to the depression in the rock floor, +since the boulder did not fit in it so exactly as to preclude the +possibility of the big rude basin holding water. The word +"evaporation" was on his lips when Betty explained. She had hoped to +find somewhere a cavity in a rock that would hold their water supply; +she had noted this boulder and a flattish place at its top. There her +questing fingers had discovered what Kendric's, at her direction, were +exploring now. There was a fairly round hole, a couple of inches +across. The edges were surprisingly smooth; Kendric could not guess +how deep the hole was. + +"Poke a stick into it," Betty commanded. + +Obeying, he learned that the hole extended eighteen inches or more. +Here was a fairly regular cylinder let into a block of hard rock that +would contain something like two quarts of water--certainly enough to +keep the life in two people for twenty-four hours. + +"We'll make a plug to fit into the mouth of it," he said, catching her +idea and immediately was as enthusiastic over it as Betty. "And while +we're out getting the water we'll find something for straws. There are +wild grasses, oats or something that looks like oats, in the cañon." + +The night was well spent; dawn would come early. And with the dawn, +they had no doubt, the mountain trails would fill with Zoraida's men, +questing like hounds. Hence Betty and Jim lost no more time in making +their trip down the steep slope to the trickle of water. They drank +again, lying side by side at a pool. Then Jim filled Betty's "bucket" +and they returned to their place of refuge. Kendric arranged the +boughs for Betty and made her lie down. By the time he had carved and +fitted a plug into their "water bottle" Betty was asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +HOW ONE WHO HIDES AND WATCHES MAY BE WATCHED BY ONE HIDDEN + +But Kendric himself did not sleep. He sat by their dead fire and +watched the gradual thinning of the darkness about him as the vague +light filtered in from the awakening outside world. He looked at Betty +sleeping, only to look away with a frown darkening his eyes. She would +sleep heavily and long; she would awake refreshed and--hungry. He was +hungry already. + +"It's open and shut," he told himself. "It's up to me to forage." + +And it was as clear that there was always a risk of being seen as he +left their hiding place. That risk would increase as the day +brightened. Hence, since he must go, it were best not to tarry. He +found in his pocket a stub of pencil and an old envelope. On it he +wrote a brief message, placing it on the ground near her outflung hand, +laying Bruce's pistol upon it. + + +"I'm off to fill the larder. Stick close until I come back. If I'm +long gone it will be because I can't help it. But be sure I'll be back +all right and bring something to eat. Jim." + + +He left her, not without uneasiness, but eager to hurry away so that, +if all went well, his return might be hastened. He took the rifle and +slipped cautiously through the bushes, stopping to make what assurance +he could that he was not being seen, crawling for the most part across +the open places, keeping as much as possible where boulders or trees +hid him. He had already made his tentative plans; he made his way down +into the bed of the ravine and thence upstream. Swiftly the light +increased over the still solitudes. The sun was up on the highlands, +the cañons only were still dusky. + +He found a place where he could stand hidden and see the cliff-broken +slope where Betty was. Here he stood motionless for a long time, +watching. For he knew that if by chance someone had seen him and had +not followed it was because that someone had elected rather to seek the +girl. At last, when the stillness remained unbroken and he saw no +stirring thing, he expressed his relief in a deep sigh and went on. + +His plan was to work his way up the ravine until at last he topped the +ridge and went down on the further side. From his starting place he +had roughly picked out his way, shaping his trail to conform to those +bits of timber which would aid in his concealment. Once over the ridge +he would press on until several miles lay between him and Betty. Then, +if he saw game of any sort or a straying calf or sheep, he would have +to take the chance that a rifle shot entailed. If his shot brought +Zoraida's men down on him, he would have to fight for it or run for it +as circumstances directed. + +He was an hour in cresting the first ridge. Before him lay a wild +country, broken and barren in places where there were wildernesses of +rock and thorny bush; in other places scantily timbered and grown up in +tough grasses. A more unlikely game country he thought that he had +never seen. But the land hereabouts was not utterly devoid of water +and always, as he went on, he sought those cañons where from a distance +he judged that he might come to a spring. Even so he was parched with +thirst before he found the first mudhole. And before he drew near +enough to drink he sat many minutes screened by some dusty willows, his +eye keen either for watering game or for Zoraida's hirelings who would +be watching the waterholes. + +But, when at last he came on, he found nothing but a jumble of tracks. +Ponies had watered here and had trampled the spring into its present +resemblance to a mudhole. He found a place to drink, and drank +thirstily, finding no fault with the alkali water or the sediment in +it. He washed his hands and face in it, wet his hair and went on. + +There came three more spurs of mountain to cross, all unlikely for +game, each one hotter and dryer than the others. Twice he had seen a +coyote; he had seen two or three gaunt, hungry-looking jackrabbits. +They had been too far away to draw a shot, gray glimmers through +patches of sage. He had seen never a hoof of wandering cattle. And he +realized that during the heat of the day there was small hope of his +sighting any browsing animal. He would probably have to wait until the +cool of evening and then, if he made his kill, return to Betty in the +dark. And, though he keenly kept his bearings, he knew that if he +mistook a landmark somewhere and got into a wrong cañon, he'd have his +work cut out for him finding her at night. Well, that was only a piece +of the whole pattern and he kept his mind on the immediate present. + +He estimated that he was ten miles from camp. Ahead of him stretched +still another ridge, a little higher than the others but a shade less +barren; there were scattered pines and oaks and open grassy places. +From the top of this ridge, half an hour later, he glimpsed a haze of +smoke rising from the little valley just beyond. And when he came to a +place whence he could have an unobstructed view he saw a scattering +flock of sheep, a tiny stream of water and a rickety board shack. It +was from this shelter that the smoke rose. It was high noon and down +there the midday meal was cooking. + +Food being cooked right under his nose! All day he had been hungry; +now he was ravenous. So strong was the impulse upon him that he +started down the slope in a direct line to the house, bent upon +flinging open a door and demanding to be fed. But he caught himself up +and sat down in the shade, hidden behind some bushes, and pondered the +situation. The sheep straggled everywhere; he might wait for one of +them to wander off into the bushes and then slip around upon it and +make it his own with a clubbed rifle. Or he might go to the house, +taking his chance. + +While he was waiting and watching he saw a man come out of the cabin. +The fellow lounged down to the spring for a pan of water and lounged +back to the house; the eternal Mexican cigaret in his lips sent its +floating ribbon of smoke behind him. Ten minutes later the same man +came out, this time to lie down on the ground under a tree. + +"Just one _hombre_," decided Kendric. "A lazy devil of a sheepherder. +There's more than a fair chance that his _siesta_ will last all +afternoon." + +At any rate, here appeared his even break. He sprang up, went with +swinging strides down the slope, taking the shortest cut, and reached +the cabin by the back door. The Mexican still lay under his tree. +Kendric looked in at the door. No one there, just a bare, empty untidy +room. It was bedroom, kitchen and dining-room. In the latter capacity +it appealed strongly to Kendric. He went in, set his rifle down, and +rummaged. + +There was, of course, a big pot of red beans. And there were +_tortillas_, a great heap of them. Kendric took half a dozen of them, +moistened them in the half pan of water and poured a high heap of beans +on them. Then he rolled the tortillas up, making a monster cylindrical +bean sandwich. A soiled newspaper, with a look almost of antiquity to +it, he found on a shelf and wrapped about his sandwich which he thrust +into the bosom of his shirt. All of this had required about two +minutes and in the meantime his eyes had been busy, still rummaging. + +There was a box nailed to the wall with a cloth over it. In it he +found what he expected; a lot of jerked beef, dry and hard. He filled +his pockets, his mouth already full. On a table was a flour sack; he +put into it the bulk of the remaining beef, some coffee and sugar, a +couple of cans of milk. Then he looked out at the Mexican. The man +still lay in the gorged torpor of the afternoon _siesta_. + +"What will he think?" chuckled Kendric, "when he finds his larder +raided and this on the table?" + +_This_ was a twenty dollar gold piece, enough to pay many times over +the amount of the commandeered victuals. Kendric took up sack and +rifle, had another mouthful of _frijoles_ and beef, and went out the +way he had come. And, all the way up the slope, he chuckled to himself. + +"Enough to last Betty and me a week," he estimated. "And a place to +get more if need be. That hombre will pray the rest of his life to be +raided again.--And never a shot fired!" + +He ate as he went, enough to keep life and strength in him but not all +that his hunger craved. For he thought of Betty hungering and waiting +in that hideous loneliness of uncertainty, and had no heart for a +solitary meal. But in fancy, over and over, he feasted with her, and +beans and jerked beef and coffee boiled in a milk-can made a banquet. + +He hastened all that he could to return to her, though he knew that +speeding along the trail could hardly bring him to her a second +earlier. For he would, in the end, be constrained to wait for the +coming of night before he climbed again to their camp. He realized +soberly that Betty must not again fall into Zoraida's hands; that the +result, inevitably, would be her death. Were Zoraida mad or sane, she +was filled with a frenzy of blood lust. There was danger enough +without his increasing it for the sake of coming an hour sooner with +food. In one day Betty would not starve and fast she must. + +But there was satisfaction in drawing steadily closer to her. He +traveled as cautiously as he had come, he stopped in many places of +concealment whence he could overlook miles of country, he followed not +the shortest paths but the safest. And the sun was still high when he +came to the last ridge and looked down the cañon and across and saw the +cliffs of home. In his thoughts it was home. + +All day long, save for the herder, he had seen not a single soul. Now +he saw someone, a man at a distance and upon the side of the cañon +opposite the spot he and Betty had chosen. Kendric had been for ten +minutes lying under a tree on the ridge, his body concealed by an +outcropping ledge of rock over which he had been looking. The man, +like himself, was playing a waiting game. But just now he had stirred, +moving swiftly from behind a tree to a nearby boulder. Thus he had +caught Kendric's eye. And thus Kendric was reassured, confident after +the first quick sinking of his heart, that the other had not seen him. + +The man, too far away for Kendric to distinguish detail of either +costume or features, was hardly more than a slinking shadow. But +almost with the first glimpse there came the quick suspicion that it +was Ruiz Rios. He saw something white in the man's hand; a +handkerchief since the gesture was one of wiping a wet forehead. And +on that slender evidence Kendric's belief established itself. +Zoraida's vacqueros would not carry white handkerchiefs; if they +carried any sort at all they would probably be red or yellow or blue; +or, if white originally, they would not be kept so snowy as to flash +like that one. And the gesture itself, once the thought had come to +him, was vaguely suggestive of that slow grace in every movement that +was Rios's. The man might be anyone, conceivably even Barlow or Brace; +but in his heart Kendric knew it was Rios. + +Lower than ever Kendric crouched in the shelter of the rock; steady and +unwinking and watchful did his eyes cling to the distant figure. He +made out after a long period of motionlessness another gesture; the +man's hands were up to his face; he was shading his eyes or studying +the mountainside with field glasses. + +The latter probably. + +The afternoon dragged on and for a long time neither man moved. At +last Rios, if Rios it was, withdrew a little, slipped behind a tree, +passed to another and disappeared. Kendric did not see him again +though he kept alert every instant. At last came the time when the sun +slipped down behind the ridge and the dusk thickened and the stars came +out. Kendric rose, stiff and weary, and began his slow, tedious way +down into the cañon. His long enforced stillness during which he had +not dared doze a second, had served to bring a full realization of +bodily fatigue and need of sleep. No rest last night; today many hard +miles and little nourishment; now every nerve yearned for a safe return +to camp for a sight of Betty, for the opportunity to throw himself down +on a bed of boughs and rest. + +Though it was dark when he started to climb the steep toward camp he +relaxed nothing of his guarded precautions. Urged by impatience as he +was, eager to know if all was well with Betty, his uneasiness for her +growing with every step toward her, he crawled slowly and silently +through bushes and among boulders, he stopped frequently and listened, +he forced himself to a round about way rather than take the direct. +All this in spite of his keen realization that for Betty the time must +be dragging even as it dragged for him. Betty hungry, frightened and +lonely was, above all, uncertain. + +But at last he came to the opening in the rocks. He squeezed through, +his heart suddenly heavy within him as the stillness of the place smote +him like a positive assurance that Betty was gone. He went on, his +teeth set hard. If Betty were gone, by high heaven, there would be a +rendering of accounts! And then, even before the first glimmer of her +little fire reached him, he heard her glad cry. She came running to +meet him, her two hands out, groping for his. And he dropped rifle and +provision bag and in the half dark his hands found hers and gripped +hard in mighty rejoicing. + +"Thank God!" said Betty. + +And Jim Kendric's words were like a deep, fervent echo: "Thank God." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +IN WHICH A ROCK MOVES, A DISCOVERY IS MADE AND + MORE THAN ONE AVENUE IS OPENED + +In the light of Betty's fire Jim hastily poured forth the contents of +his bag and never did a child's eyes at Christmas time shine like +Betty's. She had hungered until she was weak and trembling and now +such articles as Jim displayed were amply sufficient to elicit from her +that little cry of delight. Tortillas and beans, meat and coffee and +sugar and milk--it was a banquet fit for a king and a queen! + +"The only thing," cautioned Kendric, "is to go slow. It's a course +dinner, Miss Betty. And first comes a bit of milk." + +He ripped open a can with his pocket knife, poured out half of the +thick contents into the silk-water bag and diluted the remainder with +water. Thereafter he watched Betty while she forced herself, at his +bidding, to eat and drink sparingly. And he noted that during his +absence she had been busy working on her wardrobe. Using both the red +garment and the cloak, employing in her task the obsidian knife and +strips of green fiber, she had made for herself a garment which it +would have been hard to classify and yet which was astonishingly +becoming. As much as anything Kendric had ever seen it resembled a +stylish and therefore outlandish riding habit. She wore Zoraida's +shoes and stockings. + +"I washed them with sand and water first," said Betty around a corner +of her sandwich. "And I let them air all day." + +"No visitors?" said Kendric. "No sign of anyone on our trail?" + +Betty assured him that she had been unmolested, that the terrible +stillness of the mountain had been unbroken. And she sought to tell +him how long the day had been. + +"I know," he said. "It was long enough for me, and I was out in the +open and stirring. It must have been a slice of torment for you here +alone all day, not even knowing if I'd ever get back or have any food +when I came." + +"I knew you'd come," said Betty. "But it was lonesome and shivery." + +He told her of his day and finally of the man he had seen across the +cañon. Further, of his suspicion that it was Ruiz Rios. Betty +shuddered. + +"He is a terrible creature," she said. "I'd rather it was anyone else. +Do you think he has an idea we're here?" + +He stretched out by the fire, helped himself to a bit of the dried beef +and told her his thoughts. + +"I know just about how Rios would reason things out. And, oddly +enough, it strikes me that though he began with a false premise he has +come pretty close to reaching the right conclusion. You see, he knows +that I came down here with Barlow looking for treasure. He knew +Captain Escobar was ahead of him on the same trail and when he could +get nothing further out of Escobar he killed him. But he did know in a +general way where we expected to find the stuff. So, when you and I +skip out and don't head straight back to the gulf, he's pretty sure I'm +still making a stab at getting the treasure. And it has happened that +you and I, blundering along in the dark, have hit on this spot which is +not far from the place where the treasure is supposed to be. So Rios +hides in the brush with a pair of glasses and keeps his eye peeled for +us. I think that's the whole explanation of his being out yonder. And +I think that's all he knows." + +"It's enough." Betty shook her head dubiously. + +"Of course," he admitted, "this is just a guess on my part. He may +know more than I think.--During the day," he added, "and just now while +I lay out yonder waiting for dark, I've had a lot of time to think +things out. First, it strikes me as best to hide out here one more day +and then, tomorrow night, to make a break for the outside. Personally, +I don't know that I'd be fit for much tonight; it's a good stiff hike +to where we left the _Half Moon_ and I won't be able to keep awake much +longer. Then by tomorrow night, even if Zoraida is as keen as ever to +get us back, I doubt if her men's enthusiasm for vigilance will have +lasted at the first heat. There'll be a better chance for us to slip +through." + +Here, again, the responsibility in Betty's way of thinking was his and +she accepted his plan without challenge. + +"Another thing I've been thinking of," he went on, "is that queer, +smooth hole in that boulder; where we've our water stored. What have +you made of it?" + +"A reservoir," she answered lightly, her spirits risen swiftly with his +coming and a taste of food. "What else?" + +"Rios is hard set in his belief that there's ancient treasure nearby. +So is Barlow. So, evidently, was Escobar. If so, what more likely +place than where we are? That hole didn't make itself after that +regular fashion. I don't see just what it has to do with the case, +I'll admit. But somebody made it a long time ago and didn't do it just +for the fun of the job. I've a notion that it has its bearing on the +thing. Somehow." + +"It isn't big enough to hold much treasure," said Betty. "Maybe they +didn't finish it?" + +But from this they went to other matters. Kendric merely decided that +while they spent a long tomorrow of inaction he would look into the +matter. There was no great temptation to tarry for treasure and the +incentive to be on the way, traveling light, was sufficiently +emphasized. But there was a quiet day to be put in tomorrow, if all +went right, and he was not the man to forget what had brought him +southward. + +"We'll both go to sleep," he said presently, "and not do any worrying +about what the other fellow may be doing. With our fire out and a lot +of dead limbs scattered about the entrance to crack under a man's foot, +they'll not surprise us tonight, even if they should know where we are. +Tomorrow we'll keep a watch over the ravine. And tomorrow night I hope +we'll be on the trail toward the gulf. Now do you want to slip out +with me for a goodnight drink of water? Or would you rather wait here +for me?" + +Betty was on her feet in a flash. + +"I've done enough waiting today to last me the rest of my life!" she +cried emphatically. "I'll go with you." + + +So again, and as cautious as they had been last night, they made their +way down the steep slope and drank in the starlight. They tarried a +little by the trickle of water, heeding the silence, breathing deep of +the soft night, lifting their eyes to the stars. The world seemed +young and sweet about them, clean and tender, a place of infinite peace +and kindness rather than of a pursuing hate. They stood close +together; their shoulders brushed companionably. Together they +hearkened to a tiny voice thrilling through the emptiness, the +monotonous vibrating cadences of some happy insect. The heat of the +day had passed with the day, the perfect hour had come. It was one of +those moments which Jim Kendric found to his liking. Many such still +hours had he known under many skies and out of the night had always +come something vague and mighty to speak to something no less mighty +which lay within his soul. But always before, when he drank the fill +of a time like this, he had been alone. He had thought that a man must +be alone to know the ineffable content of the solitudes. Tonight he +was not alone. And yet more perfect than those other hours in other +lands was this hour slipping by now as the tiny voice out yonder +slipped through the silence without shattering it. Certain words of +his own little song crept into his mind. + + "Where it's only you + And the mountainside." + +That "you" had always been just Jim Kendric. After this, if ever again +he sang it, the "you" would be Betty. + +"Shall we go back?" he asked quietly. + +He saw Betty start. Her eyes came back from the stars and sought his. +He could see them only dimly in the shadow of her hair, but he knew +they were shining with the gush of her own night-thoughts. They +scooped up their water then and went back up the mountain. Their fire +was almost down and they did not replenish it. They went to their beds +of boughs and lay down in silence. Presently Jim said "Good night." +And Betty, the hush of the outside in her voice as she answered, said +softly "Good night." + + +They were astir before dawn. Fresh water must be brought before +daylight brightened in the cañons. This time Jim went alone to the +creek and when he got back Betty had their fire blazing. Betty made +the breakfast, insisting on having her free unhampered way with it. + +"There are some things I can do," said Betty, "and a great many I +can't. It happens that I know what things are beyond me and those that +are within the scope of my powers. One thing that I can do is cook. +And I have camped before now, if you please." + +So, when Jim had brought her firewood and had placed the various +articles of their larder handy for her and had offered his services +with jack-knife to open a can or hack through a bit of beef, he stood +back and fully enjoyed the sight of Betty making breakfast. He enjoyed +the prettiness of her in her odd costume of blouse, scarlet sash and +knickerbockers, silk stockings and high heeled slippers; the atmosphere +of intimacy which hovered over them, distilled in a measure from the +magic of a camp fire, certainly aided and abetted by the homey +arrangement of Betty's brown hair; the aroma of coffee beginning to +bubble in a milk tin; the fragrance of an inviting stew in the other +tin wherein were mingled _frijoles_ and "jerky." Ruiz Rios might lurk +around the next spur of the mountain; Zoraida might be inciting her +hirelings to fresh endeavor; much danger might be watching by the trail +which in time they would have to follow--but here and now, for the few +minutes at least, there was more of quiet enjoyment in their retreat +than of discomfort or of fear of the future. + +"Let's go camping some time," said Jim abruptly. "Just you and me. +We'll take a pack horse; we'll load him to the guards with the proper +sort of rations; we'll strike out into the heart of the California +sierra--where there are fine forests and little lakes and lonely trails +and peace over all of it." + +Betty looked at him curiously, then away swiftly. + +"Breakfast is ready," she announced. + +He sipped at his coffee absently; his eyes, looking past Betty, saw +into a hidden, cliff-rimmed valley in those other, fresher mountains +further north, glimpsed vistas down narrow trails between tall pines +and cedars and firs, fancied a lodge made of boughs on the shore of a +little blue lake. He'd like to show Betty this camping spot; he'd like +to bring in for her a string of gleaming trout; he'd like to lie on his +side under the cliffs and just watch her. He had whittled two sticks +for spoons; he ate his stew with his and forgot to talk. + +And Betty, watching him covertly, wondered astutely if over the first +meal she had cooked for him Jim Kendric wasn't readjusting his ancient +ideas of woman. For some hidden reason, or for no reason at all, her +silence was as deep as his. + +After breakfast, however, it was Betty who started talk. They sought +to plan definitely for tonight. Kendric told her of the way he and +Barlow had come, of the _Half Moon_ awaiting his and Barlow's return, +of his determination to make use of the schooner if they could come to +it. Barlow's plans were not at Kendric's disposal; the sailor might be +counting on the vessel and he might not. At any rate he and Betty +could slip down the gulf in it and either take ship at La Paz, sending +it back up the gulf then, or steer on to San Diego. Of course he would +seek to get in touch with Barlow; he could send a message of some sort. +But after all Barlow had taken the game into his own hands and had said +that it was now each man for himself. + +"We can make the trip during the night, if we can make the get-away," +he told her. "We'll have to take a roundabout way at first, edging the +valley along the foothills on this side until we're well past the ranch +house, then cut across the shortest way and pick up the trail on the +other side. We can take enough water in our milk tins to last us, +especially since we're traveling in the cool." + +"And if," suggested Betty, "the _Half Moon_ isn't there? Or if Zoraida +has set some of her men to watch for us there?" + +Naturally he had thought of that. If they came to the gulf and a new +problem of this sort offered itself, then it would be time to consider +it. + +"We'll just hope for the best," he answered, "and try to be ready for +what comes." + +Carefully they conserved each tiny fragment of food, using the flour +sack for cupboard. They went cautiously to the entrance of their +hiding place and for a long time crouched behind the bushes, watching +the cañon sides, seeking for a sign of Rios as they fancied Rios was +seeking them. And during the quiet hours they explored the place in +which they were. + +First they considered the odd hole in the big boulder, seeking to find +some logical reason for its being, asking themselves if it could have +any connection whatever with the ancient hidden treasure. Clearly it +was the result of human labor. Therefore it appeared to have its +relation to an older order of civilization since it was not conceivable +that a modern man had taken such a task upon himself. But its meaning +baffled. + +"It could be a sign, like a blazed tree or a cross scratched on a block +of stone," said Kendric. "But it could mean anything. Or nothing," he +was forced to admit. + +It was only in the late afternoon, after a long period of inactivity +and silence, that an inspiration came to Kendric. Meantime they had +poked into every crack and cranny, they had scraped at any loose dirt +on the ground, they had gone back and forth and up and down over every +square inch of the place repeatedly. And Kendric thought that he had +given up when the last idea came to him. He went quickly back to the +boulder. Betty watched him interestedly. + +"I thought we'd given that up," she said. + +He had both hands on the boulder, his fingers gripping the edge of the +baffling hole, and was seeking to shake the big block of rock. Betty +came to his side. + +"You think that it was made as a hand-hole? That you can turn the rock +over?" + +"It does move--just a little," he said. He put all of his strength +into a fresh attack. The boulder trembled slightly--that was all. + +"I'll bet you my half of the loot that I've got the hang of it, Miss +Betty," he announced triumphantly. + +"Wait and see." + +He began looking about him for something. + +"If I only dared slip outside for a minute," he said. Then his eye +fell on the rifle. "We'll have to make this do. I run a risk of +jamming the front sight but I guess we can fix that." + +He protected the sight as well as he could by wrapping his handkerchief +about it. The muzzle of the gun he thrust down into the hole in the +rock. + +"Get it now?" he asked. "If that hole wasn't made to allow a lever to +be inserted, then tell me what it _was_ made for. And here's even the +place to stand while a man uses it! I'll double the bet!" + +That excitement which always gets into any man's blood when he believes +that he is on the threshold of a golden discovery, already shone in his +eyes. He stepped to a sort of shelf in the cavern wall close to the +boulder, so that now his feet were on a level with the top of the rock +he meant to move. So he could just reach out and grasp the butt of the +rifle. Betty stood by, watching with an eagerness no less than his +own. Gradually he set his force at work on his lever, trying this way +and that. And then-- + +"It's moving!" cried Betty. "The rock is turning!" + +And now it turned readily, his leverage being ample to the task. + +"Look under the rock as it tips back," he told Betty. "See if there +isn't a hole under it. Big enough for a man to go through!" + +"Yes!" answered Betty after a breathless fashion. "Yes. A little +more. Oh, come see. It looks almost like steps going down!" + +"I'll have to force it back a little farther," he returned. "Maybe it +will balance there. If not we'll have to get loose stones and wedge +under it." + +He pried it further and further until at last it would not budge +another inch. He loosened his grip a trifle on the rifle-lever and the +rock began to settle back into its former place. But Betty had seen +and already was bringing fragments of stone to block under the edges. + +"Now," she called. "Come see." + +He jumped down; the boulder, wedged securely, lay on its side. He went +to Betty and from what they saw before them they looked into each +other's eyes wonderingly. + +"The tale was true," he said with conviction. "You and I have found +the way to the treasure." + +In the floor was an opening a couple of feet square. Very rude, uneven +steps led down, vanishing in a forbidding black dark. Kendric lay flat +and looked down. Little by little he could penetrate a bit further, +but in the end there lay a region of impenetrable darkness into which +the steps merged. + +"You're going down _there_!" gasped Betty. + +"_Am_ I?" he laughed. "You wouldn't want us to skip out tonight +without even having looked into it, would you?" + +"N-o." But she hesitated and even shuddered as she too lay down and +peered into the forbidding place. + +"We'll not take any chances we don't have to." He got up and began +immediately to make his few preparations. "Here's the rifle; I'll +leave it handy for you in case our friend Rios should surprise us. +I'll take a handful of stuff with me to burn for a torch. And we'll +have another look out into the cañon to begin with." + +He drew out the rifle and gave it to Betty. He placed other stones +with the ones she had slipped under the edges of the boulders. And +finally he went to look out into the cañon. + +"No one in sight," he reported. "And now, here goes." + +He sat down at the edge of the opening in the floor, set a match to his +crude torch, grinned comfortingly up at Betty and wriggled over and set +his foot to the first step. As he did so there came to him an +unpleasant memory of the fashion in which Zoraida had guarded her own +secret places with rattlesnakes; he wondered if any of the ugly brutes +lived down here? As it happened the thought had its influence in +saving him from mishap later. For, though he came upon no snakes, he +went warily and thus avoided another danger. + +His torch burnt vilely and smoked copiously. But what faint light it +afforded was sufficient. Step by step he went down until feet and legs +and then entire body were lost to Betty above; she had set the rifle +aside and was kneeling, her hands clasped in her excitement. Now she +could see only his head and the torch held high; he looked up and +smiled at her and waved the faggot. Then she saw only the dimly +burning fire and the hand clutching it. And dimmer and dimmer grew his +light until she strained her eyes to catch a glint of it and could not +tell if it were being extinguished for want of dean air or if he were +very, very far below her. + +"Jim!" she called. + +"All right," his voice floated back to her. + +He had reached the bottom of the stone stairway; his feet shifting back +and forth informed him that he was on a rock floor that was full of +inequalities and that pitched steeply ahead of him. His fire was +almost out, deteriorating into a mere smudge curling up from dying +embers. The air was bad, thick and heavy; breathing was difficult. He +looked up and made out the dim square by which Betty knelt. He could +go a little further without danger, since if the air grew worse he +could still turn and run back up the steps? The floor seemed to be +pitching still more steeply. Fearful of a precipice or a pit and a +fall, he went down on his hands and knees and crept on. Thus he held +his poor torch before him and thus he made a first discovery. The +smoke was drifting steadily into his face. And that meant a current of +air. + +Still crawling, he pressed forward eagerly, sniffing the air. But he +relaxed none of his caution; the floor underneath still pitched steeply +and, it seemed to him, grew steeper. Then his light began to brighten; +the embers glowed and when he blew on them, broke again into flame. He +looked up; he could not see the square of light above now. Evidently +he was passing into some sort of wide tunnel or lengthy chamber. Dimly +he could descry walls on either side of him. Ahead was only black +emptiness; underfoot the uneven floor seeming to grow smoother and to +slant still more abruptly downward. + +"I'd better go easy," he told himself grimly. "If a man started +sliding here I wonder where he'd land!" + +Decidedly the air was better. He filled his lungs and stopped where he +was, moving his torch above his head, lowering it, peering about him on +all sides. At last he made out that a dozen steps further on there was +a level space about which the walls were squared so as to give the +effect of a small room. He drew nearer step by step and again was +forced to kneel and then feel his way forward with his hands for the +floor under him grew steadily steeper so that it was difficult to keep +from sliding down the incline. When he saw his way sufficiently +clearly he did slide the last three or four feet. And now, as again +his torch flared and the air freshened in his nostrils, he saw that +which put an eager excitement in his blood. The small room had every +appearance of an ancient storeroom. He saw objects piled on the floor, +objects of strange designs, cups and pitchers and vessels of various +shapes. He caught one up and it was heavy. He clanked two together +and the mellow, bell-like sound had the golden note. + +"Solid gold," he muttered. And as something upon one of the +vessels--it was a drinking goblet of ornate design--caught the light +and shone back at him like imprisoned fire, "Encrusted with precious +stones!" + +He put the things down and looked further. There was a big chest. As +his foot struck it it burst asunder and tumbled its contents to the +floor. From the disordered heap there shone forth from countless +places the colorful glow of jewels. He passed to another chest, a +smaller one placed as in a position of honor upon a square tablet of +rock. He held his torch close and looked in; he thrust in his hand and +withdrew it filled with pearls. Even he, no connoisseur like Barlow, +would have staked his life on their genuineness. They were of many +sizes but more large ones among them than small; their soft, rich +loveliness dimmed even those of Zoraida's wearing. + +"A man could carry a million dollars out of here in his hands!" + +He went on. But what he held in his hand he thrust into his pocket as +he went. The remembrance of Zoraida's rattlesnakes came to him +abruptly. Thus he moved with renewed caution and thus he was saved +from a misadventure. For even so he almost stepped to a fall. Between +two heaps of tumbled articles was a square hole, sheer and black, +several feet across. He stooped over it. The air came up with a rush. +At first he could see only a little way. Then he made out that the +shaft went straight down only a few feet and then slanted away in a +great chute like the floor down which he had already come, only so much +steeper that he knew had he fallen there would have been no return +possible for him. To what eventual landing place would he have +plunged? For a moment or so his eyes strained in vain into the gloom. +Slowly faint and then growing detail rewarded him. It was but a small +section offered him because of the angling of the tunnel. But before a +watch could have ticked ten times he knew into what place he would have +fallen, into what regions his glance had penetrated. The light was dim +down yonder but he knew that he was looking down into the gardens of +the golden king of Tezcuco. + +"Another way into the hidden place, and one that Zoraida herself knows +nothing of," he thought. "If a man took this drop and then the slide, +he'd land with the breath jolted out of him but there is shrubbery to +fall on and it wouldn't kill him. But in there he'd stay! There would +be no climbing back up the slippery chute." + +He withdrew and looked about him again. Expecting pitfalls, he took no +single step without making sure first. He crossed the chamber and upon +the further side he came to a second pit and a second tunnel. This +like the first was steep and smooth; this also gave him a glint of +light at the further end. The light was dim; he made out that the +distant mouth of the tunnel was obscured by a tangle of brush and scrub +trees. + +"Another underground garden?" he wondered. "Or the outside world?" + +He filled his lungs with the air flowing upward. He fancied that it +had a fresher, sweeter smell, that there was the wholesomeness of +sunlight in it. + +"It would be a joke," was his quick thought, "if there were a way out +for us here while Rios watches the cañon above!" + + +It was then that there came to him, faint from far above, Betty's +scream. He whirled and ran. Again he heard her screams, echoing +wildly. As he stumbled on there came to him the muffled sound of a +rifle-shot. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +HOW ONE RETURNS UNWILLINGLY WHITHER HE + WOULD WILLINGLY ENTER BY ANOTHER DOOR + +Again and again as he ran Kendric shouted to Betty that he was coming. +Then at last, after an agony of fear and silence, he heard her call in +answer. He stumbled but ran on. When he came where he could see the +square of light marking the hole which led to the level where she was, +he caught his first glimpse of Betty. She was standing by the opening, +tense to the finger tips that were tight about the rifle. He sped up +the steps and to her side. And he was treated to the sight of Ruiz +Rios, lying white-faced on the floor, a hand at his shoulder and that +hand dyed red. Beside him, where it had fallen, was his revolver. + +"I--I shot him!" Betty gasped. + +"And serves him right," cried Kendric heartily. He took the gun from +her hands and strode over to Rios while, at last, Betty's face was +hidden by her shaking hands. "So you're on the job, are you?" + +Rios looked sick and miserable. But slowly, as he lifted his black +eyes to the man standing over him the old evil fires played in them. +He stirred a little and lay back. + +"My shoulder is broken," he groaned. + +"You're in luck to be alive," Kendric told him sternly. "What do you +want here?" + +"I'll bleed to death!" Quick fright sent a shiver through him. "For +the love of God stop the blood for me." + +Kendric could scarcely do less than look at the wound. Presently he +straightened up with a grunt of disgust. + +"It's only a flesh wound," he said coolly. "The bone isn't even +touched and it's a clean hole. You'll last for a lot of devilment yet." + +Rios sat up. He felt of his hurt with tender fingers and slowly the +fear went out of his look and his old craft and hate came back. + +"You've found the treasure--here," he said. "You will have to talk +with me before you touch it, señor." + +"You talk big, Rios," snapped Kendric angrily. "It strikes me that you +are just now in no position to dictate. You should thank your stars +if, presently, we let you go about your business. Whether or not we +have found treasure does not concern you." + +So intent was he upon Rios, so occupied with considering what was to be +done with him, that he did not note who it was who had come to stand in +the narrow cleft between them and the entrance from the cañon side. +But Betty, her hands dropping from her horrified face saw. + +"Oh," cried Betty. "We are lost!" + +Then he saw that following Rios had come Zoraida and that she stood and +looked at them, her eyes filled with mockery and triumph. + +"Who is it that speaks of what shall be done with that which rightfully +is Zoraida's?" she demanded, her voice ringing out boldly. "And you +two, who thought to escape me, I have you in a trap!" + +Kendric swung his rifle about so that the muzzle was towards her. His +eyes hardened. + +"If we have to shoot our way out of this, we're going free," he told +her shortly. + +Zoraida's only answer came quickly, unexpectedly, before he could step +forward. Her hand went to her bosom; out came her silver whistle; a +blast shrilled forth from it, loud and penetrating. + +"Twenty of my men, all armed, hear that," she said defiantly. "They +are just below. Listen and you will hear them coming." + +The sound, first of men's voices somewhere outside, then of rattling +stones under running feet, told that Zoraida spoke truly. Kendric +heard and for an instant was struck motionless with indecision. The +entrance was narrow and he could make a fight for it--there was Betty +to think of, behind him but in the path of glancing bullets--there was +Rios, wounded but treacherous--there was Zoraida--there was the +treasure below and he had no mind to see it snatched from under his +eyes-- + +Then the one chance presented itself to him, clear and imperative. + +"Rios," he commanded, "down you go through that hole or I swear to God +I'll blow your brains out! Quick! And Zoraida, you with him." He +sprang upon her and dragged her with him, shoving her toward the +opening in the floor. He took time then to whirl and fire one shot +along the narrow way which Zoraida's men must come, confident that they +would pause, if only for an instant. "Down, Rios. Down, Zoraida!" + +A sort of fury looked out of his eyes and even Betty drew back from him +fearfully. He grasped Rios by the shoulder and the Mexican seeing the +look in his eyes made no resistance. Had he fought back he would have +been killed and he knew it. He went down the steps. Zoraida would +have held back but again Kendric's hand, rough on her arm, sent her +forward and, rather than fall, she was forced to Rios's heels. Kendric +fired again along the cleft. Then he began knocking loose the stones +which held the lever-rock back. When only one stone kept the boulder +in place, he called sharply to Betty: + +"Down we go with them. Then I'll knock that stone out from below and +we'll have time to breathe before they come on us." + +"But," exclaimed Betty, "can we lift it again from below?" + +"God knows," he returned. "I think so. But I don't know that we'll +have to; I think there's another way out. Hurry." + +Voices were calling excitedly from without. Plainly the men taking +Zoraida's pay would in time steel themselves to making an entrance, but +just as plainly they saw death in store for some of them and hesitated. +It struck Kendric that their delay would give him time for one other +thing and that that other thing would mean much more time gained later +on. He scooped up handful after handful of dirt and poured it into the +lever-hole in the boulder, filling it even with the surface. Thus, it +would not be readily detected and might never be noted. Then, +snatching up his rifle and the bag of food, he ran down the steps with +Betty. A thrust with his rifle barrel, and a quick jerk back, knocked +the wedge stone free and saved him his gun. The boulder toppled back +into place; the stairway and tunnel below were plunged into absolute +darkness. + +Kendric caught Betty's hand. + +"This way," he told her. "It's straight going and no danger for a +while. Rios, Zoraida! Stand where you are and wait for us or I'll +start shooting wild. Where are you?" + +"Here," growled Rios, his voice indicating that he had gone no great +distance. + +"And Zoraida?" + +Zoraida did not answer. Kendric went on a step or two and then struck +a match. By its short-lived light he made out Zoraida standing close +to Rios. Then the flame burned out. + +"Straight ahead," commanded Kendric. When there was no sound of a step +being taken, he drew Betty's hand through his arm so as to have both of +his hands free and went forward. + +"I can hardly breathe," whispered Betty. He felt her hand tighten on +his arm. "It is getting terribly steep underfoot----" + +He came to where Rios was and set the rifle barrel in the small of his +back. Rios cursed bitterly but moved on. Kendric's hand found +Zoraida's arm and gripped it tightly. + +"We're all together in this," he said sharply. "And don't start your +old favorite knife act. This is no time for foolery." + +Zoraida moved on. But again she set her whistle to her lips and +thereafter she called out loudly to her men, commanding them to follow +swiftly. + +"They won't hear you," said Kendric. "And they couldn't obey you this +time anyhow. Hurry; we'll all stifle if we don't get out of this foul +air. Rios, give me some matches; mine are getting short." + +Rios, without comment, having as little love as another for the +uncertainty of the dark about him, did as he was commanded. He also +saved half of his box and began striking them himself. And thus they +went on, all of them save Kendric wondering. Making the last, steepest +descent, they stood huddled together in the treasure chamber. + +"Here," said Kendric, releasing Zoraida, "we have fresh air. Here we +can talk. And, if we are sensible people, a new day can begin for all +of us here." + +Ruiz Rios's wound must have been even less severe than Kendric had +supposed it. For now the Mexican seemed utterly to have lost +consciousness of it. He was striking fresh matches; he stooped and +picked up something at his foot; a little gasp broke from him. He +tossed it down, caught up something else. + +"Gold!" he muttered. "Gold everywhere!" + +Zoraida looked about her, seeming unmoved. Her eyes followed Rios +contemptuously, roved away about the room, tarried only briefly with +the heaped-up treasure, sped to Kendric and to Betty. + +"You are fools, fools!" she taunted them. "All thanks, Señor Kendric, +for having led me straight to that for which I have been looking all my +life." + +Rios had come back to her side, both hands full. + +"Zoraida," he said swiftly, "let us talk reason as the American says. +We have this!" He held up his hands; his eyes gloated. "Let them have +their lives and go, so that they take nothing in their hands. Look at +this! Here----" + + +His words trailed off abruptly in a scream of terror. He had moved +only a trifle as he spoke, he had taken a step backward between the two +high heaps of treasure where the pit was. He was falling--he threw out +his arms, clutching wildly. In a flash he was gone from sight. But +not alone. For his hand, seeking to save him, had caught at Zoraida +and she was snatched back, overbalanced, drawn down with him. Her +scream rose above his cry of terror. Both vanished and Jim and Betty +stood alone, looking into each other's wide eyes. + +"Do you think--they are dead?" faltered the girl. + +They went to the hole and looked down. The view which Kendric had seen +before slowly disentangled itself from the darkness. They saw nothing +of those who had fallen. + +"It would mean the short fall here," said Kendric musingly, "the steep +slide and no doubt another drop at the end. We wouldn't be able to see +them at first. But someway, I don't believe they are dead!" + +He did not explain then; it would take too long and they had their own +salvation to work out. But here was his thought: Zoraida had dropped +back into the gardens of the golden king. He did not believe she would +be able to climb up this way again. And he did not believe that she +would have with her the many keys needed to open the way she knew. It +impressed him that here might be the judgment of a just God--Zoraida +immured for all time in the heart of ancient Mexico. Zoraida with her +priests and young men and children whom her stern decree had imprisoned +here. Zoraida and Ruiz Rios together in the place of hidden treasure. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +REGARDING A NECKLACE OF PEARLS AND CERTAIN + PLANS OF TWO WHO WERE MEANT TO BE ONE + +From afar, reaching them only faintly, came the sounds of men's voices, +Zoraida's men clamoring above, mystified and with ample cause. + +"It may be our chance is now, not tonight," said Kendric. "Although +it's but a little way from the house some of them, if not all, will +have ridden; their horses will be down in the cañon. If we can slip +out this way and come to the horses while they're looking for us up +there----" + +"This way?" Betty for an instant wondered if he meant to follow Zoraida +and Rios. + +"There is another way," he told her. "Come.--But first, we'll not go +empty handed." + +He began a quick rummaging among the ancient chests. + +"Hurry," pleaded the girl. "What do we want with treasure? They may +find us at any second. Oh, hurry!" + +"Coming," he answered. "But here are wings to fly with." She saw him +putting a number of small objects into his pockets. He moved to +another point and she could not see what he was doing, could only guess +that still he was stuffing something into the provision bag and further +cramming his pockets. Just then there was in Betty's soul no thirst +for wealth, just the mighty yearning for the open country and flight +and the peace of safety afar. + +"Here I am." Jim was again at her side. He caught her arm. "This way." + +He led her to that other pit giving entrance to the second tunnel. At +another time Betty might have hesitated to slip down into it; now she +was eager for anything that gave the vaguest hope of flight. For the +faint far voices still clamored and she feared that the hounds that +hunted in Zoraida's wake might find the secret of the boulder and roll +it back with many hands and rush down upon them. + +But Kendric held her back while he first went down. He gripped the +edges of the pit with his hands and lowered himself to the length of +his arms and dropped. It was but a short fall and he landed safely and +steadied himself and managed to save himself from going down the slide +by clutching at the rock wall. Betty handed down the rifle and bag, +then lowered herself and he caught her in his arms. And then, in no +little uncertainty and not without grave dread of what dangers they +might encounter, they went on. + +The slide was steep and yet by going very guardedly, lying face down at +times and inching down cautiously, they made a slow descent. The +tunnel grew steadily smaller as they progressed; their bodies shut off +the light. The terrible thought presented itself to Kendric that when +they came to the outlet it might be too small for them to pass through; +and that to return up the tunnel was a task which would present its +difficulties. So, when they came to a place where Betty could cling on +and keep from slipping, he called to her to wait while he went on. + +The time had come when his rifle was an encumbrance; he needed both +hands to keep from slipping. He had had the forethought to turn the +muzzle downward, since Betty was above him. Now he craned his neck and +sought to peer down along his body. Far away, somewhere, was a glint +of sunlight, small but full of promise. He saw, as he had seen before, +a tangle of brush. He wondered if it were a clump of bushes on a +little flat? Or if they were shrubs clinging to some steep face of +cliff? When at last he came to the mouth of this chute--if it were +wide enough for a man's body to pass through--would the man have +reached safety or would he be precipitated through space and down a +fifty foot fall of rock? + +"The bushes ought to stop the rifle," he decided. "At any rate the +time has come when I need both hands." And he let it slide past him +and sought to watch it as it clattered along the incline. But he saw +nothing of it in the dim passage until it struck the fringe of bushes. +Then it crashed through and was gone--without telling him how and +where! The bag, a knot tied in it, he sent down after the gun. + +His misgivings were considerable but he went on. He called out to +Betty: "It looks all right. Hold on till I call," and began inching +downward again. With his feet he sought to judge the slope below him. +It seemed to be growing steeper. Still he went on and down. He caught +at any unevenness in the rock he could lay hand upon, lowering himself +to the length of his arm, groping for handhold and foothold everywhere. +Then a handhold to which he had entrusted his weight betrayed him, the +tiny sliver of stone scaled off and he began to slip. He clutched +wildly but his body gained fresh momentum. He heard Betty shriek above +him. He had a vision of himself plunging down the cliffs. Then he +knew that he had struck the bushes, had broken through, was rolling +down a steep slope, rolling and rolling. + +The breath jolted out of him, he was brought up with a jerk in another +clump of bushes, wild sage in a little level space. He hastily jumped +up and began to scramble back up toward the tunnel's mouth. He could +not see it from below, he could see only the patch of brush which, +since it was directly above him, must conceal it. He saw his rifle +where it stood on end, the muzzle jammed between two rocks. He wanted +to call to Betty but did not dare, not knowing how close some of +Zoraida's men might be. Betty could not hold on there forever; she +would slip as he had done or, frightened terribly, by now she might be +seeking frenziedly to make her way back to the treasure chamber. + +But as it happened Betty was to make the descent with less violence +than Kendric's. She had thought that surely Jim had been snatched away +from her to a broken death below; she had gone dizzy with sick fear; +she had struggled for a securer grip--and she, too, had slipped. Down +she sped, half fainting. But somewhere her wide sash caught and held +briefly, letting her slip again before her fingers could find a hold, +but breaking the momentum of her progress. So, when she was shot out +into the open, a few yards above Kendric, the brush all but stopped +her. And then, as she was slipping by him, Kendric caught her and held +her. + +Betty sat up and stared at him incredulously. Then there came into her +eyes such a light as Jim Kendric had never seen in eyes of man or woman. + +"I thought you were dead," said Betty simply. "And I did not want to +live." + +He helped her to her feet and they hurried down the slope. He caught +up his rifle, merely grunted at the discovery of a sight knocked off, +found near it the bag of food and treasure, and led the way down into +the cañon. A glance upward showed him no sign of Zoraida's men. + +"There are the horses," whispered Betty. + +Down in the bed of the ravine were a dozen or more saddled ponies. +They stood where their riders had left them, their reins over their +heads and dragging on the ground. + +"Run!" said Kendric. "If we can get into saddle before they see us +we're as good as at home!" + +Hand in hand they ran, stumbling along the slope, crashing through the +brush. But as they drew nearer and the ponies pricked up their ears +they forced themselves to go slowly. Kendric caught the nearest horse, +tarrying for no picking and choosing, and helped Betty up into the +saddle. The next moment he, too, was mounted. He looked again up the +mountainside. Still no sign of Zoraida's men. A broad grin of high +satisfaction testified that Jim Kendric found this new arrangement of +mundane affairs highly to his liking. + +"We'll drive these other ponies on ahead of us," he suggested. "Until +they're a good five miles off. And then we'll see how fast a cowpony +can run!" + +So, herding a lot of saddled horses ahead of them, reins flying and +soon putting panic into the animals, Jim and Betty rode down into the +valley. They looked down to the big adobe house and saw no one; the +place slept tranquilly in the late afternoon sun. They passed the +corrals and still saw no one. If any of her men had not followed +Zoraida, they were lounging under cover. The maids would be about the +evening meal and table setting, in the _patio_ or in the house. + +Straight across the valley they drove the ponies and there, in the +first foothills scattered and left them. Then they settled down to +hard riding, both praying mutely that when they came to the gulf and +the beach they would find the _Half Moon_ awaiting them. + + +The stars were out when they came to the beach where only a few days +ago Kendric and Barlow had landed. And there, at anchor, rode the +_Half Moon_. They saw her lights and they made out the hulk of her. +Kendric shouted and fired his rifle. Almost immediately came an +answering hail, the melodious voice of Nigger Ben. They saw a lantern +go down over the side, they watched it bob and dance and made out +presently that it was coming toward them. They heard Nigger Ben's +voice, chanting monotonously, as he pulled at the oars of the small +boat. + +"Howdy, Cap'n, howdy!" cried Ben joyously. He took in the small figure +which had dismounted at Kendric's side and ducked his head and included +her in his greetings with a "Howdy, Miss." And then, looking in vain +for another member of the party: "Where's Cap'n Barlow?" + +"Let's get on board, Ben," answered Kendric. "I'll tell you there." + +So they stepped into the dingey and pushed off and rowed back to the +_Half Moon_. + +"There's a gent here says he's a frien' of your'n, Cap," said Ben. "Ah +dunno. Anyhows, he's been here all day an' we're watchin' he don't +make no mischief." + +They went up over the side and Kendric showed Betty straightway to the +cabin that was to be hers. Then he turned wonderingly to Ben. He +could only think of Bruce, since it wasn't Barlow---- + +And Bruce it was. The boy came forth from the shadows, standing before +Kendric looking at once dejected and defiant and shamefaced. + +"I was a damn' fool, Jim," he said bluntly. "Forget it, if you can, +and take a passenger back to the States with you. Or tell me to go to +hell--and I guess I'll tuck my tail between my legs and go." + +Kendric's hand went out impulsively and he cried with great heartiness: + +"Forget it, boy.--What about Barlow?" + +"Barlow's like a crazy man," said Bruce. He spoke quickly as though +eager to get through with what he had to say. "After that cursed game +of cards he got the same sort of a message I got; we were to wait, each +in his own room, for--for her." He hesitated; Kendric understood that +it hurt him even to refer to Zoraida. "We waited a long time. Then +something happened which I know little about; I guess you know all of +it. At any rate, when she burst in on us--we had gotten tired waiting +and were in the _patio_--she, too, was like one gone mad. We had heard +the shooting outside but when we started to run out some of her men +threw guns on us and held us back. She came running in, terribly +excited. When I tried to speak she cursed me, called me a fool, told +me that she had never loved any but one man and that that man was--was +you. Then she swore that she was going to see you dead and Betty +Gordon dead with you. I guess I came to my senses a little at that." + +"And Barlow?" insisted Kendric. Bruce had paused, was staring off into +the night, seemed to have forgotten to go on. + +"I had two words with Barlow when she left us. He looked ready for +murder and just snapped out that he was going to stay until he lined +his pockets. Rios came in. He told us you were on the run, trying to +make it down here. He offered to get me and Barlow clear; he seemed +anxious to have us both gone. He promised us we'd be dead in +twenty-four hours if we stayed; he tipped his hand enough to say that +there was loot to be had and he meant to have his half and didn't care +what happened to us so long as we got out of the way. I came, hoping +that you'd break through and get here. I told Barlow I was coming. He +just shrugged his shoulders at that and said he'd stay; if we could +square for the rent of the _Half Moon_ in San Diego we could have her. +Otherwise, for God's sake to sink her in the ocean and let the old man +know. And off he went, looking for--for her." + +"You've had a hard deal, Bruce." Kendric put a kindly hand on the +boy's shoulder. "But you'll come alive yet. I've made a haul today; +just how big I won't know until we get home. But enough, I'll gamble +to stake you to a new start. Now, let's get going. And good luck to +poor old Barlow. It's his game to play his way." + + +They slipped out into the gulf, Nigger Ben and Philippine Charlie +content to accept the explanation Kendric gave them of Barlow's +absence. Bruce, taciturn and moody, went to the stern and stood +looking back toward the black line of the receding coast until long +after darkness blotted it out. Kendric went to Betty's cabin and +rapped. + +"Will you come for a moment to the main cabin?" he asked. + +When she came he had a lamp on the table. He shut the door and locked +it. Then, without a word between them, he began emptying his pockets. +She saw him pile up a great number of little square bars that clanked +musically. + +"Solid gold," he said gravely. + +Then he poured forth the pearls. There was strings and loops, +necklaces and broad bands made of many strings laced together. They +shone softly, gloriously there in the swaying cabin of the _Half Moon_. +The finest of them all fashioned into a superb necklace he threw with a +sudden gesture about Betty's throat. + + +"And on top of all that--we're headed for home!" said Kendric. + +"Home!" Betty's eyes shone more gloriously than the pearls. + +"And thus ends our little camping trip. Tell me, Betty, haven't you +any desire for a real camping trip in our own mountains? That place +that I know, where the little hidden valley is and the lake----" + +"Tell me about it," said Betty. + +Pearls and gold heaped on the table, pearls about Betty's throat, and +they talked of pack and trail and a little green lodge to be made of +fir boughs. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAUGHTER OF THE SUN*** + + +******* This file should be named 18916-8.txt or 18916-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/1/18916 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/18916-8.zip b/old/18916-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7a404f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/18916-8.zip diff --git a/old/18916.txt b/old/18916.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7eef317 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/18916.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9163 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Daughter of the Sun, by Jackson Gregory + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Daughter of the Sun + A Tale of Adventure + + +Author: Jackson Gregory + + + +Release Date: July 27, 2006 [eBook #18916] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAUGHTER OF THE SUN*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 18916-h.htm or 18916-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/1/18916/18916-h/18916-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/1/18916/18916-h.zip) + + + + + +DAUGHTER OF THE SUN + +A Tale of Adventure + +by + +JACKSON GREGORY + +(Quien Sabe) + +Author of +Timber Wolf, The Everlasting Whisper, Desert Valley, Etc. + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Zoraida Castelmar, daughter of the Montezumas] + + + +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers -------- New York +Copyright, 1921, by +Charles Scribner's Sons +Copyright as "The Treasure of the Hills," +1920, 1921, by Street & Smith + + + + +TO + +ZINGARA + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. IN WHICH A YOUNG AMERICAN KNOWN AS "HEADLONG" PLAYS AT + DICE WITH ONE IN MAN'S CLOTHING WHO IS NOT A MAN + + II. IN WHICH A SPELL IS WORKED AND AN EXPEDITION IS BEGUN + + III. OF THE NEW MOON, A TALE OF AZTEC TREASURE AND A MYSTERY + + IV. INDICATING THAT THAT WHICH APPEARS THE EARTHLY PARADISE + MAY PROVE QUITE ANOTHER SORT OF PLACE + + V. HOW ONE NOT ACCUSTOMED TO TAKING ANOTHER MAN'S ORDERS + RECEIVES THE COMMAND OF THE QUEEN LADY + + VI. CONCERNING THAT WHICH LAY IN THE EYES OF ZORAIDA + + VII. OF A GIRL HELD FOR RANSOM AND OF A TOAST DRUNK BY ONE + INFATUATED + + VIII. HOW A MAN MAY CARRY A MESSAGE AND NOT KNOW HIMSELF TO BE A + MESSENGER + + IX. WHICH BEGINS WITH A LITTLE SONG AND ENDS WITH TROUBLE + BETWEEN FRIENDS + + X. IN WHICH A MAN KEEPS HIS WORD AND ZORAIDA DARES AND LAUGHS + + XI. IN WHICH THERE IS MORE THAN ONE LIE TOLD AND THE TRUTH + IS GLIMPSED + + XII. IN WHICH AN OVERTURE IS MADE, AN ANSWER IS POSTPONED AND + A DOOR IS LOCKED + + XIII. CONCERNING WOMAN'S WILES AND WITCHERY + + XIV. CONCERNING A DIFFICULT SITUATION, RECKLESSLY INVITED + + XV. OF THE ANCIENT GARDENS OF THE GOLDEN TEZCUCAN + + XVI. HOW TWO, IN THE LABYRINTH OF MIRRORS, WATCHED DISTANT + HAPPENINGS + + XVII. HOW ONE WHO HAS EVER COMMANDED MUST LEARN TO OBEY + + XVIII. OF FLIGHT, PURSUIT AND A LAIR IN THE CLIFFS + + XIX. HOW ONE WHO HIDES AND WATCHES MAY BE WATCHED BY ONE HIDDEN + + XX. IN WHICH A ROCK MOVES, A DISCOVERY IS MADE AND MORE THAN + ONE AVENUE IS OPENED + + XXI. HOW ONE RETURNS UNWILLINGLY WHITHER HE WOULD WILLINGLY + ENTER BY ANOTHER DOOR + + XXII. REGARDING A NECKLACE OF PEARLS AND CERTAIN PLANS OF TWO + WHO WERE MEANT TO BE ONE + + + + +DAUGHTER OF THE SUN + + +CHAPTER I + +IN WHICH A YOUNG AMERICAN KNOWN AS + "HEADLONG" PLAYS AT DICE WITH + ONE IN MAN'S CLOTHING WHO + IS NOT A MAN + +Jim Kendric had arrived and the border town knew it well. All who knew +the man foresaw that he would come with a rush, tarry briefly for a bit +of wild joy and leave with a rush for the Lord knew where and the Lord +knew why. For such was ever the way of Jim Kendric. + +A letter at the postoffice had been the means of advising the entire +community of the coming of Kendric. The letter was from Bruce West, +down in Lower California, and scrawled across the flap were +instructions to the postmaster to hold it for Jim Kendric who would +arrive within a couple of weeks. Furthermore the word URGENT was not +to be overlooked. + +Among the men drawn together in hourly expectation of the arrival of +Kendric, one remarked thoughtfully: + +"Jim's Mex friend is in town." + +"Ruiz Rios?" someone asked, a man from the outside. + +"Been here three days. Just sticking around and doing nothing but +smoke cigarettes. Looks like he was waiting." + +"What for?" + +"Waiting for Jim, maybe?" was suggested. + +Two or three laughed at that. In their estimation Ruiz Rios might be +the man to knife his way out of a hole, but not one to go out of his +way to cross the trail made wide and recklessly by Jim Kendric. + +"A half hour ago," came the supplementary information from another +quarter, "a big automobile going to beat the band pulls up in front of +the hotel. The Mex is watching and when a woman climbs down he grabs +her traps and steers her into the hotel." + +Immediately this news bringer was the man of the moment. But he had +had scant time to admit that he hadn't seen her face, that she had worn +a thick black veil, that somehow she just _seemed_ young and that he'd +bet she was too darn pretty to be wasting herself on Rios, when Jim +Kendric himself landed in their midst. + +He was powdered with alkali dust from the soles of his boots to the +crown of his black hat and he looked unusually tall because he was +unusually gaunt. He had ridden far and hard. But the eyes were the +same old eyes of the same old headlong Jim Kendric, on fire on the +instant, dancing with the joy of striking hands with the old-timers, +shining with the man's supreme joy of life. + +"I'm no drinking man and you know it," he shouted at them, his voice +booming out and down the quiet blistering street. "And I'm no gambling +man. I'm steady and sober and I'm a regular fool for conservative +investments! But there's a time when a glass in the hand is as pat as +eggs in a hen's nest and a man wants to spend his money free! Come on, +you bunch of devil-hounds; lead me to it." + +It was the rollicking arrival which they had counted on since this was +the only way Jim Kendric knew of getting back among old friends and old +surroundings. There was nothing subtle about him; in all things he was +open and forthright and tempestuous. In a man's hardened and buffeted +body he had kept the heart of a harum-scarum boy. + +"It's only a step across the line into Old Town," he reminded them. +"And the Mexico gents over there haven't got started reforming yet. +Blaze the trail, Benny. Shut up your damned old store and postoffice, +Homer, and trot along. It's close to sunset any way; I'll finance the +pilgrimage until sunup." + +When he mentioned the "postoffice" Homer Day was recalled to his +official duties as postmaster. He gave Kendric the letter from Bruce +West. Kendric ripped open the envelope, glanced at the contents, +skimming the lines impatiently. Then he jammed the letter into his +pocket. + +"Just as I supposed," he announced. "Bruce has a sure thing in the way +of the best cattle range you ever saw; he'll make money hand over fist. +But," and he chuckled his enjoyment, "he's just a trifle too busy +scaring off Mexican bandits and close-herding his stock to get any +sleep of nights. Drop him a postcard, Homer; tell him I can't come. +Let's step over to Old Town." + +"Ruiz Rios is in town, Jim," he was informed. + +"I know," he retorted lightly. "But I'm not shooting trouble nowadays. +Getting older, you know." + +"How'd _you_ know?" asked Homer. + +"Bruce said so in his letter; Rios is a neighbor down in Lower +California. Now, forget Ruiz Rios. Let's start something." + +There were six Americans in the little party by the time they had +walked the brief distance to the border and across into Old Town. +Before they reached the swing doors of the Casa Grande the red ball of +the sun went down. + +"Fat Ortega knows you're coming, Jim," Kendric was advised. "I guess +everybody in town knows by now." + +And plainly everybody was interested. When the six men, going in two +by two, snapped back the swinging doors there were a score of men in +the place. Behind the long bar running along one side of the big room +two men were busy setting forth bottles and glasses. The air was hazy +with cigarette smoke. There was a business air, an air of readiness +and expectancy about the gaming tables though no one at this early hour +had suggested playing. Ortega himself, fat and greasy and pompous, +leaned against his bar and twisted a stogie between his puffy, +pendulous lips. He merely batted his eyes at Kendric, who noticed him +not at all. + +A golden twenty dollar coin spun and winked upon the bar impelled by +Jim's big fingers and Kendric's voice called heartily: + +"I'd be happy to have every man here drink with me." + +The invitation was naturally accepted. The men ranged along the bar, +elbow to elbow; the bartenders served and, with a nod toward the man +who stood treat, poured their own red wine. Even Ortega, though he +made no attempt toward a civil response, drank. The more liquor poured +into a man's stomach here, the more money in Ortega's pocket and he was +avaricious. He'd drink in his own shop with his worst enemy provided +that enemy paid the score. + +Kendric's friends were men who were always glad to drink and play a +game of cards, but tonight they were gladder for the chance to talk +with "Old Headlong." When he had bought the house a couple of rounds +of drinks, Kendric withdrew to a corner table with a dozen of his +old-time acquaintances and for upward of an hour they sat and found +much to talk of. He had his own experiences to recount and sketched +them swiftly, telling of a venture in a new silver mining country and a +certain profit made; of a "misunderstanding," as he mirthfully +explained it, now and then, with the children of the South; of horse +swapping and a taste of the pearl fisheries of La Paz; of no end of +adventures such as men of his class and nationality find every day in +troublous Mexico. Twisty Barlow, an old-time friend with whom once he +had gone adventuring in Peru, a man who had been deep sea sailor and +near pirate, real estate juggler, miner, trapper and mule skinner, sat +at his elbow, put many an incisive question, had many a yarn of his own +to spin. + +"Headlong, old mate," said Twisty Barlow once, laying his knotty hand +on Kendric's arm, "by the livin' Gawd that made us, I'd like to go +a-journeyin' with the likes of you again. And I know the land that's +waitin' for the pair of us. Into San Diego we go and there we take a +certain warped and battered old stem-twister the owner calls a +schooner. And we beat it out into the Pacific and turn south until we +come to a certain land maybe you can remember having heard me tell +about. And there---- It's there, Headlong, old mate!" + +Kendric's eyes shone while Barlow spoke, but then they always shone +when a man hinted of such things as he knew lay in the sailorman's +mind. But at the end he shook his head. + +"You're talking about tomorrow or next day, Twisty," he laughed, +filling his deep lungs contentedly. "I've had a bellyful of +manana-talk here of late. All I'm interested in is tonight." He +rattled some loose coins in his pocket. "I've got money in my pocket, +man!" he cried, jumping to his feet. "Come ahead. I stake every man +jack of you to ten dollars and any man who wins treats the house." + +Meanwhile Ortega's place had been doing an increasing business. Now +there was desultory playing at several tables where men were placing +their bets at poker, at seven-and-a-half and at roulette; the faro +layout would be offering its invitation in a moment; there was a game +of dice in progress. + +Kendric's companions moved about from table to table laughing, making +small bets or merely watching. But presently as half dollars were won +and lost the insidious charm of hazard touched them. Monte stuck fast +to the faro table for fifteen minutes, at the end of which time he rose +with a sigh, tempted to go back to Kendric for a "real stake" and cut +in for a man's play. But he thought better of it and strolled away, +rolling a cigarette and watching the others. Jerry bought a ten dollar +stack of chips and assayed his fortune with roulette, playing his usual +luck and his usual system; with every hazard lost he lost his temper +and doubled his bet. He was the first man to join Monte. + +For upward of an hour of play Kendric was content with looking on and +had not hazarded a cent beyond the money flung down on the table to be +played by his friends. But now at last he looked about the room +eagerly, his head up, his eyes blazing with the up-surge of the spirit +riding him. About his middle was a money belt, safely brought back +across the border; in his wild heart was the imperative desire to play. +Play high and quick and hard. It was then that for the first time he +noted Ruiz Rios. Evidently the Mexican had just now entered from the +rear. At the far end of the room where the kerosene lamp light was +none too good Rios was standing with a solitary slim-bodied companion. +The companion, to call for all due consideration later, barely caught +Jim's roving eye now; he saw Rios and he told himself that the +gamblers' goddess had whisked him in at the magic moment. For in one +essential, as in no others, was Ruiz Rios a man after Jim Kendric's own +heart: the Mexican was a man to play for any stake and do no moralizing +over the result. + +"Ortega," cried Kendric, looking all the time challengingly at Rios, +"there is only one game worth the playing. King of games? The emperor +of games! Have you a man here to shake dice with me?" + +Ortega understood and made no answer, Rios, small and sinister and +handsome, his air one of eternal well-bred insolence, kept his own +counsel. There came a quick tug at his sleeve; his companion whispered +in his ear. Thus it was that for the first time Kendric really looked +at this companion. And at the first keen glance, in spite of the male +attire, the loose coat and hat pulled low, the scarf worn high about +the neck, he knew that it was a woman who had entered with Ruiz Rios +and now whispered to him. + +"His wife," thought Kendric. "Telling him not to play. She's got her +nerve coming in here." + +The question of her relationship to the Mexican was open to +speculation; the matter of her nerve was not. That was definitely +settled by the carriage of her body which was at once defiant and +imperious; by the tilt of the chin, barely glimpsed; by the way she +stood her ground as one after another pair of eyes turned upon her +until every man in the room stared openly. It was as useless for her +to seek to disguise her sex thus as it would be for the moon to mask as +a candle. And she knew it and did not care. Kendric understood that +on the moment. + +"Between us there has been at times trouble, senor," said Rios lightly. +"I do not know if you care to play? If so, I will be most pleased for +a little game." + +"I'd shake dice with the devil himself, friend Ruiz," answered Jim +heartily. + +"I must have some money from Ortega here," said Rios carelessly. +"Unless my check will satisfy?" + +"Better get the money," returned Kendric pleasantly. + +As Rios turned away with the proprietor Kendric was impelled to look +again toward the woman. She had moved a little to one side so that now +she stood in the shadow cast by an angle of the wall. He could not see +her eyes, so low had she drawn her wide _sombrero_, nor could he make +out much of her face. He had an impression of an oval line curving +softly into the folds of her scarf; of masses of black hair. But one +thing he knew: she was looking steadily at him. It did not matter that +he could not see her eyes; he could feel them. Under that hidden gaze +there was a moment during which he was oddly stirred, vaguely agitated. +It was as though she, some strange woman, were striving to subject his +mind to the spell of her own will; as though across the room she were +seeking not only to read his thought but to mold it to the shape of her +own thought. He had the uncanny sensation that her mind was rifling +his, that it would be hard to hide from those probing mental fingers +any slightest desire or intention. Kendric shook himself savagely, +angered that even for an instant he should have submitted to such +sickish fancies. But even so, and while he strode to the nearby table +for the dice cup, he could not free himself from the impression which +she had laid upon him. + +She beckoned Rios as he came back with Ortega. He went to her side and +she whispered to him. + +"We will play here, at this end of the room, senor," Rios said to +Kendric. + +As Kendric looked quite naturally from the one who spoke to the one +from whom so obviously the order had come, he saw for the first time +the gleam of the woman's eyes. A very little she had lifted the brim +of her hat so that from beneath she could watch what went forward. +They held his gaze riveted; they seemed to glow in the shadows as +though with some inner light. He could not judge their color; they +were mere luminous pools. He started with an odd fancy; he caught +himself wondering if those eyes could see in the dark? + +Again he shrugged as though to shake physically from him these strange +fancies. He snatched up the little table and brought it to where Ruiz +Rios waited, putting it down not three feet from the Mexican's silent +companion. And all the time, though now he refused to turn his head +toward her, he was conscious of the strangely disturbing certainty that +those luminous eyes were regarding him with unshifting intensity. + +Kendric abruptly spilled the dice out of the cup so that they rolled on +the table top. + +"One die, one throw, ace high?" he asked curtly of Rios. + +The Mexican nodded. + +It was in the air that there would be big play, and men crowded around. +Briefly, the unusual presence of a woman, here at Fat Ortega's, was +forgotten. + +"Select the lucky cube," Kendric invited Rios. The Mexican's slim +brown fingers drew one of the dice toward him, choosing at random. + +Kendric opened vest and shirt and after a moment of fumbling drew forth +and slammed down on the table a money belt that bulged and struck like +a leaden bar. + +"Gold and U. S. bank notes," he announced. "Keep your eye on me, Senor +Don Ruiz Rios de Mexico, while I count 'em." + +Unbuttoning the pocket flaps, he began pouring forth the treasure which +he had brought back with him after two years in Old Mexico. Boyish and +gleeful, he enjoyed the expressions that came upon the faces about him +as he counted aloud and Rios watched with narrow, suspicious eyes. He +sorted the gold, arranging in piles of twenties and tens, all American +minted; he smoothed out the bank notes and stacked them. And at the +end, looking up smilingly, he announced: + +"An even ten thousand dollars, senor." + +"You damn fool!" cried out Twisty Barlow hysterically. "Why, man, with +that pile me an' you could sail back into San Diego like kings! Now +that dago will pick you clean an' you know it." + +No one paid any attention to Barlow and he, after that one involuntary +outburst, recognized himself for the fool and kept his mouth shut, +though with difficulty. + +Ruiz Rios's dark face was almost Oriental in its immobility. He did +not even look interested. He merely considered after a dreamy, +abstracted fashion. + +Again a quick eager hand was laid on his arm, again his companion +whispered in his ear. Rios nodded curtly and turned to Ortega. + +"Have you the money in the house?" he demanded. + +"_Seguro_," said the gambling house owner. "I expected Senor Kendric." + +"You do me proud," laughed Jim. "Let's see the color of it in American +money." + +With most men the winning or losing of ten thousand dollars, though +they played heavily, was a matter of hours and might run on into days +if luck varied tantalizingly. All of the zest of those battling hours +Jim Kendric meant to crowd into one moment. There was much of love in +the heart of Headlong Jim Kendric, but it was a love which had never +poured itself through the common channels, never identified itself with +those two passions which sway most men: he had never known love for a +woman and in him there was no money-greed. For him women did not come +even upon the rim of his most distant horizon; as for money, when he +had none of it he sallied forth joyously in its quest holding that +there was plenty of it in this good old world and that it was as rare +fun running it down as hunting any other big game. When he had plenty +of it he had no thought of other matters until he had spent it or given +it away or watched it go its merry way across a table with a green top +like a fleet of golden argosies on a fair emerald sea voyaging in +search of a port of adventure. His love was reserved for his friends +and for his adventurings, for clear dawns in solitary mountains, for +spring-times in thick woods, for sweeps of desert, for what he would +have called "Life." + +"Ready?" Ruiz Rios was asking coldly. Ortega had returned with a +drawer from his safe clasped in his fat hands; the money was counted +and piled. + +"Let her roll," cried Kendric heartily. + +Never had there been a game like this at Ortega's. Men packed closer +and closer, pushing and crowding. The Mexican slowly rattled the +single die in the cup. Then, with a quick jerk of the wrist, he turned +it out on the table. It rolled, poised, settled. The result amply +satisfied Rios and to the line of the lips under his small black +mustache came the hint of a smile; he had turned up a six. + +"The ace is high!" cried Jim. He caught up die and box, lifting the +cupped cube high above his head. His eyes were bright with excitement, +his cheeks were flushed, his voice rang out eagerly. + +"Out of six numbers there is only one ace," smiled Ruiz Rios. + +"One's all I want, senor," laughed Jim. And made his throw. + +When large ventures are made, in money or otherwise, it would seem that +the goddess of chance is no myth but a potent spirit and that she takes +a firm deciding hand. At a time like this, when two men seek to put at +naught her many methods of prolonging suspense, she in turn seeks +stubbornly to put at naught their endeavors to defeat her aims. Had +Jim Kendric thrown the ace then he would have won and the thing would +have been ended; had he shaken anything less than a six the spoils +would have been the Mexican's. That which happened was that out of the +gambler's cup Kendric turned another six. + +Ruiz Rios's impassive face masked all emotion; Kendric's displayed +frankly his sheer delight. He was playing his game; he was getting his +fun. + +"A tie, by thunder!" he cried out in huge enjoyment. "We're getting a +run for our money, Mexico. Shall I shake next?" + +"Follow your hand," said Ruiz Rios briefly. + +That which followed next would have appeared unbelievable to any who +have not over and over watched the inexplicable happenings of a gaming +table. Kendric made his second throw and lifted his eyebrows +quizzically at the result. He had turned out the deuce, the lowest +number possible. A little eagerly, while men began to mutter in their +excitement, Rios snatched up cup and die and threw. Once already he +had counted ten thousand as good as won; now he made the same mistake. +For the incredible happened and he, too, showed a deuce, making a +second tie. + +Ruiz cursed his disgust and hurled the box down. Kendric burst into +booming laughter. + +"A game for men to talk about, friend Rios!" he said. And at the +moment he came near feeling a kindly feeling for a man whom he hated +most cordially and with high reason. "Follow your hand." + +Rios received the box from a hand offering it and made his third throw +swiftly. The six again. + +"Where we began, senor," he said, grown again impassive. + +Kendric was all impatient eagerness to make his throw, looking like a +boy chafing at a moment's restraint against his anticipated pleasures. + +"A six to beat," he said. + +And beat it he did, with the odds all against him. He turned up the +ace and won ten thousand dollars. + +In the brief hush which came before the shouts and jabberings of many +voices, Ruiz Rios's companion pulled him sharply by the arm, whispering +quickly. But this time Rios shook his head. + +"I am through," he said bluntly. "Another time, maybe." + +But the fever, to which he had so eagerly surrendered, was just +gripping Kendric. That he was playing for big stakes was the thing +that counted. That he had won meant less to him than it would have +meant to any other man in the room or any other man who had ever been +in the room or any other man who would ever come into the room. He saw +that Ruiz was through. But, as his dancing eyes sped around among +other faces, he marked the twinkling lights of covetousness in Fat +Ortega's rat eyes and he knew that, long ago, Ortega himself had played +for any stake. Beside Ortega there was another man present who might +be inclined to accept a hazard, Tony Munoz, who conducted the rival +gambling house across the street and who was Ortega's much despised +son-in-law. Long ago Ortega and Tony had quarreled and when Tony had +run away with Eloisa, Ortega's pretty daughter, men said it was as much +to spite the old man as for love of the girl's snapping eyes. Tony +might play, if Ortega refused. + +"One throw for the whole thing, Ortega?" challenged Kendric. "You and +me." + +"Have I twenty thousand _pesos_ in my pocket?" jeered Ortega. "You +make me the big gringo bluff." + +"Bluff? Call it then, man. That's what a bluff is for. And you don't +need the money in the pocket. This house is yours; your cellars are +always full of expensive liquors; there is money in your till and +something in your safe yet, I'll bet my hat. Put up the whole thing +against my wad and I'll shake you for it." + +Plainly Ortega was tempted. And why not? There lay on the green +table, winking up alluringly at him, twenty thousand dollars. His, if +simply a little cube with numbers on it turned in proper fashion. +Twenty thousand dollars! He licked his fat pendulous lips. And, to +further tempt him, he estimated that his entire holding here, bar +fixtures, tables, wines and cash, were worth not above fifteen +thousand. But then, this was all that he had in the world and though +he craved further gains until the craving was acute like a pain, still +he clung avidly to the power and the prestige and the luxury that were +his as owner of la Casa Grande. In brief, he was too much the moral +coward to be such a gambler as Kendric called for. + +"No," he snapped angrily. + +"Look," said Kendric, smiling. He shook the die and threw it, +inverting the cup over it so that it was hidden. "I do not know what I +have thrown, Ortega, and you do not know. I will bet you five thousand +dollars even money that it is a six or better." + +Here were odds and Ortega jerked up his head. Five thousand to bet---- + +"No," he said again. "No. I don't play. You have devil's luck." + +With a flourish Jim lifted the cup to see what he had thrown. Again +his utterly mirthful laughter boomed out. It was the deuce, the low +throw. Ortega strained forward, saw and flushed. Had he but been man +enough to say "Yes!" to the odds offered him he would have been five +thousand dollars richer this instant! Five thousand dollars! He ran a +flabby hand across a moist brow. + +"Where's the luck in that throw?" demanded Kendric, fully enjoying the +play of expression on Ortega's face. + +"The luck," grumbled Ortega, "was that I did not bet you. If I had bet +it would have been a six, no less." + +"Tony Munoz," called Kendric, turning. "Will it be you?" + +"No!" shouted Ortega, already angered in his grasping soul, ready to +spew forth his wrath in any direction, always more than ready to rail +at his son-in-law. "Munoz has no business in my house. Who is boss +here? It is me!" + +Kendric seeing that Tony Munoz was contenting himself with sneering and +certainly would not play, began gathering up the money on the table. +It was then that for the first time he heard the voice of Ruiz Rios's +companion. + +"I will play Senor Kendric." + +The voice ran through the quiet of the room musically. The utterance +was low, gentle, the accent was the soft, tender accent of Old Spain +with some subtle flavor of other alien races. No man in the room had +ever heard such sweet, soothing music as was made by her slow words. +After the sound died away a hush remained and through men's memories +the cadences repeated themselves like lingering echoes. Kendric +himself stared at her wonderingly, not knowing why her hidden look +stirred him so, not knowing why there should be a spell worked by five +quiet words. Nor did he find the spell entirely pleasant; as her look +had done, so now her speech vaguely disturbed him. His emotion, though +not outright irritation, was akin to it. He was opening his lips to +say curtly, "I do not play dice with women, senora," when Ortega's +sudden outburst forestalled him. + +Kendric had barely had the time to register the faint impression of the +odd sensation which this companion of Ruiz Rios awoke in him, when he +was set to puzzle over Ortega's explosion. Why should the gaming-house +keeper raise so violent an objection to any sort of a game played in +his place? Perhaps Ortega himself could not have explained clearly +since it is doubtful if he felt clearly; it is likely that a childishly +blind anger had spurted up venomously in his heart when Kendric had +exposed the deuce and men had laughed and Ortega felt as though he had +lost five thousand dollars. In such a case a man's wrath explodes +readily, combustion breaking forth spontaneously like an oily rag in +the sun. At any rate, his fat face grown hectic, he lifted hand and +voice, shouting: + +"I will have no women gambling here. This is my place, a place for +men. You," and he leveled his forefinger at the slim figure, "go!" + +She ignored him. Stepping forward quickly, she whipped off her left +glove and in the bare white fingers, blazing with red and green stones +set in golden circlets, she caught up the dice cup. Even now little +was seen of her face for the other hand had drawn lower the wide hat, +higher the scarf about the throat. + +"One die, one throw for it all, Senor Kendric?" she asked. + +"I tell you, No!" shouted Ortega. "And No again!" + +Then, when she stood unmoved, her air of insolence like Ruiz Rios's, +but even more marked, Ortega burst forward between the men standing in +his way, shoving them to right and left with the powerful sweep of his +thick arms. His uplifted hand came down on her shoulder, thrusting her +backward. Her ungloved hand, the left as Kendric marked while he +watched interestedly, flashed to her bosom, and leaped out again, a +thin-bladed knife in the grip of the bejewelled fingers. Ortega saw +and feared and, grown nimble, sprang back from her. Quickly enough to +save the life in him, not so quickly as entirely to avoid the sweep of +the knife. His sleeve fell apart, slit from shoulder to wrist, and in +the opening the man's flesh showed with a thin red line marking it. + +There was tumult and confusion for a little while, hardly more than a +moment it seemed to Kendric. He only knew that at the end of it Ortega +had gone grumbling away, led by a couple of friends who no doubt would +bandage his wounded arm, and that the woman, having put her knife away, +appeared not in the least disturbed. He knew then that while men +talked and shouted about him he had not once withdrawn his eyes from +her. + +"One throw?" she was asking again, the voice as tender, as vaguely +disquieting to his senses, as full of low music as before. He shook +himself as though rousing from a trance. + +"I do not play at dice with ladies, Senora," he said bluntly. + +"Did you bluff, after all?" she asked curiously. She seemed sincere in +her question; he fancied a note of disappointment in her tone. It was +as though she had said before, "Here is a man who is not afraid of big +stakes," and as though now she were revising her estimate of him. "Men +will call you Big Mouth," she added. "And I, I will laugh in your +face." + +"Where is the money you would wager against mine?" demanded Jim, +thinking he saw the short easy way out. + +Already she was prepared for the question. In her gloved hand was a +little hand bag, a trifle in black leather the size of a man's purse. +She opened it and spilled the contents on the table. Poured out into +the mellow lamp light a long glorious string of pearls appeared, each +separate lustrous gem glowing with its silvery sheen, satiny and +tremulous with its shining loveliness. + +"Holy God!" gasped Twisty Barlow. + +"There is the worth of your money many times over," came the quiet +assurance in the low voice like liquid music. + +"If they are real pearls," muttered Kendric. "And not just imitations." + +She made no reply. He felt that from the shelter of the broad hat brim +a pair of inscrutable eyes were smiling scornfully. + +"Can't I tell real pearls like them, when I see 'em?" cried Twisty +Barlow excitedly. He leaned forward and caught the great necklace up +in his eager hands. "What would I be wantin' that steamer in San Diego +Bay for if I didn't know?" He held them up to the lamp light; he +fingered them one after the other; he put them down at the end +reverently and with a great sigh. "The worth of them, Headlong, my +boy," he said shakily, "would make your pile look sick." + +"And yet I'd bet a thousand they're phony," burst from Kendric. Then +he caught himself up short. Suppose they were or were not? A woman +was offering to play him and he was holding back; he was making +excuses, the second already; in his own ears his words, sensible though +they were, began to ring like the petty talk of a hedger. "Turn out +the die, Senora," he said abruptly. "As you say, one throw and ace +high." + +With her left hand she quietly shook the box, setting the white cube +dancing therein. "You lose, Jim," said Monte at his elbow before the +cast was made. "Look out for left-handers." Then she made her throw +and turned up an ace. + +Kendric caught up box and die and threw. And again he had turned the +deuce, the lowest number on the die. He heard her laugh as she drew +money and jewels toward her. All low music, ruining a man's blood, +thrilling him after that strange perturbing fashion. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +IN WHICH A SPELL IS WORKED AND AN EXPEDITION IS BEGUN + +For a moment she and Jim Kendric stood facing each other with only the +little table and its cargo of treasure separating them, engulfed in a +great silence. He saw her eyes; they were like pools of lambent +phosphorescence in the black shadow of her hair. He glimpsed in them +an eloquence which mystified him; it was as though through her eyes her +heart or her mind or her soul were reaching out toward his but speaking +a tongue foreign to his understanding. Her gaze was steady and +penetrating and held him motionless. Nor, though he did not at the +time notice, did any man in the room stir until she, turning swiftly, +at last broke the charm. She went out through the rear door, Ruiz Rios +at her heels. + +When the door closed after them Kendric chanced to note Twisty Barlow +at his elbow. A queer expression was stamped on the rigid features of +the sailorman. Plainly Barlow, intrigued into a profound abstraction, +was alike unconscious of his whereabouts or of the attention which he +was drawing. His eyes stared and strained after the vanished Mexican +and his companion; he, too, had been fascinated; he was like a man in a +trance. Now he started and brushed his hand across his eyes and, +moving jerkily, hurried to the door and went out. Kendric followed him +and laid a restraining hand upon his shoulder. + +"Easy, old boy," he said quietly. Barlow started at the touch of his +hand and stood frowning and fingering his forelock. "I know what's +burning hot in your fancies. Remember they may be paste, after all. +And anyway they're not treasure trove." + +"You mean those pearls might be fake?" Barlow laughed strangely. "And +you think I might be slittin' throats for them? Don't be an ass, +Headlong; I'm sober." + +"Where away, then, in such a hurry?" demanded Kendric, still aware of +something amiss in Barlow's bearing. + +"About my business," retorted the sailor. "And suppose you mind yours?" + +Kendric shrugged and went back to his friends. But at the door he +turned and saw Barlow hastening along the dim street in the wake of the +disappearing forms of Ruiz Rios and the woman. + +Inside there were some few who sought to console Kendric, thinking that +to any man the loss of ten thousand dollars must be a considerable +blow. His answer was a clap on the back and a laughing demand to know +what they were driving at and what they took him for, anyway? Those +who knew him best squandered no sympathy where they knew none was +needed. To the discerning, though they had never known another man who +won or lost with equal gusto in the game, who when he met fortune or +misfortune "treated those two impostors just the same," Jim Kendric was +exactly what he appeared to be, a devil-may-care sort of fellow who had +infinite faith in his tomorrow and who had never learned to love money. + +Kendric was relieved when, half an hour later, Twisty Barlow came back. +Kendric's mood was boisterous from the sheer joy of being among friends +and once more as good as on home soil. He went up and down among them +with his pockets turned wrong-side out and hanging eloquently, swapping +yarns, inviting recitals of wild doings, making a man here and there +join him in one of the old songs, singing mightily himself. He had +just given a brief sketch of the manner in which he had acquired his +latest stake; how down in Mexico he had done business with a man whom +he did not trust. Hence Kendric had insisted on having the whole thing +in good old U. S. money and then had ridden like the devil beating tan +bark to keep ahead of the half-dozen ragged cut-throats who, he was +sure, had been started on his trail. + +"And now that I'm rid of it," he said, "I can get a good night's sleep! +Who wants to be a millionaire anyway?" + +He saw that though Barlow had once more command of his features, there +was still a feverish gleam in his eyes. And, further, that with rising +impatience Barlow was waiting for him. + +"Come alive, Twisty, old mate," Kendric called to him. "Limber up and +give us a good old deep-sea chantey!" + +Twisty stood where he was, eyeing him curiously. + +"I want to talk to you, Jim," he said. His voice like his look told of +excitement repressed. + +"It's early," retorted Kendric, "and talk will keep. A night like this +was meant for other things than for two old fools like you and me to +sit in a corner with long faces. Strike up the chantey." + +"You're busted," said Barlow sharply; "You've had your fling and you've +shot your wad. Come along with me. You know what shore I'm headin' +to. You know I've got my hooks in that old tub down to San Diego-----" + + "There's a craft in San Diego," + +improvised Kendric lightly. + + "With no cargo in her hold, + And old Twisty Barlow's leased her + For to fill her up with Gold. + And he'd go a buccaneerin', privateerin', wildly steerin' + For the beaches where the sun shines on whole banks of + blazin' pearls----" + +But his rhythm was getting away from him and his rhymes petered out and +he stopped, laughing while around him men clamored for more. + +"Oh, there'll be a tale to tell when Twisty sails back," he conceded. +"But until he's under way there's no tale to tell and so what's the use +of talk? A song's better; walk her up, Twisty, old mate." + +Barlow's impatience flared out into irritation. + +"What's the sense of this monkey business?" he demanded. "I'm off to +San Diego by moon-rise. If you ain't with me, you ain't. Just say so, +can't you?" + +"A song first, Twisty?" countered Kendric. + +"Will you come listen to me then?" asked Barlow. "Word of honor?" + +It was plain that he was in dead earnest and Kendric cried, "Yes," +quite heartily. Then Barlow, putting up with Kendric's mood since +there was no other way that one might do for a wilful, spoiled child +over which he had no authority of the rod, allowed himself to be +dragged to the middle of the room and there, standing side by side, the +two men lifted their voices to the swing and pulse of "The Flying Fish +Catcher," through all but interminable verses, while the men about them +kept enthusiastic time by tramping heavily with their thick boots. At +the end Kendric put his arm about the shoulders of his shorter +companion, and in lock step they went out. The party was over. + +"What's on your mind, Seafarer?" asked Kendric when they were outside. + +"Loot, mostly," said Barlow. "But first, while I think of it, Ruiz +Rios's wife wants a word with you." + +"What about?" Kendric opened his eyes. And, before Barlow answered, +"You saw her then?" + +"I went up to the hotel. Tried to get a room. She saw me and sent for +you. She didn't say what for." + +"Well, I'll not go," Kendric told him. "Now spin your yarn about your +loot." + +He leaned against a lamp post while Twisty Barlow, upright and eager, +said his say. A colorful tale it was in which the reciter was lavish +with pearls and ancient gold. It appeared that one had but to sail +down the coast of Lower California, up into the gulf and get ashore +upon a certain strip of sandy beach in the shadows of the cliffs. + +"And I tell you I've already got the hull off San Diego that will take +us there," maintained Barlow. "All I'm short of is you to stand your +share of the hell we'll raise and to chip in with what coin you can +scrape. If you hadn't been a damn fool with that ten thousand," he +added bitterly. + +"Spilled milk. Forget it. It came out of Mexico and it goes back +where it belongs. But if you're counting on me for any such amount as +that, you're up a tree. I'm flat." + +"We'll go just the same if you can't raise a bean," said Barlow +positively. "But if you can dig anything, for God's sake scrape +lively. We want to get there before somebody else does. And I was +hopin' you'd come across for grub and some guns and odds and ends." + +"I've got a few oil shares," said Kendric. "If they're roosting around +par they're good for twenty-five hundred." + +Barlow brightened. + +"We'll knock 'em down in San Diego if we only get two fifty!" he +announced, considering the sale as good as made. "And we'll do the +best we can on what we get." + +Not yet had Kendric agreed to go adventuring with Twisty Barlow. But +in his soul he knew that he would go, and so did Barlow. There was +nothing to hold him here; from elsewhere the voice which seldom grew +quiet was singing in his ears. He knew something of the gulf into +which Barlow meant to lead him, and of that defiant, legend-infested +strip of little-known land which lay in a seven hundred mile strip +along its edge; he knew that if a man found nothing else he would stand +his chance of finding life running large. It was the last frontier and +as such it had the singing voice. + +"You'll go?" said Barlow. + +But first Kendric asked his few questions. When he had answers to the +last of them his own eyes were shining. His truant fancies at last had +been snared; he was going headlong into the thing, he had already come +to believe that at the end of it he would again have filled his pockets +the while he would have drunk deep of the life that satisfied. It was +long since he had smelled the sea, had known ocean sunrise and sunset, +had gone to sleep with his bunk swaying and the water lapping. So when +again Barlow said, "You'll come?" Kendric's hand shot out to be gripped +by way of signing a contract, and his voice rang out joyously, "Put her +there, old mate! I'm with you, blow high, blow low." + +For a few minutes they planned. Then Barlow hurried off to make what +few arrangements were necessary before they could be in the saddle and +riding toward a railroad. Kendric meant to get two or three hours' +sleep since he realized that even his hard body could not continue +indefinitely as he had been driving it here of late. There was nothing +to be done just now that Barlow could not do; before the saddled horses +could be brought for him he could have time for what rest he needed. + +The thought of bed was pleasant as he walked on for he realized that he +was tired in every muscle of his body. The street was deserted saving +the figure of a boy he saw coming toward him. As he was turning a +corner the boy's voice accosted him. + +"Senor Kendric," came the call. "_Un momenta_." + +Kendric waited. The boy, a half-breed in ragged clothes, came close +and peered into his face. Then, having made sure, he whipped out a +small parcel from under his torn coat. + +"_Para usted_," he announced. + +Kendric took it, wondering. + +"What is it?" he asked. "Who sent it?" + +But the boy was slouching on down the street. Kendric called sharply; +the boy hastened his pace. And when Kendric started after him the +ragamuffin broke into a run and disappeared down an alley way. Kendric +gave him up and came back to the street, tearing off the outer wrap of +the package under a street lamp. In his hand was a sheaf of bank notes +which he readily recognized as the very ones he had just now lost at +dice, together with a slip of note paper on which were a few finely +penned lines. He held them up to the light in an amazement which +sought an explanation. The words were in Spanish and said briefly: + +"To Senor Jim Kendric because under his laugh he looked sad when he +lost. From one who does not play at any game with faint hearts." + + +His face flushed hot as he read; angrily his big hand crumpled message +and bank notes together. He glanced down the empty street; then +forgetful of bed and rest, his anger rising, he strode swiftly off +toward the hotel, muttering under his breath. The hotel-keeper he +found alone in the little room which served him as office and bed +chamber. + +"I want to see Mrs. Rios," said Kendric curtly. + +"You'd be meaning the Mexican lady? Name of Castelmar." He drew his +soiled, inky guest book toward him. "Zoraida Castelmar." + +"I suppose so," answered Kendric. "Where is she?" + +"Your name would be Kendric?" persisted the hotel-keeper. And at +Kendric's short "Yes," he pointed down the hall. "Third door, left +side. She's expecting you." + +Had Kendric paused to speculate over the implication of the man's words +he would inevitably have understood the trick Ruiz Rios's companion had +played on him. But he was never given to stopping for reflection when +he had started for a definite goal and furthermore just now his wrath +was consuming him. He went furiously down the hall and struck at the +door as though it were a man who had stirred his anger by standing in +his path. "Come in," invited a woman's voice in Spanish, the +inflection distinctly that of old Mexico. In he went. + +Before him stood an old woman, her face a tangle of deep wrinkles, her +hair spotted with white, her eyes small and black and keen. He looked +at her in surprise. Somehow he had counted on finding Zoraida +Castelmar young; just why he was not certain. But the surprise was an +emotion of no duration, since a hotter emotion overrode it and crowded +it out. + +"Look here," he began angrily, his hand lifted, the bills tight +clenched. + +But she interrupted. + +"You are Senor Kendric, _no_? She awaits you. There." + +She indicated still another door and would have gone to open it for +him. But he brushed by her and threw it back himself and crossed the +threshold impatiently. And again his emotion surging uppermost briefly +was one of surprise. The room was empty; it was the unexpected and +incongruous trappings which astonished him. On all hands the walls, +from ceiling to floor, were hidden by rich silken curtains, hanging in +deep purple folds, displaying a profusion of bright hued woven +patterns, both splendid and barbaric. The floor was carpeted by a soft +thick rug, as brilliant as the wall drapes. The two chairs were hidden +under similar drapes, the small square table covered by a mantle of +deep blue and gold which fell to the floor. Beyond all of this the +solitary bit of furnishing was the object on the table whose oddity +caught and held his eye; a thin column of crystal like a ten-inch +needle, based in a red disc and supporting a hollow cap, the size of an +acorn cup, in which was a single stone or bead of glass, he knew not +which. He only knew that the thing was alive with the fire in it and +blazed red, and he fancied it was a ruby. + +He glanced hurriedly about the room, making sure that it was empty. +Again his eyes came back to the glowing jewel supported by the thin +crystal stem. Now he was conscious of a sweet heavy perfume filling +the room, a fragrance new to him and subtly exotic. Everything about +him was fantastic, extravagant, absurd, he told himself bluntly, as was +everything connected with an absurd woman who did mad things. He +looked at the bank notes in his hand. What more insane act than to +send an amount of money of this size to a stranger? + +The familiarly disturbing feeling that eyes, her eyes, were upon him, +came again. He turned short about. She stood just across the room, +her back to the motionless curtains. Whence she had come and how, he +did not know. She was smiling at him and for the first time he saw her +eyes clearly and her dark passionate face and scarlet mouth. He did +not know if she were fifteen or twenty-five. The oval face, the +curving lips were those of a young maiden; her tall, slender figure was +obscured by the loose folds of a snow white garment which fell to the +floor about her; her eyes were just now of any age or ageless, +unfathomable, and, though they smiled, filled with a sort of mockery +which baffled him, confused him, angered him. Upon one point alone +there could be no shadow of doubt; from the top of her proudly lifted +head with its abundance of black hair wherein a jewel gleamed, to the +tips of her exquisite fingers where gleamed many jewels, she was almost +unhumanly lovely. She looked foreign, but he could not guess what land +had cradled her. Mexico? Why Mexico more than another land? It +struck him that she would have seemed alien to any land under the sun. +She might have sprung from some race of beings upon another star. + +She had marked the look on his face and in her eyes the laughter +deepened and the mockery stood higher. He frowned and stepped to the +table, tossing down the pad of bank notes. + +"That is yours," he told her briefly. "I don't want it and I won't +take it." + +Then she, too, came forward to the table. Her left hand took up the +money swiftly, eagerly, it struck him, and thrust it out of sight +somewhere among the folds of her gown. Then finally her laughter +parted her lips and the low music of it filled the room. He knew in a +flash now that she had never meant to allow her winnings to escape her; +that there had been craft in the wording of the message she had sent +him; that all along she counted on his coming to her as he had come. +She sank into the chair nearest her and indicated the other to him. + +"If Senor Kendric will be seated," she said lightly, "I should like to +speak with him." + +In blazing anger had Kendric come here. Now, seeing clearly just how +she had played with him the blood grew hotter in his face and hammered +at his temples. + +"_Senora_," he said crisply, "there need be no talk between you and me +since we have no business together." + +"_Senorita_," she corrected him curiously. "I am not married." + +"Nor is that a matter for us to discuss." He meant, as he desired, to +be rude to her. "Since it does not interest me." + +"It has interested many men," she laughed at him lightly, but still +with that intense probing look filling the black depths of her eyes. +"With them it has been a vital matter." + +Before he had marked something peculiar about the eyes; now he saw just +what it was. They were Oriental, slanting upward slightly toward the +white temples. No wonder she had impressed him as foreign. He +wondered if she were Persian or Arabian; if in her blood was a strain +of Chinese, even? + +He gave no sign of having heard her but groped for the door through +which he had come. It now, like the rest of the walls, was hidden +under the silken hangings which no doubt had fallen into place when the +door had closed behind him. He did not remember having shut it; +perhaps the old woman in the outer room had done so. And locked it. +For when at last his hand found the knob the door would not open. + +"What's all this nonsense about?" he demanded. "I want to go." + +It was her turn to pretend not to have heard. She sat back idly, +looking at him fixedly, smiling at him after her strange fashion. + +"I have heard of you," she said at last. "A great deal. I have even +seen you once before tonight. I know the sort of man you are. I know +how you made your money in Mexico; how you rode with it across the +border. I have never known another man like you, Senor Jim Kendric." + +"Will you have the door unlocked?" he said. "Or shall I smash it off +its hinges?" + +"A man with your look and your reputation," she said calmly, "was worth +a woman's looking up. When that woman had need for a man." Her eyes +were glittering now; she leaned forward, suddenly rigid and tense and +breathing hard. "When I have found a man who stakes ten thousand, +twenty thousand on one throw and is not moved; who returns ten thousand +in rage because a word of pity goes with it, am I to let him go?" + +"I don't like the company you keep," said Kendric. "And I don't like +your ways of doing business. I guess you'll have to let me go." + +"You mean Ruiz Rios?" Her eyes flashed and her two hands clenched. +Then she sank back again, laughing. "When you learn to hate him as I +do, senor, then will you know what hate means!" + +He pressed a knee against the door, near the lock. The hangings +getting in his way, he tore them aside. Zoraida Castelmar watched him +half in amusement, half in mockery. + +"There is a heavy oak bar on the other side," she told him carelessly. + +"I have a notion," he flung at her, "to take that white throat of yours +in my two hands and choke you!" + +The words startled her, seemed to astound, bewilder. + +"You think that you--that any man--could do that?" It was hardly more +than a whisper full of incredulity. + +"Well, I don't suppose that I would, anyway," he admitted. "But look +here: I've got some riding ahead of me and I'm dog tired and want a +wink of sleep. Suppose we get this foolishness over with. What do you +want?" + +"I want you. To go with me to my place where there are dangers to me; +yes, even to me. I know the man you are and in what I could trust you +and in what I could not. I would make your fortune for you." Again +she looked curiously at him. "Under the hand of Zoraida Castelmar you +could rise high, Senor Kendric." + +He shook his head impatiently before she had done and again at the end. + +"I am no woman's man," he told her steadily, "and I want no place as +any woman's watchdog. Offer me what you please, a thousand dollars a +day, and I'll say no." + +From its place under his left arm pit he brought out a heavy caliber +revolver, toying with it while he spoke. Her look ran from the black +metal barrel to his face. + +"Do you think you can frighten me?" she demanded. + +"I don't mean to try. I'll shoot off the lock and the hinges and if +the door still stands up I'll keep on shooting until the hotel man +comes and lets me out." He put the muzzle of the gun at the lock. + +"Wait!" She sprang to her feet. "I will open for you." She brushed +by him and rapped with her knuckles on the door. Beyond was a sound of +a bolt being slipped, of a bar grinding in its sockets. "One thing +only and you can go: When you come before me again it may be you who +begs for favors! And it will be I who grant or withhold as it may +appear wise to me." + +"Witch, are you?" he jeered. "A professional reader of fortunes? God +knows you've got the place fixed up like it!" + +"Maybe," she returned serenely, "I am more than witch. Maybe I do read +that which is hidden. _Quien sabe_, Senor Kendric, scorner of ladies? +At least," and again her laughter tantalized him, "I knew where to find +you tonight; I knew you would win from Ruiz Rios; I knew I would win +from you; I knew you would refuse to come to me and then would come. +All this I knew when you took your ten thousand from the bank down in +Mexico and rode toward the border. Further," and he was baffled to +know whether she meant what her words implied or whether she was merely +making fun of him, "I have put a charm and a spell over your life from +which you are never going to be free. Put as many miles as it pleases +you between you and Zoraida Castelmar; she will bring you back to her +side at a time no more distant than the end of this same month." + +He gave her a contemptuous and angry silence for answer. In the street +he looked up at the stars and filled his lungs with an expanding sigh +of relief. This companion of Ruiz Rios who paid passionate claim to an +intense hatred of the man whom she allowed to escort her here and +there, impressed him as no natural woman at all but as something of +strange influences, a malign, powerful, implacable spirit incased in +the fair body of a slender girl. He told himself fervently that he was +glad to be beyond the reach of the black oblique eyes. + + +Two hours later he was in the saddle, riding knee to knee with Twisty +Barlow, headed for San Diego Bay and a man's adventure. "In which, +praise be," he muttered under his breath, "there is no room for women." +And yet, since strong emotions, like the restless sea, leave their high +water marks when they subside, the image of the girl Zoraida held its +place in his fancies, to return stubbornly when he banished it, even +her words and her laughter echoing in his memory. + +"I have put a spell and a charm over your life," she had told him. + +"Clap-trap of a charlatan," he growled under his breath. And when +Barlow asked what he had said he cried out eagerly: + +"We can't get into your old tub and out to sea any too soon for me, old +mate." + +Whereupon Barlow laughed contentedly. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +OF THE NEW MOON, A TALE OF AZTEC TREASURE AND A MYSTERY + +On board the schooner _New Moon_ standing crazily out to sea, with +first port of call a nameless, cliff-sheltered sand beach which in his +heart he christened from afar Port Adventure, Jim Kendric was richly +content. With huge satisfaction he looked upon the sparkling sea, the +little vessel which _scooned_ across it, his traveling mate, the big +negro and the half-wit Philippine cabin boy. If anything desirable +lacked Kendric could not put the name to it. + +Few days had been lost getting under way. He had gone straight up to +Los Angeles where he had sold his oil shares. They brought him +twenty-three hundred dollars and he knocked them down merrily. Now +with every step forward his lively interest increased. He bought the +rifles and ammunition, shipping them down to Barlow in San Diego. And +upon him fell the duty and delight of provisioning for the cruise. As +Barlow had put it, the Lord alone knew how long they would be gone, and +Jim Kendric meant to take no unnecessary chances. No doubt they could +get fish and some game in that land toward which their imaginings +already had set full sail, but ham by the stack and bacon by the yard +and countless tins of fruit and vegetables made a fair ballast. +Kendric spent lavishly and at the end was highly satisfied with the +result. + +As the _New Moon_ staggered out to sea under an offshore blow, he and +Twisty Barlow foregathered in the cabin over the solitary luckily +smuggled bottle of champagne. + +"The day is auspicious," said Kendric, his rumpled hair on end, his +eyes as bright as the dancing water slapping against their hull. "With +a hold full of the best in the land, treasure ahead of our bow, humdrum +lost in our wake and a seven-foot nigger hanging on to the wheel, what +more could a man ask?" + +"It's a cinch," agreed Barlow. But, drinking more slowly, he was +altogether more thoughtful. "If we get there on time," was his one +worry. "If we'd had that ten thousand of yours we'd never have sailed +in this antedeluvian raft with a list to starboard like the tower of +Pisa." + +"Don't growl at the hand that feeds you or the bottom that floats you," +grinned Kendric. "It's bad luck." + +Nor was Barlow the man to find fault, regret fleetingly though he did. +He was in luck to get his hands on any craft and he knew it. The _New +Moon_ was an unlovely affair with a bad name among seamen who knew her +and no speed or up-to-date engines to brag about; but Barlow himself +had leased her and had no doubts of her seaworthiness. She was one of +those floating relics of another epoch in shipbuilding which had +lingered on until today, undergoing infrequent alterations under many +hands. While once she had depended entirely for her headway on her two +poles, fore sail set flying, now she lurched ahead answering to the +drive of her antiquated internal combustion motor. An essential part +of her were Nigger Ben and Philippine Charlie; they knew her and her +freakish ways; they were as much a portion of her lop-sided anatomy as +were propeller and wheel. + +Barlow chuckled as he explained the unwritten terms of his lease. + +"Hank Sparley owns her," he said, "and the day Hank paid real money for +her is the first day the other man ever got up earlier than Hank, you +can gamble on it. Now Hank gets busy gettin' square and he's somehow +got her insured for more'n she'll bring in the open market in many a +day. Hank figures this deal either of two ways; either I run her nose +into the San Diego slip again with a fat fee for him; or else it's Davy +Jones for the _New Moon_ and Hank quits with the insurance money." + +"Know what barratry is, don't you?" demanded Kendric. + +"Sure I know; if I didn't Hank would have told me." Barlow sipped his +champagne pleasantly. "But we'll bring her home, never you fret, +Headlong. And we'll pay the fee and live like lords on top of it. +Hank ain't frettin'. I spun him the yarn, seein' I had to, and he'd of +come along himself if he hadn't been sick. Which would have meant a +three way split and I'm just as glad he didn't." + +Kendric went out on deck and leaned against the wind and watched the +water slip away as the schooner rose and settled and fought ahead. +Then he strolled to the stern and took a turn at the wheel, joying in +the grip of it after a long separation from the old life which it +brought surging back into his memory. And while he reaccustomed +himself to the work Nigger Ben stood by, watching him jealously and at +first with obvious suspicion. + +Nigger Ben, as Kendric had intimated, was a man to be proud of on a +cruise like this one. If not seven feet tall, at least he had passed +the half-way mark between that and six, a hulking, full-blooded African +with monster shoulders and half-naked chest and a skull showing under +his close-cropped kinks like a gorilla's. He was an anomaly, all +taken: he had a voice as high and sweet-toned as a woman singer's; he +had an air of extreme brutality and with the animals on board, a ship +cat and a canary belonging to Philippine Charlie he was all gentleness; +he had by all odds the largest, flattest feet that Kendric had ever +seen attached to a man and yet on them he moved quickly and lightly and +not without grace; he held the _New Moon_ in a sort of ghostly fear, +his eyes all whites when he vowed she was "ha'nted," and yet he loved +her with all of the heart in his big black body. + +"Sho', she's ha'nted!" he proclaimed vigorously after a while during +which he had come to have confidence in the new steersman's knowledge +and had been intrigued into conversation. "Don't I know? Black folks +knows sooner'n white folks about ha'nts, Cap'n. Ain't I heered all the +happenin's dat's done been an' gone an' transcribed on dis here deck? +Ain't I _seen_ nothin'? Ain't I _felt_ nothin'? Ain't I spectated +when the ha'r on Jezebel's back haz riz straight up an' when she's +hunched her back up an' spit when mos' folks wouldn't of saw nothin' +a-tall? Sho', she's ha'nted; mos' ships is. But dem ha'nts ain' goin' +bodder me so long's I don't bodder dem. Dat's gospel, Cap'n Jim; sho' +gospel." + +"It's a hand-picked crew, Twisty," conceded Kendric mirthfully when +Nigger Ben was again at the wheel and the two adventurers paced +forward. "The kind to have at hand on a pirate cruise!" + +For Nigger Ben offered both amusement during long hours and skilful +service and no end of muscular strength, while, in his own way, Charlie +was a jewel. A king of cooks and a man to keep his mouth shut. When +left to himself Charlie muttered incessantly under his breath, his +mutterings senseless jargon. When addressed his invariable reply was, +"Aw," properly inflected to suit the occasion. Thus, with a shake of +the head, it meant no; with a nod, yes; with his beaming smile, +anything duly enthusiastic. He was not the one to be looked to for +treasons, stratagems and spoils. His favorite diversion was whistling +sacred tunes to his canary in the galley. + +As the _New Moon_ made her brief arc to clear the coast and sagged +south through tranquil southern days and starry nights, Kendric and +Barlow did much planning and voiced countless surmises, all having to +do with what they might or might not find. Barlow got out his maps and +indicated as closely as he could the point where they would land, the +other point some miles inland where the treasure was. + +"Wild land," he said. "Wild, Jim, every foot of it. I've seen what +lies north of it and I've seen what lies south of it, and it's the +devil's own. And ours, if Escobar's fingers haven't crooked to the +feel of it. And if they have, why, then," and he looked fleetingly to +the rifles on the cabin wall, "it belongs to the man who is man enough +to walk away with it!" + +More in detail than at any time before Twisty Barlow told all that he +knew of the rumor which they were running down. Escobar was one of the +lawless captains of a revolutionary faction who, like his general, had +been keeping to the mountainous out-of-the-way places of Mexico for two +years. In Lower California, together with half a dozen of his bandit +following, he had been taking care of his own skin and at the same time +lining his own pockets. It was a time of outlawry and Fernando Escobar +was a product of his time. He was never above cutting throats for +small recompense, if he glimpsed safety to follow the deed, and knew +all of the tricks of holding wealthy citizens of his own or another +country for ransoms. Upon one of his recent excursions the bandit +captain had raided an old mission church for its candlesticks. With +one companion, a lieutenant named Juarez, he had made so thorough a job +of tearing things to pieces that the two had discovered a secret which +had lain hidden from the passing eyes of worshipful padres for a matter +of centuries. It was a secret vault in the adobe wall, masked by a +canvas of the Virgin. And in the small compartment were not only a few +minor articles which Escobar knew how to turn into money, but some +papers. And whenever a bandit, of any land under the sun, stumbles +upon papers secretly immured, it is inevitable that he should hastily +make himself master of the contents, stirred by a hope of treasure. + +"And right enough, he'd found it," said Barlow holding a forgotten +match over his pipe. "If there's any truth in it three priests, way +back in the fifteen hundreds, stumbled onto enough pagan swag to make a +man cry to think about it. Held it accursed, I guess. And didn't need +it just then in their business, any way. Just what is it? I don't +know. Juarez himself didn't know; Captain Escobar let him get just so +far and decided to hog the whole thing and slipped six inches of knife +into him. How the poor devil lived to morning, I don't know and I +don't care to think about it. But live he did and spilled me the yarn, +praying to God every other gasp that I'd beat Fernando Escobar to it. +He said he had seen names there to set any man dreaming; the name of +Montezuma and Guatomotzin; of Cortes and others. He figured that there +was Aztec gold in it; that the three old priests had somehow tumbled on +to the hiding place; that they three planned to keep the knowledge +among themselves and, when they devoutly judged the time was right, to +pass the news on to the Church in Spain. + +"I wish Juarez had had time to read the whole works," meditated Barlow. +"Anyway he read enough and guessed enough on top of it for me to guess +most of the rest while I've been millin' around, getting goin'. Two of +the three priests died in a hurry at about the same time, leavin' the +other priest the one man in on the know. There was some sort of a +plague got 'em; he was scared it was gettin' him, too. So he starts in +makin' a long report to the home church, which if he had finished would +have been as long as your arm and would of been packed off to Spain and +that would of been the last you and me ever heard of it. But it looks +like, when he'd written as far as he got, he maybe felt rotten and put +it away, intendin' to finish the job the next day. And the plague, +smallpox or whatever it was, finished him first." + +"Fishy enough, by the sound of it, isn't it?" mused Kendric. + +"Fishy, your hat! There's folks would say fishy to a man that +stampeded in sayin' he'd found a gold mine. Me, while they guyed him, +I'd go take a look-see. And it didn't read fishy to Juarez and it +didn't to Fernando Escobar, else why the six inches of knife?" + +"Well," said Kendric, "we'll know soon enough. If you can find your +way to the place all right?" + +"Juarez had a noodle on him," grunted Barlow. "And he was as full of +hate as a tick of dog's blood. From the steer he gave me I can find +the place all right." + +Days and nights went by monotonously, routine merely varying to give +place to pipe-in-mouth idleness. But the third night out came an +occurrence to break the placidity of the voyage for Kendric, and both +to startle him and set him puzzling. He was out on deck in a steamer +chair which he had had the lazy forethought to bring, his feet cocked +up on the rail, his eyes on the vague expanse about him. There was no +moon; the sky was starlit. Barlow had said "Good night" half an hour +before; Philippine Charlie was muttering over the wheel; Nigger Ben's +voice was crooning from the galley where he was making a friendly call +on the canary. The water slipped and slapped and splashed alongside, +making pleasant music in the ears of a man who gave free rein to his +fancies and let them soar across a handful of centuries, back into the +golden day of the last of the Aztec Emperors. The Montezumas _had_ had +vast hoards of gold in nuggets and dust and hammered ornaments and +vessels; history vouched for that. And it stood to reason that the +princes and nobles, fearing the ultimate result of the might of the +Spaniards, would have taken steps to secrete some of their treasure +before the end came. Why not somewhere in Lower California, hurried +away by caravan and canoe to a stronghold far from doomed Mexico City? + +He was conscious now of no step upon the deck, no sound to mar the +present serene fitness of things. But out of his dreamings he was +drawn back abruptly to the swaying, swinging deck of a crazy schooner +by the odd, vague feeling that he was not alone. + +"Barlow," he called quietly. "That you?" + +There was no answer and yet, stronger than before, was the certainty +that someone was near at hand, that a pair of eyes were regarding him +through the obscurity of the night. So strong was the emotion, and so +strongly did it recall the emotion of a few nights ago when he had felt +the influence of a strange woman's eyes, that he leaped to his feet. +On the instant he half expected to see Zoraida Castelmar standing at +his elbow. + +What he saw, or thought that he saw, was a vague figure standing +against the rail across the deck from him, beyond the corner of the +cabin wall. A luminous pair of eyes, glowing through the dark. +Kendric was across the deck in a flash. No one was there. He raced +sternward, whisked around the pile of freight cluttered about the mast, +tripped over a coil of rope and ran forward again. When he still found +no one, so strong was the impression made on him that someone had been +standing looking at him, he made a stubborn search from prow to stern. +Barlow was in bed and looked to be asleep; the Philippine was muttering +over the wheel and when Kendric demanded to know if he had seen +anything said, "Aw," negatively; Nigger Ben had given over singing and +was feeding the canary and freshening its water supply. + +Afterwards Kendric realized that all the time while he was racing madly +up and down, peering into cabin and galley and nook and corner, there +had been a clear image standing uppermost in his mind; the picture of +Zoraida Castelmar as she had stood and looked at him when she had said, +"I have put a charm and a spell over your life." Now he simply knew +that he had the mad thought that she was somewhere on board and that, +hide as she would, he would find her. But when he gave up and went +sullenly back to his toppled chair, he knew that all he had succeeded +in was in making both Nigger Ben and Philippine Charlie marvel. Nigger +Ben, he thought sullenly, had come close enough to understanding +something of what was in his mind. For the giant African rolled his +eyes whitely and said: + +"Ha'nts, Cap'n Jim? You been seein' ha'nts, too?" + +"What makes you say that, Ben?" demanded Kendric. "Did you see +anything?" + +Nigger Ben looked fairly inflated with mysterious wisdom. But, thought +Kendric, what negro who ever lived would have denied having seen +something ghostly? Kendric had searched thoroughly high and low; he +had turned over big crates below deck, he had peered up the masts. +Now, before settling himself back in his chair, he looked in on Barlow +again. Twisty was turning over; his eyes were open. + +"I don't want any funny business," said Kendric sternly. "Did you +smuggle Zoraida Castelmar on board?" + +Barlow blinked at him. + +"Who the blazes is Zoraida Castelmar?" he countered. "The cat or the +canary?" + +Kendric grunted and went out, plumping himself down in his chair. He +supposed that he had imagined the whole thing. He had not seen +anything definitely; he had merely felt that eyes were watching him; +what had seemed a figure across deck might have been the oil coat +hanging on a peg or a curtain blowing out of a window. The more he +thought over the matter the more assured was he that he had allowed his +imaginings to make a fool of him. And by the time the sun flooded the +decks next morning he was ready to forget the episode. + + +They rounded San Lucas one morning, turned north into the gulf and +steered into La Paz where Barlow said he hoped to get a line on Escobar +and where they allowed custom officials an opportunity to assure +themselves that no contraband in the way of much dreaded rifles and +ammunition were being carried into restive Sonora. "Loco Gringoes out +after burro deer," was how the officials were led to judge them. +Barlow, gone several hours, reported that Escobar had not turned up at +the waterfront dives to which, according to the murdered Juarez, he +reported now and then to keep in touch with his outlaw commander. +Steering out again through the fishing craft and harbor boats, they +pounded the _New Moon_ on toward Port Adventure. + +Then came at last the night when Barlow, looking hard mouthed and +eager, announced that in a few hours they would drop anchor and go +ashore to see what they would see. Nigger Ben and Philippine Charlie +were instructed gravely. They were to remain on board and were to +maintain a suspicious reserve toward all strangers, denying them +foothold on deck. + +"The gents who'd be apt to make you a call," Barlow told them +impressively, "would cut your throats for a side of bacon. You boys +keep watches day and night. When we get back into San Diego Bay, if +you do your duties, you both get fifty dollars on top of your wages." + +It was shortly before they hoisted the anchor overboard to wait for +dawn that for the second time Kendric felt again that oddly disturbing +sense of hidden eyes spying at him. Again he was alone, standing +forward, peering into the darkness, trying to make some sort of detail +out of the black wall ahead which Barlow had told him was a long line +of cliff. As before Charlie was at the wheel while Nigger Ben was +listening to instructions from Barlow aft of the cabin. The voices +came faint against the gulf wind to Kendric. The words he did not hear +since all of his mental force was bent to determine what it was that +gave him that uncanny feeling of eyes, the eyes of Zoraida Castelmar, +in the dark. + +This time he was guarded in his actions. He stood still a moment, his +jaw set, only his eyes turning to right and left. As he had asked +himself countless times already so now did he put the question again: +"How could a man feel a thing like that?" At his age was he developing +nerves and insane fancies? At any rate the sensation was strong, +compelling. Making no sound, he turned and stared into the darkness on +all sides. He saw no one. + +Suddenly, startling him so that his taut muscles jumped involuntarily, +came an excited shout from Nigger Ben. + +"Ha'nts, Cap'n Barlow! Oh, my Gawd, save me now! Looky dar! Looky +dar! It's a lady g-g-ghost! Oh, my Gawd, save me now!" + +Kendric ran back. Nigger Ben was clutching wildly at Barlow's arm. + +"You superstitious old fool," growled Barlow. "It's only that piece of +torn sail flappin' that Charlie was goin' to sew. Can't you see? I +thought you weren't afraid of the _New Moon's_ ha'nts, any way." + +Nigger Ben shifted his big feet uneasily and little by little crept +forward to look at the flapping bit of sail cloth. Slowly his courage +returned to him. He hadn't been afraid at all, he declared, but just +sort of shook up, seeing the thing all of a sudden that way. Kendric +passed on as though nothing had happened, as he reasoned perhaps +nothing had. But just the same he made his second quiet search, in the +end finding nothing. But as he went back to his place up deck he +turned the matter over and over in mind stubbornly. Coincidences were +all right enough, but reasonable explanations lay back of them. If a +man could only see just where the explanation lay. + +He sought to reason logically; if in truth someone had been standing +looking at him, if Nigger Ben had seen something other than the +flapping canvas, then that someone or something had gone aboard the +_New Moon_ at San Diego and had made the entire cruise with them. That +could hardly have been done without Barlow's knowledge. Two points +struck him then. First, Barlow had demanded who Zoraida Castelmar was; +had not Barlow even learned the name of the girl of the pearls? +Second, it recurred to him that Barlow had followed her to the hotel in +the border town, had even had word with her, since he had brought +Kendric a message. Why had Barlow gone to the hotel at all? His +explanation at the time had been reasonable enough; he had said that he +had gone to get a room. But now Kendric remembered how Barlow, on that +same night, had expressed his determination to be riding by moonrise! +What would he have done with a hotel room? + + +But slowly the dawn was coming, the ragged shore was revealing itself, +Barlow was calling for help with the small boat. Kendric shrugged his +shoulders and kept his mouth shut. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +INDICATING THAT THAT WHICH APPEARS THE EARTHLY + PARADISE MAY PROVE QUITE ANOTHER SORT OF PLACE + +A strip of white beach three hundred feet long, a score of paces across +at its widest, with black barren cliffs guarding it and the faint pink +dawn slowly growing a deeper rose over it, such was the port of +adventure into which nosed the row boat bringing Jim Kendric and Twisty +Barlow treasure seeking. In the stern crouched Nigger Ben, come ashore +in order to row the boat back to the _New Moon_, his eyes bulging with +wonderment that men should come all the way from San Diego to disembark +upon so solitary a spot. The dingey shoved its nose into the sand, +Kendric and Barlow carrying their small packs and rifles sprang out, +Nigger Ben shook his head and pushed off again. + +"Up the cliffs the easiest way," cried Barlow, his eyes shining with +excitement. "Up there I'll get my bearin's and we'll steer a +straight-string line for what's ahead, Headlong, old mate! Step lively +is the word now while it's cool. And by noon, if we're in luck----" + +He left the rest to any man's imagination and hastened across the sand +and to the rock wall. But more forbidding than ever rose the cliffs +against the path of men who did not know their every crevice, and it +was full day and the sun was up before they came panting to the top. +Down went packs, with two heaving-chested, bright-eyed men atop of +them, while Barlow, compass in hand, got his bearings. + +The devil's own he had named this country from afar; the devil's own it +extended itself, naked and dry and desolate before their questing eyes, +a weary land, sun-smitten, broken, looking deserted of God and man. As +far as they could see there were no trees, little growth of any kind, +no birds, no grazing beasts. Just swell after swell of arid lands, +here and there cut by ancient gorges, tumbled over by heaps of black +rocks, swept clean of dust on the high places by racing winds, piled +high with sand and small stones in the depressions. Where growing +things thrust up their heads, they were the harsh, fanged and envenomed +growth of desert places. The place had an air of unholiness in the +light of the new day. A thorn, as Barlow turned carelessly, tore the +skin on the back of his hand painfully. The parent stem had an evil +look and he cursed it as though it had been a conscious malign agent, +and struck at it with his clubbed rifle. From the place where the +branch was wrenched away exuded a slow red sticky ooze like coagulating +blood. + +"There's our course," announced Barlow, pointing, "with half a dozen +hours of damned unpleasant walking, according to poor old Juarez. See +those three peaks, standing up together? We bear a little off to the +south for a spell and then straight toward 'em. And never a spring +until we get there! Look out you don't poke a hole in your canteen." + +"Ready," said Jim. "Let's go." + +They went on. Now that a new phase had come into their quest, with the +days of distant speculation giving place to action on the ground, a +certain difference of character was manifest in the two men. A growing +taciturnity, accompanied by deep frowning thoughtfulness, locked +Barlow's lips, while Kendric, to whom any such experience was always +primarily a lark, expanded and mounted steadily to fresh stages of +lightheartedness. It mattered less to him than to his companion what +might lie at the end of their journey; the journey itself was with Jim +Kendric the golden thing. He felt alive, jubilant, keenly in sympathy +with the lure and zest of the expedition. He felt like singing, would +no doubt have sung out in some wild border ballad or bit of deep sea +melody with a piratical swing to it, had he not been half the time +fairly breathless from the pace they maintained over the broken country. + +In a couple of hours they left behind them the worst of the gorges and +canons, flinty peaks and ridges, and dropped down into a long crooked +valley floored with dry sand ankle deep and grown over with a gray +shrub plainly akin to California sage brush. Here was some scant +evidence of animal life, a dusty jack rabbit, a circling buzzard, a +thin spotted snake, a wild pony with up-flung head staring at them from +the further ridge, gone whisking away as they drew on. And they came +to trees whose shade was grateful, oaks and, later, a few dusty +straggling pinons. Wisps of dry grass, an occasional patch of +flowering weeds or taller plants, a flock of bewildered-looking birds +that had the appearance of having strayed hitherward by mistake. No +water, no sign of water; no man-owned herds, no sign of man. The open +valley under the high, hot sun was a drearier place than the mountain +slopes. + +Then came the up-hill climb as they passed out of the western edge of +the sandy flats, a steep spur of the Cordillera, a region silent and +saturnine and unthinkably hot. Three times, though they guarded +against profligacy with their water, they unstoppered their canteens +and rested in the shade on the way up. At last they came to the crest +of the barrier of the blistering hills, having been on foot for a full +five hours. And now, for the first time, looking forward, down the +steep slopes and across the miles, they saw the Valley of Las Flores, +the place of flowers. At first it was hard for them to believe that +their eyes, which the desert lands befool so often and so readily, had +not tricked them. It was as though in a twinkling the world had +changed about them. + +The long wide valley below was one sweep of green: fresh, colorful, +cool green. Across it wandered many cows and horses and donkeys, +browsing where the herbiage was lushest, dozing in the shade of the +wide-spread oaks, standing indolent in the golden sunshine. A bright +stream of water cut the emerald sward in two, coming from the bordering +mountains at one end, gone flashing into the mountain-guarded pass at +the other. From a distance Kendric heard a bird singing away like mad +and saw the sweep and flutter of a butterfly's wing. + +"The earthly paradise!" he cried admiringly. + +But already Barlow's fixed eyes were upon the mountainous country +across the valley. + +"Come on," he said, slipping his pack-straps over his shoulders and +swinging up his rifle. "It would be three to five miles, easy going, +and we're there! There are our three peaks, straight across." + +Only when they were fairly down on the floor of the valley did they see +the ranch houses. There were several, a big, rambling adobe with +white-washed walls, barns and smaller outbuildings, all making a +sizeable group. They stood in an oak grove at the opposite side of the +valley, close to the common bases of Barlow's peaks. The two men +stopped and looked, reflecting. + +"Neighbors," said Kendric. "They'll be wanting to know what we're +about, pottering around on the rim of their holding." + +"It's anybody's land over there," growled Barlow. "They'd best keep +out of it." + +They pushed on across the fields, noting casually how they were all +leveled and ditched for irrigation, and came at last to the creek where +they rested under an oak and drank deeply and smoked. As they rose to +go on they saw four horsemen bearing down upon them from the direction +of the ranch houses. + +"_Vacqueros_," said Barlow. "They'll be wantin' to know if we're lost." + +"They look more like brigands than cow men," grunted Kendric. "Every +man jack of them wears a rifle. And they're in a rush, Twisty, old +mate. What will you bet they don't herd us back where we came from?" + +"Let 'em try it on," Barlow shot back at him, his eyes narrowing on the +oncoming riders. "I'm goin' to roll up in my blanket under those three +peaks tonight if the whole Mexican army shows up." + +The two Americans stopped and stood ready to ease their shoulders out +of their packs and start pumping lead if the newcomers turned out to be +half the desperadoes they appeared. "The way to argue with these sort +of gents," said Barlow contemptuously, "is shoot their eyes out first +and talk next." But as the foremost of the little cavalcade drew up in +front of them, with his three followers curbing their horses a few +paces in his rear, the fellow's greeting was amazingly hospitable. + +"_Buenas dias, amigos_," he called to them. But, though he hailed them +in the name of friendship, his eyes were sullen and gave the lie to his +speech. "You would be fatigued with walking across the cursed desert; +you would be parched with thirst. Yonder," and he pointed toward the +distant white walls, "is coolness and pleasant welcome awaiting you." + +His followers were out-and-out ragamuffins, wild-looking fellows with +their unshaven cheeks and tangled hair and fierce eyes. Their +spokesman stood apart in appearance as well as in position, being +somewhat extravagantly dressed, showing much ornamentation both on his +own person and that of his mount in the way of silver buckles and +spangles. He was the youngest of the crowd, not over twenty-two or +three from the look of him, with a nicely groomed black mustache. The +horse under him was a superb creature, a great savage fiery-eyed sorrel +stallion. + +"Thanks," returned Barlow. "But my friend and I are on our way over +there." He pointed. "We are students of entymology and are studyin' +certain new butterflies." All along, until the very moment, he had +fully intended explaining by saying they were on a hunting trip. But +as he spoke it struck him that the slopes about his three peaks would +not harbor a jack rabbit, and furthermore on the instant a big golden +butterfly went flapping by him, putting the idea into his head. + +The young Mexican nodded but insisted. + +"There will be time for butterfly catching tomorrow," he said +carelessly. "Today you will honor us by riding back to the Hacienda +Montezuma. You are expected, senores; everything is prepared for you. +_Oyez_, Pedro, Juanito," turning in his saddle and addressing two of +his men. "Rope two horses and let _los Americanos_ have yours." And +when both Pedro and Juanito frowned and hesitated, his eyes flashed and +he cried out angrily at them: "_Pronto_! It is commanded!" + +They rode away toward a herd of horses half a mile down the valley, +their riatas soon in their hands and widening and swinging into great +loops. Presently they were back, leading two captured ponies. +Dismounting, they made impromptu hackamores of their ropes and mounted +bareback, leaving their own saddles empty for Kendric and Barlow. + +"Look here, _amigo_," said Kendric then. "We're much obliged for the +kind invitation. But you've got the wrong guests. If your outfit was +expecting newcomers it was someone else." + +The Mexican lifted his fine black brows. + +"Then are you not Senores Kendric and Barlow?" he asked impudently. + +They stared wonderingly at him, then at each other. + +"You're some little guesser, stranger," grunted Barlow. "Who told you +all you know?" + +"Go easy, Twisty," laughed Kendric, his interest caught. Affably, to +the Mexican, he said: "You're right, senor. And, to complete the +introductions, would you mind telling us who you are?" + +"I?" He touched up his mustache and again his eyes flashed; +involuntarily, as he spoke his name, he laid his hand on the grip of +the revolver bumping at his hip, giving the perfectly correct +impression that the man who wore that name must ever stand ready to +defend himself: "I am Fernando Escobar, at your service for what you +please, senor!" + +Never a muscle of either Kendric's face or Barlow's twitched at the +information though inwardly each man started. Before now, many times +in the flood of their tumultous lives, they had lived through moments +when the thing to do was control all outward expression of emotion and +think fast. + +"I'd say, Twisty," said Kendric lightly, "that it is downright kind of +Senor Escobar to extend so hearty an invitation. It would be the +pleasant thing to rest up in the shade during the afternoon. Tomorrow, +perhaps, it could be arranged that he would let us have a couple of +horses to make our little trip into the hills butterfly-catching?" + +But Barlow, fingering his forelock, looked anything but pleased. His +eyes went swiftly to the three peaks across the valley, then frowning +up the valley to the ranch houses. Obviously, he meant to go straight +about his business, all the more eager to come to grips with the naked +situation since Escobar was on the ground and had made himself known. +He opened his lips to speak. On the instant Kendric saw a swift, +subtle change in his eyes, a look of surprise and of uncertainty. And +then, abruptly, Barlow said: + +"Oh, all right. I'm tired hoofin' it, anyway," and swung up into the +saddle on the nearest horse, pack and all. + +Escobar wheeled his horse, as though glad to have his errand done, and +rode back toward the upper end of the valley, his ragged following +close at his heels, Kendric and Barlow bringing up the rear. + +"What was it, Twisty?" demanded Kendric softly. "What did you see? +What made you change your mind all of a sudden." + +"Look at the cordillera just back of the ranch house, Jim," answered +Barlow, guardedly. + +Kendric looked and in a moment understood Barlow's perplexity. There +again were three upstanding peaks, much in general outline and height +like those across the valley. For the life of him Barlow did not know +which was the group toward which he had been directed by Juarez to +steer his course. Doubtless Escobar did know. And if Escobar were +going up valley, it would be just as well to go with him. + +As they drew near the big adobe house both men were interested. The +building had once upon a time, perhaps two or three hundreds of years +ago, been a Spanish mission; so much was told eloquently by the lines +of high adobe walls ringing the buildings and by the architecture of +the main building itself. There were columns, arches, corridors after +the old mission style. But it had all been made over, added to, so +that it was now a residence of a score or more of rooms. It spread out +covering the entire top of a knoll whereon were many large oaks. At +the back, rising sharply, was the barren slope of the mountain. + +Their gaze was drawn suddenly from the house itself to a rider darting +out through the high arched gateway in the adobe wall. A beautiful +horse, snowy, glistening white, groomed to the last hair, an animal of +fine thin racing forelegs proudly lifted and high-flung head, shot out +of the shadows like a shaft of sunlight. On its back what at first +appeared an elegantly dressed young man, a youth even fastidiously and +fancifully accoutered, with riding boots that shone and a flaunting +white plume and red lined cape floating wildly. Only when the +approaching rider came close and threw up a gauntleted hand to the wide +black hat, saluting laughingly, did they recognize this for the same +youth who had come with Ruiz Rios to Ortega's gambling house. + +"Zoraida Castelmar!" gasped Kendric. + +Turning in his amazement to his companion he caught a strange look in +Barlow's eyes, a strange flush in Barlow's cheeks. Then he saw only +the girl's dark, passionate face and scarlet lips and burning eyes as +she called softly: + +"Welcome to the Hacienda Montezuma! The gods have willed that you +come. The gods and I!" + +And into Kendric's bewildered face, ignoring Barlow, she laughed +triumphantly. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HOW ONE NOT ACCUSTOMED TO TAKING ANOTHER + MAN'S ORDERS RECEIVES THE COMMAND OF THE QUEEN LADY + +Had horse and rider been only a painting, immovable upon hung canvas, +they would have drawn to themselves the enrapt eyes of mute, admiring +artists. Endowed with the glorious attribute of pulsating life, they +fascinated. Kendric saw the white mare's neck arch, marked how the +satiny skin rippled, how the dainty ears tipped forward, how the large +intelligent eyes bespoke the proud spirit. He could fancy the mare +prancing forth from the stables of an Eastern prince, the finest pure +bred Arabian of his stud, the royal favorite, the white queen-rose of +his costly gardens. From the mare he looked to the rider, not so much +as a man may regard a woman but as he must pay tribute to animal +perfection. He told himself that as a woman Zoraida Castelmar +displeased him; that there was no place in his fancies for the bold +eyes of an adventuress. But he deemed a man might look upon her as +impersonally as upon the white mare, giving credit where credit was +due. It struck him then that all that was wrong with Zoraida Castelmar +was that she was an anachronism; that had he lived a thousand years ago +and had she then, a barbaric queen, stepped before him, he would have +seen the superb beauty of her and would have gone no further. Before +now he had felt that she was "foreign." That was on the border. Here, +deep in Old Mexico, she still remained foreign. Rightly she belonged +to another age, if not to another star. + +For the moment she sat smiling at him, her eyes dancing and yet masking +her ultimate thought. Triumph he had glimpsed and, as always, a +shadowy hint of mockery. Suddenly she turned from him and put out her +gauntleted hand to Barlow, flashing him another sort of smile, one that +made Barlow's eyes brighten and brought a hotter flush to his tanned +cheeks. + +"You have kept your promise with me," she said softly. "I shall not +forget and you will not regret!" Even while she spoke her eyes drifted +back to Kendric, laughing at him, taunting him. + +He looked sharply at Barlow. But he said nothing and Barlow, intent +upon the girl, did not note his turned head. + +Zoraida turned imperiously upon Fernando Escobar. "These men are my +guests," she said sharply, her tone filled with defiant warning. +"Remember that, _Senor el Capitan_. You will escort them to the house +where my cousin will receive them. Until we meet at table, senores +all." + +From her neck hung a tiny whistle from a thin gold chain; she lifted it +to her lips, blew a long clear note and with a last sidelong look at +Kendric touched her dainty spurs to her mare's sides and shot away. + +"You will follow me," said Escobar stiffly. "This way, _caballeros_." + +He pressed by them, dismissing his following with a glance, and rode +through the wide arched gateway. Barlow turned in after him but +hesitated when Kendric called coolly: + +"I have small hankering to accept the lady's hospitality, Barlow. Why +should we establish ourselves here instead of going on about our +business? By the lord, her invitation smacks to me too damned much of +outright command!" + +"No use startin' anything, Jim," said Barlow. "Come ahead." + +At them both Escobar smiled contemptuously. + +"Look," he said, pointing toward the adobe. "Judge if it be wise to +hesitate when _la senorita reina_ says enter." + +They saw graveled driveways and flower bordered walks under the oaks; +blossoming, fragrant shrubs welcoming countless birds; an expanse of +velvet lawn with a marble-rimmed pool and fountain. A beautiful +garden, empty one instant, then slowly filling as from about a far +corner of the house came a line of men. Young men, every one of them, +fine-looking, dark-skinned fellows dressed after the extravagant +fashion of the land which mothered them, with tall conical hats and +slashed trousers, broad sashes and glistening boots. They came on like +military squads, silent, erect, eyes full ahead. Out in the driveway +they halted, fifty of them. And like one man, they saluted. + +"Will you enter as a guest?" jeered Escobar. + +Kendric's anger flared up. + +"I'll tell you one thing, my fine friend Fernando Escobar," he said +hotly, "I don't like the cut of your sunny disposition. You and I are +not going to mix well, and you may as well know it from the start. As +for this 'guest' business, just what do you mean?" + +Escobar shrugged elaborately and half veiled his insolent eyes with the +long lashes. + +"You mean," went on Kendric stubbornly, "your 'Queen Lady' as you call +her, has instructed her rabble to bring us in, willy-nilly?" + +"Ai!" cried Escobar in mock surprise. "_El Americano_ reads the secret +thought!" + +"Come ahead, Jim," urged Barlow anxiously. "Don't I tell you there is +no sense startin' a rumpus? Suppose you weeded out half of 'em, the +other half would get you right. And haven't we got enough ahead of us +without goin' out of our way, lookin' for a row?" + +For answer Kendric gave his horse the spur and dashed through the gate. +If a man had to tie into fifty of a hard-looking lot of devils like +those saturnine henchmen of Zoraida, it would at least be a scrimmage +worth a man's going down in; but Barlow was right and there was no +doubt enough trouble coming without wandering afield for it. + +So, close behind Escobar, they rode under the oaks and to the house. +Here was a quadrangle, flanked about with white columns; through +numerous arches one saw oaken doors set into the thick walls of the +shaded building. The three men dismounted; three of the men in the +driveway took the horses. Escobar stepped to the broad double door +directly in front of them. As his spurred boot rang on the stone floor +the door opened and Ruiz Rios opened to them. He bowed deeply, +courteously, his manner cordial, his eyes inscrutable. + +At his invitation they entered. He led them through a great, +low-ceiled room where dim light hovered over luxurious appointments, +across Oriental rugs and hardwood floors to a wide hallway. Down this +for a long way, past a dozen doors at each hand and finally into a +suite looking out into the gardens from a corner of the building. As +they went in, two Mexican girls, young and pretty, with quick black +eyes and in white caps and aprons, came out. The girls dropped their +eyes, curtsied and passed on, as silent as little ghosts. + +"Your rooms, senores," said Rios, standing aside for them. "When you +are ready you will ring and a servant will show you to the _patio_, +where I will be waiting for you. If there is anything forgotten, you +have but to ring and ask." + +He left them and hurried away, obviously glad to be done with them. +They went in and closed the door and looked about them. Here were big +leather chairs, a mahogany table, cigars, smoking trays, cigarets, a +bottle of brandy and one of fine red wine standing forth hospitably. +Through one door they saw an artistically and comfortably furnished +bedroom; through another a tiled, glisteningly white bath; beyond the +bath the second bedroom. + +All this they marked at a glance. Then Kendric turned soberly to his +companion. + +"I've known you a good many years off and on, Twisty," he said bluntly, +"for the sort of man to name pardner and friend. For half a dozen +years, however, I've seen little of you. What have those half-dozen +years done to you?" + +"What do you mean?" asked Barlow. + +"I mean that for a mate on a crazy expedition like this I want a man I +can tie to. That means a man that turns off every card from the top, +straight as they come. A man that doesn't bury the ace. I haven't +held out anything on you. What have you held out on me?" + +Barlow looked troubled. He uncorked the brandy bottle and helped +himself, sipping slowly. + +"You've got in mind what she said outside?" he asked. + +"Yes. That and other things." + +"If I had told you at the beginnin'," said Barlow, "that you and me +were comin' to a place, lookin' for treasure, that was right next door +to where Zoraida Castelmar lived, would you of come?" + +"No. I don't think I would." + +"Well, that's why I didn't tell you." + +"And you promised her--just what?" + +"That I'd be showin' up down this way. And that you'd be comin' along +with me." He finished off his brandy and set his glass down hard. + +Kendric took a cigaret and wandered across the room, looking out into +the gardens. The string of men who had appeared at Zoraida's whistle, +were filing off around the house again, going toward the nearby +outbuildings. + +"I'm not going to pump questions at you, Barlow," he said without +turning. "What you do is up to you. Only, if you can't play the game +straight with me, our trails fork for good and all. Now, let's get a +bath and see the dance through." + +Five minutes later Jim Kendric, splashing mightily in a roomy tub, +began to sing under his breath. After all, matters were well enough. +Life was not dull but infinitely profligate of promise. He fancied +that Ruiz Rios was boiling inwardly with rage; the thought delighted +him. His old zest flooded back full tide into his veins. His voice +rose higher, his lively tune quickened. Barlow's face brightened at +the sound and his lungs filled to a sigh of relief. + +Within half an hour a servant ushered them into the _patio_. There, +under a grape arbor, their chairs drawn close up to the little +fountain, were Rios and Escobar, talking quietly. Both men rose as +they appeared, offering chairs. Both were all that was courteous and +yet it needed no guessing to understand that their courtesy was but +like so much thin silken sheathing over steel; they were affable only +because of a command. And that command, Zoraida's. + +"As far as they are concerned," mused Kendric, "she is absolutely the +Queen Lady. Wonder how she works it? Wouldn't judge either one of +them an easy gent to handle." + +The conversation was markedly impersonal. They spoke of stock raising, +of the best breeds of beef cattle, of what had been done with +irrigation and of what Rios planned for another year. It became clear +that Zoraida was the sole owner of several thousand fair acres here and +that Ruiz Rios stood in the position of general manager to his cousin. +That he envied her her possessions, that it galled him to be her +underling over these acres, was a fact which lay naked on top of many +mere surmises. Once, with simulated carelessness, Escobar said: + +"The rancho would have been yours, had there been no will, is it not +so, amigo Rios?" And Ruiz flashed an angry look at him, knowing that +the man taunted him. + +"It is called the Rancho Montezuma, isn't it?" put in Kendric. "Why +that name, Rios?" + +"It is the old name," said Rios lightly. "That is all I know." + +When a servant announced dinner they went to an immense dining-room +wherein a prince might have taken his state meals. But Zoraida did not +join them, sending word by one of the little Mexican maids that she +would not appear. It was significant that no reason was offered; from +the instant that they had set foot down at the hacienda it was to be +known that here Zoraida did as she pleased and accounted to none. Two +tall fellows, looking pure-bred Yaqui Indians, served perfectly, soft +voiced, softer footed, stony eyed. During the meal Kendric fell into +the way of chatting with young Escobar, seeking to draw him out and +failing, while Barlow and Rios talked together, Rios regarding Barlow +intently. When they rose from table Barlow accepted an invitation from +Rios to look over the stables, while Kendric was led by Escobar back to +the _patio_. Even then Kendric had the suspicion that the intention +was to separate him from his friend, but he saw nothing to be done. He +hardly looked for any sort of violence, and were such intended there +was scant need to waste time over such trifles as separating two men +who would have to stand against two score. + +"If you will pardon me a moment, senor?" said Escobar briefly. + +He left Kendric standing by the little fountain and disappeared. On +the instant one of the little maids stole softly forward. + +"This way, senor," she said, looking at him curiously. + +"Where?" he demanded. "And why?" + +She smiled and shook her head. + +"It is commanded," she replied. "Will _el senor Americano_ be so kind +as to follow?" + +He had asked why and got no answer. Now he demanded of himself, "Why +not?" He was playing the other fellow's game and might as well play +straight on until he saw what was what. + +"Lead on," he said. "I'm with you." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CONCERNING THAT WHICH LAY IN THE EYES OF ZORAIDA + +Jim Kendric guessed, before the last door was thrown open for him, that +he was being led before Zoraida Castelmar. The serving maid flitted on +ahead, out through a deep, shadow-filled doorway into the dusk, down a +long corridor and into the house again at an end which Kendric judged +must be close to the flank of the mountain. Down a second hallway, to +a heavy, nail-studded door which opened only when the little maid had +knocked and called. This room was lighted by a swinging lamp and its +rays showed its scanty but rich furnishings, and the one who had +opened, a tall, evil-looking Yaqui who wore in his sash a long-barreled +revolver on one side and a longer, curved knife at the other. The girl +sidled about the doorkeeper and, safe behind his back made a grimace of +distaste at him, then hurried on. Again she knocked at a locked door; +again it was swung open only when she had added her voice to her +rapping. Who opened this door Kendric did not know; for it was pitch +dark as soon as the door was shut after them and they stood in a room +either windowless or darkened by thick curtains. But the girl hastened +on before him and he followed the patter of her soft moccasins, albeit +with a hand under his left arm pit; all of this locking and unlocking +of doors and the attendant mystery struck him as clap-trap and he set +it down as further play for effect by the mistress of the place, but +none the less he was ready to strike back if a wary arm struck at him +through the dark. + +The girl had stopped before another door, Kendric close behind her. +This time she neither knocked nor called. He heard her fingers groping +along the wall; then the silvery tinkle of a bell faintly heard through +the thick oak panels. + +"You will wait," she whispered. And he knew that she was gone. + + +He was not forced to wait long. Suddenly the door was opened; he heard +it move on its hinges and made out a pale rectangle of light. A softly +modulated voice said: "_Entra, senor_." He stepped across the +threshhold and into the presence of another serving girl, taller than +the other two maidens, finer bred, a calm-eyed, serene girl of twenty +dressed in a plain white gown girdled with a smooth gold band. + +They were in a little anteroom; the curtains between them and the main +apartment had made the light dim, for just beyond he could make out the +blurred glowing of many lamps. + +The girl's great calm eyes looked at him frankly an instant, vague +shadows drifting across them. Then, abruptly, she put her lips quite +close to his ear, and whispered: "Do not anger her, senor!" Then, +stepping quickly to the curtain, she threw it back and he entered. + + +A vain, headstrong girl, deemed Kendric, given the opportunity and very +great wealth, might be looked to for absurdities of this kind. But was +all of this nothing more, nothing worse, than absurdity? Suppose +Zoraida were sincere in all that she had said to him, in all the things +she did? He had heard a rumor concerning Ruiz Rios, long ago, half +forgotten. Certain wild deeds laid to the Mexican's door had brought +forth the insinuation that he was a little mad. Zoraida had claimed +kinship with him. + +At any rate, to Kendric's matter-of-fact way of thinking, here was +further clap-trap that might well have been the result of a mad mind +working extravagantly. The room was empty. All four walls, from +ceiling to floor, were draped in gorgeously rich hangings, oriental +silks, he imagined, deep purples and yellows and greens and reds +cunningly arranged so that their glowing colors and the ornamental +designs worked upon them made no discordant clash of color. The +chamber in which he had met Zoraida at the hotel was mild hued, +colorless compared to this one. There were no chairs but a couch +against each wall, each a bright spot with its high heaped cushions. +In the middle of the room was a small square ebony stand; upon it, +glowing like red fire upon its frail crystal stem, the familiar stone. + +He had stepped a couple of paces into the room, his boots sinking +without sound into the deep carpet. In no mood for a girl's whims, mad +or sane, he waited, impatient and irritated. He regretted having come; +he should have sat tight in the _patio_ and let her come to him. No +doubt she was spying on him now from behind the hangings somewhere. +There was no comfort in the thought, no joy in imagining that while he +stood forth in the clear light of the hanging lamps she and her maidens +and attendants might all be watching him. He vastly preferred solid +walls and thick doors to silken drapes. + +While he waited, two distinct impressions slowly forced themselves upon +him. One was that of a faint perfume, coming from whence he had no way +of knowing, the unforgettable, almost sickeningly sweet fragrance he +remembered. One instant he was hardly conscious of it, it was but a +suspicion of a fragrance. And then it filled the room, strongly sweet, +strangely pleasant, a near opiate in its soothing effect. + +The other impression was no true sensation in that it was registered by +none of the five senses; a true sensation only if in truth there is in +man a subtle sixth sense, uncatalogued but vital. It was the old +uncanny certainty that at last eyes, the eyes of none other than +Zoraida Castelmar, were bent searchingly on him. So strong was the +feeling on him that he turned about and fixed his own eyes on a +particular corner where the silken folds hung graceful and loose. He +felt that she was there, exactly at that spot. + +He strode across the room and laid a sudden hand on the fabric. It +parted readily and just behind it, her eyes more brilliant, more +triumphant than he had ever seen them, stood Zoraida. + +"Can you say now, Senor Americano," she cried out, the music of her +voice rising and vibrating, "that I have not set the spell of my spirit +upon your spirit, the influence of my mind upon your mind? You stood +here and the chamber was empty about you. I came, but so that you +might not hear with your ears and might not see with your eyes. And +yet, looking at you through a pin hole in a drawn curtain, I made you +conscious of me and called voicelessly to you to come and you came!" + +There was laughter in her oblique eyes and upon her scarlet lips, and +Kendric knew that it was not merely light mirth but the deeper laughter +of a conqueror, a high rejoicing, the winged joy of victory. + +"I am no student of mental forces," said Kendric. "But to my knowledge +there is nothing unusual in one's feeling the presence of another. As +for any power which your mind can exert over mine, I don't admit it. +It's absurd." + +Contempt hardened the line of her mouth and the laughter died in her +eyes. + +"Man is an animal of little wisdom," she murmured as she passed by him +into the room, "because he has not learned to believe the simple truth." + +"If there is anything either simple or true in your establishment," he +blurted out, "I haven't found it." + +She went to the table before she turned. A flowing garment of deep +blue fell about her; on her black hair like a coronet was a crest of +many colored, tiny feathers, feathers of humming birds, he learned +later; throat and arms were bare save for many blazing red and green +stones, feet bare save for exquisitely wrought sandals which were held +in place by little golden straps which ended in plain gold bands about +the round white ankles. + +Slowly she turned and faced him. But not yet did she speak. She +clapped her hands together and the curtains at her right bellied out, +parted and a man stepped before her, bending deeply in genuflection. +No Yaqui, this time; no Mexican as Kendric knew Mexicans. The man was +short, but a few inches over five feet, and remarkably heavy-muscled, +the greater part of the body showing since his simple cotton tunic was +wide open across the deep chest, and left arms and legs bare. The +forehead was atavistically low, the cheek bones very prominent, the +nose wide and flat, the lips loose and thick. The man looked brutish, +cruel and ugly as he stood face to face with the noble beauty of +Zoraida. And yet Kendric, glancing swiftly from one to the other, saw +a peculiar resemblance. It was the eyes. This squat animal's eyes +were like Zoraida's in shape though they lacked the fire of spirit and +intellect; long eyes that sloped outward and upward toward the temples. + +Zoraida spoke briefly, imperiously. Kendric did not understand the +words though he readily recognized the tongue for one of the native +Nahua dialects. Old Aztec it might have been, or Toltec. + +The man saluted, bowed and was gone. But in a moment he returned, +another man with him who might have been his twin brother, so strongly +pronounced in each were the racial physiognomic characteristics. +Between them they bore a heavy chair of black polished wood the feet of +which were eagles' talons gripping and resting on crystal balls. They +placed it and stood waiting for orders or dismissal. She gave both, +the first in a few low words in the same ancient tongue, the latter +with a gesture. They bowed and disappeared. Zoraida, one hand resting +upon the stand near the jewel glowing upon the transparent stem, sank +gracefully into the seat. + +"All very imposing," muttered Kendric. "But if you have anything to +say to me I am waiting." + +From somewhere in the room a parrot which he had not seen until now and +which had no doubt been released by one of her low-browed henchmen +behind the curtains, flew by Kendric's head and perched balancing upon +an arm of her chair. Idly she put out her hand, stroking the bright +feathers. From somewhere else, startling the man when he saw it +gliding by him on its soft pads, a big puma, ran forward, threw up its +head, snarling, its tail jerking back and forth restlessly. Zoraida +spoke quietly; the monster cat crept close to her chair and lay down +before her, stretched out to five feet of graceful length. Zoraida set +one foot lightly upon the tawny back. The big cat lay motionless, its +eyes steady and unwinking upon Kendric. + +He felt himself strangely impressed though he sought to argue with +himself that here was but more absurdity from an empty-headed girl who +had the money and the power to unleash her extravagant desires. But +since everything about him was stamped with the barbaric, even to the +oblique-eyed woman staring boldly at him; since everything in the +exotic atmosphere was in keeping, even to the parrot at her elbow and +the heavy, honey-sweet perfume filling the room, he was unable to shake +off, as he wished to, the impression made upon him. + +"In your heart," said Zoraida gravely, "you censure me for empty +by-play, you accuse me of vain trifling. You are wrong, Senor +Americano! And soon you will know you are wrong. There is no woman +throughout the wide sweep of my country or yours who has the work to do +that I have to do; the destiny to fulfil; or the power to wrest from +the gods that which she would have. And will have!" + +Steadfast conviction, fearlessly voiced, rang through her speech. What +she said she meant with all of the fiery ardor of her being. Her +words spoke her thought. Whatever the fate which she judged was hers +to fulfil, she accepted it with a fervor not unlike some ecstatic +religious devotion. Of all this he was confident on the instant; she +might surround herself with colorful accessories but her purpose was +none the less serious. + +"Symbols, if you like," she said carelessly--she had been staring at +him profoundly and well might have glimpsed something of his train of +thought--"as are statues and pictures symbols in the Roman church. My +bright colored bird is older now than you will be, or I, when we die. +Age, bright feathers and chatter! My puma means much to me that you +would not understand, being of another race. Further, did you or +another lift a hand against his mistress he would tear out your throat." + +"You have had me brought here for some purpose?" said Kendric. + +She sat forward, straight in her chair, her two hands gripping the +carved arms. + +"Did I not tell you when first we spoke together that I had use for +you? Since then have I not sent myself into your thoughts many times? +Did I not come to you, that you should remember, on the boat that +brought you here?" + +"I am no man for mysteries," he said. "Tell me: Did you somehow get +aboard the _New Moon_ at San Diego? Or did my fancy play me a trick?" + +"You ask me questions!" she mocked. "When you would believe what +pleased you, no matter what word I spoke! If I said that across the +miles, over mountain and desert and water I sent my spirit to +you--would you believe?" + +"No. Not when there are other readier explanations." + +She raised a quick hand and pointed to the parrot. + +"Chatter! Questions put when you do not expect an answer. A hundred +years of words and only a red and yellow bundle of feathers at the end. +It is deeds we want, Senor Americano, you and I!" + +He returned her look steadily. + +"Then tell me what you want of me," he said. "And in one word I'll +give you yes or no." + +"That is man talk!" she cried. "And yet, Senor Jim Kendric, there come +times even in a man's life when the yes or no is spoken for him." She +paused for him to drink in all that her statement meant. Then, when he +remained silent, his eyes hostile upon hers, she went on, her speech +quick and passionate. "There are great happenings on foot, American. +There will be war and death; there will be tearing down and building +up. And it is I who will direct and it is you who will take my orders +and make them law. And in the end I shall be a Zoraida whom the world +shall know and you shall be a mighty man, _the_ man of Mexico." + +"Fine words!" It was his time to mock, his time to glance at the +ancient bird. + +"Yes, Jim Kendric. Fine words and more since they are great truths. +Lest you think Zoraida Castelmar a girl of mad fancies, I will speak +freely with you. Since all depends on me and it is in my mind that +much will depend on you. And why on you? Why have I put my hand out +upon you, a foreigner? Because you are such a man as I would make were +I God; a man strong and fearless and masterful; a man trustworthy to +the death when his word is given and his honor is at stake. No, I do +not judge you alone by what happened at Ortega's gambling house. But +that fitted in with all I knew of you. Where else can I find a man to +lose ten thousand, twenty thousand dollars, all that he has and think +no more of the matter than of a cigaret paper that the wind has blown +from his hands? I have heard of you, Jim Kendric, and I have said to +myself: 'Is there such a man? I know none like him!' Then I went for +myself, saw for myself, judged for myself. And now I offer you what I +offer no other man and what no other mortal can offer you." + +"You give me a pretty clean bill of health," he said quietly. "Now +what follows?" + +"This: There will be war in Mexico----" + +"No new thing," he cut in. "There is always war in Mexico." + +"And I will direct that war," she went on serenely, "from this chair in +this room and from elsewhere. Lower California will raise its own +standard and it will be my standard. Already has word stirred Sonora +into restlessness and a beginning of activity; already is Chihuahua +armed and eager. Already have the thousands of Yaquis listened and +agreed; already have I made them large promises of ancient tribal lands +restored and money. A Yaqui guards my door yonder. But you did not +know that he was the son of Chief Pima, nor that in ten days the son +will be Chief after having served in the household of Zoraida! And +Sonora and Chihuahua and the Yaqui tribes are pledged to one thing: To +an independent Lower California over which I shall rule." + +"Wild schemes," muttered Kendric. "Foredoomed, like other mad schemes +in Mexico. And if your great plannings are feasible, which I very much +doubt, has your feathered companion failed to remind you that talk with +a stranger is rash?" + +"You are no stranger," she said coolly. "Nor have I spoken a word to +you that is not known already to all about me. My cousin, Ruiz Rios, +whom I distrust and detest; the Captain Escobar who is a small man and +a murderer, the other men whom I have gathered about me, they all know, +for in this, if in nothing else, I can trust them all." + +"But if I went away," he asked, "and talked?" + +"You are not going away." + +He lifted his brows quickly at that. + +"I go where I please," he reminded her. "When I please. I am my own +man, Senorita Castelmar." + +"Large words." She smiled at him curiously. + +"You mean that my going would be interfered with?" + +"I mean that you may make yourself free of the house; that you may walk +in the gardens; that, if you sought to pass the outer wall, you would +be detained. You remain my prisoner, Senor Kendric, until you become +my trusted captain!" + +"You're a devilish hospitable hostess," he remarked. She was watching +him shrewdly, interested to see just how he would accept her ultimatum. +He returned her look with clear, untroubled eyes. + +"You will think of what I have told you," she said slowly. "My wealth +is very great; the fertile lands which I have inherited and those which +I have purchased, embrace hundreds of thousands of acres; the barren +lands which are mine, desert and mountain, stretch mile after mile. +There is no power like mine in all Mexico, though until now it has lain +hidden, giving no sign. It is in my heart to make you a rich man and, +what you like more, Jim Kendric, a man to play the biggest of all games +and for the biggest of all stakes. And further--further----" + +"Further?" He laughed. "What comes after all that, Queen Zoraida?" + +"Look into my eyes," she said softly. "Look deep." + +He looked and though to him were women unread books, at last a slow +flush crept up into his cheeks. For now neither he nor any other man +could have failed to understand the silent speech of Zoraida's eyes. +It was as though she invited him not so much to look into her eyes as +through them and on, deep into her heart; as though these were gates, +open to him, through which he might glimpse paradise. Zoraida, her +look clinging to his passionately, was seeking to offer the final +argument. The case would have not been plainer had she whispered with +her lips: "I, even I, Zoraida, love you! You shall be my master; I +your willing slave. What you will, I will also. My beauty shall be +yours; my wealth, my estate, my ambitions, my power, all those shall be +my lord's. Of a kingdom which shall be built you shall be king. You +shall go far, you shall climb high. All because I, Zoraida, love you!" + +She stood there watching him, her eyes burning into his. In her own +mind were pictures made, pictures of pride and power and, as a mirror +reflects the scene before it, so for a little did Jim Kendric's mind +hold an image of the thing in Zoraida's. He felt her influence upon +him; he felt that odd stirring of the blood; he stared back into her +eyes like a man bewildered as pictures rose and swept magnificently by. +He saw the red of her parted lips and heard her soft breathing; for a +certain length of time--long or short he had little conception--he was +motionless and speechless under her spell. + +He stirred restlessly. Those visions conjured up within him, either by +Zoraida's previous words and what had gone before or by the subtle +workings of her mind now, were not unbroken. He thought of Twisty +Barlow. Barlow had gone to her at the border town hotel; from his own +experiences with her Kendric thought that he could imagine how she +stood before the sailor, how she talked with him and looked at him, how +in the first small point she won over him. He thought of an ancient +tale of Circe and the swine. Was he a free man, a man's man or was he +a woman's plaything? . . . It flashed over him again that it might be +that Zoraida was mad. Even now, that he seemed to be reading her +inmost soul, was she but playing the siren to his imaginings? Was this +some barbaric whim of hers or was she, for the once, sincere? While +appearing to be all yielding softness, was she but playing a game? +Would she, at one instant swaying toward a man's arms, the next whip +back from him, laughing at him? + +Confused thoughts winging through his chaos of uncertainty held him +where he was, his eyes staring at hers. Zoraida might read some of his +mind but surely not all. What she realized was that she had offered +much, everything, and that he stood, seemingly unmoved and frowned at +her. Quick in all her emotions, now suddenly her cheeks flamed and the +light in her eyes altered swiftly to blazing anger. + +"Go!" she cried, pointing. She leaped to her feet, her eyes flaming. +"By the long vanished Huitzil, I swear that I am of a mind to let those +dogs, Rios and Escobar, have their way with you! What! am I Zoraida +Castelmar, of a race of kings, daughter of the Montezumas, to have a +man stand up before me weighing me in the balance of his two eyes? Go!" + +He turned to go, eager to be out in the open air. But as he moved she +called out to him: + +"Wait! At least I will say my say. You and that fool Barlow came +here, into my land, seeking gold. Escobar comes slinking in like a +desert wolf on the same errand. Oh, I know something of it as I know +something of all that goes forward from end to end of a land that will +one day all be mine. Juarez died from Escobar's knife but his last +gasp was for one of my agent's ears. When you or Barlow or Escobar lay +hand on the treasure of the Montezumas, it will be to step aside for +the last Montezuma. It will be mine!" + +Fury filled her eyes. The hands at her sides clenched until the +knuckles shone white through the blaze of her rings. The great cat +rose and yawned, showing its glistening teeth and red throat. Its eyes +were no more merciless and cruel than its mistress's. Kendric felt +queerly as though he were looking back across dead centuries into +ancient Mexico and upon the angry princess of the most cruel of all +peoples, the blood-lusting Aztecs. + +"Go!" she panted. + +With one after another of the doors thrown open before him Kendric +hurried away. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +OF A GIRL HELD FOR RANSOM AND OF A TOAST DRUNK BY ONE INFATUATED + +Jim Kendric returned straightway to the rooms allotted to him and +Barlow, hoping to find his companion there. They must talk together, +they must understand each the other; they must know, and know without +delay, just in what and to what lengths friend could count on friend. +To the uttermost, Kendric would have said a week ago. Now he only +pondered the matter, recalling that in some ways Barlow did not seem +quite the old mate. + +He found the rooms empty and threw himself into one of the big chairs +to wait. As he regarded the situation it had little enough to +recommend itself to a man of his stamp. He had not the least desire to +meddle in any way with Mexican revolutionary politics; upheavals would +come and come again, no doubt, for thus would a great country in due +time work out its own salvation. But it was no affair of his. This +fomenting nucleus into which he and Barlow had come was, he estimated, +foredoomed to failure and worse; one fine day Ruiz Rios and Fernando +Escobar and their outlaw followings would find themselves with their +backs to an adobe wall and their faces set toward a line of rifles. +And Zoraida Castelmar had best think upon that, too. For turbulent +times had borne women along with men to a quick undoing. + +All this was clear to him. But here clarity gave way to groping +uncertainty. Less than anything else did he have a stomach for being +bottled up in any house in the world, Zoraida's house least of all, and +denied the freedom of the open. It looked as though he, who had never +done another man's command, must now do a girl's. At call she had +fifty, perhaps a hundred retainers, ugly-looking devils all and no +lovers of Americans who came unbidden into their country. + +"There's always a way out of a mess like this," he told himself, +determined to find it. "But right now I don't see it." + +There was also the lodestone toward which he and Barlow had steered and +which had drawn Fernando Escobar. And that amazing creature who coolly +laid claim to the royal blood of the Montezumas, laid claim as well to +their treasure trove. Just how any of them could make a move toward it +without her knowledge baffled him. And hence, more than ever before, +did his desire mount to get his own hands on it. + +When presently Barlow entered, Kendric looked up at him thoughtfully. +Barlow bore along with him a subdued air of excitement. + +"You've just left Rios?" asked Kendric. + +"Yes." Barlow came in and closed the door, looking quickly and +questioningly at his friend. He appeared to hesitate, then said +hurriedly: "There are big things ahead, old Headlong! Big!" + +"Shoot," answered Kendric sharply. "What's the play, man?" + +Again Barlow hesitated, plainly in doubt just how far Kendric might be +in sympathy with him. + +"It wouldn't make you mad to fill your pockets, Headlong, would it?" he +asked. "Bulgin' full? And you wouldn't mind a scrap or two and a blow +or two in the job, would you?" + +"Watch your step, Twisty, old timer," said Kendric. "Rios has been +talking revolution to you, has he? Sometimes an uprising down here is +a nasty mess that it's easier to get into than out of again. And, if +we get our hooks on the loot that brought us down here, why should we +want to mix it with the federal government?" + +Barlow began tugging at his forelock. + +"I'm up a tree, Jim," he muttered at last. "Clean up a tree." + +"Then look out you light on your feet instead of on your head when you +decide to come down. It would be easy to make a mistake right now." + +"Yes, easy; dead easy.--Old Headlong counseling caution!" Barlow +laughed but with little genuine mirth. + +"I want a straight talk with you, Twisty," said Kendric soberly. "I +for one don't like the lay-out here and I'm going to break for the +open. You and I have fallen among a pack of damned thieves, to draw it +mild. It strikes me we'd better understand each other." + +"Right!" cried Barlow eagerly. "Let's talk straight from the shoulder." + +But events, or rather Zoraida Castelmar who sought to usurp destiny's +prerogatives here, ruled otherwise. There came a quiet rap at the +door, then the voice of one of the housemaids, saying: + +"La Senorita Zoraida desires immediately to speak with Senor Barlow." + +Barlow, just easing himself into a chair, jumped up. + +"Coming," he called. + +Kendric, too, sprang up, his hand locking hard upon Barlow's arm. + +"Twisty," he said, "hold on a minute. The house isn't on fire." + +"Well?" Barlow's impatience glared out of his eyes. "What is it?" + +"I've got a very large, life-sized suspicion that it would be just as +well if you sent back word you couldn't come. At least, not until +we've had our talk." + +"She said immediately," said Barlow. And then, "You don't want me to +see her? Why?" + +"Because, it you want to know, she isn't good for you. She'll seek to +draw you in on this fool scheme of hers, and if you don't look out +you'll do just what she says do. There never was a mere woman like +her. She's uncanny, man! She will give you the same line of mad talk +she gave me, she will make you the same sorts of offers----" + +"You've seen her then? Tonight? While I was out with Rios you were +with her?" + +"Yes. And not because I found any pleasure in her company, either." + +Barlow jerked free, laughing his disbelief, his look at once unpleasant +and suspicious. + +"Tell that to the marines," he jeered. He threw the door open and went +out. In the hall Kendric could hear his steps sounding quick and +eager. Kendric returned to his chair, perplexed. Then again he sprang +up, throwing out his hands, shaking his shoulders as though to rid them +of a troublesome weight. + +"Too much thinking isn't good for a man," he told himself lightly. +"The game's made; let her roll!" + +He took a cigar from the table, lighted it and passed through the bath +and adjoining room. A door opened to the outer corridor. He stepped +out upon the flagstones and strolled down the aisle flanked on one side +by the adobe wall of the house, on the other by the white columns and +arches. The night was fine, clear and starlit; the fragrance of a +thousand flowers lay heavy upon the-air; the babble of the outdoor +fountain made merry music. He left the stone floor for the graveled +driveway and put his head back to send a little puff of smoke upward +toward the flash of stars. + +"It's a good old land, at that," he mused. "Big and clean and wide +open." + +He strolled on, looking to right and left. Before him the gardens +appeared deserted. But there were patches of inpenetrable blackness +under the wider flung trees, and it seemed likely, from what Zoraida +had said, that some of her rabble were watching him. If so, he deemed +it as well to know for certain. So he kept straight on toward the +whitewashed wall glimpsed through the foliage. He came to it and +stopped; it was little higher than his head and would be no obstacle in +itself. He shot out his hands, gripped the top and went up. + +And still no one to dispute his right to do as he pleased. He sat for +a moment atop the wall, looking about him curiously. He marked that at +each of the corners of the enclosure to be seen from where he sat, was +a little square tower rising a dozen feet higher than the wall. In +each tower a lamp burned. From the nearest one came the voices of two +men. Tied near this tower and outside the wall were two horses; he saw +them vaguely and heard the clink of bridle chains. Saddled horses. +There would be saddled horses at each of the four towers; night and +day, if Zoraida's talk were not mere boasting. The temptation to know +just how strict was the guard kept moved him to drop to the ground, on +the outside of the wall. He moved quickly, but his feet had not struck +the grass when a sharp whistle cut through the still night. The +whistle came from somewhere in the shadows within the enclosure. + +Kendric stood stone still. But had he been ready for flight he knew +now that he could not have gone twenty paces before they stopped him. +Where he had heard the voices of two men he now heard an overturned +chair, jingle of spur and thud of boots, a sharp command. He saw two +figures run out on the wall and leap down into the saddles just below. +And he knew that in the other towers there had been like readiness and +like action. For already he saw four mounted men and needed no telling +that each man carried a rifle. + +He climbed back on the wall, his curiosity for the moment satisfied. +And there he sat until one of the riders galloped to him. The man came +close and said gruffly: + +"It is not permitted to cross the wall. It would be best if Senor +Americano remembered. And went back to the house." + +"Right-o!" agreed Kendric cheerily. "I just wanted to be sure, +_compadre_," and he turned and dropped back into the garden. "She +holds the cards, ace, face and trump!" he conceded sweepingly. "But +the game's to play." And, as again he strolled along the driveway, his +thoughts were not unpleasant. For what had he come adventuring into +Lower California if he weren't ready for what the day might bring? The +situation had its zest. He wondered how many men were hidden about the +garden, like the fellow who had watched him and whistled? How many +were watching him now? He reflected as he walked on, but his +conjectures were not so deep as to make him oblivious of his cigar. On +the whole, for the night, he was content. + +Just as he turned the corner of the house a rider, coming from the +double front gate, raced down the driveway and flung himself to the +ground. A figure stepped out from the shadowy corridor and Kendric was +near enough to recognize the second figure as that of Captain Escobar, +even before he heard his sharp: + +"Is that you, Ramorez? What luck?" + +"Si, Senor Capitan. It is Ramorez. And the luck is fine!" + +"You have her?" Escobar's tone was exultant. + +"Just outside. Sancho is bringing her. I am here for orders. Where +shall we take her?" + +"Here. Into the house. Senorita Castelmar knows everything and is +with us." + +Ramorez swung back up into the saddle and spurred away, gone into the +darkness under the trees toward the gate. Kendric stood where he was, +receptive for any bit of understanding which might be vouchsafed him. +He was satisfied with his position in the shadows; glad when Escobar +stepped out so that the lamp light from within streamed across his +face. Actually the man's hard eyes gloated. + +It was only a moment until Ramorez returned, another man riding knee +and knee with him, a led horse following them. It was this animal and +its rider that held Kendric's eyes. In the saddle was what appeared a +weary little figure, drooping forward, clutching miserably at the horn +of the saddle with both hands. As she came nearer and there was more +light he saw the bowed head, made out that it was hatless, even saw how +the hair was all tumbled and ready to fall about her shoulders. + +"You will get down, senorita." It was Escobar's voice, gloating like +his eyes. + +The listless figure in the saddle made no reply, seemed bereft of any +volition of its own. As Ramorez put up his hands to help her, she came +down stiffly and stood stiffly, looking about her. Kendric, to see +better, came on emerging from the shadows and stood, leaning against +the wall, drawing slowly at his cigar and awaiting the end of the +scene. So now, for the first time, he saw the girl's face as she +lifted it to look despairingly around. + +"Oh," she cried suddenly, a catch in her voice, throwing out her two +arms toward Escobar. "Please, please let me go!" + +The hair was falling about her face; she shook it back, still standing +with her arms outflung imploringly. Kendric frowned. The girl was too +fair for a Mexican; her hair in the lamp light was less dark than black +and might well be brown; her speech was the speech of one of his own +country. + +"An American girl!" he marveled. "These dirty devils have laid their +hands on an American girl! And just a kid, at that." + +With her hair down, with a trembling "Please" upon her lips, she did +not look sixteen. + +"I am so tired," she begged; "I am so frightened. Won't you let me go? +Please?" + +Kendric fully expected her to break into tears, so heartbroken was her +attitude, so halting were her few supplicating words. A spurt of anger +flared up in his heart; to be harsh with her was like hurting a child. +And yet he held resolutely back from interference. As yet no rude hand +was being laid on her and it would be better if she went into the house +quietly than if he should raise a flurry of wild hope in her frightened +breast and evoke an outpouring of terrified pleadings, all to no avail. +What he would have to say were best said to Escobar alone. + +Slowly her arms dropped to her sides. Her look went from face to face, +resting longest on Jim Kendric's. He kept his lips tight about his +cigar, shutting back any word to raise false hope just yet. The result +was that the girl turned from him with a little shudder, seeing in him +but another oppressor. She sighed wearily and, walking stiffly, passed +to the door flung open by Ramorez and into the house. Escobar was +following her when Kendric called to him. The bandit captain muttered +but came back into the yard. + +"Well, senor?" he demanded impudently. "What have you to say to me?" + +"Who is that girl?" asked Kendric. "And what are you doing with her?" + +Escobar laughed his open insolence. + +"So you are interested? Pretty, like a flower, _no_? Well, she is not +for you, Senor Americano, though she is of your own country. She is +the daughter of a rich gentleman named Gordon, if you would know. Her +papa calls her Betty and is very fond of her. Him I have let go back +to the United States. That he may send me twenty-five thousand dollars +for Senorita Betty. Are there other questions, senor?" + +"You've got a cursed high hand, Captain Escobar," muttered Kendric. +"But let me tell you something: If you touch a hair of that poor little +kid's head I'll shoot six holes square through your dirty heart." And +he passed by Escobar and went into the house. + +He meant to tell the daughter of Gordon that he, too, was an American; +that Barlow, another American, was on the job; that, somehow, they +would see her through. But he was given only a fleeting glimpse of her +as she passed out through a door across the room, escorted by the +grave-eyed young woman who an hour ago had warned him not to anger +Zoraida. He saw Betty Gordon's face distinctly now; she was fair, her +hair was brown, he thought her eyes were gray. But before he could +call to her she was gone, clinging to the arm of Zoraida's maid. + +"Poor little kid," muttered Kendric, staring after her. "I'd give my +hat to have her on a horse, scooting for the _New Moon_. All alone +among these pirates, with her dad the Lord knows where trying to dig up +twenty-five thousand dollars for her!" + +At least she was no doubt well enough off for the night. She looked +too tired to lie awake long, no matter what her distress. He returned +to his rooms and sat down to wait again for Barlow. + + +When at last Barlow came Kendric knew on the instant what success +Zoraida had had with him. Twisty's eyes were shining; his head was up; +he walked briskly like a man with his plans made and his heart in them. + +"You poor boob," muttered Kendric disgustedly. "Once you let a woman +get her knife in your heart you're done for." + +Barlow swept up the brandy bottle and filled a glass brim full. + +"To Zoraida, Queen of Lower California!" he cried ringingly. He drank +and smashed the glass upon the floor. + +Kendric sighed and shook his head hopelessly. And thanked God that he +had never been the man to go mad over a pretty face. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +HOW A MAN MAY CARRY A MESSAGE AND NOT KNOW HIMSELF TO BE A MESSENGER + +"There's no call for bad blood between you and me, Jim," said Barlow, +plainly ill at his ease. "We've always been friends; let's stay +friends. If we can't pull together in the deal that's comin', why, +let's just split our trail two ways and let it go at that." + +"Fair enough," cried Kendric heartily. His companion thrust out a +hand; Kendric took it warmly. Barlow looked relieved. + +"And," continued the sailor, "there's no sense forgettin' what we ran +into this port for in the first place. There's the loot; no matter how +or when we come at it, both together or single, we split it even?" + +"Fair again. The old-time Barlow talking." + +"All I've held out on you, Jim, is the exact location, so far as I know +it. I'll spill that to you now, best I can. Then you can play out +your string your way and I can play it out my way. As Juarez tipped me +off, you've got three peaks to sail by; whether it's the three we saw +first or the ones right off here, back of the house, I don't know any +more than you do. But it ought to be easy tellin' when a man's on the +spot. The middle peak ought to be a good fifty feet higher than the +others and flat lookin' on top. In a ravine, between the tall boy and +the one at the left, Juarez said there was a lot of scrub trees and +brush. He said plow through the brush, keepin' to the up edge when you +can get to it, until you come to about the middle of the patch. There +a man would find a lot of loose rock, boulders that looked like they'd +slid off the mountain. This rock, and the Lord knows how much of it +there is, covers the hole that the old priest's writin' said that loot +was in. And that's the yarn, every damn' word of it." + +"If it's the place back of the house," said Kendric, "it'll be a night +job, all of it. It's not a half mile off and plain sight from here. +Now, what's the likelihood of Escobar having been there ahead of us?" + +"Escobar's out of the runnin'." Barlow's eyes glinted with his +satisfaction. "He's corked up here tighter'n a fly in a bottle. He +isn't allowed to stick nose outside the walls after dark; and he isn't +allowed to ride out of sight in the daytime. Those are little +Escobar's orders. And, by cracky, I'll bet he minds 'em." + +"Who told you all that?" + +"She did." + +"What's she close-herding him for?" + +"Doesn't trust him; can you blame her? She's takin' her chances, and +she knows it, plannin' the big things ahead. And she's not missin' a +bet." + +"And more," remarked Kendric drily, "she hankers for the loot herself?" + +"She wouldn't know a thing about it," protested Barlow. "Escobar would +keep his mouth shut; he's wise hog enough for that." + +"But she does know, Twisty. She knows that Escobar knifed Juarez; she +knows why; she knows pretty nearly as much about the thing as we know." + +"She knows a lot of things," mused Barlow. But he shook his head: +"She's shootin' high, Headlong; no penny-ante game for her! Not that +what we're lookin' for sounds little; but it ain't in her path and +she's not turnin' aside for anything. And she's the richest lady in +Mexico right now. Those pearls of hers, man, are worth over a hundred +thousand dollars, or I'm a fool. I saw them again tonight; she let me +have them in my hands. And that ruby; did you see it? Why, kings +can't sport stones like that in their best Sunday crowns." + +"She contends that she is a descendent of the old Mexican kings," +offered Kendric coolly. "And any treasure, left by the Montezumas, she +claims by right of inheritance!" + +"She couldn't get across with a claim like that, could she? Not in any +law court, Jim?" + +"Not unless the jurors were all men and she could get them off alone, +one at a time, and whisper in their ears," grunted Kendric. + +Barlow laughed and they dropped the subject. Kendric told Barlow what +he had learned during the evening; how the walls were sentinelled and +how at the present moment under the same roof with them was an American +girl, held for ransom. + +"And, according to Escobar," he concluded, watching his old friend's +face, "the trick is put over with the connivance of Miss Castelmar. +This would seem to be one of the headquarters of the great national +game!" + +"Well?" snapped the sailor. "What of it? If you can get away with a +game like that it pays big and fast. And who the devil sent you and me +down this way to preach righteousness? It's their business--but, +cut-throat cur that that little bandit hop o' my thumb is, I don't +believe a word he says." + +"And if you did believe, it would be just the same?" There was a queer +note in his voice. "Well, Twisty, old mate, I guess you've said it. +Our trail forks. Good night." + +"Good night," growled Barlow. Each went into his own bedroom; the +doors closed after them. + +For a couple of hours Kendric sat in the dark by his window, staring +out into the gardens, pondering. Of two things he was certain: He was +not going to remain shut up in the Hacienda Montezuma if there was a +way to break for the open; and he was not going to leave Lower +California without his share of the buried treasure or at least without +knowing that the tale was a lie. And, little by little, a third +consideration forced itself in with its place with these matters; he +could not get out of his mind the picture of the "poor little kid of a +girl" in Escobar's hands. Like any other strong man, Kendric had a +quick sympathy and pity for the weak and abused. Never, he thought, +had he seen an individual less equipped to contend with such forces +than was the little American girl. + +"What I'd like," he thought longingly, "would be to make a break for +the border; to round up about twenty of the boys and to swoop down on +this place like a gale out of hell! Clean 'em for fair, pick the +little Gordon girl up and race back to the border with her. If it +wasn't so blamed far----" + +But he realized, even while he let his angry fancies run, that he was +dreaming impossibilities. He knew, also, that to take up the matter +through the regular diplomatic channels would be a process too +infinitely slow to suit the situation. It was either a single-handed +job for Jim Kendric, or else it was up to the girl's father to pay down +the twenty-five thousand dollars. + +"I'd give a good deal for a talk with old Bruce West," he told himself. +"His outfit lies close in to these diggings; wonder if he has any +American boys working for him? Why, a dozen of us, or a half dozen, +would stand this place on end! Yes; I'd like to see Bruce." + +A score of reasons flocked to him why it was desirable to see young +West. The boy was a friend, and it would be a joy just to grip him by +the hand again after three years; Bruce had written to him to come and +now that events had led him so near, he should grant the request; Bruce +was having his own troubles, no doubt against the lawlessness of +Escobar, Rios and the rest. And finally, he and Bruce might work +things together so that both should derive benefit. Bruce might be in +a position to befriend Gordon's little daughter. + +So much did Kendric dwell on the subject that night that it claimed his +first thoughts when he woke in the early dawn. And therefore, when +Zoraida's message was handed to him at the breakfast table, he stared +at it with puzzled eyes asking himself if the amazing creature had read +his thoughts through thick walls of adobe. + +The message was typewritten, even to the signature. It said: + +"No doubt Senor Kendric would like to see his old friend Senor West. +If he will only set his signature below what follows he will be given a +horse, permission to ride and instructions as to direction. Zoraida." + + +And below were the words, with date and a dotted line for him to sign: + +"I pledge my word, as a gentleman, to Zoraida Castelmar, that I will +return to her at Hacienda Montezuma not later than daybreak twenty-four +hours from now. . . ." + + +"A take or leave proposition, clean cut," he comprehended promptly. +And as promptly he decided to take it. The maid who had brought him +the paper was offering pen and ink. He accepted and wrote swiftly: +"Jim Kendric." + +"Has Barlow breakfasted yet?" he asked, returning to his coffee. + +"An hour ago, Senor. He has gone out." + +"Alone?" + +"No, senor. With La Senorita Zoraida." + +"Hm," said Kendric. "And Rios? And Escobar?" + +"Senor Rios went to bed late; it is his custom, senor." The girl +looked as though she could tell him more but, with a quick glance over +her shoulder, contented herself with saying only: "Senor Escobar is +with the men outside." + +"And the American girl? Miss Gordon?" + +"Asleep still, senor." + +"Has Escobar been near her?" + +"No, senor. She has been alone except for me and Rosita. _La +pobrecita_," she added, almost in a whisper. "She is so frightened." + +"Be kind to her," said Kendric. He, too, looked over his shoulder. In +his pocket were the few fifty-dollar bills left to him from his oil +shares. "What is your name?" + +"Juanita," she told him. + +"All right, Juanita; take this." He slipped a bill along the +tablecloth toward her. "Give Rosita half, you keep half. And be kind +to Miss Gordon." + +"Oh, senor!" she cried, as in protest. But she took the bank note. +Kendric felt better for the transaction; he finished his breakfast with +rare appetite. + +"Now," he cried, jumping up, "for the horse. Is it ready?" + +Juanita, the folded paper in her hands, went with him to the door. + +"The horse is ready, Senor Americano," she told him. "It remains only +for me to tell the boy that you have promised to return." + +Sure enough, pawing the gravel in front of the house, half jerking off +his feet the _mestizo_ holding it, was a tall, rangy sorrel horse +looking as fine an animal as any man in a hurry could wish. + +"Senor Kendric will ride, Pedro," called Juanita. "Give him the horse." + +Pedro gave the reins over to Kendric and turned away toward the +stables. Kendric swung up into the saddle and for a moment curbed the +big sorrel's dash toward the gates, to say meditatively to Juanita: + +"If I took that paper away from you and made a run for it, what then?" + +A look of fear leaped into the girl's dark eyes and she drew hastily +back, clutching the paper to her breast. + +"Senor!" she cried, breathless and aghast. "You would not! She--she +would kill me!" + +"She would _what_?" he scowled. + +"She would give me to her cat, her terrible, terrible cat, to play +with!" Juanita shivered, and drew still further back. "With my life I +must guard this paper until it goes from my hand into her hand." + +He laughed his disbelief and gave his horse his head at last. They +shot away through the shrubberry; the horse slid to a standstill before +the closed gate. Of the man smoking a cigaret before it Kendric said +curtly: + +"You are to let me through. And direct me to Bruce West's ranch." + +"Si, senor." The man opened the gate. "It is yonder; up the valley. +The trail will carry you up over the mountain; there are piled stones +to mark the way to the pass. In an hour, from the other side of the +ridge, you will see houses. Ten miles from there." + +Kendric rode through and as he did so his figure straightened in the +saddle, his shoulders squared, he put up his head. Free and in the +open, if only for twenty-four hours. And with a horse, a real horse, +between his knees. He looked off to the left to Barlow's three peaks; +the sun was gilding the top of the tallest and it was unquestionable +that it was flat-topped. But he did not dwell long upon buried gold +nor yet on the query which suggested itself: "Where were Barlow and +Zoraida riding so early?" The immediate present and the immediate +surroundings were all that he cared to interest himself in on a day +like this. + +The man at the gate had said it was ten miles from the far side of the +ridge to the Bruce West ranch house; the entire distance, therefore, +from the Hacienda Montezuma would be about double that distance. The +trail, once he reached the hills, was a dilatory, leisurely affair, +thoroughly Mexican; it sought out the gentlest slope always and +appeared in no haste to arrive anywhere. Well, his mood could be made +to suit the trail's; he was in no hurry, having all day for his talk +with young West. + +The higher he rose above the floor of Zoraida's grassy valley the +steeper did his trail become, flanked with cliffs, at times looking too +sheer ahead for a horse. But always the path twisted between the +boulders and found the possible way up. So he came into a splendid +solitude, a region of naked rocks, of a few windblown trees, of little +open level spaces grown up with dry brush and wiry grass; of defiles +through stone-bound ways that were so narrow two men could not have +ridden through them abreast, so crooked that a man often could not see +ten steps ahead or ten steps behind, so deep that he must throw his +head far back to see the barren cliff tops above him. Strips of sky, +seen thus, were deep, deep blue. + +It was not at all strange, he told himself during one of his meditative +moments while his horse climbed valiantly, that Zoraida should know of +his friendship with Bruce West, nor that she should understand his +natural desire to ride where he was going this morning. Everyone in +the border town had known of his letter at the postoffice; further, it +was not in the least unlikely that Senorita Castelmar would know of the +letter when it was dropped into the slot at the Mexican postoffice. +What did strike him as odd, however, was that she should consent to his +leaving the ranch, realizing that he knew much of her own plans and +would doubtless speak freely of them and of the American girl held in +her house for ransom. + +"Not only was she willing for me to see Bruce," he decided; "she wanted +me to. Why?" + +His trail led him into the last narrow defile to be encountered before +reaching the summit. So closely did the rocks press in on each side +that often his tapaderos brushed the sheer wall. He made a turn, none +too wide for the body of his horse and drew sudden rein, looking into +two rifle barrels. The men covering him lay a dozen feet above his +head upon a bare, flat rock. He could see only the hands upon their +guns, the heads under their tall hats, the shoulders. But he was near +enough to mark a business-like look in the hard black eyes. + +"You've got the drop on me, _companeros_," he said lightly. "What's +the game?" + +A third man appeared on foot in the trail before him, stepping out from +behind a shoulder of rock. He came on until he could have put out a +hand to the sorrel's reins. + +"Where do you ride so early?" asked the man on foot, his voice quiet +but vaguely hostile. "On what errand?" + +"What business is it of yours, my friend?" returned Kendric. + +"I know the horse," called one of the figures above. "It is El Rey, +from the stables of La Senorita." + +"Then the rider must have a message. Or a sign. Or he has stolen the +horse, which would go bad with him!" + +"Curse you and your signs and messages," cried Kendric hotly. "It's a +free country and I ride where I please." + +The man before him only smiled. + +"Let me look at your saddle strings," he said. + +Kendric stared wonderingly; was the fellow insane? What in the name of +folly did he mean by a thing like this? Surely not just the +opportunity to draw close enough to strike with a knife; the rifles +above made such strategy useless. + +So he sat still and contented himself with watching. The man came a +step closer, twisted El Rey's head aside, pressed close and looked at +the rawhide strings on one side of the saddle. Then he moved to the +other side and repeated the process. Immediately he drew back, lifting +his hat widely. + +"Pass on, senor," he said courteously. "_Viva La Senorita_!" + +Kendric spurred by him and rode on, passing abruptly out of a +wilderness of tumbled boulders into a grassy flat. He turned in the +saddle; nowhere was there sign of another than himself upon the +mountain. Curiously he looked at his saddle strings; in one of them a +slit had been made through which the end of the string had been passed; +a double knot had been tied just below the slit. In no other +particular was any one of the strings in the least noteworthy. + +"As good a way to carry a message as any," he grunted. "With not even +the messenger aware of the tidings he brings!" + +The incident impressed him deeply. Zoraida, at the game she played, +was in deadly earnest. Her commands went far and through many channels +and were obeyed. The passes through the mountains were in her hands. +The sunlight fell warm and golden about him; the full morning was +serene; a stillness as of ineffable peace lay across the solitudes. +And yet he felt that the placid promise was a lie; that the laughing +loveliness of the day was but a mask covering much strife. In the full +light he moved on not unlike a man groping in absolute darkness, +uncertain of the path he trod, suspicious of pitfalls, knowing only +that his direction was in hands other than his own. Hands that looked +soft and that were relentless; hands that blazed with barbaric jewels. +There had been a knot in a rawhide string, and a bandit in the +mountains had lifted his hat and had said simply: "Long live _La +Senorita_!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WHICH BEGINS WITH A LITTLE SONG AND ENDS WITH TROUBLE BETWEEN FRIENDS + +Speculation at this stage was profitless and the day was perfect. +Kendric told himself critically that he was growing fanciful; he had +been cooped up too much. First on board the schooner _New Moon_, then +in four walls of a house. What he needed was day after day, stood on +end, like this. If he didn't look out he'd be growing nerves next. He +grinned widely at the remote possibility, pushed his hat far back and +rode on. And by the time his horse had carried him to the far edge of +the level land and to the first slope of the downward pitch, he was +singing contentedly to himself and his horse and all the world that +cared to listen. + +Far below, far ahead, he caught his first glimpse of the ranch houses +marking the Bruce West holdings. From the heights his eye ran down +into valley lands that stretched wide and far away, rolling, grassy, +with occasional clumps of trees where there were water holes. A valley +by no means so prodigally watered as Zoraida's, but none the less an +estate to put a sparkle into a man's eyes. It was large, it was +sufficiently level and fertile; above aught else it was remote. It +gave the impression of a great, calm aloofness from the outside world +of traffic and congestion; it lay, mile after mile, sufficient unto +itself, a place for a lover of the outdoors to make his home. No +wonder that young West had gone wild over it. Hills and mountains shut +it in, rising to the sky lines like walls actually sustaining the blue +cloudless void. As Jim Kendric rode on and down his old song, his own +song, found its way to his lips. + + "Where skies are blue + And the earth is wide + And it's only you + And the mountainside!" + + +"Twenty miles between shacks," he considered approvingly. "And never a +line fence to cut your way through. It's near paradise, this land, +wherever it isn't just fair hell. No half way business; no maudlin +make-believe." But all of a sudden his face darkened. "Poor little +kid," he said. "If Bruce could only loan me half a dozen ready-mixed, +rough and ready, border cowboys; Californians, Arizonans and Texans!" + +His hopes of this were not large at any time; when he came upon the +first of Bruce West's riders they vanished entirely. An Indian, or +half breed at the best, ragged as to black stringy hair, hard visaged, +stony eyed. Kendric called to him and the rider turned in his saddle +and waited. And for answer to the question: "Where's the Old Man? +Bruce West?" the answer was a hand lifted lazily to point up valley and +silence. + +"_Gracias, amigo_," laughed Kendric and rode on. + +There was not a more amazed man in all Lower California when Jim +Kendric rode up to him. Bruce West was out with two of his men driving +a herd of young, wild-looking horses down toward the corrals beyond the +house. For an instant his blue eyes stared incredulously; then they +filled with shining joy. He swept off his broad hat to wave it wildly +about his head; he came swooping down on Kendric as though he had a +suspicion that his visitor had it in his head to whirl and make a bolt +for the mountains; he whooped gleefully. + +"Old Jim Kendric!" he shouted. "Old Headlong Jim! Old r'arin', +tearin', ramblin', rovin', hell-for-leather Kendric! Oh, mama! Man, +I'm glad to see you!" + +Only a youngster, was Bruce West, but manly for all that, who wore his +heart on his sleeve, his honesty in his eyes and who would rather +frolic than fight but would rather fight than do nothing. When last +Kendric had seen him, Bruce was nursing his first mustache and glorying +in the triumphant fact that soon he would be old enough to vote; now, +barely past twenty-three, he looked a trifle thinner than his former +hundred and ninety pounds but never a second older. He was a boy with +blue eyes and yellow hair and a profound adoration for all that Jim +Kendric stood for in his eager eyes. + +"Why all the war paint, Baby Blue-eyes?" Kendric asked as they shook +hands. For under Bruce's knee was strapped a rifle and a big army +revolver rode at his saddle horn. + +Bruce laughed, his mood having no place for frowns. + +"Not just for ornament, old joy-bringer," he retorted. "Using 'em +every now and then. I'm in deep here, Jim, with every cent I've got +and every hope of big things. Times, a man has to shoot his way out +into the clear or go to the wall. Hey, Gaucho!" he called, turning in +his saddle. "You and Tony haze the ponies in to the corrals. And tell +Castro we've got the King of Spain with us for grub and to put on the +best on the ranch; we'll blow in about noon. Come ahead, Jim; I'll +show you the finest lay-out of a cow outfit you ever trailed your eye +across." + +They rode, saw everything, both acreage and water and stock, and +talked; for the most part Bruce did the talking, speaking with quick +enthusiasm of what he had, what he had done, what he meant to +accomplish yet in spite of obstacles. He had bought outright some six +thousand acres, expending for them and what low-bred stock they fed all +of his inherited capital. From the nearest bank, at El Ojo, he had +borrowed heavily, mortgaging his outfit. With the proceeds he had +leased adjoining lands so that now his stock grazed over ten thousand +acres; he had also bought and imported a finer strain of cattle. With +the market what it was he was bound to make his fortune, hand over +fist---- + +"If they'd only leave me alone!" he exclaimed hotly. + +"They?" queried Kendric. + +"Of course the country is unsettled," explained the boy. "Ever since I +came into it there has been one sort or another of unrest. When it +isn't outright revolution it's politics and that's pretty near the same +thing. There are prowling bands of outlaws, calling themselves +soldiers, that the authorities can't reach. Look at those mountains +over there! What government that has to give half its time or more to +watching its own step, can manage to ferret out every nest of +highwaymen in every canon? Those boys are my big trouble, Jim! A raid +from them is always on the books and there are times when I'm pretty +near ready to throw up the sponge and drift. But it's a great land; a +great land. And now you're with me!" His eyes shone. "I'll make you +any sort of a proposition you call for, Jim, and together we'll make +history. Not to mention barrels of money." + +Kendric's ever-ready imagination was snared. But he was in no position +to forget that he had other fish to fry. + +"What do you know of your neighbors?" he asked. + +"Not much," admitted Bruce. "And yet enough to _sabe_ what you're +driving at. The nearest are twenty miles away, at the Montezuma ranch. +The boss of the outfit is your old friend Ruiz Rios. I told you that +in my letter. I haven't the dead wood on him but it's open and shut +that he'd as soon chip in on a cattle-stealing deal as anything else." + +"He doesn't own the Montezuma," said Kendric. + +"It's the same thing. The owner is a woman, his cousin, I believe. +But she's away most of the time, and Rios does as he pleases." + +"You don't know the lady, then?" + +"Never saw her. Don't want to, since she's got Rios blood in her." + +"Let's get down and roll a smoke and talk," offered Kendric. They were +on a grassy knoll; there were oaks and shade and grass for the horses. +Bruce looked at him sharply, catching the sober note. But he said +nothing until they were lying stretched out under the oaks, holding the +tie ropes at the ends of which their horses browsed. + +"Cut her loose, Jim," he said then. "What's the story?" + +Kendric told him: Of his quest with Twisty Barlow; of Zoraida Castlemar +and her ambitions; of his own situation in the household, a prisoner +with today granted him only in exchange for his word to return by dawn; +and finally of Betty Gordon. + +"Good God," gasped Bruce. "They're going it that strong? Out in the +open, too! And laying their paws on an American girl. Whew!" + +Kendric added briefly an account of his being stopped in the pass. + +"It's a fair bet," he concluded, "that your raiders get their word +straight from the Montezuma ranch. Which means, straight from the lips +of Zoraida Castlemar." + +Bruce fell to plucking at the dry grass, frowning. + +"Funny thing, it strikes me, Jim, that if you're right she should give +you the chance to tip me off. How do you figure that out?" + +"I haven't figured it out. Here's what we do know: When I was a dozen +miles from her place and naturally would suppose that, if I chose, I +was free to play out my own hand, up popped those three men; a +reminder, as plain as your hat, that through their eyes I was still +under the eyes of Zoraida Castlemar. Further, as innocent as a fool, I +carried a message to them in a cut and tied saddle string. A message +that was a passport for me; what other significance it carried, _quien +sabe_? There's a red tassel on my horse's bridle; that might be +another sign, as far as you and I know. The quirt at my saddle horn, +the chains in my bridle, the saddle itself or the folds of the saddle +blanket--how do we know they don't all carry her word? An easy matter, +if only the signal is prearranged." + +"The fine craft of the Latin mind," muttered Bruce. + +"Rather the subtlety of the old Aztecs," suggested Kendric. + +"But all this could have been done as well, and taking no chances, by +one of the Montezuma riders." + +"Of course. Hence, the one thing clear is that it was desired that I +should see you. Since it was obvious that I'd tell you what I knew, +that's the odd part of it." + +"Why, it's madness, man! It gives us the chance, if no other, to get +word back home about the little Gordon girl." + +"I'd thought of that. Just how would we do it? A letter in the +nearest postoffice?" + +"You mean that the postmaster would be on the watch for it? And would +play into her hands? Well, suppose we took the trouble to send a +cowboy to some other, further postoffice? Or, by golly, to send him +all the way to the border? Or, if I should go with the word myself?" + +"Answer: If you sent an Indian, how much would you bet that he did not +circle back to the Montezuma ranch with the letter? If you went +yourself, how far do you suppose you'd ever get?" + +Bruce's eyes widened. + +"Do you suppose they're going that strong, Jim?" + +"I don't know, Bruce. But tell me: if it seemed the wise thing to do, +could you drop everything here and make a try to get through with the +word?" + +Bruce looked worried. + +"It's my hunch," he answered, "that it would be a cheaper play for me +to pay the twenty-five thousand dollar ransom and be done with it! You +don't know how bad things are here, Jim; if I went and came back it +would be to find that I'd been cleaned. No, I'm not exaggerating. And +with the mortgage on the place, the next thing I would know was that it +was foreclosed and in the end I'd lose everything I've got." + +"From which I gather you don't put a whole lot of confidence in your +cowboys?" + +"That's the plain hell of it! Not only have I got to sleep with one +eye on my stock; I've got to keep the other peeled on the men that are +taking my pay. I never know what other man's pay they're taking at the +same time." + +"Or what woman's. Well, I imagine Miss Castlemar knows conditions as +well as we do, if not a good deal better. So it looks as though she +were taking no chances in letting me ride over to see you; and it +remains possible that by so doing I am furthering her purpose. Though +just how, is another thing I don't know." + +"She must be some corker of a female," muttered Bruce. "What does she +look like, Jim?" + +"Tall. Young and not bad looking. Vain as a peacock and high and +mighty." + +"That kind of a girl makes me sick," was young Bruce's quick decision. +"Let's ride back, Jim; it'll be time to eat." + +As they rode slowly down toward the ranch house Bruce pointed out how, +living in constant expectation of the operations of cattle and horse +thieves, he took what precautions he could. The pick of his saddle +horses, a dozen of them, were grazed during the day in the fields near +the house and at night were brought in and stabled. A number of the +finest cattle, including a thoroughbred Hereford bull and forty +beautiful Hereford cows, recently purchased, were driven each evening +into the nearest fields where from dark to daylight they were herded by +a night rider. + +"I've got to take it for granted," explained West, "that at least some +of my vacqueros are on the level. I pick my best men for jobs like +this. And I've always got night riders out, making their rounds from +one end of the valley to the other. On top of all that I've got my +dogs; look, here they come to meet us." + +There were ten of them, big tan and white collies, vying with one +another to come first to their master. Splendid animals all of them, +but at the fore ran the most splendid of them all, the father and +patriarch of his flock. It was his keen nostril and eye that was wont +first to know who came; his superb strength and speed carried him well +in the lead and he guarded his supremacy jealously. His sharp teeth +snapped viciously when a hardy son ran close at his side and the +youngster, though he snarled and bristled, swerved widely and thus fell +back. They barked as they swept on, the sharp, stacatto bark of their +breed. + +"They're something I can trust," said Bruce proudly. "No hand but mine +feeds them; if I catch a man carressing one of them he draws his pay +and quits. And I go to sleep of nights reasonably sure that their din +will wake me if an outsider sets foot near the home corrals. Hi! +Monarch! Jump for it." + +From his pocket he brought out a bit of dried beef, the "jerky" of the +southwest. He held it out arm's length, sending his horse racing +forward with a sudden touch of his spur. The big dog barked eagerly +and launched his sinewy body into the air; the sunlight flashed back a +moment from the bared sharp teeth; Monarch dropped softly back to earth +with the dried beef already bolted. Bruce laughed. + +At the house, like Zoraida's in the matters of age and thick, cool +walls, but much smaller, they found an excellent meal awaiting them. +They ate under a leafy grape arbor on the shady side of the house, half +a dozen of Bruce's men sitting at table with them. Kendric regarded +the men with interest, feeling that their scrutiny of him was no less +painstaking. They were swarthy Indians and half-breeds and little else +did he make of them. Their eyes met his, steady and unwinking, but +gave no clue to what thoughts might lie back of them. + +"I'll bet Bruce sleeps with a gun under his pillow," was Kendric's +thought at the end of the meal. + +By the well, under some shade trees in the yard, the two friends sat +and smoked, watching the men laze away to the stables. Thereafter they +spoke quietly of the captive in the Hacienda Montezuma. + +"It's not to be thought of," said Bruce, "that a scared little kid like +her is to be held that way and we sit like two bumps on a log. Looks +like her troubles were up to you and me, Jim." + +In the end they agreed that at least it was unthinkable that Betty +Gordon would suffer any bodily injury in the same house with Zoraida +and her girls; further, that the greatest access of terror had no doubt +passed. One grew accustomed to pretty nearly everything. Kendric, +bound by his parole to return, would seek the girl out and extend to +her what comfort he could; just to know that she was not altogether +friendless would bring hope and its own sort of gladness. Tonight, as +soon as the men came in and it was dark, they would send Manuel, +Bruce's most trustworthy man, to a forty-mile distant postoffice. He +would carry with him two letters: one would be addressed to the +governor of Lower California and one to friends in San Diego. + +"It's about the best we can do on short notice," admitted Kendric, +though he was dissatisfied. "I'm not figuring, though, that it's in +the cards for me to stick overlong under the same roof with Rios and +his crowd. There's the schooner down in the gulf and there's you for +us to count on. Never fret, old Baby Blue-eyes; we'll have her out of +that yet." + +The letters were written; a little after dusk Manuel set forth, +promised a double month's pay if he succeeded and in return promising +by all the saints he could call to tongue that he would guard the +letters with his life. From their chairs on the porch Kendric and +Bruce saw the man depart. When his figure had dimned and blurred into +the gathering night they still sat on, silent, watching the stars come +out. Bruce had brought out cigars and the red embers glowed +companionably. Presently Bruce sighed. + +"It's a great little old land," he said, and the inflection of the +quietly spoken words was that of affection. "A man could ask for no +better, Jim. Conditions right now are damnable; you've got to scrap +all along the line for what's yours. But what do you know that is +worth the having that isn't worth the fighting for? And one of these +fine days when Mexico settles down to business, sort of grows up and +gets past the schoolboy stage, we'll have the one combination now +lacking--law and order." + +Kendric, who had been reflecting upon other matters, made no immediate +reply. Bruce had the answer to his suggestion of a new order of things +but it came from the darkness beyond his barns. There was a sudden +sharp bark from one of his dogs, then a rising clamor as the whole pack +broke into excited barking. From so far away that the sound barely +reached them came a man's voice, exclaiming angrily. Then a rifle +shot, a long, shrill whistle, shouts and the sudden thud of many racing +hoofs. + +Bruce West toppled over his chair and plunged through the nearest door. +It was dark in the house and Kendric heard him strike against a second +chair, send it crashing to the floor and dash on. In a moment Bruce +was back on the porch, a rifle in each hand. One he thrust out to +Kendric, muttering between his teeth, + +"Raiders, or we're in luck. Damned rebel outlaws. Come on!" + +He ran out into the yard, Kendric at his heels pumping a shell into the +barrel. As they turned a corner of the house Bruce stopped dead in his +track and Kendric bumped into him and stopped with him. Already the +barns were on fire; two tall flames stabbed upward at the dark; the +hissing of burning wood and fodder must have reached their ears in five +minutes had the pack given no warning. In the rapidly growing light +they saw the dogs where, bunched together, they snarled and snapped and +broke into wilder baying. + +Bruce began shouting, calling to his men, three or four of whom came +running out of the house. Beyond the barns they made out vague forms, +whether of cattle or horses or riders it was at first impossible to +know. Again they ran forward; from somewhere in the direction of the +corrals came several rifle reports. With the gun shots a confusion of +shouts through the heavier notes of which rose one voice, as high +pitched as a woman's. + +In the barn lofts the flames were spreading in a thousand directions, +each dry stalk serving as a duct of destruction. The fire shot upward +and the roof blossomed in red flames. Bruce groaned and cursed and +prayed wildly for a glimpse of one of the devils who had done this for +him. Big clouds of smoke drifted upward across the stars, shot through +with flying sparks. Swiftly the lurid light spread until the white +walls of the house stood out distinctly and the forms near the corrals +were no longer vague. They were running cattle, Bruce's choice forty +cows; Kendric saw the fine bred Hereford bull's horns glint, heard the +snort of fear and rage, made out the big bulk crushing a way to the +fore among his terrified companions. There were horses, too, running +wild, the animals from the stables and the near corral. And behind +them, shouting and now and then firing into the air to hasten the +laggards, were many horsemen. How many it was impossible to estimate, +a dozen at the least, perhaps fifty. + +As the black mass of frightened beasts gathered forward headway and +shot through the area of light, Kendric saw one horseman clearly. On +the instant he threw up his rifle. Already his finger was crooking to +the trigger when, with a mutter of rage, he lowered his arm. There was +no mistaking that great white horse and he thought that there was as +little mistaking its rider, a slender, upright figure leading the rush +of the raiders, calling out sharp orders in the clear ringing voice, +sweeping on recklessly. He cursed her but he held back his fire. Of +women he knew little enough and for women there had been no place +reserved in his life; but, for all that and all that Zoraida Castlemar +might be and might do, he had not learned to lift his hand against her +sex. + +But there was nothing in what Bruce saw to restrain him. He fired +while his rifle was rising to his shoulder and again and again with the +stock against his cheek. + +"Damn the light!" he growled, and fired again. + +Through the tumult Kendric heard her laughter. None other than Zoraida +could laugh like that. Again the suspicion flashed into his quickened +brain that the girl was mad. He heard several shots behind him; +Bruce's men were taking a hand. Then, close behind the white mare came +a second horseman and Kendric thanked God for a man for a target and +fired at it. Luck if he hit it, he told himself, at that distance and +running and in that flickering light. But he fired again, ran in +closer and fired the third time. And just as the white mare passed on +through the illumed area and was lost in the dark with its rider he saw +his man pitch forward and plunge to the ground. Other forms swept by, +other shots were fired both from the outlaws and toward them. The +darkness accepted them all and no other man fell. + +Shouts floated back to them above the hammering thud of the fleeing +cows and horses. Into the darkness after them Bruce and Kendric and +Bruce's men sent many questing bullets while now and then an answering +leaden pellet screamed over their heads. Swiftly the clamor of the +receding hoof-beats lessened; no voices returned to them; no wild rider +was to be seen. The night pulsed only to the barks of the dogs and the +roar of the devastating flames. + +Bruce was calling loudly to his men to get to horse and follow. But +while he spoke he broke off hopelessly realizing that not a horse was +left to him. Before he and his herders could get into saddle they must +wait for daylight and must waste hours in driving in horses from the +distant pastures, wild brutes for the most part that a man could never +get near enough on foot to rope. He threw out his arms in a wide +gesture of despair. Thereafter he stood, silent and moody, watching +his hay-filled barns burn. + +"If I could get my hands on the man that engineered this," he said, his +voice broken, barely carrying to Kendric a few paces away. "That's all +I ask." + +Kendric, his rage scarcely less than Bruce's, called back to him: + +"I could lead you as straight as a string. It's the handiwork of your +neighbor." + +"Rios?" cried Bruce eagerly. + +"Zoraida Castelmar." + +"Damn her!" cried the boy. In the firelight Kendric saw his steady +eyes glisten and knew that they were filled with tears, the terrible +tears of rage rising above anguish. "Damn her!" + +After that he stood silent again looking at the burning buildings. +When a new flame spurted skyward, when a section of roof fell, he +twitched as though his muscles knew physical pain. At last he turned +away and Kendric saw a face that it was hard to recognize as the boyish +face of blue-eyed Bruce West. + +"This beats me," said Bruce, quietly. "Best stock gone, new barns and +hay turned to cinders. Ten thousand dollars wiped out in an hour. +Yes; done for, Jim, old man. Clean." + + +Kendric found no word of answer. He turned away and went down to the +broken corrals where the man behind Zoraida had fallen. If the man +were not dead he might be induced to talk. And in any case, thief +though he was, he was a man and not a dog. He found the huddled body +lying still. Kneeling, he turned it over so that the wavering light +shone on the face. He did not know whether the man was dead or not; he +knew only that it was Twisty Barlow. He squatted there, looking from +the white face to the sky full of stars. And his thought was less on +the instant of Twisty Barlow than of Zoraida Castlemar. + +"This is what she has done for two old friends," he said aloud. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN WHICH A MAN KEEPS HIS WORD AND ZORAIDA DARES AND LAUGHS + +Kendric called to Bruce. Together they carried the unconscious Barlow +into the house. Kendric, once satisfied that his old friend's heart +still beat, scarcely breathed until he lighted a lamp and found the +wound. It was in the shoulder and not only did not appear dangerous, +but failed to explain the man's condition of coma. There was a trickle +of blood across the pale forehead; Kendric pushed back the hair and +found a cut there, ragged and filled with dirt. Plainly the impact of +the heavy bullet had sufficed to unseat the sailor who, pitching out of +the saddle and striking on his head, had been stunned by the fall. + +Kendric bathed and bandaged both wounds while Bruce went for a bottle +of brandy. + +"He's coming around," said Kendric as Barlow's throat received the +stinging liquor. "I don't want to be on hand when he opens his eyes, +Bruce; for ten years I've called Twisty by the name of friend. He's +down and out for a little and what we two have to say to each other can +wait a spell." + +Bruce, stolidfaced now and morose, nodded. Kendric went outside and +stood watching the flames work their will with Bruce's barns, his heart +heavy within him. One friend down, a bullet hole in his shoulder, shot +as a raiding cattle thief; another friend looking to have lost his +boyish nature with the loss of his hope. And both rendered what they +were through the wickedness of a woman. Woman? As he brooded over the +devastation she had wrought he began to think of her as an evil spirit. +He recalled with a shiver the feel of her burning eyes, hidden but +potent; he thought of the nights at sea when he had felt her presence. +For the first time he allowed himself to wonder in all seriousness if +she had powers above a mere woman's as she had a character set apart. + +And, after all that happened, he must return to her! He, Jim Kendric, +must leave Twisty Barlow, wounded, and Bruce West, ruined, and return +to Zoraida Castlemar who had set her brand upon both them. His +twenty-four-hour leave would expire at daybreak. He had meant to spend +the evening with Bruce and then to ride back during the night. Now, +for the first time, he realized that the raiders had set him on foot. +The twenty miles to the Montezuma ranch would have to be walked. + +"And I'd better be on my way," he decided promptly. It did not enter +his head that he had an excuse to offer for making a tardy appearance. +He had pledged his word, and, while it was humanly possible, he would +keep it. Even were it impossible it would have been Jim Kendric's way +to try. And now he was not sorry for an excuse for leaving early. He +could do nothing for Bruce; what must be said between him and Twisty +Barlow could come later. + + +It was then, while he was returning to the house that he saw a steady +light shining out in the fields. He stopped, at first fearing that a +fresh fire was breaking out. + +"Not thieves but cursed marauders," he named the crowd to which Bruce +had already lost so heavily. "They've fired the dry grass." + +But while he watched it the light did not alter, neither flaring up nor +dying down, burning steadily like a lamp. When after two or three +minutes he observed this he left the house and walked out into the +field, keeping to the shadows when he could, watchful and suspicious. +Thus presently he came to see what it was: a lantern tied from a low +limb of a tree. Below the lantern he saw a dark object; it moved and +he heard the clink of a bridle chain. Again he went forward, puzzled +and curious. He made out that the saddle was empty; he could see no +one near. A man might be hiding behind the bole of the oak or might +even be above in the branches. Inwardly Kendric prayed that he was. +He was ready for a meeting with any loiterer of Zoraida's following. +His pulses stirred as he thought that it might even be Rios or Escobar. + +But though he circled the tree and peered long into the shadows among +the branches, he still saw no one. At last he came close to the +tethered horse. It was his own, the sorrel El Rey he had ridden here +this morning, saddled and bridled, spurs slung to the horn. The +lantern shed its rays upon the saddle and Kendric saw something else at +the horn; a bunch of little blue field flowers, held in place by a bit +of white ribbon. + +He snatched the flowers down angrily, trampled on them, ground them +under foot. They seemed to him a bit of Zoraida herself; they taunted +him, they bore the message she sent. They were her summons to come +back to her. He jerked free the tie rope and swung up into the saddle, +eager and anxious to go back to her the swiftest way in order that the +time might come the more swiftly when he could fulfil his word and be +free to leave her. He'd get a rifle from Bruce; with that and his +revolver he'd take his chance, let all of her infernal rabble bar the +way. + +From the rear of the house he called to Bruce. + +"I've found my horse; they left him behind," he said as Bruce came out. +"I've got to go back, so back I go the quickest I know how. Take +decent care of Barlow; he was a real man once and may be again, if he +can shake that damned woman off. Lend me a rifle if you can spare it. +I'll see you again as soon as the Lord lets me. So long." + +"So long, Jim," returned Bruce drearily. He brought out a rifle, +holding it out wordlessly. And Kendric rode away into the night. + +In the mountains, though in another narrow pass, he was stopped as he +had been this morning. A lantern was flashed in his face and over his +horse. Then he was allowed to go on while from the darkness a voice +cried after him: + +"_Viva La Senorita_!" + + +From afar he saw lights burning down in the valley and recognized them +as the lamps in the four wall towers. The gates were closed but at his +call a man appeared from the shadows and opened to him. He rode in; +dismounting, he let the rifle slip into a hiding place in the +shrubbery; another man at the front corridor took his horse. At about +midnight he again entered the old adobe building. The main hall into +which he stepped through the front door was still brightly lighted with +its several lamps; through open doors he saw that nowhere in the house +were lights out. Yet it was very quiet; he heard neither voice nor +step. + +He knew where Zoraida was; no doubt Rios and Escobar were with her. He +had kept his word and returned to his prison like a good dog; what +reason why he should not take advantage of what appeared an unusual +opportunity and make his attempt at escape? Zoraida would not have +counted on his returning so early; he carried a revolver under his arm +pit and hidden in the garden was a rifle. To be sure there were risks +to be run; but now, if ever, struck him as the time to run them. + +If he could only find where Betty Gordon slept. He must give her a +word of hope before he left her here among these devils; assuring her +that he would return for her and bring the law with him. Or, if she +had the nerve and the desire to attempt escape with him now, that was +her right and he would go as far as a man could to bring her through to +safety. Noiselessly he crossed the room. He would pass through the +music room and down the hall toward the living quarters of the house. +If luck were with him he would find her. + +It was only when he was about to pass out of the music room door going +to the hallway that he heard voices for the first time. They came from +a distance, dulled and deadened by the oak doors, but he knew them for +the voices of men, raised in anger. A louder word now and then brought +him recognition of Ruiz Rios's voice; a sharp answer might have been +from Escobar. He stopped and considered. If these men quarreled, how +would it affect him? Quarrel they would, soon or late, he knew. For +both were truculent and in the looks he had seen pass between them +there was no friendship. Two rebellious spirits held in check by the +will of Zoraida Castelmar. But now Zoraida was away. + +Then for the moment he forgot them and his conjectures. He had heard a +faint sound and turning quickly saw for the first time that he was not +alone in the music room. In a dim corner beyond the piano was a +cushioned seat and on it, her hands clasped in her lap, her eyes wide +with the sleeplessness and anxiety of the night, crouched Betty Gordon. +He took a quick step toward her. She drew back, pressed tight against +the wall, her look one of terror. Terror of him! + +But he came on until he stood over her, looking down into her raised +face. He felt no end of pity for her, she looked so small and helpless +and hopeless. Big gray eyes pleaded with him and he read and +understood that she asked only that he go and leave her. An impulse +which was utterly new to him surged over him now, the impulse to gather +her up into his arms as one would a child and comfort her. Not that +she was just a child. She had done her shining brown hair high up on +her head; she fought wildly for an air of serene dignity; he judged her +at the last of her teens. But she was none the less flower-like, all +that a true woman should be according to the beliefs of certain men of +the type of Jim Kendric, a true descendant of her sweet, old-fashioned +grandmothers. Her little high-heeled slippers, her dainty blue dress, +the flower which even in her distress she had tucked away in her hair, +were quite as he would have had them. + +"Betty Gordon," he said softly so that his words would not carry to +other ears, "I want to help you if you will let me. Will you?" + +Her clasped hands tightened; he saw the lips tremble before she could +command her utterance. + +"I--I don't know what to do," she faltered. Her eyes clung to his +frankly, filled with shining eagerness to read the heart under the +outer man. For the first time Jim was conscious of his several days' +growth of beard; he supposed that it was rather more than an even +chance that his face was grimy and perhaps still carried evidences of +the fight at Bruce West's ranch. To assure her of his honorable +intentions toward her he could have wished for a bath and a shave. + +"You're in the hands of a rather bad crowd," he said when he saw that +she had no further words but was waiting for him. "I thought that at +least it would be a relief to know that you had one friend on the job. +And an American at that," he concluded heartily. + +"How am I to know who is a friend?" She shivered and pressed tight +against the wall. "That terrible man named Escobar spoke to me of +friendship, and he is the one who gave orders to bring me here! And +the other man, Rios, he spoke words that did not go with the look in +his eyes. And you--you----" + +"Well? What about me?" + +"You are one of them. I find you staying in their house. You are the +lover of Senorita Castelmar and she is terrible! Oh, I don't know what +to do." + +"Who told you that?" he demanded sharply. "That I was Zoraida's lover?" + +"One of the maids, Rosita. She told me that Zoraida is mad about you. +And that you are a great adventurer and have killed many men and are a +professional gambler." + +"Rosita lied. I am just a prisoner here, like you." + +Sheer disbelief shone in Betty's eyes. + +"You rode away, alone, this morning," she said. "I saw you through my +window. You come in alone tonight. You are not a prisoner." + +"I was allowed to leave the house only when I promised to come back. +Can't you tell when a man is speaking the truth? Good Lord, why should +I want to lie to you?" + +Betty hesitated a long time, her hands nervous, her eyes unfaltering on +his. She looked at once drawn and repelled, fascinated like a little +bird fluttering under the baleful eyes of a snake. + +"What do you want me to do?" she asked finally. + +"I, for one," he retorted, "refuse to squat here like a fool because +I'm told. I'm going to make a break for it. You can take the chance +with me or you may remain here and know that I'll do what can be done +outside." + +Betty shook her head, sighing. + +"I don't know what to do," she said miserably. + +Jim pondered and frowned. Then he shrugged his shoulders. + +"It's up to you, Betty Gordon," he said. "You're old enough to think +for yourself. I can't decide for you. But if you were mine, my sister +for instance, I'd grab you up and make a bolt for it. A clean bullet +is a damned sight more to my liking than the dirty paws of such as Rios +and Escobar and their following. They've got a guard around the house +which they seem to think sufficient" Again he shrugged. "I've got my +notion we can slip through and make the mountains at the rear." + +"If I only knew I could trust you," moaned Betty. + +A glint of anger shone in Jim's eyes. + +"Suit yourself," he told her curtly. "I can promise you it will be a +lot easier for me in a scrimmage and a get-away without a woman to look +out for." + +Immediately he was ashamed of having been brusque with her. For she +was only a little slip of a girl after all and obviously one who had +never been thrown out into the current of life where it ran strongest. +More than ever she made him think of the girl of olden times, the girl +hard to find in our modern world. All of her life she had had others +to turn to, men whom she loved to lean upon. Her father, her brothers +would have done everything for her; she would have done her purely +feminine part in making home homey. That was what she was born for, +the lot of the sweet tender girl who is quite content to let other +girls wear mannish clothing and do mannish work. Kendric knew +instinctively that Betty Gordon could have made the daintiest thing +imaginable in dresses, that she would tirelessly and cheerfully nurse a +sick man, that she would fight every inch of the way for his life, that +she would stand by a father driven to the wall, broken financially, +that she would put hope into him and bear up bravely and with a tender +smile under adversity--but that she would call to a man to kill a +spider for her. God had not fashioned her to direct a military +campaign. And thinking thus of her, he thought also of Zoraida. Betty +Gordon, just as she was, was infinitely more to his liking. + +"I can only give you my word of honor, my dear," he said gently, and +again he felt as though he were addressing a poor little kid of a girl +in short dresses, "that I wouldn't harm a hair of your head for all +Mexico." + +Betty, though this was her first rude experience with outlaws, was not +without both discernment and intuition. Perhaps the maid Rosita had +lied to her, carried away by a natural relish in telling all that she +knew and more. A look of brightening hope surged up in Betty's gray +eyes; her pretty lips were parting when a rude interruption made her +forget to say the words which were just forming. + +Fitfully voices had come to them from the _patio_ where Ruiz Rios and +the rebel captain were arguing, but Jim and Betty with their own +problem occupying their minds had paid scant attention. Now a sudden +exclamation arrested both words and thought, a sharp cry of bitter +anger and more than anger; there was rage and menace in the intonation. +And then came the shot, a revolver no doubt but sounding louder as it +echoed through the rooms. Betty started up in terror, both hands +grasping Kendric's arm. His own hand had gone its swift way to the gun +slung under his coat. + +They waited a moment, both tense. Then Jim patted her hand +reassuringly, removed it from his sleeve and said quietly: + +"Wait a second. I'll see which one it was." + +But before he could cross the room the door was thrown open and Ruiz +Rios stood looking in on them queerly. + +"Senor Escobar has shot himself," he said. "Through the heart." + +Betty fell back from him, step by step, her eyes staring, her face +white. Then she looked pleadingly to Kendric. When he went to her +side, she whispered: + +"Take me away! Let's try to go now. Now!" + +Ruiz Rios's eyes glittered, his mouth hardened. He closed the door +behind him, watching them keenly. + +"It is in my mind to do you a kindness, Senor Kendric," he said, +speaking evenly and emotionlessly. + +"You are a murderous cur," rapped out Kendric. "I'd do a clean job if +I shot you dead in your tracks." + +Rios smiled. + +"Let us speak business, _amigo_," he said. "Moralizing is nice when +there is plenty of time and nothing else to be done. You are kept here +against your will. It might not fit in ill with my plans to see you +go." + +"I will have a look at Escobar first," said Kendric. Rios stepped +aside and again threw open the door. But he did not stir from the +spot, awaiting Kendric's return. Nor did Kendric tarry long. Escobar +was dead already, shot through the heart, as Rios had said. A revolver +lay on the ground, close to his right hand. + +"You ought to hang for that," said Kendric as he came back into the +room. "But from the way you're going you won't last long enough for +the law to get you. Now, what have you to say to me?" + +"A part I have said," returned Ruiz Rios. "I can guess much that my +fair cousin has said to you. I know her desires and--I know my own!" +His eyes flashed. "More, you appear interested in the charming Miss +Betty Gordon. If you would like to go yourself, if you would like to +take her with you, I think I can arrange matters. At a price, of +course." + +"Naturally. And the price?" + +"Escobar asked twenty-five thousand dollars. Surely she is worth that +and more? Ah! Well, what you came to Lower California to find may be +worth as much, may be worth nothing. The risk is mine. Tell me where +the place is and I will arrange that you and Miss Betty have horses and +an open trail." + +"Rios," began Jim, speaking slowly. + +But it was Betty who answered. + +"No!" she cried. "No and no and no! You are a terrible man, Senor +Rios, and some day God will bring you to a terrible end. Be sure I +would be happy to see the last of you and your cousin and your kind. +But the thing you ask is impossible. Why should Jim Kendric, to whom I +am only a bothersome stranger, pay you a sum like that--for me? You +are crazy!" + +Jim himself was perplexed. He had no desire to put Ruiz Rios in the +way of appropriating that which had brought both himself and Barlow +here. More than that, the secret was not solely his to give away, were +he so minded. Barlow had a claim to half and he knew there would be +nothing left for Barlow once Rios scented it. Of these matters he +thought and also of Betty. Her quick vehemence had surprised him. +Until now he would have thought her eager to consent to anything to +insure her immediate departure. + +"Fine words, senorita," said Rios, his lips twitching so that the white +teeth showed. "But you had best think. Many things might happen to a +girl, a pretty girl like you, which are not pleasant for her to +experience. You had better throw your arms about your countryman's +neck and beg him to pay the price for you." + +Betty shook her head violently, so violently that the white flower fell +from her hair. Rios was going on angrily, when there came into the +yard a clatter of hoofs. + +"It is Zoraida," he said sharply. "Now be quick; is it yes or no!" + +"No!" cried Betty. + +"Little fool!" muttered Rios. Under his glare she drew back. "Before +again such help is offered you you will wish you were dead!" + +Outside they heard Zoraida's laughter, low and rich with its music. +Then her voice as gay as though there were in all the world no such +shadows as those cast by destruction and death. And then she entered, +slender and graceful in her elaborate riding suit, her white plume +nodding, her eyes dancing, her red mouth triumphant. Behind her came +Bruce West. + +Kendric stared at him in amazement. For Bruce came of his own free +will and his own eyes were shining. There was no sign of his recent +distress upon his face. Rather it looked more joyous, more boyish and +glad than Kendric had seen it for years. The boy hardly noted anyone +in the room but Zoraida. His eyes were for her alone and they were on +fire with adoration. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IN WHICH THERE IS MORE THAN ONE LIE TOLD AND THE TRUTH IS GLIMPSED + +"You!" cried Kendric in amazement as his look went swiftly from Bruce's +radiant face to Zoraida's and back to Bruce. "With her!" + +Young Bruce West advanced eagerly. + +"It's been a mistake, Jim," he said earnestly. "A cursed mistake all +along the line. When I explain to you----" + +"Boy," cut in Kendric sternly, "where's your head? Don't you know that +she was one of the crowd raiding you? Have you forgotten all I told +you?" + +Zoraida, head held high, her cheeks flushed, stood eyeing him +defiantly. The mockery of her look disturbed him; she appeared fully +confident of herself, her destiny and her place in Bruce's estimation. +Bruce himself frowned and shook his head. + +"You've always been a fair man, Jim," he said. "Suspend judgment until +we've talked." + +While Kendric held his tongue and pondered angrily, Zoraida's eyes +flashed about the room. Only for an instant did they tarry with Betty +who, drawn away from her almost to the table against the wall, looked +back at her with unhidden distrust. Longer did they hold to Ruiz Rios. + +"My cousin," she said softly, "you have something to say to me. What +is it?" + +"Not here, senorita," urged Rios. "In another room." + +Kendric, but not Bruce, saw the deeply significant regard she shot at +Rios. Her answer puzzled Kendric for the moment, not so much the words +as the tone. She spoke to Rios as one might speak to a dreaded master. + +"I am ready," was all that she said. And when Rios threw open the door +for her, it was to Bruce that she said gently, her eyes melting into +his, "A moment only, if Senor Rios will permit that I return so soon." +And she went out, Rios at her heels. + +"Can't you see, Jim?" Bruce was all excitement and his hands were +clenched at his side; his boyish eyes blazed. "It's that damned Ruiz +Rios! He dictates to her; he has put the fear of death and worse into +her heart. She is made to suffer for all of his crimes!" + +"So that's the story?" Kendric grunted his disgust. "And you've let +her stuff you hide-full of lies?" + +"Go easy, Jim." Bruce appeared sincerely pained and troubled. "I've +called you a fair man; won't you open your mind to the truth? She has +been misrepresented, I know. Her enemies----" He clenched his hands. +"She is a wonderful creature!" he burst out. "And she has honored me +with her confidence and her friendship." + +This very night Zoraida Castelmar had ruthlessly pillaged Bruce's ranch +and from Bruce's mouth now gushed the words: "She has honored me with +her confidence and her friendship!" Was there no end to the woman's +audacity? Was there no end to the blind stupidity of mankind which +permitted of lawlessness like tonight's being glossed over, which went +to the insane extreme of worshiping when normally the logical emotion +would be hatred? Was there finally, no end to the power of Zoraida? + +What had happened between Bruce West and Zoraida? Kendric knew +something of Zoraida's bravado, no little of her supreme assurance, +much of her methods. Plainly she had gone straight to Bruce after the +raid. He could see the picture of her coming out of the lurid night +and into the experience of a boy all unnerved by his anger and grief. +He could understand how she offered her softened beauty to the hard +eyes; how her voice had caressed and distorted fact; how Zoraida had +had the wit to tell her own story, make her own impression, before +Bruce could have had time to steel himself against her. But what tale +could she have told to convince a man like Bruce who, at the least, was +not a fool? + +Somehow, decided Kendric, she had lied out of the whole thing. +Further, she had used every siren trick she knew to drug his better +judgment. She had been tender and feminine and seductive. While with +one hand she had robbed him, she had caressed him with the other. And +not too boldly; she had not overdone it. She probably wept for him; +she treated him to the flash of her eyes through spurious tears. She +employed her beauty like a lure and had little trouble in putting the +boy's suspicions to sleep. What chance would a simple, open-hearted +fellow like Bruce have against the wiles which were Zoraida's stock in +trade? Kendric recalled vividly that subtle influence which Zoraida +had cast even upon him; which he had felt even when steeled against +her, and asked himself again what chance Bruce could have with her in +the hour of her boldest triumph? The very fact of her having come +immediately on the heels of the catastrophe gave her a look of +innocence. . . . Had Zoraida the trick of hypnosis over men? It began +to look like it. + +"Poor old Baby-blue-eyes," muttered Jim. He looked at the boy +wonderingly. Then only did it occur to him that Bruce and Betty Gordon +were strangers to each other and that Bruce, when his sanity should +return to him, would make a desirable friend for Betty. So he said, +turning toward the girl: "Miss Gordon, this is an old friend of mine; +another American, too, Bruce West." + +Betty looked her frank interest upon Bruce and her speculation was +obvious: among so many men whom she feared and distrusted she wondered +if here was one of whom any girl might be sure. She put out her hand, +even smiled. But Bruce held stiffly back, his eyes full of accusing +light. + +"I have heard of Miss Gordon," he said coolly. "She is also known as +Pansy Blossom, I believe, over in Sonora." + +Kendric failed to understand and looked to Betty. Her eyes widened. +Then her cheeks crimsoned. + +"Oh!" she gasped. "Mr. West, what do you mean? I have heard of her, +everyone has. She is the most terrible creature!" She shuddered. +"What made you say that?" + +Bruce laughed his disbelief of her words and attitude. + +"Jim, here, doesn't seem to remember," he said brusquely. "If you'd +been down in Sonora lately, Jim, you'd know all about Pansy Blossom. +She sings rather well, I hear, and dances. It would seem that she has +the makings of a highly successful actress," he concluded meaningly. +Kendric stared at him. + +"You mean that Betty Gordon here is some sort of an adventuress?" he +demanded. + +For answer Bruce shrugged elaborately and returned Kendric's stare. +Jim looked to Betty again. Her face was stamped in the image of +shocked amazement, she scarcely breathed through her slightly parted +lips. + +"You're talking nonsense, Bruce," Jim said emphatically. "Sheer rot. +She's just Betty Gordon and in a peck of trouble. It's up to you and +me, being countrymen of hers, to see her through instead of hurting her +feelings." + +Bruce regarded him somberly. + +"Old Headlong," he said slowly, "you're just the man to mistake a +woman. You've judged Zoraida Castelmar wrong; you're making a mistake +with Miss Pansy Blossom." + +"You fool!" cried Jim angrily. "Where the devil have your wits gone? +You call this child an adventuress? Why, man alive, can't you see +she's just baby?" + +"Pansy Blossom's record----" began Bruce. + +"Deuce take Pansy Blossom! We're talking about Betty Gordon, this poor +little lost kid here. Who told you that she was the same as that +dancing woman?" Bruce made no answer. "Was it Zoraida Castelmar?" +demanded Kendric. "Tell me. Is that what Zoraida Castelmar had to say +about her?" + +"Well?" challenged Bruce. "Suppose it was?" + +"What else did she tell you?" Jim had him by the arm now and his eyes +were blazing. "Spit it out, boy. What other rot?" + +"It's not rot, Jim. If you'll keep your eyes open and think a little +you'll know as much as I know." + +Kendric groaned. "There's a game on foot that has a bad look to it. +Escobar is in it and Rios and--your young lady friend. If you'll give +me a few minutes presently, I'll explain." + +"Escobar and Betty Gordon! Why, there's nothing between them but fear +and hatred. Or rather that's all there was; Escobar's lying dead out +there now. Ruiz Rios plugged him square through the heart just now. +And now he's taking _your_ lady friend out to tell her about it! Betty +is their captive, held for ransom, as I told you." + +"Or appears to be?" Bruce jerked his arm away and began moving +restlessly up and down, looking always toward the door through which +Zoraida had gone. Kendric turned toward Betty. She had not stirred; +her cheeks were still burning. Apparently she had heard a very great +deal of unsavory report of the lady Bruce mistook her for. Only the +expression in her eyes and about her lips had changed; now it was one +of passionate anger. The look surprised him. He began to think of +Betty in altered terms. She wasn't just the baby he had named her and +she wasn't just the little kid of sixteen he had at first taken her to +be. During the interview with Ruiz Rios he had learned that she had a +mind of her own. To her other possessions he now saw added an American +girl's fiery temper. + +Then Zoraida and Rios returned. Before a word was spoken Kendric knew +that he was to be treated to some more play-acting. Zoraida had +elected to look frightened and uncertain; the glance she cast toward +her cousin spoke of terror as well as loathing. Rios glared and looked +important. Swiftly Zoraida crossed the room, her bejeweled fingers +finding Bruce West's arm. + +"My friend," she whispered so that they could all hear. "I don't know +which way to turn. A man has killed himself--the Captain Escobar. Or +so Ruiz Rios says. And I----" She broke off, shuddering. And then, +bewildering Jim Kendric if no one else, two big tears gathered in her +eyes and spilled down to her cheeks! + +"Senores Kendric and West," announced Rios autocratically, "you will +take all orders from me now. You will not leave the house, either of +you, unless I give the word. Senorita Zoraida, you will go to your +room and wait until I send for you. Senorita Pansy," and suddenly his +teeth showed in his quick smile, "a word with you please in the +_patio_?" + +"My cousin," said Zoraida, all soft supplication now, her two hands +held out toward Rios, "it is only a little thing I beg of you. May I +have a few words with Senor West?" + +"Go to your room," answered Rios shortly. "Senor West remains with us. +You may see him later." + +Zoraida looked lingeringly at Bruce, shook her head sorrowfully as he +appeared to be gathering himself to spring at the man who terrorized +her, murmured gently, "Wait--for my sake, senor!" and went out of the +room. Out of the corners of her oblique eyes, when her back was to +Bruce, she mocked Jim Kendric. + +Rios held the door open for Betty. + +"Will you come to the _patio_ with me, senorita?" he asked. + +"No!" cried Betty. "You terrible man. No." + +Rios, though not the actor Zoraida was, managed to appear startled that +she should speak so. Then, as he looked from her to Jim and Bruce, he +smiled as though in comprehension. + +"There is no need to pretend further, Senorita Pansy," he said. "They +know." + +"There is a great deal we know, Ruiz Rios," broke out Bruce. "You hold +the upper hand just now but there's a new deal coming!" + +"Will you come, Senorita Pansy?" Rios grew truculent. "Or shall I call +for a dozen men to escort you?" + +"Rios," snapped Kendric, "I'm getting damned tired of this foolishness. +Betty Gordon is a friend of mine and I'm going to see her through. She +goes nowhere she does not want to. If you want to take me on, I'm +ready for you. Ready and waiting!" + +"No," said Betty again. "Mr. Kendric, I will go with him as far as the +_patio_." She took a step forward, then whipped back at a sudden +thought. "He is lying out there--dead!" she whispered. + +"The unfortunate Captain Escobar," Rios told her equably, "has been +removed to another part of the house. And, if you like, we will speak +together in the dining-room." + +Betty came to Jim Kendric then. She looked up into his eyes and said +gently: + +"I do trust you. You are the only one I trust. I can look to no one +else. If I want you I will call. And you will come to me, won't you?" + +"Come to you? Why, bless your heart, I'd come running!" + +So Betty and Rios went out and for a little while Jim and Bruce were +left alone. + +"Bruce, old man," said Kendric, "let's come down to earth. Put your +sentimental heart in your pocket and use your brains a while. You know +me well enough to know that I won't lie to you. Will you listen to me?" + +"Yes. But tell me only what you know, not what you surmise. What do +you _know_ against Zoraida Castelmar?" + +"I know she is an adventuress, playing for big stakes, stakes so big +that in the end they are bound to crush her." + +"Speculation, old chap." Bruce smiled faintly. "Keep away from doping +out the future and stick to facts." + +"So you want facts? All right: She is planning a revolution; she has +the mad idea that she can rip Lower California away from the government +and make of it a separate empire, herself its queen!" + +"Why not? Wilder things have been done. And where would you find a +more likely queen?" + +"When I first saw her she came, disguised as a man, into Ortega's +gaming hell, Rios with her. She played dice with me for twenty +thousand dollars." + +Bruce's eye brightened. + +"She's wonderful!" he said eagerly. + +"She's hand and fist with Rios and Escobar and a lot of other riff-raff +I don't know. She is instrumental in Betty Gordon's being held for +ransom----" + +"How do you _know_? Or are you just guessing again? Betty Gordon! +How do you _know_ she isn't what I called her, the infamous dancing +woman with an evil record a mile long?" + +"Haven't I talked with her?" Kendric grew impatient. "Haven't I seen +her terror? Haven't I looked into her eyes?" + +"Haven't I talked with Zoraida?" countered Bruce. "Haven't I heard her +explanations? Haven't I seen her terror of Rios? Haven't I looked +into her eyes?" + +"You were burned out tonight. Have you forgotten that? Your herds +were raided. Even old Twisty Barlow, once a square man, followed +Zoraida Castelmar into that! And Zoraida, herself, was one of the +raiders!" + +"How do you _know_?" demanded Bruce. And always he laid significant +stress on the word of certainty. + +"I saw the horse she rode. I heard the whistle which she wears on a +chain about her throat. I even saw the white plume in her hat." + +"Is there only one white horse in Mexico? And only one whistle? And +only one white plume? These things, if it had been Zoraida, she would +have left behind. In the dark you guessed. I am afraid you have +guessed all along the line." + +"Then tell me how the devil it came about that Zoraida showed up at +your place? A pretty tall coincidence." + +"Nothing of the kind. The whole thing was engineered by Rios. She +overheard a little, guessed it all. Dangerous though the effort was, +she tried to be in time to warn me. She came just too late." + +Kendric stared at his friend incredulously. First Barlow, then young +Bruce West drawn from his side and to Zoraida's. She required men, men +of his stamp. And she seemed to have the way of drawing them to her. +He felt utterly baffled; he could at the moment think of no argument +which Bruce's infatuation would not thrust aside. Where he would +depict a heartless, ambitious adventuress Bruce would see a glorified +and heroic superwoman. + +Rios came to the door. + +"Senor West," he said as they turned expectantly toward him, "Senorita +Zoraida implores so eloquently for word with you that I have consented. +If you will step this way she will come to you." + +Bruce required no second invitation. With Rios's words he forgot +Kendric's arguments and Kendric's very presence. He went out, his step +eager. Before Rios followed him Kendric called: + +"Where is Miss Gordon?" + +"Gone to her room, senor. If you will look at your watch you will note +that it is time." + +It was well after midnight and Kendric thought that for all the good he +could do, he, too, might as well go to bed. But he was too stubborn a +man to give up his friend so easily and he hoped that since Bruce was +not a fool he would come in time to see the real Zoraida under the mask +she had donned for his benefit. So he waited, walking up and down. + +Zoraida entered so quietly that she was in the room and the door shut +after her before he felt her presence. + +"Bruce has gone out that way, looking for you," he said. + +"I can see him presently," she answered lightly. "I think he will +wait, don't you?" + +"I fancy he will," he returned bitterly. "What do you want with the +boy, Zoraida? What has he done to you that you should ruin him, first +financially and then every other way? Aren't you afraid of what you +are building up for yourself? Men like Barlow and Bruce West may let +you sing their souls to sleep for a little; look out when they wake up!" + +She laughed softly. + +"I think that all along you have doubted my power," she said, her eyes +steady on his. "Are you beginning to see that Zoraida Castelmar is a +girl to reckon with? You have said that the great things I attempt are +beyond me; have I failed in anything I have tried?" + +"To infatuate a man is not the same thing as to build a state!" + +"And yet infatuated men make obedient lieutenants." + +They grew silent. In each there was much which was of its nature +incomprehensible to the other and which, of necessity, must remain so. +Slowly there came a different look upon the girl's face. Her eyes +softened and were more wistful that he had ever thought they could be. +Her breast rose and fell in a profound sigh. All of the triumph and +mockery went out of her. + +"Why are you so unlike other men?" she asked. And her voice, too, had +softened and grown tender. + +"What do you mean by that?" he asked. + +"Escobar hated me but he would have followed me through fire had I +beckoned. You have seen the look in your friend Barlow's eyes when he +turns to me, and this after only a few days, a few smiles! You +glimpsed just now the love that has sprung up in Bruce West's heart +like a flower full blown. There have been many, many men, my friend, +who have looked upon Zoraida Castelmar as they look. Until you came +there has been no man who turned his head away." Again she sighed +unhiddenly. Her eyes melted into his, yearning, promising, beseeching. +"And to you I have offered what would have made any other man mad with +joy." + +He looked into her eyes and it seemed impossible that they could speak +shameless lies. For the moment at least she had the appearance of a +young girl without sophistication, without the skill to hide her +thoughts. Her eyes seemed unusually large, wide open frankly, as +innocent as spring violets. Was she always like this--was this the +real, true Zoraida-- He felt her influence upon him, pervading his +senses like heavy perfume, and spoke hurriedly. + +"You and I are different sorts of people," he answered. "Our ideas as +well as our ideals are of different orders." + +"And what if I altered?" whispered Zoraida, coming closer to him. +"What it I discarded all of my ideas and ideals. Yes, and my ambitions +with them! What then, Senor Jim Kendric?" + +He shook his head and moved restlessly. + +"I am no woman's man, you know that. And if I were, you know also that +you are not my kind of woman." + +And still no passionate outburst came from Zoraida denied! Rather she +grew more deeply meditative. Almost she seemed saddened and weary. + +"Your kind of woman," she mused. And then, in pure jest, "Like +Escobar's captive?" + +For some obscure reason after which he did not grope the half sneer of +the words stung Kendric into a sharp retort. + +"By heaven, yes!" he cried. "There's the sort of girl for any man to +put his trust in, to give the best that is in him!" + +Zoraida gasped. Utter amazement filled her eyes. Then came +incredulity: she would not believe. But when she saw the seriousness +of his eyes, her passion burst out upon him. Her two hands rose and +clenched themselves on her panting breast, her eyes lost their shadow +of amazement and grew brilliant with anger. + +"That little baby-faced doll!" she cried. "She has dared make eyes at +you. And you, blind fool that you are, have turned from _me_ to +_her_!" Her voice shook, her whole body trembled visibly, then +stiffened. In a flash all girlish softness was gone; she looked as +cold and cruel as steel. "I had thought to let her go when the ransom +came. Now I shall have other plans for her." + +Kendric stared. + +"In the first place," he said with an assumption of carelessness, "you +have overshot the mark: Betty Gordon hasn't made eyes at me at all and +I'm not in love with her and have no intentions of being. Next, I fail +to see what has happened that would alter your plans in her regard?" + +Zoraida laughed her disbelief. + +"Any girl in her place would make eyes at you," she retorted. "And as +for my plans, perhaps you may be allowed to watch the working out of +them! Would you enjoy," she taunted him, "the sight of Betty Gordon in +a steel cage into which we allowed to enter a certain pet of mine?" + +At first he did not understand. Then he stared at her speechlessly. +Words of Juanita, spoken fearfully that morning, recurred to him: "She +would give me to her cat, her terrible, terrible cat, to play with!" +He opened his mouth to lift his voice in hot protest; then he bit back +the words, savagely calling himself a fool for the mad thought. Even +to Zoraida's lawlessness there must be a limit; even the cold cruelty +looking out of her oblique eyes now could not carry her so far. And +yet the laugh with which he answered her was a trifle shaky. + +"We are talking nonsense," he said abruptly. "And Bruce is expecting +you. When you finish distorting facts for his consumption I'd like a +word with him." + +Zoraida's face went white. + +"It is in my heart," she said in a dry whisper, "to give orders that +you will never see another sun rise!" + +"Give your orders then," he snapped. "I'm sick of things as they are. +Send in a gang of your cutthroats and I'll give you my word I'd rather +fight my way through them than stand by and watch you poison honest +men's souls." + +She stepped across the room and put out her hand as though to the bell +on the table. Kendric watched her sternly. She stopped and looked at +him wonderingly. Suddenly she dropped her hand to her side and with +the gesture came a swift alteration in her expression. A strange smile +molded her lips, an inscrutable look dawned in the dark eyes. + +"I knew already that you were a brave man, Jim Kendric," she said. "I +was forgetting, losing all clear thought because a man had dismissed me +from his presence? Well, of that, more another time. But brave men I +need, brave men I must have in that which comes soon. If there is not +one way, then there will be another to draw you to my side." + +She was going out but stopped as they heard horses in the yard. She +stood still, waiting. Presently there came an unsteady step at the +front door. A hand fumbled, the door opened and Twisty Barlow entered. +His arm was in a sling, a bandage bound his forehead, his eyes shone +feverishly. He stopped on the threshold and stared at them. Kendric +spoke quickly. + +"Twisty," he said, "do you know who shot you?" + +Barlow merely shook his head. + +"I did. I was at Bruce's. I did not know you but----" + +"But you'd have shot just the same, anyway?" grunted Barlow. + +"You got yourself into damned bad company, Barlow. But that's your +affair. Just tell me one thing: Was it not at Zoraida Castelmar's +orders that you went?" + +Barlow's look shifted for an instant to Zoraida's half smiling face. +But his hesitation was brief. + +"No," he said shortly. + +An hour later Kendric gave up waiting for Bruce and went off to his +bedroom. On his table were two letters in their envelopes. They were +the letters he and Bruce had written, telling of Betty Gordon's +captivity. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +IN WHICH AN OVERTURE IS MADE, AN ANSWER IS + POSTPONED AND A DOOR IS LOCKED + +In his bedroom Jim Kendric sat for a long time pondering that night. +What had appeared to him the simplest, most straight-away errand in the +world had brought him down here, just the time-honored search for +treasure. In all particulars the adventure had seemed the usual one, +two men undertaking to share whatever lay ahead, expense, danger or +loot. And through no fault of his own Kendric saw simplicity altered +into complexity. There were Barlow's changed attitude, the desires and +ambitions of Zoraida, the absurdity of Bruce West's infatuation, the +interference of Ruiz Rios and finally the situation in which Betty +Gordon found herself. + +"I came down this way to get my hands on buried treasure, if it +exists," Kendric at last told himself irritably; "not to work out the +salvations of half the souls in Mexico! If the issue becomes complex +it is because I am getting turned away from the main thing. What +Barlow and Bruce do is up to them; Barlow, for one, ought to know +better, and Bruce has got to cut his eye-teeth sooner or later. It's +up to me to be on my way." + +Which did not entirely dispose of all matters, since it ignored Zoraida +and made no place for Betty. The latter, however, he did not bar from +his thoughts or even from his plannings: If she said the word and would +take the chance with him, he'd find the way to get her safely out of +this house of intrigue. He was constitutionally optimistic enough to +decide that. Among the bushes out in the garden a rifle was hidden; +slung under his left arm pit was a dependable friend; and in his heart +he was spoiling for a row. + +Such was his mood, an hour after he had gone to his room, when a rap +discreetly announced a soft-footed somebody at his door. He rose +eagerly, thinking it would be Bruce or perhaps Barlow. But when he +opened the door it was Ruiz Rios who slipped noiselessly into the room, +swiftly closing and locking the door after him. + +"Not in bed yet, my friend?" smiled Rios. "It is well. I have +something to say to you." + +Kendric went back to his chair from which he eyed Rios narrowly. The +Mexican's look was full of craft. + +"Let's have it, Rios. What now?" + +"What I said to you earlier in the evening came from the heart," said +Rios. "That without my help you cannot leave; that you may have that +help. For a price." + +His utterance was incisive; his voice, eager and quick, filled the +room. Evidently he had no fear of eavesdroppers. Kendric stared at +him curiously. + +"For a double-dealing gentleman you have considerable assurance," he +grunted. "You don't seem to care who hears." + +Rios waved an impatient hand. + +"I know what I am about," he retorted. "La Senorita Zoraida is in her +own rooms where she entertains one of your friends while the other +cools his heels in her anteroom. I have assurance, yes; because just +now I am the man of the hour! Your destiny and that of your +compatriot, Miss Betty, as well as the destinies of your two friends +and perchance of yet others, lies in my hand." + +"You talk big when Zoraida's eyes are not on you," said Kendric. + +Rios stared insolently, then shrugged and made for himself a tiny white +paper _cigarita_. + +"I talk big because I can, as you say north of the border, 'deliver the +goods.' Do you wish to go free?" + +"Since you ask it," said Kendric drily, "yes. I've got no stomach for +your crowd here." + +"And you would like to take with you the pretty little Betty?" Rios's +eyes were full of insinuation. Kendric felt an impulsive desire to +kick him but for the time kept his head and witheld his boot. + +"Speak on, Senor Man of the Hour," he jeered. "Somehow I'm not +particularly sleepy yet. If you've really got anything to say let's +have it." + +"It is this: The treasure you have come so far to find will never be +yours. Mine it may be; if not mine, then Zoraida's. On my honor it +will never go into your hands or those of Barlow." + +"Your honor," laughed Kendric, "fits well in your mouth, Ruiz Rios, but +rides light in the scales." + +"You mean you would want proof?" Rios was imperturbable. "It may be +given you in due time, but only when it is too late for you to make any +stock out of it. Now, for what you know, I offer you your own safety +and that of Miss Betty. Have I not marked how you look at her?" He +laughed in his turn. + +"If this is all you have to say," answered Kendric, "suppose you shut +the door from the outside?" + +For just now, while he had thought of other matters, he had pondered on +this one also. Even were he disposed to treat with Rios, the secret +was not his to give. Further, once Rios had the knowledge he sought, +he would no doubt fail to keep his word. And in any case there was +always the possibility of getting away without the Mexican's aid; and +if there was treasure, as Rios so plainly believed, it should be worth +many times the twenty-five thousand dollars which had been demanded of +Betty's father. On top of all this it was sheer nonsense to plan on +what Betty might have to say until her word was spoken. Hence Jim was +no little pleased to baffle Rios. + +"You are thinking of yourself," said Rios sharply. "Not of the girl. +Can you not imagine that it might be unpleasant for her, left here over +long?" + +Then Kendric sought to be as crafty as his visitor. + +"Am I responsible for all wandering damsels in distress?" he asked +coldly. + +"But Miss Betty----" + +"Exactly. What the devil is Miss Betty to me? I never saw her until a +few hours ago." + +"But," insisted Rios, "in some soils some flowers bloom quickly! Love +comes when it comes, in a year, in a day, in a moment." + +"Love!" Jim's surprise was not altogether feigned. Then he laughed +and remembered his craft. He was thinking that already Zoraida +suspected him of being too warmly interested; he did not know but that +Rios was here now on Zoraida's errand, making pretenses the while he +sought to ferret out real emotions. And so for Zoraida's sake should +the words be carried to her, he cried as though in high amusement: +"Love? What are you thinking of, man?" + +He saw that he had puzzled Rios. The Mexican had been convinced of his +keen interest in the girl and, further, knew from of old how lightly +Jim Kendric held such mere bagatelles as dollars. Kendric drew a +certain satisfaction from the situation. But his frank grin died away +slowly as Rios went on. + +"We are not friends, you and I, senor," he said smoothly. "But just +now that matters not, since my personal interests move me to do you a +kindness. Of what happens to you later on, I care less than that." He +snapped his fingers. "Perhaps you do not fully understand either your +own case or that of Miss Betty. You are to be held here indefinitely; +unless you decide to throw your lot in with La Senorita Zoraida's and +become her man, body and soul, there will come a time, suddenly, when +her patience will die and her wrath rise and you will die too. And for +Miss Betty--there remains always the puma." + +Rios spoke with every sign of sincerity. Kendric, with what he knew of +Zoraida to guide his thoughts to a conclusion, was more than half +convinced that the man was telling the truth. Rios himself was not +above murder; hardly now had the body of Escobar stiffened when he +seemed to have forgotten the rebel captain and the deed of violence. +And Zoraida was Rios's blood cousin. + +"You appear to be sure that there is treasure?" Kendric said. + +"Yes. There is no question." Again was Rios unusually frank. "I +could lie to you but there is no need. The treasure is beyond your +reach; it may fall to my hand. Yes, I am sure." + +"What do you know of it? What makes you so confident?" + +Rios smiled. + +"Again there is no need to lie to you. You have marked that my cousin +is a very rich woman? There is no richer in all Mexico. And why? +Because she has long been in possession of a portion of the hidden +wealth of the Montezumas. A _portion_, mark you? For there is some +sign which she has understood to tell her that there is still other +hidden treasure. Always, since she was a little girl, has she looked +for it, never content with what she has. And if I come first to +it--Think, senor!" His eyes brightened, a flush warmed his dusky skin, +he lifted his head arrogantly. "It will mean that I, even I, can +dictate in some things to Zoraida! It will mean that she must join +forces with me. It will mean that she and I together will go far, will +rise high. As she will be the one bright star in all Mexico, so will I +be the newly risen sun." + +"So," muttered Kendric, "you two are tarred with the same stick!" + +Now Rios's black eyes were deadly. + +"What you know means everything to me," he said, his voice at last sunk +to a harsh whisper. "I killed Escobar for less. Remember that, Senor +Americano!" + +Kendric ignored the threat. + +"What of my friend?" he demanded. "Even were I of a mind to talk +turkey with you, there is Barlow. Half is his." + +"Barlow is touched with madness. Have I not told you he will have none +of it? You have eyes, senor. Already my fair cousin has made of +Barlow a tame animal like her cat. When she commands, he will speak. +Think you he will remember in that dizzy moment that you have claims to +be safeguarded? All will go to Zoraida. What you are pleased to call +your share, along with his own." + +Jim hated to believe that. And yet he did believe. Tonight Barlow had +looked at him out of hard, unfriendly eyes; he, himself, had shot +Barlow out of a cattle raider's saddle.--Suddenly, startling Rios, +Kendric's fist came smashing down on his table. + +"Here I've just been deciding the whole game is simple enough," he +cried, "and along you come messing it all up again! Clear out. I'm +going to sleep." + +"And my answer?" + +"Talk to me tomorrow, if you've a mind to. Most likely I'll tell you +to go to blazes, but that can be said as well after breakfast as now." + +Rios accepted his dismissal equably. + +"For me there is gold at stake," he said, going out without protest. +"For you there is your life and Miss Betty's. I can afford to wait as +well as you. _Buenos noches, senor_." + +"Go to the devil," retorted Kendric, and banged the door shut after him. + + +Though he had not intimated his intention to his visitor, Kendric, +holding to his determination to simplify matters, had made up his mind +to have a talk with Barlow first of all. Since that could not come +until tomorrow, the thing now was to go to bed. He undressed and put +out his light. Then he flipped up his window shade. Only when he was +about to thrust his head out of the open window to inhale the fragrant +night air and have his little "look around," did he discover the bars +to any possible escape there; a heavy iron grill had been fastened +across the opening. Just how it was secured he could not tell since it +had been set in place from outside and though he thrust his hand +through the bars he could not reach far enough to locate the staples or +hooks which held it in place. He shook it tentatively; it was amply +solid. + +But the door was open from his room to the bath. He groped his way +across the smaller room and found the knob of the door which led to the +room Barlow had occupied last night. That door was locked. As he +fumbled with it he heard someone stir in Barlow's room. + +"Who's there?" he called out. "That you, Twisty?" + +There was no answer. He rapped on the door and called again. Then he +heard quick steps across the room and a door closed; whoever had been +there, listening without doubt to his talk with Rios, had gone. + +He came back and passing through his own little sitting-room tried the +door to the hall, that through which Rios had departed. Fastened by +heavy iron hooks on the other side; he could hear them grate in their +staples as he shook the door. + +"A man had better be in bed this time of night than rapping at locked +doors," he decided. And in five minutes was asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +CONCERNING WOMAN'S WILES AND WITCHERY + +When Jim woke next morning his first act was to try doors and window. +All were as he had left them last night. But since he was not the man +for worry before breakfast he went into his tub singing. When he had +splashed refreshingly in the cool water and thereafter had dressed, +breakfast was ready for him. For, while he was in his own room he +heard the door to the room Barlow had slept in the first night open. +And when he went through the bath to see who was there he saw a tray +spread on a little table by a window, the coffee steaming. No one was +there. He tried the outer door which led to the hall. Locked, of +course. So he sat down and uncovered the hot dishes and made a hearty +meal. + +"They've certainly got the big bulge on the situation," he conceded. +"They could starve a man, poison his rolls or bore a bullet into him +while he slept, and who outside to know about it?" + +Now he had the run of four rooms and could look out into the gardens. +Not so bad, he consoled himself. He had his smoke and sat back in his +chair, assuring himself that there were advantages in being shut off by +himself where he could take time to shape his plans. But as an hour +passed in silence--not a sound from any part of the big house all of +whose inmates might have been asleep or dead--and another hour dragged +by after it, he grew first impatient and then angry. He had found that +all of his planning could be done in five minutes: It resolved itself +down to a decision to have a talk with Barlow and then, with or without +help from Ruiz Rios, to make a bolt for the open. If Bruce and Barlow +would come to their senses and join him, it would all be so simple. +Three able-bodied, determined Americans against a handful of Zoraida's +hirelings. + +The time came when Jim thundered at the doors and called. When only +silence followed his echoing voice he hammered at the hardwood doors +with the butt of his revolver and shouted, demanding to be a let out. +He tried the iron gratings over the windows and found them firm in +their places and too heavy-barred to be bent. In the end he gave over +in high disgust and waited. + +Toward noon, while he was in his own room, pacing restlessly up and +down, he heard a door slam. He ran to the bathroom and found that the +door leading to Barlow's former quarters was closed and locked. +Someone was moving about just beyond the thick panel. He heard the +homely sound of dishes on a tray and waited, his hand on the doorknob, +meaning to push his way forward once the door was opened. But he heard +no other sound, though he waited minute after minute until perhaps half +an hour had dragged by. Then he sat on the edge of the tub, grown +stubborn, determined not to budge. And so another half hour passed. + +An hour was a long time for Jim Kendric to sit or stand still and at +the end of it he began pacing up and down again; at first just in the +narrow confines of the bath, presently soft-footedly upon the soft +carpet of his room. And no sooner had he stepped a dozen paces from +the bathroom door than he heard a bolt shot back. He raced to the door +that had so long baffled him and threw it open. As he did so he heard +the outer hall door slam shut. When he laid hasty hands on it it was +barred again. + +"Well, there's food, anyway," he muttered. And sat down. + +Half way through his meal a thought struck him which gave little zest +to the rest of his food. He had walked silently when he left his post; +no one waiting in the room where the tray was could have heard him, he +felt sure. Then how did that person know the instant he stepped away? +He could not have been spied on through the keyhole of the door since +no keyhole was there; the fastening on the other side was simply that +of primitive bar. But that he had been spied on he was confident. +Well, why not? The house was old and no doubt had known no end of +intrigue in its time. The walls were thick enough for passageways +within them; an eye might be upon him all the time. He did not relish +the thought but refused to grow fanciful over it. + +The afternoon he spent stoically accepting his condition. As he put it +to himself, the other fellow had the large, lovely bulge on the +situation. For the most part of the sultry afternoon he sat in +shirt-sleeved discomfort at his open window, staring out into the empty +gardens and wondering what the other dwellers of the old adobe house +were doing. Where were Bruce and Barlow and what lies was Zoraida +telling them? And where was Betty? He did not realize that his +wandering thoughts came back to Betty more often than to either of his +friends whom he had known so many years. But realization was forced +upon him that, despite all he had told both Zoraida and Ruiz Rios, he +did feel a very sincere interest in her. When repeatedly vague fears +on Betty's account disturbed him he told himself not to be a fool and +sought to dismiss them for good. What though Zoraida had indulged in +wild talk? At least she was a woman and though she held Betty for +ransom would be woman enough to hold her in safety. And yet his fears +surged back, stronger each time, and he would have given a good deal to +know just where and how Betty was spending the long hours of this +interminable day. + + +Finally came dusk, time of the first stars in the sky and lighted lamps +in men's houses. And, bringing him infinite relief, a tap at his door +and the gentle voice of Rosita saying: + +"La Senorita invites Senor Kendric, if he has rested sufficiently, to +join her and her other guests at table." + +He followed the little maid to the great dim dining-room. +Purple-shaded lamps created an atmosphere which impressed him as a +little weird; the long table was set forth elaborately with much rich +silver and sparkling glass; several men servants stood ready to place +chairs and serve; there were rare white flowers in tall vases, looking +a bluish-white under the lamps. As Kendric came to the threshold wide +double doors across the room opened and Zoraida's other "guests" +entered. They were Bruce, stiff and uncomfortable, seeming to be doing +his best to unbend toward Betty; Betty herself, flushed and excited; +Barlow, morose because of the arm he wore in a sling or because of a +day not passed to his liking; and Ruiz Rios, suave and immaculate in +white flannels. + +When they were all in the room a constraint like a tangible inhibition +against any natural spontaneity fell over them. Kendric read in +Barlow's look no joy at the sight of him but only a sullen brooding; +Betty flashed one look at him in which was nothing of last night's +friendliness but an aloofness which might have been compounded of scorn +and distrust; Bruce appeared not to notice him. + +"Oh, well," was Kendric's inward comment. "The devil take the lot of +them." + +Zoraida did not keep them waiting. One of the servants, as though he +had had some signal, threw open still another door and Zoraida, a +splendid, vivid and vital Zoraida, burst upon their sight. She was +gowned as though she had on the instant stepped from a fashionable +Paris salon. And as though, on her swift way hither, she had stopped +only an instant in some barbaric king's treasure house to snatch up and +bedeck herself with his most resplendent jewels. Her arms were bare +save for scintillating stones set in broad gold bands; long pendants, +that seemed to live and breathe with their throbbing rubies, trembled +from the tiny lobes of her shell-pink ears. Her throat was bare, her +gown so daringly low cut at breast and back that Betty stared and +flushed and turned away from the sight of her. + +At her best was Zoraida tonight. Life stood high in her blood; zest +shone like a bright fire in her eyes. A moment she poised, looking the +queen which she meant to become, which already in her heart she felt +herself. The inclination of her head as she greeted them, the +graciousness which the moment drew from her, were regal. + +Even the heavy arm-chair at the head of the table had the look of a +throne. Two men drew it back for her, moved it into place when she was +seated. Then she looked to her guests, smiled and nodded and in +silence each accepted the place given him. Thus Jim Kendric sat at the +other end of the table in a chair like Zoraida's. At his right was +Betty who, since she averted her face from both him and Zoraida, kept +her eyes on her plate. At his left was Ruiz Rios. To right and left +of Zoraida sat Bruce and Barlow. + +"I am afraid," said Zoraida lightly, embracing them all with her quick +smile, "that I have seemed to lack in courtesy to my friends today! +But here, _amigos_, when you come to know our land of the sun, you will +understand that the long hot days are for rest and solitude in shady +places while it is during the nights that one lives." A goblet of wine +as yellow as butter stood at her hand having just been poured from an +ancient misshapen earthen bottle. She lifted it and held it while the +other glasses were filled. "I drink with you, my friends, to many +golden nights!" + +She scarcely more than touched the yellow wine with her lips and looked +to the others. Barlow, still surly, tossed off his drink at a gulp. +Bruce drank slowly, a little, and set his glass down. Betty did not +lift her eyes and kept her hands in her lap. Ruiz tasted eagerly and +his eyes sparkled and widened. Kendric mechanically set his glass to +his lips, drank sparingly and marveled. For never had he tasted +vintage like this. Its fragrance in his nostrils rose with strange +pleasant sensation to his brain; a drop on his palate seemed to pass +directly into his blood and electrically thrill throughout his whole +body. The draft was like a magic brew; potent and seductive it soothed +and at the same time set a delicious unrest in the blood, like that +vaguely stirring unrest of youth in springtime. + +Barlow, the sullen, alone had drunk deeply. And in a flash Barlow was +another man. A warm color crept into his weathered cheeks, he drew +himself up in his chair, his eyes shone. Zoraida, looking from face to +face, laughed softly. + +"What say you, my guests, to Zoraida's wine?" she said happily. "Made +for Zoraida a full four hundred years ago, treasured for her in the +vaults of the ancient Montezumas, distilled from the olden moonberry +which no longer do men know where to find or how to grow! None but the +Montezumas themselves and the priests of the great god Quetzel ever +drank of it, and they only on great feast days of rejoicing. A taste, +Miss Pansy Blossom, would bring back the roses to your pale cheeks. +And see my friend Barlow!" Lightly, laughing, she laid her hand for a +fleeting instant on his arm. "Already has the moonberry made his heart +swell and blossom and filled it with dream stuff like honey!" + +Something--the golden liquor in his veins or Zoraida's touch or the +look in her eyes--emboldened the sea-faring man. He clamped his big +hairy hand down over her slim fingers and cried out, half starting from +his chair: + +"It's in my mind, Zoraida, that the old Montezumas left more than +bottled moonshine after them. To be taken by them that have the hearts +for the job. Maybe for you--Yes, and for me!" + +Zoraida drew her hand away but the laughter did not die in her eyes or +pass away from her scarlet lips. Barlow, holding himself stiff, shot a +look that was open challenge at Kendric who returned it wonderingly. +Rios touched up the ends of his black mustachios and appeared highly +good humored. + +"Who knows?" said Zoraida softly, with a sidelong look at Kendric. "At +least, spoken like a man, friend Barlow!" + +Her mood was one of intense exhilaration. The movements of her supple +body in her ample chair were quick and graceful and sinuous, like a +slender snake's; she seemed a-thrill and glowing; it was as though for +the moment life was for her as a great dynamo to which she had drawn +close so that it sent its mighty pristine and vigorous current dancing +through her. She lifted her glass and sipped while she still smiled; +she saw Barlow's empty goblet and impulsively emptied into it half of +her own. Though her back for the time was upon Bruce she seemed to +feel his quick jealous frown, for she turned swiftly from Barlow, and +her fingers fluttered to Bruce's shoulder. Kendric saw her eyes as she +gave them to Bruce in a look that was like a kiss. The boy flushed and +when she made further amends by holding to his lips her own glass, he +touched it almost reverently. + +Kendric, sickening with disgust at what he chose to consider a +competition in assininity between his two old friends, turned from them +to Betty with some trivial remark. As he spoke he was contrasting her +with the splendid Zoraida and had he voiced the comparison Zoraida must +have whitened with anger and mortification while Betty flushed up, +startled. He would have said; "One is like a poison serpent and the +other like a flower." But instead of that he merely said: + +"And how have you spent the long day, Miss Betty?" + +Betty raised her head and looked at him steadily. A flower? Quickly, +even before she spoke, he amended that. A girl, rather; a girl with a +mind of her own and a sorching [Transcriber's note: scorching?] hot +temper and her utterly human moments of unreasonableness. Her glance +meant to cut and did cut. Her voice was serene, cool and contemptuous. + +"I do not require to be amused, thank you," she said. + +"Amused?" demanded Kendric, puzzled equally by words and expression. + +"I am here against my will," she explained. "You are among your chosen +friends. To entertain me you need not deny yourself the pleasure of +their delightful conversation." + +"You know better than that," he said sharply. "If you don't care to +talk with me----" + +"I don't," said Betty. + +Kendric reddened angrily. He opened his lips for the retort he meant +to make; then instead gulped down his wine and sat back glowering. +After having been fool enough to worry over her all day long to be told +to hold his tongue now set him to forming sweeping and denunciatory +generalizations concerning her entire sex. Well, he wanted matters +simplified and here came the desired solution. Betty could forage for +herself, could go to the devil if she liked, he told himself bluntly. +Before the night passed he meant to make a break for the open and, +thank God, he'd go alone. As a man should, with no woman around his +neck. Because a girl had hurt him he chose now to pretend to himself +that he was glad to be rid of her. + +After that, during the meal, both Jim and Betty sat for the most part +silent and Rios, nursing his mustache and watching all that went +forward, had little to say. On the other hand Zoraida and Bruce and +Barlow made the dinner hour lively with their talk. Skilled in her +management of men, Zoraida had never shown greater genius for holding +two red blooded, ardent men in leash. She threw favors to each side of +her; a tumbled rose from her hair was loot for the sailorman who at the +moment was of a mood to forget other greater and more golden loot for +the scented, wilting petals; a bracelet coming undone was for Bruce's +eager fingers to fasten. And always when she looked at one man with a +kiss in her oblique eyes her head was turned so that the other man +might not see. Kendric she ignored. + +"The same old story of good men gone wrong," philosophized Kendric. +"Let a man get a woman in his head and he's no earthly good." And, in +his turn, he ignored Betty. Or at least assured himself that he did +so. But Betty, being Betty, though for the most part her eyes seemed +downcast, knew that the man at her side thought of little but her own +exasperating self. She did a good bit of speculating upon Jim Kendric; +she was perplexed and uncertain; when he was not observing she shot +many a curious sidelong look at him. + +"Miss Zoraida is about due to overreach herself," thought Kendric. +"She can't drive Barlow and Bruce tandem." + +But Zoraida appeared to feel no uneasiness. As the meal went on and +meats and fruits were served and other vintages poured and coffee set +bubbling over a tiny alcohol flame on the table, her spirits rose and +she dared anything. She was sure of herself and of her destiny and of +her dominance over the pleasureable situation. Bruce's eyes and +Barlow's clashed like knives, but when they met hers softened and +worshiped. + +At the end of the meal, when they rose, Zoraida cried: "Wait!" At her +signal her servants swiftly lifted the table and carried it out through +the double doors. Another smaller table was brought in; a man came to +Zoraida with a small steel box. She took it laughing, and laughing +spilled its contents out upon the table so that gold pieces rolled +jingling across the polished top and some fell to the floor. With her +own hands she carelessly divided the gold into four nearly equal piles. + +"For my guests!" she told them lightly. She took from the servant's +hands a deck of cards and tossed it down among the minted gold. "I +would watch such men as you four play for the whole stake. And," she +added more slowly, her burning look embracing them all but lingering +upon Jim Kendric, "I have a curiosity to know who of you in my house is +the most favored of the gods!" + +"There's a goodly pile there, Senorita," said Barlow who could never +look upon gold without hungering. "You mean it all goes to the man who +wins? And you don't play?" + +"All that," she answered him steadily, "goes to the man who wins. With +perhaps much more? Who knows?" + +Bruce stepped eagerly to the table where already Barlow was before him +with a heap of the gold drawn up to his hand. Ruiz Rios took his place +indifferently, affecting a look of ennui. Kendric held back. Betty, +aloof from them all, looked about her as though to escape. But at each +door, as though forbidding exit, stood one of Zoraida's men. + +"You yourself do not play?" Barlow asked of Zoraida. + +"This time, my friend," she replied, "I am content to watch." + +Content rather, thought Kendric, to amuse herself by stirring up more +bad blood among friends. For the look he saw on her face was one of +pure malicious mischief. It occurred to him that she had sorrowed not +at all over the taking off of Escobar at Rios's hand; he had the +suspicion that in her cleverness she discerned looming trouble as a +result of encouraging the infatuations of two men like Bruce and +Barlow, and that before she would let herself be destroyed by an +inevitable jealous rage she meant to set them at each other's throats. +Such an act he deemed entirely germane to Zoraida's dark methods. + +"Senor Jim does not care to play?" she asked quietly. + +Had not Betty chosen to look at him then Kendric's answer would have +been a blunt, "No." But Betty did look, and the glance was as eloquent +as a gush of stinging words. Without a clue to the girl's thoughts, he +merely set her down as the most illogical, impertinent and irritating +creature it had ever been his bad lot to encounter. For her eyes told +him that he was an animal of some sort of a crawling species which she +abhorred. This after he had put in long troubled hours seeking the way +to be of service to her! + +"Bah," he said in his heart, staring coldly at her until she averted +her eyes, "they're all the same." And to Zoraida, "I'll play but I +play with my own money." + +Zoraida only laughed. His open rudeness seemed unmarked. + +"Barlow," said Kendric, "I want a word with you first." + +Barlow did not turn or lift his eyes. + +"Talk fast then," he retorted. "The game's waiting." + +"In private, if you don't mind," urged Kendric. + +Now Barlow looked at him sullenly. + +"After what happened last night, Kendric," he said heavily, "you and me +have got no private business together. Am I the man to take a bullet +from another and then go chin with him?" + +"You blame me for that?" Kendric was incredulous. Barlow snorted. +"Well," continued Kendric stiffly, "at least we've unfinished business +between us. You haven't forgotten what brought us down here, have you?" + +"Treasure, you mean?" Barlow spat out the words defiantly. "Put the +name to it, man! Well, what of it?" + +"The understanding was that we stand together. That we split what we +find fifty-fifty. Does that still go?" + +Barlow pulled nervously at his forelock, his eyes wandering. For an +instant they were fixed on the smiling face of Zoraida. Then grown +dogged they came back to Kendric. + +"Hell take the understanding!" he blurted out savagely. "We stand even +tonight, one as close to the loot as the other. It's every man for +himself, whole hog or none, and the devil take the hindmost. That's +what it is!" + +"Good," snapped Kendric. "That suits me." He slammed his little pad +of bank notes down on the table and took his chair. "What's the game, +gentlemen?" + +They named it poker and played hard. Reckless men with money were they +all, men accustomed to big fast games. The most reckless of them, Jim +Kendric, was in a mood for anything provided it raced. Betty's +attitude, Betty's look, had stirred him after a strange new fashion +which he did not analyze. Barlow's unreasonable unfriendliness hurt +and angered; the jeer in Rios's hard black eyes ruffled his blood. And +even young Bruce looked at him with a defiance which Kendric had no +stomach for. From the first card played, Jim Kendric, like a pace +maker in a race, stamped his spirit upon the struggle. + +Betty, seeing that she was not to be allowed to go sat down and for a +space made a pretense of ignoring what went forward before her. But +presently as the atmosphere grew strained and intense, she forgot her +pretense and leaned forward and watched eagerly. Zoraida had a couch +drawn up for her, richly colored silken cushions placed to her taste, +and stretched out luxuriously, her chin in her two hands. + +There are isolated games wherein chance enters which make one wonder +what is this thing named chance, and from which one rises at last +touched by the superstition which holds so firm a place in the hearts +of all gamblers. From the beginning it was Jim Kendric's game. When a +jack-pot was opened he went into it with an ace high, though it cost +him a hundred dollars to call for cards, which was not playing poker +but defying mathematics and challenging his luck. And the four cards +given him by Bruce, whose blue eyes named him fool, were two more aces +and two queens. And the pot that was close to ten hundred dollars +before the sweetening was done, was his. Barlow, who had lost most, +glared at him and muttered under his breath; young Bruce merely stared +incredulously and looked again at the cards to make sure; Rios, who had +kept clear, smiled and murmured: + +"Lucky at cards, unlucky in love, senor." + +"I prefer the cards, thanks," said Kendric, stacking his winnings. And +there was enough of the boy left in him for him to look briefly for the +first time at Betty. Zoraida saw and bit her lip. + +But though it was borne in upon those who played and those who watched +that it was Jim Kendric's game there were the inevitable tense moments +when each man in turn had his own eager hope. Bruce, no cool hand at +gambling, showed his excitement in his shining blue eyes; Barlow +muttered to himself; Rios sat forward in his chair and left off +pointing the tips of his mustaches. At the end of the first half hour, +though Kendric's heap of winnings was by far the greatest, no man of +them was down to bed rock. + +And by now Kendric lost patience. + +"Make it a jack pot for table stakes," he invited. "One hand for the +whole thing!" + +"What's the hurry?" demanded Bruce. "You're doing well enough as it +is, aren't you?" + +"A quick killing is better than slow torture," returned Jim lightly. +"And you'll note that I am offering odds. Better than two to one +against the flushest of you." + +"_Bueno, senor_," said Rios. "It suits me." + +"It's a fool thing to do," growled Barlow. A fool thing for Kendric, +but not for him, since his were the biggest losses. He had always +loved money, had Twisty Barlow, and could never understand Headlong +Kendric's contempt for it and now looked at him as though at one gone +mad. Then he shrugged. "Suits me," he said. + +"Wait!" Zoraida suddenly leaped to her feet, tossed out her arms in a +wide gesture, her eyes unfathomable and shining with the mystery of a +hidden thought. "I am glad to have in my house men like you four! You +are _men_! Were it life or death, love or war or wealth, you would +play the game the same. Men like you make the blood run hot in the +heart of Zoraida who also grips life by the naked throat. Wait. And +look." + +She whirled and in another moment, as lithe as a cat, had sprung to the +top of a serving table half across the room. And there she displayed +herself in all her barbaric splendor, posing like a model in an +artist's studio, turning slowly, standing at last confronting them, +a-thrill with her own daring. + +"Would you play for such a stake as never men played for before? For +such a stake as kings would risk their crowns for? As such Zoraida +offers herself, pledging her word to make the rich gift of herself to +the man who wins!" + +For a moment all four and Betty with them and the serving men at the +doors stared at her and the room was dead still. Through the deep +silence cut Zoraida's laugh, clear and sweet as a silver bell. Under +their bewildered gaze she preened herself like a peacock, proud of her +beauty so boldly displayed before their eyes. Zoraida smiled slowly. + +"Is the stake high enough for your play?" she asked gently, in mock +humility. + +Bruce surged up from his chair only to drop back into it without having +said a word. Rios's eyes caught fire and for the first time Kendric +guessed that he, too, was in heart bond-servant to his amazing cousin. +Barlow tugged at his forelock and muttered. + +"Heap all the gold together," cried Zoraida. "Play for it and each man +of you pray his favorite god for success. For with it goes Zoraida!" + +Betty, looking at her out of round eyes, seemed once more the little +girl Kendric had first taken her to be. + +"Will you play?" said Zoraida softly. + +"Yes! By God, yes!" cried Barlow. + +Rios merely nodded and shoved his money to the middle of the table. +Bruce started like a man from a dream and with hands that shook visibly +thrust forward his own gold. Then all looked to Kendric. + +Impulse decided for him and his answer came with no measurable time of +hesitation. If he played and lost, as he looked at it, there was +nothing to regret. If he played and won, perhaps it would have been +Zoraida's own all-hazarding hands which had shown the way to break the +chains that bound his two friends to her. It would need something like +this to bring both Bruce and Barlow to their senses. It was mostly of +Bruce that he thought just then. + +"One hand of cards?" said Barlow. + +"Rather one card, my friend," said Kendric drily. "We are keeping a +lady waiting." + +"Oh!" gasped Betty. + +A shining pyramid was made of the gold pieces. Then the cards were +shuffled and one of the serving men was called forward. He dealt one +card to each of the four men, face down, and stepped back. Then the +cards were turned over. + +All were high cards, not one lower than a ten, yet with no two alike. +The one ace--the ace of hearts--lay in front of Jim Kendric. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CONCERNING A DIFFICULT SITUATION, RECKLESSLY INVITED + +For a moment in the heavy silence Jim Kendric sat appalled by what he +had done. In the grip of the game he had been swayed by emotion, not +tarrying for cold logic during an episode when time raced. He had +hoped to win. Thus, since he had discovered that Rios, too, was +enamored of his beautiful cousin, he would tease an old enemy, sober +Bruce, jolt Barlow--and vex Betty. He had not thought of himself nor +of Zoraida. + +No one spoke. The first sound was a long shuddering breath from young +Bruce; his face was a sick white save for a spot of red in each cheek; +his eyes looked like those of a man with a high fever. Kendric sat +staring in perplexity at the gold he had won, automatically gathering +it toward him. Zoraida stood motionless, displaying herself, awaiting +his eyes. And abruptly, when he lifted his head, his eyes went not to +her but to Betty. + +The girl appeared fascinated and horrified. Jim's eyes pleaded with +her. Betty began to twist her hands in an agony of bewildered +emotions. Zoraida, waiting for Jim's face to be lifted to her and not +one accustomed to waiting on a man, frowned. But swiftly and before +anyone but the always watchful Rios saw, she broke the silence with her +little cooing laughter. She put out her two white arms toward the men +at the table, saying softly: + +"Will you help me down, Senor Jim?" + +Before Kendric could answer Bruce was on his feet. The blood charged +to his face so that the red spots were merged in the crimson flood. +The boy looked ready for murder. + +"Stop this, Zoraida!" he said excitedly. "Stop it! You are mad. Have +you forgotten?--Good God!" + +"Betty--" said Kendric, hardly knowing what he would say. He wanted +her to understand-- + +"Don't speak to me!" Betty flung the words at him passionately. "You +are an unthinkable beast!" + +Bruce heard nothing that was said, saw nothing but Zoraida. He came +two steps toward her and then stopped, staring at her. + +"Zoraida," he commanded, as one who speaks with love's authority, "you +don't realize what you are doing. It is that cursed wine you have +drunk or there is just desperation in the air and it has got into you. +This hideous jest has gone far enough--too far. Tell them, tell +Kendric, that it was all a jest. Nothing more." + +"Had you won," said Zoraida sweetly, "what then, Senor Bruce? Would +you have been jesting?" + +Bruce's lips moved but no words came. Suddenly he whirled from her +upon Kendric, his face distorted with rage. + +"Damn you!" he burst out. + +No longer was it merely a case of murder in his look. The urge to kill +had swept into his heart, rushed hotly along his pounding arteries. +Before now had Kendric seen men frenzy-lashed, like Bruce, briefly +insane with the blood impulse and as Bruce cursed him he knew that he +meant to kill him. There were half a dozen paces between the two men +and already was Bruce's hand lost under the skirt of his coat. Kendric +sprang to his feet and as he did so Bruce whipped out his pistol. +There seemed no loss of time between the action and the discharge. But +Kendric had been quick and only his promptness saved the life in him +that night. As he went to his feet he swept up in his hand a heap of +the shining gold pieces and flung them straight into the boy's purpling +face. The bullet went by Kendric's head doing no harm beyond +splintering the wall behind him. Before Bruce could shake his head and +fire again Kendric was upon him, worrying him as a dog worries a cat. +Bruce, even in the desperation driving him, and with a gun in his hand, +was little more than a stripling in the hard hands at his wrist and +throat. A sudden heave and mighty jerk came close to breaking his arm +and freed the pistol from his claw-like fingers. Kendric hurled him +back so that Bruce staggered half across the room and crashed to the +floor. Before he could come to his feet the pistol had been dropped +into Kendric's coat pocket. + +During the whole time Twisty Barlow had sat like a man bereft of +volition, his face puckered queerly, his mouth a little open. He +looked at the gold on the table top and at Zoraida; when Kendric had +hurled the coins into Bruce's face he looked at the gold rolling across +the floor and again back to Zoraida. Rios, having risen quietly, stood +with one hand on the back of his chair, one hand at his mustache, +looking steadily at his cousin. Even while Kendric and Bruce battled +Rios gave them scant attention. He was watching Zoraida as though his +life itself depended on his reading her wild heart aright. + +Slowly, as though he had been half stunned, Bruce rose from the floor. +Once more his face was white and looked sick. He had in his eyes the +startled expression of a man rudely awakened from profound slumber. He +walked with dragging feet across the room and dropped wearily into a +chair. He put his elbows on his knees and his head into his hands. + +Zoraida, seeing that Kendric would not come to her, caught up her gown +and leaped lightly down, landing softly like a cat. She put into her +eyes what she pleased, a confusion of messages, a swooning passion, a +maidenly tenderness, a joy that seemed to peep forth shyly. On +tiptoes, as though she would not break the hush of the room, she went +to the hall door, smiling a little in her backward look. A moment she +whispered to the serving man at the door; then she was gone and they +heard only the light patter of her slippers. + +The man to whom Zoraida had whispered spoke in an undertone to his +fellows. One of them went out swiftly; the others threw wide the three +doors and then gathered up the fallen gold. It was replaced in its box +and gravely presented to Kendric. He threw back the lid, thrust into +his pocket without counting what he deemed equal to the amount he had +played and tossed the box back to the servant. + +"Divide with your friends," he said shortly, and turned toward Betty. +But already, with the doors open, she had sought escape. He saw the +whisk of her skirt and marked the erect carriage of her head of brown +hair as she went out. + + +Jim Kendric stood looking about him and cursed himself for a fool. +Headlong he had always been, plunging ever into deep waters that were +not over clear, but he could not recall the time he had been a greater +blunderer. He had no more than decided that the one thing for him to +do was to simplify matters than here he went already interfering in +other people's business and making a mess of the whole thing. Betty +adjudged him being desirous of becoming Zoraida's lover; Bruce sought +his death; Rios's eyes were like knives; Barlow still sent his sullen +glances from the box of gold in a servant's hands to the door through +which Zoraida had passed. Kendric went to where Bruce still sat and +put his hand gently on the slack shoulder. + +"Bruce, old man----" he said. + +But Bruce, though with little spirit in the movement, shook the hand +away. + +"There's no call for talk between you and me, Jim," he said wearily. +"Talk can't change things. Just now I wanted to kill you!" He +shuddered. + +The man with whom Zoraida had whispered was speaking quietly with Rios. +Kendric, seeing them beyond Bruce's bowed head, saw a fire of rebellion +burning in Rios's eyes. Then, surprising him when he expected an +outburst, Rios merely shrugged his shoulders and left the room. The +servant came on to Barlow. Again he whispered. Barlow heard him +through stolidly, then for the first time looked long and steadily at +Kendric. Kendric guessed from the workings of his face that he was +struggling with his own problem. Gradually the sailor closed his mouth +until at last the teeth were clamped tight, the muscles at the corners +of his jaw bulging. + +"Barlow," said Kendric then, "there's too infernally much whispering in +corners in this house. Even if we three seem to be at cross purposes +now we have been friends----" + +"You talk of friendship!" Barlow spoke with cold bitterness. "When +here I crawl around with a hole in my shoulder; when West there in his +chair has just tried to bore you and got smashed in the face for his +trouble? After what's happened tonight, man, you and me are done." He +stalked off to the door. But at the threshold he paused long enough to +turn and mutter: "We all know what we are after, I guess. Don't fool +yourself, Jim Kendric, that everything's landslidin' you [Transcriber's +note: your?] way." + +Plainly Zoraida's orders had been intended to clear the room save for +Kendric. For the servant came to Bruce when Barlow had gone and spoke +to him. Kendric tried to catch the words but could not. But he saw +Bruce suddenly jerk up his head and watched a slow return of color into +the drawn face. Then Bruce, eyeing Kendric with suspicion and in open +hostility, quitted him in a silence that was ominous. + +Kendric's anger, ever ready like his mirth, burned hot through him. He +had shot Barlow in Bruce's quarrel, not knowing Barlow in the dark, and +for this Barlow hated him. Bruce had sought to kill him, and for this +Bruce hated him. He had sought to befriend Betty, and Betty hated him. +He had played fair with them all, and now all of them were set against +him. + +"Devil take the whole outfit!" he cried out passionately. "From now +on, Jim Kendric, you feather your own nest and hit the one-man trail +for the open." + +The servingman, whom Zoraida's commands had constituted a sort of +master of ceremonies, came to Kendric, his look curious but not +unfriendly. The box with its gold was still in his hands. + +"You will follow me, senor?" he invited. "_La Senorita Reinita_ +awaits you." + +"I'll do nothing of the sort," snapped Kendric. "I am going outside +for a smoke and you can tell your lady queen so with my compliments." + +But the man stood in front of him, shaking his head dubiously. He +looked distressed. In his simple mind orders from Zoraida were orders +absolute, and yet such largesse as Jim's bought respect and something +akin to affection. + +"Later you will smoke outside, senor," he urged. "Now it would be +best--oh, surely, best, senor!--to follow me to La Senorita." + +Jim shoved by him toward the door. The fellow looked a trifle +uncertain, his small calibre brain confused by two contending impulses. +But in an instant long habit and an old fear that was greater than his +new liking, asserted themselves. He slipped between Kendric and the +door and at his glance the other servant joined him. The two glanced +at each other and then at Kendric's set and determined face and then +looked swiftly down the long hallway behind them. This look was +eloquent and Kendric guessed its meaning; that way had their companion +gone hastily when Zoraida had left; that way, perhaps, would he be +returning presently with others of her hireling pack at his heels. + +"Stand aside," commanded Jim. "I'm on my way." + +They were stalwart men and they did not stand aside. Rather they +stepped closer together, shoulder to shoulder, grim in their stubborn +obedience to the orders they had been given. Sick of waiting and words +and obstructions, Kendric bore down on them, vowing to go through +though they might raise an outcry and double their strength. They were +ready for him and stood up to him. But their impulse of obedience and +routine duty was a pale weak motive before his rage at eternal +hindrance. He charged them like a mad bull; he struck to right and +left with the mighty blows of lusty battle-joy, and though they struck +back and sought to grapple with him he hurled one of them against the +wall with a bleeding mouth and sent the other toppling backward, +crashing to the floor in the hall. And through he went, growling +savagely. But only to confront the third man returning with half a +dozen sullen-eyed half breeds at his heels, only to see beyond them the +bright interested eyes of Zoraida. + +"Call your hound dogs off," he roared at her. "I'm going through." + +Zoraida clapped her hands. + +"_Muchachos_," she commanded them, "tame me this wild man! But no +pistols or knives, mind you!" + +She drew up close to one wall and watched; she might have been an +excited child at a three-ring circus. Kendric found time to marvel at +her even as he shot by her, hurling the whole of his compact weight +into the mass of bodies defying him passageway. And as flesh struck +flesh, Zoraida clapped her hands again and watched eagerly. + +"One against six--seven," she whispered. "One against nine!" she +added, for already the two men who had sought to hold Kendric back from +the hallway were up and after him. "He is a mad fool--and yet, by the +breath of God, he is a man!" + +And a man's fight did he treat her to, carried out of himself, gone for +the moment the madman she had named him. It was Jim Kendric's way to +fight in silence, but now he shouted as he struck, defying them, +cursing them, striking as hard as God had given him strength, recking +not in the least of blows received, heart and mind centered alone on +the pulsing, throbbing prayer to feel a bone crack before him, to see a +head snap back, to feel blood gush forth from a battered face. A man +tripped him cunningly from the side and he all but fell. But he struck +back with his boot and steadied himself by hurling his toppling body +against a resisting body and crashed on. Yes, and through, though they +clutched at him and dragged after him! A man hung to his belt and he +dragged him four or five steps; then he turned and drove his fist into +the man's neck and freed himself and bore on. So he came to the end of +the hall and to a locked door and turned with his back to the wall. +And again Zoraida's hound dogs were in front of him. + +He laughed at them and taunted them and reviled them. They were nine +men and upon many of the dark faces were signs of his passing. And as +they came closer there was respect as well as caution in their look. +They meant to beat him down; in their minds was no doubt of the +ultimate outcome, for were they not nine to one? But they had felt his +fists and had no joy in the memory. So they drew on slowly. + +Kendric watched them narrowly. In the eyes of the nearest man he saw a +sudden flickering; it flashed over him that the fellow meant trickery +and no fair man-to-man fight. He stood with his back to the door; he +saw the approaching man's eyes switch to it briefly. Then it flashed +upon Kendric that he was to be attacked from behind-- + +But even as the thought came and before he could leap aside, the door +was jerked open and from behind he felt arms about him. He struggled +and strained in a tensing grip. Not just one man was there behind him; +two at the very least and maybe three. He heard them muttering. Then +the men in front came on in a flying body and with a dozen men piling +over him Jim Kendric at last went down. And once down, being the man +to know when he had played out his string, he lay still. + +"Will _el senor_ Jim come with me?" Zoraida was above him, smiling +curiously. "Or shall I have him carried along by my men?" + +"I'll come," he answered shortly. "Having no choice. Call them off +before I stifle." + +Zoraida ordered, the men fell back and Kendric rose. She made a quick +signal and they filed out through a further door. + +"Come," she said to him. She caught up a cloak which had slipped from +her shoulders, a thing of silken scarlet, and led the way down the hall. + +He followed, ready and eager for a talk with her which would be the +last. He fully meant to make a break for the open tonight. And alone. +He was assuring himself that he drew a vast pleasure from that +consideration--that he was free from now on to play out his own hand in +his own way without reference to others. What he did not admit to +himself was that he was trumping up an explanation of the fact that, +while he was following Zoraida, he was thinking of Betty. He was +wondering where Betty had gone in such a flurry, when he should have +been asking himself where Zoraida was taking him and for what purpose +of her own. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +OF THE ANCIENT GARDENS OF THE GOLDEN TEZCUCAN + +He supposed that Zoraida was conducting him to the barbaric chamber in +which she had received him the other evening. For she led, as the +little maid had done, out under the stars, along the rear corridor, +into the house again by the same door. Once more in the building they +came to that heavy door which in time was thrown open by the +evil-looking Yaqui with the sinister weapons at his belt. The man +bowed deeply as Zoraida swept by him. Another moment and Zoraida and +Jim were in the room which appeared always to be pitch black. But from +here on the way was no longer the same. + +He heard Zoraida's quiet breathing at his side. She stood a long time +without moving, apparently waiting or listening, and he stood as still. +Then she put out her hand and caught his sleeve and he followed her +again. Their footfalls were deadened by a thick carpet; Kendric could +see nothing. Never a sound came to him save that of their own quiet +progress. They went forward a dozen steps and Zoraida paused abruptly. +Another dozen steps and again a pause. Then he heard the soft jingle +of keys in her hands; lock after lock she found swiftly in the dark +until she must have shot back five or six bolts; a door opened before +them. He could not see it, since beyond was a dark no less +impenetrable, but caught the familiar creak of hinges. He heard the +door close softly when they had gone through; he heard the several +bolts shot back. Then Zoraida left him, groped a moment and thereafter +the tiny flare of a match in her upheld hand showed her to him and, +vaguely, his surroundings. They stood in a low-vaulted, narrow +passageway through what appeared to be rock. + +Set in a shallow niche in the wall was a small lamp which Zoraida +lighted. She held it high and continued along the passageway. Now +Kendric saw that a long tunnel ran ahead of them, walls and ceiling +rudely chisseled, the uneven floor pitching gently downward. Herein +two men, their elbows striking, might walk abreast; here a man as tall +as Kendric must stoop now and then. The tunnel ran straight a score of +paces, then turned abruptly to the right. Here was another door with +its reenforcement of riveted steel bars and its half dozen bolts and +padlocks. Zoraida gave him the lamp to hold, then produced a second +bunch of keys and one after the other opened the padlocks. The door +swung back noiselessly; they went through, Zoraida closed it and +dropped into place the steel bars. + +"Doors and bars and locks and keys enough," mocked Kendric, "to guard +the treasure of the Montezumas!" + +She turned upon him with her slow, mysterious smile. + +"And not alone in doors and locks has Zoraida put her faith," she said. +"If I had not prepared the way neither you nor another man, though he +held the keys, could ever have come so far! I have been before and +removed certain small obstructions. Come! I will show you others, +Zoraida's true safeguards." + +They were in a small square chamber faced with oak on all sides +excepting ceiling and floor which were of hewn rock. The panels of the +walls, each some two feet wide, had, all of them, the look of narrow +doors, each with its heavy latch. Zoraida put her hand to the nearest +latch and opened the door cautiously. Kendric saw only a long, very +narrow and dark passageway. + +"Listen," commanded Zoraida. + +He heard nothing. + +"Toss something down into the passage," said Zoraida. "Anything, a +coin if you have no other useless object upon you." + +So a coin it was. He heard it strike and roll and clink against rock. +Then he heard the other sound, a dry noise like dead leaves rattling +together. Despite him he drew back swiftly. Zoraida laughed and +closed the door. + +"You know what it is then?" + +He knew. It was the angry warning of a rattlesnake; his quickened +fancies pictured for him a dark alleyway whose floor was alive with the +deadly reptiles and he felt an unpleasant prickling of the flesh. + +"If you went on," she told him serenely, "and you chose any door but +the right one--and there are twelve doors--you would never come to the +end of a short hallway. And, even though you happened to choose the +right door, it were best for you if Zoraida went ahead. Come, my +friend." + +She opened another door and stepped into the narrow opening. Though he +had little enough liking for the expedition, Kendric followed. Once +more he heard a rustling as of thousands of dry, parched leaves, and +was at loss to know whence came the ominous sound. Again Zoraida +laughed, saying: "I have been before and prepared the way," and they +went on. Then came another door with still other bars and locks. +Zoraida unlocked one after the other, then stood back, looking at him +with the old mischief showing vaguely in her eyes. + +"Open and enter," she said. + +He threw back the door. But on the threshold he stopped and stared and +marveled. Zoraida's pleased laughter now was like a child's. + +"You are the first man, since Zoraida's father died, to come here," she +told him. "And never another man will come here until you and I are +dead. It is a place of ancient things, my friend; it is the heart of +Ancient Mexico." + +The heart of Ancient Mexico! Without her words he would have known, +would have felt. For old influences held on and the atmosphere of the +time of the Montezumas still pervaded the place. He forgot even +Zoraida as he stepped forward and stopped again, marveling. + +Here was a chamber of colossal proportions and more than a chamber in +that it gave the impression of being without walls or roof. And in a +way the impression was correct for straight overhead Kendric saw a +ragged section of the heavens, bright with stars, and at first he +failed to see the remote walls because of the shrubbery everywhere. +Here was a strange underground garden that might have been the +courtyard to an oriental monarch's palace, a region of spraying +fountains, of heavily scented flowers, of berry-bearing shrubs, of +birds of brilliant plumage. It was night; the stars cast small light +down here into the depths of earth; and yet it was some moments before +the startled Kendric asked himself the question: "Where does the full +light come from?" And it was still other moments before he located the +first of the countless lamps, lamps with green shades lost behind +foliage, lamps set in recesses, lamps everywhere but cunningly placed +so that one was bathed in their light without having the source of the +illumination thrust into notice. + +That here, at some long dead time of Mexican history, had been the +retreat of some barbaric king Kendric did not doubt from the first +sweeping glance. He knew something of the way in which the ancient +monarchs had builded pleasure palaces for their luxurious relaxation; +how whole armies of slaves, captured in war, were set at a giant task +like other captives in older days in Egypt; he knew how thousands, tens +of thousands of such poor wretches hopelessly toiled to build with +their misery places of flowers and ease; how to celebrate many a temple +or palace completed these poor artificers in a mournful procession of +hundreds or thousands as the dignity of the endeavor required, went to +the sacrifice. Now, standing here at Zoraida's side in this great +still place, these thoughts winged to him swiftly, and for the moment +he felt close to the past of Mexico. + +"What was once the country place of Nezahualcoyoti, the Golden King of +Tezcuco," said Zoraida, "is now the favorite garden of Zoraida. For +the great Nezahualcoyoti captive workmen, laboring through the days and +nights of many years, builded here as we see, my friend. Here he was +wont to come when he would have relief from royal labor and intrigue, +to shut himself up with music and feasting and those he loved. Here he +came, be sure, with the beloved princess whom he ravished away from the +old lord of Tepechpan. And here she remained awaiting him when he +returned to the royal place at Tezcotzinco. And here were placed, four +hundred and fifty years ago, the ashes of the golden king and of his +beloved princess--and here they remain until this night. Come, Senor +Americano; you shall see something of Zoraida's garden which after +Nezahualcoyoti came in due time to be Montezuma's and after him, +Guatamotzin's." + +Kendric found himself drawn out of his angry mood of a few minutes +past, charmed out of himself by his environment. Following Zoraida he +passed along a broad walk winding through low shrubs and lined on each +side with uniform stones of various colors that were like jewels. +These boundaries were no doubt of choice fragments of finely polished +chalcedony and jasper and obsidian; they were red and yellow and black +and, at regular intervals, a pale exquisite blue which in the rays of +the lamps were as beautiful as turquoises. They passed about a screen +of dwarf cedars and came upon a tiny lakelet across which a boy might +have hurled a stone; in the center, sprayed by a fountain that shone +like silver, was a life-sized statue in marble representing a slender +graceful maiden. + +"The beloved princess," whispered Zoraida. + +They went on, skirting the pool in which Kendric saw the stars +mirrored. Now and then there was a splash; he made out a tortoise +scrambling into the water; he caught the glint of a fish. They +disturbed birds that flew from their hidden places in the trees; a +little rabbit, like a tiny ball of fur, shot across their path. + +Before them the central walk lay in shadows, under a vine-covered +trellis. A hundred paces they went on, catching enchanting glimpses +through the walls of leaves. Here was a column, gleaming white, +elaborately carved with what were perhaps the triumphs of the golden +king or some later monarch; yonder the walls of a miniature temple, +more guessed than seen among the low trees; on every hand some relic of +the olden time. Suddenly and without warning amidst all of this tender +beauty of flowers and murmurous water and birds and perfumes Kendric +came upon that which lasted on as a true sign to recall the strange +nature of the ancient Aztec, a nation of refinement and culture and +hideous barbarism and cruelty; a nation of epicures who upon great +feast days ate of elaborately-served dishes of human flesh; a people +who, in a garden like this, could find no inconsistency, no clash of +discordancy, in introducing that which bespoke merciless cruelty and +death, a grim token and reminder that a king's palace was a slaughter +house as well; a strange race whose ears were attuned to ravishing +strains of music and yet found no breach of harmony if those singing +notes were pierced through with the shrieks of the tortured dying. +Just opposite the most enchanting spot in these underground groves of +pleasure was a great pyramidal heap of human skulls, thousands of them. + +"The builders," explained Zoraida calmly. "Those who obeyed the +commands of the Tezcucan king, who made his dream a reality, who were +in the end sacrificed here. Five priests, alternating with another +five, were unremitting night and day until at last the great sacrifice +was complete. The records are there," and she pointed to a remote +corner of the garden where vaguely through the greenery he made out +stone columns; "I have seen them and I have made my own tally. Not +less than ten thousand captives expired here." It struck Kendric that +there was a note of pride in her tone. "Look; yonder is the great +stone of sacrifice." + +He drew closer, at once repelled and fascinated. A few yards from the +base of the heap of skulls was a great block of jasper, polished and of +a smoothness like glass. Upon this one after another of ten thousand +human beings, strong struggling men and perhaps women and children had +lain, while priests as terrible as vultures held them, while one priest +of high skill and infinite cruelty drove his knife and made his gash +and withdrew the anguished beating heart to hold it high above his +head. Again Zoraida pointed; on the stone lay the ancient knife, a +blade of "itztli," obsidian, dark, translucent, as hard as flint, a +product of volcanic fires. + +Kendric turned from stone and knife and human relics and looked with +strange new wonder at Zoraida. She claimed kin with the royalty of +this ancient order; perhaps her claim was just. He had wondered if she +were mad; was not his answer now given him? Was she not after all that +not uncommon thing called a throw-back, a reversion to an ancestral +type? If in fact there flowed in her veins the blood of that princess +of the golden king of Tezcuco who could have smiled at the whisperings +of her lord and the tender cadences of music floating through the +gardens his love had made for her, while just here his priests made +their sacrifices and she, turning her eyes from his ardent ones, now +and then languorously watched--was Zoraida mad or was she simply +ancient Aztec or Toltec or Tezcucan, born four or five hundred years +after her time? Her slow smile now as she watched him and no doubt +read at least a portion of what lay in his mind, was baffling; he might +have been looking back through the long dead years upon the Tezcucan's +princess: in her eyes were tender passion and a glint that might have +been a reflection of light from the sacrificial knife. + +Speculation aside, here was one point which Zoraida herself had vouched +for: since girlhood she had been accustomed to coming here. It would +appear inevitable that the atmosphere of the place would have deeply +influenced young fancies; that what she was now was largely due to +these conflicting influences. What wonder that she saw nothing +unlikely in her dreamings of herself as queen of a newly created +empire? All that Zoraida was, all that she did, all that she +threatened to do, the passion and the regal manner and the look of a +naked knife in her eyes, was but to be expected. + +Zoraida led on and he followed. Their way led toward the stonework he +had glimpsed through the shrubs and vines. Here was a many-roomed +building, walls richly carved into records of ancient feasts and +glories, battles and triumphs. They passed in through a wide entrance; +within the walls were lined with satiny hardwoods, the panels chosen +with nice regard to color and grain. Doors opened to right and left +and ahead, giving views of other chambers on some walls of which still +hung ancient cloths; there were chairs and tables and benches and +chests. Zoraida went on, straight ahead and to the doorway of a much +larger, high-vaulted chamber. And again was Kendric treated to a fresh +surprise. + +As she stood in the door and he looked over her shoulder, six old men, +evidently awaiting her arrival, bent themselves almost to the floor in +a reverential posture that expressed greeting and adoration. Again +Kendric's fancies were drawn back into ancient Mexico. They wore loose +white cotton robes; their beards fell on their aged breasts; in their +sashes were long knives of itztli, like that upon the sacrificial +stone. They might have been the old priests who sacrificed for the +Tezcucan, their existences prolonged eternally here in an atmosphere of +antiquity. + +Zoraida spoke and they straightened, and one man answered. Kendric +could not understand a word. Then, shuffling their sandaled feet, the +six went out through a door at the side. + +"I thought you said," said Kendric, "that since your father's death no +man had entered here?" + +"And do these six look as though they had come here recently from the +outside world?" she retorted, smiling. "The youngest of them, Senor +Jim, first came to Nezahualcoyotl's gardens more than sixty years ago. +When he was less than a year old, hence bringing with him no knowledge +of any other place than this." + +"And you mean that they have never gone out from here?" + +"Would they thrust their heads through solid rock? Would they tread +along corridors carpeted with snakes? Would they grow wings and soar +to the stars up there? Not only have they never gone out; they do not +so much as know that there is an Outside to go to." + +"But you come to them!" + +Zoraida laughed. + +"And I am a spirit, a goddess to worship, the One who has always been, +the power that created this spot and themselves!" + +"They are captives and caretakers of a sort?" he supposed. "But when +they are dead? Who then will keep up your elaborate gardens?" + +"Wait. They are returning. There is your answer." + +The six ancients filed back. Each man of them led by the hand a little +child, the oldest not yet seven or eight. All boys, all bright and +handsome; all filled with worship for Zoraida. For they broke away +from the old men and ran forward, some of them carrying flowers, and +threw themselves on their knees and kissed Zoraida's gown. And then, +with wide, wondering eyes they looked from her to Jim Kendric. + +"Poor little kids," he muttered. And suddenly whirling wrathfully on +Zoraida: "Where do they come from? Whose children are they?" + +"There are mysteries and mysteries," she told him, coldly. + +"Stolen from their mothers by your damned brigands!" he burst out. + +She turned blazing eyes on him. + +"Be careful, Jim Kendric!" she warned. "Here you are in Zoraida's +stronghold, here you are in her hand! Is act of hers to be questioned +by you?" + +She made a sudden signal. The six little boys withdrew, walking +backward, their round worshipful eyes glued upon their goddess. Then +they were gone, the old men with them, a heavy door closing behind them. + +"Again I did not lie to you," said Zoraida. "Since though these have +come recently, they are not yet men. Follow me again." + +They went through the long room and into another. This time Zoraida +thrust aside a deep purple curtain, fringed in gold. Here was a +smaller chamber, absolutely without furnishings of any kind. But +Kendric did not miss chairs or table, his interest being entirely given +to the three young men standing before him like soldiers at attention. +Heavy limbed, muscular fellows they were, clad only in short white +tunics, each with a plain gold band about his forehead. In the hand of +each was a great, two-edged knife, horn handled, as long as a man's arm. + +"These came just before my father gave his keys to Zoraida," the girl +told him: "There are three more of them who sleep while these guard." + +Again Kendric saw in the eyes turned upon them a sheer worship of +Zoraida, a wonder at him. Zoraida lifted her hand; the three bowed +low. She spoke softly and they withdrew slowly to the further wall, +walking backward as the children had done. Then one of them lifted +down the five bars across a door, employing a rude key from his own +belt. And when he had done so and stepped aside Zoraida with her own +keys in five different heavy steel locks opened the way. She swung the +door open and Kendric followed her. As in the adobe house here was a +place where a curtain beyond the doorway hid from any chance eyes what +might lie in this room. Only when the door was again shut and locked +did Zoraida push the curtain aside. Another match, another big lamp +lighted--and Kendric needed no telling that he was in an ancient +treasure chamber. + +There were long gleaming-topped tables of hardwood; there were +exquisitely wrought and embroidered fabrics covering them; strewn +across the tables were countless objects of inestimable value. Vases +and pitchers and plates of hammered gold; golden goblets set with rich +stones; ropes of silver; vessels of many curious shapes, some as small +as walnuts, some as large as water pitchers, but all of the precious +metals; knives with blades of obsidian and handles of gold; mirrors of +selected obsidian bound around in gold; necklaces, coronets, polished +stone jars heaped with gold dust. One table appeared to be heaped high +with strange-looking books; ancient writings, Zoraida told him, +heiroglyphs on the _mauguey_ that is so like the papyrus of the Nile. + +"And look," laughed Zoraida. "Here is something that would open the +greedy eyes of your friend Barlow." + +She opened a cedar box and poured forth the contents. Pearls, pearls +by the double handful, such as she had worn that night at Ortega's +gambling house, many times in number those which Barlow had declared +would make Kendric's twenty thousand dollars "look sick." In the +lamplight their soft effulgence stirred even the blood of Jim Kendric. + +"When the great Tzin Guatamo knew that he would die a dog's death at +the hands of the conquerors," Zoraida said, "he had as much of the +royal treasury as he could lay his hands on brought here. The +Spaniards guessed and demanded to be told the hiding place. +Guatamotzin locked his lips. They tortured him; he looked calmly back +into their enraged eyes and locked his lips the tighter. They killed +him but he kept his secret." + +She had mentioned Barlow, and just now Kendric's thoughts had more to +do with the present and the immediate future than with a remote and +legendary history. + +"So," he said, "while Barlow and I made our long journey south, seeking +the treasure of the Montezumas, you already had had it safe under lock +and key for God knows how long!" + +"Choose what pleases you most, Senor Jim," she said. "That I may make +you a rich gift." + +But though for a moment the glowing pearls, the gold and silver +trinklets held his eyes, he shook his head. + +"It strikes me," he said bluntly, "that you and I are not such friends +that rich gifts need pass from one to the other of us." + +"Then not even all this," and with a quick gesture she indicated all of +the wealth that surrounded him, "can move you? Are you man, Jim +Kendric, or a mechanical thing of levers and springs set into a man's +form?" + +"I have never had the modern madness of lusting for gold; that is all," +he told her. + +"Not entirely modern," she retorted, "since here are ancient hoardings; +nor yet entirely mad, since it is pure wisdom to put out a hand for the +supreme lever of worldly power. You are a strange man, Senor Jim!" + +"I am what I am," he said simply. "And, like other men, content with +my own desires and dreamings." + +She studied him, for a while in open perplexity, then in as frank a +glowing admiration. That he should set aside with a careless hand that +which meant so much to her, but made of him in her eyes a sort of +superman. + +"The thing to do," said Kendric out of a short silence, "is to open +your doors and let me go back to the States. I came here looking for +treasure trove; your claim antedates mine and I am no highwayman." + +Zoraida seated herself in a big carved chair by the long table whereon +lay the ancient writings, folded like fans and protected between leaves +of decorated woods of various shapes and colors. + +"Let me tell you two things, my friend. Three, rather. You saw the +sky just now and thought to yourself that all of my safeguards here +would be foolish and unavailing if a man sought the way to make his +entrance from above? Be sure the way is guarded there, too. Above us +towers Little Quetzel Hill, which is a long dead volcano; the hole you +saw was in the bottom of the cone. If a man sought to come to it, +first he must climb a steep and dangerous mountain flank. The old +kings did not forget so obvious a thing. Captives toiled up there +while their fellows burrowed down here; the hazardous way through +infinite labor continuing through many years, was made infinitely more +hazardous. There are balanced rocks of a thousand tons' weight that +are secure in the outward seeming, placed to hurl to destruction the +adventurer who sets an unwary foot on them; there is a spring, and it +is death to drink of it; there are pits for a man to slide down into +and in the bottoms of these pits are countless venomous snakes; there +are traps set such as men of our time know nothing of. There have been +chance travelers up yonder at infrequent intervals and for every such +traveler there has been a death so that the mountain bears an evil +name. And, further, should a hardy spirit once win to the hole in the +bottom of the volcano's cone and find the way to lower himself hundreds +of feet into the gardens, there is always, night and day, one of +Zoraida's guards at the spot where he must descend, and that guard, +night and day, is armed and eager to grapple with a devil whom he has +been told to expect soon or late." + +"I have told you," said Kendric, "that I have no wish to steal that +which is another's." + +"One thing I have told you; here is another. I speak it frankly +because I may gain by it and am not in the least afraid of losing, +since your destiny lies in my hands! It is that only a portion of the +great treasure is here with us; another portion was hidden outside." +She put her hand on one of the tinted manuscripts. "The tale is here. +The treasure bearers were trapped in the mountains by the Spanish; they +had no time to come here. One by one they were killed. They hid much +gold where they must. That is the 'loot' of which your friend Barlow +speaks; that is the treasure which the Spanish priests knew of and held +accursed. And that, Senor Jim, I would add to what I have here!" + +She amazed him. Her eyes glittered, the fever of gold lust was in her +blood. With all this hers--his eye swept the wealth-laden tables and +chests--she still coveted gold, other gold! + +"The third thing," said Zoraida sharply, "that you may understand why I +mention to you the second, is this: You will never go free until I say +the word! And I shall never say the word until you and I have brought +the rest and placed it here!" + +So there was other treasure! Like this, rich, wrought vessels, fine +gold, pearls perhaps! And Zoraida did not yet know where it was; +Barlow had had enough sense to keep his mouth closed. Jim Kendric's +thoughts flew back and forth rapidly; the strange thing was that at a +time like this the vision which shaped itself, vivid and clear cut in +his mind, was of little Betty Gordon with a double string of pearls +around her throat! + +"Of what are you thinking?" demanded Zoraida sharply. She had been +watching him keenly. "There is a look in your eyes----" + +For an instant she almost dared think that that look was for her; Jim +flushed. Zoraida's black brows gathered, her eyes went as deadly cruel +as ever were the eyes of her ancient forebears though they watched the +priests at the sacrificial stone. + +"You think of her!" she cried angrily. She stamped upon the stone +floor, she clenched her hands and lifted them high above her head in a +sudden access and abandon of rage. "You think that, having made mock +of me, you shall turn to her? Fool! Seven times accursed fool! I +will show you the doll-faced, baby-eyed girl--and you will see, too, +what fate I have reserved for her. To cross the path of Zoraida +means---- But what are words? You shall see!" + +With a strange sick sinking of his heart Kendric followed her, +forgetting the treasure about him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +HOW TWO, IN THE LABYRINTH OF MIRRORS, WATCHED DISTANT HAPPENINGS + +An oppression such as he had never known fell upon Kendric. Nor was +the depressing emotion an emanation alone of his growing dread on +Betty's account; the atmosphere of the place through which he moved +began to weigh him down, to crush the spirit within him. They left the +treasure chamber which was six times doubly locked after them. They +went through the ancient empty rooms and out into the gardens. +Kendric, looking up, saw the small ragged patch of sky and felt as +though upon his own soul, stifling him, rested the weight of the hollow +mountain. To him who loved the fresh, wind-swept world, the open sea +with its smell of clean salt air, the wide deserts where the sunshine +lay everywhere, this pleasure grove of a long dead royalty was become +musty, foul, permeated with an aura of a great gilded tomb. His +sensation was almost that of a drowning person or of one awaking from a +trance to find himself shut in the narrow confines of a buried coffin. +The air seemed heavy and impure; he fancied it still fetid with all the +blood of sacrificial offerings which the ravening soil had drunk. + +But he knew that now was no time for sick fancies and he shook them off +and bent his mind to the present crisis. Zoraida was retracing the +steps which had led them here; she had spoken of Betty. It was likely +then that they were returning through the long passageways to the +house. Dark hallways to thread, the dark mind of his guide to seek to +read. Now, while darkness outdoors was well enough, the black gloom of +a maze at any corner of which Zoraida might have placed one or a dozen +of her hirelings, had little lure for him. She did not mean to let him +go free; she had kept him all day immured in his own room; she would no +doubt seek to lock him up again. + +"It's tonight or never to make a break for it," he decided as he +followed her. + +They were passing the block of jasper, the ancient stone of sacrifice. +Zoraida went by first; Kendric was passing when an impulse prompted him +to put out a sudden hand for the keen edged knife of obsidian. He +slipped it into his belt and hid the haft with his coat. If it came to +an ambush, to an attack in the dark, a revolver bullet might fly wild +while the wide sweep of a knife blade would somehow find a sheath in +something more palpable than thin air. + +They went on, returning along the way they had come. When the gardens +of the golden Tezcucan were behind them and a door barred Kendric +experienced a sense of relief, even though the tunnels were ahead of +him. He kept close to Zoraida, prepared for any sort of trickery and +with no desire to have her whisk suddenly through a door somewhere and +slam it in his face. His one urgent prayer was for a breath of the +open; just then the consummation of human happiness seemed to him to be +freedom on horseback somewhere out in the mountains with the whole of +the wide starry sky generously roofing the world. He thought of +Betty--and he thought, too, of the six little boys doomed to count +themselves happy back yonder where at most the sun shone down upon them +a few minutes of the day. + +Never once did Zoraida turn, not once did she speak as they hastened +on. What little he saw of her face where there was lamplight showed +him hard set muscles. At last they were again in the house which was +hushed as though untenanted or as though its occupants were asleep or +dead. He could fancy Bruce in some remote room, tricked by some false +message of Zoraida's, eagerly expecting her, hungering for her lying +explanations; he could picture Barlow, glowering, but awaiting her, +too. Well, the time had passed when he could largely concern himself +with them and what they did and thought. Tonight he must serve +himself, and Betty. If she would listen to him. + +Presently he saw where it was that Zoraida was conducting him. He +remembered the dim ante-room in which they paused a moment while +Zoraida fastened the door behind them; then, the curtain thrown aside, +they were again in that barbaric, tapestry-hung chamber in which, the +first night here, he had been brought before her. As before the ruby +upon the thin crystal stem shone like a burning red eye. + +Now, for the first time since they had turned away from the golden +Tezcucan's treasure chamber, was Kendric given a full, clear view of +Zoraida's face. During their progress many thoughts had come and gone +swiftly through his mind; now as they two stood looking steadily at +each other, he realized clearly that one matter and one alone had +occupied her. No abatement of cruelty had come into her long eyes; no +flush of color had swept away the cold whiteness of her cheek. She was +set in a merciless determination, relentlessly hard; the colorless face +resulted from a frozen heart. Before now Kendric had seen murder +staring out of a man's widened eyes; now he saw it in a woman's. + +For the instant only she had looked at him as though she were probing +into his secret thought and there swept over him the old, disquieting +sensation that each thought in his mind lay as clear to her look as a +white pebble in a sunlit pool. Then her eyes passed on, beyond him. +He turned and saw the hangings parted at that spot where Zoraida had +appeared to him that other time; one of the brutish, squat forms which +Kendric remembered, stood in the opening. + +Zoraida spoke with the man swiftly, her voice hard and sharp. A quick +change came into the heavy, thick-lipped face; the stupid eyes +brightened; the face was distorted as by some hideous anticipation. +Zoraida ended what she had to say; the man spoke gutturally, nodding +his head. Then he dropped the curtain and was gone. + +Zoraida went to her black chair with the crystal balls for feet and sat +stiffly, her ringed fingers tapping restlessly upon the wide arms. +Presently the man returned, carrying a wide flat box. Thereafter, +while Zoraida watched him impatiently, he occupied himself after a +fashion which Kendric found inexplicable. From the box the man took a +number of rectangular mirrors, fine clear glass framed with thin bands +of ebony. Deftly, into a groove made in the back of each mirror, he +slipped the end of a tall ebony rod. Then he rolled back the heavy rug +from two thirds of the floor. The floor was of stone, laid fancifully +in colored mozaic; here and there, seemingly placed utterly at random, +were smooth round holes in the stone blocks. Into each hole the haft +of one of the rods was thrust so that when the man stepped back to +survey his handiwork there was a little forest of mirrors on glistening +stems grown up in apparent lack of design, like young pines on a +tableland. + +Then Zoraida rose and went from one of the glasses to another, turning +them a little to right or left, adjusting painstakingly, seeming to +read the meaning of some fine lines scratched in the stone floor. Her +eyes were like a mad woman's. She herself moved her chair, shoving it +from the rug to the bare floor, careful that each supporting crystal +sphere rested exactly upon a chosen spot. Her retainer handed her a +small stool; she placed it and, since it was near the spot where he +stood, Kendric made out the four crosses where the four legs were to +go. Then Zoraida went swiftly back to her chair. + +As she sat down she called again sharply to the squat brute who served +her. His broad ugly teeth showed white in his animal grin; he ran +across the room and swept back the curtains draping the wall. They +were laced to rings along the upper edge and the rings ran on a long +rod. As they were whipped back they disclosed no ordinary wall but a +great expanse of mirror extending from floor to ceiling, from corner to +corner. When two other walls were exposed they too resolved themselves +into clearly reflecting surfaces. + +"Clap-trap again," muttered Kendric, beginning to feel a strange dread +in his heart and growing angry with it and determined that Zoraida +should not guess. + +"Be seated," commanded Zoraida sternly. "If you would see what +amusement is being offered a friend of yours!" + +One by one the lamps were being put out by the hasty hand of the fellow +whom Kendric began to long to strangle; he could hear a low guttural +gurgling sort of noise rising from the thick throat, issuing from the +monstrous mouth. Zoraida did not appear to hear but sat rigid, +waiting. At last, when all but one opaque shaded lamp were +extinguished and the room was cast into shadowy gloom, Kendric, +impelled by environment, a curious dread and perhaps the will of +Zoraida, sat down on the stool. + +"Clap-trap, you say!" scoffed Zoraida. "Watch the first mirror!" + +At first the mirror reflected nothing save the shadowy room and a +vague, half-seen line of other mirrors. But while Kendric watched +there came a swift change. Somewhere a lamp had been lighted--several +lamps, for there was a brilliant light. He saw reflected what appeared +to be a small room with a door in one wall. He saw the door open and a +man come in; it was either the man who just now had obeyed Zoraida's +commands or his twin-fellow. The man began hooking together what +appeared to be several frames of steel bars. Working swiftly he shaped +them into a steel cage hardly larger than to accommodate a man +standing. Kendric's heart leaped and then stood still. He remembered +words which Juanita, terrified by idle threat from him, had spoken. + +He sat like a man in a trance. The dim mirrors seemed unreal. What he +saw elsewhere--was it a reflected reality or was his mind under the +spell of Zoraida's? Was she through hypnosis projecting a lying image +into his groping consciousness? Absolutely, he did not know. He drew +his eyes away from the vision of that room and turned them +questioningly upon Zoraida. Stern she was and rigid and white, a dim +figure in that dim light save alone for her eyes; they burned +ominously, glowing like a cat's. + +A quick shifting of the image in the glass jerked back his straying +attention. The man had completed his brief labors with the steel +frames which now made a strong cage; he shook the bars with his hand as +though trying them, and they were firm in their places. He opened a +section which turned on hinges so that a narrow door swung back. Then +he drew away and across the room. And now the remarkable thing was +that though he moved several paces, still he remained in full view at +the center of the mirror. + +Plainly in a complicated series of reflectors there were mirrors which +were being turned as the man moved, cunningly and skilfully adjusted to +his slow progress; otherwise would he have passed out of the scope of +Kendric's vision. As it was, the cage slid away out of view, an +uncanny sort of thing since it had the appearance of gliding under a +will of its own. + +Presently, however, the man opened a door in the wall and was gone. +For an instant the mirror darkened; then the light flashed back and +Kendric was treated to a broken procession of images which set him +marveling. First he saw straight into the heart of the gardens of the +golden Tezcucan; he saw the sacrificial stone; he saw one of the old +men approach it and pass by; he saw the treasure chamber. Again he +stared at Zoraida, again the fear was upon him that she had mastered +his mind with hers, that what he fancied he saw was but what she willed +him to imagine. For he could not ignore the long tunneled distance +they had traversed, the dark passageways, the heavy doors with their +massive locks. And yet his reason told him that to a mind like +Zoraida's as he began to believe it, a brain filled with ancient craft +and perhaps a strain of madness, actuated by such dark impulses as +certainly must abide there, the actual physical accomplishment of this +sort of parlor magic was a thing in keeping. There would be small +tube-like holes through walls, angled with reference to other mirrors; +there would be scientific arrangement; there would be, somewhere in the +great house, a sort of operating room, a room of mirrors with a trained +hand to manipulate them. Perhaps, with modern reflectors, she but +improved on some fancy of an ancient king who sought to guard himself +against treachery or his hoardings against the hand of his treasurers. + +Again and again, as Kendric sat watching, the mirrors darkened and grew +bright again, with always a new image. He saw the room in which he had +spent a long day immured and knew then that had Zoraida been of the +mind she could have sat here in her private room and have observed +every move he made. He saw still another room and in it Bruce pacing +up and down, up and down, swinging suddenly to look eagerly at his +door; he saw Barlow's back as Barlow stared out of a window--somewhere. + +"Thus Zoraida knows what goes forward in her own house," said Zoraida, +speaking for the first time. Kendric, struck with a new thought, +looked about the room everywhere, seeking to locate the necessary +opening in the wall through which came the reflections from mirrors in +other places. But the great glasses covering three of the walls +presented what appeared to be smooth, unbroken surfaces; where the +fourth wall was tapestry-draped there was no sign of an opening; +neither floor nor ceiling, places offering no detail but blurred with +vague shadows, showed him what he sought. + +"Watch closely!" said Zoraida. + +Again it was the small room of the steel cage. The savage-looking man +in the short tunic was there again. He looked watchful, tense, not +altogether at his ease. In one hand was a heavy whip; in the other a +pistol. Kendric thought of the animal trainers he had seen at +circuses. The man's eyes were on the door through which he had come. +So vivid were old images bred now of associations of ideas that Kendric +had no doubt of what small head with fierce eyes would appear next; he +could prevision the lithe puma, in its quick nervous movements, the +lashing of the heavy tail and the glint of the teeth. And so when he +saw what it was that entered, he sat back for a moment limp and the +next sprang to his feet. It was Betty. + +Betty clothed strangely and with a face dead white, with eyes to haunt +a man. She wore a loose red robe, sleeveless, falling no lower than +her ankles; her bare feet were in sandals. Her hair was down; about +her brows was a black band that might have been ebony or velvet; into +it was thrust a large white flower. + +Betty was speaking. Kendric had dropped back into his chair, having +lost sight of her when he stood. He saw that she was speaking swiftly, +supplicatingly; her hands were clasped; all this he could see but no +slightest sound came to him. He could not tell if she were near or +far. He began to realize the exquisite torture which Zoraida might +offer a man through her mirrors. + +He saw the squat brute's wide grin that was as hideous as the puma's +could be; all of the teeth he saw and they were glistening and sharp, +unusually sharp for a human being. And then he saw Betty pushed +forward though she shrank back at first with dragging feet and though +then, suddenly galvanized, she fought wildly. But two big hands locked +tight on her arms and as powerless as a child of six she was thrust +into the steel cage, the door snapped after her. She stood looking +wildly about her; her lips opened as she must have screamed; she +dropped her face into her hands. Kendric saw the white flower fall. + +Again the man looked to the door through which he and then Betty had +entered. And now came the puma. It ran in, snarling; it was looking +back over its shoulder as though someone had whipped it into the room. +It saw another enemy armed with whip and pistol and sidled off with +still greater show of dripping fangs. All this in dead silence so far +as Kendric was concerned; never the faintest sound coming to him. The +whip was flung out and snapped, and there was no sound; the puma's +teeth clicked together on empty air, and no sound; Betty, looking up, +shrieked, and no sound. They looked to be so close to Kendric that he +felt as if with one stride he could hurl himself among them; and yet he +knew that they might be shut off from him by innumerable walls and +locked and barred doors. He saw Betty so plainly that until he +reasoned with himself he felt that she must see him. + +"A puma will not attack a human being." Kendric sought to speak as +though merely contemptuous of Zoraida's entertainment. "They are +cowardly brutes." + +"The puma," said Zoraida, "is starving. Further, he has been driven +mad by men who whipped and then appeared to run, frightened of him. +Watch." + +The man threatening the puma slipped out through the door behind him. +The door closed. Betty and the animal were alone. The great cat lay +down and looked at her with its hard, unwinking eyes, only its slow +tail moving back and forth like a bit of mechanism clock-regulated. +Presently the puma lifted its head and began a horrible sniffing; it +lifted itself gradually from the floor; it drew a step nearer Betty's +cage and sniffed again. Kendric could see Betty draw back the few +inches made possible by the narrow confines of the cage, could see that +again she screamed. + +"A little fresh blood has been sprinkled on the floor of the cage," +said Zoraida. "A little of it is on the gown she wears. It will not +be overlong to watch. Are you growing impatient?" + +"Are you mad?" he burst out. "Good God, do you mean to let this go on?" + +"Am I mad?" Her eyes, slowly turned to his, looked it. "Perhaps. Who +that is mad knows he is mad? And who, my friend, is sane? Do I mean +to let this go on?" She laughed at him, and the sound was as hard as +the tinkle of bits of jangling glass. "You have but to be patient to +know." + +The puma sniffed again, again drew closer. Betty was tight pressed +against the far bars shutting her in, and even so had the great cat +thrust a claw forward she could not withdraw beyond the reach of the +ripping talons. The cat circled her. Always Betty turned with it, her +eyes upon its eyes, her eyes that were large and fixed with terror. + +"A puma is patient, more patient than a man," said Zoraida. "It may be +an hour; it may be all night before it strikes. It may be a night and +a day, and still another night and day. Its hunger does not diminish +as time passes! Or," and she shrugged with a great showing of her +indifference, "it may strike now, at any moment. That is one of the +things that makes the moment tense for that white-faced little fool in +there. Imagine when she is worn out, if it lasts that long; when sleep +will no longer flee because of terror; and when I command that the +light shall be extinguished where she is! You see, she must be +thinking all those things." + +The sweat broke out on Kendric's forehead, he felt as though ice ran in +his veins. If he only knew where all this was going on! Was it above +him or below, to right or left? Ten steps or a hundred yards away? + +"By God----" he shouted. But only Zoraida's merciless laughter +answered him. + +"I had to choose between this and the ancient stone of sacrifice," she +told him. "Have I not chosen well?" + +The puma had been still. Now again it moved and its feet had +quickened, it glided with ever-increasing swiftness, it came close to +the steel bars, it showed more of its sharp, tearing, dripping teeth. + +"Betty!" shouted Kendric. "I----" + +He knew that Betty could not hear, that he could do nothing. Nothing? +As the thought framed he leaped to his feet and in the grip of such a +rage as even he had never known, hurled himself across the few paces +between him and Zoraida. + +"You have the way to stop this damned thing!" His hands, like claws, +were thrust before her face. "You will stop it." + +Even in his headlong rage there were cool cells in his brain. He saw +the quick significant look Zoraida shot over his shoulder and turned; +there behind him stood one of the squat brutes who did her bidding. +Kendric saw something in the man's hand but did not reck whether it was +gun or knife or club or something else. He whipped about and struck. +As the man staggered under the unexpected blow, Kendric snatched up the +heavy stool on which he had been sitting and struck again, so swift +that the blow landed while the figure was yet staggering backward. The +man fell, stunned, and then, as quick as light, before Zoraida could +lift a hand, Kendric was upon her again. + +"Call off your cat!" he shouted at her. + +She lifted her head defiantly. + +"Never has man dictated to me!" she cried angrily. "Here I dictate. +If you dared put a hand on me----" + +He saw her own hand creeping out toward the table. What it sought he +did not know; a hidden bell, perhaps. Or a dagger. He remembered her +swift attack upon Ortega. He seized her wrist, his fingers locked hard +about it; she struggled and he held her back in her chair. Suddenly +she relaxed and shrugged and laughed at him. + +"You add to the entertainment!" she mocked him. "For, mind you, while +you make large commands, the puma draws nearer and nearer. If you +will, between your great commands, but glance into the mirror----" + +"I say you can put a stop to that infernal torture," he said fiercely. +"And you will!" + +"Yes?" she sneered at him. "And you will make me, perhaps? You, a +common adventurer will dictate to Zoraida!" + +For the moment he felt powerless in face of her cold taunting. But +there was too much at stake for him to yield now to a feeling of +powerlessness. One hand was on her wrist; the gripping fingers of the +other shut about the haft of the ancient obsidian knife. The old knife +of sacrifice. His face was white and stern, his eyes no whit less +deadly than Zoraida's. + +"You threaten my life?" she gasped. "_You_?" + +He made no answer. He was beyond speech. Slowly he lifted the great +knife, slowly as in a dream he set the thin point against the soft +flesh of Zoraida's throat. As a tremor shook his hand Zoraida whipped +back. + +"You would not dare! You would not dare!" + +His hand was steady again. He held her still, and the point of the +knife crept a hair's breadth closer to the life within her. A little +more and it would have slipped into the skin it was pricking. + +"You could not do it," she whispered. + +Then he spoke. + +"I can do it." His lips were dry, his voice very harsh. "You have +said that you know me for a man of my word. Well, then, I swear to you +that little by little I'll drive that knife in unless you set that girl +free." + +Still she sought to brave it out, sought to defy him; her eyes, on his, +told him that his will was less than hers, and that this could never +be. But Kendric knew otherwise. It was given him to know that if +Betty died, he did not care to live. Like men of his stamp it was +unthinkable to him that he should lift his hand against a woman. But +woman for the moment Zoraida was not. Fiend, rather; reincarnated +savage; a thing to stamp into the earth. What he had said he meant. +He was giving her time because on her rested Betty's fate. He pressed +the knife a little deeper. So steady was his hand, so stiff Zoraida's +body, so gradual the increased pressure, that the knife point made in +the white flesh a tiny, shadow-filled dimple. + +Now came into Zoraida's eyes a swift change, a look which in all of her +life had never been there until now. A look of terror, of realization +of death, of frantic fear. She sought to speak, and words failed her. +The knife pressed steadily. A piercing scream broke from her. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +HOW ONE WHO HAS EVER COMMANDED MUST LEARN TO OBEY + +Suddenly Zoraida had become as docile as a little frightened child. +She shivered from head to foot. She put her two hands to her throat +where just now the point of the knife had been. + +"Quick!" said Kendric. + +She rose in haste. A vertigo was upon her like that dizzy weakness of +one very sick, seeking prematurely to rise from bed. She had +experienced a shock from which she could rally only gradually; she +looked broken. Her eyes appeared to see nothing about her but stared +off into the distance through a veil of abstraction. + +"We will have to go," she said tonelessly. "There is no other way." + +They passed by the inert figure on the floor and out, Kendric with his +left hand always on her arm. Again the knife was hidden under his +coat, but his fingers did not release it. + +"Quick," he said again. + +So Zoraida, obedient in this strange new mood governing her, making no +effort to shake off his hand having no thought to gainsay him, +hastened. In perhaps five minutes they were unlocking the last door, +and Kendric heard beyond the whining of the puma. Kendric had had time +for thought during this brief interval which had seemed much longer; +for the present both his safety and Betty's would undoubtedly depend +upon his keeping Zoraida with him. So now, as he flung open the door, +he carried Zoraida along into the room. + +At first he did not see the cat lying close to the cage; he saw only +Betty. A little color had come back into her cheeks; he saw the look +in her eyes before it changed and knew that to Betty had come the time +when hope is given up and when death is faced. She had passed beyond +tears and pleading and crying out. It was given Kendric then to learn +that when the crisis had come it found in the girl's heart a courage to +sustain her. Her face was set, her attitude was no longer cringing. +In such tender breasts as Betty's have beat the steady hearts of +martyrs. + +When she saw Jim Kendric and Zoraida standing before her she stared +incredulously. She was in a daze. Her first wild thought, reflecting +itself unmistakably in her wide eyes, was that they had come to taunt +her, he and she side by side. Then her faltering gaze left Zoraida and +ignored her and went, full of earnest questioning, to Jim's face. +Suddenly, at what she saw there, the red blood of joyousness ran into +Betty's cheeks. At moments like this it is with few words or none at +all that perfect understanding comes. In a flash his look had told her +all that it would require many fumbling spoken words to repeat one-half +so eloquently. + +The puma had sprung to its feet but stood its ground. The murderous +eyes were everywhere at once, on Betty, on Jim, on Zoraida, most of all +on Betty; the quivering nostrils widened and sniffed; the tawny throat +shook with a series of low growls. Jim's foot stirred; the cat's teeth +came together with a snap. + +With little wish as Kendric had to create a disturbance just now, it +was beyond his power to withhold his hand as he saw Betty draw back +against the walls of her cage. In his pocket was Bruce's weapon. +Kendric jerked it out, and before Zoraida's cry could burst from her +lips and before her hand struck his arm, he drove a bullet into the +puma's skull between the hard evil eyes. The animal dropped in its +tracks, with never another whine. + +As the puma went down, Zoraida winced as though in bodily pain, as +though it had been her flesh instead of her cat's that had known the +deep bite of hot lead. She looked from the twitching animal to Kendric +like one aghast, like one stupefied by what she had seen, who could not +altogether believe that an accomplished act had in reality taken place. +There was horror in her look; she recalled to him vividly though +fleetingly a South Sea island priest whom he had seen long ago when the +savage's idol had been overthrown and cast down into a mud puddle under +the palm trees. At that moment Zoraida might well have been sister to +the idolater of the South Seas or some ancient Egyptian priestess +stricken dumb at the sight of sacred cat violated. + +But there was Betty. Jim jerked open the door of the cage. Betty +stumbled through and somehow found herself in his arms. They closed +tight about her. The two turned to Zoraida. She, white-faced and +silent, watched them with smoldering eyes. And into those eyes, as for +a space Betty's heart fluttered against Jim Kendric's breast, came for +the first time since the knife had been withdrawn from her throat, a +quickening of purpose, a glint as of a covered fire breaking through. + +"Come, Betty," said Jim quickly. "We are going to clear out of this, +you and I. Right now!" + +He noted a slight restless stirring of Zoraida's foot and stepped to +her side, his hand again on her arm. + +"We are not through with you yet," he told her. "Miss Gordon will want +some clothes." + +"In her room," agreed Zoraida. "Come." + +Had she delayed her answer the fraction of a second he might have +followed her, suspecting nothing. But as it was he remarked on her +eagerness; Zoraida was passionately set on treachery and he sensed it. + +"No," he answered. "From here we go straight out into the open." +Zoraida had yielded to the pressure on her arm as though to continue in +her new role of implicit obedience. But now his distrust was wide +awake. There may have been a slight involuntary stiffening of her +muscles, hinting at rebellion; there was something which warned him in +the look she sought to veil. "What clothes Betty needs you can give +her. Here and now." + +"Oh!" cried Betty, with a look of abhorrence and a shudder. "I +couldn't----" + +"It can't be helped," he retorted. And to Zoraida: "She'll want shoes +and stockings." + +The look he had then from Zoraida was one of utter loathing and at last +of unhidden lust for his undoing. But after it she bestowed on him a +slow contemptuous smile and again she obeyed. Her little shoes she +kicked off; she drew off her stockings and he handed them to Betty. + +"Zoraida goes barefooted at a man's command!" A first note of laughter +was in Zoraida's voice. "What more? Am I to disrobe in a man's +presence?" + +"Your cloak," he muttered. "We'll make that do." + +The cloak Betty accepted and threw about her shoulders. The shoes and +stockings she held a moment, looking at them with repulsion in her +eyes; they were too intimate, they had come too lately from Zoraida and +in the end she threw them down. + +"My sandals will do," she said. "I can't wear her things." + +Kendric picked them up and thrust them into his pocket. + +"Later, then," he said. "God knows we can't be choosers. Now," and +again he confronted Zoraida, "you will show us the way. Clear of the +house. And we'll want horses. One thing, mind you: It is in my +thought that if we allow you to hold us here we'll both be dead inside +a few hours. I've no desire for that sort of thing. The issue is +clear cut, isn't it?" + +Zoraida merely lifted her brows at him. + +"If it becomes a question of your life or ours," he told her sternly; +"I'd naturally prefer it to be yours! Is that plain enough? For once, +young woman, it's up to you to play square. Now, go ahead." + +They went out silently through the door which had given them entrance +into this ugly room, Zoraida leading the way, Kendric holding close at +her side and allowing her the sight of the obsidian knife held under +his coat with the point within an inch of her side, Betty close behind +him. Kendric felt a crying need of haste. For a few minutes he knew +that the fear of death had been heavy on the spirit of Zoraida, +paralyzing her will, freezing up the current of her thought. But she +was still Zoraida, essentially fearless; her characteristic fortitude +would not be long in reinstating itself in her heart; the mental +confusion was swiftly being replaced by the activity of resurging +hatred. He must be watchful of every corner and door, most of all +watchful of her. + +Thus it was Kendric's hand, once bolts were shot back, that threw open +each door, as he held himself in readiness to spring forward or back. +But as appeared customary here the house seemed deserted. He thanked +his stars that the fellow he had struck down in Zoraida's room had +fallen hard. Not even the dull explosion of the pistol just now had +brought inquiry; no doubt the thick walls had deadened the sound. +After what seemed a long time they came into the wide dimly-lighted +hall. The door giving entrance to the _patio_ was open; under the +stars the little fountain played musically. + +"Out this way," commanded Kendric. "Then around to the front of the +house. And if we meet anyone, Zoraida, you'd best think back a few +minutes before you start anything." + +There was no one in the _patio_ and they went through swiftly and out +at the far side into the garden. Kendric filled his lungs with the +sweet air that was beginning to grow cool. The glitter of the stars +was to him like a hope and a promise. Never had he been so sick of +four walls and a smothering roof. Now the musty gardens of the golden +king seemed to him infinitely far away, a thousand times farther +removed than the dancing lights in the heavens. + +With his hand gripping Zoraida's forearm they skirted the house. +Presently they came to the front driveway and Zoraida must have +wondered as he forced her to go with him to a clump of bushes. He +stooped, groped about a moment, and then straightened up with a little +grunt of satisfaction; the rifle was in his hands. + +"Now the horses," he said, and the three walked out into the starlight +and toward the double gates. "Whatever you will say will go with the +men out there. And be sure you say we are to be allowed to go for a +ride." + +Zoraida did not answer and Kendric wondered, not without uneasiness, +what she would say. His grip tightened on her arm. She did not appear +to notice. + +The watch towers on either side of the gate were lighted as usual. +From one came the low drone of two men's voices; the other was silent. +No other sound save that of the rattle of bit-chains as a horse +somewhere shook its head. + +A man appeared from nowhere, with the air of having suddenly +materialized out of the atmosphere. He came close, made out that one +of the three was Zoraida and backed away, sweeping off his hat. They +came to the gates which the newly risen figure threw open; they went +through, Kendric having the air of a man lending his arm to a lady, +Betty with the cloak drawn close about her, following. They were out! +Now nearer than ever came the friendly stars, sweeter than ever was the +night air. Kendric looked swiftly about, taking note of the darkness +lying close to the earth, thanking God that there was no moon. If one +could keep for a little in the shadow of the wall, if then he could get +clear of the house and out into the fields lying at the rear, it was +but a short run to the mountains---- + +They had turned and already were under one of the watch towers, the one +whence came the men's voices. The saddled horses stood, tethered to +rings set in the wall. Zoraida turned toward Kendric and in the +starlight her eyes shone strangely, bright with mockery. But tonight +was Jim Kendric's, and he was still bent on playing out his hand. + +"_Que hay, amigos_?" he called familiarly to the men in the square +tower, his voice sounding careless and indifferent. "La Senorita is +here. She wants horses." + +A head appeared at the little opening that served for window above, a +hat was doffed with exaggerated deference, a second uncovered head was +thrust out. Kendric stepped back half a pace so that they could see +plainly that it was Zoraida. + +"_Bueno_," said one of the two men. "_Viva la Senorita_!" + +Already Kendric was undoing the two tie ropes. He regretted the +necessity of stepping two paces from Zoraida's side, but realized that +inevitably that necessity must come soon or late and he lost no time +grieving over it. The horses were at hand, saddled and bridled; Betty +was with him; the night was too dark for eyes to watch from a distance; +the two men within Zoraida's call were still up in the tower. He was +taking his chance now and he knew it; Zoraida's period of obedience and +inactivity was no doubt near at end. Well, his luck had befriended him +thus far and for the rest it was up to Jim Kendric. And they were out +in the open! + +Thus he was ready for Zoraida's outcry. He saw her whip back so as to +be beyond the sweep of his arm, he heard her crying out wildly, +commanding her retainers to stop the flight of her prisoners, shrieking +at them to shoot, to shoot to kill! + +"Betty!" cried Jim. "Quick!" + +Then he saw that Betty, too, had been ready. Just how she managed it, +encumbered as she was with Zoraida's cloak, he did not know. But she +was already in one of the saddles. + +"Jim!" she cried wildly. "Run!" + +He went up to the back of the other horse, his rifle in his hand. And +as he struck saddle leather his horse and Betty's shot forward and +away. He heard Zoraida's scream of command, breaking with rage. He +heard men's voices shouting excitedly; there came the well-remembered +shrilling of a whistle and then drowning its silver note the popping of +rifles. + +"There'll be a dozen of them in the saddle and after us!" Jim shouted +at Betty. "Swing off to the right. We've got to make for the +mountains. Ride, girl! Ride, Betty! Ride for all that's in it!" + +He glanced over his shoulder. Only a flare here and there as a rifle +spat its red threat, that and a blur of running figures. As yet no +horseman following them. That would take another minute or two. He +looked at Betty. She rode astride and well; no need to bid her make +haste. She leaned forward in the saddle, the loose ends of her reins +whipping back and forth regularly, lashing her horse's shoulders. He +looked ahead. There the mountains rose black and without detail +against the sky. He looked up; the stars were shining. + +Abruptly, as though at a command, the rifles ceased firing after them. +And, instead of the explosions which had concerned Kendric little, came +another sound fully to be expected by now and of downright serious +import. It was the scurry and race of hoofs, how many there was no +guessing. Pursuit had started and it was certain that the numbers of +the pursuers would swell swiftly until perhaps a score of Zoraida's +riders were on their track. Kendric settled down to hard riding, +drawing in close to Betty's side. + +"We got a couple of minutes on them," he called to her. "That means +we're ahead of them between a quarter and a half mile. In the dark +that's something." + +Betty made no answer. They sped on. He tried to see her face but her +hair was flying wildly. He wondered if her terror were freezing the +heart in her. His own sensation at the moment was one of a strange +sort of leaping gladness. After prison walls, this rushing through the +night was like a zestful game. He felt that he had that even break +which was ever all that he asked. If only Betty could feel as he did. + +His horse stumbled and then steadied and plunged on. The ground +underfoot was rapidly growing steeper and more broken. The first +slopes of the mountains were beneath them. The horses, though urged +on, were not making their former speed. Now and then dry brush +snatched and whipped at the stirrups; here and there a pine tree stood +up black and still. + +And then Kendric knew that the riders behind were gaining on them. +Zoraida's men would know every trail even in the dark, would know all +of the cleared spaces, would thus avoid both brush and steeps. Kendric +turned in the saddle. He made out dimly the foremost of the pursuers +and heard the man's shout to his companions. + +"Betty," called Kendric. + +"Yes?" she answered, and it struck him that perhaps he had imagined her +terror greater than it actually was; for her voice was quite clear and +even sounded untroubled. "What is it?" + +"In ten minutes or so they'll overhaul us. They know the way and we +don't. Further, we're apt to get a spill over a pile of rocks." + +"Yes, Jim," she answered. And still her voice failed to tremble as he +had thought it must. + +"The old dodge is all that's left us," he told her. "When I say the +word, pull up a little and slide out of the saddle. Let your horse run +on and you duck into the brush." + +"And you?" + +"I'm with you, of course." And presently, when they were in the +shadows of the ever-steepening mountain side, he called softly: "Now!" + +Until then he had never done Betty's horsemanship justice. He saw her +bring her mount down from a flying gallop to a sliding standstill, he +saw her throw herself from the saddle, he saw the released animal +plunge on again under a blow from the quirt which Betty had snatched +from the horn, the whole act taking so little time that it hardly +seemed that the horse had stopped for a second's time. Kendric +duplicated her act and ran toward the spot where she had disappeared. +In another moment his hand had closed about hers, was greeted by a +little welcoming squeeze, and he and Betty slipped side by side into +the thicker dark at the mouth of a friendly canon. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +OF FLIGHT, PURSUIT, AND A LAIR IN THE CLIFFS + +Straightway Jim Kendric began to understand the real Betty. He broke a +way through the bushes for her, confident that the noise of their +progress was lost in the increasing beat of hoofs and rattle of loose +stones. They stumbled into a rocky trail in the bottom of the canon +and made what haste they could, climbing higher into the mountain +solitudes. The pursuit had swept by them; they could hear occasional +shouts and twice gunshots. They came to a pile of tumbled boulders +across their path and crawled up. There was a flattish place at the +top in which stunted plants were growing. Here they sat for a little +while, hiding and resting and listening. Hardly had they settled +themselves here when they heard again the clear tones of Zoraida's +whistle. Not more than fifty yards away they made out the form of +Zoraida's white horse. + +There was a little sound from where Betty sat, and Jim thought that she +was sobbing. "Poor little kid," he had it on his lips to mutter when +the sound repeated itself and, amazed, he recognized it for a giggle of +pure delight. This from Betty, sitting on a rock in the mountains with +a crowd of outlaws riding up and down seeking her! + +"You're about as logical an individual as I ever knew," was what he +said. And with a grunt, at that. + +"I never claimed to be logical," retorted Betty. "I'm just a girl." + +Even then, while they whispered and fell silent and watched and +listened, he began to understand the girl whom he was to come to know +very well before many days. She did not pretend at high fearlessness; +when she was afraid she was very much afraid, and had no thought to +hide the fact. Tonight her fright had come as near killing as fright +can. But then she was alone and there was no one but herself to make +the fight for her. Now it was different. Since Jim had come she had +allowed her own responsibility to shift to his shoulders. It was +instinctive in her to turn to some man, to have some man to trust and +to depend upon. Jim was looking out for her and right now, while +Zoraida and her men searched up and down, Betty clasped her arms about +her gathered-up knees and sat cozily at the side of the man whose sole +duty, as she saw it, was to guard her with his life. So Betty, close +enough to touch the rifle across Jim's arm, could giggle as she +pictured Zoraida rushing by the very spot where they hid. + +"You're not afraid, then?" asked Jim. + +"Not now," whispered Betty. + +They did not budge for half an hour. During that time Kendric did a +deal of hard thinking. Their plight was still far from satisfactory. +No food, no water, no horses, and in the heart of a land of which they +know nothing except that it was hard and bleak and closely patrolled by +Zoraida's riders. That they could succeed now in eluding pursuit for +the rest of the night seemed assured. But tomorrow? Where there was +one man looking for them now there would be ten tomorrow. And there +were the questions of food and water. Above all else, water. + +At last, when it was very still all about them, they moved on again. +They climbed over the rocks and further up the canon. Here there were +more trees and thicker darkness, and their progress was painfully slow. +They skirted patches of thorny bushes; they went on hands and knees up +sharp inclines. They stopped frequently, panting and straining their +ears for some sound to tell them of a pursuer; they went on again, side +by side or with Kendric ahead, breaking trail. + +"We'll have to dig in somewhere before dawn," said Jim once while they +rested. "Where we can stick close during daylight tomorrow." + +Betty merely nodded; all such details were to be left to him. It was +his clear-cut task to take care of her; just how he did it was not +Betty's concern. So they went on, left the canon where there was a way +out, made their toilsome way over a low ridge and slid and rolled down +into the next ravine. And here, at the bottom, they found water. A +thin trickle from a spring, wending its way down to the larger stream +in the valley. They lay down, side by side, and drank. Then they sat +back and looked at each other in the starlight. + +"Betty," said Jim impulsively, "you're a brick!" + +"Am I?" said Betty. And by her voice he knew that she was pleased. + +"We're not as far from the house as I'd like," he said presently. "But +it will take time to locate a decent hiding place, and we've got to +stick within reach of water." + +To all of this Betty agreed; personally she'd like to be a thousand +miles away from this hideous place, but they would have to make the +best of things. That willingness of hers to accept conditions without +bemoaning her fate was what had drawn from him his impulsive epithet. + +"The thing to do, then," said Kendric, getting up "is to look for a +likely place to spend a long day. And it may be more than one day." + +Then Betty made her suggestion, offering it timidly, as though she were +entering a discussion in which, rightly, she had no part: + +"Up yonder," and she pointed to the abrupt ridge cutting black across +the stars, "are cliffy places. It's not too far from water. There +ought to be hiding places among the broken boulders. And," she +concluded, "we might be able to peek out and look down and see what was +happening." + +No; he had not done her justice. He looked toward her, wondering for a +moment. Then he said briefly: "Right," and they drank again and began +climbing. + + +It was Betty who, fully an hour later, found the retreat which they +agreed to utilize. Kendric was somewhere above her, making a hazardous +way up a steep bit of cliff, when Betty's voice floated up to him. + +"I think I've got it," were her words, guarded but athrill with her +triumph. "Come see. It's a great hole, hid by bushes. I don't like +to go poking into it alone. You can't tell, there might be a bear or a +snake or something inside." + +He climbed down to where she stood at the edge of a little level space, +her gown gathered in a hand at each side, her pretty face thrust +forward as she sought to peer into the dark before her. He saw the +clump of bushes but not immediately the hole of which she spoke, so was +it covered and hidden. But at length he made out the irregular opening +and, thrusting the bushes aside with his rifle barrel, judged that +Betty had done well. Here was a perpendicular cleft in the rock, one +of those cracks which not infrequently result from the splitting of +gigantic masses of rock along a well-defined flaw. In some ancient +convulsion this fissure had developed, the two monster fragments of the +mountain had been divided, one had slipped a little, and thereafter +through the ages they had stood face to face, close together. Kendric +could barely squeeze his body through; he found the space slanting off +to the side; he groped forward half a dozen steps, encountered an +outjutting knob of stone, slipped by it, and found that the split in +the cliff now slanted off the other way and widened so that there was a +space five or six feet across. How far ahead the fissure extended he +could form no idea yet. He turned back for Betty and bumped into her +just inside the entrance. + +"It's just the place for us tonight," he said. "Though how in the +world you stumbled onto it gets me." + +"The bushes grew close to the rocks," Betty explained. "I was thinking +that we could creep back of them and find a little space where, with +the brush on one side and the cliff on the other, we'd be hidden. And +I found this hole." + +"The air gets in and it's clean and fresh," he went on. "We couldn't +hope for better." + +"The walls are so close," whispered Betty, with a little shudder. +"They give one the feeling they're going to press in and crush you." + +"They widen a bit in a minute." He groped on ahead, came again to the +outthrust knob and pressed by. "Here we turn a little to the right and +here's room for a dozen people." + +Betty hurried and stood close to him. In vain her eyes sought to +penetrate the absolute dark; no slightest detail of floor or wall was +offered save vaguely through the sense of touch. + +"It's dark enough to smother you," she whispered. "I wonder what's +ahead of us? I wish we dared have a light!" + +He was silent a moment. + +"Maybe we do dare," he said thoughtfully. "The crookedness of this +place ought to shut off any glow from the outside. Let's go on a +little further and we'll try." + +He went on slowly, feeling a cautious way with his feet, his hand on +the wall of rock at his side, Betty pressing on close behind him. Thus +they continued another dozen paces or so. Then they stopped because +they could find no means of continuing; so far as they could tell by +groping with their hands the fissure narrowed again until it was no +wider than the original entrance, and its irregularities presented +difficulties to blind progress. + +"Stand here," said Kendric. "Close to the rock. Here's a match. I'll +slip back to the mouth of the place and we'll see if there's any glow +gets that far." + +"Hurry, then," said Betty, with a little shiver, fingers finding his +and taking the match. + +Appreciating her sensations he hurried off through the dark. He +rounded the turn, called softly to her to strike the match and went on +again until he was near the entrance. So still was it that he heard +the scratching of the match against the sole of her sandal. But no +flare of light came out to him. + +"Did you light it?" he asked. + +"Yes. Couldn't you see it?" + +"Not a glimmer. Wait a minute and I'll bring in some stuff for a fire." + +The match burned down until it warmed her fingers and went out. In the +dark she waited breathlessly. A sigh of relief escaped her when she +heard him coming. + +He went down on his knees and made a very small heap of the dry leaves +and twigs he had scraped up. When he set fire to it and straightened +up they watched the flames eagerly. There was scarcely more light than +a candle casts but even that faint illumination brought something of +cheeriness with it. They looked about them curiously. They could see +dimly the passageway along which they had come; they could make out its +narrowing continuation on into the mass of the mountain. They looked +up and saw an ever dwindling space merging with darkness and finally +lost in utter obscurity. Underfoot was debris, rocky soil worn away +from the cliffs throughout the ages, here and there fallen slivers and +scale of rock. Shadows moved somberly, misshapen and grotesque, like +brooding spirits of evil stirring in nightmare. + +Kendric threw on a little more fuel and, to make doubly sure, went +outside again, standing in the open beyond the fringe of bushes. + +"Never a flicker gets through," he announced when he returned. "A man +would have to come close enough to hear the wood crackle or smell the +smoke to ever guess we had a fire going. And even the smoke is taken +care of." They tilted back their heads to see how it crept lazing up +and up until it was dissipated among the lofty shadows. "If we can +manage water and food," he went on, "I think we would be safe here a +year. The lazy devils taking Zoraida's pay can't make it up this way +on horseback, and they're not going to climb on foot up every steep bit +of mountainside hereabouts, looking for us." + +"A year?" gasped Betty. + +"I hope not." He became conscious of a sudden sense of relief after +all that the night had offered and his old joyous laughter shone in his +eyes. "But there may be wisdom in sticking close for a few days. +Until they decide we've gone clear." + +It was the time, inevitable though it may be long delayed, of relaxing +nerves and muscles. Betty sat down limply, her hands loose in her tap, +her eyes drawn to their fire, looking tired and wistful. Kendric, +looking at her, felt a hot rush of anger at Zoraida for being the cause +of their present condition. Betty lifted her head and caught the +expression molding his face. She was wrapped about with her red gown +and Zoraida's cloak; her ankles were bare; then were scratches on them; +her sandals looked already worn out; her hair was tumbled and snarled. +She shook it loose and began combing it through with her fingers, then +twisting it up into two loose brown braids. + +"If we do have to stay a while," said Betty, gathering her courage in +both hands, looking up at him an managing a smile, "I'll show you how I +can cozy the place up. Tomorrow, while you're doing the man's part and +finding us something to eat, I'll show you what a housekeeper I can be. +Why, I can make this just like home; you'll see." + +While he was doing the man's part! In her mind, then, it was all +simplified and reduced to that. His, naturally, was to be the task of +furnishing food, for nothing was clearer than that they must eat and +that filling the larder was Jim's affair and not Betty's. Where he was +to get food and how and what kind of food it might be was to be left to +him. There was Betty for you, quite content to leave such matters +where they properly belonged--in a man's hands. But he might rest +assured that whatever he brought in, be it a handful of acorns or pine +nuts or the carcass of a lean ground squirrel, would be, in Betty's +eye, splendid! + +"Somehow," he burst out, "in spite of Zoraida and all the bandits in +Mexico, we'll carry on!" + +"Of course," said Betty. + +He saw that she was leaning back against the rocks, that her whole body +drooped, that she looked wearied out. + +"I'm going out for some boughs, the softest I can find handy," he said. +"We'll have to sleep on them. And while I'm doing that I've got to +figure out a way to bring some water up here. We don't know what's +ahead and we'd be in hard luck bottled up here all day tomorrow with +nothing to drink. Lord, I'd give a lot for a tin bucket!" + +He made a little heap of dead wood close to her hand so that she could +keep her fire going, and put down on the other side of her his rifle +and the long obsidian knife, planning to use his pocket knife for the +work at hand. + +"You won't go far?" asked Betty. + +"Only a few steps," he assured her. "I'll hear if you call. And you +have the rifle handy." + +He was going out when Betty's voice arrested him. + +"It's the housekeeper's place to have the buckets ready," was what she +said. + +"What do you mean by that?" he asked. + +"I'll show you when you come back. You'll hurry, won't you?" + +"Sure thing," he answered. And went about his task. + +Now Jim Kendric knew as well as any man that there is no bed to compare +with the bed a man may make for himself in the forestlands. But here +was no forest, no thicket of young firs aromatic and springy, nothing +but the harsher vegetation of a hard land where agaves, the _maguey_ of +Mexico, and their kin thrive, where the cactus is the characteristic +growth. He'd be in luck to find some small pines or even the +dry-looking sparse cedars of the locality. These with handfuls of dry +leaves and grass, perhaps some tenderer shoots from the hillside sage, +with Zoraida's cloak spread over them, might make for Betty a couch on +which she could manage to sleep. It was too dark for picking and +choosing and his range was limited to what scant growth found root on +these uplands close by. + +When he returned with the first armful of branches he informed Betty +cheerily that outside her fire was hidden as though a sturdy oak panel +shut their door for them. Betty was bending busily over her cloak and +still thus occupied when he brought in the second and third trailing +armful of boughs. He stood with his hands on his hips, looking down at +her curiously. And as at last Betty glanced up brightly there was an +air of triumph about her. + +"The bucket is ready for the water," she said. + +He came closer and she held out something toward him, and again he +adjusted his views to fit the companion whom he was growing to know. +She had spoiled a very beautiful and expensive cloak, but of it she had +improvised something intended to hold water. Not for very long, +perhaps; but long enough for the journey here from the creek, if a man +did not loiter on the way. With the ancient sacrificial knife she had +hacked at a stringy, fibrous bit of vegetation growing near the mouth +of their den; she had managed a tough loop some eight or ten inches in +diameter. Then she had ripped a square of silk from the cloak which +she had shaped cunningly like a deep pocket, binding it securely into +the fiber rim by thrusting holes through the silk and running bits of +the green fiber through like pack thread. The final result looked +something less like a bucket than some strange oriole's hanging nest. + +"It _will_ hold water," vowed Betty, ready for argument. "I've worn +bathing caps of a lot poorer grade of silk and never a drop got +through. Besides I put a thickness of silk, then a layer of these +broad leaves, then another piece of silk, to make sure." + +"Fine," he said. "Yes, it will hold water for a while. But it's a +long time from daylight until dark, and I'm afraid----" + +"As if I hadn't thought of that!" said Betty. "I knew that if I looked +around I'd find something. I thought of your boots, of course; and I +thought of your rifle barrel. But you'll need the boots and may need +the gun. Come and I'll show you our reservoir." + +She put a handful of leaves and twigs on the fire for the sake of more +light, and led the way toward the narrowing fissure further back in +their retreat. Here she stopped before a great rudely egg-shaped +boulder five or six feet through that lay in a shallow depression in +the ground. + +"Our water bottle," said Betty. + +He supposed that she referred to the depression in the rock floor, +since the boulder did not fit in it so exactly as to preclude the +possibility of the big rude basin holding water. The word +"evaporation" was on his lips when Betty explained. She had hoped to +find somewhere a cavity in a rock that would hold their water supply; +she had noted this boulder and a flattish place at its top. There her +questing fingers had discovered what Kendric's, at her direction, were +exploring now. There was a fairly round hole, a couple of inches +across. The edges were surprisingly smooth; Kendric could not guess +how deep the hole was. + +"Poke a stick into it," Betty commanded. + +Obeying, he learned that the hole extended eighteen inches or more. +Here was a fairly regular cylinder let into a block of hard rock that +would contain something like two quarts of water--certainly enough to +keep the life in two people for twenty-four hours. + +"We'll make a plug to fit into the mouth of it," he said, catching her +idea and immediately was as enthusiastic over it as Betty. "And while +we're out getting the water we'll find something for straws. There are +wild grasses, oats or something that looks like oats, in the canon." + +The night was well spent; dawn would come early. And with the dawn, +they had no doubt, the mountain trails would fill with Zoraida's men, +questing like hounds. Hence Betty and Jim lost no more time in making +their trip down the steep slope to the trickle of water. They drank +again, lying side by side at a pool. Then Jim filled Betty's "bucket" +and they returned to their place of refuge. Kendric arranged the +boughs for Betty and made her lie down. By the time he had carved and +fitted a plug into their "water bottle" Betty was asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +HOW ONE WHO HIDES AND WATCHES MAY BE WATCHED BY ONE HIDDEN + +But Kendric himself did not sleep. He sat by their dead fire and +watched the gradual thinning of the darkness about him as the vague +light filtered in from the awakening outside world. He looked at Betty +sleeping, only to look away with a frown darkening his eyes. She would +sleep heavily and long; she would awake refreshed and--hungry. He was +hungry already. + +"It's open and shut," he told himself. "It's up to me to forage." + +And it was as clear that there was always a risk of being seen as he +left their hiding place. That risk would increase as the day +brightened. Hence, since he must go, it were best not to tarry. He +found in his pocket a stub of pencil and an old envelope. On it he +wrote a brief message, placing it on the ground near her outflung hand, +laying Bruce's pistol upon it. + + +"I'm off to fill the larder. Stick close until I come back. If I'm +long gone it will be because I can't help it. But be sure I'll be back +all right and bring something to eat. Jim." + + +He left her, not without uneasiness, but eager to hurry away so that, +if all went well, his return might be hastened. He took the rifle and +slipped cautiously through the bushes, stopping to make what assurance +he could that he was not being seen, crawling for the most part across +the open places, keeping as much as possible where boulders or trees +hid him. He had already made his tentative plans; he made his way down +into the bed of the ravine and thence upstream. Swiftly the light +increased over the still solitudes. The sun was up on the highlands, +the canons only were still dusky. + +He found a place where he could stand hidden and see the cliff-broken +slope where Betty was. Here he stood motionless for a long time, +watching. For he knew that if by chance someone had seen him and had +not followed it was because that someone had elected rather to seek the +girl. At last, when the stillness remained unbroken and he saw no +stirring thing, he expressed his relief in a deep sigh and went on. + +His plan was to work his way up the ravine until at last he topped the +ridge and went down on the further side. From his starting place he +had roughly picked out his way, shaping his trail to conform to those +bits of timber which would aid in his concealment. Once over the ridge +he would press on until several miles lay between him and Betty. Then, +if he saw game of any sort or a straying calf or sheep, he would have +to take the chance that a rifle shot entailed. If his shot brought +Zoraida's men down on him, he would have to fight for it or run for it +as circumstances directed. + +He was an hour in cresting the first ridge. Before him lay a wild +country, broken and barren in places where there were wildernesses of +rock and thorny bush; in other places scantily timbered and grown up in +tough grasses. A more unlikely game country he thought that he had +never seen. But the land hereabouts was not utterly devoid of water +and always, as he went on, he sought those canons where from a distance +he judged that he might come to a spring. Even so he was parched with +thirst before he found the first mudhole. And before he drew near +enough to drink he sat many minutes screened by some dusty willows, his +eye keen either for watering game or for Zoraida's hirelings who would +be watching the waterholes. + +But, when at last he came on, he found nothing but a jumble of tracks. +Ponies had watered here and had trampled the spring into its present +resemblance to a mudhole. He found a place to drink, and drank +thirstily, finding no fault with the alkali water or the sediment in +it. He washed his hands and face in it, wet his hair and went on. + +There came three more spurs of mountain to cross, all unlikely for +game, each one hotter and dryer than the others. Twice he had seen a +coyote; he had seen two or three gaunt, hungry-looking jackrabbits. +They had been too far away to draw a shot, gray glimmers through +patches of sage. He had seen never a hoof of wandering cattle. And he +realized that during the heat of the day there was small hope of his +sighting any browsing animal. He would probably have to wait until the +cool of evening and then, if he made his kill, return to Betty in the +dark. And, though he keenly kept his bearings, he knew that if he +mistook a landmark somewhere and got into a wrong canon, he'd have his +work cut out for him finding her at night. Well, that was only a piece +of the whole pattern and he kept his mind on the immediate present. + +He estimated that he was ten miles from camp. Ahead of him stretched +still another ridge, a little higher than the others but a shade less +barren; there were scattered pines and oaks and open grassy places. +From the top of this ridge, half an hour later, he glimpsed a haze of +smoke rising from the little valley just beyond. And when he came to a +place whence he could have an unobstructed view he saw a scattering +flock of sheep, a tiny stream of water and a rickety board shack. It +was from this shelter that the smoke rose. It was high noon and down +there the midday meal was cooking. + +Food being cooked right under his nose! All day he had been hungry; +now he was ravenous. So strong was the impulse upon him that he +started down the slope in a direct line to the house, bent upon +flinging open a door and demanding to be fed. But he caught himself up +and sat down in the shade, hidden behind some bushes, and pondered the +situation. The sheep straggled everywhere; he might wait for one of +them to wander off into the bushes and then slip around upon it and +make it his own with a clubbed rifle. Or he might go to the house, +taking his chance. + +While he was waiting and watching he saw a man come out of the cabin. +The fellow lounged down to the spring for a pan of water and lounged +back to the house; the eternal Mexican cigaret in his lips sent its +floating ribbon of smoke behind him. Ten minutes later the same man +came out, this time to lie down on the ground under a tree. + +"Just one _hombre_," decided Kendric. "A lazy devil of a sheepherder. +There's more than a fair chance that his _siesta_ will last all +afternoon." + +At any rate, here appeared his even break. He sprang up, went with +swinging strides down the slope, taking the shortest cut, and reached +the cabin by the back door. The Mexican still lay under his tree. +Kendric looked in at the door. No one there, just a bare, empty untidy +room. It was bedroom, kitchen and dining-room. In the latter capacity +it appealed strongly to Kendric. He went in, set his rifle down, and +rummaged. + +There was, of course, a big pot of red beans. And there were +_tortillas_, a great heap of them. Kendric took half a dozen of them, +moistened them in the half pan of water and poured a high heap of beans +on them. Then he rolled the tortillas up, making a monster cylindrical +bean sandwich. A soiled newspaper, with a look almost of antiquity to +it, he found on a shelf and wrapped about his sandwich which he thrust +into the bosom of his shirt. All of this had required about two +minutes and in the meantime his eyes had been busy, still rummaging. + +There was a box nailed to the wall with a cloth over it. In it he +found what he expected; a lot of jerked beef, dry and hard. He filled +his pockets, his mouth already full. On a table was a flour sack; he +put into it the bulk of the remaining beef, some coffee and sugar, a +couple of cans of milk. Then he looked out at the Mexican. The man +still lay in the gorged torpor of the afternoon _siesta_. + +"What will he think?" chuckled Kendric, "when he finds his larder +raided and this on the table?" + +_This_ was a twenty dollar gold piece, enough to pay many times over +the amount of the commandeered victuals. Kendric took up sack and +rifle, had another mouthful of _frijoles_ and beef, and went out the +way he had come. And, all the way up the slope, he chuckled to himself. + +"Enough to last Betty and me a week," he estimated. "And a place to +get more if need be. That hombre will pray the rest of his life to be +raided again.--And never a shot fired!" + +He ate as he went, enough to keep life and strength in him but not all +that his hunger craved. For he thought of Betty hungering and waiting +in that hideous loneliness of uncertainty, and had no heart for a +solitary meal. But in fancy, over and over, he feasted with her, and +beans and jerked beef and coffee boiled in a milk-can made a banquet. + +He hastened all that he could to return to her, though he knew that +speeding along the trail could hardly bring him to her a second +earlier. For he would, in the end, be constrained to wait for the +coming of night before he climbed again to their camp. He realized +soberly that Betty must not again fall into Zoraida's hands; that the +result, inevitably, would be her death. Were Zoraida mad or sane, she +was filled with a frenzy of blood lust. There was danger enough +without his increasing it for the sake of coming an hour sooner with +food. In one day Betty would not starve and fast she must. + +But there was satisfaction in drawing steadily closer to her. He +traveled as cautiously as he had come, he stopped in many places of +concealment whence he could overlook miles of country, he followed not +the shortest paths but the safest. And the sun was still high when he +came to the last ridge and looked down the canon and across and saw the +cliffs of home. In his thoughts it was home. + +All day long, save for the herder, he had seen not a single soul. Now +he saw someone, a man at a distance and upon the side of the canon +opposite the spot he and Betty had chosen. Kendric had been for ten +minutes lying under a tree on the ridge, his body concealed by an +outcropping ledge of rock over which he had been looking. The man, +like himself, was playing a waiting game. But just now he had stirred, +moving swiftly from behind a tree to a nearby boulder. Thus he had +caught Kendric's eye. And thus Kendric was reassured, confident after +the first quick sinking of his heart, that the other had not seen him. + +The man, too far away for Kendric to distinguish detail of either +costume or features, was hardly more than a slinking shadow. But +almost with the first glimpse there came the quick suspicion that it +was Ruiz Rios. He saw something white in the man's hand; a +handkerchief since the gesture was one of wiping a wet forehead. And +on that slender evidence Kendric's belief established itself. +Zoraida's vacqueros would not carry white handkerchiefs; if they +carried any sort at all they would probably be red or yellow or blue; +or, if white originally, they would not be kept so snowy as to flash +like that one. And the gesture itself, once the thought had come to +him, was vaguely suggestive of that slow grace in every movement that +was Rios's. The man might be anyone, conceivably even Barlow or Brace; +but in his heart Kendric knew it was Rios. + +Lower than ever Kendric crouched in the shelter of the rock; steady and +unwinking and watchful did his eyes cling to the distant figure. He +made out after a long period of motionlessness another gesture; the +man's hands were up to his face; he was shading his eyes or studying +the mountainside with field glasses. + +The latter probably. + +The afternoon dragged on and for a long time neither man moved. At +last Rios, if Rios it was, withdrew a little, slipped behind a tree, +passed to another and disappeared. Kendric did not see him again +though he kept alert every instant. At last came the time when the sun +slipped down behind the ridge and the dusk thickened and the stars came +out. Kendric rose, stiff and weary, and began his slow, tedious way +down into the canon. His long enforced stillness during which he had +not dared doze a second, had served to bring a full realization of +bodily fatigue and need of sleep. No rest last night; today many hard +miles and little nourishment; now every nerve yearned for a safe return +to camp for a sight of Betty, for the opportunity to throw himself down +on a bed of boughs and rest. + +Though it was dark when he started to climb the steep toward camp he +relaxed nothing of his guarded precautions. Urged by impatience as he +was, eager to know if all was well with Betty, his uneasiness for her +growing with every step toward her, he crawled slowly and silently +through bushes and among boulders, he stopped frequently and listened, +he forced himself to a round about way rather than take the direct. +All this in spite of his keen realization that for Betty the time must +be dragging even as it dragged for him. Betty hungry, frightened and +lonely was, above all, uncertain. + +But at last he came to the opening in the rocks. He squeezed through, +his heart suddenly heavy within him as the stillness of the place smote +him like a positive assurance that Betty was gone. He went on, his +teeth set hard. If Betty were gone, by high heaven, there would be a +rendering of accounts! And then, even before the first glimmer of her +little fire reached him, he heard her glad cry. She came running to +meet him, her two hands out, groping for his. And he dropped rifle and +provision bag and in the half dark his hands found hers and gripped +hard in mighty rejoicing. + +"Thank God!" said Betty. + +And Jim Kendric's words were like a deep, fervent echo: "Thank God." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +IN WHICH A ROCK MOVES, A DISCOVERY IS MADE AND + MORE THAN ONE AVENUE IS OPENED + +In the light of Betty's fire Jim hastily poured forth the contents of +his bag and never did a child's eyes at Christmas time shine like +Betty's. She had hungered until she was weak and trembling and now +such articles as Jim displayed were amply sufficient to elicit from her +that little cry of delight. Tortillas and beans, meat and coffee and +sugar and milk--it was a banquet fit for a king and a queen! + +"The only thing," cautioned Kendric, "is to go slow. It's a course +dinner, Miss Betty. And first comes a bit of milk." + +He ripped open a can with his pocket knife, poured out half of the +thick contents into the silk-water bag and diluted the remainder with +water. Thereafter he watched Betty while she forced herself, at his +bidding, to eat and drink sparingly. And he noted that during his +absence she had been busy working on her wardrobe. Using both the red +garment and the cloak, employing in her task the obsidian knife and +strips of green fiber, she had made for herself a garment which it +would have been hard to classify and yet which was astonishingly +becoming. As much as anything Kendric had ever seen it resembled a +stylish and therefore outlandish riding habit. She wore Zoraida's +shoes and stockings. + +"I washed them with sand and water first," said Betty around a corner +of her sandwich. "And I let them air all day." + +"No visitors?" said Kendric. "No sign of anyone on our trail?" + +Betty assured him that she had been unmolested, that the terrible +stillness of the mountain had been unbroken. And she sought to tell +him how long the day had been. + +"I know," he said. "It was long enough for me, and I was out in the +open and stirring. It must have been a slice of torment for you here +alone all day, not even knowing if I'd ever get back or have any food +when I came." + +"I knew you'd come," said Betty. "But it was lonesome and shivery." + +He told her of his day and finally of the man he had seen across the +canon. Further, of his suspicion that it was Ruiz Rios. Betty +shuddered. + +"He is a terrible creature," she said. "I'd rather it was anyone else. +Do you think he has an idea we're here?" + +He stretched out by the fire, helped himself to a bit of the dried beef +and told her his thoughts. + +"I know just about how Rios would reason things out. And, oddly +enough, it strikes me that though he began with a false premise he has +come pretty close to reaching the right conclusion. You see, he knows +that I came down here with Barlow looking for treasure. He knew +Captain Escobar was ahead of him on the same trail and when he could +get nothing further out of Escobar he killed him. But he did know in a +general way where we expected to find the stuff. So, when you and I +skip out and don't head straight back to the gulf, he's pretty sure I'm +still making a stab at getting the treasure. And it has happened that +you and I, blundering along in the dark, have hit on this spot which is +not far from the place where the treasure is supposed to be. So Rios +hides in the brush with a pair of glasses and keeps his eye peeled for +us. I think that's the whole explanation of his being out yonder. And +I think that's all he knows." + +"It's enough." Betty shook her head dubiously. + +"Of course," he admitted, "this is just a guess on my part. He may +know more than I think.--During the day," he added, "and just now while +I lay out yonder waiting for dark, I've had a lot of time to think +things out. First, it strikes me as best to hide out here one more day +and then, tomorrow night, to make a break for the outside. Personally, +I don't know that I'd be fit for much tonight; it's a good stiff hike +to where we left the _Half Moon_ and I won't be able to keep awake much +longer. Then by tomorrow night, even if Zoraida is as keen as ever to +get us back, I doubt if her men's enthusiasm for vigilance will have +lasted at the first heat. There'll be a better chance for us to slip +through." + +Here, again, the responsibility in Betty's way of thinking was his and +she accepted his plan without challenge. + +"Another thing I've been thinking of," he went on, "is that queer, +smooth hole in that boulder; where we've our water stored. What have +you made of it?" + +"A reservoir," she answered lightly, her spirits risen swiftly with his +coming and a taste of food. "What else?" + +"Rios is hard set in his belief that there's ancient treasure nearby. +So is Barlow. So, evidently, was Escobar. If so, what more likely +place than where we are? That hole didn't make itself after that +regular fashion. I don't see just what it has to do with the case, +I'll admit. But somebody made it a long time ago and didn't do it just +for the fun of the job. I've a notion that it has its bearing on the +thing. Somehow." + +"It isn't big enough to hold much treasure," said Betty. "Maybe they +didn't finish it?" + +But from this they went to other matters. Kendric merely decided that +while they spent a long tomorrow of inaction he would look into the +matter. There was no great temptation to tarry for treasure and the +incentive to be on the way, traveling light, was sufficiently +emphasized. But there was a quiet day to be put in tomorrow, if all +went right, and he was not the man to forget what had brought him +southward. + +"We'll both go to sleep," he said presently, "and not do any worrying +about what the other fellow may be doing. With our fire out and a lot +of dead limbs scattered about the entrance to crack under a man's foot, +they'll not surprise us tonight, even if they should know where we are. +Tomorrow we'll keep a watch over the ravine. And tomorrow night I hope +we'll be on the trail toward the gulf. Now do you want to slip out +with me for a goodnight drink of water? Or would you rather wait here +for me?" + +Betty was on her feet in a flash. + +"I've done enough waiting today to last me the rest of my life!" she +cried emphatically. "I'll go with you." + + +So again, and as cautious as they had been last night, they made their +way down the steep slope and drank in the starlight. They tarried a +little by the trickle of water, heeding the silence, breathing deep of +the soft night, lifting their eyes to the stars. The world seemed +young and sweet about them, clean and tender, a place of infinite peace +and kindness rather than of a pursuing hate. They stood close +together; their shoulders brushed companionably. Together they +hearkened to a tiny voice thrilling through the emptiness, the +monotonous vibrating cadences of some happy insect. The heat of the +day had passed with the day, the perfect hour had come. It was one of +those moments which Jim Kendric found to his liking. Many such still +hours had he known under many skies and out of the night had always +come something vague and mighty to speak to something no less mighty +which lay within his soul. But always before, when he drank the fill +of a time like this, he had been alone. He had thought that a man must +be alone to know the ineffable content of the solitudes. Tonight he +was not alone. And yet more perfect than those other hours in other +lands was this hour slipping by now as the tiny voice out yonder +slipped through the silence without shattering it. Certain words of +his own little song crept into his mind. + + "Where it's only you + And the mountainside." + +That "you" had always been just Jim Kendric. After this, if ever again +he sang it, the "you" would be Betty. + +"Shall we go back?" he asked quietly. + +He saw Betty start. Her eyes came back from the stars and sought his. +He could see them only dimly in the shadow of her hair, but he knew +they were shining with the gush of her own night-thoughts. They +scooped up their water then and went back up the mountain. Their fire +was almost down and they did not replenish it. They went to their beds +of boughs and lay down in silence. Presently Jim said "Good night." +And Betty, the hush of the outside in her voice as she answered, said +softly "Good night." + + +They were astir before dawn. Fresh water must be brought before +daylight brightened in the canons. This time Jim went alone to the +creek and when he got back Betty had their fire blazing. Betty made +the breakfast, insisting on having her free unhampered way with it. + +"There are some things I can do," said Betty, "and a great many I +can't. It happens that I know what things are beyond me and those that +are within the scope of my powers. One thing that I can do is cook. +And I have camped before now, if you please." + +So, when Jim had brought her firewood and had placed the various +articles of their larder handy for her and had offered his services +with jack-knife to open a can or hack through a bit of beef, he stood +back and fully enjoyed the sight of Betty making breakfast. He enjoyed +the prettiness of her in her odd costume of blouse, scarlet sash and +knickerbockers, silk stockings and high heeled slippers; the atmosphere +of intimacy which hovered over them, distilled in a measure from the +magic of a camp fire, certainly aided and abetted by the homey +arrangement of Betty's brown hair; the aroma of coffee beginning to +bubble in a milk tin; the fragrance of an inviting stew in the other +tin wherein were mingled _frijoles_ and "jerky." Ruiz Rios might lurk +around the next spur of the mountain; Zoraida might be inciting her +hirelings to fresh endeavor; much danger might be watching by the trail +which in time they would have to follow--but here and now, for the few +minutes at least, there was more of quiet enjoyment in their retreat +than of discomfort or of fear of the future. + +"Let's go camping some time," said Jim abruptly. "Just you and me. +We'll take a pack horse; we'll load him to the guards with the proper +sort of rations; we'll strike out into the heart of the California +sierra--where there are fine forests and little lakes and lonely trails +and peace over all of it." + +Betty looked at him curiously, then away swiftly. + +"Breakfast is ready," she announced. + +He sipped at his coffee absently; his eyes, looking past Betty, saw +into a hidden, cliff-rimmed valley in those other, fresher mountains +further north, glimpsed vistas down narrow trails between tall pines +and cedars and firs, fancied a lodge made of boughs on the shore of a +little blue lake. He'd like to show Betty this camping spot; he'd like +to bring in for her a string of gleaming trout; he'd like to lie on his +side under the cliffs and just watch her. He had whittled two sticks +for spoons; he ate his stew with his and forgot to talk. + +And Betty, watching him covertly, wondered astutely if over the first +meal she had cooked for him Jim Kendric wasn't readjusting his ancient +ideas of woman. For some hidden reason, or for no reason at all, her +silence was as deep as his. + +After breakfast, however, it was Betty who started talk. They sought +to plan definitely for tonight. Kendric told her of the way he and +Barlow had come, of the _Half Moon_ awaiting his and Barlow's return, +of his determination to make use of the schooner if they could come to +it. Barlow's plans were not at Kendric's disposal; the sailor might be +counting on the vessel and he might not. At any rate he and Betty +could slip down the gulf in it and either take ship at La Paz, sending +it back up the gulf then, or steer on to San Diego. Of course he would +seek to get in touch with Barlow; he could send a message of some sort. +But after all Barlow had taken the game into his own hands and had said +that it was now each man for himself. + +"We can make the trip during the night, if we can make the get-away," +he told her. "We'll have to take a roundabout way at first, edging the +valley along the foothills on this side until we're well past the ranch +house, then cut across the shortest way and pick up the trail on the +other side. We can take enough water in our milk tins to last us, +especially since we're traveling in the cool." + +"And if," suggested Betty, "the _Half Moon_ isn't there? Or if Zoraida +has set some of her men to watch for us there?" + +Naturally he had thought of that. If they came to the gulf and a new +problem of this sort offered itself, then it would be time to consider +it. + +"We'll just hope for the best," he answered, "and try to be ready for +what comes." + +Carefully they conserved each tiny fragment of food, using the flour +sack for cupboard. They went cautiously to the entrance of their +hiding place and for a long time crouched behind the bushes, watching +the canon sides, seeking for a sign of Rios as they fancied Rios was +seeking them. And during the quiet hours they explored the place in +which they were. + +First they considered the odd hole in the big boulder, seeking to find +some logical reason for its being, asking themselves if it could have +any connection whatever with the ancient hidden treasure. Clearly it +was the result of human labor. Therefore it appeared to have its +relation to an older order of civilization since it was not conceivable +that a modern man had taken such a task upon himself. But its meaning +baffled. + +"It could be a sign, like a blazed tree or a cross scratched on a block +of stone," said Kendric. "But it could mean anything. Or nothing," he +was forced to admit. + +It was only in the late afternoon, after a long period of inactivity +and silence, that an inspiration came to Kendric. Meantime they had +poked into every crack and cranny, they had scraped at any loose dirt +on the ground, they had gone back and forth and up and down over every +square inch of the place repeatedly. And Kendric thought that he had +given up when the last idea came to him. He went quickly back to the +boulder. Betty watched him interestedly. + +"I thought we'd given that up," she said. + +He had both hands on the boulder, his fingers gripping the edge of the +baffling hole, and was seeking to shake the big block of rock. Betty +came to his side. + +"You think that it was made as a hand-hole? That you can turn the rock +over?" + +"It does move--just a little," he said. He put all of his strength +into a fresh attack. The boulder trembled slightly--that was all. + +"I'll bet you my half of the loot that I've got the hang of it, Miss +Betty," he announced triumphantly. + +"Wait and see." + +He began looking about him for something. + +"If I only dared slip outside for a minute," he said. Then his eye +fell on the rifle. "We'll have to make this do. I run a risk of +jamming the front sight but I guess we can fix that." + +He protected the sight as well as he could by wrapping his handkerchief +about it. The muzzle of the gun he thrust down into the hole in the +rock. + +"Get it now?" he asked. "If that hole wasn't made to allow a lever to +be inserted, then tell me what it _was_ made for. And here's even the +place to stand while a man uses it! I'll double the bet!" + +That excitement which always gets into any man's blood when he believes +that he is on the threshold of a golden discovery, already shone in his +eyes. He stepped to a sort of shelf in the cavern wall close to the +boulder, so that now his feet were on a level with the top of the rock +he meant to move. So he could just reach out and grasp the butt of the +rifle. Betty stood by, watching with an eagerness no less than his +own. Gradually he set his force at work on his lever, trying this way +and that. And then-- + +"It's moving!" cried Betty. "The rock is turning!" + +And now it turned readily, his leverage being ample to the task. + +"Look under the rock as it tips back," he told Betty. "See if there +isn't a hole under it. Big enough for a man to go through!" + +"Yes!" answered Betty after a breathless fashion. "Yes. A little +more. Oh, come see. It looks almost like steps going down!" + +"I'll have to force it back a little farther," he returned. "Maybe it +will balance there. If not we'll have to get loose stones and wedge +under it." + +He pried it further and further until at last it would not budge +another inch. He loosened his grip a trifle on the rifle-lever and the +rock began to settle back into its former place. But Betty had seen +and already was bringing fragments of stone to block under the edges. + +"Now," she called. "Come see." + +He jumped down; the boulder, wedged securely, lay on its side. He went +to Betty and from what they saw before them they looked into each +other's eyes wonderingly. + +"The tale was true," he said with conviction. "You and I have found +the way to the treasure." + +In the floor was an opening a couple of feet square. Very rude, uneven +steps led down, vanishing in a forbidding black dark. Kendric lay flat +and looked down. Little by little he could penetrate a bit further, +but in the end there lay a region of impenetrable darkness into which +the steps merged. + +"You're going down _there_!" gasped Betty. + +"_Am_ I?" he laughed. "You wouldn't want us to skip out tonight +without even having looked into it, would you?" + +"N-o." But she hesitated and even shuddered as she too lay down and +peered into the forbidding place. + +"We'll not take any chances we don't have to." He got up and began +immediately to make his few preparations. "Here's the rifle; I'll +leave it handy for you in case our friend Rios should surprise us. +I'll take a handful of stuff with me to burn for a torch. And we'll +have another look out into the canon to begin with." + +He drew out the rifle and gave it to Betty. He placed other stones +with the ones she had slipped under the edges of the boulders. And +finally he went to look out into the canon. + +"No one in sight," he reported. "And now, here goes." + +He sat down at the edge of the opening in the floor, set a match to his +crude torch, grinned comfortingly up at Betty and wriggled over and set +his foot to the first step. As he did so there came to him an +unpleasant memory of the fashion in which Zoraida had guarded her own +secret places with rattlesnakes; he wondered if any of the ugly brutes +lived down here? As it happened the thought had its influence in +saving him from mishap later. For, though he came upon no snakes, he +went warily and thus avoided another danger. + +His torch burnt vilely and smoked copiously. But what faint light it +afforded was sufficient. Step by step he went down until feet and legs +and then entire body were lost to Betty above; she had set the rifle +aside and was kneeling, her hands clasped in her excitement. Now she +could see only his head and the torch held high; he looked up and +smiled at her and waved the faggot. Then she saw only the dimly +burning fire and the hand clutching it. And dimmer and dimmer grew his +light until she strained her eyes to catch a glint of it and could not +tell if it were being extinguished for want of dean air or if he were +very, very far below her. + +"Jim!" she called. + +"All right," his voice floated back to her. + +He had reached the bottom of the stone stairway; his feet shifting back +and forth informed him that he was on a rock floor that was full of +inequalities and that pitched steeply ahead of him. His fire was +almost out, deteriorating into a mere smudge curling up from dying +embers. The air was bad, thick and heavy; breathing was difficult. He +looked up and made out the dim square by which Betty knelt. He could +go a little further without danger, since if the air grew worse he +could still turn and run back up the steps? The floor seemed to be +pitching still more steeply. Fearful of a precipice or a pit and a +fall, he went down on his hands and knees and crept on. Thus he held +his poor torch before him and thus he made a first discovery. The +smoke was drifting steadily into his face. And that meant a current of +air. + +Still crawling, he pressed forward eagerly, sniffing the air. But he +relaxed none of his caution; the floor underneath still pitched steeply +and, it seemed to him, grew steeper. Then his light began to brighten; +the embers glowed and when he blew on them, broke again into flame. He +looked up; he could not see the square of light above now. Evidently +he was passing into some sort of wide tunnel or lengthy chamber. Dimly +he could descry walls on either side of him. Ahead was only black +emptiness; underfoot the uneven floor seeming to grow smoother and to +slant still more abruptly downward. + +"I'd better go easy," he told himself grimly. "If a man started +sliding here I wonder where he'd land!" + +Decidedly the air was better. He filled his lungs and stopped where he +was, moving his torch above his head, lowering it, peering about him on +all sides. At last he made out that a dozen steps further on there was +a level space about which the walls were squared so as to give the +effect of a small room. He drew nearer step by step and again was +forced to kneel and then feel his way forward with his hands for the +floor under him grew steadily steeper so that it was difficult to keep +from sliding down the incline. When he saw his way sufficiently +clearly he did slide the last three or four feet. And now, as again +his torch flared and the air freshened in his nostrils, he saw that +which put an eager excitement in his blood. The small room had every +appearance of an ancient storeroom. He saw objects piled on the floor, +objects of strange designs, cups and pitchers and vessels of various +shapes. He caught one up and it was heavy. He clanked two together +and the mellow, bell-like sound had the golden note. + +"Solid gold," he muttered. And as something upon one of the +vessels--it was a drinking goblet of ornate design--caught the light +and shone back at him like imprisoned fire, "Encrusted with precious +stones!" + +He put the things down and looked further. There was a big chest. As +his foot struck it it burst asunder and tumbled its contents to the +floor. From the disordered heap there shone forth from countless +places the colorful glow of jewels. He passed to another chest, a +smaller one placed as in a position of honor upon a square tablet of +rock. He held his torch close and looked in; he thrust in his hand and +withdrew it filled with pearls. Even he, no connoisseur like Barlow, +would have staked his life on their genuineness. They were of many +sizes but more large ones among them than small; their soft, rich +loveliness dimmed even those of Zoraida's wearing. + +"A man could carry a million dollars out of here in his hands!" + +He went on. But what he held in his hand he thrust into his pocket as +he went. The remembrance of Zoraida's rattlesnakes came to him +abruptly. Thus he moved with renewed caution and thus he was saved +from a misadventure. For even so he almost stepped to a fall. Between +two heaps of tumbled articles was a square hole, sheer and black, +several feet across. He stooped over it. The air came up with a rush. +At first he could see only a little way. Then he made out that the +shaft went straight down only a few feet and then slanted away in a +great chute like the floor down which he had already come, only so much +steeper that he knew had he fallen there would have been no return +possible for him. To what eventual landing place would he have +plunged? For a moment or so his eyes strained in vain into the gloom. +Slowly faint and then growing detail rewarded him. It was but a small +section offered him because of the angling of the tunnel. But before a +watch could have ticked ten times he knew into what place he would have +fallen, into what regions his glance had penetrated. The light was dim +down yonder but he knew that he was looking down into the gardens of +the golden king of Tezcuco. + +"Another way into the hidden place, and one that Zoraida herself knows +nothing of," he thought. "If a man took this drop and then the slide, +he'd land with the breath jolted out of him but there is shrubbery to +fall on and it wouldn't kill him. But in there he'd stay! There would +be no climbing back up the slippery chute." + +He withdrew and looked about him again. Expecting pitfalls, he took no +single step without making sure first. He crossed the chamber and upon +the further side he came to a second pit and a second tunnel. This +like the first was steep and smooth; this also gave him a glint of +light at the further end. The light was dim; he made out that the +distant mouth of the tunnel was obscured by a tangle of brush and scrub +trees. + +"Another underground garden?" he wondered. "Or the outside world?" + +He filled his lungs with the air flowing upward. He fancied that it +had a fresher, sweeter smell, that there was the wholesomeness of +sunlight in it. + +"It would be a joke," was his quick thought, "if there were a way out +for us here while Rios watches the canon above!" + + +It was then that there came to him, faint from far above, Betty's +scream. He whirled and ran. Again he heard her screams, echoing +wildly. As he stumbled on there came to him the muffled sound of a +rifle-shot. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +HOW ONE RETURNS UNWILLINGLY WHITHER HE + WOULD WILLINGLY ENTER BY ANOTHER DOOR + +Again and again as he ran Kendric shouted to Betty that he was coming. +Then at last, after an agony of fear and silence, he heard her call in +answer. He stumbled but ran on. When he came where he could see the +square of light marking the hole which led to the level where she was, +he caught his first glimpse of Betty. She was standing by the opening, +tense to the finger tips that were tight about the rifle. He sped up +the steps and to her side. And he was treated to the sight of Ruiz +Rios, lying white-faced on the floor, a hand at his shoulder and that +hand dyed red. Beside him, where it had fallen, was his revolver. + +"I--I shot him!" Betty gasped. + +"And serves him right," cried Kendric heartily. He took the gun from +her hands and strode over to Rios while, at last, Betty's face was +hidden by her shaking hands. "So you're on the job, are you?" + +Rios looked sick and miserable. But slowly, as he lifted his black +eyes to the man standing over him the old evil fires played in them. +He stirred a little and lay back. + +"My shoulder is broken," he groaned. + +"You're in luck to be alive," Kendric told him sternly. "What do you +want here?" + +"I'll bleed to death!" Quick fright sent a shiver through him. "For +the love of God stop the blood for me." + +Kendric could scarcely do less than look at the wound. Presently he +straightened up with a grunt of disgust. + +"It's only a flesh wound," he said coolly. "The bone isn't even +touched and it's a clean hole. You'll last for a lot of devilment yet." + +Rios sat up. He felt of his hurt with tender fingers and slowly the +fear went out of his look and his old craft and hate came back. + +"You've found the treasure--here," he said. "You will have to talk +with me before you touch it, senor." + +"You talk big, Rios," snapped Kendric angrily. "It strikes me that you +are just now in no position to dictate. You should thank your stars +if, presently, we let you go about your business. Whether or not we +have found treasure does not concern you." + +So intent was he upon Rios, so occupied with considering what was to be +done with him, that he did not note who it was who had come to stand in +the narrow cleft between them and the entrance from the canon side. +But Betty, her hands dropping from her horrified face saw. + +"Oh," cried Betty. "We are lost!" + +Then he saw that following Rios had come Zoraida and that she stood and +looked at them, her eyes filled with mockery and triumph. + +"Who is it that speaks of what shall be done with that which rightfully +is Zoraida's?" she demanded, her voice ringing out boldly. "And you +two, who thought to escape me, I have you in a trap!" + +Kendric swung his rifle about so that the muzzle was towards her. His +eyes hardened. + +"If we have to shoot our way out of this, we're going free," he told +her shortly. + +Zoraida's only answer came quickly, unexpectedly, before he could step +forward. Her hand went to her bosom; out came her silver whistle; a +blast shrilled forth from it, loud and penetrating. + +"Twenty of my men, all armed, hear that," she said defiantly. "They +are just below. Listen and you will hear them coming." + +The sound, first of men's voices somewhere outside, then of rattling +stones under running feet, told that Zoraida spoke truly. Kendric +heard and for an instant was struck motionless with indecision. The +entrance was narrow and he could make a fight for it--there was Betty +to think of, behind him but in the path of glancing bullets--there was +Rios, wounded but treacherous--there was Zoraida--there was the +treasure below and he had no mind to see it snatched from under his +eyes-- + +Then the one chance presented itself to him, clear and imperative. + +"Rios," he commanded, "down you go through that hole or I swear to God +I'll blow your brains out! Quick! And Zoraida, you with him." He +sprang upon her and dragged her with him, shoving her toward the +opening in the floor. He took time then to whirl and fire one shot +along the narrow way which Zoraida's men must come, confident that they +would pause, if only for an instant. "Down, Rios. Down, Zoraida!" + +A sort of fury looked out of his eyes and even Betty drew back from him +fearfully. He grasped Rios by the shoulder and the Mexican seeing the +look in his eyes made no resistance. Had he fought back he would have +been killed and he knew it. He went down the steps. Zoraida would +have held back but again Kendric's hand, rough on her arm, sent her +forward and, rather than fall, she was forced to Rios's heels. Kendric +fired again along the cleft. Then he began knocking loose the stones +which held the lever-rock back. When only one stone kept the boulder +in place, he called sharply to Betty: + +"Down we go with them. Then I'll knock that stone out from below and +we'll have time to breathe before they come on us." + +"But," exclaimed Betty, "can we lift it again from below?" + +"God knows," he returned. "I think so. But I don't know that we'll +have to; I think there's another way out. Hurry." + +Voices were calling excitedly from without. Plainly the men taking +Zoraida's pay would in time steel themselves to making an entrance, but +just as plainly they saw death in store for some of them and hesitated. +It struck Kendric that their delay would give him time for one other +thing and that that other thing would mean much more time gained later +on. He scooped up handful after handful of dirt and poured it into the +lever-hole in the boulder, filling it even with the surface. Thus, it +would not be readily detected and might never be noted. Then, +snatching up his rifle and the bag of food, he ran down the steps with +Betty. A thrust with his rifle barrel, and a quick jerk back, knocked +the wedge stone free and saved him his gun. The boulder toppled back +into place; the stairway and tunnel below were plunged into absolute +darkness. + +Kendric caught Betty's hand. + +"This way," he told her. "It's straight going and no danger for a +while. Rios, Zoraida! Stand where you are and wait for us or I'll +start shooting wild. Where are you?" + +"Here," growled Rios, his voice indicating that he had gone no great +distance. + +"And Zoraida?" + +Zoraida did not answer. Kendric went on a step or two and then struck +a match. By its short-lived light he made out Zoraida standing close +to Rios. Then the flame burned out. + +"Straight ahead," commanded Kendric. When there was no sound of a step +being taken, he drew Betty's hand through his arm so as to have both of +his hands free and went forward. + +"I can hardly breathe," whispered Betty. He felt her hand tighten on +his arm. "It is getting terribly steep underfoot----" + +He came to where Rios was and set the rifle barrel in the small of his +back. Rios cursed bitterly but moved on. Kendric's hand found +Zoraida's arm and gripped it tightly. + +"We're all together in this," he said sharply. "And don't start your +old favorite knife act. This is no time for foolery." + +Zoraida moved on. But again she set her whistle to her lips and +thereafter she called out loudly to her men, commanding them to follow +swiftly. + +"They won't hear you," said Kendric. "And they couldn't obey you this +time anyhow. Hurry; we'll all stifle if we don't get out of this foul +air. Rios, give me some matches; mine are getting short." + +Rios, without comment, having as little love as another for the +uncertainty of the dark about him, did as he was commanded. He also +saved half of his box and began striking them himself. And thus they +went on, all of them save Kendric wondering. Making the last, steepest +descent, they stood huddled together in the treasure chamber. + +"Here," said Kendric, releasing Zoraida, "we have fresh air. Here we +can talk. And, if we are sensible people, a new day can begin for all +of us here." + +Ruiz Rios's wound must have been even less severe than Kendric had +supposed it. For now the Mexican seemed utterly to have lost +consciousness of it. He was striking fresh matches; he stooped and +picked up something at his foot; a little gasp broke from him. He +tossed it down, caught up something else. + +"Gold!" he muttered. "Gold everywhere!" + +Zoraida looked about her, seeming unmoved. Her eyes followed Rios +contemptuously, roved away about the room, tarried only briefly with +the heaped-up treasure, sped to Kendric and to Betty. + +"You are fools, fools!" she taunted them. "All thanks, Senor Kendric, +for having led me straight to that for which I have been looking all my +life." + +Rios had come back to her side, both hands full. + +"Zoraida," he said swiftly, "let us talk reason as the American says. +We have this!" He held up his hands; his eyes gloated. "Let them have +their lives and go, so that they take nothing in their hands. Look at +this! Here----" + + +His words trailed off abruptly in a scream of terror. He had moved +only a trifle as he spoke, he had taken a step backward between the two +high heaps of treasure where the pit was. He was falling--he threw out +his arms, clutching wildly. In a flash he was gone from sight. But +not alone. For his hand, seeking to save him, had caught at Zoraida +and she was snatched back, overbalanced, drawn down with him. Her +scream rose above his cry of terror. Both vanished and Jim and Betty +stood alone, looking into each other's wide eyes. + +"Do you think--they are dead?" faltered the girl. + +They went to the hole and looked down. The view which Kendric had seen +before slowly disentangled itself from the darkness. They saw nothing +of those who had fallen. + +"It would mean the short fall here," said Kendric musingly, "the steep +slide and no doubt another drop at the end. We wouldn't be able to see +them at first. But someway, I don't believe they are dead!" + +He did not explain then; it would take too long and they had their own +salvation to work out. But here was his thought: Zoraida had dropped +back into the gardens of the golden king. He did not believe she would +be able to climb up this way again. And he did not believe that she +would have with her the many keys needed to open the way she knew. It +impressed him that here might be the judgment of a just God--Zoraida +immured for all time in the heart of ancient Mexico. Zoraida with her +priests and young men and children whom her stern decree had imprisoned +here. Zoraida and Ruiz Rios together in the place of hidden treasure. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +REGARDING A NECKLACE OF PEARLS AND CERTAIN + PLANS OF TWO WHO WERE MEANT TO BE ONE + +From afar, reaching them only faintly, came the sounds of men's voices, +Zoraida's men clamoring above, mystified and with ample cause. + +"It may be our chance is now, not tonight," said Kendric. "Although +it's but a little way from the house some of them, if not all, will +have ridden; their horses will be down in the canon. If we can slip +out this way and come to the horses while they're looking for us up +there----" + +"This way?" Betty for an instant wondered if he meant to follow Zoraida +and Rios. + +"There is another way," he told her. "Come.--But first, we'll not go +empty handed." + +He began a quick rummaging among the ancient chests. + +"Hurry," pleaded the girl. "What do we want with treasure? They may +find us at any second. Oh, hurry!" + +"Coming," he answered. "But here are wings to fly with." She saw him +putting a number of small objects into his pockets. He moved to +another point and she could not see what he was doing, could only guess +that still he was stuffing something into the provision bag and further +cramming his pockets. Just then there was in Betty's soul no thirst +for wealth, just the mighty yearning for the open country and flight +and the peace of safety afar. + +"Here I am." Jim was again at her side. He caught her arm. "This way." + +He led her to that other pit giving entrance to the second tunnel. At +another time Betty might have hesitated to slip down into it; now she +was eager for anything that gave the vaguest hope of flight. For the +faint far voices still clamored and she feared that the hounds that +hunted in Zoraida's wake might find the secret of the boulder and roll +it back with many hands and rush down upon them. + +But Kendric held her back while he first went down. He gripped the +edges of the pit with his hands and lowered himself to the length of +his arms and dropped. It was but a short fall and he landed safely and +steadied himself and managed to save himself from going down the slide +by clutching at the rock wall. Betty handed down the rifle and bag, +then lowered herself and he caught her in his arms. And then, in no +little uncertainty and not without grave dread of what dangers they +might encounter, they went on. + +The slide was steep and yet by going very guardedly, lying face down at +times and inching down cautiously, they made a slow descent. The +tunnel grew steadily smaller as they progressed; their bodies shut off +the light. The terrible thought presented itself to Kendric that when +they came to the outlet it might be too small for them to pass through; +and that to return up the tunnel was a task which would present its +difficulties. So, when they came to a place where Betty could cling on +and keep from slipping, he called to her to wait while he went on. + +The time had come when his rifle was an encumbrance; he needed both +hands to keep from slipping. He had had the forethought to turn the +muzzle downward, since Betty was above him. Now he craned his neck and +sought to peer down along his body. Far away, somewhere, was a glint +of sunlight, small but full of promise. He saw, as he had seen before, +a tangle of brush. He wondered if it were a clump of bushes on a +little flat? Or if they were shrubs clinging to some steep face of +cliff? When at last he came to the mouth of this chute--if it were +wide enough for a man's body to pass through--would the man have +reached safety or would he be precipitated through space and down a +fifty foot fall of rock? + +"The bushes ought to stop the rifle," he decided. "At any rate the +time has come when I need both hands." And he let it slide past him +and sought to watch it as it clattered along the incline. But he saw +nothing of it in the dim passage until it struck the fringe of bushes. +Then it crashed through and was gone--without telling him how and +where! The bag, a knot tied in it, he sent down after the gun. + +His misgivings were considerable but he went on. He called out to +Betty: "It looks all right. Hold on till I call," and began inching +downward again. With his feet he sought to judge the slope below him. +It seemed to be growing steeper. Still he went on and down. He caught +at any unevenness in the rock he could lay hand upon, lowering himself +to the length of his arm, groping for handhold and foothold everywhere. +Then a handhold to which he had entrusted his weight betrayed him, the +tiny sliver of stone scaled off and he began to slip. He clutched +wildly but his body gained fresh momentum. He heard Betty shriek above +him. He had a vision of himself plunging down the cliffs. Then he +knew that he had struck the bushes, had broken through, was rolling +down a steep slope, rolling and rolling. + +The breath jolted out of him, he was brought up with a jerk in another +clump of bushes, wild sage in a little level space. He hastily jumped +up and began to scramble back up toward the tunnel's mouth. He could +not see it from below, he could see only the patch of brush which, +since it was directly above him, must conceal it. He saw his rifle +where it stood on end, the muzzle jammed between two rocks. He wanted +to call to Betty but did not dare, not knowing how close some of +Zoraida's men might be. Betty could not hold on there forever; she +would slip as he had done or, frightened terribly, by now she might be +seeking frenziedly to make her way back to the treasure chamber. + +But as it happened Betty was to make the descent with less violence +than Kendric's. She had thought that surely Jim had been snatched away +from her to a broken death below; she had gone dizzy with sick fear; +she had struggled for a securer grip--and she, too, had slipped. Down +she sped, half fainting. But somewhere her wide sash caught and held +briefly, letting her slip again before her fingers could find a hold, +but breaking the momentum of her progress. So, when she was shot out +into the open, a few yards above Kendric, the brush all but stopped +her. And then, as she was slipping by him, Kendric caught her and held +her. + +Betty sat up and stared at him incredulously. Then there came into her +eyes such a light as Jim Kendric had never seen in eyes of man or woman. + +"I thought you were dead," said Betty simply. "And I did not want to +live." + +He helped her to her feet and they hurried down the slope. He caught +up his rifle, merely grunted at the discovery of a sight knocked off, +found near it the bag of food and treasure, and led the way down into +the canon. A glance upward showed him no sign of Zoraida's men. + +"There are the horses," whispered Betty. + +Down in the bed of the ravine were a dozen or more saddled ponies. +They stood where their riders had left them, their reins over their +heads and dragging on the ground. + +"Run!" said Kendric. "If we can get into saddle before they see us +we're as good as at home!" + +Hand in hand they ran, stumbling along the slope, crashing through the +brush. But as they drew nearer and the ponies pricked up their ears +they forced themselves to go slowly. Kendric caught the nearest horse, +tarrying for no picking and choosing, and helped Betty up into the +saddle. The next moment he, too, was mounted. He looked again up the +mountainside. Still no sign of Zoraida's men. A broad grin of high +satisfaction testified that Jim Kendric found this new arrangement of +mundane affairs highly to his liking. + +"We'll drive these other ponies on ahead of us," he suggested. "Until +they're a good five miles off. And then we'll see how fast a cowpony +can run!" + +So, herding a lot of saddled horses ahead of them, reins flying and +soon putting panic into the animals, Jim and Betty rode down into the +valley. They looked down to the big adobe house and saw no one; the +place slept tranquilly in the late afternoon sun. They passed the +corrals and still saw no one. If any of her men had not followed +Zoraida, they were lounging under cover. The maids would be about the +evening meal and table setting, in the _patio_ or in the house. + +Straight across the valley they drove the ponies and there, in the +first foothills scattered and left them. Then they settled down to +hard riding, both praying mutely that when they came to the gulf and +the beach they would find the _Half Moon_ awaiting them. + + +The stars were out when they came to the beach where only a few days +ago Kendric and Barlow had landed. And there, at anchor, rode the +_Half Moon_. They saw her lights and they made out the hulk of her. +Kendric shouted and fired his rifle. Almost immediately came an +answering hail, the melodious voice of Nigger Ben. They saw a lantern +go down over the side, they watched it bob and dance and made out +presently that it was coming toward them. They heard Nigger Ben's +voice, chanting monotonously, as he pulled at the oars of the small +boat. + +"Howdy, Cap'n, howdy!" cried Ben joyously. He took in the small figure +which had dismounted at Kendric's side and ducked his head and included +her in his greetings with a "Howdy, Miss." And then, looking in vain +for another member of the party: "Where's Cap'n Barlow?" + +"Let's get on board, Ben," answered Kendric. "I'll tell you there." + +So they stepped into the dingey and pushed off and rowed back to the +_Half Moon_. + +"There's a gent here says he's a frien' of your'n, Cap," said Ben. "Ah +dunno. Anyhows, he's been here all day an' we're watchin' he don't +make no mischief." + +They went up over the side and Kendric showed Betty straightway to the +cabin that was to be hers. Then he turned wonderingly to Ben. He +could only think of Bruce, since it wasn't Barlow---- + +And Bruce it was. The boy came forth from the shadows, standing before +Kendric looking at once dejected and defiant and shamefaced. + +"I was a damn' fool, Jim," he said bluntly. "Forget it, if you can, +and take a passenger back to the States with you. Or tell me to go to +hell--and I guess I'll tuck my tail between my legs and go." + +Kendric's hand went out impulsively and he cried with great heartiness: + +"Forget it, boy.--What about Barlow?" + +"Barlow's like a crazy man," said Bruce. He spoke quickly as though +eager to get through with what he had to say. "After that cursed game +of cards he got the same sort of a message I got; we were to wait, each +in his own room, for--for her." He hesitated; Kendric understood that +it hurt him even to refer to Zoraida. "We waited a long time. Then +something happened which I know little about; I guess you know all of +it. At any rate, when she burst in on us--we had gotten tired waiting +and were in the _patio_--she, too, was like one gone mad. We had heard +the shooting outside but when we started to run out some of her men +threw guns on us and held us back. She came running in, terribly +excited. When I tried to speak she cursed me, called me a fool, told +me that she had never loved any but one man and that that man was--was +you. Then she swore that she was going to see you dead and Betty +Gordon dead with you. I guess I came to my senses a little at that." + +"And Barlow?" insisted Kendric. Bruce had paused, was staring off into +the night, seemed to have forgotten to go on. + +"I had two words with Barlow when she left us. He looked ready for +murder and just snapped out that he was going to stay until he lined +his pockets. Rios came in. He told us you were on the run, trying to +make it down here. He offered to get me and Barlow clear; he seemed +anxious to have us both gone. He promised us we'd be dead in +twenty-four hours if we stayed; he tipped his hand enough to say that +there was loot to be had and he meant to have his half and didn't care +what happened to us so long as we got out of the way. I came, hoping +that you'd break through and get here. I told Barlow I was coming. He +just shrugged his shoulders at that and said he'd stay; if we could +square for the rent of the _Half Moon_ in San Diego we could have her. +Otherwise, for God's sake to sink her in the ocean and let the old man +know. And off he went, looking for--for her." + +"You've had a hard deal, Bruce." Kendric put a kindly hand on the +boy's shoulder. "But you'll come alive yet. I've made a haul today; +just how big I won't know until we get home. But enough, I'll gamble +to stake you to a new start. Now, let's get going. And good luck to +poor old Barlow. It's his game to play his way." + + +They slipped out into the gulf, Nigger Ben and Philippine Charlie +content to accept the explanation Kendric gave them of Barlow's +absence. Bruce, taciturn and moody, went to the stern and stood +looking back toward the black line of the receding coast until long +after darkness blotted it out. Kendric went to Betty's cabin and +rapped. + +"Will you come for a moment to the main cabin?" he asked. + +When she came he had a lamp on the table. He shut the door and locked +it. Then, without a word between them, he began emptying his pockets. +She saw him pile up a great number of little square bars that clanked +musically. + +"Solid gold," he said gravely. + +Then he poured forth the pearls. There was strings and loops, +necklaces and broad bands made of many strings laced together. They +shone softly, gloriously there in the swaying cabin of the _Half Moon_. +The finest of them all fashioned into a superb necklace he threw with a +sudden gesture about Betty's throat. + + +"And on top of all that--we're headed for home!" said Kendric. + +"Home!" Betty's eyes shone more gloriously than the pearls. + +"And thus ends our little camping trip. Tell me, Betty, haven't you +any desire for a real camping trip in our own mountains? That place +that I know, where the little hidden valley is and the lake----" + +"Tell me about it," said Betty. + +Pearls and gold heaped on the table, pearls about Betty's throat, and +they talked of pack and trail and a little green lodge to be made of +fir boughs. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAUGHTER OF THE SUN*** + + +******* This file should be named 18916.txt or 18916.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/1/18916 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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