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Title: Heart of the Sunset

Author: Rex Beach

Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5099]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on April 25, 2002]

Edition: 10

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, HEART OF THE SUNSET ***




Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team



HEART OF THE SUNSET

By Rex Beach

Author of "THE SILVER HORDE" "THE SPOILERS" "THE IRON TRAIL" Etc.






CONTENTS

     I.   THE WATER-HOLE

    II.   THE AMBUSH

   III.   WHAT HAPPENED AT THE WATER-HOLE

    IV.   AN EVENING AT LAS PALMAS

     V.   SOMETHING ABOUT HEREDITY

    VI.   A JOURNEY, AND A DARK MAN

   VII.   LUIS LONGORIO

  VIII.   BLAZE JONES'S NEMESIS

    IX.   A SCOUTING TRIP

     X.   A RANGER'S HORSE

    XI.   JUDGE ELLSWORTH EXACTS A PROMISE

   XII.   LONGORIO MAKES BOLD

  XIII.   DAVE LAW BECOMES JEALOUS

   XIV.   JOSE SANCHEZ SWEARS AN OATH

    XV.   THE TRUTH ABOUT PANFILO

   XVI.   THE RODEO

  XVII.   THE GUZMAN INCIDENT

 XVIII.   ED AUSTIN TURNS AT BAY

   XIX.   RANGERS

    XX.   SUPERSTITIONS AND CERTAINTIES

   XXI.   AN AWAKENING

  XXII.   WHAT ELLSWORTH HAD TO SAY

 XXIII.   THE CRASH

  XXIV.   DAVE LAW COMES HOME

   XXV.   A WARNING AND A SURPRISE

  XXVI.   THE WATER-CURE

 XXVII.   LA FERIA

XXVIII.   THE DOORS OF PARADISE

  XXIX.   THE PRIEST FROM MONCLOVA

   XXX.   THE MAN OF DESTINY

  XXXI.   A SPANISH WILL

 XXXII.   THE DAWN






HEART OF THE SUNSET


I

THE WATER-HOLE


A fitful breeze played among the mesquite bushes. The naked earth,
where it showed between the clumps of grass, was baked plaster
hard. It burned like hot slag, and except for a panting lizard
here and there, or a dust-gray jack-rabbit, startled from its
covert, nothing animate stirred upon its face. High and motionless
in the blinding sky a buzzard poised; long-tailed Mexican crows
among the thorny branches creaked and whistled, choked and
rattled, snored and grunted; a dove mourned inconsolably, and out
of the air issued metallic insect cries--the direction whence they
came as unascertainable as their source was hidden.

Although the sun was half-way down the west, its glare remained
untempered, and the tantalizing shade of the sparse mesquite was
more of a trial than a comfort to the lone woman who, refusing its
deceitful invitation, plodded steadily over the waste. Stop,
indeed, she dared not. In spite of her fatigue, regardless of the
torture from feet and limbs unused to walking, she must, as she
constantly assured herself, keep going until strength failed. So
far, fortunately, she had kept her head, and she retained
sufficient reason to deny the fanciful apprehensions which
clamored for audience. If she once allowed herself to become
panicky, she knew, she would fare worse--far worse--and now, if
ever, she needed all her faculties. Somewhere to the northward,
perhaps a mile, perhaps a league distant, lay the water-hole.

But the country was of a deadly and a deceitful sameness, devoid
of landmarks and lacking well-defined water-courses. The unending
mesquite with its first spring foliage resembled a limitless
peach-orchard sown by some careless and unbelievably prodigal
hand. Out of these false acres occasional knolls and low stony
hills lifted themselves so that one came, now and then, to
vantage-points where the eye leaped for great distances across
imperceptible valleys to horizons so far away that the scattered
tree-clumps were blended into an unbroken carpet of green. To the
woman these outlooks were unutterably depressing, merely serving
to reveal the vastness of the desolation about her.

At the crest of such a rise she paused and studied the country
carefully, but without avail. She felt dizzily for the desert bag
swung from her shoulder, only to find it flat and dry; the
galvanized mouthpiece burned her fingers. With a little shock she
remembered that she had done this very thing several times before,
and her repeated forgetting frightened her, since it seemed to
show that her mind had been slightly unbalanced by the heat. That
perhaps explained why the distant horizon swam and wavered so.

In all probability a man situated as she was would have spoken
aloud, in an endeavor to steady himself; but this woman did
nothing of the sort. Seating herself in the densest shade she
could find--it was really no shade at all--she closed her eyes and
relaxed--no easy thing to do in such a stifling temperature and
when her throat was aching with drought.

At length she opened her eyes again, only to find that she could
make out nothing familiar. Undoubtedly she was lost; the water-
hole might be anywhere. She listened tensely, and the very air
seemed to listen with her; the leaves hushed their faint
whisperings; a near-by cactus held its forty fleshy ears alert,
while others more distant poised in the same harkening attitude.
It seemed to the woman that a thousand ears were straining with
hers, yet no sound came save only the monotonous crescendo and
diminuendo of those locust-cries coming out of nowhere and
retreating into the voids. At last, as if satisfied, the leaves
began to whisper softly again.

Away to her left lay the yellow flood of the Rio Grande, but the
woman, though tempted to swing in that direction, knew better than
to yield. At least twenty miles of barrens lay between, and she
told herself that she could never cover such a distance. No, the
water-hole was nearer; it must be close at hand. If she could only
think a little more clearly, she could locate it. Once more she
tried, as she had tried many times before, to recall the exact
point where she had shot her horse, and to map in her mind's eye
the foot-weary course she had traveled from that point onward.

Desert travel was nothing new to her, thirst and fatigue were old
acquaintances, yet she could not help wondering if, in spite of
her training, in spite of that inborn sense of direction which she
had prided herself upon sharing with the wild creatures, she were
fated to become a victim of the chaparral. The possibility was
remote; death at this moment seemed as far off as ever--if
anything it was too far off. No, she would find the water-hole
somehow; or the unexpected would happen, as it always did when one
was in dire straits. She was too young and too strong to die yet.
Death was not so easily won as this.

Rising, she readjusted the strap of the empty water-bag over her
shoulder and the loose cartridge-belt at her hip, then set her
dusty feet down the slope.

Day died lingeringly. The sun gradually lost its cruelty, but a
partial relief from the heat merely emphasized the traveler's
thirst and muscular distress. Onward she plodded, using her eyes
as carefully as she knew how. She watched the evening flight of
the doves, thinking to guide herself by their course, but she was
not shrewd enough to read the signs correctly. The tracks she
found were old, for the most part, and they led in no particular
direction, nowhere uniting into anything like a trail. She
wondered, if she could bring herself to drink the blood of a jack-
rabbit, and if it would quench her thirst. But the thought was
repellent, and, besides, she was not a good shot with a revolver.
Nor did the cactus offer any relief, since it was only just coming
into bloom, and as yet bore no fruit.

The sun had grown red and huge when at last in the hard-baked dirt
she discovered fresh hoof-prints. These seemed to lead along the
line in which she was traveling, and she followed them gladly,
encouraged when they were joined by others, for, although they
meandered aimlessly, they formed something more like a trail than
anything she had as yet seen. Guessing at their general direction,
she hurried on, coming finally into a region where the soil was
shallow and scarcely served to cover the rocky substratum. A low
bluff rose on her left, and along its crest scattered Spanish
daggers were raggedly silhouetted against the sky.

She was in a well-defined path now; she tried to run, but her legs
were heavy; she stumbled a great deal, and her breath made
strange, distressing sounds as it issued from her open lips.
Hounding the steep shoulder of the ridge, she hastened down a
declivity into a knot of scrub-oaks and ebony-trees, then halted,
staring ahead of her.

The nakedness of the stony arroyo, the gnarled and stunted
thickets, were softened by the magic of twilight; the air had
suddenly cooled; overhead the empty, flawless sky was deepening
swiftly from blue to purple; the chaparral had awakened and echoed
now to the sounds of life. Nestling in a shallow, flinty bowl was
a pool of water, and on its brink a little fire was burning.

It was a tiny fire, overhung with a blackened pot; the odor of
greasewood and mesquite smoke was sharp. A man, rising swiftly to
his feet at the first sound, was staring at the new-comer; he was
as alert as any wild thing. But the woman scarcely heeded him. She
staggered directly toward the pond, seeing nothing after the first
glance except the water. She would have flung herself full length
upon the edge, but the man stepped forward and stayed her, then
placed a tin cup in her hand. She mumbled something in answer to
his greeting and the hoarse, raven-like croak in her voice
startled her; then she drank, with trembling eagerness, drenching
the front of her dress. The water was warm, but it was clean and
delicious.

"Easy now. Take your time," said the man, as he refilled the cup.
"It won't give out."

She knelt and wet her face and neck; the sensation was so grateful
that she was tempted to fling herself bodily into the pool. The
man was still talking, but she took no heed of what he said. Then
at last she sank back, her feet curled under her, her body
sagging, her head drooping. She felt the stranger's hands beneath
her arms, felt herself lifted to a more comfortable position.
Without asking permission, the stranger unlaced first one, then
the other of her dusty boots, seeming not to notice her weak
attempt at resistance. Once he had placed her bare feet in the
water, she forgot her resentment in the intense relief.

The man left her seated in a collapsed, semi-conscious state, and
went back to his fire. For the time she was too tired to do more
than refill the drinking-cup occasionally, or to wet her face and
arms, but as her pores drank greedily her exhaustion lessened and
her vitality returned.

It was dark when for the first time she turned her head toward the
camp-fire and stared curiously at the figure there. The appetizing
odor of broiling bacon had drawn her attention, and as if no move
went unnoticed the man said, without lifting his eyes:

"Let 'em soak! Supper'll be ready directly. How'd you like your
eggs--if we had any?"

Evidently he expected no reply, for after a chuckle he began to
whistle softly, in a peculiarly clear and liquid tone, almost like
some bird-call. He had spoken with an unmistakable Texas drawl;
the woman put him down at once for a cowboy. She settled her back
against a boulder and rested.

The pool had become black and mysterious, the sky was studded with
stars when he called her, and she laboriously drew on her
stockings and boots. Well back from the fire he had arranged a
seat for her, using a saddle-blanket for a covering, and upon this
she lowered herself stiffly. As she did so she took fuller notice
of the man, and found his appearance reassuring.

"I suppose you wonder how I--happen to be here," she said.

"Now don't talk 'til you're rested, miss. This coffee is strong
enough to walk on its hands, and I reckon about two cups of it'll
rastle you into shape." As she raised the tin mug to her lips he
waved a hand and smiled. "Drink hearty!" He set a plate of bread
and bacon in her lap, then opened a glass jar of jam. "Here's the
dulces. I've got a sort of sweet tooth in my head. I reckon you'll
have to make out with this, 'cause I rode in too late to rustle
any fresh meat, and the delivery-wagon won't be 'round before
morning." So saying, he withdrew to the fire.

The woman ate and drank slowly. She was too tired to be hungry,
and meanwhile the young man squatted upon his heels and watched
her through the smoke from a husk cigarette. It was perhaps
fortunate for her peace of mind that she could not correctly
interpret his expression, for had she been able to do so she would
have realized something of the turmoil into which her presence had
thrown him. He was accustomed to meeting men in unexpected places-
-even in the desert's isolation--but to have a night camp in the
chaparral invaded by a young and unescorted woman, to have a foot-
sore goddess stumble out of the dark and collapse into his arms,
was a unique experience and one calculated to disturb a person of
his solitary habits.

"Have you had your supper?" she finally inquired.

"Who, me? Oh, I'll eat with the help." He smiled, and when his
flashing teeth showed white against his leathery tan the woman
decided he was not at all bad-looking. He was very tall and quite
lean, with the long legs of a horseman--this latter feature
accentuated by his high-heeled boots and by the short canvas
cowboy coat that reached only to his cartridge-belt. His features
she could not well make out, for the fire was little more than a
bed of coals, and he fed it, Indian-like, with a twig or two at a
time.

"I beg your pardon. I'm selfish." She extended her cup and plate
as an invitation for him to share their contents. "Please eat with
me."

But he refused. "I ain't hungry," he affirmed. "Honest!"

Accustomed as she was to the diffidence of ranch-hands, she
refrained from urging him, and proceeded with her repast. When she
had finished she lay back and watched him as he ate sparingly.

"My horse fell crossing the Arroyo Grande," she announced,
abruptly. "He broke a leg, and I had to shoot him."

"Is there any water in the Grande?" asked the man.

"No. They told me there was plenty. I knew of this charco, so I
made for it."

"Who told you there was water in the arroyo?"

"Those Mexicans at the little-goat ranch."

"Balli. So you walked in from Arroyo Grande. Lord! It's a good ten
miles straightaway, and I reckon you came crooked. Eh?"

"Yes. And it was very hot. I was never here but once, and--the
country looks different when you're afoot."

"It certainly does," the man nodded. Then he continued, musingly:
"No water there, eh? I figured there might be a little." The fact
appeared to please him, for he nodded again as he went on with his
meal. "Not much rain down here, I reckon."

"Very little. Where are you from?"

"Me? Hebbronville. My name is Law."

Evidently, thought the woman, this fellow belonged to the East
outfit, or some of the other big cattle-ranches in the
Hebbronville district. Probably he was a range boss or a foreman.
After a time she said, "I suppose the nearest ranch is that Balli
place?"

"Yes'm."

"I'd like to borrow your horse."

Mr. Law stared into his plate. "Well, miss, I'm afraid--"

She added, hastily, "I'll send you a fresh one by Balli's boy in
the morning."

He looked up at her from under the brim of his hat. "D'you reckon
you could find that goat-ranch by star-light, miss?"

The woman was silent.

"'Ain't you just about caught up on traveling, for one day?" he
asked. "I reckon you need a good rest about as much as anybody I
ever saw. You can have my blanket, you know."

The prospect was unwelcome, yet she reluctantly agreed. "Perhaps--
Then in the morning--"

Law shook his head. "I can't loan you my horse, miss. I've got to
stay right here."

"But Balli's boy could bring him back."

"I got to meet a man."

"Here?"

"Yes'm."

"When will he come?"

"He'd ought to be here at early dark to-morrow evening." Heedless
of her dismay, he continued, "Yes'm, about sundown."

"But--I can't stay here. I'll ride to Balli's and have your horse
back by afternoon."

"My man might come earlier than I expect," Mr. Law persisted.

"Really, I can't see what difference it would make. It wouldn't
interfere with your appointment to let me--"

Law smiled slowly, and, setting his plate aside, selected a fresh
cigarette; then as he reached for a coal he explained:

"I haven't got what you'd exactly call an appointment. This feller
I'm expectin' is a Mexican, and day before yesterday he killed a
man over in Jim Wells County. They got me by 'phone at
Hebbronville and told me he'd left. He's headin' for the border,
and he's due here about sundown, now that Arroyo Grande's dry. I
was aimin' to let you ride his horse."

"Then--you're an officer?"

"Yes'm. Ranger. So you see I can't help you to get home till my
man comes. Do you live around here?" The speaker looked up
inquiringly, and after an instant's hesitation the woman said,
quietly:

"I am Mrs. Austin." She was grateful for the gloom that hid her
face. "I rode out this way to examine a tract of grazing-land."

It seemed fully a minute before the Ranger answered; then he said,
in a casual tone, "I reckon Las Palmas is quite a ranch, ma'am."

"Yes. But we need more pasture."

"I know your La Feria ranch, too. I was with General Castro when
we had that fight near there."

"You were a Maderista?"

"Yes'm. Machine-gun man. That's a fine country over there. Seems
like God Almighty got mixed and put the Mexicans on the wrong side
of the Rio Grande. But I reckon you haven't seen much of La Feria
since the last revolution broke out."

"No. We have tried to remain neutral, but--" Again she hesitated.
"Mr. Austin has enemies. Fortunately both sides have spared La
Feria."

Law shrugged his broad shoulders. "Oh, well, the revolution isn't
over! A ranch in Mexico is my idea of a bad investment." He rose
and, taking his blanket, sought a favorable spot upon which to
spread it. Then he helped Mrs. Austin to her feet--her muscles had
stiffened until she could barely stand--after which he fetched his
saddle for a pillow. He made no apologies for his meager
hospitality, nor did his guest expect any.

When he had staked out his horse for the night he returned to find
the woman rolled snugly in her covering, as in a cocoon. The dying
embers flickered into flame and lit her hair redly. She had laid
off her felt Stetson, and one loosened braid lay over her hard
pillow. Thinking her asleep, Law stood motionless, making no
attempt to hide his expression of wonderment until, unexpectedly,
she spoke.

"What will you do with me when your Mexican comes?" she said.

"Well, ma'am, I reckon I'll hide you out in the brush till I tame
him. I hope you sleep well."

"Thank you. I'm used to the open."

He nodded as if he well knew that she was; then, shaking out his
slicker, turned away.

As he lay staring up through the thorny mesquite branches that
roofed him inadequately from the dew he marveled mightily. A
bright, steady-burning star peeped through the leaves at him, and
as he watched it he remembered that this red-haired woman with the
still, white face was known far and wide through the lower valley
as "The Lone Star." Well, he mused, the name fitted her; she was,
if reports were true, quite as mysterious, quite as cold and fixed
and unapproachable, as the title implied. Knowledge of her
identity had come as a shock, for Law knew something of her
history, and to find her suing for his protection was quite
thrilling. Tales of her pale beauty were common and not tame, but
she was all and more than she had been described. And yet why had
no one told him she was so young? This woman's youth and
attractiveness amazed him; he felt that he had made a startling
discovery. Was she so cold, after all, or was she merely reserved?
Red hair above a pure white face; a woman's form wrapped in his
blanket; ripe red lips caressing the rim of his mean drinking-cup!
Those were things to think about. Those were pictures for a lonely
man.

She had not been too proud and cold to let him help her. In her
fatigue she had allowed him to lift her and to make her more
comfortable. Hot against his palms--palms unaccustomed to the
touch of woman's flesh--he felt the contact of her naked feet, as
at the moment when he had placed them in the cooling water. Her
feeble resistance had only called attention to her sex--to the
slim whiteness of her ankles beneath her short riding-skirt.

Following his first amazement at beholding her had come a
fantastic explanation of her presence--for a moment or two it had
seemed as if the fates had taken heed of his yearnings and had
sent her to him out of the dusk--wild fancies, like these, bother
men who are much alone. Of course he had not dreamed that she was
the mistress of Las Palmas. That altered matters, and yet--they
were to spend a long idle day together. If the Mexican did not
come, another night like this would follow, and she was virtually
his prisoner. Perhaps, after all--

Dave Law stirred nervously and sighed.

"Don't this beat hell?" he murmured.




II

THE AMBUSH


Alaire Austin slept badly. The day's hardships had left their
traces. The toxins of fatigue not only poisoned her muscles with
aches and pains, but drugged her brain and rendered the night a
long succession of tortures during which she experienced for a
second time the agonies of thirst and fatigue and despair. Extreme
physical ordeals, like profound emotional upheavals, leave
imprints upon the brain, and while the body may recover quickly,
it often requires considerable time to rest exhausted nerves. The
finer the nervous organism, the slower is the process of
recuperation. Like most normal women, Alaire had a surprising
amount of endurance, both nervous and muscular, but, having drawn
heavily against her reserve force, she paid the penalty. During
the early hours of the night she slept hardly at all, and as soon
as her bodily discomfort began to decrease her mind became unruly.
Twice she rose and limped to the water-hole for a drink, and it
was not until nearly dawn that she dropped off into complete
unconsciousness. She was awakened by a sunbeam which pierced her
leafy shelter and with hot touch explored her upturned face.

It was still early; the sun had just cleared the valley's rim and
the ground was damp with dew. Somewhere near by an unfamiliar bird
was sweetly trilling. Alaire listened dreamily until the bird-
carol changed to the air of a familiar cowboy song, then she sat
up, queerly startled.

David Law was watering his horse, grooming the animal meanwhile
with a burlap doth. Such attention was unusual in a stock country
where horses run wild, but this horse, Mrs. Austin saw, justified
unusual care. It was a beautiful blood-bay mare, and as the woman
looked it lifted its head, then with wet, trembling muzzle
caressed its owner's cheek. Undoubtedly this attention was meant
for a kiss, and was as daintily conferred as any woman's favor. It
brought a reward in a lump of sugar. There followed an exhibition
of equine delight; the mare's lips twitched, her nose wrinkled
ludicrously, she stretched her neck and tossed her head as the
sweetness tickled her palate. Even the nervous switching of her
tail was eloquent of pleasure. Meanwhile the owner showed his
white teeth in a smile.

"Good morning," said Mrs. Austin.

Law lifted his hat in a graceful salute as he approached around
the edge of the pool, his spurs jingling musically. The mare
followed.

"You have a fine horse, there."

"Yes'm. Her and me get along all right. I hope we didn't wake you,
ma'am."

"No. I was too tired to sleep well."

"Of course. I heard you stirring about during the night." Law
paused, and the mare, with sharp ears cocked forward, looked over
his shoulder inquisitively. "Tell the lady good morning, Bessie
Belle," he directed. The animal flung its head high, then stepped
forward and, stretching its neck, sniffed doubtfully at the
visitor.

"What a graceful bow!" Mrs. Austin laughed. "You taught her that,
I presume."

"Yes'm! She'd never been to school when I got her; she was plumb
ignorant. But she's got all the airs of a fine lady now. Sometimes
I go without sugar, but Bessie Belle never does."

"And you with a sweet tooth!"

The Ranger smiled pleasantly. "She's as easy as a rockin'-chair.
We're kind of sweethearts. Ain't we, kid?" Again Bessie Belle
tossed her head high. "That's 'yes,' with the reverse English,"
the speaker explained. "Now you just rest yourself, ma'am, and
order your breakfast. What 'll it be--quail, dove, or cottontail?"

"Why--whatever you can get."

"That ain't the kind of restaurant we run. Bessie Belle would sure
be offended if she understood you. Ever see anybody call a quail?"

"Can it really be done?"

Law's face brightened. "You wait." He led his mare down the
arroyo, then returned, and, taking his Winchester from its
scabbard, explained: "There's a pair of 'top-knots' on that side-
hill waitin' for a drink. Watch 'em run into my lap when I give
the distress signal of our secret order." He skirted the water-
hole, and seated himself with his heels together and his elbows
propped upon his spread knees in the military position for close
shooting. From where he sat he commanded an unobstructed view of
the thicket's edge. Next he moistened his lips and uttered an
indescribable low whistle. At intervals he repeated the call,
while the woman looked on with interest. Suddenly out of the grass
burst a blue quail, running with wings outstretched and every
feather ruffled angrily. It paused, the man's cheeks snuggled
against the stock of his gun, and the bark of the thirty-thirty
sounded loudly. Mrs. Austin saw that he had shot the little bird's
head off. She spoke, but he stilled her with a gesture, threw in a
second shell, and repeated his magic call. There was a longer wait
this time, but finally the performance was repeated. The marksman
rose, picked up the two birds, and came back to the camping-place.

"Kind of a low-down trick when they've just started housekeeping,
ain't it?" he smiled.

Mrs. Austin saw that both crested heads had been cleanly severed.
"That is quite wonderful" she said. "You must be an unusually good
shot."

"Yes'm. You can fool turkeys the same way. Turkeys are easy."

"What do you say to them? What brings them out, all ruffled up?"
she asked, curiously.

Law had one of the birds picked by this time. "I tell 'em a snake
has got me. I reckon each one thinks the other is in trouble and
comes to the rescue. Anyhow, it's a mighty mean trick."

He would not permit her to help with the breakfast, so she lay
back enjoying the luxury of her hard bed and watching her host,
whose personality, now that she saw him by daylight, had begun to
challenge her interest. Of late years she had purposely avoided
men, and circumstances had not permitted her to study those few
she had been forced to meet; but now that fate had thrown her into
the company of this stranger, she permitted some play to her
curiosity.

Physically Law was of an admirable make--considerably over six
feet in height, with wide shoulders and lean, strong limbs.
Although his face was schooled to mask all but the keenest
emotions, the deftness of his movements was eloquent, betraying
that complete muscular and nervous control which comes from life
in the open. A pair of blue-gray, meditative eyes, with a
whimsical fashion of wrinkling half-shut when he talked, relieved
a countenance that otherwise would have been a trifle grim and
somber. The nose was prominent and boldly arched, the ears large
and pronounced and standing well away from the head; the mouth was
thin-lipped and mobile. Alaire tried to read that bronzed visage,
with little success until she closed her eyes and regarded the
mental image. Then she found the answer: Law had the face and the
head of a hunter. The alert ears, the watchful eyes, the predatory
nose were like those of some hunting animal. Yes, that was
decidedly the strongest impression he gave. And yet in his face
there was nothing animal in a bad sense. Certainly it showed no
grossness. The man was wild, untamed, rather than sensual, and
despite his careless use of the plains vernacular he seemed to be
rather above the average in education and intelligence. At any
rate, without being stupidly tongue-tied, he knew enough to remain
silent when there was nothing to say, and that was a blessing, for
Mrs. Austin herself was not talkative, and idle chatter distressed
her.

On the whole, when Alaire had finished her analysis she rather
resented the good impression Law had made upon her, for on general
principles she chose to dislike and distrust men. Rising, she
walked painfully to the pond and made a leisurely toilet.

Breakfast was ready when she returned, and once more the man sat
upon his heels and smoked while she ate. Alaire could not catch
his eyes upon her, except when he spoke, at which time his gaze
was direct and open; yet never did she feel free from his
intensest observation.

After a while she remarked: "I'm glad to see a Ranger in this
county. There has been a lot of stealing down our way, and the
Association men can't seem to stop it. Perhaps you can."

"The Rangers have a reputation in that line," he admitted. "But
there is stealing all up and down the border, since the war. You
lost any stuff?"

"Yes. Mostly horses."

"Sure! They need horses in Mexico."

"The ranchers have organized. They have formed a sort of vigilance
committee in each town, and talk of using bloodhounds."

"Bloodhounds ain't any good, outside of novels. If beef got
scarce, them Greasers would steal the dogs and eat 'em." He added,
meditatively, "Dog ain't such bad eatin', either."

"Have you tried it?"

Mr. Law nodded. "It was better than some of the army beef we got
in the Philippines." Then, in answer to her unspoken inquiry,
"Yes'm, I served an enlistment there."

"You--were a private soldier?"

"Yes'm."

Mrs. Austin was incredulous, and yet she could not well express
her surprise without too personal an implication. "I can't imagine
anybody--that is, a man like you, as a common soldier."

"Well, I wasn't exactly that," he grinned. "No, I was about the
most UNcommon soldier out there. I had a speakin' acquaintance
with most of the guard-houses in the islands before I got
through."

"But why did you enlist--a man like you?"

"Why?" He pondered the question. "I was young. I guess I needed
the excitement. I have to get about so much or I don't enjoy my
food."

"Did you join the Maderistas for excitement?"

"Mostly. Then, too, I believed Panchito Madero was honest and
would give the peons land. An honest Mexican is worth fightin'
for, anywhere. The pelados are still struggling for their land--
for that and a chance to live and work and be happy."

Mrs. Austin stirred impatiently. "They are fighting because they
are told to fight. There is no PATRIOTISM in them," said she.

"I think," he said, with grave deliberateness, "the majority feel
something big and vague and powerful stirring inside them. They
don't know exactly what it is, perhaps, but it is there. Mexico
has outgrown her dictators. They have been overthrown by the same
causes that brought on the French Revolution."

"The French Revolution!" Alaire leaned forward, eying the speaker
with startled intensity. "You don't talk like a--like an enlisted
man. What do you know about the French Revolution?"

Reaching for a coal, the Ranger spoke without facing her. "I've
read a good bit, ma'am, and I'm a noble listener. I remember good,
too. Why, I had a picture of the Bastille once." He pronounced it
"Bastilly," and his hearer settled back. "That was some calaboose,
now, wasn't it?" A moment later he inquired, ingenuously, "I don't
suppose you ever saw that Bastille, did you?"

"No. Only the place where it stood."

"Sho! You must have traveled right smart for such a young lady."
He beamed amiably upon her.

"I was educated abroad, and I only came home--to be married."

Law noted the lifeless way in which she spoke, and he understood.
"I'll bet you hablar those French and German lingoes like a
native," he ventured. "Beats me how a person can do it."

"You speak Spanish, don't you?"

"Oh yes. But I was born in Mexico, as near as I can make out."

"And you probably speak some of the Filipino dialects?"

"Yes'm, a few."

There was something winning about this young man's modesty, and
something flattering in his respectful admiration. He seemed,
also, to know his place, a fact which was even more in his favor.
Undoubtedly he had force and ability; probably his love of
adventure and a happy lack of settled purpose had led him to
neglect his more commonplace opportunities and sent him first into
the army and thence into the Ranger service. The world is full of
such, and the frontier is their gathering-place. Mrs. Austin had
met a number of men like Law, and to her they seemed to be the
true soldiers of fortune--fellows who lived purely for the fun of
living, and leavened their days with adventure. They were buoyant
souls, for the most part, drifting with the tide, resentful of
authority and free from care; meeting each day with enthusiastic
expectancy for what it held in store. They were restless and
improvident; the world counted them ne'er-do-wells, and yet she
knew that at least their hours were full and that their names--
some of them--were written large in the distant places. Alaire
Austin often told herself that, had she been born a man, such a
life as this might have been hers, and she took pleasure in
dreaming sometimes of the experience that fate, in such a case,
would have brought to her.

Being a woman, however, and being animated at this particular
moment by a peculiarly feminine impulse, she felt urged to add her
own touch to what nature had roughed out. This man had been denied
what she termed an education; therefore she decided to put one in
his way.

"Do you like to read?" she asked him.

"Say! It's my favorite form of exercise." Law's blue-gray eyes
were expressionless, his face was bland. "Why?"

"I have a great many books at Las Palmas. You might enjoy some of
them."

"Now that's nice of you, ma'am. Mebbe I'll look into this cattle-
stealin' in your neighborhood, and if I do I'll sure come
borrowin'."

"Oh, I'll send you a boxful when I get back," said Alaire, and
Dave thanked her humbly.

Later, when he went to move his mare into a shady spot, the Ranger
chuckled and slapped his thigh with his hat. "Bessie Belle, we're
going to improve our minds," he said, aloud. "We're going to be
literary and read Pilgrim's Progress and Alice in Wonderland. I
bet we'll enjoy 'em, eh? But--doggone! She's a nice lady, and your
coat is just the same color as her hair."

Where the shade was densest and the breeze played most freely,
there Dave fixed a comfortable couch for his guest, and during the
heat of the forenoon she dozed.

Asleep she exercised upon him an even more disturbing effect than
when awake, for now he could study her beauty deliberately, from
the loose pile of warm, red hair to the narrow, tight-laced boots.
What he saw was altogether delightful. Her slightly parted lips
offered an irresistible attraction--almost an invitation; the heat
had lent a feverish flush to her cheeks; Dave could count the slow
pulsations of her white throat. He closed his eyes and tried to
quell his unruly longings. He was a strong man; adventurous days
and nights spent in the open had coarsened the masculine side of
his character, perhaps at expense to his finer nature, for it is a
human tendency to revert. He was masterful and ruthless; lacking
obligations or responsibilities of any sort, he had been
accustomed to take what he wanted; therefore the gaze he fixed
upon the sleeping woman betrayed an ardor calculated to deepen the
color in her cheeks, had she beheld it.

And yet, strangely enough, Dave realized that his emotions were
unaccountably mixed. This woman's distress had, of course, brought
a prompt and natural response; but now her implicit confidence in
his honor and her utter dependence upon him awoke his deepest
chivalry. Then, too, the knowledge that her life was unhappy,
indeed tragic, filled him with a sort of wondering pity. As he
continued to look at her these feelings grew until finally he
turned away his face. With his chin in his hands he stared out
somberly into the blinding heat. He had met few women, of late
years, and never one quite like this--never one, for instance, who
made him feel so dissatisfied with his own shortcomings.

After a time he rose and withdrew to the shelter of another tree,
there to content himself with mental images of his guest.

But one cannot sleep well with a tropic sun in the heavens, and
since there was really nothing for her to do until the heat
abated, Alaire, when she awoke, obliged the Ranger to amuse her.

Although she was in fact younger than he, married life had matured
her, and she treated him therefore like a boy. Law did not object.
Mrs. Austin's position in life was such that most men were humble
in her presence, and now her superior wisdom seemed to excite the
Ranger's liveliest admiration. Only now and then, as if in an
unguarded moment, did he appear to forget himself and speak with
an authority equaling her own. What he said at such times
indicated either a remarkably retentive memory or else an ability
to think along original lines too rare among men of his kind to be
easily credited.

For instance, during a discussion of the Mexican situation--and of
course their talk drifted thither, for at the moment it was the
one vitally interesting topic along the border--he excused the
barbarous practices of the Mexican soldiers by saying:

"Of course they're cruel, vindictive, treacherous, but after all
there are only a hundred and forty generations between us and
Adam; only a hundred and forty lifetimes since the Garden of Eden.
We civilized peoples are only a lap or two ahead of the
uncivilized ones. When you think that it takes ten thousand
generations to develop a plant and root out some of its early
heredities, you can see that human beings have a long way yet to
go before they become perfect. We're creatures of environment,
just like plants. Environment has made the Mexican what he is."

Certainly this was an amazing speech to issue from a sun-browned
cowboy sitting cross-legged under a mesquite-tree.

From under her hat-brim Alaire Austin eyed the speaker with a
curiosity into which there had come a vague hostility. For the
moment she was suspicious and piqued, but Law did not appear to
notice, and as he talked on her doubts gradually subsided.

"You said, last night, that you were born on the other side?" She
inclined her ruddy head to the west.

"Yes'm. My father was a mining man, and he done well over there
until he locked horns with the Guadalupes. Old Don Enrique and him
had a run-in at the finish, over some land or something. It was
when the Don was gobbling all the property in the state, and
laying the foundation for his big fortune. You know he had
permission from the president to steal all the land he cared to,
just like the rest of those local governors had. Well, Guadalupe
tried to run my people out."

"Did he succeed?"

"No'm. He killed 'em, but they stayed."

"Not--really?" The listener was shocked. "American citizens, too?"

"Times wasn't much different then than now. There's plenty of good
Americans been killed in Mexico and nothing done about it, even in
our day. I don't know all the details--never could get 'em,
either--for I was away at school; but after I came back from the
Philippines the Madero fuss was just brewing, so I went over and
joined it. But it didn't last long, and there wasn't enough
fighting to suit me. I've been back, off and on, since, and I've
burned a good deal of Guadalupe property and swum a good many head
of Guadalupe stock."

As the morning progressed Law proved himself an interesting
companion, and in spite of the discomforts of the situation the
hours slipped past rapidly. Luncheon was a disagreeable meal,
eaten while the arroyo baked and the heat devils danced on the
hills; but the unpleasantness was of brief duration, and Law
always managed to banish boredom. Nor did he seem to waste a
thought upon the nature of that grim business which brought him to
this place. Quite the contrary, in the afternoon he put his mare
through her tricks for Alaire's edification, and gossiped idly of
whatever interested his guest.

Then as the sun edged to the west and Mrs. Austin became restless,
he saddled Bessie Belle and led her down the gulch into a safer
covert.

Returning, he carefully obliterated all traces of the camp. He
watered the ashes of the fire, gathered up the tell-tale scraps of
paper and fragments of food, and then when the place suited him
fell to examining his rifle.

Alaire watched him with interest. "Where shall I go," she asked,
"and what shall I do?"

"You just pick out a good cover beyond the water-hole and stay
there, ma'am. It may be a long wait, for something may have
happened. If so we'll have to lie close. And don't worry yourself
none, ma'am; he won't make no trouble."

The afternoon drew to a close. Gradually the blinding white glare
of the sun lessened and yellowed, the shadow of the bluffs began
to stretch out. The shallow pool lay silent, deserted save for
furtive little shapes that darted nervously out of the leaves, or
for winged visitors that dropped out of the air.

With the sunset there came the sound of hoofs upon loose stones,
branches rustled against breasting bodies, and Mrs. Austin cowered
low in her hiding-place. But it was only the advance-guard of a
bunch of brush cattle coming to water. They paused at a distance,
and nothing except their thirst finally overcame their suspicions.
One by one they drifted into sight, drank warily at the remotest
edge of the tanque, then, alarmed at some imaginary sight or
sound, went clattering up the ravine.

Once again the water-hole lay sleeping.

Alaire's retreat was far from comfortable; there was an ants' nest
somewhere near her and she thought of moving; but suddenly her
breath caught and her heart jumped uncontrollably. She crouched
lower, for directly opposite her position, and outlined against
the sky where the sharp ridge cut it, was the figure of a mounted
man. Rider and horse were silhouetted against the pearl-gray
heaven like an equestrian statue. How long they had been there
Alaire had no faintest notion. Perhaps it was their coming which
had alarmed the cattle. She was conscious that a keen and hostile
pair of eyes was searching the coverts surrounding the charco.
Then, as silently as it had appeared, the apparition vanished
beyond the ridge, and Alaire wondered if the rider had taken
alarm. She earnestly hoped so; this breathless vigil was getting
on her nerves, and the sight of that threatening figure had set
her pulses to throbbing. The rider was on his guard, that was
plain; he was armed, too, and probably desperate. The ominous
possibilities of this ambush struck her forcibly.

Alaire lay close, as she had been directed, praying that the
horseman had been warned; but shortly she heard again the rustle
of stiff branches, and out into the opening rode a Mexican. He was
astride a wiry gray pony, and in the strong twilight Alaire could
see his every feature--the swarthy cheeks, the roving eyes beneath
the black felt hat. A carbine lay across his saddle-horn, a riata
was coiled beside his leg, a cartridge-belt circled his waist.
There was something familiar about the fellow, but at the moment
Alaire could not determine what it was.

After one swift appraising glance the new-comer rode straight to
the verge of the water-hole and dismounted; then he and his horse
drank side by side.

It was the moment for a complete and effective surprise, but
nothing happened. Why didn't Law act? Alaire bent low, straining
eyes and ears, but no command came from the Ranger. After a while
the traveler rose to his feet and stretched his limbs. Next he
walked to the ashes of the fire and looked down at them, stirring
them with his toe. Apparently satisfied, he lit a cigarette.

Could it be that something had gone wrong with the Ranger's plan?
Had something happened to him? Alaire was startled by the
possibility; this delay was beyond her comprehension.

Then, as if in answer to her perplexity, a second horseman
appeared, and the woman realized how simply she had been fooled.




III

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE WATER-HOLE


The new-comers exchanged a word or two in Spanish, then the second
rider flung himself from his saddle and made for the water. He was
lying prone and drinking deeply when out of nowhere came a sharp
command.

"Oiga! Hands up, both of you!"

The first arrival jumped as if a rattlesnake had buzzed at his
back, the second leaped to his feet with an oath; they stared in
the direction whence the voice had come.

"Drop your gun, companero!" The order was decisive; it was
directed at the man who had first appeared, for the other had left
his Winchester in its scabbard.

Both Mexicans cried, as if at a cue, "Who speaks?"

"A Ranger."

The fellow Law had addressed let fall his rifle; two pairs of dark
hands rose slowly. Then the Ranger went on in Spanish:

"Anto, lower your left hand and unbuckle your belt." Anto did as
he was told, his revolver and cartridge-belt dropped to the
ground. "And you, compadre, do the same. Mind you, the left hand!
Now face about and walk to the charco, both of you. Good!"

Law stepped into view, his Winchester in the crook of his arm. He
emptied the three discarded weapons, then, walking to Anto's
horse, he removed the second carbine from beneath the saddle-flap
and ejected its shells into his palm.

This done, he addressed the stranger. "Now, friend, who are you,
and why are you riding with this fellow?"

"My name is Panfilo Sanchez, senor. Before God, I have done
nothing." The speaker was tremendously excited.

"Well, Panfilo, that will take some proving," the Ranger muttered.

"What do you say?"

The gist of this statement having been repeated in Spanish, both
prisoners burst into clamorous explanation of their presence
together. Panfilo, it seemed, had encountered his companion purely
by chance, and was horrified now to learn that his newly made
friend was wanted by the authorities. In the midst of his
incoherent protestations Mrs. Austin appeared.

"He is telling you the truth, Mr. Law," she said, quietly. "He is
one of my men."

Both Mexicans looked blank. At sight of the speaker their mouths
fell open, and Panfilo ceased his gesticulations.

Mrs. Austin went on: "He is my horse-breaker's cousin. He couldn't
have had any part in that murder in Jim Wells County, for he was
at Las Palmas when I left."

Panfilo recovered from his amazement, removed his sombrero, and
blessed his employer extravagantly; then he turned triumphantly
upon his captor. "Behold!" cried he. "There you have the truth. I
am an excellent, hard-working man and as honest as God."

"Surely you don't want him," Alaire appealed to Law. "He was
probably helping his countryman to escape--but they all do that,
you know."

"All right! If he's your man, that's enough," Dave told her. "Now
then, boys, it will soon be dark and we'll need some supper before
we start. It won't hurt Anto's horse to rest a bit, either. You
are under arrest," he added, addressing the latter. "You
understand what that means?"

"Si, senor!"

"I won't tie you unless--"

"No, senor!" Anto understood perfectly, and was grateful.

"Well, then, build a fire, and you, Panfilo, lend a hand. The
senora will need a cup of tea, for we three have a long ride ahead
of us."

No time was lost. Both Mexicans fell to with a will, and in a
surprisingly short time water was boiling. When it came Law's turn
to eat, Alaire, who was eager to be gone, directed her employee to
fetch the Ranger's horse. Panfilo acquiesced readily and buckled
on his cartridge-belt and six-shooter. He was about to pick up his
rifle, too, but finding Law's eyes inquiringly fixed upon him, he
turned with a shrug and disappeared down the arroyo. It was plain
that he considered his friendly relations well established and
resented the Ranger's suspicion.

"How long has that fellow been working for you?" Law jerked his
head in the direction Panfilo had taken.

"Not long. I--don't know much about him," Alaire confessed. Then,
as if in answer to his unspoken question, "But I'm sure he's all
right."

"Is he looking up range for you?"

"N--no! I left him at the ranch. I don't know how he came to be
here, unless--It IS rather strange!"

Dave shot a swift, interrogatory glance at Panfilo's traveling
companion, but Anto's face was stony, his black eyes were fixed
upon the fire.

With an abrupt gesture Law flung aside the contents of his cup and
strode to Panfilo's horse, which stood dejectedly with reins
hanging.

"Where are you--going?" Alaire rose nervously.

It was nearly dark now; only the crests of the ridges were plain
against the luminous sky; in the brushy bottom of the arroyo the
shadows were deep. Alaire had no wish to be left alone with the
prisoner.

With bridle-rein and carbine in his left hand, the Ranger halted,
then, stooping for Anto's discarded cartridge-belt, he looped it
over his saddle-horn. He vaulted easily into the seat, saying:

"I hid that mare pretty well. Your man may not be able to find
her." Then he turned his borrowed horse's head toward the brush.

Anto had squatted motionless until this moment; he had not even
turned his eyes; but now, without the slightest warning, he
uttered a loud call. It might have served equally well as a
summons or as an alarm, but it changed the Ranger's suspicions
into certainty. Dave uttered an angry exclamation, then to the
startled woman he cried:

"Watch this man! He can't hurt you, for I've got his shells." To
his prisoner he said, sharply: "Stay where you are! Don't move!"
The next instant he had loped into the brush on the tracks of
Panfilo Sanchez, spurring the tired gray pony into vigorous
action.

It was an uncomfortable situation in which Alaire now found
herself. Law was too suspicious, she murmured to herself; he was
needlessly melodramatic; she felt exceedingly ill at ease as the
pony's hoof-beats grew fainter. She was not afraid of Anto, having
dealt with Mexican vaqueros for several years, yet she could not
forget that he was a murderer, and she wondered what she was
expected to do if he should try to escape. It was absurd to
suppose that Panfilo, her own hired man, could be capable of
treachery; the mere suspicion was a sort of reflection upon her.

Alaire was startled by hearing other hoof-beats now; their
drumming came faint but unmistakable. Yes, there were two horses
racing down the arroyo. Anto, the fugitive, rose to his feet and
stared into the dusk. "Sit down!" Alaire ordered, sharply. He
obeyed, muttering beneath his breath, but his head was turned as
if in an effort to follow the sounds of the pursuit.

Next came the distant rattle of loosened stones--evidently one
horse was being urged toward the open high ground--then the
peaceful quiet evening was split by the report of Law's thirty-
thirty. Another shot followed, and then a third. Both Alaire and
her prisoner were on their feet, the woman shaking in every limb,
the Mexican straining his eyes into the gloom and listening
intently.

Soon there came a further echo of dry earth and gravel dislodged,
but whether by Law's horse or by that of Sanchez was uncertain.
Perhaps both men had gained the mesa.

It had all happened so quickly and so unexpectedly that Alaire
felt she must be dreaming, or that there had been some idiotic
mistake. She wondered if the Ranger's sudden charge had not simply
frightened Panfilo into a panicky flight, and she tried to put her
thoughts into words the Mexican would understand, but his answer
was unintelligible. His black scowl, however, was eloquent of
uncertainty and apprehension.

Alaire had begun to feel the strain of the situation and was
trying to decide what next to do, when David Law came riding out
of the twilight. He was astride the gray; behind him at the end of
a lariat was Bessie Belle, and her saddle was empty.

Mrs. Austin uttered a sharp cry.

Law dismounted and strode to the prisoner. His face was black with
fury; he seemed gigantic in his rage. Without a word he raised his
right hand and cuffed the Mexican to his knees. Then he leaped
upon him, as a dog might pounce upon a rabbit, rolled him to his
face, and twisted the fellow's arms into the small of his back.
Anto cursed, he struggled, but he was like a child in the Ranger's
grasp. Law knelt upon him, and with a jerk of his riata secured
the fellow's wrists; rising, he set the knot with another heave
that dragged the prisoner to his knees. Next he booted Anto to his
feet.

"By God! I've a notion to bend a gun over your head," Law growled.
"Clever little game, wasn't it?"

"Where--? Did you--kill him?" the woman gasped.

Alaire had never beheld such a demoniac expression as Law turned
upon her. The man's face was contorted, his eyes were blazing
insanely, his chest was heaving, and for an instant he seemed to
include her in his anger. Ignoring her inquiry, he went to his
mare and ran his shaking hands over her as if in search of an
injury; his questing palms covered every inch of glistening hide
from forelock to withers, from shoulder to hoof, and under cover
of this task he regained in some degree his self-control.

"That hombre of yours--didn't look right to me," he said, finally.
Laying his cheek against Bessie Belle's neck, as a woman snuggles
close to the man of her choice, he addressed the mare: "I reckon
nobody is going to steal you, eh? Not if I know it. No, sir; that
hombre wasn't any good, was he?"

Alaire wet her lips. "Then you--shot him?"

Law laughed grimly, almost mockingly. "Say! He must be a favorite
of yours?"

"N-no! I hardly knew the fellow. But--did you?"

"I didn't say I shot him," he told her, gruffly. "I warned him
first, and he turned on me--blew smoke in my face. Then he took to
the brush, afoot, and--I cut down on him once more to help him
along."

"He got away?"

"I reckon so."

"Oh, oh!" Alaire's tone left no doubt of her relief. "He was
always a good man--"

"Good? Didn't he steal my horse? Didn't he aim to get me at the
first chance and free his compadre? That's why he wanted his
Winchester. Say! I reckon he--needs killin' about as much as
anybody I know."

"I can't understand it." Alaire sat down weakly. "One of my men,
too."

"This fellow behaved himself while I was gone, eh?" Law jerked his
head in Anto's direction. "I was afraid he--he'd try something. If
he had--" Such a possibility, oddly enough, seemed to choke the
speaker, and the ferocity of his unfinished threat caused Mrs.
Austin to look up at him curiously. There was a moment of silence,
then he said, shortly: "Well, we've got a horse apiece now. Let's
go."

The stars had thickened and brightened, rounding the night sky
into a glittering dome. Anto, the murderer, with his ankles lashed
beneath his horse's belly, rode first; next, in a sullen silence,
came the Ranger, his chin upon his breast; and in the rear
followed Alaire Austin.

In spite of her release from a trying predicament, the woman was
scarcely more eager to go home than was the prisoner, for while
Anto's trail led to a jail, hers led to Las Palmas, and there was
little difference. These last two days in the open had been like a
glimpse of freedom; for a time Alaire had almost lost the taste of
bitter memories. It had required an effort of will to drug
remembrance, but she had succeeded, and had proven her ability to
forget. But now--Las Palmas! It meant the usual thing, the same
endless battle between her duty and her desire. She was tired of
the fight that resulted neither in victory nor defeat; she longed
now, more than ever, to give up and let things take their course.
Why could not women, as well as men, yield to their inclinations--
drift with the current instead of breasting it until they were
exhausted? There was David Law, for instance; he was utterly
carefree, no duties shackled him. He had his horse, his gun, and
his blanket, and they were enough; Alaire, like him, was young,
her mind was eager, her body ripe, and her veins full of fire.
Life must be sweet to those who were free and happy.

But the object of her envy was not so completely at peace with
himself as she supposed. Even yet his mind was in a black turmoil
from his recent anger, and of late, be it said, these spells of
temper had given him cause for uneasiness. Then, too, there was a
lie upon his lips.

Under the stars, at the break of the arroyo, three hundred yards
below the water-hole, a coyote was slinking in a wide circle
around the body of Panfilo Sanchez.




IV

AN EVENING AT LAS PALMAS


Although the lower counties of southwest Texas are flat and badly
watered, they possess a rich soil. They are favored, too, by a
kindly climate, subtropic in its mildness. The days are long and
bright and breezy, while night brings a drenching dew that keeps
the grasses green. Of late years there have been few of those
distressing droughts that gave this part of the state an evil
reputation, and there has been a corresponding increase in
prosperity. The Rio Grande, jaundiced, erratic as an invalid,
wrings its saffron blood from the clay bluffs and gravel canons of
the hill country, but near its estuary winds quietly through a low
coastal plain which the very impurities of that blood have
richened. Here the river's banks are smothered in thickets of
huisache, ebony, mesquite, oak, and alamo.

Railroads, those vitalizing nerve-fibers of commerce, are so
scarce along this division of the border that even in this day
when we boast, or lament, that we no longer have a frontier, there
remain in Texas sections larger than some of our Eastern states
which hear the sound of iron wheels only on their boundaries. To
travel from Brownsville north along the international line one
must, for several hundred miles, avail oneself of horses, mules,
or motor-cars, since rail transportation is almost lacking. And on
his way the traveler will traverse whole counties where the houses
are jacals, where English is a foreign tongue, and where peons
plow their fields with crooked sticks as did the ancient
Egyptians.

That part of the state which lies below the Nueces River was for a
time disputed territory, and long after Texans had given their
lives to drive the Eagle of Mexico across the Rio Grande much of
it remained a forbidden land. Even to-day it is alien. It is a
part of our Southland, but a South different to any other that we
have. Within it there are no blacks, and yet the whites number but
one in twenty. The rest are swarthy, black-haired men who speak
the Spanish tongue and whose citizenship is mostly a matter of
form.

The stockmen, pushing ahead of the nesters and the tillers of the
soil, were the first to invade the lower Rio Grande, and among
these "Old Ed" Austin was a pioneer. Out of the unmapped prairie
he had hewed a foothold, and there, among surroundings as Mexican
as Mexico, he had laid the beginnings of his fortune.

Of "Old Ed's" early life strange stories are told; like the other
cattle barons, he was hungry for land and took it where or how he
could. There are tales of fertile sections bought for ten cents an
acre, tales of Mexican ranchers dispossessed by mortgage, by
monte, or by any means that came to hand; stories even of some,
more stubborn than the rest, who refused to feed the Austin greed
for land, and who remained on their farms to feed the buzzards
instead. Those were crude old days; the pioneers who pushed their
herds into the far pastures were lawless fellows, ruthless,
acquisitive, mastered by the empire-builder's urge for acres and
still more acres. They were the Reclaimers, the men who seized and
held, and then seized more, concerning themselves little or not at
all with the moral law as applicable to both Mexican and white,
and leaving it to the second generation to justify their acts, if
ever justification were required.

As other ranches grew under the hands of such unregenerate owners,
so also under "Old Ed" Austin's management did Las Palnaas
increase and prosper. The estate took its name from a natural
grove of palms in which the house was built; it comprised an
expanse of rich river-land backed by miles of range where "Box A"
cattle lived and bred. In his later years the old man sold much
land, and some he leased; but when he handed Las Palmas to his
son, "Young Ed," as a wedding gift, the ranch still remained a
property to be proud of, and one that was known far and wide for
its size and richness. Leaving his boy to work out of it a fortune
for himself and his bride, the father retired to San Antonio,
whither the friends and cronies of his early days were drifting.
There he settled down and proceeded to finish his allotted span
exactly as suited him best. The rancher's ideal of an agreeable
old age comprised three important items--to wit, complete leisure,
unlimited freedom of speech, and two pints of rye whisky daily. He
enjoyed them all impartially, until, about a year before this
story opens, he died profanely and comfortably. He had a big
funeral, and was sincerely mourned by a coterie of gouty old
Indian-fighters.

Las Palmas had changed greatly since Austin, senior, painfully
scrawled his slanting signature to the deed. It was a different
ranch now to what the old man had known; indeed, it was doubtful
if he would have recognized it, for even the house was new.

Alaire had some such thought in mind as she rode up to the gate on
the afternoon following her departure from the water-hole, and she
felt a thrill of pride at the acres of sprouting corn, the dense
green fields of alfalfa so nicely fitted between their fences.
They were like clean, green squares of matting spread for the feet
of summer.

A Mexican boy came running to care for her horse, a Mexican woman
greeted her as she entered the wide, cool hall and went to her
room. Alaire had ridden far. Part of the night had been spent at
the Balli goat-ranch, the remainder of the journey had been hot
and dusty, and even yet she was not wholly recovered from her
experience of the outward trip.

The house servants at Las Palmas were, on the whole, well trained,
and Mrs. Austin's periodic absences excited no comment; in the
present instance, Dolores fixed a bath and laid out clean clothes
with no more than a running accompaniment of chatter concerned
with household affairs. Dolores, indeed, was superior to the
ordinary servant; she was a woman of some managerial ability, and
she combined the duties of personal maid with those of
housekeeper. She was a great gossip, and possessed such a talent
for gaining information that through her husband, Benito, the
range boss, she was able to keep her mistress in fairly intimate
touch with ranch matters.

Alaire, however, was at this moment in no mood to resume the
tiresome details of management; she quickly dismissed her servitor
and proceeded to revel in the luxury of a cool bath, after which
she took a nap. Later, as she leisurely dressed herself, she
acknowledged that it was good to feel the physical comforts of her
own house, even though her home-coming gave her no especial joy.
She made it a religious practice to dress for dinner, regardless
of Ed's presence, though often for weeks at a time she sat in
solitary state, presiding over an empty table. Nevertheless, she
kept to her custom, for not only did the formality help her to
retain her own self-respect, but it had its influence upon the
servants. Without companionship one needs to be ever upon guard to
retain the nice refinements of gentle breeding, and any one who
has exercised authority in savage countries soon learns the
importance of leaving unbridged the gulf of color and of class.

But Alaire looked forward to no lonely dinner to-night, for Ed was
at home. It was with a grave preoccupation that she made herself
ready to meet him.

Dolores bustled in for a second time and straightway launched
herself into a tirade against Juan, the horse-boy.

"Devil take me if there was ever such a shameless fellow," she
cried, angrily. "He delights in tormenting me, and--Dios!--he is
lazier than a snake. Work? Bah! He abhors it. All day long he
snaps his revolver and pretends to be a bandido, and when he is
not risking bell's fire in that way he is whirling his riata and
jumping through it. Useless capers! He ropes the dog, he ropes the
rose-bushes, he ropes fat Victoria, the cook, carrying a huge bowl
of hot water to scald the ants' nest. Victoria's stomach is boiled
red altogether, and so painful that when she comes near the stove
she curses in a way to chill your blood. What does he do this
morning but fling his wicked loop over a calf's head and break off
one of its little horns. It was terrible; but Senor Austin only
laughed and told him he was a fine vaquero."

"Has Mr. Austin been here all the time?"

"Yes."

"Has he--drunk much?"

"Um-m. No more than common. He is on the gallery now with his
cocktails."

"He knows I am at home?"

"I told him."

Alaire went on dressing. After a little she asked: "Has Benito
finished branding the calves in the south pasture?"

"He finished yesterday and sent the remuda to the Six Mile. Jose
Sanchez will have completed the rodeo by this afternoon. Benito
rode in last night to see you."

"By the way, you know Jose's cousin, Panfilo?"

"Si."

"Why did he leave Las Palmas?"

Dolores hesitated so long that her mistress turned upon her with a
look of sharp inquiry.

"He went to La Feria, senora." Then, in a lowered tone: "Mr.
Austin ordered it. Suddenly, without warning, he sent him away,
though Panfilo did not wish to go, Benito told me all about it."

"Why was he transferred? Come! What ails your tongue, Dolores?"

"Well, I keep my eyes open and my ears, too. I am no fool--"
Dolores paused doubtfully.

"Yes, yes!"

Dolores drew closer. "Rosa Morales--you know the girl? Her father
works the big pump-engine at the river. Well, he is not above
anything, that man; not above selling his own flesh and blood, and
the girl is no better. She thinks about nothing except men, and
she attends all the bailes for miles around, on both sides of the
river. Panfilo loved her; he was mad about her. That's why he came
here to work."

"They were engaged, were they not?"

"Truly. And Panfilo was jealous of any man who looked at Rosa. Now
you can understand why--he was sent away." Dolores's sharp eyes
narrowed meaningly. "Senor Ed has been riding toward the river
every day, lately. Panfilo was furious, so--"

"I see! That is all I care to hear." Alone, Alaire stood
motionless for some time, her face fixed, her eyes unseeing; but
later, when she met her husband in the dining-room, her greeting
was no less civil than usual.

Ed acknowledged his wife's entrance with a careless nod, but did
not trouble to remove his hands from his pockets. As he seated
himself heavily at the table and with unsteady fingers shook the
folds from his napkin, he said:

"You stayed longer than you intended. Um-m--you were gone three
days, weren't you?"

"Four days," Alaire told him, realizing with a little inward start
how very far apart she and Ed had drifted. She looked at him
curiously for an instant, wondering if he really could be her
husband, or--if he were not some peculiarly disagreeable stranger.

Ed had been a handsome boy, but maturity had vitiated his good
looks. He was growing fat from drink and soft from idleness; his
face was too full, his eyes too sluggish; there was an unhealthy
redness in his cheeks. In contrast to his wife's semi-formal
dress, he was unkempt--unshaven and soiled. He wore spurred boots
and a soft shirt; his nails were grimy. When in the city he
contrived to garb himself immaculately; he was in fact something
of a dandy; but at home he was a sloven, and openly reveled in a
freedom of speech and a coarseness of manner that were sad trials
to Alaire. His preparations for dinner this evening had been
characteristically simple; he had drunk three dry cocktails and
flung his sombrero into a corner.

"I've been busy while you were gone," he announced. "Been down to
the pump-house every day laying that new intake. It was a nasty
job, too. I had Morales barbecue a cabrito for my lunch, and it
was good, but I'm hungry again." Austin attacked his meal with an
enthusiasm strange in him, for of late his appetite had grown as
errant as his habits. Ed boasted, in his clubs, that he was an
outdoor man, and he was wont to tell his friends that the rough
life was the life for him; but as a matter of fact he spent much
more time in San Antonio than he did at home, and each of his
sojourns at Las Palmas was devoted principally to sobering up from
his last visit to the city and to preparing for another. Nor was
he always sober even in his own house; Ed was a heavy and a
constant drinker at all times. What little exercise he took was
upon the back of a horse, and, as no one knew better than his
wife, the physical powers he once had were rapidly deteriorating.

By and by he inquired, vaguely: "Let's see, ... Where did you go
this time?"

"I went up to look over that Ygnacio tract."

"Oh yes. How did you find it?"

"Not very promising. It needs a lot of wells."

"I haven't been out that way since I was a boy. Think you'll lease
it?"

"I don't know. I must find some place for those La Feria cattle."

Austin shook his head. "Better leave 'em where they are, until the
rebels take that country. I stand mighty well with them."

"That's the trouble," Alaire told him. "You stand too well--so
well that I want to get my stock out of Federal territory as soon
as possible."

Ed shrugged carelessly. "Suit yourself; they're your cows."

The meal went on with a desultory flow of small talk, during which
the husband indulged his thirst freely. Alaire told him about the
accident to her horse and the unpleasant ordeal she had suffered
in the mesquite.

"Lucky you found somebody at the water-hole," Ed commented. "Who
was this Ranger? Never heard of the fellow," he commented on the
name. "The Rangers are nothing like they used to be."

"This fellow would do credit to any organization." As Alaire
described how expeditiously Law had made his arrest and handled
his man, her husband showed interest.

"Nicolas Anto, eh?" said he, "Who was his companero?"

"Panfilo Sanchez."

Ed started. "That's strange! They must have met accidentally."

"So they both declared. Why did you let Panfilo go?"

"We didn't need him here, and he was too good a man to lose, so--"
Ed found his wife's eyes fixed upon him, and dropped his own. "I
knew you were short-handed at La Feria." There was an interval of
silence, then Ed exclaimed, testily, "What are you looking at?"

"I wondered what you'd say."

"Eh? Can't I fire a man without a long-winded explanation?"
Something in Alaire's expression warned him of her suspicion;
therefore he took refuge behind an assumption of anger. "My God!
Don't I have a word to say about my own ranch? Just because I've
let you run things to suit yourself--"

"Wait! We had our understanding." Alaire's voice was low and
vibrant. "It was my payment for living with you, and you know it.
You gave me the reins to Las Palmas so that I'd have something to
do, something to live for and think about, except--your actions.
The ranch has doubled in value, every penny is accounted for, and
you have more money to spend on yourself than ever before. You
have no reason to complain."

Austin crushed his napkin into a ball and flung it from him; with
a scowl he shoved himself back from the table.

"It was an idiotic arrangement, just the same. I agreed because I
was sick. Dad thought I was all shot to pieces. But I'm all right
now and able to run my own business."

"Nevertheless, it was a bargain, and it will stand. If your father
were alive he'd make you live up to it."

"Hell! You talk as if I were a child," shouted her husband; and
his plump face was apoplectic with rage. "The title is in my name.
How could he make me do anything?"

"Nobody could force you," his wife said, quietly. "You are still
enough of a man to keep your word, I believe, so long as I observe
my part of our bargain?"

Ed, slightly mollified, agreed. "Of course I am; I never welched.
But I won't be treated as an incompetent, and I'm tired of these
eternal wrangles and jangles."

"You HAVE welched."

"Eh?" Austin frowned belligerently.

"You agreed to go away when you felt your appetite coming on, and
you promised to live clean, at least around home."

"Well?"

"Have you done it?"

"Certainly. I never said I'd cut out the booze entirely."

"What about your carousals at Brownsville?"

Austin subsided sullenly. "Other men have got full in
Brownsville."

"No doubt. But you made a scandal. You have been seen with--women,
in a good many places where we are known."

"Bah! There's nothing to it."

Alaire went on in a lifeless tone that covered the seething
emotions within her. "I never inquire into your actions at San
Antonio or other large cities, although of course I have ears and
I can't help hearing about them; but these border towns are home
to us, and people know me. I won't be humiliated more than I am;
public pity is--hard enough to bear. I've about reached the
breaking-point."

"Indeed?" Austin leaned forward, his eyes inflamed. His tone was
raised, heedless of possible eavesdroppers. "Then why don't you
end it? Why don't you divorce me? God knows I never see anything
of you. You have your part of the house and I have mine; all we
share in common is meal-hours, and--and a mail address. You're
about as much my wife as Dolores is."

Alaire turned upon him eyes dark with misery. "You know why I
don't divorce you. No, Ed, we're going to live out our agreement,
and these Brownsville episodes are going to cease." Her lips
whitened. "So are your visits to the pumping-station."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You transferred Panfilo because he was growing jealous of you and
Rosa."

Ed burst into sudden laughter. "Good Lord! There's no harm in a
little flirtation. Rosa's a pretty girl."

His wife uttered a breathless, smothered exclamation; her hands,
as they lay on the table-cloth, were tightly clenched. "She's your
tenant--almost your servant. What kind of a man are you? Haven't
you any decency left?"

"Say! Go easy! I guess I'm no different to most men." Austin's
unpleasant laughter had been succeeded by a still more unpleasant
scowl. "I have to do SOMETHING. It's dead enough around here--"

"You must stop going there."

"Humph! I notice YOU go where YOU please. Rosa and I never spent a
night together in the chaparral--"

"Ed!" Alaire's exclamation was like the snap of a whip. She rose
and faced her husband, quivering as if the lash had stung her
flesh.

"That went home, eh? Well, I'm no fool! I've seen something of the
world, and I've found that women are about like men. I'd like to
have a look at this David Law, this gunman, this Handsome Harry
who waits at water-holes for ladies in distress." Ed ignored his
wife's outflung hand, and continued, mockingly: "I'll bet he's all
that's manly and splendid, everything that I'm NOT."

"You'd--better stop," gasped the woman. "I can't stand
everything."

"So? Well, neither can I."

"After--this, I think you'd better go--to San Antonio. Maybe I'll
forget before you come back."

To this "Young Ed" agreed quickly enough. "Good!" said he. "That
suits me. It's hell around Las Palmas, anyhow, and I'll at least
get a little peace at my club." He glowered after his wife as she
left the room. Then, still scowling, he lurched out to the gallery
where the breeze was blowing, and flung himself into a chair.




V

SOMETHING ABOUT HEREDITY


It had required but one generation to ripen the fruits of "Old Ed"
Austin's lawlessness, and upon his son heredity had played one of
her grimmest pranks. The father had had faults, but they were
those of his virtues; he had been a strong man, at least, and had
"ridden herd" upon his unruly passions with the same thoroughness
as over his wild cattle. The result was that he had been
universally respected. At first the son seemed destined to be like
his father. It was not until "Young Ed" had reached his full
manhood that his defects had become recognizable evil tendencies,
that his infirmity had developed into a disease. Like sleeping
cancers, the Austin vices had lain dormant in him during boyhood;
it had required the mutation from youth to manhood, and the
alterative effect of marriage, to rouse them; but, once awakened,
their ravages had been swift and destructive. Ed's marriage to
Alaire had been inevitable. They had been playmates, and their
parents had considered the union a consummation of their own
lifelong friendship. Upon her mother's death, Alaire had been sent
abroad, and there she remained while "Young Ed" attended an
Eastern college. For any child the experience would have been a
lonesome one, and through it the motherless Texas girl had grown
into an imaginative, sentimental person, living in a make-believe
world, peopled, for the most part, with the best-remembered
figures of romance and fiction. There were, of course, some few
flesh-and-blood heroes among the rest, and of these the finest and
the noblest had been "Young Ed" Austin.

When she came home to marry, Alaire was still very much of a
child, and she still considered Ed her knight. As for him, he was
captivated by this splendid, handsome girl, whom he remembered
only as a shy, red-headed little comrade.

Never was a marriage more propitious, never were two young people
more happily situated than these two, for they were madly in love,
and each had ample means with which to make the most of life.

As Las Palmas had been the elder Austin's wedding-gift to his son,
so Alaire's dowry from her father had been La Feria, a grant of
lands across the Rio Grande beyond the twenty-league belt by which
Mexico fatuously strives to guard her border. And to Las Palmas
had come the bride and groom to live, to love, and to rear their
children.

But rarely has there been a shorter honeymoon, seldom a swifter
awakening. Within six months "Young Ed" had killed his wife's love
and had himself become an alcoholic. Others of his father's vices
revived, and so multiplied that what few virtues the young man had
inherited were soon choked. The change was utterly unforeseen; its
cause was rooted too deeply in the past to be remedied. Maturity
had marked an epoch with "Young Ed"; marriage had been the mile-
post where his whole course veered abruptly.

To the bride the truth had come as a stunning tragedy. She was
desperately frightened, too, and lived a nightmare life, the while
she tried in every way to check the progress of that
disintegration which was eating up her happiness. The wreck of her
hopes and glad imaginings left her sick, bewildered, in the face
of "the thing that couldn't."

Nor had the effect of this transformation in "Young Ed" been any
less painful to his father. For a time the old man refused to
credit it, but finally, when the truth was borne in upon him
unmistakably, and he saw that Las Palmas was in a fair way to
being ruined through the boy's mismanagement, the old cattleman
had risen in his wrath. The ranch had been his pride as Ed had
been his joy; to see them both go wrong was more than he could
bear. There had been a terrible scene, and a tongue-lashing
delivered in the language of early border days. There had followed
other visits from Austin, senior, other and even bitterer
quarrels; at last, when the girl-wife remained firm in her refusal
to divorce her husband, the understanding had been reached by
which the management of Las Palmas was placed absolutely in her
hands.

Of course, the truth became public, as it always does. This was a
new country--only yesterday it had been the frontier, and even yet
a frontier code of personal conduct to some extent prevailed.
Nevertheless, "Young Ed" Austin's life became a scorn and a
hissing among his neighbors. They were not unduly fastidious,
these neighbors, and they knew that hot blood requires more than a
generation to cool, but everything Ed did outraged them. In trying
to show their sympathy for his wife they succeeded in wounding her
more deeply, and Alaire withdrew into herself. She became almost a
recluse, and fenced herself away not only from the curious, but
also from those who really wished to be her friends. In time
people remarked that Ed Austin's metamorphosis was no harder to
understand than that of his wife.

It was true. She had changed. The alteration reached to the very
bone and marrow of her being. At first the general pity had
wounded her, then it had offended, and finally angered her. That
people should notice her affliction, particularly when she strove
so desperately to hide it, seemed the height of insolence.

The management of Las Palmas was almost her only relief. Having
sprung from a family of ranchers, the work came easy, and she grew
to like it--as well as she could like anything with that ever-
present pain in her breast. The property was so large that it gave
ample excuse for avoiding the few visitors who came, and the range
boss, Benito Gonzales, attended to most of the buying and selling.
Callers gradually became rarer; friends dropped away almost
entirely. Since Las Palmas employed no white help whatever, it
became in time more Mexican than in the days of "Old Ed" Austin's
ownership.

In such wise had Alaire fashioned her life, living meanwhile under
a sort of truce with her husband.

But Las Palmas had prospered to admiration, and La Feria would
have prospered equally had it not been for the armed unrest of the
country across the border. No finer stock than the "Box A" was to
be found anywhere. The old lean, long-horned cattle had been
interbred with white-faced Herefords, and the sleek coats of their
progeny were stretched over twice the former weight of beef.
Alaire had even experimented with the Brahman strain, importing
some huge, hump-backed bulls that set the neighborhood agog.
People proclaimed they were sacred oxen and whispered that they
were intended for some outlandish pagan rite--Alaire by this time
had gained the reputation of being "queer"--while experienced
stockmen declared the venture a woman's folly, affirming that
buffaloes had never been crossed successfully with domestic
cattle. It was rumored that one of these imported animals cost
more than a whole herd of Mexican stock, and the ranchers
speculated freely as to what "Old Ed" Austin would have said of
such extravagance.

It was Blaze Jones, one of the few county residents granted access
to Las Palmas, who first acquainted himself with the outcome of
Alaire's experiment, and it was he who brought news of it to some
visiting stock-buyers at Brownsville.

Blaze was addicted to rhetorical extravagance. His voice was loud;
his fancy ran a splendid course.

"Gentlemen," said he, "you-all interest me with your talk about
your prize Northern stock; but I claim that the bigger the state
the bigger the cattle it raises. That's why old Texas beats the
world."

"But it doesn't," some one contradicted.

"It don't, hey? My boy"--Blaze jabbed a rigid finger into the
speaker's ribs, as if he expected a ground-squirrel to scuttle
forth--"we've got steers in this valley that are damn near the
size of the whole state of Rhode Island. If they keep on growin' I
doubt if you could fatten one of 'em in Delaware without he'd
bulge over into some neighboring commonwealth. It's the God's
truth! I was up at Las Palmas last month--"

"Las Palmas!" The name was enough to challenge the buyers'
interest.

Blaze nodded. "You-all think you know the stock business. You're
all swollen up with cow-knowledge, now, ain't you?" He eyed them
from beneath his black eyebrows. "Well, some of our people thought
they did, too. They figured they'd inherited all there was to know
about live stock, and they grew plumb arrogant over their wisdom.
But--pshaw! They didn't know nothing. Miz Austin has bred in that
Brayma strain and made steers so big they run four to the dozen.
And here's the remarkable thing about 'em--they 'ain't got as many
ticks as you gentlemen."

Some of the cattlemen were incredulous, but Blaze maintained his
point with emphasis. "It's true. They're a grave disappointment to
every kind of parasite."

But Alaire had not confined her efforts to cattle; she had
improved the breed of "Box A" horses, too, and hand in hand with
this work she had carried on a series of agricultural experiments.

Las Palmas, so people used to say, lay too far up the river to be
good farming-land; nevertheless, once the pumping-plant was in,
certain parts of the ranch raised nine crops of alfalfa, and corn
that stood above a rider's head.

There was no money in "finished" stock; the border was too far
from market--that also had long been an accepted truism--yet this
woman built silos which she filled with her own excess fodder in
scientific proportions, and somehow or other she managed to ship
fat beeves direct to the packing-houses and get big prices for
them.

These were but a few of her many ventures. She had her hobbies, of
course, but, oddly enough, most of them paid or promised to do so.
For instance, she had started a grove of paper-shelled pecans,
which was soon due to bear; the ranch house and its clump of palms
was all but hidden by a forest of strange trees, which were
reported to ripen everything from moth-balls to bicycle tires.
Blaze Jones was perhaps responsible for this report, for Alaire
had shown him several thousand eucalyptus saplings and some
ornamental rubber-plants.

"That Miz Austin is a money-makin' piece of furniture," he once
told his daughter Paloma. "I'm no mechanical adder--I count mostly
on my fingers--but her and me calculated the profits on them
eucher--what's-their-name trees?--and it gave me a splittin'
headache. She'll be a drug queen, sure."

"Why don't you follow her example?" asked Paloma. "We have plenty
of land."

Blaze, in truth, was embarrassed by the size of his holdings, but
he shook his head. "No, I'm too old to go rampagin' after new
gods. I 'ain't got the imagination to raise anything more
complicated than a mortgage; but if I was younger, I'd organize
myself up and do away with that Ed Austin. I'd sure help him to an
untimely end, and then I'd marry them pecan-groves, and blooded
herds, and drug-store orchards. She certainly is a heart-breakin'
device, with her red hair and red lips and--"

"FATHER!" Paloma was deeply shocked.

Complete isolation, of course, Alaire had found to be impossible,
even though her ranch lay far from the traveled roads and her
Mexican guards were not encouraging to visitors. Business
inevitably brought her into contact with a considerable number of
people, and of these the one she saw most frequently was Judge
Ellsworth of Brownsville, her attorney.

It was perhaps a week after Ed had left for San Antonio that
Alaire felt the need of Ellsworth's counsel, and sent for him. He
responded promptly, as always. Ellsworth was a kindly man of
fifty-five, with a forceful chin and a drooping, heavy-lidded eye
that could either blaze or twinkle. He was fond of Alaire, and his
sympathy, like his understanding, was of that wordless yet
comprehensive kind which is most satisfying. Judge Ellsworth knew
more than any four men in that part of Texas; information had a
way of seeking him out, and his head was stored to repletion with
facts of every variety. He was a good lawyer, too, and yet his
knowledge of the law comprised but a small part of that mental
wealth upon which he prided himself. He knew human nature, and
that he considered far more important than law. His mind was like
a full granary, and every grain lay where he could put his hand
upon it.

He motored out from Brownsville, and, after ridding himself of
dust, insisted upon spending the interval before dinner in an
inspection of Alaire's latest ranch improvements. He had a
fatherly way of walking with his arm about Alaire's shoulders, and
although she sometimes suspected that his warmth of good-
fellowship was merely a habit cultivated through political
necessities, nevertheless it was comforting, and she took it at
its face value.

Not until the dinner was over did Ellsworth inquire the reason for
his summons.

"It's about La Feria. General Longorio has confiscated my stock,"
Alaire told him.

Ellsworth started. "Longorio! That's bad."

"Yes. One of my riders just brought the news. I was afraid of this
very thing, and so I was preparing to bring the stock over, Still-
-I never thought they'd actually confiscate it."

"Why shouldn't they?"

Alaire interrogated the speaker silently.

"Hasn't Ed done enough to provoke confiscation?" asked the Judge.

"Ed?"

"Exactly! Ed has made a fool of himself, and brought this on."

"You think so?"

"Well, I have it pretty straight that he's giving money to the
Rebel junta and lending every assistance he can to their cause."

"I didn't know he'd actually done anything. How mad!"

"Yes--for a man with interests in Federal territory. But Ed always
does the wrong thing, you know."

"Then I presume this confiscation is in the nature of a reprisal.
But the stock is mine, not Ed's. I'm an American citizen, and--"

"My dear, you're the first one I've heard boast of the fact,"
cynically affirmed the Judge. "If you were in Mexico you'd profit
more by claiming allegiance to the German or the English or some
other foreign flag. The American eagle isn't screaming very loudly
on the other side of the Rio Grande just now, and our dusky
neighbors have learned that it's perfectly safe to pull his tail
feathers."

"I'm surprised at you," Alaire smiled. "Just the same, I want your
help in taking up the matter with Washington."

Ellsworth was pessimistic. "It won't do any good, my dear," he
said. "You'll get your name in the papers, and perhaps cause
another diplomatically worded protest, but there the matter will
end. You won't be paid for your cattle."

"Then I shall go to La Feria."

"No!" The Judge shook his head decidedly.

"I've been there a hundred times. The Federals have always been
more than courteous."

"Longorio has a bad reputation. I strongly advise against your
going."

"Why, Judge, people are going and coming all the time! Mexico is
perfectly safe, and I know the country as well as I know Las
Palmas."

"You'd better send some man."

"Whom can I send?" asked Alaire. "You know my situation."

The Judge considered a moment before replying. "I can't go, for
I'm busy in court. You could probably accomplish more than anybody
else, if Longorio will listen to reason, and, after all, you are a
person of such importance that I dare say you'd be safe. But it
will be a hard trip, and you won't know whether you are in Rebel
or in Federal territory."

"Well, people here are asking whether Texas is in the United
States or Mexico," Alaire said, lightly, "Sometimes I hardly
know." After a moment she continued: "Since you know everything
and everybody, I wonder if you ever met a David Law?"

Ellsworth nodded. "Tell me something about him."

"He asked me the same thing about you. Well, I haven't seen much
of Dave since he grew up, he's such a roamer."

"He said his parents were murdered by the Guadalupes."

The Judge looked up quickly; a queer, startled expression flitted
over his face. "Dave said that? He said both of them were killed?"

"Yes. Isn't it true?"

"Oh, Dave wouldn't lie. It happened a good many years ago, and
certainly they both met a violent end. I was instrumental in
saving what property Frank Law left, but it didn't last Dave very
long. He's right careless in money matters. Dave's a fine fellow
in some ways--most ways, I believe, but--" The Judge lost himself
in frowning meditation.

"I have never known you to damn a friend or a client with such
faint praise," said Alaire.

"Oh, I don't mean it that way. I'm almost like one of Dave's kin,
and I've been keenly interested in watching his traits develop.
I'm interested in heredity. I've watched it in Ed's case, for
instance. If you know the parents it's easy to read their
children." Again he lapsed into silence, nodding to himself. "Yes,
Nature mixes her prescriptions like any druggist. I'm glad you and
Ed--have no babies."

Alaire mumured something unintelligible.

"And yet," the lawyer continued, "many people are cursed with an
inheritance as bad, or worse, than Ed's."

"What has that to do with Mr. Law?"

"Dave? Oh, nothing in particular. I was just--moralizing. It's a
privilege of age, my dear."




VI

A JOURNEY, AND A DARK MAN


Alaire's preparations for the journey to La Feria were made with
little delay. Owing to the condition of affairs across the border,
Ellsworth had thought it well to provide her with letters from the
most influential Mexicans in the neighborhood; what is more, in
order to pave her way toward a settlement of her claim he
succeeded in getting a telegram through to Mexico City--no mean
achievement, with most of the wires in Rebel hands and the
remainder burdened with military business. But Ellsworth's
influence was not bounded by the Rio Grande.

It was his advice that Alaire present her side of the case to the
local military authorities before making formal representation to
Washington, though in neither case was he sanguine of the outcome.

The United States, indeed, had abetted the Rebel cause from the
start. Its embargo on arms had been little more than a pretense of
neutrality, which had fooled the Federals not at all, and it was
an open secret that financial assistance to the uprising was
rendered from some mysterious Northern source. The very presence
of American troops along the border was construed by Mexicans as a
threat against President Potosi, and an encouragement to revolt,
while the talk of intervention, invasion, and war had intensified
the natural antagonism existing between the two peoples. So it was
that Ellsworth, while he did his best to see to it that his client
should make the journey in safety and receive courteous treatment,
doubted the wisdom of the undertaking and hoped for no practical
result.

Alaire took Dolores with her, and for male escort she selected,
after some deliberation, Jose Sanchez, her horse-breaker. Jose was
not an ideal choice, but since Benito could not well be spared, no
better man was available. Sanchez had some force and initiative,
at least, and Alaire had no reason to doubt his loyalty.

The party went to Pueblo by motor--an unpleasant trip, for the
road followed the river and ran through a lonesome country,
unpeopled save for an occasional goat-herd and his family, or a
glaring-hot village of some half-dozen cubical houses crouching on
the river-bank as if crowded over from Mexican soil. This road
remained much as the first ox-carts had laid it out; the hills
were gashed by arroyos, some of which were difficult to negotiate,
and in consequence the journey was, from an automobilist's point
of view, decidedly slow. The first night the travelers were forced
to spend at a mud jacal, encircled, like some African jungle
dwelling, by a thick brush barricade.

Jose Sanchez was in his element here. He posed, he strutted, he
bragged, he strove to impress his countrymen by every device. Jose
was, indeed, rather a handsome fellow, with a bold insolence of
bearing that marked him as superior to the common pelador, and,
having dressed himself elaborately for this journey, he made the
most of his opportunities for showing off. Nothing would do him
but a baile, and a baile he had. Once the arrangements were made,
other Mexicans appeared mysteriously until there were nearly a
score, and until late into the night they danced upon the hard-
packed earth of the yard. Alaire fell asleep to the sounds of feet
scuffling and scraping in time to a wheezy violin.

Arriving at Pueblo on the following day, Alaire secured her
passports from the Federal headquarters across the Rio Grande,
while Jose attended to the railroad tickets. On the second morning
after leaving home the party was borne southward into Mexico.

Although train schedules were uncertain, the railroad journey
itself was similar to many Alaire had taken, except for occasional
evidences of the war. The revolution had ravaged most of northern
Mexico; long rows of rusting trucks and twisted car skeletons
beside the track showed how the railway's rolling-stock had
suffered in this particular vicinity; and as the train penetrated
farther south temporary trestles and the charred ruins of station-
houses spoke even more eloquently of the struggle. Now and then a
steel water-tank, pierced with loop-holes and ripped by cannon
balls, showed where some detachment had made a stand. There was a
military guard on the train, too--a dozen unkempt soldiers loaded
down with rifles and bandoliers of cartridges, and several
officers, neatly dressed in khaki, who rode in the first-class
coach and occupied themselves by making eyes at the women.

At its frequent stops the train was besieged by the customary
crowd of curious peons; the same noisy hucksters dealt out
enchiladas, tortillas, goat cheeses, and coffee from the same
dirty baskets and pails; even their outstretched hands seemed to
bear the familiar grime of ante-bellum days. The coaches were
crowded; women fanned themselves unceasingly; their men snored,
open-mouthed, over the backs of the seats, and the aisles were
full of squalling, squabbling children.

As for the country itself, it was dying. The ranches were stripped
of stock, no carts creaked along the highways, and the roads, like
the little farms, were growing up to weeds. Stores were empty, the
people were idle. Over all was an atmosphere of decay, and, what
was far more significant, the people seemed content.

All morning the monotonous journey continued--a trial to Alaire
and Dolores, but to Jose Sanchez a red-letter experience. He
covered the train from end to end, making himself acquainted with
every one and bringing to Alaire the gossip that he picked up.

It was not until midday that the first interruption occurred; then
the train pulled in upon a siding, and after an interminable delay
it transpired that a north-bound troop-train was expected.

Jose brought this intelligence: "Soon you will behold the flower
of the Mexican army," he told Alaire. "You will see thousands of
Longorio's veterans, every man of them a very devil for blood.
They are returning to Nuevo Pueblo after destroying a band of
those rebels. They had a great victory at San Pedro--thirty
kilometers from La Feria. Not a prisoner was spared, senora."

"Is General Longorio with them?" Alaire inquired, quickly.

"That is what I came to tell you. It is believed that he is, for
he takes his army with him wherever he goes. He is a great
fighter; he has a nose for it, that man, and he strikes like the
lightning--here, there, anywhere." Jose, it seemed, was a rabid
Potosista.

But Dolores held opposite sympathies. She uttered a disdainful
sniff. "To be sure he takes his army with him, otherwise the
Constitutionalistas would kill him. Wait until Pancho Gomez meets
this army of Longorio's. Ha! You will see some fighting."

Jose blew two fierce columns of cigarette smoke from his nostrils.
"Longorio is a gentleman; he scorns to use the tricks of that
bandit. Pancho Gomez fights like a savage. Think of the cowardly
manner in which he captured Espinal the last time. What did he do
then? I'll tell you. He laid in wait and allowed a train-load of
our troops to pass through his lines toward Chihuahua; then he
took possession of the telegraph wires and pretended to be the
Federal commander. He sent a lying message back to Espinal that
the railway tracks were torn up and he could not reach Chihuahua,
and so, of course, he was ordered to return. That was bad enough,
but he loaded his bandits upon other trains--he locked them into
freight-cars like cattle so that not a head could be seen--and the
devil himself would never have guessed what was in those cars. Of
course he succeeded. No one suspected the truth until his infamous
army was in Espinal. Then it was too late. The carnage was
terrible. But do you call that a nice action? It was nothing but
the lowest deceit. It was enough to make our soldiers furious."

Dolores giggled. "They say he went to his officers and told them:
'Compadres, we are now going into Espinal. I will meet you at the
Plaza, and I will shoot the last man who arrives there.' Dios!
There ensued a foot-race."

"It is well for him to train his men how to run fast," said Jose,
frowning sternly, "for some day they will meet Luis Longorio, and
then--you will see some of the swiftest running in all the world."

"Yes! Truly!" Dolores was trembling with excitement, her voice was
shrill. "God will need to lend them speed to catch this army of
Longorio's. Otherwise no human legs could accomplish it."

"Bah! Who can argue with a woman?" sneered Jose.

Alaire, who had listened smilingly, now intervened to avert a
serious quarrel.

"When the train arrives," she told her horse-breaker, "I want you
to find General Longorio and ask him to come here."

"But, senora!" Jose was dumfounded, shocked. "He is a great
general--"

"Give him this note." Quickly writing a few lines on a page from
her note-book, she gave him the scrap of paper, which he carefully
placed in his hat; then, shaking his head doubtfully, he left the
car.

Flushed with triumph, Dolores took the first occasion to enlarge
upon her theme.

"You will see what a monster this Longorio is," she declared. "It
was like him to steal your beautiful cattle; he would steal a
crucifix. Once there was a fine ranch owned by a man who had two
lovely daughters--girls of great respectability and refinement.
But the man was a Candelerista. Longorio killed him--he and his
men killed everybody on the hacienda except the daughters, and
those he captured. He took them with him, and for no good purpose,
either, as you can imagine. Naturally the poor creatures were
nearly dead with fright, but as they rode along the elder one
began talking with Longorio's soldiers. She made friends with
them. She pretended to care nothing about her fate; she behaved
like a lost person, and the soldiers laughed. They liked her
spirit, God pity them! Finally she declared she was a famous shot
with a pistol, and she continued to boast until one of her guards
gave her his weapon with which to show her skill. Then what?
Before they could hinder her she turned in her saddle and shot her
younger sister through the brain. Herself she destroyed with a
bullet in her breast. Every word is the sacred truth, senora.
Longorio's soul is stained with the blood of those two innocents."

"I've heard many stories like that, from both sides," Alaire said,
gravely.

In the course of time the military train came creaking along on
the main track and stopped, to the great interest of the
southbound travelers. It was made up of many stock cars crowded
with cavalry horses. Each animal bore its equipment of saddle and
bridle, and penned in with them were the women and the children.
The soldiers themselves were clustered thickly upon the car roofs.
Far down at the rear of the train was a rickety passenger-coach,
and toward this Jose Sanchez made his way.

There began a noisy interchange of greetings between the occupants
of the two trains, and meanwhile the hot sun glared balefully upon
the huddled figures on the car tops. A half-hour passed, then
occurred a commotion at the forward end of Alaire's coach.

A group of officers climbed aboard, and among them was one who
could be none other than Luis Longorio. As he came down the
passageway Alaire identified him without the aid of his insignia,
for he stood head and shoulders above his companions and bore
himself with an air of authority. He was unusually tall, at least
six feet three, and very slim, very lithe; he was alert, keen; he
was like the blade of a rapier. The leanness of his legs was
accentuated by his stiff, starched riding-breeches and close-
fitting pigskin puttees, while his face, apart from all else,
would have challenged prompt attention.

Longorio was a young man; his cheeks were girlishly smooth and of
a clear, pale, olive tint, which sun and weather apparently were
powerless to darken; his eyes were large, bold, and brilliant; his
nostrils thin and sensitive, like those of a blooded horse. He
seemed almost immature until he spoke, then one realized with a
curious shock that he was a man indeed, and a man, moreover, with
all the ardor and passion of a woman. Such was Alaire's first
hasty impression of Luis Longorio, the Tarleton of Potosi's army.

Disdain, hauteur, impatience, were stamped upon the general's
countenance as he pushed briskly through the crowd, turning his
head from side to side in search of the woman who had summoned
him.

Not until she rose did he discover Alaire; then he halted; his
eyes fixed themselves upon her with a stare of startled amazement.

Alaire felt herself color faintly, for the man seemed to be
scanning her from head to foot, taking in every detail of her face
and form, and as he did so his expression remained unaltered. For
what seemed a full minute Longorio stood rooted; then the stiff-
vizored cap was swept from his head; he bowed with the grace of a
courtier until Alaire saw the part in his oily black hair.

"Senora! A thousand apologies for my delay," he said. "Caramba! I
did not dream--I did not understand your message." He continued to
regard her with that same queer intensity.

"You are General Longorio?" Alaire was surprised to note that her
voice quavered uncertainly, and annoyed to feel her face still
flushing.

"Your obedient servant."

With a gesture Mrs. Austin directed Dolores to vacate her seat,
and invited the General to take it. But Longorio checked the
maid's movement; then with a brusque command he routed out the
occupants of the seat ahead, and, reversing the back, took a
position facing Alaire. Another order, and the men who had
accompanied him withdrew up the aisle. His luminous eyes returned
once more to the woman, and there was no mistaking his admiration.
He seemed enchanted by her pale beauty, her rich, red hair held
him fascinated, and with Latin boldness he made his feelings
crassly manifest.




VII

LUIS LONGORIO


"You probably know why I wished to see you," Alaire began.

Longorio shook his head in vague denial.

"It is regarding my ranch, La Feria." Seeing that the name
conveyed nothing, she explained, "I am told that your army
confiscated my cattle."

"Ah yes! Now I understand." The Mexican nodded mechanically, but
it was plain that he was not heeding her words in the least. All
his mental powers appeared to be concentrated in that
disconcerting stare which he still bent upon her. "We confiscate
everything--it is a necessity of war," he murmured.

"But this is different. The ranch is mine, and I am an American."

There was a pause. The General made a visible effort to gather his
wits. It was now quite patent that the sight of Alaire, the sound
of her voice, her first glance, had stricken him with an odd semi-
paralysis. As if to shut out a vision or to escape some dazzling
sight, he dosed his eyes. Alaire wondered if the fellow had been
drinking. She turned to Dolores to find that good woman wearing an
expression of stupefaction. It was very queer; it made Alaire
extremely ill at ease.

Longorio opened his eyes and smiled. "It seems that I have seen
you before--as if we were old friends--or as if I had come face to
face with myself," said he. "I am affected strangely. It is
unaccountable. I know you well--completely--everything about you
is familiar to me, and yet we meet for the first time, eh? How do
you explain that, unless a miracle--"

"It is merely your imagination."

"Such beauty--here among these common people! I was unprepared."
Longorio passed a brown hand across his brow to brush away those
perverse fancies that so interfered with his thoughts.

In moments of stress the attention often centers upon trivial
things and the mind photographs unimportant objects. Alaire
noticed now that one of Longorio's fingers was decorated with a
magnificent diamond-and-ruby ring, and this interested her
queerly. No ordinary man could fittingly have worn such an
ornament, yet on the hand of this splendid barbarian it seemed not
at all out of keeping.

"Dios! Let me take hold of myself, for my wits are in mutiny,"
Longorio continued. Then he added, more quietly: "I need not
assure you, senora, that you have only to command me. Your ranch
has been destroyed; your cattle stolen, eh?"

"Yes. At least--"

"We will shoot the perpetrators of this outrage at once. Bueno!
Come with me and you shall see it with your own eyes."

"No, no! You don't understand."

"So? What then?"

"I don't want to see any one punished. I merely want your
government to pay me for my cattle." Alaire laughed nervously.

"Ah! But a lady of refinement should not discuss such a miserable
business. It is a matter for men. Bother your pretty head no more
about it, and leave me to punish the guilty in my own way."

She endeavored to speak in a brisk, business-like tone. "La Feria
belongs to me, personally, and I have managed it for several
years, just as I manage Las Palmas, across the river. I am a woman
of affairs, General Longorio, and you must talk to me as you would
talk to a man. When I heard about this raid I came to look into
it--to see you, or whoever is in charge of this district, and to
make a claim for damages. Also, I intend to see that nothing
similar occurs again. I have delayed making representations to my
own government in the hope that I could arrange a satisfactory
settlement, and so avoid serious complications. Now you understand
why I am here and why I wished to see you."

"Valgame Dios! This is amazing. I become more bewildered
momentarily."

"There is nothing extraordinary about it, that I can see."

"You think not? You consider such a woman as yourself ordinary?
The men of my country enshrine beauty and worship it. They place
it apart as a precious gift from God which nothing shall defile.
They do not discuss such things with their women. Now this sordid
affair is something for your husband--"

"Mr. Austin's business occupies his time; this is my own concern.
I am not the only practical woman in Texas."

Longorio appeared to be laboriously digesting this statement.
"So!" he said at last. "When you heard of this--you came, eh? You
came alone into Mexico, where we are fighting and killing each
other? Well! That is spirit. You are wonderful, superb!" He
smiled, showing the whitest and evenest teeth.

Such extravagant homage was embarrassing, yet no woman could be
wholly displeased by admiration so spontaneous and intense as that
which Longorio manifested in every look and word. It was plain to
Alaire that something about her had completely bowled him over;
perhaps it was her strange red hair and her white foreign face, or
perhaps something deeper, something behind all that. Sex phenomena
are strange and varied in their workings. Who can explain the
instant attraction or repulsion of certain types we meet? Why does
the turn of a head, a smile, a glance, move us to the depths? Why
does the touch of one stranger's hand thrill us, while another's
leaves us quite impassive? Whence springs that personal magnetism
which has the power to set the very atoms of our being into new
vibrations, like a highly charged electric current?

Alaire knew the susceptibility of Mexican men, and was immune to
ordinary flattery; yet there was something exciting about this
martial hero's complete captivation. To have charmed him to the
point of bewilderment was a unique triumph, and under his hungry
eyes she felt an adventurous thrill.

It is true that Luis Longorio was utterly alien, and in that sense
almost repellent to Alaire; moreover, she suspected him of being a
monster so depraved that no decent woman could bring herself to
accept his attentions. Nevertheless, in justice to the fellow, she
had to acknowledge that externally, at least, he was immensely
superior to the Mexicans she had met. Then, too, his aristocracy
was unmistakable, and Alaire prided herself that she could
recognize good blood in men as quickly as in horses. The fellow
had been favored by birth, by breeding, and by education; and
although military service in Mexico was little more than a form of
banditry, nevertheless Longorio had developed a certain genius for
leadership, nor was there any doubt as to his spectacular courage.
In some ways he was a second Cid--another figure out of Castilian
romance.

While he and Alaire were talking the passengers had returned to
their seats; they were shouting good-byes to the soldiers
opposite; the engine-bell was clanging loudly; and now the
conductor approached to warn Longorio that the train was about to
leave. But the railway official had learned a wholesome respect
for uniforms, and therefore he hung back until, urged by
necessity, he pushed forward and informed the general of his train
orders.

Longorio favored him with a slow stare. "You may go when I leave,"
said he.

"Si, senor. But--"

The general uttered a sharp exclamation of anger, at which the
conductor backed away, expressing by voice and gesture his most
hearty approval of the change of plan.

"We mustn't hold the train," Alaire said, quickly. "I will arrange
to see you in Nuevo Pueblo when I return."

Longorio smiled brilliantly and lifted a brown hand. "No, no! I am
a selfish man; I refuse to deprive myself of this pleasure. The
end must come all too soon, and as for these peladors, an hour
more or less will make no difference. Now about these cattle.
Mexico does not make war upon women, and I am desolated that the
actions of my men have caused annoyance to the most charming lady
in the world."

"Ah! You are polite." Knowing that in this man's help alone lay
her chance of adjusting her loss, Alaire deliberately smiled upon
him. "Can I count upon your help in obtaining my rights?" she
asked.

"Assuredly."

"But how? Where?"

Longorio thought for a moment, and his tone altered as he said:
"Senora, there seems to be an unhappy complication in our way, and
this we must remove. First, may I ask, are you a friend to our
cause?"

"I am an American, and therefore I am neutral."

"Ah! But Americans are not neutral. There is the whole difficulty.
This miserable revolt was fostered by your government; American
money supports it; and your men bear arms against us. Your tyrant
President is our enemy; his hands itch for Mexico--"

"I can't argue politics with you," Alaire interrupted, positively.
"I believe most Americans agree that you have cause for complaint,
but what has that to do with my ranch and my cattle? This is
something that concerns no one except you and me."

Longorio was plainly flattered by her words, and took no trouble
to hide his pleasure. "Ah! If that were only true! We would
arrange everything to your satisfaction without another word." His
admiring gaze seemed to envelop her, and its warmth was
unmistakable. "No one could have the cruelty to deny your
slightest wish--I least of all."

"Why did you take my cattle?" she demanded, stubbornly.

"I was coming to that. It is what I meant when I said there was a
complication. Your husband, senora, is an active Candelerista."

For a moment Alaire was at a loss; then she replied with some
spirit: "We are two people, he and I. La Feria belongs to me."

"Nevertheless, his conduct is regrettable," Longorio went on.
"Probably evil men have lied to him--San Antonio is full of rebels
conspiring to give our country into the hands of outlaws. What a
terrible spectacle it is! Enough to bring tears to the eyes of any
patriot!" He turned his melancholy gaze from Alaire to her
companion, and for the first time Dolores stirred.

She had watched her countryman with a peculiar fascination, and
she had listened breathlessly to his words. Now she inhaled
deeply, as if freed from a spell; then she said:

"Pah! Nobody pays heed to Senor Ed. We do not consider him."

Dolores lacked diplomacy; her bluntness was often trying. Alaire
turned upon her with a sharp exclamation, conscious meanwhile that
the woman's tone, even more than her words, had enlightened
Longorio to some extent. His lifted brows were eloquent of
surprise and curiosity, but he held his tongue.

"Am I to understand, then, that you rob me because of my husband's
action?" Alaire asked.

"No. But we must combat our enemies with the weapons we have--not
only those who bear arms with Candeleria, but those who shelter
themselves beyond the Rio Grande."

Alaire's face fell. "I had hoped that you would understand and
help me, but I shall go to Mexico City and demand my rights, if
necessary."

"Wait! I SHALL help." Longorio beamed enthusiastically. "It shall
be the object of my life to serve you, and you and I shall arrange
this matter satisfactorily. I have influence, believe me. A word
from Luis Longorio will go further with my chief than a protest
from your President. General Potosi is a man of the highest honor,
and I am his right hand. Very well, then! Duty calls me to Nuevo
Pueblo, and you shall return with me as the guest of my
government. Dios! It is a miserable train, but you shall occupy
the coach and travel as befits a queen of beauty--like a royal
princess with her guard of honor." He rose to his feet, but his
eagerness soon gave place to disappointment.

"Thank you," said Alaire, "but I must first go to La Feria and get
all the facts."

"Senora! It is a wretched journey. See!" He waved a contemptuous
gesture at the car, crowded to congestion. "There is no food; you
have no one to wait upon you. In my company you will be safe. Upon
my honor you will enjoy the highest courtesy--"

"Of course. But I must go on. I have Dolores and Jose to look
after me." Alaire indicated Sanchez, who had edged his way close
and now stood with admiring eyes fixed upon his hero.

"Yes, 'mi General," Jose exclaimed, eagerly, "I am here."

Longorio scrutinized the horse-breaker critically. "Your name is--?"

"Jose Sanchez."

"You look like a brave fellow."

Jose swelled at this praise, and no doubt would have made suitable
answer, but his employer held out her hand, and General Longorio
bent over it, raising it to his lips.

"Senora, one favor you can grant me. No! It is a right I shall
claim." He called one of his subordinates closer and ordered that
a lieutenant and six soldiers be detached to act as an escort to
Mrs. Austin's party. "It is nothing," he assured her. "It is the
least I can do. Have no uneasiness, for these men are the bravest
of my command, and they shall answer with their lives for your
safety. As for that teniente--ah, he is favored above his
general!" Longorio rolled his eyes. "Think of it! I could be
faithless to duty--a traitor to my country--for the privilege he
is to enjoy. It is the sacred truth! Senora, the hours will drag
until I may see you again and be of further service. Meanwhile I
shall be tortured with radiant dreams. Go with God!" For a second
time he bowed and kissed the hand he held, then, taking Jose
Sanchez intimately by the arm, he turned to the door.

Dolores collapsed into her seat with an exclamation. "Caramba! The
man is a demon! And such eyes. Uf! They say he was so furious at
losing those two sisters I told you about that he killed the
soldier with the very weapon--"

Dolores was interrupted by Longorio's voice beneath the open
window. The general stood, cap in hand, holding up to Alaire a
solitary wild flower which he had plucked beside the track.

"See!" he cried. "It is the color of your adorable eyes--blue like
a sapphire gem. I saw it peeping at me, and it was lonely. But
now, behold how it smiles--like a star that sees Paradise, eh? And
I, too, have seen Paradise." He placed the delicate bloom in
Alaire's fingers and was gone.

"Cuidado!" breathed Dolores. "There is blood on it; the blood of
innocents. He will burn for a million years in hell, that man."

Longorio made good his promise; soon a grizzled old teniente, with
six soldiers, was transferred as a bodyguard to the American lady,
and then, after some further delay, the military train departed.
Upon the rear platform stood a tall, slim, khaki-clad figure, and
until the car had dwindled away down the track, foreshortening to
a mere rectangular dot, Luis Longorio remained motionless, staring
with eager eyes through the capering dust and the billowing heat
waves.

Jose Sanchez came plowing into Alaire's car, tremendously excited.
"Look, senora!" he cried. "Look what the general gave me," and he
proudly displayed Longorio's service revolver. Around Jose's waist
was the cartridge-belt and holster that went with the weapon.
"With his own hands he buckled it about me, and he said, 'Jose,
something tells me you are a devil for bravery. Guard your
mistress with your life, for if any mishap befalls her I shall cut
out your heart with my own hands.' Those were his very words,
senora. Caramba! There is a man to die for."

Nor was this the last of Longorio's dramatic surprises. Shortly
after the train had got under way the lieutenant in command of
Alaire's guard brought her a small package, saying:

"The general commanded me to hand you this, with his deepest
regard."

Alaire accepted the object curiously. It was small and heavy and
wrapped in several leaves torn from a notebook, and it proved to
be nothing less than the splendid diamond-and-ruby ring she had
admired.

"God protect us, now!" murmured Dolores, crossing herself
devoutly.




VIII

BLAZE JONES'S NEMESIS


Blaze Jones rode up to his front gate and dismounted in the shade
of the big ebony-tree. He stepped back and ran an approving eye
over another animal tethered there. It was a thoroughbred bay mare
he had never seen, and as he scanned her good points he reflected
that the time had come when he would have to accustom himself to
the sight of strange horses along his fence and strange
automobiles beside the road, for Paloma was a woman now, and the
young men of the neighborhood had made the discovery. Yes, and
Paloma was a pretty woman; therefore the hole under the ebony-tree
would probably be worn deep by impatient hoofs. He was glad that
most of the boys preferred saddles to soft upholstery, for it
argued that some vigor still remained in Texas manhood, and that
the country had not been entirely ruined by motors, picture-shows,
low shoes, and high collars. Of course the youths of this day were
nothing like the youths of his own, and yet--Blaze let his gaze
linger fondly on the high-bred mare and her equipment--here at
least was a person who knew a good horse, a good saddle, and a
good gun.

As he came up the walk he heard Paloma laugh, and his own face
lightened, for Paloma's merriment was contagious. Then as he
mounted the steps and turned the corner of the "gallery" he
uttered a hearty greeting.

"Dave Law! Where in the world did you drop from?"

Law uncoiled himself and took the ranchman's hand. "Hello, Blaze!
I been ordered down here to keep you straight."

"Pshaw! Now who's giving you orders, Dave?"

"Why, I'm with the Rangers."

"Never knew a word of it. Last I heard you was filibustering
around with the Maderistas."

Blaze seated himself with a grateful sigh where the breeze played
over him. He was a big, bearlike, swarthy man with the square-
hewn, deep-lined face of a tragedian, and a head of long, curly
hair which he wore parted in a line over his left ear. Jones was a
character, a local landmark. This part of Texas had grown up with
Blaze, and, inasmuch as he had sprung from a free race of
pioneers, he possessed a splendid indifference to the artificial
fads of dress and manners. It was only since Paloma had attained
her womanhood that he had been forced to fight down his deep-
seated distrust of neckwear and store clothes and the like; but
now that his daughter had definitely asserted her rights, he had
acquired numerous unwelcome graces, and no longer ventured among
strangers without the stamp of her approval upon his appearance.
Only at home did he maintain what he considered a manly
independence of speech and habit. To-day, therefore, found him in
a favorite suit of baggy, wrinkled linen and with a week's stubble
of beard upon his chin. He was so plainly an outdoor man that the
air of erudition lent him by the pair of gold-rimmed spectacles
owlishly perched upon his sunburned nose was strangely
incongruous.

"So you're a Ranger, and got notches on your gun." Blaze rolled
and lit a tiny cigarette, scarcely larger than a wheat straw.
"Well, you'd ought to make a right able thief-catcher, Dave, only
for your size--you're too long for a man and you ain't long enough
for a snake. Still, I reckon a thief would have trouble getting
out of your reach, and once you got close to him--How many men
have you killed?"

"Counting Mexicans?" Law inquired, with a smile.

"Hell! Nobody counts them."

"Not many."

"That's good." Blaze nodded and relit his cigarette, which he had
permitted promptly to smolder out. "The Force ain't what it was.
Most of the boys nowadays join so they can ride a horse cross-
lots, pack a pair of guns, and give rein to the predilections of a
vicious ancestry. They're bad rams, most of 'em."

"There aren't many," said Paloma. "Dave tells me the whole Force
has been cut down to sixteen."

"That's plenty," her father averred. "It's like when Cap'n Bill
McDonald was sent to stop a riot in Dallas. He came to town alone,
and when the citizens asked him where his men was, he said, 'Hell!
'Ain't I enough? There's only one riot.' Are you workin' up a
case, Dave?"

"Um-m--yes! People are missing a lot of stock hereabouts."

"It's these blamed refugees from the war! A Mexican has to steal
something or he gets run down and pore. If it ain't stock, it's
something else. Why, one morning I rode into Jonesville in time to
see four Greasers walkin' down the main street with feed-sacks
over their shoulders. Each one of those gunnie's had something
long and flat and heavy in it, and I growed curious. When I
investigated, what d'you suppose I found? Tombstones! That's
right; four marble beauties fresh from the cemetery. Well, it made
me right sore, for I'd helped to start Jonesville. I was its city
father. I'd made the place fit to live in, and I aimed to keep it
safe to die in, and so, bein' a sort of left-handed, self-
appointed deppity-sheriff, I rounded up those ghouls and drove 'em
to the county-seat in my spring wagon. I had the evidence propped
up against the front of our real-estate office--'Sacred to the
Memory' of four of our leading citizens--so I jailed 'em. But
that's all the good it did."

"Couldn't convict, eh?"

Blaze lit his cigarette for the third time. "The prosecuting
attorney and I wasn't very good friends, seeing as how I'd had to
kill his daddy, so he turned 'em loose. I'm damned if those four
Greasers didn't beat me back to Jonesville." Blaze shook his head
ruminatively. "This was a hard country, those days. There wasn't
but two honest men in this whole valley--and the other one was a
nigger."

Dave Law's duties as a Ranger rested lightly upon him; his
instructions were vague, and he had a leisurely method of "working
up" his evidence. Since he knew that Blaze possessed a thorough
knowledge of this section and its people, it was partly business
which had brought him to the Jones home this afternoon.

Strictly speaking, Blaze was not a rancher, although many of his
acres were under cultivation and he employed a sizable army of
field-hands. His disposition was too adventurous, his life had
been too swift and varied, for him to remain interested in slow
agricultural pursuits; therefore, he had speculated heavily in raw
lands, and for several years past he had devoted his energies to a
gigantic colonization scheme. Originally Blaze had come to the Rio
Grande valley as a stock-raiser, but the natural advantages of the
country had appealed to his gambling instinct, and he had "gone
broke" buying land.

He had located, some fifteen miles below the borders of Las
Palmas, and there he had sunk a large fortune; then as a first
step in his colonization project he had founded the town of
Jonesville. Next he had caused the branch line of the Frisco
railroad to be extended until it linked his holdings with the main
system, after which he had floated a big irrigation company; and
now the feat of paying interest on its bonds and selling farms
under the ditch to Northern people kept him fully occupied. It was
by no means a small operation in which he was engaged. The venture
had taken foresight, courage, infinite hard work; and Blaze was
burdened with responsibilities that would have broken down a man
of weaker fiber.

But his pet relaxation was reminiscence. His own experience had
been wide, he knew everybody in his part of the state, and
although events in his telling were sometimes colored by his rich
imagination, the information he could give was often of the
greatest value--as Dave Law knew.

After a time the latter said, casually, "Tell me something about
Tad Lewis."

Blaze looked up quickly. "What d'you want to know?"

"Anything. Everything."

"Tad owns a right nice ranch between here and Las Palmas," Blaze
said, cautiously.

Paloma broke out, impatiently: "Why don't you say what you think?"
Then to Dave: "Tad Lewis is a bad neighbor, and always has been.
There's a ford on his place, and we think he knows more about
'wet' cattle than he cares to tell."

"It's a good place to cross stock at low water," her father
agreed, "and Lewis's land runs back from the Rio Grande in its old
Spanish form. It's a natural outlet for those brush-country
ranchos. But I haven't anything against Tad except a natural
dislike. He stands well with some of our best people, so I'm
probably wrong. I usually am."

"You can't call Ed Austin one of our best people," sharply
objected Paloma. "They claim that arms are being smuggled across
to the Rebels, Dave, and, if it's true, Ed Austin--"

"Now, Paloma," her father remonstrated mildly. "The Regulars and
the River Guards watched Lewis's ranch till the embargo was
lifted, and they never saw anything."

"I believe Austin is a strong Rebel sympathizer," Law ventured.

"Sure! And him and the Lewis outfit are amigos. If you go
pirootin' around Tad's place you're more'n apt to make yourself
unpopular, Dave. I'd grieve some to see you in a wooden kimono.
Tad's too well fixed to steal cattle, and if he runs arms it's
because of his sympathy for those noble, dark-skinned patriots we
hear so much about in Washington. Tad's a 'galvanized Gringo'
himself--married a Mexican, you know."

"Nobody pays much attention to the embargo," Law agreed. "I ran
arms myself, before I joined the Force."

When meal-time drew near, both Jones and his daughter urged their
guest to stay and dine with them, and Dave was glad to accept.

"After supper I'm going to show you our town," Blaze declared.
"It's the finest city in South Texas, and growing like a weed. All
we need is good farmers. Those we've got are mostly back-to-nature
students who leaped a drug-counter expecting to 'light in the lap
of luxury. In the last outfit we sold there wasn't three men that
knew which end of a mule to put the collar on. But they'll learn.
Nature's with 'em, and so am I. God supplies 'em with all the
fresh air and sunshine they need, and when they want anything else
they come to Old Blaze. Ain't that right, Paloma?"

"Yes, father."

Paloma Jones had developed wonderfully since Dave Law had last
seen her. She had grown into a most wholesome and attractive young
woman, with an unusually capable manner, and an honest, humorous
pair of brown eyes. During dinner she did her part with a grace
that made watching her a pleasure, and the Ranger found it a great
treat to sit at her table after his strenuous scouting days in the
mesquite.

"I'm glad to hear Jonesville is prosperous," he told his host.
"And they say you're in everything."

"That's right; and prosperity's no name for it. Every-body wants
Blaze to have a finger in the pie. I'm interested in the bank, the
sugar-mill, the hardware-store, the ice-plant--Say, that ice-
plant's a luxury for a town this size. D'you know what I made out
of it last year?"

"I've no idea."

"Twenty-seven thousand dollars!" The father of Jonesville spoke
proudly, impressively, and then through habit called upon his
daughter for verification. "Didn't I, Paloma?"

Miss Paloma's answer was unexpected, and came with equal emphasis:
"No, you didn't, father. The miserable thing lost money."

Blaze was only momentarily dismayed. Then he joined in his
visitor's laughter. "How can a man get along without the co-
operation of his own household?" he inquired, naively. "Maybe it
was next year I was thinking about." Thereafter he confined
himself to statements which required no corroboration.

Dave had long since learned that to hold Blaze Jones to a strict
accountability with fact was to rob his society of its greatest
charm. A slavish accuracy in figures, an arid lack of imagination,
reduces conversation to the insipidness of flat wine, and Blaze's
talk was never dull. He was a keen, shrewd, practical man, but
somewhere in his being there was concealed a tremendous, lop-sided
sense of humor which took the form of a bewildering imagery. An
attentive audience was enough for him, and, once his fancy was in
full swing, there was no limit to his outrageous exaggerations. A
light of credulity in a hearer's eye filled him with prodigious
mirth, and it is doubtful if his listeners ever derived a fraction
of the amusement from his fabrications that he himself enjoyed.
Paloma's spirit of contradiction was the only fly in his ointment;
now that his daughter was old enough to "keep books" on him, much
of the story-teller's joy was denied him.

Of course his proclivities occasionally led to misapprehensions;
chance acquaintances who recognized him as an artful romancer were
liable to consider him generally untruthful. But even in this
misconception Blaze took a quiet delight, secure in the knowledge
that all who knew him well regarded him as a rock of integrity. As
a matter of fact, his genuine exploits were quite as sensational
as those of his manufacture.

When, after supper, Blaze had hitched a pair of driving-mules to
his buckboard, preparatory to showing his guest the glories of
Jonesville, Dave said:

"Paloma's getting mighty pretty."

"She's as pretty as a blue-bonnet flower," her father agreed. "And
she runs me around something scandalous. I 'ain't got the freedom
of a peon." Blaze sighed and shook his shaggy head. "You know me,
Dave; I never used to be scared of nobody. Well, it's different
now. She rides me with a Spanish bit, and my soul ain't my own."
With a sudden lightening of his gloom, he added: "Say, you're
going to stay right here with us as long as you're in town; I want
you to see how I cringe." In spite of Blaze's plaintive tone it
was patent that he was inordinately proud of Paloma and well
content with his serfdom.

Jonesville proved to be a typical Texas town of the modern
variety, and altogether different to the pictured frontier
village. There were no one-storied square fronts, no rows of
saloons with well-gnawed hitching-rails, no rioting cowboys. On
the contrary, the larger buildings were of artificial stone, the
sidewalks of concrete, and the store fronts of plate-glass. Arc-
lights shed a bluishwhite glare over the wide street-crossings,
and all in all the effect was much like that of a prosperous,
orderly Northern farming town.

Not that Jonesville would have filled an eye for beauty. It was
too new and crude and awkward for that. It fitted loosely into its
clothes, for its citizens had patterned it with regard for the
future, and it sprawled over twice its legitimate area. But to its
happy founder it seemed well-nigh perfect, and its destiny roused
his maddest enthusiasm. He showed Dave the little red frame
railroad station, distinguished in some mysterious way above the
hundred thousand other little red frame railroad stations of the
identical size and style; he pointed out the Odd Fellows Hall, the
Palace Picture Theater, with its glaring orange lights and
discordant electric piano; he conducted Law to the First National
Bank, of which Blaze was a proud but somewhat ornamental director;
then to the sugar-mill, the ice-plant, and other points of equally
novel interest.

Everywhere he went, Jones was hailed by friends, for everybody
seemed to know him and to want to shake his hand.

"SOME town and SOME body of men, eh?" he inquired, finally, and
Dave agreed:

"Yes. She's got a grand framework, Blaze. She'll be most as big as
Fort Worth when you fatten her up."

Jones waved his buggy-whip in a wide circle that took in the miles
of level prairie on all sides. "We've got the whole blamed state
to grow in. And, Dave, I haven't got an enemy in the place! It
wasn't many years ago that certain people allowed I'd never live
to raise this town. Why, it used to be that nobody dared to ride
with me--except Paloma, and she used to sleep with a shot-gun at
her bedside."

"You sure have been a responsibility to her."

"But I'm as safe now as if I was in church."

Law ventured to remark that none of Blaze's enemies had grown fat
in prosecuting their feuds, but this was subject which the elder
man invariably found embarrassing, and now he said:

"Pshaw! I never was the blood-letter people think. I'm as gentle
as a sheep." Then to escape further curiosity on that point he
suggested that they round out their riotous evening with a game of
pool.

Law boasted a liberal education, but he was no match for the
father of Jonesville, who wielded a cue with a dexterity born of
years of devotion to the game. In consequence, Blaze's enjoyment
was in a fair way to languish when the proprietor of the Elite
Billiard Parlor returned from supper to say:

"Mr. Jones, there's a real good pool-player in town, and he wants
to meet you."

Blaze uttered a triumphant cry. "Get him, quick! Send the brass-
band to bring him. Dave, you hook your spurs over the rung of a
chair and watch your uncle clean this tenderfoot. If he's got
class, I'll make him mayor of the town, for a good pool-shooter is
all this metropolis lacks. Why, sometimes I go plumb to San Antone
for a game." He whispered in his friend's ear, "Paloma don't let
me gamble, but if you've got any dinero, get it down on me." Then,
addressing the bystanders, he proclaimed, "Boys, if this pilgrim
is good enough to stretch me out we'll marry him off and settle
him down."

"No chance, Uncle Blaze; he's the most married person in town,"
some one volunteered. "His wife is the new dressmaker--and she's
got a mustache." For some reason this remark excited general
mirth.

"That's too bad. I never saw but one woman with a mustache, and
she licked me good. If he's yoked up to that kind of a lady, I
allow his nerves will be wrecked before he gets here. I hope to
God he ain't entirely done for." Blaze ran the last three balls
from a well-nigh impossible position, then racked up the whole
fifteen with trembling eagerness and eyed the door expectantly. He
was wiping his spectacles when the proprietor returned with a
slim, sallow man whom he introduced as Mr. Strange.

"Welcome to our city!" Blaze cried, with a flourish of his
glasses. "Get a prod, Mr. Strange, and bust 'em, while I clean my
wind-shields. These fellow-townsmen of mine handle a cue like it
was an ox-gad."

Mr. Strange selected a cue, studied the pyramid for an instant,
then called the three ball for the upper left-hand corner, and
pocketed it, following which he ran the remaining fourteen. Blaze
watched this procedure near-sightedly, and when the table was bare
he thumped his cue loudly upon the floor. He beamed upon his
opponent; he appeared ready to embrace him.

"Bueno! There's art, science, and natural aptitude! Fly at 'em
again, Mr. Strange, and take your fill." He finished polishing his
spectacles, and readjusted them. "I aim to make you so comfortable
in Jonesville that---" Blaze paused, he started, and a peculiar
expression crept over his face.

It seemed to Law that his friend actually turned pale; at any
rate, his mouth dropped open and his gaze was no longer
hypnotically following the pool-balls, but was fixed upon his
opponent.

Now there were chapters in the life of Blaze Jones that had never
been fully written, and it occurred to Dave that such a one had
been suddenly reopened; therefore he prepared himself for some
kind of an outburst. But Blaze appeared to be numbed; he even
jumped nervously when Mr. Strange missed a shot and advised him
that his chance had come.

As water escapes from a leaky pail, so had Jones's fondness for
pool oozed away, and with it had gone his accustomed skill. He
shot blindly, and, much to the general surprise, missed an easy
attempt.

"Can't expect to get 'em all," comfortingly observed Mr. Strange
as he executed a combination that netted him two balls and broke
the bunch. After that he proved the insincerity of his statement
by clearing the cloth for a second time. The succeeding frames
went much the same, and finally Blaze put up his cue, mumbling:

"I reckon I must have another chill coming on. My feet are plumb
dead."

"Cold feet are sure bad." Strange favored the crowd with a wink.

"I'm sort of sick."

"That's tough!" the victor exclaimed, regretfully. "But I'll tell
you what we'll do--we'll take a little look into the future."

"What d'you mean?"

"Simply this: Nature has favored me with second sight and the
ability to read fortunes. I foretell good an' evil, questions of
love and mattermony by means of numbers, cards, dice, dominoes,
apple-parings, egg-shells, tea-leaves, an' coffee-grounds." The
speaker's voice had taken on the brazen tones of a circus barker.
"I pro'nosticate by charms, ceremonies, omens, and moles; by the
features of the face, lines of the hand, spots an' blemishes of
the skin. I speak the language of flowers. I know one hundred and
eighty-seven weather signs, and I interpet dreams. Now, ladies and
gents, this is no idle boast. Triflin' incidents, little marks on
the cuticle, although they appear to be the effect of chance, are
nevertheless of the utmost consequence, an' to the skilled
interpeter they foretell the temper of, an' the events that will
happen to, the person bearin' 'em. Now let us take this little
deck of common playing-cards---"

The monologist, suiting the action to the word, conjured a deck of
cards from somewhere, and extended them to Blaze. "Select one; any
one---"

"Hell!" snorted Jones, slipping into his coat.

"You are a skeptic! Very well. I convince nobody against his will.
But wait! You have a strong face. Stand where you are." Extracting
from another pocket a tiny pair of scissors and a sheet of carbon
paper, Mr. Strange, with the undivided attention of the audience
upon him, began to cut Blaze's silhouette. He was extraordinarily
adept, and despite his subject's restlessness he completed the
likeness in a few moments; then, fixing it upon a plain white
cardboard, he presented it with a flourish.

Blaze accepted the thing and plunged for the open air.




IX

A SCOUTING TRIP


"What ails you?" Law inquired as he and Blaze rolled away in the
buckboard.

"Serves me right for leaving my six-shooter at home," panted the
rancher. "Well, I might have known they'd find me some day."

"'They'? Who?"

"That hombre and his wife--the woman with the mustache. They swore
they'd get me, and it looks like they will, for I daresn't raise
my hand to protect myself."

This was very mystifying to Dave, and he said so.

"The woman'll recognize me, quick enough," Blaze asserted, and
then, "God knows what Paloma will do."

"Really! Is it that bad?"

"It's a vile story, Dave, and I never expected to tell anybody;
but it's bound to come out on me now, so you better hear my side.
Last summer I attended a convention at Galveston, and one hot day
I decided to take a swim, so I hired a suit and a room to cache my
six-shooter in. It was foolish proceedings for a man my age, but
the beach was black with people and I wasn't altogether myself.
You see, we'd had an open poker game running in my room for three
days, and I hadn't got any sleep. I was plumb feverish, and needed
a dip. Well, I'm no water-dog, Dave; I can't swim no better than a
tarrapin with its legs cut off, but I sloshed around some in the
surf, and then I took a walk to dreen off and see the sights. It
was right interesting when I got so I could tell the women from
the men--you see I'd left my glasses in the bath-house.

"Now I'd sort of upheld the general intemperance of that poker
game for three days and nights--but I don't offer my condition as
an excuse for what follows. No gentleman ought to lay his
indecencies onto John Barley corn when they're nothing more nor
less than the outcroppin's of his own orneriness. Liquor has got
enough to answer for without being blamed for human depravities. I
dare say I was friendlier than I had any right to be; I spoke to
strangers, and some of the girls hollered at me, but I wouldn't
have harmed a soul.

"Well, in the course of my promenade I came to a couple of fellers
setting half-buried in the sand, and just as I was passing one of
them got up--sort of on all-fours and--er--facing away from me--
sabe? That's where the trouble hatched. I reached out and, with
nothing but good-will in my heart, I--sort of pinched this party-
sort of on the hip, or thereabouts. I didn't mean a thing by it,
Dave. I just walked on, smiling, till something run into me from
behind. When I got up and squared around, there was that man we
just left cutting didos out of black paper.

"'What d'you mean by pinching my wife?' he says, and he was
r'arin' mad.

"'Your WIFE?' I stammers, and with that he climbs me. Dave, I was
weak with shame and surprise, and all I could do was hold him off.
Sure enough, the man I'd pinched was a long, ga'nt woman with a
little black mustache, and here she came!

"We started in right there. I never saw such a poisonous person as
that woman. She was coiled, her head was up, and her rattles
agoing, and so I finally lit out But I'm sort of fat, and they
over-ran me. They bayed me against the sea-wall, and all I had the
heart to do was to hold 'em off some more. Soon as I got my wind I
shook 'em off a second time and run some more, but they downed me.
By that time we'd begun to gather quite a crowd. ...

"Dave, was you ever treed by wild hogs? That's how them two people
kept after me. You'd have thought I'd deprived 'em of their young.
I didn't want to hurt 'em, but whenever I'd run they'd tangle my
legs. By and by I got so short of breath that I couldn't run, so I
fell on top of the man. But the woman got me by the legs and
rolled me under. I busted out and hoofed it again, but they caught
me and down we went, me on top. Then that man's helpmate grabbed
my legs and rolled me over, like she did before. Finally I got too
tired to do anything but paw like a puppy. It seems like we must
have fought that way all the morning, Dave. Anyhow, people
gathered from long distances and cheered the woman. I got
desperate toward the last, and I unraveled the right hip of my
bathing suit grabbing for my gun. I couldn't see the bath-house
for the sand in my eyes, so I must have led 'em up across the
boulevard and into the tent colony, for after a while we were
rolling around among tent-pegs and tangling up in guy-ropes, and
all the time our audience was growing. Dave, those tent-ropes
sounded like guitar strings."

Blaze paused to wipe the sweat from his brow, whereupon his
listener inquired in a choking voice:

"How did you come out?"

"I reckon I'd have got shed of 'em somehow, for I was resting up
on top of my man, but that stinging lizard of a woman got her
claws into the neck of my bathing-suit and r'ared back on it.
Dave, she skinned me out of that garment the way you'd skin out an
eel, and--there I was! You never heard such a yelling as went up.
And I didn't hear all of it, either, for I just laid back my ears
and went through those sight-seers like a jack-rabbit. I never
knew a man could run like I did. I could hear people holler, 'Here
he comes,' 'There he goes,' 'Yonder he went,' but I was never
headed. I hurdled the sea-wall like an antelope, and before they
got eyes on me I was into my bath-house.

"When I'd got dressed, I sneaked up to the Galvez for a drink. In
the bar were a lot of stockmen, and they asked me where I'd been.
I told 'em I'd been nursing a sick lodge member, and they said:

"'Too bad! You missed the damnedest fight since Custer was licked.
We couldn't get very close, for the jam, but it was great!'

"The story went all over Galveston. The husband swore he'd kill
the man who attacked his wife, and the newspapers called on the
police to discover the ruffian."

There was a protracted silence; then Law controlled his voice
sufficiently to say: "It's fortunate he didn't recognize you to-
night."

"Maybe he did. Anyhow, his wife is the new dressmaker Paloma's
hired. I 'ain't got a chance, Dave. That story will ruin me in the
community, and Paloma will turn me out when she learns I'm a--a
lady-pincher."

"What are you going to do about it?"

Blaze sighed. "I don't know, yet. Probably I'll end by running
from those scorpions, like I did before."

 The next morning at breakfast Paloma announced, "Father, you must
help Dave hunt down these cattle thieves."

"Ain't that sort of a big order?" Blaze queried.

"Perhaps, but you're the very man to do it. Ricardo Guzman is the
only person who knows the Lewis gang as well as you do."

Jones shook his head doubtfully. "Don Ricardo has been working up
his own private feud with that outfit. If I was the kind that went
looking for a fight, I wouldn't have paid freight on myself from
the Panhandle down here. I could have got one right at home, any
morning before breakfast."

"Ricardo Guzman is something of a black sheep himself," Law spoke
up.

"Pshaw! He's all right. I reckon he has changed a few brands in
his time, but so has everybody else. Why, that's how 'Old Ed'
Austin got his start. If a cowman tells you he never stole
anything, he's either a dam' good liar or a dam' bad roper. But
Ricardo's going straight enough now."

"He has lost his share of stock," Paloma explained, "and he'll
work with you if father asks him. You go along with Dave---"

"I'm too busy," Blaze demurred, "and I ain't feeling good. I had
bad dreams all night."

"I don't want you around here this morning. That new dressmaker is
coming."

Jones rose abruptly from the table. "I reckon my business can
wait. Hustle up, Dave." A few moments later, as they were saddling
their horses, he lamented: "What did I tell you? Here I go, on the
dodge from a dressmaker. I s'pose I've got to live like a road-
agent now, till something happens."

 Don Ricardo Guzman was an American, but he spoke no English. An
accident of birth had made him a citizen of the United States--his
father having owned a ranch which lay north instead of south of
the Rio Grande. Inasmuch as the property had fallen to Ricardo,
his sons, too, were Yankees in the eyes of the law. But in all
other respects Don Ricardo and his family differed not at all from
the many Guzmans who lived across the border. The Guzman ranch
comprised a goodly number of acres, and, since live stock multiply
rapidly, its owner had in some sort prospered. On the bank of a
resaca---a former bed of the Rio Grande--stood the house, an adobe
structure, square, white, and unprotected from the sun by shrub or
tree. Behind it were some brush corrals and a few scattered mud
jacals, in which lived the help.

Ricardo had just risen from a siesta when his two visitors rode
up, and he made them welcome with the best he had. There followed
a complimentary exchange of greetings and the usual flow of small
talk. Ricardo had suffered a severe toothache--the same abominable
affliction that had lost Porfirio Diaz an empire. It had been a
dry spring, but, praise God, the water still held in the resaca--
his two sons were branding calves in one of the outer pastures--
and there had been a very good calf crop indeed. Blaze recounted
his own doings; Law told of Ranger activities along the lower
border. In the cool of the afternoon Ricardo rode with his
visitors, and then, cordial relations being now established, he
began to divulge information of value to Law.

Yes, he had endured many depredations from thieves. It was
shameful, but doubtless God willed that a certain amount of
stealing should go on in the world. The evil-doers were certainly
favored by nature, in this locality, for the great expanse of
brush country to the north and east offered almost perfect
security, and the river, to the south, gave immunity from pursuit
or prosecution. The beeves were driven north into the wilderness,
but the horses went to Mexico, where the war had created a market
for them. The Federals had plenty of money to buy mounts.

Whom did Don Ricardo suspect?

The old man was non-committal. Suspicion was one thing, proof was
quite another; and conviction was difficult under the best of
circumstances. Why, even a cow's recognition of her own calf was
not evidence for a court, and alibis were easily proven. Unless
the thieves were caught in the very act there was no case against
them, and--por Dios!--one could not be for ever on guard. Who
could tell where the malefactors would strike next? Now, in Mexico
one could afford to kill an undesirable neighbor without so much
formality. But, thank God! Don Ricardo was not a Mexican. No, he
was a good American citizen. It was something to make him sleep
well in these war-times.

"Just the same, I'll bet he'd sleep better if the Lewis outfit was
cleaned up," Dave ventured, and Blaze agreed.

Guzman caught his enemy's name and nodded.

"Ah! That sin verguenza! He sells arms to the Candeleristas and
horses to the Potosistas. Perhaps he steals my calves. Who knows?"

"Senor Lewis doesn't need to steal. He has money," Jones argued.

"True! But who is so rich that he would not be richer? Lewis
employs men who are poor, and he himself is above nothing. I, too,
am a friend of the Rebels. Panchito, the Liberator, was a saint,
and I give money to the patriots who fight for his memory. But I
do not aid the tyrant Potosi with my other hand. Yes, and who is
richer, for instance, than Senor Eduardo Austin?"

"You surely don't accuse him of double-dealing with the Rebels?"
Blaze inquired, curiously.

"I don't know. He is a friend of Tad Lewis, and there are strange
stories afloat."

Just what these stories were, however, Ricardo would not say,
feeling, perhaps, that he had already said too much.

The three men spent that evening together, and in the morning
Blaze rode home, leaving the Ranger behind for the time being as
Guzman's guest.

Dave put in the next two days riding the pastures, familiarizing
himself with the country, and talking with the few men he met.
About all he discovered, however, was the fact that the Guzman
range not only adjoined some of Lewis's leased land, but also was
bounded for several miles by the Las Palmas fence.

It was pleasant to spend the days among the shy brush-cattle, with
Bessie Belle for company. The mare seemed to enjoy the excursions
as much as her owner. Her eyes and ears were ever alert; she
tossed her head and snorted when a deer broke cover or a jack-
rabbit scuttled out of her path; she showed a friendly interest in
the awkward calves which stood and eyed her with such amazement
and then galloped stiffly off with tails high arched.

Law had many times undertaken to break Bessie Belle of that habit
of flinging her head high at sudden sounds, but she was nervous
and inquisitive, and this was the one thing upon which she
maintained a feminine obstinacy.

On the second evening the Ranger rode home through a drizzle that
had materialized after a long, threatening afternoon and now
promised to become a real rain. Ricardo met him at the door to
say:

"You bring good fortune with you, senor, for the land is thirsty.
To-morrow, if this rain holds, we shall ride together--you, Pedro,
and I. Those thieves do their stealing when they leave no tracks."

Raoul, the younger son, volunteered to go in place of his father,
but Ricardo would not hear of it.

"Am I so old that I must lie abed?" he cried. "No! We three shall
ride the fences, and if we encounter a cut wire--diablo!--we shall
have a story to tell, eh?"

The sky was leaden, the rain still fell in the morning when Dave
and his two companions set out. Until noon they rode, their
slickers dripping, their horses steaming; then they ate an
uncomfortable lunch under the thickest hackberry-tree they could
find, after which they resumed their patrol. Ricardo's tongue at
length ran down under this discomfort, and the three riders sat
their saddles silently, swaying to the tireless fox-trot of their
horses, their eyes engaged in a watchful scrutiny.

At last Pedro, who was ahead, reined in and pointed; the others
saw where the barbed-wire strands of the fence they had been
following were clipped. A number of horse and calf tracks led
through the opening, and after an examination Ricardo announced:

"There are two men. They have come and gone, with the calves tied
neck and neck."

"That is Las Palmas, isn't it?" Law indicated the pasture into
which the trail led.

Father and son answered, "Si, senor."

For a time the Ranger lounged sidewise in his saddle, studying the
country before him. The land was open and comparatively flat; it
was broken by tiny clumps of mesquite and low, sprawling beds of
cactus. Perhaps a half-mile away, however, began a long, narrow
patch of woods, with the tops of occasional oaks showing, and this
ran parallel with the fence for a considerable distance.

"They took them in yonder, to brand," he said, straightening
himself. "Maybe we'll be in time."

Side by side the three men rode off Guzman's land, following the
tracks to the nearest point of woods; there Law stopped to give
his directions.

"Pedro, you ride down this side; Ricardo, you skirt the outside. I
shall keep to the middle. Walk your horses, for I shall go
slowly." He slipped his carbine from its scabbard; the others did
the same.

But Dave's plan did not commend itself to Ricardo; the old man's
face puckered into an expression of doubt, and, removing his hat,
he ran a hand over his wiry, short-cropped, white hair.

"Senor," he protested, "I know something about these men, and they
will not wait to learn that you are an officer. Perhaps I had
better ride with you."

But Law declined the well-meant offer, and with a dubious shake of
the head Ricardo rode away, while Dave guided Bessie Belle into
the grove.

The mare seemed to know that something unusual was afoot. Perhaps
some nervous tensity of her rider made itself felt, perhaps with
equine sagacity she had understood from the first the nature of
this scouting expedition. Dave was inclined to believe the latter-
-he had often averred that Bessie Belle knew quite as much as or
more than he. At any rate she picked her way with admirable care,
her hoofs made almost no sound upon the wet soil; only the
complaint of the saddle leathers or the swish of a wet branch rose
above the steady patter of the raindrops. It was not necessary to
guide her; she selected the openings of her own free will, her
small, sharp ears were alert, and her eyes searched the glades
intently.

Dave smiled at this excess of caution and stroked Bessie Belle's
wet neck encouragingly, whereupon she turned her head and it
seemed to the rider that she nodded her complete understanding.
Law could have kissed her.




X

A RANGER'S HORSE


Onward through the dense foliage the two friends wound. Now and
then they stopped to listen, but the rain was heavy enough to
drown all other noises. Encountering fresh tracks finally, Dave
leaned from his saddle and studied them. What he saw caused him to
push forward with no diminution of stealth.

He had gone perhaps half a mile when Bessie Belle raised her head,
and he noted that her nostrils were working sensitively. A few
yards farther on Law fancied that he could detect the smell of a
wood fire. Almost without a signal from him the mare halted in her
tracks until he had satisfied himself. Still farther along they
came to a place where the brush was low, and there, rising through
the tree-tops beyond, they saw a wavering plume of blue smoke.

The Ranger rode into sight of the branding-fire with his
Winchester across his saddle-horn and his thumb upon the hammer;
what followed came with almost the blinding suddenness of a
lightning crash, though afterward the events of that crowded
moment lingered as a clear-cut memory. First there was the picture
of a sandy glade in the center of which burned a fire with
branding-irons in it, and a spotted calf tied to a tree, but
otherwise no sign of life. Then, without warning, Bessie Belle
threw up her head in that characteristic trick of hers, and
simultaneously Dave saw a figure rise out of the grass at his left
with rifle leveled. The Ranger remembered afterward the odd
foreshortening of the weapon and the crooked twist of the face
behind it. With the first jerk of his horse's head his own gun had
leaped to his shoulder--he was not conscious of having willed it
to do so--and even as he pressed the trigger he beheld a jet of
smoke spurt from the muzzle aimed at him. With the kick of his
carbine he felt Bessie Belle give way--it seemed to Dave that he
shot while she was sinking. The next instant his feet, still in
the stirrups, were on the ground and his horse lay between them,
motionless. That nervous fling of her head had saved Dave's life,
for the rustler's bullet had shattered her skull in its flight,
and she lay prone, with scarcely a muscular twitch, so sudden had
been her end. The breath escaped slowly from her lungs; it was as
if she heaved a lingering sigh; one leg contracted and then
relaxed.

For a moment the Ranger was dazed. He stood staring down at his
pet; then the truth engulfed him. He realized that he had ridden
her to her death, and at the thought he became like a woman bereft
of her child, like a lover who had seen his sweetheart slain.

A shout--it was a hoarse, inarticulate cry; a swift, maddened
scrutiny that searched the sodden scene of the ambush; then he was
down beside the mare, calling her name heartbrokenly, his arms
around her neck, his face against her warm, wet, velvet hide.

Law knew that two men had entered the thicket, and therefore one
still remained to be reckoned with, but he gave no thought to
that. Nor did he rise to look after the grotesquely huddled figure
that had been a cattle thief only a moment before--both he and his
assailant had been too close to miss. From the corner of his eye
he could see a pair of boot-soles staring at him out of the grass,
and they told him there was no need for investigation. Near the
body he heard a calf stirring, but he let it struggle.

Bessie Belle's bright eyes were glazing; she did not hear her
lover's voice. Her muzzle, softer than any satin, was loose, her
lips would never twitch with that clumsy, quivering caress which
pleased her master so. One front hoof, washed as clean as agate,
was awkwardly bent under her, the other had plowed a furrow in the
soft earth as she sank, and against this leg her head lay tipped.

Don Ricardo and his son burst out of the brush from opposite
directions almost at the same moment, to find the Ranger with his
face buried in his horse's mane.

"Caramba! What is this?" The old man flung himself from the saddle
and came running. "You are injured?"

Pedro, too, bent over the officer, his brown face pale with
apprehension. "Mother of God!" breathed the latter. "It was a wild
thing to do, to ride alone---"

"I'm all right," Law said, rising stiffly, whereupon both Mexicans
voiced their relief.

"The saints be praised!"

"Si! What happened? There was a shot! Did you see nothing?"

Law jerked his head in the direction of the fallen man at his
back, and Pedro uttered a loud cry.

"Look!" Father and son ran through the grass, then recoiled and
broke into a jargon of oaths and exclamations.

Law followed them with his eyes. "Is he dead?" he inquired,
coldly.

"God! Yes."

"Right in the mouth! The fellow was in hell before he realized
it."

"See! It is as we thought, Pedro; one of Lewis's! Tse! Tse! Tse!
What a sight!"

"Who is he?" queried the officer.

"Pino Garza, one of the worst!" chimed the two Guzmans.

Ricardo was dancing in his excitement. "I told you that Lewis knew
something. The other one got past me, but he rode like the devil,
and I cannot shoot like--this."

"Wait!" exclaimed Pedro. "This is beyond my understanding. I heard
but one shot from here, then after an instant my father's gun. And
yet here is a dead horse and a dead man."

"This fellow and I fired at about the same instant," Dave
explained, but even when he had related the history of the
encounter his companions could scarcely believe that such quick
shooting was possible.

It was difficult to secure a connected story from Ricardo, but he
finally made it plain that at the first report the other thief had
fled, exposing himself only long enough for the old man to take a
quick shot in his direction. Ricardo had missed, and the miscreant
was doubtless well away by this time. He had ridden a sorrel
horse, that was all Ricardo could remember.

Law looked only briefly at the gruesome results of his
marksmanship, then he turned back to the body of his beloved mare.
Ricardo noticed at length that he was crying; as the Ranger knelt
beside the dead thoroughbred the old Mexican whispered to his son:

"Valgame Dios! This is a strange fellow. He weeps like a woman. He
must have loved that horse as a man loves his wife. Who can
understand these Gringos?" After a time he approached cautiously
and inquired: "What shall we do with this hombre, senor? Pedro has
found his horse."

Law roused himself. With his own hands he gently removed Bessie
Belle's saddle, bridle, and blanket, then he gave his orders.

"I'll take your horse, Ricardo, and you take--that fellow's. Get a
wagon and move him to Jonesville."

"And you?"

"I'm going to follow that man on the sorrel."

The dead man's saddle was left beside the body; then when the
exchange of mounts had been effected and all was ready, Law made a
request that amazed both father and son.

"If I'm not back by morning, I want you to bury my mare." His
voice broke; he turned away his face. "Bury her deep, Ricardo, so-
-the coyotes can't dig her up; right here where she fell. I'll be
back to see that it's done right. Understand?"

"Bueno! I understand perfectly. She was a pretty horse. She was
your--bonita, eh? Well, you have a big heart, senor, as a brave
man should have. Everything shall be done as you wish; I give you
my hand on it." Ricardo reached down and gripped Law's palm. "We
will name our pasture for her, too, because it is plain you loved
her dearly. So, then, until to-morrow."

Law watched his two friends ride away, then he wiped his
Winchester and saw to his cinch. This done he raised Bessie
Belle's head and kissed the lip that had so often explored his
palm for sugar. With a miserable ache in his throat he mounted and
rode off to pick up the trail of the man on the sorrel pony.

Fortunately this was not difficult, for the tracks of a running
horse are plain in soft ground. Finding where his quarry had
broken cover, Law set out at a lope.

The fellow had ridden in a wide semicircle at first, then, finding
he was not pursued, he had slackened pace, and, in consequence,
the signs became more difficult to follow. They seemed to lead in
the direction of Las Palmas, which Dave judged must be fully
twelve miles away, and when they continued to maintain this course
the Ranger became doubly interested. Could it be, he asked
himself, that his quarry would have the audacity to ride to the
Austin headquarters? If so, his identification promised to become
easy, for a man on a sorrel cow-pony was more than likely to be
observed. Perhaps he thought himself secure and counted upon the
assistance of some friend or confederate among the Las Palmas
ranch-hands in case of pursuit. That seemed not unreasonable,
particularly inasmuch as he could have no suspicion that it was a
Ranger who was on his trail.

Dave lost the hoof-prints for a time, but picked them up again at
the pasture gate a few miles farther on, and was able to trace
them far enough to assure himself that his quarry was indeed
headed for the Austin house and had no intention of swinging
southward toward the Lewis headquarters.

By this time the rain had done its work, and to follow the tracks
became a matter of guesswork. Night was coming on also, and Dave
realized that at this rate darkness would find him far from his
goal. Therefore he risked his own interpretation of the rider's
intent and pushed on without pausing to search out the trail step
by step. At the second gate the signs indicated that his man was
little more than an hour ahead of him.

The prospect of again seeing the ruddy-haired mistress of Las
Palmas stirred Law more deeply than he cared to admit. Alaire
Austin had been seldom out of his thoughts since their first
meeting, for, after the fashion of men cut off from human society,
he was subject to insistent fancies. Dave had many times lived
over those incidents at the water-hole, and for the life of him he
could not credit the common stories of Alaire's coldness. To him,
at least, she had appeared very human, and after they had once
become acquainted she had been unaffected and friendly.

Since that meeting Dave had picked up considerable information
about the object of his interest, and although much of this was
palpably false, it had served to make her a still more romantic
figure in his eyes. Alaire now seemed to be a sort of superwoman,
and the fact that she was his friend, that something deep within
her had answered to him, afforded him a keen satisfaction, the
greater, perhaps, because of his surprise that it could be go.
Nevertheless, he was uncomfortably aware that she had a husband.
Not only so, but the sharp contrast in their positions was
disagreeable to contemplate; she was unbelievably rich, and a
person of influence in the state, while he had nothing except his
health, his saddle, and his horse---

With a desperate pang Law realized that now he had no horse.
Bessie Belle, his best beloved, lay cold and wet back yonder in
the weeping mesquite. He found several cubes of sugar in his
pocket, and with an oath flung them from him. Don Ricardo's horse
seemed stiff-gaited and stubborn.

Dave remembered how Mrs. Austin had admired the mare. No doubt she
would grieve at the fate that had befallen her, and that would
give them something to talk about. His own escape would interest
her, too, and--Law realized, not without some natural
gratification, that he would appear to her as a sort of hero.

The mist and an early dusk prevented him from seeing Las Palmas
itself until he was well in among the irrigated fields. A few
moments later when he rode up to the out-buildings he encountered
a middle-aged Mexican who proved to be Benito Gonzalez, the range
boss.

Dave made himself known, and Benito answered his questions with
apparent honesty. No, he had seen nothing of a sorrel horse or a
strange rider, but he had just come in himself. Doubtless they
could learn more from Juan, the horse-wrangler, who was somewhere
about.

Juan was finally found, but he proved strangely recalcitrant. At
first he knew nothing, though after some questioning he admitted
the possibility that he had seen a horse of the description given,
but was not sure. More pressure brought forth the reluctant
admission that the possibility was almost a certainty.

"What horse was it?" Benito inquired; but the lad was non-
committal. Probably it belonged to some stranger. Juan could not
recollect just where or when he had seen the pony, and he was
certain he had not laid eyes upon the owner.

"Devil take the boy! He's half-witted," Benito growled.

But Dave changed his tactics. "Oiga!" he said, sternly. "Do you
want to go to jail?" Juan had no such desire. "Then tell the
truth. Was the horse branded?"

"Yes."

"With what brand?"

Juan had not noticed.

"With the 'K.T.' perhaps?" That was the Lewis brand.

"Perhaps!"

"Where is it now?"

Juan insolently declared that he didn't know and didn't care.

"Oh, you don't, eh?" Law reached for the boy and shook him until
he yelled. "You will make a nice little prisoner, Juanito, and we
shall find a way to make you speak."

Gonzalez was inclined to resent such high-handed treatment of his
underling, but respect for the Rangers was deep-rooted, and Juan's
behavior was inexplicable.

At last the horse-boy confessed. He had seen both horse and rider,
but knew neither. Mr. Austin and the stranger had arrived
together, and the latter had gone on. That was the truth.

"Bueno!" Law released his prisoner, who slunk away rubbing his
shoulder. "Now, Benito, we will find Mr. Austin."

A voice answered from the dusk: "He won't take much finding," and
Ed Austin himself emerged from the stable door. "Well, what do you
want?" he asked.

"You are Mr. Austin, I reckon?"

"I am. What d'you mean by abusing my help?" The master of Las
Palmas approached so near that his threatening scowl was visible.
"I don't allow strangers to prowl around my premises."

Amazed at this hostile greeting, Law explained in a word the
reason for his presence.

"I don't know anything about your man. What d'you want him for,
and who are you?"

Dave introduced himself. "I want him for stealing Guzman calves. I
trailed him from where he and his partner cut into your south
pasture."

Benito stirred and muttered an oath, but Austin was unmoved. "I
reckon you must be a bad trailer," he laughed. "We've got no
thieves here. What makes you think Guzman lost any calves?"

Dave's temper, never too well controlled at best, began to rise.
He could not imagine why a person of Ed Austin's standing should
behave in this extraordinary manner, unless perhaps he was drunk.

"Well, I saw the calves, and I left the fellow that was branding
them with a wet saddle-blanket over his face."

"Eh? What's that?" Austin started, and Gonzalez uttered a
smothered exclamation. "You killed him? He's dead?"

"Dead enough to skin. I caught him with his irons in the fire and
the calves necked up in your pasture. Now I want his companero."

"I--hope you don't think we know anything about him," Ed
protested.

"Where's that man on the sorrel horse?"

Austin turned away with a shrug.

"You rode in with him," Dave persisted.

Ed wheeled quickly. "How do you know I did?"

"Your boy saw you."

The ranchman's voice was harsh as he said: "Look here, my friend,
you're on the wrong track. The fellow I was with had nothing to do
with this affair. Would you know your man? Did you get a look at
him?"

"No. But I reckon Don Ricardo could tell his horse."

"Humph!" Austin grunted, disagreeably. "So just for that you come
prowling around threatening my help, eh? Trying to frame up a
case, maybe? Well, it don't go. I was out with one of Tad Lewis's
men."

"What was his name?" Dave managed to inquire.

"Urbina. He had a sorrel under him, but there are thousands of
sorrel horses."

"What time did you meet him?"

"I met him at noon and--I've been with him ever since. So you see
you're wrong. I presume your man doubled back and is laughing at
you."

Law's first bewilderment had given place to a black rage; for the
moment he was in danger of disregarding the reason for "Young
Ed's" incivility and giving free rein to his passion, but he
checked himself in time.

"Would you mind telling me what you and this Urbina were doing?"
he inquired, harshly.

Austin laughed mockingly. "That's my business." said he.

Dave moistened his lips. He hitched his shoulders nervously. He
was astonished at his own self-control, though the certainty that
Austin was drunk helped him to steady himself. Nevertheless, he
dared not trust himself to speak.

Construing this silence as an acknowledgment of defeat, Ed turned
to go. Some tardy sense of duty, however, prompted him to fling
back, carelessly:

"I suppose you've come a good ways. If you're hungry, Benito will
show you the way to the kitchen." Then he walked away into the
darkness, followed by the shocked gaze of his range boss.

Benito roused himself from his amazement to say, warmly: "Si,
compadre. You will enjoy a cup of hot coffee."

But Law ground out fiercely: "I'm not used to kitchen hand-outs. I
reckon I can chew my bridle-reins if I get too hungry." Walking to
his horse, he vaulted into the saddle.

Benito laid a hand upon his thigh and apologized. "Senor Ed is a
strange man. He is often like this, lately. You understand me?
Will you come to my house for supper?"

"Thank you, but I think I'll ride on to Tad Lewis's and see
Urbina."

At this the Mexican shook his head as if apprehensive of the
result, but he said nothing more.

Law hesitated as he was about to spur out of the yard. "By the
way," he ventured, "you needn't mention this to Mrs. Austin."

"She is not here," Gonzalez told him. "She has gone to La Feria to
see about her affairs. She would not permit of this occurrence if
she were at home. She is a very fine lady."

"Yes. Good night, Benito."

"Good night, senor."

When the Ranger had gone, Gonzalez walked slowly toward his house
with his head bowed thoughtfully.

"It is very strange," he muttered. "How could Don Eduardo have met
this Garza at noon when, with my own eyes, I saw him ride away
from Las Palmas at three o'clock in the afternoon? It is very
strange."




XI

JUDGE ELLSWORTH EXACTS A PROMISE


On his way to the Lewis ranch Dave Law had a struggle with
himself. He had earned a reputation as a man of violent temper,
and the time was not long past when a fraction of the insult Ed
Austin had offered him would have provoked a vigorous
counterblast. The fact that on this occasion he had managed to
restrain himself argued an increase of self-control that
especially gratified him, because his natural tendency to "fly off
the handle" had led more than once to regrettable results. In
fact, it was only since he had assumed the duties of a peace
officer that he had made a serious effort at self-government. A
Ranger's work calls for patience and forbearance, and Dave had
begun to realize the perils of his temperament. Normally he was a
level-headed, conservative fellow, but when angered a thousand
devils sprang up in him and he became capable of the wildest
excess. This instability, indeed, had been largely to blame for
his aimless roaming. Deep inside himself he knew that it was
nothing but his headstrong temper which had brought on all his
misfortunes and left him, well along in his thirties, a wanderer,
with nothing he could call his own. As with most men of his
turbulent disposition, fits of fury were usually followed by keen
revulsions of feeling. In Dave these paroxysms had frequently been
succeeded by such a sense of shame as to drive him from the scene
of his actions, and in the course of his rovings he had acquired
an ample store of regrets--bitter food for thought during the
silent hours when he sat over his camp-fire or rode alone through
the mesquite. His hatreds were keen and relentless, his passions
wild, and yet, so far as he knew, they had never led him to commit
a mean or a downright evil deed. He had killed men, to be sure,
but never, he was thankful to say, in one of his moments of
frenzy.

The killing of men in the fierce exultation of battle, the slaying
of a criminal by an officer under stress of duty, even the taking
of life under severe personal provocation, were acts that did not
put one beyond the pale. Such blood washes off. But there were
stains of a different kind.

Dave was glad that he had swallowed "Young Ed's" incivility, not
only for his own sake, but for the sake of Alaire.

After all, he argued, it was barely possible that Ed had spoken
the truth. There WERE many sorrel horses; the evidence of those
rain-washed hoof-prints was far from conclusive; even the fact
that Urbina belonged to the Tad Lewis outfit was no more than a
suspicious circumstance. And yet, earnestly as he strove to
convince himself of these possibilities, the Ranger could not down
the conviction that the rancher had lied and that he himself was
on the right track.

It was late when he arrived at his destination, but Lewis's house
was dark, and it required some effort to awaken the owner. When
Tad at last appeared, clad in undershirt and trousers, he greeted
the Ranger with a leveled Winchester; but when Dave had made known
his identity he invited him in, though with surly reluctance.

Lewis was a sandy-complexioned man of about forty, with colorless
brows and a mean, shifty eye. Formerly a cowboy, he had by the
exercise of some natural ability acquired a good property--and a
bad reputation. Just how or why he had prospered was a mystery
which his neighbors never tired of discussing.

Tad, it seemed, resented any interruption of his rest, and showed
the fact plainly.

Yes, he employed a fellow named Urbina. What was wanted of him?

Law explained briefly.

"Why, he's one of my best men!" laughed the rancher. "He wouldn't
steal nothing."

"Well, I had to shoot another good man of yours," Dave said,
quietly.

Lewis fell back a step. "Which one? Who?" he inquired, quickly.

"Pino Garza." Dave told of the meeting at the branding-fire and
its outcome. He was aware, meanwhile, that Lewis's family were
listening, for behind a half-open bedroom door he could hear an
excited whispering.

"Killed him the first shot, eh?" Tad was dumfounded. "Now I never
thought Pino was that bad. But you never can tell about these
Greasers, can you? They'll all steal if they get a chance. I let
Pino go, 'bout a week back; but he's been hangin' around, aimin'
to visit some of his relatives up in the brush country. It was
probably one of them old Guzman saw. Anyhow, it couldn't of been
Adolfo Urbina; he was over to Las Palmas all the afternoon."

"Did you send him there?"

"Sure. Ed Austin can tell you."

"Where is Urbina now?"

"I reckon he's asleep somewhere. We'll dig him up and talk to him,
if you say so."

"Good."

Tad's willingness to cooperate with the officer, now that he
understood the situation, was in marked contrast to the behavior
of Austin. In fact, his offer to help was almost too willingly
given to suit Dave, who expected him to protest at being dragged
out on such a night. No protest came, however; Lewis slipped into
his boots and slicker, explaining meanwhile:

"I'm sorry this play came up, for I don't want folks to think I
got a gang of thieves workin' for me."

But Adolfo Urbina was nowhere to be found. No one had seen him
since about seven o'clock, nor could it be discovered where he was
spending the night. Dave remembered that it had been about seven
when he left Las Palmas, and ascertained, indirectly, that Tad had
a telephone. On his way from Austin's Law had stopped at a rancho
for a bite to eat, but he could forgive himself for the delay if,
as he surmised, Urbina had been warned by wire of his coming.

"That's too bad, ain't it?" Lewis said. "But he'll be around again
in the morning, and I'll get him for you. You leave it to me."

There was plainly nothing to do but accept this offer since it
could avail nothing to wait here for Urbina's return. Unless the
fellow gave himself up, he probably could not be found, now that
the alarm was given, without a considerable search--in view of
which Dave finally remounted his borrowed horse and rode away in
the direction of Jonesville.

It was after daylight when he dismounted stiffly at Blaze's gate.
He was wet to the skin and bespattered with mud; he had been
almost constantly in the saddle for twenty-four hours, and Don
Ricardo's cow-pony was almost exhausted.

Blaze and Paloma, of course, were tremendously interested in his
story.

"Say, now, that's quick work," the latter exclaimed, heartily.
"You're some thief-buster, Dave, and if you'll just stay around
here little calves can grow up with some comfort."

When Dave rode to Jonesville, after breakfast, he found that the
body of his victim had been brought in during the night, and that
the town was already buzzing with news of the encounter. During
the forenoon Don Ricardo and his sons arrived, bringing additional
information, which they promptly imparted to the Ranger. The
Guzmans were people of action. All three of them had spent the
night on horseback, and Pedro had made a discovery. On the day
previous Garza had been seen riding in company with a man astride
a sorrel pony, and this man had been recognized as Adolfo Urbina.
Pedro's witness would swear to it.

Their distance from Las Palmas at the time when they had been seen
together proved, beyond question, that unless Urbina had flown he
could not have arrived at the place in question by noon, the hour
Ed Austin had fixed.

This significant bit of information, however, Dave advised the
Guzmans not to make public for the time being.

Toward midday Tad Lewis and three of his men arrived with the news
that Urbina had left for Pueblo before they could intercept him.

"He's got a girl up there, and he's gone to get married," Tad
explained. "I'm sure sorry we missed him."

Dave smiled grimly at the speaker.

"Are you sure he didn't cross to the other side?" he asked.

Lewis retorted warmly: "Adolfo's an all-right hombre, and I'll
back him. So 'll Ed Austin, I guess me an' Ed are responsible,
ain't we?" Some skeptical expression in his hearer's face prompted
him to inquire, brusquely, "Don't you believe what I'm telling you
about his goin' to Pueblo?"

"I guess he's gone--somewhere."

Tad uttered an angry exclamation. "Looks to me like you'd made up
your mind to saddle this thing onto him whether he done it or not.
Well, he's a poor Mexican, but I won't stand to see him
railroaded, and neither will 'Young Ed.'"

"No?"

"You heard me! Ed will alibi him complete."

Law answered, sharply: "You tell Ed Austin to go slow with his
alibis. And you take this for what it's worth to you: I'm going to
get all the cattle-rustlers in this county--ALL of them,
understand?"

Lewis flushed redly and sputtered: "If you make this stick with
Adolfo, nobody 'll be safe. I reckon Urbina's word is as good as
old Ricardo's. Everybody knows what HE is."

Later when Dave met the Guzmans, Ricardo told him, excitedly,
"That horse Tad Lewis is riding is the one I saw yesterday."

"Are you sure?"

"Listen, senor. Men in cities remember the faces they see; I have
lived all my life among horses, and to me they are like men. I
seldom forget."

"Very well. Tad says Urbina has gone to Pueblo to get married, so
I'm going to follow him, and I shall be there when he arrives."

"Bueno! Another matter"--Ricardo hesitated--"your bonita--the
pretty mare. She is buried deep."

"I'm glad," said Dave. "I think I shall sleep better for knowing
that."

Since the recent rain had rendered the black valley roads
impassable for automobiles, Dave decided to go to Pueblo by rail,
even though it was a roundabout way, and that afternoon found him
jolting over the leisurely miles between Jonesville and the main
line. He was looking forward to a good night's sleep when he
arrived at the junction; but on boarding the north-bound through
train he encountered Judge Ellsworth, who had just heard of the
Garza killing, and of course was eager for details. The two sat in
the observation-car talking until a late hour.

Knowing the judge for a man of honor and discretion. Dave
unburdened himself with the utmost freedom regarding his
suspicions of Ed Austin.

Ellsworth nodded. "Yes, Ed has thrown in with the Rebel junta in
San Antone, and Tad Lewis is the man they use to run arms and
supplies in this neighborhood. That's why he and Ed are so
friendly. Urbina is probably your cattle thief, but he has a hold
over Ed, and so he rode to Las Palmas when he was pursued, knowing
that no jury would convict him over Austin's testimony."

"Do you think Ed would perjure himself?" Dave asked.

"He has gone clean to the bad lately; there's no telling what
he'll do. I'd hate to see you crowd him, Dave."

"They call you the best lawyer in this county because you settle
so many cases out of court." The judge smiled at this. "Well,
here's a chance for you to do the county a good turn and keep Ed
Austin out of trouble."

"How?"

"The prosecuting attorney is a new man, and he wants to make a
reputation by breaking up the Lewis gang."

"Well?"

"He intends to cinch Urbina, on Ricardo's and my testimony. You're
a friend of Austin's; you'd better tip him to set his watch ahead
a few hours and save himself a lot of trouble. The prosecuting
attorney don't like Ed any too well. Understand?"

The judge pondered this suggestion for a moment. "'Young Ed' is a
queer fellow. Once in a while he gets his neck bowed."

"So do I," Law declared, quietly. "He treated me like a hobo--sent
me to the kitchen for a hand-out. That sticks. If I hadn't tamed
down considerably these late years, I'd have--wound him up, right
there."

From beneath his drooping lids Ellsworth regarded the Ranger
curiously. "You HAVE a bad temper, haven't you?"

"Rotten!"

"I know. You were a violent boy. I've often wondered how you were
getting along. How do you feel when you're--that way?"

It was the younger man's turn to hesitate. "Well, I don't feel
anything when I'm mad," he confessed. "I'm plumb crazy, I guess.
But I feel plenty bad afterwards."

There was a flicker of the judge's eyelids.

Dave went on musingly: "I dare say it's inherited. They tell me my
father was the same. He was--a killer."

"Yes. He was all of that."

"Say! WAS he my father?"

Ellsworth started. "What do you mean?"

Dave lifted an abstracted gaze from the Pullman carpet. "I hardly
know what I mean, Judge. But you've had hunches, haven't you?
Didn't you ever KNOW that something you thought was true wasn't
true at all? Well, I never felt as if I had Frank Law's blood in
me."

"This is interesting!" Ellsworth stirred and leaned forward.
"Whatever made you doubt it, Dave?"

"Um-m. Nothing definite. That's what's so unsatisfactory. But, for
instance, my mother was Mexican---"

"Spanish."

"All right. Am I Spanish? Have I any Spanish blood in me?"

"She didn't look Spanish. She was light-complexioned, for one
thing. We both know plenty of people with a Latin strain in them
who look like Anglo-Saxons. Isn't there anything else?"

"Nothing I can lay my finger on, except some kid fancies and--that
hunch I spoke about."

Ellsworth sat back with a deep breath. "You were educated in the
North, and your boyhood was spent at school and college, away from
everything Mexican."

"That probably accounts for it," Law agreed; then his face lit
with a slow smile. "By the way, don't tell Mrs. Austin that I'm a
sort of college person. She thinks I'm a red-neck, and she sends
me books."

Ellsworth laughed silently. "Your talk is to blame, Dave. Has she
sent you The Swiss Family Robinson?"

"No. Mostly good, sad romances with an uplift--stories full of
lances at rest, and Willie-boys in tin sweaters. Life must have
been mighty interesting in olden days, there was so much loving
and killing going on. The good women were always beautiful, too,
and the villains never had a redeeming trait. It's a shame how
human nature has got mixed up since then, isn't it? There isn't a
'my-lady' in all those books who could bust a cow-pony or run a
ranch like Las Palmas. Say, Judge, how'd you like to have to live
with a perfect lady?"

"Don't try your damned hog-Latin on me," chided the lawyer.
"Alaire Austin's romance is sadder than any of those novels."

Dave nodded. "But she doesn't cry about it." Then he asked,
gravely: "Why didn't she pick a real fellow, who'd kneel and kiss
the hem of her dress and make a man of himself? That's what she
wants--love and sacrifice, and lots of both. If I were Ed Austin
I'd wear her glove in my bosom and treat her like those queens in
the stories. Incense and adoration and---"

"What's the matter with you?" queried the judge.

"I guess I'm lonesome."

"Are you smitten with that girl?"

Dave laughed. "Maybe! Who wouldn't be? Why doesn't she divorce
that bum--she could do it easy enough--and then marry a chap who
could run Las Palmas for her?"

"A man about six feet three or four," acidly suggested the judge.

"That's the picture I have in mind."

"You think you could run Las Palmas?"

"I wouldn't mind trying."

"Really?"

"Foolish question number three."

"You must never marry," firmly declared the older man. "You'd make
a bad husband, Dave."

"She ought to know how to get along with a bad husband, by this
time."

Both men had been but half serious. Ellsworth knew his companion's
words carried no disrespect; nevertheless, he said, gravely:

"If you ever think of marrying I want you to come to me. Promise?"

"I'll do it--on the way back from church."

"No. On the way to church. I'll have something to tell you."

"Tell me now," urged Law.

"There's nothing to tell, yet."

"I'll have no old ruffians kissing my brand-new bride," Dave
averred.

The judge's face broadened in a smile. "Thank Heaven 'Young Ed'
has the insides of a steel range, and so my pet client is safe
from your mercenary schemes for some years. Just the same, if you
ever do think of marrying--remember--I want you to come to me--and
I'll cure you."




XII

LONGORIO MAKES BOLD


Upon her arrival at La Feria Alaire discovered that the Federal
depredations had been even greater than she had feared. Not only
had the soldiers taken a great many head of cattle, but they had
practically cleared the ranch of horses, leaving scarcely enough
with which to carry on the work.

Alaire's hacienda comprised a hundred thousand acres or more--
lacking a thorough survey, she had never determined exactly how
much land she really owned--and the property fronted upon a stream
of water. In any other country it would have been a garden of
riches, but agriculture was well-nigh impossible in northern
Mexico. For several years now the instability of the government
had precluded any plan of development, and, in consequence, the
fields were out of cultivation and cattle grazed over the moist
bottom lands, belly deep in grass. The entire ranch had been given
over to pasture, and even now, after Alaire had sold off much of
her stock because of the war, the task of accurately counting what
remained required a longer time than she had expected, and her
visit lengthened.

However, life in the roomy, fortress-like adobe house was pleasant
enough. Dolores saw to her mistress's wants, and the regular
inhabitants of La Feria were always extravagantly glad to make
their employer welcome. They were a simple, mirth-loving,
industrious people, little concerned over the war, so long as they
were unmolested, but obviously relieved to see Alaire because of
their recent fright at the incursion of Longorio's troops.

In the work that now went forward Jose Sanchez took a prominent
part. For once in his life he was a person of recognized
importance. Not only was he the right hand of the owner of La
Feria, but the favor of that redoubtable general, the hero of a
hundred tales, rested upon his shoulders like a mantle. Jose's
extravagant praises of the Federal commander, together with the
daily presence of the military guard, forcibly brought home to the
ranch-dwellers the fact that war was actually going on, and that
Luis Longorio was indeed a man of flesh and blood, and no myth.
This realization caused a ripple of excitement to stir the peons'
placid lives.

And yet in the midst of his satisfaction Sanchez confessed to one
trouble. He had expected to find his cousin, Panfilo, here, and
the fact that nothing whatever had been heard from him filled him
with great uneasiness. Of course he came to Alaire, who told him
of seeing Panfilo at the water-hole on the day after her husband
had discharged him; but that information gave Jose little comfort,
since it proved nothing as to his cousin's present whereabouts.
Alaire thought best not to tell him the full circumstances of that
affair. Believing that Panfilo would turn up at La Feria in due
time, she gave little heed to Jose's dark threats of vengeance for
any injury to his relative.

The horse-breaker's concern increased as the days passed, and to
the lieutenant and members of the guard he repeated his threats.
Truly, he declared, if any evil had fallen upon his beloved cousin
Panfilo, he, Jose, would exact a terrible reckoning, a revenge
befitting a man of his character and a friend of Luis Longorio.

These soldiers, by the way, were something of a trial to Alaire,
for they were ever in her way. She could not ride a mile over her
own pastures without the whole martial squad following at her
heels. Protest was unavailing; the lieutenant was mulishly
stubborn. He had been ordered to keep the senora in sight at all
times, so he said, and that ended the matter as far as he was
concerned. His life and the lives of his six followers depended
entirely upon her safety and happiness, for General Longorio was a
man of his word.

Of course the lieutenant would not offend for the world--the
object of his solicitude was at liberty to tread upon his
worthless old carcass--but orders were orders, especially when
they came from a certain source. He besought Alaire to exercise
forbearance toward him, and, above all, to use the extremest
caution in regard to her own well-being, for if aught befell her,
if even a despicable rattlesnake should rise out of the grass to
sting her--caramba! The teniente, in that case, would better
destroy himself on the spot. Otherwise he would surely find
himself, in a short time, with his back to a stone wall and his
face to a firing-squad. That was the sort of man Longorio was.

The speaker wondered if Mrs. Austin really understood his chief's
nature; how determined he was; how relentless he could be. General
Longorio was a remarkable person. Opposition of any sort he could
not brook. His discipline was rigorous and his punishments were
severe; being utterly without fear himself, he insisted upon
implicit obedience in others at whatever cost. For instance,
during the battle of San Pedro, just south of here, a handful of
Rebels had taken refuge in a small, one-roomed adobe house, where
they resisted all efforts at dislodgment. Time and again the
Federals had charged, only to meet a fire too murderous to face.
The slaughter had been terrific. The lieutenant, veteran of many
revolutions, vowed he had never seen a street so full of dead and
wounded as the one in front of this house. Finally the soldiers
had refused to advance again, and their captain had sent for a
cannon. During the wait Longorio had ridden up.

"'Come! Make haste!' said he, 'That house obstructs my view.'"

Seeing that Alaire was deeply interested in this recital, the old
lieutenant paused dramatically.

"Well, the capitan explained that an army was insufficient to take
that house; that it meant death to all who approached. I was not
present--God be praised!--but others told me what happened.
General Longorio dismounted and embraced the capitan--he kissed
him on the cheek, saying:

"'Adios, my dear good friend. I fear I have seen the last of you.'

"Then what? Senora, you would never guess." The speaker shook his
head. "Longorio took two dynamite grenades, and, laughing like a
boy, he ran forward before any one knew what he was about. It is
nothing but the truth, senora, and he a general! This capitan
loved him dearly, and so his bones turned to rope when the windows
of that accursed house began to vomit fire and the dust began to
fly. They say that the dead men in the street rose to their knees
and crossed themselves--I only repeat what I was told by those who
looked on. Anyhow, I have seen things quite as remarkable.

"Never was such courage, senora! God must have been moved to
astonishment and admiration, for He diverted those bullets, every
one. When our general came to the house he lit the fuses from his
cigarette, then he cried, 'Viva Potosi!' and hurled one bomb to
the roof; the other he flung through a window into the very faces
of his enemies. Those Rebels were packed in there like goats in a
corral, and they say such a screaming you never heard. Doubtless
many of them died from sheer terror the rest were blown through
each other. "The lieutenant breathed an admiring oath. "Truly, it
must have been a superb spectacle."

"General Longorio must be very brave indeed," Alaire agreed.

"But wait! That is not all. After we had taken the town and
destroyed what Rebel officers we found--"

"You mean--your prisoners?"

"Si. But there were only a few, and doubtless some of them would
have died from their wounds. Well then, after that General
Longorio called his old friend--that capitan--out before his
troops and with his own hand he shot him. Then every fifth man
among those who had refused to charge he ordered executed. It
effected much good, I assure you."

For a moment Alaire and her companion rode in silence, but the
teniente was not content with this praise of his leader.

"And yet General Longorio has another side to his character," he
continued. "He can be as mild as the shyest senorita, and he
possesses the most beautiful sentiments. Women are mad over him.
But he is hard to please--strangely so. Truly, the lady who
captivates his fancy may count herself fortunate." The old soldier
turned in his saddle and, with a grace surprising in one of his
rough appearance, removed his hat and swept Alaire a bow the
unmistakable meaning of which caused her to start and to stammer
something unintelligible.

Alaire was angry at the fellow's presumption, and vexed with
herself for showing that she understood his insinuation. She
spurred her horse into a gallop, leaving him to follow as he
could.

It was absurd to take the man's word seriously; indeed, he
probably believed he had paid her a compliment. Alaire assured
herself that Longorio's attentions were inspired merely by a
temporary extravagance of admiration, characteristic of his
nationality. Doubtless he had forgotten all about her by this
time. That, too, was characteristic of Latin men. Nevertheless,
the possibility that she had perhaps stirred him more deeply than
she believed was disturbing--one might easily learn to fear
Longorio. As a suitor he would be quite as embarrassing, quite as-
-dangerous as an enemy, if all reports were true.

Alaire tried to banish such ideas, but even in her own room she
was not permitted entirely to forget, for Dolores echoed the
teniente's sentiments.

In marked contrast to Jose Sanchez's high and confident spirits
was the housekeeper's conviction of dire calamity. In the presence
of these armed strangers she saw nothing but a menace, and
considered herself and her mistress no more nor less than
prisoners destined for a fate as horrible as that of the two
beautiful sisters of whom she never tired of speaking. Longorio
was a blood-thirsty beast, and he was saving them as prey for his
first leisure moment--that was Dolores's belief. Abandoning all
hope of ever seeing Las Palmas again, she gave herself up to
thoughts of God and melancholy praises of her husband's virtues.

In spite of all this, however, Alaire welcomed the change in her
daily life. Everything about La Feria was restfully un-American,
from the house itself, with its bare walls and floors, its
brilliantly flowering patio, and its primitive kitchen
arrangements, to the black-shawled, barefooted Indian women and
their naked children rolling in the dust. Even the timberless
mountains that rose sheer from the westward plain into a tumbling
purple-shadowed rampart were Mexican. La Feria was several miles
from the railroad; therefore it could not have been more foreign
had it lain in the very heart of Mexico rather than near the
northern boundary.

In such surroundings, and in spite of faint misgivings, it was not
strange that, after a few days, Alaire's unhappiness assumed a
vaguely impersonal quality and that her life, for the moment,
seemed not to be her own. Even the thought of her husband, Ed
Austin, became indistinct and unreal. Then all too soon she
realized that the purpose of her visit was accomplished and that
she had no excuse for remaining longer. She was now armed with
sufficient facts to make a definite demand upon the Federal
government.

The lieutenant took charge of the return journey to the railroad,
and the two women rode to the jingling accompaniment of metal
trappings. When at last they were safely aboard the north-bound
train, Alaire mildly teased Dolores about her recent timidity. But
Dolores was not to be betrayed into premature rejoicing.

"Anything may happen at a moment's notice," she declared.
"Something tells me that I am to meet a shocking fate. I can hear
those ruffianly soldiers quarreling over me--it is what comes from
good looks." Dolores mechanically smoothed the wrinkles from her
dress and adjusted her hair. "Mark you! I shall kill myself first.
I have made up my mind to that. But it is a great pity we were not
born ugly."

Alaire could not forbear a smile, for she who thus resigned
herself to the penalties of beauty had never been well favored,
and age had destroyed what meager attractions she may have once
possessed.

Dolores went on after a time. "My Benito will not long remain
unmarried. He is like all men. More than once I have suspected him
of making eyes at young women, and any girl in the country would
marry him just for my fine silver coffee-pot and those spoons.
There is my splendid silk mantilla, with fringe half as long as
your arm, too. Oh, I have treasures enough!" She shook her head
mournfully. "It is a mistake for a wife to lay up pretty things,
since they are merely temptations to other women."

Alaire tried to reason her out of this mood. "Why should any one
molest us? Who could wish us harm?" she asked.

"Ha! Did you see that general? He was like a drunken man in your
presence; it was as if he had laid eyes upon the shining Madonna.
I could hear his heart beating."

"Nonsense! In the first place, I am an old married woman."

Dolores sniffed. "Vaya! Old, indeed! What does he care for a
husband? He only cares that you have long, bright hair, redder
than rust, and eyes like blue flowers, and a skin like milk. An
angel could not be so beautiful."

"Ah, Dolores, you flatterer! Seriously, though, don't you realize
that we are Americans, and people of position? An injury to us
would bring terrible consequences upon General Longorio's head.
That is why he sent his soldiers with us."

"All the same," Dolores maintained stubbornly, "I wish I had
brought that shawl and that silver coffee-pot with me."

The homeward journey was a repetition of the journey out; there
were the same idle crowds, the same displays of filthy viands at
the stopping-places, the same heat and dust and delays. Longorio's
lieutenant hovered near, and Jose, as before, was news-gatherer.
Hour after hour they crept toward the border, until at last they
were again laid out on a siding for an indefinite wait.

The occasion for this was made plain when an engine drawing a
single caboose appeared. Even before it had come to a pause a tall
figure in spotless uniform leaped to the ground and strode to the
waiting coaches. It was Luis Longorio. He waved a signal to the
conductor, then swung aboard the north-bound train.

The general was all smiles as he came down the and bowed low over
Alaire's hand.

Dolores gasped and stiffened in her seat like a woman of stone.

"God be praised! You are safe and well!" said the new-comer. "I
have blamed myself for allowing you to take this abominable
journey! I have been in torment lest something befall you. Every
night I have prayed that you might be spared all harm. When I
received word that you were coming I made all speed to meet you."

"Dolores and I are greatly in your debt," Alaire told him.

"But you stayed so long!"

"There was more work than I thought. General, you have ruined me."

Longorio was pained; his face became ineffably sad. "Please! I beg
of you," he entreated. "I have arranged for reparation of that
miserable mistake. You shall see what I have done. With your own
eyes you shall read the furious correspondence I have carried on
with the minister. Together you and I shall manage a settlement,
and you will find that I am a friend indeed!"

"I hope so."

"Have I not proved it? Am I not ready to give you my life?" the
general queried, earnestly. "Fix the damages at your own figure
and I shall see that you receive justice. If the government will
not pay, I will. I have means; I am not a poor man. All I possess
would be too little to buy your happiness."

"You embarrass me. I'm afraid you don't realize what you say."
Alaire remained cool under the man's protestations. "I have lost
more than a thousand head of cattle."

"We shall say two, three thousand, and the government will pay,"
Longorio asserted, brazenly. "I will vouch for your figures, and
no one will question them, for I am a man of honor."

"No! All I want--"

"It is done. Let us say no more about the affair. Senora, I have
thought of you every hour; the duties that held me in Nuevo Pueblo
were like irksome chains. I was in madness. I would have flown to
La Feria but--I could not."

"My husband will thank you for your great courtesy to me," Alaire
managed to say.

But the mention of husbands was not agreeable to one of Longorio's
sensitiveness, and his face betrayed a hint of impatience.

"Yes, yes," he agreed, carelessly. "Senor Austin and I must know
each other better and become friends."

"That is hardly possible at present. When the war is over--"

"Bah! This war is nothing. I go where I please. You would be
surprised to greet me at Las Palmas some day soon, eh? When you
tell your husband what a friend I am he would be glad to see me,
would he not?"

"Why--of course. But surely you wouldn't dare--"

"And why not? Las Palmas is close to the river, and my troops are
in Romero, directly opposite. Mexico is not at war with your
country, and when I am in citizen's clothes I am merely an
ordinary person. I have made inquiries, and they tell me Las
Palmas is beautiful, heavenly, and that you are the one who
transformed it. I believe them. You have the power to transform
all things, even a man's heart and soul. No wonder you are called
'The Lone Star.' But wait. You will see how constantly I think of
you." Longorio drew from his pocket several photographs of the
Austin ranch-house.

"Where did you get those?" Alaire asked in astonishment.

"Ah! My secret. See! They are badly worn already, for I keep them
next my bosom."

"We entertain very few guests at Las Palmas," she murmured,
uncomfortably.

"I know. I know a great deal."

"It would scarcely be safe for you to call; the country is full of
Candeleristas--"

"Cattle!" said the officer, with a careless shrug. "Did not that
great poet Byron swim an ocean to see a lovely lady? Well, I, too,
am a poet. I have beautiful fancies; songs of love run through my
mind. Those Englishmen know nothing of passion. Your American men
are cold. Only a Mexican can love. We have fire in our veins,
senora."

To these perfervid protestations Dolores listened with growing
fright; her eyes were wide and they were fixed hypnotically upon
the speaker; she presented much the appearance of a rabbit charmed
by a serpent. But to Longorio she did not exist; she was a
chattel, a servant, and therefore devoid of soul or intelligence,
or use beyond that of serving her mistress.

Thinking to put an end to these blandishments, Alaire undertook to
return the general's ring, with the pretense that she considered
it no more than a talisman loaned her for the time being. But it
was a task to make Longorio accept it. He was shocked, offended,
hurt; he declared the ring to be of no value; it was no more than
a trifling evidence of his esteem. But Alaire was firm.

"Your customs are different to ours," she told him. "An American
woman is not permitted to accept valuable presents, and this would
cause disagreeable comment."

At such a thought the general's finest sensibilities were wounded,
but nothing, it seemed, could permanently dampen his ardor, and he
soon proceeded to press his attentions with even more vehemence
than before. He had brought Alaire candies of American
manufacture, Mexican sweetmeats of the finest variety, a beautiful
silken shawl, and at midday the grizzled teniente came with a
basket of lunch containing dainties and fruits and vacuum bottles
with hot and cold drinks.

When invited to share the contents, the general was plainly
overjoyed, but he was so enthralled by his companion's beauty that
he could eat but little.

It was a most embarrassing situation. Longorio kept Alaire for
ever upon the defensive, and it sorely taxed her ingenuity to hold
the conversation in safe channels. As the journey proceeded it
transpired that the man had made use of his opportunities to learn
everything about her, even to her life with Ed. His information
was extensive, and his deductions almost uncanny in their
correctness. He told her about Austin's support of the Rebel cause
and her own daily doings at Las Palmas; he intimated that her
unhappiness was almost more than he could bear.

This intimate knowledge and sympathy he seemed to regard as a bond
that somehow united them. He was no longer a new acquaintance, but
a close and loyal friend whose regard was deathless.

Undoubtedly the man had a way with him. He impressed people, and
his magnetism was potent. Moreover, he knew the knack of holding
what ground he gained.

It was an odd, unreal ride, through the blazing heat of the long
afternoon. Longorio cast off all pretense and openly laid siege to
the red-haired woman's heart--all without offering her the
smallest chance to rebuff him, the slightest ground for open
resentment, so respectful and guarded were his advances. But he
was forceful in his way, and the very intensity of his desires
made him incapable of discouragement. So the duel progressed--
Alaire cool and unyielding, he warm, persistent, and tireless. He
wove about her an influence as difficult to combat as the
smothering folds of some flocculent robe or the strands of an
invisible web, and no spider was ever more industrious.

When the train arrived at its destination his victim was well-nigh
exhausted from the struggle. He helped her into a coach with the
gentlest and gravest courtesy, and not until the vehicle rolled
away did Alaire dare to relax. Through her fatigue she could still
hear his soft farewell until the morrow, and realized that she had
committed herself to his further assistance. His palms against
hers had been warm, his adoring eyes had caressed her, but she did
not care. All she wished now was to reach her hotel, and then her
bed.

After a good night's rest, however, Alaire was able to smile at
yesterday's adventure. Longorio did not bulk so large now; even
these few hours had greatly diminished his importance, so that he
appeared merely as an impulsive foreigner who had allowed a woman
to turn his head. Alaire knew with what admiration even a
moderately attractive American woman is greeted in Mexico, and she
had no idea that this fellow had experienced anything more than a
fleeting infatuation. Now that she had plainly shown her distaste
for his outlaw emotions, and convinced him that they awoke in her
no faintest response, she was confident that his frenzy would run
its brief course and die. Meanwhile, it was not contrary to the
standards of feminine ethics to take advantage of the impression
she had made upon him and with his help push through a fair
financial settlement of her loss.

Once back across the river, however, she discovered that there
were obstacles to a prompt adjustment of her claim. The red tape
of her own government was as nothing to that of Mexico. There were
a thousand formalities, a myriad of maddening details to be
observed, and they called for the services of an advocate, a
notary, a jefe politico, a jefe de armas--officials without end.
All of these worthies were patient and polite, but they displayed
a malarial indifference to delay, and responsibility seemed to
rest nowhere. During the day Alaire became bewildered, almost lost
in the mazes of official procedure, and was half minded to
telegraph for Judge Ellsworth. But that again meant delay, and she
was beginning to long for home.

Longorio by no means shared her disappointment. On the contrary,
he assured her they were making splendid progress, and he was
delighted with her grasp of detail and her knowledge of business
essentials. At his word all Nuevo Pueblo bowed and scraped to her,
she was treated with impressive formality, and even the military
guards at the various headquarters presented arms when she passed.
The general's official business waited upon Alaire's convenience,
and to spare her the necessity of the short ride back to American
soil he arranged for her an elaborate luncheon in his quarters.

As on the day before, he assumed the privileges of a close friend,
and treated his guest as a sort of fellow-conspirator working hand
in hand with him for some holy cause.




XIII

DAVE LAW BECOMES JEALOUS


"You can never know what these two days have been for me," the
general said as he and Alaire lingered over their meal. "They will
afford me something to think about all my life! It is a delicious
comfort to know that you trust me, that you do not dislike me. And
you do not dislike me, eh?"

"Why, of course not. I have a great deal for which to thank you."

General Longorio fingered his wineglass and stared into it. "I am
not like other men. Would to God I were, for then I could close my
eyes and--forget. You have your great tragedy--it is old to you;
but mine, dear lady, is just beginning. I can look forward to
nothing except unhappiness." He sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry you are unhappy," Alaire parried. "Surely you have
every pleasant prospect."

"It would seem so. I am young, rich, a hero, I serve my country in
glorious fashion, but what is all that if there is no pretty one
to care? Even the meanest peon has his woman, his heart's
treasure. I would give all I have, I would forego my hope of
heaven and doom myself to eternal tortures, for one smile from a
pair of sweet lips, one look of love. I am a man of iron--yes, an
invincible soldier--and yet I have a heart, and a woman could rule
me."

"You say you have a heart." Alaire studied her vis-avis curiously
as he met her eyes with his mournful gaze. "How is it that I hear
such strange stories about you, general?"

"What stories?"

"Stories--too terrible to mention. I wonder if they can be true."

"Lies, all of them!" Longorio asserted.

"For instance, they tell me that you shoot your prisoners?"

"Of course!" Then, at her shocked exclamation, he explained: "It
is a necessity of war. Listen, senora! We have twelve million
Indians in Mexico and a few selfish men who incite them to revolt.
Everywhere there is intrigue, and nowhere is there honor. To war
against the government is treason, and treason is punishable by
death. To permit the lower classes to rise would result in chaos,
black anarchy, indescribable outrages against life and property.
There is but one way to pacify such people--exterminate them!
Mexico is a civilized nation; there is no greater in the world;
but she must be ruled with an iron hand. Soldiers make rulers. I
am still a young man, and--at present there is but one other
capable of this gigantic task. For the time being, therefore, I
permit myself to serve under him, and--I salute him. Viva Potosi!"
The speaker lifted his glass and drank. "Madero was a wicked
believer in spells and charms; he talked with the dead. He, and
those who came after him, fired the peons to revolt and despoiled
our country, leaving her prone and bleeding. We of the Cientificos
have set ourselves to stop her wounds and to nourish her to life
again. We shall drive all traitors into the sea and feed them to
the sharks. We shall destroy them all, and Mexico shall have
peace. But I am not a bloodthirsty man. No, I am a poet and a
lover at heart. As great a patriot as I am, I could be faithless
to my country for one smile from the woman I adore."

Alaire did not color under the ardent glance that went with this
declaration. She deliberately changed the subject.

"This morning while we were in the office of the jeje de armas,"
she said, "I saw a poor woman with a baby--she was scarcely more
than a child herself--whose husband is in prison. She told me how
she had come all the way from the country and is living with
friends, just to be near him. Every day she goes to the carcel,
but is denied admission, and every day she comes to plead with the
jefe de armas for her husband's life. But he will not see her, and
the soldiers only laugh at her tears."

"A common story! These women and their babies are very annoying,"
observed the general.

"She says that her husband is to be shot."

"Very likely! Our prisons are full. Doubtless he is a bad man."

"Can't you do something?"

"Eh?" Longorio lifted his brows in the frankest inquiry.

"That poor girl with her little, bare, brown-eyed baby was
pitiful." Alaire leaned forward with an earnest appeal in her
face, and her host smiled.

"So? That is how it is, eh? What is her name?"

"Inez Garcia. The husband's name is Juan."

"Of course. These peladors are all Juans. You would like to appear
as an angel of mercy, eh? Your heart is touched?"

"Deeply."

"Bastante! There is no more to be said." Longorio rose and went
into the next room where were certain members of his staff. After
a time he returned with a paper in his hand, and this he laid
before Alaire. It was an order for the release of Juan Garcia.
"The salvo conducto which will permit Juan and his Inez and their
Juanito to return to their farm is being made out," he explained.
"Are you satisfied?"

Alaire looked up wonderingly, "I am deeply grateful. You overwhelm
me. You are--a strange man."

"Dear lady, I live to serve you. Your wish is my law. How can I
prove it further?" As he stood beside her chair the fervor of his
gaze caused her eyes to droop and a faint color to come into her
cheeks. She felt a sudden sense of insecurity, for the man was
trembling; the evident desire to touch her, to seize her in his
arms, was actually shaking him like an ague. What next would he
do? Of what wild extravagance was he not capable? He was a queer
mixture of fire and ice, of sensuality and self-restraint. She
knew him to be utterly lawless in most things, and yet toward her
he had shown scrupulous restraint. What possibilities were in a
man of his electric temperament, who had the strength to throttle
his fiercest longings?

The strained, throbbing silence that followed Longorio's last
words did more to frighten the woman than had his most ardent
advances.

After a time he lifted Alaire's hand; she felt his lips hot and
damp upon her flesh; then he turned and went away with the
document.

When he reappeared he was smiling. "These Garcias shall know who
interceded for them. You shall have their thanks," said he.

"No, no! It is enough that the man is free."

"How now?" The general was puzzled. "What satisfaction can there
be in a good deed unless one receives public credit and thanks for
it? I am not like that."

He would have lingered indefinitely over the table, but Alaire
soon rose to go, explaining:

"I must finish my disagreeable task now, so that I can go home to-
morrow."

"To-morrow!" her host cried in dismay. "No, no! You must wait--"

"My husband is expecting me."

This statement was a blow; it seemed to crush Longorio, who could
only look his keen distress.

As they stepped out into the street Alaire was afforded that treat
which Longorio had so thoughtfully arranged for her. There in the
gutter stood Inez Garcia with her baby in her arms, and beside her
the ragged figure of a young man, evidently her Juan. The fellow
was emaciated, his face was gaunt and worn and frightened, his
feet were bare even of sandals, the huge peaked straw hat which he
clutched over his breast was tattered, and yet in his eye there
was a light.

They had waited patiently, these Garcias, heedful of Longorio's
orders, and now they burst into a torrent of thanks. They flung
themselves to their knees and kissed the edge of Alaire's dress.
Their instructions had been plain, and they followed them to the
letter, yet their gratitude was none the less genuine for being
studied. The little mother's hysteria, for instance, could not
have been entirely assumed, and certainly no amount of rehearsals
could have taught the child to join his cries so effectively to
his parents'. Between them all they made such a racket as to
summon a crowd, and Dolores, who had also awaited her mistress,
was so deeply stirred that she wept with them.

General Longorio enjoyed this scene tremendously, and his beaming
eyes expressed the hope that Alaire was fully satisfied with the
moment. But the Garcias, having been thoroughly coached, insisted
upon rendering full measure of thanks, and there seemed to be no
way of shutting them off until the general ordered them to their
feet.

"That is enough!" he declared. "Hombre, you are free, so go about
your business and fight no more with those accursed rebels."

Juan, of course, was ready at this moment to fight for any one he
was told to fight for, particularly Longorio himself, and he so
declared. His life was at the service of the benefactor who had
spared him; his wife and baby lived only to bless the illustrious
general.

"They look very poor," said Alaire, and opened her purse; but
Longorio would not permit her to give. Extracting a large roll of
paper money from his own pocket, he tossed it, without counting,
to Juan, and then when the onlookers applauded he loudly called to
one of his officers, saying:

"Oiga! Give these good friends of mine two horses, and see that
they are well cared for. Now, Juan," he addressed the dazed
countryman, "I have one order for you. Every night of your life
you and your pretty wife must say a prayer for the safety and
happiness of this beautiful lady who has induced me to spare you.
Do you promise?"

"We promise!" eagerly cried the pair.

"Good! See that you keep your word. On the day that you forget for
the first time Luis Longorio will come to see you. And then what?"
He scowled at them fiercely.

"We will not forget," the Garcias chorused.

There was a murmur from the onlookers; some one cried: "VIVA
LONGORIO!"

The general bowed smilingly; then, taking Alaire's arm, he waved
the idlers out of his path with a magnificent gesture.

When, later in the day, Mrs. Austin came to say good-by and thank
the Mexican for his courtesies, he humbly begged permission to pay
his respects that evening at her hotel, and she could not refuse.

As the coach went bouncing across the international bridge,
Dolores said, spitefully: "It will take more than the pardon of
poor Juan Garcia to unlock Heaven for that bandit. He is the
wickedest man I ever met--yes, probably the wickedest man in the
world."

"He has been kind to us."

"Bah! He has a motive. Do you notice the way he looks at you? It
is enough to damn him for all eternity."

Upon her arrival at the hotel Alaire received an agreeable
surprise, for as her vehicle paused, at the curb David Law stepped
forward, hat in hand.

"What bloodthirsty business brings you to Pueblo?" she queried,
when they had exchanged greetings.

Law smiled at her. "I came to offer free board and lodging to a
poor Greaser. But he ain't here. And you, ma'am?"

Alaire briefly outlined the reasons that had taken her to La Feria
and the duties that had kept her busy since her return, while Dave
nodded his understanding. When, however, he learned that she was
counting upon General Luis Longorio's aid in securing justice, his
expression altered. He regarded her with some curiosity as he
inquired:

"Isn't Longorio the very man who robbed you?"

"Yes."

"And now he offers to square himself?"

"Precisely. You don't seem to put much faith in him."

"Mexicans are peculiar people," Law said, slowly. "At least we
consider them peculiar--probably because they are different to us.
Anyhow, we don't understand their business methods or their habits
of mind; even their laughter and their tears are different to
ours, but--from my experience with them I wouldn't put much
confidence in this Longorio's word. I say this, and I'm supposed
to have a little Mexican blood in me."

During this brief conversation they had entered the hotel, and now
the lobby idlers took quick cognizance of Mrs. Austin's presence.
The lanky, booted Ranger excited no comment, for men of his type
were common here; but Alaire was the heroine of many stories and
the object of a wide-spread curiosity; therefore she received open
stares and heard low whisperings. Naturally resenting this
attention, she gave her hand to Law more quickly than she would
have done otherwise.

"I hope we shall see each other again," she murmured.

"That's more'n likely; I'm located in your neighborhood now," he
informed her. "I'm leaving for Jonesville in the morning."

"By train?"

"No'm. I'm goin' to follow the river road if I can get an
automobile."

Mindful of the Ranger's courtesy to her on their previous meeting,
Alaire said: "Won't you go with us? We intend to start early."

"I'd love to, ma'am--but I'll have to make a few inquiries along
the line."

"Good! It is a large car and"--she smiled at him--"if we have tire
trouble I may need your help. Jose, my man, is a splendid horse-
breaker, but he seems to think a tire tool is some sort of a fancy
branding-iron. His mechanical knowledge is limited to a bridle-bit
and a cinch, and I'm almost certain he believes there is something
ungodly about horseless wagons."

Dave was nearly speechless with delight, and when the mistress of
Las Palmas had gone up-stairs he felt inclined to pinch himself to
see if he were dreaming. He had pursued a fruitless quest during
the past few days, and his resentment had grown as he became
certain that Tad Lewis had sent him on a wild-goose chase; but the
sight of Alaire miraculously restored his good spirits, and the
prospect of a long, intimate ride in her company changed the whole
trend of his thoughts. His disappointment at not seeing her upon
his visit to Las Palmas had only served to enhance his memories of
their first meeting, and time, now, had deepened his interest
tenfold. Yes, she was "The Lone Star," the estrella brillante of
his empty sky.

When the supper-hour came he managed by carefully watching the
dining-room to time his meal with Mrs. Austin's. He even ventured
to hope that they might share the same table, but in this he was
disappointed. However, from where he sat he could see her profile
and worship her to his heart's content, and when she favored him
with a smile and a nod he was happy.

All without his knowledge, Dave realized, this woman had secured
an amazing hold over him. He had thought a great deal about her,
of course, but his thoughts had been idle, and it had required
this second encounter to make him know the truth. Now, however,
there could be no doubt about his feelings; he was more than
romantically interested, the mere sight of her had electrified
him. The discovery distressed him, and he very properly decided
that the affair should end here, since it could lead to nothing
except disappointment.

But who can govern a wayward fancy? One moment Law promised
himself to see no more of this married woman; the next he wondered
how she would occupy the evening, and ventured to hope that he
might have a chance to talk with her.

After supper, however, she was nowhere to be found. When his first
chagrin had passed he decided that this was exactly as it should
be. He didn't like to see women make themselves conspicuous in
hotels.

At the time of this story relations between the United States and
the established government of Mexico were at such high tension
that a hostility had sprung up between the troops fronting each
other along the Rio Grande, and in consequence their officers no
longer crossed the boundary, even when off duty. It created a
flurry of suppressed excitement, therefore, when Luis Longorio,
the autocrat of the Potosista forces, boldly crossed the bridge,
traversed the streets of Pueblo, and entered the Hamilton Hotel.

From his seat in the lobby Law heard the general inquire for Mrs.
Austin, and then saw him ascend in the direction of the parlor.
What the devil could Longorio want with "The Lone Star" at such an
hour? the Ranger asked himself. Why should he presume to call upon
her unless--he was interested? Mexican officers, in these parlous
times, were not given to social courtesies, and Longorio's
reputation was sufficiently notorious to render his attentions a
cause for gossip under any circumstances.

Dave rose and strolled restlessly about the hotel. A half-hour
passed and Longorio did not reappear; an hour dragged by, and then
Dave took occasion to go to his room. A glance through the open
parlor door showed the foreigner in closest conversation with Mrs.
Austin. They were laughing; they were alone; even Dolores was
nowhere to be seen.

When Dave returned to his big rocking-chair he found it
uncomfortable; he watched the clock anxiously; he chewed several
cigars viciously before realizing that he was jealous--yes, madly,
unreasonably jealous.

So! His divinity was not as unapproachable as he had imagined.
Doubtless Longorio was mad over her, which explained the fellow's
willingness to help her exact reparation from his government. Fine
doings for a respectable married woman! It was wrong, scandalous,
detestable!

After a time Dave rose impatiently. What had come over him,
anyhow? He must be crazy to torture himself in this fashion. What
went on up-stairs certainly was none of his business, and he had
better far amuse himself. In accordance with this excellent
reasoning, he went to a picture-show. But he could not become
interested. The flat images on the screen failed to divert him,
and the only faces he saw were those of Luis Longorio and the lone
mistress of Las Palmas.

Had Dave only known the truth, he would have gained a grim comfort
from it, for Alaire Austin was not enjoying herself this evening.
Her caller stayed on interminably and she became restive under the
flow of his conversation. For some reason or other Longorio was
not the romantic figure he had been; in his citizen's clothes he
was only a dandified Mexican gallant like any number of others.
The color was gone from the picture; this quixotic guerrilla hero,
this elegant Ruy Blas, was nothing more than a tall, olive-skinned
foreigner whose ardor was distasteful. Longorio was tiresome.




XIV

JOSE SANCHEZ SWEARS AN OATH


On this same evening a scene of no little significance was taking
place at Las Palmas. Ed Austin was entertaining callers, and these
were none other than Tad Lewis and Adolfo Urbina.

The progress of events during the last few days had shaped this
conference, for, as Dave had forecast during his conversation with
Judge Ellsworth, the local prosecuting attorney saw in the Guzman
cattle case an opportunity to distinguish himself, and was taking
action accordingly. He had gathered considerable evidence against
Urbina, and was exerting himself to the utmost for an indictment.
He had openly declared that the testimony of Ricardo Guzman and
his other witnesses would convict the suspect, and the fact that
his politics were opposed to Ed Austin's complicated matters still
further. It was the unwelcome news of all this which had brought
Tad Lewis and his Mexican helper to Las Palmas under cover of
darkness. Having gone over the circumstances in detail, Lewis
concluded:

"We're depending on you, Ed. You got to stand pat."

But Austin was lukewarm. He had experienced a change of heart, and
the cause appeared when he read aloud a letter that day received
from Judge Ellsworth, in which the judge told of his meeting with
Dave Law, and the Ranger's reasons for doubting Ed's word.

"I've got to take water," "Young Ed" told his visitors, "or I'll
get myself into trouble." Then querulously he demanded of Adolfo:
"Why in hell did you come here, anyhow? Why didn't you keep to the
chaparral?"

Adolfo shrugged. "I thought you were my friend."

"Sure!" Tad agreed. "Urbina's been a friend to you, now you got to
stick to him. We got to hang together, all of us. My evidence
wouldn't carry no weight; but there ain't a jury in South Texas
that would question yours. Adolfo done the right thing."

"I don't see it," Ed declared, petulantly. "What's the use of
getting me into trouble? There's the river; they can't follow you
across."

But Urbina shook his head.

"You know he can't cross," Tad explained. "His people would shoot
him if he ever went to Mexico."

"Well, he'll be caught if he stays here. You daren't send that
damned Ranger on another blind trail. If Adolfo can't go south
he'll have to go north."

"Not on your life," affirmed Lewis. "If he runs it'll prove his
guilt and look bad for me. I'm the one they're after, and I don't
stand any too good, as you know. You got to go through with this,
Ed."

"I won't do it," Austin asserted, stubbornly. "I won't be dragged
into the thing. You've no business rustling stock, anyhow. You
don't have to."

Urbina exhaled a lungful of cigarette smoke and inquired, "You
won't help me, eh?"

"No, I won't."

"Very well! If I go to prison you shall go, too. I shall tell all
I know and we shall be companions, you and I."

Austin's temper rose at the threat. "Bah!" he cried,
contemptuously. "There's nothing against me except running arms,
and the embargo is off now. It's a joke, anyhow. Nobody was ever
convicted, even when the embargo was in effect. Why, the
government winks at anybody who helps the Rebels."

"Oh, that is nothing!" Urbina agreed; "but you would not wish to
be called a cattle thief, eh?"

"What d'you mean?"

"You knew that the stealing went on."

"Huh! I should say I did. Haven't I lost a lot of horses?"

Lewis interposed, impatiently: "Say! Suppose Adolfo tells what he
knows about them horses? Suppose he tells how you framed it to
have your own stock run across, on shares, so's you could get more
money to go hifalutin' around San Antone without your wife knowing
it? I reckon you wouldn't care to have that get out."

"You can't prove it," growled "Young Ed."

"Oh! I reckon it can be proved all right," confidently asserted
Lewis.

"Nobody'd believe such a thing."

"Folks are ready to believe 'most anything about you. Your wife
would believe it. Ain't Las Palmas in her name, and don't she give
you so much a month to spend? If them ain't facts, you lied to
me."

"Yes!" Urbina supplemented. "I can swear to all that. And I can
swear also that you knew about those calves the other day."

"What!" Ed started.

"Why not? We were together; your own people saw us. Well, then, if
you would steal your wife's horses, why would you not steal your
neighbor's cattle? The relatives of poor Pino Garza--God rest his
soul!--will bear me out. I have arranged for that. Suppose I tell
the jury that there were three of us in that pasture of yours,
instead of two? What then? I would be lonely in prison without a
good compadre to bear me company." Urbina grinned in evil triumph.

"This is the damnedest outrage I ever heard of," gasped "Young
Ed." "It's a fairy story--"

"Prove it," chuckled Lewis. "The prosecuting attorney'd eat it up,
Ed. It sounds kind of crazy, but you can't ask Adolfo to take to
the brush and live like a javelin just for your sake, when you
could square him with a word."

There was a moment or two of silence, during which the visitors
watched the face of the man whose weakness they both knew. At last
Ed Austin ventured to say, apologetically:

"I'm willing to do almost anything to help Adolfo, but--they'll
make a liar of me if I take the stand. Isn't there some other way
out?"

"I don't know of any," said Lewis.

"Money'll square anything," Ed urged, hopefully, whereupon Urbina
waved his cigarette and nodded.

"This Ricardo Guzman is the cause of it all. He is a bad man."

"No doubt of that," Lewis agreed. "He's got more enemies than I
have. If he was out of the way there wouldn't be nothin' to this
case, and the country'd be a heap better off, too."

"What about that other witness?" Ed queried.

"If Ricardo were gone--if something should happen to him"--
Urbina's wicked face darkened--"there would be no other witness. I
would see to that."

The color receded from Ed Austin's purple cheeks, and he rose
abruptly. "This is getting too strong for me," he cried. "I won't
listen to this sort of talk. I won't be implicated in any such
doings."

"Nobody's goin' to implicate you," Tad told him. "Adolfo wants to
keep you out of trouble. There's plenty of people on both sides of
the river that don't like Guzman any better'n we do. Me an' Adolfo
was talkin' it over on the way up."

"Well, you can talk it over some more, but I'm going for a drink,"
Ed declared, and left the room, nervously mopping his face. He
knew only too well the character of his two visitors; he had
learned much about Tad Lewis during the past few months, and, as
for the Mexican, he thought the fellow capable of any crime. At
this moment Ed bitterly regretted his acquaintance with these
neighbors, for both men knew more about his affairs than he cared
to have made public. He was angry and resentful at Tad for taking
sides against him, and more than a little fearful of Adolfo's
enmity if he refused assistance. The owner of Las Palmas still
retained a shred of self-respect, a remnant of pride in his name;
he did not consider himself a bad man. He was determined now to
escape from this situation without loss of credit, no matter what
the price--if escape were possible--and he vowed earnestly to
himself that hereafter he would take ample pains never to become
similarly involved.

Austin remained out of the room for some time; when he returned
his visitors appeared to have reached some determination.

"I reckon we can fix things if you'll help," Lewis announced.

"And that's just what I won't do," Ed impatiently declared. "Do
you think I'm going to be tangled up in a--murder? I've got
nothing against Don Ricardo."

"Who said anything about murder? Things ain't like they was when
your father owned Las Palmas; he done his share of killin', but
nowadays there's too dam' much law layin' around loose. All you've
got to do is give me about a thousand dollars."

"What for?" Ed asked, suspiciously.

"So's we can handle ourselves. It's up to you to do something,
ain't it?"

Austin demurred. "I haven't that much that I can lay hands on," he
said, sullenly. "I'm broke. And, anyhow, I don't see what good
it'll do."

"You better dig it up, somehow, just for your own sake."

The two men eyed each other for a moment; then Austin mumbled
something about his willingness to try, and left the room for a
second time. The money which Alaire kept on hand for current
expenses was locked in her safe, but he knew the combination.

It was with an air of resignation, with a childish, half-hearted
protest, that he counted out the desired amount into Lewis's hand,
salving his conscience with the statement: "I'm doing this to help
Adolfo out of his trouble, understand? I hope it'll enable you to
square things."

"Maybe it will and maybe it won't," sneered Lewis. "Anyhow, I
ain't scared of tryin'. I got the guts to make a battle, even if
you haven't."

Ed Austin was greatly relieved when his unwelcome callers rode
away; as he composed himself for sleep, an hour later, he
refrained from analyzing too deeply the motives behind this forced
loan, and refused to speculate too long upon the purpose to which
it might be put. The whole occurrence was unfortunate. Ed Austin
sincerely hoped he had heard the last of it.

Jose Sanchez made use of the delay at Pueblo to institute further
inquiries regarding his missing cousin, but nowhere could he find
the slightest trace. Panfilo had set out to ride to this point and
thence to La Feria, but the last seen of him had been at the
water-hole, one day's ride from the home ranch. At that point the
earth had opened and swallowed him. If he were alive why had he
not written to his sweetheart, Rosa?

Jose swore an oath that he would learn the truth if it required
his whole lifetime, and, if it should turn out that his sainted
relative had indeed met with foul play--well! Jose told his
friends they could judge, by looking at him, the sort of man he
was. He proudly displayed Longorio's revolver, and called it his
cousin's little avenger. The weapon had slain many; it had a duty
still to perform, so he said.

Jose intended to confide his purpose to Mrs. Austin, but when it
came time to start for Las Palmas there was a fourth passenger in
the automobile, and he was obliged to hold his tongue for the
moment.

A motor trip along the lower Rio Grande would prove a novel and
not altogether agreeable experience to the average automobilist,
for there are few improved roads and the rest offer many
difficulties, not the least of which are frequent fords, some
deep, some shallow. So it was that Alaire considered it necessary
to make an early start.

In spite of the unhealthy fancies that Dave Law had taken to bed
with him, he arose this morning in fine spirits and with a
determination to put in a happy day. Alaire, too, was in good
humor and expressed her relief at escaping from everything
Mexican.

"I haven't seen a newspaper for ages, and I don't know what is
going on at Jonesville or anywhere else," she confided.

Dave told her of the latest developments in the Mexican situation,
the slow but certain increase of tension between the two
governments, and then of home happenings. When she asked him about
his own doings, he informed her of the affair which had brought
him to Pueblo.

Of course all three of his companions were breathlessly interested
in the story of Pino Garza's death; Dolores and Jose did not allow
a word to escape them.

"So they cut our fence and ran the calves into our pasture to
brand!" Alaire said. "It's time somebody like you came to
Jonesville, Mr. Law."

"Caramba! It required bravery to ride alone into that rincon,"
Jose declared. "I knew Pino Garza well, and he could shoot like
the devil."

"You said your horse saved your life," Mrs. Austin went on. "How
do you mean?" When Dave had explained, she cried, quickly, "You
weren't riding--Bessie Belle?"

"Yes. She's buried where she dropped."

"Oh-h!" Alaire's exclamation was eloquent of pity, and Law smiled
crookedly.

"I've been right lonesome since she went away. 'Most every day I
find myself stealing sugar for her, the way I used to do. See!" He
fumbled in the pocket of his coat and produced some broken lumps.
"Probably you don't understand how a man gets to love his horse.
Now we used to talk to each other, just like two people. Of
course, I did most of the talking, but she understood. Why, ma'am,
I've awakened in the night to find her standing over me and my
cheek wet where she'd kissed it. She'd leave the nicest grass just
to come and visit with me."

Alaire turned a quick glance upon the speaker to find his face set
and his eyes miserable. Impulsively she laid her hand upon his
arm, saying:

"I know how you must feel. Do you know what has always been my
dearest wish? To be able to talk with animals; and to have them
trust me. Just think what fun it would be to talk with the wild
things and make friends of them. Oh, when I was a little girl I
used to dream about it!"

Law nodded his vigorous appreciation of such a desire. "Dogs and
horses sabe more than we give them credit for. I've learned a few
bird words, too. You remember those quail at the water-hole?"

"Oh yes."

Dave smiled absent-mindedly. "There's a wonderful book about
birds--one of the keenest satires ever written, I reckon. It's
about a near-sighted old Frenchman who was cast away on a penguin
island. He saw the big birds walking around and thought they were
human beings."

"How did you happen to read Anatole France?" Alaire asked, with a
sharp stare of surprise.

The Ranger stirred, but he did not meet her eyes. "Well," said he,
"I read 'most anything I can get. A feller meets up with strange
books just like he meets up with strange people."

"Not books like--that." There was a brief silence. "Mr. Law, every
now and then you say something that makes me think you're a--rank
impostor."

"Pshaw!" said he. "I know cowboys that read twice as good as I
do."

"You went to school in the East, didn't you?"

"Yes'm."

"Where?" The man hesitated, at which she insisted, "Where?"

Dave reluctantly turned upon her a pair of eyes in the depths of
which there lurked the faintest twinkle. "Cornell," said he.

Alaire gasped. After a while she remarked, stiffly, "You have a
peculiar sense of humor."

"Now don't be offended," he begged of her. "I'm a good deal like a
chameleon; I unconsciously change my color to suit my
surroundings. When we first met I saw that you took me for one
thing, and since then I've tried not to show you your mistake."

"Why did you let me send you those silly books? Now that you have
begun to tell the truth, keep it up. How many of them had you
read?"

"We-ll, I hadn't read any of them--lately."

"How disagreeable of you to put it that way!" The car leaped
forward as if spurred by Alaire's mortification. "I wondered how
you knew about the French Revolution. 'That Bastilly was some
calaboose, wasn't it'?" She quoted his own words scornfully. "I
dare say you've had a fine laugh at my expense?"

"No!" gravely denied the man.

They had come to an arroyo containing a considerable stream of
muddy water, and Law was forced to get out to plug the carburetor
and stop the oil-intakes to the crankcase. This done, Alaire ran
the machine through on the self-starter. When Jose's "Carambas!"
and Dolores's shrieks had subsided, and they were again under way,
Mrs. Austin, it seemed, had regained her good humor.

"You will receive no more of my favorite authors," she told Dave,
spitefully. "I'll keep them to read myself."

"You like knights and--chivalry and such things, don't you?"

"Chivalry, yes. In the days when I believed in it I used to cry
over those romances."

"Don't you still believe in chivalry?"

Alaire turned her eyes upon the questioner, and there were no
girlish illusions in them. "Do you?" she queried, with a faint
curl of her lip.

"Why--yes."

She shook her head. "Men have changed. Nowadays they are all
selfish and sordid. But--I shouldn't generalize, for I'm a
notorious man-hater, you know."

"It seems to me that women are just as selfish as men--perhaps
more so--in all but little things."

"Our definitions of 'little things' may differ. What do you call a
big thing?"

"Love! That's the biggest thing in the world," Law responded,
promptly.

"It seems to be so considered. So you think women are selfish in
love?" He nodded, whereupon she eyed him speculatively. "Let us
see. You are a man--how far would you go for the woman you loved?"

"The limit!"

Mrs. Austin frowned at this light-seeming answer. "I suppose you
mean that you would make any sacrifice?"

"Yes; that's it."

"Would you give up the woman herself, if you considered it your
duty?"

"No. There couldn't be any duty higher than love--to my way of
thinking. But you shouldn't take me as a specimen. I'm not a good
representative of my sex."

"I think you are a very good one," Alaire said, quietly, and Dave
realized that no flattery was intended. Although he was willing to
talk further on this subject, Mrs. Austin gave him no opportunity
of airing his views. Love, it appeared, was a thing she did not
care to discuss with him on their footing of semi-intimacy.

Despite the rough roads, they made fair time, and the miles of
cactus and scrawny brush rolled swiftly past. Occasionally a lazy
jack-rabbit ambled out of his road-side covert and watched them
from a safe distance; now and then a spotted road-runner raced
along the dusty ruts ahead of them. The morning sun swung higher,
and by midday the metal of the automobile had become as hot as a
frying-pan. They stopped at various goat-ranches to inquire about
Adolfo Urbina, and at noon halted beside a watercourse for lunch.

Dave was refilling the radiator when he overheard Jose in
conversation with Mrs. Austin.

"Nowhere a trace!" the horse-breaker was saying. "No one has seen
him. Poor Rosa Morales will die of a broken heart."

Alaire explained to her guest: "Jose is worried about his cousin
Panfilo. It seems he has disappeared."

"So! You are Panfilo's cousin?" Dave eyed the Mexican with new
interest.

"Si!"

"You remember the man?" Alaire went on. "He was with that fellow
you arrested at the water-hole."

"Oh yes. I remember him." With steady fingers Dave shook some
tobacco into a cigarette-paper. He felt Alaire's eyes upon him,
and they were eloquent of inquiry, but he did not meet them.

Jose frowned. "No one at La Feria has seen him, and in Pueblo
there was not a word. It is strange."

"Panfilo was in bad company when I saw him." Law finished rolling
his cigarette and lit it, still conscious of Alaire's questioning
gaze. "He may have had trouble."

"He was a good man," the horse-breaker asserted. "If he is dead--"
The Mexican's frown deepened to a scowl.

"What then?"

Jose significantly patted the gift revolver at his hip. "This
little fellow will have something to say."

Dave looked him over idly, from head to heel, then murmured: "You
would do well to go slow, compadre. Panfilo made his own
quarrels."

"We were like brothers, and I do not know of any quarrels. But I
shall find out. It begins to look bad for somebody. After he left
that charco there is--nothing. Where did he go? Whom did he
encounter? Rosa will ask me those questions. I am not given to
boasting, senor, but I am a devilish bad man in my way."




XV

THE TRUTH ABOUT PANFILO


Nothing more was said during the luncheon, but when Alaire had
finished eating and her two employees had begun their meal, she
climbed the bank of the arroyo ostensibly to find a cool spot.
Having succeeded, she called to Dave:

"There is a nice breeze up here."

The Ranger's face set; rising slowly, he climbed the bank after
her. When they stood face to face in the shade of a gnarly oak-
tree, Alaire asked him point-blank:

"Where is Panfilo Sanchez?"

Dave met her eyes squarely; his own were cold and hard. "He's
where he dropped at my second shot," said he.

He could hear his companion's sharp inhalation. He did not flinch
at the look she turned upon him.

"Then--you killed him?"

"Yes'm!"

"God! He was practically unarmed! What do you call--such an act?"

Dave's lips slowly whitened, his face became stony. He closed his
eyes, then opened them upon hers. "He had it coming. He stole my
horse. He took a chance."

Mrs. Austin turned away. For a time they were silent and Dave felt
himself pitilessly condemned.

"Why didn't you tell me at the time?" she asked. "Why didn't you
report it?"

"I'll report it when you give me permission."

"I--? What--?" She wheeled to face him.

"Think a moment. I can't tell half the truth. And if I tell
everything it will lead to--gossip."

"Ah! I think I understand. Mr. Law, you can be insulting--"

For the first time the man lost muscular control of his features;
they twitched, and under their tan his cheeks became a sickly
yellow.

"You've no right to say that," he told her, harshly. "You've plumb
overstepped yourself, ma'am, and--I reckon you've formed quite a
wrong opinion of me and of the facts. Let me tell you something
about that killing and about myself, so you'll have it all
straight before you bring in your verdict. You say Panfilo was
unarmed, and you call it--murder. He had his six-shooter and he
used it; he had the darkness and the swiftest horse, too. He
intended to ambush me and release his companion, but I forced his
hand; so it ain't what _I'd_ call murder. Now about myself:
Panfilo isn't the first man I've killed, and he may not be the
last, but I haven't lost any sleep over it, and I'd have killed
him just as quick if I hadn't been an officer. That's the kind of
man I am, and you may as well know it. I--"

"You are utterly ruthless."

"Yes'm!"

"You left him there without burial."

Law shrugged impatiently. "What's the difference? He's there to
stay; and he's just as dead under the stars as he'd be under the
sand. I'd rather lie facing the sky than the grass roots."

"But--you must have known it would get out, sometime. This puts
both of us in a very bad light."

"I know. But I stood on my cards. I'd have preferred to report it,
but--I'd keep still again, under the same circumstances. You seem
to consider that an insult. If it is, I don't know how to
compliment you, ma'am."

Alaire pondered this statement briefly before saying, "You have a
strange way of looking at the affair--a strange, careless,
unnatural way, it seems to me."

"Perhaps that's the fault of my training. I'm not what you would
consider a nice person; the death of Panfilo Sanchez means nothing
whatever to me. If you can grasp that fact, you'll see that your
own reputation weighed heavier in my mind than the lives of a
dozen Mexicans--or whites, for that matter. People know me for
what I am, and--that may have had something to do with my
decision."

"I go anywhere, everywhere. No one has ever had the effrontery to
question my actions," Alaire told him, stiffly.

"And I don't aim to give 'em a chance." Dave was stubborn.

There was another interval of silence.

"You heard what Jose said. What are you going to do?"

Dave made a gesture of indifference. "It doesn't greatly matter.
I'll tell him the truth, perhaps."

Such an attitude was incomprehensible to Alaire and brought an
impatient frown to her brow. "You don't seem to realize that he
will try to revenge himself."

"You might warn him against any such foolishness. Jose has some
sense."

The woman looked up curiously. "Don't you know how to be afraid?
Haven't you any fear?" she asked.

Dave's gray eyes were steady as he answered: "Yes'm! I'm afraid
this thing is going to spoil our friendship. I've been desperately
afraid, all along, that I might have hurt your reputation. Even
now I'm afraid, on your account, to make public Panfilo Sanchez's
death. Yes'm, I know what it is to be afraid."

"I presume the law would hold you blameless," she said,
thoughtfully.

"If there was any doubt about that it would be another matter
entirely. A Ranger can get away with a heap more than killing a
Mexican. No! It's up to you to say what I shall do."

"Let me think it over. Jose mustn't know to-day, that's certain."

"I'm in your hands."

They returned to the automobile in silence, but as they took their
seats Dave said:

"You're tired, ma'am. Won't you let me drive?"

"Can you?"

When he smiled his answer, Alaire was only too glad to give up the
wheel, for her nerves were indeed unsteady and she was grateful
for an opportunity to think out the best course to pursue in this
unexpected difficulty. Later, as she listened to Law's
inconsequential talk with Dolores and Jose, and watched the way he
handled the car, she marveled at his composure. She wondered if
this man could have a heart.

It became evident to Dave, as the afternoon progressed, that they
would be very late in arriving at Las Palmas; for although he
drove as rapidly as he dared over such roads, the miles were long
and the going heavy. They were delayed, too, by a mishap that held
them back for an hour or two, and he began to fear that his
hostess would feel in duty bound to insist upon his spending the
night at her home. To accept, after his clash with Ed Austin, was
of course impossible, and he dreaded another explanation at this
particular crisis.

That a crisis in their relations had arisen he felt sure. He had
tried to make plain his attitude of mind toward the killing of
Panfilo Sanchez, and the wisdom of his course thereafter, but he
doubted if Alaire understood the one or agreed with the other.
Probably she considered him inhuman, or, what was worse, cowardly
in attempting to avoid the consequences of his act. And yet he
could not explain his full anxiety to protect her good name
without confessing to a deeper interest in her than he dared. And
his interest was growing by leaps and bounds. This woman
fascinated him; he was infatuated--bewitched by her personality.
To be near her affected him mentally and physically in a way too
extraordinary to analyze or to describe. It was as if they were so
sympathetically attuned that the mere sound of her voice set his
whole being into vibrant response, where all his life he had lain
mute. She played havoc with his resolutions, too, awaking in him
the wildest envy and desire. He no longer thought of her as
unattainable; on the contrary, her husband's shortcomings seemed
providential. Absurd, impossible ways of winning her suggested
themselves. To risk a further estrangement, therefore, was
intolerable.

But as if his thoughts were telepathic messages, she did the very
thing he feared.

"We won't be in before midnight," she said, "but I'll send you to
Jonesville in the morning."

"Thank you, ma'am--I'll have to go right through."

"I'll get you there in time for business. We've gained a
reputation for inhospitableness at Las Palmas that I want to
overcome." In spite of their recent clash, in spite of the fact
that this fellow's ruthlessness and indifference to human life
shocked her, Alaire was conscious of her obligation to him, and
aware also of a growing friendship between them which made the
present situation all the more trying. Law was likable, and he
inspired her with a sense of security to which she had long been a
stranger. "Mr. Austin ought to know," she added, "about this--
matter we were discussing, and I want him to meet you."

"He has!" Dave said, shortly; and at his tone Alaire looked up.

"So!" She studied his grim face. "And you quarreled?"

"I'd really prefer to go on, ma'am. I'll get to Jonesville
somehow."

"You refuse--to stay under his roof?"

"That's about it."

"I'm sorry." She did not ask for further explanation.

Evening came, bringing a grateful coolness, and they drove through
a tunnel of light walled in by swiftly moving shadows.

The windows of Las Palmas were black, the house silent, when they
arrived at their journey's end; Dolores was fretful, and her
mistress ached in every bone. When Jose had helped his
countrywoman into the house Alaire said:

"If you insist upon going through you must take the car. You can
return it to-morrow."

"And--about Panfilo?" Dave queried.

"Wait. Perhaps I'll decide what is best to do in the mean time.
Good night."

Law took her extended hand. Alaire was glad that he did not fondle
it in that detestable Mexican fashion of which she had lately
experienced so much; glad that the grasp of his long, strong
fingers was merely firm and friendly. When he stepped back into
the car and drove off through the night she stood for some time
looking after him.

Blaze Jones had insisted that Dave live at his house, and the
Ranger had accepted the invitation; but as it was late when the
latter arrived at Jonesville, he went to the hotel for a few
hours' rest. When he drove his borrowed machine up to the Jones
house, about breakfast-time, both Blaze and Paloma were delighted
to see him.

"Say, now! What you doing rolling around in a gasoline go-devil?"
the elder man inquired, and Law was forced to explain.

"Why, Mrs. Austin must have experienced a change of heart!"
exclaimed Paloma. "She never gave anybody a lift before."

Blaze agreed. "She's sure poisonous to strangers." Then he looked
over the car critically. "These automobiles are all right, but
whenever I want to go somewhere and get back I take a team of hay-
burners. Mules don't puncture. The first automobile Paloma had
nearly scared me to death. On the road to Brownsville there used
to be a person who didn't like me--we'd had a considerable
unpleasantness, in fact. One day Paloma and I were lickety-
splittin' along past his place when we had a blow-out. It was the
first one I'd ever heard, and it fooled me complete--comin' right
at that particular turn of the road. I sure thought this party I
spoke of had cut down on me, so I r'ared up and unlimbered. I shot
out three window-lights in his house before Paloma could explain.
If he'd been in sight I'd have beefed him then and there, and
saved six months' delay. No, gas-buggies are all right for people
with strong nerves, but I'm tuned too high."

"Father has never learned to drive a car without yelling 'Gee' and
'Haw,'" laughed Paloma. "And he thinks he has title to the whole
road, too. You know these Mexicans are slow about pulling their
wagons to one side. Well, father got mad one day, and when a team
refused him the right of way he whipped out his revolver and
fired."

Blaze smiled broadly. "It worked great. And believe me, them
Greasers took to the ditch. I went through like a hot wind, but I
shot up sixty-five ca'tridges between here and town."

"Why didn't Mrs. Austin ask you to stay all night at Las Palmas?"
the girl inquired of Dave.

"She did."

"Wonderful!" Paloma's surprise was evidently sincere. "I suppose
you refused because of the way Ed treated you? Well, I'd have
accepted just to spite him. Tell me, is she nice?"

"She's lovely."

This vehement declaration brought a sudden gleam of interest into
the questioner's eyes.

"They say she has the most wonderful gowns and jewels, and dresses
for dinner every night. Well"--Paloma tossed her head--"I'm going
to have some nice clothes, too. You wait!"

"Now don't you start riggin' yourself up for meals," Blaze said,
warningly. "First thing I know you'll have me in a full-dress
suit, spillin' soup on my shirt." Then to his guest he complained,
feelingly: "I don't know what's come over Paloma lately; this new
dressmaker has plumb stampeded her. Somebody'd ought to run that
feline out of town before she ruins me."

"She is a very nice woman," complacently declared the daughter;
but her father snorted loudly.

"I wouldn't associate with such a critter."

"My! But you're proud."

"It ain't that," Blaze defended himself. "I know her husband, and
he's a bad hombre. He backed me up against a waterin'-trough and
told my fortune yesterday. He said I'd be married twice and have
many children. He told me I was fond of music and a skilled
performer on the organ, but melancholy and subject to catarrh,
Bright's disease, and ailments of the legs. He said I loved
widows, and unless I was poisoned by a dark lady I'd live to be
eighty years old. Why, he run me over like a pet squirrel lookin'
for moles, and if I'd had a gun on me I'd have busted him for some
of the things he said. 'A dark lady!' That's his wife. I give you
warnin', Paloma, don't you ask her to stay for meals. People like
them are dangerous."

"You're too silly!" said Paloma. "Nobody believes in such things."

"They don't, eh? Well, he's got all of Jonesville walkin' around
ladders, and spittin' through crossed fingers, and countin' the
spots on their nails. He interprets their dreams and locates lost
articles."

"Maybe he can tell me where to find Adolfo Urbina?" Dave
suggested.

"Humph! If he can't, Tad Lewis can. Say, Dave, this case of yours
has stirred up a lot of feelin' against Tad. The prosecutin'
attorney says he'll sure cinch him and Urbina, both. One of
Lewis's men got on a bender the other night and declared Adolfo
would never come to trial."

"What did he mean?"

"It may have been mescal talk, but witnesses sometimes have a way
of disappearin'. I wouldn't put anything past that gang."

Not long after breakfast Don Ricardo Guzman appeared at the Jones
house and warmly greeted his two friends. To Dave he explained:

"Last night I came to town, and this morning I heard you had
returned, so I rode out at once. You were unsuccessful?"

"Our man never went to Pueblo."

"Exactly. I thought as much."

"He's probably safe across the river."

But Ricardo thought otherwise. "No. Urbina deserted from this very
Colonel Blanco who commands the forces at Romero. He would
scarcely venture to return to Federal territory. However, I go to
meet Blanco to-day, and perhaps I shall discover something."

"What takes you over there?" Blaze inquired.

"Wait until I tell you. Senor David, here, brings me good fortune
at every turn. He honors my poor thirsty rancho with a visit and
brings a glorious rain; then he destroys my enemies like a
thunderbolt. No sooner is this done than I receive from the
Federals an offer for fifty of my best horses. Caramba! Such a
price, too. They are in a great hurry, which looks as if they
expected an attack from the Candeleristas at Matamoras. I hope so.
God grant these traitors are defeated. Anyhow, the horses have
gone, and to-day I go to get my money, in gold."

"Who's going with you?" asked Law.

Ricardo shrugged. "Nobody. There is no danger."

Blaze shook his head. "They know you are a red-hot Rebel. I
wouldn't trust them."

"They know, also, that I am an American, like you gentlemen,"
proudly asserted Guzman. "That makes a difference. I supported the
Liberator--God rest his soul!--and I secretly assist those who
fight his assassins, but so does everybody else. I am receiving a
fine price for those horses, so it is worth a little risk. Now,
senor," he addressed himself to the Ranger, "I have brought you a
little present. Day and night my boys and I have worked upon it,
for we know the good heart you have. It was finished yesterday.
See!" Ricardo unwrapped a bundle he had fetched, displaying a
magnificent bridle of plaited horsehair. It was cunningly wrought,
and lavishly decorated with silver fittings. "You recognize those
hairs?" he queried. "They came from the mane and tail of your
bonita."

"Bessie Belle!" Law accepted the handsome token, then held out his
hand to the Mexican. "That was mighty fine of you, Ricardo. I--You
couldn't have pleased me more."

"You like it?" eagerly demanded the old man. "That is good. I am
repaid a thousandfold. Your sentiment is like a woman's. But see!
I am famous for this work, and I have taught my boys to use their
fingers, too. That mare will always guide you now, wherever you
go. And we handled her gently, for your sake."

Dave nodded. "You're a good man, Ricardo. We're going to be
friends."

Guzman's delight was keen, his grizzled face beamed, and he showed
his white teeth in a smile. "Say no more. What is mine is yours--
my house, my cattle, my right hand. I and my sons will serve you,
and you must come often to see us. Now I must go." He shook hands
heartily and rode away, waving his hat.

"There's a good Greaser," Blaze said, with conviction, and Dave
agreed, feelingly:

"Yes! I'd about go to hell for him, after this." Then he took the
bridle in for Paloma to admire.




XVI

THE RODEO


It was with a feeling of some reluctance that Dave drove up to Las
Palmas shortly after the lunch hour, for he had no desire to meet
"Young Ed." However, to his relief, Austin did not appear, and
inasmuch as Alaire did not refer to her husband in any way, Dave
decided that he must be absent, perhaps on one of his notorious
sprees.

The mistress of the big ranch was in her harness, having at once
assumed her neglected duties. She came to welcome her caller in a
short khaki riding-suit; her feet were encased in tan boots; she
wore a mannish felt hat and gauntlet gloves, showing that she had
spent the morning in the saddle. Dave thought she looked
exceedingly capable and business-like, and not less beautiful in
these clothes; he feasted his eyes covertly upon her.

"I expected you for luncheon," she smiled; and Dave could have
kicked himself. "I'm just going out now. If you're not in too
great a hurry to go home you may go with me."

"That would be fine," he agreed.

"Come, then I have a horse for you." As she led the way back
toward the farm buildings she explained: "I'm selling off a bunch
of cattle. Benito is rounding them up and cutting out the best
ones."

"You keep them, I reckon."

"Always. That's how I improve the grade. You will see a splendid
herd of animals, Mr. Law--the best in South Texas. I suppose
you're interested in such things."

"I'd rather watch a good herd of stock than the best show in New
York," he told her.

When they came to the corrals, an intricate series of pens and
chutes at the rear of the outbuildings, Law beheld two
thoroughbred horses standing at the hitching-rail.

"I'm proud of my horses, too," said Alaire.

"You have reason to be." With his eyes alight Dave examined the
fine points of both animals. He ran a caressing hand over them,
and they recognized in him a friend.

"These beauties were raised on Kentucky blue grass. Brother and
sister, aren't they?"

"Yes. Montrose and Montrosa are their names. The horse is mine,
the mare is yours." Seeing that Dave did not comprehend the full
import of her words, she added: "Yours to keep, I mean. You must
make another Bessie Belle out of her."

"MINE? Oh--ma'am'" Law turned his eyes from Alaire to the mare,
then back again. "You're too kind. I can't take her."

"You must."

Dave made as if to say something, but was too deeply embarrassed.
Unable to tear himself away from the mare's side, he continued to
stroke her shining coat while she turned an intelligent face to
him, showing a solitary white star in the center of her forehead.

"See! She is nearly the same color as Bessie Belle."

"Yes'm! I--I want her, ma'am; I'm just sick from wanting her, but-
-won't you let me buy her?"

"Oh, I wouldn't sell her." Then, as Dave continued to yearn over
the animal, like a small boy tempted beyond his strength, Alaire
laughed. "I owe you something, Mr. Law, and a horse more or less
means very little to me."

He yielded; he could not possibly continue his resistance, and in
his happy face Alaire took her reward.

The mare meanwhile was doubtfully nosing her new master, deciding
whether or not she liked him; but when he offered her a cube of
sugar her uncertainties disappeared and they became friends then
and there. He talked to her, too, in a way that would have won any
female heart, and it was plain to any one who knew horses that she
began to consider him wholly delightful. Now, Montrosa was a sad
coquette, but this man seemed to say, "Rosa, you rogue, if you try
your airs with me I will out-flirt you." Who could resist such a
person? Why, the touch of his hands was positively thrilling. He
was gentle, but masterful, and--he had a delicious smell. Rosa
felt that she understood him perfectly, and was enraptured to
discover that he understood her. There was some satisfaction in
knowing such a man.

"You DO speak their language," Alaire said, after she had watched
them for a few minutes. "You have bewitched the creature." Dave
nodded silently, and his face was young. Then half to herself the
woman murmured, "Yes, you have a heart."

"I beg pardon?"

"Nothing. I'm glad you like her."

"Do you mind if I call her something else than Rosa, just to
myself?"

"Why, she's yours! Don't you like the name?"

"Oh yes! But--see!" Dave laid a finger upon Montrosa's forehead.
"She wears a lone star, and I'd like to call her that--The Lone
Star."

Alaire smiled in tacit assent; then when the two friends had
completely established their intimacy she mounted her own horse
and led the way to the round-up.

Dave's unbounded delight filled the mistress of Las Palmas with
the keenest pleasure. He laughed, he hummed snatches of songs, he
kept up a chatter addressed as much to the mare as to his
companion, and under it Montrosa romped like a tomboy. It was
gratifying to meet with such appreciation as this; Alaire felt
warm and friendly to the whole world, and decided that out of her
abundance she must do more for other people.

Of course Dave had to tell of Don Ricardo's thoughtful gift, and
concluded by saying, "I think this must be my birthday, although
it doesn't fit in with the calendar."

"Don Ricardo has his enemies, but he is a good-hearted old man."

"Yes," Dave agreed. Then more gravely: "I'm sorry I let him go
across the river." There was a pause. "If anybody harms him I
reckon I'll have a feud on my hands, for I'm a grateful person."

"I believe it. I can see that you are loyal."

"I was starved on sentiment when I was little, but it's in me
bigger than a skinned ox. They say gratitude is an elemental,
primitive emotion--"

"Perhaps that's why it is so rare nowadays," said Alaire, not more
than half in jest.

"You find it rare?" Dave looked up keenly. "Well, you have
certainly laid up a store of it to-day."

Benito and his men had rounded up perhaps three thousand head of
cattle when Alaire and her companion appeared, and they were in
the process of "cutting out." Assembled near a flowing well which
gave life to a shallow pond, the herd was held together by a half-
dozen horsemen who rode its outskirts, heading off and driving
back the strays. Other men, under Benito's personal direction,
were isolating the best animals and sending them back to the
pasture. It was an animated scene, one fitted to rouse enthusiasm
in any plainsman, for the stock was fat and healthy; there were
many calves, and the incessant, rumbling complaint of the herd was
bloodstirring. The Las Palmas cowboys rode like centaurs,
doubling, dodging, yelling, and whirling their ropes like lashes;
the air was drumming to swift hoof-beats, and over all was the
hoarse, unceasing undertone from countless bovine throats. Out
near the grub-wagon the remuda was grazing, and thither at
intervals came the perspiring horsemen to change their mounts.

Benito, wet, dusty, and tired, rode up to his employer to report
progress.

"Dios! This is hot work for an old man. We will never finish by
dark," said he, whereupon Law promptly volunteered his services,

"Lend me your rope, Benito, till I get another caballo."

"Eh? That Montrosa is the best cutting horse on Las Palmas."

But Dave shook his head vigorously. "I wouldn't risk her among
those gopher-holes." He slid out of his seat and, with an arm
around the mare's neck, whispered into her ear, "We won't have any
broken legs and broken hearts, will we, honey girl?" Rosa answered
by nosing the speaker over with brazen familiarity; then when he
had removed her equipment and turned away, dragging her saddle,
she followed at his heels like a dog.

"Diablo! He has a way with horses, hasn't he?" Benito grinned,
"Now that Montrosa is wilder than a deer."

Alaire rode into the herd with her foreman, while Dave settled his
loop over a buckskin, preparatory to joining the cowboys.

The giant herd milled and eddied, revolving like a vast pool of
deep, swift water. The bulls were quarrelsome, the steers were
stubborn, and the wet cows were distracted. Motherless calves
dodged about in bewilderment. In and out of this confusion the
cowboys rode, following the animals selected for separation,
forcing them out with devious turnings and twistings, and then
running them madly in a series of breakneck crescent dashes over
flats and hummocks, through dust and brush, until they had joined
the smaller herd of choice animals which were to remain on the
ranch. It was swift, sweaty, exhausting work, the kind these
Mexicans loved, for it was not only spectacular, but held an
element of danger. Once he had secured a pony Dave Law made
himself one of them.

Alaire sat her horse in the heart of the crowding herd, with a sea
of rolling eyes, lolling tongues, and clashing horns all about
her, and watched the Ranger. Good riding she was accustomed to;
the horses of Las Palmas were trained to this work as bird dogs
are trained to theirs; they knew how to follow a steer and, as Ed
Austin boasted, "turn on a dime with a nickel to spare." But Law,
it appeared, was a born horseman, and seemed to inspire his mount
with an exceptional eagerness and intelligence. In spite of the
man's unusual size, he rode like a feather; he was grace and life
and youth personified. Now he sat as erect in his saddle as a
swaying reed; again he stretched himself out like a whip-lash.
Once he had begun the work he would not stop.

All that afternoon the cowboys labored, and toward sundown the
depleted herd was driven to the water. It moved thither in a
restless, thirsty mass; it churned the shallow pond to milk, and
from a high knoll, where Alaire had taken her stand, she looked
down upon a vast undulating carpet many acres in extent formed by
the backs of living creatures. The voice of these cattle was like
the bass rumble of the sea, steady, heavy-droning, ceaseless.

Then through the cool twilight came the drive to the next pasture,
and here the patience of the cowboys was taxed to the utmost, for
as the stronger members of the herd forged ahead, the wearied,
worried, littlest members fell behind. Their joints were limber,
and their legs unsteady; one and all were orphaned, too, for in
that babel of sound no untrained ears could catch a mother's low.
A mile of this and the whole rear guard was composed of plaintive,
wet-eyed little calves who made slower and slower progress. Some
of them were stubborn and risked all upon a spirited dash back
toward the homes they were leaving and toward the mothers who
would not answer. It took hard, sharp riding to run them down, for
they fled like rabbits, bolting through prickly-pear and scrub,
their tails bravely aloft, their stiff legs flying. Others, too
tired and thirsty to go farther, lay down and refused to budge,
and these had to be carried over the saddlehorn until they had
rested. Some hid themselves cunningly in the mesquite clumps or
burrowed into the coarse sagauista grass.

But now those swarthy, dare-devil riders were as gentle as women;
they urged the tiny youngsters onward with harmless switches or
with painless blows from loose-coiled riatas; they picked them up
in their arms and rode with them.

Once through the gate and safe inside the restraining pasture
fence, the herd was allowed to settle down. Then began a patient
search by outraged mothers, a series of mournful quests that were
destined to continue far into the night; endless nosings and
sniffings and caressings, which would keep up until each cow had
found her own, until each calf was butting its head against
maternal ribs and gaining that consolation which it craved.

A new moon was swinging in the sky as Alaire and Dave rode back
toward Las Palmas. The dry, gray grass was beginning to jewel with
dew; the paths were ribbons of silver between dark blots of ink
where the bushes grew. Behind rose the jingle of spurs and
bridles, the creak of leather, the voices of men. It was an hour
in which to talk freely, an environment suited to confidences, and
Dave Law was happier than he had been for years. He closed his
eyes to the future, he stopped his ears to misgivings; with a song
in his heart he rode at the stirrup of the woman he adored.

How or when Alaire Austin came to feel that this man loved her she
never knew. Certainly he gave no voice to his feeling, save,
perhaps, by some unconscious tone or trick of speech; rather, the
knowledge came to her intuitively as the result of some
subconscious interchange of thought, some responsive vibration,
which only a psychologist could analyze. However it was, Alaire
knew to-night that she was dear to her companion, and, strange to
say, this certainty did not disturb her. Inasmuch as the thing
existed, why deny its right to exist? she asked herself. Since it
was in no wise dishonorable, how could it be wrong, provided it
went no further? Alaire had been repelled by Luis Longorio's
evident love for her, but a similar emotion in this man's breast
had quite the opposite effect. She was eager for friendship,
hungry for affection, starved for that worship which every woman
lives upon. Having a wholesome confidence in her own strength of
character, and complete faith in Law's sense of honor, she was
neither alarmed nor offended.

For the first time in years she allowed her intimate thoughts free
expression, and spoke of her hopes, her interests, and her
efforts; under the spell of the moonlight she even confided
something about those dreams that kept her company and robbed her
world of its sordidness. Dave Law discovered that she lived in a
fanciful land of unrealities, and the glimpse he gained of it was
delightful.

Supper was waiting when they arrived at Las Palmas, and Dolores
announced that "Young Ed" had telephoned from the Lewis ranch that
he would not be home. Yielding to a sudden impulse, Alaire said to
her companion:

"You must dine with me. Dolores will show you to a room. I will be
ready in half an hour."

Dave hesitated, but it was not in human nature to refuse. Later,
as he washed himself and combed his hair, he had a moment of
misgivings; but the next instant he asked himself wherein he was
doing wrong. Surely there was no law which denied him the right to
love, provided he kept that love a secret. The inner voice did not
argue with him; yet he was disquieted and restless as he paced the
big living-room, waiting for his hostess.

The Austin ranch-house offered a contrast to the majority of Texas
country homes. "Young Ed" had built almost a mansion for his
bride, and in the latter years Alaire had remodeled and changed it
to suit her own ideas. The verandas were wide, the rooms large and
cool and open; polished floors, brilliant grass mats, and easy
wicker furniture gave it a further airiness. The place was
comfortable, luxurious; yet it was a home and it had an
atmosphere.

Not for many years had Dave Law been a guest amid such
surroundings, and as the moments dragged on he began to feel more
and more out of place. With growing discomfort he realized that
the mistress of this residence was the richest woman in all this
part of Texas, and that he was little better than a tramp. His
free life, his lack of care and responsibility, had bred in him a
certain contempt for money; nevertheless, when through the door to
the dining-room he saw Alaire pause to give a final touch to the
table, he was tempted to beat an ignominious retreat, for she was
a radiant vision in evening dress. She was stately, beautiful; her
hair was worn high, her arms were bare underneath a shimmer of
lace, her gown exposed a throat round and smooth and adorable. In
reality, she was simply clad; but to the Ranger's untrained eye
she seemed regal, and his own rough clothes became painfully
conspicuous by contrast.

Alaire knew how to be a gracious and winning hostess; of course
she did not appear to notice her guest's embarrassment. She had
rather welcomed the thought that this man cared for her, and yet,
had she deliberately planned to dampen his feeling, she could
hardly have succeeded better than by showing him the wide
disparity in their lives and situations. Dave was dismayed; he
felt very poor and ridiculous. Alaire was no longer the woman he
had ridden with through the solitudes; her very friendliness
seemed to be a condescension.

He did not linger long after they had dined, for he wished to be
alone, where he could reach an understanding with himself. On the
steps he waited just a moment for Alaire to mention, if she chose,
that subject which they had still left open on the night before.
Reading his thought, she said:

"You are expecting me to say something about Panfilo Sanchez."

"Yes."

"I have thought it over; in fact, I have been thinking about it
all day; but even yet I don't know what to tell you. One moment I
think the truth would merely provoke another act of violence; the
next I feel that it must be made public regardless of
consequences. As for its effect upon myself--you know I care very
little what people say or think."

"I'm sorry I killed the fellow--I shouldn't have done it, but--one
sees things differently out in the rough and here in the settled
country. Laws don't work alike in all places; they depend a good
deal upon--geography. There are times when the theft of a crust of
bread would warrant the punishment I gave Panfilo. I can't help
but feel that his conduct, under the circumstances, called for--
what he got. He wasn't a good man, in spite of what Jose says;
Anto confessed to me that they were planning all sorts of deviltry
together."

"That is hardly an excuse." Alaire smiled faintly.

"Oh, I know!" Dave agreed. "But, you see, I don't feel the need of
one. The sentimental side of the affair, which bothers you,
doesn't affect me in the least."

Alaire nodded. "You have made me understand how you look at
things, and I must confess that I tolerate actions that would have
shocked me before I came to know this country. Panfilo is dead and
gone--rightly or wrongly, I don't know. What I dread now is
further consequences."

"Don't weaken on my account."

"No! I'm not thinking of the consequences to you or to me. You are
the kind of man who can protect himself, I'm sure; your very
ability in that direction frightens me a little on Jose's account.
But"--she sighed and lifted her round shoulders in a shrug--
"perhaps time will decide this question for us."

Dave laughed with some relief. "I think you've worried yourself
enough over it, ma'am," he said; "splitting hairs as to what's
right and what's wrong, when it doesn't matter much, in either
case. Suppose you continue to think it over at your leisure."

"Perhaps I'd better. And now"--Alaire extended her hand--"won't
you and Montrosa come to see me once in a while? I'm very
lonesome."

"We'd love to," Dave declared. He had it on his lips to say more,
but at that moment an eager whinny and an impatient rattle of a
bridle-bit came from the driveway, and he smiled. "There's her
acceptance now."

"Oh no! She merely heard your voice, the fickle creature."

Alaire watched her guest until be had disappeared into the
shadows, then she heard him talking to the mare. Benito's words at
the rodeo recurred to her, and she wondered if this Ranger might
not also have a way with women.

The house was very still and empty when she re-entered it.




XVII

THE GUZMAN INCIDENT


Ricardo Guzman did not return from Romero. When two days had
passed with no word from him, his sons became alarmed and started
an investigation, but without the slightest result. Even Colonel
Blanco himself could not hazard a guess as to Guzman's fate; the
man had disappeared, it seemed, completely and mysteriously.
Meanwhile, from other quarters of the Mexican town came rumors
that set the border afire.

Readers of this story may remember the famous "Guzman incident,"
so called, and the complications that resulted from it, for at the
time it raised a storm of indignation as the crowning atrocity of
the Mexican revolution, serving further to disturb the troubled
waters of diplomacy and threatening for a moment to upset the
precariously balanced relations of the two countries.

At first the facts appeared plain: a citizen of the United States
had been lured across the border and done to death by Mexican
soldiers--for it soon became evident that Ricardo was dead. The
outrage was a casus belli such as no self-respecting people could
ignore; so ran the popular verdict. Then when that ominous mailed
serpent which lay coiled along the Rio Grande stirred itself,
warlike Americans prepared themselves to hear of big events.

A motive for Ricardo Guzman's murder was not lacking, for it was
generally known that President Potosi had long resented Yankee
enmity, particularly as that enmity was directed at him
personally. A succession of irritating diplomatic skirmishes, an
unsatisfactory series of verbal sparring matches, had roused the
old Indian's anger, and it was considered likely that he had
adopted this means of permanently severing his relations with
Washington.

Of course, the people of Texas were delighted that the long-
delayed hour had struck; accordingly, when the State Department
seemed strangely loath to investigate the matter, when, in fact,
it manifested a willingness to allow Don Ricardo ample time in
which to come to life in preference to putting a further strain
upon international relations, they were both surprised and
enraged. Telegraph wires began to buzz; the governor of the state
sent a crisply sarcastic message to the national capital, offering
to despatch a company of Rangers after Guzman's body just to prove
that he was indeed dead and that the Mexican authorities were
lying when they professed ignorance of the fact.

This offer not only caught the popular fancy north of the Rio
Grande, but it likewise had an effect on the other side of the
river, for on the very next day General Luis Longorio set out for
Romero to investigate personally the rancher's disappearance.

Now, throughout all this public clamor, truth, as usual, lay
hidden at the bottom of its well, and few even of Ricardo's
closest friends suspected the real reason for his murder.

Jonesville, of course, could think or talk of little else than
this outrage, and Blaze Jones, as befitted its leading citizen,
was loudest in his criticism of the government's weak-kneed
policy.

"It makes me right sore to think I'm an American," he confided to
Dave. "Why, if Ricardo had been an Englishman the British consul
at Mexico City would have called on Potosi the minute the news
came. He'd have stuck a six-shooter under the President's nose and
made him locate Don Ricardo, or pay an indemnity and kiss the
Union Jack." Blaze's conception of diplomacy was peculiar. "If
Potosi didn't talk straight that British consul would have bent a
gun-bar'l over the old ruffian's bean and telephoned for a couple
hundred battle-ships. England protects her sons. But we Americans
are cussed with notions of brotherly love and universal peace.
Bah! We're bound to have war, Dave, some day or other. Why not
start it now?"

Dave nodded his agreement. "Yes. We'll have to step in and take
the country over, sooner or later. But--everybody has the wrong
idea of this Guzman killing. The Federal officers in Romero didn't
frame it up."

"No? Who did?"

"Tad Lewis."

Jones started. "What makes you think that?"

"Listen! Tad was afraid to let Urbina come to trial--you remember
one of his men boasted that the case would never be heard? Well,
it won't. Ricardo's dead and the other witness is gone. Now draw
your own conclusions."

"Gone? You mean the fellow who saw Urbina and Garza together?"

"Yes. He has disappeared, too--evidently frightened away."

Jones was amazed. "Say, Dave," he cried, "that means your case has
blown up, eh?"

"Absolutely. Lewis has been selling 'wet' stock to the Federals,
and he probably arranged with some of them to murder Ricardo. At
any rate, that's my theory."

Blaze cursed eloquently. "I'd like to hang it on to Tad; I'd sure
clean house down his way if I was positive."

"I sent a man over to Romero," Dave explained further. "He tells
me Ricardo is dead, all right; but nobody knows how he died, or
why. There's a new grave in the little cemetery above the town,
but nobody knows who's buried in it. There hasn't been a death in
Romero lately." The speaker watched his friend closely. "Ricardo's
family would like to have his body, and I'd like to see it myself.
Wouldn't you? We could tell just what happened to him. If he
really faced a firing-squad, for instance--I reckon Washington
would have something to say, eh?"

"What are you aimin' at?" Blaze inquired.

"If we had Ricardo's body on this side it would put an end to all
the lies, and perhaps force Colonel Blanco to make known the real
facts. It might even mean a case against Tad Lewis. What do you
think of my reasoning?"

"It's eighteen karat. What d'you say we go over there and get
Ricardo?"

Dave smiled. "That's what I've been leading up to. Will you take a
chance?"

"Hell, yes!"

"I knew you would. All we need is a pair of Mexicans to--do the
work. I liked Ricardo; I owe him something."

"Suppose we're caught?"

"In that case we'll have to run for it, and--I presume I'll be
discharged from the Ranger service."

"I ain't very good at runnin'--not from Mexicans." Blaze's eyes
were bright and hard at the thought. "It's more'n possible that,
if they discover us, we can start a nice little war of our own."

That evening Dave managed to get his Ranger captain by long-
distance telephone, and for some time the two talked guardedly.
When Dave rang off they had come to a thorough understanding.

It had been an easy matter for Jose Sanchez to secure a leave of
absence from Las Palmas, especially since Benito was not a little
interested in the unexplained disappearance of Panfilo and work
was light at this time. Benito did not think it necessary to
mention the horse-breaker's journey to his employer; so that
Alaire knew nothing whatever about the matter until Jose himself
asked permission to see her on a matter of importance.

The man had ridden hard most of the previous night, and his
excitement was patent. Even before he spoke Alaire realized that
Panfilo's fate was known to him, and she decided swiftly that
there must be no further concealment.

"Senora! A terrible thing!" Jose burst forth. "God knows, I am
nearly mad with grief. It is about my sainted cousin. It is
strange, unbelievable! My head whirls--"

Alaire quieted him, saying in Spanish, "Calm yourself, Jose, and
tell me everything from the beginning."

"But how can I be calm? Oh, what a crime! What a misfortune! Well,
then, Panfilo is completely dead. I rode to that tanque where you
saw him last, and what do you think? But--you know?"

Alaire nodded. "I--suspected."

Jose's dark face blazed; he bent forward eagerly. "What did you
suspect, and why? Tell me all. There is something black and
hellish here, and I must know about it quickly."

"Suppose you tell me your story first," Alaire answered, "and
remember that you are excited."

The Mexican lowered his voice. "Bueno! Forgive me if I seem half
crazed. Well, I rode to that water-hole and found--nothing. It is
a lonely place; only the brush cattle use it; but I said to
myself, 'Panfilo drank here. He was here. Beyond there is nothing.
So I will begin.' God was my helper, senora. I found him--his
bones as naked and clean as pebbles. Caramba! You should have
heard me then! I was like a demon! I couldn't think, I couldn't
reason. I rode from that accursed spot as if Panfilo's ghost
pursued me and--I am here. I shall rouse the country; the people
shall demand the blood of my cousin's assassin. It is the crime of
a century."

"Wait! When you spoke to me last I didn't dream that Panfilo was
dead, but since then I have learned the truth, and why he was
killed. You must let me tell you everything, Jose, just as it
happened; then--you may do whatever you think best. And you shall
have the whole truth."

It was a trying situation; in spite of her brave beginning, Alaire
was tempted to send the Mexican on to Jonesville, there to receive
an explanation directly from David Law himself; but such a course
she dared not risk. Jose was indeed half crazed, and at this
moment quite irresponsible; if he met Dave, terrible consequences
would surely follow. Accordingly, it was with a peculiar,
apprehensive flatter in her breast that Alaire realized the crisis
had come. Heretofore she had blamed Law, but now, oddly enough,
she found herself interested in defending him. As calmly as she
could she related all that had led up to the tragedy, while Jose
listened with eyes wide and mouth open.

"You see, I had no suspicion of the truth," she concluded. "It was
a terrible thing, and Mr. Law regrets it deeply. He would have
made a report to the authorities, only--he feared it might
embarrass me. He will repeat to you all that I have said, and he
is ready to meet the consequences."

Jose was torn with rage, yet plainly a prey to indecision; he
rolled his eyes and cursed under his breath. "These Rangers!" he
muttered. "That is the kind of men they are. They murder honest
people."

"This was not murder," Alaire cried, sharply. "Panfilo was aiding
a felon to escape. The courts will not punish Mr. Law."

"Bah! Who cares for the courts? This man is a Gringo, and these
are Gringo laws. But I am Mexican, and Panfilo was my cousin. We
shall see."

Alaire's eyes darkened. "Don't be rash, Jose," she exclaimed,
warningly. "Mr. Law bears you no ill-will, but--he is a dangerous
man. You would do well to make some inquiries about him. You are a
good man; you have a long life before you." Reading the fellow's
black look, she argued: "You think I am taking his part because he
is my countryman, but he needs no one to defend him. He will make
this whole story public and face the consequences. I like you, and
I don't wish to see you come to a worse end than your cousin
Panfilo."

Jose continued to glower. Then, turning away, he said, without
meeting his employer's eyes, "I would like to draw my money."

"Very well. I am sorry to have you leave Las Palmas, for I have
regarded you as one of my gente." Jose's face remained stony.
"What do you intend to do? Where are you going?"

The fellow shrugged. "Quien sabe! Perhaps I shall go to my General
Longorio. He is in Romero, just across the river; he knows a brave
man when he sees one, and he needs fellows like me to kill rebels.
Well, you shall hear of me. People will tell you about that demon
of a Jose whose cousin was murdered by the Rangers. Yes, I have
the heart of a bandit."

Alaire smiled faintly. "You will be shot," she told him. "Those
soldiers have little to eat and no money at all."

But Jose's bright eyes remained hostile and his expression
baffling. It was plain to Alaire that her explanation of his
cousin's death had carried not the slightest conviction, and she
even began to fear that her part in the affair had caused him to
look upon her as an accessory. Nevertheless, when she paid him his
wages she gave him a good horse, which Jose accepted with thanks
but without gratitude. As Alaire watched him ride away with never
a backward glance she decided that she must lose no time in
apprising the Ranger of this new condition of affairs.

She drove her automobile to Jonesville that afternoon, more
worried than she cared to admit. It was a moral certainty, she
knew, that Jose Sanchez would, sooner or later, attempt to take
vengeance upon his cousin's slayer, and there was no telling when
he might become sufficiently inflamed with poisonous Mexican
liquor to be in the mood for killing. Then, too, there were
friends of Panfilo always ready to lend bad counsel.

Law was nowhere in town, and so, in spite of her reluctance,
Alaire was forced to look for him at the Joneses' home. As she had
never called upon Paloma, and had made it almost impossible for
the girl to visit Las Palmas, the meeting of the two women was
somewhat formal. But no one could long remain stiff or constrained
with Paloma Jones; the girl had a directness of manner and an
honest, friendly smile that simply would not be denied. Her
delight that Alaire had come to see her pleased and shamed the
elder woman, who hesitatingly confessed the object of her visit.

"Oh, I thought you were calling on me." Paloma pouted her pretty
lips. "Dave isn't here. He and father--have gone away." A little
pucker of apprehension appeared upon her brow.

"I must get word to him at once."

Miss Jones shook her head. "Is it very important?"

It needed no close observation to discover the concern in Paloma's
eyes; Alaire told her story quickly. "Mr. Law must be warned right
away," she added, "for the man is capable of anything."

Paloma nodded. "Dave told us how he had killed Panfilo--" She
hesitated, and then cried, impulsively: "Mrs. Austin, I'm going to
confess something--I've got to tell somebody or I'll burst. I was
walking the floor when you came. Well, Dad and Dave have
completely lost their wits. They have gone across the river--to
get Ricardo Guzman's body."

"What?" Alaire stared at the girl uncomprehendingly.

"They are going to dig him up and bring him back to prove that he
was killed. Dave knows where he's buried, and he's doing this for
Ricardo's family--some foolish sentiment about a bridle--but Dad,
I think, merely wants to start a war between the United States and
Mexico."

"My dear girl, aren't you dreaming?"

"I thought I must be when I heard about it. Dad wouldn't have told
me at all, only he thought I ought to know in case anything
happens to him." Paloma's breath failed her momentarily. "They'll
be killed. I told them so, but Dave seems to enjoy the risk. He
said Ricardo had a sentimental nature--and, of course, the
possibility of danger delighted both him and Dad. They're perfect
fools."

"When did they go? Tell me everything."

"They left an hour ago in my machine, with two Mexicans to help
them. They intend to cross at your pumping-plant as soon as it
gets dark, and be back by mid-night--that is, if they ever get
back."

"Why, it's--unbelievable."

"It's too much for me. Longorio himself is in Romero, and he'd
have them shot if he caught them. We'd never even hear of it."
Paloma's face was pale, her eyes were strained and tragic. "Father
always has been a trial to me, but I thought I could do something
with Dave." She made a hopeless gesture, and Alaire wondered
momentarily whether the girl's anxiety was keenest for the safety
of her father or--the other?

"Can't we prevent them from going?" she inquired. "Why, they are
breaking the law, aren't they?"

"Something like that. But what can we do? It's nearly dark, and
they'll go, anyhow, regardless of what we say."

"Mr. Law is a Ranger, too!"

The girl nodded. "Oh, if it's ever discovered he'll be ruined. And
think of Dad--a man of property! Dave declares Tad Lewis is at the
bottom of it all and put the Federals up to murder Ricardo; he
thinks in this way he can force them into telling the truth. But
Dad is just looking for a fight and wants to be a hero!"

There was a moment of silence. Then Alaire reasoned aloud: "I
presume they chose our pumping-plant because it is directly
opposite the Romero cemetery. I could have Benito and some trusty
men waiting on this side. Or I could even send them over--"

"No, no! Don't you understand? The whole thing is illegal."

"Well, we could be there--you and I."

Paloma agreed eagerly. "Yes! Maybe we could even help them if they
got into trouble."

"Come, then! We'll have supper at Las Palmas and slip down to the
river and wait."

Paloma was gone with a rush. In a moment she returned, ready for
the trip, and with her she carried a Winchester rifle nearly as
long as herself.

"I hope you aren't afraid of firearms," she panted. "I've owned
this gun for years."

"I am rather a good shot," Alaire told her.

Paloma closed her lips firmly. "Good! Maybe we'll come in handy,
after all. Anyhow, I'll bet those Mexicans won't chase Dad and
Dave very far."

Jose Sanchez was true to his declared purpose. With a horse of his
own between his knees, with money in his pocket and hate in his
heart, he left Las Palmas, and, riding to the Lewis crossing,
forded the Rio Grande. By early afternoon he was in Romero, and
there, after some effort, he succeeded in finding General
Longorio.

Romero, at this time the southern outpost of Federal territory,
standing guard against the Rebel forces in Tamaulipas, is a sun-
baked little town sprawling about a naked plaza, and, except for
the presence of Colonel Blanco's detachment of troops, it would
have presented much the same appearance as any one of the lazy
border villages. A scow ferry had at one time linked it on the
American side with a group of 'dobe houses which were sanctified
by the pious name of Sangre de Cristo, but of late years more
advantageous crossings above and below had come into some use and
Romero's ferry had been abandoned. Perhaps a mile above Sangre de
Cristo, and directly opposite Romero's weed-grown cemetery, stood
the pumping-plant of Las Palmas, its corrugated iron roof and
high-flung chimney forming a conspicuous landmark.

Luis Longorio had just awakened from his siesta when Jose gained
admittance to his presence. The general lay at ease in the best
bed of the best house in the village; he greeted the new-comer
with a smile.

"So, my brave Jose, you wish to become a soldier and fight for
your country, eh?"

"Yes, my general."

Longorio yawned and stretched lazily. "Body of Christ! This is a
hard life. Here am I in this goatherd's hovel, hot, dirty, and
half starved, and all because of a fellow I never saw who got
himself killed. You would think this Ricardo was an Englishman
instead of a Gringo, for the fuss that is made. Who was he? Some
great jefe?

"A miserable fellow. I knew him well. Then he is indeed dead?"

"Quite dead, I believe," Longorio said, carelessly; then turning
his large, bright eyes upon the visitor, he continued, with more
interest, "Now tell me about the beautiful senora, your mistress."

Jose scowled. "She's not my mistress. I am no longer of her gente.
I have a debt of blood to wipe out."

Longorio sat up in his bed; the smile left his face. "My Jose", he
said, quietly, "if you harm her in the least I shall bury you to
the neck in an ant's nest and fill your mouth with honey. Now,
what is this you are telling me?"

Jose, uncomfortably startled by this barbarous threat, told as
connectedly as he knew how all about his cousin's death and his
reasons for leaving Las Palmas.

"Ah-h!" Longorio relaxed. "You gave me a start. At first I thought
you came with a message from her--but that was too much to expect;
then I feared you meant the lady some evil. Now I shall tell you a
little secret: I love your senora! Yes, I love her madly,
furiously; I can think of nothing but her. I came to this
abominable village more to see her than to annoy myself over the
death of Ricardo Guzman. I must see my divinity; I must hear her
blessed voice, or I shall go mad. Why do I tell you this? Because
I have decided that you shall lead me to her to-night." The
general fell silent for a moment, then, "I intend to have her some
day, Jose, and--perhaps you will be my right hand. See, I make you
my confidant because you will not dare to anger me or--Well, my
little friend, you must understand what fate would befall you in
that case. I can reach across the Rio Grande."

Amazement and then fear were depicted in Jose's face as he
listened; he asserted his loyalty vehemently.

"Yes, yes, I know you love me," the general agreed, carelessly.
"But what is far more to the point, I intend to pay well for your
services. Perhaps I shall also arrange so that you may have a
reckoning with the murderer of your cousin. What is his name?"

It was Jose's opportunity to make an impression, and he used it to
the full, telling all that he knew of the killing of Panfilo, and
describing Law with the eloquence of hatred.

Longorio listened for a time, and then held up his hand. "Enough.
For my sake, too, you shall kill him, for you have made me
jealous."

"Impossible!" Jose raised protesting palms. He was sure the
general was wrong. Senora Austin was above suspicion of any kind.

"And yet this man met her in Pueblo and rode with her to Las
Palmas? He comes to see her frequently, you say?" The general bent
his bright, keen eyes upon the visitor.

"Yes. She gave him the finest horse at Las Palmas, too, and--" A
new thought presented itself to Jose. "Ho! By the way, they were
alone at the water-hole when my cousin Panfilo was shot. Now that
I think of it, they were alone together for a day and a night. I
begin to wonder--"

Longorio breathed an oath and swung his long legs over the edge of
the bed. "You have poisoned my mind. A whole day and night, eh?
That is bad. What happened? What kind of a fool is her husband? I
cannot bear to think of this! See, I am beside myself. Caramba! I
live in paradise; I come flying on the wings of the wind, only to
learn that my blessed divinity has a lover. If only my excellent
Blanco had shot this fellow Law instead of that Guzman! If only I
could lay hands upon him here in Mexico! Ha! There would be
something to print in the American papers." He began to dress
himself feverishly, muttering, as he did so: "I will permit no one
to come between us. ... The thought kills me. ... You bring me bad
news, Jose, and yet I am glad you came. I accept your offer, and
you shall be my man henceforth; ... but you shall not go out to be
shot by those rebels. No, you shall return to Las Palmas to be my
eyes and my ears, and, when the time comes, you shall be my hands,
too. ... I will avenge your cousin Panfilo for you, my word on
that. Yes, and I will make you a rich man."

Jose listened hungrily to these promises. He was relieved at the
change in his plans, for, after all, a soldier's life offered few
attractions, and--the food at Las Palmas was good. The general
promised him fine wages, too. Truly, it was fortunate that he had
come to Romero.

"Now we have settled this," Jose's new employer declared, "run
away and amuse yourself until dark. Then we will take a little
journey by way of the old ferry."

"It is not altogether safe," ventured Jose. "That country over
there is alive with refugees."

"I will take some men with me," said Longorio. "Now go and let me
think."




XVIII

ED AUSTIN TURNS AT BAY


Had it not been for her fears, Paloma Jones would have taken her
visit to the Austin ranch as an unmixed enjoyment. To her Alaire
had always been an ideally romantic figure. More than once, in her
moments of melancholy, Paloma had envied Mrs. Austin's unhappiness
and yearned to bear a similar sorrow--to be crossed in love and to
become known as a woman of tragedy. To have one's life blasted,
one's happiness slain by some faithless lover, impressed the girl
as interesting, thrilling. Moreover, it was a misfortune
calculated to develop one's highest spiritual nature. Surely
nothing could be more sadly satisfying than to live alone with
regretful memories and to have the privilege of regarding the
world as a vain show. Unfortunately, however, Paloma was too
healthy and too practical to remain long occupied with such
thoughts. She was disgustingly optimistic and merry; misanthropy
was entirely lacking in her make-up; and none of her admirers
seemed the least bit inclined to faithlessness. On the contrary,
the men she knew were perfect nuisances in their earnestness of
purpose, and she could not manage to fall in love with any one
sufficiently depraved to promise her the slightest misery. Paloma
felt that she was hopelessly commonplace.

Now that she had an opportunity of becoming better acquainted with
the object of her envy, she made the most of it. She soon found,
however, that Alaire possessed anything but an unhappy
disposition, and that to pity her was quite impossible. Mrs.
Austin was shy and retiring, certainly, at first, but, once the
ice was broken, she was delightfully frank, friendly, and
spirited.

Paloma's curiosity was all-consuming, and she explored every phase
of her new friend's life with interest and delight. She even
discovered that imaginary world of Alaire's, and learned something
about those visionary people who bore her company.

"It must be lots of fun," said Paloma.

"Yes. Sometimes my dream-people are very real, Why--I can actually
see them. Then I realize I have been too much alone."

"You ought to have children," the girl declared, calmly.

"I have. Yes! Imaginary kiddies--and they are perfect dears, too."

"Are they ever naughty?"

"Oh, indeed they are! And I have to punish them. Then I feel
terribly. But they're much nicer than flesh-and-blood children,
for they have no bad traits whatever, and they're so amazingly
intelligent."

Such exchanges of confidence drew the women into fairly close
relations by the time they had arrived at Las Palmas, but the
thought of what had brought them together had a sobering effect,
and during their hasty supper they discussed the situation in all
its serious phases.

In offering to lend a hand in this difficulty, Alaire had acted
largely upon impulse, and now that she took time to think over the
affair more coolly, she asked herself what possible business of
hers it could be. How did this effort to secure Don Ricardo's body
concern her? And how could she hope or expect to be of help to the
men engaged in the hazardous attempt? With Paloma, of course, it
was different: the girl was anxious on her father's account, and
probably concerned more deeply than was Alaire for the safety of
Dave Law. Probably she and Dave had an understanding--it would be
natural. Well, Paloma was a nice girl and she would make a
splendid wife for any man.

For her part, Paloma was troubled by no uncertainty of purpose; it
did not seem to her at all absurd to go to her father's
assistance, and she was so eager to be up and away that the
prospect of a long evening's wait made her restless.

As usual, Ed Austin had not taken the trouble to inform his wife
of his whereabouts; Alaire was relieved to find that he was out,
and she decided that he had probably stayed at Tad Lewis's for
supper.

The women were seated on the porch after their meals when up the
driveway rode two horsemen. A moment later a tall figure mounted
the steps and came forward with outstretched hand, crying, in
Spanish:

"Senora! I surprise you. Well, I told you some day I should give
myself this great pleasure. I am here!"

"General Longorio! But--what a surprise!" Alaire's amazement was
naive; her face was that of a startled school-girl. The Mexican
warmly kissed her fingers, then turned to meet Paloma Jones. As he
bowed the women exchanged glances over his head. Miss Jones looked
frankly frightened, and her expression plainly asked the meaning
of Longorio's presence. To herself, she was wondering if it could
have anything to do with that expedition to the Romero cemetery.
She tried to compose herself, but apprehension flooded her.

Alaire, meanwhile, her composure recovered, was standing slim and
motionless beside her chair, inquiring smoothly: "What brings you
into Texas at such a time, my dear general? This is quite
extraordinary."

"Need you ask me?" cried the man. "I would ride through a thousand
perils, senora. God in his graciousness placed that miserable
village Romero close to the gates of Heaven. Why should I not
presume to look through them briefly? I came two days ago, and
every hour since then I have turned my eyes in the direction of
Las Palmas. At last I could wait no longer." A courtly bow at the
conclusion of these words robbed the speech of its audacity and
tinged it with the licensed extravagance of Latin flattery.
Nevertheless, Paloma gasped and Alaire stirred uncomfortably. The
semi-darkness of the veranda was an invitation to even more daring
compliments, and, therefore, as she murmured a polite word of
welcome, Alaire stepped through the French window at her back and
into the brightly lighted living-room. Paloma Jones followed as if
in a trance.

Longorio's bright eyes took a swift inventory of his surroundings;
then he sighed luxuriously.

"How fine!" said he. "How beautiful! A nest for a bird of
paradise!"

"Don't you consider this rather a mad adventure?" Alaire insisted.
"Suppose it should become known that you crossed the river?"

Longorio snapped his fingers. "I answer to no one; I am supreme.
But your interest warms my heart; it thrills me to think you care
for my safety. Thus am I repaid for my days of misery."

"You surely did not"--Paloma swallowed hard--"come alone?"

"No. I have a duty to my country. I said, 'Luis, you are a brave
man, and fear is a stranger to you, but, nevertheless, you must
have regard for the Fatherland'; so I took measures to protect
myself in case of eventualities."

"How?"

"By bringing with me some of my troopers. Oh, they are peaceable
fellows!" he declared, quickly; "and they are doubtless enjoying
themselves with our friend and sympathizer, Morales."

"Where?" asked Alaire.

"I left them at your pumping-plant, senora." Paloma Jones sat down
heavily in the nearest chair. "But you need have no uneasiness.
They are quiet and orderly; they will molest nothing; no one would
believe them to be soldiers. I take liberties with the laws and
the customs of your country, dear lady, but--you would not care
for a man who allowed such considerations to stand in his way,
eh?"

Alaire answered, sharply: "It was a very reckless thing to do,
and--you must not remain here."

"Yes, yes!" Paloma eagerly agreed. "You must go back at once."

But Longorio heard no voice except Alaire's. In fact, since
entering the living-room he had scarcely taken his eyes from her.
Now he drew his evenly arched brows together in a plaintive frown,
saying, "You are inhospitable!" Then his expression lightened. "Or
is it," he asked--"is it that you are indeed apprehensive for me?"

Alaire tried to speak quietly. "I should never forgive myself if
you came to harm here at my ranch."

Longorio sighed. "And I hoped for a warmer welcome--especially
since I have done you another favor. You saw that hombre who came
with me?"

"Yes."

"Well, you would never guess that it is your Jose Sanchez, whom I
prevailed upon to return to your employ. But it is no other; and
he comes to beg your forgiveness for leaving. He was distracted at
the news of his cousin's murder, and came to me--"

"His cousin was not murdered."

"Exactly! I told him so when I had learned the facts. A poor
fellow this Panfilo--evidently a very bad man, indeed--but Jose
admired him and was harboring thoughts of revenge. I said to him:
'Jose, my boy, it is better to do nothing than to act wrongly.
Since it was God's will that your cousin came to a bad end, why
follow in his footsteps? You will not make a good soldier. Go back
to your beautiful employer, be loyal to her, and think no more
about this unhappy affair.' It required some argument, I assure
you, but--he is here. He comes to ask your forgiveness and to
resume his position of trust."

"I am glad to have him back if he feels that way. I have nothing
whatever to forgive him."

"Then he will be happy, and I have served you. That is the end of
the matter." With a graceful gesture Longorio dismissed the
subject. "Is it to be my pleasure," he next inquired, "to meet
Senor Austin, your husband?"

"I am afraid not."

"Too bad. I had hoped to know him and convince him that we
Federales are not such a bad people as he seems to think. We ought
to be friends, he and I. Every loyal Mexican, in these troublesome
times, desires the goodwill and friendship of such important
personages as Senor Austin. This animosity is a sad thing."

Under this flow of talk Paloma stirred uneasily, and at the first
opportunity burst out: "It's far from safe for you to remain here,
General Longorio. This neighborhood is terribly excited over the
death of Ricardo Guzman, and if any one learned--"

"So! Then this Guzman is dead?" Longorio inquired, with interest.

"Isn't he?" blurted Paloma.

"Not so far as I can learn. Only to-day I made official report
that nothing whatever could be discovered about him. Certainly he
is nowhere in Romero, and it is my personal belief that the poor
fellow was either drowned in the river or made way with for his
money. Probably the truth will never be known. It is a distressing
event, but I assure you my soldiers do not kill American citizens.
It is our boast that Federal territory is safe; one can come or go
at will in any part of Mexico that is under Potosista control. I
sincerely hope that we have heard the last of this Guzman affair."

Longorio had come to spend the evening, and his keen pleasure in
Alaire Austin's company made him so indifferent to his personal
safety that nothing short of a rude dismissal would have served to
terminate his visit. Neither Alaire nor her companion, however,
had the least idea how keenly he resented the presence of Paloma
Jones. Ed Austin's absence he had half expected, and he had wildly
hoped for an evening, an hour, a few moments, alone with the
object of his desires. Jose's disclosures, earlier in the day, had
opened the general's eyes; they had likewise inflamed him with
jealousy and with passion, and accordingly he had come prepared to
force his attentions with irresistible fervor should the slightest
opportunity offer. To find Alaire securely chaperoned, therefore,
and to be compelled to press his ardent advances in the presence
of a third party, was like gall to him; the fact that he made the
most of his advantages, even at the cost of scandalizing Paloma,
spoke volumes for his determination.

It was a remarkable wooing; on the one hand this half-savage man,
gnawed by jealousy, heedless of the illicit nature of his passion,
yet held within the bounds of decorum by some fag-end of
respectability; and on the other hand, a woman, bored, resentful,
and tortured at the moment by fear about what was happening at the
river-bank.

Alaire, too, had a further cause for worry. Of late Ed Austin had
grown insultingly suspicious. More than once he had spoken of Dave
Law in a way to make his wife's face crimson, and he had wilfully
misconstrued her recital of Longorio's attentions. Fearing,
therefore, that in spite of Paloma Jones's presence Ed would
resent the general's call, Alaire strained her ears for the sound
of his coming.

It was late when Austin arrived. Visitors at Las Palmas were
unusual at any time; hence the sound of strange voices in the
brightly lighted living-room at such an hour surprised him. He
came tramping in, booted and spurred, a belligerent look of
inquiry upon his bloated features. But when he had met his wife's
guests his surprise turned to black displeasure. His own
sympathies in the Mexican struggle were so notorious that
Longorio's presence seemed to him to have but one possible
significance. Why Paloma Jones was here he could not imagine.

Thus far Alaire's caller had succeeded in ignoring Miss Jones, and
now, with equal self-assurance, he refused to recognize Ed's
hostility. He remained at ease, and appeared to welcome this
chance of meeting Austin. Yet it soon became evident that his
opinion of his host was far from flattering; beneath his
politeness he began to show an amused contempt, which Alaire
perceived, even though her husband did not. Luis Longorio was the
sort of man who enjoys a strained situation, and one who shows to
the best advantage under adverse conditions. Accordingly, Ed's
arrival, instead of hastening his departure, merely served to
prolong his stay.

It was growing very late now, and Paloma was frantic. Profiting by
her first opportunity, she whispered to Alaire "For God's sake,
send him away."

Alaire's eyes were dark with excitement, "Yes," said she. "Talk to
him, and give me a chance to have a word alone with Ed."

The opportunity came when Austin went into the dining-room for a
drink. Alaire excused herself to follow him. When they were out of
sight and hearing her husband turned upon her with an ugly frown.

"What's that Greaser doing here?" he asked, roughly.

"He called to pay his respects. You must get him away."

"_I_ must?" Ed glowered at her. "Why don't you? You got him here
in my absence. Now that I'm home you want me to get rid of him,
eh? What's the idea?"

"Don't be silly. I didn't know he was coming and--he must be crazy
to risk such a thing."

"Crazy?" Ed's lip curled. "He isn't crazy. I suppose he couldn't
stay away any longer. By God, Alaire--"

Alaire checked this outburst with a sharp exclamation: "Don't make
a scene! Don't you understand he holds over fifty thousand
dollars' worth of La Feria cattle? Don't you understand we can't
antagonize him?"

"Is that what he came to see you about?"

"Yes." She bit her lip. "I'll explain everything, but--you must
help me send him back, right away." Glancing at the clock, Alaire
saw that it was drawing on toward midnight; with quick decision
she seized her husband by the arm, explaining feverishly: "There
is something big going on to-night, Ed! Longorio brought a guard
of soldiers with him and left them at our pump-house. Well, it so
happens that Blaze Jones and Mr. Law have gone to the Romero
cemetery to get Ricardo Guzman's body."

"WHAT?" Austin's red face paled, his eyes bulged.

"Yes. That's why Paloma is here. They crossed at our pumping-
station, and they'll be back at any time, now. If they encounter
Longorio's men--You understand?"

"God Almighty!" Austin burst forth. "Ricardo Guzman's body!" He
wet his lips and swallowed with difficulty. "Why--do they want the
body?"

"To prove that he is really dead and--to prove who killed him."
Noting the effect of these words, Alaire cried, sharply, "What's
the matter, Ed?"

But Austin momentarily was beyond speech. The decanter from which
he was trying to pour himself a drink played a musical tattoo upon
his glass; his face had become ashen and pasty.

"Have they got the body? Do they know who shot him?" he asked,
dully.

"No, no!" Alaire was trembling with impatience. "Don't you
understand? They are over there now, and they'll be back about
midnight. If Longorio had come alone, or if he had left his men at
Sangre de Cristo, everything would be all right. But those
soldiers at Morales's house will be up and awake. Why, it couldn't
have happened worse!" "How many men has he got?" Austin nodded in
the direction of the front room.

"I don't know. Probably four or five. What ails you?"

"That--won't do. They won't--fight on this side of the river.
They--they'd hold them off."

"Who? What are you talking about?"

Something in her husband's inexplicable agitation, something in
the hunted, desperate way in which his eyes were running over the
room, alarmed Alaire.

Ed utterly disregarded her question. Catching sight of the
telephone, which stood upon a stand in the far corner of the room,
he ran to it and, snatching the receiver, violently oscillated the
hook.

"Don't do that!" Alaire cried, following him. "Wait! It mustn't
get out."

"Hello! Give me the Lewis ranch--quick--I've forgotten the
number." With his free hand Ed held his wife at a distance,
muttering harshly: "Get away now! I know what I'm doing. Get away-
-damn you!" He flung Alaire from him as she tried to snatch the
instrument out of his hands.

"What do you want of Lewis?" she panted.

"None of your business. You keep away or I'll hurt you."

"Ed!" she cried, "Are you out of your mind? You mustn't--"

Their voices were raised now, heedless of the two people In the
adjoining room.

"Keep your hands off, I tell you. Hello! Is that you, Tad?" Again
Austin thrust his wife violently aside. "Listen! I've just learned
that Dave Law and old man Jones have crossed over to dig up
Ricardo's body. Yes, to-night! They're over there now--be back
inside of an hour."

Alaire leaned weakly against the table, her frightened eyes fixed
upon the speaker. Even yet she could not fully grasp the meaning
of her husband's behavior and tried to put aside those fears that
were distracting her. Perhaps, after all, she told herself, Ed was
taking his own way to--

"Yes! They aim to discover how he was killed and all about it.
Sure! I suppose they found out where he was buried. They crossed
at my pumping-plant, and they'll be back with the body to-night,
if they haven't already--" The speaker's voice broke, his hand was
shaking so that he could scarcely retain his hold upon the
telephone. "How the hell do I know?" he chattered. "It's up to
you. You've got a machine--"

"ED!" cried the wife. She went toward him on weak, unsteady feet,
but she halted as the voice of Longorio cut in sharply:

"What's this I hear? Ricardo Guzman's body?" Husband and wife
turned. The open double-door to the living-room framed the tall
figure of the Mexican general.




XIX

RANGERS


Longorio stared first at the huddled, perspiring man beside the
telephone and then at the frightened woman. "Is that the truth?"
he demanded, harshly.

"Yes," Austin answered. "They are bringing the body to this side.
You know what that means."

"Did you know this?" The general turned upon Alaire. Of the four
he was the least excited.

From the background Paloma quavered: "You told us Ricardo was not
dead, so--it is all right. There is no--harm done."

A brief silence ensued, then Longorio shrugged. "Who knows? Let us
hope that he suffered no harm on Mexican soil. That would be
serious, indeed; yes, very serious, for I have given my word to
your government. This--David Law--" he pronounced the name
carefully, but with a strange, foreign accent--"he is a reckless
person to defy the border regulations. It is a grave matter to
invade foreign territory on such a mission." Longorio again bent
his brilliant eyes upon Alaire. "I see that you are concerned for
his safety. You would not desire him to come to trouble, eh? He
has done you favors; he is your friend, as I am. Well"--a
mirthless smile exposed his splendid white teeth--"we must think
of that. Now I will bid you good night."

"Where are you going?" demanded Miss Jones.

"To the river, and then to Romero. I may be needed, for those men
of mine are stupid fellows and there is danger of a
misunderstanding. In the dark anything may happen. I should like
to meet this David Law; he is a man of my own kind." Turning to
"Young Ed," he said: "There is reason for haste, and a horse moves
slowly. Would you do me the favor, if you have an automobile--"

"No! I won't!" Ed declared. "I don't want to see the Rio Grande
to-night. I won't be involved--"

"But you are already involved. Come! There is no time to waste,
and I have something to say to you. You will drive me to the
river, and my horse will remain here until I return for him."

There was no mistaking the command in Longorio's tone; the master
of Las Palmas rose as if under compulsion. He took his hat, and
the two men left the room.

"Oh, my God!" Paloma gasped. "They'll be in time, and so will the
Lewis gang."

"Quick! Ed will take his runabout--we'll follow in my car." Alaire
fled to make herself ready. A few moments later she looked out
from her window and saw the headlights of Ed's runabout flash down
the driveway to the road; then she and Paloma rushed to the garage
where the touring-car stood.

"They'll never expect us to follow them"--Alaire tried to speak
hopefully--"and we'll drive without lights. Maybe we'll get there
in time, after all." As the machine rolled out through the gate
she elaborated the half-formed plan that had come to her: "The
brush is thick along the river; we can leave the car hidden and
steal up to the pump-house. When we hear the boat coming maybe we
can call out in time to warn your father."

"The moon is rising," Paloma half sobbed. "They'll be sure to see
us. Do you think we're ahead of Tad Lewis?"

"Oh yes. He hasn't had time to get here yet, but--he'll come fast
when he starts. This is the only plan I can think of."

Alaire drove as swiftly as she dared, following the blurred streak
of gray that was the road, and taking the bumps with utter
recklessness. Already the yellow rim of the moon was peering over
the horizon to her right, and by its light she found the road that
turned abruptly toward the Rio Grande, a mile or more distant. The
black mud from the last heavy rain had hardened; the ruts in this
side road were deep, and the car leaped and plunged, flinging its
occupants from side to side. Ahead loomed the dark ridge of the
river thickets, a dense rampart of mesquite, ebony, and coma, with
here and there a taller alamo or hackberry thrusting itself
skyward. But even before they were sheltered from the moonlight
Paloma saw the lights of another automobile approaching along the
main-traveled highway behind them--the lights, evidently, of Tad
Lewis's machine. A moment later Alaire's car drove into the black
shadows, but, fearing to switch on her headlights, she felt her
way cautiously between the walls of foliage until at her right
another opening showed, like a narrow arroyo, diverging from the
one they followed. Into this she swerved, regardless of the fact
that it was half grown up with brush. Thorny branches swept the
sides of the machine; rank, dew-soaked grass rose to the height of
the tonneau. The car came to a jolting pause, then the motor
ceased its purring, and the two women sat motionless, listening
for the rattle of the on-coming machine. It had been a short,
swift, exciting ride. "Young Ed's" runabout could not be many
minutes ahead of them.

Alaire knew the Tad Lewis car, an old-style, cheap affair, which
advertised its mechanical imperfections by a loud clashing of
gears and a noisy complaint of loose parts; therefore, when the
leafy canon walls behind her hiding-place were brilliantly
illuminated and a car stole silently past at low speed, she seized
Paloma by the arm and whispered:

"That's not Lewis."

"Who is it? It can't be Ed."

"No, he and Longorio are ahead of us. It's another motor
entirely."

The women got out, then breasted the high grass and brambles
between their hiding-place and the pump-house road. As soon as
they were back in the trail they made all possible speed,
speculating meanwhile upon the mystery of the unknown car.
Emerging into the clearing which surrounded the power-plant, they
discovered the machine in question standing dark and deserted in
the shadows. Evidently the driver, whoever he was, well knew what
he was about, and had not blundered upon this place by accident. A
hundred yards away they could now see the ghostly Rio Grande, its
saffron surface faintly silvered by the low moon; lights gleamed
from the windows of Morales's house. In the distance the vague
outlines of the Mexican shore were resolving themselves, and far
beyond winked the evidence that some belated citizens of Romero
were still awake.

Paloma had brought with her the long-barreled Winchester rifle,
and this she clutched nervously as she and Alaire stood
whispering. Conditions were favorable for an approach to the pump-
house itself, for two ridges of earth, perhaps eight feet high,
thrown up like parallel furrows from a giant plow, marked the
beginning of the irrigation ditch, and in the shadow of these the
women worked their way forward, unobserved. They had nearly
reached their goal when out into the clearing behind them, with
metallic rattle and clang, burst another automobile, and Paloma
whispered, excitedly:

"There's the Lewis outfit at last."

In the Lewis car were several men. They descended hurriedly, and
when one of them ran around the front of the car to turn off its
lights both women saw that he carried a rifle. Evidently Tad Lewis
had come prepared for desperate measures.

A small door gave entrance to the boiler-room, and into the lock
of this Mrs. Austin fitted a key; the next moment she and Paloma
were safely inside. They found themselves in utter darkness now,
with a smooth brick floor beneath their feet and a strong odor of
oil and burnt fuel in their nostrils.

Alaire was agreeably surprised in Paloma Jones, for, although the
girl was wrought to a pitch of hysterical excitement, she had,
nevertheless, retained her wits; nor had she faltered in the
slightest. It was evident that the fighting blood of her father
was aroused in her, for she said, calmly:

"When it gets light enough to shoot, I'm going to get Tad Lewis."

"Don't act too quickly," cautioned Alaire. "Perhaps your father
and Dave have come and gone. Anyhow, we can warn them just as well
by firing into the air."

In reply to this suggestion Paloma merely muttered something under
her breath.

The brief night ride had given Alaire time in which to recover
from her first apprehensions, and now she was surprised at her own
coolness. Ed's behavior had shocked and horrified her; she was
still half paralyzed at his treachery; nevertheless, her mind was
clear, and she was determined to avert a tragedy if possible. She
knew only too well what would happen when Blaze Jones and Dave Law
encountered the Lewis gang; the presence of Longorio's soldiers
merely made more certain the outcome of that meeting. The general
was furious; it was plain that he would not tolerate this
expedition, the avowed purpose of which was to prove him a liar.
It would make but little difference, therefore, whether the quest
for Ricardo Guzman's body had been successful or not: even the
fact that this was American soil would not deter Longorio from
violent action, for the Rio Grande was no real boundary, and this
part of Texas was as truly Mexican as that other river-bank which
lay two hundred yards distant.

A confusion of such thoughts were racing through Alaire's mind as
she felt her way out of the boiler-room and into that part of the
building where the pumping machinery stood. Dusty, cobwebbed
windows let in a faint ghost-glow of moonlight, but prevented
clear observation of anything outside; Alaire's fumbling fingers
found the latch of the front door and began to lift it, when some
one spoke, just outside the building.

"What did you discover?" inquired a voice which neither woman
recognized. Paloma clutched blindly for her companion; the two
eavesdroppers stood rooted in their tracks. The pounding of their
hearts sounded loudly. Since the building was little more than a
wooden shell, they could plainly hear the answer:

"The house is full of Greasers. I can't tell who they are."

A third man spoke, this time in Spanish. "That was Tad Lewis who
just came, senor."

There followed some whispered words indistinguishable to the
listeners, then a rustle of bodies moving through the tall grass
and weeds.

Paloma placed her lips close to Alaire's ear. "Who are those
people?" she breathed.

"I don't know. They must be the ones who came in that strange
automobile."

Paloma chattered viciously: "Everybody in Texas is here. I wish
we'd thought to scatter tacks behind us."

Cautiously they swung the door back and looked out. The open space
along the river-bank was leveled by the moonlight; from Morales's
house, to their right, came the sound of voices. The women waited.

A few moments, then a number of men appeared. Paloma judged there
were at least a dozen, but she was too excited to count them. As
they came straggling toward the pump-house one of them called
back:

"Morales! Put out your damned lights," Both women recognized Tad
Lewis as the speaker.

Alaire had stubbornly refused to charge her husband with any
active share in this evil business, but her faith in Ed suddenly
vanished when she heard him say:

"Hush! You're making too much noise. You'd better scatter out,
too, for there's no telling where they'll land." Alaire leaned
weakly against the door. "I'm going to leave, and let you-all
attend to the rest," he was saying. But Tad Lewis halted him as he
turned from the group.

"Where are you going, Ed? You left your car back yonder by the
road. I almost ran into it."

"Eh? What are you talking about? My car is over by Morales's
house."

"Senor Austin is in a great hurry," sneered some one in Spanish.
"Once more he leaves all of the fighting to his friends."

"That's Adolfo Urbina," panted Paloma. "I know him." Stung by this
open charge of cowardice, Austin began a voluble defense, but in
the midst of it General Longorio addressed him, sharply:

"You will stay here, senor. Nobody leaves this place."

"I told you I wouldn't be a party to the business," Ed declared,
hotly. "You forced me to come in the first place--"

"Yes! And now I force you to stay."

Longorio's stand appeared to please Lewis, who chimed in with the
words: "That's right, Ed. You've got to stick, for once in your
life."

"What do you mean, you nearly ran into my car back yonder?" Austin
asked, after a moment.

"Ain't that your machine yonder by the thicket?" inquired Lewis.
"If it ain't, whose is it?" As no one answered, he started in the
direction he had indicated; but at that moment a man came running
from the riverbank, crying, softly:

"Look out! They come."

"I'm going to shoot," Paloma Jones gasped, but Alaire, who once
again heard the sound of whispering in the shadows just outside
their hiding-place, managed to restrain her companion. It was well
that she succeeded, for even as Paloma raised her weapon a man
passed swiftly by the crack of the half-open door and scarcely ten
feet beyond the muzzle of the rifle. He was followed by three
others.

The first of the new-comers, acting as spokesman for his party,
stepped out into the moonlight and cried, loudly: "Hello, men!
What's goin' on here?" It was an American voice; it had a broad,
slow, Texas drawl.

The group of plotters turned, there was a startled murmur, then
Tad Lewis answered:

"Hello! Who are you? What do you want?"

"I reckon we must have got off the road," announced the stranger.
Then he peered out across the river: "Say! Ain't that a skiff
coming yonder?" he inquired.

"Well, it don't look like a steamboat." Lewis laughed,
disagreeably. "We're havin' a little party of our own. I reckon
you fellows had better beat it. Understand?"

The outposts that had been sent to cover the bank in both
directions were now coming in. Through the stillness of the night
there sounded the thump of oar-locks. Seeing that the stranger did
not seem to take his hint, Lewis raised his voice menacingly:

"That's your road back yonder. It's a right good road, and I'd
advise you to travel it, fast."

But this suggestion was also ignored; in fact, it appeared to
amuse the man addressed, for he, too, laughed. He turned, and the
women noticed that he carried a short saddle-gun. They saw, also,
that at least one of the men at his back was similarly armed.

"Now, what's the hurry?" The stranger was chuckling. Suddenly he
raised his voice and called, loudly: "Hello, Dave! Is that you-
all?"

The answer floated promptly back: "Hello, Cap! Sure it's us."

"Have you got him?"

It was Blaze Jones's voice which answered this time: "You bet!"

Paloma Jones was trembling now. She clung to Alaire, crying,
thankfully: "It's the Rangers! The Rangers!" Then she broke away
and ran out into the moonlight, trailing her absurd firearm after
her.

"Now, boys," the Ranger captain was saying, "I know 'most every
one of you, and we ain't going to have the least bit of trouble
over this thing, are we? I reckon you-all are friends of Ricardo
Guzman, and you just couldn't wait to find out about him, eh?"

Alaire, who had followed Paloma, was close enough now to recognize
the two Guzman boys as members of the Ranger party. Lewis and his
men had drawn together at the first alarm; Longorio's Mexicans had
gathered about their leader. The entire situation had changed in a
moment, and the Ranger captain was in control of it.

Soon Dave Law and Blaze Jones came up over the river-bank; they
paused, stricken with surprise at finding a score of people where
they had expected no more than four.

Blaze was the first to speak. "What the hell?" he cried. He peered
near-sightedly from one to the other; then his huge bulk shook
with laughter: "Say, do my glasses magnify, or is this an Odd-
Fellows meetin'?"

"Dad! Oh, Dad!" Paloma scurried to him and flung herself into his
arms.

"Lord of mercy, kid!" the father exclaimed. "Why, you'd ought to
be home and abed, long ago. You'll catch your death of cold. Is
that gun loaded."

Dave Law was even more amazed than his companion. His first
glimpse of the waiting figures had warned him that something had
gone wrong, and, therefore, he did not stop to ask himself how Tad
Lewis and Longorio could have learned of this affair, or what
could have brought Alaire and Ed Austin to the scene. Recovering
from his first surprise, he took a position beside his superior
officer.

Captain Evans did not seem at all troubled by the disparity in
numbers. One Ranger, or two at the most, had always been
sufficient to quell a Texan disturbance; now that there were three
of them, he felt equal to an invasion of Mexican soil, if
necessary. In consequence he relaxed his watchful vigilance, and
to Dave he drawled:

"We've got most of the leading citizens of the county, and I
reckon somebody in the outfit will be able to identify Guzman."

"There's no trouble about that, sir. We found him. Pedro and Raoul
can make sure." The sons of Ricardo Guzman stepped forward
promptly, and Law waved them toward the boat landing, where the
two helpers were waiting with Ricardo's remains.

Despite the Ranger captain's easy assumption of command, the
strain of the situation had not subsided, and Longorio drew swift
attention to himself when he said:

"It is fortunate that I chanced to learn of this matter. You have
done me a great service, Senor Law, for I came to Romero purposely
to examine into the death of this unfortunate man. But I could
learn nothing; nobody knew anything whatever about the matter, and
so I became convinced that it amounted to little. Now--behold! I
discover that I was deceived. Or--perhaps there still may be a
mistake."

Blaze Jones thrust his daughter aside and advanced toward the
speaker. "There's no mistake," he declared, belligerently. "I
don't make mistakes when I go grave-robbin'. Don Ricardo was shot
by your men. He had five thousand dollars on him, or he should
have had, and he was an American citizen. Your Colonel Blanco
covered the body, but he'll have a hell of a job coverin' the
facts. It's time we came to a showdown with your murderin' outfit,
and I aim to see if we've got a government in this country."

"Heaven guided my hand," devoutly breathed the general. "It is
regrettable that you used this means when a word to me would have
served the purpose, for--it is no trivial matter to desecrate a
Mexican graveyard. My country, too, has a government. An officer
of the State of Texas, under arms, has crossed the Rio Grande.
What does that mean?"

Captain Evans had a sense of humor; Longorio's ominous words
amused him. "Say, general, it ain't the first time," he chortled.
"And you're an officer, too, ain't you? You're in Texas at this
minute, and I'll bet if I frisked you I'd find that you was under
arms." The Mexican understood English sufficiently well to grasp
the significance of these words. After a moment's consideration,
therefore, he modified his threatening tone.

"But my mission was friendly. I had no criminal purpose," he said,
mildly. "However--perhaps one offense condones the other. At any
rate, we must have no international complications. There is a more
practical side to the matter: if Don Ricardo Guzman met his death
in Mexico there will be a rigid investigation, I assure you."

Evans agreed. "That's fair! And I'll make a bargain with you: you
keep still and so'll we. We never aimed for this affair to get
out, anyhow. I reckon these men"--he indicated Lewis and his
followers--"ain't liable to talk much."

The two Guzman boys, greatly moved, returned to announce that they
had indeed identified their father's body, and Longorio could not
well refuse to accept their evidence.

"Very well," said he. "I am indebted to you. Since there is
nothing more to be said, apparently, I will return to Romero."
With a bow to Mrs. Austin, who had silently watched the play of
these opposing motives, he turned away, and Tad Lewis followed
him.

But Dave Law had recognized Adolfo Urbina in the crowd, and,
stepping forward, disarmed him, saying:

"Adolfo, there's a warrant for you, so I'll just take you in."

For a moment Adolfo was inclined to resist, but, thinking better
of it, he yielded with bad grace, bitterly regretting the
curiosity which had prompted him to remain to the end of this
interesting affair.

Tad Lewis gave him some comfort. "Never mind, Adolfo," he said.
"They can't prove anything on you, and I'll go your bail. Ed
Austin knows where you was the day that stock was stole." He and
his two remaining men moved toward their automobile, and a moment
later the vehicle went clattering away up the thicket road.

So ended the attempt to foil the return of Ricardo Guzman's body
to Texas soil.

When Alaire came to look for her husband he was gone.




XX

SUPERSTITIONS AND CERTAINTIES


The sensation caused by Ricardo Guzman's disappearance was as
nothing to that which followed the recovery of his body. By the
next afternoon it was known from Mexico to the Canadian border
that the old ranchman had been shot by Mexican soldiers in Romero.
It was reported that a party of Americans had invaded foreign soil
and snatched Ricardo's remains from under the nose of General
Longorio. But there all reliable information ceased. Just how the
rescue had been effected, by whom it had been done, what reasons
had prompted it, were a mystery. With the first story the
newspapers printed a terse telegram, signed by Captain Evans and
addressed to the Governor of Texas, which read:

"Ranger force crossed Rio Grande and brought back the body of
Ricardo Guzman."

This message created tremendous enthusiasm, for the Texas Rangers
have ever stood for prompt and decisive action; but two hours
after the publication of this despatch there came a sharp inquiry
from Washington, and on the heels of that the State House at
Austin denied the receipt of any such message.

When this denial was in turn made public, the newspapers demanded
to know who had performed this sensational exploit. One rumor had
it that the sons of Ricardo Guzman had risked their lives to
insure their father Christian burial. This was amplified by a
touching pen-picture of the rancher's weeping family waiting at
the bank of the Rio Grande, and an affecting account of the grief
of the beautiful Guzman girls. It mattered not that there were no
daughters.

In other quarters the expedition was credited to members of a
secret order to which Ricardo had belonged; from a third source
came a statement that the Guzman family had hired a band of
Mexicans to exhume the body, so that proof of death might be
sufficient to satisfy an insurance company in which the rancher
had held a policy. Even at Jonesville there were conflicting
rumors.

But, whatever the facts of the rescue, it was generally recognized
that the result had been to bring on a crisis in the affairs of
the two nations. People declared that since the outrage was now
proven the next move was the duty of the State Department at
Washington. Therefore, when several days passed and nothing was
done, a wide-spread feeling of indignation grew. What mattered
these diplomatic communications between the two governments? it
was asked. Why wait for another investigation by General Longorio?

Strong influences, however, were at work to prevent that very
outcome for which the people of Texas prayed. During the delay
there arose a report that Ricardo Guzman had borne an evil
reputation, and that he had been so actively associated with the
Rebel cause as to warrant punishment by the Federal government.
Moreover, a legal question as to his American citizenship was
raised--a question which seemed to have important bearing upon the
case.

Public interest is short-lived; few living men can hold it more
than a day or two, and it reckons no dead man worthy of more than
an obituary notice. Other Mexican offenses, equally grave, had
failed to stir the Administration to definite action; the death of
this obscure border ranchman did not seem to weigh very heavily in
Washington. Thus in the course of time the Guzman incident was in
a fair way of being officially forgotten and forgiven.

Of course the people of Texas did not forget, nor did those who
had personally known Ricardo forgive. Dave Law, for instance, felt
bitter over the matter, for he had counted upon prompt and
definite results. A little pressure, properly applied, would have
wrung the truth from Colonel Blanco and fastened some measure of
guilt upon the men who had actually arranged the murder. Dave did
not doubt Tad Lewis's part in it, but there was only one source
from which pressure could be brought, and when this failed he
found his further efforts blocked. There remained to him only the
consolation of knowing that he had in a measure squared his
account with old Ricardo.

But there were several persons who felt intense relief at the
course events had taken, and among these was Alaire Austin. In the
days following that midnight expedition she had had ample time in
which to meditate upon her husband's actions, "Young Ed" had taken
advantage of the confusion to slip out of the crowd and escape in
his roadster, and when Alaire arrived at Las Palmas she had found
that he was gone, leaving behind no word as to when he would
return. It seemed probable that he had fled to San Antonio, there
to remain until interest in the Guzman matter had abated. If Ed
was relieved to escape the immediate consequences of his
connection with the affair, his wife was no less thankful for his
absence, since it left her free to think and to plan. Their
relations were becoming constantly more difficult; she realized
that it was impossible for her to go on in this way much longer.
Before leaving Ed had again rifled the safe, thus disregarding for
a second time his explicit agreement with his wife. Of course, he
was welcome to whatever money he needed, even in excess of his
allowance; but his act showed his weak sense of honor and
strengthened Alaire's conviction that he was in every way rapidly
deteriorating. As yet she could not believe him really wicked at
heart--he had many qualities which were above the average--nor
could she convince herself that he had been criminally involved in
Tad Lewis's schemes. And yet, what other explanation could there
be? Ed's behavior had been extraordinary; his evident terror at
news of Dave Law's expedition, his conversation with Tad Lewis
over the telephone, his subsequent actions at the river, all
seemed to indicate that he had some vital interest in maintaining
the mystery of Guzman's death. What could it be?

Suspicions like these were extremely disturbing. In spite of
herself Alaire began to think more seriously about that separation
which Ed had so frequently offered her. Her whole nature, it is
true, recoiled at the thought of divorce; it was a thing utterly
repugnant to her sentiment and her creed--a thing that stood for
notoriety, gossip, scandal. Deep in her heart she felt that
divorce was wicked, for marriage to her had always meant a sacred
and unbreakable bond. And yet there seemed to be no alternative.
She wished Ed would go away--leave her quietly and for ever, so
that she might live out her empty life in seclusion--but that, of
course, he would never do.

Such longings were not strangers to Alaire; they were old and
persistent enemies; but of late the prospect of a loveless,
childless future was growing more and more unbearable. Even her
day dreams failed to give their customary relief; those imaginary
figures with whom she took counsel were strangely unresponsive.

She had told Paloma Jones about her dream-children, but she had
not confessed the existence of another and a far more intimate
creature of her brain--one who occupied the place Ed Austin should
have held. There was such a person, however, and Alaire called him
her dream husband. Now this man's physical aspect was never long
the same; it altered according to her changing ideals or to the
impression left by new acquaintances; nevertheless, he was in some
ways the most real and the most tangible of all her pale romantic
fancies. No one who has watched a solitary child at play can doubt
that it sees and hears playmates invisible to others. Alaire
Austin, in the remotest depths of her being, was still a child. Of
late her prince had assumed new characteristics and a new form. He
was no longer any one of the many shapes he had been; he was more
like the spirit of the out-of-doors--a strong-limbed, deep-
chested, sun-bronzed creature, with a strain of gipsy blood that
called to hers. He was moody, yet tender, roughly masculine, and
yet possessed of the gentleness and poetry of a girl. He was
violent tempered; he was brave; he rode a magnificent bay mare
that worshiped him, as did all animals.

During one of these introspective periods Alaire telephoned Dave
Law, arguing to herself that she must learn more about her
husband's connection with the Lewis gang. Dave arrived even sooner
than she had expected. She made him dine with her, and they spent
the evening on the dim-lit gallery. In the course of their
conversation Alaire discovered that Dave, too, had a hidden side
of his nature; that he possessed an imagination, and with it a
quaint, whimsical, exploratory turn of mind which enabled him to
talk interestingly of many things and many places. On this
particular evening he was anything but the man of iron she had
known--until she ventured to speak of Ed. Then he closed up like a
trap. He was almost gruff in his refusal to say a word about her
husband.

Because of Ed's appropriation of the ranch cash, Alaire found it
necessary a few days later to go to the bank, and, feeling the
need of exercise, she rode her horse Montrose. When her errands
had been attended to, she suddenly decided to call on Paloma
Jones. It was years since she had voluntarily done such a thing;
the very impulse surprised her.

Paloma, it happened, was undergoing that peculiar form of feminine
torture known as a "fitting"; but insecurely basted, pinned, and
tucked as she was, she came flying down to the gate to meet her
visitor.

Alaire was introduced to Mrs. Strange, the dressmaker, a large,
acidulous brunette, with a mouthful of pins; and then, when Paloma
had given herself once more into the seamstress's hands, the two
friends gossiped.

Since Mrs. Strange was the first capable dressmaker who had ever
come to Jonesville, Paloma had closed her eyes and plunged with
reckless extravagance. Now the girl insisted upon a general
exhibition of her new wardrobe, a sort of grand fashion review,
for the edification of her caller, in the course of which she
tried on all her dresses.

Paloma was petite and well proportioned, and the gowns were
altogether charming. Alaire was honest in her praise, and Paloma's
response was one of whole-hearted pleasure. The girl beamed. Never
before had she been so admired, never until this moment had she
adored a person as she adored Mrs. Austin, whose every suggestion
as to fit and style was acted upon, regardless of Mrs. Strange.

"I don't know what Dad will say when he gets the bill for these
dresses," Paloma confessed.

"Your father is a mighty queer man," Mrs. Strange observed. "I
haven't so much as laid eyes on him."

Paloma nodded. "Yes. And he's getting more peculiar all the time;
I can't make out what ails him."

"Where is he now?" asked Alaire.

"Heaven knows! Out in the barn or under the house." Taking
advantage of the dressmaker's momentary absence from the room,
Paloma continued in a whisper: "I wish you'd talk to Dad and see
what you make of him. He's absolutely--queer. Mrs. Strange seems
to have a peculiar effect on him. Why, it's almost as if--"

"What?"

"Well, I suppose I'm foolish, but--I'm beginning to believe in
spells. You know, Mrs. Strange's husband is a sort of--
necromancer."

"How silly!"

There was no further opportunity for words, as the woman
reappeared at that instant; but a little later Alaire went in
search of Blaze, still considerably mystified. As she neared the
farm buildings she glimpsed a man's figure hastily disappearing
into the barn. The figure bore a suspicious resemblance to Blaze
Jones, yet when she followed he was nowhere to be seen. Now this
was curious, for Texas barns are less pretentious than those of
the North, and this one was little more than a carriage-house and
a shelter for agricultural implements.

"Mr. Jones!" Alaire called. She repeated Blaze's name several
times; then something stirred. The door of a harness closet opened
cautiously, and out of the blackness peered Paloma's father. He
looked more owlish than ever behind his big, gold-rimmed
spectacles. "What in the world are you doing in there?" she cried.

Blaze emerged, blinking. He was dusty and perspiring.

"Hello, Miz Austin!" he saluted her with a poor assumption of
breeziness. "I was fixin' some harness, but I'm right glad to see
you."

Alaire regarded him quizzically. "What made you hide?" she asked.

"Hide? Who, me?"

"I saw you dodge in here like a--gopher."

Blaze confessed. "I reckon I've got the willies. Every woman I see
looks like that dam' dressmaker."

"Paloma was telling me about you. Why do you hate her so?"

"I don't know's I hate her, but her and her husband have put a
jinx on me. They're the worst people I ever see, Miz Austin."

"You don't really believe in such things?"

Blaze dusted off a seat for his visitor, saying: "I never did till
lately, but now I'm worse than a plantation nigger. I tell you
there's things in this world we don't sabe. I wish you'd get
Paloma to fire her. I've tried and failed. I wish you'd tell her
those dresses are rotten."

"But they're very nice; they're lovely; and I've just been
complimenting her. Now what has this woman done to you?"

It seemed impossible that a man of Blaze Jones's character could
actually harbor crude superstitions, and yet there was no
mistaking his earnestness when he said:

"I ain't sure whether she's to blame, or her husband, but
misfortune has folded me to herself."

"How?"

"Well, I'm sick."

"You don't look it."

"I don't exactly feel it, either, but I am. I don't sleep good, my
heart's actin' up, I've got rheumatism, my stomach feels like I'd
swallowed something alive--"

"You're smoking too much," Alaire affirmed, with conviction.

But skepticism aroused Blaze's indignation. With elaborate sarcasm
he retorted: "I reckon that's why my best team of mules run away
and dragged me through a ten-acre patch of grass burrs--on my
belly, eh? It's a wonder I wasn't killed. I reckon I smoked so
much that I give a tobacco heart to the best three-year-old bull
in my pasture! Well, I smoked him to death, all right. Probably it
was nicotine poisonin' that killed twenty acres of my cotton, too;
and maybe if I'd cut out Bull Durham I'd have floated that bond
issue on the irrigation ditch. But I was wedded to cigarettes, so
my banks are closin' down on me. Sure! That's what a man gets for
smokin'."

"And do you attribute all these misfortunes to Paloma's
dressmaker?"

The man nodded gloomily. "That ain't half! Everything goes wrong.
I'm scared to pack a weapon for fear I'll injure myself. Why, I've
carried a bowie-knife in my bootleg ever since I was a babe in
arms, you might say; but the other day I jabbed myself with it and
nearly got blood-poisonin'. The very first time I ever laid eyes
on this man and his wife a great misfortune overtook me, and ever
since they come to Jonesville I've had a close squeeze to make a
live of it. This fellow Strange, with his fortune-tellin' and his
charms and his conjures, has hocus-pocussed the whole
neighborhood. He's gettin' rich off of the Mexicans. He knows more
secrets than a priest; he tells 'em whether their sweethearts love
'em, whether a child is goin' to be a boy or a girl, and how to
invest their money."

"He is nothing more than a circus fakir, Mr. Jones."

"Yes'm! Just the same, these Greasers'd vote him into the
legislature if he asked 'em. Why, he knows who fetched back
Ricardo Guzman's body! He told me so."

"Really?" Alaire looked up quickly, then the smile left her face.
After a moment she said, "Perhaps he could tell me something that
I want to know?"

"Now don't you get him started," Blaze cautioned, hastily, "or
he'll put a spell on you like he did on me."

"I want to know what Ed had to do with the Guzman affair."

Blaze shook his head slowly. "Well, he's mixed up somehow with
Lewis. Dave thinks Tad was at the bottom of the killin', and he
hoped to prove it on him; but our government won't do anything,
and he's stumped for the time bein'. I don't know any more about
Ed's dealin's than you do, Miz Austin: all I know is that I got a
serpent in my household and I can't get shed of her. I've got a
lapful of troubles of my own. I've ordered Paloma to let that
woman go, but, pshaw! It's like a bowlegged man drivin' a shoat--
there ain't any headin' Paloma off when her mind's made up. You
mark what I say, that female spider'll sew venom into those
dresses. I never seen a woman with a mustache that was any good.
Look here!" Blaze drew a well-thumbed pack of playing-cards from
his pocket. "Shuffle 'em, and I'll prove what I say. If I don't
turn up a dark woman three times out of five I'll eat that saddle-
blanket, dry."

Alaire shuffled the deck, and Blaze cut the cards. Sure enough, he
exposed the queen of spades.

"What did I tell you? There's the bearded lady herself! Now I'll
shuffle and you cut."

Alaire smilingly followed directions; she separated the deck into
three piles, after which Jones interpreted the oracle.

"You got a good fortune, Miz Austin. There's a light man comin' to
your house, danger, and--marriage. You're goin' to marry a light
man."

Alaire's laughter rang out unaffectedly. "Now you see how utterly
absurd it is."

"Maybe it is, and maybe it ain't." From another pocket Jones drew
a small volume entitled The Combination Fortune-Teller and
Complete Dictionary of Dreams. Alaire reached to take it, and the
book dropped to the floor; then, as she stooped, Blaze cried:
"Wait! Hit it three times on the floor and say, 'Money! Money!
Money!'"

As Alaire was running over the pages of the book, one of Blaze's
ranch-hands appeared in the door to ask him a question. When the
fellow had gone his employer rose and tiptoed after him; then he
spat through his crossed fingers in the direction the man had
taken.

"Now what does that mean?" Alaire inquired.

"Didn't you see? He's cross-eyed."

"This is too occult for me," she declared, rising. "But--I'm
interested in what you say about Mr. Strange. If the Mexicans tell
him so much, perhaps he can tell me something. I do hope you have
no more misfortunes."

"You stay to supper," Blaze urged, hospitably. "I'll be in as soon
as that tarantula's gone."

But Alaire declined. After a brief chat with Paloma she remounted
Montrose and prepared for the homeward ride. At the gate, however,
she met Dave Law on his new mare, and when Dave had learned the
object of her visit to Jonesville he insisted upon accompanying
her.

"You have enough money in those saddle-bags to tempt some of our
very best citizens," he told her. "If you don't mind, I'll just be
your bodyguard."

"Very well," she smiled; "but to make perfectly sure of our
safety, cross your fingers and spit."

"Eh?" Seeing the amusement in her eyes, he declared: "You've been
talking to Blaze. Well, last night I dreamed I was eating
chestnuts, and he told me I was due for a great good fortune. You
see, there's something in it, after all."

"And you must be the 'light man' I discovered in the cards. Blaze
declared you were coming to my house." They jogged along side by
side, and Law thanked his lucky stars for the encounter.

"Did Blaze tell you how he came to meet the Stranges?"

"No. He only said they had brought him bad luck from the start."

Dave grinned; then, in treacherous disregard of his promise to
Jones, he recounted the tale of that disastrous defeat on the
beach at Galveston. When he had finished the story, which he
ingeniously elaborated, Alaire was doubled over her saddle. It was
the first spontaneous laugh she had had for days, and it seemed to
banish her worries magically. Alaire was not of a melancholy
temperament; gaiety was natural to her, and it had required many
heartaches, many disappointments, to darken her blithe spirit.

Nor was Dave Law a person of the comic type; yet he was a gloom-
dispeller, and now that Alaire was beginning to know him better
she felt a certain happy restfulness in his company.

The ride was long, and the two proceeded leisurely, stopping now
and then to talk or to admire the banks of wild flowers beside the
road. No country is richer in spring blooms than is South Texas.
The cactus had nearly done blooming now, and its ever-listening
ears were absurdly warted with fruit; gorgeous carpets of
bluebonnets were spread beside the ditches, while the air above
was filled with thousands of yellow butterflies, like whirling,
wind-blown petals of the prickly-pear blossom. Montrose and
Montrosa enjoyed the journey also; it was just the mode of
traveling to please equine hearts, for there were plenty of
opportunities to nibble at the juicy grass and to drink at the
little pools. Then, too, there were mad, romping races during
which the riders laughed and shouted.

It was Law who finally discovered that they had somehow taken the
wrong road. The fact that Alaire had failed to notice this gave
him a sudden thrill. It aroused in his mind such a train of dizzy,
drunken speculations that for some time following the discovery he
jogged silently at his companion's side.

It was early dusk when they reached Las Palmas; it was nearly
midnight when Dave threw his leg across his saddle and started
home.

Alaire's parting words rang sweetly in his ears: "This has been
the pleasantest day I can remember."

The words themselves meant little, but Dave had caught a wistful
undertone in the speaker's voice, and fancied he had seen in her
eyes a queer, half-frightened expression, as of one just awakened.

Jose Sanchez had beheld Dave Law at the Las Palmas table twice
within a few days. He spent this evening laboriously composing a
letter to his friend and patron, General Luis Longorio.




XXI

AN AWAKENING


Time was when Phil Strange boasted that he and his wife had played
every fair-ground and seaside amusement-park from Coney Island to
Galveston. In his battered wardrobe-trunks were parts of old
costumes, scrapbooks of clippings, and a goodly collection of
lithographs, some advertising the supernatural powers of
"Professor Magi, Sovereign of the Unseen World," and others the
accomplishments of "Mlle. Le Garde, Renowned Serpent Enchantress."
In these gaudy portraits of "Magi the Mystic" no one would have
recognized Phil Strange. And even more difficult would it have
been to trace a resemblance between Mrs. Strange and the blond,
bushy-headed "Mlle. Le Garde" of the posters. Nevertheless, the
likenesses at one time had been considered not too flattering, and
Phil treasured them as evidences of imperishable distinction.

But the Stranges had tired of public life. For a long time the
wife had confessed to a lack of interest in her vocation which
amounted almost to a repugnance. Snake-charming, she had
discovered, was far from an ideal profession for a woman of
refinement. It possessed unpleasant features, and even such
euphemistic titles as "Serpent Enchantress" and "Reptilian
Mesmerist" failed to rob the calling of a certain odium, a
suggestion of vulgarity in the minds of the more discriminating.
This had become so distressing to Mrs. Strange's finer
sensibilities that she had voiced a yearning to forsake the
platform and pit for something more congenial, and finally she had
prevailed upon Phil to make a change.

The step had not been taken without misgivings, but a benign
Providence had watched over the pair. Mrs. Strange was a natural
seamstress, and luck had directed her and Phil to a community
which was not only in need of a good dressmaker, but peculiarly
ripe for the talents of a soothsayer. Phil, too, had intended to
embrace a new profession; but he had soon discovered that
Jonesville offered better financial returns to a man of his
accepted gifts than did the choicest of seaside concessions, and
therefore he had resumed his old calling under a slightly
different guise. Before long he acknowledged himself well pleased
with the new environment, for his wife was far happier in draping
dress goods upon the figures of her customers than in hanging
python folds about her own, and he found his own fame growing with
every day. His mediumistic gifts came into general demand. The
country people journeyed miles to consult him, and Blaze Jones's
statement that they confided in the fortune-teller as they would
have confided in a priest was scarcely an exaggeration. Phil did
indeed become the repository for confessions of many sorts.

Contrary to Blaze's belief, however, Strange was no Prince of
Darkness, and took little joy in some of the secrets forced upon
him. Phil was a good man in his way--so conscientious that certain
information he acquired weighed him down with a sense of
unpleasant responsibility. Chancing to meet Dave Law one day, he
determined to relieve himself of at least one troublesome burden.

But Dave was not easily approachable. He met the medium's
allusions to the occult with contemptuous amusement, nor would he
consent to a private "reading," Strange grew almost desperate
enough to speak the ungarnisned truth.

"You'd better pay a little attention to me," he grieved; "I've got
a message to you from the 'Unseen World.'"

"Charges 'collect,' I reckon," the Ranger grinned.

Strange waved aside the suggestion. "It came unbidden and I pass
it on for what it's worth." As Dave turned away he added, hastily,
"It's about a skeleton in the chaparral, and a red-haired woman."

Dave stopped; he eyed the speaker curiously. "Go on," said he.

But a public street, Strange explained, was no place for psychic
discussions. If Dave cared to come to his room, where the
surroundings were favorable to thought transference, and where
Phil's spirit control could have a chance to make itself felt,
they would interrogate the "Unseen Forces" further. Dave agreed.
When they were alone in the fortune-telling "parlor," he sat back
while the medium closed his eyes and prepared to explore the
Invisible. After a brief delay Phil began:

"I see a great many things--that woman I told you about, and three
men. One of 'em is you, the other two is Mexicans. You're at a
water-hole in the mesquite. Now there's a shooting scrape; I see
the body of a dead man." The speaker became silent; evidently his
cataleptic vision was far from perfect. But he soon began to drone
again. "Now I behold a stranger at the same water-hole. He's
alone--he's looking for something. He rides in circles. He's off
his horse and bending over--What? A skeleton! Yes, it's the
skeleton of one of them other Mexicans." Strange's voice became
positively sepulchral as his spirit control took fuller possession
of his earthly shell and as his visions resolved themselves into
clearer outline. "See! He swears an oath to avenge. And now--the
scene changes. Everything dissolves. I'm in a mansion; and the
red-haired woman comes toward me. Over her head floats that
skeleton--"

Dave broke in crisply. "All right! Let's get down to cases. What's
on your mind, Strange?"

The psychic simulated a shudder--a painful contortion, such as any
one might suffer if rudely jerked out of the spirit world.

"Eh? What was I--? There! You've broke the connection," he
declared. "Did I tell you anything?"

"No. But evidently you can."

"I'm sorry. They never come back."

"Rot!"

Phil was hurt, indignant. With some stiffness he explained the
danger of interrupting a seance of this sort, but Law remained
obdurate.

"You can put over that second-sight stuff with the Greasers," he
declared, sharply, "but not with me. So, Jose Sanchez has been to
see you and you want to warn me. Is that it?"

"I don't know any such party," Strange protested. He eyed his
caller for a moment; then with an abrupt change of manner he
complained: "Say, Bo! What's the matter with you? I've got a
reputation to protect, and I do things my own way. I'm getting set
to slip you something, and you try to make me look like a sucker.
Is that any way to act?"

"I prefer to talk to you when your eyes are open. I know all
about--"

"You don't know nothing about anything," snapped the other.
"Jose's got it in for Mrs. Austin."

"You said you didn't know him."

"Well, I don't. He's never been to see me in his life, but--his
sweetheart has. Rosa Morales comes regular."

"Rosa! Jose's sweetheart!"

"Yes. Her and Jose have joined out together since you shot
Panfilo, and they're framing something."

"What, for instance?"

The fortune-teller hesitated. "I only wish I knew," he said,
slowly. "It looks to me like a killing."

Dave nodded. "Probably is. Jose would like to get me, and of
course the girl--"

"Oh, they don't aim to get you. You ain't the one they're after."

"No? Who then?"

"I don't know nothing definite. In this business, you understand,
a fellow has to put two and two together. Sometimes I have to make
one and two count four. I have to tell more'n I'm told; I have to
shoot my game on the wing, for nobody tells me any more'n they
dast. All the same, I'm sure Jose ain't carving no epitaph for
you. From what I've dug out of Rosa, he's acting for a third
party--somebody with pull and a lot of coin--but who it is I don't
know. Anyhow, he's cooking trouble for the Austins, and I want to
stand from under."

Now that the speaker had dropped all pretense, he answered Dave's
questions without evasion and told what he knew. It was not much,
to Dave's way of thinking, but it was enough to give cause for
thought, and when the men finally parted it was with the
understanding that Strange would promptly communicate any further
intelligence on this subject that came his way.

On the following day Dave's duties called him to Brownsville,
where court was in session. He had planned to leave by the morning
train; but as he continued to meditate over Strange's words he
decided that, before going, he ought to advise Alaire of the
fellow's suspicions in order that she might discharge Jose Sanchez
and in other ways protect herself against his possible spite.
Since the matter was one that could not well be talked over by
telephone, Dave determined to go in person to Las Palmas that
evening. Truth to say, he was hungry to see Alaire. By this time
he had almost ceased to combat the feeling she aroused in him, and
it was in obedience to an impulse far stronger than friendly
anxiety that he hired a machine and, shortly after dark, took the
river road.

The Fates are malicious jades. They delight in playing ill-natured
pranks upon us. Not content with spinning and measuring and
cutting the threads of our lives to suit themselves, they must
also tangle the skein, causing us to cut capers to satisfy their
whims.

At no time since meeting Alaire had Dave Law been more certain of
his moral strength than on this evening; at no time had his grip
upon himself seemed firmer. Nor had Alaire the least reason to
doubt her self-control. Dave, to be sure, had appealed to her
fancy and her interest; in fact, he so dominated her thoughts that
the imaginary creature whom she called her dream-husband had
gradually taken on his physical likeness. But the idea that she
was in any way enamoured of him had never entered her mind; that
she could ever be tempted to yield to him, to be false to her
ideals of wifehood, was inconceivable. In such wise do the Fates
amuse themselves.

Alaire had gone to her favorite after-dinner refuge, a nook on one
of the side-galleries, where there was a wide, swinging wicker
couch; and there in a restful obscurity fragrant with unseen
flowers she had prepared to spend the evening with her dreams.

She did not hear Dave's automobile arrive. Her first intimation of
his presence came with the sound of his heel upon the porch. When
he appeared it was almost like the materialization of her
uppermost thought--quite as if a figure from her fancy had stepped
forth full clad.

She rose and met him, smiling. "How did you know I wanted to see
you?" she inquired.

Dave took her hand and looked down at her, framing a commonplace
reply. But for some reason the words lay unspoken upon his tongue.
Alaire's informal greeting, her parted lips, the welcoming light
in her eyes, had sent them flying. It seemed to him that the dim
half-light which illumined this nook emanated from her face and
her person, that the fragrance which came to his nostrils was the
perfume of her breath, and at the prompting of these thoughts all
his smothered longings rose as if at a signal. As mutinous
prisoners in a jail delivery overpower their guards, so did Dave's
long-repressed emotions gain the upper hand of him now, and so
swift was their uprising that he could not summon more than a
feeble, panicky resistance.

The awkwardness of the pause which followed Alaire's inquiry
strengthened the rebellious impulses within him, and quite
unconsciously his friendly grasp upon her fingers tightened. For
her part, as she saw this sudden change sweep over him, her own
face altered and she felt something within her breast leap into
life. No woman could have failed to read the meaning of his sudden
agitation, and, strange to say, it worked a similar state of
feeling in Alaire. She strove to control herself and to draw away,
but instead found that her hand had answered his, and that her
eyes were flashing recognition of his look. All in an instant she
realized how deathly tired of her own struggle she had become, and
experienced a reckless impulse to cast away all restraint and
blindly meet his first advance. She had no time to question her
yearnings; she seemed to understand only that this man offered her
rest and security; that in his arms lay sanctuary.

To both it seemed that they stood there silently, hand in hand,
for a very long time, though in reality there was scarcely a
moment of hesitation on the part of either. A drunken, breathless
instant of uncertainty, then Alaire was on Dave's breast, and his
strength, his ardor, his desire, was throbbing through her. Her
bare arms were about his neck; a sigh, the token of utter
surrender, fluttered from her throat. She raised her face to his
and their lips melted together.

For a time they were all alone in the universe, the center of all
ecstasy. Dave was whispering wild incoherencies as Alaire lay in
his embrace, her limbs relaxed, her flesh touching his, her body
clinging to his.

"Dream-man!" she murmured.

As consciousness returns after a swoon, so did realization return
to Alaire Austin. Faintly, uncertainly at first, then with a
swift, strong effort she pushed herself out of Dave's reluctant
arms. They stood apart, frightened. Dave's gaze was questioning.
Alaire began to tremble and to struggle with her breath.

"Are we--mad?" she gasped. "What have we done?"

"There's no use righting. It was here--it was bound to come out.
Oh, Alaire--!"

"Don't!" She shook her head, and, avoiding his outstretched hands,
went to the edge of the veranda and leaned weakly against a
pillar, with her head in the crook of her arm. Dave followed her,
but the words he spoke were scarcely intelligible.

Finally she raised her face to his: "No! It is useless to deny it-
-now that we know. But I didn't know, until a moment ago."

"I've known, all the time--ever since the first moment I saw you,"
he told her, hoarsely. "To me you're all there is; nothing else
matters. And you love me! God! I wonder if I'm awake."

"Dream-man," she repeated, more slowly. "Oh, why did you come so
late?"

"So late?"

"Yes. We must think it out, the best way we can, I--wonder what
you think of me?"

"You must know. There's no need for excuses; there's nothing to
explain, except the miracle that such great happiness could come
to a fellow like me."

"Happiness? It means anything but that. I was miserable enough
before, what shall I do now?"

"Why, readjust your life," he cried, roughly. "Surely you won't
hesitate after this?"

But Alaire did not seem to hear him. She was staring out into the
night again. "What a failure I must be!" she murmured, finally. "I
suppose I should have seen this coming, but--I didn't. And in his
house, too! This dress is his, and these jewels--everything!" She
held up her hands and stared curiously at the few rings she wore,
as if seeing them for the first time. "How does that make you
feel?"

Dave stirred; there was resentment in his voice when he answered:
"Your husband has sacrificed his claim to you, as everybody knows.
To my mind he has lost his rights. You're mine, mine! By God!" He
waved a vigorous gesture of defiance. "I'll take you away from him
at any cost. I'll see that he gives you up, somehow. You're all I
have."

"Of course the law provides a way, but you wouldn't, couldn't,
understand how I feel about divorce." The mere mention of the word
was difficult and caused Alaire to clench her hands. "We're both
too shaken to talk sanely now, so let's wait--"

"There's something you must understand before we go any further,"
Dave insisted. "I'm poor; I haven't a thing I can call my own, so
I'm not sure I have any right to take you away from all this." He
turned a hostile eye upon their surroundings. "Most people would
say that I've simply wasted my life. Perhaps I have--that depends
upon the way you look at it and upon what you consider worth
while--anyhow, all I can offer you is love--" He broke off
momentarily as if his breath had suddenly failed him. "Greater
love, it seems to me, than any woman ever had."

"Money means so little, and it's so easy to be happy without it,"
Alaire told him. "But I'm not altogether poor. Of course,
everything here is Ed's, but I have enough. All my life I've had
everything except the very thing you offer--and how I've longed
for that! How I've envied other people! Do you think I'll be
allowed, somehow, to have it?"

"Yes! I've something to say about that. You gave me the right when
you gave me that kiss."

Alaire shook her head. "I'm not sure. It seems easy now, while you
are here, but how will it seem later? I'm in no condition at this
minute to reason. Perhaps, as you say, it is all a dream; perhaps
this feeling I have is just a passing frenzy."

Dave laughed softly, confidently. "It's too new yet for you to
understand, but wait. It is frenzy, witchery--yes, and more. To-
morrow, and every day after, it will grow and grow and grow! Trust
me, I've watched it in myself."

"So you cared for me from the very first?" Alaire questioned. It
was the woman's curiosity, the woman's hunger to hear over and
over again that truth which never fails to thrill and yet never
fully satisfies.

"Oh, even before that, I think! When you came to my fire that
evening in the chaparral I knew every line of your face, every
movement of your body, every tone of your voice, as a man knows
and recognizes his ideal. But it took time for me to realize all
you meant to me."

Alaire nodded. "Yes, and it must have been the same with me." She
met his eyes frankly, but when he reached toward her she held him
away. "No, dear. Not yet, not again, not until we have the right.
It would be better for us both if you went away now."

"No, no! Oh, I have so much to say! I've been dumb all my life,
and you've just opened my lips."

"Please! After I've decided what to do--once I feel that I can
control myself better--I'll send for you. But you must promise not
to come until then, for you would only make it harder."

It required all Dave's determination to force himself to obey her
wish, and the struggle nearly kept him from recalling the original
object of his visit. Remembering, he tried to tell Alaire what he
had learned from Phil Strange; but so broken and so unconvincing
was his recital that he doubted if she understood in the least
what he was talking about.

At last he took her hand and kissed her wrist, just over her
pulse, as if to speed a message to her heart, then into her rosy
palm he whispered a tender something that thrilled her.

She stood white, motionless, against the dim illumination of the
porch until he had gone, and not until the last sound of his motor
had died away did she stir. Then she pressed her own lips to the
palm he had caressed and walked slowly to her room.




XXII

WHAT ELLSWORTH HAD TO SAY


On his way to Brownsville the next morning Dave found himself
still somewhat dazed by his sudden happiness; the more he thought
of it the more wonderful it seemed. During the day he went through
his court duties like a man in a trance. Such joy as this was
unbelievable; he felt as if he must tell the world about it. He
well understood Alaire's repugnance to divorce, but he was sure
that he could overcome it, if indeed her own truer understanding
of herself did not relieve him of that necessity; for at this
moment his desires were of a heat sufficient to burn away all
obstacles, no matter how solid. It seemed, therefore, that the
future was all sunshine.

He had no opportunity of speaking with Judge Ellsworth until court
adjourned. Then the judge took him by the arm, with that
peculiarly flattering assumption of intimacy of which he was
master, and led the way toward his office, inquiring meanwhile for
news of Jonesville. Dave's high spirits surprised him and finally
impelled him to ask the cause. When Dave hinted unmistakably at
the truth, Ellsworth exclaimed, with a sharp stare of curiosity:

"See here! You haven't forgotten what I told you that night on the
train?"

"What? Yes, I had forgotten."

"You promised to tell me if you thought seriously about marriage."

"Very well, then; I'm telling you now."

"Do you mean that, Dave?"

"Of course I do. But don't look at me as if I'd confessed to arson
or burglary. Listen, Judge! If you have good taste in jewelry,
I'll let you help me select the ring."

But Judge Ellsworth continued to stare, and then muttered
uncertainly: "You're such a joker--"

Dave assumed a show of irony. "Your congratulations overwhelm me.
You look as if you were about to begin the reading of the will."

"I want to hear about this right away." Ellsworth smiled faintly.
"Can you come to my office tonight, where we can be alone?"

Dave agreed to the appointment and went his way with a feeling of
amusement. Old folks are usually curious, he reflected; and they
are prone to presume upon the privileges that go with age. In this
instance, however, it might be well to make a clean breast of the
affair, since Ellsworth was Alaire's attorney, and would doubtless
be selected to secure her divorce.

The judge was waiting when Dave called after supper, but for some
time he maintained a flow of conversation relating to other things
than the one they had met to discuss. At last, however, he
appeared to summon his determination; he cleared his throat and
settled himself in his chair--premonitory signs unusual in a man
of Ellsworth's poise and self-assurance.

"I reckon you think I'm trying to mix up in something that doesn't
concern me," he began; "and perhaps I am. Maybe you'll make me
wish I'd minded my own business--that's what usually happens. I
remember once, out of pure chivalry, trying to stop a fellow from
beating his wife. Of course they both turned on me--as they always
do. I went to the hospital for a week, and lost a profitable
divorce case. However, we try to do our duty as we see it."

This was anything but a promising preamble; Dave wondered, too, at
his friend's obvious nervousness.

"So you've found the girl, eh?" the judge went on.

"Yes."

"Are you accepted? I mean, have you asked her to marry you?"

"Of course I have. That's about the first thing a fellow does."

Ellsworth shuffled the papers on his desk with an abstracted gaze,
then said, slowly, "Dave--I don't think you ought to marry."

"So you told me once before. I suppose you mean I'm poor and a
failure."

"Oh no! All men are failures until they marry. I'm thinking of
what marriage means; of the new duties it brings, of the man's
duty to himself, to the woman, and to society; I'm thinking of
what lies inside of the man himself."

"Um-m! That's pretty vague."

"I've studied you a long time, Dave, and with a reason. I've
studied heredity, too, and--you mustn't marry."

Law stirred in his chair and smiled whimsically. "I've done some
studying along those lines, too, and I reckon I know myself pretty
well. I've the usual faults, but--"

Ellsworth interrupted. "You don't know yourself at all, my boy.
There's just the trouble. I'm the only man--living man, that is--
who knows you." For the first time he looked directly at his
caller, and now his lids were lifted until the eyes peered out
bright, hard, and piercing; something in his face startled Dave.
"I was your father's attorney and his friend. I know how he lived
and how he died. I know--what killed him?"

"You mean, don't you, that you know who killed him?"

"I mean just what I say."

Dave leaned forward, studying the speaker curiously. "Well, come
through. What's on your mind?" he demanded, finally.

"The Guadalupes had to kill him, Dave."

"Had to? HAD to? Why?"

"Don't you know? Don't you know anything about your family
history?" Dave shook his head. "Well, then--he was insane,"

"Insane?"

"Yes; violently."

"Really, I--Why--I suppose you know what you're talking about, but
it sounds incredible."

"Yes, it must to you--especially since you never knew the facts.
Very few people did know then, even at the time, for there were no
newspapers in that part of Mexico; you, of course, were a boy at
school in the United States. Nevertheless, it's true. That part of
the story which I didn't know at the time I learned by talking
with General Guadalupe and others. It was very shocking."

Dave's face was a study; his color had lessened slightly; he wet
his lips. "This is news, of course," said he, "but it doesn't
explain my mother's death. Who killed her, if not the Guadalupes?"

"Can't you guess? That's what I meant when I said they had to kill
Frank Law." Ellsworth maintained his fixity of gaze, and when Dave
started he nodded his head. "It's God's truth. The details were
too--dreadful. Your father turned his hand against the woman he
loved and--died a wife-killer. The Guadalupes had to destroy him
like a mad dog. I'm sorry you had to learn the truth from me, my
boy, but it seems necessary that I tell you. When I knew Frank Law
he was like any other man, quick-tempered, a little too violent,
perhaps, but apparently as sane as you or I, and yet the thing was
there."

Dave rose from his chair and bent over the desk. "So THAT'S what
you've been driving at," he gasped. "That's what you meant when
you said I shouldn't marry." He began to tremble now; his voice
became hoarse with fury. "Now I understand. You're trying to tell
me that--maybe I've got it in me, eh? Hell! YOU'RE crazy, not I.
I'm all right. I reckon I know."

"HE didn't know," Ellsworth said, quietly. "I doubt if he even
suspected."

Dave struck the desk violently with his clenched fist. "Bosh!
You're hipped on this heredity subject. Crazy! Why, you doddering
old fool--" With an effort he calmed himself, realizing that he
had shouted his last words. He turned away and made a circuit of
the room before returning to face his friend. "I didn't mean to
speak to you like that, Judge. You pulled this on me too suddenly,
and I'm--upset. But it merely proves my own contention that I'm
not Frank Law's son at all. I've always known it."

"How do you know it?"

"Don't you suppose I can tell?" In spite of himself Dave's voice
rose again, but it was plain from the lawyer's expression that to
a man of his training no mere conviction unsupported by proof had
weight. This skepticism merely kept Dave's impatience at a white
heat. "Very well, then," he argued, angrily, "let's say that I'm
wrong and you're right. Let's agree that I am his son. What of it?
What makes you think I've inherited--the damned thing? It isn't a
disease. Me, insane? Rot!" He laughed harshly, took another
uncertain turn around the room, then sank into his chair and
buried his face in his hands.

Ellsworth was more keenly distressed than his hearer imagined;
when next he spoke his voice was unusually gentle. "It IS a
disease, Dave, or worse, and there's no way of proving that you
haven't inherited it. If there is the remotest possibility that
you have--if you have the least cause to suspect--why, you
couldn't marry and--bring children into the world, now could you?
Ask yourself if you've shown any signs--?"

"Oh, I know what you mean. You've always said I go crazy when I'm-
-angry. Well, that's true. But it's nothing more than a villainous
temper. I'm all right again afterward."

"I wasn't thinking so much of that. But are you sure it's
altogether temper?" the judge insisted. "You don't merely lose
control of yourself; you've told me more than once that you go
completely out of your mind; that you see red and want to kill
and--" "Don't you?"

"I never felt the slightest desire to destroy, no matter how angry
I chanced to be. I've always asserted that murderers, homicides,
suicides, were irresponsible; that they were sick here." Ellsworth
touched his forehead. "I can't see how any sane man can take his
own or another's life, no matter what the provocation. But I'm not
a doctor, and that's an extreme view, I know. Anyhow, you'll agree
that if you have Frank Law's blood in your veins it won't do to
marry."

"I haven't got it," the younger man groaned, his gaze turned
sullenly downward. "Even granting that I have, that's no sign I'd
ever--run amuck the way he did."

"You told me just now that you don't know your family history?"

"Yes. What little I've heard isn't very pretty nor very much to
the family's credit. They were a bad lot, I believe."

"Frank Law had two brothers and a sister, had he not?"

"Yes. One of my uncles was a tough hombre. I'm told he notched his
gun pretty well."

"He was about the worst man of his day. He was shot in Dodge City
on one of his rampages."

Dave raised shocked and curious eyes. "You think he was crazy?"

"Most of those old-time gunmen would be so considered nowadays.
Some unbelievable stories are told about that uncle of yours. The
other one disappeared mysteriously."

"I believe so. He just walked away from his wife and family and
business one day and was never heard of again."

Ellsworth seemed to consider this admission significant. "Now the
sister, your aunt?"

"I think she's somewhere in the East; I never saw her."

"She is; she's an inmate of an institution the name and address of
which I have here." Ellsworth thrust his finger into the loose
pile of documents before him. Avoiding his caller's eyes he
continued: "You can't very well ignore such a family history,
Dave. I've never traced it back beyond the last generation, but
you probably could if you tried."

In a voice hardly his own, Dave articulated: "God! This is--
hideous."

"It is. I'd like to believe that you don't belong to the Laws, but
I can't put much faith in that childhood fancy of yours. Run it
down; convince yourself. But first go to the girl, whoever she is,
and tell her the facts. If she's the right sort--"

"No, no!" The words were wrung from Dave's lips. "She knows too
well how heredity acts; she's had one experience."

"Eh? You say she knows--Who is she, Dave? Don't tell me you mean--
Alaire?"

Dave nodded.

"Damnation!" Ellsworth leaped to his feet and, striding around the
desk, seized his caller roughly by the shoulder. "What are you
telling me? Good God, Alaire! A married woman! So you--cut under
Ed Austin, eh?" Momentarily Ellsworth lost control of himself; his
eyes blazed and his fingers tightened painfully. "What damnable
trick have you played on that girl? Tell me before I choke you."

For once Dave Law's passion failed to ignite at the heat of
another's anger; he only sat limp and helpless in the judge's
grasp. Finally he muttered: "I played square enough. It's one of
those things that just happen. We couldn't help ourselves. She'll
come to you for her divorce."

The lawyer uttered a shocking oath. "Then it's no mere romantic
infatuation on her part?"

"Oh no!"

Ellsworth loosed his grip. He turned away and began to pace the
office floor, shaking his head. "This is--unfortunate. Alaire, of
all people--as if she didn't have enough to bear." He turned
fiercely upon the cowering figure in the chair, saying: "I'll tell
her the whole truth myself, before she goes any further."

"No! Oh, please! Let me, in my own way." Dave writhed and sank his
face in his hands once more. After a while he said, "I'm waiting
for you to tell me it's all a nightmare."

"Humph!" The judge continued his restless pacing. "I was sorry for
you when you came in here, and it took all my strength to tell
you; but now you don't matter at all. I was prepared to have you
go ahead against my advice, but--I'll see you damned first."

"You have damned me."

When Ellsworth saw the haggard face turned to his he ceased his
walk abruptly. "I'm all broken up, Dave," he confessed in a
gentler tone than he had used heretofore. "But you'll thank me
some day."

Law was no longer the big, strong, confident fellow who had
entered the office such a short time before. He had collapsed; he
seemed to have shrunk; he was pitifully appealing. Although there
were many things he would have said, many questions upon his
tongue, he could not voice them now, and it was with extreme
difficulty that he managed to follow the judge's words at all.

After a time he rose and shook Ellsworth's hand limply,
mechanically; then he shambled out of the office. Like a sick man,
he stumbled down the stairs and into the street. When he entered
his hotel the clerk and some of the idlers in the lobby looked at
him queerly, but he did not see them.

All that night Dave walked the floor of his room or sat hunched up
on the edge of his bed, staring at the wall and fighting the fears
that preyed upon him.

He had faith enough in Alaire to believe that she would marry him
regardless of the facts; her kiss, that one delirious moment when
he had held her to his breast, had taught him much, and it was, in
fact, this very certainty which made his struggle so hard. After
all, why not? he asked himself a thousand times. Ellsworth's fears
were surely exaggerated. Who could say that Frank Law had passed
on his heritage? There was at least a chance that he had not, and
it would require more than a remote possibility, more evidence
than Ellsworth could summon, to dismay Alaire. Suppose it should
transpire that he was somehow defective? What then? The signs of
his mental failing would give ample warning. He could watch
himself carefully and study his symptoms. He could lead the life
of a sentinel perpetually on guard. The thing might never come--or
at the worst it probably would not manifest itself until he was
further along in years. That, it seemed, was the family history,
and in such a case Dave was assured of half a life at least.
Ellsworth was altogether too fearful. Yes, and he was too
officious by far. This was something that did not concern him.

But such reasoning naturally brought little comfort. Dave's fears
would not be put down. In common with most men of splendid
physique, he had a vague contempt for those less perfect; disease
or deformity had never failed to awaken his pity, and he had often
argued that defective human beings, like unhealthy stock, should
not be allowed to mate and to perpetuate their weaknesses. This
eugenic conviction had helped to ease his conscience somewhat
during his acquaintance with Alaire, for he had told himself that
Ed Austin, by reason of his inherited vices, had sacrificed all
right to love and marriage. These thoughts came home now to roost.
What was Ed's evil heritage compared to his own? It was as vinegar
to vitriol.

And yet shining through all Dave's distress, like a faint,
flickering beacon in a storm, was that old doubt of his parentage;
and to this he finally began to pin his hopes. In the day or two
that followed his interview with Ellsworth, it afforded him almost
the only comfort he knew; for in the end he had to face the truth;
he could not marry if he were really Frank Law's son.

Those were dark hours for Dave. He discharged his duties
automatically, taking no interest whatever in his work; his nights
he spent in morose meditation. Unable to sleep, he tramped the hot
streets in an effort to fight off his growing nervousness. He
became irritable, despondent; his eyes took on the look of an
invalid's; his face aged and grayed. Physically, too, he grew very
tired, for no burden is heavier to bear than that of doubt and
indecision.

One afternoon Ellsworth entered his office to find Dave waiting
for him. The young man began in a shaky, husky voice:

"I can't stand it, Judge. I'm going to pieces, fast."

"You do look bad."

"Yes. I don't sleep. I'm so irritable I can't get along up at the
courthouse. I'm licked. The worst of it is, I don't know whether
it's all imagination, or whether you really stirred up that
devilish sleeping thing in me. Anyhow, something has got me. All I
can do is study and analyze and watch and imagine--I sit all night
thinking--thinking, until everything gets queer and distorted. If
I were sane before, you've about unbalanced me with your damnable
suggestions."

"A few nights of sleep will make you feel better," Ellsworth said,
gravely.

"I tried drugs, but they made me worse. God! Then my fancies WERE
sick. No, I'm going to get out."

"Where? How?"

"I'm going north to look up the members of my family and learn who
I really am. I resigned from the Ranger force to-day. That's no
place for a fellow with a--homicidal mania."

"Dave! You're taking this thing too absolutely and too hard,"
Ellsworth declared.

But Dave went on, unheeding. "Another reason why I want to get
away now is that Alaire will expect me to come to her when she
sends for me and--I wouldn't dare trust myself."

"Have you told her--written her?"

"Not yet, and I sha'n't until I trace out the last doubt in my own
mind."

In an effort to cheer, Ellsworth put his arm about the sufferer's
shoulders. "I'm sure you'll do the right thing, Dave," he said.
"Maybe, after all, your instinct is true and you're not Frank
Law's boy. I hope so, for this thing weighs me down as it weighs
you; but you mustn't let it whip you. Don't give in, and
meanwhile, above all things, try to get some sleep."

Dave nodded and mumbled something; then he slouched out, leaving
the lawyer overcome by a great pity. Ellsworth had seen men,
stunned by a court sentence, turn away from the bar with that same
dumb, fixed look of hopelessness in their eyes. Impulsively he
cursed the sense of duty that had prompted him to interfere.




XXIII

THE CRASH


The several days following Dave's unexpected call at Las Palmas
Alaire spent in a delightful reverie. She had so often wrestled
with the question of divorce that she had begun to weary of it;
and now, when she tried to summon energy to consider it anew, she
found herself, as usual, reasoning in a circle and arriving at no
decision. She gave up trying, at length, and for the time being
rested content in the knowledge that she loved and was loved. In
her heart she knew well enough what her ultimate course would be:
sooner or later events would force her action. Yielding to a
natural cowardice, therefore, she resigned herself to dreamy
meditations and left the future to take care of itself. A week
passed while she hugged her thoughts to her breast, and then one
evening she rode home to learn that Ed had returned from San
Antonio.

But Ed was ill, and he did not appear at dinner. It had been years
since either had dared invade the other's privacy, and now,
inasmuch as her husband did not send for her, Alaire did not
presume to offer her services as nurse. As a matter of fact, she
considered this quite unnecessary, for she felt sure that he was
either suffering the customary after-effects of a visit to the
city or else that he lacked the moral courage to undertake an
explanation of his hurried flight from the ranch. In either event
she was glad he kept to his room.

Heretofore their formal relations had made life at least tolerable
to Alaire, but now she experienced a feeling of guilt at finding
herself under the same roof with him. Oddly enough, it seemed to
her that in this she wronged Dave and not her husband; for she
reasoned that, having given her love to one man, her presence in
the same house with another outraged that love.

When Austin made his appearance, on the day following his return,
his bleared eyes, his puffy, pasty cheeks, his shattered nerves,
showed plainly enough how he had spent his time. Although he was
jumpy and irritable, he seemed determined by an assumption of high
spirits and exaggerated friendliness to avert criticism. Since
Alaire spared him all reproaches, his efforts seemed to meet with
admirable success. Now Ed's opinion of women was not high, for
those with whom he habitually associated were of small
intelligence; and, seeing that his wife continued to manifest a
complete indifference to his past actions, he decided that his
apprehensions had been groundless. If Alaire remembered the Guzman
affair at all, or if she had suspected him of complicity in it,
time had evidently dulled her suspicions, and he was a little
sorry he had taken pains to stay away so long.

Before many days, however, he discovered that this indifference of
hers was not assumed, and that in some way or other she had
changed. Ed was accustomed, when he returned exhausted from a
debauch, to seeing in his wife's eyes a strained misery; he had
learned to expect in her bearing a sort of pitying, hopeless
resignation. But this time she was not in the least depressed. On
the contrary, she appeared happier, fresher, and younger than he
had seen her for a long time. It was mystifying. When, one
morning, he overheard her singing in her room, he was shocked.
Over this phenomenon he meditated with growing amazement and a
faint stir of resentment in his breast, for he lived a self-
centered life, considering himself the pivot upon which revolved
all the affairs of his little world. To feel that he had lost even
the power to make his wife unhappy argued that he had
overestimated his importance.

At length, having sufficiently recovered his health to begin
drinking again, he yielded one evening to an alcoholic impulse
and, just as Alaire bade him good night, clumsily sought to force
an explanation.

"See here!" he shot at her. "What's the matter with you lately?"
He saw that he had startled her and that she made an effort to
collect her wandering thoughts. "You're about as warm and wifely
as a stone idol."

"Am I any different to what I have always been?"

"Humph! You haven't been exactly sympathetic of late. Here I come
home sick, and you treat me like one of the help. Don't you think
I have feelings? Jove! I'm lonesome."

Alaire regarded him speculatively, then shook her head as if in
answer to some thought.

In an obvious and somewhat too mellow effort to be friendly, Ed
continued: "Don't let's go on like this, Alaire. You blame me for
going away so much, but, good Lord! when I'm home I feel like an
interloper. You treat me like a cow-thief."

"I'm sorry. I've tried to be everything I should. I'm the
interloper."

"Nonsense! If we only got along together as well as we seem to
from the outside it wouldn't be bad at all. But you're too severe.
You seem to think a man should be perfect. Well, none of us are,
and I'm no worse than the majority. Why, I know lots of fellows
who forget themselves and do things they shouldn't, but they don't
mean anything by it. They have wives and homes to go to when it's
all over. But have I? You're as glad to see me as if I had
smallpox. Maybe we've made a mess of things, but married life
isn't what young girls think it is, A wife must learn to give and
take."

"I've given. What have I taken?" she asked him in a voice that
quivered.

Ed made an impatient gesture. "Oh, don't be so literal! I mean
that, since we're man and wife, it's up to you to be a little
more--broad-gauge in your views."

"In other words, you want me to ignore your conduct. Is that it?
I'm afraid we can't argue that, Ed."

Within the last few days Austin's mind had registered a number of
new impressions, and at this moment he realized that his wife was
undoubtedly the most attractive woman physically he had ever
known. Of course she was cold, but she had not always been so. He
had chilled her; he had seen the fire die year by year, but now
the memory of her as she had once been swept over him, bringing a
renewed appreciation of her charms. His recent dissipation had
told upon him as heavily as a siege of sickness, and this evening
he was in that fatuous, sentimental mood which comes with
convalescence, Having no fault to find with himself, and feeling
merely a selfish desire to make more pleasant his life at Las
Palmas, he undertook to bend Alaire to his will.

"All right; don't let's try to argue it," he laughed, with what he
considered an admirable show of magnanimity. "I hate arguments,
anyhow; I'd much rather have a goodnight kiss."

But when he stooped over her Alaire held him off and turned her
head. "No!" she said.

"You haven't kissed me for--"

"I don't wish to kiss you."

"Don't be silly," he insisted. This suggestion of physical
resistance excited his love of conquest and awoke something like
the mood of a lover--such a lover as a man like Ed could be. For a
moment he felt as if Alaire were some other woman than his wife, a
woman who refused and yet half expected to be overcome; therefore
he laughed self-consciously and repeated, "Come now, I want a
kiss."

Alaire thrust him back strongly, and he saw that her face had
whitened. Oddly enough, her stubbornness angered him out of all
reason, and he began a harsh remonstrance. But he halted when she
cried:

"Wait! I must tell you something, Ed. It's all over, and has been
for a long time. We're going to end it."

"End it?"

"We can't go on living together. Why should we?"

"So? Divorce? Is that it?"

Alaire nodded.

"Well, I'll be damned!" Ed was dumfounded. "Isn't this rather
sudden?" he managed to inquire.

"Oh no. You've suggested it more than once."

"I thought you didn't believe in divorces--couldn't stomach 'em?
What's happened?"

"I have changed my mind."

"Humph! People don't change their minds in a minute," he cried,
angrily. "Is there some other man?"

Now Ed Austin had no faintest idea that his wife would answer in
the affirmative, for he had long ago learned to put implicit
confidence in her, and her life had been so open that he could not
imagine that it held a double interest. Therefore her reply struck
him speechless.

"Yes, Ed," she said, quietly, "there is another man."

It was like her not to evade. She had never lied to him.

Ed's mouth opened; his reddened eyes protruded. "Well--" he
stammered. "Well, by God!" Then after a moment: "Who is it, the
Greaser or the cowboy?" He laughed loudly, disagreeably. "It must
be one or the other, for you haven't seen any men except them.
Another man! Well, you're cool about it."

"I am glad you know the truth."

Muttering to himself, Ed made a short excursion around the room,
then paused before his wife with a sneer on his lips. "Did it ever
occur to you that I might object?" he demanded.

Alaire eyed him scornfully. "What right have you to object?"

Ed could not restrain a malevolent gleam of curiosity. "Say, who
is it? Ain't I entitled to know that much?" As Alaire remained
silent he let his eyes rove over her with a kind of angry
appreciation. "You're pretty enough to stampede any man," he
admitted. "Yes, and you've got money, too. I'll bet it's the
Ranger. So, you've been having your fling while I was away. Hunh!
We're tarred with the same stick."

"You don't really believe that," she told him, sharply.

"Why not? You've had enough opportunity. I don't see anything of
you, and haven't for years. Well, I was a fool to trust you."

Alaire's eyes were very dark and very bright as she said: "I
wonder how I have managed to live with you as long as I have. I
knew you were weak, nasty--so I was prepared for something like
this. But I never thought you were a downright criminal until--"

"Criminal? Rot!"

"How about that Guzman affair? You can't go much lower, Ed, and
you can't keep me here with you."

"I can't keep you, eh?" he growled. "Well, perhaps not. I suppose
you've got enough on me to secure a divorce, but I can air some of
your dirty linen. Oh, don't look like that! I mean it! Didn't you
spend a night with David Law?" He leered at her unpleasantly, then
followed a step as she drew back.

"Don't you touch me!" she cried.

A flush was deepening Ed's purple cheeks; his voice was peculiarly
brutal and throaty as he said: "The decree isn't entered yet, and
so long as you are Mrs. Austin I have rights. Yes, and I intend to
exercise them. You've made me jealous, and, by God--" He made to
encircle her with his arms and was half successful, but when
Alaire felt the heat of his breath in her face a sick loathing
sprang up within her, and, setting her back against the wall, she
sent him reeling. Whether she struck him or merely pushed him away
she never knew, for during the instant of their struggle she was
blind with indignation and fury. Profiting by her advantage, she
dodged past him, fled to her room, and locked herself in.

She heard him muttering profanely; heard him approach her chamber
more than once, then retire uncertainly, but she knew him too well
to be afraid.

Later that night she wrote two letters--one to Judge Ellsworth,
the other to Dave Law.

Jose Sanchez rode to the Morales house feeling some concern over
the summons that took him thither. He wondered what could have
induced General Longorio to forsake his many important duties in
order to make the long trip from Nuevo Pueblo; surely it could be
due to no lack of zeal on his, Jose's, part. No! The horse-breaker
flattered himself that he had made a very good spy indeed; that he
had been Longorio's eyes and ears so far as circumstances
permitted. Nor did he feel that he had been lax in making his
reports, for through Rosa he had written the general several
lengthy letters, and just for good measure these two had conjured
up sundry imaginary happenings to prove beyond doubt that Senora
Austin was miserably unhappy with her husband and ready to welcome
such a dashing lover as Longorio. Therefore Jose could not for the
life of him imagine wherein he had been remiss. Nevertheless, he
was uneasy, and he hoped that nothing had occurred to anger his
general.

But Longorio, when he arrived at the meeting-place, was not in a
bad humor. Having sent Rosa away on some errand, he turned to Jose
with a flashing smile, and said:

"Well, my good friend, the time has come."

Now Jose had no faintest idea what the general was talking about,
but to be called the good friend of so illustrious a person was
flattering. He nodded decisively.

"Yes, beyond doubt," he agreed.

"Mexico is in a bad way. These rebels are growing by the
thousands; they overrun the country like ants. You read the
papers, eh?"

"Sometimes; when there are enough pictures," said Jose.

"Ha! Then I doubt if you know what is happening. Well, I'll have
to tell you. Our enemies have taken all northern Mexico except
that part which is under my control; but they are pushing toward
me from two sides, and I prepare to retreat. That is not the
worst, however; the Gringos are hoping to profit by Mexico's
distress; they are making ready to invade our Fatherland, and
every Mexican must fight or become a slave."

This was indeed news! Jose began patriotically cursing the whole
American people.

"Understand, I make you my confidant because I think a great deal
of you, Jose." The general laid an affectionate hand upon Jose's
shoulder. "The first time I saw you I said: 'There's a boy after
my own heart. I shall learn to love that Jose, and I shall put him
in the way of his fortune.' Well, I have not changed my mind, and
the time is come. You are going to help me and I am going to help
you."

Jose Sanchez thrilled with elation from head to foot. This
promised to be the greatest day of his life, and he felt that he
must be dreaming.

"You haven't tired of Rosa, eh? You still wish to marry her?"
Longorio was inquiring.

"Yes. But, of course, I'm a poor man."

"Just so. I shall attend to that. Now we come to the object of my
visit. Jose, I propose to make you rich enough in one day so that
you can marry."

"But first, wait!" exclaimed the horse-breaker. "I bring you
something of value, too." Desiring to render favor for favor, and
to show that he was fully deserving of the general's generosity,
Jose removed from inside the sweatband of his hat a sealed,
stamped letter, which he handed to his employer. "Yesterday I
carried the mail to town, but as I rode away from Las Palmas the
senora handed me this, with a silver dollar for myself. Look! It
is written to the man we both hate."

Longorio took the letter, read the inscription, and then opened
the envelope. Jose looked on with pleasure while he spelled out
the contents.

When the general had finished reading, he exclaimed: "Ho! A
miracle! Now I know all that I wish to know."

"Then I did well to steal that letter, eh?"

"Diablo! Yes! That brute of a husband makes my angel's life
unbearable, and she flees to La Feria to be rid of him. Good! It
fits in with my plans. She will be surprised to see me there.
Then, when the war comes and all is chaos then what? I'll warrant
I can make her forget certain things and certain people." Longorio
nodded with satisfaction. "You did very well, Jose."

The latter leaned forward, his eyes bright. "That lady is rich. A
fine prize, truly. She would bring a huge ransom."

This remark brought a smile to Longorio's face. "My dear friend,
you do not in the least understand," he said. "Ransom! What an
idea!" He lost himself in meditation, then, rousing, spoke
briskly: "Listen! In two, three days, your senora will leave Las
Palmas. When she is gone you will perform your work, like the
brave man I know you to be. You will relieve her of her husband."

Jose hesitated, and the smile vanished from his face. "Senor Ed is
not a bad man. He likes me; he--" Longorio's gaze altered and Jose
fell silent.

"Come! You are not losing heart, eh? Have I not promised to make
you a rich man? Well, the time has arrived." Seeing that Jose
still manifested no eagerness, the general went on in a different
tone: "Do not think that you can withdraw from our little
arrangement. Oh no! Do you remember a promise I made to you when
you came to me in Romero? I said that if you played me false I
would bury you to the neck in an anthill and fill your mouth with
honey. I keep my promises."

Jose's struggle was brief; he promptly resigned himself to the
inevitable. With every evidence of sincerity he assured Longorio
of his loyalty, and denied the least intention of betraying his
general's confidence. What, after all, was his mission upon earth
if not to serve Longorio's interests? One might have a peaceful
heart and still be a man. Jose was every inch a man; he was a very
devil when he let himself go, and his Excellency need have no
fears as to the outcome of their plan. After all, the GRINGOS were
enemies, and there was no one of them who did not merit
destruction.

Pleased with these sentiments, and feeling sufficiently assured
that Jose was now really in the proper frame of mind to suit his
purpose, Longorio took the winding trail back toward Sangre de
Cristo.




XXIV

DAVE LAW COMES HOME


A few days after she had written to Judge Ellsworth Alaire
followed her letter in person, for, having at last decided to
divorce Ed, she acted with characteristic decision. Since
Ellsworth had more than once advised this very course, she went to
Brownsville anticipating his willing support. She was greatly
amazed, therefore, to find that he had completely changed his
views and to hear him argue strongly against her determination.
Hurt and puzzled at first by this strange lack of sympathy, Alaire
soon began to grow angry, and when the judge persisted in his
arguments she quarreled with him for the first time in their
acquaintance. But it was not until she had threatened to secure
another attorney that he reluctantly gave in, even then making it
plain that in meeting her wishes he was acting against his best
judgment.

Now Alaire had desired Ellsworth's advice, also, as to her own
immediate plans, since it was of course impossible for her longer
to share Ed's roof. She had written Dave Law, telling him that she
intended to go to La Feria, there to remain pending the hearing of
her suit; but later she had come to doubt the wisdom of such a
course, inasmuch as the war talk grew louder with every day.
However, her attorney's inexplicable change of front and his
stubborn opposition to her wishes prevented her from confiding in
him any more than was necessary, and she returned to Las Palmas
determined to use her own best judgment. To be sure, she would
have preferred some place of refuge other than La Feria, but she
reasoned that there she would at least be undisturbed, and that
Ed, even if he wished to effect a reconciliation, would not dare
to follow her, since he was persona non grata in Federal Mexico.
Nor were her doubts of Ellsworth's loyalty entirely allayed. All
in all, therefore, it seemed to her that the Mexican ranch offered
her the safest asylum.

She had counted upon seeing Dave during her stay in Brownsville,
and her failure to do so was a grave disappointment. The news of
his resignation from the Force had at first perplexed her; then
she had thrilled at the thought that his action must have
something to do with her; that doubtless he, too, was busied in
making plans for their new life. She told herself that it was
brave of him to obey her injunctions so literally and to leave her
unembarrassed by his presence at this particular time. It inspired
her to be equally brave and to wait patiently for the day when she
could welcome him with clean hands and a soul unashamed.

In the midst of Alaire's uncertainty of mind it gratified her to
realize that Dave alone would know of her whereabouts. She
wondered if he would come to see her. He was a reckless,
headstrong lover, and his desires were all too likely to overcome
his deliberate resolves. She rather hoped that in spite of his
promise he would venture to cross the border so that she could see
and be near him, if only for a day or for an hour. The possibility
frightened and yet pleased her. The conventional woman within her
frowned, but her outlaw heart beat fast at the thought.

Alaire did not explain her plans even to Dolores, but when her
preparations were complete she took the Mexican woman with her,
and during Ed's absence slipped away from the ranch. Boarding the
train at Jonesville, she was in Pueblo that night.

If Alaire's clash with Ellsworth had been trying to her, it had
been no less painful to the lawyer himself. Feeling himself bound
by his promise to Dave, he had not dared to tell her the truth;
consequently he had been hard put to it to dissuade her from
taking immediate action. When she would not listen, he found
himself in the most unpleasant position of his life; for although
he could not but sympathize with her desire to be free from Ed
Austin, it distressed him beyond measure to see her riding blindly
to a fall. More than once after their strained parting he was
tempted to go to Las Palmas and set himself right in her eyes; but
he managed to hold to his determination and to school himself to
await Dave's return.

Before long, however, Ellsworth found other worries engaging him,
for it seemed at last that war with Mexico was imminent. After
months of uncertainty the question had come to issue, and that
lowering cloud which had hung above the horizon took ominous shape
and size. Ellsworth awoke one morning to learn that an ultimatum
had gone forth to President Potosi; that the Atlantic fleet had
been ordered south; and that marines were being rushed aboard
transports pending a general army mobilization. It looked as if
the United States had finally risen in wrath, and as if nothing
less than a miracle could now avert the long-expected conflict.

Naturally Brownsville, like other border towns, was plunged into a
panic, and Ellsworth, as a leading citizen of his community, had
his hands full.

In the midst of this excitement, and while suspense was at its
highest, Dave Law returned. Ellsworth found him in his office one
morning and fell upon the young man eagerly. Two weeks had worked
a shocking change in Dave; he was gaunt, ill; his eyes were bright
and tired and feverish. They had a new expression, too, which the
judge at first could not fathom, but which he took to be fear.
Dave's brown cheeks had bleached; his hands hung loose and
unmanageable at his sides.

"I've had a long trip," he said, somberly, "months--years long, it
seems to me."

"Well, thank God you're back. Tell me, what did you find out?"

Law closed his eyes wearily. He shook his head. "Nothing except
verification. I'm sorry I went. The Law blood is tainted, all
right--it reeks. The whole damned outfit were crazy. On my
mother's side, though, I'm healthy enough--and there appears to be
some mystery or something queer about me as a baby. That's all
I've discovered so far. But I've a relative in San Antone, a
cousin of my mother's, who runs a curio-store. He deals in Mexican
jewelry and antiques, and all that--strange old fellow. He says he
has a trunkful of stuff that belonged to his family, and he has
promised to go through it for me."

"Then you still hope to prove--"

"I haven't any hope. I've given up."

"Why?" Ellsworth asked, sharply.

"Because I know the truth. Because I'm--going crazy. Fact! I can
see it myself now."

"Why, boy, that's imagination, nothing else."

"Perhaps," Dave agreed, listlessly. "I'm reading everything on the
subject of insanity that I can get hold of."

Ellsworth tried to laugh. "That in itself is enough to unbalance
you."

"I'm moody, depressed; I'm getting so I imagine things. By and by
I'll begin to think I'm persecuted--I believe that's how it works.
Already I have hallucinations in broad daylight, and I'm afraid of
the dark. Fancy! I don't sleep very often, and when I do I wake up
in a puddle of sweat, shivering. And dreams! God, what dreams! I
know they're dreams, now, but sooner or later I suppose I'll begin
to believe in 'em." Dave sighed and settled lower in his chair.
"I--I'm mighty tired."

Ellsworth clapped him on the back. "Come, now! A perfectly healthy
man could wreck his reason this way. You must stop it. You must do
something to occupy your mind."

"Sure. That's what brings me home. I'm going to the front."

"To the war?"

"Yes. They're recruiting a rough-rider regiment in San Antone. I
joined yesterday, and I've come to get my horse."

After a time Ellsworth said, "Alaire has commenced her action."
Dave took a deep, sharp breath and began to tremble weakly. "I
didn't tell her, but--you must. We can't go on like this."

"Suppose I just go to war and--and don't come back?" thickly
inquired the sufferer.

"That won't do. You won't get killed--fellows like you never do.
Wouldn't you rather have her know the truth than believe you to be
a quitter?" Ellsworth waited a minute. "Do you want me to tell her
for you, Dave?"

Law shook his head slowly, wearily. "No, I'll do it. I'm game. I'd
rather she heard it from me."

Blaze Jones took the San Antonio paper out upon the porch and
composed himself in the hammock to read the latest war news.
Invasion! Troops! The Stars and Stripes! Those were words that
stirred Jones deeply and caused him to neglect his work. Now that
his country had fully awakened to the necessity of a war with
Mexico--a necessity he had long felt--he was fired with the
loftiest patriotism and a youthful eagerness to enlist. Blaze
realized that he was old and fat and near-sighted; but what of
that? He could fight. Fighting, in fact, had been one of his
earliest accomplishments, and he prided himself upon knowing as
much about it as any one man could learn. He believed in fighting
both as a principle and as an exercise; in fact, he attributed his
good health to his various neighborly "unpleasantnesses," and he
had more than once argued that no great fighter ever died of a
sluggish liver or of any one of the other ills that beset
sedentary, peace-loving people. Nations were like men--too much
ease made them flabby. And Blaze had his own ideas of strategy,
too. So during the perusal of his paper he bemoaned the mistakes
his government was making. Why waste time with ultimatums? he
argued to himself. He had never done so. Experience had taught him
that the way to win a battle was to beat the other fellow to the
draw; hence this diplomatic procrastination filled him with
impatience. It seemed almost treasonable to one of Blaze's intense
patriotism.

He was engaged in laying out a plan of campaign for the United
States when he became conscious of voices behind him, and realized
that for some time Paloma had been entertaining a caller in the
front room. Their conversation had not disturbed him at first, but
now an occasional word or sentence forced its meaning through his
preoccupation, and he found himself listening.

Paloma's visitor was a woman, and as Blaze harkened to her voice,
he felt his heart sink. It was Mrs. Strange. She was here again.
With difficulty Blaze conquered an impulse to flee, for she was
recounting a story all too familiar to him.

"Why, it seemed as if the whole city of Galveston was there, and
yet nobody offered to help us," the dressmaker was saying. "Phil
was a perfect hero, for the ruffian was twice his size. Oh, it was
an awful fight! I hate to think of it."

"What made him pinch you?" Paloma inquired.

"Heaven only knows. Some men are dreadful that way. Why, he left a
black-and-blue mark!"

Blaze broke into a cold sweat and cursed feebly under his breath.

"He wasn't drunk, either. He was just naturally depraved. You
could see it in his face."

"How DID you escape?"

"Well, I'll tell you. We chased him up across the boulevard and in
among the tents, and then--" Mrs. Strange lowered her voice until
only a murmur reached the listening man. A moment, then both women
burst into shrill, excited laughter, and Blaze himself blushed
furiously.

This was unbearable! It was bad enough to have that woman in
Jonesville, a constant menace to his good name, but to allow her
access to his own home was unthinkable. Sooner or later they were
bound to meet, and then Paloma would learn the disgraceful truth--
yes, and the whole neighborhood would likewise know his shame. In
fancy, Blaze saw his reputation torn to shreds and himself exposed
to the gibes of the people who venerated him. He would become a
scandal among men, an offense to respectable women; children would
shun him. Blaze could not bear to think of the consequences, for
he was very fond of the women and children of Jonesville,
especially the women. He rose from his hammock and tiptoed down
the porch into the kitchen, from which point of security he called
loudly for his daughter.

Alarmed at his tone, Paloma came running. "What is the matter?"
she asked, quickly.

"Get her out!" Blaze cried, savagely. "Get shed of her."

"Her? Who?"

"That varmint."

"Father, what ails you?"

"Nothin' ails me, but I don't want that caterpillar crawlin'
around my premises. I don't like her."

Paloma regarded her parent curiously. "How do you know you don't
like her when you've never seen her?"

"Oh, I've seen her, all I want to; and I heard her talkin' to you
just now. I won't stand for nobody tellin' you--bad stories."

Paloma snickered. "The idea! She doesn't--"

"Get her out, and keep her out," Blaze rumbled. "She ain't right;
she ain't--human. Why, what d'you reckon I saw her do, the other
day? Makes me shiver now. You remember that big bull-snake that
lives under the barn, the one I've been layin' for? Well, you
won't believe me, but him and her are friends. Fact! I saw her
pick him up and play with him. WHO-EE! The goose-flesh popped out
on me till it busted the buttons off my vest. She ain't my kind of
people, Paloma. 'Strange' ain't no name for her; no, sir! That
woman's dam' near peculiar."

Paloma remained unmoved. "I thought you knew. She used to be a
snake-charmer."

"A--WHAT?" There was no doubt about it. Blaze's hair lifted. He
blinked through his big spectacles; he pawed the air feebly with
his hands. "How can you let her touch you? I couldn't. I'll bet
she carries a pocketful of dried toads and--and keeps live lizards
in her hair. I knew an old voodoo woman that ate cockroaches. Get
shed of her, Paloma, and we'll fumigate the house."

At that moment Mrs. Strange herself opened the kitchen door to
inquire, "Is anything wrong?" Misreading Blaze's expression for
one of pain, she exclaimed: "Mercy! Now, what have you done to
yourself?"

But the object of her solicitude backed away, making peculiar
clucking sounds deep in his throat. Paloma was saying:

"This is my father, Mrs. Strange. You and he have never happened
to meet before."

"Why, yes we have! I know you," the seamstress exclaimed. Then a
puzzled light flickered in her black eyes. "Seems to me we've met
somewhere, but--I've met so many people." She extended her hand,
and Blaze took it as if expecting to find it cold and scaly. He
muttered something unintelligible. "I've been dying to see you,"
she told him, "and thank you for giving me Paloma's work. I love
you both for it."

Blaze was immensely relieved that this dreaded crisis had come and
gone; but wishing to make assurance doubly sure, he contorted his
features into a smile the like of which his daughter had never
seen, and in a disguised voice inquired, "Now where do you reckon
you ever saw me?"

The seamstress shook her head. "I don't know, but I'll place you
before long. Anyhow, I'm glad you aren't hurt. From the way you
called Paloma I thought you were. I'm handy around sick people, so
I--"

"Listen!" Paloma interrupted. "There's some one at the front
door." She left the room; Blaze was edging after her when he heard
her utter a stifled scream and call his name.

Now Paloma was not the kind of girl to scream without cause, and
her cry brought Blaze to the front of the house at a run. But what
he saw there reassured him momentarily; nothing was in sight more
alarming than one of the depot hacks, in the rear seat of which
was huddled the figure of a man. Paloma was flying down the walk
toward the gate, and Phil Strange was waiting on the porch. As
Blaze flung himself into view the latter explained:

"I brought him straight here, Mr. Jones, 'cause I knew you was his
best friend."

"Who? Who is it?"

"Dave Law. He must have came in on the noon train. Anyhow, I found
him--like that." The two men hurried toward the road, side by
side.

"What's wrong with him?" Blaze demanded.

"I don't know. He's queer--he's off his bean. I've had a hard time
with him."

Paloma was in the carriage at Dave's side now, and calling his
name; but Law, it seemed, was scarcely conscious. He had slumped
together; his face was vacant, his eyes dull. He was muttering to
himself a queer, delirious jumble of words.

"Oh, Dad! He's sick--sick," Paloma sobbed. "Dave, don't you know
us? You're home, Dave. Everything is--all right now."

"Why, you'd hardly recognize the boy!" Blaze exclaimed; then he
added his appeal to his daughter's. But they could not arouse the
sick man from his coma.

"He asked me to take him to Las Palmas," Strange explained. "Looks
to me like a sunstroke. You'd ought to hear him rave when he gets
started."

Paloma turned an agonized face to her father. "Get a doctor,
quick," she implored; "he frightens me."

But Mrs. Strange had followed, and now she spoke up in a matter-
of-fact tone: "Doctor nothing," she said. "I know more than all
the doctors. Paloma, you go into the house and get a bed ready for
him, and you men lug him in. Come, now, on the run, all of you!
I'll show you what to do." She took instant charge of the
situation, and when Dave refused to leave the carriage and began
to fight off his friends, gabbling wildly, it was she who quieted
him. Elbowing Blaze and her husband out of the way, she loosed the
young man's frenzied clutch from the carriage and, holding his
hands in hers, talked to him in such a way that he gradually
relaxed. It was she who helped him out and then supported him into
the house. It was she who got him up-stairs and into bed, and it
was she who finally stilled his babble.

"The poor man is burning up with a fever," she told the others,
"and fevers are my long suit. Get me some towels and a lot of
ice."

Blaze, who had watched the snake-charmer's deft ministrations with
mingled amazement and suspicion, inquired: "What are you going to
do with ice? Ice ain't medicine."

"I'm going to pack his head in it."

"God'l'mighty!" Blaze was horrified. "Do you want to freeze his
brain?"

Mrs. Strange turned on him angrily. "You get out of my way and
mind your own business. 'Freeze his brain!'" With a sniff of
indignation she pushed past the interloper.

But Blaze was waiting for her when she returned a few moments
later with bowls and bottles and various remedies which she had
commandeered. He summoned sufficient courage to block her way and
inquire:

"What you got there, now, ma'am?"

Mrs. Strange glared at him balefully. With an effort at patience
she inquired: "Say! What ails you, anyhow?"

Jones swallowed hard. "Understand, he's a friend of mine. No
damned magic goes."

"Magic?"

"No--cockroaches or snakes' tongues, or--"

Mrs. Strange fingered a heavy china bowl as if tempted to bounce
it from Blaze's head. Then, not deigning to argue, she whisked
past him and into the sick-room. It was evident from her
expression that she considered the master of the house a harmless
but offensive old busybody.

For some time longer Blaze hung about the sick-room; then, his
presence being completely ignored, he risked further antagonism by
telephoning for Jonesville's leading doctor. Not finding the
physician at home, he sneaked out to the barn and, taking Paloma's
car, drove away in search of him. It was fully two hours later
when he returned to discover that Dave was sleeping quietly.




XXV

A WARNING AND A SURPRISE


Dave Law slept for twenty hours, and even when he awoke it was not
to a clear appreciation of his surroundings. At first he was
relieved to find that the splitting pain in his head was gone, but
imagined himself to be still in the maddening local train from
Brownsville. By and by he recognized Paloma and Mrs. Strange, and
tried to talk to them, but the connection between brain and tongue
was imperfect, and he made a bad business of conversation. It
seemed queer that he should be in bed at the Joneses', and almost
ludicrous for Mrs. Strange to support him while Paloma fed him. In
the effort to understand these mysteries, he dozed again. After
interminable periods of semi-consciousness alternating with
complete oblivion, he roused himself to discover that it was
morning and that he felt better than for weeks. When he had
recovered from his surprise he turned his head and saw Mrs.
Strange slumbering in a chair beside his bed; from her
uncomfortable position and evident fatigue he judged that she must
have kept a long and faithful vigil over him.

A little later Paloma, pale and heavy-eyed, stole into the room,
and Dave's cheerful greeting awoke Mrs. Strange with a jerk.

"So! You're feeling better, aren't you," the latter woman cried,
heartily.

"Yes. How did I get here?" Dave asked. "I must have been right
sick and troublesome to you."

Paloma smiled and nodded. "Sick! Why, Dave, you frightened us
nearly to death! You were clear out of your head."

So that was it. The breakdown had come sooner than he expected,
and it had come, moreover, without warning. That was bad--bad!
Although Dave's mind was perfectly clear at this moment, he
reasoned with a sinking heart that another brain-storm might
overtake him at any time. He had imagined that the thing would
give a hint of its coming, but evidently it did not.

Mrs. Strange broke into his frowning meditation to ask, "How long
since you had a night's sleep?"

"I--Oh, it must be weeks."

"Umph! I thought so. You puzzled that pill-roller, but doctors
don't know anything, anyhow. Why, he wanted to wake you up to find
out what ailed you! I threatened to scald him if he did."

"I seem to remember talking a good deal," Dave ventured. "I reckon
I--said a lot of foolish things." He caught the look that passed
between his nurses and its significance distressed him.

Mrs. Strange continued: "That's how we guessed what your trouble
was, and that's why I wouldn't let that fool doctor disturb you.
Now that you've had a sleep and are all right again, I'm going
home and change my clothes. I haven't had them off for two
nights."

"Two nights!" Dave stared in bewilderment. Then he lamely
apologized for the trouble he had caused, and tried to thank the
women for their kindness.

He was shaky when, an hour later, he came down-stairs for
breakfast; but otherwise he felt better than for many days; and
Blaze's open delight at seeing did him as much good as the food he
ate.

Dave spent the morning sunning himself on the porch, reading the
papers with their exciting news, and speculating over the
significance of his mental collapse. The more he thought of it now
the more ominous it seemed. One result which particularly
distressed him was the change it had wrought in Paloma Jones's
bearing; for of a sudden the girl had become distant and formal.
The reason was not far to seek; Dave could not doubt that the
knowledge of his secret had frightened her. Well, that was to be
expected--he would probably lose all his friends in time. It was a
bitter thought; life would be very dull and flat without friends.
He wondered how he could bear to see those who loved him turn
away; to see their liking change to restraint and fear, as it
threatened to do in Paloma's case. Better anything than that.

There was, however, one friend who, Dave knew, would not shun him;
one of whose lasting affection he felt sure; and at memory of her
he came to his feet. Montrosa would trust him. She had given him
her heart, and her loyalty would never waver. With a clutch at his
throat, and a little pain in his breast, he stumbled down the
steps and went in search of her.

Now during Dave's absence Paloma had done her best to spoil the
mare, and among other marks of favor had allowed her free run of
the yard, where the shade was cool and the grass fine, and where
delicious tidbits were to be had from the kitchen for the mere
asking. In consequence, Dave did not go far until he was
discovered. Montrosa signaled, then trotted toward him with ears
and tail lifted. Her delight was open and extravagant; her welcome
was as enthusiastic as a horse could make it. Gone were her
coquetry and her airs; she nosed and nibbled Dave; she rubbed and
rooted him with the violence of a battering-ram, and permitted him
to hug her and murmur words of love into her velvet ears. She
swapped confidence for confidence, too; and then, when he finally
walked back toward the house, she followed closely, as if fearful
that he might again desert her.

Phil Strange met the lovers as they turned the corner of the
porch, and warmly shook Dave's hand. "Teeny--my wife--told me you
was better," he began, "so I beat it out here. I hung around all
day yesterday, waiting to see you, but you was batty."

"I was pretty sick," Dave acknowledged. "Mrs. Strange was mighty
kind to me."

"Sick people get her goat. She's got a way with 'em, and with
animals, too. Why, Rajah, the big python with our show, took sick
one year, and he'd have died sure only for her. Same with a lot of
the other animals. She knows more'n any vet I ever saw."

"Perhaps I needed a veterinary instead of a doctor," Dave smiled.
"I guess I've got some horse blood in me. See!" Montrosa had
thrust her head under his arm and was waiting for him to scratch
her ears.

"Well, I brought you some mail." Strange fumbled in his pocket for
a small bundle of letters, explaining: "Blaze gave me these for
you as I passed the post office. Now I wonder if you feel good
enough to talk business."

Dave took the letters with a word of thanks, and thrust them
carelessly into his pocket. "What seems to be the trouble?" he
inquired.

"You remember our last talk? Well, them Mexicans have got me
rattled. I've been trying everywhere to locate you. If you hadn't
come home I'd have gone to the prosecuting attorney, or somebody."

"Then you've learned something more?"

Phil nodded, and his sallow face puckered with apprehension. "Rosa
Morales has been to see me regular."

Dave passed an uncertain hand over his forehead. "I'm not in very
good shape to tackle a new proposition, but--what is it?"

"We've got to get Mrs. Austin away from here."

"We? Why?"

"If we don't they'll steal her."

"STEAL HER?" Dave's amazement was patent. "Are you crazy?"

"Sometimes I think I am, but I've pumped that Morales girl dry,
and I can't figure anything else out of what she tells me. Her and
Jose expect to make a lump of quick money, jump to Mexico, get
married, and live happy ever after. Take it from me, it's Mrs.
Austin they aim to cash in on."

"Why--the idea's ridiculous!"

"Maybe it is and maybe it ain't," the fortune-teller persisted.
"More than one rich Mexican has been grabbed and held for ransom
along this river; yes, and Americans, too, if you can believe the
stories. Anything goes in that country over there."

"You think Jose is planning to kidnap her? Nonsense! One man
couldn't do such a thing."

"I didn't say he could," Phil defended himself, sulkily.
"Remember, I told you there was somebody back of him."

"Yes, I remember, but you didn't know exactly who."

"Well, I don't exactly know yet. I thought maybe you might tell
me."

There was a brief silence, during which Dave stood frowning. Then
he appeared to shake himself free from Phil's suggestions.

"It's too utterly preposterous. Mrs. Austin has no enemies; she's
a person of importance. If by any chance she disappeared--"

"She's done that very little thing," Strange declared.

"What?"

"She's disappeared--anyhow, she's gone. Yesterday, when I saw you
was laid up and couldn't help me, I 'phoned her ranch; somebody
answered in Spanish, and from what I could make out they don't
know where she is."

Dave wondered if he had understood Strange aright, or if this
could be another trick of his own disordered brain. Choosing his
words carefully, he said: "Do you mean to tell me that she's
missing and they haven't given an alarm? I reckon you didn't
understand the message, did you?"

Strange shrugged. "Maybe I didn't. Suppose you try. You sabe the
lingo."

Dave agreed, although reluctantly, for at this moment he wished
nothing less than to undertake a mental effort, and he feared, in
spite of Strange's statement, that he might hear Alaire's voice
over the wire. That would be too much; he felt as if he could not
summon the strength to control himself in such a case.
Nevertheless, he went to the telephone, leaving Phil to wait.

When he emerged from the house a few moments later, it was with a
queer, set look upon his face.

"I got 'em," he said. "She's gone--left three days ago."

"Where did she go?"

"They wouldn't tell me."

"They WOULDN'T?" Strange looked up sharply.

"Wouldn't or couldn't." The men eyed each other silently; then
Phil inquired:

"Well, what do you make of it?"

"I don't know. She wasn't kidnapped, that's a cinch, for Dolores
went with her. I--think we're exciting ourselves unduly."

The little fortune-teller broke out excitedly: "The hell we are!
Why do you suppose I've been playing that Morales girl? I tell you
there's something crooked going on. Don't I know? Didn't I wise
you three weeks ago that something like this was coming off?" It
was plain that Phil put complete faith in his powers of
divination, and at this moment his earnestness carried a certain
degree of conviction. Dave made an effort to clear his tired
brain.

"Very well," he said. "If you're so sure, I'll go to Las Palmas.
I'll find out all about it, and where she went. If anybody has
dared to--" He drew a deep breath and his listlessness vanished;
his eyes gleamed with a hint of their customary fire. "I reckon
I've got one punch left in me." He turned and strode to his room.

As Dave changed into his service clothes he was surprised to feel
a new vigor in his limbs and a new strength of purpose in his
mind. His brain was clearer than it had been for a long time. The
last cobweb was gone, and for the moment at least he was lifted
out of himself as by a strong, invigorating drink. When he stood
in his old boots and felt the familiar drag of his cartridge-belt,
when he tested his free muscles, he realized that he was another
man. Even yet he could not put much faith in Phil Strange's words-
-nevertheless, there might be a danger threatening Alaire; and if
so, it was time to act.

Phil watched his friend saddle the bay mare, then as Dave tied his
Winchester scabbard to its thongs he laughed nervously.

"You're loaded for bear."

The horseman answered, grimly: "I'm loaded for Jose Sanchez. If I
lay hands on him I'll learn what he knows."

"You can't get nothing out of a Mexican,"

"No? I've made Filipinos talk. Believe me, I can be some
persuasive when I try." With that he swung a leg over Montrosa's
back and rode away.

Law found it good to feel a horse between his knees. He had not
realized until now how long Montrosa's saddle had been empty. The
sun was hot and friendly, the breeze was sweet in his nostrils as
he swept past the smiling fields and out into the mesquite
country. Heat waves danced above the patches of bare ground;
insects sang noisily from every side; far ahead the road ran a
wavering course through a deceitful mirage of rippling ponds. It
was all familiar, pleasant; it was home; black moods were
impossible amid such surroundings. The chemistry of air and earth
and sunshine were at work dissolving away the poisons of his
imagination. Of course Dave's trouble did not wholly vanish; it
still lurked in the back of his mind and rode with him; but from
some magic source he was deriving a power to combat it. With every
mile he covered his strength and courage increased.

Such changes had come into his life since his last visit to Las
Palmas that it gave him a feeling of unreality to discover no
alteration in the ranch. He had somehow felt that the buildings
would look older, that the trees would have grown taller, and so
when he finally came in sight of his destination he reined in to
look.

Behind him he heard the hum of an approaching motor, and he turned
to behold a car racing along the road he had just traveled. The
machine was running fast, as a long streamer of choking dust gave
evidence, and Dave soon recognized it as belonging to Jonesville's
prosecuting attorney. As it tore past him its owner shouted
something, but the words were lost. In the automobile with the
driver were several passengers, and one of these likewise called
to Dave and seemed to motion him to follow. When the machine
slowed down a half-mile ahead and veered abruptly into the Las
Palmas gateway, Dave lifted Montrosa to a run, wondering what
pressing necessity could have induced the prosecuting attorney to
risk such a reckless burst of speed.

Dave told himself that he was unduly apprehensive; that Strange's
warnings had worked upon his nerves. Nevertheless, he continued to
ride so hard that almost before the dust had settled he, too,
turned into the shade of the palms.

Yes, there was excitement here; something was evidently very much
amiss, judging from the groups of ranch-hands assembled upon the
porch. They were clustered about the doors and windows, peering
in. Briefly they turned their faces toward Law; then they crowded
closer, and he perceived that they were not talking. Some of them
had removed their hats and held them in their hands.

Dave's knees shook under him as he dismounted; for one sick, giddy
instant the scene swam before his eyes; then he ran toward the
house and up the steps. He tried to frame a question, but his lips
were stiff with fright. Heedless of those in his path, he forced
his way into the house, then down the hall toward an open door,
through which he saw a room full of people. From somewhere came
the shrill wailing of a woman; the house was full of hushed voices
and whisperings. Dave had but one thought. From the depths of his
being a voice called Alaire's name until his brain rang with it.

A bed was in the room, and around it was gathered a group of
white-faced people. With rough hands Law cleared a way for
himself, and then stopped, frozen in his tracks. His arms relaxed,
his fingers unclenched, a great sigh whistled slowly from his
lungs. Before him, booted, spurred, and fully dressed, lay the
dead body of Ed Austin.

Dave was still staring at the master of Las Palmas when the
prosecuting attorney spoke to him.

"God! This is terrible, isn't it?" he said. "He must have died
instantly."

"Who--did it?"

"We don't know yet. Benito found him and brought him in. He hasn't
been dead an hour."

Law ran his eyes over the room, and then asked, sharply, "Where is
Mrs. Austin?"

He was answered by Benito Gonzales, who had edged closer. "She's
not here, senor."

"Have you notified her?"

Benito shrugged. "There has been no time, it all happened so
quickly--"

Some one interrupted, and Dave saw that it was the local sheriff--
evidently it was he who had waved from the speeding machine a few
moments before.

"I'm glad you're here, Dave, for you can give me a hand. I'm going
to round up these Mexicans right away and find out what they know.
Whoever did it hasn't gone far; so you act as my deputy and see
what you can learn."

When Dave had regained better control of himself he took Benito
outdoors and demanded full details of the tragedy. With many
lamentations and incoherencies, the range boss told what he knew.

Ed had met his death within a half-mile of Las Palmas as he rode
home for dinner. Benito, himself on his way to the house, had
found the body, still warm, near the edge of the pecan-grove. He
had retained enough sense to telephone at once to Jonesville, and
then--Benito hardly knew what he had done since then, he was so
badly shaken by the tragedy.

"What time did it happen?"

"It was noon when I came in."

Dave consulted his watch, and was surprised to discover that it
was now only a few minutes past one. It was evident, therefore,
that Benito had indeed lost no time, and that his alarm had met
with instant response.

"Now tell me, who did it?"

Benito flung his hands high. "God knows! Some enemy, of course;
but Don Eduardo had many."

"Not that sort of enemies. There was nobody who could wish to kill
him."

"That is as it is."

"Haven't you any suspicions?"

"No, senor."

"You say Mrs. Austin is gone?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"I don't know."

Dave spoke brusquely: "Come, Benito; you must know, for your wife
went with her. Are you trying to keep something back?"

"No, no! As God is my judge!" Benito declared, "I didn't know they
were going until the very last, and even then Dolores would tell
me nothing. We were having bad times here at Las Palmas; there
were stormy scenes yonder in the house. Senor Ed was drinking
again, you understand? The senora had reason to go."

"You think she ran away to escape him?"

"Exactly."

Dave breathed more easily, for this seemed to settle Strange's
theory. The next instant, however, his apprehensions were doubled,
for Benito added;

"No doubt she went to La Feria."

Law uttered an incredulous exclamation. "Not THERE! Surely she
wouldn't go to La Feria at such a time. Why, that country is
ablaze. Americans are fleeing from Mexico."

"I hadn't thought of that," Benito confessed. "But if she didn't
go there, where did she go? Saints above! It is a fine condition
of affairs when a wife keeps secrets from her husband, eh? I
suppose Dolores feared I would tell Don Eduardo, God rest his
soul! This much I do know, however: not long ago there came a
letter from General Longorio, offering settlement for those cattle
he stole in his government's name. Dolores told me the senora was
highly pleased and was going to Mexico for her money. It was a
mark of Longorio's favor, you understand me? He's a great--friend,
an ardent admirer." Benito winked. "Dolores told me all about
that, too. No, I think they went to La Feria."

Dave remembered his first conversation with Phil Strange and the
fortune-teller's insistence that some powerful person was behind
Jose Sanchez. More than three weeks ago Strange had forecast
something very like murder of Ed Austin. Dave felt as if he were
the victim of an hysterical imagination. Nevertheless, he forced
himself to ask, quietly:

"Is Jose Sanchez anywhere about?"

The range boss shrugged. "I sent him to the east pasture this
morning."

"Did he go?"

"Eh? So! You suspect Jose of this. God in heaven! Jose is a wild
boy--But wait! I'll ask Juan if he saw him; yes, and Victoria,
too. That is Victoria you hear squalling in the kitchen. Wait
here."

Benito hurried away, leaving Dave a prey to perplexity; but he was
back again in a few moments. His face was grave.

"Jose did not go to the east pasture," he said.

"Where is he now?"

"No one seems to know."

Law walked to his horse, mounted, and galloped away. Benito, who
watched him, saw that he turned toward the river road which led to
the Las Palmas pumping-plant.

The more Dave thought about Ed Austin's death, the more certain he
became that it was in some way connected with Alaire's
disappearance; and the loose end by which the tangle might be
unraveled, it seemed to him, lay in the hands of Rosa Morales,
Jose's sweetheart. That Sanchez was the murderer Dave now had
little doubt; but since the chance of apprehending him was small,
he turned his attention to the girl. He would make Rosa speak, he
told himself, if he had to use force--this was no time for gentle
methods. If she knew aught of Alaire's whereabouts or the mystery
of her departure from Las Palmas, he would find a way to wring the
truth from her. Dave's face, a trifle too somber at all times,
took on a grimmer aspect now; he felt a slow fury kindling in his
breast.

Years of experience had taught him to be always alert even during
his moments of deepest preoccupation, and so, from force of habit,
when he came to the pump-house road he carefully scanned it. In
the dust were fresh hoof-prints leading toward the river. Now he
knew this road to be seldom used, and therefore he wondered who
could be riding it at a gallop in this blistering midday heat. A
few rods farther on and his quick eye detected something else--
something that brought him from his saddle. Out of the rut he
picked a cigarette butt, the fire of which was cold but the paper
of which was still wet from the smoker's lips. He examined it
carefully; then he remounted and rode on, pondering its
significance.

Dave loped out of the thicket and straight across the clearing to
the Morales house. Leaving Montrosa's reins hanging, he opened the
door and entered without knocking. Rosa appeared in the opening to
another room, her eyes wide with fright at this apparition, and
Dave saw that she was dressed in her finest, as if for a holiday
or for a journey.

"Where's your father?" he demanded.

"He's gone to Sangre de Cristo. What do you want?"

"When did he go?"

"This morning, early. He--"

"Who's been here since he left?"

Rosa was recovering from her first surprise, and now her black
brows drew together in anger. "No one has come. You are the first.
And have you no manners to stride into a respectable house--?"

Dave broke in harshly: "Rosa, you're lying. Jose Sanchez has been
here within an hour. Where is he?" When the girl only grew whiter
and raised a hand to her breast, he stepped toward her, crying,
"Answer me!"

Rosa recoiled, and the breath caught in her throat like a sob.
"I'll tell you nothing," she said in a thin voice. Then she began
to tremble. "Why do you want Jose?"

"You know why. He killed Don Eduardo, and then be rode here. Come!
I know everything."

"Lies! Lies!" Rosa's voice grew shrill. "Out of this house! I know
you. It was you who betrayed Panfilo, and his blood is on your
hands, assassin!" With the last word she made as if to retreat,
but Dave was too quick; he seized her, and for an instant they
struggled breathlessly.

Dave had reasoned beforehand that his only chance of discovering
anything from this girl lay in utterly terrorizing her and in
profiting by her first panic; therefore he pressed his advantage.
He succeeded better than he had dared to hope.

"You know who killed Senor Ed," he cried, fiercely. "The fortune-
teller read your plans, and there is no use to deny it."

Rosa screamed again; she writhed; she tried to sink her teeth into
her captor's flesh. In her body was the strength of a full-grown
man, and Dave could hardly hold her. But suddenly, as the two
scuffled, from the back room of the house came a sound which
caused Dave to release the girl as abruptly as he had seized her--
it was the clink and tinkle of Mexican spurs upon a wooden floor.




XXVI

THE WATER-CURE


Without an instant's hesitation Dave flung himself past Rosa and
through the inner door.

Jose Sanchez met him with a shout; the shock of their collision
overbore the lighter man, and the two went down together, arms and
legs intertwined. The horse-breaker fired his revolver blindly--a
deafening explosion inside those four walls--but he was powerless
against his antagonist's strength and ferocity. It required but a
moment for Law to master him, to wrench the weapon from his grasp,
and then, with the aid of Jose's silk neck-scarf, to bind his
wrists tightly.

From the front of the little house came the crash of a door
violently slammed as Rosa profited by the diversion to save
herself.

When finally Jose stood, panting and snarling, his back to the
wall, Dave regarded him with a sinister contraction of the lips
that was almost a grin.

"Well," he said, drawing a deep breath, "I see you didn't go to
the east pasture this morning."

"What do you want of me?" Jose managed to gasp.

There was a somewhat prolonged silence, during which Dave
continued to stare at his prisoner with that same disquieting
expression. "Why did you kill Don Eduardo?" he asked.

"I? Bah! Who says I killed him?" Jose glared defiance. "Why are
you looking at me? Come! Take me to jail, if you think that will
do any good."

"It's lucky I rode to Las Palmas this morning. In another hour you
would have been across the Rio Grande--with Rosa and all her fine
clothes, eh? Now you will be hanged. Well, that is how fortune
goes."

The horse-breaker tossed his head and shrugged with a brave
assumption of indifference; he laughed shortly. "You can prove
nothing."

"Yes," continued Dave, "and Rosa will go to prison, too. Now--
suppose I should let you go? Would you help me? In ten minutes you
could be safe." He inclined his head toward the muddy, silent
river outside. "Would you be willing to help me?"

Jose's brows lifted. "What's this you are saying?" he inquired,
eagerly.

"I would only ask you a few questions."

"What questions?"

"Where is Senora Austin?"

Jose's face became blank. "I don't know."

"Oh yes, you do. She started for La Feria. But--did she get there?
Or did Longorio have other plans for her? You'd better tell me the
truth, for your general can't help you now." Dave did his best to
read the Mexican's expression, but failed. "Senor Ed's death means
nothing to me," he went on, "but I must know where his wife is,
and I'm willing to pay, with your liberty." In spite of himself
his anxiety was plain.

Jose exclaimed: "Ho! I understand. He was in your way and you're
glad to be rid of him. Well, we have no business fighting with
each other."

"Will you tell me--?"

"I'll tell you nothing, for I know nothing."

"Come! I must know."

Jose laughed insolently.

Law's face became black with sudden fury. His teeth bared
themselves. He took a step forward, crying:

"By God! You WILL tell me!" Seizing his prisoner by the throat, he
pinned him to the wall; then with his free hand he cocked
Longorio's revolver and thrust its muzzle against Jose's body.
"Tell me!" he repeated. His countenance was so distorted, his
expression so maniacal, that Jose felt his hour had come. The
latter, being in all ways Mexican, did not struggle; instead, he
squared his shoulders and, staring fearlessly into the face above
him, cried:

"Shoot!"

For a moment the two men remained so; then Dave seemed to regain
control of himself and the murder light flickered out of his eyes.
He flung his prisoner aside and cast the revolver into a corner of
the room.

Jose picked himself up, cursing his captor eloquently. "You
Gringos don't know how to die," he said. "Death? Pah! We must die
some time. And supposing I do know something about the senora, do
you think you can force me to speak? Torture wouldn't open my
lips."

Law did not trust himself to reply; and the horse-breaker went on
with growing defiance:

"I am innocent of any crime; therefore I am brave. But you--The
blood of innocent men means nothing to you--Panfilo's murder
proves that--so complete your work. Make an end of me."

"Be still!" Dave commanded, thickly.

But the fellow's hatred was out of bounds now, and by the
bitterness of his vituperation he seemed to invite death. Dave
interrupted his vitriolic curses to ask harshly:

"Will you tell me, or will you force me to wring the truth out of
you?"

Jose answered by spitting at his captor; then he gritted an
unspeakable epithet from between his teeth.

Dave addressed him with an air of finality. "You killed that man
and your life is forfeit, so it doesn't make much difference
whether I take it or whether the State takes it. You are brave
enough to die--most of you Mexicans are--but the State can't force
you to speak, and I can." Jose sneered. "Oh yes, I can! I intend
to know all that you know, and it will be better for you to tell
me voluntarily. I must learn where Senora Austin is, and I must
learn quickly, if I have to kill you by inches to get the truth."

"So! Torture, eh? Good. I can believe it of you. Well, a slow fire
will not make me speak."

"No. A fire would be too easy, Jose."

"Eh?"

Without answer Dave strode out of the room. He was back before his
prisoner could do more than wrench at his bonds, and with him he
brought his lariat and his canteen.

"What are you going to do?" Jose inquired, backing away until he
was once more at bay.

"I'm going to give you a drink."

"Whisky? You think you can make me drunk?" The horse-breaker
laughed loudly but uneasily.

"Not whisky; water. I'm going to give you a drink of water."

"What capers!"

"When you've drunk enough you'll tell me why you killed your
employer and where General Longorio has taken his wife. Yes, and
everything else I want to know." Seizing the amazed Mexican, Dave
flung him upon Morales's hard board bed, and in spite of the
fellow's struggles deftly made him fast. When he had finished--and
it was no easy job--Jose lay "spread-eagled" upon his back, his
wrists and ankles firmly bound to the head and foot posts, his
body secured by a tight loop over his waist. The rope cut
painfully and brought a curse from the prisoner when he strained
at it. Law surveyed him with a face of stone.

"I don't want to do this," he declared, "but I know your kind. I
give you one more chance. Will you tell me?"

Jose drew his lips back in a snarl of rage and pain, and Dave
realized that further words were useless. He felt a certain pity
for his victim and no little admiration for his courage, but such
feelings were of small consequence as against his agonizing fears
for Alaire's safety. Had he in the least doubted Jose's guilty
knowledge of Longorio's intentions, Dave would have hesitated
before employing the barbarous measures he had in mind, but--there
was nothing else for it. He pulled the canteen cork and jammed the
mouthpiece firmly to Jose's lips. Closing the fellow's nostrils
with his free hand, he forced him to drink.

Jose clenched his teeth, he tried to roll his head, he held his
breath until his face grew purple and his eyes bulged. He strained
like a man upon the rack. The bed creaked to his muscular
contortions; the rope tightened. It was terribly cruel, this
crushing of a strong will bent on resistance to the uttermost; but
never was an executioner more pitiless, never did a prisoner's
agony receive less consideration. The warm water spilled over
Jose's face, it drenched his neck and chest; his joints cracked as
he strove for freedom and tried to twist his head out of Law's
iron grasp. The seconds dragged, until finally Nature asserted
herself. The imprisoned breath burst forth; there sounded a loud
gurgling cry and a choking inhalation. Jose's body writhed with
the convulsions of drowning as the water and air were sucked into
his lungs. Law was kneeling over his victim now, his weight and
strength so applied that Jose had no liberty of action and could
only drink, coughing and fighting for air. Somehow he managed to
revive himself briefly and again shut his teeth; but a moment more
and he was again retched with the furious battle for air, more
desperate now than before. After a while Law freed his victim's
nostrils and allowed him a partial breath, then once more crushed
the mouthpiece against his lips. By and by, to relieve his
torture, Jose began to drink in great noisy gulps, striving to
empty the vessel.

But the stomach's capacity is limited. In time Jose felt himself
bursting; the liquid began to regurgitate. This was not mere pain
that he suffered, but the ultimate nightmare horror of a death
more awful than anything he had ever imagined. Jose would have met
a bullet, a knife, a lash, without flinching; flames would not
have served to weaken his resolve; but this slow drowning was
infinitely worse than the worst he had thought possible; he was
suffocating by long, black, agonizing minutes. Every nerve and
muscle of his body, every cell in his bursting lungs, fought
against the outrage in a purely physical frenzy over which his
will power had no control. Nor would insensibility come to his
relief--Law watched him too carefully for that. He could not even
voice his sufferings by shrieks; he could only writhe and retch
and gurgle while the ropes bit into his flesh and his captor knelt
upon him like a monstrous stone weight.

But Jose had made a better fight than he knew. The canteen ran dry
at last, and Law was forced to release his hold.

"Will you speak?" he demanded.

Thinking that he had come safely through the ordeal, Jose shook
his head; he rolled his bulging, bloodshot eyes and vomited, then
managed to call God to witness his innocence.

Dave went into the next room and refilled the canteen. When he
reappeared with the dripping vessel in his hand, Jose tried to
scream. But his throat was torn and strained; the sound of his own
voice frightened him.

Once more the torment began. The tortured man was weaker now, and
in consequence he resisted more feebly; but not until he was less
than half conscious did Law spare him time to recover.

Jose lay sick, frightened, inert. Dave watched him without pity.
The fellow's wrists were black and swollen, his lips were
bleeding; he was stretched like a dumb animal upon the
vivisectionist's table, and no surgeon with lance and scalpel
could have shown less emotion than did his inquisitor. Having no
intention of defeating his own ends, Dave allowed his victim ample
time in which to regain his ability to suffer.

Alaire Austin had been right when she said that Dave might be
ruthless; and yet the man was by no means incapable of compassion.
At the present moment, however, he considered himself simply as
the instrument by which Alaire was to be saved. His own feelings
had nothing to do with the matter; neither had the sufferings of
this Mexican. Therefore he steeled himself to prolong the agony
until the murderer's stubborn spirit was worn down. Once again he
put his question, and, again receiving defiance, jammed the
canteen between Jose's teeth.

But human nature is weak. For the first time in his life Jose
Sanchez felt terror--a terror too awful to be endured--and he made
the sign.

He was no longer the insolent defier, the challenger, but an
imploring wretch, whose last powers of resistance had been
completely shattered. His frightened eyes were glued to that
devilish vessel in which his manhood had dissolved, the fear of it
made a woman of him.

Slowly, in sighs and whimpers, in agonies of reluctance, his story
came; his words were rendered almost incomprehensible by his
abysmal fright. When he had purged himself of his secret Dave
promptly unbound him; then leaving him more than half dead, he
went to the telephone which connected the pumping station with Las
Palmas and called up the ranch.

He was surprised when Blaze Jones answered. Blaze, it seemed, had
just arrived, summoned by news of the tragedy. The countryside had
been alarmed and a search for Ed Austin's slayer was being
organized.

"Call it off," Dave told him. "I've got your man." Blaze stuttered
his surprise and incredulity. "I mean it. It's Jose Sanchez, and
he has confessed. I want you to come here, quick; and come alone,
if you don't mind. I need your help."

Inside of ten minutes Jones piloted his automobile into the
clearing beside the river, and, leaving his motor running, leaped
from the car.

Dave met him at the door of the Morales house and briefly told him
the story of Jose's capture.

"Say! That's quick work," the rancher cried, admiringly. "Why, Ed
ain't cold yet! You gave him the 'water-cure,' eh? Now I reckoned
it would take more than water to make a Mexican talk."

"Jose was hired for the work; he laid for Ed Austin in the pecan
grove and shot him as he passed."

"Hired! Why this hombre needs quick hangin', don't he? I told 'em
at Las Palmas that you'd rounded up the guilty party, so I reckon
they'll be here in a few minutes. We'll just stretch this horse-
wrangler, and save the county some expense." Law shrugged. "Do
what you like with him, but--it isn't necessary. He'll confess in
regulation form, I'm sure. I had to work fast to learn what became
of Mrs. Austin."

"Miz Austin? What's happened to her?"

Dave's voice changed; there was a sudden quickening of his words.
"They've got her, Blaze. They waited until they had her safe
before they killed Ed."

"'They?' Who the hell are you talkin' about?"

"I mean Longorio and his outfit. He's got her over yonder." Dave
flung out a trembling hand toward the river. Seeing that his
hearer failed to comprehend, he explained, swiftly: "He's crazy
about her--got one of those Mexican infatuations--and you know
what that means. He couldn't steal her from Las Palmas--she
wouldn't have anything to do with him--so he used that old cattle
deal as an excuse to get her across the border. Then he put Ed out
of the way. She went of her own accord, and she didn't tell
Austin, because they were having trouble. She's gone to La Feria,
Blaze."

"La Feria! Then she's in for it."

Dave nodded his agreement; for the first time Blaze noted how
white and set was his friend's face.

"Longorio must have foreseen what was coming," Dave went on. "That
country's aflame; Americans aren't safe over there. If war is
declared, a good many of them will never be heard from. He knows
that. He's got her safe. She can't get out."

Blaze was very grave when next he spoke. "Dave, this is bad--bad.
I can't understand what made her go. Why, she must have been out
of her head. But we've got to do something. We've got to burn the
wires to Washington--yes, and to Mexico City. We must get the
government to send soldiers after her. God! What have we got 'em
for, anyhow?"

"Washington won't do anything. What can be done when there are
thousands of American women in the same danger? What steps can the
government take, with the fleet on its way to Vera Cruz, with the
army mobilizing, and with diplomatic relations suspended? Those
Greasers are filling their jails with our people--rounding 'em up
for the day of the big break--and the State Department knows it.
No, Longorio saw it all coming--he's no fool. He's got her; she's
in there--trapped."

Blaze took the speaker by the shoulder and faced him about. "Look
here," said he, "I'm beginnin' to get wise to you. I believe
you're--the man in the case." When Dave nodded, he vented his
amazement in a long whistle. After a moment he asked, "Well, why
did you want me to come here alone, ahead of the others?"

"Because I want you to know the whole inside of this thing so that
you can get busy when I'm gone; because I want to borrow what
money you have--"

"What you aimin' to pull off?" Blaze inquired, suspiciously.

"I'm going to find her and bring her out."

"You? Why, Dave, you can't get through. This is a job for the
soldiers."

But Dave hardly seemed to hear him. "You must start things moving
at once," he said, urgently. "Spread the news, get the story into
the papers, notify the authorities. Get every influence at work,
from here to headquarters; get your Senator and the Governor of
the state at work. Ellsworth will help you. And now give me your
last dollar."

Blaze emptied his pockets, shaking his shaggy head the while. "La
Feria is a hundred and fifty miles in," he remonstrated.

"By rail from Pueblo, yes. But it's barely a hundred, straight
from here."

"You 'ain't got a chance, single-handed. You're crazy to try it."

The effect of these words was startling, for Dave laughed harshly.
"'Crazy' is the word," he agreed. "It's a job for a lunatic, and
that's me. Yes, I've got bad blood in me, Blaze--bad blood--and
I'm taking it back where I got it. But listen!" He turned a sick,
colorless face to his friend. "They'll whittle a cross for
Longorio if I do get through." He called to Montrosa, and the mare
came to him, holding her head to one side so as not to tread upon
her dragging reins.

"I'm 'most tempted to go with you," Blaze stammered, uncertainly.

"No. Somebody has to stay here and stir things up, If we had
twenty men like you we might cut our way in and out, but there's
no time to organize, and, anyhow, the government would probably
stop us. I've got a hunch that I'll make it. If I don't--why, it's
all right."

The two men shook hands lingeringly, awkwardly; then Blaze managed
to wish his friend luck. "If you don't come back," he said, with a
peculiar catch in his voice, "I reckon there's enough good Texans
left to follow your trail. I'll sure look forward to it."

Dave took the river-bank to Sangre de Cristo, where, by means of
the dilapidated ferry, he gained the Mexican side. Once across, he
rode straight up toward the village of Romero. When challenged by
an under-sized soldier he merely spurred Montrosa forward, eyeing
the sentry so grimly that the man did no more than finger his
rifle uncertainly, cursing under his breath the overbearing airs
of all Gringos. Nor did the rider trouble to make the slightest
detour, but cantered the full length of Romero's dusty street, the
target of more than one pair of hostile eyes. To those who saw
him, soldiers and civilians alike, it was evident that this
stranger had business, and no one felt called upon to question its
nature. There are men who carry an air more potent than a
bodyguard, and Dave Law was one of these. Before the village had
thoroughly awakened to his coming he was gone, without a glance to
the right or left, without a word to anyone.

When Romero was at his back he rode for a mile or two through a
region of tiny scattered farms and neglected garden patches, after
which he came out into the mesquite. For all the signs he saw, he
might then have been in the heart of a foreign country. Mexico had
swallowed him.

As the afternoon heat subsided, Montrosa let herself out into a
freer gait and began to cover the distance rapidly, heading due
west through a land of cactus and dagger, of thorn and barb and
bramble.

The roads were unfenced, the meadows desolate; the huts were
frequently untenanted. Ahead the sky burned splendidly, and the
sunset grew more brilliant, more dazzling, until it glorified the
whole mean, thirsty, cruel countryside.

Dave's eyes were set upon that riot of blazing colors, but for the
time it failed to thrill him. In that welter of changing hues and
tints he saw only red. Red! That was the color of blood; it stood
for passion, lust, violence; and it was a fitting badge of color
for this land of revolutions and alarms. At first he saw little
else--except the hint of black despair to follow. But there was
gold in the sunset, too--the yellow gold of ransom! That was
Mexico--red and yellow, blood and gold, lust and license. Once the
rider's fancy began to work in this fashion, it would not rest,
and as the sunset grew in splendor he found in it richer meanings.
Red was the color of a woman's lips--yes, and a woman's hair. The
deepening blue of the high sky overhead was the hue of a certain
woman's eyes. A warm, soft breeze out of the west beat into his
face, and he remembered how warm and soft Alaire's breath had been
upon his cheek.

The woman of his desires was yonder, where those colors warred,
and she was mantled in red and gold and purple for his coming. The
thought aroused him; the sense of his unworthiness vanished, the
blight fell from him; he felt only a throbbing eagerness to see
her and to take her in his arms once more before the end.

With his head high and his face agleam, he rode into the west,
into the heart of the sunset.




XXVII

LA FERIA


What's this I hear about war?" Dolores inquired of her mistress, a
few days after their arrival at La Feria. "They tell me that
Mexico is invaded and that the American soldiers have already
killed more than a thousand women and children."

"Who tells you this?" Alaire asked.

"The men--everybody," Dolores waved a hand in the direction of the
other ranch buildings. "Our people are buzzing like bees with the
news, and, of course, no one cares to work when the Americans are
coming."

"I shall have to put an end to such talk."

"This morning the word came that the revolution is ended and that
the soldiers of both parties are uniting to fight for their
liberties. They say the Gringos are killing all the old people--
every one, in fact, except the girls, whom they take with them.
Already they have begun the most horrible practices. Why, at
Espinal"--Dolores's eyes were round--"would you believe it?--those
Yankee soldiers ate a baby! They roasted the little dear like a
cabrito and ate it! I tell you, it makes wild talk among the
peladors."

"Do you believe such stories?" Alaire inquired, with some
amusement.

"Um-m--not altogether. But, all the same, I think it is time we
were going home."

"This is home, for me, Dolores."

"Yes, but now that war--"

"There isn't any war, and there won't be any. However, if you are
nervous I'll send you back to Las Palmas at once."

"Glory of God! It would be the end of me. These Mexicans would
recognize me instantly as an American, for I have the appearance
and the culture. You can imagine what would happen to me. They
would tear me from the train. It was nothing except General
Longorio's soldiers that brought us safely through from Nuevo
Pueblo."

"Then I'm glad that he insisted upon sending them with us. Now
tell the ranch-hands to put no faith in these ridiculous stories.
If they wish the truth let them ask General Longorio; he will be
here today and quiet their fears."

"You think he intends to pay us for our cattle?"

"Yes."

Dolores pondered a moment. "Well, perhaps he does--it is not his
money. For that matter, he would give all Mexico if you asked it.
Tse! His love consumes him like a fever."

Alaire stirred uneasily; then she rose and went to an open window,
which looked out into the tiny patio with its trickling fountain
and its rank, untended plants. "Why do you insist that he loves
me?" she asked. "All Mexicans are gallant and pay absurd
compliments. It's just a way they have. He has never spoken a word
that could give offense." As Dolores said nothing, she went on,
hesitatingly, "I can't very well refuse to see him, for I don't
possess even a receipt to show that he took those cattle."

"Oh, you must not offend him," Dolores agreed, hastily, "or we'd
never leave Mexico alive." With which cheering announcement the
housekeeper heaved a deep sigh and went about her duties with a
gloomy face.

Longorio arrived that afternoon, and Alaire received him in the
great naked living room of the hacienda, with her best attempt at
formality. But her coolness served not in the least to chill his
fervor.

"Senora," he cried, eagerly, "I have a thousand things to tell
you, things of the greatest importance. They have been upon my
tongue for hours, but now that I behold you I grow drunk with
delight and my lips frame nothing but words of admiration for your
beauty. So! I feast my eyes." He retained his warm clasp of her
fingers, seeming to envelop her uncomfortably with his ardor.

"What is it you have to tell me?" she asked him, withdrawing her
hand.

"Well, I hardly know where to begin--events have moved so swiftly,
and such incredible things have happened. Even now I am in a daze,
for history is being made every hour--history for Mexico, for you,
and for me. I bring you good news and bad news; something to
startle you and set your brain in a whirl. I planned to send a
messenger ahead of me, and then I said: 'No, this is a crisis;
therefore no tongue but mine shall apprise her, no hand but mine
shall comfort her. Only a coward shrinks from the unpleasant; I
shall lighten her distress and awaken in her breast new hope, new
happiness'--"

"What do you mean?" Alaire inquired, sharply. "You say you bring
bad news?"

The general nodded. "In a way, terrible, shocking! And yet I look
beyond the immediate and see in it a blessing. So must you. To me
it spells the promise of my unspoken longings, my whispered
prayers." Noting his hearer's growing bewilderment, he laid a hand
familiarly upon her arm. "No matter how I tell you, it will be a
blow, for death is always sudden; it always finds us unprepared."

"Death? Who--is dead?"

"Restrain yourself. Allow for my clumsiness."

"Who? Please tell me?"

"Some one very close to you and very dear to you at one time. My
knowledge of your long unhappiness alone gives me courage to
speak."

Alaire raised her fluttering fingers to her throat; her eyes were
wide as she said: "You don't mean--Mr. Austin?"

"Yes." Longorio scrutinized her closely, as if to measure the
effect of his disclosure. "Senora, you are free!"

Alaire uttered a breathless exclamation; then, feeling his gaze
burning into her, turned away, but not before he had noted her
sudden pallor, the blanching of her lips.

This unexpected announcement dazed her; it scattered her thoughts
and robbed her of words, but just what her dominant emotion was at
the moment she could not tell. Once her first giddiness had
passed, however, once the truth had borne in upon her, she found
that she felt no keen anguish, and certainly no impulse to weep.
Rather she experienced a vague horror, such as the death of an
acquaintance or of a familiar relative might evoke. Ed had been
anything but a true husband, and her feeling now was more for the
memory of the man he had been, for the boy she had known and
loved, than for the man whose name she bore. So he was gone and,
as Longorio said, she was free. It meant much. She realized dimly
that in this one moment her whole life had changed. She had never
thought of this way out of her embarrassments; she had been
prepared, in fact, for anything except this. Dead! It was
deplorable, for Ed was young. Once the first shock had passed
away, she became conscious of a deep pity for the man, and a
complete forgiveness for the misery he had caused her. After a
time she faced the newsbearer, and in a strained voice inquired:

"How did it happen? Was it--because of me?"

"No, no! Rest your mind on that score. See! I understand your
concern and I share your intimate thoughts. No, it was an
accident, ordained by God. His end was the result of his own
folly, a gunshot wound while he was drunk, I believe. Now you will
understand why I said that I bore tidings both good and evil and
why I, of all people, should be the one to impart them."

Alaire turned questioning eyes upon him, as if to fathom his
meaning, and he answered her with his brilliant smile. Failing to
evoke a response, he went on:

"Ever since I heard of it I have repeated over and over again, 'It
is a miracle; it is the will of God.' Come, then, we know each
other so well that we may speak frankly. Let us be honest and
pretend to no counterfeit emotions. Let us recognize in this only
your deliverance and the certainty of that blessed happiness which
Divine Providence offers us both."

"Both?" she repeated, dully.

"Need I be plainer? You know my heart. You have read me. You
understand how I have throttled my longings and remained mute
while all my being called to you."

Alaire withdrew a step, and her cheeks colored with anger.
"General!" she exclaimed, with some difficulty, "I am amazed. This
is no time--" Her indignation rose with the sound of her own
voice, causing her to stammer.

Taking advantage of her loss of words, he hurried on: "You must
pardon my impetuosity, but I am a man of tremendous force, and my
life moves swiftly. I am not shackled by conventions--they are
less than nothing to me. If it seems to you that my eagerness
carries me away, remember that war is upon us and that affairs of
moment press me so that I am compelled to move like the lightning.
With me, senora, a day is a year. The past is gone, the present is
here, the future rushes forward to meet us."

"Indeed, you forget yourself," she said, warmly. Then, changing
her tone: "I too must act quickly. I must go back at once."

"Oh, but I have told you only a part of what I came to say."

"Surely the rest can wait." Her voice was vibrant with contempt.
"I'm in no condition to listen to anything else."

But Longorio insisted. "Wait! It is impossible for you to leave
here."

Alaire stared at him incredulously.

"It is true. Mexico is a seething caldron of hate; the country is
convulsed. It would be unsafe for you."

"Do you mean to say that war has been declared?"

"Practically."

"What--? You are telling me the truth?" A moment, then Alaire
continued, more calmly, "If that is so, there is all the more
reason why I should lose no time."

"Listen!" The general was deeply in earnest. "You have no
conception of the chaos out there." He waved a comprehensive
gesture. "If the explosion has not come, it will come within a few
hours. That is why I flew to your side. Battleships are hurrying
toward our coast, troops are massing against our border, and
Mexico has risen like one man. The people are in a frenzy; they
are out of bounds; there is sack and pillage in the cities.
Americans are objects of violence everywhere and the peons are
frantic." He paused impressively. "We face the greatest upheaval
of history."

"Then why are you here?" Alaire demanded. "This is no place for
you at such a moment."

Longorio came closer to her, and his voice trembled as he said:
"Angel of my soul, my place is at your side." Again she recoiled,
but with a fervor he had never dared display he rushed on
heedlessly. "I have told you I harken only to my heart; that for
one smile from you I would behead myself; that for your favor I
would betray my fatherland; that for your kiss I would face
damnation. Well, I am here at your side. The deluge comes, but you
shall be unharmed." He would not permit her to check him, crying:
"Wait! You must hear me through, senora, so that you may
comprehend fully why I am forced to speak at this time. Out of
this coming struggle I shall emerge a heroic figure. Now that
Mexico unites, she will triumph, and of all her victorious sons
the name of Luis Longorio will be sung the loudest, for upon him
more than upon any other depends the Republic's salvation. I do
not boast. I merely state facts, for I have made all my plans, and
tomorrow I put them into effect. That is why I cannot wait to
speak. The struggle will be long, but you shall be my guiding star
in the hour of darkness."

Under other circumstances the man's magnificent egotism might have
provoked a smile. And yet, for all its grandiloquence, there was
something in his speech that rang hard and true. Unquestionably
Longorio was dangerous--a real personality, and no mere swaggering
pretender. Alaire felt a certain reluctant respect for him, and at
the same time a touch of chilling fear such as she had hardly
experienced before. She faced him silently for a moment; then she
said:

"Am I to understand that you forbid me to leave my own house?"

"For the time being, exactly."

"What? Then I am your prisoner!"

"No, no!" He made a gesture of denial. "How ridiculous! I merely
keep you from certain destruction. You cannot go by train, because
the railroad has suspended public service, nor can you ride or
drive. I tell you, senora, the people are aroused. For the moment
you must accept my protection, whether you wish to or not.
Tomorrow"--Longorio smiled warmly, meaningly-"perhaps you will not
be in such haste to refuse it, or to leave La Feria. Wait until
you understand me better. Then--But enough of this. You are
unstrung, you wish to be alone with your thoughts, and what I have
to say can wait for a few hours. In the mean time, may I beg the
hospitality of your ranch for myself and my men?"

Alaire acquiesced mechanically. Longorio saluted her fingers in
his customary manner, and then, with a look eloquent of things
unsaid, he went out to see to the comfort of his command.

Alaire sank into the nearest chair, her nerves quivering, her mind
in a turmoil. This Mexican was detestable, and he was far from
being the mere maker of audaciously gallant speeches, the
poetically fervent wooer of every pretty woman, she had blindly
supposed him. His was no sham ardor; the man was hotly, horribly
in earnest. There had been a glint of madness in his eyes. And he
actually seemed to think that she shared his infatuation. It was
intolerable. Yet Longorio, she was sure, had an abundance of
discretion; he would not dare to offer her violence. He had pride,
too; and in his way he was something of a gentleman. So far, she
had avoided giving him offense. But if once she made plain to him
how utterly loathsome to her was his pursuit, she was sure that he
would cease to annoy her. Alaire was self-confident, strong-
willed; she took courage.

Her thoughts turned from her fears to the amazing reality of her
widowhood. Even yet she could not wholly credit the fact that Ed's
wasted life had come to an end and that she was free to make the
most of her own. Alaire remembered her husband now with more
tenderness, more charity, than she would have believed possible,
and it seemed to her pitiful that one so blessed with opportunity
should have worked such havoc with himself and with those near to
him.

Doubtless it was all a part of some providential scheme, too blind
for her to solve. Perhaps, indeed, her own trials had been
designed to the end that her greater, truer love, when it did
come, would find her ripe, responsive, ready. As for this Mexican
general, she would put him in his place.

Alaire was still walking the floor of her chamber when Dolores
entered, at dusk, to say that supper was ready and that General
Longorio was waiting.

"Ask him to excuse me," she told her servant.

But Longorio himself spoke from the next room, saying: "Senora, I
beg of you to honor me. I have much of importance to say, and time
presses. Control your grief and give me the pleasure of your
company."

After an instant's consideration Alaire yielded. It was best to
have the matter over with, once for all.




XXVIII

THE DOORS OF PARADISE


Alaire began the mockery of playing hostess with extreme distaste,
and as the meal progressed she experienced a growing uneasiness.
Longorio's bearing had changed since his arrival. He was still
extravagantly courteous, beautifully attentive; he maintained a
flow of conversation that relieved her of any effort, and yet he
displayed a repressed excitement that was disturbing. In his eyes
there was a gloating look of possession hard to endure. Despite
her icy formality, he appeared to be holding himself within the
bounds of propriety only by an effort of will, and she was not
surprised when, at the conclusion of the meal, he cast restraint
aside.

She did not let him go far with his wooing before warning him: "I
won't listen to you. You are a man of taste; you must realize how
offensive this is."

"Let us not deceive each other," he insisted. "We are alone. Let
us be honest. Do not ask me to put faith in your grief. I find my
excuse in the extraordinary nature of this situation."

"Nothing can excuse indelicacy," she answered, evenly. "You
transgress the commonest rules of decency."

But he was impatient. "What sentiment! You did not love your
husband. You were for years his prisoner. Through the bars of your
prison I saw and loved you. Dios! The first sight of your face
altered the current of my life. I saw heaven in your eyes, and I
have dreamed of nothing else ever since. Well, Providence opened
the doors and set you free; God gave heed to my prayers and
delivered you to me. Now you pretend to grieve at your
deliverance; you ask me to respect the memory of your jailer!
Decency? Delicacy? What are they except artificialities, which
vanish in times of stress? Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon,
Porfirio Diaz--they were strong, purposeful men; they lived as I
live. Senora, you dally with love."

Alaire's face was white with anger as she replied: "You cause me
to forget that you are my guest. Are you the man I considered you
or the man you are reported to be?"

"Eh?"

"Are you the gentleman, the friend, you pretended to be, or--the
vandal whom no woman can trust? You treat me as if you were my
jailer. What do you mean? What kind of man are you to take
advantage of my bereavement?"

After a moment's consideration Longorio began haltingly: "I don't
know what kind of man I am, for you have changed me so. There was
a time--I--I have done things--I have scorned all restraint, all
laws except those of my desires, and so, perhaps, I am a vandal.
Make sure of this, however--I shall not injure you. Christ is no
more sacred to me than you, my heart's treasure. You accuse me of
indelicacy because I lack the strength to smother my admiration. I
adore you; my being dissolves, my veins are afire with longing for
you; I am mad with the knowledge that you are mine. Mad? Caramba!
I am insane; my mind totters; I grope my way like a man blinded by
a dazzling light; I suffer agonies. But see! I refuse to touch
you. I am a giant in my restraint. The strength of heroes is mine,
and I strangle my impulses as they are born, although the effort
kills me. Senora, I await the moment of your voluntary surrender.
I wait for you." He extended his arms, and Alaire saw that his
olive features were distorted with emotion; that his hands, his
whole thin, high-strung body were shaking uncontrollably.

She could summon no coherent words.

"You believed I was a hawk and would seize you, eh?" he queried.
"Is that why you continue to shrink? Well, let me tell you
something, if my tongue will frame the thoughts in my mind. My
passion is so deep and so sacred that I would not be content with
less than all of you. Your lips would not satisfy mine unless they
were hot with love, your kisses wet with desire. I must have you
all, and so I wait, trembling. I say this so badly that I doubt if
you understand. Listen, then: to possess you by force would be--
well, as if I sacked a cathedral of its golden images and expected
to gain heaven by clutching the Madonna in my arms. Senora, in you
I see the priceless jewel of my life, which I shall wear to dazzle
the world, and without which I shall destroy myself. Now let me
tell you what I can offer you, what setting I can build for this
treasure. Marriage with Luis Longorio--"

Alaire could not control a start.

As if quickened by his intensity, the man read her thought. "You
did not imagine that I offered you anything less?"

"What was I to think? Your reputation--"

"Mother of God!" breathed the general. So! That is what you meant
a moment ago. That is why you refuse my embraces. No, no! Other
women have feared me and I have laughed in their hair as they tore
at my arms, but you--you will be my wife, and all Mexico shall bow
at your feet." He checked her denial with a gesture. "Wait until I
tell you the vision I have seen during these days of my despair. I
see Mexico made whole by my hands; a land of peace and plenty; a
people with one name upon their lips--the name of Longorio the
Deliverer; and you as the first lady of them all. You know me for
a man of tremendous ability in every line. Well, I know myself,
too. I have measured myself carefully, and I have no weakness.
There is no other like me. Pancho Gomez? Bah! He is a red-handed
bandit of no culture. Candeleria, his chief? The idol of the
ignorant and a dreamer of no force. Potosi? He is President today,
but what of tomorrow? Those who surround him are weaklings, and he
stumbles toward oblivion. Who will succeed him? Who will issue
from the coming struggle as the dominant figure of Mexico? Who but
that military genius who checks the Yankee hordes and saves the
fatherland? I am he. Fate points the path of glory and I am her
man of destiny. You see, then, what I bring you--power, position,
riches. Riches? Caramba! Wait until my hands are in the treasury.
I will load you with gold and jewels, and I will make you the
richest woman in the world. Senora, I offer you dominion. I offer
you the President's palace and Chapultepec. And with all that I
offer you such passionate love as no woman of history ever
possessed.

He paused, spent by the force of his own intensity; it was plain
that he expected an immediate surrender.

Alaire's lips parted in the faintest of mocking smiles. "You have
great confidence in yourself," she said.

"Yes. I know myself as no one knows me."

"Why do you think I care for you?"

Longorio's eyes opened. His expression plainly showed that he
could not imagine any woman in her senses failing to adore him.

"Don't you take much for granted?" Alaire insisted.

The Mexican shook his head. Then his face lightened. "Ah! Now I
see. Your modesty forbids you to acknowledge your love--is that
it? Well, I know that you admire me, for I can see it. All women
admire me, and they all end by loving me." His chest arched
imperceptibly; with a slender finger he delicately smoothed his
black eyebrows. Alaire felt a wild impulse to laugh, but was glad
she had subdued it when he continued: "I am impetuous, but
impetuosity has made me what I am. I act, and then mold fate to
suit my own ends. Opportunity has delivered to me my heart's
desire, and I will not be cheated out of it. Among the men I
brought with me to La Feria is a priest. He is dirty, for I caught
him as he was fleeing toward the border; but he is a priest, and
he will marry us tonight."

Alaire managed to gasp, "Surely you are not in earnest."

"Indeed I am! That is why I insisted that you dine with me this
evening. I cannot waste more time here, for necessity calls me
away. You shall go as my wife."

"Do you think I would remarry on the very day I find myself a
widow?"

"The world will never know."

"You dare to say that!" Her tone was one of disgust, of finality.
"I wonder how I have listened to so much. It is horrible."

"You are still a little hysterical, and you exaggerate. If I had
more time I could afford to wait." He ogled her with his luminous
gaze. "I would let you play with me to your heart's content and
exercise your power until you tired and were ready to surrender."

Alaire raised her head proudly, her nostrils dilated, her eyes
ablaze with hostility. "This is very humiliating, but you force me
to tell you that I hate you."

Longorio was incredulous rather than offended. He drew himself up
to his full height and smiled, saying, "That is impossible." Then,
ignoring her impatience: "Come! You cannot deceive me. The priest
is waiting."

When Alaire spoke next it was with an expression and with a tone
of such loathing that his yellow face paled "Your conceit is
insufferable," she breathed.

After a brief struggle with himself, the Mexican cried, hoarsely:
"I will not be refused. You wish me to tame you, eh? Good! You
have found your master. Make your choice, then. Which shall it be,
surrender or--compulsion?"

"So! You have been lying, as I thought. Compulsion! Now the real
Longorio speaks."

He flung up his hands as if to ward off her fury. "No? Have I not
made myself clear? I shall embrace you only with the arms of a
husband, for this is not the passion of a moment, but of a
lifetime, and I have myself to consider. The wife of Mexico's next
President must be above reproach; there must be no scandal, no
secrets hidden away for enemies to unearth. She must stand before
the people as a perfect woman; she must lend prestige to his name.
When I speak of compulsion, then, I mean the right of a husband--"

Alaire uttered an exclamation of disgust and turned away, but he
intercepted her, saying: "You cannot hold me at bay. It is
destiny. You shall be mine tonight. Think a moment! We are alone
in the heart of a country lacking in every law but mine. Your
friends do not know where you are, and, even if they knew, they
could not help you. Your nation's protest would avail nothing.
Outside of these walls are enemies who will not let you leave this
house except under the protection of my name."

"Then I shall never leave it," she told him.

For the first time Longorio spoke roughly: "I lose patience. In
God's name have I not waited long enough? My strength is gone."
Impulsively he half encircled her with his thin arms, but she
seemed armored with ice, and he dropped them. She could hear him
grind his teeth. "I dare not lay hands upon you," he chattered.
"Angel of my dreams, I am faint with longing. To love you and yet
to be denied; to feel myself aflame and yet to see you cold; to be
halted at the very doors of Paradise! What torture!"

The fellow's self-control in the midst of his frenzy frightened
Alaire more than did his wildest avowals; it was in something of a
panic that she said:

"One moment you tell me I am safe, the next you threaten me. You
say I am free, and yet you coerce me. Prove your love. Let me go--"
"No! No! I shall call the priest."

Longorio turned toward the door, but halfway across the floor he
was halted by a woman's shriek which issued from somewhere inside
the house. It was repeated. There was an outburst in a masculine
voice, then the patter of footsteps approaching down the tiled
hallway. Dolores burst into her mistress's presence, her face
blanched, her hair disordered. She flung herself into Alaire's
arms, crying:

"Senora! Save me! God's curse on the ruffian. Oh--"

"Dolores!" Alaire exclaimed. "What has happened?"

Longorio demanded, irritably: "Yes. Why are you yelling like
this:"'

"A man--See I One of those dirty peladors. Look where he tore my
dress! I warned him, but he was like a tiger. Benito will kill me
when he learns--"

"Calm yourself. Speak sensibly. Tell me what happened."

"One of those miserable soldiers who came today--pig!" Dolores was
shaking, her voice was shrill. "He followed me. He has been
drinking. He followed me about like a cat, purring and grinning
and saying the most horrible things. Just now, when I went to your
room, he was waiting in the darkness and he seized me. God! It was
dreadful."

"A soldier? One of my men?" Longorio was incredulous.

Alaire turned upon him with a blazing anger in her face. "Is this
more of your protection?" she stormed. "I give you and your men
the freedom of my ranch, and you insult me while they assault my
women."

He ignored her accusation, inquiring of the elder woman, "Who was
the fellow?"

"How do I know," Dolores sobbed. "He is a--a thick, black fellow
with a scar on his lip, like a snarl."

"Felipe!"

"Yes, Felipe! I believe they called him that."

Longorio strode to the end of the livingroom, flung open the
wooden shutters of a window and, leaning far out, whistled sharply
on his fingers.

"Oiga! Teniente! Ho, you fellows!" he shouted.

From the darkness a voice answered; a man, evidently on guard,
came running.

"Call old Pancho," the general directed. "Tell him to bring me
black Felipe, the fellow with the torn lip. Quick!"

"Yes, general," came the voice; then the metallic rattle of spurs
and accoutrements as the sentry trotted away.

Dolores had completely broken down now, and Alaire was trying to
comfort her. Their guest remained by the window, frowning. After a
time there sounded a murmur of voices, then a shuffling of feet in
the hall; Alaire's friend, the old lieutenant, appeared in the
doorway, saluting. Behind him were several others.

"Here is Felipe," he announced.

"Bring him in."

A sullen, frowning man in soiled uniform was pushed forward, and
Dolores hid her face against her mistress's shoulder.

"Is this the fellow?" Longorio inquired.

Dolores nodded.

"Well, what have you to say for yourself?" The general transfixed
his trooper with a stare; then, as the latter seemed bereft of his
voice, "Why did you enter this house?"

Felipe moistened his scarred lips. "That woman is--nice and clean.
She's not so old, either, when you come to look at her." He
grinned at his comrades, who had crowded in behind old Pancho.

"So! Let us go outside and learn more about this." Longorio waved
his men before him and followed them out of the room and down the
hall and into the night.

When a moment or two had dragged past, Dolores quavered. "What are
they going to do with him?"

"I don't know. Anyhow, you need not fear--"

There sounded the report of a gunshot, deadened indeed by the
thick adobe walls of the house, yet sudden and loud enough to
startle the women.

When Longorio reappeared he found Alaire standing stiff and white
against the wall, with Dolores kneeling, her face still buried in
her mistress's gown.

"Give yourself no concern," he told them, quickly. "I beg a
thousand pardons for Felipe. Henceforth no one will molest you."

"Was that a--shot?" Alaire inquired faintly.

"Yes. It is all settled."

"You killed him?"

The general nodded. "Purely for the sake of discipline--one has to
be firm. Now your woman is badly frightened. Send her away so that
we may reach an understanding."

"Oh-h! This is frightful," Alaire gasped. "I can't talk to you.
Go--Let me go."

The man pondered for an instant. "Perhaps that would be better,"
he agreed, reluctantly, "for I see you, too, are unstrung. Very
well! My affairs will have to wait. Take a few hours to think over
what I have told you. When you have slept you will feel
differently about me. You will meet me with a smile, eh?" He
beamed hopefully.

"Sleep? You expect me to sleep?"

"Please," he begged. "Beauty is like a delicate flower, and sleep
is the dew that freshens it. Believe me, you can rest in all
security, for no one can come or go without my consent. You are
cruel to postpone my delight; nevertheless, I yield to your
feelings. But, star of my life, I shall dream of you, and of that
little priest who waits with the key of Paradise in his hands."

He bowed over Alaire's cold fingers, then stood erect until she
and Dolores had gone.




XXIX

THE PRIEST FROM MONCLOVA


That was a night of terror for the women. Although Longorio's
discipline was in some ways strict, in others it was extremely
lax. From some quarter his men had secured a supply of mescal,
and, forgetful of Felipe's unhappy fate, they rendered the hours
hideous. There were singing and quarreling, and a shot or two
sounded from the direction of the outbuildings. Morning found both
Alaire and Dolores sadly overwrought. But they felt some relief
upon learning that the general had been unexpectedly summoned from
his bed at daylight, and had ridden to the telegraph office.

Profiting by his absence, Alaire ventured from her room, racking
her brain to devise some means of escape. But soldiers were
everywhere; they lolled around the servants' quarters; they dozed
in the shade of the ranch buildings, recovering from the night's
debauch; and an armed sentinel who paced the hacienda road gave
evidence that, despite their apparent carelessness, they had by no
means relaxed their vigilance. A round of the premises convinced
Alaire that the place was effectually guarded, and showed her the
futility of trying to slip away. She realized, too, that even if
she managed to do so, her plight would be little better. For how
could she hope to cover the hundred miles between La Feria and the
Rio Grande when every peon was an enemy?

She was standing in one of the open, sashless windows when her
former protector, the old lieutenant, bade her good morning and
paused to smoke a cigarette.

"Well, it was a great night, wasn't it?" he began. "And we have
great news this morning. We are going to fight you gringos."

"I hope not."

"Yes; it will probably go hard with you. Tell me, this city of
Washington is a fine city, and very rich, is it not?"

"Oh yes."

"It's full of loot, eh? Especially the President's palace? That is
good. One can never believe all one hears."

"Why do you ask?" Alaire was curious.

"I was thinking it would pay us to go there. If your soldiers
march upon Mexico City, it would be a brilliant piece of strategy
for General Longorio to invade the United States, would it not? It
would be funny to capture Washington and hold your President for
ransom, eh?"

"Very funny," Alaire agreed, dryly. "How would you go about it?"

Pancho shrugged. "That is the trouble. We would have to march
around Texas, I presume."

"Around Texas?"

"Yes. You see, Texas is a bad country; it is full of--barbarians
who know how to fight. If it were not for Texas we would have the
United States at our mercy." After some consideration he ventured
this opinion: "We could afford to pay the Texans for allowing us
to ride through their country, provided we stole nothing and paid
for the cattle we ate. Well, Longorio is a great one for schemes;
he is talking over the telegraph with somebody at this moment.
Perhaps it is the President of Texas."

"You are a poor man, are you not?" Alaire inquired.

"Miserably poor."

"Would you like to make a great deal of money?"

"Dios! That is why I'm a soldier."

"I will pay you well to get me two horses--"

But old Pancho shook his head vigorously. "Impossible! General
Longorio is going to marry you. We all got drunk last night to
celebrate the wedding. Yes, and the priest is waiting."

"I will make you rich."

"Ho! I wouldn't live to spend a single peso. Felipe disobeyed
orders, and the general shot him before he could cross himself.
Boom! The poor fellow was in hell in a minute. No. We will all be
rich after we win a few battles and capture some American cities.
I am an old man; I shall leave the drinking and the women to the
young fellows, and prepare for my old age."

Seeing that she could not enlist Pancho's aid, Alaire begged him
to fetch the priest.

"You wish spiritual comfort, senora?"

"Perhaps."

"Well, he doesn't look like much of a priest, but probably he will
do. As for me, I don't believe in such things. Churches are all
very well for ignorant people, but we Mexicans are too
intelligent; we are making an end of them."

The priest was a small, white-haired man with a gentle, almost
timid face, and at the moment when he appeared before Alaire he
was in anything but a happy frame of mind. He had undergone, he
told her, a terrible experience. His name was O'Malley. He had
come from Monclova, whence the Rebels had banished him under
threat of death. He had seen his church despoiled of its
valuables, his school closed; he himself had managed to escape
only by a miracle. During his flight toward the border he had
suffered every indignity, and finally Longorio had intercepted him
and brought him here, practically in chains.

"What a situation! What chaos!" he lamented. "The land is overrun
with bandits; there is no law, no authority, no faith; religion is
made a mockery. The men are becoming infidels and atheists, and in
many places they will not allow us to give comfort even to their
women."

"Is it as bad as that?"

Father O'Malley shook his head sadly. "You've no idea. What do you
think of a people who forbid the mention of God's name in their
schools? That is what the revolutionists are doing. Candeleria
claims that the churches are the property of the State. He
confiscates them, and he charges admission. He has banished all
except a few of us priests, and has shamefully persecuted our
Sisters of Mercy. Oh, the outrages! Mexico is, today, the blackest
spot on the map of Christendom." His voice broke. "That is the
freedom, the liberty, the democracy, for which they are fighting.
That is the new Mexico. And the Federals are not a bit better.
This Longorio, for instance, this--wolf--he brings me here, as his
prisoner, to solemnize an unholy marriage! He treats me like a
dog. Last night I slept in a filthy hovel--"

"Oh! I'm sorry," Alaire exclaimed. "But I'm half crazed with my
own troubles. You must come into the house; the best I have is
yours. You shall be as much my guest as I can make you, and--
perhaps you will help me to escape." "Escape?" The little man
smiled mournfully. "You are watched and guarded, and so am I. Even
if you got away from here, what then? You can't imagine the
condition of the country."

"I won't marry him!" Alaire cried, with a shudder. "I won't!"

"He can't very well force you to do so. But remember, these are
war times; the man is a fiend, and he puts no restraint upon his
desires. If he is madly bent on having you, how can you prevent
it? In normal times he would not dare injure one so prominent as
you, but now--" Father O'Malley lifted his hands. "I only wonder
that he suggests a lawful marriage. Suppose you refuse? Will he
not sacrifice you to his passions? He has done worse things."
After a moment's consideration he said: "Of course it is possible
that I misjudge him. Anyhow, if you desire me to do so I will
refuse to perform the ceremony. But--I'm afraid it will just mean
ruin for both of us."

"Surely he wouldn't harm you?"

The Father shrugged. "What am I? An obscure priest. Many of my
brothers are buried in Mexico. However, I shall do as you wish."

As the day wore on Alaire realized even more clearly the fact that
she was Longorio's prisoner. His men, in spite of their recent
debauch, kept a very good watch over her, and it was plain that
they would obey his orders, no matter how extreme. It occurred to
her finally that he was staying away purposely, in order to give
her a fuller appreciation of her position--so that she might beat
her wings against the cage until exhausted.

Afternoon came, then evening, and still Longorio did not return,
Father O'Malley could give scant comfort; Dolores was a positive
trial.

Half distracted, Alaire roamed through the house, awaiting her
captor's coming, steeling herself for their final battle. But the
delay was trying; she longed for the crisis to come, that this
intolerable suspense might be ended. At such an hour her thoughts
naturally turned to Dave Law, and she found herself yearning for
him with a yearning utterly new. His love had supported her
through those miserable days at Las Palmas, but now it was a
torture; she called his name wildly, passionately. He knew her
whereabouts and her peril--why did he not come? Then, more calmly,
she asked herself what he, or what any one, could do for her. How
could she look for succor when two nations were at war?

Night had come before she finally gave up and acknowledged the
hopelessness of her situation. She had fought bravely, but with
darkness her fears grew blacker. She was on the verge of her first
breakdown when, in the early dusk outside, she heard voices and
the stamping of horses' hoofs. The sounds were muffled by the
heavy wooden shutters she had taken pains to close and bar, but
they told her that Longorio had returned. Since it was futile to
deny him entrance, she waited where she was. Old Pancho's voice
sounded outside; then there came a knock upon the door of the room
in which she stood.

"Come in," she said, tensely.

The lieutenant thrust his head in and, removing his hat,
announced, "There is someone here to see General Longorio on
important business. He says you will do."

"I?"

"Yes. He says he is one of us--"

Pancho was pushed aside, the door was flung back, and a man strode
swiftly into the lamplight. He paused, blinking as if momentarily
blinded, and Alaire clutched at the nearest chair for support. A
roaring began in her ears; she felt herself sway forward as if the
strength had left her knees. She heard Dave's voice faintly; he
was saying:

"Take care of my horse. Feed and water her well. Understand? When
General Longorio comes tell him I am waiting here."

As if in a dream, Alaire saw the Mexican go out, closing the door
behind him. Then she saw Dave come toward her, heard him speak her
name, felt his arms around her.

Alaire did not swoon, but she never could remember very distinctly
those first few moments. Scarcely knowing what she did, she found
herself clinging to her lover, laughing, weeping, feeling him over
with shaking hands that would not be convinced of his reality. She
was aware of his kisses upon her lips, her eyes, her hair; he was
saying something which she could not understand because of that
roaring in her ears.

"You heard me calling," she told him at last. "Oh, I was--so
frightened!" She clung closer to him. After a time she discovered
that she was mechanically nodding and shaking her head at the
questions he was putting to her, but had only the vaguest idea
what they were. By and by she began to tell him about Longorio,
speaking in a sort of hypnotic murmur, as if her words issued at
his mental suggestion. And all the time she snuggled against his
breast.

"Dearest!" Dave held her away in gentle hands. "I was afraid you'd
go to pieces like this, but I had to break through the best way I
could. I learned you were here and something about what was going
on from the people at the next ranch. But I expected to find HIM
here, too."

"How did you manage to get here?"

"I hardly know. I just wouldn't let 'em stop me. This lieutenant
wouldn't let me in until I told him I was from Monterey with
important news. I don't remember all I did tell him. I tried to
get here last night, but I had trouble. They caught me, and I had
to buy my way through. I've bribed and bullied and lied clear from
Romero. I reckon they couldn't imagine I'd risk being here if I
wasn't a friend."

It was more Dave's tone than his words that roused Alaire to an
appreciation of what he said.

"Are you alone?" she asked, in vague dismay. "Then what are we
going to do?"

"I don't know yet. My plans ended here."

"Dave! You rode in just to find me! Just to be with me?"

"Yes. And to get HIM." Alaire saw his face twitch, and realized
that it was very haggard, very old and tired. "They lifted my
guns--a bunch of fellows at the Rio Negro crossing. Some of them
were drunk and wouldn't believe I was an amigo. So I finally had
to ride for it."

"Can't you take me away?" she asked, faintly. "What will you do
when--he comes?"

"I reckon I'll manage him somehow." His grip upon her tightened
painfully, and she could feel him tremble. "I was afraid I
wouldn't find you. I--O God, Alaire!" He buried his face in her
hair.

"I had a terrible scene with him last night. He insists upon
marrying me. I--I was hoping you'd come."

"How could I, when nobody knew where you were?"

"Didn't you know? I wrote you." He shook his head. "Then how did
you learn?"

"From Jose. I caught him within an hour of the murder, and made
him tell me everything."

Alaire's eyes dilated; she held herself away, saying,
breathlessly: "Murder! Is that what it was? He--Longorio--told me
something quite different."

"Naturally. It was he who hired Jose to do the shooting."

"Oh-h!" Alaire hid her face in her hands. She looked up again
quickly, however, and her cheeks were white. "Then he won't spare
you, Dave." She choked for an instant. "We must get away before he
comes. There must be some way of escape. Think!"

"I'm pretty tired to think. I'm pretty near played out," he
confessed.

"They're watching me, but they'd let you go."

"Now that I'm here I'm going to stay until--"

She interrupted, crying his name loudly, "Dave!"

"Yes. What is it?"

"Wait! Let me think." She closed her eyes; her brows drew together
as if in the labor of concentration. When she lifted her lids her
eyes were alight, her voice was eager. "I know how. I see it. He
won't dare--But you must do what I tell you."

"Of course."

"No questions. Understand?"

When he nodded impatiently she ran to the door and, flinging it
open, called down the hall:

"Father! Father O'Malley! Quick!" Then she summoned Dolores.

The priest answered; he hurried from his room and, with a dazed
lack of comprehension, acknowledged his swift introduction to
Dave. Alaire was keenly alive and vibrant with purpose now.
Dolores, too, came running, and while the men were exchanging
greetings her mistress murmured something in her ear, then
hastened her departure with a quick push. Turning upon the others,
Alaire explained:

"I've sent for some of the women, and they'll be here in a minute.
Father, this man has come for me. He loves me. Will you marry us,
before Longorio arrives?"

"Alaire!" Dave exclaimed.

She stilled him with a gesture. "Quick! Will you?"

Father O'Malley was bewildered. "I don't understand," he
expostulated.

"Nor I," echoed Dave.

"You don't need to understand. I know what I'm doing. I've thought
of a way to save us all."

Through Dave's mind flashed the memory of that thing which had
haunted him and made his life a nightmare. An incoherent refusal
was upon his lips, but Alaire's face besought him; it was shining
with a strange, new ecstasy, and he could not bring himself to
deny her. Of what her plan consisted he had only the dimmest idea,
but he assured himself that it could by no possibility succeed.
After all, what did it matter? he asked himself. They were
trapped. This might serve, somehow, to cheat Longorio, and--Alaire
would be his wife.

"Very well," he stammered, weakly. "What are you thinking of?"

"I haven't thought it all out yet, but--"

At that moment Dolores returned, bringing with her the three
black-haired, black-shawled house servants, bundling them through
the door and ranging them along the wall.

Father O'Malley's face was puckered; he said, hesitatingly: "My
dear madam, this isn't regular; you are not Catholics. How can I
bless you?"

"You can marry us legally, just the same, can't you?" Alaire was
breathing rapidly, and some part of her eagerness began to thrill
her hearers.

"Oh yes, but--"

"Then marry us. And make haste, please! Please!"

Law nodded. He could not speak, for his mouth was dry. A voice
within him shouted a warning, but he would not listen. His heart
was beating violently; his temples were pounding; all the blood of
his body seemed centered in his head.

Before the eyes of the four wondering women Father O'Malley
married them. It seemed to Alaire that he would never reach the
end, although, in fact, he stumbled through the ceremony swiftly.
Alaire clipped his last words short by crying:

"Tell these people so that they'll understand what it all means.
Tell them to remember they have seen a marriage by the Church."

The priest did as he was directed, and his audience signified
their understanding. Then Dolores led them out




XXX

THE MAN OF DESTINY


"Now, then, I'll explain," said Alaire, turning to the men.
"Longorio declares he won't have me except as his wife, and I
think he means it. He is amazingly egotistical. He has tremendous
ambitions. He thinks this war is his great opportunity, and he
means to be President--he's sure of it. He loves me, but he loves
himself better, I'm sure. Now, don't you see? He'll have to choose
one or the other."

Father O'Malley did not appear to appreciate the full force of
this reasoning. "My dear," he said, gravely, "he can make you a
widow again. In such times as these men are savages."

"Oh, but that's not all." Alaire turned to her newly made husband.
"They let you in, and they'll let you out again--if you go
quickly, before it's known what we've done."

Dave stared at her in bewilderment. "I? I go, and--leave you?" He
seemed doubtful of her sanity.

"Yes." When he laughed shortly, Alaire cried: "Dave, you must!
Don't you see what I'm driving at? If he can't marry me, if he
finds you're gone and he can't lay hands on you, what can he do
but let me go? Dave dear, for my sake, for the sake of us both--"

"You're excited," he told her, and drew her to himself gently.

"Please! PLEASE!" she implored.

"You don't know that man," said Father O'Malley, with conviction.

But Alaire insisted, half hysterically now: "I do; that's just it,
I DO know him. He is planning the greatest things for himself, his
head is in the clouds, and he daren't do the things he used to do.
That's why I called in those women as witnesses. He can't put THEM
out of the way. With Dave gone I'll be safe. He can't ignore our
marriage. But otherwise--There's no telling what he may do. Why,
he'll kill you, Dave, as he killed Ed." She upturned a face
eloquent with pleading. "Won't you do this for me?"

"No!" Law declared, firmly. "You wouldn't ask it if you were in
your senses. Get me a gun and I'll shoot my way out. We'll go
until they stop us. But don't ask me to leave you."

She searched his face eagerly, piteously, then with a quivering
sigh relaxed her tension. "Then we've only made matters worse.
You've spoiled our only chance."

Father O'Malley, who had been lost in thought, spoke up again:
"Perhaps you will let me try my wits. But first, do I understand
that it was he who effected the death of--Mr. Austin?"

Dave recounted as coherently as he could the circumstances of Ed's
death, and told how he had learned, through Jose, of Longorio's
intentions. As the priest listened a spot of color grew in his
cheeks, his eyes glowed with indignation. He was about to make
known what was in his mind when Alaire raised her hand and in a
strained whisper exclaimed:

"'Sh-h! Listen!"

The heavy door of the hacienda creaked, a quick tread sounded on
the tiles, the door to the living-room was flung open, and
Longorio entered. He was hot and dusty from his ride, but with a
lover's impetuosity he had made straight for this lighted room.

For the briefest instant he balanced himself just inside the
portal, and the smile remained fixed upon his lips. Then his eyes
became ringed with white and he made a swift, catlike movement of
retreat. Plainly this was the supremest surprise of his lifetime,
and he seemed to doubt his senses. But he recovered quickly.
Thrusting his head forward, he demanded:

"What is this? You--and you?" He stared from Dave to the priest,
then back again.

They all spoke at once, but he heard only Alaire's words:

"He came to find me."

Pancho appeared in the doorway behind Longorio, saying, "I heard
you ride up, sir, so I ran to tell you about this fellow."

But the general cut him short. "Call your men, quick," he cried in
a voice that sent the soldier leaping back into the night.

Alaire was clinging to Dave, merely clutching him the tighter when
he tried to unclasp her hold. Her movement into the shelter of his
rival's arms infuriated Longorio, who uttered an exclamation and
fumbled uncertainly with his holster. But his fingers were clumsy.
He could not take his eyes from the pair, and he seemed upon the
point of rushing forward to tear them apart.

"Don't touch her! Don't--" he began, cursing in a high-pitched
voice. "God! What a reckoning!" Then he stamped his feet, he wrung
his hands, he called shrilly at the top of his voice: "Lieutenant!
Ho, Pancho! You fellows! Quickly!" Under the stress of his
excitement the feminine side of his character betrayed itself.

Alaire felt her newly made husband gather himself for a spring; he
was muttering to her to release him; he was trying to push her
aside, but she held fast with the strength of desperation.

"You can't harm us," she declared, flinging her words defiantly at
the Mexican. "You dare not. You are too late. Father O'Malley has
just married us."

Longorio uttered a peculiar, wordless cry of dismay; his mouth
fell open; his arms dropped; he went limp all over, paralyzed
momentarily by surprise and horror; his eyes protruded; he swayed
as if his sight had blurred.

"I said I'd never marry you," she rushed on, vibrantly. "This is
the man I love--the only man. Yes, and I've learned the truth
about you. I know who killed Mr. Austin."

Longorio did a very unexpected thing then; slowly, unconsciously,
as if the movement were the result of a half-forgotten training,
he crossed himself.

But now from the hall at his back came the pounding of boot-heels,
and a half dozen panting troopers tumbled through the door. He
waved them back and out into the hall again.

Father O'Malley, who had been trying to make himself heard,
stepped in front of the general and said, solemnly: "Take care
what you do, Longorio. I have married these people, and you can't
undo what I have done. We are American citizens. The laws of
civilization protect us."

The Mexican fought for his voice, then stammered: "You are my
priest; I brought you here. I offered to marry her. Now--you force
me to damn my soul." Turning his eyes wildly upon Alaire, he
shouted: "Too late, eh? You say I am too late! It seems that I am
barely in time."

Dave added his words to the others: "You are ten to one, but you
can't have her," he cried, defiantly. "Jose Sanchez confessed to
the murder of Mr. Austin, and told how you had got Mrs. Austin to
come here. The whole thing is known in Washington and Mexico City
by this time. The newspapers have it; everybody knows you are
keeping her as your prisoner, and that I have come for her. If she
is harmed, all Mexico, all the world, will know that you are worse
than a murderer."

Longorio reached behind his back and slammed the door in the faces
of his listening men.

"What is this? What did Jose confess?" he inquired, sharply.

"He swears you hired him."

"Bah! The word of a pelador."

In spite of the man's contemptuous tone Dave saw the expression in
his face and made a quick decision. "There's a limit to what you
dare to do, Longorio. I'm unarmed; I make no resistance, so there
is no excuse for violence. I surrender to you, and claim
protection for myself and my wife."

But Longorio was not to be tricked. "Good!" he cried,
triumphantly. "I have been looking forward to something like this,
and I shall give myself a great pleasure." He laid a hand upon the
doorknob, but before he could turn it the Catholic priest had him
by the arm, and with a strength surprising in one of his stature
wrenched him away. Father O'Malley's face was white and terrible;
his voice was deep, menacing; the hand he raised above Longorio
seemed to brandish a weapon.

"Stop!" he thundered. "Are you a madman? Destruction hangs over
you; destruction of body and soul. You dare not separate those
whom God hath joined."

"God! God!" the other shrilled. "I don't believe in Him. I am a
god; I know of no other."

"Blasphemer!" roared the little man. "Listen, then. So surely as
you harm these people, so surely do you kill your earthly
prospects. You, the first man of Mexico, the Dictator indeed!
Think what you are doing before it is too late. Is your dream of
greatness only a dream? Will you sacrifice yourself and all your
aspirations in the heat of this unholy and impossible passion?
Tonight, now, you must choose whether you will be famous or
infamous, glorious or shameful, honored or dishonored! Restrain
your hatred and conquer your lust, or forego for ever your dreams
of empire and pass into oblivion."

"You are a meddler," Longorio stormed. "You make a loud noise, but
I shall rid Mexico of your kind. We shall have no more of you
priests."

Father O'Malley shook the speaker as a parent shakes an unruly
child. "See! You have completely lost your head. But I want you to
listen to what I am saying. Whether you are more good than evil,
God must judge, but the people of Mexico are good people, and they
will not be ruled by a man who is wholly bad. You have the power
to remove this man and this woman, yes, and this priest who dares
to point out the pit at your feet; but if you do you will never
command another Mexican army. There is no war. We are not your
enemies. The world knows we are here, and it holds you accountable
for our safety. To-morrow you will have to face the reckoning."

Longorio listened. It was plain that he recognized the truth of
O'Malley's words, but he was convulsed with rage.

"Good!" he cried. "I see my dreams dissolve, but I am not the
first great man to trade an empire for a woman. Antony, the Roman
general, laid his honor in a woman's arms. I had a shining
destiny, but Mexico will be the sufferer by my betrayal. Instead
of Longorio the Deliverer, I shall be known as Longorio the Lover,
the man who gave all--"

O'Malley interrupted forcefully. "Enough of this! Come with me. I
have something more to say to you." He flung open the door into
the hall and, taking the general by the arm, fairly dragged him
from the room and into the one opposite. The lieutenant and his
men looked on in amazement, shuffling their feet and shifting
their rifle butts noisily upon the floor.

Alaire turned an anxious face to Dave, saying: "He is wonderful.
Longorio is almost--afraid of him."

"Yes; he may bring him to his senses. If he doesn't--" Dave cast
his eyes desperately over the room, conscious all the time that he
was being watched with suspicion by the men outside. He stirred
restlessly and moistened his lips. "Longorio would be crazy to
injure you."

Ten minutes passed; fifteen. Alaire leaned, motionless, against
the table; Dave paced about, followed by the eyes of the soldiers.
One of the latter struck a match, and in the silence it sounded
like a gunshot. Dave started, at which the soldiers laughed. They
began to talk in murmurs. The odor of cigarette smoke drifted in
to the man and the woman.

Finally the door through which Father O'Malley and Longorio had
passed opened, and the priest emerged. He was alone. His face was
flushed and damp; his eyes were glowing. He forced the Mexicans
out of his way and, entering the living-room, closed the door
behind him.

"Well?" his two friends questioned, anxiously.

"I've done all I can. The rest is out of our hands." The little
man sat down heavily and mopped his forehead.

"What does he say?"

"He told me to come here and wait. I never saw a man so torn, so
distracted."

"Then he is wavering. Oh-h!" Alaire clasped her hands in
thanksgiving, but the Father cautioned her:

"Don't be too sanguine. He is not afraid of consequences. He
appears to have no conscience. He is without mercy and seems lost
to shame. I have never met a man quite like him. Do you know what
he feels at this moment? Chagrin. Yes, mortification raised to the
highest pitch, and a sort of stupefaction that you should prefer
another man to him. He can't understand your lack of taste."
Father O'Malley smiled faintly.

"Conceited idiot," Dave growled.

"His humiliation kills him. When I saw that it was useless to
appeal to him on moral grounds, and that threats were unavailing,
I took another course. Something gave me insight into his mind,
and the power to talk as I have never talked before. All in a
flash I saw the man's soul laid bare before me, and--I think I
played upon it with some cunning. I don't remember all I said, for
I was inspired, but I appealed to his vanity and to his conceit,
and as I went along I impressed upon him, over and over, the fact
that the world knows we are here and that it trusts him. He
aspires to the Presidency; he believes he is destined to be
Mexico's Dictator; so I painted a picture that surpassed his own
imaginings. He would have been suspicious of mere flattery, so I
went far beyond that and inflamed him with such extravagant
visions as only a child or an unblushing egotist like him could
accept. I swelled his vanity; I inflated his conceit. For a
moment, at least, I lifted him out of himself and raised him to
the heights."

From beyond the closed door came Longorio's voice, issuing some
command to his men. A moment passed; then he appeared before the
three Americans. He seemed taller, thinner, more erect and
hawklike than ever. His head was held more proudly and his chest
was fuller. A set, disdainful smile was graven upon his face.

He began by addressing his words directly to Alaire. "Senora," he
said, "I am a man of deep feeling and I scorn deceit. Therefore I
offer no apology for my recent display of emotion. If I have
seemed to press my advances with undue fervor, it is because, at
heart, I am as great a lover as I am a statesman or a soldier. But
there are other things than love. Nature constituted me a leader,
and he who climbs high must climb alone. I offered Chapultepec as
a shrine for your beauty. I offered to share Mexico with you, and
I told you that I would not be content with less than all of you.
Well I meant it. Otherwise--I would take you now." His voice
throbbed with a sudden fierce desire, and his long, lean hands
closed convulsively. "You must realize that I have the courage and
the power to defy the world, eh?" He seemed to challenge denial of
this statement, but, receiving none, he went on, fixing his
brilliant, feverish eyes once more upon Alaire. "As a man of
sentiment I am unique; I am different from any you have ever
known. I would not possess a flower without its fragrance. You did
not believe me when I told you that, but I am going to prove it.
All your life you are going to think of me as heroic. Perhaps no
patriot in history ever made a more splendid sacrifice for his
country than I make now. Some day the world will wonder how I had
the strength to put aside love and follow the path of duty."

Alaire trusted herself to ask, "Then we are free to go?"

The general's face was swept by a grimace intended for a smile. "I
have ordered your horses to be saddled."

Dave, who had with difficulty restrained his anger at the fellow's
bombast, was upon the point of speaking when Father O'Malley took
the words out of his mouth:

"Would you send this woman out of her own house into a country
like--like this? Remember the fortune in cattle you have already
taken--"

Longorio broke in with a snarl: "Is it my fault that the country
is in arms? Military necessity compels me to remain here. I
consider myself magnanimous. I--" His voice cracked, and he made a
despairing, violent gesture. "Go, before I change my mind."

Dave signaled to the others, and Alaire slipped away to make
herself ready. During the uncomfortable silence which succeeded
her departure, Longorio paced the room, keeping his eyes
resolutely turned away from Law.

"Do you mean that I, too, may go?" O'Malley inquired.

"What good are you to me?" snapped the general.

"You will give us safe conduct?"

"Be still, priest!" Longorio glared at the speaker, clasping and
unclasping his fists behind his back.

With the sound of hoofs outside, Alaire and Dolores appeared, and
the Mexican straightened himself with an effort.

"Adios, senora!" he said, with a stiff bow. "We have had a
pleasant friendship and a thrilling flirtation, eh? I shall never
cease to regret that Fate interrupted at such an interesting
moment. Adios! Adios!" He bowed formally, in turn to Dave and to
the priest, then resumed his pacing, with his hands at his back
and his brow furrowed as if in a struggle with affairs of greater
moment than this.

But when he heard the outside door creak shut behind them his
indifference vanished and he halted with head turned in an effort
to catch the last sounds of their departure. His face was like
tallow now, his lips were drawn back from his teeth as if in
supreme agony. A moment and the hoofbeats had died away. Then
Longorio slipped his leash.

He uttered a cry--a hoarse, half-strangled shriek that tore his
throat. He plucked the collar from his neck as if it choked him;
he beat his breast. Seizing whatever article his eye fell upon, he
tore and crushed it; he swept the table clean of its queer Spanish
bric-a-brac, and trampled the litter under his heels. Spying a
painting of a saint upon the wall, he ran to it, ripped it from
its nail, and, raising it over his head, smashed frame and glass,
cursing all saints, all priests, and churchly people. Havoc
followed him as he raged about the place wreaking his fury upon
inanimate objects. When he had well-nigh wrecked the contents of
the room, and when his first paroxysm had spent its violence, he
hurled himself into a chair, writhing in agony. He bit his wrists,
he pounded his fists, he kicked; finally he sprawled full length
upon the floor, clawing at the cool, smooth tiles until his nails
bled.

"Christ! O Christ!" he screamed.

The sound of his blasphemies reached the little group of soldiers
who had lingered curiously outside, and they listened open-
mouthed. One by one they crossed themselves and stole away into
the darkness, muttering.




XXXI

A SPANISH WILL


With a singing heart Alaire rode through the night at her
husband's side. The strain of the last few hours had been so
intense, the relief at her deliverance so keen, that now she felt
curiously weak, and she kept close to Dave, comforted by his
nearness and secure in the knowledge of his strength.

Although he was unusually taciturn and rode with his chin upon his
breast, she attributed his silence to fatigue. Now and then,
therefore, she spurred to his side and spoke softly, caressingly.
At such times he reached for her hand and clung to it.

Dave was indeed weary; he was, in fact, in a sort of stupor, and
not infrequently he dozed for a moment or two in his saddle. Yet
it was not this which stilled his tongue, but a growing sense of
guilt and dismay at what he had brought upon himself. In a moment
of weakness he had done the very thing against which he had fought
so bitterly, and now he faced the consequences. How, when, where
could he find strength to undo his action? he asked himself. The
weight of this question bent his shoulders, paralyzed his wits.

Some two hours out from La Feria the riders halted at a point
where the road dipped into a rocky stream-bed; then, as the horses
drank, Dolores voiced a thought that had troubled all of them.

"If that bandit really means to spare us, why did he send us away
in the night, like this?" she asked. "I shall be surprised if we
are not assassinated before morning."

"He must have meant it." Alaire spoke with a conviction she did
not entirely feel. "Father O'Malley aroused the finer side of his
nature."

"Perhaps," agreed the priest. "Somewhere in him there is a fear of
God."

But Dave was skeptical. "More likely a fear of the gringo
Government," said he. "Longorio is a four-flusher. When he
realized he was licked he tried to save his face by a grandstand
play. He didn't want to let us go."

"Then what is to prevent him from--well, from having us followed?"
Alaire inquired.

"Nothing," Dave told her.

As they climbed the bank and rode onward into the night she said:
"No matter what happens, dear, I shall be happy, for at last one
of my dreams has come true." He reached out and patted her.
"You've no idea what a coward I was until you came. But the moment
I saw you all my fears vanished. I was like a lost child who
suddenly sees her father; in your arms I felt perfectly safe, for
the first time in all my life, I think. I--I couldn't bear to go
on without you, after this."

Dave found nothing to say; they rode along side by side for a time
in a great contentment that required no speech. Then Alaire asked:

"Dear, have you considered how we--are going to explain our
marriage?"

"Won't the circumstances explain it?"

"Perhaps. And yet--It seems ages since I learned--what happened to
Ed, but in reality it's only a few hours. Won't people talk?"

Dave caught at the suggestion. "I see. Then let's keep it secret
for the present. I promise not to--act like a husband."

With a little reckless laugh she confessed, "I--I'm afraid I'll
find it difficult to be conventional."

"My wife!" he cried in sharp agony. Leaning far out, he encircled
her with his arm; then, half lifting her from her saddle, he
crushed his lips to hers. It was his first display of emotion
since Father O'Malley had united them.

There were few villages along the road they followed, and because
of the lateness of the hour all were dark, hence the party passed
through without exciting attention except from an occasional
wakeful dog. But as morning came and the east began to glow Dave
told the priest:

"We've got to hide out during the day or we'll get into trouble.
Besides, these women must be getting hungry."

"I fear there is something feminine about me," confessed the
little man. "I'm famished, too."

At the next rancho they came to they applied for shelter, but were
denied; in fact, the owner cursed them so roundly for being
Americans that they were glad to ride onward. A mile or two
farther along they met a cart the driver of which refused to
answer their greetings. As they passed out of his sight they saw
that he had halted his lean oxen and was staring after them
curiously. Later, when the sun was well up and the world had fully
awakened, they descried a mounted man, evidently a cowboy, riding
through the chaparral. He saw them, too, and came toward the road,
but after a brief scrutiny he whirled his horse and galloped off
through the cactus, shouting something over his shoulder.

"This won't do," O'Malley declared, uneasily. "I don't like the
actions of these people. Let me appeal to the next person we meet.
I can't believe they all hate us."

Soon they came to a rise in the road, and from the crest of this
elevation beheld ahead of them a small village of white houses
shining from the shelter of a grove. The rancheria was perhaps two
miles away, and galloping toward it was the vaquero who had
challenged them.

"That's the Rio Negro crossing," Dave announced. Then spying a
little house squatting a short distance back from the road, he
said: "We'd better try yonder. If they turn us down we'll have to
take to the brush."

O'Malley agreed. "Yes, and we have no time to lose. That horseman
is going to rouse the town. I'm afraid we're--in for it."

Dave nodded silently.

Leaving the beaten path, the refugees threaded their way through
cactus and sage to a gate, entering which they approached the
straw-thatched jacal they had seen. A naked boy baby watched them
draw near, then scuttled for shelter, piping an alarm. A man
appeared from somewhere, at sight of whom the priest rode forward
with a pleasant greeting. But the fellow was unfriendly. His wife,
too, emerged from the dwelling and joined her husband in warning
Father O'Malley away.

"Let me try," Alaire begged, and spurred her horse up to the
group. She smiled down at the country people, saying: "We have
traveled a long way, and we're tired and hungry. Won't you give us
something to eat? We'll pay you well for your trouble."

The man demurred sullenly, and began a refusal; but his wife,
after a wondering scrutiny, interrupted him with a cry. Rushing
forward, she took the edge of Alaire's skirt in her hands and
kissed it.

"God be praised! A miracle!" she exclaimed. "Juan, don't you see?
It is the beautiful senora for whom we pray every night of our
lives. On your knees, shameless one! It is she who delivered you
from the prison."

Juan stared unbelievingly, then his face changed; his teeth
flashed in a smile, and, sweeping his hat from his head, he, too,
approached Alaire.

"It is! senora, I am Juan Garcia, whom you saved, and this is
Inez," he declared. "Heaven bless you and forgive me."

"Now I know you," Alaire laughed, and slipped down from her
saddle. "This is a happy meeting. So! You live here, and that was
little Juan who ran away as if we were going to eat him. Well, we
are hungry, but not hungry enough to devour Juanito."

Turning to her companions, she explained the circumstances of her
first meeting with these good people, and as she talked the
Garcias broke in joyfully, adding their own account of her
goodness.

"We've fallen among friends," Alaire told Dave and Father
O'Malley. "They will let us rest here, I am sure."

Husband and wife agreed in one voice. In fact, they were overjoyed
at an opportunity of serving her; and little Juan, his suspicions
partially allayed, issued from hiding and waddled forward to take
part in the welcome.

Shamefacedly the elder Garcia explained his inhospitable reception
of the travelers. "We hear the gringos are coming to kill us and
take our farms. Everybody is badly frightened. We are driving our
herds away and hiding what we can. Yesterday at the big Obispo
ranch our people shot two Americans and burned some of their
houses. They intend to kill all the Americans they find, so you'd
better be careful. Just now a fellow rode up shouting that you
were coming, but of course I didn't know--"

"Yes, of course. We're trying to reach the border," Father
O'Malley told him. "Will you hide us here until we can go on?"

Juan courtesied respectfully to the priest. "My house is yours,
Father."

"Can you take care of our horses, too, and--give us a place to
sleep?" Dave asked. His eyes were heavy; he had been almost
constantly in the saddle since leaving Jonesville, and now could
barely keep himself awake.

"Trust me," the Mexican assured them, confidently. "If somebody
comes I'll send them away. Oh, I can lie with the best of them."

The Garcias were not ordinary people, and they lived in rather
good circumstances for country folk. There were three rooms to
their little house, all of which were reasonably clean. The food
that Inez set before her guests, too, was excellent if scanty.

Juanito, taking the cue from his parents, flung himself whole-
heartedly into the task of entertainment, and since Alaire met his
advances halfway he began, before long, to look upon her with
particular favor. Once they had thoroughly made friends, he
showered her with the most flattering attentions. His shyness, it
seemed, was but a pretense--at heart he was a bold and
enterprising fellow--and so, as a mark of his admiration, he
presented her with all his personal treasures. First he fetched
and laid in her lap a cigar-box wagon with wooden wheels--
evidently the handiwork of his father. Then he gave her, one by
one, a highly prized blue bottle, a rusty Mexican spur, and the
ruins of what had been a splendid clasp knife. There were no
blades in the knife, but he showed her how to peep through a tiny
hole in the handle, where was concealed the picture of a dashing
Spanish bullfighter. The appreciation which these gifts evoked
intoxicated the little man and roused him to a very madness of
generosity. He pattered away and returned shortly, staggering and
grunting under the weight of another and a still greater offering.
It was a dog--a patient, hungry dog with very little hair. The
animal was alive with fleas--it scratched absent-mindedly with one
hind paw, even while Juanito strangled it against his naked
breast--but it was the apple of its owner's eye, and when Inez
unfeelingly banished it from the house Juanito began to squall
lustily. Nor could he be conciliated until Alaire took him upon
her knee and told him about another boy, of precisely his own age
and size, who planted a magic bean in his mother's dooryard, which
grew up and up until it reached clear to the sky, where a giant
lived. Juanito Garcia had never heard the like. He was spellbound
with delight; he held his breath in ecstasy; only his toes moved,
and they wriggled like ten fat, brown tadpoles.

In the midst of this recital Garcia senior appeared in the door
with a warning.

"Conceal yourselves," he said, quickly. "Some of our neighbors are
coming this way." Inez led her guests into the bedchamber, a bare
room with a dirt floor, from the window of which they watched Juan
go to meet a group of horsemen. Inez went out, too, and joined in
the parley. Then, after a time, the riders galloped away.

When Alaire, having watched the party out of sight, turned from
the window she found that Dave had collapsed upon a chair and was
sleeping, his limbs relaxed, his body sagging.

"Poor fellow, he's done up," Father O'Malley exclaimed.

"Yes; he hasn't slept for days," she whispered. "Help me." With
the assistance of Dolores they succeeded in lifting Dave to the
bed, but he half roused himself. "Lie down, dear," Alaire told
him. "Close your eyes for a few minutes. We're safe now."

"Somebody has to keep watch," he muttered, thickly, and tried to
fight off his fatigue. But he was like a drunken man.

"I'm not sleepy; I'll stand guard," the priest volunteered, and,
disregarding further protest, he helped Alaire remove Dave's coat.

Seeing that the bed was nothing more than a board platform covered
with straw matting, Alaire folded the garment for a pillow; as she
did so a handful of soiled, frayed letters spilled out upon the
floor.

"Rest now, while you have a chance," she begged of her husband.
"Just for a little while."

"All right," he agreed. "Call me in--an hour. Couldn't sleep--
wasn't time." He shook off his weariness and smiled at his wife,
while his eyes filmed with some emotion. "There is something I
ought to tell you, but--I can't now--not now. Too sleepy." His
head drooped again; she forced him back; he stretched himself out
with a sigh, and was asleep almost instantly.

Alaire motioned the others out of the room, then stood looking
down at the man into whose keeping she had given her life. As she
looked her face became radiant. Dave was unkempt, unshaven, dirty,
but to her he was of a godlike beauty, and the knowledge that he
was hers to comfort and guard was strangely thrilling. Her love
for Ed, even that first love of her girlhood, had been nothing
like this. How could it have been like this? she asked herself.
How could she have loved deeply when, at the time, her own nature
lacked depth? Experience had broadened her, and suffering had
uncovered depths in her being which nothing else had had the power
to uncover. Stooping, she kissed Dave softly, then let her cheek
rest against his. Her man! Her man! She found herself whispering
the words.

Her eyes were wet, but there was a smile upon her lips when she
gathered up the letters which had dropped from her husband's
pocket. She wondered, with a little jealous twinge, who could be
writing to him. It seemed to her that she owned him now, and that
she could not bear to share him with any other. She studied the
inscriptions with a frown, noticing as she did so that several of
the envelopes were unopened--either Dave was careless about euch
things or else he had had no leisure in which to read his mail.
One letter was longer and heavier than the rest, and its covering,
sweat-stained and worn at the edges, came apart in her hands,
exposing several pages of type-writing in the Spanish language.
The opening words challenged her attention.

In the name of God, Amen,

Alaire read. Involuntarily her eye followed the next line:

Know all men by this public instrument that I, Maria Josefa Law,
of this vicinity--

Alaire started, Who, she asked herself, was Maria Josefa Law? Dave
had no sisters; no female relatives whatever, so far as she knew.
She glanced at the sleeping man and then back at the writing.

--finding myself seriously ill in bed, but with sound judgment,
full memory and understanding, believing in the ineffable
mysteries of the Holy Trinity, three distinct persons in one God,
in essence, and in the other mysteries acknowledged by our Mother,
the Church--

So! This was a will--one of those queer Spanish documents of which
Alaire had heard--but who was Maria Josefa Law? Alaire scanned the
sheets curiously, and on the reverse side of the last one
discovered a few lines, also in Spanish, but scrawled in pencil.
They read:

MY DEAR NEPHEW,--Here is the copy of your mother's will that I
told you about. At the time of her death she was not possessed of
the property mentioned herein, and so the original document was
never filed for record, but came to me along with certain family
possessions of small value. It seems to contain the information
you desire.

Y'rs aff'ly,

FRANCISCO RAMIREZ.

The will of Dave's mother! Then Maria Josefa Law was that poor
woman regarding whose tragic end Judge Ellsworth had spoken so
peculiarly. Alaire felt not a little curiosity to know more about
the mother of the man whose name she had taken. Accordingly, after
a moment of debate with herself, she sat down to translate the
instrument. Surely Dave would not object if she occupied herself
thus while he slept.

The document had evidently been drawn in the strictest form,
doubtless by some local priest, for it ran:

First: I commend my soul to the Supreme Being who from nothing
formed it, and my body I order returned to earth, and which, as
soon as it shall become a corpse, it is my wish shall be shrouded
with a blue habit in resemblance to those used by the monks of our
Seraphic Father, St. Francis; to be interred with high mass,
without pomp--

Alaire mused with a certain reverent pleasure that Dave's mother
had been a devout woman.

Second: I declare to have, in the possession of my husband,
Franklin Law, three horses, with splendid equipment of saddles and
bridles, which are to be sold and the proceeds applied to masses
for the benefit of my soul. I so declare, that it may appear.

Third: I declare to owe to Mrs. Guillelmo Perez about twenty
dollars, to be ascertained by what she may have noted in her book
of accounts. So I declare, that this debt may be paid as I have
ordered.

Fourth: In just remuneration for the services of my cousin,
Margarita Ramirez, I bequeath and donate a silver tray which
weighs one hundred ounces, seven breeding cows, and four fine
linen and lace tablecloths. So I declare, that it may appear.

Fifth: I bequeath to my adopted son, David, offspring of the
unfortunate American woman who died in my house at Escovedo, the
share of land--

Alaire re-read this paragraph wonderingly, then let the document
fall into her lap. So Dave was an adopted son, and not actually
the child of this woman, Maria Josefa Law. She wondered if he knew
it, and, if so, why he hadn't told her? But, after all, what
difference did it make who or what he was? He was hers to love and
to comfort, hers to cherish and to serve.

For a long time she sat gazing at him tenderly; then she tiptoed
out and delighted the naked Garcia baby by taking him in her arms
and hugging him. Inez thought the beautiful senora's voice was
like the music of birds.

It was growing dark when Dave was awakened by cool hands upon his
face and by soft lips upon his. He opened his eyes to find Alaire
bending over him.

"You must get up," she smiled. "It is nearly time to go, and Inez
is cooking our supper."

He reached up and took her in his arms. She lay upon his breast,
thrilling happily with her nearness to him, and they remained so
for a while, whispering now and then, trying ineffectually to
voice the thoughts that needed no expression.

"Why did you let me sleep so long?" he asked her, reproachfully.

"Oh, I've been napping there in that chair, where I could keep one
eye on you. I'm terribly selfish; I can't bear to lose one
minute." After a while she said: "I've made a discovery. Father
O'Malley snores dreadfully! Juanito never heard anything like it,
and it frightened him nearly to death. He says the Father must be
a very fierce man to growl so loudly. He says, too, that he likes
me much better than his mother."

It seemed to Dave that the bliss of this awakening and the sweet
intimacy of this one moment more than rewarded him for all he had
gone through, and paid him for any unhappiness the future might
hold in store.

He felt called upon to tell Alaire the truth about himself; but
with her in his arms he had no strength of purpose; her every
endearment made him the more aware of his weakness. Again he asked
himself when and how he could bear to tell her? Not now. Certainly
not now when she was trembling under his caresses.

"I've been busy, too," she was saying. "I sent Juan to the village
to learn the news, and it's not very nice. It's good we stopped
here. He says Nuevo Pueblo has been destroyed, and the Federal
forces are all moving south, away from the border. So our troubles
aren't over yet. We must reach the river tonight."

"Yes, by all means."

"Juan is going with us as guide."

"You arranged everything while I snoozed, eh? I'm ashamed of
myself."

Alaire nodded, then pretended to frown darkly. "You ought to be,"
she told him. "While you were asleep I read your mail and--"

"My mail?" Dave was puzzled.

"Exactly. Have you forgotten that your pockets were full of
unopened letters?"

"Oh, those! They came just as I was leaving Jonesville, and I
haven't thought of them since. You know, I haven't had my clothes
off."

"I'm going to read all your love letters," she told him,
threateningly.

"Yes, and you're going to write all of them, too," he laughed.

But she shook a warning finger in his face. "I told you I'm a
jealous person. I'm going to know all about you, past, present,
and future. I--"

"Alaire! My darling!" he cried, and his face stiffened as if with
pain.

Still in a joyous mood, she teased him. "You had better tremble,
I've found you out, deceiver. I know who you really are."

"Who am I?"

"Don't you know?"

Dave shook his head.

"Really? Have you never read your mother's will?"

Law rose to his elbow, then swung his legs to the floor. "What are
you talking about?" he asked.

For answer Alaire handed him the frayed envelope and its contents.

He examined it, and then said, heavily: "I see! I was expecting
this. It seems I've been carrying it around all this time--"

"Why don't you read it?" she insisted. "There's light enough there
by the window. I supposed you knew all about it or I wouldn't have
joked with you."

He opened his lips to speak, but, seeing something in her eyes, he
stepped to the window and read swiftly. A moment, and then he
uttered a cry.

"Alaire!" he exclaimed, hoarsely. "Read this--My eyes--O God!"

Wonderingly she took the sheets from his shaking hands and read
aloud the paragraph he indicated: Fifth: I bequeath to my adopted
son, David, offspring of the unfortunate American woman who died
in my house at Escovedo--

Again Dave cried out and knelt at Alaire's feet, his arms about
her knees, his face buried in her dress. His shoulders were
heaving and his whole body was racked with sobs.

Shocked, frightened, Alaire tried to raise him, but he encircled
her in a tighter embrace.

"Dave! What is it? What have I done?" she implored. "Have I hurt
you so?"

It was a long time before he could make known the significance of
that paragraph, and when he finally managed to tell her about the
terrible fear that had lain so heavily upon his soul it was in
broken, choking words which showed his deep emotion. The story was
out at last, however, and he stood over her transfigured.

Alaire lifted her arms and placed them upon his shoulders. "Were
you going to give me up for that?--for a shadow?"

"Yes. I had made up my mind. I wouldn't have dared marry you last
night, but--I never expected to see today's sun. I didn't think it
would make much difference. It was more than a shadow, Alaire. It
was real. I WAS mad--stark, staring mad--or in a fair way of
becoming so. I suppose I brooded too much. Those violent spells,
those wild moments I sometimes have, made me think it must be
true. I dare say they are no more than temper, but they seemed to
prove all that Ellsworth suspected."

"You must have thought me a very cowardly woman," she told him.
"It wouldn't have made the slightest difference to me, Dave. We
would have met it together when it came, just as we'll meet
everything now--you and I, together."

"My wife!" He laid his lips against her hair.

They were standing beside the window, speechless, oblivious to all
except their great love, when Dolores entered to tell them that
supper was ready and that the horses were saddled.




XXXII

THE DAWN


Juan Garcia proved to be a good guide, and he saved the refugees
many miles on their road to the Rio Grande. But every farm and
every village was a menace, and at first they were forced to make
numerous detours. As the night grew older, however, they rode a
straighter course, urging their horses to the limit, hoping
against hope to reach the border before daylight overtook them.
This they might have done had it not been for Father O'Malley and
Dolores, who were unused to the saddle and unable to maintain the
pace Juan set for them.

About midnight the party stopped on the crest of a flinty ridge to
give their horses breath and to estimate their progress. The night
was fine and clear; outlined against the sky were the stalks of
countless sotol-plants standing slim and bare, like the upright
lances of an army at rest; ahead the road meandered across a mesa,
covered with grama grass and black, formless blots of shrubbery.

Father O'Malley groaned and shifted his weight. "Juan tells me
we'll never reach Romero by morning, at this rate," he said; and
Dave was forced to agree. "I think you and he and Alaire had
better go on and leave Dolores and me to follow as best we can."

Dolores plaintively seconded this suggestion. "I would rather be
burned at the stake than suffer these agonies," she confessed. "My
bones are broken. The devil is in this horse. "She began to weep
softly. "Go, senora. Save yourself! It is my accursed fat stomach
that hinders me. Tell Benito that I perished breathing his name,
and see to it, when he remarries, that he retains none of my
treasures."

Alaire reassured her by saying: "We won't leave you. Be brave and
make the best of it."

"Yes, grit your teeth and hold on," Dave echoed. "We'll manage to
make it somehow."

But progress was far slower than it should have been, and the
elder woman continued to lag behind, voicing her distress in
groans and lamentations. The priest, who was made of sterner
stuff, did his best to bear his tortures cheerfully.

In spite of their efforts the first rosy heralds of dawn
discovered them still a long way from the river and just entering
a more thickly settled country. Daylight came swiftly, and Juan
finally gave them warning.

"We can't go on; the danger is too great," he told them. "If the
soldiers are still in Romero, what then?"

"Have you no friends hereabouts who would take us in?" Dave
inquired.

The Mexican shook his head.

Dave considered for a moment. "You must hide here," he told his
companions, "while I ride on to Romero and see what can be done. I
suspect Blanco's troops have left, and in that case everything
will be all right."

"Suppose they haven't?" Alaire inquired. All night she had been in
the lightest of moods, and had steadily refused to take their
perils seriously. Now her smile chased the frown from her
husband's face.

"Well, perhaps I'll have breakfast with them," he laughed.

"Silly. I won't let you go," she told him, firmly; and, reading
the expression in her face, he felt a dizzy wonder. "We'll find a
nice secluded spot; then we'll sit down and wait for night to
come. We'll pretend we're having a picnic."

Dolores sighed at the suggestion. "That would be heaven, but there
can be no sitting down for me."

Garcia, who had been standing in his stirrups scanning the long,
flat road ahead, spoke sharply: "CARAMBA! Here come those very
soldiers now! See!"

Far away, but evidently approaching at a smart gait, was a body of
mounted men. After one look at them Dave cried:

"Into the brush, quick!" He hurried his companions ahead of him,
and when they had gone perhaps a hundred yards from the road he
took Juan's Winchester, saying: "Ride in a little way farther and
wait. I'm going back. If you hear me shoot, break for the river.
Ride hard and keep under cover as much as possible." Before they
could remonstrate he had wheeled Montrosa and was gone.

This was luck, he told himself. Ten miles more and they would have
been safe, for the Rio Grande is not a difficult river either to
ford or to swim. He dismounted and made his way on foot to a point
where he could command a view, but he had barely established
himself when he found Alaire at his side.

"Go back," he told her. But she would not, and so they waited
together.

There were perhaps a dozen men in the approaching squad, and Dave
saw that they were heavily accoutred. They rode fast, too, and at
their head galloped a large man under a wide-brimmed felt hat. It
soon became evident that the soldiers were not uniformed.
Therefore, Dave reasoned, they were not Federals, but more
probably some Rebel scouting band from the south, and yet--He
rubbed his eyes and stared again.

Dave pressed forward eagerly, incredulously; the next instant he
had broken cover with a shout. Alaire was at his side, clapping
her hands and laughing with excitement

The cavalcade halted; the big man tumbled from his saddle and came
straddling through the high grass, waving his hat and yelling.

"Blaze! You old scoundrel!" Dave cried, and seized one of the
ranchman's palms while Alaire shook the other.

"Say! We're right glad to see you-all," Jones exclaimed. "We
reckoned you might be havin' a sort of unpleasantness with
Longorio, so we organized up and came to get you."

The other horsemen were crowding close now, and their greetings
were noisy. There were the two Guzman boys, Benito Gonzales, Phil
Strange, and a number of Jonesville's younger and more adventurous
citizens.

In the midst of the tumult Benito inquired for his wife, and Dave
relieved his anxiety by calling Dolores and Father O'Malley. Then,
in answer to the questions showered upon him, he swiftly sketched
the story of Alaire's rescue and their flight from La Feria.

When he had finished Blaze Jones drew a deep breath. "We're mighty
glad you got out safe, but you've kicked the legs from under one
of my pet ambitions. I sure had planned to nail Longorio's hide on
my barn door. Yes, and you've taken the bread out of the mouths of
the space writers and sob sisters from here to Hudson's Bay. Miz
Austin, your picture's in every newspaper in the country, and,
believe me, it's the worst atrocity of the war."

"War!" Father O'Malley had joined the group now, and he asked,
"Has war been declared?"

"Not yet, but we've got hopes." To Alaire Blaze explained:
"Ellsworth's in Washington, wavin' the Stars and Stripes and
singin' battle hymns, but I reckon the government figures that the
original of those newspaper pictures would be safe anywhere. Well,
we've got our own ideas in Jonesville, so some of us assembled
ourselves and declared war on our own hook. These gentlemen"--
Blaze waved his hand proudly at his neighbors--"constitute the
Jonesville Guards, the finest body of American men that has
invaded Mexican soil since me and Dave went after Ricardo Guzman's
remains. Blamed if I ain't sorry you sidetracked our expedition."

It was evident, from the words of the others, that the Jonesville
Guards were indeed quite as heedless of international
complications as was their commander. One and all were highly
incensed at Longorio's perfidy, and, had Alaire suggested such a
thing, it was patent that they would have ridden on to La Feria
and exacted a reckoning from him.

Such proof of friendship affected her deeply, and it was not until
they were all under way back toward Romero that she felt she had
made her appreciation fully known. When she reflected that these
men were some of the very neighbors whom she had shunned and
slighted, and whose honest interest she had so habitually
misconstrued all these years, it seemed very strange that they
should feel the least concern over her. It gave her a new
appreciation of their chivalry and their worth; it filled her with
a humble desire to know them better and to strengthen herself in
their regard. Then, too, the esteem in which they held Dave--her
husband--gratified her intensely. It made no more difference to
them than to her that he was a poor man, a man without authority
or position; they evidently saw and loved in him the qualities
which she saw and loved. And that was as it should be.

They were gentle and considerate men, too, as she discovered when
they told her, bit by bit, what had happened during her absence.
She learned, much to her relief, that Ed's funeral had been held,
and that all the distressing details of the inquiry had been
attended to. Jose Sanchez, it appeared, had confessed freely.
Although her new friends made plain their indignation at the
manner of Ed's taking off, they likewise let her know that they
considered his death only a slight loss, either to her or to the
community. Not one of them pretended it was anything except a
blessing.

The journey drew to an end very quickly. Romero, deserted now by
its garrison, stirred and stared sleepily at the invaders, but
concerned itself with their presence no more than to wonder why
they laughed and talked so spiritedly. Plainly, these gringos were
a barbarous race of people, what with their rushing here and
there, and with their loud, senseless laughter. God had wisely
placed them beyond the Rio Grande, said the citizens of Romero.

The crossing was made; Alaire found herself in Texas once again,
and it seemed to her that the sun had never been so bright, the
air so clear, the sky so high, the world so smiling, as here and
now. The men who had ridden forth to seek her were smiling, too,
and they were shaking her hands and congratulating her. Even the
Guzman boys, who were shy in the presence of American ladies, were
wishing her the best of fortune and the greatest of happiness.

Blaze Jones was the last to leave. With especial emphasis upon her
name, he said: "Miz Austin, Paloma and me would like to have you
come to our house and stay until you feel like goin' back to Las
Palmas."

When Alaire declined with moistened eyes, explaining that she
could not well accept his invitation, he signified his
understanding.

"We're goin' to see a lot of you, just the same," he promised her,
"'cause we feel as if you sort of belonged to us. There's a lot of
good people in this part of Texas, and them that ain't so good God
and the Rangers is slowly weedin' out. We don't always know the
ones we like best until something happens to 'em, but if you'd
heard the prayers the folks of Jonesville have been sayin' lately
you'd know you was our favorite." Then, with a meaning twinkle in
his eye, he told her, gravely: "It seems a pity that I ain't
younger and better-lookin'. I would sure cut short your grief."
Then he raised his hat and rode away, chuckling.

Alaire turned to Dave in dismay. "He knows!" she cried.

"I'm afraid they all know. But don't worry; they'll respect our
wishes."

Father O'Malley had ridden on ahead with Benito and Dolores; Dave
and Alaire followed leisurely. Now that the moment of their
parting was at hand, they lingered by the way, delaying it as long
as possible, feeling a natural constraint at what was in their
minds.

"How long--will it be?" he asked her, finally. "How long before I
can really have you for my own?"

Alaire smiled into his eyes. "Not long. But you'll be patient,
won't you, dear?"

He took her hand in his, and they rode on silently, a song in the
heart of each of them.

THE END




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