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