t
Rios. Her answer puzzled Kendric for the moment, not so much the words
as the tone. She spoke to Rios as one might speak to a dreaded master.

"I am ready," was all that she said. And when Rios threw open the door
for her, it was to Bruce that she said gently, her eyes melting into
his, "A moment only, if Senor Rios will permit that I return so soon."
And she went out, Rios at her heels.

"Can't you see, Jim?" Bruce was all excitement and his hands were
clenched at his side; his boyish eyes blazed. "It's that damned Ruiz
Rios! He dictates to her; he has put the fear of death and worse into
her heart. She is made to suffer for all of his crimes!"

"So that's the story?" Kendric grunted his disgust. "And you've let
her stuff you hide-full of lies?"

"Go easy, Jim." Bruce appeared sincerely pained and troubled. "I've
called you a fair man; won't you open your mind to the truth? She has
been misrepresented, I know. Her enemies----" He clenched his hands.
"She is a wonderful creature!" he burst out. "And she has honored me
with her confidence and her friendship."

This very night Zoraida Castelmar had ruthlessly pillaged Bruce's ranch
and from Bruce's mouth now gushed the words: "She has honored me with
her confidence and her friendship!" Was there no end to the woman's
audacity? Was there no end to the blind stupidity of mankind which
permitted of lawlessness like tonight's being glossed over, which went
to the insane extreme of worshiping when normally the logical emotion
would be hatred? Was there finally, no end to the power of Zoraida?

What had happened between Bruce West and Zoraida? Kendric knew
something of Zoraida's bravado, no little of her supreme assurance,
much of her methods. Plainly she had gone straight to Bruce after the
raid. He could see the picture of her coming out of the lurid night
and into the experience of a boy all unnerved by his anger and grief.
He could understand how she offered her softened beauty to the hard
eyes; how her voice had caressed and distorted fact; how Zoraida had
had the wit to tell her own story, make her own impression, before
Bruce could have had time to steel himself against her. But what tale
could she have told to convince a man like Bruce who, at the least, was
not a fool?

Somehow, decided Kendric, she had lied out of the whole thing.
Further, she had used every siren trick she knew to drug his better
judgment. She had been tender and femi