t I've said before. I not only intend
fighting this Crozier, but _killing_ him. True, I may fail in my
intention; if so, there's an end of it, and of _me_. For, once on the
ground, I don't leave it a living man, if he do. One or both of us
shall stay there, till we're carried off--feet-foremost."

"_Carramba_! your talk gives one the trembles. It's not pleasant to
think of such things, let alone doing them."

"Think your own way, and welcome. To me it would be less pleasant to
leave them undone; less now, than ever in my life. After what I've gone
through, I don't care much for character--in truth, not a straw. That's
all stuff and pretension. Money makes the man, and without it he's
nothing; though he were a saint. Respectability--bah! I don't value it
a _claco_. But there's a reputation of another kind I _do_ value, and
intend to preserve. Because in my world it counts for something--has
counted already."

"What is that?"

"Courage. Losing it, I should lose everything. And in this very city
of San Francisco, I'd be only a hound where I'm now a hunter; barked at
by every cur, and kicked by every coward who choose to pick a quarrel
with me."

"There's no danger of that, Don Francisco. All who have had dealings
with you know better. There's little fear of any one putting a slight
upon _you_."

"There would be, if I refused to fight this fellow. Then you'd see the
difference. Why, Faustino Calderon. I couldn't sit at our monte table,
and keep the red-shirts from robbing us, if they didn't know 'twould be
a dangerous game to play. However, it isn't _their_ respect I value
now, but that of one very different."

"Of whom?"

"Again you ask an idle question; so idle, that I don't believe you care
a straw for Inez Alvarez--or know what love is."

"What has she to do with it?"

"She--nothing. That's true enough. I don't care aught for her, or what
she might think of me. But I do care for Carmen Montijo; above all
things I value her good opinion. At least, so far, that she sha'n't
think me either a fool or a coward. She may be fancying me the first;
but if so, she'll find herself mistaken. At all events, she'll get
convinced I'm not the last. And if it be as rumour reports, and as you
say you've heard, that she's given her heart to this _gringo_, I'll take
care she don't bestow her _hand_ upon him--not while I live. When I'm
dead, she can do as she likes."

"But after what's passed, wil