EY so bidden him--until
he knew that she was El Cojeante's woman. Now, he would knife
THEM, any or all, before El Cojeante's woman should lose a hair.

As he knew the sun at his rising, so surely had he known El Cojeante
when he had struck his first blow at the doctor that was a black bull.
He had run from the house lest El Cojeante should slay Pepe before
knowing him.

Hidden as the Lizard they called him hides in winter, he had seen the
black doctor in pursuit of El Cojeante escaping with his woman that was
clad in Dutch Fridji's skirt and the loose coat of a man. And, since he
knew that God and the Saints will take the side of the man whom none can
outwit, Pepe crept back to the house.

Here Dick interrupted:

"You left your companero de grillos for fear of the Black Bull!" he
exclaimed.

Pepe smiled, shaking his head.

"It was for fear of that which came to el toro erizado," he answered.
"Very wise was I, and prudent, for but three minutes since did I see
him, and in his throat la navaja de la ramera Holandesa." He made a
movement with his hand, and added: "I remembered the days when I and
Dicco threw the knife."

He had gone back, he shamelessly continued, to learn how the land lay;
for, should they be all dead, as he almost expected, for Pepe there
would be pickings.

To find Dicco el Cojeante again, time was plenty, for la senorita con el
pelo rojo must set the pace.

In the hall, Melchardo was not yet come back to his sense; that other
that had fallen with him--Heberto, the London man--was pouring water on
Melchardo's head, while upstairs screamed la Holandesa.

And then came imperious clamour of the telephone. Pepe felt it was
angry.

Boldly he pushed past the London man and went to the room of the
instrument.

Through the machine spoke one Bayliss, teniente de Melchardo--chief of
THOSE in Millsborough, having charge of the tooth-drawing--el
negocio dental, that was a cloak to cover great traffic in cocaine,
opium and hashish. And Pepe knew this Bayliss for a man, if less subtle,
even more prompt and terrible in action than Melchardo himself. But when
Pepe answered with a password of Melchard's, Bayliss replied with
questions in a stream--what of the venture of yesterday? Had they found
the new drug? Were they safe from pursuit?

And it was well for Pepe that this questioning was broken by the hand
that tore the instrument from his fingers and pushed him aside. It was
Melchardo, the man of sw