kitchen
and he whistled to me." Juanita gave the information sullenly. Why
should _Senorita_ Valdes treat her so harshly? She had done no wrong.

"Yes. Go on!"

If she had had the force of character Juanita would have turned on her
heel and walked away. But all her life it had been impressed upon her
that the will of a Valdes was law to her and her class.

"I do not know ... Pablo told me nothing ... but he laughed at me, oh,
so cruelly! He asked if I ... had any messages for my Gringo lover."

"Is that all?"

"All ... except that he would show me what happened to foreign devils
who stole my love from him. Oh, _Senorita_, do you think he will kill
the American?"

Valencia, her white lips pressed tightly together, gave no answer. She
was thinking.

"I hate Pablo. He is wicked. I will never speak to him again," moaned
Juanita helplessly.

Manuel, coming out of the post-office with his mail, looked at the
weeping girl incuriously. It was, he happened to know, a habit of the
sex to cry over trifles.

Juanita found in a little nod from Miss Valdes permission to leave. She
turned and walked hurriedly away to the adobe cabin where she slept.
Before she reached it the walk had become a run.

"Has the young woman lost a ribbon or a lover?" commented Pesquiera,
with a smile.

"Manuel, I am worried," answered Valencia irrelevantly.

"What about, my cousin?"

"It's this man Gordon again. Juanita says that Pablo and Sebastian have
gone to kill him."

"Gone where?"

"To Santa Fe. They asked for a leave of absence. You know how sullen and
suspicious Sebastian is. It is fixed firmly in his head that Mr. Gordon
is going to take away his farm."

Manuel's black eyes snapped. He did not propose to let any peons steal
from him the punishment he owed this insolent Gordon.

"But Pablo is not a fool. Surely he knows he cannot do such a mad
thing."

"Pablo is jealous--and hot-headed." The angry color mounted to the
cheeks of the young woman. "He is in love with Juanita and he found out
this stranger has been philandering with her. It is abominable. This
Gordon has made the silly little fool fall in love with him."

"Oh, if Pablo is jealous----" Pesquiera gave a little shrug of his
shoulders. He understood pretty well the temperament of the ignorant
Mexican. The young lover was likely to shoot first and think afterward.

Valencia was still thinking of the American. Beneath the olive of her
cheeks two angry spots still