young lady, walked
disconsolately to the door.

"So! You do love 'im, after all!" the bandit said to Angela.

"I never thought I could love anybody so much!" the girl replied. "Oh,
'Red'!" And she hugged him again.

"You mean it?" asked the delighted "Red." "You're not saying it
because..."

But Lopez broke in: "She is saying it because it is ze truth. In pleasure,
a woman go to ze man she sink she love. In fear, she go to ze man she
really love.... Well, you really want her? She is yours. And I 'ope you
will be 'appy. At least, I 'ave done my part." He smiled his most
enchanting smile.

"You have--you certainly have, and I am mighty obliged to you," said the
grateful "Red."

"You are welcome. I like you. But remember zis: Eet is your wish--not
mine.... Don't blame me."

"Red" could stand this now: he had his Angela. And tucked in his big arm,
he took her outdoors.

As soon as they had gone, Hardy turned to Lopez. "Look here!" he shouted,
"I guess I've got something to say about this. That's my daughter, whose
affairs you've been so kindly fixing up, and--"

Lopez gave him one look that closed his mouth suddenly. "Don't shoot,
Pedro," he said. "Well?"

Hardy cast one eye at Pedro's lifted gun, and got out only one word,
"Nothing." A meeker man never lived.

"From what my frand tell me, I can see now 'ow you make your money," the
bandit told Hardy. "You are a robber."

This was too much for Hardy--for any man with a spark of manhood left in
him.

"I am not!" he denied. "I'm a business man."

"You are a loan fish," the bandit pressed.

"A what?"

"A loan fish! You loan money. And when ze people cannot pay, you convict
zem and take zeir ranchos."

The lean, sharklike Hardy looked a little depressed at this accusation.

"Well, if they can't pay, it isn't my fault," was all he could say.

"It isn't zeir fault, too, is it?" Lopez was curious to know.

"What's that?" Hardy said.

"So you take ze rancho from my friend, Senor Jones. A nice sort of neighbor
you are, you beeg fish!"

"I'm not to blame because he's a rotten business man, am I?" Hardy tried to
set himself right.

Lopez looked at him scornfully. "How do you know 'e is a rotten business
man?"

"Why, the fact that I've had to foreclose the mortgage shows that," Hardy
smiled.

"Not at all. Senor Jones 'ave been away to war. He been away fighting for
'is country."

"Well, that isn't my fault."

"No." There was profound contempt in