Part 10 (1/2)

”Well, I should rather say she was!” rejoined the Colonel, whilst the boys chuckled quietly. ”She can knock the spots out of these boys at that game.”

”That's what she can,” a.s.sented Joe good-humouredly; ”she can whip us the worst kind. She's liable to whip a'most any stranger that comes along, too,” and he smiled significantly at me.

Rafaeleta, meanwhile, turned fresh steaks in the frying-pan, and paid no heed to the conversation.

”Where did you kill the antelope, Squito?” inquired Don Cabeza.

”Oh, pshaw!” she e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed indifferently.

”Well, where was it? We want to know, because----”

”In the big draw, back of Clanton's ciniky, then. Have another biscuit, Colonel?” And with her sleeves rolled up on her little muscular brown arms, she approached the table with the biscuit-tray in one hand, and a fork in the other.

”How far off were you from him?”

”Shan't answer any more questions,” she said capriciously, but with hopeless decision. And seating herself at the head of the table, she appropriated Joe's m.u.f.fin and Jake's teaspoon. ”Joe, you can get another, and Jake, there's one in the cupboard.”

Supper over, Jake ”washed up,” whilst Joe took a lantern and went off to milk the cows (which grazed free during the day and came in at night to their penned-up calves). The rest of us retired to the adjoining room, and gathered round the blazing logs to talk ”cattle” and their prospects. On such occasions Squito would nestle down on a log by the hearth, and, taking no part in the conversation, glance keenly from speaker to speaker, or gaze dreamily into the fire, rolling herself little Mexican cigarettes, in bits of maize-leaf, from time to time.

Sometimes, during a lull in the conversation, she would hazard prettily, addressing either the Colonel or me: ”Won't you tell us some more about them foreign lands?” When the boys, having finished their work, rejoined us, she generally slipped off silently to her own room.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] Cheeky.

[13] Spend his money.

[14] Was very successful.

[15] A counter.

[16] Spends money.

[17] Putting him in prison.

[18] Wild.

[19] Savage.

[20] Took him to task.

[21] Armed.

[22] Left.

[23] Pluck.