Part 45 (1/2)
mine
”I tell you it was soettin' hurted an' I know that that's what you sent me to do It's too bad about the six et even with that Villa guy yet Just leadhih to better reach the point of irritation, he slipped his hand inside his shi+rt If Pesita noticed the apparently innocent little act, or interpreted it correctly ht into Byrne's eyes for a full e nor contee Presently a slow s, white teeth
”You have done well, Captain Byrne,” he said ”You are a man after my own heart,” and he extended his hand
A half-hour later Billy walked slowly back to his own blankets, and to say that he was puzzled would scarce have described his ink out,” he ood loser or else he's a deep one who'll wait a year to get etto Captain Rozales:
”I should have shot him if I could spare such a e and effrontery he possesses Why think of it, Rozales, he kills eight of my men, and lets my prisoners escape, and then dares to cootten away Villa would have uel must have told him so He found out in some way about your little plan and he turned the tables on us We can use him, Rozales, but we ht hand and when he slips it into his shi+rt be careful that you do not draw on him--unless you happen to be behind him”
Rozales was not inclined to take his chief's view of Byrne's value to theuilty of disloyalty and therefore a ue to think that the newcoame, and he was jealous, too, of the man's ascendancy in the estees beneath a cloak of see that soht rid hier of this obnoxious rival
”And to him to Cuivaca Villa has considerable funds in bank there, and this stranger can learn what I want to know about the size of the detacharrison”
CHAPTER IX BARBARA IN MEXICO
THE er of El Orobo Rancho was an American named Grayson He was a tall, wiry man whose education had been acquired principally in the cow cas one does NOT learn to love nor trust a greaser As a result of this early training Grayson was peculiarly unfitted in soe an American ranch in Mexico; but he was a just man, and so if his vaqueros did not love him, they at least respected him, and everyone as or possessed the latent characteristics of a wrongdoer feared him
Perhaps it is not fair to say that Grayson was in any way unfitted for the position he held, since as a matter of fact he was an ideal ranch foreman, and, if the truth be known, the sio would have been sufficient to have won him the hatred of the Mexicans orked under him--not in the course of their everyday relations; but when the fires of racial animosity were fanned to flame by some untoward incident upon either side of the border
Today Grayson was particularly rabid The er upon the cause of it, as no less a person than his boss
It seeence could have conceived and then carried out the fool thing which the boss had just done, which was to have co Mexico, bringing--and this was the worst feature of it--his daughter with him And at such a time! Scarce a day passed without its ru perpetrated upon Aravity of these acts increased From mere insult they had run of late to assault and even to ht
Pesita had openly sworn to rid Mexico of the gringo--to kill on sight every American who fell into his hands And what could Grayson do in case of a determined attack upon the rancho? It is true he had a hundred men--laborers and vaqueros, but scarce a dozen of these were Americans, and the rest would, aluinity in case of trouble
To add to Grayson's irritability he had just lost his bookkeeper, and if there was one thing more than any other that Grayson hated it was pen and ink The youth had been a ”lunger” from Iowa, a fairly nice little chap, and entirely suited to his duties under any other circumstances than those which prevailed in Mexico at that time He was in mortal terror of his life every e of cowardice and resigned The day previous he had been bundled into a buckboard and driven over to the Mexican Central which, at that ti trains--occasionally--between Chihuahua and Juarez
His hts, Grayson sat at his desk in the office of the ranch trying to unravel the riddle of a balance sheet which would not balance Mixed with the blue of the sue in which Grayson was engaged
A girl was passing the building at the ray-haired man--one of those men whom you just naturally fit into aWall Street
”Sich langwidge!” cried the girl, with a laugh, covering her ears with her palms
The man at her side smiled
”I can't say that I blame hi foryou down here at this time I can't understand what ever possessed me to do it”
”Don't blairl, ”when it was all ed until you had to consent, and I' happens to you because of our co I couldn't stay in New York another minute Everyone was so snoopy, and I could just tell that they were dying to ask questions about Billy and h my head yet, Barbara,” said the man, ”why in the world you broke with Billy Mallory He's one of the finest young men in New York City today--just hter to irl in a low voice; ”but I couldn't--I just couldn't”