_ CHAPTER X. MR. AINSA DELIVERS A MESSAGE
Back to Davis, who had stopped to tighten his saddle-girth, came Dick Gordon's rather uncertain tenor in rollicking song:
"Bloomin' idol made o' mud--
Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd--
Plucky lot she cared for idols when I
Kissed 'er where she stud!"
"There he goes, advertising himself for a target to every greaser in the county. Pity he can't ride along decent, if he's got to ride at all in these hills, where every gulch may be a trap," grumbled the old miner.
He jerked the leather strap down with a final tug, pulled himself to the saddle, and cantered after his friend.
"Elephints a pilin' teak
In the sludgy, squdgy creek,
Where the silence 'ung that 'eavy you
Was 'arf afraid to speak!"
"No danger of the silence hanging heavy here while you're around trying to be a whole opery troupe all by your lonesome," suggested Davis. "Seems to me if you got to trapse round this here country hunting for that permanent residence, it ain't necessary to disturb the Sabbath calm so on-feelin'. I don't seem to remember hearing any great demand for an encore after the rendering of the first verse."
"You do ce'tainly remind me of a lien with one chick, Steve," laughed Dick.
"I ain't worrying about you none. It's my own scalp kinder hangs loose every time you make one of your fool-plays," explained the other.
"Go pipe that up to your granny. Think I ain't learned my ABC's about my dry-nurse yet?"
"I'm going back to the gold camp to-morrow."
"You been saying that ever since you came here. Why don't you go, old Calamity Prophet?"
"Well, I am. Going to-morrow."
"You've hollered wolf too often, Steve. I'll believe it when I see it."
"Well, why don't you behave? What's the use of making a holy Caruso of yourself? Nobody ain't ever pined to hear you tune up, anyhow."
"All right. Mum's the word, old hoss. I'll be as solemn as if I was going to my own funeral."
"I ain't persuaded yet you're not."
"I'm right fully persuaded. Hallo! Stranger visiting at Corbett's. Guess I'll unlimber the artillery."
They dismounted, and, before turning over his horse to Yeager, Dick unstrapped from the saddle his rifle. Nowadays he never for a moment was separated from some weapon of defense. For he knew that an attack upon his life was almost a certainty in the near future. Though his manner was debonair, he saw to it that nobody got a chance to tamper with his guns.
"Make you acquainted with Mr. Ramon Ainsa, gentlemen. Mr. Gordon--Mr. Davis," said Corbett, standing in the doorway in his shirt-sleeves.
Mr. Ainsa, a very young man with the hint of a black mustache over his boyish mouth, clicked his heels together and bowed deeply. He expressed himself as delighted, but did not offer to shake hands. He was so stiff that Dick wanted to ask him whether the poker he had swallowed was indigestible.
"I am the bearer of a message to Mr. Richard Muir Gordon," he said with another bow.
"My name," acknowledged its owner. "You ain't missed a letter of it. Must have been at the christening, I expect."
"A message from Don Manuel Pesquiera."
"Good enough. That's right friendly of him. How's the _don_?"
And Dick, the sparkle of malicious humor gleaming in his eye, shook Mr. Ainsa warmly by the hand, in spite of that gentleman's effort to escape.
The messenger sidestepped as soon as he could, and began again, very red:
"Don Manuel considers himself deeply insulted, and desires through me, his friend, to present this note."
Dick looked at the envelope, and back at the youth who had handed it to him, after which he crowded in and pump-handled the other's arm again.
"That's awfully good of him, Mr. 'Tain't-so."
"My name is Ainsa, at your service," corrected the New Mexican.
"Beg pardon--Ainsa. I expect I hadn't ought to have irrigated the _don_ so thorough, but it's real good of him to overlook it and write me a friendly note. It's uncommon handsome of him after I disarranged his laundry so abrupt."
"If the _senor_ will read the letter--" interrupted the envoy desperately.
"Certainly. But let me offer you something to drink first, Mr. Ain't-so."
"Ainsa."
"Ainsa, I should say. A plain American has to go some to round up and get the right brand on some of these blue-blooded names of yours. What'll it be?"
"Thank you. I am not thirsty. I prefer not." With which Mr. Ainsa executed another bow.
"Just as you say, colonel. But you'll let me know if you change your mind."
Dick indicated a chair to his visitor, and took another himself; then leisurely opened the epistle and read it. After he had done so he handed it to Davis.
"This is for you, too, Steve. The _don_ is awfully anxious to have you meet Mr. Ainsa and have a talk with him," chuckled Gordon.
"'To arrange a meeting with your friend,' Why, it's a duel he means, Dick."
"That's what I gathered. We're getting right up in society. A duel's more etiquettish than bridge-whist, Steve. Ain't you honored, being invited to one. You're to be my second, you see."
"I'm hanged if I do," exploded the old miner promptly.
"Sho! It ain't hard, when you learn the steps."
"I ain't going to have nothing to do with it. Tommyrot! That's what I call it."
"Don't say it so loud, Steve, or you'll hurt Mr. Ainsa's feelings," chided his partner.
"Think I'm going to make a monkey of myself at my age?"
Dick turned mournfully to the messenger of war.
"I'm afraid it's off, Mr. Ainsa. My second says he won't play."
"We shall be very glad to furnish you a second, sir."
"All right, and while you're at it furnish a principal, too. I'm an American. I write my address Cripple Creek, Colorado, U.S.A. We don't fight duels in my country any more. They've gone out with buckled shoes and knee-pants, Mr. Ainsa."
"Do I understand that Mr. Gordon declines to meet my friend on the field of honor?"
"That's the size of it."
"I am then instruct' to warn you to go armed, as my friend will punish your insolence at sight informally."
It was just at this moment that Mrs. Corbett, flushed with the vain chase of her fleeing brood of chickens, came perspiring round the house. Her large, round person, not designed by nature for such arduous exercise, showed signs of fatigue.
"I declare, if them chickens ain't got out, and me wanting two for supper," she panted, arms on her ample hips.
"That's too bad. Let me chase them," volunteered Dick.
He grasped his rifle, took a quick, careless aim, and fired. A long-legged, flying cockerel keeled over and began to kick.
"Gracious me!" ejaculated the woman.
"Two, did you say?" asked the man behind the gun.
"I said two."
Again the rifle cracked. A second chicken flopped down, this one with its head shot off at the neck.
The eyes of the minister of war were large with amazement. The distance had been seventy yards, if it had been a step. When little Jimmie Corbett came running forward with the two dead cockerels a slight examination showed that the first had also been shot through the neck.
Dick smiled.
"Shall I shoot another and send it for a present to Don Manuel, Jimmie?" he pleasantly inquired.
Mr. Ainsa met his persiflage promptly.
"I do assure you, _senor_, it will not be at all necesair. Don Manuel can shoot chickens for himself--and larger game."
"I'm sure he'll find good hunting," the other gave him back, looking up genially.
"He is a good hunter, _senor_."
"Don't doubt it a bit," granted the cordial Anglo-Saxon. "Trouble is that even the best hunters can't tell whether they are going to bring back the bear, or Mr. Bear is going to get them. That's what makes it exciting, I reckon."
"Is Don Manuel going bear-hunting?" asked Jimmie, with a newly aroused boy interest.
"Yes, Jimmie. One's been bothering him right considerable, and he's going gunning for it," explained Dick.
"Gee! I hope he gets it."
"And I hope he don't," laughed Gordon. "Must you really be going, colonel? Can't I do a thing for you in the refreshment line first? Well, so long. Good hunting for your friend. See him later."
Thus cheerfully did the irrepressible Gordon speed Mr. Ainsa on his way.
That young man had somehow the sense of having been too youthful to cope with the gay Gordon.
* * * * *
Valencia Valdes had not ridden far when she met Ramon Ainsa returning from his mission. He was a sunny young fellow, whom she had known since they had been children together.
It occurred to her that he bore himself in a manner that suggested something important on hand. His boyish mouth was set severely, and he greeted her with a punctilio quite unusual. At once she jumped shrewdly to a conclusion.
"Did you bring our mail back with you from Corbett's?" she innocently inquired.
"Yes, _senorita_."
"Since when have I been '_senorita_' to you, Ramon?"
"Valencia, I should say." He blushed.
"Indeed, I should think so. It hasn't been so long since you called me Val."
"Ah! Those happy days!" he sighed.
"Fiddlesticks!" she promptly retorted. "Don't be a goose. You're not in the sere and yellow yet. Don't forget you'll not be twenty-one till next month."
"One counts time not by years, but by its fullness," he said, in the manner of one who could tell volumes if he would.
"I see. And what has been happening of such tremendous importance?"
Mr. Ainsa attempted to twirl his mustache, and was as silent as honor demanded.
"Pooh! It's no secret. Did you find Mr. Gordon at home?"
"At home?" he gasped.
"Well, at Corbett's, then?"
"I didn't know---- Who told you--er----"
"I'm not blind and deaf and dumb, you know."
"But you certainly have a great deal of imagination," he said, recovering himself.
"Not a bit of it. You carried a challenge to this American from Don Manuel. Now, I want to know the answer."
"Really, my dear girl----"
"You needn't try to evade me. I'm going to know, if I stay here all night."
"It's a hold-up, as the Americans say," he joked.
"I don't care what you call it. You have got to tell me, you know."
"But I can't tell you, _nina_. It isn't mine to tell."
"Anyhow, you can't keep me from guessing," she said, with an inspiration.
"No, I don't see how I can very well," he admitted.
"The American accepted the challenge immediately."
"But he didn't," broke out the young man.
"Then he refused?"
"That's a little obvious now," replied Ramon, with a touch of chagrin.
"He was very angry about it, and threatened to call the law to his aid."
Her friend surrendered at discretion, and broke into a laugh of delight.
"I never saw such a fellow, Val. He seemed to think it was all a joke. He must have known why I was there, but before I could get in a word he got hold of my hand and shook it till I wanted to shriek with the pain. He's got a grip like a bear. And he persisted in assuming we were the best of friends. Wouldn't read the letter at all."
"But after he did?"
"Said duels were not fashionable among his people any more."
"He is very sensible, but I'm afraid Manuel won't rest satisfied with that," the girl sighed.
"I hinted as much, and told him to go armed. What do you think the madman did then?"
"I can never guess."
Ramon retailed the chicken-shooting episode.
"You were to mention that to Manuel, I suppose?'" the girl said thoughtfully.
"So I understood. He was giving fair warning."
"But Manuel won't be warned."
"When he hears of it he'll be more anxious than ever to fight."
Valencia nodded. "A spur to a willing horse."
"If he knew he would be killed it would make no difference to him. He is quite fearless."
"Quite."
"But he is a very good shot, too. You do not need to be alarmed for him."
"Oh, no! Not at all," the girl answered scornfully. "He is only my distant cousin, anyhow--and my lover."
"It is hard, Val. Perhaps I might pick a quarrel with this American and----"
She caught him up sharply, but he forgave it when he saw her white misery.
"Don't you dare think of it, Ramon Ainsa. One would think nobody in the valley had any business except fighting with this man. What has he done to you? Or to these others? You are very brave, all of you, when you know you are a hundred to one. I suppose _you_, too, will want to shoot him from ambush?"
This bit of feminine injustice hurt the young man, but he only said quietly:
"No; I don't think I would do that."
Impulsively she put out her hand.
"Forgive me, Ramon. I don't mean that, of course, but I'm nearly beside myself. Why must all this bad will and bloodshed come into our happy little valley? If we must have trouble why can't we let the law settle it? I thought you were my friends--you and Manuel and my people--but between you I am going to be made unhappy for life."
She broke down suddenly and began to sob. The lad slipped to the ground and went quickly to her, putting an arm around her waist across the saddle.
"Don't cry, Val. We all love you--of course we do. How can we help it? It will all come right yet. Don't cry, _nina_"
"How can it come right, with all of you working to make things wrong?" she sobbed.
"Perhaps the stranger will go away."
"He won't. He is a man, and he won't let you drive him out."
"We'll find some way, Val, to save Manuel for you."
"But it isn't only Manuel. I don't want any of you hurt--you or anybody--not even this Mr. Gordon. Oh, Ramon, help me to stop this wicked business."
"If you can tell me how."
She dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief, as a sign that her weakness was past.
"We must find a way. Do you know, my own people are in a dangerous mood? They think this man's some kind of a demon. I shall talk to them to-night. And you must send Manuel to me. Perhaps he may listen to me."
Ainsa agreed, though he felt sure that even she could not induce his friend to withdraw from a position which he felt his honor called him to take.
Nor did the mistress of the valley find it easy to lead her tenants to her way of thinking. They were respectful, outwardly acquiescent, but the girl saw, with a sinking heart, that they remained of their own opinion. Whether he were man or devil, they were determined to make an end of Gordon's intrusion. _