"All right," he said. "And I think I'll have the judges rule that the
fight shall be at fifty paces, as I would if we were to fight with
pistols." He tried to keep his irritation out of his voice, but there
must have been enough to betray him.
For Teresita smiled pleasedly and sent another barb. "It would be wise.
For truly, Jose's equal has never been seen, and caballeros I have known
who would swear that Jose's riata can stretch to fifty paces and more to
find its mark."
"Is it anxiety for me that makes you so solicitous?" demanded Jack,
speaking low so that the peons could not overhear.
"Perhaps--and perhaps it is pride; for I know well the skill and the
bravery of my Jose." Again the twist of her pretty, pouting lips,
blood-red and tempting.
Her Jose! For just a minute the face of Teresita showed vague to him
before his wrathful eyes.
"When you tell your beads again, Senorita," he advised her crisply, "say
a prayer or two for your Jose also. For I promise you now that I will
shame him before your face, and if he lives afterward to seek your
sympathy, it will be by grace of my mercy!"
"Santa Maria, what a fierce senor!" Her laughter mocked him. "Till the
fiesta I shall pray--for you!" Then she turned and ran, looking over her
shoulder now and again to laugh at him.
Always before, when she had teased and flouted and fled laughing, Jack
had pursued her with long strides, and in the first sequestered nook had
made her lips pay a penalty.
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