But this time he stood still and let her
go--which must have puzzled the senorita very much, and perhaps piqued
her pride as well. For the girl who flouts and then flees laughing
surely invites pursuit and an inexorable exaction of the penalty. And if
she is left to flee in safety, then must the flouted one pay for his
stupidity, and pay high in the coin of love.
CHAPTER XVIII
WHAT IS LOVE WORTH?
Valencia swung down from his belathered horse as lightly as though he
had not spent seven hours in the saddle and during those seven hours had
covered more miles than he would have years to live. His smile was wide
and went as deep as his emotions had thus far plumbed his nature, and
his voice had the exultant note of a child who has wonderful news to
tell. He gave Dade a letter, and his very gesture was triumphant; and
the eyes were eager that watched his majordomo read. He bubbled with
words that he would like to say, but he waited.
"So you didn't get there in time, after all," Dade observed, looking up
from Jack's characteristic signature, in which the tail of the "k"
curled around the whole like a mouse lying asleep. "Manuel came back
this morning, and the whole camp is talking nothing but duelo. I thought
you said--"
"Senor, the saints would not permit that I should arrive first,"
Valencia explained virtuously. "A stick tripped Noches and he fell, and
broke his neck in the fall.
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