Valencia"s brain was lit by a flash of understanding. "Pablo is your lover. Is it not so, _nina_?"
The dark crown of soft hair moved up and down in a.s.sent. "Oh, _Dona_, he was, but--"
"You have quarreled with him?"
Miss Valdes burned with impatience, but some instinct told her she could not hurry the girl.
"_Si, Senorita_. He quarreled. He said--"
"Yes?"
"----that ... that _Senor_ Gordon ..."
Again, groping for the truth, Valencia found it swiftly.
"You mean that Pablo was jealous?"
"Because I had nursed _Senor_ Gordon, because he was kind to me, because----" Juanita had lifted her face to answer. As she spoke the color poured into her cheeks even to her throat, convicting evidence of the cruel embarra.s.sment she felt.
Valencia"s hand dropped to her side. When she spoke again the warmth had been banished from her voice. "I see. You nursed Mr. Gordon, did you?"
Juanita"s eyes fell before the cold accusation in those of Miss Valdes.
"_Si, Senorita._"
"And he was kind to you? In what way kind?"
The slim Mexican girl, always of the shyest, was bathed in blushes. "He called me ... _nina_. He ..."
"----made love to you."
A sensation as if the clothes were being torn from her afflicted Juanita. Why did the _Dona_ drag her heart out to look at it? Nor did the girl herself know how much or how little Richard Gordon"s gay _camaraderie_ meant. She was of that type of women who love all that are kind to them. No man had ever been so considerate as this handsome curly-headed American. So dumbly her heart went out to him and made the most of his friendliness. Had he not once put his arm around her shoulder and told her to "buck up" when he came upon her crying because of Pedro? Had he not told her she was the prettiest girl in the neighborhood? And had he not said, too, that she was a little angel for nursing him so patiently?
"_Dona_, I--do--not--know." The words came out as if they were being dragged from her. Poor Juanita would have liked the ground to open up and swallow her.
"Don"t you know, you little stupid, that he is playing with you, that he will not marry you?"
"If _Dona_ Valencia says so," murmured the Mexican submissively.
"Men are that way, heartless ... selfish ... vain. But I suppose you led him on," concluded Valencia cruelly.
With a little flare of spirit Juanita looked up. Her courage was for her friend, not for herself.
"_Senor_ Gordon is good. He is kind."
"A lot you know about it, child. Have nothing to do with him. His love can only hurt a girl like you. Go back to your Pablo and forget the American. I will see he does not trouble you again."
Juanita began to cry again. She did not want _Senorita_ Valdes or anybody else interfering between her and the friend she had nursed. But she knew she could not stop this imperative young woman from doing as she pleased.
"Now tell me how you know that Pablo has gone to injure the American.
Did he tell you so?"
"No-o."
"Well, what did he say? What is it that you know?" Valencia"s shoe tapped the floor impatiently. "Tell me--tell me!"
"He--Pablo--met me at the corral the day he left. I was in the kitchen and he whistled to me." Juanita gave the information sullenly. Why should _Senorita_ Valdes treat her so harshly? She had done no wrong.
"Yes. Go on!"
If she had had the force of character Juanita would have turned on her heel and walked away. But all her life it had been impressed upon her that the will of a Valdes was law to her and her cla.s.s.
"I do not know ... Pablo told me nothing ... but he laughed at me, oh, so cruelly! He asked if I ... had any messages for my Gringo lover."
"Is that all?"
"All ... except that he would show me what happened to foreign devils who stole my love from him. Oh, _Senorita_, do you think he will kill the American?"
Valencia, her white lips pressed tightly together, gave no answer. She was thinking.
"I hate Pablo. He is wicked. I will never speak to him again," moaned Juanita helplessly.
Manuel, coming out of the post-office with his mail, looked at the weeping girl incuriously. It was, he happened to know, a habit of the s.e.x to cry over trifles.
Juanita found in a little nod from Miss Valdes permission to leave. She turned and walked hurriedly away to the adobe cabin where she slept.
Before she reached it the walk had become a run.
"Has the young woman lost a ribbon or a lover?" commented Pesquiera, with a smile.
"Manuel, I am worried," answered Valencia irrelevantly.
"What about, my cousin?"
"It"s this man Gordon again. Juanita says that Pablo and Sebastian have gone to kill him."
"Gone where?"
"To Santa Fe. They asked for a leave of absence. You know how sullen and suspicious Sebastian is. It is fixed firmly in his head that Mr. Gordon is going to take away his farm."
Manuel"s black eyes snapped. He did not propose to let any peons steal from him the punishment he owed this insolent Gordon.
"But Pablo is not a fool. Surely he knows he cannot do such a mad thing."
"Pablo is jealous--and hot-headed." The angry color mounted to the cheeks of the young woman. "He is in love with Juanita and he found out this stranger has been philandering with her. It is abominable. This Gordon has made the silly little fool fall in love with him."
"Oh, if Pablo is jealous----" Pesquiera gave a little shrug of his shoulders. He understood pretty well the temperament of the ignorant Mexican. The young lover was likely to shoot first and think afterward.
Valencia was still thinking of the American. Beneath the olive of her cheeks two angry spots still burned. "I detest that sort of thing. I thought he was a gentleman--and he is only a male flirt ... or worse."
"Perhaps--and perhaps not, my cousin. Did Juanita tell you----?"