"Take me away! Let"s try to go now. Now!"
Ruiz Rios"s eyes glittered, his mouth hardened. He closed the door behind him, watching them keenly.
"It is in my mind to do you a kindness, Senor Kendric," he said, speaking evenly and emotionlessly.
"You are a murderous cur," rapped out Kendric. "I"d do a clean job if I shot you dead in your tracks."
Rios smiled.
"Let us speak business, _amigo_," he said. "Moralizing is nice when there is plenty of time and nothing else to be done. You are kept here against your will. It might not fit in ill with my plans to see you go."
"I will have a look at Escobar first," said Kendric. Rios stepped aside and again threw open the door. But he did not stir from the spot, awaiting Kendric"s return. Nor did Kendric tarry long. Escobar was dead already, shot through the heart, as Rios had said. A revolver lay on the ground, close to his right hand.
"You ought to hang for that," said Kendric as he came back into the room. "But from the way you"re going you won"t last long enough for the law to get you. Now, what have you to say to me?"
"A part I have said," returned Ruiz Rios. "I can guess much that my fair cousin has said to you. I know her desires and--I know my own!"
His eyes flashed. "More, you appear interested in the charming Miss Betty Gordon. If you would like to go yourself, if you would like to take her with you, I think I can arrange matters. At a price, of course."
"Naturally. And the price?"
"Escobar asked twenty-five thousand dollars. Surely she is worth that and more? Ah! Well, what you came to Lower California to find may be worth as much, may be worth nothing. The risk is mine. Tell me where the place is and I will arrange that you and Miss Betty have horses and an open trail."
"Rios," began Jim, speaking slowly.
But it was Betty who answered.
"No!" she cried. "No and no and no! You are a terrible man, Senor Rios, and some day G.o.d will bring you to a terrible end. Be sure I would be happy to see the last of you and your cousin and your kind.
But the thing you ask is impossible. Why should Jim Kendric, to whom I am only a bothersome stranger, pay you a sum like that--for me? You are crazy!"
Jim himself was perplexed. He had no desire to put Ruiz Rios in the way of appropriating that which had brought both himself and Barlow here. More than that, the secret was not solely his to give away, were he so minded. Barlow had a claim to half and he knew there would be nothing left for Barlow once Rios scented it. Of these matters he thought and also of Betty. Her quick vehemence had surprised him.
Until now he would have thought her eager to consent to anything to insure her immediate departure.
"Fine words, senorita," said Rios, his lips twitching so that the white teeth showed. "But you had best think. Many things might happen to a girl, a pretty girl like you, which are not pleasant for her to experience. You had better throw your arms about your countryman"s neck and beg him to pay the price for you."
Betty shook her head violently, so violently that the white flower fell from her hair. Rios was going on angrily, when there came into the yard a clatter of hoofs.
"It is Zoraida," he said sharply. "Now be quick; is it yes or no!"
"No!" cried Betty.
"Little fool!" muttered Rios. Under his glare she drew back. "Before again such help is offered you you will wish you were dead!"
Outside they heard Zoraida"s laughter, low and rich with its music.
Then her voice as gay as though there were in all the world no such shadows as those cast by destruction and death. And then she entered, slender and graceful in her elaborate riding suit, her white plume nodding, her eyes dancing, her red mouth triumphant. Behind her came Bruce West.
Kendric stared at him in amazement. For Bruce came of his own free will and his own eyes were shining. There was no sign of his recent distress upon his face. Rather it looked more joyous, more boyish and glad than Kendric had seen it for years. The boy hardly noted anyone in the room but Zoraida. His eyes were for her alone and they were on fire with adoration.
CHAPTER XI
IN WHICH THERE IS MORE THAN ONE LIE TOLD AND THE TRUTH IS GLIMPSED
"You!" cried Kendric in amazement as his look went swiftly from Bruce"s radiant face to Zoraida"s and back to Bruce. "With her!"
Young Bruce West advanced eagerly.
"It"s been a mistake, Jim," he said earnestly. "A cursed mistake all along the line. When I explain to you----"
"Boy," cut in Kendric sternly, "where"s your head? Don"t you know that she was one of the crowd raiding you? Have you forgotten all I told you?"
Zoraida, head held high, her cheeks flushed, stood eyeing him defiantly. The mockery of her look disturbed him; she appeared fully confident of herself, her destiny and her place in Bruce"s estimation.
Bruce himself frowned and shook his head.
"You"ve always been a fair man, Jim," he said. "Suspend judgment until we"ve talked."
While Kendric held his tongue and pondered angrily, Zoraida"s eyes flashed about the room. Only for an instant did they tarry with Betty who, drawn away from her almost to the table against the wall, looked back at her with unhidden distrust. Longer did they hold to Ruiz Rios.
"My cousin," she said softly, "you have something to say to me. What is it?"
"Not here, senorita," urged Rios. "In another room."
Kendric, but not Bruce, saw the deeply significant regard she shot at Rios. Her answer puzzled Kendric for the moment, not so much the words as the tone. She spoke to Rios as one might speak to a dreaded master.
"I am ready," was all that she said. And when Rios threw open the door for her, it was to Bruce that she said gently, her eyes melting into his, "A moment only, if Senor Rios will permit that I return so soon."
And she went out, Rios at her heels.
"Can"t you see, Jim?" Bruce was all excitement and his hands were clenched at his side; his boyish eyes blazed. "It"s that d.a.m.ned Ruiz Rios! He dictates to her; he has put the fear of death and worse into her heart. She is made to suffer for all of his crimes!"
"So that"s the story?" Kendric grunted his disgust. "And you"ve let her stuff you hide-full of lies?"
"Go easy, Jim." Bruce appeared sincerely pained and troubled. "I"ve called you a fair man; won"t you open your mind to the truth? She has been misrepresented, I know. Her enemies----" He clenched his hands.
"She is a wonderful creature!" he burst out. "And she has honored me with her confidence and her friendship."
This very night Zoraida Castelmar had ruthlessly pillaged Bruce"s ranch and from Bruce"s mouth now gushed the words: "She has honored me with her confidence and her friendship!" Was there no end to the woman"s audacity? Was there no end to the blind stupidity of mankind which permitted of lawlessness like tonight"s being glossed over, which went to the insane extreme of worshiping when normally the logical emotion would be hatred? Was there finally, no end to the power of Zoraida?
What had happened between Bruce West and Zoraida? Kendric knew something of Zoraida"s bravado, no little of her supreme a.s.surance, much of her methods. Plainly she had gone straight to Bruce after the raid. He could see the picture of her coming out of the lurid night and into the experience of a boy all unnerved by his anger and grief.
He could understand how she offered her softened beauty to the hard eyes; how her voice had caressed and distorted fact; how Zoraida had had the wit to tell her own story, make her own impression, before Bruce could have had time to steel himself against her. But what tale could she have told to convince a man like Bruce who, at the least, was not a fool?
Somehow, decided Kendric, she had lied out of the whole thing.
Further, she had used every siren trick she knew to drug his better judgment. She had been tender and feminine and seductive. While with one hand she had robbed him, she had caressed him with the other. And not too boldly; she had not overdone it. She probably wept for him; she treated him to the flash of her eyes through spurious tears. She employed her beauty like a lure and had little trouble in putting the boy"s suspicions to sleep. What chance would a simple, open-hearted fellow like Bruce have against the wiles which were Zoraida"s stock in trade? Kendric recalled vividly that subtle influence which Zoraida had cast even upon him; which he had felt even when steeled against her, and asked himself again what chance Bruce could have with her in the hour of her boldest triumph? The very fact of her having come immediately on the heels of the catastrophe gave her a look of innocence. . . . Had Zoraida the trick of hypnosis over men? It began to look like it.
"Poor old Baby-blue-eyes," muttered Jim. He looked at the boy wonderingly. Then only did it occur to him that Bruce and Betty Gordon were strangers to each other and that Bruce, when his sanity should return to him, would make a desirable friend for Betty. So he said, turning toward the girl: "Miss Gordon, this is an old friend of mine; another American, too, Bruce West."
Betty looked her frank interest upon Bruce and her speculation was obvious: among so many men whom she feared and distrusted she wondered if here was one of whom any girl might be sure. She put out her hand, even smiled. But Bruce held stiffly back, his eyes full of accusing light.
"I have heard of Miss Gordon," he said coolly. "She is also known as Pansy Blossom, I believe, over in Sonora."