"Then they shall not break the rules of me--at MY TIENDA! Look! Ihave made the rule that I shall not have a caballero drunk at my house; I have made the rule that I shall not sell him the aguardiente when he have too mooch.I have made the rule that when he gamble too mooch, when he put up too mooch money, I say 'No!' Iwill not that he shall! I make one more rule: that he shall not quarrel nor fight in my house.When he quarrel and fight, I say 'Go! Vamos! Get out!'""And very good rules they are too, Miss Mendez."Jovita fixed her shining black eyes on the smiling Parks."And when he say, 'No, nevarre, damn the rules!' When he come drunk, remain drunk, play high and fight, YOU will not poonish him? YOUwill not take him out?"
"Well, you see, the fact is, I have not the power.""Are you not the Alcalde?"
"No.There is a Justice of the Peace at Fiddletown, but even he could do nothing to enforce your rules.But if anything should happen, you can make a complaint to him.""Bueno.You have not the power; I have.I make not the complaint to Fiddletown.I make the complaint to Jose Perez, to Manuel, to Antonio, to Sanchicha--she is a strong one! I say 'Chook him out.'
They chook him out! they remove him! He does not r-r-remain.
Enough.Bueno.Gracias, senor, good-a-by!"She was gone.For the next four days Parks was in a state of some anxiety--but it appeared unnecessarily so.Whether the interview had become known along the river did not transpire, but there seemed to be no reason for Miss Mendez to enforce her rules.It was said that once, when Thompson of Angels was a little too noisy, he had been quietly conducted by his friends from the tienda without the intervention of Jose.The frequenters of the saloon became its police.
Yet the event--long protracted--came at last! It was a dry, feverish, breezeless afternoon, when the short, echoless explosion of a revolver puffed out on the river, followed by another, delivered so rapidly that they seemed rolled into one.There was no mistaking that significant repetition.ONE shot might have been an accident; TWO meant intention.The men dropped their picks and shovels and ran--ran as they never before ran in Buckeye--ran mechanically, blindly groping at their belts and pockets for the weapons that hung there no longer; ran aimlessly, as to purpose, but following instinctively with hurried breath and quivering nostrils the cruel scent of powder and blood.Ran until, reaching the tienda, the foremost stumbled over the body of Shuttleworth;came upon the half-sitting, half-leaning figure of Saunders against its adobe wall! The doors were barred and closed, and even as the crowd charged furiously forward, a window was sharply shut above, in their very face.
"Stand back, gentlemen! Lift him up.What's the row? What is it, Saunders? Who did it? Speak, man!"But Saunders, who was still supporting himself against the wall, only looked at them with a singular and half-apologetic smile, and then leaned forward as if to catch the eye of Shuttleworth, who was recovering consciousness in the uplifted arms of his companions.
But neither spoke.
"It's some d----d Greaser inside!" said Thompson, with sudden ferocity."Some of her cursed crew! Break down the doors, boys!""Stop!"
It was the voice of Shuttleworth, speaking with an effort.He was hard hit, somewhere in the groin; pain and blood were coming with consciousness and movement, and his face was ghastly.Yet there was the same singular smile of embarrassment which Saunders had worn, and a touch of invincible disgust in his voice as he stammered quickly, "Don't be d----d fools! It's no one in THERE.
It's only me and HIM! He'll tell you that.Won't you, Saunders?""Yes," said Saunders, leaning anxiously forward, with a brightening face."D--n it all--can't you see? It's only--only us.""You and me, that's all," repeated Shuttleworth, with a feverish laugh."Only our d----d foolishness! Think of it, boys! He gave me the lie, and I drew!""Both of us full, you know--reg'lar beasts," said Saunders, sinking back against the wall."Kick me, somebody, and finish me off.""I don't see any weapons here," said Brace gravely, examining the ground.
"They're inside," said Shuttleworth with tremulous haste."We began it in there--just like hogs, you know! Didn't we, Saunders?"bitterly.
"You bet," said Saunders faintly."Reg'lar swine."Parks looked graver still, and as he passed a handkerchief around the wounded man's thigh, said: "But I don't see where you got your pistols, and how you got out here.""Clinched, you know; sorter rolled over out here--and--and--oh, d--n it--don't talk!""He means," said Shuttleworth still feebly, "that we--we--grabbed ANOTHER MAN'S six-shooter and--and--he that is--and they--he--he and me grabbed each other, and--don't you see--?" but here, becoming more involved and much weaker, he discreetly fainted away.
And that was all Buckeye ever knew of the affair! For they refused to speak of it again, and Dr.Duchesne gravely forbade any further interrogation.Both men's revolvers were found undischarged in their holsters, hanging in their respective cabins.The balls which were afterwards extracted from the two men singularly disappeared; Dr.Duchesne asserting with a grim smile that they had swallowed them.** It was a frontier superstition that the ball extracted from a gunshot wound, if swallowed by the wounded man, prevented inflammation or any supervening complications.
Nothing could be ascertained of the facts at the tienda, which at that hour of the day appeared to have been empty of customers, and was occupied only by Miss Mendez and her retainers.All surmises as to the real cause of the quarrel and the reason for the reticence of the two belligerents were suddenly and unexpectedly stopped by their departure from Buckeye as soon as their condition permitted, on the alleged opinion of Dr.Duchesne that the air of the river was dangerous to their convalescence.The momentary indignation against the tienda which the two combatants had checked, eventually subsided altogether.After all, the fight had taken place OUTSIDE; it was not even proven that the provocation had been given AT the tienda! Its popularity was undiminished.
