United States or Saudi Arabia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
She smiled wickedly, drew off a glove and tossed it to Manuel, who caught it dexterously without waiting to see why she wanted him to have it. "Take that to José, for a token," she cried recklessly. "Tell him I have put a wish upon it; and if he wears it next his heart in the duelo to-morrow he will win without fail.
"By a trick of chance he won the duelo, and the medalla he refused because he knows it was not won fairly. Where is that yellow caballo which no man has ridden? Let him show us what he can do with that yellow one!" Dade, pushing his way exultantly toward him, saw the blaze of anger at their fickleness leap into Jack's eyes. "Sí, I will show you!" he called out.
"But not the duelo, Señor no, but in the contest. For sport, that all may witness, and choose who is champion, after the bull-fighting, and the " "What are you talking about, man?" Dade's hand fell heavily upon the shoulder of Valencia, swaying his whole body with the impact. "Are you loco, to talk of bull-fightings?" "It is the fiesta, Señor!
Who wins the duelo shall have Solano for his own, and shall ride him before all the people; for such is the patron's word. From his own lips I heard it! Me, I think that will be the greatest sport of all, for he is wild as the deer on the mountain slopes that yellow caballo, and strong as the bull which the patron will choose to fight the grizzly he will bring from the mountains. "Listen, Señor!
An accident it must appear to those who watch, because the duelo will be proclaimed a sport; but to the death I will fight, and I trust that the Señor Allen will fight as I fight. Does the señor understand?" "Yes, but I can't promise anything for Jack." Dade studied José quietly through the smoke of his cigarette.
His mother and I were as twin sisters, Señor, and his mother prayed me to watch over him when she had gone. 'Sí, madre mia' would he tell me, when I gave him the good counsel. And now he comes no more, and he wants to fight the duelo! Is there no way, Señor?" The hardness left Jack's lips but not his eyes, while he looked from her to the don, smoking imperturbably his cigar beside her.
"Myself, I shall write to José and beg him to consider the honor of his father's name and of the name of his father's friend, and consent that the duelo shall take place under the guise of sport. It must not be to the death, Señor. Myself, I shall insist that it shall not be to the death.
All night I rode to bear a message to that blue-eyed one who thinks himself supremo in all things; a challenge from Don José, to fight a duelo if he is not a coward; so did José write. 'Unless you are afraid to meet me' and the vanity of that blue-eyed one is great, Valencia. Of a truth, the man is loco. What think you, Valencia?
He spoke in Spanish, to show his contempt of their opinion of him, and he curled his lip at the jibes they began to fling down at him; the jibes and the taunts and vague threats as well, when those who had wagered much upon the duelo began to reckon mentally their losings.
"Me, I shall give ten pesos of the gold I won yesterday upon the duelo," he said, glancing back at the grim little cabin, "that mass may be said for the repose of the Señora Seem'son's soul. For thus will sleep come easier to me, Señors. And you?" "I think, Valencia, if I were going to say any prayers, they'd be said for Jerry," Dade told him. "He needs 'em worse than she does."
Word Of The Day