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Updated: June 6, 2025
Charlie Menocal's object in calling upon the young ladies at Sarita Creek was merely diversion. He was fond of girls, especially lively ones, and knew a good many here and there within reach of his motor car, including a number of pretty Mexican maidens of humble parentage. But his serious attentions centred about Louise Graham of whom in secret he was very jealous.
We nabbed him as he was trying to burn our camp about two hours before the blizzard. Take this man to headquarters, Morgan, and keep him till I come over." Menocal's face became livid with anger and alarm. "Let me go, damn you!" he shouted, shrilly. Bryant waved a hand towards the engineers' shack and thither Charlie was propelled, cursing and struggling, in Morgan's firm grasp.
Charlie's face was flushed and his breath alcoholic; he was a little drunk. At a corner table they conferred, drinking whisky. "You will know him now, the snake!" Charlie asked. "I would know him in the dark, señor," was the reply. They spoke in Spanish, since young Menocal's companion knew no other tongue. The latter was a newcomer to Kennard, of the name of Alvarez.
But now this accident to the boy might prove a heaven-sent chance to break Menocal's monopoly of influence. "In case of sickness in the man's family, the doctor shall attend free," he stated. The woman took thought afresh. "And if the man's horses are taken sick?" "Nay, he's not a horse doctor," said Lee, smiling. And even the woman smiled. "But there's another matter.
As by the girls' cabins, so before the Graham house, Lee perceived a motor car. He brought his own machine to a stop near it and cut off his engine. At the same instant the door opened in the house, where by the light shining through the portal he saw Louise's and Charlie Menocal's figures. Menocal stepped forth. "You will please go now," Louise was saying.
Bryant gazed at the flank of the mountain. The gentle ridge where his ditch line left the hillside was but half a mile away. Beyond that the Mexicans could file to their hearts' content, for they would be left on one side by the canal. But in all this he perceived Menocal's cunning hand. "Much obliged to you, sheriff," said he.
Then he whirled his car about and went tearing down the lane with exhaust wide open and roaring. When Bryant, leading Dave, rejoined Louise Graham, a flush of embarrassment dyed his face. She had sprung up at Menocal's blow knocking the boy over and remained standing, an indignant observer of the scene.
Food would be needed and besides, she long had desired one of those loud phonographs at Menocal's store, and also needed a new stove. She perceived that her husband was staring at Bryant's back with a thoughtful air. Undoubtedly he was thinking the same thing as she. "You yet want men and teams for your work, señor?" she inquired. "All I can get."
"Menocal's son, Charlie, a half-breed snippet who puts on airs because his father's rich," Stevenson said, in a disgusted tone. "A white woman married Menocal, you know." "In the front seat with the young fellow was a girl, rather pretty," Bryant appended. "That's Louise, I imagine," Mrs. Stevenson said, reflectively. "Yes, it must have been her. She's Mr. Graham's daughter. A nice girl, too.
He led Dick, with Dave at his side, toward the garden on open ground below the trees, where the bean vines were already turning yellow for lack of water. He chuckled as he went, for the disappearance of Charlie Menocal's patronizing air and the sudden thundercloud hanging on his visage attested that the charge had gone home.
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