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Law stepped into view, his Winchester in the crook of his arm. He emptied the three discarded weapons, then, walking to Anto's horse, he removed the second carbine from beneath the saddle-flap and ejected its shells into his palm. This done, he addressed the stranger. "Now, friend, who are you, and why are you riding with this fellow?" "My name is Panfilo Sanchez, señor.
Alaire pondered this statement briefly before saying, "You have a strange way of looking at the affair a strange, careless, unnatural way, it seems to me." "Perhaps that's the fault of my training. I'm not what you would consider a nice person; the death of Panfilo Sanchez means nothing whatever to me.
Now you can understand why he was sent away." Dolores's sharp eyes narrowed meaningly. "Señor Ed has been riding toward the river every day, lately. Panfilo was furious, so " "I see! That is all I care to hear." Alone, Alaire stood motionless for some time, her face fixed, her eyes unseeing; but later, when she met her husband in the dining-room, her greeting was no less civil than usual.
Obliged to reimbark, and the weather proving stormy, the barks were all dispersed, and none of them ever more heard of except that in which Cabeza de Vaca was, which was thrown ashore. Panfilo de Narvaez and most of his men were assuredly lost in the storm, or destroyed by the Indians on shore; though there was a foolish report long current that he had penetrated to the South Sea.
"His cousin was not murdered." "Exactly! I told him so when I had learned the facts. A poor fellow this Panfilo evidently a very bad man, indeed but José admired him and was harboring thoughts of revenge. I said to him: 'José, my boy, it is better to do nothing than to act wrongly. Since it was God's will that your cousin came to a bad end, why follow in his footsteps?
On the steps he waited just a moment for Alaire to mention, if she chose, that subject which they had still left open on the night before. Reading his thought, she said: "You are expecting me to say something about Panfilo Sanchez." "Yes." "I have thought it over; in fact, I have been thinking about it all day; but even yet I don't know what to tell you.
He was about to pick up his rifle, too, but finding Law's eyes inquiringly fixed upon him, he turned with a shrug and disappeared down the arroyo. It was plain that he considered his friendly relations well established and resented the Ranger's suspicion. "How long has that fellow been working for you?" Law jerked his head in the direction Panfilo had taken. "Not long.
Soon the exact tidings reached him from the commander at Vera Cruz, that the force consisted of some twelve hundred men, including eighty horse, all under the command of one Panfilo de Narvaez, which had been organized, equipped and sent out by Cortes' old enemy, Velasquez, with instructions to seize him and his companions and send them back to Cuba for trial.
I accept your offer, and you shall be my man henceforth; ... but you shall not go out to be shot by those rebels. No, you shall return to Las Palmas to be my eyes and my ears, and, when the time comes, you shall be my hands, too. ... I will avenge your cousin Panfilo for you, my word on that. Yes, and I will make you a rich man." José listened hungrily to these promises.
Meanwhile reports of Cortes' doings and success had reached Velasquez the Governor of Cuba, who determined to despatch an expedition to conquer or capture him as a traitor. Accordingly eighteen vessels containing nearly a thousand white men were placed under the command of Panfilo de Narvaez, and reached Vera Cruz in April, 1520.
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