by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER XX
LOST! TWO HASTY TEMPERS
"One more throw, and then no more until the contest," Jack announcedplacatingly, when he spied a lone bull standing just before a thicket ofchaparral and staring at them with stupid resentment that his siesta hadbeen disturbed. "A kiss for luck, little one!"
Riata coiled in his hand, Jack rode closer and leaned to the girl, hiseyes and his voice caressing, his lips quivering for the kiss he craved.It had come to kisses long before then, and to half promises, when hermood was tender, that she would marry her blue-eyed one--sometime.
Just now her mood was not tender. Jack was not to blame, nor was thepretty Senora Simpson, although Mrs. Jerry was quite innocently andunconsciously the cause. Mrs. Jerry had a headache, that day, and a fitof the blues; and from the first moment when Teresita had entered thecabin she had felt a lack of warmth in the pretty senora's manner thathad piqued her, who had lived upon adoration all her life. Mrs. Jerryhad even shown a disposition to shirk keeping her promise anent the newway of doing Teresita's hair.
She said that she didn't think she'd go to the fiesta, after all--whichwas like calmly telling a priest that one does not, after all, feel asif heaven is worth striving for.
Teresita failed to see how the wistfulness was quite submerging thetwinkle in Mrs. Jerry's eyes, and if she had seen, she would never haveguessed what put it there; nor would she have understood why Mrs. Jerrymight shrink from attending that magnificent festival, perhaps the onlygringo woman in all the crowd, and a pitifully shabby gringo woman atthat. To her mind, Mrs. Jerry was beautiful and perfect, even in hershapeless brown dress that was always clean. Teresita herself wouldnever have worn that dress at all, yet it did not occur to her that Mrs.Jerry might have some very feminine quality of pride crowded down intosome corner of her sweet nature. So Teresita was mightily offended atwhat she considered a slight from the only gringo woman she had everknown; and she was also bitterly disappointed over the abandonment ofthe new coiffure.
"Why don't you wear it just the way it is, honey?" Mrs. Jerry hadsuggested--and very sensibly, too. "I wouldn't go and twist it all upand stick pins through it, if I was you. It's prettier just that way."
Teresita had understood enough of that, thanks to the teachings of herblue-eyed one, to know that the pretty senora did not mean to keep herpromise. She had gone almost immediately to the cabin door to tell Jackthat she was ready to go home. And Jack, deep in one of thoseinterminable conversations with Jerry himself, over on the pile of logsthat would one day be a stable if Jerry's hopes reached fruition, hadmerely waved his hand carelessly when he saw her, and had given all hisattention to Jerry again.
Of course, Teresita could not know that they were discussing a brief butrancorous encounter which Jerry had had with Manuel that morning, whenthe two happened to meet farther down the valley while Manuel was ridinghis share of the rodeo circle. Two of Jose's men had been with Manuel,and their attitude had been "purty derned upstropolus," according toJerry. (Jack decided after a puzzled minute that the strange word whichJerry spoke with such relish must be Simpsonese for obstreperous.) Theyhad, in fact, attempted to drive off three of Jerry's oxen to the rodeoground, and only the characteristic "firmness" of Jerry had preventedthem from doing it. Jemina, he said, had helped some when pointed atManuel's scowling face; but Jerry opined that he would hereafter takethe twins along too when he rode out anywhere, and that he guessed he'dcut another loophole or two in his cabin walls.
All of these various influences had created an atmosphere which Teresitafelt and resented without attempting to understand. The big senor hadnot given her the smiles and the funny attempts at conversation whichshe had come to accept as a matter of course. The pretty senora had notbeen as enthusiastic as she should have been, when Teresita showed herthe ruby chain which, like a child, she had brought over for the prettysenora to admire.
Therefore, Jack's lips found reason to tighten and cease their eagerquivering for a kiss. For Teresita twitched her shoulders pettishly andher reins dexterously, and so removed herself some distance from thekissing zone.
"No? Well, I'll have to depend on my good riata, then. I'll take thatgentleman at twenty-five feet, and if I can get him to run right, I'llheel him. Don't ride any closer, Teresita."
He had not called her dulce corazon (sweetheart) as she had expected himto call her; he had not even insisted upon the kiss, but had given upaltogether too tamely; and for that she rode closer to the bull inspite. She even had some notion of getting in Jack's way, and of makinghim miss if she could. She was seventeen, you see, and she was terriblyspoiled.
Jack had never made any attempt to study the psychological twists of awoman's nature. He contented himself with loving, and with beingstraightforward and selfish and a bit arrogant in his love, after themanner of the normal man. It would never occur to him that Teresita waspiqued because he had not called her sweetheart, and he straightwaysinned more grievously still.
"Go back, the other way! He's liable to start in your direction," hecried, intent upon her safety and his own whim to rope the beast.
Teresita deliberately kicked her horse and loped forward.
It would not be nice to say that bulls are like some humans, but it is afact that they are extremely illogical animals, full of impulses andwhims that have absolutely no relation to cause or effect. This bull hadnot moved except to roll his eyes from one to the other of the riders.If he meditated war he should, by all the bovine traditions of warfare,have bellowed a warning and sent up a whiff or two of dirt over hisback, as one has a right to expect a pessimistic bull to do. Instead ofwhich he flung down his head and made an unexpected rush atTeresita--and Jack had left his pistols at home.
Jack's riata was coiled in his hand and his head was turned towards thegirl, his brain busy with his thoughts of her and her wilfulness. Fromthe tail of his eye he caught the first lunge of the bull, and thatautomatic mental adjustment to unexpected situations, which we callpresence of mind, sent a knee-signal to Surry which that intelligentanimal obeyed implicitly.
Surry rushed straight at the bull, but the triangle was a short one, andthere was much to do in that quarter of a minute. Teresita was stubbornand would not turn and run; but she happened to be riding Tejon, whoknew something about bulls and was capable of acting upon his knowledge.He whirled with hind feet for a pivot and ducked away from the hornscoming at him, and it was not one second too soon. The bull swept by, soclose that a slaver of foam was flung against Teresita's skirt as hepassed.
He whirled to come back at the girl--and that time he seemed sure togive that vicious, ripping jab he had so narrowly missed giving before;even the girl saw that he would, and turned a little pale, and Tejon'seyes glazed with terror.
But Jack had gained the second he needed--the second that dividedadventure from tragedy. The riata loop shot from his upflung hand andsped whimperingly on its errand, even as Tejon tried to swing away,tripped, and tumbled to his knees. The riata caught the lifted forefeetof the bull just as he stiffened his neck for the lunge. Surry bracedhimself automatically when Jack drew tight the loop, and the bull wentdown with a thud and lay with his forefeet held high in air, so close tohis quarry that the tip of one horn struck Tejon upon the knee andflicked a raw, red spot there.
Then Jack, in the revulsion from deadly fear to relief, was possessed byone of those gusts of nervous rage that seized him sometimes; such abrief fit of rage as made him kill lustfully three men in the space ofthree heart-beats, almost, and feel regret because he could not keep onkilling.
He did not run to Teresita and comfort her for her fright, as a loverought to have done. Instead he gave her one look as he went by, and thata look of indignation for her foolishness. He ran to the bull, drew hisknife from his sash and tried to stab it in the brain; but his handshook so that he missed and only gave it a glancing gash that let muchblood flow. He swore and struck again, snapping the dagger blade shortoff against the horns. Whereupon he threw the dagger violently from hima
nd gave an angry kick at the animal, as if he would kill it that way.
"Savage!" cried Teresita, hysterically shrill. "Brute! Leave the poorthing alone! It has done nothing, that you should beat it while itcannot fight back."
Jack, lifting his spurred foot for another kick, set it down and turnedto her dazedly.
In her way as shaken by her narrow escape as he was himself, shestraightway called him brute and savage again, and sentimentally pitiedthe bull because he lay upon his back with his front feet in the air,and because the gash on his head was bleeding.
Jack's rage passed as quickly as it came; but it left him stubborn underher recriminations.
"You are very soft-hearted, all of a sudden, senorita," he said, with afairly well-defined sneer, when he could bear no more. "You won't enjoythe bull-fighting, then, to-morrow--for all you have been lookingforward to it so anxiously, and have robbed yourself of ribbons todecorate the darts. It's not half so brutal to kill a bull that tries tokill you, as it is to fill it with flag-trimmed arrows for fun, and onlyput it out of its misery when you're tired of seeing it suffer! Thisbull came near killing you! That's why I'm going to kill it."
"You are not! Santa Maria, what a savage beast you are! Let him goinstantly! Let him go, I say!"
If she had been on the ground, she would have stamped her foot. As itwas, she shook an adorably tiny fist at Jack, and blinked her longlashes upon the tears of real, sincere anger that stood in her blackeyes, and gritted her teeth at him; for the senorita had a temper quiteas hot as Jack's, when it was roused, and all her life she had beengiven her own way in everything.
"Let him go this moment, or I shall never speak to you again!" shethreatened rashly.
For answer, Jack walked deliberately past her to where Surry stood withhis feet braced still against the pull of the riata and his neck archedknowingly, while he rolled the little wheel in the bit with his tongue.Jack made himself a cigarette, lay down in the shade of his horse, andsmoked just as calmly as though his heart was not thumping so that hecould hear it quite plainly. She had gone the wrong way about making himyield; threats had always acted like a goad upon Jack's anger, just asthey do upon most of us.
Teresita looked at him in silence for a minute. And Jack, his head uponhis arm in a position that would give him a fair view of her from thebrim of his sombrero while he seemed to be taking no notice of her,wondered how soon she would change her mood to coaxing, and so melt thatlump of obstinacy in his throat that would not let him so much as answerher vixenish upbraidings. A very little coaxing would have freed thebull then, and he would have kissed the red mouth that had reviled him,and would have called her "dulce corazon," as she loved to have him do.Such a very little coaxing would have been enough!
"Dios! How I hate a gringo!" she cried passionately, just when Jackbelieved she was going to cry "Senor Jack?" in that pretty, cooing toneshe had that could make the words as tender as a kiss. "Jose is right.Gringos are savages and worse than savages. Stay and torture your bull,then! I hate you! Never have I known hate, till now! I shall be gladwhen Jose drags you from your horse to-morrow. I shall laugh and clap myhands, and cry, 'Bravo, bravo, querido mio!' [my beloved] when you areflung into the dirt where you belong. And when he kills you, I shallkiss him for his reward, before all the people, and I shall laugh whenthey fling you to the coyotes!" Yes, she said that; for she had atemper--had the Senorita Teresita--and she had a tongue that could speakwords that burned like vitriol.
She said more than has been quoted; epithets she hurled upon therecumbent form that seemed a man asleep save for the little drift ofsmoke from his cigarette; epithets which she had heard the vaqueros useat the corrals upon certain occasions when they did not know that shewas near; epithets of which she did not know the meaning at all.
"Bravo!" applauded some one, and she turned to see that Manuel andCarlos, Jose's head vaquero, had ridden up to the group very quietly,and had been listening for no one knew how long.
The senorita was so angry that she was not in the least abashed by theeavesdropping. She smiled wickedly, drew off a glove and tossed it toManuel, who caught it dexterously without waiting to see why she wantedhim to have it.
"Take that to Jose, for a token," she cried recklessly. "Tell him I haveput a wish upon it; and if he wears it next his heart in the dueloto-morrow he will win without fail. Tell Jose I shall ask the BlessedVirgin to-night to let no accident befall him, and that I shall save thefirst two dances for him and none other!"
She was not a finished actress, because of her youth. She betrayed by aglance his way that she spoke for Jack's benefit. And Jack, in thehardening of his stubborn anger, blew a mouthful of smoke upward into aring which the breeze broke almost immediately, and laughed aloud.
Teresita heard, bit her lips cruelly at failing to bring that stubborngringo to his feet--and to hers!--and wheeled Tejon close to Manuel andCarlos. She rode away between the two towards home, and she did notonce look behind her until she had gone so far she feared she could notsee what her blue-eyed one was doing. Then she turned, and her teethwent together with a click. For Jack was lying just as she had left him,with his head upon his arm as if he might be asleep.